What films have you watched recently?

cj73

Brazil.   Somehow, despite being a fan of all things Python for the best part of 30 years, I’d never seen it.   

Really liked it, definitely felt pythonesque and quite scathing  . Next on list is “Lost in La Mancha”

Longtallronnie

Philly_Q said:

earwighoney said:

I've not seen the remake of the Wicker Man, the one with Nick Cage. What an actor! I saw Vampire's Kiss a few months ago which had me waking in the middle of the night retelling the alphabet in a Nick Cage manner.

You have to watch the Wicker Man remake.  It has so many moments where you simply can't believe what you just saw or heard, not because they're scary or disturbing but because Cage's performance is so completely and utterly unhinged.

Nic Cage is such a strange actor.  So many people hate him or just take the piss out of him, but I think he can be amazing.  He can be almost comatose in an action role, then completely demented playing a supposedly regular guy.  He elevated Con Air by playing a lovable doofus who's somehow also a convincing action hero.  He's starred in just about the only two rom-coms I've ever liked - Honeymoon In Vegas and It Could Happen To You.  He's made a lot of terrible films - and been terrible in a lot of films - but there's just something about the guy.

Have you watched Mandy yet? Nic Cage in all his Nic Cageness. 

Haych

Philly_Q said:

Nic Cage is such a strange actor.  So many people hate him or just take the piss out of him, but I think he can be amazing.  He can be almost comatose in an action role, then completely demented playing a supposedly regular guy.  He elevated Con Air by playing a lovable doofus who's somehow also a convincing action hero.  He's starred in just about the only two rom-coms I've ever liked - Honeymoon In Vegas and It Could Happen To You.  He's made a lot of terrible films - and been terrible in a lot of films - but there's just something about the guy.

I do like Nicolas Cage, I find him very watchable but for me he plays Nicolas Cage in every role.  Tommy Lee Jones is another actor who is much the same, in every role he plays himself.  It works but I don't find anything really different from one performance to another.  Maybe the reason I like Nic is because he plays himself so well, you kinda know what you're going to get from him and for that reason I don't think I've seen a Nicolas Cage film I've disliked.

digitalscream

The Gentlemen.

It's fully aware that its characters take themselves far too seriously, and it's bags of fun as a result.

And...Hugh Grant. He's bloody brilliant in it - it's probably the most watchable he's ever been.

Also...sequel bait. And for once, it didn't annoy me.

Snap

Haych said:

I do like Nicolas Cage, I find him very watchable but for me he plays Nicolas Cage in every role.  Tommy Lee Jones is another actor who is much the same, in every role he plays himself. 

As does De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, Burt Lancaster, insert many acting "greats" who possibly get parts that have been written for them really, as they want the typical character they always play

Haych

Snap said:

Haych said:

I do like Nicolas Cage, I find him very watchable but for me he plays Nicolas Cage in every role.  Tommy Lee Jones is another actor who is much the same, in every role he plays himself. 

As does De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, Burt Lancaster, insert many acting "greats" who possibly get parts that have been written for them really, as they want the typical character they always play

This is true.  PersonallyI think the most versatile actors started in comedy.  David Jason, Jim Carey, Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels all immediately spring to mind and they're all brilliant actors who can easily do comedy roles and very serious roles with ease.

ICBM

Jimmy's Hall

A fairly typical Ken Loach gritty realist drama set in Ireland in the 1930s, based on a true story. As usual for Loach it's flawlessly directed and acted, perfectly observed and with some dark humour - but slightly lacking in emotional power somehow, even though there are a couple of scenes which are quite intense. And although true to the real story so it perhaps had to be, the ending is a bit "is that it?" A very good film, just not a great piece of film art, I think.

8/10

zepp76

digitalscream said:

The Gentlemen.

It's fully aware that its characters take themselves far too seriously, and it's bags of fun as a result.

And...Hugh Grant. He's bloody brilliant in it - it's probably the most watchable he's ever been.

Also...sequel bait. And for once, it didn't annoy me.

I watched it the other day, Hugh Grant’s acting is very good and evokes a very believable character. I liked it a lot.

Blueingreen

Rain Man.  I've avoided watching this over the years because of preconceptions of what the film would be like: well made, well acted, a bit dull, worthy, sentimental.

