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March 28, 2024, 11:15:17 PM

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What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2021 Edition)

Started by zomgmouse, January 14, 2021, 11:12:22 AM

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Sebastian Cobb

Heh, in a similar vein I watched Ishtar a while back, which I quite enjoyed (especially the scenes with different nations of spies all trying to look inconspicuous in hawaiian shirts etc).

Egyptian Feast


Dex Sawash


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on April 17, 2021, 08:18:53 PM
Great to see you back SMBH!

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say, as fond of this place as I am in general it was the people in Deeper Into Movies that I missed the most, and I've a backlog of mini-reviews I'll post over the next week or so.

Santa Claus (1959) - Strange Mexican film which spends the first ten minutes introducing all the children from different countries as they help Santa make toys, before we travel down to Hell where an off screen Lucifer demands that the devil makes children evil and thus angers Santa. And yeah, I thought Lucifer and the devil were one and the same but apparently not, and either way this takes a little while to get going as Santa mucks about the night before Christmas, hanging out with some kids and the wizard Merlin (yes, that one) and has access to a device that lets him witness children's dreams, which is disturbing indeed as young kid Lupita dreams of adult sized dolls emerging from their boxes and dancing around her, and one is the devil in disguise as he tries to persuade her to steal and be evil. Santa's eventually ready to leave and he gets his bag of toys and his giant wooden reindeers who laugh like a resident of the black lodge, and that is as traumatic as it sounds. From this point on it's a mixture of the devil trying to annoy Santa in increasingly petty ways and Santa doing nice things for people, and it's a strange mix, often quite funny and even occasionally quite touching, before going back to being incredibly weird or daft again. It's a shame the first thirty minutes are a little patchy as otherwise this would be a cult classic, but as it is it's just a pretty enjoyable slice of oddness. 7.4/10

Dex Sawash

T-34 russian tank film. Tank crew gets captured and steals tank to escape from POW/concentration camp.
Amazon only has a shitty american dub. Pretty well done overall, some CGI was cheesy but the slo-mo of artillery rounds was good. Heaps of tension throughout. Would like to see in Russian with subs though.  Should have had East Bound and Down as theme song. 7.3/10

Sebastian Cobb


zomgmouse

Death By Hanging. Brilliant satire of a man who survives an execution but loses his memory and the philosophical/logical gymnastics the guards and authorities have to go through as a result.

The Raid 2. Nowhere near as good as the first one by virtue of trying to be More Dramatic (and failing hard - it does not handle the gangland politics/emotions very well at all). The action, when it comes, admittedly, is top notch. Sags a bit in the middle with some unsurprising one-at-a-time-bashing, but comes back for a fantastic final half-hour or so.

Inspector Norse

On Body and Soul Intriguing 2017 film from Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi about two colleagues at a slaughterhouse - a tetchy manager, who seems a loner by choice, and an awkward inspector, a loner because she is evidently on the spectrum - who find that they are connecting in their dreams, and toy with starting a relationship. It's a really interesting film, a drama that is just ever so slightly off, and has a definite style of its own, but I found it frustratingly elusive: I wasn't sure what questions it was asking or ideas it was provoking, and the characters never quite rung true.

Boyz N the Hood Strange in a way to think this is nearly thirty years old, because neither the society it depicts nor the pop culture surrounding it have moved on that much; one thing that has moved on, though, is the depiction of those in film and TV, and this now seemed pretty tame in comparison to something like The Wire. Cuba Gooding Jr's naff performance didn't really help though the rest of the cast are strong and it's an engaging if predictable story.

Orlando I kind of had this written off as some stuffy, serious drama, and I've never cared much for Tilda Swinton, but I thought it was magical. Splendidly mounted, with the eerie music building a great atmosphere, and just the right mixture of grace and irreverence.

Ghost in the Shell I'm not convinced I'll ever really get into anime but it was interesting to see this and Akira. Like with Akira I really liked the production design - if you can call it that, meaning the background art of the city and locations - and there were a lot of interesting ideas floating around here, and great music; on the other hand, the plot was a mix of garbled backstory and simple chase scenes, and I'm simply not keen on the character design in anime and manga.

