What films have you watched recently?

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

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.

What's Tenable?

Locke & Key doesn't sounds ok. I saw another Joe Hill tv show 'Nos4A2' which wasn't bad at all. Not massively memorable but an enjoyable journey nonetheless.

Philly_Q

earwighoney said:

What's Tenable?

It's a game show with Warwick Davis.  I love game shows.

goldtop

equalsql said:

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

Cool - I'll give that a go. I've got free Amazon Prime at the moment, and it's so hard to sift through the dross!

Talking of which:

American Sniper. By-the-numbers soldier loyalty, bravado and Murica-vs-baddies! Did not know the true story, so the ending was surprising. A bit of a 'meta' postscript, actually. 2/10.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

earwighoney said:

What's Tenable?

It's a game show with Warwick Davis.  I love game shows.

Ah ok, thanks the info.

I used to be fan of Gameshows a while back. Bob Monkhouse was my favourite host.

Haych

First Kill

Young family living in the city decide to spend some time in the country where the dad intends to take his son hunting for deer.

While out in the woods they come across two guys arguing over stolen money, shooting starts and one perp ends up injured at the hands of the other perp, the other perp ends up dead at the hands of the dad.

Cue not so intricate trail of deceit and police corruption and a fairly predictable plot unfolds.  None of the twists are particularly sudden or surprising but it's a watchable film for all that.

The only name I recognised from the cast list is Bruce Willis, who seems rather dull and whose name was probably involved only to pull in some punters.

Not a good film but not a disaster.  5/10

Rocker

Guess who's coming to dinner

A highly rated film about a black man getting engaged to a white woman.  And how their families deal with the situation.  Set in a single day.

Despite a number of 'A' listed actors, the acting is probably as bad as it is possible to get.  Not even slightly convincing.

If you have not already watched it, don't bother.  1/10

Dopesick

Parasite

Fucking amazing.

EDIT: Dumbass spoilers removed.

Yeah...really good. Black comedy that takes a dark turn with some awesome cinematic touches.

Philly_Q

Dopesick said:

Parasite

Fucking amazing.  EDIT: Dumbass spoilers removed.

Aaargh!  Spoilers!  I haven't seen it yet and I'm trying to avoid knowing anything about it.

Dopesick

Philly_Q said:

Aaargh!  Spoilers!  I haven't seen it yet and I'm trying to avoid knowing anything about it.

Haha sorry mate. Have edited my post. Although what I posted is just the tip of the iceberg, so much more going on.

ICBM

Hamlet

Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 version with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. I wasn't sure what to expect given that Gibson can be both overblown and wooden - sometimes at the same time! - but it's not actually that bad. It does suffer from being neither a very faithful transposition of Shakespeare's script nor imaginative enough to stand on its own - actually the exact opposite of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet - and as a result it's just kind of OK rather than brilliant. The story is told, Gibson is reasonably good, Close is better, Ian Holm and Nathaniel Parker are excellent, and Helena Bonham-Carter is wildly over the top... and there's a great cameo from Pete Postlethwaite. And they all look amazingly young - well, it was thirty years ago now .

7/10

Trivia - quite a bit of the castle courtyard exterior shots were filmed at Blackness Castle, which isn't too far from me - I spotted it straight away, although it's a while since I've been there.

Philly_Q

Dopesick said:

Philly_Q said:

Aaargh!  Spoilers!  I haven't seen it yet and I'm trying to avoid knowing anything about it.

Haha sorry mate. Have edited my post. Although what I posted is just the tip of the iceberg, so much more going on.

Edited my reply too.     I must watch it soon, should've seen it ages ago really.

boogieman

ICBM said:

Hamlet

Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 version with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. I wasn't sure what to expect given that Gibson can be both overblown and wooden - sometimes at the same time! - but it's not actually that bad. It does suffer from being neither a very faithful transposition of Shakespeare's script nor imaginative enough to stand on its own - actually the exact opposite of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet - and as a result it's just kind of OK rather than brilliant. The story is told, Gibson is reasonably good, Close is better, Ian Holm and Nathaniel Parker are excellent, and Helena Bonham-Carter is wildly over the top... and there's a great cameo from Pete Postlethwaite. And they all look amazingly young - well, it was thirty years ago now .

7/10

Trivia - quite a bit of the castle courtyard exterior shots were filmed at Blackness Castle, which isn't too far from me - I spotted it straight away, although it's a while since I've been there.

