Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

A Bigger Splash - dark, funny, beautiful film with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes by Luca Guadagnino. Swinton plays a Bowie-esque rock star and Fiennes her former manager/lover. I enjoyed this a lot.

Sisters - saw this on a plane. It was fairly funny, straightforward fare. John Cena has a great cameo.

The King of Comedy - vastly underrated Scorsese pic. Fairly prescient topic and tremendous work from DeNiro at his peak, playing against type. Makes a lot of Scorsese's recent fare look fairly pedestrian.
 
Bastille Day - saw it last night as part of the Unlimited viewing. Lots of fun, with some good comedy elements. Idris could easily play Bond imo but the whole new age Bond type which is more like Bourne. Decent plot. Obviously had a few flaws. Richard Madden and Elba worked off each other well. 7.5/10
 
Was just thinking about this, but Hulk (2008) is a very underrated film in my opinion. Much better than Avengers. I'd give it a 8/10.
 
Finally got around watching Star Trek - Wrath of Khan, even though I still havent finished TOS. I'm trying to save the last few 3 or 4 episodes for god knows what.
Felt like a better film to wrap up the TOS, which I did like, but this one felt like it's made by someone that loved the series. I did know what happened at the end, but still, I wasn't prepared for it. Made Data's sacrifice on Nemesis less substantial.

Speaking of Star Trek, a few have told me that Deep Space 9 and Voyager the two best shows they'd seen and I've tried watching a few episodes of DS9 but it just isn't the same without Kirk and Picard and their respective crews. Anyone here that likes DS9 and Voyager more than the two that came before them? And why so?
 
PeteReDevil said:
Finally got around watching Star Trek - Wrath of Khan, even though I still havent finished TOS. I'm trying to save the last few 3 or 4 episodes for god knows what.
Felt like a better film to wrap up the TOS, which I did like, but this one felt like it's made by someone that loved the series. I did know what happened at the end, but still, I wasn't prepared for it. Made Data's sacrifice on Nemesis less substantial.

Speaking of Star Trek, a few have told me that Deep Space 9 and Voyager the two best shows they'd seen and I've tried watching a few episodes of DS9 but it just isn't the same without Kirk and Picard and their respective crews. Anyone here that likes DS9 and Voyager more than the two that came before them? And why so?
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DS9 fan here. It started off slow, but season 4 onwards it was amazing.
IMO DS9 has easily the best side characters. Garak and Dukat are just awesome, I liked Quark and Kira a lot(others don't), Odo is fantastic, and the TNG guy who comes in after season 4 (that's a spoiler I guess) is 20 times better sketched out than he is on TNG. And their interactions too - Odo-Quark, Garak-Dukat, Dukat-Kira.
But yes, Picard>Sisko.


Voyager is good when the episodes focused on the doctor or Seven. And there were some exceptional episodes other than those. But apart from those 2 and Janeway, the supporting characters are completely flat.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
The Invitation
A man is invited to a dinner party reunion by his ex-wife and her new boyfriend but once he gets their, he notices a strange atmosphere. Wow, what a surprise. This was a neat little slow burn thriller film. It had great mystery and I was always trying to guess what was happening or whether the protagonist was just adding 2 and 2 to get 5. The acting was decent and it was shot really well. The only disappointment was the final act. It wasn't horrible and didnt completely ruin the film but after such a strong start, it felt a bit flat. Regardless, this is definitely a film worth watching 8/10
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Enjoyed this film. I rate the Tom Hardy clone in the leading role.
 
Grinner said:
They ripped that off from those old Cointreau ads.
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I will make you feel old by saying I have no idea what those are. :)

They stole an entire episode from a John Le Carre novel too, 2 more from TOS.
And all 3 were brilliant :drool:
 
Vato said:
Enjoyed this film. I rate the Tom Hardy clone in the leading role.
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As soon as the film started, my wife said he looks like Jesus. Then he proceeds to say "jesus" like 3 times in the scene :lol:

The Dead Room
2 investigators and a young psychic investigate a house after the owners say it was haunted... low and behold, it is. I loved the slow burn nature of the film, trickling out little nuggets of the supernatural and letting it all play out. It had great atmosphere. The only issue is that it doesn't really kick on from there and just plays it safe. You are just watching it hoping for it to go up a few gears but it ends pretty flat. Not the worst film I have seen but had the potential to be much better 6/10

Creep
A filmmaker answers a Craigslist ad to film a man for one whole day, but the subject turns out to be a total nutcase and like one of those friends you have who are overly open and waaay too friendly/strange. Was a decent little film, had loads of funny moments mixed in with some really tense ones. The ending was a little abrupt but overall, it's one of the better found footage films I've seen in a long while 7/10
 
The Seven Five

Fantastic documentary about two dirty NYC cops and their role in the drug trade in the 80's and 90's. Candid interviews of the main protagonists make for an enthralling watch. The main drug kingpin is a hell of a character too.
 
berbatrick said:
Voyager is good when the episodes focused on the doctor or Seven. And there were some exceptional episodes other than those. But apart from those 2 and Janeway, the supporting characters are completely flat.
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The series was originally built around Janeway in her role as the first female Star Trek captain, so the shows creators didn't want any charismatic male characters to overshadow her, and compromise the great politically correct leap forward on American TV.

It's old movie practice. When the great Hollywood leading ladies of the 1930s starred in vehicles written specifically for them, the studios cast them opposite rather colourless leading men.

The eventual introduction of Seven of Nine due to failing ratings was a bit of a compromise - she traded on old-fashioned sex appeal but at least she was female. That didn't make the pill any less bitter to swallow for Kate Mulgrew though.
 
