What have you watched recently? 3D!

johnny_ultimate · 10-06-2022 2:44pm

The original Top Gun is super naff and a bit **** IMO. Full respect to those who like it / grew up with it as a mainstay, but having only seen it more recently it didn’t really work for me as much more than a time capsule curio.

Which makes Maverick such a pleasant surprise - takes the original film and treats it like a sacred text, and yet manages to improve on it in virtually every way. As a Top Gun skeptic, Maverick comprehensively won me over (fundamentally dodgy US Navy involvement / promotion aside).

10-06-2022 5:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119184141#Comment_119184141

My view is kind of the opposite. I loved the original movie, sure its a bit naff and cheesy but I thought it to be very original, very memorable and Tony Scott created something quite special with so many iconic scenes. He created an energy in that movie that made it unforgettable. Its why it has a special place for many.

Maverick on the other hand is a sign of the times. Just regurgitation, nothing original, writers don’t even attempt to be original in Hollywood these days.

First 5 mins isnt it a carbon copy of the original? Planes landing etc. Then motorbike scenes, the beyond painful beach football scene trying to be the originals vollleyball scene. The training room, the Ice Man V2 Tellers Nemesis, the girl, pulling up to her cute beachside house (Ive never seen Connolly a brilliant actress phone in such a wooden effort). It goes on and on leveraging nostalgia. Relentless, almost like AI wrote an algorithm for the script based on instagram likes and that became the movie. Constant pieces of the originals dialogue thrown in. Honestly i thought everything other then the concept of the mission and the flying scenes were total garbage. But total garbage wins these days every time, thats what makes money. Cogging old stuff and getting people nostalgic about the good old 80’s and 90’s.

However the flying scenes were so incredibly spectacular in the cinema to the degree that sometimes you even feel like your in the cockpit won the day. The movie transcended the cinema to become almost like a flight simulator which I dont recall ever feeling watching a film before.

I’ve just started watching The Offer which is about FFC making The Godfather. The studio exec is saying during the episode that ‘the audience needs to be moved” as in thats whats successful right now, that was the scripts they we’re looking for at the time.

These days I feel Nostalgia is what that exec would be saying is required right now and throwing in as many references to originals, music, pop culture of the past.

Tony EH · 11-06-2022 2:33pm

^

haven't seen 'Maverick' yet, but my god it sounds like it was just a cut and paste job.

johnny_ultimate · 11-06-2022 4:20pm

TBH the original for me is a case study in hollow 80s cheese - just something I found it hard to have any real emotional investment, and the flight scenes feel very flat and unspectacular these days. Granted, I’m generally not super fond of Tony Scott’s work (I do like Unstoppable) and his particular style of slick, shallow spectacle. But the film is just a bit of a shrug for me, despite some decent moments. As said though it wasn’t a film I grew up with in the same ways others have.

Nobody will ever accuse Maverick of being original, but it’s an exceedingly well-oiled machine. The story is what it is and the formula is present and correct and largely structurally unchanged - and yes some parts are near identical. But the flight scenes are the most impressive big-budget spectacle of recent times; the emotional through lines simple and effective; and the central mission structure much more compelling than the much looser one in the original film. It moves the characters and story on to just the right degree for me - taking the tensions and relationships of the first and moving them on. It’s an exceedingly rare example to me of a basic formula being improved upon.

Of course it traffics in shameless nostalgia, but unlike joyless tripe like Ghostbusters Afterlife it’s put together with care, artistry and enthusiasm. And yes the romance feels rote, but not to to extent that it got in the way for me). I could name you a dozen other more original works I’ve seen in the cinema recently that I’d recommend over Maverick, but if you want an enjoyable, no-nonsense blockbuster big screen experience it’s as safe a bet as any recently (and it is of course a film whose spectacular presentation will lose much of its power when viewed at home).

Of course the bar for blockbusters has been set extraordinarily low by an endless succession of artless mega franchise sequels, but Maverick at least shows a simple premise done very well can still very much resonate with audiences and critics alike. I’d count myself among the many others who consider it the rare case of the ‘superior sequel’.

