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What non-new films have you seen? (2022 edition)

Started by Famous Mortimer, January 01, 2022, 02:18:34 PM

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Dex Sawash

I like Speed

Pro: has given me a response to anyone ever saying 'what do we/you do?'

Spoiler alert
shoot the hostage
[close]

Which is how I lost my job as a concierge


Con: 3rd act- tits out trope. We spend 2 acts with Bullock in her loosely fastened blouse over tank to keep us watching just in case. 3rd act and blouse comes off for some reason. Pretty sure this is more about me looking for tits.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Memorex MP3 on May 11, 2022, 11:41:12 AMIs this available in HD these days? Was on my watchlist for years but could only find SD versions so it fell off.

Yes! A rather beautiful HD copy - it looks gorgeous

Mobius

Quote from: Memorex MP3 on May 11, 2022, 11:41:12 AMFar preferred the Baxter

Thanks I've never heard of that one, sounds like I'll enjoy it! Going to watch that this weekend and I have UHF to watch too.

zomgmouse

The Treasure. First film by G.W. Pabst - this has a compelling visual style but unfortunately not that much of a narrative, and the elements that do grasp are a solid few.

Bad Ambassador

Don't Look Now. Quite slow at the start and was actively trying my patience, but it perks up after about half an hour and was very compelling after that. The ending tying everything neatly together in a way I'd forgotten was very clever.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Watched the extended cut for the first time, having not seen the film at all since release. Very impressive CGI whih hasn't dated at all, but the sheer time taken to do everything and cover all the millions of characters is a bit tiresome.

Phase IV. In contrast, a film very tight in scope and scale - three characters, 83 minutes - but also about the end of the world, as ants now imbued with super-intelligence duel with two scientists sent to investigate. The only film directed by title designer Saul Bass, it looks fantastic, has a strange atmosphere and tone borrowed from 2001, and concludes with an onslought of surreal imagery depicting humanity being integrated into Antopia. Recommended.

Cloud Atlas. Loved this when it came out, loved it now. Six stories from the 1830s to the 24th century, with the same actors in each depicting souls meeting time and again in different combinations, with themes about slavery, love, communication and art. Essentially a film trying to sum up the entire human experience in under three hours, and it pretty much succeeds. A titanic achievement.

The Wicker Man. Watched it again, as I do most years, for May Day. The "final cut" this time, which loses the scenes on the mainland which I always thought added some context to Howie's character. Still a masterpiece though.

Goldfinger. I've enjoyed this a lot more the last few times I've seen it, now that its ubiquity seems to have faded a little from pop culture. Probably the most enjoyable of the Connery Bonds, albeit with a scene of sexual assault that's apparently fine.

Spartacus. Going through the Kubrick filmography gets to the one film he did for hire. It's very long and quite convinced of its own importance, but generally pretty entertaining. Kirk Douglas is very watchable, Peter Ustinov is fun as the gladiator school owner, but Olivier gets little to bite into and Tony Curtis is miscast. Anthony Hopkins, in the redubbed scene, sounds more like Richard Burton.

Thunderball. A big step down from Goldfinger. A lot of fun bits and loads of lovely local colour, but anchored by a nonsensical plot and weird editing choices that obscure major elements of the story. The underwater scenes, clearly highly novel at the time, are now interminable.

dissolute ocelot

The Last Stand (Kim Jee-woon, 2013) - post-politics Arnold Schwarzenegger defends small-town America and re-enacts Rio Bravo. Inventive cinematography, loud car engines, some good action, and a cast including Peter Stormare, Johnny Knoxville, Forrest Whitaker, and Luis Guzman. But it's a bit dull when it's being an urban crime thriller rather than showing quaint rural types talking about guns, cars, and dairy products.

Otway the Movie (2013) - for the fans. There is a much more interesting Otway movie to be made, about the lunacy and profligacy and plane-chartering, but it probably needs to wait for his death or disappearance. (On Netflix.)

rjd2

The Big Country   9/10

Gregory Peck plays a pacifist who has moved to a town where the feud between his new wealthy family and the supposed "trash" across the river dominates everything. The running time of near 3 hours will alienate many, but it flew by for me. Peck is as expected as the hero excellent as the noble outsider whose wife cheers on violence while Burt Ives who plays the head of the supposed "lower class " family brings a lot to the role.

It also tackles class, capitalism and yes it looks splendid.

Highly recommended.

Small Man Big Horse

The Baxter (2005) - The blurb for this says it was an attempt to make a modern Howard Hawks movie but I don't see the comparison, it just felt like a low key rom-com without any flair or originality to me. Michelle Williams is really great as the woman Michael Showalter should clearly be with, and Peter Dinklage is fun, but I found Showalter's lead to be limp and often unlikeable, and though it made me laugh a couple of times most of the time I was waiting for something funny to happen and it never occurred, so when the apocalyptic war inevitably eventually breaks out between the "They Came Together" and "The Baxter" camps, I'll definitely be with the former. 5.3/10

Famous Mortimer

Given how much I loved "Wet Hot American Summer" and lots of "Stella", it's unfortunate that I don't like more of Showalter's movies. Also, he directed that "Eyes of Tammy Faye"? Blimey.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on May 12, 2022, 09:01:53 PMGiven how much I loved "Wet Hot American Summer" and lots of "Stella", it's unfortunate that I don't like more of Showalter's movies. Also, he directed that "Eyes of Tammy Faye"? Blimey.

