What have you watched recently? 3D!

The Boys in Company C (1978) Came across this Vietnam war film and not a bad watch at all, if not great. There's nothing new about it, guys get drafted and go through training and are sent out to war. There's a a slight comedic element to it, which makes it not as heavy hitting as a lot of the other war films about this period, and they don't go into the details the likes of full metal jacket and platoon go into. Its actually a true story where the goal of the captain is to play the local Vietnamese team in a soccer match, and then the players and the company won't have to go into battle again, they can play soccer instead. Word of warning, Pele and Aediles weren't choreographing the football this time.

flasher0030

CODA

Film about deaf family and one daughter who could hear.

Wasnt expecting much with this. Thought it might be bit draggy. But wow. Absolutely loved it. Wasn't too over the top with sentimentality. A perfect Sunday night film for me. I'd give it a 9 out of 10. Don't have any reason really for docking a point. Maybe just been a bit measly. Great performances all round too.

Mr.Nice Guy

Child's Play (1988) - I've watched shows and movies about creepy dolls that come to life but never seen this film before. It does what you expect and isn't too long that it wears out its welcome. The explanation for what's going on is pretty silly but the kid and mother are easy to root for. 7/10.

pixelburp

Censor (2021)

There's probably a good film to be made about the moral panic over "video nasties" in 1980s Britain - but this ain't it, unfortunately. It never really quite decided what it wanted to do with the setting, its lead, the Inciting Incident - or indeed the obvious cinematic influences occasionally recreated within. 2012's Berberian Sound Studio did a much better job with that; specifically that slow unpeeling of the main character's sanity, as they became increasingly steeped in the "corruption" of Giallo Cinema. So while that older film became more gloriously unhinged, Censor just ... kinda sulked for most of its running time; that eventual swing into madness feeling more like a script unsure how to bring it all home. The last act felt both sudden and very arbitrary, to the point that I'm not sure it made a lick of sense. That it was a stylistic, 4th wall breaking flourish made the sake of it.

A Cure For wellness (2016)

Far-from-perfect but interesting-at-times mystery / horror melange with some good Lovecraftian vibes and decent body-horror elements. Worth a watch if you like that sort of tone and setting. A bit too long and the ending is imo, as is often the case, one of the weaker elements.

6.1 / 10 on the IMDB scale.

BruteStock

Underwater. Good enough that I watched it twice. Set design is top notch and Stewart runs around in underpants which is a plus.

Also on disney plus, Firestorm. A decent Die Hard in a type.... actioner. For example :

Die Hard on a bus- Speed

Due Hard on the rocky mountains- Cliffhanger.

Firestorm is Die Hard in a forest.. William Foersythe plays the villain

lanajakob

Jurassic Park

Mr.Nice Guy

Primer (2004) - Takes a while to get going and I must admit a lot of it went over my head but it's a fun time travel tale. 7/10.

El Gato De Negocios

Dead Ringers (1988)

Cronenbergs follow up to his remake of The Fly, its one that moves into a more cerebral space in comparison to the heavy body horror elements of his previous works. It stars Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists that share everything, from their medical practice to their home to the women in their lives. The wheels start to come off when one of the twins falls for a patient that his brother had previously seduced and we begin a spiral into drug addiction and paranoia. Like alot of Cronenbergs work, this is a challenging watch. Irons I thought was excellent in the dual roles, one a confident and gregarious borderline sociopath, the other, more introverted and obviously under coercive control. As you would expect, scenes of body horror are evident but they are certainly not the star of the show. Not one Id be in any huge rush to rewatch but nevertheless, a good entry in a very strong catalogue.

7/10

In Search of Darkness II (2020)

A mammoth, 4.5 hour long deep dive into 80s horror, this is a must watch for genre fans. The first one heavily focused on the big three franchises, but didnt really show anything that hadn't been seen in franchise specific docs like Never Sleep Again, Crystal Lake Memories or His Name Was Jason. Part II on the other hand casts the net wide in terms of what it covers off. Essentially, it goes through a list of horror movies for every year from 1980 to 1989 and has a bunch of talking heads (cast, directors, journalists) talking about the movies. There are more widely known movies from the likes of Argento, Fulci and Craven to more obscure features like Humanoids from the Deep, Cellar Dweller, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Night Beast or Dead & Buried. Very enjoyable to be reminded of some random trash and to add more to the watch list. Part III is in production currently. For those interested, Parts I & II are both available to watch in full on Shudder and you can sign up for a one week free trial. Shudder UK is weak enough in terms of content but the US version using a VPN is excellent.

8/10

pixelburp

Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City (2021)

Takes some effort to produce something worse than Paul WS Anderson's original, and inexplicably successful, take on the video game franchise - but here we are. This reboot was almost irredeemably bad: an absolute trash-fire that would surely baffle those ignorant of the series - but also changed enough from the games that it would annoy fans as well.

