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

[Meh O'Naise]

Episode Two of last years "Titanic" miniseries. The simultaneous stories thing really doesn't work well at all - though according to IMDB, some other territories have recut it into one chronological story which apparently much better.

Main thing I noticed about it, was that Epsidoe two appeared to have been dubbed entirely by the Reverend Iain Paisley, such was the endlessly shouted references to "PAPISTS!" in the beginning. FFS. :-(

 

[Firky]

Dark Skies,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387433/

Utterly insipid, the film is like this: birds impact on house, aliens arrive to snatch kids. No one believes them.

Why the family never just stayed in a heavily fortified room together armed to the teeth like most Americans would is never explained, instead you just have to watch nearly two hours of things going bump in the night.

4/10

 

[Reno]

Dark Skies,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387433/

Utterly insipid, the film is like this: birds impact on house, aliens arrive to snatch kids. No one believes them.

Why the family never just stayed in a heavily fortified room together armed to the teeth like most Americans would is never explained, instead you just have to watch nearly two hours of things going bump in the night.

4/10

They probably enjoyed the anal probes after all.

 

[Firky]

They probably enjoyed the anal probes after all.

I was after sci-fi or fantasy that was a bit different and Dark Skies let me down utterly.

I have Lore to watch at some point but I am not really in the mood for it tonight.

 

[Grandma Death]

Finally got around to watching Drive. I thought it was fucking brilliant. The cinematography. The acting. The soundtrack. The entire feel of the movie and its influences had me gripped from start to finish.

 

[8115]

Up in the Air. It was ok. Patchy. Some parts were quite good, funny, well scripted, well constructed, and some were completely cloying and insipid. It felt like it had been written by a committee. But it passed the time.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Watched the latest Arnie film the other day 'The Last Stand' and Statham in 'Parker' with my Son.

Last Stand was a good old fashioned actioner with some laughs, a plot with massive holes, Arnie being Arnie and a cast of familiar faces having fun and wrecking stuff. It was nice to see an action movie that was trying to be too smart and ironic....but it was pure nonsense.

Parker was ok. It's a role that should really suit Statham, who's acting chops are improving a little. Obviously it's not a patch on Point Blank, and it softens the character too much for it to really work on that level. The Stath is good in it and pretty much holds it together while the plot slowly dissolves as the film jumps from revenge flick to heist movie and back again. J-lo was quite good in it. Actually, truth be told, this could be any Stath movie.....I hope one day he finds an actioner that goes ballistic and makes him a superstar because he is the best action star in Hollywood right now, he works hard and I think he deserves a Die Hard or a Lethal Weapon.

 

[Meh O'Naise]

Actually, truth be told, this could be any Stath movie......

Pretty much all the Stath movies are interchangable, "Crank" aside. He just plays the Stath. I hope F+F7 makes hima superstar, but he is already such a bankable name, its doubtful it'll turn him into a megastar. Still, unlike Snipes/JCVD/etc., he can still open a film at cinemas rather than at Netflix.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Pretty much all the Stath movies are interchangable, "Crank" aside. He just plays the Stath. I hope F+F7 makes hima superstar, but he is already such a bankable name, its doubtful it'll turn him into a megastar. Still, unlike Snipes/JCVD/etc., he can still open a film at cinemas rather than at Netflix.

They should do a Netflix version on The Expendables with Val Kilmer, Snipes, Cuba Gooding, Segal...and some of those WWF guys......they could call it The Affordables.

Christian Slater would be in too....

 

[Meh O'Naise]

They should do a Netflix version on The Expendables with Val Kilmer, Snipes, Cuba Gooding, Segal...and some of those WWF guys......they could call it The Affordables.

Christian Slater would be in too....

Kilmer, Gooding and Slater I can see doing it. Get in Luke Goss, Vinnie Jones, Ving Rhames, Steve Austin and its easily doable. Segal has an ego the size of his own waistline and was in Machete and Snipes is being lined up for Expendables III. Personally I see the Machete series being the closest thing we'll have to another concurrent ensemble sort of thing.

