Maharani
Just like Heaven
Isn't a lot of Herzog harrowing?
What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
oneunder
Mind The Gap !
W H's Loch Ness movie was so funny.
crossthebreeze
Well-Known Member
yes - he's the director of some of the least feel-good films ever (though there is often lots of dark humour in it) - and so is a perfect antidote to the overdose of cartoons, comedy, tinsel, and chocolate at this time of year.
crossthebreeze
Well-Known Member
I haven't seen that one - but it does look like funW H's Loch Ness movie was so funny.
Reno
The In Kraut
I always find Herzog too concerned with his own sense of being a visionary film maker to find his films emotionally affecting.
Last edited:
Bombon El Perro 
Reno
The In Kraut
These Final Hours, Australian apocalyptic indie film from last year about the last twelve hours on earth, which is about to get obliterated by a meteor. The main character is an average Joe who is trying to get to a party in Perth to do shitloads of drugs as the world ends and then things start getting in his way. The outcome is never in question, but the characters ring true and the film does a fantastic job of creating a sense of society falling apart on what must have been a small budget. Great little film. It was hardly released anywhere because it flopped in Australia, but it's far better than the recent The Rover, an Aussie post-apocalyptic drama which got a lot more attention. Was going to post a trailer, but it's one of those which give most of the film away.
More Jordskott, a Scandi crime drama which starts like a The Killing knock off complete with troubled female cop and a missing child and then it introduces supernatural elements from Nordic folklore, like child snatching forest folk. Six episodes in and quite good.
More Jordskott, a Scandi crime drama which starts like a The Killing knock off complete with troubled female cop and a missing child and then it introduces supernatural elements from Nordic folklore, like child snatching forest folk. Six episodes in and quite good.
Last edited:
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
I'll agree whole-heartedly with the first statement, but I think you're being a bit unkind in the second one.
Reno
The In Kraut
I can't help my funnybone !
For me Inside Out was the most overrated film of the year. I think a lot of the enthusiasm for it comes from that it's better than the last few Pixar films, which were a disappointment but it's far from top tier Pixar. It's a nice idea, blandly executed and much of it didn't make sense to me. The only interesting character was the imaginary friend (who may have brought a smile to my face), the rest I thought were blah and the quest becomes a little monotonous after a while.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
possibly helps if you took the beano as a kid and have nostalgia for the numbskulls.
not-bono-ever
meh
The martian- better than I thought it would be , after reading teh book
Everest- just a rehash of into thin air- still gripping though
Everest- just a rehash of into thin air- still gripping though
Reno
The In Kraut
Im fairly certain it doesn't.
When you say imaginary friend do you mean the elephant? I think that was a metaphor for consciousness.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
well you certainly get more laughs than Bunyans early allegorical work Holy War
Last edited:
Reno
The In Kraut
The character of Bing Bong is her imaginary friend.
Bing Bong
He is a character with a specific narrative function and he fades from her memory because Riley has outgrown him, which is similar to the main theme that runs through the Toy Story films (each of which is far superior to this). I'm pretty certain you already have to be conscious to create an imaginary friend, so I don't understand how he is a metaphor for consciousness, especially as that's part of the setting and subject matter of the film anyway.
Last edited:
DexterTCN
Troy and Abed in the morning
The Revenant. Maybe the best cinematography I've ever seen.
Sometimes you say to yourself 'Wait...how did they do that with the camera?" Filmed entirely in natural light afaik and an Oscar-winning performance by Di Caprio, a man is left for dead and comes back to seek his revenge. It's not really like that though, it's punishing and exhilarating.
Not for everyone though....not family viewing.
Sometimes you say to yourself 'Wait...how did they do that with the camera?" Filmed entirely in natural light afaik and an Oscar-winning performance by Di Caprio, a man is left for dead and comes back to seek his revenge. It's not really like that though, it's punishing and exhilarating.
Not for everyone though....not family viewing.
Last edited:
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
Reno
The In Kraut
I finished Jordkott, the Swedish TV series about cops and fairies (as in folklore, not as in homophobic slur) It all got a little silly by the end and they didn't show the scary monster fairy. Fuck "leaving it to the imagination is more powerful", I wanted to see the monster. 
unrepentant85
Dílis d'ar nOidreacht
Spotlight - I really enjoyed this movie. Portrayal of journalism at its best.
