djw180 6,846 Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 (edited) Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) dir JJ Abrahams When I saw this at the cinema I was not that impressed. Re-watching it now it seemed better, maybe that is the effect of having re-watching the crappy prequels. I know it was accused of just copying Episode IV; it starts on a desert planet, the central character doesn't yet know they have abilities in the force, their parents are long gone, there's maverick pilot, a lost droid, someone is looking for a lost Jedi Master etc, but that doesn't spoil it for me. Although I think it's fair to say that Rey, Fin, Poe and Kylo Ren have not become the household names Luke, Leia, Han Solo and Darth Vader still are. ------------------- This is bizarre. I can post some of my review, copying & pasting. But not all of it. It's just plain text. No idea what is going on. Anyway, 6.5 / 10 Edited December 18, 2023 by djw180 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarcomin71 3,840 Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 Tis’ the time of year for my annual watch of Die Hard. 😁 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 (edited) Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) - dir Rian Johnson I thought I had posted a review on this already, when I saw it at the cinema. But I am not sure and I can't find it if I have. It is quite a forgettable film though. Like the previous episode it is too long. I have nothing against long films if they have a good plot that utilises the time. But this is mediocre. I fell asleep at some point in the last 40 mins or so, and when I woke up I did not bother re-winding, it wasn't worth it and I didn't feel I had missed anything. The main new characters are too weak. Only the support cast like Holdo (Laura Dearn) and DJ (Benicio del Torro) add anything decent. The plot it poorly put together. We still don't know who the First Order really are, where they came from or how they have somehow managed to take control of the galaxy, and for that matter how do that have control of all the stormtroopers? The whole destroying an enemy space ship by a "bomber" dropping bombs, in zero gravity!!!!, is stupid. And then racing off to a distant solar system's casino to find a hacker to get back in time for him to break into a spaceship, all in 6 hours, WTF?!?! And how can it possibly be that easy to hack a Star Destroyer. It's like its been written by scraping the worst of high-school fan fiction. However, it is still Star Wars, and I watched (most of) it. It does still have some of the original cast to make it watchable. Only towards the end was I getting fed up with it. 4 / 10 Edited December 24, 2023 by djw180 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted December 24, 2023 Author Share Posted December 24, 2023 @djw180 the main thing that annoys me about The Last Jedi is that it starts to move toward this awesome idea of a mid-point between the dark side and the light side, a grey side if you will, with Kylo and Rey forming an alliance against that sith guy whose name I've totally forgot. But that's thrown away by the end and we're back to the generic good vs. evil thing. I also really like the very last shot of that kid with a broom using the force, showing that it lives on outside of the Skywalker family drama. Should've been the very last shot of the series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted December 25, 2023 Author Share Posted December 25, 2023 What I Watched This Week #100! (November 26 – December 2) Limelight dir. Charlie Chaplin/1952/2h17m Limelight is Chaplin's late career masterpiece in which he plays a washed up, alcoholic former vaudeville star, Calvero the tr*mp Comedian. He gains a purpose in life beyond finding his next drink when he saves young aspiring dancer Thereza (Claire Bloom) from a suicide attempt. Partly autobiographical – Chaplin's own father was an alcoholic vaudeville star who abandoned his family when Chaplin was an infant – this film gets to the heart of what made Chaplin so beloved, his heart. Calvero is a pathetic figure at the start of the film with every reason to be full of hate for the world which abandoned him, much like his father, yet he is still full of goodness and love. This also seems to act as a love letter and a farewell to a bygone age of entertainment, one which Chaplin grew up in, so it was wonderful when late in the film we get to see him act out a silent vaudeville act with fellow silent movie superstar Buster Keaton. Funny and heart-breaking in equal measures, this just shows how, well into his sixties, Chaplin was still the greatest and could make all of the worries of the world disappear with just a flash of his magical smile. 9.5/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Medusa Deluxe dir. Thomas Hardiman/2023/1h41m Before an elite hairdressing competition can begin one of the stylists is murdered backstage, leaving all of the other stylists and models stuck there while they wait for the police. Soon, paranoia takes hold and long standing resentments come to the forefront. This is a stylish film shot for the most part in one take that stalks through the hallways and backrooms like we're the killer stalking these poor, unsuspecting people. The performances are all good with some standouts, at the head of that line is Clare Perkins as foul-mouthed, confrotational hairdresser Cleve. This woman is a force of nature. She doesn't hold back for a second, which I wish I could say for the film as a whole. I really like this, don't get me wrong, but I feel like it could have gone more all out when it comes to satirising the world of extreme hairdressing. While watching it, it always felt like a Peter Strickland film but not quite as commited to the bit. That said, I still had a blast watching it, the characters are all interesting and the plot had me intrigued up to the end. 8.5/10 Porco Rosso dir. Hayao Miyazaki/1992/1h33m Porco Rosso is an animated film by possibly the greatest animation director of all time, Hayao Miyazaki. It is the story of an Italian WWI pilot who abandoned the air force in order to hunt air pirates over the Adriatic sea. He's also been cursed to have a pig's head - “I'd rather be a pig than a fascist”. The main plot sees Porco trying to avoid the Italian authoroties while also being challenged by American fighter pilot Curtis. It should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway, that the animation here is breathtaking. The sense of speed during the flight sequences is nothing short of thrilling, and the characters all have weight and personality in the way that they move. The film also does a really good job in showing how war can change a man, symbolised visually by the pig's head. The Porco Rosso we meet seems to be a cold shell of a man he once was, a man that the people close to him can still remember, and with their love he can start to remember who that man was too. 8/10 Carry On Emmanuelle dir. Gerald Thomas/1978/1h28m The penultimate entry in the series, Carry On Emmanuelle serves as a low point for the franchise and is one of the worst films I've ever seen. Kenneth Williams makes his last appearance playing ambassador Emile Prevert, a man more interested in body building than his beautiful and s*x starved wife Emmanuelle (Suzanne Daniels), who goes on to seduce pretty much every man she comes into contact with. Boring, t*wdry and cheap this is really only one for completionists. I'll give it one point for Williams, who is still giving it his all, and one point for the final appearances of other series regulars like Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims. Awful. 2/10 Portrait of Madame Yuki dir. Kenji Mizoguchi/1950/1h25m Hamako (Yoshiko Kuga) is delighted to get a job as maid to Madame Yuki (Michiyo Kogure), a noblewoman who she reveres as she seems to have a perfect life. But once inside her household she discovers that Yuki is suicidally miserable, trapped in a loveless marriage to her openly adulterous husband Naoyuki (Eijiro Yanagi). This is a beautifully sympathetic film about women and how Japanese soiciety at that time kept them constrained in narrow roles that had no alternitive, well, maybe one alternitive. Quiet and restrained, this is quite like the films of Yasujiro Ozu but less formally stylised. It does veer close to melodrama at the more heightened moments but that never really detracts from the impact of the film. 7.5/10 Hells Angels on Wheels dir. Richard Rush/1967/1h35m Jack Nicholson stars as Poet, a young man just fired from his job who falls in with the Hells Angels, led by Buddy (Adam Roarke). But he soon finds himself over his head when a fight turns into murder and Buddy's girlfriend starts to fall for him. This is a very early Nicholson film and he's really the only thing worth watching this film for. Even this young he's full of charisma and just commands every frame he's in. What really made me laugh was how juvinile the gang seems, and they had real bikers in this, including Sonny Barger, founder of the Hells Angels. The gangs from West Side Story are more threatening than these guys. 5/10 The Wild One dir. Laszlo Benedek/1953/1h19m Sticking with the biker gang theme, The Wild One stars Marlon Brando as Johnny, leader of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, raising hell in the small town of Wrightsville where he falls in love with the sheriff's daughter Kathie (Mary Murphy). This is much like Hells Angels on Wheels in that the gang comes across as a bunch of kids, but at least here they actually are a bunch of kids. What this film also has to its advantage is Brando, who has never been cooler than he is here. Especially when he's asked “what are you rebelling against Johnny?” and he sneers back “whatta ya got?”. 