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

[seventh bullet]

David Cronenberg's London-based Russian mafia drama Eastern Promises on Netflix.

It was a little cliched wrt Russian culture, and the twist involving the long-suffering driver and gofer for the manchild son of his gangster employer demonstrated naivety about the Russian state and its involvement with organised crime. There's a great fight scene in a public baths, though, and Viggo Mortensen's sharply-dressed thug doesn't have a bad generic accent when speaking broken English or his character's mother tongue. 7/10.

 

[Idris2002]

Hennessy.

Very silly NI-related thriller from the mid-70s. After his wife and child are killed by the British Army (in cross-fire from a street riot in Belfast), the eponymous Catholic WW2 veteran travels to London to assassinate the Queen.

Both the Provies and Special Branch try to track him down before he can do his worst.



The accents aren't the worst I've ever heard.

 

[Idris2002]

Also Trainspotting 2.

A lot better than it had any right to be. Porno, the novel Welsh wrote as the follow-up to Trainspotting the book, was genuinely woeful. I got it for free from a library, and I still felt like I wanted my money back.

Ewen Bremner as Spud was the best thing in it. They could easily have had the whole movie about him.

 

[Chz]

John Wick

If I'd seen it when it came out, I might have liked it more. But after Mad Max showing how to do "mindless action movie" to perfection, there simply wasn't enough shooting and killing and too much time trying to justify the flimsy plot. As if someone killing your dog (spoilers!) justifies murdering a hundred people. I don't care about his motivations. The entire purpose of the film is that everyone is trying to kill him and so he kills everyone. The rest is fluff, and there's too much fluff. If you're going to waste time justifying this, there had better be a bloody good story in it! Not something that even comic books would laugh at.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I fell asleep watching....I don't feel that I missed much....

 

[flypanam]

Eastbound and down.

 

[DotCommunist]

Frontline Fighting: Battling ISIS

follows a group of brits with the YPG. Not particularly in depth about wider situations but rather followed a single mission.

 

[DotCommunist]

The Signal (2007) I was looking for The Signal (2014) but got it wrong. Didn't mind too much as the 2007 film as a grim disjointed horror tale that makes little sense but is mad mad mad. And brutal. The tvs, phones etc. Everything starts pumping out a weird signal that makes people go paranoid insane and start beating each other to death messily. 6/10

 

[May Kasahara]

E.T. Watching with my children for the first time. Everyone is crying

 

[Idris2002]

The Signal (2007) I was looking for The Signal (2014) but got it wrong. Didn't mind too much as the 2007 film as a grim disjointed horror tale that makes little sense but is mad mad mad. And brutal. The tvs, phones etc. Everything starts pumping out a weird signal that makes people go paranoid insane and start beating each other to death messily. 6/10

The film that inspired twitter, then.

 

[May Kasahara]

E.T. Watching with my children for the first time. Everyone is crying

Son is taking his revenge by making me watch Ghostbusters the remake. Fucking hell, it's dire.

 

[donkyboy]

Alien Covenant. OK two hours passing time.

 

[ringo]

Second attempt to watch John Wick:Chapter 2
First time managed an hour, this time 90 minutes. Just couldn't be bothered to watch him kill people for the last 30 minutes.

Rewatched Northern Soul: Living For The Weekend

Baby Boss - Just enough jokes for grown ups to be manageable.

 

[ringo]

Son is taking his revenge by making me watch Ghostbusters the remake. Fucking hell, it's dire.

My youngest did that to me. I made her watch the original, which she agreed was much better.

 

[DaveCinzano]

John Wick

If I'd seen it when it came out, I might have liked it more. But after Mad Max showing how to do "mindless action movie" to perfection, there simply wasn't enough shooting and killing and too much time trying to justify the flimsy plot. As if someone killing your dog (spoilers!) justifies murdering a hundred people. I don't care about his motivations. The entire purpose of the film is that everyone is trying to kill him and so he kills everyone. The rest is fluff, and there's too much fluff. If you're going to waste time justifying this, there had better be a bloody good story in it! Not something that even comic books would laugh at.

I guess there's no point recommending...

Spoiler: SPOILER!!!

