Films Recently Watched

[Schlitze]

Screener torrenters should also provide a review of the font in their assessments. Size, sanserif or not, times at which it appears, ie 12:09, Times New Roman (looks italic but i can't tell for sure cos of the yellowish tinge due to the lack of pixels).

[cwmbrancity]

White of the Eye (Donald Cammell)......

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094320/

 

excellent slice of psycho-sexual weirdness about a sound engineer who might have a problem or 2. Love/hate the editing....its got cajones

[Nebraska]

 

great documentary- especially if you're familiar with their films, but honestly: this documentary was just an expansion of this one if going so far as including most of the footage for their stock

[data]

been wanting to see that. loved the 1986 one.

[hoggy]

hobbit 3 - 5/10

 

I loved 2 scenes and 1 character, the rest was boring

[Nebraska]

 

a serial killer with a duck voice (think donald duck) goes around killing women. as ludicrous as this sounds, it gets pretty confusing because you're not certain whether you're supposed to get scared when you hear the duck sound or whether it's to be considered an extension of the killers madness.

 

either way, it's a giallo so it's an excuse to see hot babes get killed minus their clothes

[Schlitze]

Not Fulci's finest due to the poor acting and some really fake looking special effects. Couldn't help think that nipple that got sliced off would sit nicely on top of that Goodfellas Pepperami i cooked tonight.

[Suffocate Peon]

Blue Ruin 5/10

I don't really get the praise for this, i thought the beginning and end are strong but everything in between was like an absence of anything. Also it just rubbed me up the wrong way that the protagonist seemed dim and monosyllabic in order to cover for the lack of a well written script as some indie films do. That goes for the film as a whole, i can only really think of two scenes that make up the middle and one failed to be remotely thrilling or exciting for me and the other I've seen so many times before. It's possible to even be offended by his nonchalant attitude to murder, I wasn't convinced by his motivation and he doesn't seem to grasp it either. I think people like that approach of the guy being so inept but I reacted to it like i was tired of seeing it, as though I'd seen 10 other identical films. I've not, but it just felt obvious and I guess I'm just tired of this kind of ambient moody independent approach to film making, I much prefer constructed bombastic thrillers that are packed with content, rather than this arty minimalist approach. (unless it's done well, this just doesn't do anything, it's not eerie and dark like Blood Simple which also had a simple plot with bizarre character motivations but tried to be as effective with imagery as possible)

Also, I watched The Rover and while I didn't love it, i certainly found more interest in it than in this, given the seeming collapse of civilization there are some really convincing scenes featuring disheveled and strange people in hot and sweaty spaces. It kind of reminded me of The Road when you've got Guy Pierce doing the really intense stare like Viggo Mortensen does in the whole of that film. Those were my favourite moments.

Expectations seem to influence people's judgement, The Rover is 'the slightly underwhelming second film from the director of the masterpiece Animal Kingdom', Blue Ruin is the hard edged thriller made for £500 that's emerged from nowhere that's just so raw and unrestrained. It just...isn't.

 

The Guest 1/10

I thought this was clearly obviously dire and I can't fathom why anyone would think it isn't. I think Dan Stevens is shit and there's no substance to him. I don't understand the insistence that it's an 1980s throwback, just because it has some Carpenter esque music, when the film has a cheap modern digital made for tv look to it. I want it to look like an 80s film. It seems less like a homage and more like desperation to be sleek in the way Drive is, as the poster all but confirms. But Drive was actually directed by a proper visual artist, that film begins in a dark hotel room as the camera pans across the room as the square frame of the tv bursts on to show some basketball. The Guest's director doesn't seem to be working on anywhere near that level, the only inspired bit for me was when you see him running along the road at the beginning, but it lasts about 2 seconds.

 

The only saving grace for me was the Brittany Murphy lookalike newcomer playing the daughter being more convincing than any of it deserves. I don't think it thrills or horrifies. It's slow, bland, boring, utterly stupid, and there's nothing of note that distinguishes it.

 

Locke 9/10

I loved its simplicity, that it wasn't constructed to tell you why you should care, it just plays out and the story didn't need to be more interesting or go further for me really.

 

I went into it thinking it might be he's told some bad news on the phone and has a breakdown, and that it's everyone throwing his life into a spin, so that it was the reverse and he's the one trying to be in control while everyone else is being hysterical, was refreshing.

I found the situation very real despite it being Tom Hardy and all the visual tricks used to keep you engaged, it must be something to do with hearing a voice over a phone in a film, pretty much throughout i anticipated each call as though he was really dealing with a real person. Just the setup of him awaiting the inevitable questions i found compelling. Those with his son especially, and even though it's a bit cheesy how it tries to create this home life of them all watching football together, preparing food and wearing the football tops, it really captured something for me that felt real.

