What films have you watched recently?

Lodious

The Trial of the Chicago 7

I really enjoyed this. Prefect pace, some great performances and found it really interesting as it's not something I had any real knowledge of.

 9/10 

It's on Netflix, I'd really recommended it.

RandallFlagg

Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee's latest movie, set in Vietnam as 5 black US ‘nam vets return years later to recover some buried treasure and a fallen comrade with a few plot twists along the way. Stunning locations, typical Spike Lee politics with links to BLM. Best film I've seen in ages.

8/10

ICBM

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

1920 German silent horror film. Almost certainly the oldest film I’ve ever seen. I’d always been aware of it and it’s reputation ever since I became interested in cinema, but never actually seen it.

I now understand why it’s so rated - it’s astonishing, given when it was made. 1920! Obviously it does look a bit quaint by modern standards, but it’s cleverly done to avoid the limitations of film photography then by using theatrical sets, which increase the unsettling atmosphere, and the way the plot and pacing are done is quite brilliant. It’s clearly a major influence on Tim Burton (as well as a lot of others), so if you like his work you’ll spot a lot of references. It’s also in a much better state of preservation than either Nosferatu or Metropolis - I think it was a lot more successful at the time so presumably more copies exist to find a good one.

10/10

(Roku channel)

goldtop

/\ agree on that film. The Tiger Lillies wrote and performed a soundtrack for it a few years beack - their Central European freak-show cabaret sound worked perfectly.

EricTheWeary

I wanted to watch the Small Axe series of films on BBC/ iPlayer but haven’t got to them all yet. So far Lovers Rock and Alex Wheatle. Thematically linked in terms of the black British experience, small axe comes from a Bob Marley song and the Trojan symbol appears in the small axe logo so there’s a degree of homage to Jamaican music throughout  as well. 

Lovers Rock is a short film about a house party in the 80s- reggae, Chic, family squabbles, people drinking - and is beautifully atmospheric. Some comments online suggesting that it’s not very authentic but I’m not qualified to know. 
Alex Wheatle is a bit longer, there’s a bit more menace and it tells the young life of author Wheatle. Again centred around the 80s. 

The scope of the second film is broader so it shows it's budget constraints more and both have moments of seemingly odd cinematography although I think these may have been choices made to get around constraints imposed by budget/ Covid. 

I wouldn’t say unmissable but if you like an independent British film worth a watch. 

Blueingreen

Suspicion.  Probably seen it 3 or 4 times but not for many years. Excellent performances from Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine and a good supporting cast.  Some nice Hitch touches but not one of his masterpieces. Bothers me slightly that I find some old movies are really showing their age when I didn't used to feel that about them.  7/10

Godfathers 2 and 3.  The first two films have a reputation as being among the best ever made.  I've seen 1 and 2 many times but this was only the second time I've seen the third.  It wasn't the recently re-edited version, which I didn't know about or I might have waited for that.

I don't think the first 2 have survived repeat re-watching as well as some of my other favourite films and they now feel a little over-rated (although I don't like that term).  I now much prefer the first movie to the second one, which hasn't always been the case.  I think it's tauter, one iconic set-piece after another.

3 on the other hand is an utter mess, parasitically feeding on the earlier films - as long as we keep reminding the viewer that this is the third film in a trilogy already made up of two masterpieces  we don't need to take the trouble to make a good movie.  Godfather 2, 9/10; Godfather 3 5/10.

Philly_Q

Every evening I think hmmm, it's after 11pm, too late to watch a film.  Then I watch 2 or 3 fifty-minute episodes of some box set TV series.  I need to get back into films.

not_the_dj

Knives Out (on Prime) - that whodunit with Daniel Craig and a silly accent. 

Didn’t fancy this when it was on at the cinema, but we put it on and really enjoyed it. 

Moominpapa

@Blueingreen ; - yes, I prefer Godfather 1 over 2.

3 should not have been made.

EricTheWeary

Passport to Shame. 

B&W British film from 1958 on Talking Pictures TV. 

