films you've seen recently and would NOT recommend

catalog

Well-known member
I saw 2 weird films last weekend and would not bother with either again.

The first is called the lost daughter and has Olivia Coleman from peep show as a mardy literature professor on holiday in Italy. It's sort of trying to build this mood about regret and sadness but it's just really tedious.

The other one was Ben Wheatleys new one called in this earth which is interesting at the start but then becomes really annoying. Could have been a short film, it's essentially one big twist that doesn't make sense.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
watching tenet now coz you were all talking about it earlier in the thread. quite anxiety provoking. probably not a new observation but reminds me of tiktok youtube etc, and also what video games look like when i see them now, in the way that its so fast, especially with the music, its quite a relentless assault. there's no gaps or pauses, even when it settles down for a bit of exposition it kicks back in with some noise-influenced music pretty quickly. there's zero gap between one person and the other speaking, sometimes they even overlap, exactly like the youtube fast cut style. the music that sounds like a rubber band being strummed is a new sound for me.

remember thinking inception was clever and loved memento at the time so cut nolan a bit of slack, but this one pretty much just doesn't make sense and i lost the thread of what was going on quite early on. but then is this really a film with a narrative? it feels more like something to be pummeled by to me. i can image some people loving that. interesting to see the international milieu of the film as well, there are quite a few people who live like that now, going to ten countries or whatever each year, felt that borderless thing was reflected in this.
 
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shakahislop

Well-known member
really shite female character as well, i don't watch many films, surprised that a character like that still exists in the woke era, maybe naive of me
 

luka

Well-known member
i watched CONTACT starrig Jodi Foster and was quite stunned by how hokey it is. the real pure uncut American Schmaltz. really stupid. not a single original idea. the music was parodic. everything about it was gormless and insulting your intelligence. having said that it was strangely watchable. i couldnt beleive it was as late as 1997. it isn't how i remember 1997.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
There was a film on telly the other day called Burning Plain - it had Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrenece, that Portuguese actor who is the only known actor from Portugal (you now the guy, he plays the bad guy in Desperado), and some other people too. It also has an annoyingly and unnecessarily convoluted story which keeps jumping between several different seemingly unrelated groups of people until you start to see that - no way! - they're not unrelated after all, in fact Charlize Theron turns out to be J-Law's character fifteen years later or something.

I looked it up and it says it was written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga who it seems was the screenwriter for Inarritu on his loose trilogy (known informally as the "utter shite trilogy") consisting of Amores Peres, Babel and 21 Grams, three works notable for the way that in each case the weight of the pointless and overly serious story-line completely overpowers the star studded cast and drags the whole thing down into the gutter where it dies a meek and tedious death.

And it seems that Arriaga has now branched out into directing, but he hasn't forgotten where his roots lie - ie in writing really bad stories, and so he insisted on writing a really bad story for this one. He seems to have got it in his head that if you take a mundane (and often frankly stupid) story, but break it into bits and film it in the wrong order then this will somehow imbue it with a load of extra depth and meaning that wasn't there before, when in fact it just makes it more confusing. It's like some band burying their song under loads of fx in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that they can't think of a tune. The guy is a fucking hack and he should stop.
 

woops

is not like other people
what's happened to the forum it's dead as fuck,

after reading bruges-la-morte i watched in bruges again which i like for the silliness of the hard boiled plot line then i decided to watch his other 2 films three billboards which was dead straight and went nowhere


then seven psychopaths which was good for the first hour then announced in film that it was going to go stupid for the rest of it and silly went way over the top silliness can't recommend either of those two I'm afraid
 

woops

is not like other people
very disappointing but there's probably a message about the vagaries of the business in that career
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
I was thinking of seeing the new banshees one, but then it would have to have much less of his usual trademarks for me to like it i think. Did finally see in bruges yesterday and thought it was decent (the performances really make it). very post pulp fiction. Didnt totally land for me though, tried to do a few too many things and mcdonagh is a bit juvenille isnt he. Its like a hitman comedy for ppl who think they're edgelords.
 
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woops

is not like other people
I was thinking of seeing the new banshees one, but then it would have to have much less of his usual trademarks for me to like it i think. Did finally see in bruges yesterday and thought it was decent (the performances really make it). very post pulp fiction. Didnt totally land for me though, tried to do a few too many things and mcdonagh is a bit juvenille isnt he. Its like a hitman comedy for ppl who think they're edgelords.
you're right but i think it showed more promise than those other ones
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
yeah, deffo, in that one its got all the wanting to be offensive stuff, the dialogue detours, the dumbness, but its also got a grip on the characters, a moral quandry, regret, etc etc. it does just enough of the serious stuff, just enough of the comedic stuff to make you think its handling it all. i dunno if he has done (in the new one) or will manage to get those things at a non awkward balance.
 

woops

is not like other people
yeah, deffo, in that one its got all the wanting to be offensive stuff, the dialogue detours, the dumbness, but its also got a grip on the characters, a moral quandry, regret, etc etc. it does just enough of the serious stuff, just enough of the comedic stuff to make you think its handling it all. i dunno if he has done (in the new one) or will manage to get those things at a non awkward balance.
agree. doubt he'll be back on form though given track record. oh well
 

version

Well-known member
Haven't seen the new one or Three Billboards, but didn't like In Bruges or Seven Psychopaths. Couldn't stand the sense of humour, like that scene people seem to love where Fiennes calls someone an inanimate object. That twee swearing-type of humour where people think calling someone "fuck nugget" or "shit mitten" or whatever is funny.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
what's happened to the forum it's dead as fuck,

after reading bruges-la-morte i watched in bruges again which i like for the silliness of the hard boiled plot line then i decided to watch his other 2 films three billboards which was dead straight and went nowhere


then seven psychopaths which was good for the first hour then announced in film that it was going to go stupid for the rest of it and silly went way over the top silliness can't recommend either of those two I'm afraid

And this was your attempt to revive it?
 
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