That said, the oft suggested female version of a ensemble franchise certainly would be interesting.

 

[Reno]

That said, the oft suggested female version of a ensemble franchise certainly would be interesting.

Sigourney Weaver, Cynthia Rothrock, Linda Hamilton, Pam Grier, Michelle Yeoh, Kate Beckinsale and Milla Jovovich ?

 

[Meh O'Naise]

Sigourney Weaver, Cynthia Rothrock, Linda Hamilton, Pam Grier, Michelle Yeoh, Kate Beckinsale and Milla Jovovich ?

I'd add in Gina Carano, Katie Sackoff, and Michelle Rodriguez myself.

 

[Reno]

I'd probably dump Sackhoff because she's mainly a TV actress, but if we do have TV actresses then Diana Rigg should have a cameo.

 

[DotCommunist]

Wait, theres a film of Dark Skies now? That was great series- have they done it a disservice?

 

[The39thStep]

Up in the Air. It was ok. Patchy. Some parts were quite good, funny, well scripted, well constructed, and some were completely cloying and insipid. It felt like it had been written by a committee. But it passed the time.

I must say that I am in to George Clooney fashion these days

 

[Reno]

Wait, theres a film of Dark Skies now? That was great series- have they done it a disservice?

Nothing to do with the TV series, but then it's fairly generic title.

Dark Skies feels like a rip-off of Spielberg's proposed 70s sci-fi horror film Night Skies about aliens terrorising a family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Skies. The film never happened, but then ended up as the source for E.T., Poltergeist and Gremlins, all of which took aspects from the premise, with Poltergeist being the closest, replacing the aliens with ghosts. Dark Skies feels like Poltergeist with aliens.

 

[Firky]

It felt very much like a poor homage to Spielberg (being generous in saying it was a homage too).

Watched The Lives of Others last night after being reminded of it on this thread. Still a good film but I don't think it lived up to it's first viewing - probably because I knew what was going to happen.

Could do with a film recommendation tonight...

 

[Reno]

It felt very much like a poor homage to Spielberg (being generous in saying it was a homage too).

Watched The Lives of Others last night after being reminded of it on this thread. Still a good film but I don't think it lived up to it's first viewing - probably because I knew what was going to happen.

Could do with a film recommendation tonight...

I recently liked these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_Color
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlet_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_My_Voice

I'm going to watch V/H/S 2 tonight, which I've read good things about (apparently far better than the first one)


Also The Returned starts tonight on Ch4, which is my new favourite TV series:
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/post-apoco-zombie-fans-les-revenants.302839/
Neither post-apocalyptic nor about zombies though.

 

[Firky]

I recently liked these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_Color
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlet_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_My_Voice

I like the looks of Upstream colour and SOMV, cheers!

 

[thriller]

Bullet to da head. Bit of a meh from me but I give stallion a pass with solo action movies. And Stallon still looks like he can handle himself, unlike arnie who likes in need of a zimmer

 

[marty21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_&_Citron

Flame and Citron

Danish WW2 film about the resistance - bleak, grim, beautiful in a strange way.

 

[DaveCinzano]

...Get in Luke Goss...

Good call

 

[Meh O'Naise]

Good call
View attachment 33501

A straight to DVD sequel that really surprised me was Death Race 2 - it looked ten times as expensive as it really was, fantastic looking, good action sequences, utterly entertaining ; thats my main reason for recommending Luke Goss.

 

[Belushi]

The Social Network (2010) Really enjoyed it, but then I'm a sucker for Sorin's writing. Terrific performance from Eisenberg.

