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March 28, 2024, 01:05:15 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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Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on October 04, 2021, 02:49:59 PM
Alain Resnais

Quote from: zomgmouse on October 05, 2021, 01:35:58 AM
resnais i'd need to see more of but i've loved what i've seen so far

Scratch that - I meant Raul Ruiz.  Always get those two mixed up.  I think it's Resnais' Providence that gets me mixed up.

dissolute ocelot

I used to love Greenaway but he definitely went off the boil in a major way. Drowning By Numbers, A Z And Two Noughts, and The Cook... have a certain comic sensibility as well as being excellent in other ways. He definitely could be emptily pretentious, believing he was creating great art for the ages. Nudity and grimness don't make great art, Juliet Stevenson drowning people does.

Meanwhile, watched Jabberwocky (Terry Gilliam, 1977) - looks brilliant, but that seems to be where all the effort went. The plot is slapdash, there's no real characterisation, and Michael Palin isn't the best actor.

Started to watch Tony Scott's Man on Fire (2004) but after an hour of Denzel Washington bonding with a 9 year old girl, I gave up. Fucking Tony Scott, that's last time I say he's better than his brother - lots of nice shots but it takes an interminable amount of time for him to do anything.

Blumf

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on October 05, 2021, 10:21:47 AM
Started to watch Tony Scott's Man on Fire (2004) but after an hour of Denzel Washington bonding with a 9 year old girl, I gave up. Fucking Tony Scott, that's last time I say he's better than his brother - lots of nice shots but it takes an interminable amount of time for him to do anything.

I quite like the woozy feel of it, nice to just have it on late and let it wash over you.

Artie Fufkin


PlanktonSideburns


Famous Mortimer

Quote from: zomgmouse on October 05, 2021, 01:35:58 AM
greenaway is funny. maybe viewing his films through that lens would help. ditto maddin and potter whom i both adore. resnais i'd need to see more of but i've loved what i've seen so far
Agreed, on all counts.

Small Man Big Horse

A Journey To The Beginning Of Time (1955) - I found this via one of those "Best Foreign Language Fantasy Films" lists and the rest of it had some films I'd enjoyed a fair deal so I thought I'd give it a shot. But I've a feeling it's inclusion must have been for nostalgia reasons as not a great deal happens as four rather humourless and science obsessed Czechoslovakian boys find a fossil and then decide they want to travel back in time, and rather conveniently they find a magic cave that lets them do that straight away. It's clearly meant to be an educational piece as the boys row along a river and every so often end up in a different era, occasionally meeting long extinct creatures and reeling off a couple of facts each time, and jesus is there a lot of dull footage of them rowing in the boat. It's only vaguely enjoyable when a long dead animal turns up in stop motion form but the boys rarely interact with the creatures, and it only has a couple of sequences that could be described as plausibly fun. 3,4/10

Dusty Substance

Quote from: Mobius on October 05, 2021, 12:21:26 AM
Watched Silent Hill because I told my partner I hadn't seen a scary movie in my entire life, and she said this one was right scary and would shit me up.

It didn't, and it was pretty awful.

Silent Hill is by no means a good film but there is something properly nightmarish about it. The shonky CGI, repetitive nature of the plot, the unique monster design all adds to the genuine weirdness of the film. I watched it about a decade ago with my then girlfriend who was a fan of the games and into the whole mythology, and she liked it way more than I did, so it probably helps to have knowledge of the game's universe.

The film made it onto 366WeirdMovies.com canonical list (https://366weirdmovies.com/silent-hill-2006/) so it can't be all that bad.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on October 05, 2021, 09:27:10 AM
Scratch that - I meant Raul Ruiz.  Always get those two mixed up.  I think it's Resnais' Providence that gets me mixed up.

ah right - not seen any ruiz but from all accounts he's also a bit silly. like rivette. could be wrong though

Mobius

Quote from: Dusty Substance on October 05, 2021, 11:45:10 PM
Silent Hill is by no means a good film but there is something properly nightmarish about it. The shonky CGI, repetitive nature of the plot, the unique monster design all adds to the genuine weirdness of the film. I watched it about a decade ago with my then girlfriend who was a fan of the games and into the whole mythology, and she liked it way more than I did, so it probably helps to have knowledge of the game's universe.

