films you've seen recently and would NOT recommend

[mms]

Someone on here wrote a great post a while ago about how casual violence like that is much worse in towns and cities outside London because the 'entry bar' for hassle is set so much lower. Like in London you've got actual gangs of actual criminals, as opposed to pissed insecure losers like your Geordie would-be nemesis. I hear much the same kind of thing from mates of mine who come from Portsmouth and go back there now and then for family do's.

As you say, just sad all round.

one of my weirdest new years eve experiences was when me and some mates had a right old night of fun, going to the beach, lighting a fire, driving fast down a dirt track and taking out a guys gate as we couldn't see where we were going for all the water coming over the bonnet, adrenalin rushed to the hilt.
We drove back into my town and on the stroke of midnight, when we were driving past a fairly notorious pub, the whole pub came outside, everyone was punching each other, my friend who was in the car's mum was in there too, we felt like we were watching this weird chaotic slow-mo fishbowl thing happening, a massive new years fuck off tangle.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Christ, that sounds fucking weird.

Do you think maybe one of the reasons government policy seems to have little impact on this kind of thing is that politicians fail to understand that violence like that can be, for some people, kind of recreational? All those people spilling out of the pub on the stroke of midnight to have a massive barney, I mean it sounds almost too well-orchestrated to be entirely accidental and involuntary.

 

[mms]

Christ, that sounds fucking weird.

Do you think maybe one of the reasons government policy seems to have little impact on this kind of thing is that politicians fail to understand that violence like that can be, for some people, kind of recreational? All those people spilling out of the pub on the stroke of midnight to have a massive barney, I mean it sounds almost too well-orchestrated to be entirely accidental and involuntary.

it's seems to me like a massive small town cathartic release, it was the kind of pub you'd expect a fight. my friend's mum was brought up hard, her sister was a convicted murderer who got a bit of 'fame' after attacking myra hindley in jail.
But yeah course alot of people love violence, you get firms on football days calling each other up to organise scraps, family men, wife and kids, etc, shanked up.

 

[IdleRich]

I watched a film on Sunday called Der Rosenkonig (The Rose King) and it should have been right up my street but it was just too boring, too slow, too directionless. It did have moments of beauty and powerful imagery but really the "story" was too thin to support the portentous and overwrought nature of the acting and the general self-importance of the presentation. I tried to like it, I really did but by the middle I was hoping for the end.
Anyone else seen this? What am I missing?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091871/

 

[Immryr]

i watched bronson last night. what a load of shite.

 

[empty mirror]

notebook on cities and clothes. tedious. you can tell even wim wenders thinks so. he seems to get bored with yohji yamamoto almost immediately hence all the self-reflexive film/video stuff. vapid. saving grace: the score.

diner. meh. the ivy-league clothes kept my attention. not a bad movie by any means but... i don't know, mickey rourke and kevin bacon make it worth watching, i guess. kinda amusing, at best. having said that, it is still better than 90% of movies at your local cineplex.

 

[Tentative Andy]

Inglourious Basterds has to be one of the most ludicrous films I've seen in a long while. Quite fun though. Reckon I'd only recommend it if you had some way to see it very cheaply/for free.

 

[mistersloane]

Inglourious Basterds has to be one of the most ludicrous films I've seen in a long while. Quite fun though. Reckon I'd only recommend it if you had some way to see it very cheaply/for free.

Really? I just saw it and thought it was wicked. I like Tarantino more and more, and just think he's getting better and better. I don't subscribe to the idea that he's fallen off at all, he's just getting more purist.

I went to see it because the Observer reviewer said IB was in bad taste especially since Defiance had come out - and Defiance is really one of the worst, most obscene films I've ever seen - so just went to spite the Observer reviewer - and just thought it was a beautiful, funny, great, great take on the French Resistance film - all of those fab noirs - alongside a whole load of other things, great idea too. I'm glad I paid money to see it, which is fucking rare.

 

[nochexxx]

Awaydays

i was looking forward to watching this film; a story concerning Tranmeres 'pack' hooligans in the early 80's and the homoerotic relationship between two of it's members. aside from some great music the film itself was to shambolic and glossy for my tired eyes.

 

[craner]

The Guys.

Wow, this was so bad...

 

[Tentative Andy]

Really? I just saw it and thought it was wicked. I like Tarantino more and more, and just think he's getting better and better. I don't subscribe to the idea that he's fallen off at all, he's just getting more purist.