8/10 Rebel Without a Cause dir. Nicholas Ray/1955/1h51m From one icon of rebellious youth to perhaps the biggest icon of rebellious youth as James Dean stars as Jim Stark, troublemaking teen looking for a fresh start in a new town where he soon forms a bond with fellow outcasts Judy (Natalie Wood) and Plato (Sal Mineo). This film was not what I was expecting at all. I thought James Dean was going to be playing some bad boy who doesn't care about the world, but instead he's a caring, thoughtful person. The kind of person who would turn themselves into the police after being involved in a fatal game of chicken, or become almost like a father figure to a younger, even more messed up kid in Plato. This whole film is about daddy issues, with the main trio all having their own problems with their fathers. This film is more a critique of bad parenting than a film about how naughty teenagers are. The very tragic ending is made even more tragic from the knowledge of what became of the three leads, who all met their own tragically early ends. 8.5/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 16 hours ago, LimeGreenLegend said: @djw180 the main thing that annoys me about The Last Jedi is that it starts to move toward this awesome idea of a mid-point between the dark side and the light side, a grey side if you will, with Kylo and Rey forming an alliance against that sith guy whose name I've totally forgot. But that's thrown away by the end and we're back to the generic good vs. evil thing. I also really like the very last shot of that kid with a broom using the force, showing that it lives on outside of the Skywalker family drama. Should've been the very last shot of the series. Yes, totally agree on both of those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted December 30, 2023 Author Share Posted December 30, 2023 It's time for the only end of year list that matters, Lime's best films of 2023! There are still a bunch of new releases that I've yet to see that would probably make the list like Poor Things, Past Lives and Killers of the Flower Moon, which would force out the lower entries. But as it stands, here are the 10 best new films of 2023 (that I've seen). 10. Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 I'm not the biggest MCU fan but this was fantastic. 9. They Cloned Tyrone Brilliantly bizarre sci-fi. 8. Medusa Deluxe A stylish murder mystery at a hairdressing competition. 7. Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl Short Film Collection Anderson and Dahl make a perfect match and these four shorts prove that. 6. Rye Lane A modern rom-com that's as funny as it is sweet. 5. Scrapper An absent father tries to bond with his independent young daughter. 4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Two superhero films in my best of the year list? They must be really good. 3. Anatomy of a Fall French courtroom drama that lets you draw your own conclusions. 2. Bottoms Two loser l*sbians in their last year of high school start a fight club in order to f*ck hot cheerleaders. 1. Barbie I am Kenough. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. I gave this a short review when I saw it a couple of years ago. My opinion hasn't changed. It is a mediocre film. What struck me most was how much of it I had forgot. I remembered the opening and the ending, but not much in-between. As I watched it I thought at first this was a special edition with scenes cut from the version I had previously seen. But when this went on for too long I realised I had simply completely forgot most of it. I don't know if that really makes it better or worse than the previous one where I think I only remembered that because of the bits that I found really bad. This one is not actually that bad a film; there is nothing in it I found silly, childish or implausible. It's just a bit bland. The plot makes the previous episode seem even worse. The usual Star Wars opening rolling text tells us of a message apparently from Emperor Palpatine, who we saw killed in Episode VI, but we know death is not the end for Jedi so might not be for the Sith either. This should not have been told to us at this point, it should have been the actual ending of Episode VIII. It does make it seem like whoever really wrote episodes VII to IX had no overall vision for where the story would go and was just making it up as they went along. Anyway, back to this episode. I liked the ending, especially one of my favourite minor characters, Wedge, making an appearance and also good to see Lando and Han again. 5 / 10 A Haunting in Venice (2023) dir Kenneth Branagh Branagh's latest film adaptation of a Agatha Christie story with the director, as usual, in the lead role as Hercule Poirot. Unlike his previous two, this one is not a direct adaptation of a novel but loosely based on one. The amateur detective has retired to Venice, and wants no more cases to solve. But an author friend, played by Tina Frey, persuades him to come with her to a séance in order to work out how the medium, Michelle Yeoh, fools people into thinking she really can talk to the dead. Given the film's title and the usual Christie style of whodunnit, it is no surprise when strange things start to occur and people start being found murdered. You could just about count this as a horror film as there are supernatural / ghost elements, but it's not gory or that scary. The cast is very good, as you would expect from the director. The story is interesting but it's not a thriller, it's more a case of watching Poirot gradually deduce who the killer is. The setting not quite as impressive as could have been in Venice since it is almost entirely set inside a building a night. But it's well made, well acted, and well worth watching. 7 / 10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 What I Watched This Week #101 (December 3 – 9) Dinosaur dir. Ralph Zondag, Eric Leighton/2000/1h22m Disney's first film of the new millennium is their first real attempt at a computer animated film, spurred on no doubt by the huge success of Pixar, and after watching it they really should have stuck with traditional animation. It is a simple survival story about young orphaned dinosaur Aladar (D.B. Sweeney) joining a herd searching for a new home after theirs was destroyed by meteors. This may have looked decent when it was released, but CGI ages badly and this is no exception. It is so ugly. What makes matters worse is that a lot of the backgrounds are actual footage of jungles and plains, making the PS2 cutscene characters stand out even more. The worst thing about this film though is that it is bland in every aspect. The characters are bland, the threat is bland, the score is bland. This is just The Land Before Time but boring and drab and rough on the eyes. 3/10 Carry On Columbus dir. Gerald Thomas/1992/1h31m This is it! This is the end! It's been a long hard road but I'm finally at the 31st and final Carry On film, Carry On Columbus. Coming nearly fifteen years after the previous entry – Carry On Emmanuelle - this was an attempt to reboot the series with a handful of young alternative comedians like Rik Mayall, Alexei Sayle and Julian Clary thrown into the mix alongside some familiar faces. None of the main series regulars are here, several of them dead by this point, but we do see the return of Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins and Leslie Phillips who each starred in a handful of the early films. Dale takes the lead as Christopher Columbus, searching for new trade routes to the East, with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Mayall) wanting to stop him, sending a spy, Fatima (Sara Crowe) to scupper his plans. I'm glad to say that this is better than Emmanuelle, but it's still not a great film. I love Rik Mayall so it gets bonus points for putting him in the first scene, but sadly that's his only scene. Julian Clary got the most laughs out of me, bringing all the camp of Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey and then some, and Dale is a likeable lead who you want to succeed. Not really a fitting end to England's most prolific film series – we need six more Bond films before he hits 31 – but at least it's an end. 5/10 The Night of the Party dir. Michael Powell/1935/1h1m (no trailer so here's the entire film) The Night of the Party is a murder mystery and an early film from one of England's most respected filmmakers, Michael Powell. A newspaper publisher, Lord Studholme (Malcolm Keen), with more enemies than friends hosts a dinner party. During a game of murder he is found actually murdered and all signs point to his disgruntled secretary Guy (Ian Hunter). Being only an hour long this feels underdeveloped, especially for a murder mystery, as we seem to barrel through the possible suspects before coming to a rather abrupt resolution. But it is still entertaining for a few reasons. One is the performance of Ernest Thesiger as Adrian Chiddiatt, a camp and flighty author who doesn't like all the negative reviews he gets in Sutdholme's papers. Secondly is the very proper Englishness of it all where everyone is very polite, even when they're insulting one another in clipped received pronunciation. Finally, I'm always interested in seeing early films by great directors, and while it comes nowhere near to his later classics like A Matter of Life and Death and Peeping Tom, it is still an entertaining diversion. 6/10 Anatomy of a Fall dir. Justine Triet/2023/2h32m Sandra (Sandra Huller) is the sole suspect of her husband Samuel's (Samuel Theis) murder when he is found dead after suffering a fatal fall, but was it murder or was it suicide, or perhaps just an accident? What is brilliant about this courtroom drama is that we are totally left to make up our own conclusions. There is an outcome to the trial depicted here but that doesn't really answer any of our questions. The performance by Huller is phenomenal with her seeming like the totally innocent wife of a cruel and taunting husband one scene, and a cold and calculated woman who browbeat her husband with her own literary success as he struggles to write his own novel in the next. There's one incredible scene where a secret audio recording that Samuel made of one of their arguments is played in court. We flashback to watch the events unfold ourselves but just as things are about to go nuclear we cut back to the courtroom where Sandra has to sit and listen to it, her dirty laundry being aired publicly, her face a study in passivity but with so much emotion under the surface. One of the best films of the year. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Ikarie XB 1 dir. Jindrich Polak/1963/1h28m In the far future the spaceship Ikarie XB 1 is on a mission to investigate a planet near Alpha Centauri, but the strains of the mission, some trouble with a derelict ship loaded with nukes and a dark star that seems to send people mad kinda get in the way. At first I was expecting this to be a kitsch and campy sci-fi film like Lost in Space or Forbidden Planet, but this is much closer in tone to 2001: A Space Odyssey with lots of philosophical musings about humanity and our place in the universe. This is also a gorgeous looking film with some brilliant production design that kind of straddles the line between 50's and 60's sci-fi. This isn't a simple film and it gives you no hints as to meaning, but it's well worth the attention as this is very ahead of its time. 8/10 Good Burger dir. Brian Robbins/1997/1h35m After trashing his neighbour's car teenage Dexter (Kenan Thompson) needs to get a summer job to pay for the repairs. This eventually leads him to working at the local Good Burger where he meets the stupendously idiotic Ed (Kel Mitchell), the two of them leading the fight against the soon to open Mondo Burger. This is such a fun film that I enjoyed now as much as I did when I was ten. Kenan and Kel have such good chemistry together having already worked together for years even at this young age. This is just Dumb and Dumber for kids and it just works. Most of that is down to Mitchell as Ed. A character this stupid runs the risk of just being annoying, but he's so much like a sweet innocent little puppy that it's just kind of adorable. He made me do a genuine real life spit take with one scene where he wakes up late to a blaring alarm clock, grabs it and looks at the time and just exclaims “whoa! A clock!”