Last movie watched...

[Michael Knight]

Bicentennial Man is underrated. Thought Robin Williams was superb in this.
Just watched 'Millennium' with Kris Kristopherson. Didnt realise it was on dvd till recently. Still enjoyed just as much as when saw it on tv as a teen. Cool concept

[radiator]

Sisters.

Shitters, more like.

Expensive-looking but extremely feeble and lazy comedy starring the usually-excellent Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It has a scriptwriter credited, but you'd be forgiven for thinking they literally just made it all up on the day of the shoot - lots of improv, very little of it even faintly amusing, and hugely indulgent and overlong at two hours. Everyone involved is capable of so much better. A real misfire.

1/5.

[Theblazeuk]

Hush

Brilliant little thriller/horror. Kind of a slasher movie in its way. Not scary so much as explosively tense, and a very well made 92 minutes with an interesting little twist in the set-up due to a deaf protagonist.

[The Legendary Shark]

Gaslight (1944)

A brilliant psychological thriller starring Ingrid Bergman as a young bride whose older husband, played by Charles Boyer, manipulates her into believing she's going insane. (It also features a young Angela Lansbury as a maid, looking very sexy in a hard to believe but nevertheless true kind of way.)

I've been wanting to see this for a while as the film (and the play before it) gave its name to "gaslighting," a form of psychological abuse in which a victim is manipulated into doubting their own memory, perception, and sanity. The current discussion on the "Truth? You can't handle the truth..." thread finally prompted me to download it and, boy, what a great little film it is!

[dweezil2]

Hush

Brilliant little thriller/horror. Kind of a slasher movie in its way. Not scary so much as explosively tense, and a very well made 92 minutes with an interesting little twist in the set-up due to a deaf protagonist.

Yeah, effective little home invasion movie that!

Highly recommended too! 

[dweezil2]

Z For Zachariah.

Excellent character piece, with fine performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Margot Robbie.

I vaguely remember the BBC adaptation years back, but not enough to make a comparison.

Special mention to Chris Pine who, for shame, I'd had pegged as a pretty boy with moderate acting ability, who in this reveals hidden depths with a subtly nuanced performance.

Quite lovely cinematography too!

Worth a watch.

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh man oh boy, more 80's mecha OVA madness with the delightfully cheesy and neglected DANGAIOH! Actually from the same director, art team, studio and soundtrack composer as ICZAR-1, DANGAIOH is a very differently handled beast. Here's the rub, for all the rushed aspects of I-1 it had a noticeable beginning, middle, and end. It was a self contained story, arse pull universal reset ending and all. And for a small budget 3 episode series, that's not bad going. Sure it was light on character development and animation was a tad rushed at times, but it handled itself well for all it's weaknesses.

DANGAIOH, in contrast, feel's very much like a first act of a 12 episode series that never got a resolution. Just as we get the cement block down for the characters to bloom, it ends and a black hole sized cliffhanger. Which is a crying shame, because the ensemble cast is actually very enjoyable, definitely a significant departure from the typical 80's anime archetypes (in this case, a solid 3:1 female and male ratio, and the dudes a mild mannered, flawed individual in comparison to his team mates, acting as the glue to the expressive trio of 1) the shrinking violet 2) the muscle head and 3) the leader) and this works to the series strength, it can be recommended on mold breaking alone. The fight sequences are exciting and well choreographed, the villains deliciously pantomime, the animation is above average for the medium it was presented in. An actually surprising gem, and who cares if the cheese is so thick you could spread it on bread and serve it on bake off? That's all part of the charm! So GO! CROSS FIGHT! DANGAIOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!!!!

[Goaty]

Slow West

Saw it on Netflix, it very slow burn then it great!  Like it.

[Tiplodocus]

Inadvertently* did a double bill of Taylor Sheridan written movies on Friday.

Reminded upthread about how pretty Chris Pine is (very), we went to see HELL OR HIGHWATER a modern western/crime movie also starring Jeff Bridges and Ben Foster (was Angel in an XMEN movie). 

It was top stuff - a fantastic piece of commentary on modern america (and Britain).  It puts character ahead of action and big set pieces but when things do happen, they are well executed. There's a bit of resolution still to happen when it all finishes - but satisfactorily so.  Great soundtrack and painfully beautiful landscapes and decaying towns too.  If I have one complaint it's Jeff Brdges; I've seen his grumpy old man routine a few too many times - it doesn't work for me. Pine and Foster, however, are really good together, each showing a different kind of smart and they shine when there's brotherly banter to be done

It struck me you could do a TV series on similar lines with a different state each week (Fargo has Minnesota covered).

