Film Thread (What have you been watching?)

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

7 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Myself and Mrs. Goose really like Kingsman. We haven't watched the sequel or the prequel yet but they're on the list.

Thanks for warning me that there's more of that, I didn't even find it 'watchably' bad

[The Hallucinating Goose]

21 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Thanks for warning me that there's more of that, I didn't even find it 'watchably' bad

There's another sequel and another prequel in development as well and the spinoff film Argylle.

[Stirlin]

Confess , Fletch , on Netflix.

Originally Fletch films starred Chevy Chase , this 2022 take stars John Hamm.... hamming it up as Fletch.

Fletch investigating the disappearance of an art collection which involves the murder of a lady which Fletch is arrested for , cue loads of wise cracks between Fletch and the 2 cops trying to nail him for the murder.

John Slattery , who played Hamm's boss/drinking buddy in Mad Men is cast as a newspaper editor who previously featured Fletch articles in his rag.

All in all almost 2 hours worth your time , 8 out of 10.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I've just found out another Naked Gun film is currently in production due for release next year and starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. That could be the most unlikely duo I've ever heard of... 

Edited August 17, 2024 by The Hallucinating Goose

[Futtocks]

9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I've just found out another Naked Gun film is currently in production due for release next year and starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. That could be the most unlikely duo I've ever heard of... 

Neeson looking for a career reinvention, after years of gruff stage-whispery joylessness? Will there be three jump-cuts per second in every action scene, as is his wont?

Pamela Anderson might be an inspired choice, or might be awful, I really don't know.

But it's the script that'll really make or break it. Parody movies these day are a very different thing to the days of Police Squad! and the first Naked Gun movie. Pop-culture references have taken over from written or staged jokes, because the latter take hard work to create.

Edited August 17, 2024 by Futtocks

[Futtocks]

As a belated tribute to Gena Rowlands, I am currently watching the 1980 movie Gloria. Damn, it's good.

[Futtocks]

Any Bradfordians who want some work as zombie extras, start practicing your lurching now!

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24561096.28-years-later-shot-richard-dunn-sports-centre/?ref=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Part of the post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later will be filmed at the former Richard Dunn Sports Centre, on Rooley Lane, later this month.

[StandOffHalf]

The Chase (1946, Arthur Ripley)

There is a deceptive silence of unnerving calm to this film of subjugation and escape. A restless furtiveness is observed from the back-seat of sadistic control.

The use of foreshadowing, repetition, disorientation creates a noir of astonishing uneasiness and deceptiveness. It possesses the vacant queasiness of a swirling nightmare.

This is one of the films that has improved the most upon rewatch for me. I would go so far now as to call it a near-masterpiece.

9/10, up from a 6.5/10 on initial viewing.

Edited September 13, 2024 by StandOffHalf

[Gerrumonside ref]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

9/10

Had somehow not seen this classic with its timeless themes and interesting questions.

[StandOffHalf]

Scherben / Shattered (1921, Lupu Pick)

A film of stunning simplicity as the family unit shatters through an outsider's human desire for warmth in a spartan winter refuge.

The tracks outside are followed dutifully through the snow by the aging railwayman, as the mother and daughter exist in the paltry chilliness of their shared cabin. The house setting is bare and lived-in, reminding one of Saless's 'Still Life' (1974).

The family dynamic is changed irrevocably by the arrival of a railway worker. The sense of horror that runs through the veins with an icy ghastliness of giving up on life makes for a compelling and chilling film of disintegration.

9 or 9.5/10

Edited September 13, 2024 by StandOffHalf

[DavidM]

On 17/08/2024 at 06:13, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I've just found out another Naked Gun film is currently in production due for release next year and starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. That could be the most unlikely duo I've ever heard of... 

Really ? Wowzers 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

10 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Really ? Wowzers 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3402138/

[Stirlin]

But Liam Neeson always plays......Liam Neeson  . Pam has one asset and it is not acting.

[StandOffHalf]

Mademoiselle (1966, Tony Richardson)

David Watkin's static shots are unsettling and darkly beautiful in conveying the tranquillity of the natural countryside and the sadistic cruelty that mankind can all too often manifest.

 

I loved the natural sounds of recordist Peter Handford and the eerie calmness to the projections of insecurity that erupt into nastiness, but I do think the symbolism is laid on too thick and made too obvious from the outset. That is what stops me from favouriting the film. Very striking but just a tad pretentious!

 

7.5/10

Edited September 21, 2024 by StandOffHalf

[Bedford Roughyed]

Had a 4 day trip to Florida recently, so got a few films in on the flights -

The Fall Guy - Fun film, really enjoyed it.  Really surprised it wasn't a big hit?  

Monkey Man - Violent and bloody revenge film.  Nicely done by Dev Patel.

The Holdovers - Funny, sad, great performances.  

Wicked Little Letters - Funny, sweary.  Enjoyed it.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Was OK, not bad by any means but just average for me.  

[Jeff Stein]

Seem to have been on a bit of a Mark Wahlberg binge of late. He does seem to have a real work ethic and pump out a large number of films. I guess they are rarely going to be critics' favourites, but I find they are usually entertaining.

First on a flight from Doha, I watched Arthur the King. I believe it is on Amazon Prime Loosely based on fact, it is about an adventure racer being guided by a street dog across the Dominican Republic while his team attempts to win the world championship. I enjoyed it and, possibly through being tired on a red eye, found it to be quite emotional.