The Rover

....to you then

 

[DotCommunist]

Alien Covenant. I liked it better than I had expected. The spine-bursters were cool. Everyone was struck by the stupidity stick as per. No idea wht that synthetic is such an arsehole though, must have been something in prometheus.

 

[trabuquera]

Casino Jack (2010) - being the sort-of-jawdropping-but-not-at-all-suprising story of loathsome US political lobbyist Jack Abramoff and all his dodgy dealings. Plenty of dirt about how Washington beltway politics really works, how to pull the strings of both Houses etc. Based on real life and of course Kevin Spacey in the lead role is a perfect fit - gruesomely compelling to watch even as you recoil from his reptilian tactics. Some excellent ranting and swearing. Same sort of ballpark as Charlie Wilson's War / The Ides of March / The Walker etc - you won't be shocked by much of it unless you really believe that the US system of government is a democracy designed to serve the people; for the rest of us it's not much news that money buys action or that Republicans can be amoral. Perfectly OK for a couple of hours and classily done, but it's not gonna change the world.

 

[cybershot]

Their Finest Their Finest (2016) - IMDb

Verdict: It was ok, typical BBC type film, ok as background fodder, but wouldn't go out my way to watch it.

 

[Idris2002]

Run All Night

A very good thriller with Liam Neeson as a washed-up hitman for the New York Irish-American mob, who is alienated from his straight-arrow, family man son. Then both he and the son have to go on the run one night, chased by the mob (Neeson's character has done something that requires Ed Harris' mob boss to take revenge on both of them), corrupt cops and even non-corrupt cops. Not just a good action adventure, but also a proper story with some key themes handled very well. One of the best Neesons I've yet seen.

Filth

Adapted from the Irvine Welsh novel (German title: Drecksau). I really regretted watching this one, which is a knee in the "baws" of humanity.

 

[The39thStep]

Eastbound and down.

Years ago my son was always saying watch Eastbound and Down. I simply didnt like it untill after epsiode 4 and then suddenly it clicked and the person who I despised suddenly became both my hero and anti hero.

 

[cybershot]

The Fate of the Furious: Fast & Furious 8 (2017) - IMDb

Whilst these films are no brainers, I recently put myself through sitting through them all. I'm amazed I let myself get past the 3rd one, which was awful, but was totally different cast and location, so I gave 4 a chance. It's not very often you find a film franchise that goes on for this many films, and the quality actually improves. Obviously helped by big budgets because these films clearly make a ton at the box office, and always kind of give you that uplifting there's good left in humanity ending where enemies have a habit of becoming friends, that actually works well. This is as good as 7, which I thought had been the best so far. I'm not massive on action films, especially long drawn out fight or car chase scenes that generally add nothing to the films, and I'm normally just thinking, can someone just win already so we can progress the story. However the Manhattan chase scene in this, is quite possibly the best car chase scene I've ever seen. Clearly a lot of it has been done with CGI rather than real cars, but it looks ace! The plot is obviously far fetched as usual, but something about this bunch of characters that you now like and want them to succeed and genuinely worry if any are going to get killed off.

7/10

 

[The39thStep]

The Fate of the Furious: Fast & Furious 8 (2017) - IMDb

Whilst these films are no brainers, I recently put myself through sitting through them all. I'm amazed I let myself get past the 3rd one, which was awful, but was totally different cast and location, so I gave 4 a chance. It's not very often you find a film franchise that goes on for this many films, and the quality actually improves. Obviously helped by big budgets because these films clearly make a ton at the box office, and always kind of give you that uplifting there's good left in humanity ending where enemies have a habit of becoming friends, that actually works well. This is as good as 7, which I thought had been the best so far. I'm not massive on action films, especially long drawn out fight or car chase scenes that generally add nothing to the films, and I'm normally just thinking, can someone just win already so we can progress the story. However the Manhattan chase scene in this, is quite possibly the best car chase scene I've ever seen. Clearly a lot of it has been done with CGI rather than real cars, but it looks ace! The plot is obviously far fetched as usual, but something about this bunch of characters that you now like and want them to succeed and genuinely worry if any are going to get killed off.

