What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2020 Edition)

[Custard]

Rough Night (2017)

Saw this mentioned in the Surprisingly Funny Films thread, so bought it for £2 on blu-rizzle

Yeah, it's alright. A really daft, quickly escalating farce and it had me and Mrs Custard hooting a few times

Kate McKinnon steals the show playing a wacky Aussie, though the rest of the cast are good too

It's not amazing or anything, but its a more than passable bit of fun in THESE HORRIBLE FUCKING TIMES

[Wentworth Smith]

Silent Partner (1978)

Intriguing ideas and botched tone and delivery. The central conceit

Spoiler alert

(bank teller twigs that a criminal is going to rob the bank he works in so half inches a load of cash just before the robbery. Criminal figures it out and a game of cat and mouse develops between the two)

[close]

is a good one and decent ideas continue throughout but they aren't matched by whats put one screen.

The film is weirdly miscast: '70s Elliott Gould is, as always, good to watch but I don't buy him or Susannah York in their roles, it needed someone with a bit more in the way of desperate cunning whereas Gould is just too cool. Christopher Plummer works well as the bad guy but they are all badly served by  some odd decisions by the director and screenwriter (Curtis Hanson).

Spoiler alert

There is some poorly worked office stuff and an unconvincing romance between Gould and York (especially odd at the end after what we have seen earlier in a genuinely shocking but misplaced murder scene. The ending with Plummer (!) in drag is another odd choice.

[close]

Interesting and features a cameo by John Candy as well as the line 'nothing is more important than banking!' but flawed.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think I've made a mental note to watch that in the past then forgot.  It's a shame Gould wasn't in more stuff.

[Wentworth Smith]

Yeah, I love late sixties/seventies Gould. The Long Goodbye is one of may favourite films and it all hangs on his charm but he needs the right role. Silent Partner was on Talking Pictures so will likely be repeated at some point.

[Shit Good Nose]

It's a shame Gould wasn't in more stuff.

Gould was in LOADS of stuff, but a lot of it (aside from the classics we all know, like The Long Goodbye and MASH) is shit.  As I've said many times, a lot of people take Gould as some kind of kite mark for a quality film, but in reality there's far more dross.  And a couple of them are downright unwatchable.

Having said that, I LOVE The Silent Partner.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I know he's done some shite, I mean I've seen the trailer for Dead Men Don't Die.

[Shit Good Nose]

I know he's done some shite, I mean I've seen the trailer for Dead Men Don't Die.

A masterpiece next to Matilda.

[Famous Mortimer]

Get Crazy (1983)
That was pretty fun. Lots of jokes and zaniness. Looking on wiki, it seems the director didn't love the experience of making it, which is a shame.
It's on Youtube in a low quality form, but looks like it'll be getting  BR release next year, which I think I'll grab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrIRmMNi800

Eeh, that's good news!

[zomgmouse]

A masterpiece next to Matilda.

Matilda as in DeVito's Dahl adaptation? This is an unbesmirchable classic.

[zomgmouse]

Diner. Barry Levinson's debut feature. Really excellent, fantastic capsule of a particular time and mindset.

Heart of Glass. 1976, Werner Herzog, a Bavarian town, glassblowing, prophecies... Famously most of the actors in the film appeared under hypnosis. It's certainly got a remarkable atmosphere as a result. Quite singular even for Herzog.

Where the Green Ants Dream. Another Herzog, this time set in Australia - I hadn't heard about this before yesterday and tracked it down immediately. It's really quite amazing, and based on a real case of land rights/native title between Yolngu people and a mining company (sadly a situation still all too rampant to this day) - in fact the first such case in Australia. He even used some of the actual people involved in the case.

We Fight. Documentary about aboriginal protests to the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. Some fantastic footage and really powerful stuff.

[phantom_power]

The Big Chill - The ultimate needle drop film, all Rolling Stone approved classics. Pretty by the numbers but effective and with some good performances

El Topo - Got about half an hour in and had to switch off. Too much insane cackling. I love the idea of Jodorowsky's films and reading about them is always interesting. It is just watching them that I struggle with

The Last Action Hero - much more fun than I remember. I think I was quite disappointed when I first saw this that they didn't do as much with the premise as they could but now I think it is just fine. They spend much less time in the real world than I remember. I recall it being a pretty even split but really only the last 20 minutes are in our world. Some great cheesy gags and McTiernan is an expert at directing action when he wants to

Yojimbo - Alright I suppose, though the plot has subsequently been so done to death that it seemed a bit rote. I have a month subscription to BFI on Amazon that has a load of Kurosawa films on it. Does anyone have any recommendations of the best ones to watch?

The Vast of Night - I had heard good things about this and I liked the general vibe of the film but it seemed to sort of go nowhere. I fell asleep about half an hour from the end and am not sure I can be bothered to finish it off. Is it worth it?