Oh and the casting for the smaller roles was absolutely brilliant. 


SICARIO  (Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benecio Del Torro) was the netflix movie of choice that same evening and hit a few similar notes such that I wasn't surprised when I realised it was by the same writer.

You'll probably be aware it's an upstanding FBI agent brought into a multi-agent task force taking down Mexican drug cartels. (It's probably from where Donald Trump gets his view of mexicans).

Again, powerful stuff, drawing out character rather than gun battles. Del Toro doesn't steal the movie but does borrow it towards the end (Thank you Empire and your review of Suicide Squad for that turn of phrase).

Blunt is the least pro protaganist I've seen in a long while. She stares indecisive and almost dumbfounded as events unfold around her without her instigating anything. Whenever she does initiate action, she ends up flat on her arse (literally), slapped back down by a system she has ended up complicit in.

I'm really liking Jon Bernthal in just about everything I see him in these days.  He does a fine alpha male! (even though he gets out alpha'd in this)



* I once did the same with two movies starring Danny Dyer. This was obviously a better experience.

[I, Cosh]

Inadvertently* did a double bill of Taylor Sheridan written movies on Friday.

SICARIO  (Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benecio Del Torro) was the netflix movie of choice that same evening and hit a few similar notes such that I wasn't surprised when I realised it was by the same writer.

Think the latter was definitely my favourite film of last year and I've been looking forward to the former as a result.

Lazily watched K-Pax yesterday afternoon. Kevin Spacey wasn't bad in it but the general direction of the plot was tediously predictable and it featured way too much of that uniquely cinematic mental illness where everyone thinks they're Napoleon.

[JOE SOAP]

Lazily watched K-Pax yesterday afternoon. Kevin Spacey wasn't bad in it but the general direction of the plot was tediously predictable and it featured way too much of that uniquely cinematic mental illness where everyone thinks they're Napoleon.

Plus it's a rip-off of the far better Man Facing Southeast

[Steve Green]

A backlog of

Barry Lyndon - very pretty but more just one to tick off as 'seen'

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot - Edgar Wright is curating a season at the Picture House in London.

There was an entertaining introduction about his meeting with Michael Cimino - the print wasn't in great shape, and jumped around a bit, managing to miss out the anti-tank gun shooting through the vault.

Since I'd never seen it before, it was a bit WTF. I enjoyed it though, has a great cast, and some memorable cameos.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Felt like a modern fairy-tale, entertaining and well-acted, but didn't make me laugh as much as I was expecting from the trailer.

The director has a great cameo as well.

[Zarjazzer]

Batman -the killing joke animation.  Um, no, it didn't work all that well for me. Worth seeing as a completist but yet I can;t find myself recommending it to anyone. An almost superfluous beginning.  All it confirmed is that I know the dialogue from almost every panel. I should get out more and wear a leather mask and prowl the night. I may even stop crime occasionally.

[radiator]

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.

While not a patch on the Lonely Island crew's previous film (the 2007 cult classic Hot Rod), this is a decent enough R-rated comedy.

I think the reason it failed at the box office is probably due to the fact that the subject matter - a broad send-up of a Justin Bieber type pop megastar - a) in my opinion isn't a particularly rich seam for comedy (swipes at things like the U2/iTunes debacle don't quite land) and b) I don't see there being much of a crossover between the Lonely Island's target audience and those with an earnest interest in modern pop. I mean, is anyone with a mental age over 12 going to be impressed by a Simon Cowell cameo?

As with everything these guys do, it's the songs that are the main draw, and while there's nothing to match the likes of 'Like a Boss', 'Semi-colon' or 'Threw it on the Ground' there's some pretty good ones here - including a delightfully unhinged one about the Mona Lisa being overrated.

3/5.

[Spikes]

For those that are interested in these things;

Purchased the 2010 released 'Ultimate 2 disc edition' Blu-ray of Donnie Darko this year for a good cheap price, and whilst the picture quality wasn't that much of a step up from the previous DVD's, I thought this'll do nicely....


Fast forward to December, and Arrow will be releasing a 4K restored 4 disc set (2 Blu + 2 DVD) - HERE