Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

GOLDA

A story about Israeli Prime Minister during the Yom Kippur war which lasted 21 days. Hellen Mirren being Mirren, I like it not knowing fully about the details. It's quite gripping, but boy seeing them smoking makes me having a hard time breathing. They literally smoke everywhere, all the time.

Overall, a good 2 hours movie if you like these kinds of performances

7/10
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
I thought it was all Daniel Day Lewis chewing scenery and drinking people's milkshakes, Paul Dano having trouble finding his accent and character, and then a lot of shit about oil derricks. ? . Initially Paul Dano was only playing the role of the guy who brings the news to DDL, another actor was the priest. They shot for a week or two, and the other actor was fired, and Dano became both roles as "twin brothers", so he had to come up with some wacky alter-ego to play the second role, and it did not work. There was also dozens of pages about Jr's wildcatting in Mexico that they cut to suddenly have him be a rival to his father, which wasn't how it was planned. The whole thing felt pretentious, not least of all the score by the Radiohead guy. DDL was mesmerizing but the rest of it? hooey.
Click to expand...

I agree. Except DDL's overacting also grated.
 
Train to Busan (2016)

I was told to watch this because it's "the greatest zombie movie ever made". I'm assuming that this person said this purely because it's Korean and therefore it should never be criticized.

To put it mildly; it's ok. I was told that the film is a social commentary on the corruption of greed but it's literally "business man is bad and even richer business man is worse" levels of juvenile story telling. It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.

This would be fine were it not for the combination of poor acting, poor characters, poor special effects, poor set pieces, and a really shite final death that has all the heart tugging manipulation of some twat on a Britain's Got Talent audition stage telling the judges that their nan died two days ago.

6/10
 
Mr Pigeon said:
It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.
Click to expand...
While the ending is a mess I still think Snowpiercer is Bong Joon-ho most interesting film in terms of social commentary.
 
Sweet Square said:
While the ending is a mess I still think Snowpiercer is Bong Joon-ho most interesting film in terms of social commentary.
Click to expand...
I love that film. If anything Snowpiecer is the more subtle of the two train related social class commentary movies, and there's actually a feeling of dread. Train to Busan is just bland so I was amazed at how widely praised it is.

And yeah, agree on it being Bing Joon-ho's more interesting film.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Train to Busan (2016)

I was told to watch this because it's "the greatest zombie movie ever made". I'm assuming that this person said this purely because it's Korean and therefore it should never be criticized.

To put it mildly; it's ok. I was told that the film is a social commentary on the corruption of greed but it's literally "business man is bad and even richer business man is worse" levels of juvenile story telling. It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.

This would be fine were it not for the combination of poor acting, poor characters, poor special effects, poor set pieces, and a really shite final death that has all the heart tugging manipulation of some twat on a Britain's Got Talent audition stage telling the judges that their nan died two days ago.

6/10
Click to expand...

I didn't get the hype.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Train to Busan (2016)

I was told to watch this because it's "the greatest zombie movie ever made". I'm assuming that this person said this purely because it's Korean and therefore it should never be criticized.

To put it mildly; it's ok. I was told that the film is a social commentary on the corruption of greed but it's literally "business man is bad and even richer business man is worse" levels of juvenile story telling. It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.

This would be fine were it not for the combination of poor acting, poor characters, poor special effects, poor set pieces, and a really shite final death that has all the heart tugging manipulation of some twat on a Britain's Got Talent audition stage telling the judges that their nan died two days ago.

6/10
Click to expand...
If that description gets 6/10, I wonder how you'd describe a 2/10 film. (1/10 and 0/10 being so dumb they're probably fun in their own way again.)
 
