What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

johnny_ultimate

Adaptation - ah, still a joy! Such a delightfully intricate script, revealing new depths everytime I watch - how actions and events affect each other, more subtle layers of commentary on screenwriting and storytelling generally. Constantly achieving a perfect mix between smugness and self depreciation, its such a smart deconstruction of Hollywood cinema it remains baffling that it was born out of the same system. It's almost like Kaufman's confession of "alright, Im done with the bull****" while also having an underlying affection for the bull****. Love it.

Vengeance is Mine - Shohei Imamura's offbeat, complex serial killer portrait. This is not the kind of film with easy answers or shortcut psychology - indeed Imamura poses questions and plants ambiguous hints far more frequently than he provides concrete answers. Heck, even the title is knowingly vague, if not purposefully misleading. Surreal, disturbing and intriguing, it's unlike anything else, even within Imamura's filmography. Well worth a viewing, and the urgent soundtrack is amazing.

Corkfeen

Kaufman's always had an air of both bull**** and abandoning bull**** around his work. He definitely writes some of the best material in Hollywood although I've found his brother is largely ignored. :pac:

G.K.

Finally got round to watching Inception. Not much else needs to be said.

delbertgrady

donegal_road wrote: »

1968 BBC chiller, Whistle and I will come to you

the best short film I have seen in a long time, well worth a watch.

Speaking of which, the BBC and BFI are reissuing the superb Ghost Stories for Christmas box set at the end of October with a bonus disc.

delbertgrady

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)
Network's recently-released Blu-Ray of this cult British chiller, starring a pre-Bond Roger Moore is a truly stunning transfer. Businessman Harold Pelham is involved in a near-fatal car accident, after which, friends and colleagues claim to have seen him in places he has never been, and a mysterious woman (played by Olga Georges-Picot, who would go on to feature in The Day of the Jackal and Woody Allen's Love and Death) claims to be romantically involved with him. Generally regarded as Moore's best screen performance, it's a curio well worth investigating.

DavyD_83

NinjaK wrote: »

42, great film, really enjoyed it.

Just watched this last night. Interesting and well told story. Well worth a watch.
Thanks for the reccomendation, hadn't heard of it before.

ButtersSuki

Only God Forgives with Ryan Gosling and a barely recognisable Kristin Scott Thomas. Best way I can describe it would be "sparse". It's stylish and slow but has its moments, KST in particular is very good in it. Gosling barely speaks throughout the whole movie but overall it just kind of floats along without very much happening. I was really looking forward to it but came away somewhat disappointed. 6/10.

Limitless, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro in film adaptation of Irish writer's novel. Had this one on the shelf for a while as apart from "Silver Linings Playbook" I can't stand Cooper. Some great scenes and good pace to the story but it just seemed to end so quickly, like they ran out of money or something! And Cooper in unlikeable mode again, maybe it's just me, but he domes across as so smug sometimes? 6.5/10

Judgement Day

"Airplane" and "Airplane II: The Sequel" - two comedy movies from the early 1980's that have dated badly. The first, always the superior of the two, is not bad - of its type - and Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges are superb. Airplane II by contrast was very weak with many recycled gags and the quasi paedophile humour of Peter Graves is really not funny anymore - if it ever was. Airplane is worth watching but give the sequel a wide berth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pPmCfKi3U

old hippy

Kill List - delightful dark comedy about two bumbling hitmen who come a cropper whilst on a country jaunt.

Birneybau

old hippy wrote: »

Kill List - delightful dark comedy about two bumbling hitmen who come a cropper whilst on a country jaunt.

That ending, bonkers!

Judgement Day

"Iron Sky" (2012) on a charity shop DVD. Sci-Fi/War/Comedy..I read the reviews, knew what to expect but it was worse. The concept is interesting - Nazis living on the dark side of the Moon since 1945 plan to attack Earth - but the movie fails to deliver. Avoid. 1/10 and that's only because I've seen worse recently - "Hennessy" comes to mind.

firestarter51

i know its not a film but im ploughing through twin peaks, what a strange show, nearing the end of series two

ButtersSuki

firestarter51 wrote: »

i know its not a film but im ploughing through twin peaks, what a strange show, nearing the end of series two

It is strange, but well worth the effort. You should also watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me to tie up some (not all!) of the loose ends!

Speaking of 90's serial tv shows, I finished Murder One last week. Good now, would have been ground-breaking and vastly superior to anything on tv at the time. And for the Breaking Bad heads it has Dean Norris (Hank) and Anna Gunn (Skyler) in minor roles. Norris looks quiet different as he was much leaner and had muscle mass (he was a hit man/enforcer in it) but Gunn looks pretty much the same. She plays a hooker. There you go fact fans!

