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

[butchersapron]

I hated Michael. Poor Michael Haneke wannabe which does everything as expected from that sort of film.

The Haneke stuff is true (he was his casting director or something like that) - that was always in my mind whilst watching it. That said, it was a far better film that dogtooth which is the other one that people often mention when they discuss Haneke.

 

[Orang Utan]

dogtooth was awful. all self-conscious kookiness.

 

[Reno]

The Haneke stuff is true (he was his casting director or something like that) - that was always in my mind whilst watching it. That said, it was a far better film that dogtooth which is the other one that people often mention when they discuss Haneke.

Yes, I hate Dogtooth even more. Bloody irritating artsploitaion quirkfest.

 

[Idris2002]

A couple of flicks I'd seen before, but which worth a second look.

Goodbye Pork Pie. Three Kiwis enjoy a holiday of crime from one end of New Zealand to another. First NZ movie to make a profit at the local box office. Indirect evidence of the conformity of NZ society at the time, I'd wager.

A Foreign Affair. Jean Arthur is a Palin type US Congresswoman whose frosty exterior hides a seething mass of repressed sexual hysteria and loneliness. She thinks she's fallen for a Berlin-based US officer (this is 1948), played by John Lund, but unknown to her he's already with an ex-Nazi nightclub singer played by Marlene Dietrich. Not only that, but she doesn't know is that Marlene is being used as bait to draw out an ex-Nazi war criminal in hiding in the American sector. Not quite as noirish as I've made it sound, but interestingly grim. Billy Wilder directs.

 

[butchersapron]

A couple of flicks I'd seen before, but which worth a second look.

Goodbye Pork Pie. Three Kiwis enjoy a holiday of crime from one end of New Zealand to another. First NZ movie to make a profit at the local box office. Indirect evidence of the conformity of NZ society at the time, I'd wager.

Really enjoyed that one - reminded me of restless natives.

 

[trabuquera]

Wild Bill - surprisingly not-cringeworthy-in-places british pic veering towards straight-to-dvd lad cliches in places, but with some interesting dialogue (tho a bit stagey in places) and decent performances (as well as some dire ones). takes an unexpectedly complicated ambivalent tone at the end, so unusually subtle take on the ol' excon-heads-home plot. more than decent soundtrack as well.

Take Shelter - Michael Shannon goes bonkers at great length in a an arty doomy psych sort-of-thriller which is more unnerving than exciting. If you liked Jacob's Ladder it might grab you. No shocks, and it drags like a draggy thing for (IMO) over half an hour more than it should. But interestingly downbeat style and I guess after SuperMegaFrankenStorm Sandy it might be read as a prescient bit of anxiety-plumbing.


Killer Joe - absolutely barkingly OTT Wiliam Friedkin who is (I guess) doing the whole film as a giant pisstake of red-state america. Bit like the grungy mood of Texas Killing Fields but put on acid and driven over a cliff. Has great energy in parts, gleefully black-hearted in a way I usually like, but honestly couldn't decide if i thought the gore and woman-abusing was necessarily sick or just wannabe Tarantino by-the-numbers 'violence is just another colour' bullshit. but I guess better to finish a film thinking 'well wtf was that?" rather than 'Christ I'm bored'. Matthew McConaughey makes a great villain but rest of the cast can't really ramp it up enough to match.

 

[Thimble Queen]

Yesterday we watched Payback Season. Pretty awful brit film about an boy who gets away from life on an estate but then gets caught up in trouble again. Script was utter shite and acting was rubbish. Don't bother even if it is 'free' on lovefilm.

We also watched Tyrannosaur. Pretty grim and intense for a Sunday night... It was quite shocking. I havent quite made my.mind up about it yet...

 

[DexterTCN]

Last night we watched The Crow (again). This film has lost none of its charm and the soundtrack has improved with age.

 

[Frances Lengel]

The Spanish psycho-thriller Sleep Tight by Jaume Balaguero, clearly the more talented of the two co-directors of [Rec] and [REC]2.

For once it's a film about a psycho whose main thing isn't to kill or physically torture people. Cesar can only be happy when he makes other people deeply unhappy. As he is the caretaker of a posh apartment building, who has access to his tenant's flats, he has plenty of opportunity to ruin lives and goes about it in various inventive ways.

Excellent, a proper suspense film, very stylish and with a nasty sense of humour. If they remake it for Hollywood I can already see how different the ending will be. Loved the nasty little girl who may be the only one who is his match.

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1437358/

Top film.

 

[RaverDrew]

Ted

Pretty bad, got a couple of smirks here and there but meh.. Not my humour.

I saw TED last week, but before I watched it I thought I'd have a look at the trailer and see what it was all about. The film was basically a few gags that were already included in the 2 min trailer, the other hour and a half was just padding between the jokes I'd already seen

 

[Idris2002]

Really enjoyed that one - reminded me of restless natives.

Roger that. I still haven't seen Restless Natives, but I intend to.