The Meg 2
Ben Wheatley directed this? How the feck did that happen? :lol: Anyway... yeah it's shite. The first half takes itself too seriously and is a snoozefest. The second half gives you what you want but by then it's too late. Logically all over the place. Still nice to see the Stath kicking a shark in the face though 4/10

Gran Turismo
I laughed out loud when I heard they're making a film on this game but then I heard Neil Blomkamp is directing and it got my interest as I feel he is a director with great potential. I loved the movie. Good acting, characters with real motivations and fantastic visuals with thrilling races. Maybe I'm just a sucker for feel-good sports movies. Just be warned, this is nothing like the true story, which the film says it's based on... just enjoy it for what it is 8/10

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1
I'm not exactly a huge follower of these although I really enjoyed Ghost Protocol and Fallout. This was middle of the pack. Overly bloated run time and the first two thirds were putting me to sleep. However, the final act really brings it with amazing stunts and great action set-pieces 6/10
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I love that film. If anything Snowpiecer is the more subtle of the two train related social class commentary movies, and there's actually a feeling of dread. Train to Busan is just bland so I was amazed at how widely praised it is.

And yeah, agree on it being Bing Joon-ho's more interesting film.
Click to expand...
What I love about Snowpiecer especially the first half is that while Evans is the leader, they all travel through the early sections of train as a block. The poor/working class are able to push forward due to learning from past failures but mostly because they outnumber everyone else.

Agree you on both the dread and the subtleties. The kitchen scene where the cook is so captured by his job that he can’t leave or the shoot out with the middle class school teacher. It’s a genius move to not make Tild Swinton the main villain. At best she is a bitter and nasty petite bourgeois(Like Thatcher)

I just wish at the end when they got to the front of the train it was instead empty. All along it was running on auto or a Airplane style inflatable driver was at the wheel.

Still it’s a brilliant film.
 

FSjVcHtWUAI2_Zq
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Train to Busan (2016)

I was told to watch this because it's "the greatest zombie movie ever made". I'm assuming that this person said this purely because it's Korean and therefore it should never be criticized.

To put it mildly; it's ok. I was told that the film is a social commentary on the corruption of greed but it's literally "business man is bad and even richer business man is worse" levels of juvenile story telling. It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.

This would be fine were it not for the combination of poor acting, poor characters, poor special effects, poor set pieces, and a really shite final death that has all the heart tugging manipulation of some twat on a Britain's Got Talent audition stage telling the judges that their nan died two days ago.

6/10
Click to expand...
It’s way better than Parasite. I think everyone was busy patting themselves on the back for watching a Korean film that they didn’t realize Parasite - with American / English actors - would not have been very interesting.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Train to Busan (2016)

I was told to watch this because it's "the greatest zombie movie ever made". I'm assuming that this person said this purely because it's Korean and therefore it should never be criticized.

To put it mildly; it's ok. I was told that the film is a social commentary on the corruption of greed but it's literally "business man is bad and even richer business man is worse" levels of juvenile story telling. It's essentially Parasite, which banged it's visual metaphors over your head with the subtlety of a brick and doesn't actually tell a story any different than a million other movies.

This would be fine were it not for the combination of poor acting, poor characters, poor special effects, poor set pieces, and a really shite final death that has all the heart tugging manipulation of some twat on a Britain's Got Talent audition stage telling the judges that their nan died two days ago.

6/10
Click to expand...
Have you seen The Wailing?
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
It’s way better than Parasite. I think everyone was busy patting themselves on the back for watching a Korean film that they didn’t realize Parasite - with American / English actors - would not have been very interesting.
Click to expand...

I didn't get past 20 mins of parasite.
 
Bull

Watched this last night. I love a good gritty British gangster movie, and this was gritty with a capital G. Neil maskell is excellent in everything he does and thisnis no exception. It's a short movie with zero fat, with an ending that you don't see coming. Not for the squeamish.

If you liked Dead Man's Shoes (and if you didn't we'll never be friends) then you'll like this too.

8/10
 
I loved train to busan, though I do love zombie films and the pickings are pretty slim. I thought Parasite was amazing, I like Bong Joon-ho a lot, but I disagree with sweet square about snowpiercer being his most cutting social commentary, it’s the host, where the social commentary is that society is scared of big deformed killer monsters killing people. Makes you think.

I watched Enemy, I give it a 6.5. Join my patreon for more in depth film reviews
 
Wibble said:
I only hate bad films.

Paracite was implausible nonsense.

