LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted August 8, 2023 Share Posted August 8, 2023 The original Rate the Last Film you Watched thread got pretty full to bursting there, poor @omarcomin71 couldn't even open it, so I've locked that one and started a brand spanking new one. The original thread is still available to read here if you're ever looking for something to watch - Now, on to the reviews 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted August 8, 2023 Author Share Posted August 8, 2023 (edited) What I Watched This Week #81 (July 16 – 22) Barb Wire dir. David Hogan/1996/1h38m I was in the mood to watch some trash, and Barb Wire has a reputation as a real bad movie. That is what I got. What I wasn't expecting was for this film to be a remake of one of the greatest films of all time, Casablanca. In the far flung future of 2017, during the second American Civil War, Pamela Anderson stars as Barb Wire, owner of a nightclub and part time bounty hunter – The Humphrey Bogart role from the original. An old flame turns up with his new lover and needs Barb's help to leave the country and help end the war, so Barb has to put aside her past feelings. This is not a good film, and Anderson is not a good actor, but everyone involved in the making of the film knows this and that results in something that is quite a bit of fun. Udo Kier is great as Barb's faithful bartender Curly, and I liked seeing Victoria Rowell as Anderson's ex's new lover, as I used to love Diagnosis Murder when I was a kid. This isn't so bad that it's good, and it's a far way from being good, but the simple fact that they remade one of the most revered films of all time makes this somewhat watchable. Plus it opens with Anderson performing a steamy str*p tease. 4/10 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dir. Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti/2018/1h57m Teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and develops superhuman powers. He also gets mixed up in Wilson Fisk's (Liev Schreiber) plot to build a super collider that will cause all the many multiverses to collapse in on one another. This causes Spider-Men from many different worlds – an anime style Japanese schoolgirl with a giant spider mech, a 40's noir style black and white Spider-Man voiced by Nicolas Cage, and an actual pig - to come together to save the universe(s). While the story is fantastic, and all of the characters well written with depth and nuance, the main reason to watch this film is for the incredible animation. This is the most pure example of an actual comic book move since Sin City, and it exceeds that in every way. The visual and aural assault on the senses is overwhelming like the best magic mushroom trip you've ever had. Sometimes I think I'm over superhero films, especially after the awful Black Widow which I watched last week, but then a film like this comes along and pulls me right back in. Sure, the mainstream MCU films are dragging along like the only thing keeping them going is contractual obligation, but this is fresh and vibrant and unique and showcases the best of what both comic books and animated films can be. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Blanche dir. Walerian Borowczyk/1971/1h34m In 13th Century France Blanche (Ligia Branice), a beautiful young woman, lives a life of seclusion in the crumbling castle of her elderly husband (Michel Simon). When the King (Georges Wilson) pays a visit with his entourage Blanche has to tactfully rebuff their many advances. This all leads to a very Edgar Allan Poe ending that I did not see coming. This is a very slow film where the main attraction is the atmosphere of the setting. The castle is beautifully shot, looking at times like a medieval painting. The music helps too, as it is performed by period instruments. When you see these characters moving around the castle you can almost believe that you are looking back in history, the costumes looking as authentic as anything else in the film. But despite all this realism there is, in the background, a sense of the surreal and an edge of danger. Despite being the object of affection for so many you know that that can change in an instant and that the castle will turn into Blanche's tomb. This is like a dream of history. 8/10 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings dir. Destin Daniel Cretton/2021/2h12m With a very convoluted story spanning over a thousand years I'm not even going to bother going over it here. Simu Liu stars as the title character who must face his past, and his father Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung aka the coolest man in the world) who is the leader of the sinister Ten Rings. After the 50 shades of grey in Black Widow the main thing I appreciated about this film is all of the colour. This is a bright and beautiful film that is very easy to look at. I also love that Ben Kingsley returns as shambling Scouse actor Trevor Slattery, who I thought was brilliant in Iron Man 3. Awkwafina and the always wonderful Michelle Yeoh round out a decent supporting cast, but none of the characters really get the time they need to develop. The best character in terms of an actual arc and motivation is Wenwu, and we're supposed to want him to fail? It is better than Black Widow though, and most of the fight scenes are very well choreographed. 6/10 Miracle in Milan dir. Vittorio De Sica/1951/1h37m The master of Italian neorealism and director of all time classics like Bicycle Thieves and Umberto. D adds a little magic into the mix with Miracle in Milan. Francesco Golisano plays Toto, an orphan who was found in a cabbage patch and raised by Lolotta (Emma Gramatica). After leaving the orphanage he ends up in a homeless shanty town where, through his simple kindness and optimism, he becomes the mayor. When they strike oil the land's owners try to get rid of the squatters, but thanks to a magical dove given to Toto by the ghost of his dead mother they are able to fight them off, for a while. Aesthetically this is very similar to De Sica's earlier films with the use of real locations and very naturalistic lighting, which makes the fantastical elements stand out and seem even more miraculous. Golisano is a great lead, with a beaming smile and a good morning for everyone he passes he's the personification of optimism. This is a funny, sweet film that, while not as good as De Sica's other work, still stands the test of time and left me in a good mood at the end. 8/10 The Rescuers Down Under dir. Mike Gabriel, Hendel Butoy/1990/1h17m The red-headed stepchild of the Disney renaissance, The Rescuers Down Under is also the first sequel to a Disney animated film. The only reason I can think of as to why they chose to make a sequel to The Rescuers is that it would be the easiest Disney film to set in Australia, which was very hot at the time thanks to things like Crocodile Dundee and Men at Work. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor return as Bernard and Bianca, two mice who work for the Rescue Aid Society. This time they have to save a little boy who is the only person who knows the location of a rare eagle's nest, which is the target of evil hunter McLeach (George C. Scott). This was much better than I was expecting, with some great CGI shots, particularly the opening shot zooming across the outback and all of the flying sequences, many of which involve John Candy's character of Wilbur the gull, perhaps the least annoying sidekick in Disney history. The MVP of this film however is George C. Scott. He's an amazing actor with an amazing voice and he really gives this role his all and is criminally overlooked when it comes to great Disney villains. 8/10 Bacurau dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho, Juliano Dornelles/2019/2h11m Bacurau is a mystery-thriller set in the small Brazilian village of the title. After the village's matriarch dies at the age of 94 strange things start happening, starting with the fact that the village seems to have disappeared off of every map. Then a group of sinister tourists led by Michael (Udo Kier) turns up and it all turns into a western. This is a totally gripping film where you never know what's coming next. Once the UFO turned up I knew all bets were off. This feels like a cross between a Tarantino film and one of Werner Herzog's jungle set descents into madness with a violently anti-colonial shootout ending that would do Sergio Leone proud. Totally bonkers, totally brilliant. Watch this without knowing anything else. 9/10 Edited August 8, 2023 by LimeGreenLegend 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted August 13, 2023 Share Posted August 13, 2023 (edited) The Book of Vision (2020) dir Carlo Hinterman A strange sort of film that I came close to turning off in the first 20 mins. Had this been on a streaming service where there were other films to watch I probably would have stopped watching and picked something else. But it's was on a service I get one free film a month on, so I persevered. I am glad I did watch it till the end, because it got better in the second half. One problem was the plot in the first part seemed a bit uninteresting, then some of the support acting was quite dull with actors just sort of saying their lines rather than acting them. It also didn't help that the first part had few scenes of medical procedures, images from medical text books and anatomical models which I find a bit gruesome. It's set in two different time periods, Modern day and 18th century, with some actors playing roles in both periods. The main actors were good. Lotte Verbeek play Eva in the modern day; a doctor turned researcher, now studying the history of medicine, and with a life threatening illness herself. Charles Dance plays her doctor. In the 18th century he also plays a doctor and she his patient. Eva is studying a book, the film title, written by the 18th century doctor. But as well as medical stuff it also contains details of prophetic visions made by his maid. What made the second half much more interesting is it starts to get mysterious with elements of fantasy. 18th century characters start appearing in modern day scenes and there's a weird tree that seems to be inhabited by the souls of the dead. It's well made, looks stylish and has good original music. But the poor acting really let it down for me early on. 5 / 10 Edited August 13, 2023 by djw180 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted August 13, 2023 Author Share Posted August 13, 2023 What I Watched This Week #82 (July 23 – 29) Fear and Desire dir. Stanley Kubrick/1952/1h2m This first feature length (barely) film from Stanley Kubrick is about four soldiers lost in a jungle deep behind enemy lines. Rather than being set during a specific war, the narrator informs us at the beginning that this could be any war at any time. Their plan to escape by building a raft and heading down river is complicated when they come across a native girl, who they take captive. The film attempts to explore the psychological toll of war and the things it can drive people to do, but it is done in a very shallow way – which is no surprise given the hour long runtime and inexperience of Kubrick at the time. The performances are all pretty bad, with none of the actors going on to have anything you could call a career. There are moments where you can get a hint of the filmmaker that Kubrick would go on to be, especially in the editing and the overall themes, but for the most part this is just boring. Only worth watching for the fact of it being a legendary director's first feature fiction film, but the few shorts he made before Fear and Desire are better than this. 3/10 They Cloned Tyrone dir. Juel Taylor/2023/2h2m They Cloned Tyrone is a Blaxploitation sci-fi comedy starring John Boyega as Fontaine, a drug dealer living in a deprived Black neighbourhood. After going to collect money from pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) he is shot by a rival dealer. The next day Fontaine returns to Slick's with no memory of the day before, when he was shot dead. So the two, along with one of Slick's ladies, Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), decide to investigate just what is going on in the hood, and it is crazy. You will not be able to predict where this film goes right up to the final scene, and it does an excellent job in couching its social commentary in all the insanity in a way that doesn't sacrifice entertainment for the sake of bashing you over the head with the message while at the same time keeping the importance of that message. This reminded me a lot of Sorry to Bother You – which I highly recommend – but it doesn't quite commit to the madness in the same way. The lead performances are all great, with Boyega playing it straight against Foxx's over the top pimp. This is Get Out if it was a surreal sci-fi film instead of a horror. 