What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2019 Edition)

[Shit Good Nose]

I specifically said it was not a fundamentally anti-semitic film, just that it left the door open to being criticised as such and I'm not surprised neo-Nazis love it. Though it is not connected, I saw strong parallels Icke's lizard people theory which (I believe) is an anti-semitic theory. As I said, there are many ways to expound anti-capitalism but this is a story about an alien race obsessed with wealth that controls the world and it rang alarm bells for me. But perhaps my anti-semitism receptors are a little highly tuned.

Or you yourself are an anti-semite - aaaaahhhh!

(Blinder Data #cancelled 2019)

[St_Eddie]

Speaking of musings on the state of the world, I watched The Last Supper, (un)surprisingly still pertinent. I didn't know the central premise going in and I think it's better that way - but it's an interesting film to watch in the era of "is it ok to punch Nazis" being a talking point, as well as the discussions around left-wing complacency becoming more relevant as well. A good bunch of performances - Ron Perlman in particular gives a great turn as someone eerily reminiscent of someone like Jordan Peterson. It's all verges on being a caricature, not just in terms of acting but also the way it's shot and designed - but that kind of fits in with what the film's meant to be - a moral fable, a hypothetical played out for our interest. That's mirrored of course by the hypothetical repeatedly brought up in the film of "if you were a time traveller would you kill Hitler before he started the war". I also really enjoyed the way it seemed to veer dangerously close to a naff centrist "let's just talk about it" conclusion, then dealt a quick, sinister one-two in its finale with the deaths of the students and the rise of Perlman's character - who, coincidentally, says he wouldn't kill Hitler - he'd try to change his mind with reason. Really funny, too. I liked this a lot.

I'm glad that someone else here likes The Last Supper.  It's a great little film.  One thing which I always note about it is that there's something of a Fallout (PC game) connection going on, what with Ron Perlman being in both, obviously but also because the original soundtrack to The Last Supper sounds uncannily similar to the soundtracks in the first two Fallout games, to the point where I rushed onto IMDB mid-film to see if they were composed by the same musician.  They were not but they sound really similar.

[Shit Good Nose]

Yeah, it is pretty good.

I caught it at the cinema with the five or so other people that saw it for the half a day it was on release.  Nice.

[phantom_power]

The Night Comes For Us

Fucking hell, this was something, alright. Indonesian action picture pitched somewhere between The Raid, Crank, and Braindead, I would say.

An elite Triad sort and a few of his beezer buds attempt to protect a wee girl that a whole bunch of other elite Triad sorts are trying to kill.

Absolutely fucking relentless. Epic brawl after brawl after brawl. Waves upon waves of folk getting battered senseless and broken into bits and stabbed through the face and cracked up the skulls with snooker balls and meat cleavers and Jesus only knows what not else. Some of the fights take place in huge, open environments with baddies clattering into the frame from all directions. Some take place in really tight, enclosed spaces, and those rumbles might be more impressive still. The carnage that goes on in the back of a police van, for example, is nothing normal. 

The choreography is utterly fucking stunning throughout. Proper fucking "Holy fucking shit" sort of stuff, but really witty with it. Kind of carrying on that has you laughing even as you're gripping at the back of your neck hard enough to cause a nosebleed. Kind of action set pieces that leave you wondering how the fuck any of the actors or stunt artists ever got out of the thing alive. Definitely the most impressive and the most exhilarating action film I've seen since the aforementioned Gareth Evans marvel. Never lets up for a second.

It's on Netflix, if you have that. I can't recommend it enough.

Completely agree. I have never laughed harder at a vibrating pole (matron)

[zomgmouse]

Perfect Strangers, both the original Italian film and the Spanish remake (by Álex de la Iglesia no less). The remake was a bit unnecessary if you've seen the original, a bit less subtle in its execution too. But visually more interesting perhaps? The basic premise is a group of very middle class people get together for a dinner and decide to play a game where they put all their phones on the table and have to take all their calls on speaker and read out any message they receive, to prove that they harbour no secrets. Which, of course, is totally false, as is revealed as the evening plays out. It (the original more so) is an interesting semi-farcical unravelling.

There's also another remake made in Greece which I want to try to track down but have yet been unable to, if anyone has any leads... not sure why I want to see it but it might be nice from a theoretical point of view of how multiple people tell the same story etc.

Is this perhaps the only case of a film being remade twice by two different countries within the space of a single year?

[Glebe]

Just watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe last night. Thought it was pretty decent.

[zomgmouse]

Witchfinder General. Price is exceptionally evil and sinister in this and at odds to anything I've seen him in, besides maybe Shock? Just truly chilling, and not hammed up or played for theatrics. It's quite a shocking film otherwise as well, reminds me of a nastier and more elegant Mark of the Devil or a more grounded Blood on Satan's Claw. Definitely zero supernatural in this, just 100% man's evil.

