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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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sevendaughters

watched and mostly enjoyed Theo Angelopolous' much-garlanded Landscape in the Mist, which has some of the best photography and music I've seen/heard in a while. But there's a scene in the middle that bummed me out quite hard and I find it hard to rate as such.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on January 06, 2022, 06:37:14 PMI've been meaning to rewatch that for ages. One of those films I caught late night on telly when I was half-cut and enjoyed immensely. Even though it's an extremely dubious and shameful movie, I'm also a fan of the truly demented unofficial Italian sequel Patrick Lives Again. I'm already kindly disposed to any movie featuring sleaze icon Mariangela Giordano (who is never a sign of quality but is such a trouper I'm always struck with admiration) but this piece of shit is so off the rails I had to applaud and then wash my hands.
Filmed at the same location as one of my favourite bonkers Italian zombie movies, "Burial Ground: Nights of Terror", which has now put the seed in my brain that means I'll probably watch this by the end of the week.

Egyptian Feast

It's from the same producer, Gabriele Crisanti, whose filmography is frankly a fucking sewer I am occasionally partial to wallowing in, mainly as he was Mariangela Giordano's partner (she plays the mum of the freaky manchild in Burial Ground) and cast her in everything he did until she reached the limits of her trouperdom and told him to fuck off.

Sebastian Cobb

Last night I watched '71 - A story about a British soldier in Northern Ireland during The Troubles who gets separated from their squad and ends up stumbling upon a conspiracy and factional fighting between the ORIA and PIRA.

Pretty good really, don't normally go in for war shit but I liked it.

"I was in the army myself, medic... 20 years. Posh cunts telling thick cunts to kill poor cunts."

sevendaughters

'71 is alright. Not really a political work though, kind of a 'got to get home despite obstacles' narrative. Blackburn only too at home standing in for 70s Belfast.

Blumf

The Sting (1973)
You've seen, I've seen it, but apparently my wife hadn't, and it was on TV today.

It's just a damned good film, isn't it? Story starting out simple then getting progressively more complex as the setup builds, all falling into place for the end. Lots of room for little character bits from supporting cast, and a nice depression era rundown look to it all. Oh, and the music.

Sure, you can pick holes...
Spoiler alert
Pretty sure Lonnegan would find out he's been had, so they're not safe, despite the faked deaths
[close]
...but who cares? It's a massively fun ride. Watch it again some time.

Think I tried to watch The Sting II (1983) once, have no lasting impression other than not to bother again.

Famous Mortimer

Wacko (1982)

Horror spoof, done at an Airplane gag pace. Lots of familiar faces in it, including a surprisingly good Andrew Dice Clay and Joe Don Baker as the dirtiest, most slobby character maybe ever. But there's only about 20 minutes of good material, and you'll be sat stony-faced through a bit too much of it.

Mobius

Watched Game Night and Annihilation both actually pretty good and better than I expected

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Mobius on January 10, 2022, 02:41:57 AMWatched Game Night ... both actually pretty good and better than I expected
Game Night is lots of fun. It has a cast full of people who can be very good but too often make terrible films, so it's nice to see such as Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, and Kyle Chandler at their best. It is just a silly, funny mainstream comedy but it's definitely one of the best.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: sevendaughters on January 09, 2022, 04:04:59 PM'71 is alright. Not really a political work though, kind of a 'got to get home despite obstacles' narrative. Blackburn only too at home standing in for 70s Belfast.

I think it's both, the fact that most of the death, both republican and loyalist and inter-factional fighting of people ostensibly on the same side seems to be a result of meddling by the Military Reaction Force strikes me as a political statement.

SteveDave

"Yes, God, Yes"

A Netflix film chosen by my wife that's an attempt at an 80s teen-sex-comedy but set in the early 2000s so there's a lot of her playing Snake on her cellular telephone. It's not good. Or maybe I was just in a massive mood and shattered to the point where I found myself staring at the wall behind the screen for about 45 minutes.

sevendaughters

Continuing on my Godard watch-through now I am a convert and enjoyed Le Mepris. Actually I was initially surprised that it is a fairly traditional narrative and that the political content is more atmospheric (at least until the scene where the JLG cipher character starts moaning that he's only taking the job for the money and that everything is ruined because of it) and that the formal/aesthetic experimentation is quite restrained. It's very beautiful to look at too and Fritz Lang seems like a right mensch. Not my favourite of his but I liked it plenty.

