Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Reviews are out for the new Alien film. All over the place it seems - 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2 stars in the Guardian but 4 stars in Empire.
 
Sweet Square said:
Reviews are out for the new Alien film. All over the place it seems - 81% on RT, 2 stars in the Guardian but 4 stars in Empire.
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The last third of the film seems to have split fans.
Also heard , once again, that there was some executive interference in the script.

But it sounds very much like a Fede film. High octane ott gory violence, slight pacing issues and unmemorable performances.

Outside of the first two, the series is very flawed. I like the assembly cut of A:3 and have come to appreciate Resurrection over time as its own cooky film but I don't care much for Prometheus, which was obviously going to be its own thing separate from Alien and I felt absolutely nothing for Covenant.

Good review:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/alien-romulus-review-1235076174/
 
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FrankDrebin said:
The last third of the film seems to have split fans.
Also heard , once again, that there was some executive interference in the script.

But it sounds very much like a Fede film. High octane ott gory violence, slight pacing issues and unmemorable performances.

Outside of the first two, the series is very flawed. I like the assembly cut of A:3 and have come to appreciate Resurrection over time as its own cooky film but I don't care much for Prometheus, which was obviously going to be its own thing separate from Alien and I felt absolutely nothing for Covenant.

Good review:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/alien-romulus-review-1235076174/
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If true that it's doing the awful CGI necromancy of dead actors for cheap nostalgia, it can feck off to be honest.
 
FrankDrebin said:
The last third of the film seems to have split fans.
Also heard , once again, that there was some executive interference in the script.
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Interesting. I’ve seen Ridley Scott(I think he is a producer/executive) say in interviews that he gave notes to the director.
FrankDrebin said:
Outside of the first two, the series is very flawed. I like the assembly cut of A:3 and have come to appreciate Resurrection over time as its own cooky film but I don't care much for Prometheus, which was obviously going to be its own thing separate from Alien and I felt absolutely nothing for Covenant.
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Yep Aliens is brilliant but Cameron Vietnam/Reagan vision pretty much ended the series. There really wasn’t anywhere else the series could go after it.

FrankDrebin said:
Good review:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/alien-romulus-review-1235076174/
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Thanks. Disappointing to read about the fan service and paying homage so much to the original. Tbh it’s what I was worried about when the trailers came out.
 
I will certainly see it. Its a series that I hold dear. I've always liked that world.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Knew I could count on you two to have seen this. Weird film, there's a lot to like about it, but it's way too long and, despite the self indulgent runtime, manages to put together a poor, half arsed attempt at a conclusion that really disappoints. It's not awful, there's a lot to like about it throughout, but the 3rd act is a proper mess.
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It was the last 3rd that was a huge disappointment for me, there was potential there to be a very good film.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The Guardian review is strange. It actually doesn't read anything like a two star review.
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It's basically saying the film's decent enough but moaning about re-treading of old ground both specifically to this franchise and a lite in general. At least that's how I read it.
 
Fingeredmouse said:
It's basically saying the film's decent enough but moaning about re-treading of old ground both specifically to this franchise and a lite in general. At least that's how I read it.
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Yeah, that;s how I read it too. But to me a decent enough film should get three stars. Two stars is just a bad, unenjoyable film, which should be avoided. One stars is an atrocity. The review read like it was a sold, three star movie that is worth watching if you enjoy the genre.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, that;s how I read it too. But to me a decent enough film should get three stars. Two stars is just a bad, unenjoyable film, which should be avoided. One stars is an atrocity. The review read like it was a sold, three star movie that is worth watching if you enjoy the genre.
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Yeah. Bradshaw has form on this sort of thing.
 
Bradshaw job is to review films. He gets paid to go to the cinema which is a big difference to everyone else. So a competently made film which copies scenes from more original Alien works is going to get a low score.

Where as for example a married couple who have had to pay for a babysitter, left the house in a hurry, spent money on car parking, the tickets and expensive popcorn/drink, etc, are going to view a competent/average film with some copied highlights from the series as pretty enjoyable.

Imo a lot of 3 stars films should be 1 stars. Orson Welles called the homage the most detestable habit in modern cinema. You should have to be a great film maker like Scorsese or Tarantino to get away with effectively copying others.
 