It’s not a bad go at the story and I quite like it but I always struggled with Glenn Close’s casting as Mel Gibson’s mother, she only looks a few years older than him. I actually like HBC’s completely bonkers version of Ophelia. 

ICBM

boogieman said:

It’s not a bad go at the story and I quite like it but I always struggled with Glenn Close’s casting as Mel Gibson’s mother, she only looks a few years older than him. 

Well, in those days she would have only been about 15 years older than him . (But Close is only 9 years older than Gibson.) I agree - although you get used to it.

I did like HBC too - I always did when she was young - and I quite liked the film, it’s just that after you’ve seen Romeo+Juliet, a ‘straight’ reading of Shakespeare just seems a bit dull... if anything, if the rest of it had been equally bonkers it would have been better.

boogieman

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

It’s not a bad go at the story and I quite like it but I always struggled with Glenn Close’s casting as Mel Gibson’s mother, she only looks a few years older than him. 

Well, in those days she would have only been about 15 years older than him . (But Close is only 9 years older than Gibson.) I agree - although you get used to it.

I did like HBC too - I always did when she was young - and I quite liked the film, it’s just that after you’ve seen Romeo+Juliet, a ‘straight’ reading of Shakespeare just seems a bit dull... if anything, if the rest of it had been equally bonkers it would have been better.

It’s already a bonkers story all round to be fair.  I confess I’ve got a big soft spot for Hamlet as we did it for O level English and it was the first Shakespeare play where I actually understood what was going on. 

ICBM

boogieman said:

I confess I’ve got a big soft spot for Hamlet as we did it for O level English and it was the first Shakespeare play where I actually understood what was going on.

Ha... I did Romeo & Juliet, and the same applies . Some of us went to see a ‘modern’ performance of it, which I’d never seen done before, so I’ve always liked that approach.

boogieman

ICBM said:

boogieman said:

I confess I’ve got a big soft spot for Hamlet as we did it for O level English and it was the first Shakespeare play where I actually understood what was going on.

Ha... I did Romeo & Juliet, and the same applies . Some of us went to see a ‘modern’ performance of it, which I’d never seen done before, so I’ve always liked that approach.

I’ve seen various versions of Hamlet over the years, always preferred the modern approach too, rather than the Laurence Olivier luvvyfest film. 

The most memorable version I saw was a stage version at the Old Vic with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet. It was a great production but that isn’t the reason I remember it. In the final scene where the stage was littered with bodies there was a deathly hush throughout the theatre. 

Then an ambulance went past outside.... nee naw, nee naw. 

You could see the allegedly dead Derek Jacobi was absolutely quivering with laughter and suddenly the whole audience were roaring too. Hilarious, for all the wrong reasons. 

Lodious

Parasite 

Slightly bonkers Korean back comedy drama. I liked it, 7/10 :-)

JezWynd

Internal Affairs, Mike Figgis movie from 1990. I used to really like this film but hadn't seen it for some years. It hasn't aged well, despite dealing with the very topical subject of Police corruption in LA. Gere makes a suitably reptilian bad cop, the smooth planes of his face caught to perfection. The look, unsurprisingly, is pure 80's LA; big hair, tight skirts and lots of flash. Gere mumbles his way through the dialogue, while Andy Garcia as his good cop nemesis, generally stares into space and looks moody in super cool RayBans. It's left to Laurie Metcalf as good cop's dyke sidekick to inject some life into movie. Can't see what I saw in it tbh, the photography is probably its best point - he has a similar photographic eye to William Friedkin but whereas Friedkin gets inside the scene and it lives, Figgis' is more a glossy adman's take. 6.5/10.

ICBM

boogieman said:

The most memorable version I saw was a stage version at the Old Vic with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet. It was a great production but that isn’t the reason I remember it. In the final scene where the stage was littered with bodies there was a deathly hush throughout the theatre. 

Then an ambulance went past outside.... nee naw, nee naw. 

You could see the allegedly dead Derek Jacobi was absolutely quivering with laughter and suddenly the whole audience were roaring too. Hilarious, for all the wrong reasons. 

Monty Python and The Prince Of Denmark .

HAL9000

Wind River - Set in the snow fields of Wyoming, a local hunter helps FBI agent solve the murder of a young woman on a Native American reserve. Not at all bad. Kept me entertained for the best part of two hours. 7/10.