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Started by SmallBlueThing, 04 February, 2011, 12:40:44 PM

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Apestrife

Suspiria by Dario Argento.
Dream like horror movie. A bunch of witch related murders at a balett school. Really liked it. Never found it scary, but still a bit eerie. It's use of colour and music is fantastic. Found out afterwards there's a remake coming out as well which seems like an interesting take on the film.

Deep Red by Dario Argento.
Not as fantastic as Suspiria, but still quite good. Feels like a Hitchcock movie made by Carpenter, but with a bit less charm. Basically a bunch of murders which a man then tries to solve. what follows is a bunch of additional murders to some fairly out of place sounding music. Has a weird quality I wish more slashers had.

Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson
Really really weird, but good fun. Stop motion film. Basically Japan puts all of it's dogs on a trash island. In comes a little boy set on rescuing his fav. pooch.  Weird Wes Anderson fun ensues. I quite like his films, and this was no exception.

Professor Bear

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is about the legacy of a capitalist society, and some have complained that its second half where it turns into Resident Evil 1 is a bit leftfield, but this ignores that the JP franchise is at heart a story about a failing capitalist endeavor that results in people dying, and in the first movie/novel, this took the form of a malfunctioning theme park where consumers paid the price for corporate hubris, and in this one, it takes the form of millionaires literally scoffing at the law in a big mansion castle and then being eaten by the things they were trying to buy.  It isn't leftfield, it's just unsubtle.

The whole "should we save the dinosaurs we created" stuff is a nice nod to how US corporatism works - if your business is a banking ponzi scheme the government bails you out, but if you're some folks on an island that's technically part of America and run by American businesses but has a Latin-sounding name, then fuck you, buddy - not the government's job to bail out private industry!
"Your children - an entire generation grew up in a world where dinosaurs exist" offers one character - the character is a ginger, as it happens, also an endangered species - further highlighting that the current and last generation have left nothing behind but a fucking nightmare for those who will inherit the results of our short-sightedness, a dangerous and uncertain world where dinosaurs (of the literal variety) call the shots.
I liked the first half more than the second half, and hope they don't get too fancy with the sequels and have the dinosaurs do a poo on Wall Street or something, but the after-credits bit has Terana - Petraron - Peterra-ranna - Terrarannaduns - Petra some flying dinosaurs perching atop a tower overlooking Las Vegas, so they might not be done with the pretending to be clever stuff just yet.  Shite, but entertaining.  More like JurrASS World etc.

Mardroid

After buying the Mad Max Anthology blu-ray recently, I decided to watch the first film Mad Max. I've seen it before, a couple of times but it's been a while. Usually the ones repeated on the telly are The Road Warrior, and Beyond Thunder-dome.

I seem to remember it not being very good, but it held up quite well. I was rather puzzled by the amount of American accents, as I though I remembered Australian accents, originally. On further investigation, I find out the American release was actually dubbed! When I checked the sound section on the blu-ray it seems you have the option of English Dubbed (technically American English) or Original Australian Theatrical English... defaulting to the former.

Ridiculous.

Still an enjoyable film. Just wished I'd known there were two English versions. I'd have set the audio for the original.

I, Cosh

Quote from: Mardroid on 11 July, 2018, 01:37:10 PM
Still an enjoyable film. Just wished I'd known there were two English versions. I'd have set the audio for the original.
Spare a thought for people who had the old VHS boxset where that wasn't an option!
We never really die.

Hawkmumbler

The US dub of Mad Max is abysmal, but ine of the best unintentional comedies of all time.

abelardsnazz

Skyscraper. Mashes up The Towering Inferno and Die Hard with a whole lot of cheese. The script's terrible and the plot's so full of holes you could fit several very tall buildings through it. It just about gets away with it though thanks to tense and well-sequenced action scenes. My favourite Dwayne Johnson film of the year so far is still Rampage though.

von Boom

Quote from: abelardsnazz on 12 July, 2018, 08:29:49 PM
My favourite Dwayne Johnson film of the year so far is .
That's a phrase I didn't think anyone would ever utter.

abelardsnazz

Quote from: von Boom on 13 July, 2018, 02:30:03 PM
Quote from: abelardsnazz on 12 July, 2018, 08:29:49 PM
My favourite Dwayne Johnson film of the year so far is .
That's a phrase I didn't think anyone would ever utter.

He's the highest-paid film star in the world, like it or not. Like Arnie or Sly used to be, only more family-friendly.