 

[trabuquera]

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno - a tricky, tricksy documentary trying to explain just why renowned French sort-of-Hitchcock director Clouzot wen apparently clean round the bend, spent a fortune, induced near mental breakdowns in all his cameramen and ended up making a great / awful "lost" movie called Inferno, about a jealous husband losing his mind. It goes on wayyyyy too long and is shot through with weapons-grade Gallic pretentiousness but some of the visual effects and sound effects developed for the (original) film are amazing. Also a perhaps a contribution to the "good films about films" list - it probably didn't help that the film was given "unlimited budget" by American backers who wanted to get in on this crazy French New Wave thing, and thought this was the project to go with. (Or that the director booked into a soon-to-be-flooded location and knackered out his lead actor by making him run kilometres every day for endless tracking shots.) It resulted in the production shooting reels and reels and reels of mad "tests" of colour reversals, op-art kinetic sculptures and every other arty thing without actually MAKING A FILM. Worth it if wig-out sixties craziness is your thing (and Romy Schneider, the star of the original film, is fantastic eye candy if you like early-60s French pin-ups .... sex on legs.)

Invincible - Werner Herzog-directed tale of a Jewish strongman in the 1930s whose career is made by Nazi-loving nightclub promoter and occultist Tim Roth (yes really!). So wooden I couldn't watch any more than the first 40 minutes. Maybe I have missed a Great Work but just couldn't get into it.

that's enough euroartiness. must see a nice crunchy no-mind actioner next.

 

[ringo]

Treble bill on Saturday:

Cosmopolis - David Cronenberg film about about an implausibly rich financier trying to get across New York in a limo to get a haircut whilst his entire world falls apart around his ears. Much of the premise is entirely nonsensical but still felt like a return to form for Cronenberg, with clever, weird and entertaining parts throughout. Very enjoyable.

The Ghost (Channel 4) - Pretty good Polanski political thriller, Ewan McGregor was especially good as the ghost writer uncovering the dodgy past of Pierce Brosnan's Blair-alike ex-PM. Worth a watch.

On The Road - I imagine 50 years ago this was pretty exciting stuff, but tbh even as a teenager I found Kerouacs book irritating; Moriarty/Cassady coming across as the one of the world's all time selfish, annoying bores and Sal/Kerouac as an unlikable, louche freeloader. Despite the titillation of rebellion, drugs and partying its an unbelievably boring film. Not helped by having jazz in it, but that's a personal beef. Switched it off 20 minutes from the end because it was close enough to the book that once again I just didn't give a toss what happened to the characters.

 

[Reno]

V/H/S/2, the sequel to the found footage compilation horror film V/H/S and a vast improvement on the first one. That one had one great and one good episode and a lot of filler. This time there were only four episodes and a wrap around story, but two of those were fantastic. One by the directors of The Blair Witch project about a zombie POV camera and another seriously intense one by the director of The Raid about a group of journalists, documenting a scary Indonesian doomsday cult. The other two were still entertaining enough. Even the wrap around, which was terrible in the first one, was reasonably creepy.

Extraterrestrial, which is the Spanish answer to Monsters in that it is also primarily an indie romance set against the backdrop of an alien invasion, from the director of the overrated Timecrimes. It's nowhere near as good as Monsters and mostly takes place in one Madrid apartment. The characters act in ways that are stupid, deceitful and selfish under the circumstances while the film still wants us to stay invested in them but I soon lost interest.

 

[belboid]

Looper

The entire premise makes no sense whatsoever, it is way beyond stupid and just doesn't work with a moments thought. Fortunately there are few moments for such thoughts (pretty much only when Joe meets Sara - how the fuck does she know about loopers?), so it doesnt really matter and it is a highly entertaining bit of modern sci-fi. JGL is a pleasure to watch.

 

[Firky]

Bernie

Black comedy with Jack Black, wasn't bad. Done in a documentary format with interviews of the towns folk. Worked quite well.

6.5/10

 

[Yetman]

...overrated Timecrimes.

You thought it's overrated? I thought it was excellent.