What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Bozo Skeleton

^^ That was brilliant. Evoked a lot of old memories. Watched it with some beers, which is tame in comparison to what I was doing the first time I saw it.
I grow old, I grow old. I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled...

Judgement Day

"Hennessy" (1975) on DVD. Despite (or because of ?) a star studded cast including Rod Steiger, Eric Porter, Trevor Howard, Lee Remick and a 7-year old Patsy Kensit, this movie never gets out of first gear.

Rod Steiger plays an unhinged Irish terrorist determined to blow up the British Houses of Parliament during the Queen's Speech. As the hours tick down to the official opening of Parliament, the IRA and British security services hunt for Steiger....

Even great - and unapproved - cameo roles by Britain's Royal Family and the late Tory Prime Minister, Ted Heath, fail to lift this beyond mediocre.

From its ham-fisted opening scenes of a riot against British security forces in N.Ireland

in which Patsy Kensit and the Mammy get killed

the movie staggers towards its inevitable Day of the Jackal type conclusion - without any of the suspense of the latter.

Poor direction, dreadful accents from Rod Steiger and Eric Porter as IRA men, Lee Remick as another Nordie, and you get the picture. Truly dreadful stuff - avoid. 1/10

johnny_ultimate

For the love of all that is good Judgement Day, shake off this dreadful Irish films habit of yours. Life is simply too short to ignore the wonderful range of cinema this world has to offer in favour of rightly forgotten crap from an island nation rightly not famed for its filmmaking culture!

Tony EH

...and there are plenty of better crap films that you could be watching instead.

madfred

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

an island nation rightly not famed for its filmmaking culture!

Just on that point...it's strange how Ireland has had some great musicians, writers, poets but when it comes to filmmakers it's lacking big time. Can't think of any good reason why it didn't progress like other arts. You could say finance but other countries were making quality films on low budgets.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

madfred wrote: »

Just on that point...it's strange how Ireland has had some great musicians, writers, poets but when it comes to filmmakers it's lacking big time. Can't think of any good reason why it didn't progress like other arts. You could say finance but other countries were making quality films on low budgets.

This topic has come up a few times in this thread. I think the general consensus, with some posters actually being "in the know", is that the wrong things are backed, there's an emphasis put on films being "Irish", i.e. can be marketed as "Oirish", a bit of "who you know not what you know" thrown in. There is the talent out there but the support and resources aren't always distributed where they should be.

bnt

I watched Maid in Manhattan last night. Actually, "watched" is an exaggeration: it was on the TV while I was working on the PC, but I think I got the gist anyway. However, I can't see Ralph Fiennes without thinking of him in Manhunter or Coriolanus ... :eek:

On the topic of Irish films, I think one problem you have here is that filmmakers are trying to put an Irish spin on everything they do, and it's not necessary. Local Hero was mentioned above: Scottish writer/director, set in a Scottish village, mostly Scottish cast - but would you call it a "Scottish" film? I wouldn't: the themes are universal. I think Irish films could do with a bit less Ireland in them.

krudler

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

For the love of all that is good Judgement Day, shake off this dreadful Irish films habit of yours. Life is simply too short to ignore the wonderful range of cinema this world has to offer in favour of rightly forgotten crap from an island nation rightly not famed for its filmmaking culture!

Someone could write a script about some Jigsaw type killer making people endure awful Irish films for days on end, there are good Irish movies, ones that come free with a sunday paper are usually not them.

Judgement Day

krudler wrote: »

Someone could write a script about some Jigsaw type killer making people endure awful Irish films for days on end, there are good Irish movies, ones that come free with a sunday paper are usually not them.

As far as I know "Hennessy" was never a newspaper freebie but there have been many good freebies over the years.

TheMollusc

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Really enjoyed this film. A real slow intriguing espionage film with an all star cast that includes Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth and more. Also it's directed by Tomas Alfredson who did Let The Right One In. I felt it was the type of movie you really have to be tuned in to watch or else the plot might get unnecessarily confusing as it includes flashbacks that come out of nowhere at times. A quality thriller worth watching!

