What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by SShaw

I was really disappointed by Cronenberg's recent "Cosmopolis". The simplicity of the central idea, a man making his way across central Manhattan for a hair cut meets many friends and acquaintances as the world around him seems to unravel, is well executed but the dialogue is over stylised and rapidly disappears up its own backside.

Yet to see it, but I highly doubt it will best Leos Carax's man-going-across-the-city-in-a-limo epic Holy Motors still firmly at number 1 in my faves of the year thus far . . .

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

It seems to be set in it's own little sub-genre, post industrial rustic, of which personally, I think there should be more.

mmm I like the sound of that! I wonder if Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven would fit into this catergory . . . ?

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

mmm I like the sound of that! I wonder if Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven would fit into this catergory . . . ?

That's such a great film. Is it out on DVD, I've not seen it in years?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

That's such a great film. Is it out on DVD, I've not seen it in years?

I love 'Clean, Shaven'. I was going to buy a copy recently, but ran out of cash. It was fairly available on Amazon last time I looked. There's a Criterion edition.

[Frankie Teardrop]

BEYOND DREAM'S DOOR - An awkward mixture of standard eighties B movie horror and something more surreal. A college student has bad dreams and discovers he's the latest victim of some kind of entity that lives in nightmares (or something, as exposition isn't particualrly clear in this case). I hate it when a movie feels like it has what it takes to be more than it is but ends up hamstrung by mediocre choices which could've been avoided. 'Beyond Dream's Door' was a low budget 80s indie so in a sense fell victim to its circumstances - wooden acting, bad effects, some cliched imagery, style too linear, music too obvious all follow from budgetary constraints and aherence to prevailing modes of low budget filmmaking of the time as much as a lack of vision. But there are some great moments which make me wish it had taken a full throttle experimental approach... the weirdness of a menacing red balloon... the Lynchian caretaker with the mechanical hands who asks people to shake his stump... blurry collages of nightmare imagery... shame the film as a whole didn't rise to meet the challenge of its frequent passages of bizarreness. As it stands, 'Beyond Dream's Door' is enjoyable as a sometimes confusing, satisfyingly gory monster flick which fades out into a mise-en-abyme "dream within a dream... or is it?" scenario by the end, and is at least briskly paced and wastes no time getting to the weirdness.

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I love 'Clean, Shaven'. I was going to buy a copy recently, but ran out of cash. It was fairly available on Amazon last time I looked. There's a Criterion edition.

Yeah that's the version I've got. Still haven't seen Claire Dolan and Rebecca H. Should really get onto that, his other two films are among my all time faves . . .

[Nostalgic]

Need to track down Clean, Shaven, saw it on late night tv ages ago and remember it well.

Saw Skyfall at the cinema today.....erm, it's ok, passable, but about an hour too long. Probably really good if you're a Bond fan but as an actual film, it's slow. Could do with a good solid hour cut from it. Javiar Bardem isn't in it very much (and is the best thing in it), and hilariously, the ending is the EXACT ENDING from Jean Claude Van-Damme/John Woo effort "Hard Target"!

Trailers for Les Miserables and Great Expectations before the movie, both passable, if just for the "little old lady" crowd.

[Beyond72]

Night of the Generals

[Slippery Jack]

Deathline

I'd forgotten how strange this film is, and that Donald Pleasence pretty much single handedly made the film worth watching. The rest of it is a mess! The story ambles along without purpose in fits and starts, and the direction is dreary as hell. Then there's Christopher Lee, who appears in one needless scene seemingly just to get his name on the poster. Even then it's clear he was filmed seperately from the other actors in the scene! But Donald Pleasence man... he's bloody hilarious! Oh how I'd love to see that character in a better film . . .

[PaulD]

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil - gets the tricky combination of comedy and horror right with lots of laugh out loud moments in the misunderstandings and farce. Spends two thirds of the film mocking cliches before resorting to them in the final act but its totally forgivable as there's little else they could do. Was very impressed with this overall.