. 8/10 Good Burger 2 dir. Phil Traill/2023/1h31m Did you know there's a Good Burger 2? Me neither until I saw a random YouTube video about it. Kenan and Kel are back as Dex and Ed, with Dex returning to work at Good Burger (which Ed now owns) after his latest business scheme sends his money up in flames. I'm pleased to report that this doesn't suck like you'd think it would. Kenan and Kel are just fun to watch together. Thankfully Ed is just as stupid and adorable as ever, and now he has a son who's just as stupid as he is. I don't know if there's really anything substantial to say about this, it's just a decent hit of nostalgia for people rapidly approaching middle age. Plus, in divisive times like these are, we all need to remember Ed's wise words – I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, cos we're all dudes yeah. 7/10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 (edited) Climax (2018) dir Gaspar Noé An unusual French film about weird events at a party for a modern dance company. The way it is made is quite unique (to me anyway). It appears to start with very short film said to be based on a true story. That is followed by interview tapes from the characters auditioning for the dance company. The credits are scattered throughout the film. Some early scenes are just conversations between pairs of characters, edited quite disjointedly – I assume deliberately. But most unusually it has some very different camera angles with shots from directly above, upside down etc. The actual story is quite basic; at the party someone spikes the drinks with LSD and over the course of the evening all the characters get progressively crazier and crazier. Some attack each other, some injure themselves, quite a few try to have s*x with one or more of the others. There is a lot of dancing in it, as you'd expect given it's at a party and the characters are all dancers. I'd imagine if you were into modern dance you may enjoy it much more than I did. But for me the weird dancing got a little too much at times. However it is interesting and watchable, just don't expect the usual sort of film narrative. 7 / 10 Edited January 7 by djw180 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 The X Files: I want to Believe (2008) die Chris Carter The second X Files feature film, made 6 years after the original TV series had ended (although it would return a few years later). Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) have gone their separate ways. She is now a doctor he is … well we're not really told. At the end of the TV series he was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death, escaped with the help of some senior FBI agents, and narrowly escaped being killed by the secret-alien-collaborator-conspirators who framed him; so he has presumably been in hiding ever since. But quite how he has not been found is not clear. However as far the FBI are concerned, all is forgiven as they have a missing agent and a psychic ex-priest giving them clues which seem to be credible. So the agents leading the case, played by Amanda Peet and Xzibit, need the assistance of the former paranormal expert. There's no aliens in this. Is all about the hunt for the missing agent, further crimes uncovered and whether they believe the psychic or not. The latter is brilliantly portrayed by Billy Connolly (for those who don't know him, he is mainly a stand-up comedian, but has done a couple of other films). It's a tough role for him, totally serious, not the slightest comedy element, as his character is a convicted child-r*pist who has, we assume, spent a long time in jail. I think this would stand-alone as a paranormal murder mystery for those who never saw the TV series. Is well made with some good cinematography. 7 / 10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 (edited) What I Watched This Wek #102 (December 10-16) The Emperor's New Groove dir. Mark Dindal/2000/1h18m When ancient Incan emperor Kuzco (David sp*de) is turned into a llama by his traitorous advisor Yzma (Eartha Kitt) he must team up with lowly villager Pacha (John Goodman) - whose home he wanted to destroy in order to build a summer palace - to turn back to normal and get his empire back. Thankfully Disney has returned to traditional animation here after the ugly mess of Dinosaur and it looks great. I'm pretty much totally ignorant of post-millennium Disney films so didn't know what to expect here and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Kuzco is a bit grating at times with how over the top selfish he is, but it is so ridiculous at times that it becomes funny. sp*de is a great casting choice for this role because he has that quality of being an endearing *sshole. Goodman plays the straight man here and is the emotional heart of the film, which suits his warm, deep voice, the voice of reason. The real star though is Patrick Warburton as Yzma's useless assistant Kronk, a moronic meathead who steals the show so hard that the sequel is all about him. The soundtrack doesn't really stand out, and there aren't and particular songs that stuck in my head. This isn't in the same class as their best but is still very much worth a watch. 7/10 The Rules of the Game dir. Jean Renoir/1939/1h46m The Rules of the Game is a French drama/comedy of manners about a group of upper class toffs spending a weekend at the chateau of Robert the Marquis de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio), whose wife Christine (Nora Gregor) is the object of affection not just to him. There's a very satisfying precision to how this film unfolds which leads up to the inevitably tragic ending. It's like you can feel all of the pieces moving into place, but the way it's executed - through the performances and direction - still makes it feel sudden and shocking when it comes. Christine is a character who is trapped by her circumstances, and it's telling that the man she loves most, Andre (Roland Toutain), is a famed pilot, someone who could literally whisk her away to the other side of the world. But there is a still a light touch to this film, even in the dramatic moments, that does somewhat take away from the impact of those moments but it's so well constructed and performed that it never becomes a problem. 8.5/10 I Hired a Contract Killer dir. Aki Kaurismaki/1990/1h20m When Henri (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is fired from his job he realises he has nothing else to live for, so he decides to kill himself. Unable to do the deed he instead hires an assassin and puts a hit out on himself. While he waits for death he visits the local pub for the first time and instantly falls in love with local flower seller Margaret (Margi Clarke) and decides he wants to live. Unfortunately he is unable to get back in contact with his assassin (Kenneth Colley) in order to cancel the job. It's been a while since I've watched a Kaurismaki film so it was nice to dive back into his absurd world. His is a very distinctive style, everything played so deadpan that it's almost ridiculous how dry it is. But despite the cold surface there is so much depth of emotion here. Henri is such a sad and pathetic figure at the start of the film that when he starts to live a little you almost want to cheer him on and root for his happiness. Touching and funny and almost surreal in its absurdity, this would make a great entry point into the filmography of one of the most idiosyncratic directors still working. 9/10 There is more to this post but it won't let me post any more for some reason. Anyway, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget gets a 6.5/10 and The Muppet Christmas Carol gets a 10/10 and is my film of the week! Edited January 22 by LimeGreenLegend 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) Thelma & Louise (1991) dir Ridley Scott Geena Davies and Susan Sarandon star as the title characters in a very different type of road movie with an impressive cast. Louise is a waitress and Thelma a mistreated housewife in early 1990s Arkansas. They set off for a weekend away, but events overtake them, and they are soon on the run from the police, lead by Harvey Keitel's detective. They meet up with a young Brad Pitt (playing a armed robber getting away from his parole officer) and Michael Madsen plays Louise's boyfriend Jimmy. It's somewhat of an iconic film of it's time, especially the very poignant, stunning, ending at the Grand Canyon, and one I have always really liked. It has a brilliant, Oscar winning, screenplay by Callie Khouri and a decent score by Hans Zimmer. It has some funny moments, e.g. the dope smoking cyclist “helping” a trapped police officer by blowing smoke though the air holes of the car trunk he is locked inside, but overall it is quite a serious film about two women trying to get away from their dead-end lives, and ultimately determined that nothing will make them go back, no matter what price they have to pay. There are some fantastic shots of background characters, not saying anything, just one of the main characters looking at them and thinking "that could be me", and there is other great cinematography, as you would expect from an early Ridley Scott film, of the natural land scape. It also at times has a bit of a Tarrantino feel, but that is maybe due to the who the supporting cast are. 9 / 10 Edited January 22 by djw180 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) What I Watched This Week #103 (December 17 – 23) Miracle on 34th Street dir. George Seaton/1947/1h36m A kindly old man who calls himself Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is hired by a Macy's executive, Doris (Maureen O'Hara), to work in the department store over the holidays. But when he continues to insist that he is the real Santa Claus his sanity is questioned, and a trial is held to determine whether he is the real deal or not. When I started watching this Christmas classic I wasn't expecting it to end in a courtroom and I loved every moment. My favourite thing about this film is that we are never actually told if he is Father Christmas or not. For all we know he could actually be just a sweet old man who thinks he's Santa. Sure, you're led to believe that he is from what we see in the film, but we never see him do anything magical. Gwenn is excellent as Kringle, always with a twinkle in his eye spreading warmth and happiness where ever he goes. This also stars a very young Natalie Wood – later a lead in films like West Side Story and The Searchers – as Doris's young daughter who isn't a believer at the start of the film, but learns the magic of the season from Kris Kringle. A wonderfully sweet and funny film that's like a cinematic cup of cocoa. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! How the Grinch Stole Christmas dir. Ron Howard/2000/1h44m Jim Carrey stars in the title role of this Dr. Seuss adaptation. The Grinch is an outcast in the land of Whoville, and he hates Christmas most of all, so he decides to steal it. But a precocious young girl, Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen), sees past his monstrous exterior and wants to help him feel the joy of the season. The production design here is great with Whoville and the characters looking like they jumped straight out of the pages of the book. The make up of The Grinch himself is especially good and still holds up today. My main problem here is the problem I have with a lot of Carrey's films in that a lot of the time he's being Jim Carrey and not the character he's playing. It really took me out of the film whenever he hit that top gear and starts doing his usual schtick with out of place references and impressions. But, when he does rein it in, he is a fantastic Grinch with a wonderfully slimy slow smile and spider-like movements. 6.5/10 The Nightmare Before Christmas dir. Henry Selick/1993/1h16m Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), the king of Halloween Town, is feeling stuck in a rut with the same old routine, so he is enchanted when he discovers Christmas Town, hatching a plot to kidnap Santa and deliver his own brand of yuletide joy. Made with stop-motion animation Selick does an incredible job in bringing the mind of Tim Burton to life, so much so that many people just assume he directed it himself. It's such a pure distillation of everything that Burton is that it almost feels like a parody of his style, albeit a loving one. The character and production design are basically Burton's illustrations bought to life in a way that wasn't possible in live action at the time, at least not to this scale. The cherry on top is that this is also a musical, with Burton's frequent composer Danny Elfman writing the songs as well as the score and providing Jack's singing voice. The whole soundtrack is brilliant and will be stuck in your head for weeks afterwards. 9/10 Home Alone dir. Chris Columbus/1990/1h43m When he is inadvertently left home alone over the Christmas holidays, eight year old Kevin McCallister (Macauly Culkin) has to defend it from incompetent crooks The Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern). Everyone remembers the ending of this film where Kevin booby traps his home guerrilla style, but what is surprising is how little time this sequence actually takes up, just about ten minutes right at the end. But what a ten minutes it is, full of some of the best violent slapstick and pratfalls since the silent era. The stunt team really earned their pay on this one. That whole scene could have been played like a silent film, but then we'd miss out on one of, if not the best cinematic screams in film history when Stern gets a tarantula placed on his face. It really is a thing of beauty. Culkin is an excellent lead, proving why he was one of the biggest child stars of all time, being able to portray both innocence and a devilish prankster side with an honest sincerity. He's like a real life Bart Simpson. The real star though is Pesci, who manages to be even more threatening here than in Goodfellas, which was released the same year. Add to that a John Williams score that goes way harder than it has any right to and you've got yourself a genuine modern Christmas classic. 9/10 Klaus dir. Sergio Pablos/2019/1h36m Klaus is an animated Christmas film directed by Sergio Pablos which presents an alternative origin story for Santa Claus. It stars Jason Schwartzman as Jesper, the lazy, entitled son of the head postmaster general. Sick of his son's attitude he gives him an ultimatum; establish a postal service in the far flung frozen northern town of Smeerensburg in one year or he will be cut off. To make matters worse, everyone in the town belongs to one of two clans, the Krums and the Ellingboes, who are locked in a generations long blood feud, so no one is really in the mood for writing letters. Jesper then concocts a story for all of the town's children that if they write a letter to the reclusive toymaker Klaus (JK Simmons) he will bring them a toy. This is a fantastic film in every respect, but the best thing is the animation. This is traditional 2D animation, but there are times, thanks to the lighting and the dynamic, flowing direction, that it looks like 3D. It has a real lush storybook feel to it that feels both unique and also like classic 2D animation. The cast is mostly great. JK Simmons is both intimidating and warm. Joan Cusack is brilliantly withering as the head of the Krum clan, and Norm Macdonald lends his dry sarcastic humour to the film as the ferryman. Schwartzman, to me, is grating at the start of the film. That is part of his character, but it was a bit too much on a couple of occasions. This softens after he arrives in Smeerensburg and the film becomes a sort of fish out of water deal. My other small negative is the use of modern pop songs in a couple of scenes, it really didn't fit and kind of detracts from the otherwise great score. In the future this will become a Christmas classic, something that will be re-watched year after year. It's sentimental but not schmaltzy, funny without being simple or crude and every frame is a joy to look at. If you're looking for something seasonal for the whole family to watch this Christmas then you won't do any better than this. 9/10 Scrooged dir. Richard Donner/1988/1h41m Bill Murray stars as Frank Cross, a miserable, miserly TV executive in this modernised adaptation of A Christmas Carol. During a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol on his network – which they insist on calling Scrooge, something I found more annoying that I should have – he is visited by a succession of spooky visitors who teach him the true meaning of the season. It's hard to mess up this story, and this is a very good version with Murray brilliant at playing a total *sshole (not much acting needed) who you can't help but love at the end. The ghosts in this film are unique from any other version I've seen, apart from the last one but he's basically Death and you can't stray far from that. My favourite is Carol Kane's Ghost of Christmas Present, a sickly sweet fairy with a psychotically violent streak. The solid supporting cast also includes Bobcat Goldthwaite as this film's Bob Cratchit and Robert Mitchum as the head of the network who's obsessed with making programmes for cats. One thing I don't really like about this version is the love interest, Claire (Karen Allen). I just don't get how she stayed in this *sshole's life and their reunion at the end feels forced and unearned. It's nothing to do with her performance, it's just not very well written. 8/10 Santa with Muscles dir. John Murlowski/1996/1h38m Hulk Hogan stars as egotistical millionaire Blake Thorne who suffers a head injury and is convinced that he is the real Santa in a very boring and convoluted way that I can't be bothered to recount. He then locks horns with evil scientist Ebner Frost (Ed Begly Jr.) who wants to take over and destroy a local orphanage, for some reason, which counts a young Mila Kunis as one of their last remaining orphans. I thought this was gonna be one of those so-bad-it's-good films like Hercules in New York, Can't Stop the Music or The Room, but this is just bad. Its biggest sin is being plain boring. Kunis is the best cast member, which is damning it with faint praise, the characters are more one dimensional than a piece of paper and it looks like a cheap TV movie. The most interesting thing about this film is that it was produced by Jordan Belfort, the real life Wolf of Wall Street who was played by Leonardo Di Caprio in Scorsese's film of the same name. Why didn't that film include a scene of him putting together this piece of sh*t? 1/10 Edited January 22 by LimeGreenLegend 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 A Fist Full of Dynamite (1971) dir Sergio Leone Leone's final western, set in 1913 in Mexico, starring Rod Steiger as bandit Juan and James Coburn as Irish explosives expert John (a member of the Irish Volunteer Army, on the run from the British authorities then ruling Ireland). They form an unlikely partnership and become heroes of Mexican revolution. At 2.5 hrs it's quite long and has a few very slow, low dialogue scenes (which I like), as you might expect, but it doesn't seem that long. Many scenes don't feel like a western; I don't think either Juan or John ever rides a horse; the latter has a motorcycle. They also don't use hand guns the way say a Clint Eastwood character does. In fact one of the best action scenes sees them taking on a detachment of troops with a couple of machine guns and few well placed sticks of dynamite. That brings me to the title. This is a film with many names. It's also known as “Duck You Sucker!”, after an oft repeated line John shouts before one of his explosions, and in the Italian version “Giu la testsa” (Duck Your Head). I honestly don't known which was the proper name, but the credits I saw imply “Duck You Sucker”. To me “A Fistful of Dynamite” fits better with other Leone films. The score is, of course, by Ennio Morricone. It's not one of his better ones for me. There's isn't much to it. One theme keeps getting repeated in flashbacks John has to then friends he left behind in Ireland. 7 / 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 (edited) What I Watched This Week #104 (December 24 – 31) The Bishop's Wife dir. Henry Koster/1947/1h49m David Niven plays a Bishop who has become so single minded with his plans for a new cathedral that he starts to neglect his flock and his wife Julia (Loretta Young) so much so that he's in danger of losing them. An angel is sent to make him get his priorities right in the form of Cary Grant's Dudley, who everyone immediately falls in love with except for Henry, who thinks he is there to replace him. This is kinda like A Christmas Carol but if there was only one ghost and it didn't stop flirting with Mrs. Scrooge. Grant totally carries this film with his easy, natural charm. He's so charismatic that I was rooting for him to run away with Julia. He sort of overshadows Niven who is playing against type here as a stuck up clergyman when he's usually the one charming the pants off of everyone. This also reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life in that it's a Christmas film that's not really got much to do with Christmas but is so infused with the spirit of the season and a warm feeling of hope and goodwill that you would think otherwise. 