What films have you watched recently?

goldtop

shrinkwrap said:

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.

Amen, brother. Also has Andersson's weirdly compelling cinematography - where everything is in front-to-back focus, and the framing is bonkers. Filmed almost entirely in beige, brown and grey, too, IIRC.

Haych

Unbreakable

The lad has been wanting to watch Glass for a while, which I believe is a follow on from Split, which I'm also led to believe is a follow on from Unbreakable - I could be wrong about all that.

In case I'm not I figured it would be good to start at the beginning.  I've not seen Glass or Split but I watched Unbreakable a few years ago.

While the acting was very good - performances from all the cast were excellent, and the story was alright, I found it all a bit pedestrian. Nothing of any consequence really happens until that last 20 minutes of the film and the little time bombs that M. Night Shyamalan usually drops throughout his films, only to go off towards the end, were very few and far between and didn't have much impact when they did.

I thought it might be better watching it a second time around but I was left with much the same feeling that I had the first time.

The movie happens and despite everything I've said it's not a bad one to watch, but it doesn't grab you by the collar and drag you along for the ride.

6/10

Stratavarious

Under Siege on now on DVD

boogieman

Cell. Based on the Stephen King book. 

Samuel L Jackson phones in his I’m only doing this for the paycheck part, with not much enthusiasm. John Cusack isn’t much better (and has really weird hair). The plot didn’t make much sense. I haven’t read the book so I don’t know if it’s equally as vague, but then King was one of the scriptwriters so presumably it’s fairly close? 

Overall, ok, not great. 

Prime really has got some crap films on at the moment (1970s Carry On style soft porn like Adventures of a Plumber anyone?) and their “new films” section includes LOTR and Jurassic Park. They’ve also started putting up lots of films that you can’t actually watch unless you join various subscription services. 

Haych

boogieman said:

They’ve also started putting up lots of films that you can’t actually watch unless you join various subscription services. 

That’s really irritating. When I joined Prime I didn’t think there’d be another tier altogether after paying once. 

At least with Netflix what you see is what you get but the last couple of years has been a decline when it comes to the films they offer. They seem to be mostly about originals and series now and most of the films available are either so old I’ve seen them a dozen times or they’re straight to tv junk. 

Greatape

Rewatched Blues Brothers. I nearly pissed myself laughing at the nun scene. 

Guess it's time I started telling dad jokes. 

Also Point Break. You can't learn talent like that. It's a gift. 

Oh yeah: ' High Life' with Robert Patterson, Juliette Binoche. Gave me flashbacks to Tarkovsky. 

Haych

Haven’t watched that many films recently. 

I’ve been binge rewatching Still Game on Netflix.  Absolutely cracking stuff and much funnier than most comedy movies. This is what TV was made for!

menamestom

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.


Nicely shot.  DiCaprio and Pitt are very good.  A bit too long and a few scenes that were not really needed.  
Kind of strange mix of almost historical fact and complete fiction.  Not sure I get the point of it in that respect.

Still was an enjoyable movie, good music, visuals and characters.  7/10

Philly_Q

Haych said:

I’ve been binge rewatching Still Game on Netflix.  Absolutely cracking stuff and much funnier than most comedy movies. This is what TV was made for!

I used to be obsessed with Still Game, I've got the first six series on DVD (and although I've got thousands of films on DVD and Blu-ray, I don't buy much TV drama or comedy).  But I haven't seen the last three series since they brought it back.

Haych

I’m not sure how many series there are but only up to S8 is available on Netflix. I’d not seen S7 and S8 until recently but I reckon it’s some of their best. I don’t know where they get the sauce from but they seem to have it in abundance. 

Blueingreen

ICBM said:

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

I haven’t seen it for a few years but I’ve seen it probably 3 or 4 times over the years and always been entertained. I’m not generally a fan of Roeg as a director but I think this film is better than its critical reputation suggests. Wouldn’t go to 10/10 personally but maybe 9.

The only other of his films I’ve much liked was Bad Timing but I haven't seen that in a very long time and have my doubts whether I’d still like it as much now.

HAL9000

Greatape said:

Rewatched Blues Brothers. I nearly pissed myself laughing at the nun scene. 

