What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I came up from the cinema about an hour ago after seeing Room. It's an astonishing film, which is incredibly powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally draining. I can understand why it's been nominated for so many industry awards because the direction, screenplay, photography, and acting across the board is all top drawer.

The Revenant was also powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally draining, but a very different film in just about every way possible. I'm going to see Spotlight tomorrow and hope to catch up on The Big Short at some point but, at the moment, with the calibre of the nominees for Best Picture, 2015 looks like a really good year for film. I also really liked Brooklyn, Bridge of Spies, Mad Max Fury Road, and The Martian, but thought the latter four were a step below the others I've mentioned.

I'll probably also watch Beasts of No Nation on Netflix tonight and see whether it was a travesty or perfectly understandable that it wasn't one of the 10 to make the shortlist. I was amazed that Carol wasn't nominated, because I thought it was superb.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I came up from the cinema about an hour ago after seeing Room. It's an astonishing film, which is incredibly powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally draining. I can understand why it's been nominated for so many industry awards because the direction, screenplay, photography, and acting across the board is all top drawer.

I'm going to try and catch Room tomorrow, I saw The Big Short last Friday and The Revenant on Tuesday, both were excellent. I'd like to see Spotlight too, but it's not playing at my cinema this week, perhaps next week.

Lots of good films at the moment which makes me glad for an unlimited cinema card but the inevitable is going to happen soon where it's weeks and weeks of Daddy's Home's and Dirty Grandpa's to contend with.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I'm going to try and catch Room tomorrow, I saw The Big Short last Friday and The Revenant on Tuesday, both were excellent. I'd like to see Spotlight too, but it's not playing at my cinema this week, perhaps next week.

Lots of good films at the moment which makes me glad for an unlimited cinema card but the inevitable is going to happen soon where it's weeks and weeks of Daddy's Home's and Dirty Grandpa's to contend with.

I know I should try and watch everything but Daddy's Home and Dirty Grandpa that look like films I'd hate, so would be better off spending that time doing reading for university! As for the higher quality films (i.e. those nominated for industry awards, or considered unlucky to miss out), I always try to see as many as possible, hence why I want to see The Big Short as well as Spotlight – I've seen all the other films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. That's one of the benefits of the Unlimited card.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I know I should try and watch everything but Daddy's Home and Dirty Grandpa that look like films I'd hate, so would be better off spending that time doing reading for university! As for the higher quality films (i.e. those nominated for industry awards, or considered unlucky to miss out), I always try to see as many as possible, hence why I want to see The Big Short as well as Spotlight – I've seen all the other films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. That's one of the benefits of the Unlimited card.

I'm going to go watch a few things out of my comfort zone this year due to the fact that I can see as many as I like, so I'm going to watch Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and I'm going to watch Deadpool. I'm going to watch a least one thing a week, but I draw the line at Dirty Grandpa

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I'm going to go watch a few things out of my comfort zone this year due to the fact that I can see as many as I like, so I'm going to watch Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and I'm going to watch Deadpool. I'm going to watch a least one thing a week, but I draw the line at Dirty Grandpa

Same here!

[pachinko852]

saw Star Wars The Force Awakens in 3d the other day..
best one to date me thinks

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Don't Look Up (2009)

Film within a film story lines are hardly new ideas but i challenge anyone to come up with a worse example of the genre than Don't Look Up.

As a second viewing my fears from the first time were compounded. Don't Look Up is dire. It's incoherent, poorly acted with a simple yet extremely dull plot. Directed by Fruit Chan who gained great acclaim for Dumplings (2004) and written by Hiroshi Takahashi (The Ring series), the film had much promise but it all peters away in the usual ghostly goings on but this time without any scares, tension or indeed anything memorable at all. Even the special effects are ropy and uninspiring.

You can't even blame Eli Roth for it, although he has an acting credit and is high up the bill, he's only in the film for 30 seconds or so at the very beginning.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by keirarts

The Gallows.

Decided to give this a go at Manchester Odeon.

firstly I was quite surprised a found footage film was getting a theatrical run, then watching it I realised its at the better end of the spectrum for these types of film.
Essentially a school is preparing to stage a play called The Gallows, which was previously staged over 20 years previously (scary to think 93' is retro!) and resulted in the tragic accidental hanging of the main lead. The new lead for the upcoming version is the high school jock who has decided to quit football and take up acting. His ass-hole friend is unable to comprehend why so has also volunteered and is busy filming everything in the run up to the play.
The night before he manages to convince his friend to break in and trash the stage only for them both, along with their girlfriends, get trapped in the theatre with the ghost of the dead kid.
The Gallows is not the greatest thing ever, it has some major issues, especially in terms of character motivations, as well as the more traditional gripes with the film as to why they are filming everything. That said it has some scares, one or two effective ones, others the loud noise to make the audience jump variety. This ones probably best waiting for on home video though.

Originally Posted by Rik

My other half really wants to go see this, I'm not arsed to be honest, so she's paying

We didn't end up seeing it at the cinema, but we did watch it on Tuesday night, courtesy of LoveFilm.
My verdict, same as most of the other recent "horror" films, garbage!

Do yourself a favour and watch a decent found footage film, like the Blair Witch Project or Cannibal Holocaust, instead

[Mojo]

RINGS OF FEAR
Third 'instalment' following WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE / DAUGHTERS, this one stars Fabio Testi ( always worth watching ) as a cop investigating the death of a girl linked to a group called The Inseperables.
The weakest of the three films, it plays more like straightforward 70s cop murder mystery ( Testi even calls his police partner Starsky at one point!) it is still enjoyable enough, albeit with a bit of a WTF ending.

VAMPIRE CIRCUS
I never tire of watching this terrific latter day Hammer Horror, particularly when it looks as good as this Synapse blu ray. As discussed on the excellent accompanying making of doc, Robert Young's direction gives it a totally unique feel unlike any other Hammer movie. I always see something new every time I watch it. And of course it features the most gorgeous Hammer vampire of all time in Lalla Ward.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Inglourious Basterds (2009)



Decided to give this one another watch having not seen it since it was released. My initial impressions still hold up for the most part and the film, for me, really marks the period in Tarantino's film career when his self-indulgence starts to hit a whole new level. The quality of his work starts to go down-hill as it is eaten up by the smug oh-so-aware of how 'cool' they sound monologues and random 'because I feel like including it' soundtracks and I start to switch off. Maybe it's just me but the substance doesn't seem to be there anymore - or perhaps it was never there in the first place and I'm just tiring of QT's style the more films he churns out. I haven't yet seen The Hateful Eight but I'm certainly in no rush to do so after the train-wreck that was Django Unchained.



64/100