What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Handyman Joe]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

Aww it's better than that (I think) - that said, don't think I've rewatched since I bought the dvd when it first came out - I remember the ending was pretty cool at least . . .

For me this movie is awful. A classic case of good ingredients (idea, cast, director) producing a completely inedible meal. Dafoe is just a bag of facial tics, Udo Keir seems half dead, Malkovich never convinces, the pace is non existent, there's some terrible expository dialogue, no pathos, scares, laughs or indeed interest of any sort. I hated it. Feel free to disagree!

[pedromonkey]

watched Life In A Day, an interesting idea that at the end of the day boils down to it being a 90 minute youtube playlist, Some of it was great and some of it was exceptionally dull, not worth spending money on but if it's on TV give it a go.

Decided to watch a few films i'd not seen in a while, so sat down with my brother and watched Snatch, which for me is Guy Ritchie's best film, Brad Pitt is awesome as mickey and it's an early film for both Jason statham and Stephen Graham. Has some quality quotable line too.

Then we watched True Romance, i ****ing love this film, not only is it Tarantino's best script but it's Tony Scott's best film. Christian Slater effortlessly delivers Tarantino's dialogue and the two stand out scenes that really do make the film are Hopper/Walken scene and the Arquette/Gandolfini scene. Just a brilliant film which i had to buy on blu after watching the dvd.

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

agreed. have you read the books??

I haven't, but I will be seeking them out very soon.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

Then we watched True Romance, i ****ing love this film, not only is it Tarantino's best script but it's Tony Scott's best film. Christian Slater effortlessly delivers Tarantino's dialogue and the two stand out scenes that really do make the film are Hopper/Walken scene and the Arquette/Gandolfini scene. Just a brilliant film which i had to buy on blu after watching the dvd.

I watched the very same flick today, but I couldn't disagree more. It's by no means a bad movie - I have to state that in advance. But there are quite a few "buts"...

I really wanted to see this flick after after hearing (or reading) so many people here wax lyrical about it. Some scenes are really good - one of them being the first part of the Arquette/Gandolfini scene (the psycho part - the violence afterwards is over-the-top and seems very autotelic). Gandolfini is a very fine and charismatic actor, which leads me to the core problem of True Romance: its cast. (All of my statements are highly subjective, so please don't be offended - if you love this movie, its fine by me. )
- Christian Slater is a very mediocre actor. Apart from a very stupid infantile smile, there's nothing that I remember about his character.
- Patricia Arquette is cute, but that's it. Her acting is pretty close to involuntary overacting.
- Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, and James Gandolfini are highly talented actors - but their itty-bitty roles in this flick are far to small. The actor with the best performance (Gandolfini) is on screen for only a quarter of an hour? Sorry, but that's a real waste of talent, especially with overchallenged actors like Slater in the lead.
- Christopher Walken comes in for a great little scene, and leaves without any further explanation - a big hole in Tarantino's script, if you ask me!

But you know what I disliked most? The ending. I watched the alternate ending (with Tarantino's commentary switched on), and I think Tarantino is wrong. His ending is far better than Scott's requested happy ending, and would have given this inconsistent flick a more serious (and sinister) touch. Do you want to know why this was such a huge let-down for me? Well, now I become very subjective again, so feel free to disagree! Spoiler alert, too!

Both Slater's and Arquette's characters are totally trivial and boring. Clarence gets his eye shot out? Well, that's his problem, innit? He's a loser and a criminal, and f*cked with the wrong people - he had it coming. Alabama gets her face smashed in? I don't care, as she's the stupid broad who teamed up with a cretin. And please don't mention Michael Rapaport - the fact that this idiot called "Dick" (an aptonym indeed!) doesn't get killed in the final shootout really made me angry!

Beatty and Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde are criminals, too - but I can (at least partly) identify with them, especially as both actors are extremely charismatic. That's what True Romance is missing.

What's left? A few good dialogues, a beautiful car, great performances by Hopper, Pitt, and Gandolfini, and two (very short!) classy scenes:
1) The phone booth scene (with Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace) and
2) a nice scene involving coke and a Porsche.
Both scenes are hilarious and will stick in your mind forever!

Just my two cents - feel free to disagree.

Greetings!

[Nordicdusk]

Watched Maniac cop 1 and 2 this morning watching Maniac Cop 3 right now. The first 2 are better in my opinion still good all the same.

[Gojirosan]

True Romance, to me, belongs to that breed of films that make you go "Wow!" when you first see them, but do not stand up to repeated viewing and proper scrutiny*, so I guess I agree with Prince here.

It is fun, and it is well put together, but it is massively over-rated and it is still a Tony Scott film (too much fatuous action crammed in, diluting the substance) and it does have a puerile adolescent boy wish fulfilment script.

As Prince says, the good bits are odd scenes. It is a collection of sketches rather than a coherent film.

But it IS Tony Scott's best film and it is fun for the most part. And I did buy it on Laserdisc a couple of years ago just because I always wanted the LD.


* see also: Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn, Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Aliens...

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

True Romance, to me, belongs to that breed of films that make you go "Wow!" when you first see them, but do not stand up to repeated viewing and proper scrutiny*, so I guess I agree with Prince here.

I suppose that comes with age and changing taste in films - about 10 years ago I probably would've included it in my top 50 favourite films list (same with those other titles you mentioned). Now I just see it as a rather smug and annoying riff on Badlands - no desire to see it again . . .

[antmumford]

I watched a low budget horror/thriller/(comedy) called The Signal last night and wow what a film. I bought it (sceptically)on DVD in poundland but I had heard good things about it from a few people so I went in with an open mind. What I didn't expect was to watch an extremely well crafted piece of filmmaking. Acting, action, setting, music score, sound, everything so spot on.

Without spoiling the plot I'll basically say it's about a signal that makes people go mad and in case you are unaware, it was created, produced and directed by three different people. Each director got to create a third of the film each and I must say I loved all three segments.

First part was a horror that was incredibly tense and genuinely scared me a few times, it put me right on edge.

Second part became a comedy/horror which was actually really funny. Still tense and creepy but with added satire humour which worked really well.

The third went back to a more creepy style that lent to more "thriller" territory.

I don't know if it was because I had a glass of wine before watching it, then had a couple more during the film, but I just loved every second of it.
The PQ was rather shoddy on the DVD release and I just assumed it was because it was a cheaply made film with cheap bad cameras but I've just looked up to see if it's on Blu-ray and there is actually a release and the screenshots look nice and clear so I cannot wait to soak it all up again in HD. Bring it on!
I can safely () say it's one of the best horrors I've seen ( ), that could be that I've either not seen enough horror films and you're all going to laugh at me for saying something so ridiculous or it's generally just that good. You decide, rent the Blu-ray.

EDIT: Just found a review from someone who seems to have the same mindset, giving it 9 out of 10 http://www.sci-fi-online.com/00_revs...signal-blu.htm

[Slippery Jack]

I got that one from Poundland too... only I thought it was a bit rubbish . . .

[sawyer6]

Originally Posted by sawyer6

Watched Martin.Very very good, one of Romero's best

And also watched Wampyr,the Italian cut.Well with the Goblin music and the Italian dub it has a Giallo feel but the editing makes the plot more confusing