What have you watched recently? 3D!

Mr.Nice Guy

The Monkey's Paw (1948)

Decided to give this a look since it was only about an hour long and because I remember enjoying the spoof of this on The Simpsons. There's a prominent Irish character in it called Kelly who is every bit of the Irish stereotype you'd expect from a British film in the '40s. (The film features a flashback to Wexford with Kelly being helped to break into a property by a Garda who he shares a drink with) Disappointingly, there's very little time devoted to characters making their wishes. The final scene at least was pretty eerie and reminded me of a Stephen King story. Overall, a pretty dated film in more ways than one.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Haven't been able to take The Monkey's Paw seriously since I saw this a few years ago

pixelburp

28 Days Later (2002)

Man, those early days of digital video were ugly as sin, but this was a rare pearl that used that grainy & inherently lo-fi appearance to its advantage. Boyle's love for flourish represented by some choice moments that created unique and beautiful visuals (the highlight being a downright abstract, distorted image of a field of flowers as our heroes drove by).

The story itself hasn't really gotten better with age though during this first rewatch since its release: the introduction of the soldiers remained a crunching gear-change; like Alex Garland's lunch was burning at the time, so he hastily bashed out "uhh, suddenly rapey soldiers appeared" on his keyboard, pressed save, and never bothered coming up with something better.

Still. While some stories struggle to survive a bad ending, this was one whose prior acts remained so bristling with aggressive, anarchic energy, they saved the overall experience. Even after 20 years of the "fast zombie" becoming the norm, Danny Boyle's original recipe still feels like the standard by which the sub-genre can be judged. All that whirling, spasmodic chaos was still shocking, where the viewer had no time to process the so-called Infected's appearance before they were on their victims, screaming and beating them with rage. And if anything, the crappy digital image only enhanced the terror, the lack of clarity only feeding the viewer's discomfort; it left me more profoundly upset by the violence than Zombie films of this stripe generally manage.

But that last act. Hoo-boy, what a stinker.

True Romance (1993)

The narrative lasted a whole 3 minutes before Tarantino's script betrayed the writer's various obsessions: in this case, the martial arts movies that back in the early 90s, would still have been a curio. And before I finished chuckling at that particular idiosyncrasy... boom: the lead character started waxing lyrical about - while standing in his workplace, a store selling - comic-books. 

The pacing on this was energetic to the point of puppy-dog hyperactivity. but Tony Scott never completely lost a handle on what might have otherwise been quite a rambling, disjointed feature. A focus that I might quietly suggest Tarantino's own direction has sometimes lacked when he filmed his own writing later on. And that focus served the film's cast really well; a cast that was ludicrously well stacked. Be they already established names like Walken or Hopper, or "before they were famous", single-scene roles from Pitt, L. Jackson or Gandolfini. Nearly every named character was someone a viewer would recognise; it was kinda nuts.

The longer the film went on though, the more I came to kinda hate Patricia Arquette's Alabama; she barely functioned as anything beyond that of a cipher. At first undoubtedly sweetly alluring, but the "dream" girl schtick kept going on and on ... to the extent I theorised it might all be a ruse? I started to believe perhaps her sensuality was ultimately a weapon, all so she could be the last one standing when the chickens came home to roost. Noppope. She really was just Tarantino's fantasy girl. It got a bit much.

monkeyactive

Coraline

Watched for the first time last night. Its fantastic stuff. Maybe a bit dark for younger kids but all in all a masterpiece that stands up well to Gaimans Graphic Novel.

9/10

steve_r

Mississippi Burning - 1989

I'd seen this before when I was in school, and it had always stuck with me as an incredibly visceral presentation of racism. Coming back it it now, it's a film that clearly plays with the underlying facts to tell a story it wants to tell, something I do not think would fly if the film was made now. 

From a pure storytelling and performance point of view, it's a very compelling tale, and Hackman, Defoe, and the rest of the supporting characters are excellent. The criticism leveled at the film is that it doesn't really show a black perspective, and what you are really left with is a film where white characters talk to each other about racism. 

