Binky
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Post by Binky on Oct 28, 2024 10:44:36 GMT
Requiem for a Dream
A story of addiction. The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep (so writes IMDB).
I’d only watched this once before, probably in 2002, and remember it being good but depressing - so I hadn’t watched it since. I guess that now I’m 44 rather than 22 and the world looks different, it’s far less depressing than I remember (not to say it isn’t a torrid tale, it is) and actually just really good.
At 22 the bit I remember most was a double ended dildo.
At 44 the bit I took away was the performance of Ellen Burstyn, who was brilliant, especially for this monologue…
I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old.
8/10
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Chaotic fun with the ghost with the most. I had a great time with this. It’s silly in all the right places and well put together. Loved Keaton (as always) and Dafoe was fantastic as the actor/cop. I really appreciated that whilst we got nods to the original it told its own story.
Favourite bits, as with the first, are whenever Keaton drops the Beetlejuice voice and uses his regular voice. No idea why, but 30+ years on and that still cracks me up.
7/10
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Post by barchetta on Oct 28, 2024 11:00:41 GMT
How is The Outrun? I thought the book was excellent. We are coming from opposite ends as I hadn’t read the book but my wife had and she said it was pretty faithful. I really enjoyed the film - a real sense of the remote island life, and Saoirse Ronan’s performance was very good, very committed. Seems it had a real resonance for her and her family history and it showed. I would recommend it when it hits streaming as I think the cinema run may be over now. I want to see Starve Acre too, but missed it at the cinema. Sounds up my street. |
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Oct 28, 2024 11:31:00 GMT
Couple of films with my son over the weekend.
The Shining (US extended version)
The quality in 4K of this film is just fucking phenomenal and all these years later it has lost none of it's power, regardless of how many times I've seen it.
I actually, somehwat surprisingly, enjoyed this extended version more than I have previously. I like the extra scenes hinting at the history of the hotel, and going a little further into Jack's struggles with alcoholism. I still cannot get over how real everything looks and even though I know it's all set work barring a few exteriors, my brain refuses to believe it, and I get compeltely engossed.
The boy rated it very highly. He's right into slow burning well crafted films it seems and he said he didn't expect it to be quite as good as it was.
For me it's an easy 10/10 all day long. I'm an ardent fan of the book, and didn't like the film on first watch all those years ago. I now view this film as a spereate entity and an alternative take on the same source (which, well, I guess it obviously is), and love it just as much as the novel.
Deadpool & Wolverine
The boy wanted to see this so I watched it with him last night. It was good fun. Great to have Jacked-man back as Logan and there were some pretty funny moments and cool action scenes. Overall it was good but not great. My enjoyment from these kinds of films peaked a long time ago and they just don't really do it for me any more. It also dragged a fair bit in some places and whilst not exactly bored, I wasn't really entertained.
All in all, a solid 7.5/10 from me. The boy loved it though, so that's all that matters really.
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MolarAm🔵
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Bad at games
Posts: 6,835
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 28, 2024 11:43:30 GMT
Pan's Labyrinth
First time watching this in absolute ages. It (mostly) holds up!
The things that didn't hold up, unfortunately, were a couple of the fantasy sequences. The Faun is still great, the Pale Man is still great, but anything that's 100% CG (like the frog, and the dragonfly/fairy things) looks pretty dated imo. I wish they'd ditched the frog sequence and done something else with it.
Anyway, there was actually a lot less fantasy than I remembered there being. It's mostly a WWII drama with some fairy tale trappings, rather than the other way around. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I do kind of wish GDT had gone deeper on the dark fantasy. Maybe it was a budget thing.
Still a great watch though, 8/10
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MolarAm🔵
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Posts: 6,835
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Oct 28, 2024 12:33:04 GMT
The Sadness (on Shudder)
A Taiwanese horror film about a virus that turns people into rage zombies, and a young couple trying to reunite in a city filled with said rage zombies.
There's nothing in it that's particularly new, but that's not really a problem for me. The different setting helps it stand apart, and the effects (mostly practical) are great. It's also quite a bit bleaker than others in the genre; it's not a particularly "fun" movie.
Recommend
8/10
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Post by FlexibleFeline on Oct 28, 2024 17:38:35 GMT
Caddo LakeI'm a sucker for any movie that has a whiff of a bayou and a southern gothic vibe. I really had little idea what this was about, but I certainly wasn't expecting a time rift sci-fi Still not sure about it. I was quite absorbed but it's pretty inessential and I don't think it quite has the emotional heft it's reaching for. 6/10.
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Post by barchetta on Oct 29, 2024 0:23:26 GMT
Alien - 10/10
Whilst familiarity might take away from the jump scares, though my wife would beg to differ and lost most of her fingernails tonight, it is still one hell of a film. Great performances, one of the most memorable scenes in film and production design that is eminently believable.
The only fault I have is the fx work of the scuttling of the Nostromo/refinery. Looks more like the 'hoopy' 2001 lightshow. Still, I can overlook that for the taut film that surrounds it.