The film made it onto 366WeirdMovies.com canonical list (https://366weirdmovies.com/silent-hill-2006/) so it can't be all that bad.

Fair enough, yeah I don't know the games nor do I ever watch horror movies so maybe I shouldn't have shat on it. I agree that is a weird film, but I put that more down to the stilted dialogue and just confusing plot. But maybe it is good actually, I've really got nothing to compare it to.

Some of of the monsters looked pretty cool and freakish I'll give it that

NoSleep

My only recollection from the Silent Hill film is the name "Sharon" (but sounds more like "Sha'n") being shouted incessantly with not much variation in tone, so it sounds like they sampled the main character's voice and replayed it. It gets very annoying soon enough.

peanutbutter

The Big Chill
As bad as I expected

Escape From New York
Great aesthetics, fun plot, amazing cast, but doesn't really hold together all that well or have the standout moments I'd've expected.

King Arthur the Guy Richie one
So the King Arthur as a geezer stuff of the first half is dumb but was alright, the film falls apart massively when it becomes clear they're trying to establish some kind of running franchise.
Found out afterwards they had six films as an Avengers style thing planned, which seems insane..

Quote from: Blumf on October 05, 2021, 10:36:37 AM
I quite like the woozy feel of it, nice to just have it on late and let it wash over you.
Yeah, that whole period of Tony Scott is like that really. Unstoppable was a return to the more outright fun action stuff but I've a lot of time for the vibes of those mid 00s ones.

frajer

Quote from: peanutbutter on October 06, 2021, 12:31:37 PM
King Arthur the Guy Richie one
So the King Arthur as a geezer stuff of the first half is dumb but was alright, the film falls apart massively when it becomes clear they're trying to establish some kind of running franchise.
Found out afterwards they had six films as an Avengers style thing planned, which seems insane..

I don't mind a bit of Guy Ritchie bollocks (I genuinely like his daft Sherlock films) but this was dire, and died a deserved death at the box office.

Also the choppy stop-start visual effect that kicked in whenever Arthur went on a beserker rage with Excalibur was bad because it made him ludicrously powerful and watching it gave me an actual headache.

sevendaughters

a bunch since I last contributed here

Sorry to Bother You - probably the last very good+ satire to penetrate the outer stratosphere on the mainstream since Four Lions? big ideas and critique come sometimes at expense of rigorous aesthetics but on the whole I think this is an underrated film of our time.

The Day of the Jackal - a British Melville, now I've seen Melville. Taut thriller with a simple plot and characterisation that does it in images rather than words and exposition.

Within Our Gates - earliest surviving film by a black director is a powerful rebuttal to Birth of a Nation. Your mileage may vary with 1920s silent films shot for buttons, but the power of ideas and emotional nuance makes you root for this one.

Gadjo Dilo - French/Romanian film made by Romani director about a French guy wandering the Romanian hinterland trying to find the singer of a song his dad loved. He gets taken in by a gypsy and after some misgivings (mostly from the villagers) starts to become part of their lives. There's a sentimental side to it, but it doesn't shirk some of the difficulties in a film like this, and is conclusively not a tourist board piece. One of the rare 'symbolist' endings to a Euro film that I can get on with.

They All Laughed - messy and tonally weird Bogdanovich film, like a rom-com with espionage and some attempt at verite (most of this is shot on location and the sound/bleed is annoying). Some guys are following some women on behalf of clients who suspect affairs, but the guys fall in love with their targets. John Ritter is good in an early role but everyone else is smug and sub-par.

The Graduate - we've all been there haven't we, first summer off after uni and the sexy neighbour wants to bang you purple but you end up falling for her sexy daughter and then running away to stop her getting hitched but regretting it. Liked it.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: sevendaughters on October 06, 2021, 02:05:54 PM
Sorry to Bother You

I've been meaning to see this for a while, but after someone on Twitter compared it to Repo Man the other day and your review I'm going to have to sort it out sharpish.