8/10 It's a Wonderful Life dir. Frank Capra/1946/2h10m I'm finishing off my ten days of Christmas films with the grand mack daddy of them all, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. James Stewart plays George Bailey, a man who has spent his entire life helping other people at his own expense but is driven to the brink of suicide on Christmas eve by the evil and greedy Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). In steps Clarence (Henry Travers), an angel who makes George realise how he really does have a wonderful life by showing him what the world would be like if he were never born (spoilers: it's not good). This film is pretty much perfect in every way. The story is simple yet powerful with a fantastic script full of memorable characters. Capra's direction isn't flashy but is full of nice touches like his use of freeze frames and narration from Clarence. The performances are superb throughout with Stewart giving one of the best of his career. His fall from the ultimate optimist to a man on the brink of total self destruction is expertly played in both big moments and small. And the ending feels like Capra was able to just film a real miracle as the whole town comes together to show George just how important he is. No man is a failure who has friends. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Once Upon a Studio dir. Dan Abraham, Trent Correy/2023/9m After the last employees have left the building for the day, all of the animated characters at Disney studios come together in order to take a group photograph to commemorate its centenary. As we move through the hallways one hundred years of animated history comes to life as characters old and new jump out of artwork hung on the walls in an act of pure fan service. This could feel like corporate self congratulations, but there is just something magical about seeing all of these characters interacting, and when they started to sing When You Wish Upon a Star I couldn't help but shed a few tears. A very understated way to celebrate such a huge landmark, maybe it should've been something more but what we got is still pretty special. 8/10 Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire dir. Zack Snyder/2023/2h14m “It's like Star Wars, but in space”. That is an actual quote by Zack Snyder from an interview with Simon Mayo and it pretty much sums up how insultingly moronic and insipid this film is. As well as being a rejected script for an actual Star Wars film this is also a knockoff of Seven Samurai, which is three and a half hours long, so it's a testament to Snyder's skill as a filmmaker that he manages to make this feel twice as long. Sofia Boutella stars as Kora, a young woman with a mysterious past (of course) who is sent to assemble a group of fighters to help defend a small farming colony. And that's pretty much the whole film because this is only part one of a grand and epic saga because everything has to be a franchise these days in the world of blockbuster films. What this reminded me the most of though is Cats. The whole plot of Cats is a cat appears, sings a song about who they are, then they f*ck off again until the end. In this we meet a badass who then has a huge action scene to show how much of a badass they are, then they do nothing for the rest of the film. My life is worse for having seen this, by far the worst film of the year. 1/10 The Vagabond dir. Charlie Chaplin/1916/24m In this early Chaplin short he plays a street musician who rescues a woman from a group of gypsies who had kidnapped her, but she has also caught the eye of an artist who sees her as his muse. This is one of the earliest Chaplin films I've seen that focuses more on the drama and bittersweet romance than the gags, although those are still there. The way the tr*mp sacrifices his own happiness for the wellbeing of the woman is a step away from the selfish troublemaker that the character started as. 7/10 Maestro dir. Bradley Cooper/2023/2h11m Bradley Cooper directs as well as stars in the lead role of Leonard Bernstein in this biopic of the legendary composer. This film spans his entire career, but the focus is on his decades long relationship with his wife Felicia (Carey Mulligan) whom he cheated on several times with different men. While this is a well made film it all feels very surface level, like reading the Wikipedia entry on the man. His love and passion for music is only really evident in an admittedly incredible scene where he conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at Ely Cathedral. This is also true about his relationship with Felicia which to me only felt real in a scene where they have an argument on Thanksgiving at their New York apartment, a giant inflatable Snoopy from the parade ironically floating by afterwards. Cooper and Mulligan are both excellent actors but for most of this I never believed who they were, Cooper more so. This is a beautiful looking film with amazing music, but another recent film like TAR shows how you can really get beneath the skin of a complicated, genius level composer. 6.5/10 Theater Camp dir. Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman/2023/1h33m This mockumentary follows the staff of a theater camp that is struggling to stay afloat after their founder Joan falls into a coma. It is up to staff members Amos and Rebecca-Diane (Ben Platt, Molly Gordon) and Joan's idiot crypto bro son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) to save it. This is like Spinal Tap for musicals and is surprisingly hilarious. Tatro is brilliant as a guy totally out of his element, and Platt and Gordon are a great double act. The show stopping musical the camp kids put on at the end, Joan, Still, is something I would actually pay to see. If you like films like Spinal Tap, Best in Show or any other mockumentary then you'll love this, even if you don't like musicals. Extra marks for the performance of Ayo Edebiri – hilarious in one of my favourite films from last year, Bottoms – as a clueless teacher who knows nothing about theater. 9/10 Bluebeard's Castle dir. Michael Powell/1963/1h This late career work from legendary British director Michael Powell is a cinematic adaptation of Bela Bartok's opera. Set on a brilliantly expressionistic stage, Duke Bluebeard (Norman Foster) slowly reveals to his new wife Judit (Ana Raquel Satre) what lies behind each the mysterious doors in his castle. Each one shows something more and more twisted but she can't stop, eventually opening the final door revealing all of his previous wives. Sung in German, there are no subtitles here, only a description of what's happening in each scene, but the emotive performances from Foster and Satre tell you everything you need to know. Foster is a commanding presence with an incredible voice that booms and echoes around the halls of his castle, Satre is a shining bright spot, briefly illuminating those same halls. I'm not the biggest opera fan, in fact this is the first full one I've seen, but the design and quality of the performances kept me enchanted, even when I didn't know what was happening. 7/10 Edited January 29 by LimeGreenLegend 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 (edited) What I Watched This Week #105 (January 1 – 7 2024) Monty Python's Life of Brian dir. Terry Jones/1979/1h34 Born at the same time as Jesus – just a few stables over – Brian (Graham Chapman) wants nothing more than to live an ordinary life, but thanks to some ridiculous circumstances he is mistaken for the messiah, even though he's just a very naughty boy, and becomes the bloody Roman's most wanted criminal. The Meaning of Life is my favourite Python film but there's no denying that this is their greatest work and one of the best comedies ever made. I must have seen this film a couple of dozen times now but it still makes me laugh out loud despite being able to pretty much recite the script word for word. I don't think I could actually pick my favourite scene, there's like an eighteen-way tie for first place. They even make a lengthy lecture on the intricacies of Latin grammar funny. The performances are all fantastic, but Chapman really excels in the lead and gets a chance to really show his range. The fact that he only plays Brian (apart from a brief role as Biggus Dickus) makes him stand out from the other Pythons who each play several roles, as they usually do. That was also true in Holy Grail where he played King Arthur, but there's more of an actual plot here for him to work with. Plus it ends with a song and dance routine where everyone is strung up on crucifixes, what more could you want? 10/10 Brief Encounter dir. David Lean/1945/1h26m Brief Encounter is a romantic drama from legendary British director David Lean, best known for the epic Lawrence of Arabia. This is quite a different film from that one, but feels just as epic emotionally. Celia Johnson stars as Laura, a married suburban housewife, who starts a friendship with with Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who is also married, after a chance meeting during her weekly shopping trip into town. These weekly trips become the highlight of her week and we witness their friendship slowly blossom into a deep and passionate love, but the consequences that their actions would have on their families start to weigh heavily on them and some hard decisions need to be made. This is one of the best romance films I've ever seen and it is because of that slow build that their relationship has, it all feels so real and earned. What also makes this film stand out is the narration from Laura which is framed as a letter she is writing to her husband trying to explain it all. Rather than being used for easy exposition the narration is used to add depth to her character. The emotional intensity of their final meeting left me breathless and heartbroken. If you think that films like this aren't for you then you need to check this out. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Distant Voices, Still Lives dir. Terence Davies/1988/1h24m Distant Voices, Still Lives is an autobiographical film from Terence Davies centred on a working class family in Liverpool in the 40's and 50's. Rather than having a standard narrative this is made up of self contained scenes that all add up to a portrait of this family, split into two distinct halves. The first half, Distant Voices, is set in the post-war period where the family lives under the rule of an abusive, violent, alcoholic father (Pete Postlethwaite). The second, in the 50's, is more optimistic. Father is dead, the children have grown up and there seems like a chance of a happy future. A constant throughout are scenes set in the local pub where the patrons like to burst into song and it is beautiful, almost ritualistic. Quite unlike any other autobiographical film I've seen, this feels like flipping through a family album, but one that doesn't just document the happy times. Postlethwaite is a domineering presence in the first half of the film, but when he's gone you don't miss that presence, more that there's a palpable sense of relief. Film like a memory. 