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

[DaveCinzano]

Lovely apartments though.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Probably not one to watch if ever you've suffered an ankle injury and wish to avoid traumatic flashbacks though

 

[krtek a houby]

The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Not felt able to concentrate on a film for ages so this was very much welcome.

What a beautiful film. I've always convinced myself I don't much like Westerns but need to reconsider that.

Had Sweet Country waiting to watch for ages so I'll give it go.

If they haven't been recommended enough, Godless on Netflix is a brilliant one off series. And the late, great Sam Shepard (from the film you watched) is perfect for Blackthorn.

 

[Indeliblelink]

As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would of started this weekend, if the world hadn't gone to pot, then it's a good time to feel slightly better by watching the rather excellent documentary film about the 1964 Tokyo Games.

 

[Idris2002]

Red Sparrow. Rather ludicrous spy thriller that traps the excellent Jennifer Lawrence in a male-gaze world of unerotic sex and unpleasant dynamics. Lovely apartments though.

At the end I was thinking "yay, go Russia!", which I don't think was the original intention.

 

[Reno]

The Rental, which "does for Airbnb what Jaws did for sharks". Tense, entertaining horror film/thriller though I'd wished it had gone a different route in the end rather than becoming

Spoiler

Halloween on Vacation.

 

[danski]

Bubba Ho-Tep.

 

[Supine]

Watched Vast Of Night last night based on some recommendations on urban. Hated it

 

[redsquirrel]

The Invincibles - (Directors cut) German police action genre piece that has an underlying political thread. A strange interesting film, the opening is truly superb with one of the most shocking scenes I've seen for some time. The rest of the film doesn't manage to live up to that opening (though that would be asking at lot) but there are some truly excellent scenes mixed with(in) genre cliches. The plot is preposterous, but knowingly so, and somehow the film manages to get you to go along with it, in contrast the actors and scenes look dirtily realistic. The director is Dominik Graf, who I've not heard of but who's work I'd be interested in seeing more of - if anyone (Reno) has suggestions of his work that would be great. Apparently the film has never been released on DVD with English subtitles so I recommend that those orbs with MUBI subscriptions take the opportunity to watch it.

 

[rubbershoes]

Red Sparrow. Rather ludicrous spy thriller that traps the excellent Jennifer Lawrence in a male-gaze world of unerotic sex and unpleasant dynamics. Lovely apartments though.

Her accent was "interesting"

 

[platinumsage]

Palm Spring - worst movie I've seen for about twenty years.

 

[Reno]

Impetigore, Indonesian horror film which dives deep into local folklore. Enjoyed this a lot, it's very stylishly shot, well acted and at times quite creepy but what I liked the most is the way it introduces you to its local culture and mythologies. Well worth checking out if you are into horror and especially international horror, even if the plot gets a little convoluted by the end.

 

[T & P]

Daniel isn’t Real. A psychological sci-Fi/ horror film. Not really horror in the scary sense but that was not the intention of the story anyway. Not great but not terrible either, certainly watchable so long as you don’t pay for it.

The young actors playing the two main male leads were rather good I thought. One of them is Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold. I didn’t even know any of Arnie’s kids were actors- not that I’d given any thoughts to their very existence though.

 

[trabuquera]

Fortress (2017) - plodding Korean historical epic about how the stifling protocol, infighting bureaucrats and dithering monarch of the Joseon dynasty managed to fail to fight off the Qing (Manchu) invading hordes. The battle scenes don't rise to the majesty of anything Kurosawa (or even Miike) - and most of the film is made up of cold, grumpy, hungry people debating their bad options despairingly - but it's still quite interesting for how downbeat the message is. Sometimes you just have to accept defeat and/or humiliation; rigid hierarchies stifle and victimise everyone, even those very near the top; only the stoicism and kindness of despised common people is worth a damn in the end. Very different to the general fight-to-the-last-man tub-thumping patriotism of most contemporary Korean films - final message is more like 'sometimes it really is better to accept disgrace and live to fight another day'. Bit of a boys' military/strategic fest (almost no women have speaking roles, apart from the nearly-obligatory cute orphan kid there to jerk your tears) but worth it if you're interested in this part of the world or this era. Or like castle sieges.

 

[rubbershoes]

Finished Series 1 of The Wire, yo

It's my third or fourth watch. I'd forgotten so much of the detail. It's still brilliant.

 

[rubbershoes]

dp

 

[Reno]

Becky, extremely violent home invasion thriller, which plays like the gore drenched version of Home Alone. Probably in questionable taste, the way it puts young children in very violent situations but it caught me in the right mood after dealing with some annoying people at work.

It's about a sullen teenage girl who finds herself in a John McClane situation when her family home gets taken over by Neo-Nazi convicts, who've escaped prison. I've read complains that the heroine isn't very sympathetic but I think the point is that Becky is a baby sociopath, which is what makes her so ruthless. I liked that she's not played by some ”teenager“ who looks like they are in their 20s, she really is a little girl dispatching villains in gruesome ways.

