What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Mad Max - the first one with Mel Gibson.
Thought I’d seen it before, but I would have remembered how bleak it is. Gibson looks like a little lost boy in it. He’s really good - the scenes with his wife and his struggle to express his emotions are devastating. Wasn’t expecting such depth to what I perceived to be a one-not vengeful cartoon character.
Miller is a fantastic action director - doing so much inventive work with a tiny budget. By all accounts, it was real guerilla film-making as they often didn’t have permission to shoot.
Great costume design too. And the supporting cast of weirdos are just brilliant.
Way way better than expected. Gonna have to watch the other two now, before giving Fury Road a rewatch.
Thought I’d seen it before, but I would have remembered how bleak it is. Gibson looks like a little lost boy in it. He’s really good - the scenes with his wife and his struggle to express his emotions are devastating. Wasn’t expecting such depth to what I perceived to be a one-not vengeful cartoon character.
Miller is a fantastic action director - doing so much inventive work with a tiny budget. By all accounts, it was real guerilla film-making as they often didn’t have permission to shoot.
Great costume design too. And the supporting cast of weirdos are just brilliant.
Way way better than expected. Gonna have to watch the other two now, before giving Fury Road a rewatch.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Brooklyn 45. A part war drama, part supernatural horror new film by Ted Geoghegan.
Very good indeed. I’ve already mentioned it in the Shudder thread, but I suspect not many people look in there, so I make no apologies for plugging it again. Strong performances, and told in real time in one set, so it feels more of a play than a film. Recommended.
Very good indeed. I’ve already mentioned it in the Shudder thread, but I suspect not many people look in there, so I make no apologies for plugging it again. Strong performances, and told in real time in one set, so it feels more of a play than a film. Recommended.
LeytonCatLady
Well-Known Member
The Thumb and George Stepanopoulos (Eps 3 and 4 from Friends, Series 1).
LeytonCatLady
Well-Known Member
East German Laundry Detergent and The Butt (Eps 5 and 6 from Friends, Series 1).
LeytonCatLady
Well-Known Member
Underdog Gets Away and The Monkey (Eps 9 and 10 from Series 1 of Friends). "Underdog" is the disastrous Thanksgiving, and in "Monkey" we're introduced to Ross's new pet, Marcel.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
The show for people who don't have any.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Red Sonne
The first German 'spiel/film' according to Wim Wenders - a somewhat cartoonish (in a good way) romp of a movie set around there radical sixties movements and their forays into violence. A chancer hooks ups with an old girlfriend who has, unbeknownst to him, joined a feminist commune. He thinks his luck is in when he meets said girlfriends housemates (who all happen to be rather gorgeous), but little does he know.....
Some sharp satire, some just funny bits, some...uhh, wtf parts. Overall, a highly entreating 90 minutes well worth a visit. If you haven't fallen in love with Uschi Obermaier by the end, you're an eejit.
The first German 'spiel/film' according to Wim Wenders - a somewhat cartoonish (in a good way) romp of a movie set around there radical sixties movements and their forays into violence. A chancer hooks ups with an old girlfriend who has, unbeknownst to him, joined a feminist commune. He thinks his luck is in when he meets said girlfriends housemates (who all happen to be rather gorgeous), but little does he know.....
Some sharp satire, some just funny bits, some...uhh, wtf parts. Overall, a highly entreating 90 minutes well worth a visit. If you haven't fallen in love with Uschi Obermaier by the end, you're an eejit.
LeytonCatLady
Well-Known Member
Elpenor
a clown’s heart and a mandolin
Not had a chance to update the thread for some time with what I have watched the last few weeks.
I really enjoyed The Spiral Staircase, which provided suspense right up until the end, and Goodbye Lenin’s mix of tragedy and comedy - I watched both of these on holiday.
One I didn’t care for that much, which it seems a lot of people do like is The Man With The Golden Arm - I think I must dislike films with gambling in as I’m noticing a theme, though Frank Sinatra put in a great performance and I did enjoy the sketch it painted of the slums.
Don’t bother to Knock had Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark paired as two strangers flirting in a hotel room while Monroe babysits, but her tragic past catches up with her. This was quite watchable but nothing particularly new.
T-Men was a treasury agent procedural, on the trail of counterfeit money. Quite a few twists and turns, while being a bit moralising.
The Devil Thumbs a Ride - Laurence Tierney (later to be in Reservoir Dogs), on the run after a robbery, hitches a ride with a drunk salesmen. They pick up some dames at a gas station, and as the cops close in, their troubles begin… not as good as Detour, but Tierney makes a thuggish single-minded villain, and the action moves fast. Some particularly amusing “drunk acting” by a night watchmen.
