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Constantly recommended films that you don't rate much

Started by Clownbaby, July 16, 2018, 10:28:23 AM

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Clownbaby

I watched The Lost Boys the other day for the first time. It's one of the most 80s things I've ever seen, which is usually an automatic plus for me, but I guess I must've had different expectations in my head because when it was finished I just thought well that wasn't as good as I was made to believe by all the people I know who fuckin love it. Kiefer Sutherland was quite good and sort of attractive with that bleach blonde hair I guess, but the rest of his vampire mates just looked like a really shit hair metal band. Wrong side of naff for me I guess. However, I did get a bit of a smirk when Kiefer's character kept saying Michael cause it kept making me think of GOB saying "stupid forgetful Michael"

Also, Fight Club. Didn't like that. The snappy editing and grungy-ness just made it feel like something a nihilistic 15 year old would find really edgy and cool. Couldn't fault the acting, but I just didn't enjoy the story, it felt too long, smacked of the same kind of extremely heavy going "what is life" overindulgence that had me not liking Donny Darko much either. With both of these movies I guess it boils down to their world view and subject matter being something that doesn't interest me. They just tire me out and I can't stomach watching them again.

Also The Social Network is one or the most boring films I have ever seen. Absolutely dire. Again, not badly made or badly acted or anything, but I could not muster up a single shit for the whole thing.

The Babadook as well, that really left me cold, and people are so protective of it. People be acting like it's a horror revolution. This article says it way better than I ever could. http://wickedhorror.com/features/just-babadook-totally-overrated/

QuoteSure, it looks dark and moody, and there are some spiky shadows on the walls but that doesn't make it a masterpiece, it makes it highly derivative. The pallette is all greys, dark blues and blacks but it only adds to the dullness, not the scare factor. The design of the monster is good, but he's nothing new or special. The knife hands are Freddy Krueger, the ambling walk and shadow are straight up Nosferatu.  Are we supposed to buy into him because, much like Malibu Stacy, he has a new hat?
(disclaimer: I enjoyed reading a review that didn't like The Babadook for once. It's mainly the reviewer's sentiments about the confusing "trailblazer" and "iconic" labels the film got that struck a chord with me)

Sebastian Cobb

I think I was about 15 when Fight Club came out and I did enjoy it. I've not really watched it since despite having the DVD as I've not really had the urge. Not sure if I'd find it cringeworthy or whether nostalgia would carry it through a bit.

You're right about Donnie Darko though, even at the time I thought it was a stupid person's idea of a clever film at the time. It's like a tomy toy David Lynch film.

Another one from around that era I thought was pretty rubbish was Napoleon Dynamite, it just seemed pointlessly zany and idiosyncratic with nothing very interesting going on. It's so wooden as well. Oddly I really like Buzzard, which is like a more sardonic version.

Clownbaby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on July 16, 2018, 11:31:57 AM
like a tomy toy David Lynch film.

Nailed it

I'm thinking Donnie Darko was all the director had in him, can't think of anything else he's done. With Napoleon Dynamite, the first time I watched it I thought it was shit, a year later I watched it again and loved it. That's one that must vary in quality depending on what mood I'm in

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: Clownbaby on July 16, 2018, 11:35:45 AM
Nailed it

I'm thinking Donnie Darko was all the director had in him, can't think of anything else he's done.

He did Southland Tales which is, eh... yeah... I kinda liked it, I think.

https://youtu.be/vtp14ikRvxo

Bobtoo

The Usual Suspects. They should have put the clever twist at the start and saved everybody's time.

Phil_A

Quote from: Clownbaby
The Babadook as well, that really left me cold, and people are so protective of it. People be acting like it's a horror revolution. This article says it way better than I ever could. http://wickedhorror.com/features/just-babadook-totally-overrated/

That review absolutely misses the point though. He seems convinced it's setting up the Babadook as a franchise character a la Freddie or Leatherface, which is so far off the mark it makes my head hurt. He also completely fails to grasp the concept of monster as metaphor, an idea that's as old as the original Frankenstein.