Prefaced by a 45 min chat with Colin Arthur it was well worth a trip to see if on the big screen again. Some interesting anecdotes from this visual effects chap behind a number of films including Clash of the Titans, Neverending Story and was called in to help improve some of 'Ash's head' effects shots in Alien.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Oct 29, 2024 1:48:19 GMT
Scream 4
This started out a lot more fun than Scream 3. The uber meta beginning was pushed just too far enough to be fun. Seems less cheesy than 3, though at this point I'm worried it's going to be overfamiliar...
because I somehow got distracted after about 30 minutes and watched the first episode of Grotesquerie instead.(now that's a weird fucked up show, though I'm not sure if it's good or not)
Maybe I'll try and continue tonight.
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Post by coughthulhu on Oct 29, 2024 6:31:17 GMT
The Abyss - 8/10 Having not watched this in over a decade, the effects are not terrible, although the CGI definitely shows itself up as a test-run for everything they ended up doing in Jurassic Park. What really makes this is the acting and the environment; Michael Biehn's descent into full on paranoia is still as gripping as it was when I first saw this on release, and the CPR scene is also still pretty harrowing. I still don't know HTF to post spoilers, so I'm being careful. 
Saying that, the Special Edition is just a bit too long. Cameron does make good action movies though. Or did, I found both the Avatar films pretty dull.  |
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Post by Dougs on Oct 29, 2024 7:39:08 GMT
The UHD isn't on sale over here, I've imported it from France as a Christmas present for my wife. She absolutely adores it and bemoans not owning the UHD regularly. Expensive but hopefully worth it.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Oct 29, 2024 7:40:11 GMT
Jurassic Park? --> T2?
The abyss would be a great film if the entire thing wasn't undermined by Michael Biehn's mustache. They need to employ the CGI skills from Justice League to remove it. That'd be the Special Edition I'd want to see.
PS/ All Cameron's 'Special Editions' are a mixed bag of great scenes and stuff that kills the pacing.
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Post by zisssou on Oct 29, 2024 7:46:44 GMT
The UHD isn't on sale over here, I've imported it from France as a Christmas present for my wife. She absolutely adores it and bemoans not owning the UHD regularly. Expensive but hopefully worth it. Really frustrated by this still. Just cut the scene ffs. The import is a good £40-50 isn’t it? |
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Post by clemfandango on Oct 29, 2024 8:26:41 GMT
The Kill List - 9/10
I must have watched this drunk years ago as I couldn’t remember lots of it.
It is very very good, don’t want to spoil it for anybody, but it’s a masterclass in ramping up tension and the final act in the woods is brilliantly done. Yes it borrows from other movies but it’s also very original too.
The only minus is the sound mix, the dialogue audio is really low, I think Nolan watched this for inspiration…:
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Post by rawshark on Oct 29, 2024 9:16:33 GMT
As I get older I’m getting more and more wound up by sound mixing.
Was half watching Independence Day on Channel 4 this weekend and for whatever reason the dialogue was ridiculously low. Bill Pull sn’s speech sounded widdly. I was not inspired to give an over the top salute like I usually do.
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Post by clemfandango on Oct 29, 2024 9:40:38 GMT
As I get older I’m getting more and more wound up by sound mixing. Was half watching Independence Day on Channel 4 this weekend and for whatever reason the dialogue was ridiculously low. Bill Pull sn’s speech sounded widdly. I was not inspired to give an over the top salute like I usually do. Yep me too, Kill List is definitely an artistic choice, as when something dramatic happens it gets really loud but home speaker systems are not able to do the mix justice. I can imagine it was great in the cinema, but on a dark Monday evening in the downstairs living room I spent as much time messing with the volume as I did watching the movie in fear of waking the kids up with blood curdling death screams etc. |
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wunty
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Posts: 6,671
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Post by wunty on Oct 29, 2024 9:49:52 GMT
The Kill List - 9/10 I must have watched this drunk years ago as I couldn’t remember lots of it. It is very very good, don’t want to spoil it for anybody, but it’s a masterclass in ramping up tension and the final act in the woods is brilliantly done. Yes it borrows from other movies but it’s also very original too. The only minus is the sound mix, the dialogue audio is really low, I think Nolan watched this for inspiration…: I genuinely think it's Ben Wheatley's best film. He's not managed to top it since for me (despite A Field in England coming very close). |
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 29, 2024 9:52:47 GMT
Love Lies Bleeding (Blu-Ray) - 3.5/5
It's safe to say this is a pretty unique movie. Pulpy noir revenge love story with some extremely surreal and insane moments. Reminded me of Bound, U-Turn and A History of Violence. Need to re-watch it.
Bride Wars (Disney+) - 2.5/5
I love Anne Hathaway but she did Chris Pratt dirty. The mid-2000s were a wild time for movies. Pretty much every mainstream rom-com is extremely problematic in some way by todays standards but way more enjoyable.