Snowpiercer was ok for a while but the ending was idiotic.
Click to expand...
Snowpiercer started life as a comic book / “graphic novel” , didn’t it? Those don’t seem to Ever turn out well. It reminded me of a JG Ballard novel (High Rise) but in a train. So silly AF but since it was social commentary/sci-fi I went with it. Some interesting visuals and ideas but I wasn’t blown away like some people apparently were. Tilda Swinton is someone I just don’t enjoy watching, either.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
It’s some achievement to make nudity so boring you’d rather turn it off than find out how the “story” ends.
Click to expand...
Tbh that’s what Showgirls is going force. It’s showing the audience just how unsexy the sex industry really is.

Censoring the nudity proves Veroheven point that American entertainment is simply uncomfortable with the naked body regardless.
 
Sweet Square said:
Tbh that’s what Showgirls is going force. It’s showing the audience just how unsexy the sex industry really is.

Censoring the nudity proves Veroheven point that American entertainment is simply uncomfortable with the naked body regardless.
Click to expand...
You don’t think the pool scene was sexy?
 
Sweet Square said:
Tbh that’s what Showgirls is going force. It’s showing the audience just how unsexy the sex industry really is.

Censoring the nudity proves Veroheven point that American entertainment is simply uncomfortable with the naked body regardless.
Click to expand...
Isn’t that just for general TV audiences? Showgirls was a really bad movie, I feel like Verhoeven had completely lost it at that point.
 
Massive Spanner said:
You don’t think the pool scene wasq sexy?
Click to expand...
:lol:

Tbf that scene does have the Mayor Of Portland in it!
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Isn’t that just for general TV audiences?
Click to expand...
I think so but it would have been shown after the watershed. I’m not sure if it just an American tv thing(They also dubbed out swear words).
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Showgirls was a really bad movie, I feel like Verhoeven had completely lost it at that point.
Click to expand...
Oh I think Showgirls is a genuinely brilliant film. It’s a very funnny and cynical satire on the American view of beauty(Which is all about money).

There are great moments such as showing the class difference or highlighting that the entertainment industry is no different than the porn industry. The dialogue makes everyone sound like they are guests from the Joe Rogan podcast.

Plus when Donald Trump became president and put on a White House dinner using only McDonald’s food that was the moment Veroheven became America’s greatest director. His hyper style in films like Robocop, Total Recall and Showgirls was far ahead the time.


Also @Mr Pigeon
“When I first read the script, I didn’t quite get it,” Evans said. “I was like, ‘So…what?’ Whenever it’s a movie that’s world-building, you’re creating a completely separate environment. There’s just kind of a conceit that you have to say, ‘OK, so everyone just accepts this, this is just how it is? No one is kind of outraged that this is the structure? That’s just the norm, OK.'”


Evans continued: “You kind of have to decide what part of your brain do you spend time wrapping your head around. Do you go the intimate road and just kind of make it about the character? Do you try and make it about what it took for that society to level into that place? It’s a challenge, but you get to watch Tilda Swinton in the movie and you get to watch her approach to this larger than life character.”

https://www.indiewire.com/news/gene...idnt-quite-get-snowpiercer-script-1234908324/
Click to expand...
 
Must admit, I was never impressed by Bong Joon-ho's movies either. They try hard to say something but always end up as pretty simple dichotomies between two extreme sides. Snowpiercer, Okja, Parasite all suffer from this.

Memories of Murder works because it's tense. The Host is exactly what you'd expect of a movie about a giant monster. Barking Dogs Never Bite is probably his most underrated - a slow-burner kind of Korean equivalent of an early Coen Bros. movie.

Just my opinion of course :)
 
Last edited:
Director Bong is such a visionary. When you’re working with someone that knows exactly what they want, even if it’s not exactly the way you saw it, it breeds trust,” he said. “And as an actor, that’s the most important thing, to trust the director. Otherwise you’re playing defense. Otherwise you’re like, ‘Alright, this first take, well, I’ll just do this, just so I can at least protect that. Then I’ll try this, but I don’t want to try that because I don’t know if they know how to use that take. Any take I give them can be used against me.’ And when you have a director who is so convinced of what their vision is, that’s when you say, ‘Great. You say jump, I’ll say “How high?”‘
Click to expand...
Name that actor...
 