8.5/10 Beauty and the Beast dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise/1991/1h24m Bright young woman Belle (Paige O'Hara), who is more interested in books than boys – especially the town's meathead Gaston (Richard White) – finds herself imprisoned in the castle of a cursed prince who appears as a monstrous Beast (Robby Benson). The curse states that he must find love by the time the final petal falls from a magical rose, but who could ever fall in love with a beast? In my opinion this is the best Disney film since Pinocchio, everything about it is perfect. The animation is crisp and fluid with tons of personality poured into every single character, and the performances are all top notch. This film also has one of the best scores and collection of songs in the entire Disney catalogue, maybe the very best. Belle and Gaston both have incredible introduction songs that tell you everything about their characters, Be Our Guest is not only a brilliantly catchy tune but the animation of that scene is breath-taking, and the ballroom scene with Angela Lansbury singing the theme song is one of the most beautifully romantic scenes in film history. This is the only animated film ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar – animated films now having their own category is stupid, if a film is good enough, animated or not, it should get nominated for the big one, like the recent Spider-Man films – and I honestly think it should've beaten Silence of the Lambs. An actual classic. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! The Manchurian Candidate dir. John Frankenheimer/1962/2h6m This political thriller stars Laurence Harvey as a soldier who is awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing his troop after they were captured during the Korean War. When he gets home his mother, the scheming Eleanor Isling (Angela Lansbury) uses his heroic reputation to help her husbands political career, while his commander Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), who was one of the men he rescued, starts having strange dreams about getting brainwashed by a coalition of communist regimes. This is the textbook political conspiracy film with its constant sense of dread and oppressive paranoia. The way the brainwashing is presented here is really interesting, a group of sweet old ladies has never been scarier. Speaking of scary ladies, Lansbury is amazing in this, so cold and calculating it sent shivers down my spine. Going from seeing her as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast to this nearly gave me whiplash. And that ending! It's so bleak that it feels like a New Hollywood film nearly a decade before that was a thing. My only slight negative is the waste of Janet Leigh as a totally throwaway character, a small love interest for Sinatra. Other than that this is a real tight, edge of your seat film. 9/10 Il Divo dir. Paolo Sorrentino/2008/1h53m This biographical drama stars Toni Servillo as far-right Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti who was in power for decades and had links to both the mafia and the Vatican. The film covers the period of time from his seventh election victory in 1992 to his trial in 1995. The intricacies of politics and corruption are hard to follow at the best of times, but when you're not familiar with any of the persons involved nor their various scandals then you can get really lost. And I was during this film, a lot. But that didn't matter much as the performances and direction tell you everything you need to know about this man. Servillo is a great lead, his cold, impassive stare well rehearsed after a lifetime of lying – the perfect poker face. The film opens with a montage similar to the end of The Godfather – Andreotti is in his office while he narrates, in an even tone, how he has survived so long while all his enemies are gone. This is intercut with scenes of the murders of his enemies, journalists, military officials, businessmen, rivals. This opening sets the scene perfectly and makes you fear this unimposing little man. It is also the best scene in the film, which is good but never really lives up to that promise. 7/10 Carry On Abroad dir. Gerald Thomas/1972/1h28m The Carry On series trundles on with the gang heading off on a package holiday to Spain, led by tour guide Stuart Farquhar (Kenneth Williams). However, when they get to the resort of Elsbells they discover that the hotel is half built, and that's just the start of their problems. This isn't brilliant, but after the awful last few entries it feels like a classic. This is probably the last good Carry On film, with all the regulars still having fun despite a lot of the jokes being recycled from earlier entries, or at least feeling like it. Lots of boobs and bums, Charles Hawtrey being a fabulous drunk, innuendo and double entendre, Sid James leering at Barbara Windsor, this might be the most typical Carry On film. 6/10 Resident Evil dir. Paul W. S. Anderson/2002/1h40m When a virus breaks out in a secret underground lab beneath Racoon City the amnesiac Alice (Milla Jovovich) and a team of commandos working for the Umbrella Corporation head in to try and stop the spread. This is nothing like the original games when it comes to tone or atmosphere, more like an early 2000's nu-metal music video. It has some awful CGI and a lot of the action scenes are poorly directed and hard to follow. The cast aren't bad but none of them are what you can call good, and the characters don't really have any. Jovovich is playing an amnesiac so she's basically a blank stare for most of the film and Michelle Rodriguez is playing the same pissed off badass she always plays. Despite all that I still enjoy this as some trashy, brainless fun. The tease of Nemesis at the end actually made me want to watch the sequel. 6.5/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Con 5,703 Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 (edited) Talk To Me (2023) Fun little horror entry. Loved the cinematography, practical effects, atmosphere, sound design, and acting. It has been called the scariest movie of the year but that’s only if you are just discovering that possession and mediums actually exist. I think it’s only really scary if you subscribe to the notion that stuff that you are seeing on screen could happen to you. Then yes, it’s scary. Especially the significance of the ending. That’s scary. But mostly in a psychological way. If you like horror and suspense, and if you at some point had all your friends do stuff like go in a dark bathroom and say “Bloody Mary” three times in front of the mirror and then open your eyes, If you have done stuff like that, then you should probably watch this for sure. I don’t even have to tell the horror peeps to watch this, as they already know they have to watch it. Final verdict…4/5…cause I can see myself wanting to watch it 2-3 more times. Oh and I certainly recommend you watch it in theatres. Edited August 17, 2023 by Con 3 Quote RSC FILM CLUB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 (edited) What I Watched This Week #83 (July 30 – August 5 ) The Trial of Joan of Arc dir. Robert Bresson/1962/1h2m This historical drama stars Florence Delay as the French martyr Jeanne d'Arc and covers her trial for heresy by the occupying English forces during the Hundred Years War. The screenplay is adapted from the actual transcripts of the trial so every scene has an authenticity to it that is at times brutally cruel. This authenticity is also helped by the use of non-professional actors, including Delay who gives an inscrutable yet powerful performance in the lead. She is someone who is keeping her emotions in check, which fits in with Bresson's very austere style, something which I've felt has kept me at arms length from his films before. This is almost like the polar opposite to the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, which was very emotionally charged film. While this film is quite cold, the power of the story is as strong as ever, and has become my favourite Bresson so far. 8/10 No Place Like Home dir. Perry Henzell/2006/1h30m Filmed in the early 70's but not released until 2006, this is the second and final film from Perry Henzell and it couldn't be more different from his first, the almost exploitation-like crime drama The Harder they Come. Where that film was about a musician turned outlaw, played by reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, this is a gentle romance about an American commercial director, Susan (Susan O'Meara) who is able to spend time exploring Jamaica with local cab driver Carl (Carl Bradshaw) after the star of the advert goes AWOL. This may be quite cliché in that it's all about a white person finding themselves in a foreign culture but the easy going, rambling nature of the whole piece, along with an excellent soundtrack, makes for a good experience overall. Plus it features a young Grace Jones! 8/10 Witness for the Prosecution dir. Billy Wilder/1957/1h56m Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) has been accused of a murder he swears he didn't commit, so he hires famous lawyer Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) to defend him. All of the evidence points to Leonard, and even though his wife, Christine (Marlene Dietrich), seems willing to help him, Sir Wilfrid has a suspicion that something isn't quite right. This is adapted from a story by Agatha Christie, so you know you're in for a few twists and it delivers, and then some. The last five minutes contains more surprises than M. Night Shyamalan's entire filmography and they arrive one on top of the other at breakneck speed that just left me in shock because I couldn't see any of them coming. The script, also by the director Billy Wilder, who also made Some Like it Hot, is pin sharp with everyone giving incredible performances. Power and Dietrich both play their roles in such a way that you could believe them to be innocent or guilty which is perfect for a mystery like this, but Laughton is easily the highlight of the film. He is wonderful as the cantankerous old grouch whose bark is worse than his bite. It's a shame that this character doesn't appear in any other stories because I was left wanting more, but isn't that always the sign of something good? 