Films Recently Watched

[awepittance]

Ex Machina - fucking amazing until the 3rd act. Isaac Anthony after seeing this movie is probably my favorite actor of the moment. Extremely tight screenplay where you could tell it was actually written by a writer and not some asshole who thinks he can write funny or witty dialogue like Kevin Smith or Taranshitto. 8.7/10

[jellyrajah]

after hours.

 

has anyone else seen this film? almost feels like martin scorsese doing a david lynch movie.

Edited April 26, 2015 by jellyrajah

[Silent Member]

Yeah, haven't seen it in ages, but if my memory serves me right it's the tits

[manmower]

after hours.

 

has anyone else seen this film? almost feels like martin scorsese doing a david lynch movie.

Yeah, love that movie, I rate it 10 Rosanna Arquette boners/10

[jellyrajah]

 

after hours.

 

has anyone else seen this film? almost feels like martin scorsese doing a david lynch movie.

Yeah, love that movie, I rate it 10 Rosanna Arquette boners/10

 

except she might have some really bad burns... somewhere

[Squee]

Anyone seen A Girl Walks Home Alone yet? It's on Netflix and looks and sounds interesting.

[doublename]

Ex Machina - A ~2hr episode of Black Mirror, a really fucking good one. Agree with JE about the third act though.

[awepittance]

Ex Machina - A ~2hr episode of Black Mirror, a really fucking good one. Agree with JE about the third act though.

after thinking about it some more i'm realizing a lot of really great movies suffer from a bit of 3rd act syndrome. The first 2 spike jonez movies which i love suffer immensely in the 3rd act. As far as a modern scifi movie, it really knocks it out of the park, i was completely sucked in when he first meets Eva. There were a few sorta plot holes but not big enough to ruin the feel.

 

 

 

I thought the whole asian sex slave robot was interesting and once that was revealed they took it a step too far when the robot decided to show off the fact she was a robot (apparently suddenly achieving some kind of sentience?). And yes the main character was an alpha male borderline sociopath, however he wasn't completely unempathetic because they kind of made it seem like he was driving himself into depression from having created the first justifiably artificial intelligence and then having to destroy it/kill it. and when he told the guy that Eva was pretending to like him as a means to escape he was clearly 100% right.

I kind of wish they explored that aspect of Eva more, that she was smart enough to basically lead someone on sexually in order to achieve her freedom. I loved how she just locked the guy inside though.

 

and lets say that he was 'chosen' because of a complex psychoanalysis, his sexual habits everything, why would the CEO of Bluebook not know that this guy would be dumb enough/lonely enough to fall for it to the extent that he would try to let Eva out and reprogram all his shit. If he chose him based on the predictiveness of how he would react to Eva surely the CEO guy should have put some extra security protocol on the building

 

 

 

definitely the most interesting movie i've seen since Under the Skin which also was trying to be Kubrick level scifi (and in some ways succeeded in that). I felt Ex Machina was a tad more streamlined and a 'smaller' movie but definitely hit a lot more scifi of what we would expect from a good intelligence scifi thriller.

I think the big difference between this and Under the SKin was this movie was propelled by its very well written script, everything else that made it good flowed from that. Under the SKin had barely any dialog and was almost entirely about atmosphere. In fact i'm surprised how little WATMM seems interested in Under the Skin or Ex Machina, when Moon came out you guys shat your pants in excitement of having a 'heady scifi thriller by david bowie's son' , and frankly Moon seems kinda like a misfire, but valient attempt in comparison to whats been coming out in scifi more recently.

Edited April 26, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[Candiru]

after hours.

 

has anyone else seen this film? almost feels like martin scorsese doing a david lynch movie.

Or Scorsese doing a Coen Brothers movie

[usagi]

 

after hours.

 

has anyone else seen this film? almost feels like martin scorsese doing a david lynch movie.

Or Scorsese doing a Coen Brothers movie

 

 

if it isn't Anderson doing Winding-Refn doing Linklater doing Korine doing a cappella, I don't care about it.

[kokoon]

re: Erlichman's rant on Ex Machina - I haven't seen it yet. But neither have I seen Under the Skin yet, which is something I'm really looking forward to. Just waiting for the right moment with the right company.

