Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

The Great Gatsby - 7.5/10

I really enjoyed the cinematography of the film, the setting and atmosphere was really well made. The soundtrack was good albeit different with a rap/rnb theme over a 1920's movie set in New York. I wasn't expecting much but I thought it was quite good and well worth watching.
 
Sharknado

It's a made for TV movie so I expected it to be shite, but this is just laughable. Tara Reid's career must be desperate to appear in this. Dodgy CGI, appalling acting, ridiculous action scenes and a joke story line. It defies logic. :lol:

1/10
 
Archie Leach said:
Safe House, Deja Vu, The Book of Eli, Taking of Pelham 123, Man on Fire, John Q, The Bone Collector, Fallen, The Siege, Out of Time, Training Day, Remember the Titans.

The guy has a hit rate slightly higher than Adam Sandler.
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It's all opinions on what not, but to compare to Adam Sandlers body of work is bizarre. Stuff like Deja Vu, The Bone Collector and Remember the Titans, and even Fallen, whilst not cinematic masterpieces are excellent examples of there genres and as a result are very entertaining films. Then you have Man on Fire and Training Day, which are both excellent (the second of which is good enough that it's had so many films try an emulate it, to varying degrees of success). Also, I'm a big fan of the Book of Eli... it's a beautiful looking movie and is really well directed by the Hughes Brothers.

The rest of the films mentioned are forgettable, but are hardly "bad films" (apart from Pelham and Safe House, which are just bad) I would say... you've then also left a huge amount of his body of work out, which contains either excellent films or excellent performances from Washington - or both.
 
It's not bizarre when I'm comparing ratio of bad films to good films, and have already said that Sandler was used to exaggerate the point. Denzel Washington does not make many good films, and forgettable films are not good films. Training Day is an OK film, because Washington is excellent, Man On Fire is a shit film. In the last 20 years I'd say Inside Man is the only really really good film he's made.
 
La Collectionneuse - Before Midnight put me in the mood for this type of film. Very good and just delightfully soothing. I think I'm gonna check out more of Rohmer's moral tales.
 
Frances Ha
Really great little film about a young dancer in New York, very indebted to Woody Allen, especially Manhattan. Greta Gerwig is great as the lead, endearingly goofy. Lot of laughs in this one.

Mistaken For Strangers
Doco about indie band The National, made by singer Matt Berninger's brother, Tom. Very lightweight, very funny.

Prince Avalanche
Small little indie about two roadworkers in Texas. Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch have good chemistry but the film is mostly plotless and it all feels a little too self conscious. The musical interludes by Explosions In The Sky are quite nice though.
 
Raven Blade said:
Sharknado

It's a made for TV movie so I expected it to be shite, but this is just laughable. Tara Reid's career must be desperate to appear in this. Dodgy CGI, appalling acting, ridiculous action scenes and a joke story line. It defies logic. :lol:

1/10
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The ending of this film is amongst the worst endings to anything ever.

I laughed my balls off throughout the film, but that's because it was so laughably shit that it became enjoyable. That ending though! :wenger::lol:
 
Archie Leach said:
It's not bizarre when I'm comparing ratio of bad films to good films, and have already said that Sandler was used to exaggerate the point. Denzel Washington does not make many good films, and forgettable films are not good films. Training Day is an OK film, because Washington is excellent, Man On Fire is a shit film. In the last 20 years I'd say Inside Man is the only really really good film he's made.
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Off the top of my head, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, American Gangster, The Hurricane, Malcolm X are 5 more that would certainly qualify, and I'd also add Training Day and Man on Fire too.

Man on Fire is/was Tony Scott when he's actually interesting and probably one of his peaks in direction (in particular: he does an excellent job of capturing Mexico City, and the editing is top notch), and he takse the time to build (flawed) characters and a relationship you can actually care about and get invested in, which makes the revenge part of the film actually mean something - which is where a lot of similar films fall down.
 
Outpost
Not sure what I made of this. I loved the bunker setting and it had some decent build of atmosphere with a pretty good storyline but the accents of the actors made the film jarring as they were so bad and there was a load of filler scenes. Still looking for a good military horror film since R-Point. 6/10
 
Big Fish : Ending story specially was a bit touching. Overall, really nice movie.