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Tank Girl dir. Rachel Talalay/1995/1h38m In the far flung future of 2033 the Earth is a desert after a decade long drought. In Australia the evil Water and Power Company, run by Kesslee (Malcolm McDowall), rules with an iron fist. Two rebels, Tank Girl (Lori Petty) and Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), and a gang of mutant humanoid kangaroos, band together to bring W&P down. This is an adaptation of the comic book by Jamie Hewlett – who went on to co-create the band Gorillaz – and his distinctive, colourful style translates really well to the big screen. I love the use of his actual drawings in the film to emphasise certain moments and as scene transitions. In my head this all happens in the same universe as Barb Wire. The cast all do a decent job with Petty walking the fine line between bratty punk and obnoxious *sshole really well. The actual story is pretty bland and predictable but all the bright colours did a good job at distracting me from that. 7/10 Aladdin dir. Ron Clements, John Musker/1992/1h35m The classic story of a street urchin who finds a magic lamp containing a wish granting genie is given the Disney treatment as their run of bangers in their renaissance era continues. It should go without saying that the animation is best in class, with some more nice subtle use of CGI that compliments the traditional animation. The voice performances are all exceptional. Scott Weinger and Linda Larkin as Aladdin and Jasmine are a classic Disney couple, with Brad Kane and Lea Salonga providing their singing voices for the incredible soundtrack again by Alan Menken. But the main attraction is Robin Williams as the Genie. This character has become one of the first things that comes to mind when you think of the late, great comedian and for good reason. Of course there is his improvisational comedic prowess delivered at break neck speed, but he is also a brilliant dramatic actor and he gets a chance to show that off too. He does threaten to overshadow the rest of the film with his pure genius at times, but it is always reined in at the last moment. 9/10 Eternals dir. Chloe Zhao/2021/2h36m Eternals is the Marvel film I've been the most intrigued about just because I know absolutely nothing about these characters. It is about a group of ancient aliens who live on Earth in secret, waiting to protect the planet should the Deviants attack. This group includes Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Druig (Berry Keoghan, who is still creepy and threatening even when he's playing a good guy), and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), a Bollywood superstar who doesn't go anywhere without his valet and documentarian – and best character in the film – Karun (Harish Patel). This is a beautiful looking film with some great direction that really has a great eye for sense of scale and it is, for long stretches, incredibly boring. With literally thousands of years worth of story to cover a lot of the film is exposition, people standing around in gorgeous locations talking at each other. At its core this is really interesting, but it rarely digs deep enough to see it. 6/10 Villain dir. Michael Tuchner/1971/1h38m This British crime film stars Richard Burton as a ruthless East End gang boss Vic Dakin, a vicious, cold hearted man who loves his mother and is in a violent gay relationship with one of his crew, Wolfe (Ian McShane). When Dakin starts blackmailing politicians the dogged detective Matthews (Nigel Davenport) from Scotland Yard is set on his trail. Obviously inspired by the Krays, Dakin is a complicated, multifaceted character who you can't take your eyes off of whenever he's on the screen. This is a gritty and violent film in the same vein as Get Carter and deserves the same reputation as that Michael Caine classic. This isn't as well made as that film, and it does come across like a made for TV film at times, but this is still a decent gangster film. 7.5/10 The Naked City dir. Jules Dassin/1948/1h36m This noir opens with the producer, Mark Hellinger – who also narrates the entire film in the classic noir style – proudly announcing that the entire film that is to follow was shot entirely on location in New York, the Naked City of the title, something pretty much unheard of at the time. When a young woman is murdered one night veteran cop Lt. Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and rookie detective Halloran (Don Taylor) are assigned to the case. We then follow them through a thorough investigation, following up on leads, interviewing witnesses and suspects and getting in climactic shoot outs high up on the Williamsburg Bridge. This is a fascinating look at some old school detective work that is given some real authenticity thanks to the location shoot. Fitzgerald is great in the lead as the wily old Irish cop who knows every trick in the book, with Taylor solid as the fresh faced cop who is taken under Halloran's wing. The plot is great with a new thread of intrigue always there to be pulled. 9/10 Bull dir. Paul Andrew Williams/2021/1h27m Neil Maskell plays the title character of Bull, a mob hitman who was betrayed by his gang, run by his father-in-law Norm (David Hayman), and who returns for bloody revenge ten years later. This is a grim and gritty film that suffers from a crisis of identity late on that I'm still not sure whether I like or not. This is the second film I've recently seen with Maskell as a hitman – the other being Kill List – and he is great in that role. He can really come across as an 'orrible c*nt who you don't want to look at the wrong way. His performance is worth watching this film for, especially as we get more of his history through flashbacks. The dialogue can be weak at points, sounding like a parody of British gangsters, but those moments are pretty rare. My biggest negative is the ending, which kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing at all that would make you think something like that is happening. I won't spoil it here, but if any of you watch this film I'd love to know what you think. I'm of the opinion that it needed to be hinted at more throughout the film to make it less jarring, even though it is a cool idea. 7/10 Edited August 18, 2023 by LimeGreenLegend 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 (edited) Don't Look Up (2021) dir Adam McKay A brilliant satire on modern life; obsession with celebrities and social media, politicians focussed on winning the next election rather than serving their country, trillion dollar corporations with more power than your average country, all leading to no one caring when something really important is happening. It has an amazing ensemble cast. Leonardo DiCapri plays astronomer Dr Randall Mindy. I am not usually a fan of him, but he is great in this as socially awkward, nerdy academic. His PhD student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers a comet, but celebrations soon turn to horror as they realise it is on a collision course with Earth, and it's bigger than the one that wiped the dinosaurs out. Though they soon convince the man whose job it is to advise the US government on such things (Rob Morgan), the president (Meryl Streep, brilliant as kind of female Trump) and her chief of staff (Jonah Hill) don't seem to care, they are too focussed on winning the upcoming mid-term elections. Mindy and Dibiasky get on a prime time TV talk show, hosts played by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry, but they and the show's fans care more about a celebrity guest (Ariana Grande) and her break up from her pop-star boyfriend. So you get the general idea. The scientists are unable to make people understand the seriousness of the situation and if humankind is to be saved from extinction, something has to be done now. The president does eventually decide to publicly back an attempt to destroy the comet, a suicide mission piloted by a war hero with a somewhat questionable past (Ron Perlman), but only when she needs to distract people from a scandal. But then tech billionaire and prime donor to the president's re-election campaign, Sir Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance, who gives the best performance of some very good performances) takes over and, well let's just say his mission has a somewhat different focus. I found it very, very funny. Mindy tries to explain science, and no one understands because they don't know the meaning of the big words he is using, but they sound impressive, so they they just think it must something cool. Then Dibiasky goes for the more direct 'if we don't do something now we are all going to die' approach, but they just dismiss her as a hysterical woman who can be ignored. Ron Perlman is not in it for long, but does steal the scenes he is in. It's a bit scary too, because there are certainly comets out there we have not found yet, that could possibly hit the Earth. You would hope we have better systems in place for alerting the right people, and dealing with it, than the world in this comedy has, but some plot elements seem a bit too close to the truth. 9/10 Page Eight (2011) dir David Hare A made-for-TV, modern day, British spy film. It stars Bill Nighy as a middle-aged MI5 intelligence analyst who finds him self with a report proving the current Prime Minister (Ralph Feinnes) withheld information from the security services that could have prevented terrorist attacks. Rachel Weisz plays his neighbour, who wants help getting justice for her murdered brother. It's gently paced, no action or special effects, as you would expect for a TV film, but with a good cast (also includes Michaal Gambon, Saskia Reeves and Ewen Bremner) and a decent story written by the director. 7/10 Edited August 20, 2023 by djw180 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted August 22, 2023 Author Share Posted August 22, 2023 What I Watched This Week #84 (August 6 – 12) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dir. Sam Raimi/2022/2h6m Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the master of the mystic arts. This time he has to team up with teenage girl America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who has the power to travel between alternate universes at will, in order to stop Wanda the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) from destroying the entire multiverse trying to bring back her two sons. So my big problem with this film is that the last time we saw Wanda she was a good guy, a member of the Avengers. And she didn't have children. I'm assuming all of this was covered in the WandaVision TV show, but I haven't seen that, and I'm sure a lot of people who watch this film won't have seen it either. My second biggest problem is the squandered potential in the core concept of the film. There is a scene early on where Strange and Chavez travel through a bunch of alternate realities including a 2D animated one and one where everything is made up of gloopy paint globules and I got pretty excited about what was happening. Then we land in the universe where we spend a majority of the time and the biggest difference is that at traffic lights green means stop. Wow. It is well directed with some nice flourishes as you would expect from Raimi, and there are some cool ideas here, but on the whole this is very underwhelming. 5/10 Blue Collar dir. Paul Schrader/1978/1h54m Blue Collar is the directorial debut from Paul Schrader, who at this point was best known as the writer of Taxi Driver. It stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto as three assembly line workers who are sick of being treated like sh*t by both management and their crooked union so they hatch a plan to rob the union headquarters. This is a brutal critique of working class exploitation with several scenes that really hit hard including an uncomfortably protracted death scene and the bleak ending where no one wins except the suits. The three leads are all excellent but Pryor really stands out. He channels all of the anger and energy from his stand up routines into this role and the results are incredible. He was always great in comedy films, especially the ones with Gene Wilder, but this performance comes the closest to capturing his raw personality in an authentic way that allows him to show off his range as an actor. 