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

[Reno]

Everest, at home, in 3D. Drama based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster which has been covered in the book Into Thin Air and the documentary based on it. This isn't based on the Krakauer book but on seperate witness accounts and therefore deviates to some degree. It looks fantastic, but once things go wrong it becomes difficult to distinguish between characters who are heavily wrapped up, at night and in a snow storm. That's where the book and the documentary work better and are far more gripping because you know exactly when and where everybody is and why things went wrong.

Episode 3 of The Expanse. Impressively done, but not having read the books I find it at times hard to follow. Will stick with it though.

 

[DotCommunist]

Lots more trailer park boys.
It shouldn't be funny to watch these idiots fail to do anything they set their minds to but it does make me laugh. God love you canada

 

[D'wards]

The Forest - awful. Every horror fanboys like myself, should avoid.

It has an initially spooky premise, but then descends into pointless jump-scares and cliches

 

[rubbershoes]

She woke up pregnant

A woman goes to the dentist and comes out pregnant. Based on a true story

True life TV movies are

 

[Reno]

She woke up pregnant

A woman goes to the dentist and comes out pregnant. Based on a true story

True life TV movies are

Does what it says on the tin !

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I found a dvd copy of Master and Commander at home. So I put on when I went to bed in the hope it would send me to sleep....but it didnt.

I quite enjoyed it.

 

[krtek a houby]

What Richard Did - Based on Kevin Power's book; Bad Day In Blackrock, which in turn is based on the real life murder of Brian Murphy outside of Anabel's nightclub in Dublin. Dublin and Wicklow look beautiful in the film, which clashes with the ugliness of the people involved. The book gives you more mindset into that privileged class of Dubliner. It's like Ross O' Carrol Kelly - without the belly laughs.

 

[belboid]

The Big Short - not quite as clever as it thinks it is, but a very entertaining depiction of the crash, and the idiocy and wilful ignorance at its heart. Shame the two brief references to the tens of thousands of working-class Americans who actually suffered from the crash weren't done better.

Bridge of Spies - I think the word for this is 'solid' Rylance immensely watchable, Hanks being his usual not quite convincing Atticus Finch type stand up guy.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

MORTAL KOMBAT!!

Da de dada dada dada da da, da de dada dada dada da da, Da de dada dada dada da da

MORTAL KOMBAT!!

Holy fuck it's awesome. I might have to start watching this at least once a week



*resumes dancing / shadow-ninjaing*

Da de dada dada dada da da, da de dada dada dada da da, Da de dada dada dada da da

MORTAL KOMBAT!!

 

[belboid]

Joy - nasty little movie about a lucky lass whose immense brilliance saves her from a life with the vile and stupid working class

 

[Johnny Vodka]

The World's End. Pretty fucking awesome; great cast and soundtrack.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Kingsmen.

It's daft, nowhere near as clever or knowing as it thinks it is.

In parts it reminded me of those gangster/geezer/hoolie b flicks that are made to launder drug money...

Anyways...it was still entertaining enough and there was some fun action set pieces.

 

[belboid]

Steve Jobs - annoyingly entertaining superior telemovie

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Steve Jobs - annoyingly entertaining superior telemovie

A channel 5 special?

 

[Reno]

Krampus, which was terrible. A horror comedy which is neither scary nor funny, just loud and manic. The characters are one-note and loathsome from the start and the title monster barely makes an appearance. There have been a few Krampus films recently and none of them good, which is a shame because as folklore goes he has a lot of potential to be scary.

 

[Orang Utan]

It Follows - loved it, i love how people can still manage to scare the shit out of you by showing you so very little. hard to explain without spoiling. wicked film.

 

[Dieselpunk2000]

Death Ship. A brilliantly trashy 1980 horror starring George Kennedy.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

It Follows - loved it, i love how people can still manage to scare the shit out of you by showing you so very little. hard to explain without spoiling. wicked film.

It is great. Lovely soundtrack too.

 

[The Boy]

V/H/S/2 (2014). Think I preferred the first one, tbh. Then again, the crazy cult segment was pretty good.

The pact (2012). Decent enough take on the haunted house genre.

The canal (2014). Irish horror, thriller thing. Probably the most interesting of the three films we've watched over the last couple of nights and I'm sure on another occasion some of it would have been genuinely unsettling, but for some reason I wasn't feeling it.

 

[magneze]

12 Angry Men
Pumping Iron
Chappie
All recommended.

 

[Reno]

The three first episodes of season one of American Crime (not to be confused with American Crime Story about OJ Simpson, currently on BBC2). It has the same anthology format as American Horror Story in that every season tells a different, self contained story with some of the same cast members returning for to play different roles. Season 1 is about a murder of a rich white guy by a black junky but it's less about the investigation or a trial, than how the murder affects both the families of the victims and families of the accused. Ultimately its an examination about race and crime in America now and it's pretty gripping. Felicity Huffman plays the mother of the victim and she is the stand out in a fantastic cast. She plays a very real monster in the way she pursues what is clearly a racist agenda and how she intimidates those nearest and dearest.

