Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

I watched Selma tonight. Very impressive - another film to make me feel angry, as well as a lazy, passive assh*le who should get off that add and stand up for stuff that matters.

I'm actually not even sure if it's a good film cinematographically; I was too wrapped up and involved in its story to really pay attention. I guess at least that means the film is engrossing and achieves its bigger goal! But certainly the acting is very good. (Which reminds me that Tom Wilkinson is another one of those actors that tend to play predominantly in good movies.)
 
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Underwater
A drilling crew deep in the ocean has their station implode after a mysterious earthquake and eventually find themselves in danger from sea-monsters. Kristen Stewart looks like Eminem in this. It had some good moments, the monsters looked great and when they were on screen were the best bits but otherwise, it just felt like it borrowed from the likes of The Abyss or Alien without anything original in itself. Also, way too many mid shots and close ups meant it was hard to fully see what was happening 5.5/10
 
Got round to watching Upgrade after seeing it mentioned here. What a gem of a sci-fi film, couldn't believe the budget for it was so small, the SFX looked fantastic, a great soundtrack and well told (albeit familiar) story with some good twists and gore along the way. Solid 7/10
 
Massive Spanner said:
Got round to watching Upgrade after seeing it mentioned here. What a gem of a sci-fi film, couldn't believe the budget for it was so small, the SFX looked fantastic, a great soundtrack and well told (albeit familiar) story with some good twists and gore along the way. Solid 7/10
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Yes I think Leigh Whannell is coming out of the shadow of James Wan and now becoming a director to watch out for.

Upgrade was great, Invisible Man was a really well thought out reimagining and I look forward to what he does with Wolfman.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Yes I think Leigh Whannell is coming out of the shadow of James Wan and now becoming a director to watch out for.

Upgrade was great, Invisible Man was a really well thought out reimagining and I look forward to what he does with Wolfman.
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Just looked him up. I had no idea he's made so many mainstream films, for some reason I assumed he was a relative unknown given the small budget of Upgrade. I quite enjoyed The Invisible Man too and I can actually see the similarities.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Just looked him up. I had no idea he's made so many mainstream films, for some reason I assumed he was a relative unknown given the small budget of Upgrade. I quite enjoyed The Invisible Man too and I can actually see the similarities.
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He's a very mainstream writer (Saw, Insidious etc) but I think Upgrade was his second gig directing (after Insidious 3). Yeah Blumhouse is known for low budget films so that falls in line with their business model I suppose.
 
Mortal engines 3/10

Absolute shit. Only got a 3 because some of the visuals were cool, story was garbage, characters were garbage, plot was all over the place.
 
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Really liked this. Good characters, beautiful location and even Russell Brand was good in it. My only issue is: can subscribe like Jason Segal pull Kristen Bell or Mila Kunis? I think not! Really fun movie though 8/10
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Really liked this. Good characters, beautiful location and even Russell Brand was good in it. My only issue is: can subscribe like Jason Segal pull Kristen Bell or Mila Kunis? I think not! Really fun movie though 8/10
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Watched this over the weekend with the Mrs. Really enjoyable, although seeing Segal's cock was a bit much.
 
Mortal
Norwegian film where some young bloke starts developing odd superpowers, which increasingly become weather-based.
The premise is interesting, but it doesn't really explore any of the themes it touches one, eg is he Thor's second coming, how will religious folk react etc...It's all very small-scale instead. The film is watchable but badly let down by the crummy effects.
5/10
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Yes I think Leigh Whannell is coming out of the shadow of James Wan and now becoming a director to watch out for.

Upgrade was great, Invisible Man was a really well thought out reimagining and I look forward to what he does with Wolfman.
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Watched Upgrade tonight, very impressive, really revs up after the first 20 minutes.
 
Tenet

First film I’ve seen at the cinema in months.
Music insanely loud, dialogue unintelligible.
Plot; I walked out 2/3 way through, read it on Wikipedia, went back in, and I still don’t understand it. Charlie Brooker was good as some Russian, who was possibly the bad guy.

0.5/10.

The 0.5 is because it was nice to be in the cinema again after so long.
 
Lion (2016)

Great movie. Would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a drama film.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
I was pretty sure it'd be shit just for the mere fact of choosing one of the most uncharismatic actors around to portray one of music's most charismatic performers (it was almost nihilistic in this regard), but sounds like the overall approach is a car crash in itself. Happy to give it a swerve.
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They even used the tour that resulted in Hunky Dory being written as the setting for the film but for no apparent reason decided to say that it was the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust. And no Bowie songs :lol:
 
This Is 40
I loved Knocked Up and only realised that this was kind of a sequel to that. Not as good but not awful. Had loads of funny bits and I'm a big fan of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. It was however waaay too long and no real story. The idea of turning 40 made me feel depressed 5/10
 
Cannot wait to see Mank. Five stars in Empire and The Guardian. The Guardian as well rarely hand out five stars.
 
