Films

Caught a bit of Turner and Hooch on telly last night. Hilarious stuff!

Turner and Hooch is a great movie, one of Tom Hanks' best. Also just caught a bit of the Spongebob Squarepants first movie today myself, still love it as much as I did when I was a kid, I'm surprised that I still cried at particular moments.

The Love Bug (1968)

A fun, quirky and bizarre film which was one of my childhood favorites and still holds up well today. 4.5/5

Flatliners. A group of medical students embark on a reckless scheme to try and solve mankind's greatest mystery by inducing death and then returning... but they may not be prepared for the consequences. Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon star in this early 90s thriller that skirts the line between SF, mystery and pseudo-paranormal pseudo-ghost story. Still an enjoyable and effective film, with fine performances (particularly from Sutherland as the arrogant student leading the charge who may or may not have a death wish himself).

Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut. That was one of the greatest cinema experiences of my life and easily one of my all time favourite films- what a masterpiece. In terms of the version itself, it’s basically a mildly more concise version of the 2001 Redux, though the French Plantation scene is still present, which is admittedly quite unnecessary and doesn’t contribute much to the overall narrative as well as tonally clashing with the rest of the film. Otherwise, a superb cinema experience that explores the Jungian aspects of the human soul brilliantly. I ought to read Conrad’s ‘Heart Of Darkness’ soon.

Just caught a bit of The Last Airbender movie. Holy shit, it's even worse than I thought. Quite possibly the worst adaptation of pre-existing media ever. How could M. Night Shamalamadingdong fuck up what was a beautiful and meaningful show, and then strip it all of its bare bones content, and practically put an entire Season (20 episodes, each being 25 minutes) into a 90 minute movie. Nothing works in this movie, fuck this movie, I might just watch the show again to cleanse my memory of the movie.

Charlie Says with Matt Smith in the role of Charles Manson.
I've not yet seen the new Tarantino movie but was curious to check out this recent take on the infamous murders. It was rather better than I expected too with Matt (surely the best New Who Doctor) giving a brilliant performance as Manson. Although his height might have made him unsuited physically for the role (Charlie wasn't so tall), the film is shot in such a way that his height isn't incongruous. He also conveys the bizarre mannerisms and vocals of Manson with great skill I thought. It's all fairly subtle in terms of graphic scenes and its handling of the characters. The main criticism I'd make is that personally I thought this film was inviting unwarranted sympathy for Manson's zombie girls who were, in my view, simply not the innocent victims themselves that this film wanted to suggest. Going to see Once upon a Time...in Hollywood next.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. An ageing movie star whose career is in decline and his best mate/stunt double/gopher careen blindly around the fairytale land of Hollywood in 1969, blissfully unaware of the danger that may soon be coming their - and their Hollywood next door neighbours, director Roman Polanski and his starlet wife Sharon Tate - way. Brad Pitt and Leonard DiCaprio star in the latest magnum opus from Quentin Tarantino, which I have to say, despite not being overly enthused by the trailer of, I thoroughly enjoyed and have to rank as the best film I've seen at the cinema so far this year. Hugely indulgent but enormously fun, and - despite what you might think/expect given some of the subject matter, and some tense scenes - probably the closest thing to an all-out comedy he's done. Whether it will stand up to repeat viewings I don't know - to be honest, pretty much none of his do for me bar Pulp Fiction - but this was enormous fun. Last month I saw Crawl, which was like 87 minutes and felt like three hours. This is nearly 3 hours but felt much shorter. Great stuff.

iank wrote:Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. An ageing movie star whose career is in decline and his best mate/stunt double/gopher careen blindly around the fairytale land of Hollywood in 1969, blissfully unaware of the danger that may soon be coming their - and their Hollywood next door neighbours, director Roman Polanski and his starlet wife Sharon Tate - way. Brad Pitt and Leonard DiCaprio star in the latest magnum opus from Quentin Tarantino, which I have to say, despite not being overly enthused by the trailer of, I thoroughly enjoyed and have to rank as the best film I've seen at the cinema so far this year. Hugely indulgent but enormously fun, and - despite what you might think/expect given some of the subject matter, and some tense scenes - probably the closest thing to an all-out comedy he's done. Whether it will stand up to repeat viewings I don't know - to be honest, pretty much none of his do for me bar Pulp Fiction - but this was enormous fun. Last month I saw Crawl, which was like 87 minutes and felt like three hours. This is nearly 3 hours but felt much shorter. Great stuff.