11-06-2022 8:41pm

Hustle on Netflix this weekend is very good. Adam Sandler is great in it. I know less than nothing about basketball, but it's very enjoyable. Watching the end credits, it's a who's who of actual nba basketball players / managers / commentators who took part in it. A real paean to basketball by Sandler.

Ozymandius2011 · 12-06-2022 5:41am

I'm watching "Bombardment" on Netflix, about the RAF operation in Denmark in the last days of World War 2.

shrapnel222 · 12-06-2022 7:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119188567#Comment_119188567

Tony Scott has certainly done a lot of boring stuff but he's forgiven as he did one of my all time favourites True Romance. Watched it again recently with the kids and it is just such a fantastic film with so many memorable scenes

Fuascailteoir · 13-06-2022 5:59pm

Shiva baby, a small budget movie set amongst awkward encounters at the afters of a NY Jewish funeral. Reminded me of Woody Allen dialogue and the set up was interesting: the protagonist meets two people that she is intimate with but now in a very different stilted setting and with family around

Tony EH · 15-06-2022 11:57am

'Russian Doll'

Whereas series one was a pretty good riff on 'Groundhog Day', series two comes off as a bit of a convoluted mess, involving time travel, body swapping, gold, nazis, mental health issues, childhood trauma and other junk that just bogs everything down into an overall unpleasant viewing experience. It's unfortunate, because the first series was very entertaining...even if the lead character, Nadia, is an insufferable, gobby, bitch (albeit well played again by Natasha Lyonne). S01 was also a good bit funnier, too, while never being side splitting it has to be said. I think I laughed once throughout the whole of S02 and that was when Nadia said "Jesus Christ, this fucking song..." when she heard a certain Harry Nilsson track playing.

In its favour, at the very least, it's not just a simple retread of series one and for that it can be commended somewhat. There are some nice callbacks to the first series. But they, ultimately, only serve to remind you of how superior it was. Put simply, it's just not as entertaining as series one and I feel that this would probably have been better left as a one and done. But apparently, there's a series three in the works.

4/10

16-06-2022 9:02pm

Cloverfield (2008)

Re-watched this recently as had forgotten enough of it to make it seem fresh again lol. Effective spin on the kaiju concept where the monster is just there, interrupting people's sh1t instead of some big backstory. Here this works very well imo. The found footage style I don't always care for but it jibes well with the events taking place even though as per usual it can be disorientating at times. But the concept of it being filmed as it happens is actually very effective in this case. Still a good show.

7.5 /10

pixelburp · 17-06-2022 2:56pm

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

As it was when I watched My Neighbour Totoro, I found myself struggling to articulate an experience that amounted to a warm, earnest hug - rather than something more traditionally cinematic in structure. Nothing happened in this movie, yet I never once took my eyes of it. Never once found myself bored.

The foundation of this joyful film was a strata of kindness: a layer of warm empathy alongside a demonstration of the power of emotional support - the end result being a glorious "hangout" movie; one where the closest thing to an antagonist was the concept of stress, or an anxiety born from monetising the thing you love. And even then, it was just a by-product of Kiki's journey of discovery, the audience pulled along as this infectiously enthusiastic girl met new friends and horizons.

megaten · 19-06-2022 1:13pm

Took me two goes to get into Kiki's delivery service but once I saw it the cinema I loved it.

johnny_ultimate · 20-06-2022 1:20pm

Mad God

https://youtu.be/jas8OABbn0Y

You wait years for a weird visionary stop-motion sci-fi horror film and then you get two in quick succession :)

With the feature-length version of the (excellent) Japanese homebrew labour-of-love Junkhead finally getting a full western release very soon, it's been just pipped to the release post by Mad God - the long-gestating passion project from SFX & animation legend Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, RoboCop and many more). Both films are eerily similar in setup: armoured protagonist descends into mysterious subterranean ruins, full of grotesque creatures and bizarre communities.

