Last movie watched...

[Recrewt]

So theirs an Equaliser movie now. Who's idea was this?

I've no interest in ever watching the film, but I'm fascinated by the poster they've been using on bus shelters, featuring an oddly deracinated Denzel. It's as if they want some viewers to get the impression that the film stars an old white guy, like the TV show, despite the poster featuring the name of the star fairly prominently.

I used to love the old tv series but the trailers seem to suggest this is similar but not quite the same. With films like Taken doing quite well, it's not surprising that someone has remade this.

[Goaty]

So theirs an Equaliser movie now. Who's idea was this?

I've no interest in ever watching the film, but I'm fascinated by the poster they've been using on bus shelters, featuring an oddly deracinated Denzel. It's as if they want some viewers to get the impression that the film stars an old white guy, like the TV show, despite the poster featuring the name of the star fairly prominently.

I read in today's Daily Mirror, Interview with Denzel, he mentions that he hadn't watch the original TV show. so he don't understand what Equalizer about, so this film is just some feed me line and I acting film.

[Frank]

I remember the TV show being a bit shit, though. I agree it's just the Taken old-guy-saves-young-girl-from-foreign-rapists trope, although they've nicked the drifter/whore dynamic from Taxi Driver too. I heard an interview with Denzel where he described the film as playing knowingly with genre conventions, which I think means they nicked bits from lots of other films.

[JOE SOAP]

Best thing about the TV show was the opening sequence and that theme*.



*composed by Stewart Copeland.

[Goaty]

Marvellous

Saw it on BBC2 last night, what a brilliant heart-warming TV film. Can't believe Nello is real person, very British Forrest Gump?

Toby Jones is very good in it, even Nello himself!

It still on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04jmx7l/marvellous

[Greg M.]

Marvellous

Saw it on BBC2 last night, what a brilliant heart-warming TV film. Can't believe Nello is real person, very British Forrest Gump?

Toby Jones is very good in it, even Nello himself!

Toby Jones must be one of the best British actors out there. There's not too many people whose very presence in something is enough to make me want to watch it, irrespective of subject matter. Still think Berberian Sound Studio is his high water mark to date.

[Link Prime]

Still think Berberian Sound Studio is his high water mark to date.

I've a lot of time for Jones, but Berberian Sound Studio...it just lost me. Somewhere.

I recently watched the baffling yet visually arresting The Stange Colour of Your Body's Tears.
It was 'Run Fatboy Run' compared to BSS.

[Greg M.]

I've a lot of time for Jones, but Berberian Sound Studio...it just lost me. Somewhere.

I recently watched the baffling yet visually arresting The Stange Colour of Your Body's Tears.
It was 'Run Fatboy Run' compared to BSS.

Never seen 'The Strange Colour...' but a quick search reveals a four-star review by the notoriously demanding Kim Newman, which is enough for me to check it out. Cheers. My inroads into BSS was very much an existing fondness for Italian horror cinema, but I'd like to think it was accessible without that knowledge. That may not be the case though. I love Jones's performance in that film - there's something awfully authentic about his steady mental disintegration. I also found the movie uproariously funny at points - dangerously aroused goblins and all.

[Link Prime]

My inroads into BSS was very much an existing fondness for Italian horror cinema, but I'd like to think it was accessible without that knowledge.

I figured- both friends who recommended BSS to me are Italian Horror nuts.
I've seen the obvious genre classics, but am no aficionado. All that takes nothing away from Jones' performance of course- I couldn't disagree with that.

It's why I suspect you'll enjoy The Strange Colour- it riffs on the Giallo style.
Same filmmakers as the excellent Amer, although I'm sure you've caught that in recent years.

[Greg M.]

Same filmmakers as the excellent Amer, although I'm sure you've caught that in recent years.

Actually I haven't, so thanks for the recommendation there. To Amazon! I'd like to think my knowledge of 70s-era giallo is nae too bad, but my knowledge of its modern descendents is substantially less so.

[PsychoGoatee]

Saw The Boxtrolls, pretty badass.  Nick Frost especially should win Oscar gold I say.

[Link Prime]

the notoriously demanding Kim Newman

I haven't read Empire in years, but that name stuck in my head.
I watched Excision at the weekend, and noticed it had a Newman 5-Star blurb* on the front cover.

It's a sick little puppy of a movie.
I really enjoyed it, naturally, but it only hit 4 stars on my internal rateometer

My initial expectations were confounded. From the first 15 minutes I was anticipating a Rob Zombie style update of Kissed, but it turned out to be a completely different animal.

Stick with it- even though your foresight of the inevitable blood-soaked climax will likely be spot-on.
You'll just be surprised at how horrifying it is.


*Newman review here; http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=137945

[Hawkmumbler]

Same filmmakers as the excellent Amer, although I'm sure you've caught that in recent years.

Actually I haven't, so thanks for the recommendation there. To Amazon! I'd like to think my knowledge of 70s-era giallo is nae too bad, but my knowledge of its modern descendents is substantially less so.

Probably because the genre is dead in the water.

[Greg M.]

Have picked up a couple of Link's recommendations from earlier in the thread, so will give 'em a watch asap. Meanwhile I have been watching the blu-ray of:

The Shout (1978)

Wonderful bit of unnerving 70s weirdness, with Alan Bates putting in a compelling performance as a man who has apparently learned an aboriginal 'terror shout' and can now kill with his voice alone. During a cricket match at the mental asylum where he resides, Bates relates a possibly (probably?) apocryphal tale of his exploits to an intrigued Tim Curry – exploits which involve Bates inviting himself into the lives of couple John Hurt and Susannah York, and then steadily supplanting Hurt from his own home.

Loved this. Very clever and evocative, rife with symbolism and quite textually dense for an 86-minuter – the sort of film that doesn't spell everything out for you, but which gives you all the information you need and still leaves plenty for you to make your own mind up about. Bates is superb – a dark, sinister presence at the heart of the movie, whereas the always-excellent Hurt plays flawed, hapless and emasculated to a tee. It also features the first film performance of Jim Broadbent, playing a mental patient who freaks out, strips off, smears himself in mud and goes loopy with a pair of cricket stumps. Very memorable.

[von Boom]

The Boxtrolls. Wonderful stuff. I love this sort of stop-motion animation. I think I need to get the book now.