Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Mood Indigo: To be honest there were times during the opening 10 minutes where I wasn't sure exactly what it was that I was watching; such is its seemingly random nature. However the longer you watch this, the more the visual language begins to make some kind of sense and the more everything seems a little less random and more well though out to the point that it begins to make something close to sense by the end (I’m guessing you can watch it 20 times and still not completely understand where Gondry was going with certain things). Initially I was worried that it would be a visually arresting and brilliantly creative but hollow watch but I have to say by the end not only was it enjoyable but it had some sense of purpose about it. It does get carried away somewhat by its own visual creative flair which spills over into whimsy at times, and presents a lot of ideas that I’m guessing the French can probably make a lot more sense of than I can (the French love of philosophy is on full display here) however by the end I could forgive it that for the moments of genuine endearing child-like creativity and charm it has. It isn't however gonna be everyone's cup of tea though due to most of those moments where it spills over into whimsy.


6/10
 
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The Possession Of Michael King
A film about a man who's wife dies in an accident because of some advice from a psychic so he goes out to debunk the supernatural until things go wrong when he gets possessed by a demon. It actually starts off excellent but once the guy gets possessed, it falls into the genre cliches of found footage horror 5.5/10
 
The Guest
Good fun. Seemingly perfect guy comes to stay with a family and helps them with their problems but isn't all that he seems. Dan Stevens is very good in it. The look and sound of the film have a good 80s vibe and it has just the right level of irony for a film like this before getting a touch too silly in the last act.
 
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

This is on Film 4 now, thought I had seen it before but after watching it for about an hour I know why I dont remember watching it.
It is DREADFUL, now I like Cage most of you know that but OMG this is unwatchable.
There is nothing good about this film, in any shape or form.
Well thats not really true, Violante Placido is pretty tasty in it.

3/10 all for Violante Placido
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

This is on Film 4 now, thought I had seen it before but after watching it for about an hour I know why I dont remember watching it.
It is DREADFUL, now I like Cage most of you know that but OMG this is unwatchable.
There is nothing good about this film, in any shape or form.
Well thats not really true, Violante Placido is pretty tasty in it.

3/10 all for Violante Placido
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The bolded part is simply not true! I can name you 2 amazing parts off the top of my head:

1. His overacting when trying to get some information out of some guy outside a club was Cage at his absolute finest.
2. He pisses fire!
 
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8/10
Loved it. Hilarious and visually amazing. It's quirky and not your typical comedy but that's the appeal. The jokes are original and the colors used throughout the movie gave it an almost fairytale feel. Definitely worth the watch.
 
Red_devil_ said:
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8/10
Loved it. Hilarious and visually amazing. It's quirky and not your typical comedy but that's the appeal. The jokes are original and the colors used throughout the movie gave it an almost fairytale feel. Definitely worth the watch.
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Aye, I was kinda reluctant to watch it, and the audio in the aeroplane wasn't that good. But it's a remarkable movies, kinda brought me back to the comedy of the 60s
 
ThierryHenry said:
Chungking Express - :) Bought(!) this ages ago after it came so highly recommended (including from people on here). Absolutely loved it, such a fun and joyful experience to watch. The two main songs from the film haven't left my head for the last week, and I know I've got to go through the rest of Wong Kar-Wai's films next. Only complaint is that the first section/story was nowhere near as strong as the second.
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Fallen Angels and Happy Together is more of the same good, godly stuff.
 
Saw Nebraska the other night, beautiful cinematography and a solid little film.
 
Bill.s.preston said:
Saw Nebraska the other night, beautiful cinematography and a solid little film.
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Me too - I loved it. Very clever, great humour and sadness at the same time. Quite the blend of everything. B&W was good and the music was brilliant - ordered the soundtrack the next day.

My wife didn't dig it at all. She couldn't understand that I found it funny.
 
Red_devil_ said:
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8/10
Loved it. Hilarious and visually amazing. It's quirky and not your typical comedy but that's the appeal. The jokes are original and the colors used throughout the movie gave it an almost fairytale feel. Definitely worth the watch.
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I really enjoyed it, but the GF wasn't impressed. Splits opinions like most of Anderson's films despite being one of the most accessible. Fiennes makes the film for me, I thought he was excellent.
 
Dans said:
Me too - I loved it. Very clever, great humour and sadness at the same time. Quite the blend of everything. B&W was good and the music was brilliant - ordered the soundtrack the next day.

My wife didn't dig it at all. She couldn't understand that I found it funny.
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I found it very amusing at points too, and I agree about the blend of everything. It's one of my favourite films from the past couple of years.
 