It is the story of the Boston Globe and its uncovering of child abuse and cover ups within the catholic church.
It is the story of the Boston Globe and its uncovering of child abuse and cover ups within the catholic church.
Reno
The In Kraut
Queen of Blood, 60s Corman produced quicky which recycled elaborate special effects sequences from a Russian scifi epic about heroic space exploration and matched them with cheaply shot footage of a plot about a bloodsucking, green skinned female alien who was clearly the inspiration for the big haired Martian girl from Mars Attacks.
The plot is strikingly similar to Alien. The creature gets on board after the crew pick up an SOS signal from a faraway planet. She bumps off the crew one by one but they are reluctant to kill her at first because they have been ordered to bring an alien life form back to earth. She even has an elongated head and lays eggs.
I caught the original Russian film called A Dream Come True at the BFI a few years ago and it looked gorgeous, but its conflict free high-mindedness and lack of drama made it a bit of a snooze. I was hoping to get the beauty of the Russian film with something more trashily entertaining, but the Russian sequences have been heavily cropped and crudely reprinted on grainy stock, which pretty much ruins them.
The only thing to commend about the US film is the actress who plays the alien, she does a good job at being strange and otherworldly, aided by some clever lighting.
That's Dennis Hopper on the right, in an early career high as one of the alien's snacks.
Love Streams from 1984, John Cassavetes' last film as a director, with another amazing performance from Gena Rowlands. For the first half the film cuts back and forth between two protagonists, one is a womanising, insomniac alcoholic writer played by Cassavetes. The other is Rowlands as a just divorced mother with mental health issues. Having lost custody of her daughter, she returns from a manic jaunt round Europe. They meet an hour into the film (the nature or their relationship doesn't become clear till later) and spiral off into mutual fuckedupness, till it all ends with a small menagerie of animals and a surreal musical sequence worthy of David Lynch.
Absolutely amazing and never miserable as it's also darkly funny and ultimately strangely hopeful. A sequence where Cassavetes' absent father is asked to look after his eight year old son for a day by one of his ex-wives, gets the kid drunk and takes him to Vegas only to abandon him to chase after women is an appalling, yet wickedly funny depiction of truly shitty parenting.
Rowlands is one of the greatest of all screen actors and she is still criminally underrated. She played emotionally/mentally vulnerable women without a shred of sentimentality or self-pity. There is a defiant toughness to her characters which makes her as electrifying as Brando at his best. Despite playing several characters with mental health issues for Cassavetes, she never allowed herself to come across as victimised. Awards voters love an obvious victim turn, so she's never been properly recognised as one of the great actors of her generation. Here she plays a woman who loves too much, which becomes too much to deal with for everyone but Cassavetes' equally damaged character. With an actress who would have made less interesting choicest, this could have come off as maudlin but Rowlands' performance undermines any emotional vanity or sign-posting. She never indicates how one should feel about her characters, which is what makes her so compelling.
Cassavetes too gives a fantastic performance (clearly not looking very well though) and he is up there with my all time favourite directors. The characters in his films feel so alive and unpredictable, there is constant tension because anything could happen. Cassavetes, the godfather of the American indie film, at this point had abandoned the improvisational cinema verite style he had basically invented. The film has a dreamlike quality, features a shape shifting dog and ends as a mini-opera. Love Streams is a two and a half hour character study and it had me on the edge of my seat throughout. Watched this on a gorgeous Criterion restauration.
Last edited:
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Don't try and downplay your age - it was in The Beezer when you were a nipper.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I looked and I would have been 10 when beezer folded into the beano. Two years away from big boys school. Ah the skies went on forever, big fluffy clouds
mentalchik
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit."
Jupiter Ascending - meh
Avengers Age Of Ultron - okish
Byzantium - wicked
Chappie - not bad
Exodus (don't ask was bit tired)
The Equalizer - ok action/shoot em up
got Interstellar to watch
Avengers Age Of Ultron - okish
Byzantium - wicked
Chappie - not bad
Exodus (don't ask was bit tired)
The Equalizer - ok action/shoot em up
got Interstellar to watch
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
To be frank, any previous portrayals of svartalfar on film (I'm especially looking at you here, "Thor: The Dark World"!) have been utter shite.
Similar threads
