Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Gravity was well worth a watch in IMAX. Lots of visual orgasms. I'm pretty sure I would have got bored if I was watching it on my TV/laptop though. And I still don't like Sandra Bullock.
 
Memories of Murder - Very good East Asian serial killer film, that's both dark and, at times, quite funny... though well acted and well directed, it's not quite as good as it's IMDB score suggests, and would probably come behind I Saw The Devil and The Chaser in terms of East Asian serial killer films that I've watched so far this year

Outrage - Fairly generic Japanese Yakuza/Gangster film that gets involved with the tangled chain of command that runs through gangster "families" ... it's got quite the extensive cast, so it can be tricky at times to follow who is doing what/working for who and why they're doing certain things, but it still held my attention for the most part. It's also got a few random bits of gore in there, for what reason I'm not entirely sure.
 
:lol: Sorry, mate - it was merely a quote from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
 
Nope. I was rather put off by the Wiki article, mate:

Phantoms received negative reviews from critics, where it currently holds a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews. The film was a flop at the box office, earning less than $6 million in ticket sales
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Rooney in Paris said:
I'm surprised to be fair. I like both Battleship and Pacific Rim, but for very different reasons, and I think they're very different films. My opinion on them is almost polar opposite to what you say, in the sense that for me Battleship was a parody, or at least it was a bit of a 'feck you' to the blockbuster genre. Everything about it felt too over the top to be genuine, the lines were incredibly shit but always consciously so (like when he quotes Sun Tzu, but makes a complete mess of it, or when the war veteran makes his big speech and the nerd shoots him down as if he can't believe it). In a sense, I think its approach is similar to Starship Troopers, but where Starship Troopers is infinitely more clever with a whole political aspect to it, Battleship is more modest and can be seen as criticism of the blockbuster/studio system. It ticks all the boxes a blockbuster should, but so meticulously, so consciously that I thought it was obvious it was being sly about it. I've had this conversation quite a bit with some friends, some agree, some don't, I thought it was obvious but evidently it isn't.

If it's not a caricature of the blockbuster genre, and if Berg did indeed direct it with the idea that it was a well done blockbuster, then my opinion would be completely different and I'd say it's pretty shit (and I quite like the blockbuster genre).

Del Toro's film, for me, is much more honest. Sure, it has shit acting and lines, but it's a sincere hommage to the Kaiju genre, a genre Del Toro obviously loves and holds great respect for. It's not a parody and it's not meant to be a parody, it's just that he gives importance to certain elements, and not so much to others (the dialogue, mostly, which is just a basic blueprint to go along with the major themes and actions of the film). I thought the film was made and put together with an almost childlike enthusiasm and it transpired throughout, and I've rarely been so impressed by images at the pictures (that's where I think you'll be a bit disappointed pauldy, even with the best home cinema in your living room, let alone a computer, it will never live up to the brilliance of a movie screen showing). It also has some of Del Toro's favourite elements (he loves monsters so obviously he had a field day with Pacific Rim, by going always a step further with the Kaijus) and you could at times see his distinctive 'poetic' signature, it was a much less mechanic affair than a Michael Bay picture. All in all it was good fun, and the action is the best I've seen on a giant screen for years.

So basically, to summarize, I enjoyed both films (a lot) but feel they're different animals and should each be judged on their own merits.
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For me it was the completely shit acting in PR that made it feel like a parody, basically.
 
I watched about the first half of Pacific Rim last night in bed and, I must say, the acting was indeed terribly shit. I cringed so many times, it's a shame really as there are some genuinely talented actors in it (obviously Elba is terrific, Charlie Hunnam is decent in Sons of Anarchy). About the only decent things were the big blockbuster scenes and Charlie Day actually being his usual, funny self.
 
walsh said:
I watched about the first half of Pacific Rim last night in bed and, I must say, the acting was indeed terribly shit. I cringed so many times, it's a shame really as there are some genuinely talented actors in it (obviously Elba is terrific, Charlie Hunnam is decent in Sons of Anarchy). About the only decent things were the big blockbuster scenes and Charlie Day actually being his usual, funny self.
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Pacific Rim was terrible. Just a waste of time, money and good actors.

I want to take a look at Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed and starred in it. It's about a guy, who despite having plenty of women, prefers internet porn to real relationships. It also stars Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore.
 
antihenry said:
Pacific Rim was terrible. Just a waste of time, money and good actors.