Divorced of whether it was a good adaptation or not (it wasn't), fundamentally it was terrible movie; the writing, directing, plotting - everything - either overcooked or just bordering on amateur; the FX revealing the apparent $25 million budget, unforgivably awful in this day age. While things like the digital grain and overused filtering made it a deeply UGLY film to watch.

There were literally two things in all the runtime that I liked: a single use of split diopter that pleased the Film Nerd in me; and Donal Logue's performance, applying the right amount of No Fúcks Given energy among the leaden TV grade cast, all playing it way too seriously. Actually, no, there was a third thing: there was a corpse prop so phenomenally fake and rubbery I laughed out loud it got into the final cut.

Black Box / Boîte noire (2021)

Competent French thriller centred around a passenger air crash and the subsequent accident investigation. A decent thriller is hard to come by these days so I'll take it.

7.1 / 10

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

Fysh

Having seen a good review in Sight & Sound, I took a punt on The Scary Of Sixty First on Shudder. Short version is - don't bother.

It's a first feature film about a couple of twentysomethings who luck into an apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side at a surprisingly cheap rate, only to find out that it was owned and used by a real-life sex trafficker whose name still comes up in the news (yes, him).

Technically, it's not bad - it's set in present day but the grain and colour grade feels very much like a throwback to late 70s and early 80s horror. The acting is a bit overdone, like the cast are playing Flanders'd versions of themselves. But the script is really where the problems are. There are two strands to the story - one flatmate meets a stranger, starts "investigating" the sex trafficker (and talking methamphetamine because of course) and goes down a conspiracy rabbit hole, while the other flatmate is apparently possessed by a victim of the trafficker. We know about the latter because she starts talking in a little girl voice and collectiny memorabilia for a specific monarchic friend of the trafficker. It's as subtle as a brick, and serves no narrative function - it's just there to fill time, and mostly takes the form of scenes in which the actor frots herself with her collection of photos.

Ultimately, only the conspiracy plotline goes anywhere - but it would have been stronger had it not relied so much on repeatedly referencing the trafficker and drawing out scenes of two speed-freaks talking about the most facile elements of the news coverage, then adding 1 and 1 to get Q(Anon).

Realistically, nobody would have heard of this if it hadn't gone for the cheaply exploitative angle of overtly setting itself in the middle of a real, horrific situation about which it has nothing to say, no thoughts to offer. It's basically self-involved twenty-somethings being edgy and provocative, which is fine as long as you can offer something more once you have caught people's attention. There is nothing more to this film. I'll be making a note of the writers' names only to make sure I don't watch anything of theirs again, although based on this I don't think we need to worry about a high profile career for either of them.

pixelburp

The Forgotten Battle (2020)

An unfocused ensemble WW2 tale from The Netherlands, set during the dying embers of the war; the environs of broken Dutch polders, flooded and sodden so soldiers moved with a heavy gait, punctuated a palpable weight and resignation felt throughout the film. That everyone was simply exhausted, hungry and wanting this war to be over; its combatants indifferent towards heroism, now that the Finish Line was in sight. And while there was nothing wrong with the film's ambition and sense of scale telling a story from all sides, its disparate stories just never came together in any kind of satisfying - or even cohesive - fashion. Made more jarring by a tone that bounced between gritty realism at one point, and earnest family melodrama at another.

Blacklight (2022)

A new low for a Liam Neeson action vehicle. The story here really is dire, so uninspired and beyond cliché. Also Neeson has got to the stage where he can't convincingly break into a run anymore. Terrible.

3.1 / 10

Nightride (2021)

A one-last-deal-before-going-straight situation with the the up-against-the-clock dynamic shot in a "real-time" presentation that just about pulls it off. Set in Belfast. Shades of Locke (2013) but not 100% constrained to a car as in that case. Worth an uncomplicated watch.

6.1 / 10

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118733077#Comment_118733077

Is he entering his Seagal phase?

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739217#Comment_118739217

I enjoyed this. Found it fairly gripping. Ya, the comparison with Locke is first thing that springs to mind if having seen the two of them. Locke is good, but Nightride has a bit more going on in terms of tension. For me anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739351#Comment_118739351

He is in his "will sign up to any old shite stage"

The premise for this one is so paper-thin and over-done and that's what makes it so bad first-and-foremost.

