i watched the original Jaws
What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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yea I watched Airport '79 a month ago, it was pretty bad but strangely entertainingLove Airplane! but by the time it came along, the cycle of disaster movies which was at its height in the early to mid-70s had run its course. Nobody took The Concorde: Airport ‘79 seriously when it came out, it’s one of the most hilariously awful movies ever released by a major studio. It was mocked at the time and the franchise killed itself off when that movie flopped. Airport ‘79 is almost as funny as Airplane! and includes moments like the pilot opening the cockpit window of the Concorde mid-flight to fire a flare gun.
Reno
The In Kraut
Tigers Are Not Afraid, Mexican movie which deals with a bunch of street kids orphaned by the drugs war, who seek revenge on the gangsters who killed their parents. So do some of the dead, as this is a mixture of crime drama, ghost story and magic realism. It’s ambitious and diverting enough but not entirely successful, maybe because it tries too much in too little time (the movie is barely 80 minutes long). Reminded me of Guillermo Del Toro‘s The Devil‘s Backbone, which works better.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Marriage Story
Outstanding performances from the leads, reminds me a bit of prime Woody Allen, in places.
Outstanding performances from the leads, reminds me a bit of prime Woody Allen, in places.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Cheers for the recco - now onto S2
Reno
The In Kraut
Two films about young women who date inappropriate men.
The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg. Oddly close to the bone as I studied film in London in the 80s and I knew a lot of the same people Hogg was friends with. Unlike her, I didn't have parents who bought me a flat in Knightsbridge though and going to college meant so much to me that I was actually doing work rather than wasting my time on a relationship with some posh junkie. Which sounds like I didn't like the film, I did though. It's very understated, remote even but I found it absorbing nevertheless.
Tammy and the T-Rex, which is the latest rediscovery to be hailed as "the worst film ever". Its bad but its far from the worst. The entire film came together because soon after Jurassic Park came out the filmmakers had access to an animatronic T-Rex for two weeks and quickly knocked out an exploitation film. It's an odd mishmash, mixing teen comedy with quite strong gore all revolving around the gonzo plot of a teenager getting his brain transplanted into a robot-dinosaur by a mad scientist. He then still tries to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend. The dinosaur is rather stiff as are Denise Richards and Paul Walker, who got their first roles in this. Very silly but competently made for what it is. Probably best watched after a few beers with a crowd, rather than alone at home.
The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg. Oddly close to the bone as I studied film in London in the 80s and I knew a lot of the same people Hogg was friends with. Unlike her, I didn't have parents who bought me a flat in Knightsbridge though and going to college meant so much to me that I was actually doing work rather than wasting my time on a relationship with some posh junkie. Which sounds like I didn't like the film, I did though. It's very understated, remote even but I found it absorbing nevertheless.
Tammy and the T-Rex, which is the latest rediscovery to be hailed as "the worst film ever". Its bad but its far from the worst. The entire film came together because soon after Jurassic Park came out the filmmakers had access to an animatronic T-Rex for two weeks and quickly knocked out an exploitation film. It's an odd mishmash, mixing teen comedy with quite strong gore all revolving around the gonzo plot of a teenager getting his brain transplanted into a robot-dinosaur by a mad scientist. He then still tries to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend. The dinosaur is rather stiff as are Denise Richards and Paul Walker, who got their first roles in this. Very silly but competently made for what it is. Probably best watched after a few beers with a crowd, rather than alone at home.
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I was certain I would hate The Souvenir - I'd previously avoided Joanna Hogg's output because her privilege and limited milieu made me think she would either be irritating or of no interest, but The Souvenir really drew me in and I found the acting mesmerising. Now curious to check her out her other work but they seem to feature a lot of Tom Hiddleston who can grate somewhat.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
After Hours- Is a brilliant little dark comedy directed by Scorsese . Wonderfully filmed it captures in almost like a dream sequence a catastrophic night out when a word processer decides to try and meet up with a woman he has previously met in a diner earlier in the evening. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, every person he meets initially tries to help him but ends up blaming him for whatever has gone wrong in their lives. Its full of oddball characters that inhabit the early hours of the day/night, dialogue is great and its well acted. I saw it at the cinema when it was first released in the mid 80s and had never seen it again. Makes me wonder why its not screened more tbh, the dress sense is dated but the comedy isnt.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Code 8
an unusual superpowers tale, they've gone from being the people who built new york (lots of those old time shots of men eating lunch on a steel beam beam in the sky but its all done with powers) to replaced by machines, a monitored and feared underclass. One young man falls in with criminal elements in order to pay for his mothers medical issues. I really liked this, it was original and while obviously not swimming in money the effects are good. I enjoyed it a lot more than Ad Astra anyway, which was the other sci fi film I saw this week.
an unusual superpowers tale, they've gone from being the people who built new york (lots of those old time shots of men eating lunch on a steel beam beam in the sky but its all done with powers) to replaced by machines, a monitored and feared underclass. One young man falls in with criminal elements in order to pay for his mothers medical issues. I really liked this, it was original and while obviously not swimming in money the effects are good. I enjoyed it a lot more than Ad Astra anyway, which was the other sci fi film I saw this week.