7/10

The original cast are now pretty much background characters as Diesel, Statham and The Rock hold centre stage

 

[cybershot]

The original cast are now pretty much background characters as Diesel, Statham and The Rock hold centre stage

True, but they still all have their moments, even if some are purely for comedy effect. Maybe it's because I've watched all 8 in about a month, so I'm more engaged with them.

 

[trabuquera]

The Drop (2014) - downbeat, lowkey, slightly numbed NY Mafia tale with unusually high-notch cast (Tom Hardy! Noomi Rapace!! James Gandolfini!!!) and some rather murky plotting. Mostly a transparent excuse for Tom Hardy to spend a lot of screen time mucking about with a cute pitbull puppy. Not spectacular, not gripping, but not too stereotyped either and the gunplay is kept to a minimum. Also surprisingly (and kind of appealingly) amoral at the end. Not a gripper, but no embarrassment either.

 

[The39thStep]

The Drop (2014) - downbeat, lowkey, slightly numbed NY Mafia tale with unusually high-notch cast (Tom Hardy! Naomi Rapace! James Gandolfini) and some rather murky plotting. Mostly a transparent excuse for Tom Hardy to spend a lot of screen time mucking about with a cute pitbull puppy. Not spectacular, not gripping, but not too stereotyped either and the gunplay is kept to a minimum. Also surprisingly (and kind of appealingly) amoral at the end. Not a gripper, but no embarrassment either.

I enjoyed that film

 

[Virtual Blue]

The Drop (2014) - downbeat, lowkey, slightly numbed NY Mafia tale with unusually high-notch cast (Tom Hardy! Noomi Rapace!! James Gandolfini!!!) and some rather murky plotting. Mostly a transparent excuse for Tom Hardy to spend a lot of screen time mucking about with a cute pitbull puppy. Not spectacular, not gripping, but not too stereotyped either and the gunplay is kept to a minimum. Also surprisingly (and kind of appealingly) amoral at the end. Not a gripper, but no embarrassment either.

I love that film.
Underplayed for a purpose.

 

[cybershot]

I've got the week off and got a lot of crap done earlier in the week, so yesterday evening turned into a bit of a film fest

Selma Selma (2014) - IMDb
Not a whole lot to say about this as it's a biopic of Martin Luther King's campaign to get black people the vote. Obviously telling a very historic story.
7/10

Once Upon a Time in Venice Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017) - IMDb
Not quite sure why this is getting such a bad rap, a decent cast, plenty of funny moments (that I found funny anyway) and who can't relate to a man wanting to get his dog back! Probably could have come up with a better title!
8/10

Buster's Mal Heart Buster's Mal Heart (2016) - IMDb
I think this just tried to hard to be something that David Lynch fans would enjoy and in the end just fell a bit flat on it's face.
5/10

 

[Nanker Phelge]

E.T. Watching with my children for the first time. Everyone is crying

Took my kid to see ET in Leicester Square. It was his first time watching. Spent 30 mins outside crying cos he 'didn't want ET to go home'

I was like 'It'd be a shit film if he stayed!'

 

[The39thStep]

Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore -depressed woman gets burgled and enlists her dysfunctional neighbour to track down her stolen belongings. Enjoyable thriller /dark humour comedy even if a bit uneven in places but it is refreshing , non formulaic and on the whole an admiral effort.

 

[Orang Utan]

John Wick
John Wick Chapter 2
Free Fire

In the John Wick films, Keanu Reeves realised that he needed to a do Full Neeson to save his career, so he dresses in black and shoots dozens of Russian gangsters in the face, all in stylish interiors with colour-coded lighting and decor. In the first film, he's angry cos Alfie Allen killed his dog, a departing gift from his dead wife, and stole his car. In the second film, he gets a harder dog, then goes on the rampage after stealing his old car and inviting more Russians to come and try and kill him.
Top notch no-brain fantasy-action with hyper-stylised art direction - I'm sure they franchise will continue successfully.

Free Fire is another film with lots of shooting in warehouses, except everyone is shit at shooting. Eventually, everyone shoots each other, but there's a lot of missing and excellent ricocheting noises. If John Wick had been one of the gang members, it would have only lasted five minutes. Disappointing on the whole. Ben Wheatley directed it, but it suffers from lack of plot just as High Rise and his other films tend to.