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Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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Minus One is the only one you need to see.
Saturday night film.
Contagion I enjoyed it originally but though it perhaps a bit dry. How a pandemic changes things. Even better now 8.5/10
Over reliance on CGI and as many titans as they can throw in IMO. I liked Skull Island and the one with Broderick and Reno set in NYC.
Showgirls
If you just accept that it's Starship Troopers with tits instead of aliens, it's actually brilliant. Elizabeth Berkley is clearly under strict instructions to over-act absolutely everything. She's not allowed to breathe without it being overly dramatic. She's like a big flashing sign that it's satire to some degree.
It's aggressively unsexy. People going into it expecting steamy romance and a bit of titillation must have been completely blindsided, but as a spot of social commentary it's excellent. The big glamourous hotel show is even seedier and sleazier than the strip club, and the film throws so much at you in the way of skin, gyrations, costumes, makeup that you're desensitised to any element that even could have been erotic in a different context and you're forced to see all the flesh market exploitation for what it is.
That pool sex scene with the Twin Peaks fella is a prime example. Berkley just thrashes around like a dying fish in a boat and the shot stays on her for long enough for it to be awkward and uncomfortable... and then just stays there for what feels like another 15 years as she flails and squeals. People must have ran screaming out of the cinema. It's incredible. It's basically just this scene from Robocop:
Top notch stuff. @Sweet Square was right.
If you just accept that it's Starship Troopers with tits instead of aliens, it's actually brilliant. Elizabeth Berkley is clearly under strict instructions to over-act absolutely everything. She's not allowed to breathe without it being overly dramatic. She's like a big flashing sign that it's satire to some degree.
It's aggressively unsexy. People going into it expecting steamy romance and a bit of titillation must have been completely blindsided, but as a spot of social commentary it's excellent. The big glamourous hotel show is even seedier and sleazier than the strip club, and the film throws so much at you in the way of skin, gyrations, costumes, makeup that you're desensitised to any element that even could have been erotic in a different context and you're forced to see all the flesh market exploitation for what it is.
That pool sex scene with the Twin Peaks fella is a prime example. Berkley just thrashes around like a dying fish in a boat and the shot stays on her for long enough for it to be awkward and uncomfortable... and then just stays there for what feels like another 15 years as she flails and squeals. People must have ran screaming out of the cinema. It's incredible. It's basically just this scene from Robocop:
Top notch stuff. @Sweet Square was right.
A Star is Born (2018)
Finally got around to watching this one yesterday, and I quite enjoyed even if there are definitely some elements of the plot that I feel like could have been done better. I will start with the good aspects. Both Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga put in terrific performances. Especially Cooper as he has to juggle so many aspects of the character - the overall good natured artist, the alcoholic, the dark past, and the torture when it eventually crumbles for him. I'd also say that the musical sequences are quite enjoyable, both in terms of the actual music and the cinematography. And it shows a pretty convincing love story and a realistic portrayal of addiction.
My main complaints would be with the plot. I'll put that in spoilers.
So overall good, but not great. 7/10.
Finally got around to watching this one yesterday, and I quite enjoyed even if there are definitely some elements of the plot that I feel like could have been done better. I will start with the good aspects. Both Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga put in terrific performances. Especially Cooper as he has to juggle so many aspects of the character - the overall good natured artist, the alcoholic, the dark past, and the torture when it eventually crumbles for him. I'd also say that the musical sequences are quite enjoyable, both in terms of the actual music and the cinematography. And it shows a pretty convincing love story and a realistic portrayal of addiction.
My main complaints would be with the plot. I'll put that in spoilers.
First of all, there are some plot elements that simply don't really go anywhere with the main one being Jackson's tinnitus. I'm not sure if it was originally surposed to be a contributing factor to his suicide, but in the end it seems clear that this is a combination of realizing how much damage he caused to Ally and his realization that he can't deal with his own decline. So the tinnitus part could have been cut entirely.
There is also some confusion about whether Jackson is jealous of Ally or actually provides her good advice, because it seems like she is actually being manipulated from singer/songwriter into mainstream pop, which he warns her about. One of the songs she makes is downright terrible (in my opinion), so I wasn't sure if it was meant to show that Jackson was right?
Jackson's own decline leading up to his public embarrassment is also not really shown properly. He starts out selling out stadiums and being recognized everywhere, but then suddenly he is playing back-up guitar to someone else? Seemed pretty strange.
Oh and a small Netflix gripe. I realize it's meant as a trigger warning, but showing "Suicide" as a warning tag alongside "Alcohol", "Violence", etc. at the beginning is a huge spoiler.
There is also some confusion about whether Jackson is jealous of Ally or actually provides her good advice, because it seems like she is actually being manipulated from singer/songwriter into mainstream pop, which he warns her about. One of the songs she makes is downright terrible (in my opinion), so I wasn't sure if it was meant to show that Jackson was right?