Junkhead is a strange film full of ghastly sights, but despite its episodic story (which just kind of stops randomly after 100 odd minutes in anticipation of a sequel) it's a fairly linear and straightforward story. Whereas that is a more overtly comedic work, Mad God is the more abstract work and more of a horror film - albeit with dashes of black comedy. It's definitely the more unsettling of the two - some of the sights, sounds and creatures on display feel 'wrong' and deeply odd in a distinct way. It's all sort of persistently unsettling while rarely being explicitly terrifying, if that makes sense. Everything just feels off - and that is very much a compliment. Even a bit near the end where we're introduced to a more vibrant, multi-coloured world has a ghoulish twist.

It's more of a mixed media piece than Junkhead too - while full of impressive stop-motion work, it's also interspersed with live-action material. The legendary Alex Cox shows up as 'the last man', a sort of overseer sending mysterious assassins and adventurers down into the depths to find... something. The live-action bits - while mixing in animated bits - do lack the polish of the fully animated sections, but it all feels of a piece. Oh, and there’s no dialogue and all the context you get is a vague, apocalyptic introductory text scroll (literally - it’s a scroll). Everything else you have to figure out yourself, although the visual storytelling instincts here are strong.

It all gets very abstract towards the end, but it remains compellingly weird and demented throughout. It's out on Shudder now, and if you're at all interested in the possibilities of animation outside the mainstream sphere this is a must-watch.

Manhunter

First time watch and it's absolutely bloody fantastic. It's definitely my favourite of the Lecter films, even if Lecter himself is only in it for 10 minutes or so really. Mann made one of the most 80s films there has ever been, and while some sections have "aged" much of the film has retained a particular magic through its excessive presentation. Moments of epiphany and realisation for the characters become moments of cinematic wonder for the audience, but the darkness of the material is never neglected. The final act is a particular triumph: chaotic yet cathartic. It's a film where you need to embrace the sheer 80s-ness to a certain extent, but the film is a triumph and one of Mann's very best.

20-06-2022 4:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119226541#Comment_119226541

How did you manage not to see Manhunter until now! You should have to do some community service as punishment for that. Mann has a Enzo Ferrari Biopic in production, I imagine it will be his finale as a Director. Its been a sad decade without him - Luck getting cancelled for the horse issues and Blackhat being off the mark, film has had a gaping hole. What he delivered in the 80's, 90's and 2000's was the bar for film.

20-06-2022 4:42pm

Wild 2014 - Reese Witherspoon pre Wasp Housewife roles is really outstanding in a kind of coming of age movie, albeit in her 20's. After a traumatic childhood, and falling off the rails she decides she is going to solo hike all Pacific trail which is hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain along the west coast of America. Along the way she meets the mix of dangerous and helpful people as she works through the trauma of her past and finds her way again. It makes you the viewer travel back as well to your own past and really drags you along on her journey. It is beautifully shot, and brilliantly acted, which she got nominated for an Oscar for. Excellent film.

Fuascailteoir · 20-06-2022 5:15pm

Pleasure - the opening of the movie is a Swedish woman being asked at airport clearance in LA if she is here for business or pleasure. The movie hinges on the answer and she pauses. She is here to become the next big porn actress. As she is ambitious she quickly moves towards hardcore scenes which throws up all sorts of issues around consent in the adult movie industry. 7/10

sydthebeat · 20-06-2022 7:32pm

On mad god, I'm still scratching my head.

Visually and audibly amazing.

No idea what the fcuk happened though

Drumpot · 21-06-2022 10:02am

Ravenous 1999

( available on Disney +)

I might of actually posted about this already but watched it again the other night with my eldest who enjoyed it. It’s a very quirky horror western that won’t be for everybody but I just love it.

The score to this movie is actually fantastic (if you like it, you will love it), such a uniquely quirky soundtrack that gels beautifully with the haunting elements of the world our “hero” finds himself.

I don’t want to give too much away but we find ourselves with Capt John Boyd , a disgraced hero who is rewarded with an assignment at an outpost In the middle of nowhere. It’s quiet , cold and there’s little to do with the very small village.

Then along comes a stranger with a horrific story (I absolutely love how he tells the story and the music thats used) . Who better then Robert Carlyle (as Ives) to play the role of a stranger you just can’t quite work out. And from there our real story begins.