We seem to have the same stance on Tarantino on the whole. I’ll be seeing this soon myself, and haven’t been very excited about it myself. Glad to hear how much you enjoyed it!

I loved Inglourious Basterds at the cinema. Haven't been able to sit through it since!

The opening scene of Inglourious Basterds is very good. The rest is very indulgent, though.

Threads (1984). This BBC Drama/Documentary on the effects of nuclear war is easily one of the grimmest and most harrowing films I’ve seen in recent memory, and is significantly scarier than most horror films conceived of late. Ominously and superbly directed, with the after-effects of nuclear war showcased in vivid detail with complete earnestness, never resorting to patronising its audience. The fact that the BBC were once capable of producing content as superbly evocative and powerful as this, yet have now declined to the state of abject mediocrity they have, is frankly shocking.

I kid you not, every time I have watched Threads, I have always had to look out the window just to reassure myself the world is still intact. It's that powerful and haunting a piece of television.

Was watching Young Sherlock Holmes on Film4 yesterday. Splendid film! Nicholas Rowe is magnificent as Sherlock and the cinematography is very striking. It captures the Victorian era effortlessly.

Ah yes, a childhood fave. I wish they'd put it out on Blu ray.

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) Pamela Springsteen totally owns in this hilarious follow up to the dark original.



"I would rather die" Oops

Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan. A brilliantly constructed psychological thriller that superbly implements a non-linear narrative structure whilst also commenting on the nature of memory loss and human identity. For a film as intricately plotted as this, the writing is phenomenally air tight as well. This is almost certainly Nolan’s best film, with only The Prestige really coming close.

Funny coincidence, I just watched The Prestige yesterday. Absolutely loved it, and has now overtaken Batman Begins as my second favourite Nolan film (The Dark Knight still wins it for me). Memento is great, but I need to see it another time to fully get it, I think that I looked at it too analytically to fully appreciate it.

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (1962)

A dark, grotesque and rather surreal psychological horror thriller that still never fails to disturb.

Cobra (1986)

My favourite movie of all time. A group of murdering cultists are slashing their way through Eighties LA and there is only one man who can stop them!

Lifeforce. Astronauts carrying out a scientific study of Hailey's Comet are more than a little surprised to find what appears to be an alien spacecraft within it - and within that, along with hundreds of corpses of strange bat-like creatures, three perfect human specimens - two men and a woman - in suspended animation. When the three reach Earth, they soon awake and begin sucking the life from their victims, spreading a plague that soon overwhelms London and threatens to destroy the world! Most remembered today for the hot young alien chick wandering around completely starkers for a large portion of the film, this completely bonkers British sci-fi horror flick starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay and Patrick Stewart could only have been made in the 80s. Having never seen Firth in anything but Spooks before, I was particularly amused by his presence here. So that's what Harry got up to in the 80s! No wonder he was made head of MI-5 and so coolly dealt with all those spies and terrorists - he'd already seen off fucking SPACE VAMPIRES!

I'm not sure if this movie is brilliant or terrible, but it's certainly entertaining.

The Hive Motion Picture.

The Hivers travel to Australia to save Ian from the evil clutches of a kidnapper. OK film but not enough screentime is given to Maxil. I did enjoy the Bonnie Langford twerk scene, though. Shame they killed off Ronnie.

Commander Maxil wrote:The Hive Motion Picture.

The Hivers travel to Australia to save Ian from the evil clutches of a kidnapper. OK film but not enough screentime is given to Maxil. I did enjoy the Bonnie Langford twerk scene, though. Shame they killed off Ronnie.

Commander Maxil wrote:The Hive Motion Picture.

The Hivers travel to Australia to save Ian from the evil clutches of a kidnapper. OK film but not enough screentime is given to Maxil. I did enjoy the Bonnie Langford twerk scene, though. Shame they killed off Ronnie.

It was OK, but I thought the Mercury character was a bit of a dullard. Bernard Marx was the best character IMO.

Mercury wrote:

Commander Maxil wrote:The Hive Motion Picture.

The Hivers travel to Australia to save Ian from the evil clutches of a kidnapper. OK film but not enough screentime is given to Maxil. I did enjoy the Bonnie Langford twerk scene, though. Shame they killed off Ronnie.

It was OK, but I thought the Mercury character was a bit of a dullard.  Bernard Marx was the best character IMO.

I thought Bernard Marx was a bit crap, personally. He spent the whole film whittering on about how he took his Hive name from Brave New World- the insufferable pseudo-intellectual.