9/10 Uncle Yanco dir. Agnes Varda/1967/18m This documentary short records filmmaker Agnes Varda's first meeting with a distant relative who she didn't know even existed until recently, her Uncle Yanco. He is Greek. He is Great. An old hippy living on a boat in Sausalito making art and acting like a wise old mage to the younger hippies he's almost as much of a character as Varda. The two immediately get on like a houseboat on fire, and that infectious warmth that they both have in bucketfuls is communicated perfectly by Varda's fun and free style of filmmaking. Every frame of her films shows how much she enjoys doing what she does, and she is always looking for inventive ways to tell stories. This film is no different. Totally enchanting. 9/10 The Idle Class dir. Charlie Chaplin/1921/32m While at a golf club Chaplin's little tr*mp is mistaken for the rich, alcoholic husband (also played by Chaplin) of Edna Purviance's poor neglected wife. This dual role allows Chaplin the chance to play pranks in both social circles, and they are of his usual high quality. One of the last short films he made, this is full of him taking swipes at the rich, while also acknowledging that he is now one of the rich yet not so out of touch that he's above making fun of himself. I think that that is one of his best qualities, no matter how rich and successful he became he always feels like a man of the people – his traumatic, poverty stricken childhood in Victorian London was something that stayed with him his entire life. Will put a smile on your face and keep it there for the full half hour. 7.5/10 The Men dir. Fred Zinnemann/1950/1h25m Marlon Brando stars in his first film role as Ken, a WWII vet who was paralysed in action and is now staying in a paraplegic ward of a veteran's hospital. Deeply depressed he refuses to see his fiancée Ellen (Teresa Wright) and becomes hostile. But some fellow patients slowly start to bring him around and he discovers that life is still worth living. This is a pretty heavy handed melodrama but it has a couple of saving graces. Firstly is the fact that it was shot in a real veteran's hospital with many of the supporting roles going to veterans who were paralysed during the war. This lends a real feeling of authenticity to the film that invests you in the characters that much more. Secondly is the performance of Brando, who was already an incredible actor even at this early stage of his career. He really elevates the dialogue and the entire film just with his presence. He is really the only reason worth watching this, not that the rest of the film is bad, it's just unremarkable. 6/10 The Little Shop of Horrors dir. Roger Corman/1960/1h12m Before it was a musical The Little Shop of Horrors was a quick and cheap horror/comedy from the master of the b-movie, Roger Corman. Jonathan Haze stars as Seymour, a dweeby little loser who works at a skid row flower shop. He is able to turn the shop into a success by growing a new, unusual plant. The only problem is it has a craving for blood. Made for next to nothing in a couple of days, you can really tell that this was a rush job, but that takes nothing away from its unhinged charm. I wasn't really prepared for just how insane this is. This also features an appearance from a young Jack Nicholson who plays a masochistic patient at a dentist's office, and it might be the craziest he's ever been. 8/10 LOLA dir. Andrew Legge/2022/1h19m In the English countryside just before the outbreak of WWII two genius sisters, Thomasina and Martha Hanbury (Emma Appleton, Stefanie Martini), create a machine, LOLA, that can intercept broadcasts from the future. At first using it frivolously, when war breaks out they realise they can use it to help defeat the n*zis. But as anyone who's seen Back to the Future knows, messing around with time can get messy. This is a micro-budgeted sci-fi film that has a fantastic concept but is let down by lack of funds to fully realise it. Despite the not very good performances, neither of the leads are convincing, my interest was held not only by the concept, but also by the fact that this is also a found footage film. There are a few moments when you think “why/how would they be filming this?”, a problem common to the genre, but it does give it the feeling of some lost piece of history that never was. 6/10 Edited February 4 by LimeGreenLegend 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 @LimeGreenLegend total agreement on your 10/10s there. I have been meaning to re-watch Brief Encounter for ages. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Last Night in Soho (2021) dir Edgar Wright A fairly original fantasy / mild horror / thriller, with a very good cast. Thomasin McKenzie plays 1st year London fashion student Eloise. She's following in her deceased mother's and grandmother's footsteps into the fashion world, but already got further than they ever did. She loves the 1960s and it's music, and one night falls asleep listening to that and has kind of vision / waking dream in which she is 60s wannabe singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). They now become kind of the joint. leading character as time after time Eloise goes back to her 60s fantasy world and it all starts to seem very real rather than a dream. This aspect of the film is quite cleverly done with the use of mirrors to show Eloise and Sandie's reflection or vice versa. Matt Smith plays Sandie's boyfriend / manager in a very non-Doctor Who, sinister role. Then a couple of actual 60s icons give further excellent support. Terrance Stamp plays a man Eloise meets who was clearly around in the 60s. Diana Rigg, in what was probably her final role, plays the landlady of the house Eloise rents a room from, and comes more into the film later on. Rita Tushingham (maybe not so famous, but in 1961, aged 19 she starred in the awarding winning A Taste of Honey) plays the Grandmother. I won't spoil the plot but it goes without saying that what appears to be happening early on turns out not quite to be the whole truth. And it's one of those not-very-horrific horrors, but you can see why technically it gets classed as that. It has a generally great 60s sound track, but there are some cheesy bits of original music that are more like stereotypical “watch out because something unexpected is about to happen!” tunes. 8 / 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 What I Watched This Week #106 (January 8 – 14) The Blue Lamp dir. Basil Dearden/1950/1h24m Set amidst the rubble of post WWII London The Blue Lamp stars Jack Warner as P.C. George Dixon, a long serving copper close to retiring. He takes a new recruit Andy Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley) under his wing and tries to teach him the traditional way of policing, but that doesn't seem to cut it in these more violent times with criminals like Tom Riley (Dirk Bogarde) willing to do anything in order to get what they want. This is a film all about change and how it can often be violent and destructive, London was a changed city in 1950, still scarred from WWII, and that change was reflected onto the people. Dixon stands as an outlier, someone who can remember a more gentle time where even the crooks had some decency. That notion is smashed by the character of Riley, and the film is genuinely shocking at times because of him. A great example of social realism while also showing hints of film noir and even documentary. 8/10 Bonnie and Clyde dir. Arthur Penn/1967/1h51m In depression era America bored young waitress Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is looking for an exciting life and she gets it when she meets charismatic criminal Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty), the two of them going on a violent crime spree which ends in a hail of bullets. This is an incredibly important film for American cinema, pretty much kick starting the New Hollywood movement where directors gained more control and films reflected the counterculture of the time where you cheer on the bad guys and mourn their demise at the hands of the authority, the violence seen on the nightly news in reports from Vietnam was reflected on the silver screen and sexuality was out in the open. But you don't get that reputation unless the film is good, and this is great. Even today the violence is still shocking, the gruesome finale like a slow motion ballet of death, but what I found most surprising was the portrayal of Clyde. Here it is implied that he is impotent and not totally heterosexual so it's interesting to watch his relationship with Bonnie develop. They clearly loved each other but they're not in love with each other. At times they seem to have an almost sibling like relationship, two complicated, broken people forming a family around them, one which is made up of a great supporting cast including Gene Hackman as Clyde's brother Buck. Add to that the film debut of Gene Wilder as a hapless kidnapping victim of the gang and you have a stone cold classic. 9/10 The Mask dir. Conner O'Malley/2023/25m This short film stars director Conner O'Malley as Tyler, a man obsessed with Whose Line Is It Anyway? and is desperate to become a famous comedian at any cost. This film is constructed like a found footage documentary, made up of footage of Tyler at home and social media posts and his vlogs. When I watched this I thought it was real for most of the runtime and I was genuinely worried about this person because Tyler is deranged. One of those people who are chronically online and measure their self worth in Instagram likes. This is Andy Kaufman levels of comedy as performance art that blurs the line between fiction and reality. This is a film that reflects all of the worst aspects of our times and manages to do it all in less than half an hour. 9/10 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves dir. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein/2023/2h14m Chris Pine stars as charismatic bard Edgin, leader of a band of thieves which include Michelle Rodriguez as potato loving barbarian Holga and Justice Smith as Simon, a wizard with a worrying lack of confidence. When a quest to steal a magic relic goes awry it's up to them to save the world from evil red wizard Sofina (Daisy Head). My expectations were pretty low going into this seeing as the other D&D films have been notoriously bad, so colour me delighted when I ended up loving it. This is a fun adventure film that never forgets to be entertaining, the characters are all well drawn and distinctive, each of them funny in their own ways that feel natural – my favourite being the purer than pure paladin Xenk (Rege-Jean Page) who is totally deadpan and has no concept of sarcasm – and where every fight scene or big action set piece is unique. Even though this is set in the world of D&D and features loads of references to it you don't need to know any of that. I have a pretty base level knowledge of the game and it didn't take anything away from the enjoyment of the film for me. The performances are brilliant to a man. Rodriguez plays into her strengths by being an angry badass, Pine is a natural leader just pulling plans out of his *ss but getting away with it and Hugh Grant is perfect as a slimy yet charming conman Forge. Even if you don't self identify as a nerd you should watch this. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Disney 100: A Century of Dreams dir. Dave Hoffman/2023/1h18m Made to commemorate the studio's 100th birthday, this documentary covers the entire history of Disney. Since this was produced by the company itself you'll find no mention of any scandals or flops so a lot of it feels very self congratulatory. Where this film excels is when it's focusing on the history. The first half is great, seeing new material from the Disney archives, or seeing things like Walt's office, which is unchanged from the day he died. The moment when one of the legendary Disney songwriters Richard Sherman, now well into his nineties, played Walt's favourite song, Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins, on the piano in his office I was genuinely moved. And then they spend the second half of the documentary just talking about all of the things Disney has bought in the last twenty years – Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, Fox – and I couldn't have given less of a f*ck. Half for the fans and half for the shareholders. 5/10 Ariel dir. Aki Kaurismaki/1988/1h13m Ariel is a deadpan Finnish drama/comedy about Taisto (Turo Pajala), a miner who loses his job and has nothing to his name except an old convertible Cadillac so he goes to seek his fortune in the city, where he is immediately mugged and beaten. But he soon falls in love with Irmeli (Susanna Haavisto) and decides to rob a bank in order to get them and Irmeli's young son out of the country. This film is the most representative of Kaurismaki's style and themes that I've seen – an almost absurd monotonous delivery to the dialogue, a focus on the working class struggle – but it doesn't quite deliver in a way that The Match Factory Girl or the recent Fallen Leaves do. I still really enjoyed it but it left me a bit colder than usual when watching his films. It might be that the film is so minimalist that it's almost like there's nothing there, even when he shows his sentimentality in the scenes between Taisto and Irmeli. That said, this is still a meticulously crafted bleak comedy. 8/10 Society of the Snow dir. J. A. Bayona/2023/2h24m Society of the Snow tells the true story of the Chilean rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in the early seventies and how the 16 passengers who made it through the crash survived over two months until rescue came. This film has some amazing cinematography with stunning shots of the mountain range making up a large portion of the runtime, but I'm not gonna complain because they act as a breather between the harrowing tale unfolding in the freezing landscape. Scenes of storms and avalanches are incredibly immersive with the performances of the ensemble cast really selling both the despair and the hope that they felt. The choice to resort to cannibalism is very well done, with us seeing how hard that decision was to make for them and how it was either that or death. This is one of the best survival films I've seen, and the fact that it is a true story is a real testament to the human spirit. 9/10 Louvre City dir. Nicolas Philibert/1990/1h24m Louvre City is a documentary that takes us behind the scenes of the world's most famous museum, but the focus isn't on the priceless works of art but rather the people who work there. With no narration the camera stalks through the unseen parts of the museum where we watch people prepare works for exhibition. People carefully touching up paintings, reframing them, before men in overalls use ropes and pulleys to hoist them into place. Endless underground archives and vaults are probed. The glass protecting the Mona Lisa needs polishing. It all works like clockwork with human cogs. 8/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Leave the World Behind (2023) dir Sam Esmail A disaster movie with a bit of a difference, but some flaws too. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawk star as a New York couple who take their family for a break, renting an isolated luxury house on Long Island. The first day there weird things start to happen. An oil tanker runs aground on the beach, phones lose their signal, the internet stops working and then all TV and radio stations start broadcasting an announcement of a national emergency, but nothing goes on to explain exactly it is. Then the owner of the house, Mahershala Ali, and his daughter return, claiming to have been in the city when all the lights went off and decided to come back rather than stay there. There is a lot of mystery as to what exactly is going on. The truth appears eventually, sort of and, obviously, I am not going to give any spoilers. Kevin Bacon has a small part and that is probably one of the best bits Another a scene I found very funny (and this is in the trailer) see loads of driver-less Teslas driving themselves into a massive traffic jam. But it's definitely no a comedy. The rest is OK. The acting is fine, but I have never been a big fan of Julia Roberts. The script feels a bit weak in places. There is a bit of subplot involving racism; white people renting a house from a much wealthier black man, and resenting his early return. But that came across as a bit false to me. Another subplot involves how animals react to what is going on, and when you find out the truth at the end, that did not make sense at all to me. It's very well shot though, with some great backgrounds and modest, well fitting, special effects. 5 / 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 12 hours ago, djw180 said: but I have never been a big fan of Julia Roberts. After being forced to watch Erin Brockovitch about a dozen times one term in my film studies class I developed a strong dislike of her too. She's just a talentless Julianne Moore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 (edited) What I Watched This Week #107 (January 15 – 21) Her Last Affaire dir. Michael Powell/1935/1h17m (no video about this film seems to exist on the internet, so here's a clip of Googie Withers, highlight of Her Last Affaire, from the brilliant British film noir It Always Rains on Sundays) This previously lost society drama from Michael Powell stars Hugh Williams as a secretary to the powerful Sir Julian Weyre (Francis L. Sullivan). While trying to prove his father innocent of treason he is caught up in the sudden death of Sir Julian's wife, becoming a suspect to her murder. While being a very well crafted film it has to be said that this is quite bland and boring for the most part, with the ending feeling rushed and the characters underdeveloped. What really saves it are the performances of John Laurie as a crabby bible bashing innkeeper and Googie Withers as his sassy maid. Every scene involving them are the highlights of the film, with it becoming a bit of a slog to get through whenever we move away from them. 5/10 Money Plane dir. Andrew Lawrence/2020/1h22m “Wanna bet on a dude f*cking an alligator? Money plane.” This quote from Kelsey Grammer's Darius Grouch is what sold me on watching this film, and I feel like I've been had. Grouch, some sort of nondescript evil businessman, is owed forty million dollars by retired thief Jack Reese (WWE wrestler Edge, Adam Copeland) so he forces him to do one last job. That job is to rob the money plane, a plane that caters to evil nondescript billionaires who want to bet on highly illegal things (sadly, we do not see a dude attempt to f*ck an alligator). I was hoping for a so-bad-it's-good situation, but what I got was so-bad-it's-bad. This is boring, cheap, ugly, badly written and the direction is even worse. This looks like it was shot in a garage with a greenscreen and the cheapest props they could find. Apart from all of the scenes involving Kelsey Grammer which look like they were shot at his house in an afternoon. To be fair though he does put in some effort, really hamming it up and chewing the scenery every chance he gets. Edge spends most of the time in the cockpit of the plane talking to people over a headset, he is totally wasted and shows none of the charisma that I know he has. Everyone else is just sh*t. 1/10 The Belles of St. Trinian's dir. Frank Launder/1954/1h31m This is the first film in a series of classic British comedies centred around a school full of rowdy girls hellbent on destruction and teachers looking for their next drink. This first instalment is about the fixing of a horse race, which involves the kidnapping of one of the horses – gambling is one of the main preoccupations for these schoolgirls. Caught up in all of this is matronly headmistress Millicent Fritton (Alastair Sim) who isn't adverse to a little extra-legal activity herself. The students of the school are spilt into two groups, the younger fourth form who are like a feral mob of animals armed with hockey sticks roaming around in herds looking for trouble and then the older girls of the sixth form, flashing stocking tops, drinking and smoking and learning how to get what they want with their womanly charms. Despite all the anarchy this still comes across as good innocent fun, like a comic str*p come to life. I found it hilarious how all of the adults in the film are totally terrified of these girls. Sim is brilliant as the ring-mistress of this circus, full of pride and love for her girls despite their many, many faults. A film with the spirit of the classic Ealing comedies. 8/10 Twenty Minutes of Love dir. Charlie Chaplin, Joseph Maddern/1914/11m The first film Chaplin directed, alongside Joseph Maddern, Twenty Minutes of Love (I guess maths wasn't his strongest subject) sees the Little tr*mp spending an afternoon in the park causing trouble for loving couples, getting involved in a stolen pocket watch escapade and having a punch up at the end. Chaplin's mastery of physical comedy is self evident here, with each movement looking so natural and effortless, but his characterisation of the tr*mp still has a long way to go. There's no sympathy here, he's more of a troublemaker than a victim of life, which he would go on to become. But he's still funny as heck. 6/10 The Bank dir. Charlie Chaplin/1915/25m The Bank sees Chaplin working as a janitor in a bank where he is in love with the secretary, played by Edna Purviance, but she shows no interest at all. Maybe if he shows some bravery during a robbery he can win her heart. This is a brilliant short film and shows the evolution of Chaplin's character. Here he's not just making trouble, he's just fighting back against a world punching down on him. Some brilliantly funny set pieces involving his rivalry with another janitor (Billy Armstrong) and the robbery itself make this a standout early short from cinema's greatest clown. 