What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The Good Liar (2019) ★★★

The main selling point for this is the first on-screen pairing of Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren, two of the most accomplished actors in the history of stage and screen. The film is worth watching for their performances as they are both so good they elevate the fairly mediocre subject material to a higher level than it deserves.

The film wants to be a tense thriller in which you are rooting for Mirren's wealthy widow, not wanting her to fall victim to McKellen's conman. There is some good material here and the two leads, plus Russell Tovey, are extremely watchable.

I felt shortchanged with the dénouement as it left me thinking 'Really? That's the motivation and the entire reason for the actions?' At that point, I should have wanted to immediately watch the film to see what I missed, but this seems like a film where the plotting feels a bit half baked and the ending doesn't link in with the rest of the film to the point where you'll watch it again to see where you were deceived by Bill Condon's direction and Jeffrey Hatcher's script.

It's a film which is worth watching for the interplay between the two stellar leads, but one which won't stay with you for long after the credits have rolled unless you want to spend some time wondering what made this so appealing to McKellen and Mirren in the first place.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Ford v Ferrari (2019) ★★★★

This is a film with a puzzling title, one which pits two car manufacturers against each other, yet Ferrari barely feature. It's more a case of Ferrari's presence and reputation as the world's pre-eminent automobile manufacturer leads Ford, particularly Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and Ford's vice president, Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) to approach Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to develop a car to win at Le Mans.

With help from the brilliant, but unpredictable, driver and engineer Ken Miles (Christian Bale), they develop the Ford GT40 Mk II which goes to France to compete with Ferrari's prototype 330 P3 at the 1966 24 hours of Le Mans.

James Mangold has made some great films, from Cop Land to Walk the Line and Logan, and this is clearly a film made by a great director. I can see why it was nominated for so many industry awards last year. It's a great story, it's superbly directed with gripping action sequences and brilliant sound design and school. The performances, particularly Christian Bale with a very convincing Sutton Coldfield accent, are uniformly strong, and there were numerous occasions when I wished I was watching it in a big cinema with a huge screen and 360° sound.

It's a film with driving sequences of which John Frankenheimer (Grand Prix, Ronin) would be proud and I will probably buy it for home viewing in the next 12 months, most likely in the 4K Ultra HD format for the best possible picture and sound quality.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The Lighthouse (2019) ★★★★★

In the 1890s, two lighthouse keepers are alone on an unnamed and mysterious island in New England. One of them (Willem Defoe) is a grizzled veteran 'wickie' who is joined for a month by someone new to the profession (Robert Pattinson). When a storm hits and they are stranded on the island, alcohol consumption increases, tempers fray, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.

I thought Robert Eggers had peaked with his astonishingly good debut, The Witch, but it seems he has hit pay dirt again with this compelling and disturbingly claustrophobic follow-up.

Willem Defoe delivers one of the best performances of his long and distinguished career while Robert Pattinson seems to be channelling Daniel Day Lewis for a powerhouse acting display which should silence his naysayers.

Shot in stark monochrome in the unusual 1.19:1 aspect ratio and with a complex and thoughtful screenplay, this delivers on aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual levels. As he showed with The Witch, Eggers again created a completely convincing period setting – the costumes, make-up, and production design are phenomenally good – and the dialogue between the two men could have been written by Edgar Allen Poe.

It's a film I intend to revisit soon (I streamed this on Now TV and ordered the Blu-ray the next day) and will watch many times to understand the sociological, mythological, and philosophical themes.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Judy (2019) ★★★½

Watching this as someone who knew almost nothing about Judy Garland's life was a crash course in the end of her career. The film picks up with a broke, unemployed and homeless Garland in her mid-40s, struggling to keep custody of the children and physically and mentally damaged by years of substance abuse.

Through flashbacks, we see how she was abused by the studios, pressurised to keep her weight down by using amphetamines and be told in no uncertain terms that she is disposable, someone who is only special because of her singing voice.

There isn't much about the film which is special; I was often guessing who people were and the plot is quite thin with highlights few and far between (I really liked the scene where she meets two gay fans, ending up making them a late night snack in their flat).