 

I also liked all the stuff about concrete, that you get to see inside this mini world you never get to see, made real by how ordinary it is.

 

Why Don't You Play In Hell? 9/10

I can't shake the last half of this film from my mind (nor do I want to), it's extraordinary. Half way through I began to realise Sion Sono is almost like the Japanese David O Russell (whose style I dislike), in that he often has the same kind of scene over and over, with the acting becoming more deranged and expressive, but while O Russell's schtick bores me Sono's films engage me more than the content deserves to. Even including Guilty of Romance, which i thought was tedious, all his films have that affect of sheer awe on me, like I can hardly believe what I'm seeing, though with that film it was more disbelief than awe.

It's not attempting to shock for the sake of it, but his films seem so committed and energetic in their amateurish punk approach that they're nothing if not very effective.

 

I found it hard to digest some of rapid series of events that happen in this film, like I was slow to register because what it was suggesting was so incomprehensible. I was ecstatic by the end.

 

Transcendence 1/10

I could have enjoyed the stupidity of this film more if it wasn't directed in such a self important manner, even the title appearing on screen 5 seconds into the film does so in a way that is full of itself, like you're about to experience something momentous and truly epic. The film kind of has that Nolan infection of constant foreboding, every scene given such portentous weight it ends up feeling like one false ending after another, none of it making any actual sense to me, but I gather I'm supposed to be moved. There are long scenes of ambient melancholy giving time to wife and digital husband but it just shows up the film as being misguided, those scenes were flat and didn't work for me. It just tries to do things which are tricky to pull off convincingly and the almost non existent script makes the director's job harder.

Watched in two sittings, twice while eating, i still got irritated by the boredom of it, and the dullness of the direction stands out more because of the promise of the story. The director treats the material with the severity of a funeral and kills all its energy.

 

Bones Brigade:An Autobriography 10/10

I thought this was incredible. It was genuinely something special to hear Rodney Mullen speak because I never have, and when you've got someone who invented pretty much every trick in street skating before anyone else could comprehend of it, it'd be disappointing to hear him just say something like, 'yeah I invented this trick, it was nothing really', even if it was actually easy.

 

It's more what skateboarding meant to him as a way for him to express himself, and how much he realises it and values it, it's how you want every sportsmen and artist to speak and very few ever do. Most just do what they do, and understand critics as people just having a go at them or reading too much into something they just naturally do. He pretty much bears his soul, speaking so deeply as though he's been bottling it up for decades and just lets it out for the first time.

 

It highlights what it took to create these tricks, and to hear, again and again, the other skateboarders speak about it was so satisfying; i want them, especially them because they were there at the time, to really express the amazement at what he was doing.

 

Aside from that, it's so comprehensive, the way the interview voices matches the footage is spot on, the sheer volume and depth of the footage is amazing as well. There's Tony Hawk at age 12 asking Rodney Mullen how to do a trick, doing it, then doing a thumbs up to the camera.

 

[Schlitze]

Yeah, Locke was pretty impressive. I liked it in the same way i liked Phone Booth.

[Suffocate Peon]

Yeah, Locke was pretty impressive. I liked it in the same way i liked Phone Booth.

 

Me too, and i thought Colin Farrell's acting in that film was pretty great, but not everyone agrees. With Locke it's somehow more disappointing if someone doesn't take to it, it's pretty polarizing when i don't think it ought to be.

[Schlitze]

Locke's strength is within it's concrete foundation sorry

In Phone Booth Farrell's character was a guy forced to admit his faults rather than try and worm his way out of it. Locke is the polar opposite, he freely admits to his indiscresions while running as far away from them as he possibly can. And he's the more noble man.

[Squee]

 

 

torrrenting screeners...

 

 

 

if you plan on watching stuff on your pc they do the job sufficiently b4 any b-ray releases get out.....for higher-def special fx-laden stuff less so

 

and FUCK dropping £10 on cinema entry PLUS drinks/munch (another tenner) when i've paid through the nose for records/cd's/dvd's down thru the years

Fuck paying for food too, right? Been doing that shit for years, right?

LOL. Idiot.

[cwmbrancity]

nah i farm mate, its been around since the Neolithic

 

farming & robbing culture

[cwmbrancity]

actually standard cinema move is to smuggle in a diet coke & a twix

 

does that satisfy you, idiot?

[autopilot]

Don't hate on shoplifting, it's a great way to get free food.