Murder By Contract - a professional calculating man becomes a hitman. Sent to California for a high profile job, he plans out his attack meticulously, showing a cool aloofness that frustrates the two goons who are babysitting him. The performance of the lead, Vince Edwards, made me feel I was watching an early Clint Eastwood role. Apparently a major inspiration for Scorsese, this is a tautly directed film with fantastic use of music to complement the action scenes.
I really enjoyed The Spiral Staircase, which provided suspense right up until the end, and Goodbye Lenin’s mix of tragedy and comedy - I watched both of these on holiday.
One I didn’t care for that much, which it seems a lot of people do like is The Man With The Golden Arm - I think I must dislike films with gambling in as I’m noticing a theme, though Frank Sinatra put in a great performance and I did enjoy the sketch it painted of the slums.
Don’t bother to Knock had Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark paired as two strangers flirting in a hotel room while Monroe babysits, but her tragic past catches up with her. This was quite watchable but nothing particularly new.
T-Men was a treasury agent procedural, on the trail of counterfeit money. Quite a few twists and turns, while being a bit moralising.
The Devil Thumbs a Ride - Laurence Tierney (later to be in Reservoir Dogs), on the run after a robbery, hitches a ride with a drunk salesmen. They pick up some dames at a gas station, and as the cops close in, their troubles begin… not as good as Detour, but Tierney makes a thuggish single-minded villain, and the action moves fast. Some particularly amusing “drunk acting” by a night watchmen.
Murder By Contract - a professional calculating man becomes a hitman. Sent to California for a high profile job, he plans out his attack meticulously, showing a cool aloofness that frustrates the two goons who are babysitting him. The performance of the lead, Vince Edwards, made me feel I was watching an early Clint Eastwood role. Apparently a major inspiration for Scorsese, this is a tautly directed film with fantastic use of music to complement the action scenes.
Nikkormat
Well-Known Member
We Will Not Fade Away
"For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognize and celebrate the fragile beauty of life."
I think it was shown in the UK under the Storyville series.
"For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognize and celebrate the fragile beauty of life."
I think it was shown in the UK under the Storyville series.
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
Evil Dead 2, the boy's latest request 
As brilliant as ever.
As brilliant as ever.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Two serious disappointments yesterday. Neither was terrible film, indeed both probably worth watching but both underwhelming and less than the sum of their parts.
In Fabric - I was really impressed by The Duke of Burgundy, for all its love of style there was plot and characterisation and it delivered a core emotional connection with the two main characters. For me In Fabric did not have any of content, just the style. And for all the style, and well crafted direction from Strickland, good performances from Hayley Squires and Marianne Jean-Baptiste it was an empty movie. The comic asides did not help, making it less sinister than rather like an extended episode of League of Gentlemen but with far too few laughs. I've yet to see Flux Gourmet but I'm hoping it is a return to something better.
To Live and Die in LA - which suffers from a lot of the same problems as In Fabric, characterisation and plot being thrown out of the window for style and flourish. Here the weakness of the plot is absurd, there are Schwarzenegger movies that hold together better than this crap. The only character which has any sort of dimensionality is Ruth (played very well by Darlanne Fluegel), but she is very much underused. Dafoe does a pretty decent villain and Petersen gives about as much depth to his character as the film allows but that is just far too shallow.
Real shame as I had expectations from both and for all their flaws both are clearly made by directors of talent, but both falling short of what they could have been.
On leave today so hoping this afternoon's watching is more promising.
In Fabric - I was really impressed by The Duke of Burgundy, for all its love of style there was plot and characterisation and it delivered a core emotional connection with the two main characters. For me In Fabric did not have any of content, just the style. And for all the style, and well crafted direction from Strickland, good performances from Hayley Squires and Marianne Jean-Baptiste it was an empty movie. The comic asides did not help, making it less sinister than rather like an extended episode of League of Gentlemen but with far too few laughs. I've yet to see Flux Gourmet but I'm hoping it is a return to something better.
To Live and Die in LA - which suffers from a lot of the same problems as In Fabric, characterisation and plot being thrown out of the window for style and flourish. Here the weakness of the plot is absurd, there are Schwarzenegger movies that hold together better than this crap. The only character which has any sort of dimensionality is Ruth (played very well by Darlanne Fluegel), but she is very much underused. Dafoe does a pretty decent villain and Petersen gives about as much depth to his character as the film allows but that is just far too shallow.
