Films you've seen (that were not released in 2016)

[A Car With No Doors]

Written and directed by Frank Miller with the look of Sim City

I'd probably watch that to be quite honest ;)

Anyways, Strozsek. The first Herzog film I've seen that I've fallen in love with. Surprisingly endearing for such a pessimistic, "life is shit"-themed film, perhaps due to a combination of Bruno S. being strangely likeable in the title role (I mean just look at his face when he smiles ffs, just lovely) and the little surreal touches throughout. The ending

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is of course brilliant, being surreal, mundane, nonsensical and perfectly relevant all at once, but I also really liked stuff like the two farmers fighting over one strip of land, an absurd take on human goals of land-owning and possession.

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Yer man Herzog clearly has an excellent eye for unique actors too: between Bruno and Clemen Scheitz, the performances make this quite a treasure. Makes me wonder what the barrier was with the other two films of his I've seen, and I'll certainly have to check out more of his work.

Someone agree with me about great Strozsek is please.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Can't help with that having not watched it but I'd be interested to know about the films you didn't like. I loved Heart of Glass and all the music in it, enjoyed the documentary Grizzly Man a fair bit, but found Kaspar Hauser, which has a lot of pretty images and is a classic story, annoying in its pantomime characterisation and the raising of Kaspar Hauser to a god. Maybe Strozsek can turn this around for me. There is a Herzog thread somewhere though and a few fans who might be more likely to reply if you post in there.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I'm interested in exploring Herzog. List his work by rank of what will help me enjoy.

[Steven]

I'm interested in exploring Herzog.

Colonoscopy?

[Dr Syntax Head]

Colonoscopy?

I was thinking more feeling for testicular lumps

[Smeraldina Rima]

Entre les murs (Class) (2008)

This is about a school in Paris, following the teacher's relationship with the students of one class. It was based on the teacher's autobiographical novel and the film uses the same person, a teacher, novelist and actor. I don't know whether the children were actors before this or not. It reminded me of The Diary of a Country Priest. Sometimes the contrast between the staff room and the class seemed a bit stretched. He looks after the most difficult students as best he can but they think he's their enemy. Strange sad scene at the end with one student who hasn't featured much in the film says she hasn't learned anything. I'd like to read his book now.

[chocolate teapot]

You might like Etre et Avoir 2002, it's a documentary about a very small school in rural France. The kids are fun and interesting and it's not dramatic I don't think there's any music just have the landscapes setting the scene.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Thanks.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Neds. Watched it last night. I thought it was brilliant quite frankly.

[neveragain]

Amazon Women On The Moon (1987)

Sort-of sequel to Kentucky Fried Movie. Very odd mix of sketches and parodies[nb]It uses channel-surfing as a linking device, which just feels weird when the skit isn't a parody[/nb], some brilliant with a lot of background gags[nb]My favourite being a mock-up of the London Daily Times in a cheap doc about Jack The Ripper, with a clearly pasted-on title banner and modern US headlines below[/nb] and attention to detail (particularly the 50's sci-fi pastiche that centres it) and some stuff that's just plain sexist. Tits tits tits. It's full of 'em. But great cast including Carrie Fisher, Ed Begley Jr, Don Simmons, Michelle Pfeiffer, BB King, Steve Allen, Steve Guttenberg, Phil Hartman briefly and plenty of others.
Bit of a timepiece oddity as well in that it was delayed in release due to co-director John Landis' helicopter misfortune.

[Ambient Sheep]

I just watched The Box (2009), courtesy of BBC1, and really really wish I hadn't.  Must be one of the most fucking depressing films I've ever seen.  I'm not sure I'll ever again take the piss out of movie executives who insist on upbeat Hollywood endings.  Apparently it was "the only film that received an 'F' CinemaScore from audiences upon its release in 2009.".  There's a long thread on IMDb called Hateful screenplay and I can only agree.  I felt like going outside and starting the car engine with the garage door closed.

I would have dug up on an old thread on it here to rant about it there, but as far as I can tell there isn't one, only a couple of very disparaging mentions here and here (onwards).

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had least been coherent, but by the end you end up so confused as to whether it's

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Martians

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,

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Christians

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or

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Martian Christians

[close]

that it's hateful whichever way it is.  Do not watch, and it's rare that I say that about a movie.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I just watched The Box (2009), courtesy of BBC1, and really really wish I hadn't.  Must be one of the most fucking depressing films I've ever seen.  I'm not sure I'll ever again take the piss out of movie executives who insist on upbeat Hollywood endings.  Apparently it was "the only film that received an 'F' CinemaScore from audiences upon its release in 2009.".  There's a long thread on IMDb called Hateful screenplay and I can only agree.  I felt like going outside and starting the car engine with the garage door closed.