8/10 Fallen Leaves dir. Aki Kaurismaki/2023/1h21m The latest from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki is another seemingly bleak, minimalist, deadpan romantic comedy for the working class. Ansa (Alma Poysti) works in a supermarket, Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is an alcoholic construction worker. They are both depressed and single. After a chance meeting thanks to Holappa's karaoke loving friend they go on a date at the cinema, but after he loses the piece of paper containing her name and phone number he starts just hanging around outside the cinema, hoping fate will bring them together again. It may take watching a few of his films to crack the code, but once you do you can't help but feel the tenderness and love for humanity and the good in people that Kaurismaki buries just beneath the surface of his works. These characters, in their quiet struggle through life, are all to real and relatable, as is their need for connection. But it's in the way that these things are left unsaid by these characters that makes them all the more real. The direction also helps that, with the camera being unobtrusive and non-judgemental. He's not asking us to pity or even sympathise with these people, he just wants us to see them, to know that they exist, which is just what they want from each other. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Edited February 11 by LimeGreenLegend 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw180 6,846 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Boudica (2023) dir Jesse V Johnson A well below par historical fiction about the ancient British queen, played by Olda Kurylenko, who led a revolt against Roman rule in the 1st century AD. The acting varies from very poor to OK. There isn't much to the actual story, which seems to end just as it has got slightly interesting, and a little too much time is taken with slightly over-the-top battle scenes. There are some funny (to me) historical inaccuracies such references to places that did not exist then and Boudica's ally “Wolfgar” (Peter Franzten) being described as from a “Saxon” region of Britain (no such regions at that time). They also have him speaking what appears to be French to his own men. I forgive that to some extent since the film is of course in English, and that was obviously not what the Romans nor ancient Britons spoke. But why pick a Germanic background for Wolfgar then have him speak French just to show his people don't speak the same as Boudica's? The costumes look good though and some of the sets are nice too; that's about all I can say on the positive side. I also have to point out, this film was my wife's choice for a Valentines! 3 / 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeGreenLegend 4,179 Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 What I Watched This Week #108 (January 22 – 28) Blue Murder at St. Trinian's dir. Frank Launder/1957/1h26m (couldn't find a trailer so here's a short clip) The second film in the St. Trinian's series sees the schoolgirls going on a tour of Europe after Flash Harry (George Cole) sets up a marriage bureau for the sixth form in the hopes of snaring a rich prince. Meanwhile, the jewel thief father of one of the students disguises himself as the new headmistress in order to get himself, and his loot, out of the country. A step down from the original film, this is still fun in parts – mostly when the anarchic kids are causing havoc – but the second half feels like an excuse to spend some time on the continent. The creepiness of auctioning off seventeen year old girls for marriage is offset by the fact that they are far more exploitative than any man unlucky enough to cross their path. A couple of things really make this an inferior sequel. Setting the film for the most part outside of the school and the lack of Alastair Sim as headmistress Miss Fritton, who is in prison for the most part and only appears briefly in what amounts to no more than a cameo. 7/10 Boiling Point dir. Philip Barantini/2019/22m This short – later expanded into a feature film, which I gave 10/10, and more recently a TV series – stars one of my favourite actors, Stephen Graham, as the head chef of a high end restaurant. Like the feature film this is shot all in one take with the camera following Graham as he prowls through his domain making sure that everything is running like clockwork in order to produce the best food possible, the same thing required of the film crew and cast in order to pull off something like this. But that technical flair is worth nothing if there's no meat on the bones, and there's plenty to chew on here. In just twenty minutes we learn more about these characters than most films manage in an hour and a half, and that atmosphere of extreme pressure is so palpable that it had me sweating. 9/10 School for Scoundrels dir. Robert Hamer/1960/1h34m Ian Carmichael stars as Henry Palfrey, a wet blanket of a man who is sick of being the nice guy and coming in last so he enrols at the College of Lifemanship, run by Alastair Sims's Professor Potter. Soon Henry finds himself in a game of one-upmanship with the dashing rogue Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas) for the hand of the beautiful April (Janette Scott). This is a film with a paper thin plot but is carried by the cast who all have bags of charisma and fantastic chemistry. Seeing the transformation in Henry's character and how he is able to out-smarm Delauney is a lot of fun, and seeing him try to follow the lessons learnt from Potter always had me laughing. One of my favourite scenes is Henry out-conning a couple of second hand car salesmen while Potter watches on approvingly. 8/10 Killers of the Flower Moon dir. Martin Scorsese/2023/3h26m The latest epic from Martin Scorsese is the true story of the murders of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma after they found oil on their land and became the richest people in the country. Lily Gladstone stars as Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who married Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a situation organised by his uncle, the scheming William Hale (Robert De Niro), a man who has insidiously wormed his way into the heart of the community. This film combines aspects of the two distinctive halves of his feature films, the greed of his crime films and the intimate sensitivity to his approach to other cultures as seen in films like Kundun and Silence. Gladstone is the beating heart of this film and the entire story of the Osage people is written in her very personal story, being exploited in a way where you can't even say that you are because it's all being done with a smile and her “best interests” in mind. Her performance is incredible, her power and strength expressed through stoic, quiet resistance. DiCaprio is interesting because you're never sure if he really does love Mollie and he's being used by his uncle or if he's as complicit as he is. De Niro gives his best performance in maybe decades and he feels as dangerous as he does in Goodfellas. Scorsese, a man well into his eighties, is still working at the top of his game with this film being very formally daring, especially the ending which features the man himself talking to us about the end of Mollie's story in what feels like a very personal and touching way. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Next Goal Wins dir. Taika Waititi/2023/1h44m The American Samoa football team is the worst in the world, and hold the record for biggest loss in World Cup history when they lost a qualifying match against Australia 31-0. They are so bad they've never even scored a goal in a competitive match. To try and turn things around they hire an American-Dutch coach, Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), whose stricter way of doing things clashes with the chill vibes of the island. This film is sort of split between two competing tones, one serious and one whimsical and cute, and Waititi is not quite able to mesh the two as well as he did in films like Boy and Jojo Rabbit. The film lost me whenever the focus was solely on Rongen and his issues with his family and drinking and anger because they were treated so flippantly, but the stuff about the islanders and their personal lives was great and was clearly the stuff that Waititi cared about the most. This is all a true story and apparently the documentary on which this was based, also called Next Goal Wins, is really good so if anything this film made me want to watch that. 5.5/10 Katalin Varga dir. Peter Strickland/2009/1h22m The debut feature length film from Peter Strickland stars Hilda Peter in the title role of a woman who is thrown out by her husband after he finds out that their 10 year old son Orban (Norbert Tanko) isn't his. He is the product of a s*xual assault, and so Katalin sets out with him on a horse drawn cart to find the men who abused her and exact her revenge. This is very much a Strickland film where tone and atmosphere is so important and really elevated by the sound design which is oppressive and discordant. The film is set in the Carpathian mountains and the beautiful landscapes really juxtapose the brutal human drama unfolding on them. But the brutality isn't bursts of gory violence but in the reality of revenge and how complicated and messy it really is. Peter is excellent in the lead role, internalising her trauma which makes her moments of emotion so affecting. A haunting and bleak film. 8/10 Atlantis: The Lost Empire dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise/2001/1h35m Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) is a bookish historian who is chosen to lead a search for the lost city of Atlantis, but when he discovers it he then has to save it from being destroyed. This is a nicely animated film that is pretty middle of the road in every respect. It's all just fine. I do feel like it was a bit too easy for them to actually find Atlantis, it would have been cool for that to be more of a big deal. It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen it and I'm honestly struggling to remember anything specific about it, I just get the general feeling of “yeah that was a'ight”. It does have good character design I guess, and who doesn't like Michael J. Fox? 6/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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