Blumf

I, Tonya (2017) - Good bit of fun, 2 hours breezed by. The story washed passed my at the time, so I had little idea about it, and it's clear here that I probably wouldn't have got close to the facts with the tabloid reporting at the time (she
Spoiler alert
didn't actually attack Nancy Kerrigan herself
[close]
? Glad to have that cleared up after three decades), not that the film itself is any truer. You end up liking Tonya Harding, although I'm not 100% sure you should. Doesn't matter.

A lot of people seem to be playing up the Scorsese styling to the film, but I found it more like the Coen Bros., something like Burn After Reading (2008), a comedy of arseholes.

Casting was pretty nice, Margot Robbie was good, and Allison Janney was brilliant (such a monster, I sincerely hope there was a lot of exaggeration to her character).

Anyway, my only real complaint is the music. The story is predominantly set in the late 80s/early 90s, yet most the tracks used seem to be from the 70s. Yeah, they're nice, if obvious/overused tunes, but could have worked better for scene setting to use more contemporary stuff.

Previous threads, where I think people were a bit too hard on it:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=63487.0
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=65747.0

sevendaughters

Quote from: zomgmouse on April 19, 2021, 07:43:44 AM
Death By Hanging. Brilliant satire of a man who survives an execution but loses his memory and the philosophical/logical gymnastics the guards and authorities have to go through as a result.


Outstanding film. Surprised more haven't seen it.

SteveDave

The Fury (1978)

"Scanners" before "Scanners" with better acting but a bad execution. It felt really disjointed, like they kept forgetting there was another thread of the film in action at times.

It does feature a young Daryl Hannah and Denis Franz though and you get to see Kirk Douglas' bitch tits wobble as he dives onto the sand at the beginning.

greenman

Quote from: Inspector Norse on April 19, 2021, 09:32:56 PMGhost in the Shell I'm not convinced I'll ever really get into anime but it was interesting to see this and Akira. Like with Akira I really liked the production design - if you can call it that, meaning the background art of the city and locations - and there were a lot of interesting ideas floating around here, and great music; on the other hand, the plot was a mix of garbled backstory and simple chase scenes, and I'm simply not keen on the character design in anime and manga.

That film is I think a bit patchier than Akira which manages to pull off the Kaneda/Teusto story very well for me even if the overall narrative is very compressed. Here there does I think feel like theres a bit more dramatic short hand going on with the Major, more a collection of strong individual scenes.

Character design wise I'm not sure I'd say either of those films is really that typical for anime.

McChesney Duntz

Quote from: SteveDave on April 20, 2021, 12:11:33 PM
The Fury (1978)

It does feature a young Daryl Hannah and Denis Franz though and you get to see Kirk Douglas' bitch tits wobble as he dives onto the sand at the beginning.

You also get to see Jim Belushi trying to get as much screen time as possible as an extra near the beginning of the picture - very amusing if you watch carefully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpzMI--Lg7k

peanutbutter

The Cranes are Flying
Pretty great, not too sure the story by itself holds up that well but it's by a guy who began his career doing silents and you really get the impression he was waiting 25 years for talkies to catch up to the kind of shit he wanted to do cos this thing looks amazing in the same kind of way late 20s silent film occasionally managed but with none of the restrictions silent film had to contend with either.

Sebastian Cobb

I heard talkies set cinematography back quite a bit as with silents people were getting more experimental with handheld cameras but sound sets meant fixed positions and boxed off cameras to silence them from the sound recording equipment.

phantom_power

The Godfather Part III - to start with I was enjoying this and was thinking I would have to have a contrarian opinion about it but it is shit really. The main thrust of the plot is sound but that's about it. There is a load of love interest stuff which has no place in a Godfather film. It looks bland. The hitman is ridiculous (especially the part where he is choosing his disguise) and it just seems to want to conform to the boilerplate formula set out by the first two (start with a celebration, big hit in the middle, big event at the end). It really misses Tom Hagen as well and I think there was a lot of changing of plot when Duvall dropped out. I read that the original version had Hagen turning informant and that might have been interesting.
I actually don't think Sofia Coppola is that bad in it. She is playing a spoilt rich kid and does that adequately. The problem is we are never given any reason to give a shit about her character so don't really care when she dies. The main thing though is that the tone is all wrong. It doesn't feel like the first two, which is understandable given the time that has passed.
I also think Pacino is really good and restrained until Michael has his stroke. Even the famous "just when I thought I was out" bit is not as overblown as I remember but that is about the last good bit of acting he does.