The Black Oil

Serpico

With corruption pretty much from the get go, and an unshowy performance from Pacino, even when the character went off the rails sometimes, and was also self-righteous, this was good. Post-Wire...it seems David Simon took a few notes.

markomuscle

This was quite good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmkM7lcmjn0

GTR63

I watched My Neighbours the Yamadas yesterday. Its a family based comedy where they tell different short stories in a episodic format. Just came across it randomly on Film Four, really enjoyed it. Its got this almost simplistic watercolour look despite Studio Ghibli's usual style.

Heckler

Saving Private Ryan.

Whatever about the jingoistic middle the opening 15 minutes and the final 40 minutes are a masterpiece. Can't watch old war films anymore because they look so fake. Only film that comes near it to me in depiction of war is Black Hawk Down.

Mike Litoris

Just back from the Conjuring. Wow! I cant think of a more finely crafted horror released in the last 30 years. Pulls heavily from Poltergeist, Amityville and The Exorcist amongst others and does a fine job making it work.

Hopefully the films reception will spawn some more good horrors as, for me, the genre has been terrible for a long long time.

Judgement Day

Bit of light relief tonight with my kids - "Rhubarb, Rhubarb" (1980) and "Mr.H.Is Late" (1988) on DVD. Two priceless TV comedy shorts written and directed by the late Eric Sykes. Stuffed with comedy actors of the period including Jimmy Edwards, Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan, Bob Todd, Hattie Jacques etc.etc. I thought that they hadn't dated a bit and my 9 and 11 year olds lapped it up - there's still hope for the future generation.

Charlie19

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Just back from the Conjuring. Wow! I cant think of a more finely crafted horror released in the last 30 years. Pulls heavily from Poltergeist, Amityville and The Exorcist amongst others and does a fine job making it work.

Hopefully the films reception will spawn some more good horrors as, for me, the genre has been terrible for a long long time.

I'm looking forward to see this, definitely looks good.

candy-gal1

The Fog - not bad at all, quite earilly creepy, ends well enough

Dolls - great style about it, not as 80s cheesey as youd think

Puppet master - awesome movie horror cheese!

DazMarz

The Conjuring

Harmless bit of nonsense. Good fun, some genuinely enjoyable scares and some funny moments

asking a woman who's possessed and is being flung about the place by the demonic spirit, "Are you OK?" no, I would guess she's pretty fúcking far from OK.

Not a classic by any means, but a decent haunted-house/Amityville-clone/Exorcist-wannabe flick.

I will say one thing, I will never look at dolls the same way ever again.

Bipolar Joe

Project Nim

Documentary about a study in the 70's to see if language can be taught to chimps (In this case, a chimp called Nim Chimpsky).

That's kind of a crappy synopsis because the film isn't about the study, it's mostly about Nim and the people that worked with him. It's a deeply upsetting film, with people in it that make me want to throat-punch. The main guy in the study, Herb, is a total bell end who surrounded himself with chicks and showed up for photo shoots. Not all are bad, though, and a lot of Nim's teachers doubled as friends (Bob in particular). The dynamics between Nim and the different teachers is really odd. A lot of the women seemed to almost sexualise him, especially his first teacher, and all the guys thought of him as a kid brother they have to help grow up.

Don't watch this if you're feeling down, it'll wreck your day.

The moment when Bob shows up near the end again, and Nim instantly recognises him and says "Play" made me laugh and weep a little bit.

Very good film.

Chareth Cutestory

I watched Short Circuit II on telly earlier and can I just say, what a rollercoaster! Johnny5 getting the living circuits beaten out of him was pretty disturbing to say the least.

On a more serious note however, really looking forward to seeing The Conjuring, 87% audience and 86% critic ratings on Rotten Tomatoes so hoping it doesn't disappoint. So hard to find a good horror movie these days. House of the Devil from 2009 is one of the best I've seen in recent years; very 70s, lots of suspense and well crafted atmosphere.

