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

[rubbershoes]

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.

Captain Phillips is standard Hollywood fare and can't hold a candle to A Hijacking

 

[Reno]

Captain Phillips is standard Hollywood fare and can't hold a candle to A Hijacking

I usually cheer the foreign language low budget underdog but found A Hijacking well meaning but rather listless and I thought Captain Phillips was genuinely tense.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I usually cheer the foreign language low budget underdog but found A Hijacking well meaning but rather listless and I thought Captain Phillips was genuinely tense.

Despite having virtually no action, I thought A Hijacking was pretty tense. It really seemed to get into the psychology of negotiation.

 

[krtek a houby]

Glad to see you back.

Go raibh maith agat

 

[Chz]

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.

I didn't know that, though I haven't seen the Hanks version. I'm not sure it's the sort of thing that would Hollywood-ize well. A lot of the tension is long periods of absolutely nothing happening.

 

[Reno]

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.

I didn't know that, though I haven't seen the Hanks version. I'm not sure it's the sort of thing that would Hollywood-ize well. A lot of the tension is long periods of absolutely nothing happening.

They weren't based on the same material, they are unrelated films with similar subject matter. No doubt a lot of research went into A Hijacking but it's essentially a fictional film (a loosely connected spin-off from the TV series Borgen) while Captain Phillips was based on a real case.

 

[krtek a houby]

They weren't based on the same material, they are unrelated films with similar subject matter. No doubt a lot of research went into A Hijacking but it's essentially a fictional film (a loosely connected spin-off from the TV series Borgen) while Captain Philips was based on a real case.

Oh wow; without spoilers, is it possible to reveal the conncection to Borgen?

I quite enjoyed Captain Philips; think it was a Paul Greengrass?

 

[Reno]

Oh wow; without spoilers, is it possible to reveal the conncection to Borgen?

I quite enjoyed Captain Philips; think it was a Paul Greengrass?

In one episode of Borgen Brigitte Nyborg dealt with a sea hijacking which is never seen but which was exactly as described in the film. I believe that's how the film got started.

Yes, Captain Phillips was Greengrass. It's in line with his docudramas based on real cases starting with his TV work (Bloody Sunday, etc)

 

[krtek a houby]

In one episode of Borgen Brigitte Nyborg dealt with a sea hijacking which is never seen but which was exactly as described in the film. I believe that's how the film got started.

Yes, Captain Phillips was Greengrass. It's in line with his docudramas based on real cases starting with his TV work (Bloody Sunday, etc)

Ah; clever!

 

[felixthecat]

The Resident. Hillary Swank as a doctor in NYC who moves into a suspiciously cheap apartment with a creepy landlord (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his creepier grandfather (Christopher Lee). You can guess where it goes from there...

Should have been much better than it actually was. Cinematography was quite nice but the story of the creepy obsessive landlord has been done before and done much better. Seemed to be more a vehicle for Ms Swank to walk around half naked than anything else.

Alright if you're a bit bored I guess.

 

[krtek a houby]

Nick Offerman - American Ham.

Decent fella, solid.

 

[trabuquera]

The East (2013) intriguingly downbeat and non-clichéd thriller about a young female corporate spy who gets too deeply embedded (in all senses) for comfort with an earnest eco-anarchist collective who might just be taking direct action a bit too far. Some pretty subtle and shaded acting from leads Britt Marling (even though I normally can't stand her) and Alexander Skarsgard (who starts off the movie looking like a shambolic bearded schizophrenic, but is soon smartened up into the same dreamboat as always). It has some nice montaging/use of 'cyber' visual texturing to get across some of the feel of 21st century activism and its heart might be in a more radical place than the usual US movie. Has some good moments of unease tension but sadly, overall, just not that exciting - and definitely not as nerve shredding as it might be.

Marco Polo (Netflix) series 2. Gets more and more lavish and more and more confused, although there's some quality large-scale battling and one-one-one wuxia displays. Still no real sense whatsoever of Mongol (or Mongolian) culture in particular - it's all just some vague conception of 'Asia', boiling all the clichés about anywhere east of Lebanon together in a large hotpot while somehow leaching out all the flavour. Worst of all is how our token white boy hero (Lorenzo Richelmy, still mostly charisma-free) has to be shoehorned into the middle of every possible even to make a mostly-white US audience relate and stay interested. Netflix is also I guess trying not to offend Chinese audiences/financiers so the inter-Asian dynamics of the 13th-century world are kept discreetly blurry.