Sweet Square said:
Bradshaw job is to review films. He gets paid to go to the cinema which is a big difference to everyone else. So a competently made film which copies scenes from more original Alien works is going to get a low score.

Where as for example a married couple who have had to pay for a babysitter, left the house in a hurry, spent money on car parking, the tickets and expensive popcorn/drink, etc, are going to view a competent/average film with some copied highlights from the series as pretty enjoyable.

Imo a lot of 3 stars films should be 1 stars. Orson Welles called the homage the most detestable habit in modern cinema. You should have to be a great film maker like Scorsese or Tarantino to get away with effectively copying others.
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Agree. People can go to Letterboxd for the reviews they want to hear.

Or the snarky one-liners that get thousands of likes.
 
Vidyoyo said:
Agree. People can go to Letterboxd for the reviews they want to hear.

Or the snarky one-liners that get thousands of likes.
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can someone please check on Allan im afraid he’s gonna kill himself - 64,000 likes

Ralph Fiennes served and Anya Taylor-Joy ate - 47,000 likes.

Just the worse type of reviews.
 
Sweet Square said:
can someone please check on Allan im afraid he’s gonna kill himself - 64,000 likes

Ralph Fiennes served and Anya Taylor-Joy ate - 47,000 likes.

Just the worse type of reviews.
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I rewatched The Long Goodbye yesterday, immediately had a feeling about what would be on there. And the top review is
There is no surface on Earth that Elliott Gould can't use to light a match.
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5k likes. Also on the 1st page of top reviews, is the obligatory
I want Elliott Gould to breathe on my face
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700 likes.

I guess at least the 1st one references something that happens in the movie.
 
Dunno how common knowledge it is, but Amazon does a decent deal for Odeon cinemas. £10 for two tickets Monday-Thursdays. Need to be a prime member and only applicable once a month.
 
berbatrick said:
I rewatched The Long Goodbye yesterday, immediately had a feeling about what would be on there. And the top review is

5k likes. Also on the 1st page of top reviews, is the obligatory

700 likes.

I guess at least the 1st one references something that happens in the movie.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the second review is from someone who hasn’t seen the film. They probably saw a tik tok or twitter post highlighting how hot Elliott Gould looks.

Just had a look at the Come & See reviews(All over a 1,000 likes).
as soon as this film ended i went online and enlisted in the US army. no child will ever suffer like this again on my watch
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Playing this at grandma’s bingo party next week.
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this makes other WWII movies look like a ride at disney world
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Tbh the site is a good representation of the cinematic experience. Half the people there are interested in films with thoughtful reviews or interviews like the recent hour long sit down with Micheal Mann.

The other half simply want to bark out memes while doing the jojo siwa dance on Akira Kurosawa grave.


RedSky said:
Dunno how common knowledge it is, but Amazon does a decent deal for Odeon cinemas. £10 for two tickets Monday-Thursdays. Need to be a prime member and only applicable once a month.
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I’ll have to check this out.
 
Alien Romulus

Okay, I am a huge Alien & Aliens fan, somewhat of Alien 3. I never watched the offshoots as they looked silly. I am also not interested in other silliness like Marvel, etc., never watched a one of them. I have no frame of reference of the director's previous films.

This movie was pretty good. There are some interesting time stamps as to when certain events occur. The drama is built up well from the start of the movie. I think I read earlier that some critics said it was too violent & gory (might be wrong here), but I felt that all thee gore was relatively restrained & only excessive during the times it needed to be. There is a rather paper thin plot but it is acceptable. The one English cat is basically unintelligible throughout the entire flick, enhanced by the sound of his dialogue which made him sound like he had marbles in his mouth (couldn't determine from where in England he hails).

It motors along decently, gets a little longwinded towards the end. There needs to be some suspension of disbelief during a couple of the scenes, but the spectacle of the events allows for that.

See it in IMAX, etc.