 

[catinthehat]

Two final films at the Stockfish Film Festival. Victoria - German film, Sebastian Shipper cinematography by Sturla Brandth Grovlen the same guy that did Rams, my top film of 2015. Victoria is set in Berlin and filmed in a single shot in real time. Spanish girl who has been studying piano for 17 years and is chucked out of music school, goes to Berlin. It starts in a club, has a heist in the middle, then stuff which I wont spoil. Really great film and the technique used gives it a "you are in it" effect. There was a Q and A with the film maker after the screening. It sort of out dogmad dogma. Then Journey to Istanbul about a Belgian mother trying to get her daughter back from running off to Syria. French film by Rachid Bouchareb. I#m no expert but I would say that Sturla Brandth Grovlen is a ruddy genius.

 

[Reno]

Two final films at the Stockfish Film Festival. Victoria - German film, Sebastian Shipper cinematography by Sturla Brandth Grovlen the same guy that did Rams, my top film of 2015. Victoria is set in Berlin and filmed in a single shot in real time. Spanish girl who has been studying piano for 17 years and is chucked out of music school, goes to Berlin. It starts in a club, has a heist in the middle, then stuff which I wont spoil. Really great film and the technique used gives it a "you are in it" effect. There was a Q and A with the film maker after the screening. It sort of out dogmad dogma. Then Journey to Istanbul about a Belgian mother trying to get her daughter back from running off to Syria. French film by Rachid Bouchareb. I#m no expert but I would say that Sturla Brandth Grovlen is a ruddy genius.

Cinema thread here: List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2016

I thought all Victoria had going for it was its central gimmick of shooting the film in one take and that was also the reason why it didn't work as a film.

 

[catinthehat]

Woops - clearly I am not an expert!! I really liked it, it didnt seem like a gimmick to me as actually I did not even know anything about that until the Q an A at the end where I was totally amazed that the actors could keep it up or the logistics of it, let alone running around with a camera, fitting in the car and all that stuff. Apologies for posting in the wrong bit - I don't usually wander round this bit of the village.

 

[Reno]

Woops - clearly I am not an expert!! I really liked it, it didnt seem like a gimmick to me as actually I did not even know anything about that until the Q an A at the end where I was totally amazed that the actors could keep it up or the logistics of it, let alone running around with a camera, fitting in the car and all that stuff. Apologies for posting in the wrong bit - I don't usually wander round this bit of the village.

If you thought that was impressive then watch Timecode by Mike Figgis from 2000. It was the first feature film to be shot in one take, but he had four storylines on a screen split into four panels and they all cross at some point, so he had to do the same thing times four and all of it at the same time. I think they shot Victoria four or five times till they got it, Timecode took 16 takes. Like Victoria I don't think the film works as a successful drama because editing is essential for pacing a film, but the logistics are impressive.

 

[The Octagon]

If you thought that was impressive then watch Timecode by Mike Figgis from 2000. It was the first feature film to be shot in one take, but he had four storylines on a screen split into four panels and they all cross at some point, so he had to do the same thing times four and all of it at the same time. I think they shot Victoria four or five times till they got it, Timecode took 16 takes. Like Victoria I don't think the film works as a successful drama because editing is essential for pacing a film, but the logistics are impressive.

I remember watching that in the art cinema in Sheffield when it came out, was such a trippy experience for a 1st year Film Student ("what are you doing? how? oh that's clever" etc).

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Black Mass - Seen it all before Goodfellas lite gangster bio. Good turn from Johnny Depp.

Legend - Seen it all before gangster bio. Good turns from Tom Hardy and half the cast of Gangster No 1.

 

[wiskey]

Just watched Kingsman ... actually far better than I thought it was going to be.

 

[Idris2002]

Ricki and the Flash.

Years ago, Meryl Streep's character deserted her family to try and make it as a rock star. She ended up as a supermarket cashier and playing in a pub band. Meanwhile, her ex became an ultra-wealthy yuppie and her kids became extremely dysfunctional. Not bad for what it is. Interesting for what it says about the racial anxieties of white America, as that demographic moves towards minority status - Streep's boss in the supermarket, and her ex-husband's new wife are both African-American.

 

[Chz]

Tuesday, After Christmas - Romanian film about a man who confesses to his wife that he's in love with his mistress. (spoilers, I guess - but that's literally all that happens in the whole film)

It's superbly well acted and written, but it's also one of those films where not a heck of a lot actually happens and you're left with a "Is that it?" once the credits roll. There are some seriously long takes in it - I wonder if it was a play before it was a film?