Despite that, (and maybe because of the storytelling choices where they play fast and loose with the facts), it's still a very powerful film that arguably is even more thematically relevant today than it was when it was made. 

Heist - 2001 

Written and directed by David Mamet, this is a real "by the numbers" heist film. It's got Mamet's trademark dialogue, which either works for you or doesn't. Personally I find it grating, and some of the dialogue is so over the top it is hard to take it seriously. What really helps Mamet here is having actors like Hackman and Samuel l Jackson, who can really sell those lines.

Mamet is first and foremost a writer, so from a direction point of view, this is a very conventional story. On the writing side, there's no major suprises, the standard twists you would expect from a caper like this, but annoyingly there's a few plot threads that never seem to get resolved. There's not a lot of depth to these characters, and there's suspension of disbelief required for some of the plot points. Overall it's a decent watch, but could have been a much better film. 

Accused 2023

This is the American version of Jimmy Mcgoverns Accused of over ten years ago. Mcgovern writes the first episode on this one and then its US writers after that.

It really has the bones of being great like the UK series, the dark and grim frustration of the system and the disadvantaged people that get swallowed up by it, but ultimately this is for the US audience and so its been happy washed mostly to not traumatize the audience too much. The Uk episodes were so grim you would remember them for days afterwards. This is where Mcgoverns power as a writer is, and when it becomes happy endings for various reasons the sheer weight of his work becomes featherlike.

Great potential, sadly doesnt cut it, Jimmy needs a new one for the UK.

pixelburp

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Its anachronistic cheer and jauntiness somewhat jarred against all the late-era British colonial hubris & pomp; it made the early years of Clive Candy a little hard to stomach, especially its glib circling of the Boer War. But then as the film went on and its character aged into unwitting obsolescence, the film morphed into something surprisingly poignant and reflective. Its last scene was an earned, melancholy little moment of an old man realising hadn't fulfilled a promise to a lost love.

Indeed, for a film produced in Britain during the height of WW2, its attitude towards Germans was quite inclusive and empathetic; rather than portrayed as some totemic evil for contemporary audiences to boo, Candy's lifelong friend was a sombre and serious individual, saddened by the fate of his country but gently angry some Britons would still think it'd all end with a jolly good dust-up. That, coupled with the aforementioned theme of its lead becoming unwittingly obsolete, left the film with the feel of a subtle rebuke against the generation who effectively germinated the Nazis in the first place. Brave stuff to produce while mainland Europe was still occupied; I can see why the government wasn't happy with it.

The WW1 segment was also interesting for being such a tonal outlier compared with the iconography we now come to associate with WW1 storytelling; All Quiet on the Western Front this was not. The mud and blasted landscapes were all there, but absolutely none of the thematic anguish & fatalism now standard. Now to be fair, that would have chafed against the spirit of the rest of the narrative, but it was hard not to find the whole segment a little bizarre. Here was our lead, now a Brigadier-General, goofing around the front-line, the aforementioned jauntiness completely at odds with subsequent fictions. Nowadays, the officer class is often portrayed as corrupt, arrogant and monstrous creatures who precipitated the pointless war - not some jolly soul just trying to get out of the rain.

Coraline (2009)

Odd to come back to a film you know you saw in the cinema, your scattered memories informing you enjoyed it ... but had absolutely zero recollection of scenes or moments.

There was a constant flourish to this that sometimes felt like Laika were showboating, like it was their last hurrah and intended to show just how far one could push the medium of stop-motion, to deconstruct any preconceived limitations the art-form might have. There's an argument that this remains the studio's best work to date - maybe even a toss-up over whether this is also the zenith of stop-motion itself? I saw Wendyll & Wild, and Mad God recently enough, yet neither had the dexterity and brio of this.

Even 13 years later the scale of ambition, the almost arrogant flourish of detail within every frame was something to behold. Some moments were the cause of genuine awe: beautiful and artful instances of macabre imagination, all watched knowing the sheer commitment and time demanded of the artists to craft each spectacular minute. The world is a better place for the presence of Laika, still doggedly flying the flag of that most time-consuming, and least profitable, arm of the animation genre.