Fantastically convoluted plot (arguably about the problems with lack of freedom of movement prior to the EU). Interesting cast including Herbert Lom, Diana Dors ( she looked stunning) and brief appearances by Michael Caine, Joan Sims and Jackie Collins. I think it was supposed to be a bit sexy and there’s a drugs/ psychedelic scene which looks remarkably out of place but they knew how to move the plot on in those days. 

Hurling_Fruitmig

not_the_dj said:

Knives Out (on Prime) - that whodunit with Daniel Craig and a silly accent. 

Didn’t fancy this when it was on at the cinema, but we put it on and really enjoyed it. 

It’s the same silly accent he uses in Logan Lucky.

Haych

Sum of all fears

netflix

Fairly decent adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel. 

A despot is trying to usher in some kind of new world order by pitching the USA and Russia against one another in an orchestrated nuclear war using an Israeli nuke lost in the desert decades earlier during a skirmish in which an armed fighter-bomber was lost. 

Jack Ryan has to save the day and feed last minute information to angry presidents to avert World War III. 

Not bad, involved enough to keep you watching but not so complicated you can’t work out what’s going on (like in Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy - must watch that again). 

7.5/10

Romain

Good surprise advised by a friend:


Intriguing movie of few words, stunning photo, images, music and the main two actors plays their characters perfectly.

Blueingreen

Knives Out.  

Old fashioned Whodunnit pastiche trying hard to freshen up the genre with some fresh angles and twists - including a mildly woke strand about non-white immigrants in the US. This should be right up my street if well done - Sleuth is an obvious influence and it’s one of my favourite films (The Olivier original not the forgettable Jude Law remake).

 Looks wonderful. Performances are good, can be a bit gamey but that’s the genre. Some of it’s clever, some of it’s a bit forced (a witness who pukes up if she tells a lie felt more like a plot device than an indicator of personality). I found it a game of 3 thirds - starts brilliantly, gets quite badly bogged down in the middle, gets nicely back on track for the third act.

One of those movies you think your opinion is liable to shift if you watch it again, because it will stop being a case of whodunnit and become more about how the pieces fit together. 7/10 but wouldn’t be surprised if that shifted up or down a point on a rewatch.

Brio

Knives Out - couldn't handle Daniel Craig's accent.

Lodious

Romain said:

Good surprise advised by a friend:


Intriguing movie of few words, stunning photo, images, music and the main two actors plays their characters perfectly.

Great movie, did you stream it? I tried to watch it using Sundance Now on Amazon and the quality was sub VHS. I'd really like to watch it again, but I hate physical media,

Romain

Lodious said:

Romain said:

Good surprise advised by a friend:


Intriguing movie of few words, stunning photo, images, music and the main two actors plays their characters perfectly.

Great movie, did you stream it? I tried to watch it using Sundance Now on Amazon and the quality was sub VHS. I'd really like to watch it again, but I hate physical media,

Yes I streamed it via Sundance and I cannot agree more with; it’s service does not give justice to this move sadly. 

But if you can get the first week for free, why not.

stickyfiddle

Palm Springs

Like Groundhog Day except Andy Samberg has already been in the loop a long time and he's joined by someone else. Really funny; would watch again. Quite apt to be released in 2020...

west

Romain said:

Lodious said:

Romain said:

Good surprise advised by a friend:


Intriguing movie of few words, stunning photo, images, music and the main two actors plays their characters perfectly.

Great movie, did you stream it? I tried to watch it using Sundance Now on Amazon and the quality was sub VHS. I'd really like to watch it again, but I hate physical media,

Yes I streamed it via Sundance and I cannot agree more with; it’s service does not give justice to this move sadly. 

But if you can get the first week for free, why not.

Wai's follow on film 2046 is pretty cool too !

RobDavies

The Peanut Butter Falcon On Netflix.  

Heartwarming story of a Downs lad who escapes from his care home and befriends a ‘wrong un’, and their subsequent adventure.
Genuinely funny at times, Zack Gottsagen is brilliant and Dakota Johnson (daughter of Don) is lovely.  

Wish I’d saved this for Christmas Day...