Small Man Big Horse

My Name Is Bruce (2007) - Meta comedy where we're supposed to believe that Bruce Campbell is a loud, boorish, sexist, egotistical twat, and having read his autobiography I'm not sure exactly how much of a stretch some of it was, he keeps on insisting that he's just like "one of us" but there is an arrogance to some of the stories that is very apparent. Also, it's a gag which is done to death and then about a hundred times more as Bruce is recruited to take on an ancient Chinese god by his biggest fan who lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere, with Bruce thinking it's all a set up for his birthday and not really happening. Real life friend Ted Raimi plays a couple of roles and is terrible in all of them, though worst of all is some yellow face where he plays a local Chinese guy and it's horribly racist. Also shit is a really unpleasant joke at the expense of a transgender prostitute, and even though it's short at 84 minutes I could easily have cut out half an hour, if not more. It's not a complete disaster and there are some decent jokes, and Bruce's reluctant love interest and her son give it their all, but it's a slog and not one I'd recommend to even a big fan of the actor. 4.8/10

Famous Mortimer

Agreed. I gave it a try when it first came out and the sense of excitement in the room (as we were all huge Campbell fans) fairly quickly turning to disappointment was very apparent.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 10, 2022, 04:34:41 PMAgreed. I gave it a try when it first came out and the sense of excitement in the room (as we were all huge Campbell fans) fairly quickly turning to disappointment was very apparent.

It's frustrating as it could have been great, and some of the jokes work well, but it's just one of the laziest comedies I've seen in a long while, Mark Verheiden's written some decent episodes of tv so I was surprised he was credited as the only writer and produced something so weak.

rjd2

The Bad Sleep Well 4/5

A nasty angry noir directed by Kurosowa starring frequent corroborator Mifune, obviously its a banger although if I were to pick holes with it, the film isn't as good as High and Low, but heh that's a minor moan.


zomgmouse

Quote from: sevendaughters on January 10, 2022, 12:03:21 PMContinuing on my Godard watch-through now I am a convert and enjoyed Le Mepris. Actually I was initially surprised that it is a fairly traditional narrative and that the political content is more atmospheric (at least until the scene where the JLG cipher character starts moaning that he's only taking the job for the money and that everything is ruined because of it) and that the formal/aesthetic experimentation is quite restrained. It's very beautiful to look at too and Fritz Lang seems like a right mensch. Not my favourite of his but I liked it plenty.

this is maybe my least favourite godard behind vivre sa vie!!! i don't get godard i think (although i love breathless and bande à part)

zomgmouse

49th Parallel. Powell/Pressburger (though the former directed/latter wrote, wasn't yet a paired credit) propaganda film essentially trying to get the Americans to join WWII. Some breathtaking cinematography and a stacked cast. Bit dated of course due to the nature of the work - not their best but it's very enjoyable.

Inspector Norse

Bunch of films recently

Heartstone Icelandic coming-of-age drama (2016) about two best friends in a little coastal village hitting 14-15 and discovering girls and parties, except one of them doesn't discover girls, he discovers the other. Strong characters and good performances make this one work, and though there's the odd cliché in there (abusive dad etc) it's kept in check by subtle, unflashy direction and a lack of sentimentality. What gave it some real character was the way that
Spoiler alert
it kind of subverted expectations by initially making it seem like the smaller, weedier Thor was the one interested in confident, outgoing Kristian, only for it to be the other way round, but we saw much of the plot through Thor's eyes, which put a different spin on it.
[close]
A good debut from director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson.

All Is Forgiven Very very European film from 2007 following Victor, a young father in Vienna and Paris, struggling with his self-destructive urges and eventually falling prey to them, before getting a chance at redemption and reunion with his daughter a decade later. One of those slow and sometimes obtuse Eurodramas that aren't to everyone's tastes, but I found it compelling, mainly because of Paul Blain's performance in the lead: a man whose quiet charisma and slightly knowing smile hide an obviously turbulent inner life.

First Cow Kelly Reichardt's much-admired buddy film about a vaguely nebbish cook who hooks up with a Chinese prospector in 1820s Oregon and start stealing milk from the area's only cow. Nicely observed and acted, low-key beauty in the scenery, but I found the central plot a bit frustrating - one of those films where I kept asking "why doesn't he just...?".

Metropolitan Whit Stillman's 1990 film about a bunch of young New York socialites boozing and philosophising their way through the Christmas holidays. I enjoyed this a lot, a lot of good lines and it struck the right balance between having its characters be charming and knowingly witty, and skewering their privilege and self-absorption. Strange that many of its ensemble cast seemed to drift away from acting after the film - only a couple went on to have regular TV gigs, for example.

