Last movie watched...

[Apestrife]

Took me years, but now I've started to watch Bergman. 7th seal and Fanny and Alexander. Really liked both of them. Some of the most powerful movies I've seen about death, magic/imagination and the silence of god.

[Apestrife]

Ive now seen The great silence. Really good. Really liked its gritty and snowy setting. Hell of a an ending.

I love a good snow western, and yup - The Great Silence has some superb performances, not least Jean-Louis Trintignant, despite his character's limited ability to express himself. And the ending - that either makes or breaks the whole film. Glad it worked for you. It's worth looking at the alternate ending they shot, which goes in completely the opposite direction - almost comically so.

His muteness was very interesting. The alternative ending was included on the DVD (albeit without sound). Made for a good laugh considering the ending they went with

[repoman]

Watched Underwater. 

I don't recommend it

Yes, I watched it as well and your review is spot on

The main probs for me were that I couldn't really see or hear anything that was going on.

On the plus side I watched Eat Locals which is a horror/comedy about vampires and was a lot of fun indeed.  Great cast too.  Really surprised me that one. 

[Hawkmumbler]

Ive now seen The great silence. Really good. Really liked its gritty and snowy setting. Hell of a an ending.

I love a good snow western, and yup - The Great Silence has some superb performances, not least Jean-Louis Trintignant, despite his character's limited ability to express himself. And the ending - that either makes or breaks the whole film. Glad it worked for you. It's worth looking at the alternate ending they shot, which goes in completely the opposite direction - almost comically so.

His muteness was very interesting. The alternative ending was included on the DVD (albeit without sound). Made for a good laugh considering the ending they went with

I do love the theatrical ending, a true bait and switch on the established Yojimbo-Dollars-Django ending.

[Keef Monkey]

I liked Underwater a lot, but I can't argue with the fact it's hard to see what's going on half the time. It's a hell of a murky film.

We actually watched one of the director's previous films the other night, The Signal, and enjoyed it. It's got some good bonkers ideas and feels a lot like something you'd read in a Future Shock or one of Tharg's Thrill3rs maybe! Not mindblowing and I can imagine a lot of people not getting on with it but I liked it.

Also watched Monstrum, which I loved! It's a Korean monster movie set in the 1500s and supposedly based on actual record of the time when a rumour about a monster in the forest was used to make the King look weak. And it's great, has some drama but also a great sense of fun which makes the characters really likeable, and while it isn't really an action film as such the action scenes in it are splendidly thrilling. Very much recommend that one.

Oh and rewatched the Appleseed reboot movie from 2004 (I think?), which I remember seeing in the cinema at the time because the CG animation was getting a lot of hype. With that in mind it's amazing how dated the CG looks now, and it definitely isn't my favourite take on Appleseed (I have a real soft spot for the original '80s animation) but still enjoyed revisiting it.

[Colin YNWA]

The Void

On Amazon.

The illegitimate child of  From Beyond and Prince of Darkness

Great 80s style horror. One of the most true takes on the Lovecraftian mythos I have seen on film. Total WTF ending.

I liked it.

Oh that's good to hear. Added it to my watch list on Prime but haven't got around to it. Might just elevate up the ordering in this case.

So watched it tonight and it was pretty intense. Maybe could have done with an extra 10 minutes at the start to build up the tension rather than throwing one thing at you after another  as soon as things kick off. But maybe that was the idea to eschew the typical horror structure, right down to the cop being the main 'goodie'. Pretty entertaining gripping, instense stuff, even if it didn't really add anything new.

[repoman]

I was really excited about seeing The Void but it kind of left me cold to be honest.

[Keef Monkey]

Big fan of The Void, I'm sure I read somewhere that the director's new movie is called Psycho Goreman and I've resisted looking into anything else about that film because any new info can't possibly live up to the title.

[pictsy]

The last movie I watched (with my eyes, I had Just Friends on last night whilst painting some miniatures, but just listened to it) was House Bunny.  I wasn't expecting much from it, but it was OK.  Really basic and formulaic plot that I found somewhat amusing.  Not bad for when I want to just watch junk.

