Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Coincidentally following our 'Before Sunrise' talk: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-third-before-sunrise-movie-is-already-done-fil,84619/
Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:
- Thread starter Woebot
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- beware the dog killer craner's got herpes damn well 'urts! don't be so basic eye-watering dick nailage gay cowboy death squad greek dudes herzog i went to oxford italo jamaican voodoo gang from marked for death jamaican voodoo gang from predator 2 rolling sultry voodoo sweat sex chicken stuff versioncore u know the score what's the frequency kenneth?
yyaldrin
in je ogen waait de wind
Saw Before Sunrise last night and surprisingly liked it. It's quite confronting tho as a lot of things are so recognizable, those first few moments you spent together falling in love and the awkwardness it brings. Trying to look at the girl but only when she is not looking at you. Or that scene in the tram where he is trying to put his arm around her but is nervous or doubting, quickly stroking his gelled up hair as to cover it up. Really liked the scene where they are "phoning" each other in the cafeteria.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
excited but also ready for disappointment. that article made me laugh, but I think describing the characters as 'maddeningly hesitant' is missing the point hugely, as if people are generally decisive and know what they want in real life....
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
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craner
Beast of Burden
Beaches
What a tear-jerker. This film makes you want to see all the friends you love before they die prematurely of some rare and horrible disease. Lovely mock-ups of 1970s Off Broadway New York. Some momentous Better Midler belters. Barbara Hershey in her mid-30s physical prime, which is notably effective when she is playing a 20-something attorney (easy on the botox, Babs). A quite biting portrayal of female friendship and jealousy, and how they are entangled.
After Hours
A let-down in many ways, reaches for farce and eccentricity too easily, rather than the absurd and the unsettling, which it ought (or tries?) to aim for. However, it is a super homage to 1980s New York, notably the down town precincts, turned as they are into a slightly surreal maze. Scorcese uses some nice, lurid Bava/Argento light effects, which work to evoke the broken-sign flashing-neon seediness of this part of the city and its underlying malevolence. The simultaneous divide and proximity of Wall Street and Greenwich Village (their symbiotic existence) is cleverly suggested. Random neurotic, beautiful and insane women accidentaly ruining the lives of button-down, well-groomed city slickers is one of my favorite tropes (see also Something Wild). But this could have been a lot better.
What a tear-jerker. This film makes you want to see all the friends you love before they die prematurely of some rare and horrible disease. Lovely mock-ups of 1970s Off Broadway New York. Some momentous Better Midler belters. Barbara Hershey in her mid-30s physical prime, which is notably effective when she is playing a 20-something attorney (easy on the botox, Babs). A quite biting portrayal of female friendship and jealousy, and how they are entangled.
After Hours
A let-down in many ways, reaches for farce and eccentricity too easily, rather than the absurd and the unsettling, which it ought (or tries?) to aim for. However, it is a super homage to 1980s New York, notably the down town precincts, turned as they are into a slightly surreal maze. Scorcese uses some nice, lurid Bava/Argento light effects, which work to evoke the broken-sign flashing-neon seediness of this part of the city and its underlying malevolence. The simultaneous divide and proximity of Wall Street and Greenwich Village (their symbiotic existence) is cleverly suggested. Random neurotic, beautiful and insane women accidentaly ruining the lives of button-down, well-groomed city slickers is one of my favorite tropes (see also Something Wild). But this could have been a lot better.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Can't say that I unreservedly recommend but this is pretty much the film thread now so here goes. Demonlover, weird multi-national story about desensitized business people fighting for control of porn (and later real torture) websites. It starts off all stylish and cold and intriguing but unfortunately it does lose its way from about the midpoint when it seems that the director has lost control of what's going on and is trying to shovel in as many ideas as possible, unfortunately at the expense of the previous taut air of menace. Worth checking though as a kind of updated Videodrome without the bodyhorror and with some scenes that are reminiscent of Lost Highway (those where characters are shown disturbing videos of what happened to them while they were asleep). Slightly hard to believe that information about other porn websites could be so vital but the dead-eyed globe-trotting executives completely unfazed by horrible violence are all too realistic. Probably.
Oh yeah, and it's got Chloe Sevigny in it and a Sonic Youth soundtrack for those who care about that kind of thing.
