The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[QualityChimp]

Unless Glover has given his permission more recently I'm curious if this applies to all use, particularly in Zemeckis and Gale's work on Back to the Future: The Musical. The actor who portrays George McFly is staggeringly (and I mean staggeringly) good at the role and it's 110% pure unfiltered Crispin Glover's performance and look recreated.

I genuinely don't know and a quick search doesn't say either.

I doubt Universal would do the same thing again after the lawsuit.
However, if Disney can make a series about stealing the sex tape of Pamela Anderson and selling it without her permission, without her permission, who knows...

[Atticus]

Making yellow barrels pop up one of the most tense scenes in cinema is a testament to Spielberg.

Yeah, that’s all you need to see, a barrel. And when they start moving the music that kicks in is super jolly. It’s genius.

[monel]

I resumed VanDamme season with Hard Target, John Woo's first Hollywood movie. Lance Henriksen plays a guy who organises hunts where rich people can shoot poor people and, when a homeless victim's daughter goes searching for him in New Orleans, VanDamme's character gets caught up in it all and so it's basically VanDamme versus Henriksen's goons. It's a good one! The action is great. VanDamme, ridiculous hair aside, is wonderful in it and it's just really entertaining. A strong VanDamme outing.

I have never given that film a proper watch. There's been two rough cuts of it also, I think one may have turned up on a Blu Ray release, which you probably have. I think Hollywood insisted on having another director present just in the background due to it being Woo's first film there. Was it Sam Raimi?

Also the plot sounds similar to a Rutger Hauer film which was probably released after, or around the same time. There was a decent article on the making of the Street Fighter film which made it sound like absolute chaos.

John Woo and Chow Yun Fat never seemed to get full independence in Hollywood, or support to do what they were good at, or at least it seemed like that. I know they went on separate paths. After Replacement Killers it seemed Tarantino turned on CYF, blaming him for problems and maybe because Tarantino was in a relationship with Sorvino who was starring in the film.

[Neon Ignition]

It: Chapter Two
First time seeing it since it came out and chunks of it play better on rewatch. The film retreads on the original too much, a refresher at the time but over padding now and the result is that the film makes the critical mistake of benching Pennywise too much. When it works it works well but the first chapter is easily the superior entry.

[Dogg Thang]

I think Hollywood insisted on having another director present just in the background due to it being Woo's first film there. Was it Sam Raimi?

That's right. And so of course the film has the obligatory Ted Raimi cameo.

[Atticus]

Ghostbusters 1 & 2. Had a great time watching these again. The first I know so well and have great memories of going to see it at the cinema. The second I've seen far less and while I feel it gets a little under-appreciated it just doesn't linger in the memory like the first. Less stand-out set-pieces but lot's of great moments and still a lot of fun.

[monel]

That's right. And so of course the film has the obligatory Ted Raimi cameo.

Raimi may have invited Woo to the States or something like that. Not sure now.

[QualityChimp]

Escape From Pretoria (2020 via Prime)
Neat little prison escape drama about anti-apartheid activists sent to jail for setting off a leafletting bomb, starring Daniel Radcliffe.
It based on real people and events and is a pretty exciting story, but it's really hard not to think of other prison break movies like Shawshank and Escape From Alcatraz.
Radcliffe's character (real life escapee, Tim Jenkin) starts making keys to attempt to escape, but will escaping send the wrong message from people willing to be imprisoned for their cause?

Tick, Tick...Boom! (2021 Via Netflix)
Disappointed this was neither a biopic about The Fresh Prince or The Hives.

Actually, I wasn't getting into this as I was expecting a straight biopic, but then it clicked and I thought it was brilliant.
"Based on the autobiographical musical by playwright Jonathan Larson. It's the story of an aspiring composer in New York City who is worried he made the wrong career choice, whilst navigating the pressures of love and friendship."
The story is interesting and engaging, but the cast are amazing, especially Andrew Garfield, who is almost playing 3 versions of the same character - the musical monologue narrator, the driven musical writer and the human behind the drive.
The musical numbers are incredibly good but the performances of them are what sets them apart by Garfield and his co-stars, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry and Gizel Jimenez.
Some really interesting shots too that wouldn't work in a straight biopic and couldn't be done in a stage play, so embraces the medium of a musical film.
I watched this with the wife and we were both pleasantly surprised by this engaging, but bittersweet story.

[Atticus]

Boiling Point. Stephen Graham plays a head chef having a particularly demanding shift. The film is a genuine single take which never comes across as flashy or novelty value ... instead it embraces the non-stop nature of working in a busy environment and a lack of any punctuation adds an element of realism. What the film-maker has pulled off is incredible. It flows so naturally around the restaurant and kitchen and a pretty sizable cast too. Word of warning, it's not a film to unwind to but I suspect you might not watch a film called Boiling Point with that in mind. This arrived on Netflix yesterday and it's very good.

[QualityChimp]

Boiling Point. Stephen Graham plays a head chef having a particularly demanding shift. The film is a genuine single take which never comes across as flashy or novelty value ... instead it embraces the non-stop nature of working in a busy environment and a lack of any punctuation adds an element of realism. What the film-maker has pulled off is incredible. It flows so naturally around the restaurant and kitchen and a pretty sizable cast too. Word of warning, it's not a film to unwind to but I suspect you might not watch a film called Boiling Point with that in mind. This arrived on Netflix yesterday and it's very good.

This is on my "to-watch" list, but I've yet to be in the mood to handle the stress of this or Uncut Gems!

[randombs]

Encanto. Loved it. The songs were so goooood.

[Golgo]

Finally got round to The Eternals. The lad and I quite enjoyed the overall story but the characters ranged from bland to pious to mithering and back around to bland. We only really enjoyed the Bollywood dudes who were great (Raj from Gangster Granny and Prismo from Adventure Time). Every time that dude spoke I was seeing/hearing Prismo.

[QualityChimp]

I watched Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021 via NowTV).
Meh.
It was alright and the rooms were well done and varied, but I wasn't as invested in the characters as I was in the first film.
As with all horrors, I think they're hoping to churn out a gazillion sequels too.

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Spiral: From the Book of Saw last night. It’s better than the previous two Saw films but that is a very, very low bar. It’s hard to quite know what they wanted to achieve with this one. It has Chris Rock and Samuel L Jackson, which should elevate the movie, and it’s kind of a police procedural detective thing which is a good take on it but, almost any time they really had the opportunity to make it something new, they fell back into old Saw tropes. The result is that this feels too close to previous movies while not quite delivering on its possible strengths. The other interesting thing for me was that, after eight Saw movies, it finally delivers one where I felt the violence and gore was absolutely gratuitous and unnecessary. The reason being that, being a police thing, it’s kind of about finding the bodies and working out what’s going on. There is no tension in the traps or deaths because you know the outcome, often having already found the body. So they only exist to give you a gory sequence and add nothing to the film. If anything, they take away from it because they show you information the main detective doesn’t have.

Feels like there was an opportunity here to build something new from the idea but they just didn’t run with it.

[randombs]

Encanto again this morning because it has one of the best film songs I’ve heard in a while with this wonderful choreography:



Also, I can’t believe that’s Rosa from Brooklyn 99 in it.