What films have you watched recently?

Haych

Inside Man

Quite a clever 2006 heist movie featuring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer and Willem Dafoe to name just a few.

Robbers enter a bank and take everyone inside hostage.  That's about where the similarities between every other heist movie end and I won't divulge any more as it would probably contain spoilers in the event anyone else decided to watch it.

The performances were pretty good, Washington's character wasn't likeable and he plays a self serving and over confident police negotiator.  Clive Owen plays a very cool and in control ringleader who seems to have thought everything through in finite detail.

The plot was really quite good, I couldn't see how it was going to end and Spike Lee does a great job of keeping the pace moving without it being start to finish action.

8/10

Haych

In the Electric Mist

Tommy Lee Jones plays a parish sheriff in small town post Katrina Louisiana, investigating the murder of a young working girl.

Throw in a movie star who's making a film nearby and who discovers the skeletal remains of a black man in the swamp while shooting a scene and you have a movie with enough intrigue but which never really makes good on its promise.

It seems like a good plot from the blurb and in some ways it's quite engaging, mainly the setting and scenery.  But it's also quite ridiculous - the story doesn't really flow and it's quite disjointed with Tommy Lee Jones narrating over some scenes in an attempt to keep the viewer in the know of what was going on.  It also needs some help from hallucinations Jones suffers of the civil war and conversations with an all knowing black man (Buddy Guy), who, frustratingly, knows much but says little and speaks only with cryptic suggestions.

The twist at the end when we find out whodunit is both surprising and yet utterly banal.

Performances are good, TLJ does TLJ as he always does although he's a bit more restrained in this.  Mary Steenburgen is good support as Jones' wife and the other big player is John Goodman who is arguably the star of the show and puts on the best performance of the film.

There's also one scene with Buddy Guy strutting his stuff on guitar but it doesn't add anything to the film and is unnecessary to the plot, except that Jones' has his drink spiked which leads to his fist hallucination with General John Bell Hood.

It's an adaptation of a book written by James Lee Burke and one suspects the book is both better and significantly more involved that condensing it to a two hour screenplay was a difficult task.

5/10

skullfunkerry

We watched Code 8 last night on Netflix. Pretty similar setup to X-Men: some people have powers, people who don’t have turned against them and are afraid of them.

The powers were more of a side-story though, it was mainly a heist movie. Pretty good, I thought.

Oh, and we watched Ma on Sunday night. Solid (if a bit ridiculous) psycho-drama. Was good fun in a “that was pretty crap but I enjoyed it” kind of way... similarly 6 Underground: it’s a bit like a fan-made Deadpool tribute where they actually managed to get Ryan Reynolds to be in it

Moominpapa

The Lighthouse  -  I was ready to love this film. I thought The VVitch was wonderful, I like Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, heck, I even like the idea of a lighthouse as a locus of drama. Plus son #1 had seen it already and raved about it. So me, Moominmama & son #2 watched it on Sunday. All three of us were disappointed. In fact, we all agreed that as cheesy as Cold Skin was, it was a much more enjoyable watch than The Lighthouse.  The problem with the film is that it is too far up its own ass to get anywhere. Right from the start it hits you with portents of how weird and deep it is going to be, but (IMO) never lives up to them. I llke films in black and white, but just because you film in black and white doesn't automatically mean you're making a deep film; it also brings a risk (unfortunately realised in spades in this film) that if the lighting isn't handled superbly whole scenes turn into an indistinct patch of black on your tv screen.

I would still say give the film a watch and see what you think. At least it made an attempt at being interesting film making, which is something I respect and encourage.

Haych

Shock and Awe

2018 political thriller starring Woody Harrelson and James Marsden as journalists working for an independent newspaper publishing house.

Focussed on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the events leading up to that invasion and particularly the media involvement in pushing the government line that Saddam was hiding stockpiles of WMD.

Where all the mainstream news outlets, CNN, ABC, NBC, New York Times etc were towing the Bush administration line and reporting the 'facts' from the top that supported war, Harrelson and Marsden, as Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, woking for Knight Ridder were talking to middle tier government advisers, security officials and intelligence officials and were reporting a different story - that the links between Al Qaeda and Iraq were non-existent and the intelligence that supported war was also fabricated.

Their stories were largely ignored by mainstream media and not even acknowledged by the Bush administration.