The last really good film I watched was The Endless (2017).  It's a well considered Lovecraftian horror with compelling character dynamics and interesting situation.  The horror element I felt was an ever present looming factor that never took over as much as the mystery element of the film.  Really engaging.  Not as beautiful/disgusting as Color Out of Space but it grabbed my attention more.  Color Out of Space is pretty good as well.

[von Boom]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Still a very good film, but it's quite amusing that aliens would travel millions of miles to Earth and only ever abduct Americans.

[pictsy]

I came across The Void around a month ago, but was put off watching it by a friend who really likes that sort of film (and is generally more forgiving of films than I am).  I put it on the back burner for when I'm up for watching something I might not like.  I was watching stuff like In the Mouth of Madness at the time.  That's a good film.

I've never seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind (except the ending when it was on the tele once).  I really don't know why I have never been interested in watching it.  Maybe it's because no one has really recommended it to me.  I get told "it's a good film" but not "you should watch it".  That might be an explanation. 

[von Boom]

Close Encounters is one of those films that if you saw it as a kid you probably like it and remember it with some fondness, but you're right, I can't ever remember recommending that someone should watch it.

[JamesC]

I cannot bare Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters. He's such a horrible character who I find it impossible to sympathise with. Totally ruins the film for me.

[TordelBack]

I dunno, I always read Roy as a completely ordinary person (which perforce includes all kinds of shitty behaviour) being driven mad by the message in his head. The only point at which I question his behaviour is where [spoiler]he abandons his children, potentially forever, to go on a space adventure[/spoiler].

It's a good film, I would - and do - recommend it. But with the caveat that I first saw it in the cinema when I was 7, and history has shown that that can twist a person.

[Professor Bear]

Sonic The Hedgehog - pleasantly surprised by a second viewing of this.
It's just a kids' movie, and tbh not a particularly good one, but all the mechanical parts of the plot work just fine and the movie makes a good fist of reframing Sonic's character from being an invincible badass superhero to being a lonely kid not used to being around people.  The film manages to come up with a good spin for why the character makes all these dated comedy references: he observed from hiding as adults watched stuff from their childhoods on tv (there's a running theme about how those adult characters smother themselves with comfortable memories because they're afraid of change), and Sonic leans into the references while trying to be liked, creating a poignant commentary on how the culture that informs his and the childhoods of the film's audience is comprised of a patchwork of second-hand nostalgia coupled with late-stage capitalism's inability to innovate.  Even the presence of Jim Carrey doing his schtick from the same decade which spawned Sonic circles back to these themes, though obviously the main meta-takeaway with Carrey is in how he portrays a man who has absolute faith in the power and authority of science despite Carrey himself being an unapologetic anti-vaxxer.
Hbomberguy did a video essay in which he explored the existential loneliness of Sonic "the" Hedgehog, the only one of his kind, burdened with the impossible task of continuing their legacy and masking the pain of the impending death of his race with humor etc, but the makers of this movie straight-up looked at that video which any normal person can see is meant to be a joke and took it completely seriously, which is why there is now a film for children about the mental trauma of Sonic the Holocaust Survivor.

The Grapes Of Wrath - pretty good adaptation of the Steinbeck novel your English teacher erroneously assured you would be enjoyable.  Obviously it takes some liberties with the novel because there is no way in Heck a 1940 movie is going to end on a starving man throwing the corpse of a baby into a river while cursing the rich, so instead it ends on an inevitable We The People monologue that's probably meant as an upbeat affirmation of the hardiness of the American populace in the face of adversity, but is really just another affirmation of how badly America needs socialism.

Wild Boys Of The Road - because why only watch one movie about the constant and inevitable collapses that are built into capitalism?  While enjoyable, this one isn't quite so politically-charged as GOW despite covering the same ground of Hoovervilles and transient labor, though its relationship with the depiction of institutions of law is equally complicated, with some authority figures being portrayed sympathetically, while others are child-rapists whose murders at the hands of a mob are implied to be deserved.  Made during the (misleadingly named) Great Depression rather than after it as Grapes was, and this alongside a good cast of young actors lends things an immediacy typical of the exploitation flicks of the pre-code era.