The Films You Watched Thread V: Dead Men Watch No Movies

[JazzFunk]

Watched The Marix Reloaded. It's pretty much as I remembered. I can't see anything beyond the cash-in. Characters are awful ... everything's just a bit cheesy and lacking any of the magic of the original ... but that chase is still entertaining, I'll give it that. But no more.

Then I watched Perfect Blue (based on a post I read in the 30 films thread). Definitely the work of a filmmaker with a really clear and focussed vision. Very tight, very clever at keeping you on your toes, wondering what's real and what isn't, and riveting right up to the end (and what a great note it ends on). Well observed take on celebrity personas and fandom. And it doesn't hold back on a couple of extreme scenes either ... quite shocking thinking back to how heavily publicised it was back in the VHS days. I'm not a massive fan of anime but this is a film that transcends the medium it's in. It's a brilliant psychological thriller first and foremost. Won't be for everyone but I thought it was brill. Picked up a rather nice blu-ray steel too.

Aw, jeez, that was one of the VERY first DVDs I got for my PS2 back in 200, it was cheap because it never had a cover but I inexplicably never got around to watching it, even though I REALLY wanted to see it(!)

Fast forward to late 2019. I need a spare case to put a disc in to take to work for a mate in. Leave the PB disc on the landing where I leave my work trousers.

Anyway, next morn it's work and I go to put my work kecks on and feel this snap beneath my feet. The disc had slid off. It was shattered into five pieces and I felt gutted. STILL hadn't watched it and now, eighteen years later, I couldn't anymore!

Anyhoo, watched KILLER JOE last night and was a bit meh but OK. Matthew McConaughey (sic?) is great in it as a devilish cowboy detective hitman for hire but the movie just fizzles and doesn't really go anywhere. Based on a play and feels more like a mood than a movie. Not bad but I couldn't really recommend.

[QualityChimp]

I watched The Invisible Man last night and it’s good. A small, tight, tense film that doesn’t reach too beyond its means and does exactly what it needs to do. Builds tension really well, sells the sense of paranoia to the point where you’re just looking at parts of the frame and wondering whether the invisible guy is there. And it builds nicely and doesn’t outstay its welcome, ending in an obvious yet satisfying way.

Yeah, that's a good summary. Some people didn't like it, (looks at @Zaki), but I thought it was a great little film and I was getting eye strain constantly scanning the frame for movement - just like the lead character.
A really good metaphor for gaslighting, where lots of little things add up to make those around you, and finally yourself, doubt what you're seeing.

I also jumped a bloody mile at one point!

Two mates are away, so me and my horror-loving friend watched Session 9 (Netflix), which is a really interesting curio. Filmed on digital, giving it a certain look and featuring several well-known actors, including the sunglasses guy from CSI.



A group of asbestos removers are contracted in to clear an old abandoned mental asylum.
What could go wrong?

Some spooky moments and interesting watching how things unravel by spending too much time in an awful environment. Obviously, there are some paranormal leaps, but good to see how it all ties up at the end.

They actually filmed this in and around the Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts, which is believed by literary historians to have served as inspiration for the infamous Arkham sanatorium from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep". (Lovecraft's Arkham, in turn, is the inspiration for Arkham Asylum, a psychiatric hospital within the Batman universe.) It is referenced by name in the short story "Pickman's Model" and in The Shadow over Innsmouth.

[Zaki]

Cameras dammit!

[Dogg Thang]

[MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] Session 9 is easily one of my favourite horror movies and largely down to the performances. That film is a masterclass in subtext. The guys talk about stripping asbestos but we know that there is so much more they’re actually talking about in their faces. The performances are amazing, to the point where I actually tracked down one of the co-writers (who is also in it) to ask for a copy of the script - I wanted to see if those looks were written on the page. He was very happy to send it to me and, sure enough, every single look in that movie, every expression, is in that script. It’s brilliantly written.

The look is gorgeous, very Silent Hill, and the location is so creepy. I love that movie.

[QualityChimp]

@QualityChimp Session 9 is easily one of my favourite horror movies and largely down to the performances. That film is a masterclass in subtext. The guys talk about stripping asbestos but we know that there is so much more they’re actually talking about in their faces. The performances are amazing, to the point where I actually tracked down one of the co-writers (who is also in it) to ask for a copy of the script - I wanted to see if those looks were written on the page. He was very happy to send it to me and, sure enough, every single look in that movie, every expression, is in that script. It’s brilliantly written.

The look is gorgeous, very Silent Hill, and the location is so creepy. I love that movie.