The Babadook isn't a perfect film by any means, but its themes are clearly spelt out and not hard to understand. The reviewer's problem seems to be that it doesn't work as a monster movie but then he can't understand why there's a monster in a family drama movie, even though that's the whole point. The mother's depression literally colours everything in her life and the Babadook is the inevitable personification of all her anger and grief. It's that simple.

Clownbaby

#6
Quote from: Phil_A on July 16, 2018, 12:02:40 PM
That review absolutely misses the point though. He seems convinced it's setting up the Babadook as a franchise character a la Freddie or Leatherface, which is so far off the mark it makes my head hurt. He also completely fails to grasp the concept of monster as metaphor, an idea that's as old as the original Frankenstein.

The Babadook isn't a perfect film by any means, but its themes are clearly spelt out and not hard to understand. The reviewer's problem seems to be that it doesn't work as a monster movie but then he can't understand why there's a monster in a family drama movie, even though that's the whole point. The mother's depression literally colours everything in her life and the Babadook is the inevitable personification of all her anger and grief. It's that simple.

Oh I'm not saying the review i posted was completely watertight. Theres just aspects of it (mainly the fact that he sees right through the blatantly overdone cliches throughout the film that people seemed to gloss over when talking about the film as a trailblaizing classic of the future) When The Babadook first came out people were saying the whole concept of the monster was so new and scary, I don't think the reviewer I posted was quite right with the angle he chose to take in his criticism (for example implying that fanily drama and supernatural creatures cant be combined ever) but I guess I just like the fact that he is one of the few reviewers of the film that doesn't see the film as original, trailblazing or particularly special, which it isn't.

I'm inclined to agree with him that the monster itself is naff and doesn't really work with the tone of the rest of the film. I thought the bleak, sterile, greyness of the film combined with the cartoonish ghoul anger-metaphor wasnt that well executed. Ive seen films that do something very similar much better than Babadook did. He acknowledges that the monster is treated as a metaphor for the mother's anguish but doesn't really buy into that at the same time, which I also didn't. I took his Freddy Krueger comparisons not as luming in The Babadook with that kind of slasher franchise monster, but as a way to point out the hokey design of the Babadook itself

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Spoon of Ploff on July 16, 2018, 11:44:06 AM
He did Southland Tales which is, eh... yeah... I kinda liked it, I think.

https://youtu.be/vtp14ikRvxo

I love Southland Tales. It's an absurd mess but an incredibly fun ride nonetheless.

I liked Southland Tales too. I'm not going to rewatch it though.

Howj Begg

That 2OO1: A space odyssey was a complete waste of my time. Didn't see the fuss at all.

Clownbaby

Quote from: Howj Begg on July 16, 2018, 05:36:51 PM
That 2OO1: A space odyssey was a complete waste of my time. Didn't see the fuss at all.

I even like it and I totally get what you mean. Agonisingly static at points.


Clownbaby


Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Howj Begg on July 16, 2018, 05:36:51 PM
That 2OO1: A space odyssey was a complete waste of my time. Didn't see the fuss at all.

2001, on the other hand, is aces.


Quote from: Clownbaby on July 16, 2018, 05:43:55 PM
Just Hugh Grant in general to be fair

Not so long ago I would've agreed but, I dunno, over the last few years where he's comfortably slid into playing these ageing hapless idiots as opposed to dashing bumbling poshoes, he's really grown on me.

Large Noise

#14
I first saw Donnie Darko when I was about 13 and absolutely loved it. Maybe the most I've ever enjoyed a film.

Clownbaby

Quote from: Large Noise on July 16, 2018, 06:09:49 PM
I first saw Donnie Darko when I was about 13 and it absolutely loved it. Maybe the most I've ever enjoyed a film.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's a story/atmosphere that you either vibe with or you don't

You have to be a certain age to like Donnie Darko. It's a coming of age film, arguably more than anything else.

Growing up and feeling dissapointed with the world. There was a lot of that around the turn of the century, what with The Matrix and Fight Club.

I loved all three of these at the time, but thier time has come and gone.


Wet Blanket

Quote from: thecuriousorange on July 16, 2018, 06:44:00 PM
You have to be a certain age to like Donnie Darko. It's a coming of age film, arguably more than anything else.