9/10 Barbie dir. Greta Gerwig/2023/1h54m Barbie stars Margot Robbie as Barbie, or rather Stereotypical Barbie, who lives in Barbieland with all of the other Barbies, most prominently President Barbie (Issa Rae). Barbieland is also home to the Kens – although no one is really sure where they actually live since there is no such thing as Ken's Dream House – where Ryan Gosling's Stereotypical Ken, whose job is “beach”, is in love with Barbie, but she doesn't reciprocate those feelings. Every day is perfect in Barbieland, but suddenly Stereotypical Barbie turns into Existential Crisis Barbie when she starts having thoughts of death. This leads Barbie and Ken on a journey to the real world where they have to figure out what's going on. While there Barbie discovers real emotions and gets involved with mother and daughter Gloria and Sasha (America Ferrara, Ariana Greenblatt), who need help reconnecting, and Ken discovers the patriarchy – which is definitely something to do with horses – which he brings back to Barbieland. I f*cking love everything about this movie. It has amazing production design with every second spent in Barbieland being a pink on pink treat for the eyes, and that goes for the costumes too. This is also hilarious, the funniest film of the year so far. And some of those jokes are pretty adult, I was not expecting it to go to some of the places it does, including the very last line of the film which I won't spoil but is brilliant for so many reasons. It has a banging soundtrack and original songs – I'm Just Ken has been living rent free in my head since I heard it – a lot of which are set to excellently choreographed Busby Berkley style dance set pieces. But what really stands out are the performances of Robbie and Gosling. Gosling delivers every single line with such commitment to the character that it is frankly unbelievable how funny he is, but he also has a real character arc which ends with a moment that is both funny and touching. And Robbie is even better. She is a perfect Barbie – something which Helen Mirren's narrator mentions at one of the very meta, self-referential moments – but she also brings a real depth and, ironically, humanity to the character. The moment where she becomes overwhelmed by the real world and has to take a moment to sit down and just starts crying and laughing at the same time floored me with how beautiful it was, and a scene near the end where she is talking to Rhea Perlman's character just left me a sobbing mess. This is a film for everyone and you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't watch this as soon as possible, if not just because I want someone to talk to about it! 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Magic dir. Richard Attenborough/1978/1h47m Anthony Hopkins stars as Corky, a magician whose career shoots off once he starts using a foul-mouthed ventriloquist's doll, Fats – voiced by Hopkins, in his act. But the longer he uses the doll the less we're sure of who's controlling who. This has the plot of a cheap b-movie but the sheer talent of the cast, which also includes Burgess Meredith as Corky's agent and Ann-Margret as his old high school crush, and the crew – Richard Attenborough directing a script by William Goldman with a score by Jerry Goldsmith – elevate this to a must watch film and one of the best of Hopkin's illustrious career. His performance here reminded me a lot of Anthony Perkins in Psycho. They are both seemingly sweet men who think that they are mere accomplices to murders that they commit. Here, Corky is so intertwined with the personality of Fats that it is the doll who has to explain to him that they are the same person and that he has always been in control. And even then you get the feeling that he doesn't really believe it. Those scenes, with just Corky and Fats, are the best of the film, which is a testament to Hopkin's skills as he's basically just talking to himself in a Jimmy Cagney style American accent that would be funny if it wasn't so creepy. 9/10 Blackenstein dir. William A. Levey/1973/1h27m This Blaxploitation adaptation of Frankenstein stars Ivory Stone as a doctor whose fiancee Eddie (Joe De Sue) loses his arms and legs in Vietnam. She convinces him to take part in some experimental surgery being developed by her mentor Dr. Stein (John Hart), with monstrous results. This could have been a commentary about the disproportionate number of Black men drafted during Vietnam, or police brutality, which pertains to the ending of the film, but it's just not. This is all very surface level schlock horror that's cashing in on the Blaxploitation trend with sub-par performances all round. The make up for Blackenstein is pretty well done, and there is some nice giallo style lighting used throughout, but that doesn't make up for the rest of this pretty boring mess. 3/10 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters dir. Dave Willis, Matt Maiellaro/2007/1h26m This prequel to the television series explores the origins of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a trio of sentient fast food, Frylock (Carey Means) Master Shake (Dana Snyder) and Meatwad (Dave Willis). The plot involves a piece of exercise equipment with evil AI who takes their neighbour Carl (also Willis) hostage. This is one of those properties that thinks that random automatically equals funny, which is the case at times, but it just becomes tiring when it's this relentless. The character of Master Shake also really grates on me now in a way that he didn't when I was a teenager, he's just a loud, stupid, egotistical *sshole and I don't know why I ever found him funny. There is still a lot of good here though. I love the animation style, purposefully cheap and janky, and Carl is always hilarious, especially when he becomes super jacked late on in the film. 5/10 Quest for Fire dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud/1981/1h40m This prehistoric drama follows three members of a tribe sent out to find fire after their flame is accidentally extinguished during a fight with a rival tribe and they lack the knowledge of how to make their own fire. There is no recognisable language used, nor any subtitles, so the actors – including a young Ron Perlman in his first film role - do a fantastic job of conveying meaning and emotion physically and in very subtle ways. This is probably the most authentic feeling film about prehistoric man, not that I'm an expert on the subject, but at times it feels like a documentary. The make up and costumes go a huge way to helping with that feeling with nothing looking like it was made by a costume designer – furs and rags are flung haphazardly around bodies with no regard for style. It does require some patience as it is a very slow moving film, but there is some breath-taking scenery scattered throughout and some very tense sequences where they have to battle not only rival tribes but also the elements. 8.5/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted August 27, 2023 Share Posted August 27, 2023 Airplane (1980) dir Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker Classic 80s comedy disaster movie, full of cheap gags and comedic recreations of famous scenes from other films. It stars a few faces I recognise but don't know the names of, plenty I don't recognise and a couple I do, Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Neilsen. The plot, for what it is worth, is set on a plane, flying from LA to Chicago. Former air force pilot Ted, now scared of flying, in an attempt to win back his air-hostess girlfriend Elaine, gets on the flight at the last moment. When an outbreak of food poisoning incapacitates the pilot and co-pilot, Ted has try and land the plane, in a violent thunderstorm. Along the way we have some famous world play jokes such as “Surely you can't be serious”, “I am serious, and don't call me Shirely” and “Are you nervous” , “Yes” , “Your first time?” (meaning first time flying) ,“No, I've been nervous many times before”. It is quite dated, came with a warning something like “this contains humour of it's era which may offend”, but still made be laugh out loud many times. 7 / 10 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 In The Heat of the Night (1967) dir Norman Jewison Sidney Poitier stars as Virgil Tibbs in this best-picture-Oscar winning film. Tibbs is from Philadelphia, but on a visit to relatives in Mississippi, a man is murdered and the racist local police, led by Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger, in an Oscar winning role), assume Tibbs, as a black stranger, must be the culprit. But when they find out he is actually a police man and the best homicide detective on his force, they seek his help. The local police, none of them detectives and never having this sort of crime to investigate before, are hopelessly out of their depth, but under pressure to catch the killer. The plot exposes not just their racist attitudes but other prejudices as they jump to conclusions about various suspects who Tibbs then shows with proper examination of the evidence can not be guilty either. But he too has his prejudices and gets too focussed on another suspect. It's very good. Steiger and Poitier put in great performances. It's not like your typical thriller or who-dun-it. The story is more about Tibbs and Gillespie reluctantly working with each other, rather than the plot keeping you guessing. The identity of the real killer is more more incidental than crucial to the plot. 8 / 10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted September 3, 2023 Author Share Posted September 3, 2023 What I Watched This Week #85 (August 13 – 19) Thor: Love and Thunder dir. Taika Waititi/2022/1h59m Chris Hemsworth returns as the god of thunder who has to come out of retirement in order to stop Gor the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who intends to butcher all of the gods. We also see the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Thor's ex, who is now also a Thor and wields Mjolnir – one of the best running gags in th film is how Thor's new weapon, Stormbreaker, is jealous of Mjolnir. The opening of this film, where we learn why Gor wants to kill every god, is quite serious making me think that we're going in a new direction, but pretty soon we're introduced to the screaming space llamas and we're back in old familiar territory. A lot of this film feels like jokes that were cut from Ragnarok for not being funny enough. I do like the aesthetic of this film which really leans into the cosmic aspect of the character, and Russell Crowe's cameo as Zeus is fantastic, but the inconsistent tone is really jarring, which is strange because Waititi is usually very good at balancing comedy with drama like in Jojo Rabbit and Boy. Hemsworth's charisma does a lot of heavy lifting here. 6.5/10 House of Flying Daggers dir. Zhang Yimou/2004/1h59m House of Flying Daggers is a romantic martial arts film set in 9th century China. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro play Leo and Jin, two police officers working for the corrupt government. They are tasked with finding the leader of the rebel group the House of the Flying Daggers. To this end they arrest a blind dancer, Mei (Zhang Ziyi), who is thought to be the daughter of the leader, with Jin posing as a fellow rebel breaking her out of prison hoping that she will lead him to their hideout. This is a visually stunning film both in terms of sets and production design and costumes and hair and make-up. I could happily watch this film without subtitles and still have a great time. There is also some excellent Crouching Tiger style wire work, particularly in a fight scene set in a bamboo forest. The plot does get a little convoluted at times, and it occasionally verges on the melodramatic, but the solid performances of all three leads, and the incredible love triangle Mexican standoff ending make this a memorable experience. 