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What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2018 Edition)

Started by zomgmouse, January 07, 2018, 12:20:15 PM

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greenman

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on August 31, 2018, 02:50:40 PM
Both volumes of Kill Bill, back-to-back.

I hadn't seen them since they first came out, so thought I'd give them another whirl.

You really could make a QT film by just editing together 3 to 4 minute scenes from about 100 other (often much better) genre films.

Admittedly I'm not a huge QT fan - I (still) think Pulp Fiction is great, and Jackie Brown is watchable, but dislike the rest very much - but fuck me, I really don't think he's capable of doing anything other than stealing other peoples' ideas and massively over-writing scripts.

Having said that, volume 2 wasn't quite as bad as I'd remembered.  Having said that, enough with the fucking Hanzo sword already, and do we really need a ten minute speech about Superman and Batman at the end? (rhetorical)

Also - can someone remind me if the bleeping of Beatrix's name was present in the original cinema release?  I didn't remember it.

Jackie Brown for me is his second worst film after Death Proof, moderately entertaining but I just fond much of it rather dull, he simply can't pull of a more sweeping crime epic the way Marty could back in the day IMHO. I suspect realising that was what shifted him away from a career directing credible gangster films with ever diminishing returns he seemed to be heading for in the 90's.

I wouldn't really agree with the idea you could make one of his films just piecing together genre pictures either, I mean you could argue his films aren't that coherent but I do think there clearly better written and acted that most of the cinema their drawing on.

greenman

Quote from: amputeeporn on September 01, 2018, 10:42:48 PM
Grosse Pointe Blank

Ha! Very fun but my god, very nineties. The world really was a more innocent (maybe better) and less knowing place: wearing your enormous, figure-hiding clothes, drinking and driving, driving a convertible car and living in a mansion off your cushy gig on local radio.

Shout out to Minnie Driver, though, who was genuinely beguiling, I thought.

I think actually what dates it is you don't really get this kind of cinema made anymore, today the concept with either be turned into a light screwball comedy akin to something like Feig's Spy or something darker like In Bruge.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: amputeeporn on September 01, 2018, 10:42:48 PM
Grosse Pointe Blank

Ha! Very fun but my god, very nineties. The world really was a more innocent (maybe better) and less knowing place: wearing your enormous, figure-hiding clothes, drinking and driving, driving a convertible car and living in a mansion off your cushy gig on local radio.

Shout out to Minnie Driver, though, who was genuinely beguiling, I thought.

I watched that the other day. Murder looked a lot easier in the 90's, just pap the dead man in a furnace, job done.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: greenman on September 02, 2018, 11:20:07 AM
Jackie Brown for me is his second worst film after Death Proof, moderately entertaining but I just fond much of it rather dull, he simply can't pull of a more sweeping crime epic the way Marty could back in the day IMHO. I suspect realising that was what shifted him away from a career directing credible gangster films with ever diminishing returns he seemed to be heading for in the 90's.

I wouldn't really agree with the idea you could make one of his films just piecing together genre pictures either, I mean you could argue his films aren't that coherent but I do think there clearly better written and acted that most of the cinema their drawing on.

I bloody love Jackie Brown, but I also love the soundtrack and Blaxploitation films in general.

amputeeporn

Quote from: greenman on September 02, 2018, 11:49:13 AM
I think actually what dates it is you don't really get this kind of cinema made anymore, today the concept with either be turned into a light screwball comedy akin to something like Feig's Spy or something darker like In Bruge.

Absolutely - but it was a nice little time capsule for what it was. Sent me off googling what John Cusack's been up to lately, which was fairly depressing (awful, sub-Taken VOD dreck at a rate of about one film every three months). Sad that someone who brought projects like this and High Fidelity to screen, largely with charm, humour and success, has become a kind of Nicholas Cage joke.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: amputeeporn on September 02, 2018, 03:35:55 PM
Absolutely - but it was a nice little time capsule for what it was. Sent me off googling what John Cusack's been up to lately, which was fairly depressing (awful, sub-Taken VOD dreck at a rate of about one film every three months). Sad that someone who brought projects like this and High Fidelity to screen, largely with charm, humour and success, has become a kind of Nicholas Cage joke.

