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

Started by Small Man Big Horse, January 01, 2020, 05:03:07 PM

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SteveDave

Freeway A heavy handed "modern" take on Little Red Riding Hood with Kiefer Sutherland as Bob Wolverton and Reece Witherspoon as LRRH. It's not as clever as it thinks it is.

Silver Bullet A crippled Corey Haim and his alcoholic uncle Gary Busey versus a werewolf who's eating a lot of people in their neighbourhood. Who could it be? Everitt McGill being creepy and weird? Yes.

The Return Of The Living Dead This was a mess. 30 minutes of ideas dragged out for 90.

Maximum Overdrive I loved this! It's basically "The Mist" but with lorries instead of monsters. Which did Steve write first? I especially enjoyed the bit where the army jeep beeps out a morse code for them to refill the lorries!

Dex Sawash

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on April 02, 2020, 10:44:15 AM
Walk The Line - 1995

Joaquin Phoenix & Reece Witherspoon star as Johnny Cash & June Carter. Fuck my hat, June Carter wrote Ring Of Fire! I never knew that.
It was really good, actually. Joaquin & Reece both have great voices.

This American Life did it better in 10 minutes with Sarah Vowell
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/247/what-is-this-thing/act-three

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: SteveDave on April 02, 2020, 11:18:08 AM

Maximum Overdrive I loved this! It's basically "The Mist" but with lorries instead of monsters. Which did Steve write first? I especially enjoyed the bit where the army jeep beeps out a morse code for them to refill the lorries!


I like this as well but it seems King didn't, although he claims he was so beaked up he doesn't remember making it.


Famous Mortimer

Bad Boys 2

I assumed I'd seen this, but I don't remember a damn thing about it. It's incredibly stupid, with the cops acting like the world's biggest dumbasses at every opportunity, but luckily everyone else is thick as shit too so they're fine. Ecstasy is apparently terrible, but when Martin Lawrence has one, he just has a really good time. They invade Cuba at the end. Lawrence and Smith feel like they were just filmed insulting each other for a few days and had those scenes inserted at random in the middle of gunfights.

It's shockingly bad, really, and I loved the first one.

peanutbutter

Madeline's Madeline

Doesn't totally work but it was a pretty fun ride! Stylistically it reminded me a lot of Lodge Kerrigan, except with a character that isn't necessarily totally broken (yet, anyways). If it weren't for the similarities to Kerrigan I'd be extremely excited about what Decker might do next, will definitely be keeping more of an eye on her though.

Egyptian Feast

Murder At The Vanities (1934) Released just before the production code was brought in, this musical murder mystery stars 'The most beautiful women in the world' according to the opening titles. The producers were clearly determined to cram as much as they could get away with into this film before the code came in, so you have moments like Kitty Carlisle singing about 'Sweet Marihuana' while topless girls, hands strategically placed, pose in giant cactus flowers (the clip above sadly ends before one of the dancers gets bled on by a victim). There's also an exchange that seems to be implying Jack Oakie stuffed a gun up his arse or a showgirl's vagina, unless I'm reading too much into the line "Well, it's just lucky that you found it again!"

The leading man and lady are total drips, but the rest of the leads are fun. The real star of the show is of course Duke Ellington, who all too briefly appears looking awesome and playing like blue fuck in a sequence named 'The Rape Of The Rhapsody' in a close-up of the show's programme (Duke's section is apparently 'The Rape'). The two clips above are the clear highlights of the movie, but it's an enjoyable final gasp of permissiveness before Breen, Hays and the catholics cleaned up Hollywood. The backstage murder mystery is no great shakes (I guessed the killer's identity long before they'd even committed a murder), but it's a fun watch.

Apparently Lucille Ball is one of the chorus girls, but I never spotted her. I did recognise some of the other chorus girls from watching 'The Busby Berkeley Disc' far too many times though.

Dex Sawash


Alita; Battle Angel - it was shit. First 2/3 was sort of OK.

The Day Will Come - I got interrupted after 15 minutes, may not go back. The FBI bits don't work.


Artie Fufkin

Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool - 2017

Billie Elliot & Annette Bening star in 'based on the truth' drama about a young actor falling for Hollywood Haridan Gloria Grahame (she played the good-time girl in It's A Wonderful Life).
It was pretty damned good, actually.
Both give great performances, particularly Bening.
Stephen Graham in a 'scouse' wig is hilarious!