Ex Machina looks promising though, is the BD out already or are you all seeing it in the cinema?

Anyways, what I really wanted to say was, I hated Moon. It was such generic, cliche scifi short script. And everyone was raving about how it's “proper scifi“. This was years ago and I'm still angry about it, haha!

[cwmbrancity]

Under the Skin is 1 of the best films in recent memory.... pretty different from Sexy Beast too, which is as good a crime caper as you could ask for

 

But UtS has that brilliant mix of cinematography, observation, style & crimson tide building. Its relentless in SJ's journey & detached weirdness, plus just when you think about nailing her it fucks with your sense of uncomfortableness. Outstanding soundtrack by Mica Levi too, that really contributes to the mood

 

 

 

definitely the most interesting movie i've seen since Under the Skin which also was trying to be Kubrick level scifi (and in some ways succeeded in that). I felt Ex Machina was a tad more streamlined and a 'smaller' movie but definitely hit a lot more scifi of what we would expect from a good intelligence scifi thriller.
I think the big difference between this and Under the SKin was this movie was propelled by its very well written script, everything else that made it good flowed from that. Under the SKin had barely any dialog and was almost entirely about atmosphere. In fact i'm surprised how little WATMM seems interested in Under the Skin or Ex Machina, when Moon came out you guys shat your pants in excitement of having a 'heady scifi thriller by david bowie's son' , and frankly Moon seems kinda like a misfire, but valient attempt in comparison to whats been coming out in scifi more recently.

 

[usagi]

Anyways, what I really wanted to say was, I hated Moon. It was such generic, cliche scifi short script. And everyone was raving about how it's “proper scifi“. This was years ago and I'm still angry about it, haha!

 

I don't get the Moon love either, it was really nothing special. well-made and everything but it didn't really grab you. it should've been a 10 min short.

[AJW]

Posmosium..

 

gobbernuts/10

[Squee]

 

Anyways, what I really wanted to say was, I hated Moon. It was such generic, cliche scifi short script. And everyone was raving about how it's “proper scifi“. This was years ago and I'm still angry about it, haha!

 

I don't get the Moon love either, it was really nothing special. well-made and everything but it didn't really grab you. it should've been a 10 min short.

 

 

Hahaha, agreed! I didn't get the love for that movie either. It was well-crafted and looked great (but the soundtrack sure as fuck wasn't as great as everyone said it was. Clint Mansell is overrated), but the "twist" wasn't really a twist. It just sort of happened and then... nothing.

[usagi]

Squee did you end up watching Beyond The Black Rainbow?

[doublename]

Did yall like that other Zowie Bowie movie, Source Code?

[Squee]

Squee did you end up watching Beyond The Black Rainbow?

 

Not yet. But I should.

[cwmbrancity]

Beyond the Black Rainbow looks incredible, very strange moods created, slightly retro 80's feel, but thats not capturing the weirdness of it all

 

bizarre/10

 

A Pigeon Sat On a Bench is saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe as fuck. Roy Andersson's dry nordic humour is pitch perfect, a bit like Kaurismaki. Loads of themes, mostly focused on mortality. Wish there were more filems around like this,,,,, humanist, subtle & funny as fuck when it matters

[kokoon]

 

Squee did you end up watching Beyond The Black Rainbow?

 

Not yet. But I should.

Watch it and report, I'm curious what you'll think!

[juiceciuj]

 

 

Anyways, what I really wanted to say was, I hated Moon. It was such generic, cliche scifi short script. And everyone was raving about how it's “proper scifi“. This was years ago and I'm still angry about it, haha!

 

I don't get the Moon love either, it was really nothing special. well-made and everything but it didn't really grab you. it should've been a 10 min short.

 

 

Hahaha, agreed! I didn't get the love for that movie either. It was well-crafted and looked great (but the soundtrack sure as fuck wasn't as great as everyone said it was. Clint Mansell is overrated), but the "twist" wasn't really a twist. It just sort of happened and then... nothing.

 

i really enjoyed moon when i saw it even though i was able to pick out the "twist" just from the trailer (fuck modern trailers that show everything btw).