[Rubin Farr]

Blue Ruin 5/10

I don't really get the praise for this, i thought the beginning and end are strong but everything in between was like an absence of anything. Also it just rubbed me up the wrong way that the protagonist seemed dim and monosyllabic in order to cover for the lack of a well written script as some indie films do. That goes for the film as a whole, i can only really think of two scenes that make up the middle and one failed to be remotely thrilling or exciting for me and the other I've seen so many times before. It's possible to even be offended by his nonchalant attitude to murder, I wasn't convinced by his motivation and he doesn't seem to grasp it either. I think people like that approach of the guy being so inept but I reacted to it like i was tired of seeing it, as though I'd seen 10 other identical films. I've not, but it just felt obvious and I guess I'm just tired of this kind of ambient moody independent approach to film making, I much prefer constructed bombastic thrillers that are packed with content, rather than this arty minimalist approach. (unless it's done well, this just doesn't do anything, it's not eerie and dark like Blood Simple which also had a simple plot with bizarre character motivations but tried to be as effective with imagery as possible)

 

Also, I watched The Rover and while I didn't love it, i certainly found more interest in it than in this, given the seeming collapse of civilization there are some really convincing scenes featuring disheveled and strange people in hot and sweaty spaces. It kind of reminded me of The Road when you've got Guy Pierce doing the really intense stare like Viggo Mortensen does in the whole of that film. Those were my favourite moments.

 

Expectations seem to influence people's judgement, The Rover is 'the slightly underwhelming second film from the director of the masterpiece Animal Kingdom', Blue Ruin is the hard edged thriller made for £500 that's emerged from nowhere that's just so raw and unrestrained. It just...isn't.

 

The Guest 1/10

 

I thought this was clearly obviously dire and I can't fathom why anyone would think it isn't. I think Dan Stevens is shit and there's no substance to him. I don't understand the insistence that it's an 1980s throwback, just because it has some Carpenter esque music, when the film has a cheap modern digital made for tv look to it. I want it to look like an 80s film. It seems less like a homage and more like desperation to be sleek in the way Drive is, as the poster all but confirms. But Drive was actually directed by a proper visual artist, that film begins in a dark hotel room as the camera pans across the room as the square frame of the tv bursts on to show some basketball. The Guest's director doesn't seem to be working on anywhere near that level, the only inspired bit for me was when you see him running along the road at the beginning, but it lasts about 2 seconds.

 

The only saving grace for me was the Brittany Murphy lookalike newcomer playing the daughter being more convincing than any of it deserves. I don't think it thrills or horrifies. It's slow, bland, boring, utterly stupid, and there's nothing of note that distinguishes it.

 

Locke 9/10

I loved its simplicity, that it wasn't constructed to tell you why you should care, it just plays out and the story didn't need to be more interesting or go further for me really.

 

I went into it thinking it might be he's told some bad news on the phone and has a breakdown, and that it's everyone throwing his life into a spin, so that it was the reverse and he's the one trying to be in control while everyone else is being hysterical, was refreshing.

I found the situation very real despite it being Tom Hardy and all the visual tricks used to keep you engaged, it must be something to do with hearing a voice over a phone in a film, pretty much throughout i anticipated each call as though he was really dealing with a real person. Just the setup of him awaiting the inevitable questions i found compelling. Those with his son especially, and even though it's a bit cheesy how it tries to create this home life of them all watching football together, preparing food and wearing the football tops, it really captured something for me that felt real.

 

I also liked all the stuff about concrete, that you get to see inside this mini world you never get to see, made real by how ordinary it is.

 

Why Don't You Play In Hell? 9/10

 

I can't shake the last half of this film from my mind (nor do I want to), it's extraordinary. Half way through I began to realise Sion Sono is almost like the Japanese David O Russell (whose style I dislike), in that he often has the same kind of scene over and over, with the acting becoming more deranged and expressive, but while O Russell's schtick bores me Sono's films engage me more than the content deserves to. Even including Guilty of Romance, which i thought was tedious, all his films have that affect of sheer awe on me, like I can hardly believe what I'm seeing, though with that film it was more disbelief than awe.

It's not attempting to shock for the sake of it, but his films seem so committed and energetic in their amateurish punk approach that they're nothing if not very effective.

 

I found it hard to digest some of rapid series of events that happen in this film, like I was slow to register because what it was suggesting was so incomprehensible. I was ecstatic by the end.

 

Transcendence 1/10

 

I could have enjoyed the stupidity of this film more if it wasn't directed in such a self important manner, even the title appearing on screen 5 seconds into the film does so in a way that is full of itself, like you're about to experience something momentous and truly epic. The film kind of has that Nolan infection of constant foreboding, every scene given such portentous weight it ends up feeling like one false ending after another, none of it making any actual sense to me, but I gather I'm supposed to be moved. There are long scenes of ambient melancholy giving time to wife and digital husband but it just shows up the film as being misguided, those scenes were flat and didn't work for me. It just tries to do things which are tricky to pull off convincingly and the almost non existent script makes the director's job harder.