Bill.s.preston said:
Saw Nebraska the other night, beautiful cinematography and a solid little film.
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Really good soundtrack/score too. Definitely one of my favourites of the last year.

Bruce Dern also has to be one of the most consistently great actors of the last 50 years. I don't think he's ever really had the face to be a major leading man, but I doubt I've seen a film with him where I don't come away thinking he's one of the best things about it. When you see the stuff Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford and Robert De Niro have turned out over the last few years, Dern's extraordinary.
 
Bill.s.preston said:
I really enjoyed it, but the GF wasn't impressed. Splits opinions like most of Anderson's films despite being one of the most accessible. Fiennes makes the film for me, I thought he was excellent.
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Yeah he stole the show. It was one of those rare occasions where I didn't associate him with Voldemort. He was so in character.
I laughed so much when Zero came unprepared to rescue him
 
I'm going to make a movie about a Swedish twenty-something who dies mysteriously and when they autopsy him they find tiny tiny strips of film all linked together in his circulatory system. Even more mysterious things happen when it turns out he's not dead. Michel Gondry to direct.

The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) - 9/10

This is a 7.3 on IMDB. In-fecking-ception is 8.8 The first Transformers movie is 7.2

Bring me my machine gun.
 
Calvary - A lot more serious then I was expecting from the team behind The Guard (though there were some funny moments splattered around) but a very good watch non-the-less - mostly due to Gleeson, who shows once again what a brilliant actor he is.
 
The Purple Rose Of Cairo

Woody Allen at his most delightful. During the Depression, the star of a corny Hollywood film comes out of the screen and falls in love with abused wife Mia Farrow. There's hints of the same sort of light wish fulfillment that Midnight In Paris represents, but I think this does a better job at rising above its silly concept, this has a lot of subtle intelligence about what it is we go to movies for, what they mean in our lives. This might be my favourite Woody Allen film post 1980. 8/10
 
Talhotblonde - An example of how to make a documentary of a fascinating subject, executed in a cak handed way.

It's basically the a story of Catfish gone wrong. Middle aged weirdo grooms teenage girl on the internet, teenage girl dumps him for guy her age, middle aged weirdo kills guy, teenage girl turns out to be middle aged weirdo too, pretending to be her daughter. You'd think it would be nigh on impossible to make a boring doc about that, but they somehow conspire to do it (which, unfortunately, is the least of their sins) by devoting huge chunks of the run time to real time IM text convos. Literally words on a screen, for 5 minutes at a time. That's not a documentary.

The real problem though comes in the last half hour, where the narrative suddenly shifts to whether the middle aged woman weirdo is to blame for "encouraging" it (Re: flirting with a weirdo) whether she should do jail time (she broke no laws) and whether she is in fact actually evil (the actual words of a psychologist they interview, who as far as I can see had nothing to do with the case at all)...It's almost the televisual chat room equivalent of "she was wearing a short skirt"

Part of this seems to be based on the fact the women in question refused to take part in the doc, whereas the killer himself (the guy who calculatedly and remorselessly killed a 19 year old for the perceieved slight of talking to a girl in a chat room) did. They compound this by stylising the voiceover to be IN THE VOICE OF THE DEAD MAN! Even going so far as to put words in his mouth to the effect of "Would I like to see her charged? I would, she's to blame too"..It's feckING MENTAL!!


I also watched Prometheus again because Alien was on TV earlier in the week. It's still bollocks.
 
Red_devil_ said:
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8/10
Loved it. Hilarious and visually amazing. It's quirky and not your typical comedy but that's the appeal. The jokes are original and the colors used throughout the movie gave it an almost fairytale feel. Definitely worth the watch.
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I love all Wes due to his unique style which really appeals to me but narratively I thought GBH was one of his weakest films Seemed like style over substance this time round for me.
 
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The Teahouse of the August Moon

Marlon Brando as an Okinawan interpreter in his method-acting way. A corny and over-long tale about west meets east and westerner goes native. 6/10

Walkabout

Teenage English girl (Jenny Agutter) and aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) wander around the Australian bush. Great visually. Both actors were 16 and are outstanding in their different styles. The narrative and editing are sometimes hard to follow. A classic and quirky film. 8/10
 
Entre Les Murs (The Classroom) - Laurent Cantet (2008)

Brilliant, spot on portrayal of education, schools, and a multi cultural classroom in an outer arrondissement of Paris. The acting by both the youths and the teaching staff was excellent and very natural, and the guy who wrote the screen play, Francois Begaudeau, and who's book it was based on from his actual experience, played the lead role and was better than most professional actors and gave it a very authentic touch. I can totally see why this won the Palme d'Or in Cannes. Fantastic achievement this film.

9 cocks up
 
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