9/10 Resident Evil: Apocalypse dir. Alexander Witt/2004/1h34m Picking up right from the end of the first film, Alice (Milla Jovovich) finds herself trapped in a quarantined Racoon City which is now a zombie infested wasteland. She has a chance to earn a ride out by rescuing the daughter of a scientist who worked on the T-Virus, who is hiding in her school. All the while Nemesis (Matthew G. Taylor) stalks the streets. This is quite a let down after the schlocky but entertaining mess of the first film. At times it seems like they're attempting to capture the atmosphere of the original video games with some quite nice shots of the empty streets of Racoon City, but that is swiftly abandoned for some generic action thrills. The Nemesis, which was my main reason for wanting to watch this, is laughable. It looks ridiculous and trudges about posing no threat whatsoever. The attempt at some cheap humanisation during its death comes across as cheap melodrama. Needed more Jovovich roundhouse kicking badly rendered CGI zombie dogs. 4/10 Resident Evil: Extinction dir. Russell Mulcahy/2007/1h34m Years after the initial outbreak Alice (Jovovich) travels the wastes of America, eventually teaming up with a group of survivors led by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) who are on their way to a purported safe haven in Alaska. Meanwhile the evil Umbrella Corporation are attempting to clone Alice for some reason I don't care to put much thought into remembering. I like how this film is set mostly in blaring sunlight, something unusual for a horror and a nice change from the blue washed badly lit aesthetic of the previous entry. Larter gives a solid performance here and her character actually has some nuance, which is rare for this series. Brainless but better than Apocalypse. 4.5/10 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers/2023/2h20m This sequel to the greatest superhero film of all time sees Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) face the consequences of saving the world at the end of the previous film. To save the entire multiverse he must team up with the Spider Society, a group of thousands of different Spider-Men led by Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). At the same time Morales has to reckon with ridiculous villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) who may be more of a threat than he first seems. Like the first film this is an audio/visual assault on the senses that overwhelms you with the sheer level of creativity and imagination on show. But as amazing as the animation is, it never overshadows the emotional heft of the film. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) is given more time in this film and we get to know her backstory and relationship with her father, which also ties in with the overall theme of the film. Those scenes between Stacy and her father are also animated in the most beautiful, painterly way in warm pastels that really make it stand out in a film full of stand out moments. I'm also a sucker for a good cliff-hanger, and this one is a doozey. Bring on Beyond the Spider-Verse. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! The Appointment dir. Lindsey C. Vickers/1981/1h30m The sole feature film from Vickers, The Appointment is a study in tension building and how to craft an uneasy atmosphere out of nothing. Edward Woodward stars as a regular family man who has to miss his daughter's violin concert for a business meeting. The night before the trip the entire family are besieged by nightmares. This makes up the bulk of the film, with the creeping tension masterfully handled. The dream sequences actually feel like dreams, ethereal and just out of reach yet leaving a fog of terror behind them. Apart from Woodward the performances aren't very good, but Vickers is able to work around that. This is also a very cheap looking film, but in some ways that adds to a feeling of everyday normalcy which becomes more twisted as this unseen evil force intrudes. It's not often that I want a film to be remade, but I would love to see a modern version of this with a more capable cast as this is a creepy little story that deserves more attention. 8.5/10 Black Mirror: Bandersnatch dir. David Slade/2018/1h30(may vary) This experimental episode of the dystopian anthology series stars Fionn Whitehead as Stefan, a wannabe videogame coder in mid 80's Britain. He gets a job at a company working alongside superstar coder Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) where he begins work on a choose your own adventure game based on an infamous book. But, the more he works on it, the more he starts to question if he's actually in control of himself. The USP of this film is that it is a choose your own adventure film. Like the classic Fighting Fantasy book series or the Telltale Walking Dead games this film pauses at certain points allowing you to choose one of two options for Stefan to act out. This can lead to an experience of various run times that gets incredibly meta at times, particularly when you get to pick the option “Netflix”. This gimmick can lead to some brilliantly absurd moments, some quite disturbing, but you always get the feeling of being railroaded into the “correct” choice. But, the illusion of choice is a big theme in the film, so maybe that was the point all along. This is a great idea that is almost a great film. 7/10 Fire (POZAR) dir. David Lynch/2015/11m This David Lynch short is a visual accompaniment to a piece of music by Marek Zebrowski which was written as a tribute to the filmmaker. Framed in a theatrical arch a grotesque figure strikes a match. A worm emerges from a cigarette burn in the sky. A house and a tree are set ablaze. A screaming face covers its eyes. Anthropomorphised deer people dance in celebration among the ashes of a burned world. Reminiscent of his early animations like The Alphabet, this is a pure insight into the mind of a real artist, in the least pretentious way possible. 8/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurf 947 Posted September 4, 2023 Share Posted September 4, 2023 😲😮😛🔪😱😑😞😢🥶😵😤🤬 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted September 4, 2023 Author Share Posted September 4, 2023 Jesus @Smurf that is brutal! What's it from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurf 947 Posted September 4, 2023 Share Posted September 4, 2023 1 hour ago, LimeGreenLegend said: Jesus @Smurf that is brutal! What's it from? Blood In Blood Out 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted September 4, 2023 Author Share Posted September 4, 2023 22 minutes ago, Smurf said: Blood In Blood Out It's on my watchlist now 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 (edited) Jackie Brown (1997) dir Quentin Tarantino Pam Grier plays the title character in Tarantino's adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel. Like his previous two films, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, this is crime themed and set in LA. But it doesn't have the same violence as those. It's the story of an air hostess, stuck working for a low-paying airline due to a criminal conviction in her past, earning some extra money smuggling cash for gun-runner Samuel L. Jackson. But when she gets caught by cop Michael Keaton, she feels forced to find a permanent way out, by coming up with an intricate plan to help her-self to her crime-boss's entire fortune, appearing to be co-operating with the police to nail him. Robert Forster got an Oscar nomination playing her bail bondsmen who willingly helps her out. It also features Bridget Fonda and in a relatively low-key supporting role, Robert De Niro, as associates of the gun-runner. Forster, not a big name in film, is great in this, as is Grier. The relationship between their two characters is not quite a romance, more one of mutual admiration, that could have gone on to more, but just wasn't to be. The scene where he first sets eyes on this very glamorous woman, walking out of the jail she has spent the night in, but still looking stunning is wonderful. It all takes place over a couple of days, and in a 2.5 hour film, but, at least to me, always keeps your attention. I have always liked this, but watching it now, so many years after it came out, I like it even more. I think it's an age thing. When I first saw this the main characters, middle aged, were significantly older than me. Now that is not the case and it makes me appreciate it even more. 10 / 10 Edited September 10, 2023 by djw180 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 Les Enfants du Siècle (1991) dir Diane Kurys A story about two real-life 19th century French writers. A wealthy Baroness (Juliet Binnoche) leaves her husband and moves with her children to Paris to become a writer. She adopts a male name, George Sand, as women writers don't get taken seriously, and decides to take things further by wearing men's clothes and smoking cigars. She begins a relationship with a younger man, Alfred de Musset (Benoit Magimel), a wealthy play-boy, living off his parent's money but also trying to write plays and poems. His favourite pass-time is sleeping with prostitutes, something Sand does not object to him continuing to do. So they are the sort of couple many other 1830s people would have found scandalous. Most of the film is about a trip they take to Italy, supposedly to research a novel they are planning. But de Musset seems to be more interested in how many Italian women he can sleep with. Sand also hooks up with a young doctor in Venice. I found it quite a hard watch. Nothing to do with the content, or basic story. I just did not find the execution that interesting. I can't say for sure whether I would blame the script or the editing. It just seemed a disjointed; things happen that did not seem relevant to anything else in the film. Juliet Binnoche, a great actor, just manages to hold it all together. Had there been a lesser performer in the lead role I may have switched it off. I guess it might be better for someone who has read the books, plays and poems the real-life Sand and du Musset wrote. But I had never even heard of either of them before. 4 / 10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 What I Watched This Week #86 (August 20 – 26) In the Heat of the Night dir. Norman Jewison/1967/1h49m While passing through a small Southern town, Black detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is roped into a murder investigation after initially being a suspect. He is constantly butting heads with the local police chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) who distrusts the outsider not just for his race but for his intelligence and the fact that he's a big city cop. Released at the height of the civil rights movement this film sets out to expose the stupidity and pointlessness of racism and it does it well. Poitier is excellent in the lead, having a real commanding presence throughout. The scenes between him and Steiger – who is also excellent - are the highlights of the film, especially the iconic “they call me MR. Tibbs” exchange. The conflict between the two men is the focus of the film rendering the actual murder and the investigation a bit of a McGuffin. Those scenes are still well done, but mostly as a way to show how good of a detective Tibbs is rather then trying to get the audience invested in that plotline. The film does meander somewhat whenever we stray away from Poitier and Steiger, but those moments are few and far between. 