What you seen Good or Bad recently?

[SteveDave]

Well I should think so too.

What did you think of the ending? I have a feeling it may be a bit offputting for some folk, what with

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the film making a sharp turn into slasher movie territory, complete with David as an indestructible bogeyman

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. I was a bit miffed that he

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killed the mum and dad. Up until then he seemed genuinely interested in helping the family, albeit in the most violent of ways. After that he goes from being a sort of ambiguous figure to a straight up villain

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.

That aside, it was great fun and, again, features a corker of a lead performance. I'm not sure the world is really crying out for yet another posh white English actor but - looking at some of the charisma vacuums that get catapulted to stardom, your Daniel Radcliffes or Sam Worthingtons - I'd say he deserves some level of success.

I loved the ending. Especially

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as he gets away and what the daughter says.

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As I said earlier I had no idea where the film was going from the beginning. All the things I'd seen of the film made it seem like it was going to be lone hero saves family which he sort of does but then

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it all goes tits up

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Maybe you'll be able to answer this question-

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Was David a robot? He never seemed to sleep. He just sat on the bed staring off like Arnie in T2.

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[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

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There was definitely something up with him. Lance Reddick's company had clearly been up to some dodgy experiments. I was thinking Captain America style genetic engineering. I can't remember exactly, but wasn't it implied that Caleb - the dead son - had been in the same program?

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[SteveDave]

They mention that

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"someone" had burnt down the facility where the experiments were happening & that they thought David was amongst the dead (another dead body with no teeth from his doctor friend?) but I can't remember them mentioning that Caleb was involved in it.

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The current Mrs Steve-Dave did comment that Dan Stevens could quite easily slip into Captain America's lycra body suit after Chris Evans[nb]not that one[/nb] gets bored of it & very few would notice/care.

[zomgmouse]

Waitress (2007). A really sweet film tinged with real darkness. Funny and bright-looking but also rather serious. I enjoyed it a lot. Need to look into more Adrienne Shelly stuff.

[Bored of Canada]

Waitress (2007). A really sweet film tinged with real darkness. Funny and bright-looking but also rather serious. I enjoyed it a lot. Need to look into more Adrienne Shelly stuff.

Don't mean to be a downer, but she was murdered just after making that film, did you know?

[small_world]

Someone start a separate Transcendence thread.

I would, but I still haven't seen it yet.
Add a note that there'll be a lot of spoilers in there though.

A lot of enthusiasm on here though and I did check the Spoiler that hinted at similar films and I really like the two I've seen.

Looking forward to watching it.

[olliebean]

Someone start a separate Transcendence thread.

You mean Coherence? Transcendence was bloody dreadful.

[Bobby Treetops]

Just watched Coherence after it was recommended on here and I thought it was great, like a feature length Twilight Zone episode. As mentioned previously, the acting is a bit hammy and annoying in the first ten minutes but stick with it because

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once the lights go out

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it all goes a bit

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mental.

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[newbridge]

Don't mean to be a downer, but she was murdered just after making that film, did you know?

Wikipedia'd the circumstances of the murder. Wow, that is a downer.

[zomgmouse]

Don't mean to be a downer, but she was murdered just after making that film, did you know?

Yeah, I knew about that before seeing the film. She did do other stuff earlier, though. But yeah, definitely very sad.

[GeeWhiz]

Watched 'ABCs of Death' last eve which, by virtue of being an assemblage of shorts, manages to mix both. The oddest thing about it is the shit and blood fixation. Barely a minute passes without either (or both) smeared across the screen. Regardless, there are some definite highlights. I liked the talking parrot piece, the one with the duck and Ben Wheatley's POV vampire tale.
The last short, directed by the chap who made 'Tokyo Gore Police,' outdoes 70s era Ken Russell for shear outré chutpzah. Quite the finale. Also, Ti West can piddle off.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Non-Stop - This was exactly what I expected. A Liam Neeson action film on a plane with a ludicrous final act. Hit the spot, although it seemed very similar to the Jodie Foster film Flightplan. Recommended for easy Saturday night viewing.

[newbridge]

Dead Man (1995) - Very good, still digesting the meaning. Back when Johnny Depp was still interesting. Kind of felt like the sort of self-indulgent genre piece that Quentin Tarantino would make if he wasn't an enormous blockhead.

[newbridge]

Heat (1995) - A cynical, preposterous action movie without any semblance of a message to justify the cynicism. Style over substance, but the style isn't all that great.

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It would have been interesting if it had ended by juxtaposing DeNiro being unable to give up his vendetta against the double-crosser (who is inexplicably a serial killer??) with Pacino being able to put aside his work to be with his family after Natalie Portman's suicide attempt - as if there had actually been some kind of character arc - but they clearly couldn't resist the tedious standoff between the two A-listers.

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The action scenes are largely absurd and the heists aren't that interesting. Not sure about the critical acclaim for this one, I give it a big MISS.

[Bhazor]

Miami Connection: best worst film I've ever seen. Unlike other bad films it isn't trying to ape any existing block busters. Its just its own beautiful thing. An ultra violent coming of age martial arts melodrama musical about forty year old college students starting a kung fu rock band as the bass player attempts to reconcile with his estranged father.

[Pepotamo1985]

Are there any other good Orwell films?