Is David Fincher a 5 star filmmaker? I think Seven is just about worth 5, the ballsy level of grimness makes up for the bulky mechanics. Zodiac, Social Network, Fight Club I could give 4. Alien 3, Gone Girl, Panic Room, The Game are solid 3 star films. Benjamin Button, Dragon Tattoo, Mind Hunter would struggle to get 2 stars from me, really bad stuff.

He's quite excellent at punchy genre pictures but most of his stuff is shallow and flashy. Let's argue.
 
dumbo said:
Is David Fincher a 5 star filmmaker? I think Seven is just about worth 5, the ballsy level of grimness makes up for the bulky mechanics. Zodiac, Social Network, Fight Club I could give 4. Alien 3, Gone Girl, Panic Room, The Game are solid 3 star films. Benjamin Button, Dragon Tattoo, Mind Hunter would struggle to get 2 stars from me, really bad stuff.

He's quite excellent at punchy genre pictures but most of his stuff is shallow and flashy. Let's argue.
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Zodiac was good if the ending was poor as it just faded away due to the lack of a real life ending. Seven was good for what it was and Dragon Tattoo was quite good if a bit pointless. I hated Fight Club and Social Network and the rest of his films are very ordinary.

I enjoyed Mind Hunter especially season 1 as it was at least interesting TV.
 
dumbo said:
Is David Fincher a 5 star filmmaker? I think Seven is just about worth 5, the ballsy level of grimness makes up for the bulky mechanics. Zodiac, Social Network, Fight Club I could give 4. Alien 3, Gone Girl, Panic Room, The Game are solid 3 star films. Benjamin Button, Dragon Tattoo, Mind Hunter would struggle to get 2 stars from me, really bad stuff.

He's quite excellent at punchy genre pictures but most of his stuff is shallow and flashy. Let's argue.
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Mind Hunter for me is the best thing Netflix have internally produced.
 
Zodiac > Se7en. I never saw the ending as a weakness as fading off with no firm resolution and leaving the characters confused, dismayed and permanently damaged works for what the film was. Us finding out the killer's identity was never really the point anyway. Se7en is also excellent though.

Fight Club I have mixed feelings on though a lot of that might be due to it's subsequent reputation as a film beloved by edgelords (many of whom may have misread it anyway). I think Gone Girl is slightly underrated if anything. It's insubstantial campy trash but high-end insubstatial campy trash, which is fine by me.

Benjamin Button is his worst. I would pay money not to have to sit through that again.
 
I find Seven pretty mediocre until
Spacey enters the Police Station.

My favorite Fincher would be Fight Club. Haven't seen all of his movies though.
 
sullydnl said:
Fight Club I have mixed feelings on though a lot of that might be due to it's subsequent reputation as a film beloved by edgelords (many of whom may have misread it anyway)
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Oh the worst thing about the Fight Club was the resulting flood of god awful online breakdown/analysis videos all the way from conservative reactionaries to progressives.

The film itself is pretty great.
 
Yea for me Zodiac, Fight Club and Seven are masterpieces.

Most of his other films are really good as well, bar maybe Alien 3.
 
Hercules
My friend kept bigging this Disney movie up but I didn't love it for some reason. It wasn't bad but not nearly as good as some other Disney movies 4/10

Mulan
Love this movie. One of my favourite Disney films. Shame the remake looks awful 8.5/10

Father Figures
Two brothers go on a road trip to find their biological father. A few funny moments and situations but isn't that memorable and the Jokes run dry pretty quick. Not amazing but ok 5/10

Ghosts Of War
A group of army guys have to hold a French chateau near the end of world war 2 suddenly come up against a supernatural force. Loved the setup, I usually do with these type of horror films. Had some great suspense. However, when the supernatural begins, it becomes a little ropey and the scares didn't work, especially as the characters were quite flat. The final act is interesting and memorable though and ties things together quite well. Decent horror flick that would have been better without the ghosts 6.5/10
 
Watched Detroit. Another film to make you feel really pissed off and helpless. In that sense it's interesting and powerful. I'm not a big fan of the shooting style though (all the shaky cameras to create the atmosphere of chaos and confusion), and I feel the film is too much in a hurry to get to its key situation, and therefore lacks context and character depth. Still, I'm happy to have seen it (although 'happy' sounds a like the wrong word to use in the context!) and would fully recommend it if you're into (learning more about) this sort of subject.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
This Is 40
I loved Knocked Up and only realised that this was kind of a sequel to that. Not as good but not awful. Had loads of funny bits and I'm a big fan of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. It was however waaay too long and no real story. The idea of turning 40 made me feel depressed 5/10
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Watch I Love You Man, starring Segel and Rudd. It's an awesome movie about male friendship.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Really liked this. Good characters, beautiful location and even Russell Brand was good in it. My only issue is: can subscribe like Jason Segal pull Kristen Bell or Mila Kunis? I think not! Really fun movie though 8/10
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Also watch the Five Year Engagement starring Segel.
 
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