Reno
The In Kraut
The Farewell, which was good but which is another film which I felt was critically overpraised this year. It’s based on a podcast of The American Life and it’s about a young Chinese-American woman who returns to China with her family because her beloved grandmother has terminal cancer. As apparently is common in China, the family has no intention of telling the grandmother about her diagnosis and instead they stage a wedding for her grandson as an excuse to see the grandmother one last time as a family. It’s perfectly fine, quite likeable and entertaining, it just faded from my memory as I was watching it.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Dazed and Confused.
Didn't really get it when I saw it years back. I suppose it's an American Graffiti type of film but I just can't get to like any of the characters that much and the hazing and bullying is particularly unpleasant. McConaughey is a standout but damn, his character is well dodgy, lusting after young girls etc.
Top marks for the soundtrack, mind. Even if there is a bit of Ted Nugent in the mix...
Didn't really get it when I saw it years back. I suppose it's an American Graffiti type of film but I just can't get to like any of the characters that much and the hazing and bullying is particularly unpleasant. McConaughey is a standout but damn, his character is well dodgy, lusting after young girls etc.
Top marks for the soundtrack, mind. Even if there is a bit of Ted Nugent in the mix...
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Hunting around the charity shops for DVDs sometimes gets one a decent film for 50pence.
I picked Frozen River as I wanted a thriller. As it said "superior thriller" ( Time Out) on the cover I bought it.
Frozen River turned out to be a little gem of a film.
Two women , both single parents , accidently meet and become smugglers across the US/ Canadian border. The Frozen River of the title.
They are hardly best buddies at the begining of the film. One is a native American and the other a blue collar mum living in a trailer with her two children. Both need money. Both are only just getting by.
Two good performances from the women. They both come across as believable characters. Both gradually learn to like each other. This is developed well in the film.
Its also a film about bigger themes - borders.
But I won't spoil the plot.
Well worth a watch.
Its also interesting as a thriller where the two main characters are women. Men don't come out of this film well. Either absent fathers or uncaring thugs.
Works well as a thriller. Several tense scenes.
Frozen River (2008) - IMDb
I picked Frozen River as I wanted a thriller. As it said "superior thriller" ( Time Out) on the cover I bought it.
Frozen River turned out to be a little gem of a film.
Two women , both single parents , accidently meet and become smugglers across the US/ Canadian border. The Frozen River of the title.
They are hardly best buddies at the begining of the film. One is a native American and the other a blue collar mum living in a trailer with her two children. Both need money. Both are only just getting by.
Two good performances from the women. They both come across as believable characters. Both gradually learn to like each other. This is developed well in the film.
Its also a film about bigger themes - borders.
But I won't spoil the plot.
Well worth a watch.
Its also interesting as a thriller where the two main characters are women. Men don't come out of this film well. Either absent fathers or uncaring thugs.
Works well as a thriller. Several tense scenes.
Frozen River (2008) - IMDb
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Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Franz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask
Frantz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask (1995) - IMDb
A film by the artist / film maker Isaac Julien and Mark Nash.
I haven't read Fanon. Somewhat forgotten he was a must read back in sixties. An important writer on racism and colonialism.
The film is part talking heads/ part art film . The title is the first book he wrote. He trained as a Psychiatrist in France and this was his dissertation. For him personal psychology and the social circumstances one lived in were linked.
Colin Salmon plays Fanon.
Not the run of the mill doc. The way I see the film is tableaux featuring a young Fanon / older Fanon that try to get the feel of what Fanon wrote about. This isn't a straightforward reconstruction of his life.
Two recurring images are Fanon ( Colin) staring out at the viewer and him in the desert wearing his suit and carrying his suitcase.
Both show aspects of Fanon life and thought .
One was his idea that for racism against black people the act of looking was important. How well one wore a "white mask" it would not work. I've coincidentally just been reading the collection of short stories called Friday Black ( which I recommend if you like speculative fiction) - the first story in the collection is just about this. Kind of shows Fanon is still relevant.
The second image of him in the desert. An incongrous image of a suited man in the desert I read as him always being an outsider but trying to find somewhere where he can be really free.
