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

[JazzFunk]

Watched the first one again. Kicking off, I really enjoyed it and the Blu-Ray image is incredible, it's the first Blu I've ever seen that knocked me socks off.

But, boy, did it get old quick. Because I already knew the 'twist', this ended up being monotonous and I couldn't wait for it to end after about seventy mins in.

Very brilliant, stylistically, mind. This kicked off a 'look' that has persisted for over twenty years, no way does this look like a film from 1999.

[Atticus]

Got round to watching a film tonight I've been meaning to for ages ... Green Room ... classic wrong place, wrong time set up about a hardcore band who play a nazi skin venue and it goes south. Excellent stuff.

[gordon]

Eye For An Eye (Netflix). Former junkie, now a nursing home carer, is tasked with looking after the terminally ill boss of a local drug gang; complications ensue and a revenge plot develops. Spanish-language film by the guy who directed REC and Veronica, both excellent. This was, too: the title already hints at the plot's outcome, if you add Gandhi's extension to it, but it's never slow, the motivation for the various events is sound, and I was gripped until the end.

[fallenangle]

Watched David Lean's Great Expectations earlier today - still one of the great literary film adaptations. Only minor problem for me with it is that having had the exquisite Jean Simmons playing her as a teenager the adult Estella (Valerie Hobson) is lack lustre in all respects.

Just finished re-watching Sydney Pollack's WW2 film Castle Keep (1969) too. Not seen it for over twenty years but it was regularly shown during the 70s and and 80s on TV so I've probably seen it at least half a dozen times. My opinions about it have not changed much.

Very typical late 1960s: American action meets art-house style film complete with Euro pudding post dubbing sound and tiresomely pretentious, navel gazing script.

Couldn't work out why now I kept on being reminded by of the Thomas Crown Affair (1968) but afterwards I researched a bit and the music for both was by Michel Legrand and, the completely forgotten actress, Astrid Heeren likewise in both too.

Amongst the comedy elements mentioned in some reviews I assume is its barely disguised homage to The Love Bug also released in 1968 and very popular at the time.

Not a great film but quality performances from Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal and Peter Falk mitigate that dated pretentiousness.

[JazzFunk]

Watched a couple of movies in the last 20hrs, ANT-MAN last night and an old B&W 50s Lee Marvin war flick called ATTACK from that Paramount channel, over a coupla cans n' spliffs at my mate's this aft (don't worry, we work together every day).

ANT-MAN was kinda OK. But it felt a bit too kiddy for me, in the end, and I feel I'm a bit past this type of flick. But if I was 8 or 9, I reckon this'd be a bloody great film, it's very easy to follow, really imaginative and has a wealth of CGI that manages to not clutter and overwhelm the screen. It's a neat film, just a bit childlike for me now. Nice to see MD onscreen, too, always a great presence.

I only caught the last hour of ATTACK, didn't see it all but caught the crux. It was very decent, a hamburger of a film, all about Lee Marvin as a frustrated colonel scheming to off a cowardly, useless captain without getting his hands dirty. Lee Marvin is great, he's a proper twat in this.

Just found it a bit absurd that gunned-down soldiers exhibit no evidence of bullet holes or blood after being shot up several times in the torso. Very strange, they must've had invisible blood back in the day.

Anyway, I preferred the latter to the former, it was just weird watching it on my mate's new telly, the film looked TOO smooth, like it was 60fps or summat? Is this how it's broadcast on Paramount or is it just the motion smoothing crap in the telly options?

[prinnysquad]

Kiddie film?

Let God piss on your chips for such sacrilege.

[JazzFunk]

I've probably had pissy chips before. There was a chippie up Belle Isle where the owner was rumoured to piss in the batter.

However, this seemed to be tolerated, due to the excellent flavour of the fish and chips. True story, sadly it's a kebab-type shop, now.

[Atticus]

I watched Crash (the Cronenberg one) and Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton) last night. I think I needed one after watching the other

[teddymeow]

Watching Sky High with the boy.

