Films You Have Watched

[Atticus]

Took a second to click, but after reading House of Leaves and trying to describe it to my boss, he came back a week later having seen the trailer for this movie, and wondered if it was based on what I'd been rambling about. It isn't the book that it is openly based on, but there are definite similarities that get brought up a lot in relation to it given the internet's fixation on that book. I should really watch the movie!

I see what you mean. Definite parallels with the stories 👍

[wakka]

Took a second to click, but after reading House of Leaves and trying to describe it to my boss, he came back a week later having seen the trailer for this movie, and wondered if it was based on what I'd been rambling about. It isn't the book that it is openly based on, but there are definite similarities that get brought up a lot in relation to it given the internet's fixation on that book. I should really watch the movie!

Also agree re: Noé apprehension. This was my first of his and felt like a relatively safe entry point, but I know enough about his work to prepare myself going in.

Watched Bone Tomahawk the other night, and it made me think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in more ways than one, but primarily because after years of hearing about it had lead me to believe it was a particular thing, and then in reality it was something else? I knew it'd be violent - and it was - but I knew much less of the central party riding off and their interactions with each other, which is very slow and steady, but quite enjoyable as the bulk of the film.

You're probably way ahead of me on this, but as someone who's read House of Leaves, are you familiar with the myhouse.wad level for Doom?

EDIT: I just clicked the link in your post and read your book impressions. Ignore me please

[Nu-Eclipse]

Last Hurrah For Chivalry (John Woo, 1979)

Even for a latter 1970s period that is arguably the peak of iconic Shaw Brothers wuxia output, this early swordplay/kung-fu work from John Woo looks considerably outdated for its time. Even so, you can clearly see how it serves as a prototype to inform a lot of his later Hong Kong action movies in the decades that follow, from the plotline that is heavy on, and often clumsy with, the skulduggery and double-crossing (obvious schtick to keep the viewer constantly guessing along with the obligatory twist-for-an-ending) to the one-shot and bullet-time cinematography that would clearly go on to become Woo's Hollywood calling cards.

Both of these elements, along with the fight scenes, are fun for the most part, albeit rough at times and clearly lacking polish and/or finesse - something that is striking when you place it in the context of both the wuxia films that preceded it and the new wave of more modern HK action/martial arts movies that appear after it in the following years and decades.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Soundtrack to a Coup d'État (Johan Grimonprez, 2024)

Look, I can appreciate the creative originality of the visual style used for this documentary, and of course the heavyweight legends of jazz soundtrack used throughout slaps, but I personally found that the constant slapping of factbook text, quote references and jarring on-screen image change-ups at every opportunity grew to be quite off-putting to the point of distracting and, ultimately, being detrimental to the ability to learn much about the subject matter from watching this. That's a shame because it is a quite important story in the fairly recent history of African colonisation/independence/self-determination and the very murky ramifications that came with that (read: US and Russian Governments of the time being predictably and despicably **** as per historically usual, Belgium and other nations involved not coming out of it looking good either).

On top of that, the film probably could've done with being 30-60 minutes shorter to account for the audio and visuals being seemingly prioritised over the information ascertained.

Ultimately, I'm not sure that I'd necessarily recommend this as first port of call to anybody who seriously wanted to learn more about the history of DR Congo and/or Patrice Lumumba - a history which ultimately deserves far more focus than this film gives it.

For anybody interested, the soundtrack is available here.

[Neon Ignition]

Moana 2
I've read how this feels disjointed because it started as a Disney+ series and to be honest I didn't get that from it. It remains clear what the plot is the entire time, the main issues are two fold - the first is that it takes too long for Maui to get involved and the second is that it's an incredibly close retread of the first time. Those who liked the first will find enough to pull them through but a third would need a proper set up as the good will is used up after this one.

[QualityChimp]

Woovember
Memorial Special:
Alain Delon (August 18. 2024) (Airport '79)

Wasn't much of his I wanted to watch, but this final instalment of the Airport series looked decent enough.
Basically arms dealers have arranged to attack a Concorde as it moves to begin work for an American airline.
Decent enough thriller with some fun sequences. That Concorde is still gorgeous and ahead of its time.