Real shame as I had expectations from both and for all their flaws both are clearly made by directors of talent, but both falling short of what they could have been.
On leave today so hoping this afternoon's watching is more promising.
I remember thinking I might've enjoyed a kitchen sink type drama about Marianne Jean-Baptiste's character. Probably more than In Fabric.
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
The Dark Horse (2014) - on London Live, a reliably oddball channel for catching the odd good film that never got a decent distribution deal. Story of a New Zealand local-hero type who emerged from being locked up in a mental hospital to coach some local Maori youngsters to compete in various national-level chess tournaments. Bit of a continuation of the hoary old "inspirational teacher drives team of disadvantaged misfits to success" story (Stand And Deliver, Dangerous Minds etc) plus a bit of the old "look how bonkers genius must suffer" genre (A Beautiful Mind) and in the rough-tough-macho-gang-heavy-Maori-poverty milieu of Once Were Warriors. But it's all much better than that makes it sound: less cliched, more offbeat, more uncomfortable, in a good way. Cliff Curtis' central performance is brilliant - it never gets caricatured but never saccharine either. It won't make you drop yer toast in amazement but a worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours.
urbanspaceman
Well-Known Member
Yes, watching Rye Lane (on Disney +) is a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. Good bits: production design uses vivid colour palette, unaffected lead actors, no guns, drugs or violence.
Rather thrillingly, Steve Rose, the Guardian's Features Editor, is concerned that this film may cause the gentrification of Peckham. Steve Rose lives in Peckham, and is definitely not part of the problem. No sir.
The romcom effect: will a new movie gentrify Peckham as Richard Curtis gentrified Notting Hill?
The likable new release Rye Lane bills itself as ‘a love letter to south London’. But, like Amélie in Montmartre, could it end up damaging the place it sets out to celebrate?
Rob Ray
Weight is meaningless
Avatar: The Way of Water: Would be fine if it was sold as moving wallpaper, absolute shite as a movie experience from the massively self-indulgent runtime to the plot holes, dreadful dialogue, inept, simplistic characterisation and frankly insultingly facile rerun of Magic Noble Tribes tropes in blue skin. $250m and they still recycled the villain even though he's straight out of shouty Colonel-bro central casting. But then again when the lead is so forgettable I still can't remember his name after two outings ... A rare case of not even being bothered to finish the thing, because I didn't want to spend another hour and a half cringing at Cameron's ultra-shallow colonials vs natives shtick. Fucking abysmal.
Nimona: Bit heavy-handed on the core morals, but actually quite a fun romp, well animated and the titular Nimona herself falls just the right side of the line on fun sassy/annoyingly try-hard sassy.
Nimona: Bit heavy-handed on the core morals, but actually quite a fun romp, well animated and the titular Nimona herself falls just the right side of the line on fun sassy/annoyingly try-hard sassy.
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krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Seven Seconds
Netflix drama, limited series. New Jersey cop scum cover up. Discovered this more or less by accident.
Some great performances and has a Scandi feel meets The Wire meets The Shield.
Gripping and grim.
Netflix drama, limited series. New Jersey cop scum cover up. Discovered this more or less by accident.
Some great performances and has a Scandi feel meets The Wire meets The Shield.
Gripping and grim.
Red Angel
1966 war film directed by Yasuzo Masumura and starring Ayako Wakao as an army nurse treating soldiers in field hospitals during the Japanese invasion of China. Really grim and grisly but very effective and an interesting and unusual setting I thought. Some great performances especially Wakao in a slightly odd role as a sort of abused and saintly angel of death, and very good and horrible use of sound to help fill in the gaps of what a 1960s film couldn't really show, and the black and white cinematography really added something as well where colour probably would've made the effects look more fake.
Red Angel takes an anti war position but the focus is centered on the Japanese as victimised and brutalised by militarism (I listened to a bit of a commentary which made this point and drew a parallel with Vietnam films) while particularly emphasising abuse and violence towards women, what it doesn't really do is consider the Chinese as victims, more as a largely faceless threat, or address the political questions of the war. So it definitely felt less comprehensive and morally outraged than something like Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy I watched a while back. Flawed but still a good watch.
1966 war film directed by Yasuzo Masumura and starring Ayako Wakao as an army nurse treating soldiers in field hospitals during the Japanese invasion of China. Really grim and grisly but very effective and an interesting and unusual setting I thought. Some great performances especially Wakao in a slightly odd role as a sort of abused and saintly angel of death, and very good and horrible use of sound to help fill in the gaps of what a 1960s film couldn't really show, and the black and white cinematography really added something as well where colour probably would've made the effects look more fake.