What If - reasonable romantic comedy with Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan. Radcliffe has turned into a really good comic actor, if a little limited

We Are The Flesh - Not sure what the point of that was. Long stretches where not a lot seems to happen and a pay-off you could see a mile off. Looked good though

Def Con 4 - Started off really well I thought and hid its low budget well with an interesting premise and good performances. Then steadily got worse and more cliche as it went on and introduced characters played by bad actors before becoming a standard post-apocalyptic action film at the end

[zomgmouse]

I have a month subscription to BFI on Amazon that has a load of Kurosawa films on it. Does anyone have any recommendations of the best ones to watch?

My favourites of his are Ikiru, Ran, Rashomon and High and Low. Nice mix there of historical and contemporary settings.

[Inspector Norse]

Jules et Jim One from the classics-I'd-never-got-round-to list.

Wasn't too keen. Liked the performances and story and there were some lovely shots, but I found the pace and style too flighty. It was certainly impressive the way Truffaut developed the characters and ideas with so many brief snapshots rather than drawn-out dialogue or scenes, it just didn't really sit right with the mood I was in when I watched it - I wanted something to absorb rather than something that skipped by like this.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Matilda as in DeVito's Dahl adaptation? This is an unbesmirchable classic.

I had to wiki it because I couldn't remember him being in it but it turns out no it's a different film about a boxing Kangaroo.

[Shit Good Nose]

I had to wiki it because I couldn't remember him being in it but it turns out no it's a different film about a boxing Kangaroo.

NO ONE comes out of that film with glowing colours.  It's an absolute travesty.

I have a month subscription to BFI on Amazon that has a load of Kurosawa films on it. Does anyone have any recommendations of the best ones to watch?

AK only made one objectively duff film (The Most Beautiful - a propaganda film which almost certainly had huge restrictions put on it by the government and/or military whilst he was making it) and even that isn't that bad, the rest (if you can find them all - still a few which are quite hard to get hold of in the UK, even through nefarious means) are all at least watchable, most of them essential.

The usual suspects of Seven Samurai (although I'll quickly admit The Magnificent Seven gets watched more regularly), Ran, Rashomon, Throne of Blood and Yojimbo (which should ALWAYS be accompanied by Sanjuro if you ask me) are obviously classics.  Drunken Angel, The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low and Stray Dog are great thrillers.  I'm a big fan of Red Beard, but it doesn't get that much traction - I think a lot of people are put off by its length and very sedate pace after several back-to-back short(er) films with action and thrills.  Dersu Uzala has long been a personal favourite but, like Dodesakuden and Rhapsody In August, it's always been a very rare find in the UK - I can only recall it being shown on TV once in the last 30-odd years.

But my absolute personal favourite is Kagemusha - an absolute monster of a film.  Proper five alarm masterpiece.  Immense.  See the full 180min Japanese version if you can (I don't think it's available here) as the extra 20mins make a huge difference.

[Sin Agog]

That Judo movie he did which featured extremely unhappy looking American prisoners of war as the baddies wasn't so hot.  Sanshiro Sugata Part II.

I also have a bit of a soft spot for Scandal.  It's no classic or anything, but it's a very watchable attack on tabloid journalism/post-war restrictions with some great acting.  It's the closest Mifune ever came to looking like '50s Brando.

Also, I don't think Drunken Angel gets enough love.  I'm sure I said something about it in the last thread...

Watched the first film Kurosawa ever shot with Shimura and Mifune a couple of months ago, Drunken Angel.  When it had been a few years since I'd seen anything Kurosawa, I had a memory of Shimura's characters all being rubber-faced peasant comedy relief who'd do anything for a crust of bread, but that movie snapped me right back to reality again.  He plays the most clear-headed character in the film, despite suffering from a touch of dipsomania (hence the title), and Mifune's the perfect example of a man (or Yakuza) so proud that any admission of fallibility is out of the question, which is why he refuses to get his illness seen to (prescient topic that still holds water  today). There was one scene where the benighted Yakuza lurches glassy-eyed through the marketplace as some chirpy waltz plays in the background that the person I was watching it with, who was undergoing chemo at the time, singled-out as particularly insightful- how the chirpy music only makes you feel even more isolated.  Great performances, and Kuro's first essential movie I think.

[Shit Good Nose]

That Judo movie he did which featured extremely unhappy looking American prisoners of war as the baddies wasn't so hot.  Sanshiro Sugata Part II.

I haven't seen it for a while...a LONG while, but I remembered it being okay.  Also very short (although didn't some distributor mash 1 and 2 together years ago to make it a bit of an epic?).  Reading up on it now I see it's another propaganda jobbie, but I don't remember it being quite as thickly laid on as The Most Beautiful.


I also forgot to say earlier that I have a huge soft spot for Dreams.  Probably his most divisive film out of all of them, but I think it's aged very well. 