I watched this (and the sequel) only a few weeks back. Both far better than I’d remembered and, as you say, nun scene is hilarious. Also the bar where they play ‘both kinds of music’.

Haych

Crawl

Only started watching because it had 4/5 star reviews. 

The basic plot hinges on a young swimming star who heads out into a hurricane in Florida to search for her father who isn’t answering calls. 

The film starts at some swimming event in which she comes second and is clearly not happy about it. This has to be a setup for later in the film. 

After she finds her father injured, in the crawl space under their former home, they both come under attack from two giant alligators. 

Mind numbing predictability of the worst kind. It got turned off before the inevitable scene where she must have had to outswim one of the critters to either save hers, or somebody else’s, life. 

How it got 4/5 stars I’ll never know but I wasn’t prepared to waste a full 84 minutes hoping it would get better. 

2/10

ICBM

goldtop said:

shrinkwrap said:

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.

Amen, brother. Also has Andersson's weirdly compelling cinematography - where everything is in front-to-back focus, and the framing is bonkers. Filmed almost entirely in beige, brown and grey, too, IIRC.

I’ve just seen this too. Totally agree - surreal and very odd, but strangely compelling. It’s really like a dream - a lot of it seems to happen in slow motion, things appear to make logical sense even when they’re completely disjointed, some things keep repeating, and in the end it doesn’t really go anywhere (which isn’t a fault).

It slightly reminded me of another Anderson (Wes) in style as well.

8/10

Philly_Q

Haych said:

Crawl

.....Mind numbing predictability of the worst kind. It got turned off before the inevitable scene where she must have had to outswim one of the critters to either save hers, or somebody else’s, life. 

She does.  But it's not just one scene.  They obviously thought the swimming thing, proving she really can rise to the occasion and be a champion, was such a brilliant and original idea that they should use it multiple times.  The film has so many contrived situations where they escape from jeopardy, only to end up in danger again, that it gets utterly ridiculous (and boring).  Having said that, I quite enjoyed it but I'll probably never watch it again.

Snap

Greatape said:

Rewatched Blues Brothers. I nearly pissed myself laughing at the nun scene. 

Me too. What a cracking film. I laughed all the way through it. And the cast!!! Amazing.

Its 9am. We're late. Time to go to work.

Small claim to fame - my brother was the musical director & keys player of the touring show. That was a good show as well. Problem for me was when I went to see him in it, a few times, I'd be tearing up with pride the whole time, ha!!

quarky

Why Him? 8/10
Comedy from 2016 with Bryan Cranston, about parents meeting a potential future son-in-law. The first few minutes are a bit cringy, but the film is actually very funny. Elon Musk has a (wooden) cameo too. Surprised it is a 15 to be honest. 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4501244/

Philly_Q

Not a film, but I've been watching Locke & Key on Netflix.  My brother mentioned it and I went to look it up then accidentally started playing the first episode, so I thought what the hell, it'll do until there are some new episodes of Tenable...

It's okay, a bit teen-romancey at times but I'm sticking with it for now.  It's basically Stephen King (it's co-written by his son Joe Hill) meets Lemony Snicket meets C S Lewis, aimed (I guess) at young adults but it has a few surprisingly dark moments.

EricTheWeary

American Made

Tom Cruise in a wig (?) in a film loosely based on the life of Barry Seal ( give him a quick google just to see how much Cruise looks like him...    ). Film 4 billed it as a comedy thriller, I'm not sure that I laughed at any point but it's a light hearted take on drug smuggling. Just very aware that it is a Tom Cruise film ( he even did some of the piloting* apparently)so it's hard to get beyond the idea that everything is designed to show him off. It's alright.    


* flying a plane. I've lost faith in the idea that piloting is a proper word. 

equalsql

The Vast Of Night

Streaming on Amazon Prime.

An indie sci-fi movie set in the American deep south during the late 50s/early 60s.

A cracking debut film with some great atmosphere and many very clever long tracking shots. Moody with a wonderful vintage vibe.

The actors are excellent with such a natural feel to the dialog that it doesn't sound scripted.

4/5