films you've seen recently and would NOT recommend

IdleRich

IdleRich
I think that someone on here mentioned this before but I can't find it, anyway I watched Art School Confidential the other day and it was a complete and utter mess. At the end I had no idea what they were trying to do with it and I don't think that they did either. It started off with a few clunky shots at obvious targets (art-school students) which were mildly amusing (I liked the bare-foot girl arriving at school only to tread on some broken glass) and I settled in for what appeared to be a not especially good but watchable comedy. Then it went totally wrong, they were obviously trying to inject some kind of depth and meaning but they completely failed and all of the subplots were both boring and stupid, a real waste of a couple of hours (and it was particularly galling that to get it out I had to pay the FIFTY-TWO POUND FIFTY fine that my girlfriend had run up on the last film she forgot to take back).
Much better but also something I wouldn't necessarily recommend was the Apu trilogy which I watched this week. It's obviously brilliant but I found it very depressing at times, particularly every single second of the second movie.
SPOILER
It tells a tale of a (once wealthy?) family living in grinding poverty, their lives made bearable by the spirit of the mother and the liveliness of Durka, the daughter. By the end of the first film both an elderly relative and Durka have died and Apu has reached about eight years old. It finishes with them heading off to try and start a new life in the city.
The second film begins with them finally having established themselves and looking as though the weak but lovely father may be able to earn enough money as a priest. Sadly it doesn't last and he is soon carried off by disease. Apu's mother works hard and scrapes to save for him and manages to put him through school where he triumphantly wins a scholarship. Reluctantly his mother allows him to head off to Calcutta and the scenes of his happiness at his freedom and her sadness are really heartbreaking. Finally she becomes ill and dies with Apu arriving home just too late to comfort her.
I watched the third film last night safe in the knowledge that his whole family were dead and surely no more misery could be heaped on him (and me) but I reckoned without a marriage to a young and beautiful girl which lasts just long enough for you to revel in their happiness before the curse of Apu in the form of childbirth sends her off to join the rest of his family. By this point I'd just about given up the will to live.
Basically, it's fantastic and looks great and everything but I kind of wish I hadn't watched it.
 

mms

sometimes
i saw harmony korines new film mr lonely at the london film festival and it was shockingly awful in every single way, pretentious. just terrible, it was part funded by agnes b and all her cronies were there guffawing away, it was pathetic. i was disappointed as i liked gummo etc,
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
Waking Life.

Poorly-conceived, ostentatious trash which has the apparent main purpose of stroking the egos of misguided university students who have just taken their first philosophy course and now "get it."

Seriously this movie is basically a visual representation of the kind of conversations people have before they make a movie. That is not a good thing.
 

tox

Factory Girl
Waking Life.

Poorly-conceived, ostentatious trash which has the apparent main purpose of stroking the egos of misguided university students who have just taken their first philosophy course and now "get it."

Seriously this movie is basically a visual representation of the kind of conversations people have before they make a movie. That is not a good thing.

It looks nice though doesn't it? I remember thinking it all very clever when I was a little year eleven when it came out. Watched it back when I was in sixth form and cringed. Eurgh.

I maintain that there are very few films I regret seeing. Most films have at least one redeeming feature and it would take a great steaming shite of a movie for me to rather spend my 90minutes elsewhere.

The only thing that falls into that totally crap category that I've seen recently is Run Fat Boy Run. Awful. Even worse than Love Actually.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
The Cottage.

Blatant stab at comedy horror a la Shaun of the Dead (which I liked) by the director of London to Brighton (which i liked). Reece Shearsmith (off League of gentlemen) is so irritating he should've been slashed in the 1st 5 mins and Jennifer Ellison's line in potty-mouthed aggression gets really boring.

Muddled and terrifically unfunny (though I did like the bit where psycho ripped someone's head off via the spinal cord)
 

jonny mugwump

exotic pylon
Waking Life totally dire- walked out (a rarity for me) after 20 mins for exactly the reason stated above- pseudo philosophical nonsense.

which is why i ws totally blown away shocked by the quality of Scanner Darkly- if waking life was necessary to produce that then i guess i'm happy. As long as i dont actually have to see it.

Who's that guy- Dogma- Von Trier, right?

What a miserable self-indulgent miserable egotistical miserable lunatic. I have just about forgiven Bjork for even talking to him, never minding appearing in one of his hellish pain-fests.
Festen was the only decent movie from that 'movement'
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
trip to the cinema with mistersloane. don't go there ;)
Either you're in the biz, have wonky tastes or are way too indulgent of mates with wonky taste

a bit of biz yeah but 'flood' cos, London flooding, right? cool! but no. no. no. no. no.
Saw IV with nephew, I wanted to see Ratatouille...
TMNT with partner's nephew (the film looked great though)
and Resident Evil 3 cos I was in Africa and it was BUCKETING with rain and had to stay indoors, and, believe, it was the best selection of a very bad bunch.

I watch a DVD a day on average and you get these stretches where all the films are dreck. Bad film juju or something.
 

mms

sometimes
I suppose it is rather a latecomer to the whole Hollywood-action-cop-thriller-set-in-a-West-Country-village genre...

Why don't you watch it and decide for yourself? You might be surprised.

i thought this was pretty good cos they'd got the rank and file and petty bureaucracies of a small westcountry town spot on.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
i thought control was pretty terrible.

what is it with these films (that Johny Cash movie comes to mind) where they make no attempt to depict or explain what makes these legends tick? or why they are great in the eyes of many. none what so ever. i guess they assume that who ever is coming to see it is a fan already... but so much could have been done with Curtis' short career and life. oh well.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
There are few rules in life I go by, but this is one of them:

IF SEAN PENN IS IN IT, DO NEVER WATCH IT

You're confusing Babel with 21 Grams, another deeply dull film by the same director.

Actually, I will defend Penn even tho he's a pompous tit who makes far too many self-important films. I like him in Mystic River.
 

Dial

Well-known member
You're confusing Babel with 21 Grams, another deeply dull film by the same director.

Actually, I will defend Penn even tho he's a pompous tit who makes far too many self-important films. I like him in Mystic River.

Yeh, the scene where he realizes the dead girl is his daughter is very powerful.

Strange that so many like Ratatouille. After half an hour or so I couldn't bear it any more and had to leave. Enormously tedious. Maybe I should have hung in there.
 
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muser

Well-known member
Northern Lights, depressingly bad butchering of one of the most imaginative 'kids' book since tolkein.

A Scanner Darkly
 

spooky girlfriend

Wild Horses
Northern Lights, depressingly bad butchering of one of the most imaginative 'kids' book since tolkein.

A Scanner Darkly

Northern Lights was extremely difficult to sit through. What happened to the Church being the ruthless villains of the piece?
A Scanner Darkly was impressive though. One of my favourite Dick stories, beautifully presented. Never would have thought they would get all those big names to play Arcter's flatmates, but because every frame is drawn over they don't overshadow the story.
What was the name of that Linklater film where this animation effect first appeared, philosophical rant-wise they're both quite similar....
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"A Scanner Darkly"
Don't understand that at all, I thought that this was great. Very funny in bits and very true to the (brilliant) book.

"What was the name of that Linklater film where this animation effect first appeared, philosophical rant-wise they're both quite similar...."
Waking Life?
 
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