Blumf


peanutbutter

Apollo 11
Watch on mushrooms, was great! Is there much point to watching For All Mankind after this one or is this kind of an update to that?

Chronos
Also on mushrooms, all the thematic stuff was total bollocks, every time some fucking ancient statue appeared was a big mood killer of "oh, he's trying to make some kind of statement here, isn't he?". The city shots and nature shots were great though.
Should I go with Baraka or Koyaanisqatsi next?

Toy Story 4
It's getting a bit weird now, the toys look like actual real world toys while the humans look like cartoon characters.
Overall felt like one of those Thanksgiving/Christmas spinoffs of a major franchise that happen sometimes (e.g. Shrek done a few iirc) but with added $$$, forgettable and fine.

Crawl
Solid genre piece, didn't seem to want to try to be anything more than it was and is all the better for it.
Probably a bit biased to see Barry Pepper in something for the first time in ages too, feel like that guy narrowly missed out on being some kind much bigger star.

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on March 26, 2020, 10:34:57 AM
Starship Troopers 3
Decided to watch this on TV last night.  What a stinker of a film!  I almost bailed after 3 minutes but decided to stick with it, I wish I hadn't.
If it was supposed to be a satire on the gung-ho attitude of the American military then it was a very heavy-handed one, and also not enough to carry a film for 2 hours.  I ended up feeling sorry for the bugs, the humans shouldn't have even been on their planet, they could have chosen a different planet to build their base (because if they have interstellar travel they must have visited many before finding one with life on it).


Is that the one where they've cast a lot of actors who look a bit like other actors? And them some odd religious stuff at the end.

It is better than 2.

IIRC, the cartoon series, mid-late 90s, was pretty good.

Creatures The World Forgot : no dialogue, caveman movie with some odd visuals and a fairly well-paced thrilling extended chase and ending. Enjoyed. Some of the actors might not want it on their CV.

Cromwell : absolute ham to ham combat.

The Blue Lamp
: REALLY enjoyed this. Slice of a London that no longer exists. Decent plot. Nicely drawn characters throughout so that when you get to a few key scenes, they're emotional.

Inspector Norse

The Servant, the first Joseph Losey film I've seen. I thought it was really good, for the most part: fantastic direction by Losey and the plot and themes are a clear influence on the recent Parasite and star James Fox's more well-known role in Performance (I noticed a few other things that Roeg drew on, too, like the creative use of mirrors).
I found Sarah Miles as the kind of femme fatale character irritating and unconvincing, which nearly sunk the film, but Bogarde and Fox have a great dynamic and the pacing and tension were impressive particularly for a drama film of this vintage.

Diary of a Country Priest Another one anchored by a strong central performance, albeit in this case an anti-performance by the passively suffering Laydu. Pretty compelling in that stripped-down Bresson way, although I thought it was drawn out too much on this occasion and lost a bit of impact in the final half-hour or so.

Artie Fufkin

Under The Shadow - 2016
Weird horror/thriller set in Tehran during the 'War Of The Cities', about a mother and daughter being harassed by flying tablecloths. It was ok, actually. Some nice atmospheric moments, and a couple of jumpy bits.

The Good Night - 2007
Comedy starring Martin Freeman, Simon Pegg and others (a nice little cameo from Danny DeVito). It also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, who's brother directed, apparently. Not sure. I think I enjoyed it. It's about lucid dreaming.

Charade - 1963
Great Hitchcock romp starring Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn, and a whole host of other great performances. Annoyingly, I missed Hitchcock's cameo, but he is in it according to IMDB. Hepburn's husband dies along with the whereabouts of $250,000 stolen in a war-time sting with 3 others.

Click - 2006
Mweh. Watchable, I guess. Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale star in a sci-fi rom-com(?). Great cameos from Christopher Walken & The Fonz.

Inspector Norse

A Separation Regarded as one of this century's best films, I believe; Iranian drama about a married couple splitting up and the effects it has on their adolescent daughter and another family they employ. Really strong look at Iranian society and its contradictions and frustrations, compelling drama and top-notch acting, but for some reason I can't really identify, I didn't completely warm to it. Something a little clinical and stilted about it despite the emotions and fire on show. That might just be me, though, objectively I can't find any real complaints.

