Films You Have Watched

[Atticus]

Whilst in the zone for a good western, I clocked, right at the last minute, A Fist Full of Dollars on Channel 5 on Friday night ... so I recored it and watched early Saturday morning. It was never my fave of the man-with-no-name trilogy and this watch did not change that factor. It's got its charms but I wonder if the fact it was based on an existing film maybe held it back, kept it too reserved. I dunno. I enjoyed it but it was little more than a bourbon flavoured aperitif for the main event ...

I was off work yesterday and it tanked down so perfect conditions for the 3-hour epic that is The Good The Bad and The Ugly. It's been a long time since I saw this ... I'd forgotten loads, a lot of the civil war stuff, and also the delicious dynamic between the three dastardly leads. Everything in the way its constructed is perfect. The pacing, the humour and the violence ... constant double-crossing ... there isn't one minute wasted ... not one sag in the whole thing. It is a masterpiece. When

->Open Spoiler<-

Tuco arrives at the cemetery

it's up there with any moment in any film ... but it's also sad as the journey is nearing its end. Amazing!

One the theme of Clint I watched another of his directorial offerings: Mystic River. Always fancied this but never got round to watching. The set up is three Boston friends, one of whom encounters a dark episode during adolesence, are now grown up and their paths are destined to cross again. The set up is amazing, I was 100% on board and glued ... but I did feel it missed the landing a bit ... I'd peaked already, and the final chapter fizzled. Worth a look though. Good Oscar-winning turn from Tim Robbins.

Then after the family treat that was Seven, the boys asked to watch Zodiac. A very different serial killer film, also by David Fincher. I'd only watched this again a few years back but it's genuinely a film that needs watching more than once, and just gets better all the time. The more familiar you get with the investigation the more you notice all the other stuff. Brilliant stuff. It's a 10/10 film across the board. Crafted with the same level of obsession as Robert Graysmith's (Gyllenhaal's character in the film, cartoonist and true crime Zodiac author, whose book provided much of the foundation of the film). I never get bored of going back to this one. Can't belive it wasn't nominated for one Oscar.

[wakka]

Never seen Mystic River, I'll give that a watch.

Zodiac is an absolute all-timer for me. It's one of the most rewatchable films I've ever seen, and I never get tired of seeing it.

I've probably posted this before, so forgive me if so, but one of my favourite things about the film is that it incorporates blind alleys, leads that go nowhere. This is very rarely seen. Usually every loose end must be tied but in Zodiac Fincher devotes not insignificant amounts of time to Graysmith running very fast in entirely the wrong direction.

I'm particularly thinking here of...

->Open Spoiler<-

His visit to the guy who painted the movie posters, and his trip down into the basement with him.

That is such a brilliant scene.

"Are you sure there's no one in the house?"

Of course although it doesn't contribute to Graysmith or Tosci identifying the killer directly, it's all in service of demonstrating Graysmith's increasingly self-harming obsession with the case.

There are also some really funny bits...

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Old lady giving tip to police: Have you considered that Paul Avery might be the killer?

Tosci: Frequently

And I love when they are all wearing the 'I Am Not Paul Avery' badges

Such a great film and I need to watch it again now.

[Atticus]

I'm particularly thinking here of...

->Open Spoiler<-

His visit to the guy who painted the movie posters, and his trip down into the basement with him.

That is such a brilliant scene.

"Are you sure there's no one in the house?"

Of course although it doesn't contribute to Graysmith or Tosci identifying the killer directly, it's all in service of demonstrating Graysmith's increasingly self-harming obsession with the case.

Yeah, that's intense. This time I half observed my sons during that scene ... the panic slowly rising. You genuinely feel his fight-or-flight kicking into overdrive.

I might watch it with Fincher's commentary next time. I'm hungry for more

[QualityChimp]

Ha, yeah for a police drama, it's quite frustrating in its lack of deduction.
There's no Poirot "I have gathered you all here..." or Columbo "One more thing.." moment.

After about 3 hours, it just kinda goes "Yeah, it could have been this guy, I suppose." ROLL CREDITS


I watched The Wolverine in 3D and really enjoyed it.
I'll be honest, I probably enjoyed it more than Logan, which is a great film, but sheesh it's depressing.

Wolverine is set primarily in Japan and it makes it quite different from a lot of other Superhero films.
It's not just neon-soaked Tokyo either, with some beautiful and bright shots in the countryside too.

The story is decent, with a de-powered Wolvie dragged into an assassination attempt on the heir to a family empire after the death of its founder, whom he met in WWII.

Some cool action sequences, especially the fight atop the bullet train.

Better than I thought and a superhero movie that might get reappraised in comparison to the likes of Eternals.

[wakka]

I know what you mean, but I don't really agree. It's not a neat Agatha Christie style mystery at all, but (imo) a story about destructive obsession. The suspect advanced by the film (and the book) is a widely discredited one. Most of the evidence against him is circumstantial. But Graysmith is lost in the sauce, and the audience gets lost with him. I think it works well that there is no conclusive ending, although the film balances it with a kind of satisfaction on Graysmith's part that he has found his prime suspect.

EDIT: I probably took your jokey post too seriously!