[Small Man Big Horse]

Superbob (2015) - Because I'm enjoying Brett Goldstein in Ted Lasso right now I thought I'd check out this romcom he co-wrote in 2015 but it's a messy affair. After getting struck by a meteor Bob acquires super powers (and is essentially a very British Superman) and works for the British Government, but wants to fall in love. At first he seems perfectly suited to a woman called June but then out of the blue he decides he fancies his cleaner Doris, there's a subplot about an American Senator trying to smear Bob after he refused to work for them which is bland and annoying, Catherine Tate's a bit annoying as his acerbic boss, and the central couple don't really have any chemistry. There's a fair amount of Gervasian cringe comedy too, it's treatment of Bob's Alzheimer's suffering mother is just weird, and though there's the odd decent line and scene most of the time it misfires. 5.1/10

[Inspector Norse]

Public Enemies Big budget, big-name stars, big-name director with history of classic crime/action films, story based on famous names from the gangster era, in the tradtion of classics like The Untouchables, etc etc.

With so many things in its favour to make it a surefire hit I guess it's understandable that they didn't feel the need to bother giving it a vaguely interesting plot, developing any of the characters beyond a single dimension, or even putting together any particularly exciting action setpieces.

Total bobbins.

[zomgmouse]

Total Recall. Wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, though mainly the first half, which was really quite inventive and interesting, and the second half got a bit standard for my liking. But it certainly wasn't the pile of crumbs I thought it'd be, not by a long shot. "Consider this a divorce" indeed.

[NoSleep]

Total Recall. Wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, though mainly the first half, which was really quite inventive and interesting, and the second half got a bit standard for my liking. But it certainly wasn't the pile of crumbs I thought it'd be, not by a long shot. "Consider this a divorce" indeed.

Total Recall was the film that Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett really wanted to make, planning it from back before they even started Alien, so it had to be at least fairly good.

[Egyptian Feast]

Public Enemies

Total bobbins.

The worst Dillinger film, with an oddly uncharismatic performance from Depp. It may be more accurate than the Warren Oates or Laurence Tierney films, but all the authentic period detail counts for shit when the digital photography makes everything look like 2009 cosplaying as the thirties. It should be very difficult to fuck up a film about Dillinger, but somehow Mann managed it. Shite.

[zomgmouse]

Total Recall was the film that Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett really wanted to make, planning it from back before they even started Alien, so it had to be at least fairly good.

And I didn't realise until shortly before watching it that it was directed by Paul Verhoeven, who is very much not an idiot.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Last night I watched a French film called The Trout, about a woman (played by Isabelle Huppert) who leads some awful men on then doesn't fuck them. It was alright.

[Menu]

I haven't seen it for a while...a LONG while, but I remembered it being okay.  Also very short (although didn't some distributor mash 1 and 2 together years ago to make it a bit of an epic?).  Reading up on it now I see it's another propaganda jobbie, but I don't remember it being quite as thickly laid on as The Most Beautiful.


I also forgot to say earlier that I have a huge soft spot for Dreams.  Probably his most divisive film out of all of them, but I think it's aged very well.

Yes, Dreams is beautiful. And features Martin Scorsese in a leading role for some reason!

[Blinder Data]

Leave No Trace (2018). Considering the very positive reviews, I was expecting a little more. It's an understated film and it felt much more European than American in its low-key realness. Moving but I wouldn't watch again. Probably helps to watch it on a big screen rather than a laptop.

[zomgmouse]

Los Olvidados, aka The Young and the Damned. Mexican-era Buñuel, predominantly social realist story of delinquent youths - superb, powerful, extremely striking and touching.

I'll Do Anything. Quite sweet, but unremarkable and all over the place. Albert Brooks and Nick Nolte feel like they should be swapped roles. The only shining part of this film was Julie Kavner who absolutely knocked it out of the park. Very curious to see the musical cut of this. What an oddity.

Ulysse. Short film by Agnès Varda, where she tracks down the subjects of a photo she took thirty years prior. Fascinating and so very Varda-humanist. Loved it.

September Affair. Tremendous romantic drama, very underseen. Joseph Cotten and Joan Fontaine fall in love while overseas and when the plane they were meant to be on back home crashed, they decide to not tell anyone they're actually still alive and start a new life together. Wonderful and heart-string-pulling, especially towards the end.

Thursday's Game. Found this after watching I'll Do Anything, this was a TV film written and produced by James L. Brooks and stars Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart, as well as Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman. Two friends (Wilder and Newhart) have a weekly poker game which breaks up and they decide to keep hanging out and not tell their wives that the poker game ended. Oddly this works really well, mainly thanks to the main cast as well as supporting cast, who are all very good. The script is decent as well. A pleasant surprise.

[Shit Good Nose]

Albert Brooks and Nick Nolte feel like they should be swapped roles.

Or swap Tracey Ullman with just about anyone.  I'll never understand what Americans see in her.

[zomgmouse]

Or swap Tracey Ullman with just about anyone.  I'll never understand what Americans see in her.

She's very good, quite misused here

[Dex Sawash]

Or swap Tracey Ullman with just about anyone.  I'll never understand what Americans see in her.

Brought us The Simpsons