Ives is wickedly funny at times, cute as a button and Carlyle gets to let loose as only he can. I thought Pearce was also brilliant as the haunted “hero” Boyd, the question on your mind is will he do what has to be done or will he be a coward?! The supporting cast equally held up their roles well with a younger David Arquette playing stupid well.

I really do think the score is just wonderful and it’s used to perfection at times in the movie. Watch this in the dark and make sure there’s no distractions. Criminally under rated movie.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 21-06-2022 10:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119229684#Comment_119229684

I watched this fairly recently and had no idea what to make of it. It was like several different genres rolled into one. Some of it had me laughing while some of it was pretty dark. The score was amazing though, and all in all I enjoyed it.

21-06-2022 5:22pm

Flight of the Phoenix 1965 - A lot of familiar faces on a plane ride to Benghazi going to work on an oil project, crash land in the middle of the Sahara desert. With just over a week of water and no rescue in sight the boys (James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernst Borgnine and more) have to decide whether to walk, wait, or find another way to survive. I won't give away too much but what they do decide to do is worth the wait in this entertaining very manly film, the only woman appears dancing in a heat induced hallucination.

It was around this time acting was transitioning from a lot of the forced overdone stuff to more real portrayals, and its interesting to see Jimmy Stewart vs Ernst Borgnine, the former acting in the modern way and the latter difficult to watch as he forces his character very blatantly.

Theres a great build up in this to a finale, making it a rewarding watch. At this point in time it might be more a Sunday afternoon film, but the long run time flies by and its quite enjoyable

Days of Heaven 1978 - Terence Malick Directs Richard Gere in a fantastically beautiful film set in the Texas wheat fields around I think, the 1920's. Gere, his girlfriend and her little sister who is also the narrator are poor kids who travelling around trying to get work in middle America, who get chosen as baggers to pack up the wheat in harvest season.

The farm owner a young single man with no family is sick, but takes a fancy to Gere's girlfriend whom has pretended to be Gere's sister to avoid trouble, and they decide to try and trick the farmer into marrying her so they can eventually take the farm as inheritance. Needless to say as Woody Harrelson once found out, never give your girlfriend away even for one night!

As someone who travels a lot around this kind of agricultural territory, Malick finds a way to make it much more beautiful and rich then it is in reality, which gives the film an amazing colour palette. Ennio Morricone does a score, where he was forced to use Sati's famous piano piece as the intro, but was then allowed to rework his own version for the remainder of the score (the only time Ennio ever allowed this) which got him an Oscar nomination.

Overall its sit back and enjoy a director with incredible skill, and Richard Gere in his more petulant days with his raw and aggressive style combining to deliver a memorable film indeed.

Tony EH · 22-06-2022 2:23pm

Just watched 'Flight of the Phoenix' a few weeks ago myself. Still a great film.

On Borgnine's character, I just think he's supposed to be a bit dim and he's had some mental issues too. It's kinda alluded in the story that the doc may have technically passed him as A1, but that he's still a bit on the unwell side.

santana75 · 23-06-2022 10:02pm

The Black Phone

This was a very pleasant surprise. Genuinely creepy, the tension is high from the get go and is wound very tightly all the way to the end. Doesnt out stay its welcome and doesnt fall apart in the final act like so many films of its type normally do.

Tony EH · 24-06-2022 2:39pm

'Seven'

David Fincher's serial killer movie with a seven deadly sins hook is still a thoroughly entertaining watch, even though it's very difficult to believe it came out 27 years ago! But it's as absorbing today as it was when I saw it in the cinema in 1995. If there's a weak point, it's Brad Pitt who tries to keep up with Morgan Freeman but is terribly overshadowed by him in every scene they share. In fairness to him, his part of David Mills is not an easy one, as he's the brash, younger, somewhat dim witted and a bit of a jerk counterpart to Freeman's jaded wannabee retiree cop who's just had enough but would still love to want to want more, if you know what I mean. Freeman's character, William Somerset, is spot on though and every time he's on the screen he's a joy. It's a subtle enough performance and fairly typical of a mid 90's Freeman. There's a lot of Ellis Boyd in William Somerset. But it's hard to argue with what he does here.