It's a film dominated by Renée Zellweger's performance, one which is a remarkable transformation and there were times where, if I knew nothing about the film, I would have struggled to name who was playing Judy Garland.

Every time Zellweger takes the microphone and sings, the film comes to life; the interactions between Judy and Mickey less so – I had to look on the Internet to find out some of the people work because I was confused between Mickey Deans and Mickey Rooney and it felt that director Rupert Goold assumes people will watch the film with a good working knowledge of Judy Garland's life. If you are going to watch this, it's probably worth doing a bit of reading beforehand so you aren't pausing it to do some online research during the film.

[gag]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

The Lighthouse (2019) ★★★★★

In the 1890s, two lighthouse keepers are alone on an unnamed and mysterious island in New England. One of them (Willem Defoe) is a grizzled veteran 'wickie' who is joined for a month by someone new to the profession (Robert Pattinson). When a storm hits and they are stranded on the island, alcohol consumption increases, tempers fray, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.

I thought Robert Eggers had peaked with his astonishingly good debut, The Witch, but it seems he has hit pay dirt again with this compelling and disturbingly claustrophobic follow-up.

Willem Defoe delivers one of the best performances of his long and distinguished career while Robert Pattinson seems to be channelling Daniel Day Lewis for a powerhouse acting display which should silence his naysayers.

Shot in stark monochrome in the unusual 1.19:1 aspect ratio and with a complex and thoughtful screenplay, this delivers on aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual levels. As he showed with The Witch, Eggers again created a completely convincing period setting – the costumes, make-up, and production design are phenomenally good – and the dialogue between the two men could have been written by Edgar Allen Poe.

It's a film I intend to revisit soon (I streamed this on Now TV and ordered the Blu-ray the next day) and will watch many times to understand the sociological, mythological, and philosophical themes.

I enjoyed this as well, surprisingly how a lot of people hated it but that was down to the fact there only 2 ppl in the film and complained it was slow and not much to it, I think a lot of people don’t understand the concept of the film about the boredom and slow descend into madness.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

Although Paul Schrader's film is well made, nicely photographed, decently acted and steadfastly earnest, it seems to forget what it is at it's base level.

A prequel to one of the scariest movies of all time. Because, uneasy prologue aside involving Nazi's committing war crimes, this isn't the least bit frightening or remotely gripping.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

The Lighthouse (2019) ★★★★★

In the 1890s, two lighthouse keepers are alone on an unnamed and mysterious island in New England. One of them (Willem Defoe) is a grizzled veteran 'wickie' who is joined for a month by someone new to the profession (Robert Pattinson). When a storm hits and they are stranded on the island, alcohol consumption increases, tempers fray, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.

I thought Robert Eggers had peaked with his astonishingly good debut, The Witch, but it seems he has hit pay dirt again with this compelling and disturbingly claustrophobic follow-up.

Willem Defoe delivers one of the best performances of his long and distinguished career while Robert Pattinson seems to be channelling Daniel Day Lewis for a powerhouse acting display which should silence his naysayers.

Shot in stark monochrome in the unusual 1.19:1 aspect ratio and with a complex and thoughtful screenplay, this delivers on aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual levels. As he showed with The Witch, Eggers again created a completely convincing period setting – the costumes, make-up, and production design are phenomenally good – and the dialogue between the two men could have been written by Edgar Allen Poe.

It's a film I intend to revisit soon (I streamed this on Now TV and ordered the Blu-ray the next day) and will watch many times to understand the sociological, mythological, and philosophical themes.

A film that stands up. 4 times I've watched it now. Blinding talent. Plus the fact that I loathe shitehawks.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

The Lighthouse (2019) ★★★★★



In the 1890s, two lighthouse keepers are alone on an unnamed and mysterious island in New England. One of them (Willem Defoe) is a grizzled veteran 'wickie' who is joined for a month by someone new to the profession (Robert Pattinson). When a storm hits and they are stranded on the island, alcohol consumption increases, tempers fray, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.



I thought Robert Eggers had peaked with his astonishingly good debut, The Witch, but it seems he has hit pay dirt again with this compelling and disturbingly claustrophobic follow-up.