7 / 10
 
Yeah Alien Romulus is not bad. I guess with a film inserting itself into a bit of a legendary saga (from a cinematographic point of view), there is going to be a desire to have a clearcut, extreme view either way - it's either fantastic or shit. It's neither, it's an ok film, a decent addition to the saga (not as good as the best ones, not as bad as the shit ones) with some strong moments, some daft ones, and ultimately just missing a little something, a little bit of originality, a little bit of inventivity, to propel it into the very good column. It's very much a paint by the numbers exercise, and it's done quite skillfully I thought. Cailee Spaeny is absolutely great in it, it has to be said, and was a super interesting choice considering the stark contrast with the towering, imposing, self assured Sigourney Weaver to her diminutive, tiny frame - despite this, she handles the physicality of the role very well and was a convincing hero. She impressed me in Civil War and confirmed she's one to follow going forward. Also, David Jonsson offers a pretty different portrayal of an android and does great. His ambivalence and softness work super well and along with Spaeny he's the standout in the film (not hard, considering there's about 5 characters).

It was a fun film to see at the cinema and one that, while I probably won't rewatch it immediately, will be a worthy addition to the regular Alien binge watch, a.k.a the "men are stupid and we should listen to women more" saga (so a saga with a universal, true message).

Although the most interesting part of the film was probably the first 10-15mn and the very quick glance into the living conditions in the mining world created by Weyland Yutani - I'd have gladly watched a 2h socially engaged film on the hardships of the working classes vs galactic capitalism. Maybe they can get Ken Loach to direct the next one.

Speaking of Spaeny, I see she starred in a Priscilla Presley biopic last year, has anyone seen it, and if so is it worth a watch? I'm not a fan of Sofia Coppola's films, so I'd need some strong assurances.

And as we're mentioning Coppola, yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the release of the best film ever in the US, i.e. Apocalypse Now. I'm probably due a rewatch sometime soon in its Final Cut form (my favourite version).
 
Yeah Romulus is the 3rd best Alien film - depending on how generous you are towards 3 - just on how well made it is and the genuinely good moments you get from it, which is about the best you can ever ask for as no one is making an Alien film that tops the first two anyway. However there are a couple of very notable things that hold it back, and it gets dumber and schlockier as it goes along until the end goes so insane in taking the worst parts of the worst ones incredibly seriously and somehow almost making them genuinely scary, that it kinda flips back into great again in a sort of "yeah feck it, why not at this point" kinda way.

I really enjoyed it actually, but it’s not the high brow return to the original’s quality as much as its fan service schlock done well. 7/10 is about right.

The best thing you can say is that while it isn't original, it genuinely brings all the Alien films together in a competently made, enjoyable film way better than should be possible. But you could also say that a LOT of the Alien films do not deserve to be brought together. And also that mouths are hard.
 
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The 3rd one is the second best for me, but mainly because I don't rate the 2nd that high, as I explained in my recap of my recent binge watch. The 80s action stuff is just a bit naff for me. It's got loads of good to excellent stuff going on, but it's also got some absolutely stupid moments and some of the worst characters of the saga, somehow forgiven because "oh yeah but 80s action films tropes".

I actually enjoyed the conclusion to Romulus. It was batshit crazy, but also... sure, why not. It's kinda fun.

And that creature was genuinely creepy/disturbing.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
The 3rd one is the second best for me, but mainly because I don't rate the 2nd that high, as I explained in my recap of my recent binge watch. The 80s action stuff is just a bit naff for me. It's got loads of good to excellent stuff going on, but it's also got some absolutely stupid moments and some of the worst characters of the saga, somehow forgiven because "oh yeah but 80s action films tropes".

I actually enjoyed the conclusion to Romulus. It was batshit crazy, but also... sure, why not. It's kinda fun.

And that creature was genuinely creepy/disturbing.
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Yeah, wasn't expecting it.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
The 3rd one is the second best for me, but mainly because I don't rate the 2nd that high, as I explained in my recap of my recent binge watch. The 80s action stuff is just a bit naff for me. It's got loads of good to excellent stuff going on, but it's also got some absolutely stupid moments and some of the worst characters of the saga, somehow forgiven because "oh yeah but 80s action films tropes".

I actually enjoyed the conclusion to Romulus. It was batshit crazy, but also... sure, why not. It's kinda fun.