The film skirts around the Neo-Nazi issue to a degree where it wouldn’t have made any difference had they been regular thugs, so that didn’t quite work for me, but otherwise it was good, unclean fun.

 

[alsoknownas]

Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia, the Robber's Daughter), 1984 Swedish children's film / TV series. Not the more recent Studio Ghibli adaptation.

A delightful fantasy tale of a girl who forms a sibling-like bond with a boy from the rival robber gang, set amongst the spectacular rolling forests of an imaginary Scandinavian kingdom.

This was a nostalgia-fest suggestion from the gf person, who had seen it as a child. It's a wee bit hammy, and the effects are tacky, but you'd have to be pretty hard of heart not to get swept along with the rollicking production. They've thrown in - extraordinary Nordic harmonic singing, sweeping vistas, forest trolls, and vile flying harpies - "Now the blood will flow..!".

In uniquely eighties Swedish style this is a children's film (it was also formatted for episodic TV) that contains a liberal amount of nudity - something to be aware of if you're planning a family viewing!

I'd be interested to see the Ghibli for comparison.

 

[May Kasahara]

Just watched Poltergeist with the boy I've always enjoyed it very much, but now, watching from the perspective of a married middle aged mum, there is so much more brilliant detail to appreciate: the relationship between the parents, their thin veneer of middle class respectability (like how they were obviously teenage parents the first time round), the way that their haphazard, just-good-enough day to day parenting coexists with absolute, bone-deep love for their children. And it's so funny - I always liked the broad humour but noticed loads of little touches this time round that really made me lol.

The boy also thought it was great, so win win all round

 

[T & P]

Just watched Poltergeist with the boy I've always enjoyed it very much, but now, watching from the perspective of a married middle aged mum, there is so much more brilliant detail to appreciate: the relationship between the parents, their thin veneer of middle class respectability (like how they were obviously teenage parents the first time round), the way that their haphazard, just-good-enough day to day parenting coexists with absolute, bone-deep love for their children. And it's so funny - I always liked the broad humour but noticed loads of little touches this time round that really made me lol.

The boy also thought it was great, so win win all round

How old is your boy? Balls of steel

Having said that I’ve long pondered if audiences of all ages are much more difficult to scare or shock nowadays than in yesteryear after decades of exposure to horror films and shocking scenes.

When you read about multiple instances of people leaving the cinema mid-film in a terrified state or even fainting when watching The Exorcist, or see footage of test audiences utterly shocked at the chestbuster scene in Alien, it’s hard to imagine any film today would ever have the same effect.

 

[Orang Utan]

Poltergeist was a PG/A when it came out. It’s scary as fuck but not that gory. Kids love being scared/shocked just like adults.

 

[May Kasahara]

Ha, he's nearly 12 Tbh I've never considered Poltergeist that scary - it's got that Spielberg stamp of wonder all over it that stops it being a grim watch of any kind.

He's fine with monsters and cartoony violence, but struggles with anything emotionally resonant in terms of horror or despair. So Poltergeist is fine but Jaws was a no - too real once the kid got killed.

 

[Orang Utan]

Jaws is a PG as well. Still shits me up to this day.

 

[Orang Utan]

And The Temple Of Doom has a scene in which an adolescent has his heart ripped out. Remember being shocked and horrified by that (in a good way though, not traumatised)

 

[Reno]

Poltergeist is fine for early teens, it's all fantasy horror. It's also the only horror film I can think of where nobody dies. Of course it all depends on the kids. I took my then 11 year old niece to the Pixar A Bug's Life and she was shitting herself at that. Possibly the least scary film imaginable.

 

[Reno]

And The Temple Of Doom has a scene in which an adolescent has his heart ripped out. Remember being shocked and horrified by that (in a good way though, not traumatised)

The PG-13 rating was brought in because of that scene.

 

[T & P]

Shimmer Lake. Currently on Netflix. A crime mystery told backwards. Far better than I thought it was going to be, but one of those clever films that requires your full attention so not one to watch late at night whilst tipsy. Will watch again tonight to get the bits I clearly missed last night.

 

[krtek a houby]

And The Temple Of Doom has a scene in which an adolescent has his heart ripped out. Remember being shocked and horrified by that (in a good way though, not traumatised)

Yeah, it's a relatively gory film compared to the next two. The heart ripping scene always seemed to get cut from telly showings, as did the stoned scene from Poltergeist.

 

[Orang Utan]

Yeah, it's a relatively gory film compared to the next two. The heart ripping scene always seemed to get cut from telly showings, as did the stoned scene from Poltergeist.

the most horrifying bit of Poltergeist for me is the bit when Craig T Nelson is in the swimming pool with all the corpses

 

[krtek a houby]

the most horrifying bit of Poltergeist for me is the bit when Craig T Nelson is in the swimming pool with all the corpses

Jobeth Williams, iirc, but yeah. Also, the kid and his scary toys and the tree outside his window.