What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Pocketman]

46 minutes ago, BFTD said:

It's not a patch on Equilibrium TBF. The gun handling was far more realistic.

style over substance with the gun handling in that

[BFTD]

34 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

style over substance with the gun handling in that

Clearly you know nothing about the beautiful and ancient art of beating people up with guns instead of shooting them.

[accies1874]

Public Information Message: director Victor Salva is a convicted paedophile who filmed himself sexually abusing a 12 year old on the set of one of his first films, and continues to find work in Hollywood to this day. The kid he abused went to the polis during filming, and was (accurately) told he'd never work in Hollywood again by producer Francis Ford Coppola, who would later sue the kid for breach of contract.
Anyway, I ended up seeing Smile again last night. Still entertaining, and obviously it'll get a sequel, so here's hoping they make a good job of it.

I knew that the director was a paedophile (found out after I saw it) but didn't know that he's still working or about the Coppola stuff. Not good.

is Queen and Slim any good?

I have seen it but remember nothing about it. Don't suppose that'll help.

I'm sure it's a modern take on Bonnie and Clyde.

[BFTD]

Morbius (arr, Jim lad) - doctor with a crippling lifelong medical condition spends his career looking for a cure, only to turn himself into a vampire (as you do).

It's quite wild how much of a mess this film is. Very strong vibes that it was taken away from the makers and stitched together in as graceless and nonsensical a manner as possible, but it's entirely possible that the problems started at a much earlier stage than that. You get occurrences like people without powers managing to scale tall buildings within seconds, and everybody discovering the existence of vampirism without even a sliver of surprise. It's absolutely all over the place.

The story manages to seem like it's rushing through plot details in a perfunctory manner, while also feeling like there isn't enough going on. The CG looks weird, but they're very proud of it for some reason, with plenty of random vamp effects just to show them off, although it's unclear if the rest of the world can actually see them. The plot's as generic as you can imagine, with every beat telegraphed a mile off, and copied from the structure of a million other pieces of fiction. And there's just so much slow-mo; frankly, it feels like they only managed to film about three-quarters of the script, and just had to pad out the running time with what they had.

A totally mystifying enigma, and I never would've imagined that Jared Leto would turn out to be one of the least problematic things in it, purely by putting in an entirely fine, bordering on "meh" performance.

[Scotty Tunbridge]

9 hours ago, BigDoddyKane said:

is Queen and Slim any good?

I enjoyed it, won’t blow anyone away but it’s a decent watch. Solid 6 or 7/10 imo. However there is a very mildly graphic sex scene so just a warning that it might not be one to sit down and watch with the parents or kids* depending on your cringe level

*delete as required.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Scotty Tunbridge

[BFTD]

Copycat (DVD) - agoraphobic serial killer biographer Sigourney Weaver drags herself into a police investigation when an unusual series of murders begin.

Introduced the wean to this one, as he fancied seeing something similar to Zodiac - this isn't quite in the same league, but it's a solid serial killer flick with a very decent script full of nice touches, and a quality cast. More of a thriller than a mystery or horror film, it's worth watching more than once, as there are a few clever details you pick up on that you wouldn't have caught during the initial run. Recommended also for fans of bullshit Nineties technobabble.

[BFTD]

4 hours ago, markdis said:

The Witcher (2015) - decent horror

You mean The Witch? The one with the black goat?

Edit: The Witcher would be a film about a grey-haired man who shags witches, and probably the goat too.

Edited October 23, 2022 by BFTD

[oldbitterandgrumpy]

Banshees of Inisherin.

We made a (very rare these days) trip to the cinema yesterday. Couldn’t wait to see this film. Martin McDonagh, Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, the ‘In Bruges’ band getting back together, what could go wrong?

Well, nothing really. Acting, direction, cinematography, music all first class. 

I just didn’t get it though. The whole 2 hours just went right over my head. Don’t know why. 
Em, that’s it. I’m not a film critic. 
 