[JesusAndYourBush]

They Live (1988)

The fight scene in the middle was hilarious...

The fight scene in South Park-"Cripple Fight" is a homage to that scene...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jxm6JQDN98

[hedgehog90]

I saw strong parallels Icke's lizard people theory which (I believe)

Blinder Data #cancelled twice

[zomgmouse]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Oh my god, majestic, enrapturing. Such an epic scope, and hammers home the harrowing nature of war - in 1943 - and the passage of time. And full of funniness, too, I was really struck by the humour in it from the very opening. That smirking tone is to be expected from P&P though isn't it. Just extraordinary. The use of Deborah Kerr to be 3 separate people was ingenious, and she absolutely excelled in all those roles. Anton Walbrook is such a fantastic performer as well, dripping with charisma and pathos (that scene where he admits his kids are Nazis[/transparent], wow), and Roger Livesey's embodiment of the gradual decay yet continuing spirit of a man is powerful stuff. An extraordinary, extraordinary film.

[greenman]

Stopped being a cheapskate and bought the Criterion of Yang's A Brighter Summers Day, certainly lived up to the standard of Yi Yi, feels a bit less mature/focused in some ways being a bit more rambling at almost 4 hours but very pleasantly so indeed and if anything even more eye catching visually.

[gilbertharding]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Oh my god, majestic, enrapturing. Such an epic scope, and hammers home the harrowing nature of war - in 1943 - and the passage of time. And full of funniness, too, I was really struck by the humour in it from the very opening. That smirking tone is to be expected from P&P though isn't it. Just extraordinary. The use of Deborah Kerr to be 3 separate people was ingenious, and she absolutely excelled in all those roles. Anton Walbrook is such a fantastic performer as well, dripping with charisma and pathos (that scene where he admits his kids are Nazis[/transparent], wow), and Roger Livesey's embodiment of the gradual decay yet continuing spirit of a man is powerful stuff. An extraordinary, extraordinary film.

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this thread, I got the P&P box set for xmas. I've yet to watch this one, and They're a Weird Mob, but this week rewatched A Matter of Life and Death and The Battle of the River Plate.

I think that both films deal with the war in interesting ways. Obviously AMoL&D was made during the conflict, and serves as a soft-soap propoganda aimed at America... and tBotRP appears at first as an action movie, with plenty of Anthony Quayle and John Gregson being all dignified and commanding (and actual ships: worth the price of admission) - but there's also the sympathetic portrayal of Langsdorff, and the merchant navy prisoners, and the diplomatic wrangling in the second half which makes it a bit more than that.

The film leaves the viewer with the feeling that Langsdorff was A Good Man. He might have been. He was a Good Captain... apparently an honourable man, and his actions in scuttling his ship as opposed to attempting to fight another battle definitely saved a lot of lives. He couldn't have known that the Royal Navy didn't have a massive fleet waiting for him.

But the film omits to mention that he killed himself shortly after, (according to his note) to prove to the Reich that he was A Good* Nazi... but perhaps he killed himself because otherwise he would have been shot for being A Bad* Nazi.

* The meaning of Good and Bad in this context mean the opposite, obviously.

[hedgehog90]

Very interested to see some of the Powell and Pressburger films mentioned above.
The only film of theirs I've seen is Powell's Peeping Tom, which did very little for me me unfortunately, but The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp sounds a bit more up my alley.

Edit: Ooh, the Criterion dvd and blu-ray has a commentary by Powell and Scorsese. I like listening to a good commentary track after seeing a film, this sounds promising.

[ToneLa]

Escape from LA (1996)

Fuckin shite.

[Sin Agog]

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this thread, I got the P&P box set for xmas. I've yet to watch this one, and They're a Weird Mob, but this week rewatched A Matter of Life and Death and The Battle of the River Plate.

I think that both films deal with the war in interesting ways. Obviously AMoL&D was made during the conflict, and serves as a soft-soap propoganda aimed at America... and tBotRP appears at first as an action movie, with plenty of Anthony Quayle and John Gregson being all dignified and commanding (and actual ships: worth the price of admission) - but there's also the sympathetic portrayal of Langsdorff, and the merchant navy prisoners, and the diplomatic wrangling in the second half which makes it a bit more than that.

The film leaves the viewer with the feeling that Langsdorff was A Good Man. He might have been. He was a Good Captain... apparently an honourable man, and his actions in scuttling his ship as opposed to attempting to fight another battle definitely saved a lot of lives. He couldn't have known that the Royal Navy didn't have a massive fleet waiting for him.

But the film omits to mention that he killed himself shortly after, (according to his note) to prove to the Reich that he was A Good* Nazi... but perhaps he killed himself because otherwise he would have been shot for being A Bad* Nazi.

* The meaning of Good and Bad in this context mean the opposite, obviously.

Be sure to give Black Narcissus a go on iplayer while it's still up.  Think that one was left off the box-set, despite being one of their best.