Kevin Spacey, as well, shines as John Doe, a man who chooses to be a nobody who wants to be somebody. A crazed, damaged, but unremarkable individual who takes pleasure in his "work" to "turn each sin against the sinner". Creepy, calculating, and yet aloof, Doe believes that his magnum opus of murder will be puzzled over, studied and followed.

'Seven' is a dark and nasty film, with little in the way of respite from the depressing. It's unknown city setting is wet and moody and squalor is around every corner. We get the impression that everyone lives in misery and the only person looking to stay is Detective Mills, who's moved there recently with his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) who's also dreadfully miserable, which is hardly surprising given her new surroundings and her own predicament.

One of the best films of the decade, Fincher's movie remains great and if by some remarkable reason you haven't seen it, do so.

9/10

pixelburp · 24-06-2022 2:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119243849#Comment_119243849

No idea if it had been coined already, but when I rattled up a review after my own recent rewatch, I speculated calling this a "pre-apocalyptic" movie; that the film's setting was vibing with a pervasive, insidious corruption to the extent it felt like everything was about to collapse. Like, if a zombie did shamble into a scene, or a background TV report spoke of nuclear war starting, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Rain City heaved with an energy that at any minute, the bullets would fly.

I think the recent Robert Pattinson Batman movie really wanted to recreate that sickly energy, but just had too much of a committee shine to it; while god knows there were plenty of imitators after Fincher's film. But his remains in a class of his own.

Tony EH · 24-06-2022 3:30pm

Yeah, there's a real sense of everything coming to an end real soon in the picture, even though it has nothing to do with the story.

26-06-2022 12:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119243849#Comment_119243849

I think you're being a bit kind to Brad Pitt here. It was a pretty poor performance from him in this, with a a lot of amateur moments. He pulled it together by the end of the film but I think this was a case of hiring the handsome new star with the studio because he stands out in this to me as the only weak link. A better actor in there and Seven would have been the perfect 10. In fairness to Pitt he has improved over the years but the glaring difference between him and Freeman in terms of ability is pretty stark.

pixelburp · 26-06-2022 12:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119244096#Comment_119244096

It's one of the things I love about the film; cos it's one of those movies you can spend time just watching the margins, inventing your own backstory. It rewards multiple viewings. Heck, even the victim of gluttony(?) kinda looked like a zombie lol.

Tony EH · 26-06-2022 1:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119251620#Comment_119251620

I agree, and it's Pitt's shortcomings that prevent it from being a 10/10. He has his moments in the picture for sure, but his inexperience is displayed in a few places here and there. But I've never thought of him as a particularly good actor. He's a pretty face that the camera likes, which is all Hollywood is looking for all too often.

Interestingly enough, Pitt's role was offered to Silvester Stalone! I don't that would have worked any better though. 😁

But yeah, 'Seven' is Freeman's movie without a doubt. He's the anchor to everything. His quiet desperation and the resignation to understanding the futility of what he does all shines through with him having to actually articulate it and he's also a deeply flawed character too. Freeman makes Somerset a man you'd like to know and a man you'd hate to know.

Tony EH · 26-06-2022 2:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119251647#Comment_119251647

I remember going to the cinema with a load of girls to see 'Seven' and that scene pops up and when the sloth victim, Victor, coughed the whole row of girls screamed. It was absolutely hilarious.

26-06-2022 3:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119252086#Comment_119252086

Sylvestor Stallone 😂😂😂 now that would of been something to behold! Bale would have been the man for it, maybe before his time.

I’m not sure there has been a dark thriller as good as Seven since.

The other thing about it is Spaceys brilliance. He completes it really by just fitting that ingenious psychopath down to a tee when he finally appears. The funny thing is as we know he has had his issues, and he is a seedy guy in real life. I have a business partner who shared a plane with him before this all came out and told me that Spacey was an extremely lewd and outwardly so on a first class flight and he predicted he would get done at some point which he duly did.

The moral of the story is get a truly f* up guy to play the f* up bad guy and you are on to a winner!

What have you watched recently? 3D!

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