[Detournement]

Dobermann (1997) 

A bonkers French cyberpunk cops Vs robbers film with Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci as the Bonnie and Clyde/Mickey and Mallory criminal couple and Tcheky Caro (who's face you know from Goldeneye as the Russian Defence Minister) as the manic villian cop. Good entertainment with some brilliant supporting characters but I was shocked at how much of it the Wachoskis lifted/ripped off for the Matrix and the two sequels. The most striking is a shoot out scene with riot police with Vodoo People by the Prodigy that is very similar to the famous Propellerheads lobby shoot out but there's loads more. It's basically a template for the whole art design of the Matrix which I don't think you could get away with now with everyone having the entire history of cinema at their fingertips and a Twitter account to bitch with. 

Funeral Parade Of Roses (1969)

A Japanese new wave movie about the Tokyo gay bar scene in the 60s. I watched it because the BFI blurb said it inspired Clockwork Orange and there are some scenes that Kubrick lifted but it's a brilliant film on it's own with a great performance from the trans actor playing the lead character who is totally convincing as a teenage boy and a young adult woman.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Detournement

[Detournement]

A.I (2001)

All I knew about this was that it starred Haley Joel Osman as a robot, Jude Law as gigolo robot and was partly written by Kubrick before he died and finished off by Spielberg. And obviously that there is a conspiracy theory that Kubrick was killed because Eyes Wide Shut was already exposing Epsteiny shit and a film about robot child sex slaves was going too far.

It kicks off by announcing that the polar ice caps have melted but there is still great prosperity in some areas above sea level despite hundreds of millions dying. And that the government have decided to restrict people from having children. So nice and paranoid from the outset. It's basically two different films with the opening part and the end written by Kubrick and a load of nonsense in the middle from Spielberg. The plot to start with centres on a claim of a technology company designing a robot that can love but actually seems to be an experiment being conducted on a developer's wife to find out how to make a human love a robot. Eventually wee Haley Joel the robot hooks up with Gigolo Joe who seems to be a robot programmed to have sex and act like David Bowie in Labyrinth.  The Spielberg parts are terrible in a really strange way, there's a scene where men on motorbikes hunt robots that's so bad you would think it was from Power Rangers. The ending apparently written by Kubrick is completely out of left field and seems to be a warning about what happens when people subjugate themselves to technology. 

 

[Theroadlesstravelled]

6 hours ago, Detournement said:

A.I (2001)

All I knew about this was that it starred Haley Joel Osman as a robot, Jude Law as gigolo robot and was partly written by Kubrick before he died and finished off by Spielberg. And obviously that there is a conspiracy theory that Kubrick was killed because Eyes Wide Shut was already exposing Epsteiny shit and a film about robot child sex slaves was going too far.

It kicks off by announcing that the polar ice caps have melted but there is still great prosperity in some areas above sea level despite hundreds of millions dying. And that the government have decided to restrict people from having children. So nice and paranoid from the outset. It's basically two different films with the opening part and the end written by Kubrick and a load of nonsense in the middle from Spielberg. The plot to start with centres on a claim of a technology company designing a robot that can love but actually seems to be an experiment being conducted on a developer's wife to find out how to make a human love a robot. Eventually wee Haley Joel the robot hooks up with Gigolo Joe who seems to be a robot programmed to have sex and act like David Bowie in Labyrinth.  The Spielberg parts are terrible in a really strange way, there's a scene where men on motorbikes hunt robots that's so bad you would think it was from Power Rangers. The ending apparently written by Kubrick is completely out of left field and seems to be a warning about what happens when people subjugate themselves to technology. 

 

Great summary. 

I've always thought the point in the film where Spielberg took over is very noticeable as it turns it into schmaltzy, hot nonsense.

The first half of the film is good, the ending, especially the fairy part is a disaster.

[BigDoddyKane]

On 23/10/2022 at 16:52, oldbitterandgrumpy said:

Banshees of Inisherin.

We made a (very rare these days) trip to the cinema yesterday. Couldn’t wait to see this film. Martin McDonagh, Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, the ‘In Bruges’ band getting back together, what could go wrong?

Well, nothing really. Acting, direction, cinematography, music all first class. 

