Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

LION 9.5/10

Amazing story, fantastic acting, panoramic cinematography, classy direction. Will win a load of awards. Definitely one the the best made films of the year.

I cried quite a few times.

Don't watch it with your mum or mother of your kids if you don't want to see them cry or them seeing you cry.

Don't want to say any more else will spoil the film for you.
 
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Passengers
Two passengers (Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence) wake up 90 years early in a space travel to a distant colony planet. I was quite interested in this film when I first heard about it but the trailer spoiled a whole lot of the story. Nevertheless, I switched it on and was quite enjoying the first act. But once the second act begins, it becomes quite pedestrian and flat. There are some suspenseful moments but overall, it seems like a wasted opportunity for a much better film considering the talent involved and the overall concept of the story 6.5/10

Huntsman: Winter's War
Typical hollywood tripe. Lots of bad CGI, poor acting (except Emily Blunt) and a lacklustre story and character development alongside some cringeworthy dialogue 3/10

Bleed For This
The story of Vinny Pazienza, a boxer who was told that he'd never walk again, let alone box after a near fatal car crash. I love sports films and underdog stories and this was exactly that. Great performances, especially from Miles Teller. A good, heart warming story and the boxing scenes were decent. The film however, bought nothing new to the table and was full of cliches which was a little disappointing 7.5/10
 
Lion - Absolutely fantastic. Thought it'd be really contrived, and perhaps it was in a few places, but it was very well made, wonderfully shot and the performances, especially the young Saroo, were excellent. I could quite happily be very cynical about a film like this but it actually got to me a bit.

Memories Of Murder -This was a weird one. Based on a real set of unsolved murders in rural South Korea, the police are wholly unequipped to deal with the case. One detective uses his best investigative skills to catch the killer while the other just fumbles along and occassionally tries beating confessions out of people. Despite its pretty dark subject matter it's hilarious in places, mostly intentional I think. I enjoyed it, a lot. Also Korean police love drop kicking people.
 
Rapture (1965) - An undeservedly forgotten film, bafflingly directed by the same director who directed The Towering Inferno/King Kong Lives, yet he somehow managed to channel Bergman/Polanski with this one. Starring is a bafflingly young and handsome Dean Stockwell, channelling James Dean, but the real standout however was the very nice and nuanced performance from Patricia Gozzi. It also had some great dizzy camera work and a lovely score by Georges Delerue.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Passengers
Two passengers (Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence) wake up 90 years early in a space travel to a distant colony planet. I was quite interested in this film when I first heard about it but the trailer spoiled a whole lot of the story. Nevertheless, I switched it on and was quite enjoying the first act. But once the second act begins, it becomes quite pedestrian and flat. There are some suspenseful moments but overall, it seems like a wasted opportunity for a much better film considering the talent involved and the overall concept of the story 6.5/10
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Given the flimsy plot, a lot depended on the human factor in this movie. How absorbed would the audience be in the male character's initial plight and how invested in his subsequent relationship with the woman?

Bad casting meant that the answer to both those questions was 'not so much'. Jennifer Lawrence was okay, but Chris Pratt wasn't quite up to the job. If you imagine a young Kevin Costner or Tom Hanks in the role it becomes a completely different film.

Since not much is happening around him, the male lead has to be an interesting actor. Pratt can be funny, but lacks charisma, and nobody is ever likely to be deeply curious about what's going on in his head.
 
Girl on a train, 6/10

Thought the film was good but not as good as I expected it to be, a lot of people say the book is better and I can see why the plot of the movie is far too obvious when on the big screen.
 
Gimme Danger - Jim Jarmusch docu on Iggy and the Stooges. Awfully conventional, it came alive mostly when it was just Iggy telling stories but I would have liked to have heard more about the decadent stuff. Still, it's very hard not to make a music documentary interesting, it was decent if not a bit half-arsed (it's a Jarmusch film alright).
 
Apocalypse: Verdun

A gripping and shocking documentary composed of numerous colorized archive footage. Apocalypse: Verdun takes us to the infamous and bloody battle of Verdun that occurred in February 1916, when World War I had been raging for two years.

Not my normal watch, but excellent.

