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Anyone seen any good films lately - Part the second (Read 1120421 times)

crzylgs

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I really enjoyed Snowpiercer. I had a feeling the food part was an excellent homage / tip of the cap to Soylent Green. Throw some class struggle and dystopia in to the mixing pot and I'm an instant fan.

TobyD

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The Two Popes

Reasonably entertaining,  but rather pedestrian.  I think that the entire movie should have been a two piece between Hopkins and Pryce, as they're excellent,  and all these scenes sparkle. The set up news reel bits and scenic shots of the Vatican seem rather like filler for the main act. Well worth watching as it's on Netflix,  but I'd have been peeved if I'd paid for a cinema ticket. 

tomtom

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I really enjoyed Snowpiercer. I had a feeling the food part was an excellent homage / tip of the cap to Soylent Green. Throw some class struggle and dystopia in to the mixing pot and I'm an instant fan.

I watched it at the deckchair cinema in Darwin NT. sat outside in mid 20’s with insects buzzing around was quite a juxtaposition to the film :)

spidermonkey09

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Saw The Lighthouse on Friday. I really enjoyed it but it was undeniably an acquired taste. I can see how some reviews gave it 5 stars and others 2 stars. It is beautifully shot in black and white and the use of light is fabulous. Dafoe and Pattinson are excellent in their roles and the tension is built with real skill. However, the plot is a bit threadbare and leaves plenty of room for you to ponder what various scenes 'mean,' and there are several dream sequences which are poorly explained and leave the viewer a bit lost.

Overall, its well worth a watch but you have to be in the right frame of mind. 4 stars is probably fair.

spidermonkey09

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Watched Bait last night.  Really, really good.  Indie film shot on film in square format.  Set in a small fishing village in Cornwall exploring the fractious relationship between the locals and incomers.  Best thing I’ve seen in ages.

Watched this last night. Absolutely brilliant. On the BFI Player which you can get a free trial for 14 days on, so no excuse. Amazing film.

macca7

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Fairly low brow for the current discussion so apologises but for the love of god please do waste your time, money or breath on going to see Birds of Prey it is utter  :shit:

I've never felt so odd watching a film. I obviously wasn't expecting much but this was awful and never felt like it had started very odd experience?

Would highly recommend Jo Jo Rabbit however for those that haven't seen it well worth a watch and the young boys are excellent in it.

Cheers

SA Chris

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Friend said Suicide Squad was the worst he's ever seen, is it even worse than that?

macca7

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I'm going to say its the worst film I've ever seen!

Suicide squad was bad but this is worse. As I mentioned it just felt so strange, almost like it was yet to begin for the first 90 mins, it felt like you could walk out at any time and I'm a sucker for watching a film to the end. Even if I'm not enjoying it I can't leave or turn it off until the end. However this.......

I can't emphasise enough just what a pile of  :shit: it is!

Stay away people!

TobyD

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I'm going to say its the worst film I've ever seen!

Suicide squad was bad but this is worse. As I mentioned it just felt so strange, almost like it was yet to begin for the first 90 mins, it felt like you could walk out at any time and I'm a sucker for watching a film to the end. Even if I'm not enjoying it I can't leave or turn it off until the end. However this.......

I can't emphasise enough just what a pile of  :shit: it is!

Stay away people!

Nice one. I'd considered it as it had some quite positive reviews, but I'm seriously glad I didn't waste the money.

macca7

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That's how I got drawn in!

Heard it was slightly less poor than Suicide Squad, and I managed to get through that so thought it would be a reasonable way to spend a miserable , damp and cold Thursday evening.......

How wrong can you be!

Mugabe251

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From trailers BoP seemed like nothing but a self-indulgent, female power fantasy; another facile exercise in American-style cultural onanism that western audiences seem to lap up like pigs at a trough. Basically something that you wouldn't waste a minute watching anyway but it's always nice to have your prejudices confirmed.

On an unrelated note I managed to check out Hereditary from Ari Aster, the guy who directed the modern day Wicker Man folk horror 'Midsommar'. If you're in a decent state of mind and want to indulge in a bit of psychological self-abuse, you can't get much better. A shocking and emotionally-violating cult (literally) horror that doesn't let up until the credits.

teestub

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From trailers BoP seemed like nothing but a self-indulgent, female power fantasy; .

Wooooow

Will Hunt

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First suffrage, now this. When does it stop, eh? EH?!

tomtom

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Next someone will suggest violating pizza by putting mushrooms on it. IMAGINE THAT!!!!

Paul B

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El Camino

Generally underrated, I thought it was really good. Jesse's haunted character is nicely developed and it possesses the pleasantly black comedy that characterised much of breaking bad. 
However,  I am 100% the target audience and those less enthusiastic about breaking bad probably won't be quite as entertained.

Agreed. You definitely need to have invested in watching the whole of bb, and liked it, to like this. But if you have, it's good. Apart from that fact that the actor who plays Jesse has piled on the pounds a bit, and he's supposed to have just come out of captivity where he was starved!

I finally got around to watching this and despite having invested the time to watch the whole of BB found it fairly disappointing. It's not really a movie, it's just a 2h continuation of BB (and in that sense it was much of the same)?

The place we're staying has Netflix so we also watched Mystic River which was complete toss (very predictable).

TobyD

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Dark Waters: I thought this was a great movie, Mark Ruffalo gives a convincing performance of a man obsessed, yet remains sympathetic. It's quietly dramatic, serious yet entertaining. If you don't know already it's the story of a lawyer essentially suing Dupont for millions of dollars.