They were both in Con Air. Makes you think.

greenman

Seems a bit of a harsh comparison to me as well given that Cage was still making decent films pretty regularly up to the turn of the decade, Cusack is more like the turn of the millennium.

Z

Nicolas Cage is in two pretty well received films this year.

Cage's issue is that he'll overdo stuff, even when he's paying off taxes or whatever and totally half assing it, it'll be weirdly overboard. Cusack's whole thing was that he was slightly odd everyman who can't be arsed. It's harder to write a role for Cusack that works while Cage is so distinct that he's at the point where people will write films with him specifically in mind.

Sebastian Cobb

Nah. Cage has done more shit films than good ones I reckon.

He likes to mix it up though. He's not like your DeNiro's who used to be good, but then turned shit.

Sebastian Cobb

Ah yeah, I remember why I entered this thread now. I went and saw that Cold War film. Strictly speaking being a 2018 film I shouldn't mention it here, but I don't think it's worth its own thread; it was merely ok.

greenman

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 02, 2018, 08:00:04 PM
Nah. Cage has done more shit films than good ones I reckon.

He likes to mix it up though. He's not like your DeNiro's who used to be good, but then turned shit.

Seems that ever few years he desides its time to do some good films again but the gap gets larger, you had  2 years of bad films after 8mm before Adaptation/Matchstick Men/Lord of War then 4 years of bad films until Bad Lieutenant and Kickass and now 8 years until Mandy and I see a Sion Sono film as well, so the next good phase should be around the mid 2030's.

Sebastian Cobb

Leaving Las Vegas, that was alright. Raising Arizona and all.

hedgehog90

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 01, 2018, 07:49:56 PM
Bear in mind that yer man Herzog, whilst not an outright bullshitter, does tend to exaggerate and embellish.  If you remember when he got shot by an air rifle during an interview with Mark Kermode a few years ago, the likelihood is that it ricocheted off something, or it was just someone randomly shooting in the air from a distance, whilst soon after calmly brushing it off, Herzog was intimating in all sincerity in interviews that it could have been an assassination attempt.  So take some of what he says with a few grains of salt.  Especially when you consider that even mentalist Klaus Kinski called him out on a few things during their tempestuous relationship.

I've watched many interviews and talks of his so I'm already familiar with his tendency to embellish, misstate facts and contradict himself, however what I noted from the commentary was not of that nature and fit perfectly with what I saw onscreen.
The only thing I doubt is Heinrich von Kleist's alleged involvement in pimping/criminality, but by some accounts he was a hot-head and abusive in real-life, so although it might not be true I think it succinctly communicates a truth about his character.

greenman

Got around to Tarkovsky's The Sacrfice.

The early going a found a little tough as there wasn't really as much visually interesting from him as you'd typically expect and indeed I think it rather highlighted how much his typical Russian cast actually brought in terms of character. Once you get 45 mins in or so though and the threat of nuclear war props up then it certainly becomes very effective and is a strong contender for the most depressingly hopeless cinema I'v seen. Still not as obviously eye catching as his other work but there is a gloomy beauty to those night time scenes(levitating witch sex especially) avoiding typical use of light sources. The ending does again did loose some of the intensity and visual appeal for me although he does stake another claim after Mirror against Kurosawa and Kubrick for the best burning building shot.

mrpupkin

Re: Nic Cage and John Cusack's comparable descent into bad film hell, they also both once starred in Charlie Kaufman films as depressed Kaufman-like creatives, as did Philip Seymour Hoffman (dead) and Jim Carrey (Mr Popper's Penguins). Only David Thewliss has escaped the Kaufman curse. Dead soon/an pedo?

Small Man Big Horse

The Karate Dog (2005) - Technically terrible but the onslaught of horrendous puns broke me down until I started giggling like a loon.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on September 05, 2018, 02:12:35 PM
The Karate Dog (2005) - Technically terrible but the onslaught of horrendous puns broke me down until I started giggling like a loon.