I would have dug up on an old thread on it here to rant about it there, but as far as I can tell there isn't one, only a couple of very disparaging mentions here and here (onwards).

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had least been coherent, but by the end you end up so confused as to whether it's

Spoiler alert

Martians

[close]

,

Spoiler alert

Christians

[close]

or

Spoiler alert

Martian Christians

[close]

that it's hateful whichever way it is.  Do not watch, and it's rare that I say that about a movie.

I did the very same thing and felt similar. I'm not a fan of happy endings but man that was just empty. I was thinking that the half face guy was an angel or somesuch (or even the grim reaper) and God and the folk in heaven were the employers. Hence the morality aspect throughout. Could have been Aliens teaching us a lesson though.

I did like thinking about the 'do you really know yourself' logical reasoning they touched upon before pushing the button. It could have been a much better film.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Ensemble c'est tout (2007)

One of Claude Berri's (Jean de Florette/ Manon des Sources) last films. It's a romantic comedy about a group of three new friends. Camille moves in with shy Philibert and moody Franck in their grand apartment. Franck likes to listen to the band Hard-Fi but Camille hates Hard-Fi and ends up throwing his music system out the window. Is this the end, or only the beginning, of their beautiful relationship? It's the beginning of it. The film has a pleasingly dull atmosphere and Laurent Stocker is brilliant as Philibert.

[Ambient Sheep]

I was thinking that the half face guy was an angel or somesuch (or even the grim reaper) and God and the folk in heaven were the employers. Hence the morality aspect throughout. Could have been Aliens teaching us a lesson though.

Well my initial thought that it was

Spoiler alert

the Martians testing us to see if we were worthy to live as a species by seeing how many people would push the button

[close]

(as later explicitly spelt out), especially as it happened just as we did our first landing on Mars, but then as you say it appeared to suddenly go all God-squaddy on us, which just confused the fuck out of me.  Without the Viking landings connection, being an angel/grim-reaper would have been the obvious thought, but as it is it's just confusing.  For example, when they were

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sending all the people through the watery space-warp to another US state (I forget which one)

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, surely that implies alien technology, rather than something God-like?

Unless, riffing off of Clarke's Law ("any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") they are implying that

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the Martians ARE God?

[close]

That would be rubbish.

I did like thinking about the 'do you really know yourself' logical reasoning they touched upon before pushing the button. It could have been a much better film.

Yeah, there's a really good film in there struggling - and totally failing - to get out.  So many great ideas in there - despite the central conceit being an old one - that could have been far better explored.  In fact, the original short story upon which this was based did so, according to the IMDb trivia page:

Spoiler alert

"after Norma presses the button, her husband dies in a train incident and she receives the money in the form of a no-fault insurance pay-out. When she complains that someone she did not know was supposed to die, she is told that she never really knew her husband."

[close]

.

Looking back on it, I think what really makes this film so unpleasant is the last segment involving their

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     son     

[close]

.  That just seemed gratuitously nasty and would, I think, explain the negative audience ratings it got.


Finally, one unsettling detail, again from the IMDb trivia page: turns out that writer/director Richard Kelly's mum "also suffered a crippled foot after a X-Ray mishap", and "his father worked for NASA and co-designed the camera used on the Viking Mars Landers".  That makes the whole thing even spookier.

[Serge]

Watched 'Men In Black' for the first time last night. Not bad.

[phantom_power]

If you want more of the same I would suggest you skip Men in Black 2 and go straight to 3. The second film is a mess but the third is surprisingly entertaining, given it is a third film, the second was shit and the production was troubled I think (started filming without a finished script)

[Dex Sawash]

I watched Elf for the first time. I hate Will Farrell but laughed at him in this. It is pretty stupid. Bob Newhart is looking well.

[Quincey]

Watched Defendor. Rather bleak and horrible little film, found no humour in it whatsoever.

[A Car With No Doors]

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

Fuck me this is good. A film by Dusan Makavejev which I guess could be compared to Daisies in the fact that it's anarchic in politics and execution, the central plot concerns two girls and film was banned in the maker's home-country for many years.