My own list since I last posted:

Run Lola Run (1998) This doesn't look quite as snazzy as it did in 1998, but I still love it.

Gran Torino (2008) Clint goes Victor Meldrew in this charming tale of an old racist cunt who helps out a Hmong family who've moved next door by
Spoiler alert
committing suicide
[close]
. The most enjoyable Eastwood film I've seen since In The Line Of Fire (though I've not seen any since Absolute Power, so that's faint praise), I can't  deny I really liked it while it was playing, but the comedy racism leaves a nasty aftertaste as does behind the scenes stories like this:

Quote from: imdbAccording to Bee Vang (Thao Lor), the Hmong actors and actresses for this movie were isolated from the rest of the cast and crew. According to Vang, efforts by the Hmong actors and actresses to correct the portrayal of Hmong traditions were ignored. He has also refuted claims that the Hmong actors and actresses were encouraged to improvise. According to Vang, when he tried to improvise, Clint Eastwood told him to "stick to the script." Vang also stated that the cast and crew had attended a baseball game, but the Hmong actors and actresses were not invited. It was assumed that the Hmong actors and actresses were immigrants and did not know about baseball, but the majority of the Hmong actors and actresses were U.S. natives. Bee Vang later participated in a parody of this movie, "Thao Does Walt", in which he played an elderly Hmong man to a teenage Caucasian boy, highlighting perceived racial stereotyping in the original scene.

Joker (2019) I enjoyed this. Not much to say except if all it takes to kick off the type of civil unrest that results in oligarchs being gunned down in the streets is the murder by clown of a few obnoxious Tory cunts then *gestures at Manchester Central Convention Complex*

Small Man Big Horse

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988) - When I first saw this as a teenager I didn't particularly like it, which confuses me no end as I loved it to pieces today and so can only presume my younger self was an absolute cunt. It's the shaggiest of shaggy dog tales, constantly inventive and playful, and even Eric Idle is likeable somewhat amazingly, while Neville is majestic as the lead. I think in the scheme of things I just about prefer Brazil but this comes a close second, and is Gilliam at the very top of his game. 8.3/10

frajer

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 06, 2021, 08:10:35 PM
The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988) - When I first saw this as a teenager I didn't particularly like it, which confuses me no end as I loved it to pieces today and so can only presume my younger self was an absolute cunt. It's the shaggiest of shaggy dog tales, constantly inventive and playful, and even Eric Idle is likeable somewhat amazingly, while Neville is majestic as the lead. I think in the scheme of things I just about prefer Brazil but this comes a close second, and is Gilliam at the very top of his game. 8.3/10

Hooray! I adored this (and Time Bandits, naturally) as a nipper and was so happy when I revisited it in my cynical adult years and found I still loved it.

Yeah it's a shaggy old dog, a glorious mess and the sort of overblown extravaganza that probably shouldn't have been made, but much like one of the Baron's tall tales it feels all the more wonderful for existing at all. Might just have to crack open the Blu-ray this weekend.

zomgmouse

One Night in One City. Dialogueless dark Czech animation (billed as horror but I don't think it is, except maybe one scene) that is a series of vignettes of weird people (and in one vignette, a tree and a fish) doing weird things. The animation style/puppets are beautifully odd, really quite singular. The actual contents are also engaging and imaginative for the most part although I kind of wish it went more all out.

greenman

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on October 05, 2021, 10:21:47 AM
I used to love Greenaway but he definitely went off the boil in a major way. Drowning By Numbers, A Z And Two Noughts, and The Cook... have a certain comic sensibility as well as being excellent in other ways. He definitely could be emptily pretentious, believing he was creating great art for the ages. Nudity and grimness don't make great art, Juliet Stevenson drowning people does.