Microhabitat Korean film from 2017 about a young woman who is reluctant to give up her slacker lifestyle and starts sofa-hopping around friends' homes, seeing that they don't have it much better despite having moved on and grown up. An interesting film with lots of ideas and nice direction (despite a few quirky touches that I didn't think worked), and its unjudgmental and ambiguous approach was initially appealing, but I was a bit put off by the vaguely pessimistic, misanthropic aftertaste.

Tangerines 2013 film set during the post-Soviet wars in the early 90s. Two Estonian farmers have refused to leave their land and return home with their families, and after a skirmish between Georgian and Abkhazian troops nearby, they take in two wounded soldiers - one from each side. Nothing really surprising about how things develop, but it's quietly confident and moving all the same, another strong addition to the canon of films showing the human cost of conflict.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Inspector Norse on January 11, 2022, 10:39:53 AMMetropolitan Whit Stillman's 1990 film about a bunch of young New York socialites boozing and philosophising their way through the Christmas holidays. I enjoyed this a lot, a lot of good lines and it struck the right balance between having its characters be charming and knowingly witty, and skewering their privilege and self-absorption. Strange that many of its ensemble cast seemed to drift away from acting after the film - only a couple went on to have regular TV gigs, for example.

I'm glad that still stands up, I was really fond of it and Stillman's follow up, Barcelona, and have been meaning to check out his 2016 "comeback" film Love & Friendship for ages now.

Sebastian Cobb

I liked Microhabitat, although it was one where I thought 'this sounds good' when it came on Mubi, but about 2 minutes in realised I'd seen it at the pictures and forgot.

Famous Mortimer

I absolutely love "Metropolitan", one of my favourites.

Office Uprising

Getting to the end of my office-based horror comedy mini-thon, and while it wasn't bad, it was a long way from good. Arms sales company, office drones have to fight against everyone else in the building who's drunk this poisoned energy drink that turns them all super angry, violent and strong.

Lots to pick apart, but I'll go with one thing.

Spoiler alert
The slacker main character and his long-term friend (Jane Levy) are obviously going to end up together, and at the end she reveals, as if this is news to the guy, that she's a nerd too. What have they been talking about all these years?
[close]

It felt like it was made by people whose only frame of reference was other movies set in offices.

Small Man Big Horse

From last year's thread:

Quote from: zomgmouse on November 30, 2021, 09:42:18 PMThe Smallest Show on Earth. Count this as another in the series of "films I thought were incredibly well-known but turns out are not very widely seen at all". Light comedy where a couple inherit a cinema which turns out to be a dingy hole and attempt to redo it in the hopes of selling it for a lot of money. Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers and Leslie Phillips are in strong supporting roles, and Sid James pops up in one scene. It's a bit too slight but it's really very enjoyable.

I pretty much agreed with everything Zomgmouse wrote there:

The Smallest Show On Earth (1957) - Cute comedy about a couple who inherit a cinema, plan to sell it off to the local rival, but end up running it themselves. The nostalgic charm of what cinemas were sometimes like in the fifties is part of it's big appeal (to me, at least),
Spoiler alert
though there's one dodgy bit where Mrs Spencer is sexually assaulted while selling refreshments which is played for laughs, and you can't help but wish Peter Sellers was given a bit more to do
[close]
. Otherwise this is great, and the ending amused me no end. 7.5/10

sevendaughters

not seen any Stillman post-Metropolitan but I thought it was very droll. I still jokingly call people UHBs from time-to-time.

Watched Point Blank (1967) last night. Very good minimalist revenge crime film starring Lee Marvin.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Rocketman (2019)

Dexter Fletcher reunites with his Eddie the Eagle star, Taron Egerton, for the story of another balding bloke in funny glasses.

As musical biopics go, this doesn't hold a candle to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but it's a whole heck of a lot better than Bohemian Rhapsody, by which it was undeservedly overshadowed at the time (somewhat ironically, Fletcher took over directing BR, after Bryan Singer was #metooed, but apparently not soon enough to save it from being utterly beige). This still hits all the standard beats of the genre (troubled childhood, meteoric rise, drugged off lowpoint, redemptive ending) but Fletcher takes the novel tack of actually rendering a musician's story as a musical, which livens things up.

