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

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) - enjoyable Japanese teen/sci-fi animation about a clumsy teenage girl who gets the ability to "do over" periods of time. So it's kind of a time loop movie, albeit predating the recent glut. Some likable characters although the male love interests are a bit dull (as is generally true in this kind of thing). Plot keeps moving, with a nice sequence showing the fun of repeating things more successfully (as well as the consequences for the guy who you divert all your catastrophes onto, which is avoided in a lot of time loop movies, but gives some of the best jokes here). Plus a bit of teen relationship angst, and then a bit of a twist that explains it all. It lacks the epic quality of something like Your Name but looks good within its smaller budget, with nice time travel sequences (although IMO the supposed great work of art the heroine's aunt is restoring is crap, like someone spilt paint thinner on a bad Klimt wannabe).

Really not sure why they put a railway level crossing at the bottom of a really steep hill: with level crossings generally a feature of very flat landscapes, surely they could manage some kind of bridge starting a little way up the hill. But maybe that's how the Japanese do things.

Heh, the positioning of the railway frustrated me when I watched it too, and was surely always an accident (if not many) waiting to happen.

Naked- 1993

A memorable experience. Starts of  nastily as our lead superbly  portrayed by David Thwelis attempts to force himself on a women,he  then spends the film as a drifter taunting and baiting people with his intellect and somehow it all so heartbreaking. Got a really fun supporting UK cast with Gina McKee, Leslie Sharp, Claire Skinner and Peter Wright who have the misfortune to interact with our lead.
4/5

I saw that at the cinema when it came out and loved it, but have been putting off a rewatch as some have suggested it hasn't aged well, but I definitely will give it another go soon.

[rjd2]

It took me 2 nights to watch it, after maybe 20 mins, I said I don't want to be in the company of such a repugnant lead  but decided to finish it a few das later and found it compelling. It looks a little dated but that's due to been near 30 years old.

On the SB post yeah oddly enough she was the one character I could not stop thinking about when done despite others having much worse luck who interacted with our lead.

Gina has always been such a great actress .

[Small Man Big Horse]

Hayop Ka! (aka You Animal - 2020) - Filipino animation about a bunch of horny animals, where cat Nimfa is dating macho dog Roger, but then a rich wolf comes along and she wants to fuck him instead. The animation is impressive and there's some okay background jokes, but many are very similar to those in Bojack Horseman and this pales in comparison, with the characters being far less appealing and amusing, and some acts of violence (

Spoiler alert

Nimfa repeatedly hitting her sister when she finds out she's a single mother, Roger beating up a frog and accidentally hitting Nimfa

[close]

) makes them quite unlikeable in places, especially as the film treats such moments as if it were acceptable. This got a positive mention on 366 Weird Movies but while they're normally a reliable source of great if odd films, there's nothing that unusual about this, and even at 75 minutes it felt overlong. 4.9/10.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2021) - Japanese time travel daftness with the twist being that when cafe owner Kato is in his room his future self starts talking to him via his television. but he's only two minutes ahead of him in the future, speaking from the cafe downstairs. Soon his friends become involved, someone has the bright idea of putting the two tv's in the same room, and a gentle but amusing quite short vaguely sci-fi comedy plays out. 7.0/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Ice Pirates (1984) - Robert Urich, Michael D. Roberts Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman star in this sci-fi spoof where water is the scarcest commodity in the universe, hence our ice pirate sort of heroes travel about trying to nick it. They're captured early on by the evil John Carradine and sentenced to castration and then to work as slaves, but Princess Karina (Mary Crosby) saves their genitals as she was briefly kidnapped by them right at the beginning of the film and due to that supposedly likes them, and soon they're all off on a long old quest to find a planet filled with water. It's inconsistent as hell, sometimes weird, sometimes funny, sometimes a bit annoying, but the final half hour is fantastic,

Spoiler alert

especially the mad bit where they all grow really old really quickly

[close]

. 7.3/10

[Dex Sawash]

 ^ 19 year old me thought

Spoiler alert

space herpes

[close]

was funniest thing ever. Probably shouldn't watch it again now.

[Sebastian Cobb]

On the SB post yeah oddly enough she was the one character I could not stop thinking about when done despite others having much worse luck who interacted with our lead.

Gina has always been such a great actress .

I suppose the whole film is full of people who are sad because they are broken because have "something missing", but on most of them, to some extent we know why.

With Gina's character it's just not clear, and yes I thought about her afterwards too.

[Small Man Big Horse]

^ 19 year old me thought

Spoiler alert

space herpes

[close]

was funniest thing ever. Probably shouldn't watch it again now.