After Cook the only one of his I'v watched is The Pillow Book and that had definitely lost most of the dry humour of the 80's stuff although it was also reasonably conventionally shot/structured as well and I'm guessing not really typical of his latter work.

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 06, 2021, 08:10:35 PMThe Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988) - When I first saw this as a teenager I didn't particularly like it, which confuses me no end as I loved it to pieces today and so can only presume my younger self was an absolute cunt. It's the shaggiest of shaggy dog tales, constantly inventive and playful, and even Eric Idle is likeable somewhat amazingly, while Neville is majestic as the lead. I think in the scheme of things I just about prefer Brazil but this comes a close second, and is Gilliam at the very top of his game. 8.3/10

I do think it holds together a bit better than Time Bandits personally and as you say Neville really is amazing in the lead, if the film had done well I suspect he'd have ended up as an A grade hollywood luvie, as it is I suspect a lot of the work he got in the 90's/00's might well have been off the back of Baron Munchhausen.

Really hope it ends up on UHD at some point as for one thing I'm sure the sets/FX would look great with limited CGI use and for another it might help it build up a bit more popularity.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: frajer on October 06, 2021, 08:29:05 PM
Hooray! I adored this (and Time Bandits, naturally) as a nipper and was so happy when I revisited it in my cynical adult years and found I still loved it.

Yeah it's a shaggy old dog, a glorious mess and the sort of overblown extravaganza that probably shouldn't have been made, but much like one of the Baron's tall tales it feels all the more wonderful for existing at all. Might just have to crack open the Blu-ray this weekend.

I'm genuinely perplexed as to why I didn't like it when younger as I loved all of the other 80's Gilliam films, perhaps it just caught me an off day. And when I was watching it I couldn't help but feel that it was far too weird to be a mainstream hit and was surprised it got financing, but like you I'm very glad that it did.

Quote from: greenman on October 07, 2021, 07:31:29 AM
I do think it holds together a bit better than Time Bandits personally and as you say Neville really is amazing in the lead, if the film had done well I suspect he'd have ended up as an A grade hollywood luvie, as it is I suspect a lot of the work he got in the 90's/00's might well have been off the back of Baron Munchhausen.

Really hope it ends up on UHD at some point as for one thing I'm sure the sets/FX would look great with limited CGI use and for another it might help it build up a bit more popularity.

The version I saw was a 1080p rip and it really did look quite stunning.

Small Man Big Horse

A Goofy Movie (1995) - Goofy's son Max fears that he's going to grow in to a clumsy fella like his father while dreaming of romancing fellow student Roxanne, and attempts to impress her by pulling a big stunt at school where he runs on stage and sings a song in assembly. The principal is horrified and tells Goofy that his son is history's greatest monster, so Goofy decides to take him on a road trip across the country which Max initially hates but, well, you can probably guess the rest. It starts out as a musical and there's some surprisingly great songs in the first half hour or so, but annoyingly it then it forgets about the songs side of things and just becomes full of slapstick, with some idiocy involving Big Foot and a trip down a river both going on for way too long. The ending sees things pick up a bit, but it's definitely frustrating that the second half of the film is nowhere near as good as the first part. 5.8/10.

Famous Mortimer

24 Hours To Midnight

Cynthia Rothrock making her US debut in a Leo "Low Blow" Fong movie? Yes please!

Well, it turns out Rothrock and her boyfriend had a huge row with the producers a few days into filming and both quit, so they got a woman whose sole qualification for being a Rothrock lookalike is she was blonde, put her in a full ninja outfit and had her go round killing off the gangsters who killed her husband (who was in witness protection, apparently). She has absolutely no problem whatsoever killing everyone she wants, and is able to casually walk away from a fairly hefty bodycount at the end. There are perhaps more flashbacks than are strictly necessary to Rothrock's five onscreen minutes, and it's full of that trademark Fong oddness, so it's still quite a lot of fun.

Oh, great final line, as a flashback reveals the last thing the husband said her was "you'll always be special to me", which sounds like a friendly break-up line but was apparently supposed to be romantic. 