The second was Mile 22 made about 5 years ago and showing on Amazon Prime. Wahlberg plays slightly against type in this as a rather unpleasant commander of a special services team. The story is a cross between a spy thriller and that old story of the star taking a prisoner, in this case Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais, across a townscape full of people wanting to kill him. It doesn't hang together too well or bare considering the plot too much, but the action sequences are good.

The third film was The Union, recently released on Netflix. Another covert operatives and another plot too flimsy to consider, it stars Wahlberg and Halle Berry in roles at least a decade younger than their actual ages. However, it is mildly diverting and fairly good humoured with some good if ludicrous action sequences. may be worth switching off the brain if you want to watch it.

[Jeff Stein]

1 hour ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Had a 4 day trip to Florida recently, so got a few films in on the flights -

The Fall Guy - Fun film, really enjoyed it.  Really surprised it wasn't a big hit?  

Monkey Man - Violent and bloody revenge film.  Nicely done by Dev Patel.

The Holdovers - Funny, sad, great performances.  

Wicked Little Letters - Funny, sweary.  Enjoyed it.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Was OK, not bad by any means but just average for me.  

I also saw that Ghostbusters film on a flight recently. I had forgotten all about it until I read your post, which probably says something.

[Bedford Roughyed]

29 minutes ago, Jeff Stein said:

I also saw that Ghostbusters film on a flight recently. I had forgotten all about it until I read your post, which probably says something.

Sums it up.  Not terrible at all but pretty meh.  

[Stirlin]

2 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Had a 4 day trip to Florida recently, so got a few films in on the flights -

The Fall Guy - Fun film, really enjoyed it.  Really surprised it wasn't a big hit?  

Monkey Man - Violent and bloody revenge film.  Nicely done by Dev Patel.

The Holdovers - Funny, sad, great performances.  

Wicked Little Letters - Funny, sweary.  Enjoyed it.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Was OK, not bad by any means but just average for me.  

Fall Guy and Monkey Man must see for me.

[StandOffHalf]

Die Ahnfrau / The Ancestress (1919, Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck)

The ghost of the noble estate who cannot rest until the family line is fully extinguished proves quietly haunting as a hovering spectre of doom.

The expressionless presence floating and observing the last two members imbues the film with a melancholic powerlessness, an apprehensive uncomfortableness, and an air of fateful unavoidability towards familial extinction.

The closing revelation hits hard and is a stunningly mounted piece of melodrama.

8/10

Edited September 25, 2024 by StandOffHalf

[StandOffHalf]

Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre / From the Branches Drops the Withered Blossom (1960, Paul Meyer)

A film of remarkable humanity & affectionate solidarity with the immigrant experience - as seen through the eyes of a boy.

Meyer was financed to produce a promotional documentary, but instead used the funds to make this docu-fiction that illustrated the realities facing Italian miners in the Borinage.

The poetic lyricism that he brings to bear in this landscape (the children sliding down the waste heaps, the priest sitting & talking to the boy, the arrival & leaving of workers, the observations of the boy) create a film of memorable tenderness & poignancy towards the working-class experience.

I was reminded at points of the intently focused, socially concerned documentaries of Cecilia Mangini as well as the perspectives of the boy in Karel Kachyňa's 'Ať žije republika' / 'Long Live the Republic!'.

9.5/10

[StandOffHalf]

Furcht / Fear (1917, Robert Wiene)

The psychological aspect of a thief living in fear as his allotted time runs out does give this Wiene entry an anxiousness.

His paranoiac sense of danger at every turn and the slipping of his sanity is handled with a less expressionistic touch than one finds in many of the German films of this period, but proves effectively unsettling.

A minor - but interesting - film from the director.

6.5 or 7/10

[StandOffHalf]

Mano vaikystės ruduo / The Autumn of My Childhood (1977, Gytis Lukšas)

A beautiful film of the gaining of awareness as childhood gives way to adulthood.

The sense of time passing and moments that slip by gives a wistful tenderness to the film. Seeing and feeling through the eyes and emotions of this amenable boy coming into manhood delivers a film of relatable feelings and experiences.

I loved the two girls on either side as he drives his buggy and the sojourn with one of them under the tree as the rain falls. His standing alone on the rock looking out over the landscape of his childhood is a touching scene that makes one think of a bird stretching its wings to the sky.

A coming-of-age film to hold dear.

8/10

[StandOffHalf]

The Savage Hunt of King Stakh (1979, Valery Rubinchik)

An eerie sense of folklore pervades this unsettling and atmospheric investigative trip away from the city.

The superstition and fear that has engulfed the mansion is evoked with an eye and ear for wintry uneasiness.

What particularly chills the bones is the metaphysical terror of horsemen rampaging through the snow. The imagery of the wild hunt proves quite unforgettable and disconcerting.

A fin de siècle horror of a curse of twenty generations, seen through the interested eyes of a city outsider.

8.5/10

Edited October 9, 2024 by StandOffHalf

[Jeff Stein]

Watched Forbidden City Cop on FreeVee, an early Stephen Chow film. Similar to most other Stephen Chow films, it is anarchic, although very light on plot. It is in places, however, extremely funny. It looks very similar to early 80s Hong Kong martial arts films. I am not sure whether that was deliberate or if the production was just very cheap. Rather bizarrely lots of Bond references too. worth a look if your humour preference is surreal.