What films have you watched recently?

Moominpapa

JezWynd said:

The Third Man.  ... The art of film making at its very best. 10/10.

No argument from me on that one.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

munckee said:

@Philly_Q ;;; Netflix strength is its series, you should definitely watch Dark and Stranger Things - the latter if you have halcyon memories of the 80s and particularly 80s movies.  On Prime watch The Boys.

earwighoney said:

Yeah, I see that with my bro in law who's signed up to all the things you have but hasn't seen much aside from Stranger Things, and the Mandalorian! The pitfalls of streaming sometime seem like there is too much choice.

Thanks guys, I've got Stranger Things and Dark on my list, also The Haunting of Hill House (I like the book, the 1963 film and Mike Flanagan's previous films).  Never heard of The Boys, it sounds fairly interesting.  I'll pass on The Mandalorian, I've no intention of getting Disney+ at this stage!

I enjoyed Flanagan's 'The Haunting of Hill House', I enjoyed Oculus btw, odd to see how a fairly well regarded director in film had his biggest budget for a tv show! I loved the book and the 1963 film which are quite similar to each other but the tv show is it's own beast. I highly recommend it, the follow up was supposed to be Flanagan's extended take on Turn of the Screw, which should be interesting but I have a suspicion the quality won't be as good as The Haunting tv show.

I'm probably the only person who hated Stranger Things. I'm not really a fan of the 80's revisionist wave tbh, be it on tv eg the most recent series of American Horror Story, or quite a few films eg 'It Follows'. I don't mind the film itself, but I find the aesthetics of ripping of John Carpenter (who I love!) soundtracks a bit lazy.

tony99

just watching one of the super marvel DC hero ones, not sure which one coz there's a few of them in it, it's alright but they're all jumping about and doing the tricks and all that, they're after some box or something, bit mad

jonnyburgo

Watched The Night eats The World on Netlix, zombies in Paris and a poor chap stuck on his own in an apartment, solid little movie considering its largely a one man show. A not unexpected twist but was still good. Shows that with a small budget you can still make a movie better than 99% of big budget Hollywood nonsense.

Philly_Q

earwighoney said:

I enjoyed Flanagan's 'The Haunting of Hill House', I enjoyed Oculus btw, odd to see how a fairly well regarded director in film had his biggest budget for a tv show! I loved the book and the 1963 film which are quite similar to each other but the tv show is it's own beast. I highly recommend it, the follow up was supposed to be Flanagan's extended take on Turn of the Screw, which should be interesting but I have a suspicion the quality won't be as good as The Haunting tv show.

I'm probably the only person who hated Stranger Things. I'm not really a fan of the 80's revisionist wave tbh, be it on tv eg the most recent series of American Horror Story, or quite a few films eg 'It Follows'. I don't mind the film itself, but I find the aesthetics of ripping of John Carpenter (who I love!) soundtracks a bit lazy.

Ah, I absolutely loved It Follows!  One of my favourite recent films.  But I'll reserve judgement on Stranger Things.
Going back to Mike Flanagan, I really liked his first film Absentia.  It's very low budget and I'm not going to say it's the most amazing thing ever, but the atmosphere is really effective.

Tonight I finally watched something on Netflix I really liked:

Extra Ordinary
An Irish driving instructor with a talent for speaking with ghosts takes on a one-hit-wonder pop star who is trying to resurrect his career by sacrificing a virgin on the night of the blood moon... its hard to describe the style of this, it reminded me a bit of Mindhorn, a bit of the New Zealand comedy horror Housebound.  There are several laugh out loud moments but mostly it's just consistently amusing and likeable.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

Ah, I absolutely loved It Follows!  One of my favourite recent films.  But I'll reserve judgement on Stranger Things.
Going back to Mike Flanagan, I really liked his first film Absentia.  It's very low budget and I'm not going to say it's the most amazing thing ever, but the atmosphere is really effective.

Tonight I finally watched something on Netflix I really liked:

Extra Ordinary
An Irish driving instructor with a talent for speaking with ghosts takes on a one-hit-wonder pop star who is trying to resurrect his career by sacrificing a virgin on the night of the blood moon... its hard to describe the style of this, it reminded me a bit of Mindhorn, a bit of the New Zealand comedy horror Housebound.  There are several laugh out loud moments but mostly it's just consistently amusing and likeable.

I really liked It Follows, the cinematography is superb as well. I think I failed in trying to make my point though!  It's that I had a problem with the film, just a bit of the 80's revisionism at times.

Have you seen Oculus? I presume you have. A really interesting riff on a haunted house film, one set piece and a low budget, I reckon Mike Flanagan's a really talented editor.

I'll check out Extra Ordinary, sounds like my kind of thing. Another Kiwi Comedy Horror I liked is 'Deathgasm'.

Have you seen 'Todd & The Book of Pure Evil' it's on Netflix and it might be one of my favourite tv shows, the gore's over the top and I find it very funny.