8/10
 
R.N7 said:
Gimme Danger - Jim Jarmusch docu on Iggy and the Stooges. Awfully conventional, it came alive mostly when it was just Iggy telling stories but I would have liked to have heard more about the decadent stuff. Still, it's very hard not to make a music documentary interesting, it was decent if not a bit half-arsed (it's a Jarmusch film alright).
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Iggy's actually a pretty boring guy.
 
Split

M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie, great watch.

Make sure you've seen Unbreakable (another one of his movies, I loved it) before watching Split, great reference at the end that you won't be able to understand if you haven't!

8/10
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Apocalypse: Verdun

A gripping and shocking documentary composed of numerous colorized archive footage. Apocalypse: Verdun takes us to the infamous and bloody battle of Verdun that occurred in February 1916, when World War I had been raging for two years.

Not my normal watch, but excellent.

8/10
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I have read about the battle of Verdun and I cannot imagine the sheer horror of experiencing that with your own eyes. No matter how much people complain about life in 2017 I am so glad to grow up in the current Western society.
 
Archie Leach said:
Iggy's actually a pretty boring guy.
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That tells you how uninspiring the rest was, it seems like poorly animated filler material and sharply edited archive footage has become standard music docu clichés, at least it didn't have Questlove in it as a talking head, he seems to pop up in every music docu I watch these days.
 
Decided to start watching films and TV series again, instead of watching the same episodes of anything that is on TV, this thread along with the TV one, already has my list a mile long, may have to stay inside for the next few months.
 
Petula - After I finished watching it I saw that Nic Roeg was the cinematographer for it, which made perfect sense, as I spent most of the movie comparing it unfavourably to his film 'Bad Timing', due to their very similar disorienting approach, at one point George C Scott even proclaimed 'bad timing'. The late 60's footage of San Francisco was the best thing about it.
 
One Night Only said:
Decided to start watching films and TV series again, instead of watching the same episodes of anything that is on TV, this thread along with the TV one, already has my list a mile long, may have to stay inside for the next few months.
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I take it the likes of Gummo, Salo and Liquid Sky are right at the top of the list?
 
R.N7 said:
I take it the likes of Gummo, Salo and Liquid Sky are right at the top of the list?
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Um, no.

Sicario is my top of the list atm, probably watch it in an hour or 2, currently watching the first episode of trollhunters (Kids cartoon), only went back a couple years for some interesting looking thriller types (I loved Shutter Island), I like proper shit usually, Now You See Me I watched on TV the other night and enjoyed it a lot :lol: Didn't do well on release did it?
 
R.N7 said:
I need unspoiled lumps of clay to mold in my own image.
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"Soon you'll have a mighty hump"
 
One Night Only said:
What? I don't remember this?
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He's chasing the team around the streets by following a tracker on his phone... suddenly realises that they put the tracker into his own pocket and he's been chasing himself. He even says something like "feck! I've been chasing myself" :lol:
 
Hacksaw Ridge: 7.5/10

The war scenes were intense as feck. Can't say it was more violent than Saving Private Ryan, that movie had its fair share of brutal scenes with Omaha Beach being the obvious example.
Overall a good movie and one I didn't expect to be made in 2016 honestly, don't think the Japanese were happy about this one.

The build up to the fighting sequences, when they're walking towards the Japanese, is probably one of the best I've ever seen by the way. The soundtrack was haunting.
 
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VorZakone said:
Hacksaw Ridge: 7.5/10

The war scenes were intense as feck. Can't say it was more violent than Saving Private Ryan, that movie had its fair share of brutal scenes with Omaha Beach being the obvious example.
Overall a good movie and one I didn't expect to be made in 2016 honestly, don't think the Japanese were happy about this one.

The build up to the fighting sequences, when they're walking towards the Japanese, is probably one of the best I've ever seen by the way. The soundtrack was haunting.
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Good short review. Would have given an 8 myself but it's definitely a must-watch right now.
 
Lion

Every now and then there's one of these incredibly powerful emotional movies like this, The Hunt, Room. Can't really find any faults, maybe it slightly dragged in the middle, but besides that a near perfect movie. 9/10
 
Beauty and the Beast (1978) - A nice gloomy and surreal take on the classic tale, it's quite possible that I might prefer this to the Cocteau and Disney versions. An interesting design of the beast too.

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