Red Angel takes an anti war position but the focus is centered on the Japanese as victimised and brutalised by militarism (I listened to a bit of a commentary which made this point and drew a parallel with Vietnam films) while particularly emphasising abuse and violence towards women, what it doesn't really do is consider the Chinese as victims, more as a largely faceless threat, or address the political questions of the war. So it definitely felt less comprehensive and morally outraged than something like Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy I watched a while back. Flawed but still a good watch.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Evangelion: Death (True) 2
Basically a recap of all that's gone before, setting it up for The End of Evangelion. The latter being an alternate ending to the original series which had a controversial ending.
The ending didn't really bother, but will be interesting to see the newer (1998) version.
Basically a recap of all that's gone before, setting it up for The End of Evangelion. The latter being an alternate ending to the original series which had a controversial ending.
The ending didn't really bother, but will be interesting to see the newer (1998) version.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Sisu- Gold prospector finds gold and crosses paths with a group of Nazis trying to get out of Finland at the end of WW2. Little do they know that the old bloke is in fact a retired commando . Well told blood fest with some third party revenge, the wholly unrealistic stunts don't actually harm a briskly paced yarn.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
A Touch of Zen
Wuxia classic from 1971 that absolutely rocks. Impatient action bros may fret over the initial pacing but the three hour epic delivers. A mix of martial arts, ghost story, feminism and Buddhism.
And big influence on House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Wuxia classic from 1971 that absolutely rocks. Impatient action bros may fret over the initial pacing but the three hour epic delivers. A mix of martial arts, ghost story, feminism and Buddhism.
And big influence on House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Love, Actually.
It was kind of a hate watch. I have got into the habit of listening to the Smersh Podcast, which is comic John Raine and a funny person discussing all of the Bond movies. The remit has broadened over time and as well as discussing Bond-adjacent films (mostly starring actors who’ve played Bonds), they now discuss terrible films such as the above.
It really is appalling, and what millennials call ‘problematic’, being rampantly sexist, fattist and misogynistic. I could go on about it but I found this Lindy West article which savages the film far more eloquently and hilariously than I ever could:
jezebel.com
My stupid impulsive mind is now obsessed with watching all of the films discussed on the podcast and I have even gone to the trouble of buying a DVD of Spice World for a tenner cos it’s not available on any streaming services
It was kind of a hate watch. I have got into the habit of listening to the Smersh Podcast, which is comic John Raine and a funny person discussing all of the Bond movies. The remit has broadened over time and as well as discussing Bond-adjacent films (mostly starring actors who’ve played Bonds), they now discuss terrible films such as the above.
It really is appalling, and what millennials call ‘problematic’, being rampantly sexist, fattist and misogynistic. I could go on about it but I found this Lindy West article which savages the film far more eloquently and hilariously than I ever could:
I Rewatched Love Actually and Am Here to Ruin It for All of You
We open in a fucking airport. A fucking AIRPORT!!! Of course Love Actually, the apex of cynically vacant faux-motional cash-grab garbage cinema would hang its BIG METAPHOR on the bleak, empathy-stripped cathedral of turgid bureaucracy known as “the airport.” Of course. And then, of course, Hugh...
jezebel.com
My stupid impulsive mind is now obsessed with watching all of the films discussed on the podcast and I have even gone to the trouble of buying a DVD of Spice World for a tenner cos it’s not available on any streaming services
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
dogboy_hackney
Member
Such a great movie, with amazing cinematography.
furluxor
snake with a claw
Rewatched Remains of the Day - my favourite performance by Anthony Hopkins. Based on Ishiguro's novel, it's a story about a butler and his immovable sense of duty. Aside from its excellent emotional story, it's worth watching for the beautiful country house and the close-up look at domestic service.
Watched the first episode of Sandman as I liked the comic and people seemed to like the series. It was crap and I cannot recommend it. Terrible writing, bad casting, sadistic directing. They took something great and made it into a very generic product.
Watched the first episode of Sandman as I liked the comic and people seemed to like the series. It was crap and I cannot recommend it. Terrible writing, bad casting, sadistic directing. They took something great and made it into a very generic product.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
The End of Evangelion
It may be a masterpiece but the disturbing imagery, especially the hospital scene, is really difficult to digest. The film and series has aged badly, imho.
Apart from the angels, which are obviously a big influence on Jordan Peele.
It may be a masterpiece but the disturbing imagery, especially the hospital scene, is really difficult to digest. The film and series has aged badly, imho.
Apart from the angels, which are obviously a big influence on Jordan Peele.
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