Neeson will he start doing Bruce Willis 10-minute cameo jobs where he's billed as the main star in the "movie" things next I wonder?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118739794#Comment_118739794

"Locke" is the better film and Tom Hardy by far the more accomplished performance imo but "Nightride" is more of a thriller plot-by-numbers so will come across as more "gripping" in a superficial sense whereas "Locke" is a drama really.

barrymanilow

Fresh

Stars Normal peoples Daisy Edgar Jones. Its probably a good enough horror film. I can't stomach body horror stuff though nor can I understand how anyone else can so I could only watch to a certain point and was enjoying it until then. If your able to watch the likes of Cronnenbergs stuff then you might be able to enjoy it.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118741288#Comment_118741288

It’s a pity, The Grey was great (is it a bit of an unknown role for him) and is the kind of a serious type action role I’d like to see more of.

pixelburp

Neeson has a long way to fall still if he wanted to hit Bruce Willis' level. Neeson might be starring in any old cobblers for some cash but he at least puts a professional shift in. It can't be underestimated just how little Willis bothers; playing scenes sitting if he can, and apparently uses body doubles for medium shots. He is more akin to Steven Segal now.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118746858#Comment_118746858

Jeez I dunno if any man can fall as low as Bruce Willis has. Seagal was never high enough to fall so low, and he has plenty of other things to do in his life, whereas Willis's career seems to have fallen lower then any man in the history of film! In that Edward Norton film I couldn't believe how bad he was as an actor.

The Angels Share (2012) Watching a few Ken Loach films and this one is a good one. There's bleakness to it, but not nearly as bleak as his most recent efforts. This one is about a working class 20 something in Glasgow, been in trouble with the law his whole life and done some terrible things, with almost no hope. He finds a path to lets say 'redemption' through whiskey tasting. Theres some very funny moments, and some painful ones, but overall unlike a lot of other of Loaches work its ultimately uplifting and a great watch. Very gritty and very real.

The Navigators (2001) Again Ken Loach, this film is a bit smaller in scope, and could easily be a Jimmy McGovern episode of one of his mini series. A bit of a resemblance to Boys from the Black stuff, its about railway workers who were working for the government, inefficient, taking the piss etc but now the company has been privatised and its a different story. Its an interesting commentary on government workers, suddenly facing up to working for capitalists instead of socialists. There is no sympathy for anyone in it, its just a 'this is how it is' story. For anyone who likes the McGovern/Loach style northern English drams's its a nice bit of realism for that period.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118746938#Comment_118746938

But Seagal's age started to show, his running skills were getting in line with his guitar skills.

Neeson can't convincingly run anymore - this movie proves it.

They had to construe one situation where a guy gets stuck on a gate so Neeson could catch up to him!

The choreographed hand-to-hand stuff is really pushing it also.

Willis could definitely pull it off more convincingly as an actual action star at this stage but takes the easy way out.

It's a guy called Randall Emmett who is the driving force behind most of those dire "Willis movies"

Willis has only to show up for a literally a few days and he's done where he's billed as one of the main stars but is not in the movie for the full screen time -> hence he specialises in "Geezer Teasers"

The Razzie Awards, also known as the de facto anti-Oscars, just crowned prolific action star Willis as the first actor to receive their very own awards category: Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie.

Golden Globe winner Willis, who is now a leading star of producer Randall Emmett’s “Geezer Teasers,” as coined by Vulture, appeared in eight direct-to-video films this past year. The Razzie-nominated films are “American Siege,” “Apex,” “Midnight in the Switchgrass,” “Cosmic Sin,” “Deadlock,” “Fortress,” “Out of Death,” and “Survive the Game,” which were all part of a Half in the Bag review episode by YouTube channel, Red Letter Media.

Emmett obviously convinced Willis that he's never going to get an Oscar nomination at this stage so why not get the easy money for feck all work.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0256542/?ref_=nmnw_hd

loyatemu

I haven't seen Willis in a movie for years, but I believe he does nearly all his acting sitting down these days. Maybe Neeson should consider the same approach?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Arracht

Irish language film that came out some time during Covid. Set just before the famine, Cólman, his brother Liam, and recently returned soldier Patsy, head up to see the Landlord about raised rents. Patsy has a thirst for violence and things get out of hand pretty quick.

It's alright for the most part but the first half hour I found really gripping and then it jumps 2 years and is a much slower film after that. Its great to see these films being made though and I know there's a few more Irish language ones this year too. Don't think any of them are about the famine either, so that'll be a nice change 😄

RocketRaccoon

Myself and the wife watched Dog last night, channing tatum in a fairly inoffensive, watchable ex military/dog buddy "comedy". Hard to say what genre it belongs in but it was fine to pass away a quiet, relaxing evening.

Mr.Nice Guy

West Side Story (2021) - I watched the original a few weeks ago so I could compare it with this. I read a lot of commentary about this being better than the original. I wasn't a big fan of the original tbh but I felt it was better than Spielberg's effort. The remake cuts out the silly prancing and tries to make the fight scenes more realistic, which I thought I would have liked, but I found it made the story less engaging for me. I could buy into the universe of the original over the remake because the original takes the musical aspects more seriously. I liked the actress who played Maria in the remake but not the guy who played Tony. Having said that, Maria is an awful, selfish and self-absorbed character. I hated the way she reacts to THAT moment in the original, and it's just as bad here. In truth, there's not many characters to like in the remake except perhaps for the elderly woman. I thought the ending in the remake felt very abrupt and rushed as well. I didn't get that feeling with the original.

7/10 for the remake. A 7.5 for the original.