Dead Man's Shoes - Fucking hell. Fucking. Hell. I have seen this a couple of times before but it still hits with the force of a charging rhino. It is one of the few bleak films that I can stand re-watching, which is odd as it is really fucking bleak. I think it is mainly down to the powerhouse performance by Considine, and the music. Fucking hell though

greenman

Quote from: peanutbutter on April 21, 2021, 01:11:30 AM
The Cranes are Flying
Pretty great, not too sure the story by itself holds up that well but it's by a guy who began his career doing silents and you really get the impression he was waiting 25 years for talkies to catch up to the kind of shit he wanted to do cos this thing looks amazing in the same kind of way late 20s silent film occasionally managed but with none of the restrictions silent film had to contend with either.

Although I think as much about the climate becoming more conservative in Hollywood and Soviet cinema.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: phantom_power on April 21, 2021, 10:32:22 AM

Dead Man's Shoes - Fucking hell. Fucking. Hell. I have seen this a couple of times before but it still hits with the force of a charging rhino. It is one of the few bleak films that I can stand re-watching, which is odd as it is really fucking bleak. I think it is mainly down to the powerhouse performance by Considine, and the music. Fucking hell though

I love this film, although it is bleak. Not just the story, but the setting which I'm pretty familiar with from my Uni days. Those kinds of grim Midlands towns filled with self-proclaimed hard blokes who are actually not hard at all away from their little groups.

Spoiler alert
When the guy is tripping balls and he pulls out the suitcase containing his hacked up friend and asks him if he wants to "give him a kiss". Jesus.
[close]

Interesting that both Considine and Kebbell played Rob Gretton in two separate Joy Division films.

Small Man Big Horse

It Should Happen To You (1954) - Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) moved to New York hoping to make it as a star but then struggles, yet after a chat with documentary maker Pete (Jack Lemon in his first lead role, and who gets an "and introducing" credit) and a chance sighting of a sign that's for hire everything changes, especially when after she has her name put up on it a company that normally uses that board tries to buy her out. Pete is oddly enraged by Gladys's fame obsession but it starts paying off quickly when people presume she's famous, though it's a mixed bag and this functions as a perils of fame kind of piece as well as a rom-com, mainly as the men in the industry are shit. Holliday's a delight as per usual, Lemmon's great too, the sleazy men are good at being creepy, and the whole thing is extremely charming. 7.8/10

amputeeporn

Ghost in the Shell 1995

Fancied a Blade Runner-ish anime and this seemed to fit the bill. And of course, I knew it was held in some esteem in the film community. I don't know, though, man. It was visually stunning in fits and starts, but the plot was completely incoherent - and it seemed to get bored of certain ideas quite quickly then just leap into totally different ones. Also, there were a hilarious amount of tits in it. Don't get me wrong, I'd really like a noir film that plays with the conventions of the male gaze or femme fatale or siren, and I like tits, but this was just over kill.

Blumf

Quote from: amputeeporn on April 22, 2021, 12:19:21 AM
Ghost in the Shell 1995

It's not that incoherent; protagonists are on the hunt for a super-hacker, turns out
Spoiler alert
it's a rouge AI that escaped from the US and wants to transcend itself by merging with The Major
[close]
Pretty straight forward, if sci-fi-y.

Also, not that much tittage. Get a hold of yourself man! Then stop it, you'll go blind.

zomgmouse

Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story. Gentle Georgian comedy in which a young writer visits a publishing house in an attempt to publish a novel and the entire film essentially follows him through the winding office bureaucracy. One of those farces that's a little slow to begin with but whirls up into a veritable tornado by the end.

Survive Style 5+. Wacky manic Japanese comedy with five seemingly unrelated vignettes playing out and slowly intertwining. The absurdism often pays off but also runs out of steam a little.

Mauvaise graine. Very early Billy Wilder (in France!), decent and pleasant enough, a guy gets caught up with a bunch of car thieves.

