films you've seen recently and would NOT recommend

[IdleRich]

How was Cloud Atlas then?
Yesterday I watched the recent(ish) version of Brighton Rock - very strange mash up in that they took a few ideas from the book but set it in the sixties, mixed in a load more gangster stuff to make it more exciting and then seemingly cut in a few mods vs rockers scenes from Quadrophenia. And then, utterly bizarrely, they used the exact same cop-out ending as the 1947 film with Richard Attenborough. I can't understand that at all, if they claim the film is not a remake of the previous film but actually just another adaptation of the book then how could they arrive at the same ending which undermines the whole thing? It was watchable enough and it certainly looked good but it was disappointingly inconsistent, Helen Mirren's character spent the whole film trying to "save" Rose but the final scenes saw Rose in prison, pregnant with her dead husband's child while Mirren and John Hurt bought champagne and disappeared upstairs in a posh hotel for some celebratory nookie. Similarly Mirren is drawn in at first because her friend is killed by Pinkie's gang, but in the film it's as revenge for him murdering someone else so there is no real moral impulse to sympathise with him as a small time loser like there is in the book.

 

[jorge]

I hadnt read the book and it was a bit too complicated for me to follow, also no doubt due to me getting stoned before watching. I did enjoy it though and there did seem to be a coherence in all of the different stories.

One I'd like to watch again, especially because the of the low quality projection which really stopped me from being immersed.

Was also in the shadow of life of pi which I had watched earlier and loved. Probably the best cinema experience Ive had, which admittedly isnt a particularly great feat.

 

[IdleRich]

Seems they changed the structure of the book for the film, not sure why but film makers always have to fuck around with things and put their stamp on the film. Why was the projection so low quality, where did you watch it?

 

[jorge]

It was a local bar/cinema called Kriterion. Their main screen is good but this one was pretty small and the picture was really obviously cold and digital, could see the pixels pretty much. You can bring beer from the bar into the cinema though, which is nice. I saw Life of Pi at leicester square on the biggest screen I have seen and it looked amazing so this was a real step down.

If anyones ever in Amsterdam, theres a new film museum called Eye which was where the master was showing. Its the only place able to show 70mm in The Netherlands and there a nice bar and restaurant there aswell.

I think the architecht may have played too much starfox tho

 

[IdleRich]

I lived in Amsterdam for a couple of months but I guess that wasn't there then. If it was it totally passed me by.

 

[jorge]

It only opened last summer. Just across the water from Centraal aswell so easy to get to. Cinema is wicked, great acoustics.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i saw 2001 at that place in amsterdam last summer. its pretty cool and stylish and the auditoriums are pretty great though a bit grey and cold - like the bfi in london basically.

i dont know about No yet but i loved tony manero which pablo lorrain did a while back. brilliant, weird film about saturday night fever, the 70s, disco, american cultural influence and pinochet-era chile too, though thats more of a contextual background thread, its really about a guy with a weird obsession and love of killing people at random.

agreed about the master - it has such a massive presence, and everything about it oozes import, but i just found it empty underneath it all. for all the hubbard hype, i learnt next to nothing new about cults. i think PTA was trying to be cerebral but it didnt quite work so you ended up with this massively overlaboured film which inspires awe but doesnt really make you feel much as all the attention seemed to go on the photography and performances. funny how it ended up at the top of all the 2012 polls - *insert cult of PTA joke*.

 

[blacktulip]

I think the architecht may have played too much starfox tho

LOL

 

[blacktulip]

I said it was one of the three truly great 3D films, not greatest films of all time. The other two would be Avatar and Hugo. Neither of which are Citizen Kane.

The Hobbit is a steaming bag of shite and looks like shit. I liked Lord of the Rings.

Here's some stuff on 48fps http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2012...a-reaffirmation-of-what-makes-cinema-magical/

but he's still making excuses for the technology instead of criticizing a paltry script, laughable acting and the worst art direction in the history of picking up cameras.

The only great 3D film is Dial M, man. It's amazing.

About The Hobbit, I read a review saying Sylvester McCoy spends five minutes trying to bring a hedgehog back to life in it. I laughed, shook my head. Then I went to see it, and he does. That was so surreal.

In all seriousness, though: that bit at the start with the two actors from LOTR. Christ.

 

[Corpsey]

'Coraline' was a very good 3D film. It used the technology to help tell the story, the animation was superb as well. I almost can't imagine watching it in 2D.

 

[Bangpuss]

The only great 3D film is Dial M, man. It's amazing.

My favourite Hitchcock film, that. I was aware that it was originally made in 3-D. Now, I'd like to see Dial M in the original 3-D technology, to see how that looks, and compare it to what we have today. Anyone have any idea if there's a retro 3-D cinema club which does it like they did in the fifties?

 

[Bangpuss]

Speaking of which, there's a 3D Dial M For Murder being showed at the Berlinale right now. Hopefully it will get a release in the UK.

 

[empty mirror]

I recently watched Dial M for the first time recently and I didn't know it was originally 3D. It does make sense know.

Weird to think back on scenes in my memory and add three-dimensionality to it.

but isn't memory 3D already?

serious question

 

[craner]

I have found with Hitchcock, as with Roman Polanski and Jess Franco, the more I watch, the less I like.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i cant find one review that agrees with me but, i dont recommend beyond the hills. it is 'quality filmmaking' and all that, but i found it quite conservative. i dont know if its that i wasnt totally 100% focused while watching it (im sure some academic reading will tell me about lots of little interesting details you have to look out for) but it seemed pretty plain compared to 4 months 3 weeks and 2 days, which was really tense and agonising. yeah theres a few tense scenes in it, but by and large, it doesnt sustain it. its a pretty sedate, plaintive film. all a bit too much of a 'tastefully timeless tale' for me. sensitively done, but i dont think i need to see another film showing how stupid/erroneous/cruel and misguided christianity/religion can be. its been done a million times before.

 

[baboon2004]

Killer Joe - just grim, and ultimately pointless.

 

[jenks]

Foolishly thought that no-one could fuck up Maupassant's Bel-Ami - genuinely great nineteenth century novel that feels so utterly accessible and modern - how wrong was I? Maybe swayed by the fact that Uma Thurman and Christina Ricci were starring, i over looked that the bloke was him out of Twilight. Dear God, awful, so totally dreadful that I became slightly ashamed to be watching it in my own home, of my own volition. It went back to lovefilm rapidly indeed... and it had the copper bloke out of Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars in it as a French journo - rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

yeah that film was seriously ropey. r-patz was decent in cosmopolis though.

 

[IdleRich]

Babel - the third film I've seen by that guy (also Amores Peres and 21 Grammes) and they all flatter to deceive. A seemingly intriguing premise once again falls flat and all you're left with is a bad film flashily disguised as a good one - a disguise that is totally threadbare by about the half-way point.

 

[baboon2004]

I liked Amores Perros a lot when I saw it, although it was a long time ago, so not sure it would hold up for me now. Babel I couldn't get past the hour mark with though.