The film is well made and Harrelson and Marsden put on good and believable performances.  It also has excerpts of actual news footage and White House press briefings from Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Bush himself inserted throughout the film that shows the kind of mainstream media mentality that was rife at the time, and that the Bush administration was lying to the American people and the world.

After the film had played out, during the end credits, another excerpt was played of a news interview with the real life Landay and Strobel, now vindicated as being right all along, and the fact that the New York Times was forced to publish an apology over the stories it ran in support of the Bush administration.

I don't normally do political type stuff but I really enjoyed this.  Had it not been for the fact it was hinged on 9/11 and the fabricated justification to go to war with Iraq off the back of those events I probably would have given it a miss.  I would certainly recommend watching, though.  It's not a tense, gripping film to watch, but it does keep the viewer engaged and interested in the story as it unfolds.  If Rob Reiner has half the facts correct that were in his film then it beggars belief that those in power could tell such a colossal series of lies to serve their own ends.

8/10

fretmeister

EricTheWeary said:

Black Panther.

I'm not one for the Marvel Comic Universe. Two hours of CGI and running around. Anyway, BP comes with a better reputation. The primarily black cast for a high budget film, the African themes and  (brief)  references to American inequalities marking it out as something different. I can see in those terms it is a significant film. But it's still pretty much two hours of CGI and running around. 

You forgot the other bit - that despite Stark Tech and Vibranium and alien space kit the entire series is really about punching people in the head.

It's fun, but when I heard a colleague try to tell me that several MCU films were in the running for "best bit of cinema in history" I nearly had to punch him in the head.

But he's only about 22. Hasn't even seen Jaws.

EricTheWeary

fretmeister said:

EricTheWeary said:

Black Panther.

I'm not one for the Marvel Comic Universe. Two hours of CGI and running around. Anyway, BP comes with a better reputation. The primarily black cast for a high budget film, the African themes and  (brief)  references to American inequalities marking it out as something different. I can see in those terms it is a significant film. But it's still pretty much two hours of CGI and running around. 

You forgot the other bit - that despite Stark Tech and Vibranium and alien space kit the entire series is really about punching people in the head.

It's fun, but when I heard a colleague try to tell me that several MCU films were in the running for "best bit of cinema in history" I nearly had to punch him in the head.

But he's only about 22. Hasn't even seen Jaws.

The moral does seem to be invariably that if you want peace you need violence to get there, if you have right on your side you’ll somehow be better at violence in the end than the bad guys. 

I have only seen a few MCU films ( some are Sony but still have Marvel characters or something?) and the only one that stood out was Logan as less reliant on endless CGI and actually had characters and an interesting cast. Black Panther suffered further by having the baddies as the only interesting people. The film has a mixture of something quite childish and a massive death toll. It’s technically incredible and to see that much money go into a film with a primarily black cast may be a watershed moment in Hollywood. But they aren’t great movies unless you are 12 years old. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:
But they aren’t great movies unless you are 12 years old. 

Great, no, they're certainly not great.  But most Hollywood blockbusters are utter shit made by number-crunchers who produce cynical exercises in box-ticking for no reason other than maximising profits.

I'm not naive enough to think that aspect is entirely absent from the Marvel Comics Universe, but I think most (nearly all, in fact) of the MCU films are better than they needed to be to just put bums on seats.  They feel like they're made by people who do actually care and - so far, at least - don't want to be the guys who let the franchise's standards drop.  They're highly entertaining, and there's nothing wrong with that.

(Re Black Panther, it attracted extra attention for reasons which are perfectly understandable in the current climate, even more so now than when it was made, but I don't think it's any better or worse than most of the other films.)

fretmeister

I liked Black Panther a great deal, Even though I was shouting "Where's Wallace, String?" through it!

But half of the press it got was bollocks. "The first black led franchise film" etc.

Nope.

That was Blade. And even though Wesley's clearly gone a bit weird, the first 2 Blade films were ace. 

JezWynd

Patty Cake$ Late night Film 4. A cross between 8 Mile and American Honey with a white trash fat girl and weirdo pals forming a band. A really lovely feelgood movie shining through the feelbad moments. Excellent photography. Catch it if you can.

Springywheel

The House That Jack Built

Well that was bleak...certainly not your average Friday night popcorn movie with the family, but riveting nonetheless. Surreal foray into the nature of good vs evil. 

Looking forward to checking out this director’s other work. 