Willem Defoe delivers one of the best performances of his long and distinguished career while Robert Pattinson seems to be channelling Daniel Day Lewis for a powerhouse acting display which should silence his naysayers.



Shot in stark monochrome in the unusual 1.19:1 aspect ratio and with a complex and thoughtful screenplay, this delivers on aesthetic, emotional, and intellectual levels. As he showed with The Witch, Eggers again created a completely convincing period setting – the costumes, make-up, and production design are phenomenally good – and the dialogue between the two men could have been written by Edgar Allen Poe.



It's a film I intend to revisit soon (I streamed this on Now TV and ordered the Blu-ray the next day) and will watch many times to understand the sociological, mythological, and philosophical themes.

I adore The Witch so i can't really put into words how disappointed i was with The Lighthouse. Everything was there for perfection. But it was just pointless. And headache inducing. It wasn't the aspect ratio, the B&W photography, the 2 man cast or any of the things your average amazon reviewer would whine about. It was just that it was pointless. With a droning painful soundtrack.

[nicholasrope]

Scream 4

Sydney Prescott comes home to promote her book but a copycat killer starts killing. This is the weakest of the series but it's not bad, it just follows the blueprint from the other films but with some subtle changes like discussions regarding reboots.

Feels like the George A. Romero Zombie movies after Day, where the original films are revered but the sequels that come years after feel flat.

Infernal Affairs

Hong Kong film in which both the Police and a Mobster both send someone to infiltrate the other and therefore it's a race to find out the mole in their organization first. Loved it at the Cinema and it was thrilling watching it years after. Loved the scene where both the Police Chief and Mob Head look at their men to see who the infiltrator could be. Need to watch The Departed again.

Ichi The Killer

Rather violent but way too long film in which a sadistic Hitman is on the hunt for his missing boss and fellow killer. It's earned it's reputation for it's violence and gore and in a way, I'm kinda surprised the BBFC passed it really.

Mighty Ducks Are The Champions

My favorite Disney Live Action Film in which Emilio Estevez is sentenced to Community Service therefore he has to coach the worst Junior Ice Hockey Team in Minnesota. Definitely has the clichés but I love the final match at the end. Disney produced this film because they wanted to promote their NHL Team that were starting their 1st Season.

[gag]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Scream 4

Sydney Prescott comes home to promote her book but a copycat killer starts killing. This is the weakest of the series but it's not bad, it just follows the blueprint from the other films but with some subtle changes like discussions regarding reboots.

Feels like the George A. Romero Zombie movies after Day, where the original films are revered but the sequels that come years after feel flat.

Infernal Affairs

Hong Kong film in which both the Police and a Mobster both send someone to infiltrate the other and therefore it's a race to find out the mole in their organization first. Loved it at the Cinema and it was thrilling watching it years after. Loved the scene where both the Police Chief and Mob Head look at their men to see who the infiltrator could be. Need to watch The Departed again.

Ichi The Killer

Rather violent but way too long film in which a sadistic Hitman is on the hunt for his missing boss and fellow killer. It's earned it's reputation for it's violence and gore and in a way, I'm kinda surprised the BBFC passed it really.

Mighty Ducks Are The Champions

My favorite Disney Live Action Film in which Emilio Estevez is sentenced to Community Service therefore he has to coach the worst Junior Ice Hockey Team in Minnesota. Definitely has the clichés but I love the final match at the end. Disney produced this film because they wanted to promote their NHL Team that were starting their 1st Season.

Ichi the killer all uk versions are still slightly cut by 3min 15 secs.


https://www.dvdcompare.net/compariso...m.php?fid=2230

R2 United Kingdom- Cine Asia - Yes - 3m 15s - "UK Theatrical" version (120:04 PAL).
R2 United Kingdom- Premier Asia / Hong Kong Legends - Yes - 3m 15s - "UK Theatrical" version (120:04 PAL).
R2 2-Disc Edition United Kingdom- Premier Asia / Hong Kong Legends - Yes - 3m 15s - "UK Theatrical" version (120:04 PAL).
R2 3-Disc Special Collector's Box Set United Kingdom- Premier Asia / Hong Kong Legends - Yes - 3m 15s - "UK theatrical" version (120:04 PAL).