Philly_Q

I remember hearing an interview with the director of It Follows - actually it might have been a London Film Festival Q&A - and he said he was trying to avoid setting it in any particular timeframe.  For example one of the girls has a mobile phone shaped like a seashell, which doesn't exist in the real world!  But yes, it does feel a bit 80s.

I have seen Oculus and I mostly liked it but felt a bit let down by the ending - I can't explain why because I can't remember the details, I just have the impression of how I felt about it!  Deathgasm was pretty good, the only problem is that films featuring (fictional) metal bands always feel just a bit phoney... Black Sheep's another not-bad NZ comedy horror, Housebound I loved to bits.

Todd & the Book of Pure Evil sounds great, I shall add to my watch list today.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

I remember hearing an interview with the director of It Follows - actually it might have been a London Film Festival Q&A - and he said he was trying to avoid setting it in any particular timeframe.  For example one of the girls has a mobile phone shaped like a seashell, which doesn't exist in the real world!  But yes, it does feel a bit 80s.

I have seen Oculus and I mostly liked it but felt a bit let down by the ending - I can't explain why because I can't remember the details, I just have the impression of how I felt about it!  Deathgasm was pretty good, the only problem is that films featuring (fictional) metal bands always feel just a bit phoney... Black Sheep's another not-bad NZ comedy horror, Housebound I loved to bits.

Todd & the Book of Pure Evil sounds great, I shall add to my watch list today.

Thanks for the info. Like I said I think I picked a bad example of It Follows to highlight the 80's revisionist thing coming back. You're right about the efforts to make it devoid of playing to a particular era, I should revisit it.

I have absolutely no idea how Ocular ended, all I can remember is the editing was superb and Karen Gillan looked as beautiful as ever.

I can see what you mean about the fake metal band thing being a bit false.

Yeah Bad Sheep's ok. Housebound is a lot of fun.

Trying to think of some horror comedy films and having a look at Wiki the ones I can remember from recent times I quite liked included Bad Milo, Tucker & Dale, and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer.

Blueingreen

Moominpapa said:

JezWynd said:

The Third Man.  ... The art of film making at its very best. 10/10.

No argument from me on that one.

Would have named it as my all-time favourite film for quite a long time.  Maybe not now,  a couple of others have stood up better to multiple watchings, but still one of the greats.

The last time I saw it, probably about my 7th or 8th, was in Vienna. There's a cinema there shows it a few times a week for tourists.  Wonderful to come out of the cinema and walk round some of the same streets it was shot in, recognising the same buildings, the same caryatids etc.

The Man Between, another film directed by Reed a few years later, also set in post war central Europe (Berlin this time) has some similarities of style and atmosphere and a great cast including James Mason and Clare Bloom.  It's not as good as The Third Man, of course, but it's a somewhat forgotten and underrated movie that delivers some of the same pleasures if that's the kind of thing you like.

Philly_Q

earwighoney said:

Trying to think of some horror comedy films and having a look at Wiki the ones I can remember from recent times I quite liked included Bad Milo, Tucker & Dale, and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer.

I hated Bad Milo! The other two are pretty good.  Thinking of Tucker & Dale, I watched another film by the same director, Little Evil.  It starts really, really badly and takes forever to get going, but ultimately it's quite a nice little stepdad-bonds-with-weird-kid story.  Problem Child meets The Omen.

fretmeister

Philly_Q said:

munckee said:

@Philly_Q ;;; Netflix strength is its series, you should definitely watch Dark and Stranger Things - the latter if you have halcyon memories of the 80s and particularly 80s movies.  On Prime watch The Boys.

earwighoney said:

Yeah, I see that with my bro in law who's signed up to all the things you have but hasn't seen much aside from Stranger Things, and the Mandalorian! The pitfalls of streaming sometime seem like there is too much choice.

Thanks guys, I've got Stranger Things and Dark on my list, also The Haunting of Hill House (I like the book, the 1963 film and Mike Flanagan's previous films).  Never heard of The Boys, it sounds fairly interesting.  I'll pass on The Mandalorian, I've no intention of getting Disney+ at this stage!

The Boys is excellent.

Really quite dark, well scripted and cast. Can flip between great humour and depravity very quick.

goldtop

Under the Skin. I really don't know. There is no explanation at all to give you an idea of plot. There are a lot of rather long not-much-happening shots. Scarlett Johanssen underacts perfectly, as do the many Glaswegian non-actors and it's visually engaging. But I felt it's a good idea in need of more substance. 6/10

Philly_Q

Blueingreen said:

Moominpapa said:

JezWynd said:

The Third Man.  ... The art of film making at its very best. 10/10.

No argument from me on that one.

Would have named it as my all-time favourite film for quite a long time.  Maybe not now,  a couple of others have stood up better to multiple watchings, but still one of the greats.

The last time I saw it, probably about my 7th or 8th, was in Vienna. There's a cinema there shows it a few times a week for tourists.  Wonderful to come out of the cinema and walk round some of the same streets it was shot in, recognising the same buildings, the same caryatids etc.