I want to take a look at Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed and starred in it. It's about a guy, who despite having plenty of women, prefers internet porn to real relationships. It also stars Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore.
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JGL is a right lad. Writes and directs his first movie and makes it about a sex addict playing opposite Scarlett Johansson :lol:

:drool:
 
RUSH : 9/10 Even if you're not into F1 you'll still enjoy it. Solid storyline based on true events and those amazing machines. In those days (70's) F1 cars were only pushing 450 HP and now I think they're close to 800HP or more. Well acted, a good message and an insider's view on the dangers associated with one of the fastest race we have today.
 
Berlin Alexanderplatz - A monumental, cynical, sprawling character study of a naive ex-con's efforts to get by in the chaotic 1920's Weimar Republic. The flashes of artistic brilliance that appears sporadically in Fassbinders prolific, inconsistent ouevre really comes together here, with great usage of the material and magnificent mise-en-scene...you could tell that he felt very passionate about this project. I don't know if I was meant to feel sympathetic towars the central character but I really loathed him from the start. I'm not sure if it was because of the actor or the character, maybe a bit of column a and from column b. A fat, sweaty, dimwit...hated that stupid grin. It's not often you end up liking a a work of this magnitude if you despise the character that is constantly present, though my hopes for his demise and realization kept me going throughout this odyssey. Reinhold and Eva were the strongest characters I thought. Hanna Schygulla was a menacing presence, great actress. Peer Raben was a such brilliant composer, when the music kicks in part 5, jaw-dropping stuff...
 
Runner Runner

First off, I knew this was going to be terrible before I went, so I'm not complaining on that score. But a good mate was back in town for the night and his missus is a few weeks from dropping a sprog, so I decided to go along so

Utterly tumescent. This film is further evidence, if it were needed, that Justin Timberlake can't act. Ben Affleck can, though he quite often chooses not to. Gemma Arterton is quite nice to look, but that's about as far as it goes. The plot was mostly non-existent and otherwise just very vague. The bad guy did some bad things, but they never really bothered explaining those in any real detail. Instead they just made him a ruthless millionaire playboy who had stubble, which everyone knows is shorthand for 'a bit dodgy' which is, in my opinion, all the exposition you need.

They basically tried to fit every cliche of the genre into this movie. Humourless, charmless and completely devoid of any genuine suspense. Add an utterly inexplicable ending and you've got yourself a really shitty Saturday night.

2/10
 
Hobo with a Shotgun

Thoroughly enjoyable and utterly ridiculous. If you like your B movies with over the top violence and low brow humour you should love it.
 
Just watched Star Trek into darkness


Reading back through this thread, people were saying the film was too simple, and there were complaints about that scene. Well if this is a simple film then Hollywood is a lot more complex than I realised. I wouldn't say I struggled to follow it, but amidst the heavy and long action scenes there was a fair bit of complexity. Having gone into the film with no clue of the story line, I didn't really know who the main badies were going to be until midway through, other than khan.

As for *that* scene, I loved it. It wasn't perfect, but I loved it. It's funny, but right near the start there was a scene that I thought Spock and Kirk should have changed roles in, so perhaps a bit of foreshadowing. Then towards the end you see Spock in those captains shots, and I began to suspect they were going to do something.

One of my biggest hates with films is that they kill off, sometimes thousands of people (or billions in the 1st) with no reference to it later. Somehow, despite the ending, I don't think they feel into that pitfall.

Is it futurama where someone asks how many atmospheric pressures the ship can stand, and a crew member replies 'somewhere between 0 and 1'. Well, that scene was annoying but maybe it was alien liquid or something. Despite that I still loved it.
 
The Conjuring.

After reading the reviews about this I was expecting to be blown away with it, but I was not, I thought it was just meh.
There was nothing new about it, it has been done before, it is one of the better possession film I have seen but I was still wanting more.
The story was OK, the acting was decent enough, the back story about the doll was not needed, unless it a link to part 2, which will be made.
If you like this sort of film, I would recommend you watching it, there is some scary parts and a few jumpy part, just don't be expecting something that has not been done before.

6/10
 
Pacific Rim

2 hours of my life that I wont get back, it is a dreadful film.
Usually this sort of film is just up my street, but not this pile of steaming turd.
The plot is poor the acting is worst, the guy who used to be in Eastenders, was actually worst in this.
The speical effects were OK the monsters and robots looked good.
They also stole some of the plot from Independence Day, the aliens come and strip the planet and then move on.