Small Man Big Horse

Strange Frame - Love & Sax (2012) - Garishly animated sci-fi oddity which looks like it must have had a tiny budget though they did somehow manage to get the likes of Tim Curry, Alan Tudyk, Ron Glass and Tara Strong on board. Set in a future where humans are modified so that they can work in horrendous situations on other planets, and often inexplicably look like animals, the majority will be in debt for their whole lives and work jobs that make them abjectly miserable so this isn't exactly subtle satire. Our two female leads meet as they're both musicians, start performing and fall in love incredibly quickly, but then are separated by an evil music mogul, and eventually a plan is put in to place where they might be reunited. It's undoubtedly pretentious, the dialogue is often really dodgy, and sometimes the animation is ugly, with some of the character's faces often having that uncanny valley look, and it's overstuffed with ideas that it rarely develops satisfyingly. But oddly I still quite liked this, at times the visuals are impressive, the soundtrack is pretty great, and though it's absurd and ridiculous it's quite amusing overall, though is yet another film that I could completely understand someone else hating. 6.9/10

Small Man Big Horse

Fantasia (1940) - Two hours of classic music set to an extremely varied selection of animation, there were parts I loved and parts I was a bit bored by and I definitely could have done without Deems Taylor explaining every bloody thing which is going to happen. Ignoring his bits the film starts really well but then I found the dancing leaves and fish rather tedious, and even considered watching something else, but I'm glad I stuck with it as from Sorcerer's Apprentice onwards it's nearly all strong, a brief bit with the pegasus's (pegasi?) frolicking went on for too long and I have to say that
Spoiler alert
post Satan the finale
[close]
slightly disappointed, but otherwise it's impressive indeed, though for me it's not the absolute classic some people feel it is. 7.4/10

Egyptian Feast

The 'Rhapsody In Blue' section of Fantasia 2000 is worth a watch too. I watched it repeatedly on a pissed flight to Hong Kong and it became my favourite bit of the two films, though I haven't watched it sober, so could be talking complete shit.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on October 10, 2021, 12:57:29 AM
The 'Rhapsody In Blue' section of Fantasia 2000 is worth a watch too. I watched it repeatedly on a pissed flight to Hong Kong and it became my favourite bit of the two films, though I haven't watched it sober, so could be talking complete shit.

I'm definitely going to be watching that soon as I've been making my way through every Disney animated film that got a cinema release, and now only have seven to go. I've heard mixed reviews of Fantasia 2000, with the general gist being that some bits are fantastic and some are bit naff, but the completist in me means I'll definitely watch it whatever the case.

dissolute ocelot

A White White Day (2019) - Icelandic drama about a man grieving for his dead wife, who may have had an affair. Lots of beautiful photography of rocks and sheds, and great performances with understated humour. From laid-back Grand Designs vibes it gradually picks up speed to a dramatic conclusion that's heavy on symbolism (
Spoiler alert
a grave, a tunnel, screaming, sexy dancing
[close]
) but just about works.

Daredevil (2003) - Entertaining superhero movie marred by a wooden Ben Affleck lead performance. It's packed with interesting character actors, and Colin Farrell is good as the psychopathic villain Bullseye. After a nice prologue with David Keith it's a bit slow to get going, but does pick up speed, and some striking, CGI-aided visuals (despite a clear Matrix influence). But Affleck isn't the slightest bit convincing as either a blind lawyer or a troubled vigilante.

Small Man Big Horse

Gemini (1999) - Creepy and strange mood piece from  Tetsuo: The Iron Man's Shinya Tsukamoto where a doctor is married to an amnesiac and though her parents are suspicious of her initially all seems to be going well. That of course doesn't last,
Spoiler alert
both parents are soon dead and the poor old Doctor has been shoved down a well by his doppelganger, who delights in taunting him
[close]
. Along with the nature of love it plays around with ideas about the class divide, and though it perhaps lacks substance it's never less than visually fascinating, and the atmosphere is a genuinely unsettling one. 7.1/10

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 10, 2021, 10:29:02 AM
I've heard mixed reviews of Fantasia 2000, with the general gist being that some bits are fantastic and some are bit naff, but the completist in me means I'll definitely watch it whatever the case.