9/10
 
Man on Fire is not a shit film. It's a gripping and emotional story that's shot brilliantly with some very good acting, not just from Washington! Every actor makes poor films but in my opinion Denzel Washington is a good actor with much more varition in his roles than Adam Sandler who's limited and typecast.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Off the top of my head, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, American Gangster, The Hurricane, Malcolm X are 5 more that would certainly qualify, and I'd also add Training Day and Man on Fire too.

Man on Fire is/was Tony Scott when he's actually interesting and probably one of his peaks in direction (in particular: he does an excellent job of capturing Mexico City, and the editing is top notch), and he takse the time to build (flawed) characters and a relationship you can actually care about and get invested in, which makes the revenge part of the film actually mean something - which is where a lot of similar films fall down.
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Excellent isn't it? The bond Denzel makes with the girl is very plausible and it makes the film, especially the revenge aspect, more coherent.
 
Just read that people here are comparing Denzel to Sandler? What in the actual feck? Denzel has a library of pretty good films and some excellent ones. Even the average ones are usually elevated by his performances. Adam Sandler has about two. Lets not even begin on acting abilities....
 
No.8 said:
Man on Fire is not a shit film. It's a gripping and emotional story that's shot brilliantly with some very good acting, not just from Washington! Every actor makes poor films but in my opinion Denzel Washington is a good actor with much more varition in his roles than Adam Sandler who's limited and typecast.
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Comparing him with Sandler is weird I agree but he hasn't really got that much variation. He plays the same role in most of his film and most of his films in the last decade have been generic action films.
 
Archie did go back on that a bit and said it was hyperbole to compare him with Adam Sandler. And he wasn't actually comparing the actors per se but their ratio of good/bad films, from what I gathered.

Still a very weird comparison to make imo, even in hyperbole.

I agree with you Nilsson that over the last few years, Washington seems to have gotten lazy and just cruises along, both with his acting and choice of films. However, his overall career shows that he is an actor capable of being very good given the right part, and can have real subtetly to his acting. But he just doesn't seem to care that much anymore.

Oh and check out Jay Pharaoh's (Saturday Night Live) parody of him in some of his sketches, he does him exceptionally well! :lol:
 
Denzel Washington is alright but I think he, like Sandler, must have great agents because they're not that good - but they still get loads of work.
 
utdalltheway said:
Denzel Washington is alright but I think he, like Sandler, must have great agents because they're not that good - but they still get loads of work.
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Bollocks.

Denzel is a highly accomplished actor and possibly one of the most charismatic of his generation (this doesn't always guarantee amazing movies in the hollywood cycle), Sandler is a charisma blackhole.

It really shouldn't be that hard to see why one gets loads of work and the other has to scrap by on the rubbish that he himself produces.
 
Thing is, Sandler displayed some excellent acting in Punch Drunk Love and, to some extent, Reign Over Me - and showed that he perhaps does have the range and ability to undertake more challenging roles... he just decides not too for whatever reason. I think the last semi-serious role he had was Funny People, and I don't think he worked well in that movie at all.
 
Watched The Conjuring last night. It was a good movie but someone mentioned it was different from the other horror movies. I dont see how. 7/10
 
Some serious underrating of Denzel in here, mentioning him in the same breath as Sandler? Come on now, (I know it wasn't an acting comparison). I think I can agree that recently hes taken some easy roles for the paycheck but in Flight he was excellent and hes probably got about 10 films atleast under his belt where hes turned in top notch performances. Inside Man is his only decent film in the last 20 years? :lol: What? That's not even a standout performance in my opinion. Go watch him in any one of Glory, Malcolm X, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, The Hurricane, Training Day, John Q, Antwone Fisher, Man on Fire, American Gangster, The Great Debaters, Flight. He's a great actor and whenever I see him interviewed he comes across as a likeable dude.
 
The Lords Of Salem
fecking Hell. I have so much to write on this film but I won't waste you time so I'll be as concise as possible. The films beginning is done quite well, it has a satanic ritual and goes into present time and the director uses camera angles, lighting and sound to really build up the atmosphere. It goes downhill from here. The plot doesnt develop properly and as the film goes into the final act, there is just shot after shot of distufbing images to unsettle the viewer. The problem is that these images are too obviously trying add shock value and it's as if Rob Zombie is just trying to imitate the horror films of 70's and 80's but lets be honest, he is no Argento. The 'weird' montages take it a step too far when they become so random to the point where they show
Satan sitting on a seat wanking off his big red cock
In the end, what starts off as an unsettling cult horror film ends up as a pile of pretentious piss. 4/10
 
Parker - Crap. It's a Jason Statham action film that clearly forgot that it was meant to be a Jason Statham action film and so forgots to put in things that make Jason Statham action films, Jason Statham action films.