Sadly, the one in this film is the only Concorde to have crashed IRL.
It hit debris on the runway, then crashed soon after, killing everyone aboard and some people on the ground.

As for the film, I've got to say that Airplane has ruined anything like this and I was expecting all the lines to be said, especially as so many of the characters are caricatures like the jive-talkin' saxophonist that travels with his instrument. I know it's a shorter flight, but I'd have inserted that after a couple of hours of tooting.
Also, one of the pilots is George Kennedy who plays Al in Police Squad/Naked Gun, so it's really hard to take him serious, Shirley.

[QualityChimp]

For those interested, here's my final tally for Woovember.
Fave new finds were First Blood, The Gauntlet and Death Hunt.
Woovember 8 (2024)


Action film highlight of the year, as organised by Krautsalat!
Woovember 8: Live and Let Woo boxd.it/yxYyq
Woovember is back! For the entire month of november we will celebrate action cinema in all its glory. So join us for a month of action and check out the official Woovember twitter account.

Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

The rules are simple: Watch 30 action movies during the month of November and complete the following 30 tasks. One film can fulfill several tasks. If you can complete all tasks in less than 30 films, that's fine as well. Use the tags woovember or woovember 8 for your lists and reviews.

The Tasks:
X - Watch an action film directed by John Woo (Blackjack)

Current Events:
x - Watch an action film directed by David Ayer to thank The Beekeeper for protecting the hive (The Beekeeper)
X - Watch an action film directed by George Miller to celebrate the epic storytelling of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Mad Max 2)
x - Watch an action film set on a train to celebrate the claustrophobic intensity of Kill (Red Sun, The Gauntlet, Millionaire's Express)
X - Watch an action film starring Sammo Hung because he's still kicking ass in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Millionaire's Express)
x - Watch a Rambosploitation movie to compare it to Rebel Ridge's fresh take on that formula (First Blood)

Memorial Special:
X - Corey Yuen (2022) (Kiss of the Dragon, Millionaire's Express)
X - Carl Weathers (February 1, 2024) (Death Hunt)
X - Roger Corman (May 9, 2024) (Death Race)
x - Cheng Pei-pei (July 17, 2024) (Wing Chun)
X - Alain Delon (August 18. 2024) (Airport '79)
X - James Earl Jones (September 9, 2024) (Conan)

Anniversary Special:
X - Watch an action film directed by Chad Stahelski to celebrate the 10th anniversary of John Wick (John Wick 2)
X - Watch an action film starring Denzel Washington to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Equalizer and the 20th anniversary of Man on Fire (Gladiator II)
X - Watch an action film directed by Zhang Yimou to celebrate the 20th anniversary of House of Flying Daggers (The Great Wall)
x - Watch an action film directed by Sam Raimi to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Spider-Man 2 (The Quick and the Dead)
X - Watch an action film directed by Jan de Bont to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Speed (Speed)
X - Watch an action film directed by Alex Proyas to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Crow (I, Robot)
X - Watch an action film starring Jet Li to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fist of Legend (Kiss of the Dragon)
X - Watch an action film directed by James Cameron to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Terminator (T2 3D)
x - Watch an action film starring Eddie Murphy to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Beverly Hills Cop (48 Hours)
X - Watch an action film directed by Michael Winner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Death Wish (The Mechanic)
x - Watch an action film starring Clint Eastwood to celebrate the 60th anniversary of A Fistful of Dollars (The Gauntlet)
x - Watch an action film starring Toshirō Mifune to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Seven Samurai (Red Sun)

Dolph Bronson Day (November 3):
X - Watch an action film starring Dolph Lundgren (Blackjack)
x - Watch an action film starring Charles Bronson (Red Sun, The Mechanic, Death Hunt)

Diversity of badass cinema:
X - Watch an action film directed by a woman (Point Break)
X - Watch action films from 3 different countries (USA, Hong Kong, France, Australia)

[Nu-Eclipse]

*snip*

Why didn't I know that Woovember was a thing?

I'm eager to dive into more of his work after watching Last Hurrah For Chivalry so will do Woovember next year, I think.