The Death of Stalin. Such dark subject matter shouldn't work as comedy, but it does in the hands of a brilliant script and cast. A standout is Simon Russell Beale.

Professor Bear

Rampage - fun b-movie romp about giant monsters doing a rampage and then having a fight inside Chicago.  I liked it when the monkey give the Rock the finger, and when the monkey done the hand signal for doing sex, but I am not sure the science in this was accurate.

Mardroid

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

the Blu-ray had an optional introduction, which was quite interesting. I didn't know that after being released in Australia as 'Mad Max 2' it was renamed 'The Road Warrior' in the States, apparently to hide the fact it's a sequel since the majority of Americans had never seen Mad Max.

I always figured it was just one long title: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, but there you go. Curiously* the Blu-ray disk title drops the number 2, so it appears as 'MAD MAX The Road Warrior' which fits with the titling of the other two sequels.

Anyway, having recently just watched the original film, I was interested to see that the introductory montage includes quite a bit of stuff in the first film, more than I originally noticed.

Film itself still holds up very well. It is arguably better than the first, and possibly the best of the Mad Max films, although I like things about all of them. (I'd also argue Fury Road is as good, which isn't something I'd have expected to say concerning a modern sequel with a whole other actor in the lead role.)

There is a part in Mad Max 2 which drags a bit for me (and I think this says more about me than the quality of the film, itself.) but then it really takes off again to a rip roaring end [spoiler]with a nice little twist[/spoiler].

Annoyingly both this film and Mad Max skip in places. I did buy the box set second hand from CEX, so this is likely ordinary wear, I guess. I wish I'd gotten it new now. That being said the skipping doesnt involve missing much of the film, but I find it very annoying.

I'm really looking forward to the next one: Beyond Thunderdome. I understand many regard this as a downturn in quality, but I've always liked it and admired it for bringing something new to the series. More about that when I watch it.

* If you're easily fascinated, like me.

Mattofthespurs

Happy Deathday

I was looking forward to this.


Sadly it's not very good. Not good at all. 4/10

abelardsnazz

The Secret of Marrowbone. Mostly effective horror that delivers on atmosphere, chills and scares throughout. Worth a look if you fancy a few shivers up the spine in the current heatwave.

Keef Monkey

Quote from: Mardroid on 14 July, 2018, 04:39:07 PM
I'm really looking forward to the next one: Beyond Thunderdome. I understand many regard this as a downturn in quality, but I've always liked it and admired it for bringing something new to the series. More about that when I watch it.

I was disappointed with Thunderdome when I first saw it as a kid, but I think only because I loved Mad Max 2 so much. Me and my friends watched that so many times and the chase scene was so insane and exciting that we expected Thunderdome to top that, but it doesn't even really try to. There is some vehicle action in it but it feels a bit too brief and not as mental as I'd expected after 2. I came to the conclusion that was a sensible choice because the chase scene thrills in 2 probably couldn't ever be matched let alone bettered, which is why Fury Road blew me away so much. It felt like the ultimate version of that thing 2 was.

On a positive note I now really like Thunderdome, it holds up way better on a rewatch than I'd expected, and it really benefits from going in knowing you're not getting another Road Warrior movie.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Keef Monkey on 18 July, 2018, 09:31:36 AM

I was disappointed with Thunderdome when I first saw it as a kid, but I think only because I loved Mad Max 2 so much. ...
On a positive note I now really like Thunderdome, it holds up way better on a rewatch than I'd expected, and it really benefits from going in knowing you're not getting another Road Warrior movie.

Yeah re-watched that for the first time not too long ago and pretty much agree. While its a disappointment when you expect it to be a follow on to Road Warrior in and of itself its a pretty good movie. Full of problems but very watchable.

Jim_Campbell

Skyscraper

There was literally nothing else we fancied on, and we'd really enjoyed Jumanji, which was the first Dwayne Johnson film I'd seen since The Mummy Returns, so we thought we'd give it a go.

This is a STUPID movie. I wouldn't be surprised if its genesis was literally Johnson saying: "Die Hard? I could do that standing on one leg... and while you're at it, set the building on fire."

But... I'm sorry, it was enormous fun. Every plot twist is telegraphed in advance, there isn't a character you could even dignify with the description of "two dimensional", but it's enormous fun. And it only runs to about an hour fifty, so it doesn't outstay its welcome. If you have a high tolerance for ridiculous tosh and like action movies, there are much worse ways to kill a couple of hours.
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