And that creature was genuinely creepy/disturbing.
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Oh yeah…

the creature itself was pretty jokes. Especially the first shot of it skulking in the corridor (though inevitably the more you saw it the sillier it looked - but you’ve got to fight something other than a standard Xeno as the last thing now so, it’s fine) it was more the leaning back into the whole Prometheus/Black goo/Engineer stuff (+ a little bit of Alien Ressurection stuff tbf) that was bizarre. You could almost feel Scott’s Producer credit working to keep all that nonsense stuff in there

But as you say, at least it was some proper nightmare fuel, as opposed to the really silly looking Engineers they gave us originally. It was the middleish bit before that - after the genuinely v.good first 40 mins or so - where it flagged for me. The Ash/alien catching her/“get away from here you bitch” stuff.

I agree that 1 is the best, but I wouldn’t got nearly as far as to redeem 3 as a better film than 2. It’s boring for a start and there’s almost no really great alien sequences…. My problem with 2 is that it negates the in-built tension of the acid blood thing, as you go from one Alien almost burning through a whole ship with a tiny nick, to a group of marines machine gunning hundreds of them with only a little bit of plot relevant splash back….. this one at least brings back the danger a bit and finds a nice-ish balance between the two

Also I agree the android is very good. Way better at the whole duality thing than Fassbender was in Covenant.
 
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Yeah, you can certainly feel Ridley influence in this. Arguably one of the reasons he was committed in pushing the film to get made was IF Fede was open to hamfisting some of Scott's eye rolling Prometheus lore into the mix.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
The 3rd one is the second best for me, but mainly because I don't rate the 2nd that high, as I explained in my recap of my recent binge watch. The 80s action stuff is just a bit naff for me. It's got loads of good to excellent stuff going on, but it's also got some absolutely stupid moments and some of the worst characters of the saga, somehow forgiven because "oh yeah but 80s action films tropes".

I actually enjoyed the conclusion to Romulus. It was batshit crazy, but also... sure, why not. It's kinda fun.

And that creature was genuinely creepy/disturbing.
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Feel quite similar re second movie. Watched the third (likely before the first or second) once as it released..should give it another shot! Cast was pretty cool IIRC
 
I watched the 3rd on a bootleg VHS tape when it just released in the US.
A kid I knew got it on the black market while he was on holiday in the US.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Speaking of Spaeny, I see she starred in a Priscilla Presley biopic last year, has anyone seen it, and if so is it worth a watch? I'm not a fan of Sofia Coppola's films, so I'd need some strong assurances.
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I watched it in the cinema earlier this year. It’s decent enough and really shows how creepy and controlling Elvis. It’s a very Sofia Coppola film so if that’s not your thing I wouldn’t rush to see it.

The biggest issue is the lack of funds. There’s clearly meant to be far more scenes about Priscilla life away from Elvis but there wasn’t the money to do so. I read that things got so bad Coppola had to use old footage from car adverts she directed in the early 2010’s.
 
Three genre films that I would all rate around the 8 - 8.5 mark

Sharper (2023)
This was my favorite because noir is my favorite type of film/novel/show. This had an interesting structure that I found very appealing and helped the story telling where it had sections focusing on each of the major characters. It was a really well done neo noir. It was well acted, I always like Julianne Moore and John Lithgow and less established actors were perfect for their roles

Color Out of Space (2020)
A Lovecraftian horror that does a fantastic job of putting a new twist on the storytelling while really capturing the creepy, unspeakable horror type vibes. If Refn's style is neon-noir then this is obviously a neon-horror which I thought was great from a filmmaking perspective and why I really liked Midsommar because they changed the color palette from 99% of horror movies.

Late Night with the Devil (2023)
A low-budget but interesting take on an old horror archetype, I thought the format was perfect. It completed captured early 80s TV vibes and I enjoyed the mix of color and B&W. The casting was spot on. The effects were pretty cheap but it fit the style of the movie.
 
Watched the new alien movie. Decent watch.

That beast at the end was scary.

Didn't understand how there were multiple grown up xenomorphs on the station.
 
I'm astonished people are rating Romulus so highly, i just got back from it and as huge Alien fan I thought it was average at best, probably worst than Covenant in fact. The legendary creature just has no power anymore, it's totally dead in terms of its ability to scare or even be interesting. You could argue it's diminished in every subsequent film since Aliens where it just became a bug to be shot down by a pulse rifle but it still had some menace to it in that film and in 3. In this one it's just... there really.

I did like the bond between the two main characters and the visual style but overall it was disappointing. I agree with one poster that said the first 10-15 minutes were probably the best part of the film.
 
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