 

watched they came together with the missus saturday. pretty fucking lol if you ask me. old lady hated it tho and she was a huge fan of hot wet american summer. she sure did laugh a lot for hating it tho...

[cruising for burgers]

A Pigeon Sat On a Bench is saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe as fuck. Roy Andersson's dry nordic humour is pitch perfect, a bit like Kaurismaki. Loads of themes, mostly focused on mortality. Wish there were more filems around like this,,,,, humanist, subtle & funny as fuck when it matters

is it out?

[Silent Member]

Drone (2014). Doc about the us drone operations. Just as fucked up as I expected.

Also watched Unmanned: Americas drone wars (2013) just to drive the point home. I'm not quite sure what was in which film but the latter is superior, anyhow, overall a biased 8/10. Thanks Obama!

 

Who needs paranoid SciFi when this is happening right now.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Gocab

[Suffocate Peon]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron

 

(i realise how obnoxious it is to repeatedly say 'rich obnoxious guy', but i despise Robert Downey Jr.'s smug face which honestly makes me feel sick. I didn't realise I could hate a face more than Jack Black's but then I saw 3 hours of him as a panda and my hate softened somewhat.)

 

Joss Whedon has the knack of taking the simplest plot and inserting loads of psychobabble into it that is so convoluted and confusingly put together it gave me a headache in this film. I tried to make sense of it on the car journey home, it felt like I had to pull apart each section of the film and just let it sink in somehow. The plot is, i think, rich obnoxious guy on a whim creates AI in about 20 minutes and it, like in every other instance of AI creation in the history of everything ever, decides to go mad, try to murder him and friends, but essentially exists on the internet, makes many more robots somewhere else in the world, and continually jumps inside of an ever improving ultra robot, and then there's this AI called Jarvis who is Paul Bettany so it's like being transported into the horror that is Transcendence for a bit, and he's good, and Thor has a dream that is like that rave sequence in Matrix Reloaded, and he visits some professor who takes him to some black pool in a cave, and he has a swim and continues the dream because he feels like it was leading somewhere cool and it was; the end of the world, and something about 4/5 pearls more powerful than anything in the universe, and despite mad AI robot going mad, rich obnoxious guy wants to have another go at creating AI but more friendly this time, because I forgot to mention his reasons for creating this AI is because he had a dream that all his mates died but he didn't and despite him knowing this was a nightmare directed by a witch who controlled him momentarily so isn't worth worrying about he goes ahead anyway, no actual explaining this to his mate, but instead saying that he wants the AI robot to do all the fighting while they're relaxing on beaches.

 

Captain America returns, as does witch, and fight ensues, because they reckon that rich obnoxious guy can't tell the difference between destroying the world and saving it and any AI he creates is made with his personality defects, like 'where do you think mad AI robot gets it from?'. Thor returns with pearl, smashes hammer in AI mad robot in coffin and Jarvis is sort of there because rich obnoxious guy reckons his influence can override the lunacy of the AI's natural instinct. I mean, my mind is fried at this point, i can barely take anymore. Paul Bettany leaps out, starts fighting, realises he's alright really, hangs in the air for a bit, looks cool with his red face, and is a goodie from then on. Mad AI robot still exists remember in other robots, big action set piece that is like I Robot happens.

 

People like this? There's not enough action to make it worthwhile, and what action there is is not able to be enjoyed because you're exhausted just trying to comprehend it. It is shit that gets a 5 because Hulk. It is no more sophisticated or coherent than the Transformers films, minus the sexism and homophobia.

 

Hawkeye has this genius idea to keep his family in the countryside a secret while being an agent, as if his employers wouldn't know this stuff. Turns out Samuel L Jackson did because he turns up in a barn and says some things. Maybe he was having a secret affair with Hawkeye's wife and ran to hide in the barn when he realised Hawkeye was back earlier than expected, and when rich obnoxious guy enters the barn Jackson convincingly switches into All Knowing Leader of Men who in a film can just appear from behind some hay stacks but which such a thing in real life would be a bit unnerving. Did none of them, on alert, hear his chopper landing?