9.5/10

west

Springywheel said:

The House That Jack Built

Well that was bleak...certainly not your average Friday night popcorn movie with the family, but riveting nonetheless. Surreal foray into the nature of good vs evil. 

Looking forward to checking out this director’s other work. 

9.5/10

Breaking the waves is my fave i love emily watson ... but its bleak ... i also like anti christ some of the imagery is fantastic ... i love charlotte gaisbourg  lol .

hollywoodrox

Snowden , bloody brilliant

goldtop

Springywheel said:

The House That Jack Built

Well that was bleak...certainly not your average Friday night popcorn movie with the family, but riveting nonetheless. Surreal foray into the nature of good vs evil. 

Looking forward to checking out this director’s other work. 

9.5/10

I tried, I really did, but it was too bleak for me. The end sequence was ... meh. I like LVT for asking big questions, and not being afraid to fight cinema orthodoxy, but he refuses to answer these questions in an intelligible way.

3/10

Philly_Q

goldtop said:
I like LVT for asking big questions, and not being afraid to fight cinema orthodoxy, but he refuses to answer these questions in an intelligible way.

On the Blu-ray of The House That Jack Built there's a lengthy interview with LVT and I was intrigued to hear his comments and explanations - but I got the impression he doesn't necessarily know why he does certain things.  Which actually quite pleases me.

He also, I think, (almost) admits that he sets out, not necessarily to shock or ruffle feathers, but to see what he can get away with.

I haven't seen all his films, nowhere near, but the ones I have seen I've always found interesting.  And to go back to The House That Jack Built, I think it's a terrific performance from Matt Dillon.

artiebear

west said:

Springywheel said:

The House That Jack Built

Well that was bleak...certainly not your average Friday night popcorn movie with the family, but riveting nonetheless. Surreal foray into the nature of good vs evil. 

Looking forward to checking out this director’s other work. 

9.5/10

Breaking the waves is my fave i love emily watson ... but its bleak ... i also like anti christ some of the imagery is fantastic ... i love charlotte gaisbourg  lol .

I thought I was the only person on earth who had heard of, never mind loved this film. As an aside the harbour/ village stuff was filmed in Mallaig, my alternative hang out for many a year.. I agree, Emily Watson is brilliant in just about every role I have seen her play.

west

The only film of his a havnt seen that i think i should is dogville but something has always put me off , my friend loved it , i really should at least give it a go ... if i could only have one it would be breaking the waves ... i know kermode hates it ... i fuckin love it , its due another spin with a fine beverage or 3 ...

goldtop

Philly_Q said:

goldtop said:
I like LVT for asking big questions, and not being afraid to fight cinema orthodoxy, but he refuses to answer these questions in an intelligible way.

On the Blu-ray of The House That Jack Built there's a lengthy interview with LVT and I was intrigued to hear his comments and explanations - but I got the impression he doesn't necessarily know why he does certain things.  Which actually quite pleases me.

He also, I think, (almost) admits that he sets out, not necessarily to shock or ruffle feathers, but to see what he can get away with.

I haven't seen all his films, nowhere near, but the ones I have seen I've always found interesting.  And to go back to The House That Jack Built, I think it's a terrific performance from Matt Dillon.

Yes, Dillon is very good in it. I wondered if the Dylan reference (the sequences where MD shows us the flashcards) was a deliberate joke or just a coincidence? But for me these were just another story-telling tangent.

I keep trying LVT, but I'm just not sure.

west

artiebear said:

west said:

Springywheel said:

The House That Jack Built

Well that was bleak...certainly not your average Friday night popcorn movie with the family, but riveting nonetheless. Surreal foray into the nature of good vs evil. 

Looking forward to checking out this director’s other work. 

9.5/10

Breaking the waves is my fave i love emily watson ... but its bleak ... i also like anti christ some of the imagery is fantastic ... i love charlotte gaisbourg  lol .

I thought I was the only person on earth who had heard of, never mind loved this film. As an aside the harbour/ village stuff was filmed in Mallaig, my alternative hang out for many a year.. I agree, Emily Watson is brilliant in just about every role I have seen her play.

Thats so cool , a beautiful area for sure ... the 70's setting / music all adds to the vibe , emily is also great  in hilary and jackie and punch drunk love ...

andyp

Just watched The Big Short. I’ve wanted to see it for years but kept putting it off somehow, until I was in the right mood to pay proper attention I guess. Anyway, I bloody loved it. Brilliantly done and just has a really good style about it.

Fantastic!