8.5/10 Resident Evil: Afterlife dir. Paul W. S. Anderson/2010/1h37m Paul W. S. Anderson returns to the series after directing the first film, and you can tell that he recently saw The Matrix. The plot about Alice (Milla Jovovich) looking for a safe haven called Arcadia is paper thin, so it has about as much depth as any character in the film. Ali Larter returning as Claire Redfield is the best actor here, but she is dragged down by pretty much everyone else. Shawn Roberts is a joke as Albert Wesker, the main antagonist, and he is also involved in some of the most laughable fight scenes I've ever seen. I don't want to waste any more time thinking about this film. 4/10 The Blackening dir. Tim Story/2022/1h37m The Blackening is a horror comedy in which a group of Black friends - reuniting to celebrate Juneteenth - are trapped in a cabin in the woods and forced to play a game in order to find out who dies first by voting which one of them is the Blackest. This film is a love letter to horror films, playing with the tropes in a fun way that feels like a bunch of friends hanging out and cracking jokes. In that respect it reminded me a lot of Scream in how it's very meta and self aware. The racial politics is also handled in a way that feels like a group of friends discussing it rather than the filmmakers preaching. The scene where they all argue about who's the Blackest is hilarious, as are their interactions with the local White police officer, called Officer White, played by the always fantastic Diedrich Bader, master of Rex Kwan Do. The cast are all solid, with my favourites being X Mayo and Dewayne Perkins. It does kind of fall flat in the third act, the humour is very broad where it could have benefited from playing it straighter at some points, and the identity of the killer is so obvious that I called it as soon as they appeared, but maybe that's part of the joke. 7.5/10 Late Spring dir. Yasujiro Ozu/1949/1h50m Late Spring is a gentle drama from one of the great Japanese filmmakers, Yasujiro Ozu. It stars Setsuko Hara as Noriko, an unmarried woman in her late twenties who lives at home with her widowed father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu), whom she looks after. With pressure from her Aunt Masa (Haruko Sugimura) he begins to look for a partner for her. Like most of his work, this examines cross generational relationships, particularly familial ones. Events unfold at a natural pace with nothing feeling forced, and even though there are no dramatic outbursts of emotion, that doesn't mean they aren't there. The ending of this film is devastating in its simplicity – Shukichi returns home alone and, while peeling an apple, starts quietly sobbing. Ozu's trademark style of locked down frames and long takes allows us to fall into the rhythms of this family, making us even more effected when those rhythms are disturbed, and his way of framing his characters in doorways and window frames or from the other end of a corridor conveys how they are trapped in their routine. Hara is wonderful as Noriko having both a sense of fierce independence and also loving obligation to her ailing father, a struggle between tradition and modernity. 9/10 Pearl dir. Ti West/2022/1h42m Pearl is the prequel to exploitation horror film X, which was a big hit but I found it very underwhelming. Mia Goth returns as Pearl, who in X was a geriatric p*rn star murdering psychopath, but here is a sweet young woman with dreams of moving away from her ranch and becoming a movie star, but there are already signs that she's not quite right like killing animals on their farm and abusing her father who is paralysed from Spanish Flu. Her domineering, religious mother doesn't help things. I had quite low expectations for this due to X, but I was sold right from the start where we get a glorious Technicolor opening and that lasted all the way to the incredible ending which has stayed with me ever since. Goth is amazing here, with one particularly show stopping monologue late on that left me stunned with how good it is. This film also has some pleasingly gruesome kills, something which I felt X lacked, with one dismemberment scene looking disturbingly realistic. And then there's the ending, with the credits rolling over the most disturbing smile I've ever seen. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dir. Peyton Reed/2023/2h5m Paul Rudd returns as Ant-Man who has to enter the quantum realm with the Hope/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and her parents Hank (Michael Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) in order to defeat Kang (Jonathan Majors) who wants to destroy the multiverse or something. This film is a mess visually and narratively with every character full of witty quips as has become Marvel standard and a villain who feels like he's there just to set up a different villain, who is also the same person but from a different universe (this Marvel multiverse crap has become old fast). This feels like it was written and directed by AI. And don't even get me started on M.O.D.O.K. (Corey Stoll). Jesus tap dancing Christ what a nightmare. 3/10 Ganja & Hess dir. Bill Gunn/1973/1h50m This is an experimental blaxploitation horror film starring Duane Jones as Black anthropologist Dr. Hess Green, who is studying an ancient African tribe of blood drinkers. When he is stabbed by one of their ritualistic daggers by his assistant George (Gunn) he becomes a vampire and kills George. When George's wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) turns up looking for her husband Green quickly seduces her and turns her into a vampire. This is a very rough film, made on a shoestring budget, but that adds to the atmosphere with the grainy film stock and the badly dubbed dialogue making it feel like a found footage film. The arthouse style means that plot takes a back seat, the narrative being ethereal and dreamlike, but again this adds to the tone of the piece. Jones is good in the lead role but the other actors aren't up to his level. A film more about the allegorical meaning of vampirism as addiction and control rather than bloodshed this could have been a bit more straightforward for me, but I can see why this is a cult classic. 7/10 Resident Evil: Retribution dir. Paul W. S. Anderson/2012/1h35m Alice (Milla Jovovice) is captured by Umbrella and taken to a facility under the ice somewhere in Russia, she escapes, there are zombies. The plot here is stupid and not worth going over. It looks horrible, it's badly directed, the editing is incomprehensible, and none of the characters have any. 2.5/10 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter dir. Paul W. S. Anderson/2016/1h47m In the thankfully last entry in the series Alice (Milla Jovovich) returns to Raccoon City in order to end things where they all began, how poetic. The best thing about this film are the end credits. 1/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted September 24, 2023 Author Share Posted September 24, 2023 What I Watched This Week #87 (August 27 – September 2) The Lion King dir. Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff/1994/1h29m Disney does Hamlet in the African savannah and creates arguably their greatest film. Years after his evil uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons) kills his father, King Mufasa (James Earl Jones), and casts him out, Simba (Matthew Broderick) returns to claim his place as king of Pride Rock. Along with Jurassic Park this is one of the defining films of my childhood, but even watching it as an adult all of the classic Disney magic is still there. Just the opening sequence of all the animals assembling at Pride Rock to the tune of Circle of Life makes this one of best animated films ever made with some incredible framing and camera movement that you didn't get in animated films back then, and it only gets better from there. The characters are all so full of life with such fluidity to them, you can feel the love in every frame, and that is matched up with a pitch perfect voice cast, Irons totally stealing the show and cementing his place as one of the best Disney villains of all time. And you tie that all up with a Hans Zimmer score and songs by Elton John and Tim Rice. It's so easy to be cynical about Disney, especially these days, but re-watching all of their animated films just makes you realise why they are where they are now. Nothing comes close to them on their best days. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Halloween Kills dir. David Gordon Green/2021/1h45m Evil dies tonight according to pretty much every character in this film, who keep repeating that phrase until it just becomes a joke. After being burned alive at the end of the last film Michael Myers rises from the ashes and continues to hunt down Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), or is he? This is mindless garbage that thinks it's deeper than it is, with some stupid attempts at tying this film up with the events of the original film through the character of Officer Hawkins (Will Patton). This opens with a stupid fight between a group of firefighters and Myers and ends with a stupid fight between an angry mob - “evil dies tonight, evil dies tonight” - and Myers. Nothing much of note happens between that, with Curtis spending most of the film in a hospital bed. A crappy cliff-hanger ending leads to the inevitable sequel which I'll hate-watch sooner rather than later. 3/10 The Thomas Crown Affair dir. Norman Jewison/1968/1h42m Steve McQueen plays s*xy tycoon Thomas Crown who is bored with his s*xy, lavish life so he decides to plan a s*xy bank robbery to liven it up. But soon s*xy insurance investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) is on his tail, and a s*xy game of cat and mouse ensues in this very s*xy film. This film is the epitome of style over substance in all the best ways possible. This is a gorgeous film to look at with some really groovy 60's style split screen effects and a lush score by legendary French composer Michel Legrand. McQueen and Dunaway make for one of the most attractive screen couples in history and it is electric every time they are on screen together. The plot is kind of a nothing here, with myself finding it hard to empathise with a bored playboy millionaire, but McQueen is so f*cking cool that he pulls you round in the end. 8/10 Lilies of the Field dir. Ralph Nelson/1963/1h34m Sidney Poitier plays Homer Smith, a wanderer whose car breaks down at a farm being run by German nuns. He's looking to fix his ride and move on, but the Mother Superior, Maria (Lilia Skala) believes he has been sent by god to build a new chapel in their poor desert town, and won't let him go so easily. I recently watched In The Heat of the Night in which Poitier was at his commanding best, but in this film he is all charm and charisma. This is a film that put a smile on my face for the entire runtime. The chemistry between Poitier and Skala is fantastic, with the Mother Superior slowly warming to Smith – or “Schmitt” as she keeps calling him – and seeing him as more than a tool of god, but as a human being. It's very beautiful to see how this one man can make such a difference to an entire community, and I found it surprising that it came from the same director as Requiem for a Heavyweight, which is like a depressing Rocky with an ending that takes the main character down to their most pathetic low point. Watching this you can see why Poitier is David Brent's favourite actor. 