So, when Kublai has to finish off the last hopes of the deposed Song dynasty by doing an especially ethically-questionable murder, and take a decisive fork in world history, guess who just HAS to be in that very room, watching from the shadows? Yeah, you guessed it, our boy from Venice. Nothing can ever be done - even by the world's effective emperors - without a white hero to bear witness. Argh....

Still, amazing art direction, some striking images / shots / cinematography, and some really fine acting from rather older, more character actors (Joan Chen, Michelle Yeoh and Benedict Wong in particular) who can draw real feelings out of a mostly dire script and execution. (The younger ones are almost all completely wooden.) It is not a complete waste of your time, but don't expect to be gripped or educated. Just mildly entertained.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I wanted to kill every character in The East.

Boring fucking hippies. All that eco twat babble and they still left lights on when they left the room....

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I tried Batman Vs Superman...the 3hr special edition version....I tried 3 times....

I did not want to be beaten....

But, boy oh boy, it was tragically fucking shit.....so I finally quit....

Everything was wrong. Story. Casting. Everything.

Zak Snyder clearly thought he was making some meaningful film about, erm...something big and meaningful....but it was just a pile of wank socks in the corner.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Jeremey Irons was the shittest Alfred ever.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Gone Girl. Very enjoyable.

 

[belboid]

Deadpool

Highly dubious physics. Damned good fun tho

 

[krtek a houby]

Jeremey Irons was the shittest Alfred ever.

Actually, he's one of the better ones. And Affleck made a good Batman. Film is still a mess with all the flash forwards, hallucinations and shoe horning stuff in for the uber fans but there's still a few cool things in there.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

Just panickingly bought loads of digital shit from Amazon, as, although I've been checking out 'prime day' all day (load of old bollocks IMEO), I didn't realise they had offers on Video until an hour ago.

Never seen NYPD Blue before ('cept in clips, pop culture etc...) but know that I'll love it, so got the first two series for £4 each. Suspect this will be my new couple of eps a day show, now that I've finished (re)watching all the series of Bake Off that are available from BBC Store (all but S3 - easily the best season).

 

[ringo]

First two episodes of Justified, think we're getting into it.

First episode of Brief Encounters - ITV series on Ann Summers parties in 1982. Gentle/saucy humour but still quite well done and we liked the 80's period stuff, spot on.

 

[belboid]

First episode of Brief Encounters - ITV series on Ann Summers parties in 1982. Gentle/saucy humour but still quite well done and we liked the 80's period stuff, spot on.

I must watch that, filmed locally, the cop shop shown is just by my works front door.

 

[ringo]

I must watch that, filmed locally, the cop shop shown is just by my works front door.

I lived in Sheffield for 4 years and miss it, enjoyed trying to working out where they were, so add locations please

 

[DotCommunist]

Preacher. A lot more is making sense now, in terms of how they are doing the backstories for the TV version. Perhaps a little too flashback ridden but has to be done. Cassidy is as ever, a legend

 

[Nine Bob Note]

Today: Entire first series of Bosch while waiting downstairs for the Amazon delivery guy (the TV doesn't have WWE Network or Netflix so had to make do)

Pretty good actually, after I rubbished the first episode a couple of months ago. One big problem though - I learn't the main guy's name, but no one elses. I've gone through the whole thing refering to them as characters from other shows they've all been in (chiefly the Wire).

 

[ringo]

First episode of Brief Encounters - ITV series on Ann Summers parties in 1982. Gentle/saucy humour but still quite well done and we liked the 80's period stuff, spot on.

Episode 2, like this

 

[Chz]

I was slightly put off by the hype over it, but the first three episodes of The Americans have been really quite good. Only slightly spoiled by knowing that there's four seasons of it and no-one's going to die right away. Not as cool and stylish as Deutchland 83, but a lot less fluffy.

 

[Reno]

Dark Mirror, 40s film noir/psychological thriller with Olivia De Havilland as twins, one nice, the other one nasty. Not a patch on Hitchcock's far more cinematic psychological thrillers of the period. The film is rather talky and confined to a few interiors, but De Havilland is fun.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I started to watch High Rise and had to switch it off. It looked wonderful, but was so cold and callous it made me feel a bit angry towards it.

I was feeling a bit tired, so I will give it another go. It clearly owes a debt to Kubrick's Clorkwork Orange, and maybe even 2001 and the cruise/kidman one.....also himts of Greenaway, Draughtsman's Contract...

I'll try again.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Alien Extinction.

Fucking hell

 

[Nine Bob Note]

Series two of Bosch. Waaaaaay better that series one. Writing, acting and production values are much higher.