The

Spoiler alert

space herpes

[close]

bit is weird as characters make such a big thing out of it, with the princess horrified when she founds out, but then

Spoiler alert

it's all bar forgotten about until the time warp bit

[close]

. The more I think about it the more I like the movie, I just wish that it was a little tighter and cut some of the dubious jokes, I think you could make a 70 minute version which would be pretty damn memorable.

[sevendaughters]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is back in cinemas for a limited run, and I was up to my eyes in work when it came out (and not arsed about Tarantino) so I never saw it until yesterday. I knew nothing going in and my ignorance of the Manson killings is in play here but I thought at first that the ending was a clever 'this isn't the Manson killing, that will be coming after the timeline of the film, we set you up, haha' but no, it's actually the same exploitation trick as Inglourious Basterds where history is rewritten by cinema and the insertion of two fictional characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt actually prevents innocent people dying.

Clickbait empires and the easily riled had a field day with it, from some cursory research, but I have no problem with cinema rejecting the solemn judgment of history. The trick does ultimately reduce Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate to a film-length red herring, and there's a Hail, Caesar-ish 'look at us playing in all these historical genres' thing that wears me out a little. But it is interesting that it is also kind of an alternative Hollywood, one of bad TV and third-tier pop and B-movies rather than glitz and glamour.

I've also read quite a bit of uproar about how the film portrays Bruce Lee as a slightly arrogant asshole (though later in the film, where he is seen as a stunt co-ordinator and choreographer, a thorough professional) but again, there's evidence he was a dick to stuntmen, that he was not a super invincible fightbot, and that Gene LeBell (a stuntman) choked him out. No idea why people are desperate to make Gods of people like Bruce Lee; their fallibility makes them human. Even the arch mythologiser Tarantino gets this by now.

It's not QT's best - I'd say it is comfortably his fifth best - and they could have easily shaved 30 minutes off this. But it's nice to be reminded, contrasted to the bilge that comprises mainstream entertainment these days, that some people can make something watchable and stylish and interesting without beating you over the head.

[Small Man Big Horse]

History Of The World Part 1 (1981) - I somehow had never seen this before despite having watched everything else by Brooks, even Like Stinks, so how I missed it is beyond me. And it's great too as it takes a highly selective trip through history, with segments on cavemen, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution, the Spanish Inquisition is perhaps unsurprisingly my favourite bit as it's one long song and dance sequence, but all of it's pretty funny, Madeleine Kahn's especially good value for money, and though there's odd moment that made me wince (the use of the word faggot, some jokes concerning Gregory Hines' character) it's misguided rather deliberately offensive. 7.5/10

Turns out I was a dirty rotten liar when I said I'd seen everything by Brooks, as today I realised I'd never seen this either:

Silent Movie (1976) - Mel Funn (Mel Brooks) plans to save a film studio by making the first silent movie in forty years, and goes about recruiting top stars like Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli and Paul Newman. It occasionally feels like a number of sketches thrown together but the cast are all good value, and it manages to maintain a fairly high gag rate throughout. 7.6/10

[Custard]

showed Who Framed Roger Rabbit to Mrs 7D and she loved it and I still do so a big hit. Maybe the animation/reality hybrid doesn't stand up to 2021 tech but all the jokes still land!

It's amazing there's never been a remake or sequel to that. I think they did plan one, but for some reason it never got off the ground

These days it'd be Roger teaming up with Seth Rogan or something, so probably best not to bother actually

[Shit Good Nose]

Silent Movie (1976) - Mel Funn (Mel Brooks) plans to save a film studio by making the first silent movie in forty years, and goes about recruiting top stars like Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli and Paul Newman. It occasionally feels like a number of sketches thrown together but the cast are all good value, and it manages to maintain a fairly high gag rate throughout. 7.6/10

Possibly my favourite Brooks film.  I still remember to this day my dad nearly dying through laughing so hard during the scene in James Caan's caravan.  And Sid Caesar's "SLAPSTICK IS DEAD!" joke is a classic, of course.



Finally got round to finishing Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade (having previously only seen the first twenty or os minutes).

Think I must've watched a different film from everyone else - I absolutely hated it.  I made it to the end, but nearly bailed several times.

[Small Man Big Horse]

It's amazing there's never been a remake or sequel to that. I think they did plan one, but for some reason it never got off the ground

I've seen two scripts, Who Discovered Roger Rabbit? by Nat Mauldin, Tony Sheehan and Jeff Stein and The Toon Platoon by Mauldin and Stein, both of which share a lot of similarities, though one has Nazis in it and the other doesn't.