The Man Between, another film directed by Reed a few years later, also set in post war central Europe (Berlin this time) has some similarities of style and atmosphere and a great cast including James Mason and Clare Bloom.  It's not as good as The Third Man, of course, but it's a somewhat forgotten and underrated movie that delivers some of the same pleasures if that's the kind of thing you like.

Another Carol Reed film, from a couple of years before The Third Man... Odd Man Out, again with James Mason.  And in between those two, The Fallen Idol.  What a run that was!

Moominpapa

Tonight I have been watching this 100% hard science-based work of art:

"FILM: Super Storm (2011)

Thursday 28th May 8:10pm

A vast storm that astronomers have observed on Jupiter vanishes, only for strange weather conditions to start occurring. Scientists realise the destructive wind has transferred across planets, and unless it is stopped, it will wipe out all life on Earth. Sci-fi thriller, starring David Sutcliffe, Leah Cairns and Mitch Pileggi"

0/10

JezWynd

Philly_Q said:

Blueingreen said:

Moominpapa said:

JezWynd said:

The Third Man.  ... The art of film making at its very best. 10/10.

No argument from me on that one.

Would have named it as my all-time favourite film for quite a long time.  Maybe not now,  a couple of others have stood up better to multiple watchings, but still one of the greats.

The last time I saw it, probably about my 7th or 8th, was in Vienna. There's a cinema there shows it a few times a week for tourists.  Wonderful to come out of the cinema and walk round some of the same streets it was shot in, recognising the same buildings, the same caryatids etc.

The Man Between, another film directed by Reed a few years later, also set in post war central Europe (Berlin this time) has some similarities of style and atmosphere and a great cast including James Mason and Clare Bloom.  It's not as good as The Third Man, of course, but it's a somewhat forgotten and underrated movie that delivers some of the same pleasures if that's the kind of thing you like.

Another Carol Reed film, from a couple of years before The Third Man... Odd Man Out, again with James Mason.  And in between those two, The Fallen Idol.  What a run that was!

And then, as his career was winding down he directed Oliver!. Love it or loathe it (I'm in the former camp), it must have been a very demanding job and was brilliantly executed.

Philly_Q

JezWynd said:

And then, as his career was winding down he directed Oliver!. Love it or loathe it (I'm in the former camp), it must have been a very demanding job and was brilliantly executed.

I love it!  I haven't seen it for a while but Ron Moody was tremendous and looking at it now, what an excellent cast.  I've been a fan of Charles Dickens for as long as I can remember but I saw a lot of film and TV adaptations before I read the books.  I wonder if it was Oliver! that kicked it all off?

Blueingreen

Philly_Q said:

Blueingreen said:

Moominpapa said:

JezWynd said:

The Third Man.  ... The art of film making at its very best. 10/10.

No argument from me on that one.

Would have named it as my all-time favourite film for quite a long time.  Maybe not now,  a couple of others have stood up better to multiple watchings, but still one of the greats.

The last time I saw it, probably about my 7th or 8th, was in Vienna. There's a cinema there shows it a few times a week for tourists.  Wonderful to come out of the cinema and walk round some of the same streets it was shot in, recognising the same buildings, the same caryatids etc.

The Man Between, another film directed by Reed a few years later, also set in post war central Europe (Berlin this time) has some similarities of style and atmosphere and a great cast including James Mason and Clare Bloom.  It's not as good as The Third Man, of course, but it's a somewhat forgotten and underrated movie that delivers some of the same pleasures if that's the kind of thing you like.

Another Carol Reed film, from a couple of years before The Third Man... Odd Man Out, again with James Mason.  And in between those two, The Fallen Idol.  What a run that was!

Agreed.  Fallen Idol more my thing than Odd Man Out but both excellent.  Another Graham Greene story of course. As you probably know he was a film critic as well as novelist.

ICBM

Performance

Another much-talked-about film that I'd never actually seen...

James Fox and Mick Jagger (and Anita Pallenberg) in a gangster story involving sex, violence, drugs and slightly gender-bending role-reversal... *very* controversial in its day - so much so that its release was apparently delayed by a couple of years, until 1970 - but now recognised as a groundbreaking and hugely influential film.

It's very dark, brutal in places and surreal in others, and actually surprising that it was made at all in the late 1960s - but with some stunning imagery and performances, and utterly compelling and brilliant. Jagger is at least as good as Fox, which I wasn't expecting - he sort-of plays himself, but exaggerated and to perfection. (Hopefully without being a spoiler) the ending is surprising and odd, and makes you question exactly what you've seen - which is one of Nicholas Roeg's trademarks.

If you haven't seen it, don't wait as long as I did.

10/10

shrinkwrap

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is streaming on the Channel 4 film section.
Not the oddest movie I've seen but not far off. If you mix up Samuel Beckett, Luis Bunuel and Ingmar Bergman you might be close.

equalsql

Adult Life Skills

Currently on Netflix starring the new Dr Who Jodie Whittaker. A sweet, very quirky, low budget, little gem of a film.

If Wes Anderson was English and had to make a movie on a BBC budget then this is the sort of thing he would come up with.

A gentle film for a quiet evening. 7/10