Dex Sawash

Quote from: Blumf on April 22, 2021, 12:56:20 AM
It's not that incoherent; protagonists are on the hunt for a super-hacker, turns out
Spoiler alert
it's a rouge AI that escaped from the US and wants to transcend itself by merging with The Major
[close]
Pretty straight forward, if sci-fi-y.

Also, not that much tittage. Get a hold of yourself man! Then stop it, you'll go blind.

1 m 50s first tits. Can you direct me to one with too much tits?

Chedney Honks

I think we need a Ghost In The Shell thread. I'd seen it a couple of times many years ago and it didn't really click apart from the music but I watched it again recently and I thought it was superb. The intermission scene of the city in the rain was the highlight. Lots of interesting themes which resonated with me much more now I'm older. I'm going to watch it again and start a thread.

Also, after the opening tits, there's not even much tits. I'd recommend Wicked City if you want a stylish, violent, noirish anime with too much tits, and a spider lady who fires web out of her twat.

greenman

Speaking of silent/talkies as well started off that von Sternberg/Dietrich box from Indicator and Morocco does 1930 does I think highlight that the style of silent cinema didn't instantly vanish with the talkies. Not hand held I spose but several moving camera shots and generally a strong focus on the physical, facial expressions, moving around sets, picking up objects, etc. I actually tend to find one of the big strengths of that era tends to be scenes with flirting in them that come across much more believable than was common for a very long time afterwards.

Inspector Norse

Quote from: Blumf on April 22, 2021, 12:56:20 AM
It's not that incoherent; protagonists are on the hunt for a super-hacker, turns out
Spoiler alert
it's a rouge AI that escaped from the US and wants to transcend itself by merging with The Major
[close]
Pretty straight forward, if sci-fi-y.

Also, not that much tittage. Get a hold of yourself man! Then stop it, you'll go blind.

I watched it just a bit further up the page and I agreed with amputeeporn. Not so much that the plot was incoherent, just that it basically involved a handful of action scenes with someone blabbering expositional backstory in between them.

And though I didn't mention it in my post, the obvious obsession with tits was laughable.

"We've developed the technology to engineer cyborg agents, what are the most important attributes we need to give them?"
"Speed, dexterity, strength, intelligence, I think. Anything else?"
"Great big tits."
"Hmm, think you're onto something there."

Blumf

Quote from: Inspector Norse on April 22, 2021, 08:36:54 AM
I watched it just a bit further up the page and I agreed with amputeeporn. Not so much that the plot was incoherent, just that it basically involved a handful of action scenes with someone blabbering expositional backstory in between them.

I'd agree with that. The exposition and action aren't that well blended. Not sure if you ever could do that well here, as the core of the story is somewhat abstract.

Also, I suppose you'd prefer the (much smaller, and unseen) tits at the end of the story, perv!!

Inspector Norse

Quote from: Blumf on April 22, 2021, 09:47:48 AM
Also, I suppose you'd prefer the (much smaller, and unseen) tits at the end of the story, perv!!

Hey, it's OK as long as they're fictional and hand-drawn!

Right?

Yeah?

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Dex Sawash on April 22, 2021, 04:02:24 AM
1 m 50s first tits. Can you direct me to one with too much tits?

Urotsukidoji I-VI

greenman

#449
Quote from: Inspector Norse on April 22, 2021, 08:36:54 AM
I watched it just a bit further up the page and I agreed with amputeeporn. Not so much that the plot was incoherent, just that it basically involved a handful of action scenes with someone blabbering expositional backstory in between them.

And though I didn't mention it in my post, the obvious obsession with tits was laughable.

"We've developed the technology to engineer cyborg agents, what are the most important attributes we need to give them?"
"Speed, dexterity, strength, intelligence, I think. Anything else?"
"Great big tits."
"Hmm, think you're onto something there."

That is probably the biggest fault I'd agree and moreso in the sequel were characters tend to go into long philosophical/expositional monologs every so often.

I would say its also kind of on the boundry between commenting on sexploitation and actually being mild sexploitation, I wouldnt say the majors character isnt shown as being "sexy" and I think some comment on her having idealized manaquin like looks being depersonalizing but still she's stripping off to fight people.