 

Personal side to Hawkeye intended to make you care for him, I did not. Great idea to return to your home with pregnant wife and young kids and risk being attacked though !

 

I liked the beginning and that the avengers met some resistance in the form of other ability people who hated them. The more grounded it manages to be the more i liked it.

 

5/10

 

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

The American

 

A film about a contract killer (but wait..) can only disappoint when you get to the 40 minute mark and realise he's spent the last 30 minutes building a weapon for another contract killer, and they're trying it out, the director showing every footstep of their walk covering the distance required to test the weapon's range. The other contract killer makes some suggestions to improve the weapon and at that point I could see the end of the film approaching but what a slog it might be to get there. He talks to a priest, he shags a girl, he builds a gun, he's the most unconvincing contract killer (but wait..) ever, played by Clooney, his eyes always seeming like they're weeping.

It's essentially a character study where he's not portrayed any where near as intriguingly as he should be. I think Clooney acts more in about 4 scenes in From Dusk Till Dawn than the entirety of his career since. This is not a subtle performance, it's meek and undeserving, he's just turned up here and spoke the lines and emoted a bit. Something like The Drop with Tom Hardy shows how a subtle performance has layers to it that unfold as the film does, that can be more compelling than the underwritten script. This film needed that.

 

There's one bit which was just baffling, Clooney can't pluck up the courage to ask why his girlfriend has a gun in her purse, so in order to avoid the obvious embarrassment asking a question would cause, he's willing to shoot her. His paranoia is not justified, regardless what the film wants, the script is not there. Besides, she's a prostitute, did he not consider that she has it to protect herself? Maybe he's just dense. She even says, look all these prostitutes being murdered. Nothing from him.

 

Overall it's sort of poetic I suppose, and I can see how it'd polarize people, or rather some will be willing to adore it's restrained quality but it feels so familiar, so obvious, stylistically muted and palatable, it's a million miles away from a proper riveting portrayal of what it means to be a hitman, it doesn't dig deep, it's not visceral. Some nice landscape shots (can someone not ask to see his photos just once?), Clooney moping around in his suit, looking a bit fed up and paranoid. The priest character the predictable lone voice of reason, his heart is so warm because he has God, Clooney's is so cold because his job doesn't allow him to form relationships.

 

5/10

 

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

Hostel

 

Hostel [and part 2] has been suggested as a film I must watch for about 3 weeks, and finally I accepted the inevitable and watched it, and liked it more than I thought I would, given I didn't like Cabin Fever and have a low opinion of Eli Roth which he might not deserve. I thought it would be trashy, senseless, tacky, but i instantly liked how it was shot on film, with a soft colour palette to it, and solid framing, and despite the maybe poor dialogue in parts from the 3 central characters (especially from the Iceland guy who is basically Neil from The Inbetweeners....before that show existed..) I thought there was a kind of relaxed easy going air to it, felt more 90s Wes Anderson than 00s.

 

I thought there was more to it than the below average slasher horror, that Eli Roth somewhat justifies having his name above the titles of his films, and being considered an auteur. I know he's well versed in horror, i just thought it didn't reveal itself in Cabin Fever, whereas in this it does. I thought the 2 main characters were more well rounded and realistic than I expected, constantly showing compassion for their missing friend and our how their holiday stops dead until they find him.

 

The actual gruesome torture porn parts are the worst moments, and needless and at odds with the soft tone of the rest of the film, but maybe that's the point. It's less scary and more absurd, but there's still tension as to a character's fate because of the way it's willing to be so gruesome you don't know how far it will go. And after watching Tusk not too long ago, i had the memories of that lingering when any character is at the mercy of a psychopath.

 

It also reminded me of The Evil Within an awful lot, i greatly enjoyed the tension in those scenes and questioning his decisions in how he escapes. Like, he chooses to ditch his armour and hide under dead bodies of a trolley that is being transported seemingly deeper into the dungeon, the tension in not knowing where he'll end up, and despite him being the most unlikeable of the 3 leads he's the only one left and I was rooting for him.