Wow, thanks! That's a great expansion of the movie and interesting to know it's a combination of good script and cast.

I thought Peter Mullen was brilliant.
I was trying to work out where I'd seen him, but he's quite the chameleon!
He's been in Potter, Trainspotting and Children of Men.

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, Peter Mullen was incredible in it. He is a fantastic actor. The script taught me a screenwriting cheat that I’ve been using ever since. When writing for screen, you’re not supposed to write anything you can’t see, obviously because you’re dealing with visuals. So you can’t write what a character is thinking because how do you show that? You can state it in a book but not in a film without VO. But with Session 9 so reliant on those very specific performances wrapped around often very mundane lines what they did was use a sort of cheat. They’d write: he gives him a look, like, you slept with my wife you bastard. So really specific on the thought process of the character and giving that to the actor to portray in a look. Screenwriting books would say it’s a cheat but it gave the actors exactly what they needed to fuel their performances.

There is also a subplot of someone living in the building in the script that was cut from the film. The scenes seemed to all have been shot as they are mostly on the DVD as extras. Aside from that cut subplot, the film you see is exactly as written word for word.

[QualityChimp]

I love stuff like this. It's why I love the Film Stories podcast so much.
Those little tidbits that all add up to the end film.

[wakka]

Nice, I'm going to have to watch that. I've added it to my list on Netflix.

I watched a couple of horrors too...

Daniel Isn't Real

Nonsensical star-launching vehicle which seems to exist for the sole purpose of kickstarting the careers of two young scions of Hollywood acting families - Schwarzennegger's kid and Tim Robbins/Susan Sarandon's kid.

If you like seeing annoying, two dimensional characters lurch from one hackneyed Jekyll and Hyde setup to another, then this might be a good watch I guess. Load of old toot.

Prince of Darkness

A lesser Carpenter, and with good reason. The film centres around a dilapidated Catholic church which used to house a secret sect called the Brotherhood of Sleep, who were storing this big container of green liquid. The big container of green liquid contains Satan (I'm not spoiling anything here, this is literally all setup). A group of physics grad students, their professor, and a priest spend the weekend locked in the Church attempting to analyse the green liquid.

Things, needless to say, go bump in the night.

I really liked the way Carpenter tried to blend science and the occult in this one. It's a really cool idea - the idea that Satan is understandable on a quantum physics level, not just a faith-based level, is one that I thought was quite original.

The trouble is, he doesn't do a whole lot with it. The last third is the best part, and it's the bit where all the science stuff goes completely out the window and we're left with the usual Latin incantations and a good old fashioned decapitation.

It's fairly well-executed horror schlock, but it doesn't approach something like The Thing, largely because of a convoluted script, some poor pacing in the first half, and a set of characters who are underdeveloped and rather unlikeable. When **** kicks off and the film depends on us caring about them, we don't. And it loses some impact through that.

Still, there's still something to recommend this as a rental if you're a horror fan - the makeup is terrific, and there is a really cool dream sequence which all of the grad students keep having every time they fall asleep, which I thought was actually one of the best ideas in it and which I wished had been developed more.

Fun bonus fact: the audio in the dream sequence is used by DJ Shadow in Endtroducing...

[Atticus]

Upgrade - Watched this revenge flick on Netflix. Fairly fun throw-away nonsense. The main character looks like a straight-to-video Tom Hardy ... the whole film has a VHS-y vibe actually, not in a terrible way ... it's just the kind of film I can imagine renting 30 years ago, enjoying it and then forgetting it.

Godzilla (1954) - I'm no expert on Godzilla (only seen an handful) but it seems that before the madness kicked in with some of the later films, it started out as something darker and more serious. The nuclear subtext is all over it, but what is surprising is how emotional it is. Beautifully shot too. Excellent start to the series.

[QualityChimp]

Upgrade - Watched this revenge flick on Netflix. Fairly fun throw-away nonsense. The main character looks like a straight-to-video Tom Hardy ... the whole film has a VHS-y vibe actually, not in a terrible way ... it's just the kind of film I can imagine renting 30 years ago, enjoying it and then forgetting it.

Godzilla (1954) - I'm no expert on Godzilla (only seen an handful) but it seems that before the madness kicked in with some of the later films, it started out as something darker and more serious. The nuclear subtext is all over it, but what is surprising is how emotional it is. Beautifully shot too. Excellent start to the series.

Yeah, I really enjoyed Upgrade and know what you mean about that 80s/90s sci-fi action vibe.
Like Trancers, Dark Angel, Hardware or Predator 2.
I've seen it a couple of times and I think that's enough for now, but I'd like to hear the commentary track, but I feel the disc is overpriced.