[QualityChimp]

Why didn't I know that Woovember was a thing?

I'm eager to dive into more of his work after watching Last Hurrah For Chivalry so will do Woovember next year, I think.

I'm not even a massive fan of Woo, he's pretty inconsistent, IMHO, but there are some more I need to check out.
I do it because it's fun shopping for bargain discs and finding new gems. I like the focussed aspect with tasks to fulfil.

You should 100% join in next year!

[Finsbury Girl]

QualityChimp Blackjack completely passed me by - where did you watch it mate? I feel the need for a super cheesy Dolph movie

[QualityChimp]

All on YouTube!
Love to hear what you think. Thought the opening half hour was decent but ran out of steam with discarded storylines.
Worth it for Dolph on a trampoline shooting akimbo in slo-mo.

[Neon Ignition]

Wicked
There are two things wrong with this film and only one of them is the films fault. The first is that the songs aren't that good, I'd heard that about the stage show - that Defying Gravity did all the heavy lifting, and it's true. The second is that it was stone cold the wrong film in which to choose to follow the utterly **** modern filmmaking trend of muting the colours on. That aside though the film is massively better than I expected it to be. I wouldn't go as far as some in saying it's best of the year material etc but the cast are all great in it, it's hugely less CG reliant than the trailer suggests with tons of massive practical sets and though very long it merely feels like its taking its time rather than drawn out. the key scenes all land their impact including the finale with suprisingly well delivered flight shots.

[fuse]

Watched All Gates Open - In Search of Absolute Elsewhere, which is a documentary released alongside the Blood Incantation album 'Absolute Elsewhere' - my favourite record of the year, by some distance.

Lead singer and guitarist Paul Riedl stated "Absolute Elsewhere is our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style sci-fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a '70s prog album played by a '90s death metal band from the future."

I doubt it's going to turn anyone around if the music's not for them, but if you've even the slightest appreciation for it, this is a really nice deep dive as these four come together and nerd out in the best way - soaking up the history of the recording studio they've using, amassing all of the equipment they can, collaborating with the people they want to, and generally taking the time and thought to immerse themselves in making the best record they can. It absolutely rules.

Then the other night watched something a friend tipped me onto; Dinner in America. It's kind of like an off-beat punk rom-com? Even knowing abrasive was the intent, there's some stuff (in particular: slurs) that didn't really feel welcome, but eventually we do get to finding reasons to actually like at least some of the characters, and the charm does shine.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)

I remember this film being described as something of a sleeper hit/cult-classic back when it originally came out. I had wanted to watch it back in 2011 but for some reason never really got around to doing so until last night.

As it turns out, having finally watched it over a decade later, I don't think I missed a whole lot. I'm a big fan of John Boyega (pro tip: if you have the chance to watch him act live on a theatre stage, absolutely take it) but even he can only do so much with a lazy and clichéd script (white director and writers trying to portray non-white people in urban settings - who knew?) that fails to hit any comedic marks - for a supposed comedy, no laughs were had at any point - and also clumsily undermines the social commentary about inner-city London life (read: MLE youth, gang culture, crime, gentrification, race, class, social deprivation, etc.) that it tries to make in the second half of the story.

That said, the action scenes involving the alien invaders are decent for the low-budget fare that they are, if not exactly mind-blowing, and the film doesn't overstay its welcome at just under an hour-and-a-half.

[QualityChimp]

On paper, I should absolutely love Attack the Block, but I really disliked it.
It spent the opening section making the yoof seem as despisable as possible, then you're supposed to cheer for them once it kicks off, but I was cheering when each of them was offed.

I thought the design of the aliens was brilliant and unique, but I'd stop caring about the cast way before the residents are supposed to stick together.

I watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which I've totally missed. I remember it getting a lukewarm reception and stalling the series but clips keep popping up so thought I'd check it out before it leaves Prime.

I really like the setting and references to the original show, but I think the spy/heist elements have been done before a lot better.
Guy Ritchie is a lot more restrained from his earlier Lock Stock/Snatch entries and I think it missed that flair, if I'm honest.

Passable spy-romp.