What really appealed to me I think was the style, or indeed its reluctance to adhere to a single one. The entire thing is a kaleidoscope of US counterculture documentary footage, sex/psychotherapy related nonsense (being based on the teachings of Wilheim Reich) and the fiction plot all dovetailing with each other in a really really lovely way. Additionally, there's a lot of footage spliced in from propaganda films and such, and ultimately the collagist nature of it is really really fresh for an early 70s film so rooted in stuff like Andy Warhol's associates (

Spoiler alert

one of my favorite scenes is just Jackie Collins chilling out with her partner, sat in a car with their feet up, which seems to sum up the film's attitude

[close]

).

I'd certainly recommend it to any fans of Eastern European cinema from this period. Just brilliant stuff.

[Dex Sawash]

Saw '71 the other day with Cook from Skins in it. I know nothing about the NI stuff so lack context to judge subject but it was OK. Lead guy says maybe 200 words in the whole film, different. Good tension. Looks great like one of those cheesy Michael Caine fillums from the 70s.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Save The Green Planet - Mad Korean film Nags recommended to me a while back, in which a guy thinks aliens are trying to destroy the world and who then kidnaps and tortures a business man he thinks is one of their leaders. Bizarre, very funny, with some crazily lovely moments, this is great stuff and definitely worth watching.

The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle - As people on here have been recommending it for ages now, and thank you to those who did so as it's a pretty charming film. Sure it's very silly, and whilst DeNiro's doing his best his performance is a bit one note, but Jason Alexander's clearly having a great time hamming it up and there's lots of dumb but cute gags which made me laugh a fair deal.

[Custard]

Jason Alexander does throw himself fully into those roles, doesn't he? I caught a bit of Dunston Checks In on telly this week, and he was giving it his all. Whereas Faye Dunaway and others looked like they'd rather be anywhere else

[billtheburger]

W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism

Fuck me this is good.

Aye.

Just watched it - & like you say there are similarities to Daises.
It also reminded me of Godard's Sympathy For The Devil with the intercutting from Wilhelm Reich's authentic therapy sessions to the fictional film of Yugoslavian girls free love communism.

[Junglist]

Patriot's Day - Actually not that bad. It looks at the FBI/police angle, but also follows a few of the runners or people at the marathon. Its primarily about the aftermath, with the bombing basically happening within the first 40 minutes.  It does go all MURICA at the end and slaps on the sentimentality (fantastic bit of HAVE FEELINGS HERE during a Wahlberg monologue) but its a solid film.

Hidden Figures - What could be a very interesting story gets too caught up in the saccharine, alongside the politics of the 60s. Plays a lot towards the Oscar nods with its constant portrayal of racism (albeit slight racism) and how these intelligent, bright women were kept down, but the actual story of what they did at NASA and the change it brought is fascinating. Essentially a lazy Sunday afternoon movie. Solid performances by the three leads.

Both (will) come out in 2017 so fuck da rules.

[Repeater]

XXX - the return of Xander Cage - Fuckin hilarious

Another voice - no bad

[New Jack]

Watched A Simple Plan and hereby call it now Snow Country for Snowmen

It was quite good but they had to have the non snowy bit with the family and I didn't like the hectoring wife.

[Dex Sawash]

Bronson Tom Hardy is v good and you see his nob a lot if you like nobs.
Super Hans does a different sort of eccentric well. Sets are very nice but a little Clockwork Orangey in feel overall. Looked stunning in many parts.
Also had a scene with Smell off This is England

7/10

[Beach]

John Wick is criminally underrated.

I watched it again on Sunday, the whole thing is glorious.

I love the way that essentially it's a simple revenge story, but it just takes you on a journey through one man's life and therefore vicariously through others.  All the time it has action/drama/stunts/dogs/guns/pathos/comedy/bullets/great acting/Russians/politics.

It's an awesome film, other people should watch it.

Totally shite movie.

[Custard]

John Wick is the nuts! I'm yet to meet someone who's seen it and hasn't enjoyed it

We could never be friends, Beach :(

[hewantstolurkatad]

The Birds
Pretty underwhelmed. The whole way through I couldn't help but compare it to a band coming off a creative hot streak where, while they're definitely cooling off, they're able to spend a fuckton of time in a very fancy studio with all the best sessionists. I imagine the effects alone wowed people in a pretty huge way at the time but a lot of them have dated in a way that's counterproductive

Mouchette
Wow, I was surprised that I didn't unreservedly love a Bresson film. It was okay but I mightn't bother at all with his later output now such was the drop from Pickpocket, A Man Escaped, Diary of a Country Priest and Au Hasard Balthasar