Disney superhero goodness with bonus Bruce Campbell.

[wakka]

Kiddie film?

Let God piss on your chips for such sacrilege.

I mean...he’s 100% right. They’re all kiddie films

Love a bit of Lee Marvin [MENTION=6476]JazzFunk[/MENTION]. Yeah, that excessive smoothness will be due to a motion smoothing option switched on on his telly.

[Atticus]

that excessive smoothness will be due to a motion smoothing option switched on on his telly.

I remember watching a film at a friends' house and noticing this. They were pleased with their new telly though so I stayed quiet ... whilst watching a Hollywood film that resembled Crossroads.

[wakka]

I remember watching a film at a friends' house and noticing this. They were pleased with their new telly though so I stayed quiet ... whilst watching a Hollywood film that resembled Crossroads.

I would secretly change it when he went to the toilet and not say anything.

It's a shame that TV manufacturers enable this setting by default. On the new TV I just bought I had to systematically disable it from every picture mode I was planning to use.

[JazzFunk]

I'm gonna secretly sort it next time I go round. It's like a bad smoothing filter on a NES emulator!

[wakka]

Ford V Ferrari / Le Mans '66

Weirdly this film has two titles, apparently because there was a copyright issue with the 'Ford V Ferrari' name in Europe.

Anyway, I watched it. Now, I love sports dramas. I have no interest in actual sports (I'm that person who baffles coworkers, barbers, men in pubs, etc by not even being in possession of the most basic information regarding what team is doing well at the moment in football), but I love sports films. Even the only half-decent ones usually make for unashamedly enjoyable feel-good escapism.

This one is a little better than half-decent. In fact it's pretty good. It runs overlong at two and a half hours, but the racing scenes are terrifically done, genuinely edge of the seat stuff. A good amount of the runtime is given over to them, especially the climactic Le Mans race, which is as it should be.

It's a true story about how former race driver/contemporary car designer Carroll Shelby and gifted-but-difficult driver Ken Miles work together to to create a Ford driving team which can topple the mighty Ferrari at Le Mans. There's lots of backfill about Ken Miles's wife and child, too much in the end, and it goes from sentimental right into mawkish, but it does set up well for a nail biting finale.

Matt Damon and Christian Bale both do a great job of their characters, even if Bale's Brummie accent does veer into the comedic at points. There's also a senior VP at Ford who's always trying to derail them in some way, and he's suitably malevolent.

The racing's the thing, and it's really done well here. I don't know the first thing about cars or motorsport (I don't even have a driving license) - and maybe that helps, since I can't identify where they've made errors or twisted reality for dramatic effect - but I loved the sequences of Miles pushing his car to the limit in the quest for the perfect lap.

A bit corny, but that's what you expect from a sports drama. Overall, recommended. A fun, absorbing, uplifting way to spend two and a half hours. Good film for a Sunday night or when things are getting you down.

I watched this on UHD Blu. The visual presentation was good but didn't blow me away as anything especially incredible, use of HDR was mild. Special mention to the sound though - I LOVED the soundstage in this. I felt right in the heart of the racetrack during those scenes, engines roaring and tires squealing around my living room.

Extra special mention to Carroll Shelby's sunglasses in it. They are extremely cool.

[JazzFunk]

Watched SCUM again last night. I seem to watch it about once a decade. Very grim and still works, despite Archer still being one of my most detestable characters in a British borstal movie. Just can't stand the twat. Prob a nice bloke in real life but by god I wanna punch his face in every scene he's in.

Best acting goes to the evil baldie guy. He's great. In a baldly evil manner.

Then saw the BAYWATCH reboot. Which was actually...really rubbish. I'd heard it was a bit of a gem but it's actually really, really crap. And The Hoff gets WAY more screen time in that PIRANHA film...and that's better than this, too. Saw Eli Roth's name on the credits expecting some gross comedy gore.

Alas, no. There's nothing. This movie has nothing at all to give anyone.