Now, the last act turned into something of a slightly underwhelming Fetch Quest, but not so poor that the story preceding it was retroactively ruined. This had a surprisingly authentic heart to it; a smart, nuanced story of the whirling and sometimes bratty anxieties of the age we now call "tweens". I was happy to forgive the damp squib ending just because what came before built such a strong foundation in its lead character. It also threaded the needle (ohoho!) when it came to the tonal balance of PG horror, in being scary and creepy enough for all ages, without utterly horrifying the younger eyes.

Tony EH

'As Bestas'

A slow builder with trip wire tension set in Galicia which centres on a Frenchman, Antoine, and his wife, Olga, who are trying to make a go at organic farming as a living, while also doing up regional houses on the side. Antoine is set against the idea of windfarms being set up in the area, as he believes that the profits will inevitably end up in foreign hands, while the small village population will be fobbed off with minimal reward. Antoine is on the opposite side of the table in this matter to many of the locals, who see it as a viable financial way out of their hardship. Foremost in opposition is Xan, a formidable and aggressive Galician who, together with his retarded brother and elderly mother live as neighbours to Antoine and Olga. Xan sees the money he'll receive from the windfarm company as a conduit to a better and more comfortable future for his family. Over the course of the story the atmosphere becomes more and more unstable, and while there's no side that's particularly in the wrong, their methods at achieving their desired outcome definitely differ until things come to a head.

8/10

Watched Hulu's Freak recently. Quite enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect but not a bad modern thriller/horror.

Fysh

Crimes of the Future (2022)

I finally made time to watch this and thought it was well worth the wait - a number of reviews had suggested it was a bit of a patchwork of past Cronenberg films, but I enjoyed enjoyed instead as a sort of convergence of various ideas and themes that have informed his previous films. I've long had a soft spot for Videodrome and this feels like a very complementary film to that, sharing as it does not just concerns about sex and human evolution but also the influence of forces acting behind the scenes for their own interests.

Ultimately if you haven't enjoyed any previous Cronenberg films this wouldn't change your mind; for anyone who has enjoyed his work this is an interesting synthesis of themes and interests from previous films.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched a film called Clash on Prime.

It's set in 2013 in Egypt during the protests there. The entire thing takes place in the back of a police van, and the only times we see outside are through the tiny windows or the occasionally open back door. It starts with two American/Egyptian AP journalists being thrown into the back of the van, and as the van moves around through the protests more and more people are locked up with them. Some are Muslim Brotherhood, some are pro Army, some have just been caught up in the chaos, and they go back and forth between fighting with each other, and trying to ensure they all survive the ordeal. The confines of the setting do an amazing job at putting you in the situation, the claustrophobia, the heat, the fear, are all felt. It was probably the subtitles on Prime, which are routinely awful, but the dialogue at times did feel like the weak link, and the novelty of the setting did start to wear thin towards the end. But all in all I'd recommend it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320050#Comment_120320050

If this had of had a big budget I think it could have been really something as a film. The concepts are outstanding and not far from believable.

pixelburp

The Driver (1978)

An absolutely bare-bones, minimalist crime thriller to the extent barely any character possessed a name; a film at once thrilling with its muscular and Best In Class car-chases, but also oddly existential and haunted when the chaos stopped and scenes became more dialogue driven. Those car-chases though: it's so trite these days to lament about the pre-CGI days as having a greater tactility, but alongside something like Ronan this was a film whose physicality crunched with every crushed fender, every near-miss while slaloming through traffic, every moment that felt one split second from disaster. The final chase a culmination of this so much, I wondered if they actually filmed in real LA traffic. The roads were too crowded, the extent of the chase too widespread to have all been a controlled environment?