So YOU'RE the one providing poster quotes for all these massively shit straight to DVD films!

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 05, 2018, 03:02:27 PM
So YOU'RE the one providing poster quotes for all these massively shit straight to DVD films!

Heh, I am indeed. Though I should stress I only watched The Karate Dog as I heard it was considered to be even worse than Show Dogs, and had to see if it was true or not.

Shit Good Nose

Next stop - the Beverley Hills Chihuahua trilogy...


Shit Good Nose

Dad's Army, the recent one.  Shit Army more like. 

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 06, 2018, 04:31:14 PM
Next stop - the Beverley Hills Chihuahua trilogy...

Damnit, I was aware of their existence but I didn't know the dogs talked in them, now I'm going to have to watch them!

Dex Sawash

Alexander (2014] fuck this, almost three and a half hours and it looks like a shit straight to viseo production. Made it 6 minutes.

St_Eddie

Mooch Cooch - With no amount of hyperbole, I can confidently state that this is the best film that I've ever seen.  There's a scene where the main protagonist dances on a tripwire, prior to vomiting on the attending audience.  The colours present within his bile are thought provokingly transcendent.  The opening credits were artistic beyond belief, as were the closing credits.  I quite literally creamed my pants at the metaphors of the stomach juices.  If only all films were as magnificent as this and likewise, featured a peadophilic clown.

10/10 - Cinéma vérité.

greenman

Quote from: greenman on September 06, 2018, 05:16:31 PM
Rumblefish 2:Rusty Goes To Hollywood

Inspired myself to give the original a rewatch and honestly I still tend to think its the last good thing Coppola did, you could call it self important I spose and there is the lingering threat of street poetry that's thankfully never realised but I think that's overridden by a sense of fun. Woefully out of place when it was released I spose but it actually strikes me as not a million miles away from Tarantino, just take out the pop culture and add in arty shots of fire escapes.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: greenman on September 08, 2018, 06:45:44 PM
Inspired myself to give the original a rewatch and honestly I still tend to think its the last good thing Coppola did

I dunno, Tucker is pretty good and has aged well.

greenman

Just watched Upstream Colour, not impressed in the slightest, might just about be able to cobble together some kind of narrative out of it but ultimately who cares? doesn't seem to be any dramatic weight behind it beyond a vague sense of dissociation and some wholly unearnt melodrama. If it had been great to look at and carried a strong atmosphere but I was pretty unimpressed there as well, seemed like JJ Abrams on an arthouse kick with shallow depth of focus and lens flair taking the place of decent compositions and a lot of very clichéd ideas.

amputeeporn

The Long Good Friday

Tremendous fun and with some satisfying explosion/mystery elements that elevate it leagues above most British gangster fare. Hoskins amazing (especially the face acting in his final scene). I think on balance I prefer Mona Lisa because it suits my noir detective novel sensibility better, but this was close behind, and I loved the harrowing, downbeat ending.

His character was likeable in a way I feel like most movies in the vein could never manage. As a side-note, it's heartening that he's massively pro-Europe and excited about the prospects it brings. Heartening and, now, kind of sad.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: greenman on September 08, 2018, 11:10:54 PM
Just watched Upstream Colour, not impressed in the slightest, might just about be able to cobble together some kind of narrative out of it but ultimately who cares? doesn't seem to be any dramatic weight behind it beyond a vague sense of dissociation and some wholly unearnt melodrama. If it had been great to look at and carried a strong atmosphere but I was pretty unimpressed there as well, seemed like JJ Abrams on an arthouse kick with shallow depth of focus and lens flair taking the place of decent compositions and a lot of very clichéd ideas.

Still manages to be better than Primer though, I reckon.

I watched The Andromeda Strain. Good stuff.

greenman

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 09, 2018, 01:09:19 AM
Still manages to be better than Primer though, I reckon.

Made me want wrap the DVD box in 17 green rubber bands, hop on one leg whilst humming she'll be coming round the mountain and then throw it in the bin.