TobyD

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El Camino

Generally underrated, I thought it was really good. Jesse's haunted character is nicely developed and it possesses the pleasantly black comedy that characterised much of breaking bad. 
However,  I am 100% the target audience and those less enthusiastic about breaking bad probably won't be quite as entertained.

Agreed. You definitely need to have invested in watching the whole of bb, and liked it, to like this. But if you have, it's good. Apart from that fact that the actor who plays Jesse has piled on the pounds a bit, and he's supposed to have just come out of captivity where he was starved!

I finally got around to watching this and despite having invested the time to watch the whole of BB found it fairly disappointing. It's not really a movie, it's just a 2h continuation of BB (and in that sense it was much of the same)?

Yup, exactly, that's why I liked it! (But I understand completely how you wouldn't)

Paul B

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It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I was just expecting a film rather than a 2H special.

I tried 'Better Call Saul' a few years ago and didn't take to it but watched a handful more episodes after watching El Camino and it's really growing on me.

crzylgs

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Following on from watching 'Heat' a while back I finally got around to watching another Michael Mann classic 'Manhunter'. Retrospectively it's easy to see how inspirational it has been in terms of directly spawning an entire genre of forensics heavy / psychological 'cop getting in bad guys head' type films and especially TV shows. Superb.

Next up on my little Michael Mann season 'The Insider'.


Continuing the theme of filling in some 'holes' in my cinematic history, a couple of weeks ago I watched 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford'. Widely and rightly acclaimed for the Richard Deakin's cinematography as a modern day western masterpiece. Yet my lingering thoughts mainly revolved around how clever and subversive the construction of the film is in respect to it's title. Essentially it gives away the plot / plants a very specific idea in your head then spends the rest of the movie twisting these thoughts around. I was left feeling sorrow, pity and rather mournful in respect to the title's tragic 'coward' probably aided by the performance of Casey Affleck. Remarkable film.

tomtom

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It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I was just expecting a film rather than a 2H special.

I tried 'Better Call Saul' a few years ago and didn't take to it but watched a handful more episodes after watching El Camino and it's really growing on me.

Sauls a slow burner.

My review of El Camino is a few pages back - and I liked the first hour - then it ran out of steam and er... meh..

SA Chris

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Following on from watching 'Heat' a while back I finally got around to watching another Michael Mann classic 'Manhunter'. Retrospectively it's easy to see how inspirational it has been in terms of directly spawning an entire genre of forensics heavy / psychological 'cop getting in bad guys head' type films and especially TV shows. Superb.


Have you seen Red Dragon? I actually prefer it, felt Manhunter was a bit "Miami Viceish" (the orginal TV series, not the film remake) in the whole style and feel of the film, something Mann managed to get rid of in later films.

crzylgs

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re: Red Dragon. Haven't seen it but can add it to my exceedingly long list of films to watch, I have seen a couple of the sequels (Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal)... To be honest I'm an absolute sucker for the '80s Miami Viceish' aesthetic, think it's really cool/badass in a non-ironic way haha! Have done for a long time before the recent '80s revival' that Stranger Things helped to blow up - although I'm not convinced every show/film needs a synthwave soundtrack. I think it's got a lot to do with being born in '82 so am really a kid of the 90s but had older siblings and grew up with various 80s influences but hadn't experienced them first hand. Now when I either re-watch, or watch for the first time classic film from the era it usually works for me.

For example without delving too much into spoiler territory (even though it's a 35yr old film, based on a book that has a modern remake!) there was a romantic scene between the lead and his partner, silhouetted against a coastal sunset with what could be considered a 'cheesey' dialogue regarding time being precious but I thought it was iconic, really well acted and believable. Also, there is a short scene towards the end that has a slow-mo fade out (surely meant to be the ending of the film - then the studio tagged on the last bit) that plants a slightly sinister seed for the viewer to consider regarding the lead protagonist. For many the slow-mo fade probably hasn't aged well and could seem cliche but I thought it was brilliant to plant that seed of ambiguity and show that the lead has been permanently effected. This kind of subtlety goes a long way for me, especially juxtaposed next to some modern day offerings that are so black:white and heavy handed in their messages.

That ended up longer than I intended. TL:DR 80s stuff really works for me but I equally I understand why it wouldn't for others  :thumbsup:

TobyD

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It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I was just expecting a film rather than a 2H special.

I tried 'Better Call Saul' a few years ago and didn't take to it but watched a handful more episodes after watching El Camino and it's really growing on me.

Better call Saul improves massively after the first few episodes, I really liked it. Looking forward to the most recent season

UnkArl

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I think Manhunter is tremendous, far and away my favourite “Hannibal Lecter” film. I also really enjoyed the Hannibal series as the plot seemed more inline with Manhunter than the others too.

Bradders

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Dark Waters: I thought this was a great movie, Mark Ruffalo gives a convincing performance of a man obsessed, yet remains sympathetic. It's quietly dramatic, serious yet entertaining. If you don't know already it's the story of a lawyer essentially suing Dupont for millions of dollars.

Second this, really very well acted and an absorbing / alarming story. Mark Ruffalo remains firmly one of my favourite actors. The subject matter as well is genuinely thought provoking, in that (spoiler alert) we've all basically been poisoned by Dupont and they knew they were doing it for decades. Makes you think not only about chemical companies but fossil fuel producers, the fast food industry, etc. etc. If people will buy things people doing the selling will apparently do anything to keep doing so.

Also recently watched A Quiet Place, having seen the ads for part 2 in the cinema; brilliant. Again, superb acting and just a series of "oh fuck something bad is going to happen but I can't do anything about it" type classic horror moments.

 

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