Jackson's own decline leading up to his public embarrassment is also not really shown properly. He starts out selling out stadiums and being recognized everywhere, but then suddenly he is playing back-up guitar to someone else? Seemed pretty strange.
Oh and a small Netflix gripe. I realize it's meant as a trigger warning, but showing "Suicide" as a warning tag alongside "Alcohol", "Violence", etc. at the beginning is a huge spoiler.
So overall good, but not great. 7/10.
Brilliant review. Starship Troopers with tits and
flesh market exploitation are great descriptions.
Verhoeven pulling apart the American dream and showing it to be full of cum, glitter, violence. and ultimately a nightmare. Telling the audience that we are all whores. Which it turns out both the public and critics couldn’t handle.
A perfect film from the crazy Dutchman.
Starship troopers already has tits.
Total Recall maxed out with 3 tits.
Old Henry
Tim Blake Nelson is the old farmer with a mysterious past who stumbles across an injured man and a bag of cash on the run from Stephen Dorff and his posse of outlaws (is 3 people a posse?).It's a decent slow burn Western that could've been great but doesn't quite get there. Definitely worth a watch though especially if you're a Western fan.
Tim Blake Nelson is the old farmer with a mysterious past who stumbles across an injured man and a bag of cash on the run from Stephen Dorff and his posse of outlaws (is 3 people a posse?).It's a decent slow burn Western that could've been great but doesn't quite get there. Definitely worth a watch though especially if you're a Western fan.
I really enjoyed this film.
Challengers - I guess it was meant to be saying something interesting other than Zendaya is hot, but I couldn't figure out what exactly. She's fecking hot though, which helped
One Life
Set during the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland, and later Czechoslovakian, it tells the true life story of Nicholas Winton, a British Stock Broker who saved 669 Czech and German children, mainly Jews, from being sent to concentration camps.
Told from the perspective of Winton during the Prague Operation, and then 50 years later as a humble, elderly man who never sought nor received recognition for his work.
An absolutely heart wrenching, brilliant film, with another mesmerising performance from Sir Anthony Hopkins. Truly spellbinding on an emotional level. I don’t get choked up very often, especially not during films, but this had the water works on, more than once; and an immovable lump in my throat. Haunting yet utterly inspirational. Horrific yet so hopeful. Made all the better by being based on true events.
Unlike other films of the genre, it’s not overly long at just 1hr 50mins, making it both easily digestible but also tightly edited and impactful. The pacing zips it along, and you never feel like there is a moment when something important isn’t happening. I found the characters to all be so relatable on an emotional level, which made it that much more emotive. As the group says at one time…. “I’m just an ordinary person”. And yes, they all are just ordinary people; ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I found myself questioning what I would be prepared to do in such circumstances, with no reward other than having done it.
Brilliant film.
10/10
Set during the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland, and later Czechoslovakian, it tells the true life story of Nicholas Winton, a British Stock Broker who saved 669 Czech and German children, mainly Jews, from being sent to concentration camps.
Told from the perspective of Winton during the Prague Operation, and then 50 years later as a humble, elderly man who never sought nor received recognition for his work.
An absolutely heart wrenching, brilliant film, with another mesmerising performance from Sir Anthony Hopkins. Truly spellbinding on an emotional level. I don’t get choked up very often, especially not during films, but this had the water works on, more than once; and an immovable lump in my throat. Haunting yet utterly inspirational. Horrific yet so hopeful. Made all the better by being based on true events.
Unlike other films of the genre, it’s not overly long at just 1hr 50mins, making it both easily digestible but also tightly edited and impactful. The pacing zips it along, and you never feel like there is a moment when something important isn’t happening. I found the characters to all be so relatable on an emotional level, which made it that much more emotive. As the group says at one time…. “I’m just an ordinary person”. And yes, they all are just ordinary people; ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I found myself questioning what I would be prepared to do in such circumstances, with no reward other than having done it.
Brilliant film.
10/10
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Resurrection
Chicago homicide detectives Prudhome and Hollingsworth are assigned to investigate a murder. Both become entangled in the plot of a serial killer whose goal is to recreate the body of Christ.
The first 30ish mins all I could think about was how closely it resembled "Se7en". It had the same basic theme: two cops investigating a series of brutal (and unsettlingly gory) murders that follow a common theme.
You have to have a really strong stomach to be able to sit through this movie that tries to outdo the film Se7en which has an almost identical storyline
The acting was OK, Lambert was both good and bad, but overall a very passable job.
This is nowhere near to the quality of Se7en, but it is worth a watch.
6/10
Chicago homicide detectives Prudhome and Hollingsworth are assigned to investigate a murder. Both become entangled in the plot of a serial killer whose goal is to recreate the body of Christ.