This was also something that felt like a prototype of a Michael Mann feature in certain respects - Heat or Collateral the obvious comparisons: detached, professional criminals floating between mundanity; an obsessed policeman in pursuit, barely tethered to legality themselves; both sides experts in their fields, but with no meaningful connections except with each other; a deeply urban & fluorescent palette, LA bathed in greens and looking like something almost unreal. Just little seeds, small nods but I couldn't help draw the lines between here and those later movies.

The only one caveat and stain on the whole experience had to be Ryan O'Neal. By all accounts, when he didn't speak his performance worked; all those pensive looks through soulful, haunted eyes helped build that mentioned tone of loneliness and isolation within this hidden industry. But the moment he had to speak more than 3 words, the magic was totally lost. While I'm not sure Bruce Dern worked as the amoral cop either; by all accounts a better actor but just felt a bit miscast with that scarecrow physique and Garfunkel hair.

pixelburp

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

An odd film in that the entire narrative's pillar was a moment of racism and anti-Japanese prejudice during WW2 ... yet the entire speaking cast was as white as the driven snow. It possibly spoke to the time this was made in that even as victims, Asian-Americans weren't seen in cinema.

Still, a crackling little thriller with a concept so naturally adaptable, I'm surprised I haven't seen this format more often; other variants of the same idea since its release - or maybe I'm simply forgetting obvious examples?

A film about a moribund community whose population was so riven by paranoia and guilt it would untangle immediately upon the arrival of a single mysterious stranger. The various outsized characters reacting from their own respective corners of guilt, shame, anger, suspicion - or simple bullish pride in their own vulgar, violent actions.

The scene of Spencer Tracey facing down Ernest Borgnine's boorish thug was probably the film's enduring scene (perhaps as much for its goofy karate-chop as anything else), but arriving at that point was a slow drip of tension, harassment and a man slowly deciding to intervene in his own particular way - but only because the town's resting belligerence pushed him towards it. A motivation born less from goodness than irritation towards ássholes bothering you.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022)

Kindness of spirit is possibly one of the harder tonal registers to achieve, especially in Hollywood for some reason. Maybe too often when tried, the end-result can come across as deeply inauthentic or phony - bordering on downright obnoxious if it's really mishandled. Common human decency being an apparent blindspot so significant within Anglo-American cinema, the only way to achieve it might be through a non-human surrogate: in this instance, that stand-in being a stop-motion shell with a singly googly eye.

There's no logical reason this should have worked as well as it did, but my goodness this was Cosy Cinema; an experience of pure satisfying emotion.

I never saw the shorts upon which the film was based and expanded upon, but this was a triumph of sweetness and friendship; a lovely hug of a movie that while sometimes flavoured with the sadness of life's realities, left me filled with the kind of uplifted joy only matched from watching something similarly humane like the Paddington movies (again, a film whose virtuous heart wasn't actually human, the bear's goodness a catalyst for others' own).

Just like Paddington however, all that sweet essence was buttressed by genuine laugh-out loud moments of perfectly crafted comedy. And because happiness, sadness, laughter and tears often all share the same emotional space, it meant the overall experience was heady - but quite impactful and earnest. There wasn't a single, cynical edge to this whatsoever.

Tony EH

If '12 Angry Men' is the best film of the 50's, it's followed very closely by 'Bad Day at Black Rock'.

A Man Called Otto.

On the face of it, it's a re-work of Gran Torino but with Tom Hanks. It's lovely.

Decuc500

Dillinger

John Milius didn’t direct as many films as he probably should have. Dillinger was his first film as writer/director.

It tells the same story Michael Mann would go on to tell in Public Enemies. Where Public Enemies was a typical forensically detailed Mann film, Dillinger is really loose and ramshackle.

It covers the Dillinger gangs many bank robberies in depression era America and the G-man Melvin Purvis trying to catch them. Warren Oats is great as Dillinger and his gang is made up of Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lews and a Pre-Jaws Richard Dreyfus.

The tommy gun shoot outs are chaotically violent. It owes a great debt to Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.