Growing up and feeling dissapointed with the world. There was a lot of that around the turn of the century, what with The Matrix and Fight Club.

I loved all three of these at the time, but thier time has come and gone.

Yeah I was a teenager when Fight Club and Donnie Darko came out, and I loved them, but looking back I think I didn't actually get that Fight Club was taking the piss out of that sort of trendy Gen X nihilism, while as mentioned above Donnie Darko seems very wan when you've seen anything by David Lynch - and the 'director's cut' only went to prove that the enigmatic structure of that film was sort of an accident.

Fight Club holds a place in my heart as its the first 18-cert film I saw in a cinema, and I was only 15 too so it felt good and rebellious just getting in to see it. .

Howj Begg


chveik


mobias

The Christopher Nolan Batman films. Charmless, lifeless crap. Many hours of my life I'll never get back.

Quote from: DolphinFace on July 16, 2018, 05:43:22 PM
Love actually.

Shit actually more like!


I've never known anyone to ever recommend Love Actually. I always thought the general consensus was it was utter crap. I never massively enjoyed Four Weddings either. Notting Hill was marginally enjoyable but still crap.

I actually really like Hugh Grant and I agree he's got better as he's got older. This is quite an interesting and honest interview about his career. He's spot on about being critical of the fact he took his style of acting from Four Weddings and carried it on into far too many films in the years after it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2YoUbAEFTI&t=664s






magval

Aye, why are youse writing 2OO1 with Os and not 0s? Seen it in two threads tonight.

VelourSpirit

Still loved Donnie Darko on a recent rewatch. I love its atmosphere and love Donnie. I think people make too much of it being all time-bending and complicated as if the barrier between people liking it and hating it is how clever they find it. I don't think it has the ambiguity of a Lynch film but it doesn't really matter to me.

monolith

Quote from: bgmnts on July 16, 2018, 06:44:54 PM

The Big Lebowski.

I think the first time I saw it I enjoyed it but thought it was a little over rated. Loved it from the second viewing and it's grown on me ever since. If I'm ever in a really shit mood it always makes me feel a whole lot better.

Howj Begg

Quote from: magval on July 16, 2018, 09:51:36 PM
Aye, why are youse writing 2OO1 with Os and not 0s? Seen it in two threads tonight.

Kubrick used the O of the typeface rather than the 0. I need to go back into the book to find the name of the typeface, but that's what he did.



Edit: It's Gill Sans, and the figures are compared here:

https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/01/31/2001-a-space-odyssey/

garbed_attic

Quote from: thecuriousorange on July 16, 2018, 06:44:00 PM
You have to be a certain age to like Donnie Darko. It's a coming of age film, arguably more than anything else.

Growing up and feeling dissapointed with the world. There was a lot of that around the turn of the century, what with The Matrix and Fight Club.

I loved all three of these at the time, but thier time has come and gone.

Exactly. Donnie Darko felt like a revelation at 15 when it filtered down to me from the cool not cool kids. It was just the perfect end of secondary school film. I'm fine with that experience being what it was.

Personally, I also think The Babadook is also great on its own terms as an intense psychodrama with a somewhat silly monster. It felt a lot more human that most horror films over the last couple of decades. I'd certainly take it over any torture porn.

...

I do, however, think The Seventh Seal is over-rated! I just find it a bit daft and laboured next to the likes of Persona, Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander etc.

garbed_attic

Quote from: monolith on July 16, 2018, 10:42:40 PM
I think the first time I saw it I enjoyed it but thought it was a little over rated. Loved it from the second viewing and it's grown on me ever since. If I'm ever in a really shit mood it always makes me feel a whole lot better.

With Lebowski my enjoyment really seems to come down to who I watch it with.

zomgmouse

Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

St_Eddie

Quote from: Howj Begg on July 16, 2018, 05:36:51 PM
That 2OO1: A space odyssey was a complete waste of my time. Didn't see the fuss at all.

Subjectively, I agree with you but objectivity, 2001: A Space Odyssey possesses many an artistic quality.

*awaits the inevitable backlash for daring to invoke the words 'subjective' and 'objective'.  After all,
Tommy Wiseau is no less skilled than Stanley Kubrick.  It's entirely subjective, right?*