The first 30ish mins all I could think about was how closely it resembled "Se7en". It had the same basic theme: two cops investigating a series of brutal (and unsettlingly gory) murders that follow a common theme.
You have to have a really strong stomach to be able to sit through this movie that tries to outdo the film Se7en which has an almost identical storyline
The acting was OK, Lambert was both good and bad, but overall a very passable job.
This is nowhere near to the quality of Se7en, but it is worth a watch.
6/10
I'm looking forward to this one. Hopkins is different class when he's given a good script to work with.
Very good description. The nudity and sex was outright tedious, a remarkable feat. I'm sure Verhoeven was subverting the genre, but this movie is a real turd, even Verhoeven couldn't have meant it to be this bad.
I just now found out Zendaya is 27 years old, 28 in September. I thought she was probably 19. She has had a remarkable career already. You never know what kind of DNA magic can result when you mix up weird elements.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Mad Max the 80’s family adventure movie edition.
It’s weakest of the series as the car chases and dystopian leather daddies are mostly gone but there’s still a lot of great moments. From the atomic fallout set designs, Tina Turner playing a Thatcherite war lord, blunt economic pig shit reality, stunning desert cinematography and it’s packed with a lot of charm. The only Mad Max film which is co directed and feels
like Miller is in Babe: Pig in the City mode.
7/10
Mad Max Fury Road
Talked about this enough on here. Maybe the greatest action film of all time.
10/10
Next up furiosa tomorrow.
Mad Max the 80’s family adventure movie edition.
It’s weakest of the series as the car chases and dystopian leather daddies are mostly gone but there’s still a lot of great moments. From the atomic fallout set designs, Tina Turner playing a Thatcherite war lord, blunt economic pig shit reality, stunning desert cinematography and it’s packed with a lot of charm. The only Mad Max film which is co directed and feels
like Miller is in Babe: Pig in the City mode.
7/10
Mad Max Fury Road
Talked about this enough on here. Maybe the greatest action film of all time.
10/10
Next up furiosa tomorrow.
Kingdom of Planet of The Apes Good apes, bad apes, humans, fighting, some developed friendships and action. What did you expect? Decent cgi and at the upper end of ape based nonsense. Worth a watch. 6.5/10
You’re not monkeying around with this review, but it sounds like you didn’t exactly go ape over it.
Apesolutley.
I got to the end but I'll have forgotten about it by the morning.
My favourite thing about long haul flights is easily the ability to watch a load of films that I missed out on at the cinema.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Lived up to the hype. Incredible filmmaking and an emotionally devastating final third. Deserved all the accolades.
8.5/10
American Fiction
Brilliantly written and further proof that Jeffrey Wright is a global treasure. Balanced the comedy/drama tightrope perfectly.
8.5/10
The Gentlemen
Went in to this expecting a good time and it turned out to be Ritchie's best film since Snatch. Hugh Grant was a revelation and everyone else put in a shift, too. May have to check out the TV show.
8/10
No Hard Feelings
Decent comedy, did not expect a fully nude Jennifer Lawrence and was mainly surprised that the airline allowed this kind of utter filth on their public in-flight TVs. Again, a good mix of comedy and drama, and a feel-good conclusion. Lawrence always hits.
7/10
Dumb Money
Brilliant fictional take on the GameStop stock madness of a few years ago, impressively infused with the main character's family struggles in peak-Covid times. Paul Dano was (as always) fantastic and Pete Davidson impressed, too. A stellar explanation of how Wall Street takes advantage of the rest of us akin to The Big Short. Killer soundtrack, too.
9/10
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Lived up to the hype. Incredible filmmaking and an emotionally devastating final third. Deserved all the accolades.
8.5/10
American Fiction
Brilliantly written and further proof that Jeffrey Wright is a global treasure. Balanced the comedy/drama tightrope perfectly.
8.5/10
The Gentlemen
Went in to this expecting a good time and it turned out to be Ritchie's best film since Snatch. Hugh Grant was a revelation and everyone else put in a shift, too. May have to check out the TV show.
8/10
No Hard Feelings
Decent comedy, did not expect a fully nude Jennifer Lawrence and was mainly surprised that the airline allowed this kind of utter filth on their public in-flight TVs. Again, a good mix of comedy and drama, and a feel-good conclusion. Lawrence always hits.
7/10
Dumb Money
Brilliant fictional take on the GameStop stock madness of a few years ago, impressively infused with the main character's family struggles in peak-Covid times. Paul Dano was (as always) fantastic and Pete Davidson impressed, too. A stellar explanation of how Wall Street takes advantage of the rest of us akin to The Big Short. Killer soundtrack, too.