I’d like to see more of Milius’s films being reissued but a lot of them are frustratingly hard to find.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120366318#Comment_120366318

Nice recommendation enjoyed this - Manns version is unrelenting and super stylized, too much so. This is really stripped down and actually feels a lot more real to the times of the 1930’s. “Ordinary folks don’t live that well”.

SEPT 23 1989

Unwelcone

watched it a couple of times story is not great but whoever is responsible for the cinematography on this film has achieved Barry Lyndon level perfection on scenes

well done

gucci

King Richard (2021)

Biopic of Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena, centering around their early lives and rise to super stardom. Its a very entertaining and easy watch, perfect for my mood on a Sunday night.

The family were very involved in the production so its very clearly a positive telling of their story, but their career stats and success gives them the allowance to do that!!

shrapnel222

Cocaine bear

enough said in the title tbh, and based on a true story (stretched to the max obviously). the bear scenes are great, the rest is shocking, but i really think they could have done so much more with this. opportunity missed.

loyatemu

The Ipcress File (1966) / Funeral in Berlin (1966)

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

60s spy movies all the way for me this weekend. The first 2 are based on Len Deighton novels featuring Michael Caine as sardonic, down-at-heel spy Harry Palmer. Ipcress is mostly set in grimy 60s London, Berlin obviously in Berlin with a bigger budget. Both are a lot of fun, and Caine is excellent in one the roles that made his name. Ipcress goes a bit off the rails towards the end with a Bondian plot device that foreshadows the barmy technobabble of the 3rd film in the series "Billion Dollar Brain" (which I saw years ago).

TSWCIFTC is a different beast, an incredibly twisty John Le Carré tale of double and triple cross with a brief early appearance for his George Smiley character who also features in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Shot in B&W and with a much more serious tone than the Deighton films they seem to depict an older era despite being made the same year as Ipcress. Whereas Caine is inhabiting a London that could vaguely be described as "swinging", Richard Burton's morose spy hangs out in dingy pubs, strip clubs and lodging houses and moves around under a cloud of smog. A brilliant depiction of the brutality of the Cold War.

pixelburp

Falling Down (1993)

What an odd fish to (re)watch with the weight of 30 subsequent years of mass-shootings and broiling white supremacist tension in America: I can 100% understand and respect why within that atmosphere, this film might strike some as distasteful, if not outright uncomfortable viewing. 

That said, I never got the sense the film's narrative wanted to portray Michael Douglas' "D-Fens" as either sympathetic or misunderstood. That it was a case of that maxim where depiction did not equal endorsement; indeed, it was notable how after many scenes where D-Fens had a violent encounter with somebody, we would quickly cut back to his ex-wife and her growing exasperated terror and panic that her husband was getting closer. Or later, when we met D-Fens' mother and she was a quivering mess, utterly terrified of her son finding out she was in his room. This was a disturbed, violent man whose stroll across LA was not born from social or political ideology - but from being a domestic monster, thinking he was entitled to a homestead he had already burned. Even the credits wouldn't give him a name: to do so might have only given him more dimension or agency than he deserved?

Indeed, if he did have any ideology whatsoever, it was one of churlish entitlement the film's Text would have us condemn, not cheer: the scene at the McDonald's stand-might be the most enduring & iconic, but D-Fens' little snark about "... the customer is always right" personally bristled - as I'd like to think it would anyone who ever worked retail. The customer is not always right; indeed is frequently wrong, and often that trite adage is only wielded by those who think they're entitled to something. D-Fens' rant about floppy burgers remained amusing for sure - relatable even, if I'm honest - but he was surrounded by terrified parents, children, customers, and staff. He demanded special treatment, then threatened violence the moment he was faced with reality. 

All that said, this was a Los Angeles where nearly every character D-Fens met was a screaming, obnoxious ásshole who only triggered his violence further. To the extent you could easily pin down the main flaw of the thing, and how some might find it too repulsive now. While D-Fens was, without question, an ambling monster causing chaos and destruction everywhere he went, the script didn't quite manage to temper the idea he was pushed towards aggression as a first response. The people he encountered skirted close to vulgar racial stereotypes in a couple of instances, while others' antagonism was ramped up to such immediate, knee-jerk extremes it felt like establishing an excuse for the inevitable violent backlash. It was all a bit too much of wanting the cake and eating it too.