I just didn’t get it though. The whole 2 hours just went right over my head. Don’t know why. 
Em, that’s it. I’m not a film critic. 
 

I read an interview where Farrell and Gleeson say its a movie about how wars start. Im no sure how serious they were though but might be what its trying to say.

[Paul Kersey]

On 17/10/2022 at 20:32, Detournement said:

Going Places (1974)

I came to this through reading Frederic Raphael's Eyes Wide Open which is his a strange book about his dealings with Stanley Kubrick when he was hired to write Eyes Wide Shut. At one point he tells a female TV executive that she needs to watch this as it's the best French film of the 1970s and later he has Kubrick advising him to cast Gerard Depardieu and Miou Miou who are in this together in another film he is writing adapted from Tibor Fischer's The Thought Gang. The film is about two petty criminals who begin as rapists but through a series of misadventures learn to become considerate lovers. It's pretty rubbish apart from a 15 minute section where they decide the best way to meet a woman is to hang around outside a women's prison and they pick up Jeanne Moreau who by the end of the night has committed suicide in a very degrading way. 

 

I'm a huge fan of this film.

There was an American remake a few years ago, called The Jesus Rolls, starring John Turturro, playing the same character that he plays in The Big Lebowski.

Audrey Tautou is in the Miou Miou role.

It is terrible. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Paul Kersey

[Detournement]

7 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Great summary. 

I've always thought the point in the film where Spielberg took over is very noticeable as it turns it into schmaltzy, hot nonsense.

The first half of the film is good, the ending, especially the fairy part is a disaster.

Aye going by what Speilberg says everything up until the mother takes the robot boy out is Kubrick's script. Then up until HJO finds the blue fairy it's Spielberg's film based on Kubrick's ideas. Then after the time jump it's Kubrick again. Kubrick's brother in law Jan Harlan was a credited producer so he was obviously there to make sure SK's two sections were filmed faithfully. 

The ending is schmaltzy on a surface level but if you think about it's pretty chilling. The AI robot boy brings the mother back to life despite the fact that she will die again very quickly. He has no interest in her other than that she gives him attention in the form of affection. He's like the Terminator but instead of being programmed to kill John Connor he's programmed to want a cuddle.

The resurrected mother is only the same woman biologically. Every aspect of her personality that isn't directed towards satisfying the AI no longer exists. 20 years on it seems quite prescient. 

A lot of the stuff that Spielberg throws in muddies the water but the Kubrick stuff is great. 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Detournement

[Detournement]

5 hours ago, Paul Kersey said:

I'm a huge fan of this film.

There was an American remake a few years ago, called The Jesus Rolls, starring John Turturro, playing the same character that he plays in The Big Lebowski.

Audrey Tautou is in the Miou Miou role.

It is terrible. 

I'm going to end up watching this now....

Rubbish probably wasn't the right word for Going Places but there isn't much charm or humour to most of it and the contrast between the scenes with Moreau and the rest of the film are stark. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Detournement

[coprolite]

Loads of horror on here recently with platforms pushing their hallowe’en offerings. Not really my genre so I’ve got into the spirit with a couple of spooky comedies and one truly horrific offering.

 

What we do in the shadows (2015)

Taika Watiti’s original Vampire flatshare comedy. 
 

Really smart mucking about with the whole vampire mythology. Lots of proper belly laughs as well as cleverness.

Not much wrong with it at all.

8/10

 

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Misfit scientists unravel mystery of super natural goings on.

“The first one was great, so just chuck in the same ingredients” school of sequels. 
 

Works well for the most part. The first 3/4 has some top comedy. Bill Murray seems less of a presence in this one but his screen time is as good as usual. Rick Moranis’ lawyering had me in stitches, as did what Egon did with the slime.

The last 20 minutes is diabolical shite though. Just doesn’t work on any level and looks terrible. I’d honestly have preferred a caption saying “got girl, killed baddie, lived happily ever after”.

Incidentally, this must have been just about the last major Hollywood special effects fest to be mainly blue screen and stop motion.