No, not really - although the film adaptation of Aspidistra is actually a pretty good movie on its own merits. If you can separate the two and see its filmic incarnation as a totally independent work that draws narrative inspiration from the text then it's quite enjoyable. Richard E Grant is appallingly good and Bonham-Carter's performance is strong - but make no mistake, this is period costume romance, not a gritty and savage commentary on the inescapable nature of capitalism (quelle surprise). Most of the book's themes are just jettisoned outright, or presented in highly diluted form. It just happens to be really fine period costume romance.

It's odd, but Orwell's work seems to defy adaptation. I've seen stage productions of many Orwell books (including, somehow, THREE separate theatrical takes on 1984) and they have all been absolutely terrible. Admittedly, it is difficult to do his work justice without a ridiculous budget (probably); the plots are so expansive, the descriptions so rich and visceral, the stories themselves so psychological and unspoken. But then I wonder why people would ever bother trying. You'd almost need an immersive Secret Cinema style sprawling, interactive set to nail them properly on stage. On screen, I reckon you'd need great CG or the finest modelling skills on earth to adequately depict Airstrip One, say - and I'm struggling to think of a director I'd trust to adequately tackle his books' nuances, subtleties and messages (much less a studio that would actually let it happen).

[clingfilm portent]

Watched that Quatermass Experiment last night, exxpecting some twinkle, some crumb of something interesting or pioneering, like it might offer some kind of entertainment, ironic or otherwise, but it was absolutely fucking shit. Being 64 years old is no excuse, whether you're a human or a film.

[Crabwalk]

I saw a fun, twisty little thriller recently called Time Lapse. It's about a young couple and their flatmate who discover a large machine with a lens attached in the house opposite theirs, pointing at their front window and bolted to the floor.

And this device is timed to take 1 photo per day, which it prints out instantly. And the images it prints show the view of their front window 24 hours INTO THE FUTURE. With the owner of the place dead and the contraption still pumping out daily photos, they have to decide what to do...

It could've been a very silly film, but it plays things totally straight, with plenty of suspense and intelligence. It reminded me a bit of Shallow Grave, actually. I'll be interested to see what the first-time writer-director does next.

[Don_Preston]

Watched that Quatermass Experiment last night, exxpecting some twinkle, some crumb of something interesting or pioneering, like it might offer some kind of entertainment, ironic or otherwise, but it was absolutely fucking shit. Being 64 years old is no excuse, whether you're a human or a film.

Was it this one (renamed here for American audiences)? This is the one I've seen, and I entirely agree with you. I haven't seen any of the BBC serials, but if they're paced anything like Doctor Who I imagine six episodes would be a slog.

[zomgmouse]

I saw a fun, twisty little thriller recently called Time Lapse. It's about a young couple and their flatmate who discover a large machine with a lens attached in the house opposite theirs, pointing at their front window and bolted to the floor.

And this device is timed to take 1 photo per day, which it prints out instantly. And the images it prints show the view of their front window 24 hours INTO THE FUTURE. With the owner of the place dead and the contraption still pumping out daily photos, they have to decide what to do...

It could've been a very silly film, but it plays things totally straight, with plenty of suspense and intelligence. It reminded me a bit of Shallow Grave, actually. I'll be interested to see what the first-time writer-director does next.

I swear I read a Goosebumps with the exact same plot only it was a haunted polaroid camera.

This sounds like it could be cool.

[zomgmouse]

I watched Clueless and Mean Girls yesterday. They were both a lot of fun, although I preferred Clueless. Seemed a lot more self-aware and less WYSIWIG than Mean Girls.
Basically: hegemony is for losers.

[SteveDave]

St Vincent

Just lovely. Bill Murray as Bill Murray but with a slightly different accent & a heart of gold.

I cried.

[clingfilm portent]

The Babadook

Best horror film I've seen in years, actually ever. Amazing performance from the lead, and the kid was good too. Won't say any more about, I'd just say see it in case/before it gets too big.

[Puce Moment]

I'm going to watch The Babadook again this week because people seem to like it a lot, and I hated it.

I wanted the

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kid to get killed so much - I know he was supposed to be irritating to push her to the brink, but fuckity fuck, I seriously wanted him dispatched.

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I wasn't sure what I was supposed to like about it - papa lazarou was silly, and it just seemed very thin, albeit pleasantly simple.

Anyway, I suspect i've missed something.

[clingfilm portent]

I didn't think it would be universally loved. I didn't mind

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the squirt

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, and

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The Babadook itself did seem faintly ridiculous in appearance at first, until I understood it as literally being something from a children's book come to life, giving it this puppety appearance

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. It worked for me, which I'm glad of, though I'm beginning to realise that my compass for what constitutes good horror being completely at odds with the rest of cab.

[Johnny Textface]

Yeah can't see the fuss about The Babadook at all. According to someone I know it's 'a lot cleverer than it appears'. So they're going for the

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mum just being mentally ill.

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Nah.

[clingfilm portent]

'a lot cleverer than it appears'.

The kiss of death.

[newbridge]

Haven't seen The Babadook:

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Is it one of those things where it's left unclear whether anything paranormal actually happened versus the mother just being mentally ill? Didn't Guillermo del Toro already do that with The Orphanage?

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[clingfilm portent]

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Yes but I didn't like that although it looked nice

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[Puce Moment]

I read the film as being more about the

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representation/personification of grief in a horror monster, and that the whole film is about stages of grief and mourning a loved-one, and that it is only by moving on, or accepting that loss, that this 'monster' can be slayed.

So a metaphor, rather than explicitly about her madness.

Might be bully bullshite though.

Either way, what a fucking annoying kid. I would have smothered him before he was out of nappies.

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