I saw Godzilla for the first time at an IMAX and it was brilliant.
I thought it would be hokey, but it was actually really tense. I loved it when they found the footprints and they started to realise the scale of the issue.

Nice choices, Atticus.

[wakka]

Scarface

I've seen this film many, many times, but not for a little while. So I picked up the UHD and gave it the ol' critical re-evaluation.

Love it. Love it, love it, love it. This is such a cool film, and honestly I really think it's DePalma's best work. It feels like they captured lightning in a bottle with this one - they had just the right team, all arguably at the peak of their powers, to really make it as good as it could be.

Stone's script is jam packed with brilliant one liners ("All I got in this world are my balls and my word, and I don't break 'em for nobody"), and has got serious velocity for a film that runs nearly three hours in total. As DePalma brings it to life, he gives us one of the best examples of his trademark over-saturated sleaziness, creating a luxuriously filthy world for Tony and co. to inhabit, simultaneously epic and grand and then small and mean as Tony's world contracts in paranoia and depression. Moroder's soundtrack is genius, cold synth and bubblegum pop giving us that sense of the total superficiality of the relationships and the rewards that the characters enjoy and endure.

And Pacino...dios mio. He IS Montana, and gives a totally authentic performance. It's utterly over the top, and all the better for it.

It's a film that really resonates with me, and I never, ever get tired of it.

"I'll tell you this only one time Tony...don't **** me"

For those interested, the UHD is excellent. I got the US version because this is the only version with correct on-screen titles. The UK version uses player-generated titles in order that French/German/etc viewers can see the titles in their own language, whereas the US version uses the original titles.

Other than that the US version is the same as the UK, and it's a big uplift on the normal Blu-Ray. The big gains for me come in terms of the colour saturation. The hot reds and pinks are so important to the overall look of the film, and they were washed out on the older disc. They really pop and have depth here.

It's also just a more sharper, detailed picture, as you'd expect. A really good upgrade.

The original 2.0 stereo track is included, too, which is good. Definitely the one to go for, as I've heard there are a few sync issues with the 5.1 remix.

[Atticus]

Yeah, I really enjoyed Upgrade and know what you mean about that 80s/90s sci-fi action vibe.
Like Trancers, Dark Angel, Hardware or Predator 2.
I've seen it a couple of times and I think that's enough for now, but I'd like to hear the commentary track, but I feel the disc is overpriced.

Yeah, there are many current films that hark back to the 80s but do so in a more obvious way. This does it with theme and structure, not so much with sound and visuals.

I did notice it's an expensive blu. Was chuffed to find it on Netflix ... doesn't always happen like that.

I saw Godzilla for the first time at an IMAX and it was brilliant.
I thought it would be hokey, but it was actually really tense. I loved it when they found the footprints and they started to realise the scale of the issue.

I bet it was class on that screen. Wow. Yeah, I loved the footprints bit too ... I like how you discover what they are along with the peeps. I like the school choir singing bit too, cut with the devastation.

The hot reds and pinks are so important to the overall look of the film.

Yeah, it's pure Vice City candy. I watched it for the first time recently and thought it was brilliant. Might have to pick up that US release at some point.

[wakka]

Yeah, it's pure Vice City candy. I watched it for the first time recently and thought it was brilliant. Might have to pick up that US release at some point.

Rewatching it made me really hope that GTA VI (if we ever get it) goes back to Vice City!

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Sliver last night. Billy Baldwin and Sharon Stone and Tom Berenger and a couple of other familiar faces. It’s actually not awful. Billy Baldwin is a bit of an odd Baldwin, not as odd as Stephen though. Stone is notable in that this is another steamy movie with murder in it and yet she feels totally different to her Basic Instinct character and is very believable. Stone can act well. The story is predictable but does what it needs to do to keep you entertained throughout. And I thought the scene where she takes her undies off at the restaurant table was pretty hot.

[Dogg Thang]

Watched Birds of Prey last night. Didn’t really care for it. It’s a movie that tries to be fun but is centred around horrible people and thinks that making something fun is mostly about laying up another classic music track. I did like it when they worked as a team but that’s about 20 minutes of the movie. Robbie’s Harley, the character of which I guess was locked down in Suicide Squad, I found hard to enjoy. Again, it’s like Harley is trying to be fun but the mean streak just strips it away. And why establish a hyaena and never use it? If they’d had a hyaena in Sliver, you can bet we’d have seen that hyaena in action.