 

When it gets going there's so many examples of Roth inserting little details, like the man insisting on his victim not speaking the same language as him so it's less uncomfortable, but the victim being bilingual freaks him out, he leave the room to speak to one of the henchman only to return with a gag, which leads the victim to almost swallow his own sick when the chainsaw is raised inches away from his eyes. It's effective, and for me I didn't need to see chopped fingers. Also, it's more interesting to me of people paying for victims to torture than a lone psycho, and also more frightening, and at this point in the film it's not made clear and you're as unaware as the victim is.

 

I think the truest example of it's awareness of its own absurdity comes in the form of those children who pop up like they're on trick or treat night asking for some sweets, but who Roth has them beating the living crap out of those henchman towards the end, literally caving their heads in, while one kid sits guarding all the sweets, doling them out as encouragement.

 

Another funny moment is when the main character stops his car at the sight of the two girls who'd sold his friends for drugs, and if that isn't enough to make him angry and compelled to run them over, he notices the guy who recommended the hostel in the first place, and off he drives smashing them into his windscreen, to which the natural response is, 'they probably deserved that', but who moments later are viciously run over by the pursuing henchman in their car, to which the natural response is 'they didn't deserve that !'

 

[i don't know any of the chatacters names nor how to correctly describe them, you'll notice]

 

7/10

 

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

Vengeance is Mine

 

Hmm, this has been on my to watch list for a while, and when I finally saw that it was in Bong Joon-ho's top 10 favourite films, and could just about squeeze it in I thought I'd try it. It starts promisingly as it portrays the killer as being pretty flippant and cool, and recounts the 78 days he was on the run, killing on the way as he did. His murders soon after are messy, pointless, flat, badly shot and not impactful. I was hoping for something stripped down, nihilistic, harsh, bold, that would maybe shock me as depicting real murders probably should, but the potential is wasted. I didn't find much horror in them.

 

For all its running time I never got to know the real him, in moments he just comes across as a prick, not taking things as seriously as those around him, it's almost jarring. The film is mostly about relationships between different men and women, the most convincing and engaging one between the killer's wife and his dad. That is the film at its most real and its their interactions that kept me going.

I saw a review that referenced I Saw The Devil, citing that Vengeance is Mine is the more complex film that portrays a killer with more nuance and depth, but what they mean to say is one film is an exciting thriller and the other is a slow burning drama. I think ISTD tries to portray a serial killer in a visceral way, it's pure visual directing that tries to put you in the shoes of the victim, feel as helpless as they are. It being a thriller doesn't make it less worthy.

 

It was disappointing, I don't understand the title and how it makes sense, he only harms defenseless innocents. The film mostly takes place in rural areas, you see a train and captions detailing his frauds taking place, but you don't see him travel. It doesn't have that momentum, movement or tension that I hoped a story of a man on the run for 78 days would have. I think the time period it was filmed in defined the film more than it should.

 

6/10

 

 

Toy Story That Time Forgot

 

 

Feels like an extended commercial rather than a short, especially the way it inserts loads of new characters and weapons and items and furniture, and all the pauses inbetween are for the ad breaks for the new character's figurines in question...the 'moral' of the story being that kids should ditch their videogames and return to their inanimate toys that can spark their imagination like nothing else. Except it seems more like, return to these particular toys and buy some more.

 

It's a bit overloaded in that way, though some of the character design is okay, especially the evil beaked things. Also reading other comments was a reminder that this was released at Christmas, and it really doesn't feel Christmassy, except that at Christmas as a kid you got loads of toys.

 

Surprised that some like this more than the Toys Story of Terror short, as while they both recycle ideas I think Toy Story in general is at its inspired best when the toys wonder and interact with the big outside world, rather than with other toys in a bedroom. This is why I didn't take to Toy Story 3 all that much.

 

3/10

[cwmbrancity]

 

A Pigeon Sat On a Bench is saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe as fuck. Roy Andersson's dry nordic humour is pitch perfect, a bit like Kaurismaki. Loads of themes, mostly focused on mortality. Wish there were more filems around like this,,,,, humanist, subtle & funny as fuck when it matters

is it out?

 

 

 

Not sure about general release, i caught a screening @ the Watershed in Bristol's Harbourside over the weekend.

 

Find it locally cos its outstanding.