A very generous 3/10
 
The Great Beauty - Toni Servillo was mesmerizing as he moved through beautiful old Roman architecture and shallow nightclub life, in a swooning potrait of a decadent and worn out Rome, both passionate and cynical. Sorrentino basically takes the torch where Fellini left off. I you watch it, watch the whole credits sequence. An achingly beautiful film that will linger in my mind for a while.

 
Gravity -- thought i would be bored but it was a brilliant, beautiful yet deeply meaningful movie... with the constant view of the Earth from space. Claustrophobic and yet like a roller-coaster ride.

Best in IMAX or 3D
 
When The Lights Went Out
Possession film set in the 70s. The period was captured well but the film went from one cliche to the next. Every scare moment was lifted from another film and the visual effects at the end were awful. It is however not the worst horror I have seen and the acting was ok. Paced pretty well but just let down by the lack of ANY originality 5/10

Dark Touch
A horror film with something to say and plays on the fears of every day occurrences. Wasn't very scary in terms of actual horror but not that bad as the storyline was decent. The ending was quite annoying though and the film will be forgotten pretty quick 5/10
 
Prisoners

A bit slow at pace, but doesn't detract values from this dark thriller. Kinda reminded me of Zodiac at times. Kept us guessing on the plot. Lil Miss Sunshine's bro was great there, as was Gyllenhall and Jackman.
Came in with mixed expectations, some friends didn't recommend it. Decided to give it a go after I saw review of 8.2 on IMDB and 80% on Rotten Tomato, and I guess they're not that far off with the grade, so 8/10 to me
 
White House Down

I expect to be in a group with only me in it, but I enjoyed this, by far not the worst film I have seen.
Kept me entertained for 2 hours and that's all I ask for in a film like this.
Yes the plot is incredibly daft and the acting is poor and in places very poor, but I knew that and expected it, maybe that's why I did enjoy it.
I thought better than Olympus has Fallen.

5/10
 
The Loved Ones

Billed as a horror, but it's only really a bit gory. About a girl who gets turned down for the prom and has a creative way of dealing with it. Not very plausible (then again when are they ever?) and very simplistic/obvious, but it did have it's charms - well one charm and that was the actress who plays the bad girl. Amusing and psychotic and the annoying faces/voices of the other characters make you really want her to have the happy ending. Though there isn't really one for any of them.

Not in any way cerebral, but I found it strangely watchable 6/10
 
Archie Leach said:
That was my exact criticism of the film when I saw it. All my female friends who have seen it feel the opposite though so I think it may come down to gender lines, which I thought was very interesting.
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(re: blue valentine) yeah i wondered if that could be the case, tis interesting.
Brwned said:
Good call. Bit grim but there's definitely a certain power to it. Agree on that one main issue. There was enough in there to make the relationship loosely believable and as you say the plotline led to the darkest moments in the film, but it still took something away from the film for me. It was a gritty, realistic portrayal of one of the most oppressive totalitarian government/police forces of the last century and it just felt like that was a cheap way to add further drama. Led to a couple of great scenes though.
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(re: interrogation) reading back i'm amazed you could make good sense of my post, but yeah, agreed. i think the questionable aspect made for a pretty much perfect ending too - the pause & look on her face as she ascended the stairs.

2001: a space odyssey - really disliked it. i feel parts have maybe just become too iconic for me to enjoy it watching the whole thing through for the first time in 2013 - also sprach zarathustra & the blue danube are both so insanely overplayed these days, that those moments had no magic & were instead slightly irritating. the whole ape section was really tedious having seen bits over and over again & the HAL 9000 storyline was nonsensical. i enjoyed a couple of shots.

jacob's ladder - was really looking forward to this having read some positive things here, but i couldn't make it through. the whole thing just felt really second-rate.

the reader - i enjoyed it, though it's interesting to read a small bit of the criticism over the handling of the subject matter in both the book & film. knowing nothing of the book, i thought it was a good film study of a complex relationship. its worst moments were definitely whenever it tried to make any wider judgements/comments on the character's morality & on the holocaust as a whole, as opposed to keeping them on a personal level between the two main characters, where i thought it worked well.

hannah and her sisters - enjoyable enough, with a few really funny moments. like with annie hall & manhattan though, none of the characters/action meant anything to me. maybe that will change with time. stylistically they were all brilliant, i guess, but again he's been imitated so much that none of that felt special.

let the right one in - surprisingly enjoyable, can't really think why though. i guess it was a great case of less being more, which is always refreshing these days.

ponette - brilliant idea of showing how a child processes all the different things said to her after her mother's passing. a few lines felt unrealistic coming from a child (even a french one), but the lead performance was so fantastic that it all worked.
 