[Inspector Norse]

Naked- 1993

A memorable experience. Starts of  nastily as our lead superbly  portrayed by David Thwelis attempts to force himself on a women,he  then spends the film as a drifter taunting and baiting people with his intellect and somehow it all so heartbreaking. Got a really fun supporting UK cast with Gina McKee, Leslie Sharp, Claire Skinner and Peter Wright who have the misfortune to interact with our lead.
4/5

I saw that at the cinema when it came out and loved it, but have been putting off a rewatch as some have suggested it hasn't aged well, but I definitely will give it another go soon.

It took me 2 nights to watch it, after maybe 20 mins, I said I don't want to be in the company of such a repugnant lead  but decided to finish it a few das later and found it compelling. It looks a little dated but that's due to been near 30 years old.

I watched it fairly recently and some parts are definitely dated as you guys say: I mainly found that the subplot with the girls in the flat and the yuppie rapist was pretty cackhanded both in writing and acting. But Thewlis is so magnetic and brilliantly provokes so many conflicting reactions and feelings that the film still retains a lot of power.

[Inspector Norse]

Recent fillums

Brother Russian rebel auteur Alexei Balabanov's big hit from 1997 about a young rural lad who goes to find his brother in St Petersburg and gets roped into becoming a hit man, while buying up the back catalogue of slightly naff Russian rock outfit Nautilus. A strange, faintly amateurish but mostly compelling and kinetic film with a bit of the Lacombe Luciens about the protagonist and his strange emotional and personal imbalance. Does a very good job of capturing the sleaze and grime of '90s Russia.

Naked Lunch Cronenberg's free-wheeling "adaptation" of Burrough's nigh-unreadable novel of drug addiction, combined with anecdotes from Burroughs' own life. A stew of weird and memorable images and interesting themes; difficult to really summarise in a couple of lines but very worth watching though uneven. The effects are dated, of course, but have their nauseating charm. Getting bummed to death by a giant centipede with Julian Sands' face is one of the more memorable deaths in cinema history.

Valhalla Rising Nicolas Winding Refn is one of those directors I tend to quite like without ever really being convinced. This followed the pattern with some very strong imagery and sound design, some interesting themes and ideas and some powerful scenes yet an overall feeling of being a bit underwhelming and underdeveloped.

[sevendaughters]

Brother is absolutely mint. Terrific film. Sequel is more of the same and a bit racist.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Miss Granny (2014) - South Korean film where a grandmother is kicked out of her home after being blamed for her daughter-in-law's stress based illness, stumbles in to the Forever Young photo studio, and before you can say "Excuse me good sir, is this is a body swap comedy?" she's twenty years old and looking rather frisky. Of course she still talks and acts like an elderly woman, but soon starts to enjoy her new life, joining her grandson's metal band and quickly making it in to a pop act and falling for a tv producer who makes them famous, while rejecting her old friend Park who has always had a crush on her. The first two thirds of this is quite alluring, but the final third threatens to get a bit melodramatic, they just about pull it off, but only just. 7.3/10

[zomgmouse]

Bong Joon-ho's Mother. Second half felt a little weak and some of the details seemed lazy but overall rather struck by the poetry of it all, the lead actress was phenomenal and the opening/closing were on point.

Late August, Early September. Early Assayas is a breezy yet poignant portrait of a group of friends coming to terms with adulthood. Quite elegantly done. Really coming round to him as a filmmaker after Personal Shopper and now this - I may have to revisit the other two films of him I've seen (Clouds of Sils Maria and Irma Vep) at some point to see if I'll change my mind at all or at least work out why I didn't like them.

Visit, or Memories and Confessions. Made by Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira in 1981 - not to be released until his death (which happened in 2015 when he was 106 years old!!) - this is a personal documentary on his home, his life and his work. I've only seen one of his films (The Strange Case of Angelica, which he made aged 102, and which is really good) but thought it would be interesting to watch this to get an idea of who he is as a person, so that any further films I watch of his could be viewed through this lens. Not sure I was in the right mood for this unfortunately; it's quite densely staid and the narration rather slow and prosaic - so it made it hard for me to glean the emotions of memory from it all. But I'm glad I watched it.

[rjd2]

Brother is absolutely mint. Terrific film. Sequel is more of the same and a bit racist.

I watched both the other day. I had a lot of fun with the first but found the second a bit of a chore. It dragged and didn't feel as quirky as the first sadly.

The racism regarding it is a bit queasy yeah. It was obviously a different time and I don't believe the director is a racist, but it was very clunky.

Has anyone seen any of that director's other work ? Plenty available on Mubi so would be grateful for recommendations!

[zomgmouse]

Has anyone seen any of that director's other work ? Plenty available on Mubi so would be grateful for recommendations!

I found Brother to be good but a little unsurprising. A Stoker is very good, much bleaker than Brother. Of Freaks and Men is my favourite so far, rather different to those, a unique vision. Definitely keen to see more.