His adopted country was Algeria. The film explains how he ended up in Algeria supporting the independence fight against the French army after WW2.
The film does intercut footage from the famous film Battle of Algiers.
The "talking heads" include his close family , Stuart Hall and people he worked with.
Surprisingly this doc isn't uncritical. I did start to look up more about Fanon after the film.
Its in the end a moving portrait of a man of his times.
I did feel it could have been a longer film. Issues were touched on. The use of violence, his take on women and gay men. The film didn't pull punches. He was criticised in the film.
I would have liked more on how is work is relevant now. Stuart Hall touched on it. How racism can operate on a visual level. It operates and is continued through daily interactions.
As a film I felt it was a bit frustrating. It was an uneasy balance between the talking heads ( who were very good ) and a more cinematic / poetic expression of the Fanons work. The images were getting there but not fully realised. Setting up tableaux and mixing it in with actual other footage as a kind of collage. Good idea and I would have liked to see a film about Fanon that was mainly this.
There is however one excellent bit in the film where the French academic is talking about Fanon work and Fanon ( Colin) appears in the background. This works well to combine the two ways the film is made.
Frantz Fanon: Black Skin White Mask (1995) - IMDb
A film by the artist / film maker Isaac Julien and Mark Nash.
I haven't read Fanon. Somewhat forgotten he was a must read back in sixties. An important writer on racism and colonialism.
The film is part talking heads/ part art film . The title is the first book he wrote. He trained as a Psychiatrist in France and this was his dissertation. For him personal psychology and the social circumstances one lived in were linked.
Colin Salmon plays Fanon.
Not the run of the mill doc. The way I see the film is tableaux featuring a young Fanon / older Fanon that try to get the feel of what Fanon wrote about. This isn't a straightforward reconstruction of his life.
Two recurring images are Fanon ( Colin) staring out at the viewer and him in the desert wearing his suit and carrying his suitcase.
Both show aspects of Fanon life and thought .
One was his idea that for racism against black people the act of looking was important. How well one wore a "white mask" it would not work. I've coincidentally just been reading the collection of short stories called Friday Black ( which I recommend if you like speculative fiction) - the first story in the collection is just about this. Kind of shows Fanon is still relevant.
The second image of him in the desert. An incongrous image of a suited man in the desert I read as him always being an outsider but trying to find somewhere where he can be really free.
His adopted country was Algeria. The film explains how he ended up in Algeria supporting the independence fight against the French army after WW2.
The film does intercut footage from the famous film Battle of Algiers.
The "talking heads" include his close family , Stuart Hall and people he worked with.
Surprisingly this doc isn't uncritical. I did start to look up more about Fanon after the film.
Its in the end a moving portrait of a man of his times.
I did feel it could have been a longer film. Issues were touched on. The use of violence, his take on women and gay men. The film didn't pull punches. He was criticised in the film.
I would have liked more on how is work is relevant now. Stuart Hall touched on it. How racism can operate on a visual level. It operates and is continued through daily interactions.
As a film I felt it was a bit frustrating. It was an uneasy balance between the talking heads ( who were very good ) and a more cinematic / poetic expression of the Fanons work. The images were getting there but not fully realised. Setting up tableaux and mixing it in with actual other footage as a kind of collage. Good idea and I would have liked to see a film about Fanon that was mainly this.
There is however one excellent bit in the film where the French academic is talking about Fanon work and Fanon ( Colin) appears in the background. This works well to combine the two ways the film is made.
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Kilgore Trout
Active Member
I'm watching Fear the Walking Dead series 2 that I recorded on E4. Its not as good as The Walking Dead (series 1 to 4 before Negen was introduced and it got rubbish) but fun and watchable if a little silly in places.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Industrial Accident: The Story Of Wax Trax Records
Thorough documentary on the seminal industrial/ebm label.
Some great stories of debauchery (such as live chickens with Annie Lennox masks being released into the crowd at a RevCo gig) and a surprisingly warm and moving love letter from the film-maker, Julia Nash, to her dad and his partner (Jim Nash and Danny Flesher), who co-founded the label
Thorough documentary on the seminal industrial/ebm label.
Some great stories of debauchery (such as live chickens with Annie Lennox masks being released into the crowd at a RevCo gig) and a surprisingly warm and moving love letter from the film-maker, Julia Nash, to her dad and his partner (Jim Nash and Danny Flesher), who co-founded the label
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Dune - David Lynch's effort from 1984. Still a bit of a mess. Impressive sets and design, but tonnes of exposition and raced scenes (esp in the second half). Haven't read the books but I can imagine fans of them were severely disappointed. When I originally saw this, aeons ago, I was a huge fan of Lynch but this left me disappointed. I think (hope) Villeneuve does a better job with what is clearly an epic storyline.
