What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[gag]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I feel like January has been a bit of a let down on the film front for me, Apart from Donnie Darko and Porco Rosso I haven't really loved anything.

I watched Resident Evil 1-4, to varying degrees of enjoyment, the first was 'good but dated' the second had some great set-pieces but overall was a disappointment, the 3rd I enjoyed a great deal but was under no false impressions of it being a good film, the 4th was just painful to watch, really really bad!

I also watched Absurd for the first time this weekend which was very enjoyable, but again it's not the best of films. One scene in particular which didn't make sense until later in the film was when the surgeon was operating on 'the beast' for ages and ages but at no point did anyone mention that the blood was coagulating and preventing the surgical stitches.

I also watched Gus van Sant's Elephant which is a semi-fictional account of the Columbine shootings. Not a lot happens, and there are plenty of scenes where the camera follows a teenager around the school, but it's utterly hypnotic and watchable. I'd recommend it, but I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Other than that I was disappointed by Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye which looks fantastic in it's Gothic setting, but was let down by a thin plot and some odd exposition and an erm... ex-circus orangutan.

Was Elephant the one where they shot everything with just one camera and one angle only? As if one only person was catching everything

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Have you seen In Bruges? I really like that.

Wasn't as good as The Guard imho

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I also watched Gus van Sant's Elephant which is a semi-fictional account of the Columbine shootings. Not a lot happens, and there are plenty of scenes where the camera follows a teenager around the school, but it's utterly hypnotic and watchable. I'd recommend it, but I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

I can remember watching this at the cinema. A friend and I were the only two in there which added an almost surreal ambience to the proceedings what with it being such a minimalist, hypnotically engaging film. Powerful stuff for sure.

Originally Posted by Justin101

Other than that I was disappointed by Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye which looks fantastic in it's Gothic setting, but was let down by a thin plot and some odd exposition and an erm... ex-circus orangutan.

A shame you didn't like this one Justin as I rather rate it and liked the meld of the gothic with the giallo and enjoyed the various red herrings along the way.

Plus, The Inspector has to make ends meet somehow.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by gag

Was Elephant the one where they shot everything with just one camera and one angle only? As if one only person was catching everything

Yes, kinda, there are 3 or 4 main players and it all happens in the same period of time, so the camera resets along with the time frame, there are no 'coverage' cameras and everything is delivered from the one shot.

[Frankie Teardrop]

STOKER – I'm glad I checked 'Stoker' out again, as it's actually a really good film. It's about Mia Wasikowska and her fascination with her Uncle Charlie. Charlie is a bit of a creep, and, as the film charts his gradual infiltration of the the family home in the wake of Mia's dad's death, turns out to be a bit of a murderous psychopath too, but you could probably see that coming. Chan-wook Park gives great, elegant visuals and conjures up a dreamy, slightly mesmerising atmosphere. There's a wealth of interesting stuff going on , including some kind of cryptic symbology involving the colour yellow (I think). If that doesn't float your boat, there's some incestuous intrigue and a smattering of violence. Definitely worth watching.

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN – This is another one of those films which I've always had slightly lukewarm feelings for, but which has impressed me on a recent viewing. Maybe I'm so shallow that watching it in hi def makes all the difference. Actually, I think it's more likely that I've just seen so much shit over the years, even mildly good stuff seems nearly great now. Anyway, TIMM tells the story of an astronaut who returns to earth only to start melting. We don't know why this is happening exactly, but do we have to? Astronaut runs around killing people, a scientist chases after him and then it's the end. With TIMM, there's a lot of the usual inconsequential talking and moving about, but it flies by quite quickly and rarely drags. The gore is pretty mild, but the melt fx are still gloriously icky. The aesthetics have that characteristic seventies ring of TV-esque flatness masking something more jarring, as exemplified by the way the soundtrack combines soap opera type parping with atonal electronic noise. I've come to really appreciate this era specific 'feel', so typical of much seventies low brow horror. More than this though, there are a few instances where the film transcends its natural limits and lets something else come through – some scenes where Mr Meltdown takes on a Frankensteinian pathos as he wanders bereft against a setting sun, the cynical ending with its conspiratorial air. Overall, highly enjoyable schlock with an undercurrent of muted tragedy.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

,Anyway, TIMM tells the story of an astronaut who returns to earth only to start melting. We don't know why this is happening exactly, but do we have to?

It's because he looked at the sun through the rings of Saturn of course! Jeez Frankie did you learn nothing in school.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

STOKER – I'm glad I checked 'Stoker' out again, as it's actually a really good film. It's about Mia Wasikowska and her fascination with her Uncle Charlie. Charlie is a bit of a creep, and, as the film charts his gradual infiltration of the the family home in the wake of Mia's dad's death, turns out to be a bit of a murderous psychopath too, but you could probably see that coming. Chan-wook Park gives great, elegant visuals and conjures up a dreamy, slightly mesmerising atmosphere. There's a wealth of interesting stuff going on , including some kind of cryptic symbology involving the colour yellow (I think). If that doesn't float your boat, there's some incestuous intrigue and a smattering of violence. Definitely worth watching.

When Mathew Goode turned up in my recent binge watch of the wonderful Downton Abbey i really didn't know what to expect.

[gag]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Yes, kinda, there are 3 or 4 main players and it all happens in the same period of time, so the camera resets along with the time frame, there are no 'coverage' cameras and everything is delivered from the one shot.

Thats kinda what i meant, i saw few yrs ago and that was the main thing i noticed about how it was shot, i cant really remember if i enjoyed it or not only saw once yrs ago. And also remember (might be wrong) it was shown same scene from different views a bit like how Tarantino did with Jackie Brown and pulp fiction

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by gag

Thats kinda what i meant, i saw few yrs ago and that was the main thing i noticed about how it was shot, i cant really remember if i enjoyed it or not only saw once yrs ago. And also remember (might be wrong) it was shown same scene from different views a bit like how Tarantino did with Jackie Brown and pulp fiction

Yes, exactly!

[keirarts]

:Live by night

This was a painful experience for several reasons. Firstly In really like Affleck's films to date. Argo, Gone baby gone and the town are all solidly made, unpretentious and audience friendly thrillers that show he has some genuine talent behind the camera. Here that talent can be glimpsed at numerous points. The opening, where Affleck's WW1 veteran is operating in prohibition era Boston as a stick up artist is reminiscent of a 20's era take on the town. His characters struggle wealth being a generally decent person and the struggle to maintain this is one of the more interesting points of the film. It begins to fall to pieces when he's sent to Florida by his Italian boss to establish a presence in the area. Here the various things Affleck seems to want to use the film to discuss including race, religion, morality and the struggle America has maintaining a balance between individual liberty & freedom and the need for the state to regulate things that have tendencies towards social harm. These subjects struggle given the film isn't really long enough to tackle these various subjects and the attempt to use it to look at modern america unfortunately falls flat. The film sort of pulls itself together with an impressive shootout in a hotel but its ultimately too little to late for the film.
The second reason the film bugs me is that I really like affleck and the poor sod has had plenty of bad luck as of late. He's one of the best screen batmans in a franchise dogged by crap writing and lack of focus, now his new film looks likely to crash and burn. its a real shame.