9/10 Early Summer dir. Yasujiro Ozu/1951/2h5m This drama from Yasujiro Ozu is very much like his earlier Late Spring, with an almost identical plot but differences in key aspects. Like Late Spring this stars Setsuko Hara as an unmarried woman in her late 20's called Noriko. She lives with many family members who all want her to marry, but it is a visit from an elderly uncle that sets the ball really rolling. Noriko in this film is much more independent that in Late Spring, where it seems like she felt obligated to stay at home to look after her ailing father. Here she has no such ties, but is merely enjoying her freedom. This is exemplified in a couple of scenes where Noriko meets up with her friends who are split into the married and the unmarried, with the two groups sniping at each other. Late in the film when Noriko decides to marry it is to someone who her family feel is a bad match, so even here she is still acting in an independent way by doing what she wants rather than what other people feel she should do. Masterfully shot in his trademark style of long takes and static frames this is another gentle yet realistic portrait of family life and cross generational relationships. 8.5/10 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 dir. James Gunn/2023/2h30m James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy comes to an end and when it opens with an acoustic version of Radiohead's Creep you know things are gonna be a bit different. This is a very downbeat and depressing film (by Marvel standards) that spends a lot of time exploring the backstory of Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), which involves lots of painful, invasive experimental surgery at the hands of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who is obsessed with creating the perfect world populated by the perfect race. Anything involving cruelty to animals really gets to me – I watched Turner and Hooch when I was about five and I don't think I've ever gotten over it - and there are several scenes here that I found genuinely upsetting. Of course, being Marvel, this is still full of quips and jokes, but Gunn is better at making stuff like that work and not take away from the dramatic impact of a scene than most other directors in the MCU. Dave Bautista is again hilarious as Drax the Destroyer who makes a great double act with Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and I really liked Will Poulter as Adam Warlock who is basically a petulant child trying to please his mummy. The last few Marvel films have been tripe, but then a film like this comes along and pulls me back in. I hope they make another Guardians film with the new team teased at the end of this one because I just want more of Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), who is most definitely a good dog. 9.5/10 Through a Glass Darkly dir. Ingmar Bergman/1961/1h31m This is a psychological drama set over a single day following a family on holiday on a private island. David (Gunnar Bjornstrand) is a writer with writer's block. His daughter Karin (Harriet Andersson) has recently been released from a mental hospital. Her husband Martin (Max von Sydow) is a doctor who believes that her condition is incurable. Her younger brother, teenage Minus (Lars Passgard), is having his s*xual awakening. This is some really deep sh*t from Bergman, that most serious of filmmakers, but it is still accessible and relatable. The way these characters relate to each other is both very real and human yet also theatrical and quite performative, as if they can't really be themselves around each other. Andersson is incredible here, especially the scene at the end where she totally breaks down and sees god as a spider who tries to r*pe her. Bergman's films feel like he's trying to hold a mirror up to the human soul, no matter how disgusting the reflection, and that is at its truest here. 9/10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted September 24, 2023 Share Posted September 24, 2023 (edited) Gulltransporten; (Eng: Gold Run) (2022) dir Hallvard Bræin A film based on the true story of how Norway got is central bank's gold reserves out of the country in WWII just as Germany was invading. It stars Jon Oigarden (Jarl Varg from the brilliant sitcom Noresman) as civil servant Fredrick Haslund, tasked with leading the mission. He has a company of soldiers to escort him and the various bank clerks and truck drivers. It's quite a different, fairly low-action style of war film. Most of the main characters are not members of the armed forces. They are civilians, forced by the urgency of the situation to undertake a military style operation. Most of the soldiers are, I think, reservists just called up, with no prior military experience. One them was famous poet. You get a good sense of the shock and fear the rapid invasion brought; families getting split up, not knowing where relatives are, or even if they are alive. It's starts off with a little bit too much of a family feel, and you think perhaps they are deliberately playing down the violence and peril of the situation. But if that is how the real story played out, then fair enough. It does get more like you'd expect a war film to be later on, and there are casualties. 7 / 10 Edited September 25, 2023 by djw180 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 The Menu (2022) dir Mark Mylod This starts off in a similar manner to an Agatha Christie murder mystery. A young couple, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), arrive at a jetty to take a boat to an island that is home to an exclusive restaurant where they have paid for a very expensive meal. Other diners arrive to make the same trip. There's hints of tensions to come. Margot seems to recognise an older man who tries not to look at her, there's film star (John Leguizamo) who seems very full of himself, a group of loud, obnoxious bankers celebrating a birthday, and a restaurant critic who is not shy of saying exactly what she thinks. But this is no murder mystery. There's going to be murders, you can tell that early on (and from the trailer), but there is no mystery. It's more of one of those subtle horrors without anything too graphic. The chef of the restaurant is played by Ralph Feinnes and he gives the stand out performance as quite a weird, troubled, control freak, treated like a god by his staff who all live on the island. The rest of the cast are good, but their roles don't require the same sort of performance. It's very stylishly made with some great sets. I won't say more about the plot because it is impossible to describe without spoilers. I did find some of the plot elements a little far fetched though. Obviously it's not meant to be real life, but some things I could not help thinking, even in this context were too implausible, so that loses it a point or too for me. 6 / 10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted October 2, 2023 Author Share Posted October 2, 2023 (edited) What I Watched This Week #88 (September 3 – 9) The Gleaners and I dir. Agnes Varda/2000/1h22m This documentary from Agnes Varda explores the world of gleaners, traditionally poor people in rural areas who head out in to the fields after the farmers have harvested their crops in order to scavenge for any leftovers. She shows us the historical context of this tradition through artwork from previous centuries, but also looks at how it has evolved over time to now include urban gleaners who scavenge market places like they were fields. This isn't just a result of poverty, we also meet people who glean because of the huge amount of food waste produced, including a Michelin star chef who uses food he finds in his restaurants. What is true here, as in all of her films, is that Varda loves people. You see this most clearly in her documentaries, which cover a diverse range of subjects in a wide range of countries, but her interest in talking to and, most importantly, listening to people is always there. What is also there is her playfulness with the very medium of film. This is her first film using a digital camera and she fully embraces the immediacy and intimacy of this new technology. There's a moment where she is in a field gleaning herself and, forgetting that it's on, just has the camera down at her side filming the earth and the lens cap dangling over it. The fact that this accidental little moment was included in the final film is why I love Agnes Varda. 9/10 Scarlet Street dir. Fritz Lang/1945/1h43m This film noir stars Edward G. Robinson as Chris Cross (yes, it is bought up how ridiculous that name is), a sad sack middle age loser in a loveless marriage who works a thankless job but loves to paint in his spare time. After coming to the aide of femme fatale Kitty March (Joan Bennett) she mistakes him for a rich painter and sets out to take him for everything he has. Upon discovering that he is just an amateur she and her boyfriend Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea) set up a scheme to pass the paintings off as hers, something Chris is happy to go along with as he is hopelessly in love. This is like watching a car crash in slow motion as this poor man walks to his own doom and there's nothing you can do about it. Robinson's performance is so sympathetic, you can see decades of disappointment in his every movement, that when he gets that spark in his eye because he thinks this beautiful young woman loves him it is heart breaking. Bennett is fantastic as the evil, manipulative woman. And the really tragic thing is that his paintings are really good. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Three David Lynch short films: Six Men Getting Sick dir. David Lynch/1967/4m The Adventures of Alan R. dir. David Lynch/2020/1m Coffee with Barbie dir. David Lynch/2011/4m Three very different shorts from David Lynch here, starting with his very first film, Six Men Getting Sick which is a looping animation of six men vomiting. Very abstract and grotesque, this was made to be projected on to sculptures up against a wall, so the full effect is lost here, but the imagery is still startling. From his first film to his latest, Alan R. is another animation, this one much simpler with only the mouth of a creepy looking head moving. This head, voiced by Lynch, insists to his mother that he doesn't want to go fishing. Coffee with Barbie is an advert for his own coffee brand where he has a very pleasant conversation with a Barbie head that he's cupping in his hand. Consisting of a single close up of the Barbie head this is simple but effective and perfectly conveys Lynch's brand of weirdness (Lynch has directed many advertisements including the bizarre The Third Place adverts for the PlayStation 2, if anyone remembers that). The more shorts from Lynch I watch the more I think I get them. These are his way of taking notes and exploring ideas without the need for narrative or even other people. These are fragments of his mind that he just needed to get out in some way, and this is the result. The second two particularly feel quite rushed, like he needed to get these things made quickly before that wisp of inspiration left him. This gives them an immediacy that would be lost with any amount of polish. Six Men Getting Sick 7/10 The Adventures of Alan R. 6/10 Coffee With Barbie 8/10 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny dir. James Mangold/2023/2h35m Harrison Ford dons the legendary fedora for the fifth and final time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the first film in the series not directed by Steven Spielberg. James Mangold is the director now, having previously made some excellent films like Walk the Line, Logan and Ford v Ferrari. So this is better than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but still a long way from the glory days of the 80's. Ford seems more invested here, and I appreciate that they address his age and how out of place he feels in the modern world of 1969, which actually ties into the very entertaining final act. I also really liked Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter Helena, a manipulative treasure hunter who's in it for the money. Mads Mikkelsen is wasted as the villain of the piece, much like he was in Doctor Strange, and Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies return as Marion and Sallah, but they're more like nostalgia bait rather than essential to the story. The story is of an old man who feels like he has nothing left for him in the world looking for a place where he belongs, and, like a lot of his fans, he believes that that is in the past. That said, this is still a bloated film that lacks the magic of the original trilogy, but at least they killed off Shia LeBeouf off screen. 