It was nothing like I imagined.  Well made and well acted, absolutely, but it's basically a stylish Hollywood fantasy.  Charlie Babbit's conversion from selfish arsehole to caring brother doesn't work at all as plausible psychology, but it doesn't matter because you realise it's all about genre convention, that you're watching something that's closer to the Wizard of Oz than a serious study of what it might be like to find out that you have an older autistic brother.  And on those terms, it works beautifully, a series of entertaining and involving set pieces hung on a fairly conventional plotline with some wonderful cinematography.   Wish I'd watched it sooner.  8/10

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

earwighoney said:

He's in a new Lovecraft film which was supposed to be good fun, have you see it yet? Btw, if Frightfest is on this year (big if) I'd like to join you for a film or two (I think I said that a few years already)

Color Out of Space (sorry about the spelling), Richard Stanley's first film in donkey's years.  It was on at the London Film Festival last year, but it was the only film I couldn't get tickets for!  Reviews have been positive, I'll be buying it on Blu-ray.

No decision on FrightFest this year, I suspect it won't happen because even if things are starting to get back to normal their process of finding films to show will have been severely curtailed.  And as my brother said, by the end of August will we actually feel comfortable sitting in a cinema with 700-odd people?

Maybe it'll be back for the Halloween day, then return to full force next year.

If you couldn't get tickets for that there must have been quite some demand as I see you to be like a ticket getting ninja, I remember you said you got tickets for The Lighthouse at the LFF. What did you think of it btw, I really think the Eggers brothers might be making some of the most interesting horror films around, I'm a fan for sure but I hope they don't get eaten by the Hollywood machine and end up directing Godzilla remakes and so on (next film is a Nosferatu remake which I'm quite excited about). 

Back to Richard Stanley, he's a director I know nothing about. What films from his back catalogue would you recommend?

As for Fright Fest, who know whether the last weekend of August will be suitable for watching films in a public setting or not? On a sidenote, if cinemas/pubs/venues can't be open after being shut for 5 months time then I'm even more worried for these industries in the short and long run.

Maybe FF could do an online festival and screen the films via Shudder on streaming? But yeah I think the one for Halloween could be a more realistic prospect.

Philly_Q

earwighoney said:

Philly_Q said:

earwighoney said:

He's in a new Lovecraft film which was supposed to be good fun, have you see it yet? Btw, if Frightfest is on this year (big if) I'd like to join you for a film or two (I think I said that a few years already)

Color Out of Space (sorry about the spelling), Richard Stanley's first film in donkey's years.  It was on at the London Film Festival last year, but it was the only film I couldn't get tickets for!  Reviews have been positive, I'll be buying it on Blu-ray.

No decision on FrightFest this year, I suspect it won't happen because even if things are starting to get back to normal their process of finding films to show will have been severely curtailed.  And as my brother said, by the end of August will we actually feel comfortable sitting in a cinema with 700-odd people?

Maybe it'll be back for the Halloween day, then return to full force next year.

If you couldn't get tickets for that there must have been quite some demand as I see you to be like a ticket getting ninja, I remember you said you got tickets for The Lighthouse at the LFF. What did you think of it btw, I really think the Eggers brothers might be making some of the most interesting horror films around, I'm a fan for sure but I hope they don't get eaten by the Hollywood machine and end up directing Godzilla remakes and so on (next film is a Nosferatu remake which I'm quite excited about). 

Back to Richard Stanley, he's a director I know nothing about. What films from his back catalogue would you recommend?

As for Fright Fest, who know whether the last weekend of August will be suitable for watching films in a public setting or not? On a sidenote, if cinemas/pubs/venues can't be open after being shut for 5 months time then I'm even more worried for these industries in the short and long run.

Maybe FF could do an online festival and screen the films via Shudder on streaming? But yeah I think the one for Halloween could be a more realistic prospect.

The Lighthouse was really good, big on atmosphere and fairly confusing in plot, although my memory of the specifics is already fading.  I don't see Robert Eggers ending up doing Star Trek sequels or whatever, I've seem him interviewed a couple of times and he's really interested in period drama and making films which look old - shooting in Academy ratio, etc.