The cast are generally strong with the standouts being: Egerton in the title role, doing a credible job of belting out the hits; Richard Madden as his manager/lover, hiding his ruthlessness behind a charming facade; And Bryce Dallas Howard as John's smugly cold hearted mother. If anyone suffers, it's Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin, who seems to exist solely as a prop to usher in the different eras of John's life.

My other complaint would be that it seems to gloss over some stuff. John's marriage to a woman - long after he was out and proud - is over as suddenly as it begins. A newly sober Elton's apology to his mum for being a difficult child doesn't seem to be backed up by anything that's been shown prior.

It's good enough that, when it switched to some real footage of the subject in the closing credits, I suddenly remembered, "Wait a second! I don't even like Elton John."

dissolute ocelot

Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018) - Terrible action film in which Sylvester Stallone plays the most bored security expert ever, a charisma vacuum who finds all his team being kidnapped and locked up in a secret underground prison where they're forced to fight each other, but it's much duller than that sounds. Dave Bautista pops up a bit in a series of strange costumes but never breaks a sweat. There's a Chinese guy who's apparently popular with Chinese kids but all his (brief) fights are filmed as a flurry of rapidly-cut close-ups. Meanwhile Jaime King, Titus Welliver, and Ice Cube try their best to collect a paycheck in a professional fashion, and Jesse Metcalfe who went from Desperate Housewives to God's Not Dead 2 is a shithead, somewhat intentionally. The first Escape Plan had Arnold Schwarzenegger being funny as well as competent direction. This has Stallone, human wet blanket, reciting platitudes about the board game Go into a Chinese guy's head, and makes Expendables 2 look like The Matrix.

Famous Mortimer

#86
Assault of the Party Nerds

The "heroes" are assholes, the villains are assholes, the women are idiots with pretty much zero agency.

It's like the last twenty minutes of an average college raunch comedy stretched out to feature length. Severely homophobic too, if that's your thing. Oh, and the writer/director/star also wrote the soundtrack, and it might fairly be said he's stretched a little too thin.

And there's a sequel from 6 years later, made by and starring the same people, where the lead character now runs a detective agency!

sevendaughters

Watched a Netflix film called The Raven on the Jetty (2015) which is about a sad mute kid being upset over his parents' divorce but realising that he is a spectral force in the universe that binds them. It is absolutely awful student-level drenge (I mark student films as part of my job) and you should avoid it at all costs. Even the accidental good bits like nice shots of the Lake District are because, well, how hard is it to fuck that up.

After that I finally got around to watching Two-Lane Blacktop and was expecting something a bit more elemental and challenging. What it was was pretty good, and I like the gently alienated vibe and the observations of how certain men speak, but I didn't prefer it to Hellman's 60s westerns. Was expecting something Wake in Fright level, so possibly disappointed by my own hype.

Small Man Big Horse

Peur(s) Du Noir (2007) - French anthology that includes a number of short animations in black and white on the subject of fear, and which were written by the likes of Charles Burns, Richard McGuire and Romain Slocombe among others. All of them work pretty well too bar one monologue we get snippets off throughout the film, but it didn't spoil it for me and though elsewhere there's the odd moment which could have been a little subtler I found this largely nicely chilling, and those by Burns and McGuire were especially effective. 7.8/10

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on January 11, 2022, 05:32:38 PMEscape Plan 2: Hades (2018) - Terrible action film in which Sylvester Stallone plays the most bored security expert ever, a charisma vacuum who finds all his team being kidnapped and locked up in a secret underground prison where they're forced to fight each other, but it's much duller than that sounds. Dave Bautista pops up a bit in a series of strange costumes but never breaks a sweat. There's a Chinese guy who's apparently popular with Chinese kids but all his (brief) fights are filmed as a flurry of rapidly-cut close-ups. Meanwhile Jaime King, Titus Welliver, and Ice Cube try their best to collect a paycheck in a professional fashion, and Jesse Metcalfe who went from Desperate Housewives to God's Not Dead 2 is a shithead, somewhat intentionally. The first Escape Plan had Arnold Schwarzenegger being funny as well as competent direction. This has Stallone, human wet blanket, reciting platitudes about the board game Go into a Chinese guy's head, and makes Expendables 2 look like The Matrix.

I will never watch this film, but you've reminded me of just how bored and listless Stallone was in Escape Plan. Arnie is having a hoot, he radiates charisma, whereas Stallone just looks like he's waiting for a bus that will never arrive.

He was a very charismatic actor in his pomp, but you can tell his heart isn't in the whole action hero game these days. Fair enough, but he doesn't need to make any more films in that vein, does he? The man must be minted.