Yeah, that sums it up well. It's almost an hour shorter than the original, and that's including a repeat of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, so it's a bit half-arsed compared to Walt's passion project, but the Rhapsody In Blue sequence is wonderful. I watched the whole movie three times on the flight just for that (and because the selection was pretty shit), but I can't remember much about the rest of it other than Angela Lansbury and Steve Martin popping up.

Blonde Venus (1932) This absolute prick of a scientist (Herbert Marshall) is hiking in a German woods with some of his nerd mates (including one comedy relief twat so annoying I was relieved he never showed up again) when they happen upon a bunch of young women who perform at the local cabaret skinny-dipping in a lake. One of the girls (Marlene Dietrich) tells the creeps to fuck off and leave them alone, to which this prick replies he will do so if the girls agree to go on a date after their show. Dietrich says she will do absolutely no such thing, prick says he's staying and a cut to a little boy being bathed by mum Marlene a few years later shows us how that turned out for him.

Trouble is, he has contracted 'radium poisoning' through his work, probably snorting the shit and rubbing it on his goolies, and it will cost $1500 to send him abroad for treatment. Dietrich returns to cabaret work to support the family, against hubby's wishes, and immediately catches the eye of millionaire Cary Grant who gives her one and also provides the money she needs in a snap. Marshall fucks off to Germany for treatment, is completely cured, returns home early and discovers the affair, which Marlene had already ended. He decides to be a complete prick about it, throw her out on the street and attempt to permanently separate her from her child, so she goes on the run...

This is the first Von Sternberg/Dietrich collaboration I've seen and apparently one of their lesser works. I enjoyed it for the most part and as you can see from the synopsis above I got quite into hating on Marshall when he went full dickhead. I'm not sure if I was supposed to though.

Dietrich was fantastic. I was rooting for her and Cary (not quite there yet but clearly a star in the making; according to him the only direction he got from von Sternberg was that he was parting his hair on the wrong side, which was a very important piece of advice he rigidly stuck to for ever more), but the movie dragged at times in the second half and the ending absolutely ate shit.

Quote from: imdb
Though Josef Von Sternberg is credited for having written the script to Blonde Venus, the true author of the script was in fact Marlene Dietrich. She agreed not to recieve credit for writing the movie due to the obvious struggles it would cause with the hays office and code. This turned out to be a good idea, as both Dietrich and Von Sternberg were suspended for several months as the story was cut, watered down and made into weak lemonade to satisfy the censors. It took nearly a year before the smoke cleared. But all the frustrations and drama from the censors caused the story to lose its appeal for both Dietrich and Von Sternberg. By the time filming finally began, both director and star no longer liked, nor wanted to make the picture any longer.

Boo.

Midnight Cowboy (1969) I taped this off the telly in the early 90s and watched it repeatedly. There was so much I didn't get about it, being in my early teens, but I absorbed it all like a sponge. I hadn't seen it in a while and probably didn't need to as I have a copy in my brain, but I appreciated the revisit. Joe's bus trip to New York, the Warholish party where it sounds like they're listening to Broadcast, the grime and the lights of Time Square, endlessly fascinating.

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 10, 2021, 02:57:46 PM
Gemini (1999) - Creepy and strange mood piece from  Tetsuo: The Iron Man's Shinya Tsukamoto where a doctor is married to an amnesiac and though her parents are suspicious of her initially all seems to be going well. That of course doesn't last,
Spoiler alert
both parents are soon dead and the poor old Doctor has been shoved down a well by his doppelganger, who delights in taunting him
[close]
. Along with the nature of love it plays around with ideas about the class divide, and though it perhaps lacks substance it's never less than visually fascinating, and the atmosphere is a genuinely unsettling one. 7.1/10

Ah pumped your reviewing done Tusukamoto! Not seen this one, will give it a go