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

[Neon Ignition]

Assault on Precinct 13
I'm familiar with the remake from some years back so it was interesting to give this a go. It's very sedate and ropey in how its filmed to be honest. I assume it was very low budget given most of the film takes place in around 3 rooms of a building, felt like it would have benefitted from more time in development and better directing which seems odd to say for a John Carpenter film.

Rocky
I mean, what else is there to say. Took us halfway through our 76 movies in style.

We gave a 20-30 minute rule try of All the President's Men, Bugsy Malone, Car Wash and Burnt Offerings but they each got turned off for various reasons largely focused on how dull or much they sucked.

[wakka]

I enjoyed the first one. It was a load of silly fun. I liked when Jack Black's stats popped up - Weaknesses: Strength


I haven't seen the sequel yet.

I watched the live-action Lion King a few weeks ago. Initially I thought it was dull compared to the original, with James Earl Jones in particular sounding like he was phoning it in. I paused it for a while and read a review in the meantime while searching about how much was CGI(answer: all of it). The reviewer felt the realistic CGI wouldn't work with the same lines as the original, which I felt were quite dramatic/pantomimey in comparison. That made sense, considering how they animated the characters - all wide-eyed and jazz hands. When I resumed the film, I tried looking at it objectively and started to enjoy it on its own merits. I ended up really liking it

After all that seriousness, and still in a jungle mood, I watched George of the Jungle for the first time! That was great fun.

I was recently watching some YouTube videos about Joker which made me want to watch The Dark Knight, so I did. Great stuff. Then I watched The Dark Knight Rises, and it was far better than I remember(this was my second time). I do wish there was an alternative soundtrack with Bane's voice in the original trailer.

Speaking of which, I'm really missing special features when streaming films. I'd love it if even one of the streaming services offered at least some extras. YouTube has a bunch, but it's not the same!

If you purchase films on iTunes/Apple TV, they do sometimes include extras like a proper disc.
[MENTION=345]Neon Ignition[/MENTION] - All The President’s Men, dull?!

[Neon Ignition]

I just found tackling Nixon from the POV of journalists to be a really boring way of approaching the subject. In context of '76 it no doubt made sense but I just kept thinking of how much more I enjoyed Frost/Nixon

[JazzFunk]

A couple.

First off, CANDYMAN for the first time since the 90s. Was looking forward to it but it's one of them ones that shoots its bolt once you seen it once. I felt sad I didn't like it as much.

Tony Todd is AMAZING in the role and the urban cinematography is beautiful in an almost otherworldly manner. If you haven't seen it, watch it, it's proper ace. The first time.

Then some crap called OUIJA. Bag o' shoide. Initially seemed quite interesting and different but soon became clichéd, generic tat. Big pile o' bollocks, it is.

Got MANDY to watch tonite. Looking forward!!!!

[Atticus]

Got MANDY to watch tonite. Looking forward!!!!

It's class. Never seen anything quite like it (except maybe some heavy metal album covers). I did clock it was on Film 4 at the weekend and recorded it myself as I'm due a re-watch. Hope you enjoy.

[QualityChimp]

Where was my heads-up, [MENTION=4034]Atticus[/MENTION]!

[Atticus]

Last time I recommended it to someone (my brother in law) it was swiftly switched off after 10minutes

[QualityChimp]

It's on this Friday too.
Set the Betamax to record it.

[JazzFunk]

It's class. Never seen anything quite like it (except maybe some heavy metal album covers). I did clock it was on Film 4 at the weekend and recorded it myself as I'm due a re-watch. Hope you enjoy.

Uh. Sorry dude. I hated it!!! All style over substance and far too dark and flashy to even register what was happening 95% of the time. Sadly, 'tis made of the purest gash.

The thing that it reminded me of a tad, curiously, was BRUTAL LEGEND on the 360, it has a similar feel of heavy metal to it. That game was genius but sadly ruined by silly, tedious RTS sections.

This is all RTS sections.

Damn, wanted so bad to see it, never knew I'd hate it so much!!!

[Atticus]

I guess it's a love it or hate it kind of thing. At least you've sifted it.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah I've heard it's Marmite. One of those "experience" films.

Last night I watched The Art of Self Defence. What a weird film.
It was perfectly watchable and interesting enough, but such a strange tone of it feeling unreal.

[wakka]

More Bogart...

The Maltese Falcon

For a noir, this one absolutely crackles along, thanks in no small part to having to cram in an awful lot of plot (unsurprising considering it's based on a Dashiell Hammett novel).

It's a good thing, then, that the plot is a decent one. Bogart does his hard bitten thing as private detective Sam Spade, who finds himself at the centre of a group of people on the trail of a priceless artefact (the eponymous Falcon).

The film uses a classic setup - damsel in distress comes to the office with a job. Damsel turns out not to be in quite so much distress as she's making out. Dark things happen, double crosses occur, people get shot, and there's a lot of snappy fast talk.

A good story, a tight screenplay, and Bogart on top form. Recommended.

[Atticus]

The film uses a classic setup - damsel in distress comes to the office with a job. Damsel turns out not to be in quite so much distress as she's making out. Dark things happen, double crosses occur, people get shot, and there's a lot of snappy fast talk.

It's a dream formula that never gets old. Not seen TMF in a while but I can feel a noir binge coming on in the near future ... could do with the beeb doing another season of films.

[wakka]

It's a dream formula that never gets old. Not seen TMF in a while but I can feel a noir binge coming on in the near future ... could do with the beeb doing another season of films.

Agreed! By the by, the best versions of Casablanca and TMF seem to be HMV's The Premium Collection ones, if you are looking for discs. Think they've got a good version of Out Of The Past too, which I'm sure you've seen (cracker isn't it?).

Interestingly Indicator announced a noir collection for November recently:

https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/columbia-noir-1-le

No idea what any of these films are like personally, as they seem to be relatively obscure ones. But I think I'll be picking the boxset up and giving them a watch come Nov.

[Atticus]

Agreed! By the by, the best versions of Casablanca and TMF seem to be HMV's The Premium Collection ones, if you are looking for discs.

Yeah, I think The Big Sleep is available in that format too.

Think they've got a good version of Out Of The Past too, which I'm sure you've seen (cracker isn't it?).

I have, and yeah it's superb. Interestingly I saw it shortly before A History of Violence came out. They're pretty much identical stories.

Interestingly Indicator announced a noir collection for November recently:

https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/products/columbia-noir-1-le

No idea what any of these films are like personally, as they seem to be relatively obscure ones. But I think I'll be picking the boxset up and giving them a watch come Nov.

Quite tempted to take a punt on that set myself. Would be nice to discover some more obscure ones.