Reno
The In Kraut
In fairness to Lynch, he never got to make the film he wanted to make. After he turned in his first rough cut, which lasted four hours and was without finished effects, the studio made him recut the film to get it down to two hours. Lynch’s intention was a three hour film and he was faced with an impossible task. They added a narration and all these weird voice overs to paper over the cracks. Lynch has disowned the film and refuses to even talk about it.
The Villeneuve Dune is planned as two films, but the second one will only go into production if the first half is a success. As this is far from a sure thing (see Blade Runner 2049) , we could end up with half an adaptation.
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krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
I think Blade Runner 2049 is incredible, so I have faith in Villeneuve...
Reno
The In Kraut
I quite like it too (if not nearly as much as the original), but financially it was considered a disappointment. With Dune, Villeneuve is taking on his second film in a row, based on an earlier 80s sci-fi blockbuster, which wasn’t a hit the first time round. My point is, that we may end up with only half an adaptation, if Dune Part 1 suffers the same fate as Blade Runner 2049 at the box office.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
I'm sort of happy that we don't get to progress with anymore Blade Runners, tbh. As much as I appreciated the latest installment, I was not interested in the replica resistance thread that seemed to be setting it up for a future sequel.
I think that there's a lot of material for Dune, and maybe not so many of the newer generation of cinema-goers may be aware of its past, so may well embrace it?
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Fancied watching something terrible so picked Aquaman - it didn't disappoint. To save you over two hours of suffering, this is the best bit, specifically the goat's reaction
Reno
The In Kraut
Code 8, the second low budget sci-fi flick I've recently seen about a dystopian future in which people with super-...ooops...special powers have become outlaws for using their powers. This is slightly better than the godawful Freaks (not the 30s horror classic) but it still feels like a pilot for just another middling superhero tv series.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Some recent viewings:
The Goldfinch
It got poor reviews and it turns out they were way too generous. Nicole Kidman stops it from being unutterable shite, but that’s all anyone could say for it.
Badly acted, scored and directed. Despite the book having great dialogue and imagery, both are simply unmemorable here. None of the books strengths come through and it’s weaknesses (notably Boris and half of it being a Ripley knock off) are push’s massively to the fore.
Awful.
Blinded by the Light
Much better than expected. A bit retro cliche in places, but properly understood the power and importance of music.
Yesterday
Also much better than expected, with many really nice bits, even tho it’s full of holes and the ending is half an idea not thought through properly.
The Dead Don’t Die
The height of meh
Zombieland: Double Tap
Pointless sequel that made me yearn for The Dead Don’t Die
The Goldfinch
It got poor reviews and it turns out they were way too generous. Nicole Kidman stops it from being unutterable shite, but that’s all anyone could say for it.
Badly acted, scored and directed. Despite the book having great dialogue and imagery, both are simply unmemorable here. None of the books strengths come through and it’s weaknesses (notably Boris and half of it being a Ripley knock off) are push’s massively to the fore.
Awful.
Blinded by the Light
Much better than expected. A bit retro cliche in places, but properly understood the power and importance of music.
Yesterday
Also much better than expected, with many really nice bits, even tho it’s full of holes and the ending is half an idea not thought through properly.
The Dead Don’t Die
The height of meh
Zombieland: Double Tap
Pointless sequel that made me yearn for The Dead Don’t Die
hot air baboon
Well-Known Member
Ok this was back in December some time but the musings on Blade Runner have just reminded me that I had a DVD of Ex Machina from a charity shop that I finally decided to give a spin & was pleasantly surprised. I actually thought it knocked BR 2049 into a cocked hat on the whole AI-cyborg issue tbh
Reno
The In Kraut
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, one of the few John Cassavetes films I'd never seen. I get why some people like it the most of his films. It's in part a gangster film, complete with shootouts and offers one can't refuse, so it may be more accessible for many. Like all of his more personal films, it's a character study first though, with Ben Gazzara as a gambling addicted strip club proprietor who directs his strip club routines as an eccentric form of theatrical self-expression. Curious and I enjoyed it, but of Cassavetes' personal films its not among my favourites. I find the characters Gena Rowlands plays in A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, etc, including surrounding relationship dynamics, far more compelling.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Jodorowsky's Dune
2013 documentary about an adaptation that never was. The controversial director's vision would have been interesting, for sure, but possibly too far out for mainstream audiences.
2013 documentary about an adaptation that never was. The controversial director's vision would have been interesting, for sure, but possibly too far out for mainstream audiences.
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