[Dex Sawash]

In the Heart of the Sea (whale film) The true story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick (whale book)
Big fucking whale

Spoiler alert

acts a cunt and sinks a whaleship

[close]

, fair enough whale. Hemsworth is miscast I reckon. Really fails to capture the desperate situation they are in that leads to

Spoiler alert

cannibalism

[close]

. Done better than other modern sea films like Master and Commander or that Robert Redford one though.

[Blinder Data]

In the Line of Fire (1993)

Why is 63 yo Clint Eastwood trying to bang 39 yo Rene Russo?! Stop it, Clint! It's disgusting. And get some self-respect, Rene.

If the actor was a silver fox like Harrison Ford, George Clooney or Sean Connery, it could almost be believable. But surely no young woman wants cardboard Clint and his "PC gone mad" opinions grimacing his way through intercourse.

Malkovich was brilliant though and the plot went along at a fair old clip. 6.9/10

Election (1999)

The male gaze and dodgy sexual politics from the 90s strike again. This film would never be made in a post #metoo era. I know Matthew Broderick's character is supposed to be a charmless schlub and the film's sense of humour is very cynical, but it's difficult to stomach how Reese Witherspoon's character is treated considering the poor girl was groomed by her old teacher. Overall an enjoyable film with very good performances but has badly aged. I don't quite understand the acclaim. 6.8/10.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Black Mama, White Mama (1972) - Part 'women in prison' part Blaxploitaion, all B-Movie shot in the Philippines. Pam Grier is great as she is in everything and Margaret Markov is pretty good too. Nothing special going on but good fun.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Election (1999)

The male gaze and dodgy sexual politics from the 90s strike again. This film would never be made in a post #metoo era. I know Matthew Broderick's character is supposed to be a charmless schlub and the film's sense of humour is very cynical, but it's difficult to stomach how Reese Witherspoon's character is treated considering the poor girl was groomed by her old teacher. Overall an enjoyable film with very good performances but has badly aged. I don't quite understand the acclaim. 6.8/10.

I saw it at the cinema as it got rave reviews at the time but I've never understood the acclaim either, it's okay, mildly amusing but it seemed to be far blunter and less intelligent than what was being suggested, and I'd agree with your rating, it's a 3 and a half stars but no more than that kind of thing.

Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) - A patriotic star packed comedy where a bunch of Navy sailors are in town with Johnny (Eddie Bracken) set to marry Polly (Betty Hutton) who works at Paramount Pictures along with his father, who's a security guard pretending to be the big boss. There's a sod load of cameos as they get to see snippets of supposedly forthcoming films, movies being shot on set or a big show that's put on at the end for all of the sailors, and the hit rate is damn high, the songs daft and memorable, and while the odd bit is slightly dodgy (a card game where the men act as if they're women is oddly weak) the majority of it is very funny. 7.5/10

[zomgmouse]

Dressed to Kill. Let down by its ending but an engaging thriller from De Palma. Has he made a film about fucking a camera yet?

[phantom_power]

Dressed to Kill. Let down by its ending but an engaging thriller from De Palma. Has he made a film about fucking a camera yet?

I watched Body Double the other night, which is a lurid, sleazy thriller De Palma did after DtK. A pretty slight story and very obvious twist but it looks gorgeous and has some ballsy directorial decisions in it. Craig Wasson is a very unlikeable protagonist, but I think that is the point. It also stops halfway through to have what is basically a promo for Two Tribes, complete with Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford.

[zomgmouse]

If I Were a Spy. Debut feature from Bertrand Blier (starring his father). Decent noirish mystery in which a doctor gets embroiled in a missing persons case and also an espionage conspiracy. Despite building up some tense stakes it doesn't execute them particularly well. Groovy Gainsbourg score though.

I watched Body Double the other night, which is a lurid, sleazy thriller De Palma did after DtK. A pretty slight story and very obvious twist but it looks gorgeous and has some ballsy directorial decisions in it. Craig Wasson is a very unlikeable protagonist, but I think that is the point. It also stops halfway through to have what is basically a promo for Two Tribes, complete with Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford.

I like that one a lot more than DtK I think. A much more intense energy.

[phantom_power]

I haven't seen DtK (it is next on my De Palma watch list) but I did enjoy BD a lot. It got slated when it came out. I think De Palma got a Razzie for it, or was at least nominated, which is crazy as he directs the shit out of it

[Sebastian Cobb]

I was talking about Body Double with a mate recently, basically we both liked it and Body Heat but had a difference of opinion over which we preferred (I preferred BD).

[phantom_power]

I think BD wins for me because of the directorial flourishes and general cinematography and what De Palma does with the camera