Shiraz 4.99

The Heat http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_heat/

McCarthy makes it if you like her kinda thing.
Strangly gets better as it goes along.

7/10

applehunter

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353969/

Memories of Murder (Korean)

Very well done. Follows investigation of a serial killer in a small town in South Korea in the 1980's. Local detectives are hopelessly inadequate in trying to solve a serial killer case so a young detective from Seoul is brought in to give his expertise.

Very funny at times but by the end you are totally engrossed in the investigation.

8/10

Seedy Arling

old hippy wrote: »

Kill List - delightful dark comedy about two bumbling hitmen who come a cropper whilst on a country jaunt.

You make it sound like they are taking a trip through the country side and have a few comedic moments stepping in cow crap and falling in rivers.

Excellent film. One of the weirdest and best endings to a movie I've ever seen.

Snake Plisken

Just watched Blow on Sky Movies, Johnny Depp is great in it and shows what a great actor he used to be, pity he doesn't challenge himself anymore except for the pirates movies and whatever crap Tim Burton makes. Also great shame that Ted Demme died as he was a decent filmmaker. BTW George Jung is due out of prision next year.

ButtersSuki

Watched Jagten (The Hunt) at last after the Br came yesterday. Amazing performance from the increasingly becoming a fave of mine Mads Mikkelsen (he's the standout in the Hannibal tv series too). Won't bore you here as most know the story but if you like Foreign Cinema do yourself a favour and pick it up or watch it somewhere. A solid 9/10. One question I do have for anyone who's seen it, I can understand why they would show the deer being shot for the story (not a spoiler!) but does anyone know if

the dog was really killed. I sincerely hope not, but it looked very realistic?

Mr. Nice (which I think is on this weekend on Channel 4 or E4). Obviously not the largest budget in the world due to the proliferance of bad green screen location shoots, but entertaining nonetheless. Decent performances from Rhys Ifans, David Thewlis (despite the at times woeful Oirish accent) and Chloe Sevigny. 6.5/10

Badlands Based on a true story, a very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek play a serial killer and his young love on the run in the Mid-west in the 1950s. Interesting story, stunning scenery and a pretty cool car chase. Light by today's standards in terms of gore etc., but holds up very well considering it's 40 years old this year. Terence Malick's directorial debut too...I think. 7/10.

DavyD_83

Seedy Arling wrote: »

You make it sound like they are taking a trip through the country side and have a few comedic moments stepping in cow crap and falling in rivers.

Excellent film. One of the weirdest and best endings to a movie I've ever seen.

I think that was I Went Down you're thinking of

Gamayun

Snowtown (2011)

Do you like unrelenting misery, soul crushing existential woe and viewing the seething black undercurrent of the human condition? If so then you're in luck, this film's for you!

Grim but interesting film based around the true events of killings in Australia.

candy-gal1

White Chicks

firestarter51

Seedy Arling wrote: »

You make it sound like they are taking a trip through the country side and have a few comedic moments stepping in cow crap and falling in rivers.

Excellent film. One of the weirdest and best endings to a movie I've ever seen.

I second that weird but good film, no where near a comedy in my opinion

Charlie19

Lil Manors

I think Plan B writes this one. Good story set in London.

Adulthood

Watched this tonight on BBC. Very impressed with the acting and way the film was shot. Again its set in London and is a sequel, following Kidulthood that I must watch. Plan B also stars in this.

jimmymallet

Big bus - the movie Airplane copied.

johnny_ultimate

A Friday after-work double bill of The Big City and Wadjda provided unexpected intrigue, the two films complementing each other in rich, surprising ways.

Satyajit Ray's 1963 offering is a portrait of a Calcutta in-flux - tradition being challenged in a rapidly modernizing city, but not everyone having the ability to manage the changes. As ever with Ray, grand themes are realised through an intimate family drama - wife / mother Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee) deciding, with the blessing of her husband Subrata (Anil Chatterjee), to take a job after the man of the house's job in a bank is proving an insufficient source of income. Soon, the existing family roles shift and reverse in surprising ways. Ray examines the ways in which Arati is both welcomed into the workforce and met with fierce resistance. It's a great performance from Mukherjee, backed by Chatterjee's beautifully (and often silently) portrayal of a frustrated patriarch. A beautiful digital restoration is a fine testament to Ray's deceptively simple but extremely elegant storytelling.