9/10
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
I was expecting Theron and got Taylor-Joy... was surprised by that. Focuses more on character development than Fury Road ever tried to but the plot feels a bit convoluted, but still interesting. When the action kicks in, it really embarrasses every other blockbuster out there, so much fun. I really enjoyed it. A visual treat that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible.Wish it was a tiny bit shorter though. There was also a scene near the end where the acting fell off a few levels. Overall, it was a good prequel and I really look forward to (hopefully) a third in this new saga 7.5/10
I was expecting Theron and got Taylor-Joy... was surprised by that. Focuses more on character development than Fury Road ever tried to but the plot feels a bit convoluted, but still interesting. When the action kicks in, it really embarrasses every other blockbuster out there, so much fun. I really enjoyed it. A visual treat that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible.Wish it was a tiny bit shorter though. There was also a scene near the end where the acting fell off a few levels. Overall, it was a good prequel and I really look forward to (hopefully) a third in this new saga 7.5/10
Civil War
Just watched Alex Garland’s new film. I always have time for some Alex Garland stuff, not least because it’s always really well made, well acted, and it just brings new take on something, even if that thing is how we observe it. You always get the feeling that so much thought and care went into it.
Civil War is no different. Fantastic film. Not a single scene is wasted. And the stakes feel very real. The action is brilliantly shot. You feel like it’s really happening and that you are really there. Not sure I’ve ever really had that feeling before in any movie when it comes to action.
I won’t say much more, except I really really liked it and will watch again.
9/10
Just watched Alex Garland’s new film. I always have time for some Alex Garland stuff, not least because it’s always really well made, well acted, and it just brings new take on something, even if that thing is how we observe it. You always get the feeling that so much thought and care went into it.
Civil War is no different. Fantastic film. Not a single scene is wasted. And the stakes feel very real. The action is brilliantly shot. You feel like it’s really happening and that you are really there. Not sure I’ve ever really had that feeling before in any movie when it comes to action.
I won’t say much more, except I really really liked it and will watch again.
9/10
It's easily his most accomplished feature.
Glad you liked it. He by all accounts has now given up on directing, so I'm extra excited about his 28 years later script.
disgusting hope it didn't ruin your trip
Did you not see a trailer?
I have this image of you turning up for Alien Romulus and shouting “where the fecks Sigourney Weaver?!”
(going to see Furiosa next week, hope good… trailer looked decent)
Just appeared on my portal, never heard of it, but will give it a watch.
That would be a huge shame. But he’s a superb script writer, and really really good at adapting screenplays. I’d absolutely love to see him work with Denis Villeneuve. What a dynamic duo they would make. His IMDB page does have him writing/directing another feature called Warfare, with Cosmo Jarvis of Shogun fame starring. No Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, and shockingly no Sonoya Mizuno, so he’s really branching out on this one. But it’d be a shame if it was his last.
I hope he makes more TV stuff too. I loved Devs. But like you, I am really looking forward to his 28 Years Later script. I thought Ex-Machina, and Annihilation were both great; especially Ex-Machina. Men was just the wrong side of weird for me, but still a really intriguing watch. And although he wasn’t credited for it, by all accounts he was the one who actually directed most of Dredd. Which was hugely underrated.
Writing wise, I loved Sunshine and particularly Never Let Me Go. His adaptation of the book was brilliantly done. I’m a big fan, and he’s probably my second favourite director working right now, after the untouchable Villeneuve.
Please do. It’s a quality film. And even though on face value it seems like it has a generic plot, the viewpoint of the audience is so unique and it’s so well done, that it’s somehow different to nearly any other film I’ve seen. I really enjoyed it.
Couldn't agree more. I'm actually shocked and pleased that he managed to get Civil War released in final cut state. I imagine that was a challenge in of itself. It's doubled it's budget so far, the 2nd biggest box office hit in A24 history according to Wikipedia, so I hope he feels justified. Maybe that'll change his mind in terms of retirement.
But as long as he keeps writing, we're going to continue to experience good movies. That's the main thing. I first heard of him when he wrote the digitiser goodbye essay, but that'll be a niche reference.
Him and Nolan could do something special, if I had a magic lamp.
Little tangent, but have you seen Cosmo's interviews? He is the most introverted, uncomfortable interviewee I've ever seen. Makes me appreciate his performance in Shōgun all the more, and I'm also keen to seek out his other movies in the aftermath of that show.
I don't watch trailers!Did you not see a trailer?
I have this image of you turning up for Alien Romulus and shouting “where the fecks Sigourney Weaver?!”
(going to see Furiosa next week, hope good… trailer looked decent)
Yeah Civil War is great. Just watched it. The war scenes are electrifying.
Rewatched Braveheart.
Today I feel Scottish.
Today I feel Scottish.
I'll give it a whirl.
Civil War The first 90% was great. The last 10% not so much. Worth a watch but a missed opportunity imo. 7/10
Sean Baker(Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) has won Palme d’or for his new film Anora
Nice
The American Ken Loach imo.