6/10

 

The Brothers Grimsby (2016)

Very different long lost brothers re-unite for some sort of spy gubbins.

I thought that this couldn’t possibly be as shit as it looked. I thought wrong.

It’s based on a hateful view of the lower orders as seen by Maily op Eds on benefit scroungers and the like.

Obviously going for a Farrelly brothers type of gross out. I did actually find some of the more base humour quite funny but some of it missed the mark by a long way. 
 

I did make it all the way through, which puts it ahead of Spy Hard.

+1 for Isla Fisher

2/10

[MSU]

143 Halloween (1978) -- Struck me on this watch how odd it must've been to watch this back in 78 without a clue of what happened. That opening must've been pretty shocking. Such a simple premise executed brilliantly on a shoestring budget. My street and my town look pretty much like Haddonfield at this time of year, just bringing it home how everyday the horror was, which is perhaps what makes it so effective. 10/10

144 Halloween II (1981) -- I can only be sure of watching this once, about twenty years ago, and I had fonder memories of it. On this viewing, though, the most terrifying thing about it is Jamie Lee Curtis's wig. Dr Loomis is getting more crazy as he runs about with a gun through the night streets, and the movie does give us Ben Tramer's death, which I guess is something. But in every other possible way, it abandons what was great about Halloween in favour of blood, guts, and hot tubs hot enough to melt someone's face, but not Michael's hand. It's weird that one of the aspects of the movie that really didn't work, having Laurie in a hospital bed for most of the movie, was picked up by Halloween Kills. 4/10

145 Hot Summer Nights (#70 in A24 series). It's another A24 movie about drug dealers, but there's a good chemistry between Timothee Chalamet and Alex Roe as the small time dealers whose ideas and ambitions quickly accelerate beyond their capability. There are hints of comedy in the opening scenes that really should've continued but in the end, it takes its characters way too seriously and the whole thing is quite hard work. 5/10

146 Up in the Air (#5 in the Anna Kendrick series). I really enjoyed this back in 2009. George Clooney is near peak charisma as Ryan Bingham, a guy who spends his life flying around the country, hired by companies to lay off their workforces when they're too scared to do it themselves. At that time in my life I was traveling quite a bit myself so I appreciated the approach of never buying anything that's not on expenses and everything has to have a loyalty card. It's aged pretty well, Vera Farmiga as the female version of Ryan is excellent, and Anna Kendrick gives the stand-out performance of her early career. The movie comes perilously close to a shmaltzy ending but thankfully gives it a swerve in the nick of time. 8/10

147 Dr No -- A surprisingly straightforward start to the Bond movies in terms of plot. Bond flies off to Jamaica to investigate the death of an MI6 station chief and his secretary who had discovered the source of a radio signal that jammed a series of rocket launches at Cape Canaveral to Crab Key, home to the reclusive Dr No, who is supposed to be Chinese. Apparently, Ursula Andress's dialog and singing were both dubbed by other actors. Sean Connery might not be the best actor in the world, but he's a blummin' fantastic Jimmy Bond. 6/10

148 Terrifier -- Ooft, sers. 4/10 (2 for the incredible practical effects, 2 for David Howard Thornton's performance as Art the Clown.

Edited October 26, 2022 by MSU

[accies1874]

179. Decision to Leave (2022)* - Cinema

Don’t even know where to begin with this tbh. You’re dropped right into it with a lot of plot and character work which never really relents, but the rhythm of the film (it’s seriously excellent in that respect) makes it a bit easier to watch. However I’d be lying if I said it didn’t drag for me at points despite that brilliance, and that was the case on both watches.

Like I said, there’s so much to unpack from two very reserved characters that I typed a whole load of shite out on my train journey home that made me appreciate the film more in retrospect than I did while actually watching it. First time around, I thought it was an incredibly stylish film without much going on and I was actually far more interested when it was being a neo-noir as the mystery elements of it are incredibly fun, but the script is just so dense that I wasn’t getting it until a rewatch (and still don’t understand a lot of what was going on).

