films you've seen recently and would NOT recommend
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rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
pacific rim. just couldnt find it in my heart to give a shit about anyone in it or anything happening. idris elba does his usual pointlessly intense gruff act, the other leads are completely charisma free, the japanese girl does get to kick some ass but is also your stereotypically timid japanese girl who giggles and gets scared at the sight of her naked co worker, and its also over two hours. i did like the monsters and the robots to be fair, and the sets look brilliant (like alien 3), but honestly, the first transformers was better. bit of a shame really - i expected something a bit better from guillermo del toro - he needs to do some spanish language projects again.
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craner
Beast of Burden
Only God Forgives.... was pretty much everything that I thought was bad or annoying about Drive but cranked to 11, pure style over substance. Its kind of like he (the director) has no idea how to do a load of fundamental aspects of decent film making but is trying to cover it up as if its some kind of part of his style and its some kind of pretentious artistic decision. Stilted dialogue, 2 dimensional characterization, no discernible plot etc (some films have managed to be interesting and worthwhile with these caveats to be honest, but they generally have some kind of weirdness/otherworldliness to fill that gaping void). Its a shame because there is some fantastic cinematography, the film looks great, and some nicely detailed nuances displaying Thai culture and Bangkok that shows a fair amount of interaction and research.. but overall i thought the film was a pretty dire to be honest.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
also, gosling barely seemed to be acting. which was the main fault with the film. but it had some great scenes. and the scene at the dinner table with the mother was brilliantly trashy. refn is almost like a david lynch for our times. pusher, bleeder, etc were all better though.
the lynch comparison (which I felt too in parts in this film, not so much drive) is what actually totally lost even the interesting scenes for me, it just felt like poor pastiche. Still, I've only seen this and Drive, so will give him a chance and check out the others. I can see the potential for something good but everything I've seen so far just feels so contrived.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Valhalla Rising! Who the fuck knows if it's actually any good, but it has to be watched. Now that's the kind of boring film I can get behind (see discussion of Malick and Tarkovsky on the Top Ten thread). Seems about twice as long as it is.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
also, the swordsman in only god forgives was a highlight, and almost made up for gosling being so crap. apparently refn was inspired by jodorowsky for the film. i thought there was more lynch in drive actually, from the sudden bursts of violence (made me think a bit of wild at heart) just to the overall creepy atmosphere. bit like sofia coppola too - totally style over substance, yep, (like coppola) but what style! (admittedly, style that has been borrowed from a million other films).
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rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
nymphomaniac - it made my blood boil. and i consider myself a fan of lars von trier. its just a 4 hour exercise in trolling its audience. hilarious to see danny leigh on film 2014 describe it as 'sincere'. or maybe it is, in which case LVT's problem is that hes an idiot with no awareness of his idiocy.
all the claims he might make about his female stars being stand-ins for himself might be true, but honestly, it would be more challenging if he were to make them MEN, like him, cos films about women putting themselves through/or being made to suffer a lot of shit are quite common, films about men degrading themselves this horrifically seem much thinner on the ground. it also makes a total joke about its apparent feminism, cos the main character is just too tragic to be that. also, it just seems really old hat to think of a woman on a sexual conquest as feminism. hoping that the girl playing the lead does alright from this though, as in every interview i see, shes out to make clear that it was all CGI and she wasnt having real sex, it was her porn double.
all the claims he might make about his female stars being stand-ins for himself might be true, but honestly, it would be more challenging if he were to make them MEN, like him, cos films about women putting themselves through/or being made to suffer a lot of shit are quite common, films about men degrading themselves this horrifically seem much thinner on the ground. it also makes a total joke about its apparent feminism, cos the main character is just too tragic to be that. also, it just seems really old hat to think of a woman on a sexual conquest as feminism. hoping that the girl playing the lead does alright from this though, as in every interview i see, shes out to make clear that it was all CGI and she wasnt having real sex, it was her porn double.
CrowleyHead
Well-known member
Anything by or potentially influenced by Terry Gilliam.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
inherent vice. did not like. like PTA was striving too hard to create something on par with his idols so even as it tried to be funny, it was just wacky rather than genuinely humorous. also just pointless. felt like it was a RPG in how none of it added up to much (this is probably being cruel to RPGs) other than showing how CRAZY and stoned joaquin phoenixs character is (but stoned does not necessarily = likeable or interesting) and how the counter culture just died maaaaan (like we havent seen anything about that before). the long goodbye is a 10000 times better in every respect. PTA is a really good director, but this and the master have both felt like form over everything else. its the type of film where if you say its not that good, people will tell you its because you just didnt understand it (perhaps, but the film made me not care about understanding it).
CrowleyHead
Well-known member
Interestingly, the only PTA I truly loathe is There Will Be Blood, but I haven't seen Inherent Vice and only hear rather mixed reviews on it. In that regard, I'm imagining I'll have fun hating on it.
I thought Inherent Vice was a very accurate representation of a Pynchon novel, remarkably so, but that but not in itself make for enjoyable cinema. The fact that the trailer cruelly mis-sold it as well meant that I didn't have fun - I don't think it takes anything away from PTA though. There's not many people who could pull off filming the unfilmable even with such mixed results.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
the falling. did like dreams of a life but this was a poor version of lots of other films youve seen before on teenage girls/sexuality/weird shit happening as a result of repressed feelings/grief/sexual urges. the main girl is good in the lead role, but the whole thing never seemed to know what it was trying to be. not very haunting or scary. am filing it under 'overrated modern british film'.
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
also i have no idea why everyone likes mad max so much. its nice that its a female-centred mad max (even though yknow, the film is meant to be about MAX), but i dont really get what makes it so special from all the other action-action-action blockbusters like pacific rim, or the 'trying to say something serious' blockbusters like the batman trilogy (which bored me shitless). people are just desperate to believe in hollywood/blockbusters arent they?