One False Move (Blu-Ray) - 4.5/5
Crunchy, lean noir. Ruthlessly efficient filmmaking. A crew of real bad hombres leave a trail of bodies from LA to small town Arkansas, where the LAPD and local Sheriff lie in wait. Bill Paxton is superb, a real movie star performance.
The Bodyguard (DVD) - 2/5
Houston and Costner have an astonishing lack of chemistry. Has a few decent set pieces and images, the climax at the Oscars is a missed opportunity - imagine De Palma with this material.
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Zyrr
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Posts: 985
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Post by Zyrr on Oct 29, 2024 9:53:05 GMT
The UHD isn't on sale over here, I've imported it from France as a Christmas present for my wife. She absolutely adores it and bemoans not owning the UHD regularly. Expensive but hopefully worth it. I grabbed an import from Amazon US when it came out (UHD discs are region free) and of the three James Cameron films that have had recent 4k remasters The Abyss is by far the best and is well worth buying. Definitely the one that's had the most attention lavished on it. Aliens looks fantastic in places, but if you've watched the HD transfer enough you'll really notice how the new AI upscaling makes the actor's skin look weirdly plastic-like at times, which can be massively distracting. True Lies is an absolute shit show. I have no idea how it passed Cameron's supposedly rigorous quality control. The quality of the upscaling varies wildly from scene to scene and if you're sensitive to stuff like weird artifacting and strange looking textures it's almost unbearably distracting. It's a real shame, honestly. |
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Post by Vandelay on Oct 29, 2024 9:58:19 GMT
Ben Wheatley is a funny one. I always feel like I should love his films, but they normally fall a bit flat for me. A Field in England and In The Earth are excellent, but outside of those I normally grow a bit bored watching them (I did like Kill List, but so long since I watched it I can't recall if I just liked it or loved it).
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Post by simple on Oct 29, 2024 10:15:24 GMT
I’m a big Wheatley fan but he’s someone who absolutely does his best work on a budget
Kill List, Field in England, Sightseers, Happy New Year Colin Bursted and In The Earth are all a tier above Free Fire, High Rise or Rebecca for me.
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 29, 2024 10:22:47 GMT
Agree. I would add Down Terrace to that too, I remember watching that knowing nothing about him, and being blown away by it. Not seen it in ages.
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Bongo Heracles
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Posts: 4,596
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 29, 2024 10:24:33 GMT
I’m not a huge fan. In the Earth is my favourite of his. I remember arguing on EG that Kill List was Quite Shit, Actually.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Oct 29, 2024 10:25:28 GMT
High Rise I think the main issues come from the utterly batshit source material. I honestly think he did a decent job of something borderline unfilmable. Rebecca I actually liked a lot, but again, that relied on the source material as well. Free Fire was alright. It kind of dragged a bit.
Still not seen HNYCB yet actually. Keeps falling off my radar. I need to get it watched.
But yes. The less Wheatley has to work with, the better the film he seems to put in. A Field in England was, well, a few guys in a field. It's a bloody masterpiece. It's the kind of thing that would work on stage as well.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Oct 29, 2024 10:31:25 GMT
Ben Wheatley was one of a trio of British directors that I always made time for. Neil Marshall and Christopher Smith being the other two. None of them really do decent films any more, which is a shame.
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Post by Dougs on Oct 29, 2024 11:11:38 GMT
The UHD isn't on sale over here, I've imported it from France as a Christmas present for my wife. She absolutely adores it and bemoans not owning the UHD regularly. Expensive but hopefully worth it. Really frustrated by this still. Just cut the scene ffs. The import is a good £40-50 isn’t it? £28 including postage from FNAC. |
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richardiox
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Post by richardiox on Oct 29, 2024 11:32:07 GMT
Really frustrated by this still. Just cut the scene ffs. The import is a good £40-50 isn’t it? £28 including postage from FNAC. Did you have to pay any import duties? |
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Post by simple on Oct 29, 2024 11:34:27 GMT
I think Colin Burstead is on iPlayer. Its not a genre film but its very good.
I always felt like Free Fire would have made for a terrific Inside No 9 but the premise didn’t have enough weight to support a full length feature film.
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Post by brokenkey on Oct 29, 2024 13:52:14 GMT
Venom: the last dance. 8/10
A god old romp. Every time the trailer comes on TV, I marvel that it's impossible to make it anything that venom is saying. No such problems at the cinema. Lots of guy bits, kids of action.
It finished at 8.50, so rather than going home and watching Big Brother, I checked the Cineworld app and went in to ..
Smile 2 8/10
A great follow up. The first jump scare actually made me flinch, which never happens. There was stuff which had me looking away from the screen, and stuff that was just downright creepy. What now can you ask me?
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Post by Dougs on Oct 29, 2024 14:05:58 GMT
Did you have to pay any import duties? Nope. Arrived in a couple of days, I have a Currensea card to avoid exchange fees. |
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Post by zisssou on Oct 29, 2024 14:18:05 GMT
But I don't  |
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