Barna77

Shut Up and Play the Hits. The documentary on LCD Soundsystem last gig

Zack and Mindi Make a Porno. Had a laugh watching it

cherryghost

Insomnia

Cannot for the life of me figure out why it's got such a good rating. The script is so predictable and boring, only Al's acting on screen kept me awake through the thing.

Mike Litoris

Mud. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935179/reference

Thought this was excellent. Kind of a Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me type movie.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Mud. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935179/reference

Thought this was excellent. Kind of a Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me type movie.

Reminded me a bit of Great Expectations at the start too.

bnt

Reading about Peter Capaldi's new gig got me thinking of In The Loop, and I find myself watching it again today.

I'm picking up on all sorts of little details that I missed before; for example, the War Future Planning Committee has to move to a larger room because too many people show up, and they end up sitting around a ping-pong table complete with net. That becomes a metaphor for the discussion, as the two sides (pro- and anti-war) arrange themselves on either side, lobbing verbal slap-shots over the net.

johnny_ultimate

The Mission - had never actually seen this before, and after being gobsmacked by On Earth As It Is In Heaven live last weekend, luckily the Lighthouse had a nice 35mm print going. Solid enough film - frequently gorgeous visuals (they don't manage to top the 'crucified priest + waterfall' opening though), beautiful soundtrack. In terms of story and characters, I must confess to being a tad on the fence. Couldn't get a firm grasp on it thematically, TBH - sometimes it was unrepentant Jesuit propaganda, other times seemingly deeply critical of the whole missionary and indeed organised religion business. A film doesn't need to take sides or anything (even though I'd be firmly on the side of the latter) but this just came across as incoherent more than anything, not helped by somewhat cypher-like characters who often seemed motivated by some ambiguous script mandated reason rather than any believably human actions. No shortage of pleasures, predominantly aesthetic, but doesn't pull off some of its attempts at grander relevance.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles - phew. Quite the experience. A film about the daily routine of one middle-aged woman: meticulous, sedate and repetitive by design, set almost entirely in a single apartment. But slowly (and I mean slowly) the routine begins to unravel - little things like a dropped brush here, an overcooked potato there - and a real sense of unease starts building, with the widow Dielman beginning to silently question her established order.

It's an experience like few others, truth be told, one that constantly forces the viewer to examine and interpret events on screen - luring us into his dull, almost mindless rhythm. Director Chantal Ackerman determinedly pulls us out of the film and yet demands our full attention too - a strange approach that has us constantly scanning the screen looking for hints and changes (Haneke is surely a fan). It's a brilliant, challenging reinterpretation of cinematic space and time, finding subtle drama in the absolutely mundane. It's an inspired character study and a film that resonates with deep insight into modern life, and rewards analysis through strong feminist themes as well. At 200 minutes, it's no doubt challenging, but as a singular experience it's well worth any film fan's time.

Barna77

Brick.
Felt like watching Twin Peaks.... Good movie but I was quite lost for a while.

Jason Todd

Watched The Incredible Burt Wonderstone over the weekend. I hadn't seen much hype or many reviews previously. Maybe I should have looked for them. The film was just about a complete letdown. Nobody really reached the heights they're capable of of, most noticeably Jim Carrey. Steve Carell was about the only redeemable thing but his character arc was sold short by both bad dialogue and clunky editing. Alan Arkin too, is someway enjoyable in a role very similar to that of Rip Torn in Dodgeball, but his character 'Rance Holloway' isn't onscreen enough to leave a lasting impression like Torn's 'Patches O'Hoolihan'. Olivia Wilde is a likeable actress but her character was far too one-dimensional. Steve Buscemi is Steve Buscemi, always solid. Poorly paced, there may be a few laughs, but nothing near the 'out-loud' variety.

Good soundtrack though.

4/10

longshotvalue

Just watched Never Let me go, got as part of xtravisions pre viewed sale, for only €3 on Blu. Stunning film, great idea, performances etc. Bit on the depressing side but excellent all the same.