Vidyoyo said:
Must admit, I was never impressed by Bong Joon-ho's movies either. They try hard but always seem to end up as pretty simple dichotomies between two extreme sides. Snowpiercer, Okja, Parasite all suffer from this.

Memories of Murder works because it's tense. The Host is exactly what you'd expect of a movie about a giant monster. Barking Dogs Never Bite is probably his most underrated one - a kind of Korean equivalent of an early Coen Bros. movie.

Just my opinion of course :)
Click to expand...
Okja was some unwatchable shit. Seriously one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. And you can take a thousand different paths into that steaming pile, from whatever in the hell Jake Gyllenhaal was doing with his character, to watching the Okja creature getting raped. As subtle as a chainsaw.
 
Watched The Batman last night for the second time. I fecking love it. It has an overall 'grunge' type of feel to it. That and film noir. It just hits the right spot for me. I really, really like the casting choices and it is more than interesting enough to justify its long runtime. I'd be happy with this being a one-and-done, but I'm excited to see where they take the series next. The opening scene where we're introduced to the Riddler is just low-key awesome. It's tense, grim (but not to the point of being unbearable) and has all of the hallmarks of films like David Fincher's Seven and Zodiac.
 
Expend4bles

Don't get the hate for this in the press. Seen a few harsh reviews and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

Oscar worthy? Of course not. Redefining the action movie genre? An obvious no - neither did any of the first three.

But it's a back to basics shootout with some funny moments, a high kill count and I actually thought the action and CGI sequences were fine.

I think if the reviewers are going to slate this then they need to look at virtually every Marvel and DC film from the last three years - I can count on one hand the number of decent ones.

I'd give it a 7/10 as it's absolutely fine, and at 1.43 a good runtime rather than this 3+ hour obsession that's creeping in.
 
ChrisNelson said:
I'd give it a 7/10 as it's absolutely fine, and at 1.43 a good runtime rather than this 3+ hour obsession that's creeping in.
Click to expand...
That runtime stuff really is insane. Marvel and John Wick movies and anything like those are never interesting enough for a 2h+ runtime. There is no way they have that much uniquely interesting action going on, and even less way the narrative (haha) needs that much time to properly play out. It's just editorial laziness, I don't know how else to see it.
 
Cheimoon said:
That runtime stuff really is insane. Marvel and John Wick movies and anything like those are never interesting enough for a 2h+ runtime. There is no way they have that much uniquely interesting action going on, and even less way the narrative (haha) needs that much time to properly play out. It's just editorial laziness, I don't know how else to see it.
Click to expand...

Killers Of The Flower Moon is set for 3.26 and it’s genuinely making me think twice about going.

Of course I then remind myself who’s made it and who’s starring in it, and I want to go again but as I’ve said in a previous post it best be bloody good!
 
Cascarino said:
I loved train to busan, though I do love zombie films and the pickings are pretty slim. I thought Parasite was amazing, I like Bong Joon-ho a lot, but I disagree with sweet square about snowpiercer being his most cutting social commentary, it’s the host, where the social commentary is that society is scared of big deformed killer monsters killing people. Makes you think.
Click to expand...

I 100% agree with you. Parasite and Train to Busan are both fantastic. Surprised quite a few people here dislike both movies.
 
Sympathy for the Devil

After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.
It is a not a bad film, but its never going to win any awards
Cage is Brillant, so over the top, from his red hair to his bad karaoke singing and dancing.
This is only or Cage fans, nobody else is going to watch it.
I enjoyed it.
6/10
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Snowpiercer started life as a comic book / “graphic novel” , didn’t it? Those don’t seem to Ever turn out well. It reminded me of a JG Ballard novel (High Rise) but in a train. So silly AF but since it was social commentary/sci-fi I went with it. Some interesting visuals and ideas but I wasn’t blown away like some people apparently were. Tilda Swinton is someone I just don’t enjoy watching, either.
Click to expand...

That novel was actually made into a different (very good) film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.