Oh yeah, and it's got Chloe Sevigny in it and a Sonic Youth soundtrack for those who care about that kind of thing.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I think the problem is the lack of a "Films you think had some good points but were ultimately flawed" thread.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
The House I Live In - vastly interesting documentary about the US 'war on drugs'. Includes some staggering facts.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
i liked skyfall quite a lot. didnt expect to but its quite good, esp compared to the last one. only really has one great action sequence, the opening one where theyre bikiing across rooftops, the rest are a bit shit, but its a really solid attempt at giving bond a bit more character and backstory, even if the backstory is a tad bruce wayne. also weird as here, bond barely has sex with anyone, one chinese woman youd think he would want to fuck, he starts off trying to rescue her from her evil bodyguards, which unless my memory is terrible, bond was never all that chivalrous. then again he does end up fucking her and well, bond has always been partially about superior british morals compared to the rest of the world who are obv all backward and uncivilised so it makes sense that he would want to save her from the evil chinese men who sold her into prostitution (he is also kind of psychic here and knows her backstory in less than 5 seconds of meeting her). some semi interesting stuff about modern war/enemies (again a bit like batman) being opaque and vague and about age/potency as well as notions of britishness - this was weird in that it half seemed to acknowledge britain was crumbiling as a world power (supposedly) while also getting a bit gung ho/nostalgic near the end (i wont spoil it). the message seemed to be that britain can be more british and still 'win' if it retreats into the past. only 1 or 2 good one liners, the rest were quite poor, no cool gadgets, not cos its recession bond but just cos its more about bond the man this time (though bond himself - as about 5 close ups of a british bulldog seem to tell us, could perhaps be a metaphor for england), and javier bardem, rather than being a fantastic villain, was just a bit hannibal lecterishly hammy. also, virtually all the henchman extras in this were strangely, uniformly naff. my main gripe with the film though is that there was something strangely unstylish about how it looked, it all seemed a tad bovine and not quite TV movie-ish, but not that far from it. overall, better than batman as it was serious without being hilariously po-faced.
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IdleRich
IdleRich
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I thought it was one of the weakest Bonds. I guess they're trying to do something new but I'm not sure it worked. The first scene it points heavy-handedly to the new, caring Bond who pauses to staunch the bleeding of a wounded colleague at the expense of the computer disc.
Then it develops into this chase which seemed so similar to the beginning of the first Craig film and I just thought "here we go again". Fair enough I was impressed by the utter ridiculousness of him driving a JCB down a moving train - that kind of stupidity is what I want from Bond.
What I don't want is Daniel Craig, he looks like a gorilla in a suit. Bond is supposed to be a killer and also a suave kinda ladies man. Daniel Craig has the first bit down perfectly, unfortunately, as my friend said, he looks like an aggressive Sid James on steroids. He doesn't look as though he could glide through the casinos of Europe playing roulette, he looks as though he should be on the door of an Essex nightclub.
So they've humanised Bond and made him less of a psycho and more of a "realistic" character - but it's not at all realistic so what have you got? They haven't stopped him saying glib lines when he offs someone, they've just made the lines less funny, mistaking a lack of a sense of humour for grittiness.
Er, anyway, I've got absolutely loads more to say about this - and one thing I will say is that the film made me think a lot - but I have to rush off and dj at a film event.
atomicbark.wordpress.com/about/c
empty mirror
remember the jackalope
Wow, After Hours is possibly in my top ten favorite films ever, and maybe my favorite Scorcese films. I've watched it so many times. Griffin Dunne is so good in it. And Rosanna Arquette - celluloid crush material. I want to watch it again this instant.
I really liked Demonlover. Flawed but just a nice stylish headspace to hang out in for a couple hours. I liked it enough to purchase the DVD from some bargain bin and to watch it more than once. Gina Gershon, Chloe Sevigny, Sonic Youth... sure, let's do this thing!
I've been on a Buster Keaton kick lately.
Steamboat Bill Jr was a lot of fun.
Also been watching Chaplin shorts. As much as I like him, I just prefer Keaton.
Watched Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder last night. Grace Kelly is just so amazing to watch. I could barely pay attention to anything else when she was on-screen. Like tunnel vision, the room kinda blurred out, I couldn't make out any words, everything gets all slow-mo and soft-focus.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Yeah, if it wasn't clear, that is what I was trying to say. I'd recommend anyone watches it.
Can I just say how much I'm looking forward to Django Unchained. I rate pretty much all QT's films to at least some extent with even the weakest ones being entertaining. And entertainment is important with films..
DU should be great though, people are saying it's a return to form, it namechecks Django, I think it's gonna be a couple of hours of great fun. Please don't let me down!
Also, I wanna check Cloud Atlas - I think if it's done properly and is faithful-ish to the book, not so much in slavishly following the plot but in not cutting corners, then it could be a great fun mash-up and period piece - not exactly an art-film but a proper narrative-driven epic. The fact that it's one of the most expensive independent films ever and it's about three hours long suggests to me that they haven't compromised too much. I hope.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
sightseers. i expected it to be shit and remind me of the worst things i hate about british comics like simon pegg but it was actually pretty excellent. was ready to hate but it made it really hard. a serial killer movie as ken loach might make it.