I went to see it because the Observer reviewer said IB was in bad taste especially since Defiance had come out - and Defiance is really one of the worst, most obscene films I've ever seen - so just went to spite the Observer reviewer - and just thought it was a beautiful, funny, great, great take on the French Resistance film - all of those fab noirs - alongside a whole load of other things, great idea too. I'm glad I paid money to see it, which is fucking rare.

Hey sorry sloane, I never saw this post at the time. I think it might be a film I need to watch again, maybe a couple of times, to reach a full judgement on. But right now I'd stick by what I said. It did seem disrespectful, the 'oh, wasn't it all such a larf really' tone - but more importantly, it just felt very awkwardly put together, very uneven in tone and quality. In fairness, I should say that the set-piece dialogue scenes were fantastic, esp the search of the house at the beginning and the bar-room meeting about halfway in.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I haven't seen Antichrist and have no particular wish to - but it did raise a smile to see a poster for it with a quote from a review that said "A punch in the face of respectability". That's just about the lamest line I've ever heard or read about anything, ever.

"A spider down the shirt of bourgeois convention."

"A dog poo in a burning shoebox on the doorstep of contemporary social mores."

 

[crackerjack]

Grizzly Man.

Well disappointing. I had high hopes for this, but felt that instead of watching a doc about the life of a brave eccentric I was witnessing the exploitation of the mentally ill.

 

[IdleRich]

"instead of watching a doc about the life of a brave eccentric I was witnessing the exploitation of the mentally ill."

That's definitely what it was but I still enjoyed it - admittedly feeling slightly guilty as I did so.

 

[baboon2004]

Grizzly Man.

Well disappointing. I had high hopes for this, but felt that instead of watching a doc about the life of a brave eccentric I was witnessing the exploitation of the mentally ill.

well, herzog has made a career out of putting 'eccentrics' on a pedestal of 'higher spirituality' or something. i like his film-making technically, but god he's full of shit. my friend went to see him talk recently and apparently he started going on about how wayne rooney is a genius or something.

 

[IdleRich]

"well, herzog has made a career out of putting 'eccentrics' on a pedestal of 'higher spirituality' or something."

Well, that's not what he does in this film - he deliberately makes him look like a moron.

"my friend went to see him talk recently and apparently he started going on about how wayne rooney is a genius or something."

Was that on the South Bank somewhere? My friend went to that, sounded as though the talk was a bit of a curate's egg to say the least.

 

[baboon2004]

Well, that's not what he does in this film - he deliberately makes him look like a moron.

Was that on the South Bank somewhere? My friend went to that, sounded as though the talk was a bit of a curate's egg to say the least.

I got bored and switched off halfway through - I must say from the way he was going on, I thought Herzog was elevating Treadwell to some kind of position of being at one with Nature and Power (or something), and that the making him look like a moron to the general audience was not intentional at all.

Think it was at the BFI. As I understand, he was pretty funny. I decided not to go due to price issues and becausei find those kind of talks a let-down usually.

 

[STN]

I got bored and switched off halfway through - I must say from the way he was going on, I thought Herzog was elevating Treadwell to some kind of position of being at one with Nature and Power (or something), and that the making him look like a moron to the general audience was not intentional at all.

Think it was at the BFI. As I understand, he was pretty funny. I decided not to go due to price issues and becausei find those kind of talks a let-down usually.

no, herzog hates nature. Well, that's a bit strong, but I think he thinks it's foolish to regard it as anything other than unpredictable, adverserial and impossible to be sentimental about.

Re tea's point, I'm a big fan of the unfavourable comparison on a film poster, e.g. 'makes reservoir dogs look like pampered pooches', or 'Makes Fight Club look like Sleeping Beauty'.

 

[baboon2004]

ok, my incorrect formulation, but he seems to admire/be fascinated by those who can tame nature to some extent (eg Fitzcarraldo), even if, as you say, they ultimately fail in the face of its strength and unpredictability (Treadwell getting mauled by the bear).

"Makes Debbie Does Dallas look like a convent recruitment video".

 

[IdleRich]

ok, my incorrect formulation, but he seems to admire/be fascinated by those who can tame nature to some extent (eg Fitzcarraldo), even if, as you say, they ultimately fail in the face of its strength and unpredictability (Treadwell getting mauled by the bear).

But if Fitzcarraldo or Aguirre both show protagonists who eventually but gloriously fail to defeat nature, Grizzly Man is a contemptuous portrait of a fool who isn't even able to comprehend that he is involved in a battle. Herzog doesn't miss any opportunity to undermine what Treadwell is saying or highlight his naivety and desire to project human personalities on the animals in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.