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

[DaveCinzano]

Cleaner - Sam Jackson as an ex-cop turned crime scene cleaner. Started off as a promising bit of throwaway genre fluff, but not really enough in the way of twists or turns to elevate it above 'meh'.

 

[rubbershoes]

Watched last night. Loved it. Didn't know he went on to champion Hacked Off. Good got him. I was expecting him to be a total recluse but he was just odd and looked a bit funny.

I'm told by someone who knows him that it's an accurate portrayal

 

[rubbershoes]

Dark Places - Charlize Theron murder/mystery type thing, also starring Nicholas Hoult...Barely worth bothering with.

The book IS worth bothering with and I probably would have watched the film, but don't think I will now

 

[Nanker Phelge]

The book IS worth bothering with and I probably would have watched the film, but don't think I will now

Yes, there was clearly a very good story in there somewhere. I suspect the 'Kill Club' get more time spent on them in the book. That would have been a part of the story that needed more screen time. I wondered of it had been cut to death, because they barely appear.

 

[felixthecat]

I followed it up tonight with another horror/thriller, Hush. A more basic plot than The Invitation and with only two main characters but once the first ten minutes are done the tension is tighter than cramp throughout. Highly recommended.

Watched that last night - arrrgh!
My sort of scary - really enjoyed it.

Couldn't sleep afterwards mind you...

 

[Sue]

The Last Metro. Turned out there was something wrong with the DVD and it packed up with about 20 minutes left to go. Had to Google to find out what happened.

ETA Had no idea Depardieu was handsome when young.

 

[felixthecat]

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies. A very respectful and senstive telling of the real-life story of retired schoolteacher Christopher Jefferies who was initially questioned by police as a suspect in the murder of Jo Yeates.

Jason Watkins does a fanatasic job portraying the naturally quirky outsider, who was villified because he existed on the edge of societal norms. It's a brilliant performance which doesn't try to wring any laughs out of the character or his affectations and unsual place in the world.

I really enjoyed it.

How good was that? Really really good. I wouldn't have watched it if it hadn't been for the recommendation on this thread.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

How good was that? Really really good. I wouldn't have watched it if it hadn't been for the recommendation on this thread.

I'll be honest...I put on as background telly..but was taken in straight away...

 

[Idris2002]

Big Game.

An extended advert for Finland's tourist industry, dressed up as a comedy thriller. Samuel L. Jackson, as President of the USA is shot down by terrorists over Lapland, and only a 13 year old Saami boy can save him. Better than it sounds, though really no more than a bit of fluff. The scenes of the Finnish wilderness were really good, though.

 

[Virtual Blue]

The Green Room

Quite brilliant - tense and there's a mad energy about it. Great soundtrack too. One of the best thrillers of this year. Recommend!!

 

[DotCommunist]

Marvel's Ultimate Spider Man. Marvel. 2 eps. Its like spiderman on all the E numbers. Its annoyingly post modern. Sacked it off and went with Crises on Earth 2, one of DC's better offerings to the animation genre I feel

 

[The Octagon]

First 2 episodes of Banshee S1.

So far so good, faintly ridiculous and over the top but I think that's the idea, seems like a wackier version of Justified, with extra explicit violence and nudity from the get go.

Very much True Blood / Spartacus in tone, but with some promising characters, will give it the full season I think.

Nice to see a few actors from The Wire, Daredevil and True Detective popping up too.

 

[Idris2002]

Big Game.

An extended advert for Finland's tourist industry, dressed up as a comedy thriller. Samuel L. Jackson, as President of the USA is shot down by terrorists over Lapland, and only a 13 year old Saami boy can save him. Better than it sounds, though really no more than a bit of fluff. The scenes of the Finnish wilderness were really good, though.

One thing this reminded me of was the New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs, which is also a tale of masculinity at bay in the wilderness. The two are very very different, though.

 

[Orang Utan]

The Lobster.
Beyond awful.
Dreadful script. Great actors but it's all for shite.

 

[Reno]

I watched Ex Machina for a second time with a friend who had not seen it and it's one of those films which works a lot better on a rewatch for me. First time round I found it little slow in places but knowing how it ends made me pay a lot more attention to how the film arrives at that ending and changed my view on several of the characters. Really underestimated that one the first time round, it's a great film.

Intruders, which was originally called Shut In. It's a home invasion horror film with an intriguing premise but it then falls apart in the second half. Robbers break into the house of an extremely agoraphobic woman who keeps a lot of money there, but she has a few secrets of her own.