Crap story, that is incredibly simplistic, yet finds the need to over complicate itself - and for the middle hour of this film, absolutely nothing of note happens... apart from Jenifer Lopez getting down to her underwear, but if thats what I was after, I'd watch Money Train.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Just read that people here are comparing Denzel to Sandler? What in the actual feck? Denzel has a library of pretty good films and some excellent ones. Even the average ones are usually elevated by his performances. Adam Sandler has about two. Lets not even begin on acting abilities....
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Didn't you know ripping into mainstream and big budget films automatically makes you look like a real film buff?

Everyone knows the real 'classics' need to be filmed with a potato and no famous actors can appear in the cast.
 
To be fair, Archie Leach stood alone with his Sandler/Washington comment - and he himself has said he was just going into hyperbole... still, as this is the caf, I don't imagine it's a comment he'll live down!

For me, Washington has a natural charisma that few can match. No matter what the film, whether it's one of his great films, or his generic action stuff - he always commands your attention when he's on screen. I'm very much looking forward to 2 Guns, I think it could be an excellent throw-back to summer action cop movies.
 
BAMSOLA said:
Bollocks.

Denzel is a highly accomplished actor and possibly one of the most charismatic of his generation (this doesn't always guarantee amazing movies in the hollywood cycle), Sandler is a charisma blackhole.

It really shouldn't be that hard to see why one gets loads of work and the other has to scrap by on the rubbish that he himself produces.
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Maybe (just a hypothesis) there's not many good roles for Black Actors of his age. I'm trying to think of some other films that he could ave been in that had better characters but I can't think of a whole lot. It's a really big pattern for me that the best black male actors are constantly in shit films.
 
Grown Ups 2

(My brother wanted to see it, stop judging me).

Not very good. Just sort of plodded along whilst things happened, being not very funny or interesting. Until Steve Buscemi dressed as Flavor Flav. Why is that not a movie? feck Grown Ups 2, why is there not a movie starring Steve Buscemi as Flavor Flav? Don't even bother with a plot, just have him wandering around dressed as Flavor Flav saying vaguely Flavor Flavish things and making wacky gestures.

There's one bit when Buscemi goes swaggering away from his wife waving his hand in the air that I need to be a gif.

Grown Ups 2: 3/10
Steve Buscemi as Flavor Flav: 10/10
 
Irwinwastheking said:
Maybe (just a hypothesis) there's not many good roles for Black Actors of his age. I'm trying to think of some other films that he could ave been in that had better characters but I can't think of a whole lot. It's a really big pattern for me that the best black male actors are constantly in shit films.
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It seems as though Idris Elba will be the 'go to' guy for slightly older black roles now. Still, that doesn't mean that all the past films of Denzel's are bad and that his ratio of shit to good films is anywhere comparable to Adam fecking Sandler
 
Vato1979 said:
Didn't you know ripping into mainstream and big budget films automatically makes you look like a real film buff?

Everyone knows the real 'classics' need to be filmed with a potato and no famous actors can appear in the cast.
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Nah, potatoes are too mainstream now man!
 
Annihilate Now! said:
To be fair, Archie Leach stood alone with his Sandler/Washington comment - and he himself has said he was just going into hyperbole... still, as this is the caf, I don't imagine it's a comment he'll live down!
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Don't ruin the moment, damn those potato film watchers giving it to poor Denzel and his films!!!
 
Good thing I didn't go with my Meryl Streep/Kate Hudson comparison, this thread would move faster than the Thiago one.

And Vato, pull your head in, the "he doesn't like a film I like so he's pretentious" is an assholes argument.
 
I'm going to see Only God Forgives tonight... I'm determined to give it a 10/10 and prentious the feck out of all of you.
 
Spelling ceases to matter when your pretentious. It's all about how you construct the sentence and the lexicon involved that truly matters.

Syntax init.
 
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