I know what you mean, he's written and produced some things I really love (Summer, Stella, some episodes of Children's Hospital and Newsreaders) but also some things I find really bland, and Eyes Of Tammy Faye was one of the worst films I saw last year.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on May 12, 2022, 12:12:21 PMPhase IV. In contrast, a film very tight in scope and scale - three characters, 83 minutes - but also about the end of the world, as ants now imbued with super-intelligence duel with two scientists sent to investigate. The only film directed by title designer Saul Bass, it looks fantastic, has a strange atmosphere and tone borrowed from 2001, and concludes with an onslought of surreal imagery depicting humanity being integrated into Antopia. Recommended.

Was going to ask if you got to see this with the restored ending - glad that you did.

Bad Ambassador

The restored ending is on the Blu-ray, but not integrated into the movie, so I just switched over at the appropriate point.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on May 13, 2022, 07:50:28 AMThe restored ending is on the Blu-ray, but not integrated into the movie, so I just switched over at the appropriate point.

oh - interesting!
now that you mention it i feel like when i watched it at a film festival they might have played the full original film on a 35mm print and then shown the digital restoration of the intended ending (intending) immediately afterwards

in any case, well worth it. astounding visuals!

SteveDave

National Treasure: Book Of Secrets

Nicolas Cage returns to clear the name of his great-great-grandfather. Ed Harris's character flip flops between being good and bad in the last 45 minutes so many times it's a bit confusing. I loved it.

Pink Gregory

Accattone - P.P.Pasoloni's first film, came upon by scouring the CEX blu ray shelves for the Eureka! Masters of Cinema collection.

Being his first film there's a lot that's emblematic of themes he builds on later - focusing on down and outs, religious allegory and quoting, casts of amateurs; of course I haven't actually seen any of his other films but this gives quite a good impression.

I'm not exactly a cineaste so I can hardly expound on something I understand little, but there are some great faces in this.

Famous Mortimer

Death Dancers

Every stereotype you might have of 90s erotic thrillers, turned up to the maximum. Sleazy cops, tons of nudity, murder, smoke machines, sax solos, the lot.

Sonny_Jim

Dark Future (1994)


Actually quite liked this one.  Really low budget sci-fi with an interesting premise, two tiered society where the upper class (who are cybernetic) have their wishes fulfilled by the lower class, who live in this zone thing.  A baby gets born and this is a big thing apparently and the lower class revolts.

In terms of plot, I thought it was great, never spoon feeding you too much but rarely was I confused as to what was going on.  The acting is fucking dire (the french guy in particular) but it's all charming in it's own way.  The main bad guy was very good, very menacing.  Definitely worth a watch if you're into your cheap/shit apocalyptic 90's sci-fi.

Sebastian Cobb

I watched the Shudder production Sequence Break over the weekend. Plot wise I guess the easiest way to describe it would be 'Videodrome but it's a haunted arcade cabinet and the main guy is an arcade machine repairman' but that misses out whoever wrote it missed a lot of the charm and messaging in Videodrome.

It was clearly made on a shoestring, with about 4 set locations, the main one being the inside of a warehouse, and the dialogue and acting is so awful it's like everyone has a slight social disorder. I actually went to the trouble of clipping a scene illustrating it:

Sebastian Cobb

I also watched Remo Williams to honour Fred Ward and thought that was a fun action film with a daft premise, looks like it did poorly at the time.

Kate Mulgrew is in there as a strict woman in a male-dominated corrupt army giving it a proto-Janeway.

EOLAN

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Know little of the source material and expected this to be a female Goodbye Mr Chips. Celebrating the inspirational title character played magnificently by Maggie Smith.
However, it nicely lays out some of the issues early on. Takes some darkish turns while being all very British. Watched immediately after Midnight Cowboy from the same year and think this was aa shockingly explicit as the Best Picture winner, but more surprisingly so.

I think there was meant to be some time jumps, which was a bit confusing given the actresses portraying the schoolgirls always seemed similar, but good fun nonetheless with a nice warning about having adult role models be too influential and on a power trip for young developing vulnerable children.

Blumf

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 16, 2022, 10:09:45 AMI also watched Remo Williams to honour Fred Ward and thought that was a fun action film with a daft premise, looks like it did poorly at the time.

Yeah, seems a lot of people took it too seriously instead of the daft romp it clearly is supposed to be. I'd consider it a warm up for Big Trouble in Little China, which also did badly at the time, but at least built a solid fan base afterwards, unlike Remo.