Richard Stanley's only really done two films previously, Hardware and Dust Devil way back in the 1990s.  He was going to make a version of The Island of Doctor Moreau which went disastrously wrong for a variety of reasons, there's a good documentary about it.  Apart from that he's made a few documentaries and music videos. An interesting character.

I don't know what to think about FrightFest, in a way I'd be happy for it to be cancelled then hopefully by next year something like proper normality will have been restored.

CHRISB50

I watched Lo Sound Desert on Prime, about the Desert Rock scene in Cali. 

Was quite interesting and heard a load of bands I’ve never heard of before. 

For a music doc there wasn’t actually that much music though. What there was was very fragmented. 

Still an an enjoyable watch though. 

7/10

ICBM

Isle Of Dogs

Which I hadn't seen, and was unaware that it's quite so relevant now!

Quirky and imaginative animation by Wes Anderson, set in a dystopian future Japan and seen from the point of view of dogs... if that sounds odd, it is - but it's brilliantly done. Obvious visual nods to both 1984 and Terry Gilliam's animations, a bit of Kurosawa and Disney's Wall-E...

And Yoko Ono is in it . (But doesn't sing.)

8/10

HAL9000

Been working my way through my DVDs and Blu-rays whilst not working. Today it was Blues Brothers. Far better than I remembered with appearances by John Hooker, Ray Charles, Steve Cropper, Aretha Franklin to name but a few. Kept me entertained for 2⅓ hours.

Haych

It seems that every film I watch these days has Mark Wahlberg in! I promise it’s not deliberate, he’s everywhere. 

Tonight’s film was Deepwater Horizon. 

I can’t comment on how factual it is, or whether it has the internal politics or the engineering and science right or how much has been glossed over or embellished for the sake of the film. 

I remember the actual event happening and followed it on the news closely. I recall the deep feeling of dread I felt for the people involved on the rig and those who lost their lives, and those left to clean up the aftermath of the disaster and the well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months. 

The film does it justice from that perspective and as a disaster movie in its own right it’s very good. The special effects were quite incredible, too. 

One I would, and probably will, watch again. 

ICBM

Watched a nice cheery Easter movie last night...

The Last Temptation Of Christ

Controversial Martin Scorsese film from the 1980s with Willem Dafoe and Harvey Keitel. I had seen it before but a very long time ago, MrsICBM hadn't. I should probably say that I'm not a Christian so the 'blasphemous' aspects of it probably didn't mean anything to me. Overall I thought it was pretty good - although surprisingly dated in some ways for something supposed to be set 2,000 years ago, especially some of the hairstyles, which could be out of a Duran Duran video and make Dafoe even more unlikely as Jesus despite his acting ability - but shoehorning several of the miracles from the Bible into the plot make it slightly disjointed and awkward in places, and I also had the uncomfortable sense at a couple of points that it was almost a reverse-parody of Life Of Brian. Not quite as good as I remember - the ending also had less power than I expected seeing it for the second time. Peter Gabriel's soundtrack music is also almost distracting in places - it's great, but doesn't quite fit the film somehow.

7/10

Up next: Life Of Brian .

Philly_Q

I just watched the last half hour of We'll Meet Again (1943) with Vera Lynn.  There's a bandleader in it called Geraldo - apparently the guitarist in his orchestra during the 1940s was none other than Ivor Mairants.

EricTheWeary

MrsTheWeary has been watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I didn’t know much about the female lead Kate Capshaw so round her Wiki page: she seems to have been a very determined three year old.

https://i.imgur.com/cdJgdvt.jpg

Moominpapa

Philly_Q said:

I just watched the last half hour of We'll Meet Again (1943) with Vera Lynn.  There's a bandleader in it called Geraldo - apparently the guitarist in his orchestra during the 1940s was none other than Ivor Mairants.

A very good & prestigious gig to get - Geraldo was one of the biggest figures in the British dance band scene in the first half of the 20th C.

Bellycaster

The Commuter: 2018, Liam Neeson.

Very entertaining, but beyond ridiculous regarding how much of a beating a Human Being can take.

I'm impressed though that it's the first film I've seen that utilises a Fender Strat to kill someone.....and a Left Handed one at that.

I also liked the Spartacus moment