 

[trabuquera]

Restoration (1995, and seems older). Amazingly lavish adaptation of the Rose Tremain historical novel. Worth a rewatch for just how good Robert Downey Jr is as a dissolute shambolic rake (not much acting required tbh) and supporting cast (Sam Neill, David Threlfall, Polly Walker) not half bad either. Visually lovely, if a bit chocolate-boxey. But overall a little too saccharine and massmarket to really explore its themes of death, duty, madness, Puritanism and ruthless royal power to more interesting extremes. Subplot with Meg Ryan attempting to animate character of a muddy Irish colleen turned lunatic should have been axed completely. Still has moments of startling surrealism and beauty though.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Godzilla. Rather dull.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Green Room - Punks in peril with lashings of violence being rained upon them by neo-nazi skins in some backwater hellhole of a bar/club...

Entertaining enough...not as good as Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier's previous film...

...a bit sad seeing Anton Yelchin who died so young recently...

 

[Sue]

Green Room - Punks in peril with lashings of violence being rained upon them by neo-nazi skins in some backwater hellhole of a bar/club...

Entertaining enough...not as good as Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier's previous film...

...a bit sad seeing Anton Yelchin who died so young recently...

I did like the Nazi Punks Fuck Off bit.

 

[Reno]

I found Green Room more entertaining than Blue Ruin, but I don't get why Saulnier's films earn such raves. He coats routine genre films with an indie movie gloss and that's the only remarkable thing about them. So you get a revenge thriller with a homeless guy instead of Charles Bronson and a siege thriller with punks vs skinheads rather than with police vs gang members but then that's the last surprising thing about that film.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I found Green Room more entertaining than Blue Ruin, but I don't get why Saulnier's films earn such raves. He coats routine genre films with an indie movie gloss and that's the only remarkable thing about them. So you get a revenge thriller with a homeless guy instead of Charles Bronson and a siege thriller with punks vs skinheads rather than with police vs gang members but then that's the last surprising thing about that film.

Yes, agreed. I found some of the plotting in Green Room quite daft...mainly the last 20 minutes...but it kept me entertained.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

First two episodes of American Gothic (2016) - a soapy mystery/family drama about a rich family living with the idea that their patriarch may have been a famed serial killer who became inactive 14 years prior to when this is set. The discovery of new evidence throws up all sorts of questions and quizzing as this clan full of cliches, (druggy son with destructive relationship, rebel son who ran off to the woods, go getting ambitious girl, uptight girl, evil witch mum, animal torturing grandkid....list goes on) start turning on each other in a bid to suppress/expose/understand the truth....

Quite frankly, if I was the serial killer dad to this lot, I would have murdered the lot of 'em....

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I did like the Nazi Punks Fuck Off bit.

Yes, but given how fairly wimpy they were, I don't imagine them having the nuts to pull that off, or for the skins to let them get away with it with only one thrown bottle and a bit of gobbing...

 

[Sue]

Yes, but given how fairly wimpy they were, I don't imagine them having the nuts to pull that off, or for the skins to let them get away with it with only one thrown bottle and a bit of gobbing...

Oh, I agree. Thought it might end very prematurely with them getting their heads kicked in. Completely unrealistic but hey.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Oh, I agree. Thought it might end very prematurely with them getting their heads kicked in. Completely unrealistic but hey.

I liked it that Patrick Sewart's wardrobe was that of UK Farmer...

 

[krtek a houby]

Patton - George C Scott nabs an oscar as the poetry loving, reincarnation believing General. From a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[Idris2002]

Patton - George C Scott nabs an oscar as the poetry loving, reincarnation believing General. From a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola.

Glad to see you back.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Just watched The Drop. Hardy, Galdolfini NY crime thriller...it's brooding stuff, it's got a shaggy dog story at it's core, but it's also well trodden ground worth watching for the two leads out-mumbling each other. Rapace was yet again wasted in another woman on the sidelines in a shitty world of men and low level crime plotline...

It's always good to see Gandolfini, and I'd put off watching this because it was his last film and I've nothing left to look forward to from him.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

A Hijacking - awesome film, best I've seen in a while. Will watch Captain Phillips, based on the same material, eventually, though I don't usually care for Tom Hanks and I doubt any Hollywood film would be so restrained.

 

[Sue]

Pretty in Pink. First time I've seen it since not long after it came out. Not sure my opinion's changed much -- she so should've told Andrew McCarthy where to go at the end -- but an enjoyable enough way to spend a Sunday evening. I'd forgotten a very young James Spader was in it and had managed to wipe some of the worst 80s fashion moments from my mind. (Her dress wasn't quite as I remembered it but still thought it was pretty horrible.)