Only real problem is Joel Grey yellowing-up. Really should have dug out a Korean actor for that.

Love Mulgrew in it too.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Blumf on May 16, 2022, 10:25:08 AMOnly real problem is Joel Grey yellowing-up. Really should have dug out a Korean actor for that.

Yeah that is dodgy, and I'm minded of Short Circuit a bit, although I think I probably took Remo slightly less seriously because as well as yellowing up it's clearly a youngish guy wearing prosthetics to look ancient, I shouldn't have really.

famethrowa

Weekend At Bernie's (1989). I'm sure the concept is familiar to most people of a certain age, but is the movie well-remembered? I must have watched it a bit in the VHS days and quite enjoyed it this time around. There's a lot of ham and slapstick, sure, but also pre-Seinfeld and Simpsons asides and self-awareness. Good silly 80's fun. Also the soundtrack is by Andy Summers, and it's pretty terrible!

Sonny_Jim

Always blows my mind that the same director did 'Wake in Fright' and also directed an episode of Casualty.

Memorex MP3

Quote from: famethrowa on May 16, 2022, 01:47:59 PMWeekend At Bernie's (1989). I'm sure the concept is familiar to most people of a certain age, but is the movie well-remembered?
From what I've gathered on podcasts it's well remembered mainly for being on HBO or some other cable station all the time in the 90s

famethrowa

Quote from: Sonny_Jim on May 17, 2022, 08:05:36 AMAlways blows my mind that the same director did 'Wake in Fright' and also directed an episode of Casualty.

Crazy! And First Blood too... Bernie's was quite well made for a farce, in the early New York scenes there was some possibly tedious exposition to get through, but there was a lot going on in the frame to keep the interest up.

Bad Ambassador

I did a podcast on Weekend at Bernie's years ago, where I argued that had it been made in France, it would be hailed as a great satirical farce about the workers propping up the corpse of the corrupt establishment.

The China Syndrome. A news crew filming a puff piece at a nuclear power station secretly film a near-disaster, and when the broadcaster and the energy company try to hush it up as it bids for a new reactor, the journalists and the power station's shift manager take action. The end stage of the cycle of 70s conspiracy thriller, with the nuclear industry whining the film was a whitewash only for Three Mile Island to happen less than a fortnight after it was released. Very strong performances from Jane Fonda as the reporter, Jack Lemmon as the shift manager and Michael Douglas as the cameraman - who also produced the movie and smartly doesn't try to build up his part. No music score and a very realistic tone. The missing link between Watergate and WWIII movies of the 80s.

Lolita (1962). Watched this from Lolita's point of view, although Humbert is supposedly the viewpoint character, and it's a completely different experience. Her behaviour seems completely understandable/excusable, fooling around with boys and then having an affair with an older man as a romantic notion of a piece with the  teenage fantasies he admonishes her for. The sexualisation then comes solely from Humbert, who is completely incapable of expressing himself in a healthy, non-destructive way, shown with all the double entendres in dialogue. Sellers is also very menacing as someone who adopts other guises to manipulate others to get what he wants, which put me in mind of Savile. Only at the end, where Lolita is now married and pregnant does she seem fully mature, and easily dominates the conversation with the pathetic Humbert, whose solution is to kill Quilty, who symbolises the lust he had for her which he cannot now recapture. A great film, maybe Kubrick's most underrated.

You Only Live Twice. Bond goes to Japan. Despite being bigger in scale and nearly 15 minutes shorter than Thunderball, it's even more lethargic. Lots of local colour again, but there's a central story with too many holes, basically everyone apart from Connery and Pleasance has been dubbed and for all the visual spectacle, which is a step up from Thunderball, it never gains enough momemtum. Connery looks bored too much of the time, and it was clearly time for him to go.

famethrowa

#717
Quote from: Bad Ambassador on May 17, 2022, 12:48:26 PMI did a podcast on Weekend at Bernie's years ago, where I argued that had it been made in France, it would be hailed as a great satirical farce about the workers propping up the corpse of the corrupt establishment.

Yes, Andrew McCarthy should have seized the means of production!

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on May 17, 2022, 12:48:26 PMThe China Syndrome. No music score and a very realistic tone.

I once tried to impress Mrs Famethrowa (she's a music teacher) when this one came on the telly by telling her there was no music, and of course the first thing we see is a commercial on a TV in the background playing some jingle. I should have been more specific.

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on May 17, 2022, 12:48:26 PMYou Only Live Twice. Bond goes to Japan.

It's hard to watch this one seriously after Austin Powers. Underground laaair, space shenanigans, Mr Bigglesworth, henchmen aplenty, etc etc

Oh I also love the bit at the start where they fold Bond up into a murphy bed and shoot the shit out of him. It was probably shocking at the time, but it's hilarious!

Sonny_Jim


Sebastian Cobb

I like the China Syndrome. Honourable mention to Wilford Brimley, who is another great unpretentious character actor. Who starred alongside the late Fred Ward and was in everything from The Thing to Hard Target.