What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[DaveCinzano]

I watched The Omen films on Film Four this week.
They are not as scary as i remember but still as effective as many recent horror films. The use of music is effective and the death scenes are inventive, though not so convincing effects wise.

Damien: Omen 2 was the first of the Omen films I saw because by then I was old enough to get into the cinema. The lift cable bisection is really the most memorable scene and it's a decent enough sequel. It's hard not to laugh when Lee Grant revels herself to be the whore of Babylon.

I recently re-watched them all. The 3rd one is poor, though seeing Ruby Wax in a small role was rather odd.

I have a great fondness for the original three films. I think it was the first bona fide trilogy I ever saw, on successive Tuesday nights or somesuch on ITV I think.

The first one is full of great thrills and genuine scares, even if you have seen it before. The stillness of the priest in his final resting place - well, stillness bar an arm slowly swinging like a pendulum - remains shocking.

The other two really were on the path of diminishing returns, but even so, I find a charm there that too many more modern horror/thriller films do not have. The ice hockey scene, and the chase through the woods, are also well-built up scenes IMO. A couple of years ago I worked in a job where most days I saw a man who looked the spitting image of Jonathan Scott-Taylor (Damien Thorn) - somewhat unnerving.

I enjoy Sam Neill's performance in The Final Conflict, and the extended infanticide sequence. Though overall it is not a great movie, it is by far superior to the terrible TVM The Awakening that came a few years later.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

One for DaveCinzano's war film list, maybe, if it isn't there already.

The Little Girl of Hanoi. A piece of DRV propaganda released in 1974, but partly filmed in the actual rubble created by the USAF Christmas bombing raid of December 1972, and others in 1973. Not overtly anti-Yankee, as you might expect.

The story is simple but sincere: a kid gets caught up in the bombing, looks for her family, particularly the father in the aftermath, with a kindly soldier deciding to help her. Got a DVD with English subs, but it's up on YouTube without.

 

[DexterTCN]

On a lighter note...

Lethal Weapon II (has worn quite well, actually)
Star Trek II Wrath of Khan (you know I want to laugh at the old star trek stuff but you just get caught up in it, probably quite excellent)

 

[revol68]

Right, about to watch 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time cos y'know everyone is meant to have seen it, it's a classic etc.

It better not be shite.

 

[DexterTCN]

That depends on you.

 

[revol68]

That depends on you.

oh come, I need something more committal than that!

 

[Reno]

oh come, I need something more committal than that!

I love the film, but it took me seeing it at the cinema to get it. Don't watch it on some tiny screen. It won't work that way.

 

[DexterTCN]

oh come, I need something more committal than that!

It's not shite but you have to be in a Kubrick frame. I'd Watch Dr Strangelove first.

 

[Reno]

I watched the Danish gangster films Pusher and Pusher II. The first one was alright if a little cliched with it's owing-money-to-the-mob style plot. It's very much part of the mid-90s wave of post Goodfellas gangster films, but it's still reasonably compelling due a great central performance by Kim Bodina, who was the best thing in the recent Danish crime series The Bridge.

I liked Pusher II much more and it is quite a different film, putting Bodina's dim witted side kick from the first film at its centre with an equally good performance by Mads Mikkelsen. I liked the way it deals with an extended dysfunctional low level crime family and its main theme of fathers and sons. Great film and some of the style later seen in Refn's Bronson and Drive is in evidence here.

Pusher III tomorrow.

 

[revol68]

right bam bam kiddy fucks, on your advice I have held off watching it because a) the Blu ray rip I downloaded is pish and the epic opening sequence had big blocky pixels and b) I think i'm more in the mood for something retarded after spending this afternoon re reading Capital.

First person to recommend something fun and funny but not shite gets a virtual handjob.

 

[renegadechicken]

The sitter - no brainer but funny or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

 

[revol68]

The Sitter looks like the winner.

Cheers, hope you enjoyed your virtual handy.

 

[DaveCinzano]

...Pusher III tomorrow.

I can't disagree that II is more enjoyable than and stands out from I - though the unfamiliarity of the setting certainly made the original feel fresher to mine English eyes than the sum of its tropes should have.

I am curious to hear your opinion of III, especially as you mention Goodfellas...