The hero through all this was clearly meant to be Robert Duvall's cop: a quiet, thoughtful man retiring early out of love for his wife, both of them dealing with a tragic loss in their own way; his capacity for concern clearly acted as a contrast to D-Fens' utter lack of basic human decency or empathy (even if the rationale sometimes had a whiff of the patronising about it). Alongside his younger colleague Det. Torrez, it felt like these two were the only decent souls left inside the police station - and outside. So when Duvall's Det. Prendergast finally let loose, and pushed back against a world that mocked and demeaned him, that was when the movie felt truly cathartic and earned. Not the entitled, monstrous prick blowing up building sites and terrifying adults & children alike.

Mr.Nice Guy

Hot Shots! (1991)

I haven't seen this film since I was a kid, so watching it again felt a new experience. I don't think it's anywhere near as good as Airplane but there were a few moments that made me laugh. The doctor at the hospital had my favourite lines. I might try the sequel next.

steve_r

Meet me in the Bathroom - 2022

This is a documentary on the New York 2001 rock scene, based on the book by Lizzie Goodman. It focuses on the rise of bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem. 

It's not a "talking heads" documentary (if you pardon the reference), its very much footage from the time. 

How you feel about these bands, and the scene in general, will probably determine how much you get from this. It's quite honest, and some of the bands come out of it looking better than others. One thing that struck me was how bad some of the music sounded, some of this was due to live recordings but it doesn't really present the bands themselves in the best of lights - I think if you weren't into these bands before watching this, then the music used in this (with one or two exceptions) won't really sell you on these bands. 

There are some very interesting conversations (particularly with Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) on women in music, hype and expectations, the role of MTV and the rise of the internet, and drugs in music. Some of these were explored well, but some could have used more attention. Overall, a decent watch, but not essential. 

Mr.Nice Guy

Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)

I liked this more than Hot Shots. Charlie Sheen seems like he's having more fun and I got more laughs from this one.

Barbarian (2022)

I enjoyed the first half or so a lot and found it unsettling. It gets sillier as it goes on and I didn't like the ending much. Doesn't make much sense overall but it has its moments. Better than I expected.

buried

Knock At The Cabin (2023)

Fairly entertaining M Night Shamamalanaman film. Some very good performances from everybody involved but the story rides too close to seriousness while trying to be fantastical so it gets fairly messy and convoluted, especially towards the end. 6/10

The Whale (2023)

Terrific performance from Brendan Fraser and totally deserved the oscar but one of the most boring films I have ever seen. Everybody else bar his nurse gives a total p!ss poor performance and the whole thing is set in one room, so it doesn't really work, could have cut off 30 minutes and it would have been fairly good. 5/10

The Keep (1983)

Sci-fi Horror shlock set in Romania during World War II directed by Michael Mann. Great cast and fairly entertaining but also seriously shlocky. Some shots and editing are brilliant but the whole thing is seriously stupid and convoluted. Good film to watch while having about 6-8 beers and not taking anything too seriously. 4/10

Andrei Rublev (1966)

Just absolute brilliance from Andrei Tarkovsky. I had never seen this and I was glad I hadn't because the whole thing is just absolute genius. Just fantastic filmmaking and forward pushing work for it's time. 10/10

Mr.Nice Guy

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Never seen this before. I quite liked it. Some funny moments, and Pesci and Tomei are good. Biggest laugh for me was the suit Vinny wears to court when his old one gets damaged.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120393876#Comment_120393876

Great movie. I'm basically in love with Marisa tomei in it, incredible magnetic performance.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120294905#Comment_120294905

"Make no mistake about it deputy, I'll cut your fu cking head clear off and not give a **** how it reads in the report sheet"

Absolute classic