Will Absolute said:
The series was originally built around Janeway in her role as the first female Star Trek captain, so the shows creators didn't want any charismatic male characters to overshadow her, and compromise the great politically correct leap forward on American TV.

It's old movie practice. When the great Hollywood leading ladies of the 1930s starred in vehicles written specifically for them, the studios cast them opposite rather colourless leading men.

The eventual introduction of Seven of Nine due to failing ratings was a bit of a compromise - she traded on old-fashioned sex appeal but at least she was female. That didn't make the pill any less bitter to swallow for Kate Mulgrew though.
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TBH it's easy to understand her frustration - what Seven was wearing wasn't subtle. Though ironically the Janeway-Seven interactions were quite good.
 
berbatrick said:
TBH it's easy to understand her frustration - what Seven was wearing wasn't subtle. Though ironically the Janeway-Seven interactions were quite good.
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It was a great role for Jeri Ryan. There she was, fully weaponized, while the rest of the female cast members, in their stiff, desexualized uniforms, were all carrying knives to a gunfight. The ensuing massacre was inevitable.

I bet, in the course of those conversations with Seven, looking like Hilda the Hen standing alongside a Bird of Paradise, Mulgrew occasionally had an unworthy thought, 'Please, please, just this one time, give me a teeny, weeny little black dress!'

I agree that the interactions between the two characters were good, but I can't help but think that a male commander, - Picard perhaps - trying to provide guidance to this gorgeous but challenging young woman would have added an extra dimension. A mentoring relationship with a male crew member would have been better. The producers determination to keep Janeway front and centre precluded that of course.
 
3 movies based on true stories, all nominated for best picture Oscar:

The Big Short Fascinating story of speculators who get rich betting against the US housing market circa 2007. Well acted, not sure the technical subject matter (do not try this at home) has wide appeal 8/10
Dallas Buyers Club McConaughey is brilliant as a 1980's aids victim who has a bright idea to get round the lack of available drugs 9/10
Bridge of Spies Tom Hanks is an insurance lawyer who forms a bond with a soviet spy he is defending and is then propelled into engineering a spy swap in 1960 cold war east Berlin 8/10
 
Triple 9: 6.5/10

Suffers from the same problem as Sicario which is an underwhelming script. Action scenes are good, soundtrack is gritty and raw but the dialogues are quite poor and it lacks structure which Sicario in its defence did have. Today's directors still can't match Michael Mann's Heat.
 
Hush

A home invasion movie done a bit different. I actually found it very suspensful and fun. 7.5/10
 
Saw Everybody wants some!! yesterday, Richard Linklater's latest film, about the main character's arrival on campus at the beginning of the 80s and his first weekend with his new roommates. That's basically it, we just follow their first steps as a group, the blossoming camaraderie, the romances, etc. It's not an unforgettable film, but Linklater has the ability to make scenes that are fairly ordinary very interesting, through well written dialogues and great on scene chemistry between the actors. The whole film comes across as fresh and sincere and put a smile on my face for the whole duration.

I could easily understand people not really getting into it (my wife found it boring) but if you like Linklater's stuff there's a good chance this is for you and you'll enjoy it.
 
Midnight Special

Err yeah. Not sure what I watched here. Or even if I liked it. Certainly grabbed me by the jaffers in the first 20 minutes as I had no idea what it was about or even what genre it was. Bearing in mind that I now know it's from the same guy that directed 'Take Shelter' and 'Mud' then I'd say imagine if that guy was let loose on a sci fi film. Bobs your uncle.
 
The Witch - This is my kind of horror. Great setting and the effort that went into nailing the period, from the costumes to the language, was impressive. As always, what's not seen is scarier than what is and this is done very well here. The score is so important in a film like this and they nailed that too, it's great at building tension.

I wish there were more films like this being made.
 
The Look Like People
A man moves in with a friend he hasn’t seen in a long time but his paranoia makes him believe that people around him are turning into aliens… can he trust anyone including his friend? Low budget thriller and you really can tell but the acting and story make it stand out. It really gets tense towards the end, however, the pace is very slow without much going on for long periods. Like how they handled mental illness, it's done quite well. Decent if not spectacular 6.5/10
 
1971

Interesting documentary about a little-known burglary of an FBI office that set off a snowball of events. Before the Pentagon Papers and Ed Snowden there was this, the Media burglary that exposed FBI illegality through it's COINTELPRO activities. It's amazing to see just what the govt. was up to back then, and easy to assume that they are doing even worse now.
 
Triple 9

Brilliant cast which gets completely wasted. Aaron Paul basically plays his Breaking Bad character again and it's entirely predictable. 5/10
 
Seven Beauties - Lina Wertmuller's 70s masterpiece about an all round shitbag in Naples who ends up in a concentration camp during the war. Films which balance slapstick comedy with heavy stuff like the war can occasionally be offensive (like the execrable Life is Beautiful) but this pulls it off and had a lot to say about contemporary Italy. Giancarlo Giannini is wonderful in the lead and the end really socks you in the guts.
 
Sigma said:
Was just thinking about this, but Hulk (2008) is a very underrated film in my opinion. Much better than Avengers. I'd give it a 8/10.
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Is this film part of the MCU? I've never thought of this before... Mark Ruffalo isn't Banner in this, right?
 
Clas Sified said:
Is this film part of the MCU? I've never thought of this before... Mark Ruffalo isn't Banner in this, right?
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I think (though could be mistaken) that it's been referenced in some of the other MCU films so I'm guessing the events are canon.
 
Really enjoyed Midnight Special, was casted perfectly I thought. I'm becoming a bit of a Jeff Nichols and Michael Shannon fan tbh
 
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