Straightheads

Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer are a couple that are brutally attacked and she gets raped late at night in a woods.
By chance she meets the person who raped her and gets her revenge in a rather brutal way.
Anderson is very good in this, plays he part very well.
Dyer on the other hand ,lives up to his name he is just dreadful, just how he makes a living from acting will always be one of lives mystery's.
If Anderson had of got a decent co-star I would of given it a solid 6/10 but with Dyer in there it only gets a 3/10

 
Helter Skelter - The story of the Manson Family has always intrigued me, so I was probably always going to enjoy this. Jeremy Davies is excellent as Charlie Manson.
 
Prisoners - Very good. Kept me tense throughout and asks some interesting questions about how far people can justifiably go in times of desperation. It's a bit Zodiac light...but the focus on the families of the vitims as well as the police in charge of solving the case give it a different and interesting slant - even if the case itself isn't quite at the level fo the Zodiac killer.

You could probably pick a few holes in the storyline, or question the validity of some of the red herrings thrown in, but I was so engrossed in the film, and it keeps it interesting enough that I didn't spend too much time questioning things, and just sat back and enjoyed where it decided to go.

Also worth mentioning that Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhal are both terrific, and the rest of the cast also do their bit for the most part. It's also really well directed by Villeneuve and expertly shot. The only thing I will say is that tis a bit long at 2 and half hours... but I do think the film used it's time well, and it's length added to the film in the sense that we're waiting for a conclusion in the same way these characters face a long wait to get their resolutions.

R.N7 said:
The Way Way Back - Alright but pretty predictable and forgettable feel-goodness. Rockwell sparked it to life occasionally.
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Thought he was great in it myself, and probably the main reason why I enjoyed the film as much as I did.... was quite refreshing to see him in a comedic role.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Prisoners - Very good. Kept me tense throughout and asks some interesting questions about how far people can justifiably go in times of desperation. It's a bit Zodiac light...but the focus on the families of the vitims as well as the police in charge of solving the case give it a different and interesting slant - even if the case itself isn't quite at the level fo the Zodiac killer.

You could probably pick a few holes in the storyline, or question the validity of some of the red herrings thrown in, but I was so engrossed in the film, and it keeps it interesting enough that I didn't spend too much time questioning things, and just sat back and enjoyed where it decided to go.

Also worth mentioning that Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhal are both terrific, and the rest of the cast also do their bit for the most part. It's also really well directed by Villeneuve and expertly shot. The only thing I will say is that tis a bit long at 2 and half hours... but I do think the film used it's time well, and it's length added to the film in the sense that we're waiting for a conclusion in the same way these characters face a long wait to get their resolutions.



Thought he was great in it myself, and probably the main reason why I enjoyed the film as much as I did.... was quite refreshing to see him in a comedic role.
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Thanks, might have to see that - I was slightly put off by some reviews and the length of the movie.
 
White House Down - One of the most ridiculous films I've seen, that makes absolutely no sense at times. I thought Olympus has Fallen was stupid, but this is like it's retarded, uneducated son.

First move as the third takeover President is to bomb the white house even though the first President is still alive? Okay then. Why did they also seem to not give a single feck about the President being alive or rescuing him after it was assumed he died in that explosion, but then from speaking to Tatum, realizing he is still alive? The genius hacker killing himself as well because he deleted his profile...wow.
 
johnny boy said:
Thanks, might have to see that - I was slightly put off by some reviews and the length of the movie.
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I think if you go in knowing that you'll be in there for two and a half hours, the runtime won't bother you so much... but yeah, I'd certainly recommend it. It's worth checking out for Jackman and Gylenhall's performances alone.
 
Which one of White House Down or Olympus has fallen is the shittest? That is to say, which one would be the most appropriate for a viewing with some friends with pizza & beer, a film we just wanna laugh at? One liners, ridiculous action, cliché villains and brilliant deaths have to be part of the parcel, of course.
 
White House Down is definitely more retarded. Both will give you what you want as they are both so stupid, but WHD has far more plotholes and stupid scenes in it, whereas Olympus Has Fallen has more action that makes no sense.

I'd say Olympus Has Fallen is the better choice for what you want.
 
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