One train journey and Notes file later, I'm really interested in giving it a third go - and I'm sure it'll come to MUBI quite soon - but I also accept that I'll need to sit through those dragging parts again and that's a big black mark against it. 

180. The Evil Dead (1981) - DVD

Watching this on Blu Ray actually changes it a wee bit. Should just stick with the lowest quality possible. 

Anyway, it's the perfect horror-comedy for me despite being the least overtly comedic out of the trilogy. The humour all came from the ridiculous dialogue and performance from Bruce Campbell whose ability to turn difficult dialogue into something immensely quotable is brilliant.

Horrors with big comedic elements are often ashamed of embracing the horror which makes them seem lazy, but The Evil Dead is perfect in both respects as some of the images, especially when it comes to blood, are so, so good. Something I hadn’t appreciated before is how the timing on the jumpscares actually makes them more effective. It doesn’t draw attention to the fact that there’s gonna be a big, loud noise to startle you, instead it’s much more natural.

We’ve seen so many “post-modern” horrors, some are really good, but this pre-dates a lot of them and I’m not even sure if it intentionally falls into that category, but Sam Raimi’s natural style of blending legitimately effective horror with his tone sets the bar for what you can achieve with the combo.

181. Evil Dead II (1986)* - DVD

After a weaker opening compared to the original, mostly because it’s just Ash and his girlfriend at the start as opposed to a fun group dynamic, it does manage to elevate itself to the madness of The Evil Dead. I also think the chase scene in this one is perhaps scarier than anything else in the original.

182. Army of Darkness (1992)* - DVD

I lost interest in the third act, although did like the effects on the skeletons, but everything before that is insane. Completely bizarre with bigger laughs that sadly did usually turn into groans for me when  jokes went too far. I’m sure if you told anyone who saw the original that this is where the series would lead to 11 years and two films later, they’d have been confused to say the least, but you can only do the same schtick so many times, so why not just do something completely detached?

183. The Orphanage (2007)* - DVD

I should say that I watched this on Saturday night having spent the day driving to and from Arbroath to watch Accies be comprehensively beaten and sent bottom of the Championship, so all I wanted was some daft horror to watch at night. I think I initially bought this because I thought it was directed by Del Toro, but I think over time I’d got it mixed up the 2009 film Orphan which I haven’t seen but I believe is actually meant to be schlock.

So yeah, I really wasn’t in the mood for a knock-off Del Toro* film that ends with [REDACTED]. It’s an OK depiction of grief, but the whole thing just felt unoriginal to me.

*Can you say it’s a knock-off when his name is on the DVD cover and, as far as I remember, is given more prominence in the opening credits than the director’s? It’s only in an Executive Producer role, though, so who knows how much input he had.

184. The Changeling (1980)* - Prime

Despite a couple of creepy moments, it takes a lot for ghost stories to be effectively scary for me as the antagonist tends to be a tragic figure who evokes sympathy rather than fear which is clear pretty early on in this. The mystery is a bit undercooked, too, so it doesn’t really work on that level either.

185. Blazing Saddles (1974)* - Digital Rental

Not my choice. I hated it. 

[Arch Stanton]

3 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

185. Blazing Saddles (1974)* - Digital Rental

Not my choice. I hated it. 

Just shows opinions differ. I think it's the funniest film ever made.

[BFTD]

I've had this conversation before, and received the derision you'd expect, but I can think of half a dozen Mel Brooks films I'd watch before Blazing Saddles, and I doubt I've even seen half of his output.

It's not a bad film by any means, and has some inspired moments, but Brooks did better. It doesn't help that the people lionising it normally think the funniest scene he ever wrote was a bunch of cowboys farting in front of a fire, which...well, each to their own.

Edit: here's my Mel Brooks list, if anyone cares. Yes, I'm well aware there's a few classics I haven't seen. He was 96 years old this year and still working, BTW.

1. Young Frankenstein
2. The Producers
3. Spaceballs
4. High Anxiety
5. History of the World part 1
6. Dracula: Dead and Loving It
7. Blazing Saddles
8. Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Edited October 26, 2022 by BFTD