Watched in two sittings, twice while eating, i still got irritated by the boredom of it, and the dullness of the direction stands out more because of the promise of the story. The director treats the material with the severity of a funeral and kills all its energy.

 

Bones Brigade:An Autobriography 10/10

 

I thought this was incredible. It was genuinely something special to hear Rodney Mullen speak because I never have, and when you've got someone who invented pretty much every trick in street skating before anyone else could comprehend of it, it'd be disappointing to hear him just say something like, 'yeah I invented this trick, it was nothing really', even if it was actually easy.

 

It's more what skateboarding meant to him as a way for him to express himself, and how much he realises it and values it, it's how you want every sportsmen and artist to speak and very few ever do. Most just do what they do, and understand critics as people just having a go at them or reading too much into something they just naturally do. He pretty much bears his soul, speaking so deeply as though he's been bottling it up for decades and just lets it out for the first time.

 

It highlights what it took to create these tricks, and to hear, again and again, the other skateboarders speak about it was so satisfying; i want them, especially them because they were there at the time, to really express the amazement at what he was doing.

 

Aside from that, it's so comprehensive, the way the interview voices matches the footage is spot on, the sheer volume and depth of the footage is amazing as well. There's Tony Hawk at age 12 asking Rodney Mullen how to do a trick, doing it, then doing a thumbs up to the camera.

 

Loved that one as well. Have you seen the doc on Mark "Gator" Rogowski, the pro who did a horrific rape/murder in the early 90s after being one of the top touring pros in the world?

[Cryptowen]

Don't hate on shoplifting, it's a great way to get free food.

and the miracle of dumpster diving

[cwmbrancity]

its not as if paying for prized collections of films because you accessed them originally online has any significance

 

ultimate learning resource, w/out it i'd have never seen any Tarkovsky, Kusturica or Kobayashi. I own nearly all their films now.

 

#givetake

[Nebraska]

 

heard some good things about this one so decided to check it out. this dude is going thru a mid-life crisis, except it's a bourgeois style roman artsy kinda crisis surrounded by really decadent parties and modelesque femmes. great music and cinematography though

[hoggy]

Thinking back the Hobbit wasn't so bad - but you really have to be able to accept the unrealism of the fight scenes which take about 1.5 hours of the film. You know, the good guys are obviously outmatched but at the same time you know they can't possibly lose, nobody gets tired swinging huge weapons around in solid iron armour, people can knock people out by throwing stones at the enemies head, people can leap up lumps of falling rock etc. etc. - I guess it's like crouching tiger hidden dragon where people can balance on a blade of grass, but you really really have to be able to go with it.

 

Hell yeah Locke!! That film rules

 

I have a Cineworld card that costs £19 a month and I can see whatever I like as many times as I like at any Cineworld in London (referring to the argument about paying to go cinema)

 

It's great because some films are really only good at the cinema, and also you can risk watching random crap you wouldn't normally bother with - which sometimes can actually be really gratifying

[Suffocate Peon]

Loved that one as well. Have you seen the doc on Mark "Gator" Rogowski, the pro who did a horrific rape/murder in the early 90s after being one of the top touring pros in the world?

I've not seen that or even heard of him, that's going to be my next watch i think.

 

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession is another film about a pioneer who murdered his partner..i wouldn't particularly recommend it though..

[Rubin Farr]

 

Loved that one as well. Have you seen the doc on Mark "Gator" Rogowski, the pro who did a horrific rape/murder in the early 90s after being one of the top touring pros in the world?

I've not seen that or even heard of him, that's going to be my next watch i think.

 

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession is another film about a pioneer who murdered his partner..i wouldn't particularly recommend it though..

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoked:_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Gator

[Capsaicin]

I watched Ip Man a few nights ago. Baller kung-fu movie, dramatic as all hell with insane combat and a really good plot. I loved every minute of it.

 

 

I also watched Dredd a few nights ago. Plot? Well, that doesn't really matter. There was a LOT of shooting and a LOT of really cheesy lines, and the action is ridiculous. Also a very enjoyable flick.

[data]

[youtubehd]ySWXwXlXlQU[/youtubehd]

 

8/10

[Guest trananhhung]

Nymphomaniac. Vol 1 was rather dull but had its funny moments. Vol 2 makes the whole thing come together. Much better than what I initally thought. 7/10