I'm incredibly serious about the film Zodiac!!

[QualityChimp]

Ha, no, I'm agreeing with you!

The story is told from the perspective of the police, so I can see how some would expect it would be a whodunit, but in the context of the real life killer, they didn't resolve it (hence its allure), so it's more of a story of how he got away and how his investigators were obsessed with not letting that happen.

I only saw it for the first time within the last year and I really enjoyed it.

Probably not as much as you though...

[Neon Ignition]

Extraction 2
In some ways I prefer this to the first one, probably because the action gravitates a tad closer to 'Hollywood' but once again there's practically zero plot or characterisation. It mostly revolves around three action set pieces that take up most of the run time with each one growing smaller in scale and less impressive as the film goes on which is weird. The biggest is a very long 'one shot' that I'm sure was a logistical nightmare to create but is somewhat undercut but some clear staging, CG enhancement and attempts to hide it's actually numerous cuts blended together. Like the first, it's enjoyable enough taken simply as an experiene to turn off and let it wash over you.

[QualityChimp]

I've left Netflix, so can't see Extraction 2, but I've heard it suffers from Hemsworth's character being invincible.
He's shot, stabbed and blown up and keeps on truckin'.
Like you're watching someone else play Call of Duty.

I liked the first one, but felt it was getting more attention than similar films at the time that did things better.

More recently, you had One-Shot with Scott Adkins, which I really need to watch again as I spent a lot of the time agog at how they kept the whole thing going with no massive seams.

Carter on Netflix is slightly different in that it's a one-take movie, but doesn't try to hide those transitions, but uses a blend effect to move from one shot to another. At first it's jarring, but before long, I found I'd got used to it and loved the far-fetched events happening on screen.

Don't forget Hardcore Henry, which I believe was the first film to be 100% FPV.
I'm not sure if "lost footage" films like Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project count. /shrug.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, he takes an immense amount of injury and just shrugs it off as soon as the plot requires it. They're tellingly also over anticipating its continued success with the third film already on the way and the second leaving on a Extraction Cinematic Universe tease

[wakka]

The Extraction Cinematic Universe. At last.

That has all the hallmarks of the Dark Universe...

[Baseley09]

Tried to watch Paint, a loose comedic biopic about Bob Ross. I imagine his estate will be horrified, it barely raises a smile turned it off after 30 mins

[Adam Stone]

Huge cheers to the Zodiac love. Gonna rewatch tomorrow.

...I say rewatch. I'm pretty sure I've seen it.... the fact I'm unsure means I have to watch (again)

[charlesr]

The Deer Hunter.
The first hour was crazy dull. Like actually going to someone's wedding in real time. It was great after that.

[QualityChimp]

The Deer Hunter.
The first hour was crazy dull. Like actually going to someone's wedding in real time. It was great after that.

What's in on Chaz? It's on my bucket list poster, but apart from ITVX, I can't see it anywhere.
I believe this film was inspired the classic Revels advert, right?

I went to the cinema last night to watch The Wicker Man (1973) 50th Anniversary showing (on Midsummer's Day).
They showed the film at the BFI recently and had some musicians and guests come for a Q&A session, which they showed before the film and it was an interesting watch. They got an Independent film critic, the Sound Director, the sons of the director who are making a documentary about it, Reece Shearsmith and Britt Ekland all spoke about their relationship with the film, which wasn't always positive. The one son talked about how it bankrupted the director, they lost their home and he left his mum, plus he had about 8 kids with different women!
Ekland talked about how she distanced herself from it as she was pregnant at the time and didn't do any publicity afterwards and it's only in the last decade that she's seen it with her son ("Just to warn you, you may see Mummy's boobies" ).

It was a nice extra and if I didn't have the whole film to sit through, I could've seen more.
I liked the journo's observation of all the parade masks being from various Pagan traditions, including Mr. Punch who can either be seen as the man who makes everyone think he's the fool but is secretly pulling the strings OR who thinks he's clever but is actually the fool. I think Howie (Woodward) believes himself to be the one, but is actually the other...

If you've never seen it, you should definitely check it out.
It's one of those that everyone knows the ending, so if you can go in blind, you're in for a treat.
Shearsmith noted that every time you see it, you think "Maybe this time it'll end different".

It's from a time when cinema was very different and even then, it stood out from the crowd.
It's not scary with jumps or midnight slashers, there's just this constant uncomfortable feeling the whole time as Howie tries to uncover what happened to a missing girl and all the islanders are really unhelpful and it feels like they're teasing him and his mainland ways.

Christopher Lee is aces as the eccentric Lord Summerisle, happily controlling the island and its inhabitants with a fatherly smile on his face.

One thing I'd forgotten was just how much music there is in this. People are singing bawdy folk songs throughout the film and it feels like there's barely 5 minutes before someone else is singing. It's borderline a musical!

It's probably the first "folk horror" film and you can see its influence on so many films and shows afterwards, but there'll never be another Wicker Man.

[Atticus]

What a class night that sounds. I love The Wicker Man. Amazing film with an amazing soundtrack. I might not get to see it at the flicks but I have pre-ordered the forthcoming LE and I can't wait.