Anyway, last night I had a look at Hitchcock's Rope, from a Patrick Hamilton play inspired by the Leopold and Loeb murder case. His canny use of extended shots allows it to transcend being a mere filmed play, and turns it into a proper piece of cinema.

 

[Reno]

I got my Hitchcock Blu-ray set yesterday and re-watched The Birds. Still as great as ever. I always liked how Jessica Tandy looks like and older version of Tippi Hedren, even though they are at odds. And this is where Veronica Cartwright started her career as being the mercy of various evil critters in horror films (see also Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Watched that 'Submarine' in the telly.

Pretty much coming of age indie by numbers. All the montages, downtrodden hero, stand off 'tough' girlfriend, parents breakdown.
Just about watchable enough, but I could have turned off at any time and not felt like I missed something.
Maybe I just expected more.

The one good bit was where the lad says that he imagines one moment in the film of his life to be a a jib shot pulling back and up into the air, but expects that if they did do a film of his life all they could afford was a zoom out. Which is what the accompanying shot is.

 

[Orang Utan]

I thought it conveyed the self-centeredness of teenage boys very well indeed. He's no hero, just a shit like all the other kids he is so snooty about.

 

[electroplated]

End of Watch - not half bad actually.

 

[DaveCinzano]

I got to Wild Bill expecting the worst, but it was really rather splendid. Good to see that Charlie Creed-Miles has sorted his act out. Even Leo Gregory was bearable.

 

[Idris2002]

I got my Hitchcock Blu-ray set yesterday and re-watched The Birds. Still as great as ever. I always liked how Jessica Tandy looks like and older version of Tippi Hedren, even though they are at odds. And this is where Veronica Cartwright started her career as being the mercy of various evil critters in horror films (see also Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

I forgot to mention that I rewatched To Catch a Thief the other day. Hitchcock takes Cary Grant to post-war Nice and Cannes. Grant plays a cat burglar who went straight after fighting for the French resistance in the war. But has he really gone straight? A sudden spate of jewel thievery suggests not.

Here Reno, what did you think of that one? Could it be considered a dry run for North by Northwest?

 

[Reno]

I forgot to mention that I rewatched To Catch a Thief the other day. Hitchcock takes Cary Grant to post-war Nice and Cannes. Grant plays a cat burglar who went straight after fighting for the French resistance in the war. But has he really gone straight? A sudden spate of jewel thievery suggests not.

Here Reno, what did you think of that one? Could it be considered a dry run for North by Northwest?

I like it even if it isn't quite top tier Hitchcock for me. I prefer his darker, more twisted films. Grant and Grace Kelly are always great to watch though.

 

[belboid]

Could it be considered a dry run for North by Northwest?

In what way?

 

[Orang Utan]

In what way?

it has cary grant running in it

 

[Idris2002]

it has cary grant running in it

And there's a scene with him on a roof, instead on top of Mt. Rushmore.

 

[Reno]

...and Grant accused of something he may not have done.

Previous Hitchcock spy thrillers like The 39 Steps, Saboteur and Foreign Corresponded are more of a dry run for North by Northwest though.

 

[Orang Utan]

he also rocks a snappy suit in both films. Especially so in NBNW

 

[Reno]

he also rocks a snappy suit in both films. Especially so in NBNW

There are few films where he didn't rock a snappy suit. He was a top style icon.

 

[Orang Utan]

i would love his blue suit from NBNW.
eta: he wears this in TCAT:

i have a sweater just like that, but do i look cool in it? do i fuck. paul smith you are a liar.

 

[DotCommunist]

I watched 'We are the Night' which was quite good looking but I din't really know what to makeof the story. Also she should batantly have turned the copper and rebirthed male vampires as a blow against misandry. hashtag FFJ/UKIP

 

[DotCommunist]

lined the total recall remake up for later on. Trepidation. I'm trying to be non judgemental and remember that these are two different films but I like the original so much I worry that this might not be as good.

 

[TruXta]

lined the total recall remake up for later on. Trepidation. I'm trying to be non judgemental and remember that these are two different films but I like the original so much I worry that this might not be as good.

By all accounts it's a steaming pile.

 

[Firky]

End of Watch - not half bad actually.

It reminds me of something but I can't think what.

 

[starfish]

Killer Joe - absolutely barkingly OTT Wiliam Friedkin who is (I guess) doing the whole film as a giant pisstake of red-state america. Bit like the grungy mood of Texas Killing Fields but put on acid and driven over a cliff. Has great energy in parts, gleefully black-hearted in a way I usually like, but honestly couldn't decide if i thought the gore and woman-abusing was necessarily sick or just wannabe Tarantino by-the-numbers 'violence is just another colour' bullshit. but I guess better to finish a film thinking 'well wtf was that?" rather than 'Christ I'm bored'. Matthew McConaughey makes a great villain but rest of the cast can't really ramp it up enough to match.

Saw this too, my feelings exactly at the end.