God, Powell & Pressburger really got me into looking at film as more than just something to do when everything else has failed.

[buzby]

Very interested to see some of the Powell and Pressburger films mentioned above.
The only film of theirs I've seen is Powell's Peeping Tom, which did very little for me me unfortunately, but The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp sounds a bit more up my alley.

Edit: Ooh, the Criterion dvd and blu-ray has a commentary by Powell and Scorsese. I like listening to a good commentary track after seeing a film, this sounds promising.

I asked Del to add A Matter Of Life And Death to the (spam) 'Unseen Classics' season.

[St_Eddie]

Escape from LA (1996)

Fuckin shite.

'Tis and all.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not having that. Escape from LA predicts a lot of the reactionary shit america finds itself in. It's prescient in the same way Robocop II is.

[St_Eddie]

Not having that. Escape from LA predicts a lot of the reactionary shit america finds itself in. It's prescient in the same way Robocop II is.

Escape From L.A. is shite.

Robocop II is awesome.

So it is written.

[Shit Good Nose]

Escape From L.A. is shite.

Robocop II is awesome.

So it is written.

L.A. has some decent moments, but as a whole it is indeed toilet.

And Kurt great as always, of course.

It's worth watching once.

And it'll never be as bad as Ghosts of Mars.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Joysticks (1983) - Ludicrously bad (but fun) eighties teen comedy with a fair amount of nudity and silliness revolving around a local arcade which Joe Don Baker wants to close down because he's a stick in the mud. There's one shitty plotline where two of the leads break in to Baker's house and it's suggested one of them rape the wife (though he at least thankfully doesn't) and it's frustrating as it spoils it a bit, but if you can ignore this dodgy moment otherwise this has a lot to like about it, at least if you're fond of so bad they're actually quite good 80's comedy's. 6.5/10

[St_Eddie]

Joysticks (1983) - Ludicrously bad (but fun) eighties teen comedy with a fair amount of nudity and silliness revolving around a local arcade which Joe Don Baker wants to close down because he's a stick in the mud. There's one shitty plotline where two of the leads break in to Baker's house and it's suggested one of them rape the wife (though he at least thankfully doesn't) and it's frustrating as it spoils it a bit, but if you can ignore this dodgy moment otherwise this has a lot to like about it, at least if you're fond of so bad they're actually quite good 80's comedy's. 6.5/10

Have you been watching Cinemassacre?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Have you been watching Cinemassacre?

I haven't, no, it was just something that turned up on myspleen recently and it sounded awful and so I couldn't resist obtaining it. In fact I wasn't aware of the Cinemassacre before, but am just watching an episode right now to see if it's my cup of tea.

[St_Eddie]

I haven't, no, it was just something that turned up on myspleen recently and it sounded awful and so I couldn't resist obtaining it. In fact I wasn't aware of the Cinemassacre before, but am just watching an episode right now to see if it's my cup of tea.

Ah, I see.  It probably showed up on myspleen because of the recent Cinemassacre episode.

[Blumf]

There's one shitty plotline where two of the leads break in to Baker's house and it's suggested one of them rape the wife (though he at least thankfully doesn't) and it's frustrating as it spoils it a bit

You'll be complaining about Revenge of the Nerds next! Bloody PC turned on it's head!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oddly enough I only watched that a couple of years ago and it is also rather horrible, the early eighties really were a disturbing time.

[St_Eddie]

You'll be complaining about Revenge of the Nerds next! Bloody PC turned on it's head!

Tell me about it!  When the world at large deems it wrong for a virgin dressed up as Darth Vader to rape a woman, you know that somewhere down the line, society has taken a wrong turn.

I lost my virginity by dressing up as Darth Vader and raping a woman, as did my Father and his Father before him.  The tradition goes back several generations, to a long time ago, before Star Wars was even a twinkle in a young George Lucas' eye.  The one thing which unites us all is the use of a Darth Vader costume in the aid of rape and the loss of virginity.  The tradition simply must be upheld! 

[Sebastian Cobb]

Oddly enough I only watched that a couple of years ago and it is also rather horrible, the early eighties really were a disturbing time.

Try Man Bites Dog.

[zomgmouse]

Edit: Ooh, the Criterion dvd and blu-ray has a commentary by Powell and Scorsese. I like listening to a good commentary track after seeing a film, this sounds promising.

I just listened to that and it's a great track with some fascinating insights although unfortunately the two are never on at the same time, it's just sort of an alternating series of solo commentaries. Still fantastic to hear though.

[SteveDave]

I just listened to that and it's a great track with some fascinating insights although unfortunately the two are never on at the same time, it's just sort of an alternating series of solo commentaries. Still fantastic to hear though.

I hate it when they do that. I bought the Criterion version of "Rushmore" for the commentary from Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman and they're doing separate commentaries spliced together. Annoying. I wanted badinage between Wilson and Schwartzman.