6.5/10 Carry On Girls dir. Gerald Thomas/1973/1h28m Carry On Girls is set in a seaside resort that wants to boost its tourist trade. To that end councillor Sidney Fiddler (Sid James) convinces Mayor Bumble (Kenneth Connor) to host a beauty pageant. The local women's liberation leader Augusta Prodworthy (June Whitfield) strongly opposes. This is nothing but a b*wdy cheap s*x comedy that doesn't even do that that well. There are some bright spots. Barbara Windsor is gorgeous and hilarious as contestant Hope Springs, and a few funny lines - “if you think nine inches is average you've been spoiled” - but this just feels like the filmmakers looking for an easy buck with some boobs and bums. Lacks any of the charm that carried some of the earlier films in the series. 4/10 Incredible But True dir. Quentin Dupieux/2022/1h14m From the creator of Flat Eric and director of films about a killer tyre (Rubber) and a possessed jacket (Deerskin) comes Incredible But True. Alain Chabat and Lea Drucker play Alain and Marie, a middle aged couple who have just moved in to their dream house. The main thing that sold them on the house was a strange hatch in the basement that defies all laws of space and time. This drives a wedge between the couple as Marie becomes obsessed with it while Alain couldn't really care less, even wanting to fill it in with cement. There is also a subplot about Alain's boss having his p*nis replaced with an electronic one you can control with an app. Like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this film is about an unhealthy obsession with the past and the lengths you'll go to to recapture the feelings of your youth. Considering his previous work I was kind of expecting more from this. It feels restrained in some way, like there's some real weirdness ready to break out at any moment, but it never does, even when the electronic d*ck sets on fire. This is still a very enjoyable film however, with solid performances from the entire cast, with Benoit Magimel as Alain's boss Gerard stealing the show. 7.5/10 Edited October 2, 2023 by LimeGreenLegend 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,175 Posted October 8, 2023 Author Share Posted October 8, 2023 What I Watched This Week #89 (September 10 – 16) Werewolf by Night dir. Michael Giacchino/2022/55m Film composer Michael Giacchino turns his hand to directing with this one-off, horror tinged Marvel short. After the death of their leader a group of monster hunters are summoned to Bloodstone Temple where they play a deadly game for control of a powerful relic. This is a love letter to the classic Universal horror films of the 30's, and Giacchino does a great job of evoking that period through lighting, shot composition and camera movement. However, the characters still act like typical Marvel characters making jokes every other line which works in something like Spider-Man, but not here. Gael Garcia Bernal does a solid job in the lead, but whenever he starts making with the funny I was totally taken out of it. If the performances were as faithful to the classic style as the production and direction then this would be much better, as it is it's a nice, if slight, diversion from the usual MCU fare. 6/10 Pocahontas dir. Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg/1995/1h21m When English colonists land in 17th century Virginia John Smith (Mel Gibson) falls in love with daughter of the chief, Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), in a film that's about as historically accurate as Braveheart, which was another Mel Gibson film released in the same year...weird. The true story of Pocahontas is brutal and tragic and totally not the subject matter for a Disney film. Then there's the part of the film where, through the medium of song, the point is made that maybe both sides are as bad as each other when it comes to the Native Americans and the colonisers which is such a bad take that I couldn't even believe they were trying to make it. That aside, this is a beautifully crafted film with some breath-taking animation and the songs to match (apart from the one mentioned above), Colours of the Wind is an S-tier Disney song. There are also some good performances here. Gibson is kind of bland, but when you're playing someone called John Smith what can you do? Bedard is great as Pocahontas, brimming over with fierce determination and a lust for life, and David Ogden Stiers is suitably slimy as the villain of the piece Governor Ratcliffe. Don't take this as a history lesson, and don't read about the real Pocahontas unless you want to be sad and angry. But despite all the negatives that Disney magic is still there. 7/10 When We Were Kings dir. Leon Gast/1996/1h29m When We Were Kings is a documentary about the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and heavyweight champion George Foreman. Taking over twenty years to edit this isn't just about the fight but the massive cultural impact that it had. More than a fight, this was seen as a celebration of Blackness with Ali seen as a conquering hero returning home to Africa to a kings welcome, which perplexes Foreman who states at one point “I'm Blacker than him”. This clash of characters is the star of the film, the two men being polar opposites of each other, Ali brash and cocky with a motormouth that won't stop running and Foreman the quiet, brooding beast waiting to unleash his rage in the ring. As well as all of that we also get a look at how the always controversial Don King arranged the fight and there is footage of the concert that happened before the fight featuring acts like James Brown and B.B. King. Gast does an excellent job weaving all of these threads together in a way that each part informs the next, flowing as smoothly as Ali dances in the ring. This is one of those films where you don't need to be a fan of the subject to be totally enthralled by the real human drama unfolding before your eyes. I'm not a huge boxing fan but this is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. 9.5/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Delicatessen dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro/1991/1h39m This surreal, post-apocalyptic black comedy stars Dominique Pinon as Louison who gets a job in Clapet's (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) butcher shop. Unbeknownst to him is that after his assistants have outgrown their welcome Clapet butchers them and sells their meat. But he may be saved when Clapet's daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) falls in love with him. What stands out at first here is the brilliant production design, very much like the directors other films, particularly The City of Lost Children. The sickly colour palette of vomit greens and p*ss yellows make this feel like a slowly dying world, a diseased one. Pinon is an unconventional lead but I loved his performance, very clown like, almost slapstick at times, but that juxtaposition between that and the dark subject matter works for me. Personally I felt it could have gone a little darker, at times it feels like the film is holding back a bit, but this is still a fantastic, freaky little film. 8/10 Winter Light dir. Ingmar Bergman/1963/1h20m This drama from Ingmar Bergman concerns a priest, Tomas (Gunnar Bjornstrand), who has gone through a crisis of faith and feels like he has failed everyone in his life, his late wife, his parishioners, his God - if such a thing exists to him anymore. This is something that Bergman explored in The Seventh Seal, the tormenting silence of god, but here we get it in a more human way as Tomas is not being played with by Death, he has only his own conscience to fight. Bjornstrand is incredible in the lead role, his inner struggle played out in small movements and expressions before it explodes out of him in a scene late in the film. There is also great support from Ingrid Thulin as an aethist teacher, Marta, who is in love with him, and Max von Sydow as Jonas, one of his flock who has a crippling fear of nuclear war. These contrasts, love and war, theism and atheism, are bought out in the gorgeous lighting and direction. I used to think of Bergman as quite a cold and intellectual filmmaker, but the more of his work I watch the more I can feel the humanity and warmth, even in the darkest of situations. 9/10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 (edited) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) dir George Lucas I've never watched all the Star Wars films in story chronological order, so as I have Disney+ subscription (free gift for a year from my bank!) I am starting to do that now. I saw this when it was released at the cinema and I don't think I have ever watched it all the way through since. I remember it being a massive disappointment. For those who don't know, the film we call “Star Wars” is actually episode IV, although what eventually became the full 9 episodes changed a lot since whatever George Lucas' original “vision” actually was. Star Wars fans, like me, had been eager for him to make the other two trilogies for ages. What we got was a childish, silly, story with stupid, annoying characters. That was my recollection. Watching it again, decades later, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought. Jar Jar Binks is still awful, so are battle droids that talk in a childish way, show fear, have hand held guns and need to “see” holograms of their organic owners to communicate them (yes, I know Star Wars was never meant to be serious Sci Fi, but these were just too bad to take). The young Anakin Skywalker epitomises everything I hate in child roles, but it is forgivable since it makes sense for the whole story to start with the future Darth Vader as an innocent child. The rest of cast are reasonably good though. I like Liam Neeson and Ewen McGregor as the two main Jedis, however I wish the latter had not tried to do an Alec Guinness impression and just played Obi Wan Kenobi his own way. I liked the space battles as they have a similar feel to the original; I just wish the pilot that won the final battle was actually old enough to be in combat. But overall it is still is not good film, the bad aspects just out way the good for me. 4 / 10 Edited October 8, 2023 by djw180 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,838 Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) dir George Lucas After The Phantom Menace the trilogy could only get better, it does just manage to do that. This again is a film have only seen properly once before this time, when it was released in the cinema, and I did not have such bad recollections of it as I did with Phantom Menace. Jar Jar is not quite so annoying, mainly due to him being in it far less. The main problem with this is too much of the film is about the Anakin-Padme relationship, and that is is just not believable. There is no chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. He deservedly got a worst actor Razzie for this. She wasn't so bad, but I still did not get why Padme falls in love with Anakin. Other than this, it's OK, but that's all. It does a good enough job of continuing the story of how the Old Republic turned into the Empire. The title is a bit weird though, since it simply refers to something right at the end of the film, not the main focus of the plot. 5 / 10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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