 

[Kippa]

I was randomly browsing Netflix and came across the film 'The Statement' with Michael Caine staring. I had never heard of it before so I decided to give it a go and was pleasently surprised. Here is the imdb link if you are interested in it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340376/ It is worth watching if you have some spare time.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Star Trek II Wrath of Khan (you know I want to laugh at the old star trek stuff but you just get caught up in it, probably quite excellent)

I really like that film.

 

[DaveCinzano]

I was randomly browsing Netflix and came across the film 'The Statement' with Michael Caine staring. I had never heard of it before so I decided to give it a go and was pleasently surprised. Here is the imdb link if you are interested in it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340376/ It is worth watching if you have some spare time.

I watched that a while back, as it sounded like an interesting premise, but I was somewhat disappointed - a bit Bourne Identity (Richard Chamberlain version) with a splash of The ODESSA File, only less interesting than that might be. Not Micklewhite's finest hour.

 

[Yetman]

Sunshine - got bored halfway through this so lost interest but got better toward the end. Excellent special effects somewhat wasted on a fairly odd and unspectacular plot - 5/10
Ip Man - Excellent stuff. Really got a sense of pleasure that this film was made and is an excellent example of classic kung fu movies being brought into modern filmmaking - 9/10
Watchmen - well this was the icing on the cake, the Ultimate Cut on blu-ray meant my TV had trouble playing it (8gb file) so had to watch on my PC which was a bit of a bitch as it's over 3 hours long but it was more than worth it. A masterpiece with no expense spared and a captivating set of stories interweaving at a perfect pace, thus justifying the film's length and creating one of the most atmospheric and rewarding experiences I've had in a long time 10/10

 

[DaveCinzano]

Watchmen...more than worth it...masterpiece...no expense spared...captivating set of stories...perfect pace...atmospheric and rewarding...10/10

Astonishing.

Are you now or have you ever been a film reviewer for the Daily Star?

 

[Yetman]

Astonishing.

Are you now or have you ever been a film reviewer for the Daily Star?

Ha! Fair point.

 

[Reno]

I can't disagree that II is more enjoyable than and stands out from I - though the unfamiliarity of the setting certainly made the original feel fresher to mine English eyes than the sum of its tropes should have.

I am curious to hear your opinion of III, especially as you mention Goodfellas...

Not a good night for Milo.

Enjoyed this one as well, though Pusher II is my favourite of the three.

 

[Idris2002]

While the rain battered against the roof, I rewatched Doctor in the House, starring Dirk Bogarde as an impecunious 1950s medical student - worth it just for the 'what's the bleeding time' scene. I don't know why I didn't see it at the time, but one of Bogarde's co-stars, playing a medical student with an eye for the ladies, is the spitting image of my late father.

After, that Action. A national film boards of canada documentary about the October crisis of 1970. 'The silent revolution is dead. A lot of stupid things are going to happen'.

 

[revol68]

23 mins into 2001 A Space Odyssey and it better sort it the fuck out or it's going off.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

23 mins into 2001 A Space Odyssey and it better sort it the fuck out or it's going off.

 

[Yetman]

23 mins into 2001 A Space Odyssey and it better sort it the fuck out or it's going off.

I fucked it off

 

[DexterTCN]

Last night I watched The Undead, a Roger Corman movie filmed in 6 days. It's terrible and reasonably good at the same time. It would certainly give nightmares to a young one.

Fortunately, I watched the MST3K version, which is very funny.

 

[Firky]

The Dictator

Contender for worst film of 2012

 

[redsquirrel]

Slap Shot - not fantastic or anything but with enough of a melancholy tinge that it works

 

[DexterTCN]

Slap Shot - not fantastic or anything but with enough of a melancholy tinge that it works

I love Slap Shot.

 

[krtek a houby]

Che - Part 1. Engaging, although you hear Che's ideas on revolution and the people, I found you didn't get to see his motivation. Then again, I suppose that was explored in Motorcycle Diaries.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Henry's Crime. Keanu Reeves. In the film, stage actors are reading Chekov. Unfortunate that the makers of this film couldn't come close to writing Chekov. But even if they had, it's doubtful that Reeves could give us Chekov.

Having said all that, the film has its moments. James Caan is pretty good in it. I think he's become a better actor now he's on the far side of sixty.