Brother off of the MUBI, an interesting and nicely-filmed Georgian film about a teenage boy in Tblisi getting involved in crime and violence during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Quite subtly done with a good "feel" to it, although a few elements are a little bit cookie-cutter. Worth a look.

greenman

Quote from: Inspector Norse on April 07, 2020, 01:00:08 PM
A Separation Regarded as one of this century's best films, I believe; Iranian drama about a married couple splitting up and the effects it has on their adolescent daughter and another family they employ. Really strong look at Iranian society and its contradictions and frustrations, compelling drama and top-notch acting, but for some reason I can't really identify, I didn't completely warm to it. Something a little clinical and stilted about it despite the emotions and fire on show. That might just be me, though, objectively I can't find any real complaints.

I did tend to view it more as an interesting look into Iranian society rather than something on a "best film of the decade" level it seemed to be cropping up as often a few years ago.

Sebastian Cobb

I rewatched eXistenZ. I first saw it as a teenager when I liked Videodrome but didn't really know anything about Cronenberg and thought it was a bit wank, now I'm older and really like Cronenberg's stuff and still think it's a bit wank.

Dr Syntax Head

I really like Existenz. But Videodrome is something else. So much dread and anxiety.

Rewatched the endless recently. Very very good time based film, really love time travel/time loop films cos they freak me out. There's another in universe film by the guys that did the endless that I really need to see.

Armin Meiwes

Noticed Videodrome is on the old Netty's at the moment if anyone's looking to watch/rewatch. Yeah I haven't seen Existenz since it came out but I remember being really disappointed with it.

Sebastian Cobb

It just seems to be less gritty than Cronenberg's earlier films but also has shitter effects - the latex biopods with obvious electric motors moving under strain etc and it's also combined with some really cringey videogames worship.

Dr Syntax Head

The gristle gun and the weird food processing/restaurant parts were good though

thugler

Watched David mamet's Heist tonight, really good fun despite the plot being fairly ridiculous. The dialogue is wonderfully nutty.

amputeeporn

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse while high out of my mind. Really, truly stunning. So visually inventive and fun - unbelievable sound design too.

Inspector Norse

Joker It was fine, fairly involving and well-acted, with a handful of memorable moments and scenes, but all a bit overfamiliar and lacking subtlety in its commentary on society's treatment of the mentally ill.
There were some weird inconsistencies too: Phoenix stealing confidential records from a mental hospital and none of the staff paying him any mind as he legs it, for example. Also isn't (the) Joker supposed to be a mystery man? He doesn't half leave a lot of evidence behind here.
Ultimately I guess the issue is that as ever with comic book characters, this is the 438th different interpretation and backstory so why should this carry any more weight than any of the others?

Sebastian Cobb

I watched Oldboy because it was leaving mubi followed by the 1970's noir Night Moves.

Night Moves was good. Reminded me a bit of The Long Goodbye with the sunny californians pissing about. Gene Hackman with a cheesy grin was a bit unsettling.

Sebastian Cobb

Last night I saw Secrets and Lies. It were good.

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on April 02, 2020, 02:58:06 PM
Bad Boys 2

I saw the original for the first time ever the other day. It was fine, but I'm 20 years too late and evidently too old for this/that shit.

Small Man Big Horse

Simple Men (1992) - Following on from watching Amateur a short while back I was really looking forward to this but it didn't capture my attention in the way I'd hoped. Some of it is still very funny and smart and it works best when Robert Burke is interacting with his brother William Sage, but the romantic elements left me a little cold at times. There's still some fantastic snippets of dialogue and it's a film I liked, just no longer one I love. 7.3/10

grassbath

#269
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - sensational, where has this film been all my life? Like a psychosexual House of Leaves for the fall of the British Empire.

Celine and Julie go Boating (1974) - can see why some think this is wonderful but unfortunately too much languid French faffing about to sustain my interest for three and a quarter hours.

Society (1989) - as 'satire' goes, pretty bludgeoning, but I really enjoyed this, as a slice of more-intelligent-than-average 80s teen horror. The famous shock ending all the more effective for being obliquely teased under the opening credits.