Speaking of patriarchies, and jumping to the present day, Wadjda is an even bolder exploration of the challenges still facing women in a male-dominated society. Director Haifaa Al- Mansour is the first woman to direct a film in Saudi Arabia (actually, she's one of the first people to make anything cinematic in Saudi Arabia, full stop). The film is a comedy-drama, but is quietly subversive and overall acts as an allegory of the obstacles faced by women in a country where they're barely allowed speak in public. At the centre of this is 10 year old Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) - a spirited, strong-willed girl who refuses to bow down to authority, whether that's covering up with a head scarf or denying the unspoken rule that women do not ride bikes.

Rather than dwell on the dramatics of religious police or violence (always in the background, though), it's a tale of more small-scale rebellion - particularly at home or in school - with our protagonist at that age where she can still act cheeky and somewhat get away with it. But even with some victories behind her, she's still constantly stopped in her tracks by fundamentalist rules and strict regulations, and the film doesn't forget to explore how the women around her are treated as well. Overall, it's a welcome, subtly provocative look at a society very rarely given space on cinema screens (cinemas are banned in Saudi Arabia).

Although there's undoubtedly a darker undercurrent to both films, they both (Wadjda particularly) offer endings that could be called optimistic. The Big City is an reminder of what has and hasn't changed in the half century since it was made - bang on the money in some regards, depressingly over-optimistic in others (especially its dreams of a more progressive Calcutta). As for Wadjda, well hopefully we can look back at it in 2063 and hope that its dream of a Saudi Arabia where women will be granted more independence is realised.

Gamayun

Cube (1997)

Low budget Canadian production. A small group of strangers awaken inside a huge Rubik's-cube-like structure of rooms, with no knowledge of how or why they are there, and must find their way out.

Good concept but let down by some dodgy acting and dialogue. Watchable though.

Hrududu

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Watched Jagten (The Hunt) at last after the Br came yesterday. Amazing performance from the increasingly becoming a fave of mine Mads Mikkelsen (he's the standout in the Hannibal tv series too). Won't bore you here as most know the story but if you like Foreign Cinema do yourself a favour and pick it up or watch it somewhere. A solid 9/10.

One of the tensest films I've seen in ages. There were times I almost wanted to watch it through my fingers. Terrific performance from Mikkelson.

duckysauce

Gamayun wrote: »

Snowtown (2011)

Do you like unrelenting misery, soul crushing existential woe and viewing the seething black undercurrent of the human condition? If so then you're in luck, this film's for you!

Grim but interesting film based around the true events of killings in Australia.

Yep that is one grim tough film, wasn't right for a few days after watching it.

Bipolar Joe

Watched a couple of crappy ones over the weekend.

Mutant Chronicles

This film looks like someone saw Casshern and said "Let's make a movie that looks like that" and did without caring too much about the movie. It had a massive budget (With Ron Perlman, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich, it's easy to see where the $25,000,000 went).
Based on a table top RPG, a bunch of mutants come up outta the floor during a war in a future / alternate universe (???) where the world is divided up between four different corporations that are constantly killing each other for some reason or other. An Irish Perlman leads a rag-tag group of annoying assholes to the hole in the floor to blow up some mutant making machine.
Pretty terrible all around. Couple of funny moments, but not worth it for the long run, so here they are!

Thomas Jane saying "I'm not paid to believe, I'm paid to **** **** up!" and a scene where a ship carrying refugees to Mars crashes on lift off into a perfectly placed group of people milling around on the street below.

-4 on the Good/Bad scale designed by a Boardsie I can't remember the name of.

Sickle / The Slaughterhouse Massacre

A group of "Attractive teenagers*" bring a murderer back from the dead. His name? Marty Sickle. His weapon of choice? Standing around while people get away constantly and for some reason refuse to leave the fucking building. Also he waves a sickle about sometimes. This is really bad, you guys . When a review of your movie is better than your actual movie, you have a problem. Some scenes and takes are so incomprehensible, it's like the final cut got destroyed and they remade it with the crap that was left. Just awful. Really, really bad. -2 out of -10/+10.

*Actual quote from the description.

Judgement Day

"The Dirty Dozen" (1967) on a new DVD from a charity shop - €2.50 so I shouldn't be complaining. However, I don't think it has aged well but possibly I'm judging it against more recent movies in the same genre such as Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge" and despite a star studded cast which included Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Robert Ryan, Donald Sutherland....the excitement level just doesn't register. Perhaps I'm just tired of this type of movie. 5/10 for the cast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE-m6zUNKH0