Agreed. It's better than Manchester by the Sea too. Probs won't win.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
Yeah it is quite eerie.
Just finished watching Fallen Angel by Wong Kar-wai(It was amazing and bizarre) who seems to have been a big influence on Barry Jenkins - Moonlights director. So I'm pretty hyped for it, also manage to grab a ticket to see an live orchestra screening version.
Nice! I didn't notice too many WKW influenced touches in it when I saw it, except for one throwaway scene of waves crashing at the beach set to Cucurrucucu Paloma, which was definitely a wink to this scene:
Then I found this this video, there's a few similarities but no major ones really.
Great videos. Here's a (sadly) short interview with Jenkins talking about WKWi films, if your interested.
I think I posted that one earlier in this thread! It's a sweet clip, had forgotten the whole airplane thing.
Manchester by Sea - Overrated by critics but still enjoyed it. First half an hour was very slow paced, once you get some more insight on Casey's character, the movie becomes more enjoyable. Casey's character (Lee) chemistry with his nephew throughout the movie was superb. 7/10
Valkyrie - One of Tom Cruise's better roles. A movie with massive potential, considering the interesting tense story behind it but overall the movie does fail to deliver at times. Nonetheless, the movie still had me at the edge of my seat. 7.5/10
Split - Loved it. Admittedly, it won't be everybody's cup of tea. Can't say too much without spoiling the whole movie, however, James McAvoy was incredible. If you enjoy psychological thrillers and you remain open minded throughout the movie, I do believe people would enjoy this one. Split seems to be a promising return to form for director Shyamalan. 9/10
Prisoners - Simply one of the most underrated thrillers in recent years. A very well executed apprehensive kidnap story, combined with two excellent performances by Gyllenhaal and Jackman. 9/10
Silence - The movie was a bit too "artsy" for me a times but it does succeed in telling an interesting tale of two priests whom's faith is put to the test throughout their conquest of finding their lost mentor in Japan. Beautifully shot movie and Andrew Garfield's best performance to date. 7/10
Valkyrie - One of Tom Cruise's better roles. A movie with massive potential, considering the interesting tense story behind it but overall the movie does fail to deliver at times. Nonetheless, the movie still had me at the edge of my seat. 7.5/10
Split - Loved it. Admittedly, it won't be everybody's cup of tea. Can't say too much without spoiling the whole movie, however, James McAvoy was incredible. If you enjoy psychological thrillers and you remain open minded throughout the movie, I do believe people would enjoy this one. Split seems to be a promising return to form for director Shyamalan. 9/10
Prisoners - Simply one of the most underrated thrillers in recent years. A very well executed apprehensive kidnap story, combined with two excellent performances by Gyllenhaal and Jackman. 9/10
Silence - The movie was a bit too "artsy" for me a times but it does succeed in telling an interesting tale of two priests whom's faith is put to the test throughout their conquest of finding their lost mentor in Japan. Beautifully shot movie and Andrew Garfield's best performance to date. 7/10
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Lego Batman movie - absolutely loved it. Probably the best movie that has DC attached to it since the DCCU started haha.
But seriously, much like the first lego movie, its fun, good paced, and quite hilarious. One for kids and adults imo.
But seriously, much like the first lego movie, its fun, good paced, and quite hilarious. One for kids and adults imo.
Ride Along 2
Quite liked the first but this wasn't really funny or memorable. Olivia Munn is hot thought so that gets it an extra point 4.5/10
The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
Father and son coroners must try to discover the cause of death for a Jane Doe. Really enjoyed this. Suspenseful horror that doesn't solely rely on jump scares. Great atmosphere and good acting. Realized that this director also made Troll Hunter, which I loved so will keep an eye out for him 8/10
Lion
Heard good things about this and it delivered. The film delivers a gut punch whilst also being feel good, my emotions were all over the place. Never found Rooney Mara hot but she was in this. Dev Patel does his best acting that I've seen him do. Hope it does well at the awards 8/10
Quite liked the first but this wasn't really funny or memorable. Olivia Munn is hot thought so that gets it an extra point 4.5/10
The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
Father and son coroners must try to discover the cause of death for a Jane Doe. Really enjoyed this. Suspenseful horror that doesn't solely rely on jump scares. Great atmosphere and good acting. Realized that this director also made Troll Hunter, which I loved so will keep an eye out for him 8/10
Lion
Heard good things about this and it delivered. The film delivers a gut punch whilst also being feel good, my emotions were all over the place. Never found Rooney Mara hot but she was in this. Dev Patel does his best acting that I've seen him do. Hope it does well at the awards 8/10
Hacksaw Ridge
Very entertaining fight scenes, doesn't get overly hung up on the romance side of things (in fact, this seems to get forgotten about half way through), light hearted in places and intense in others. I liked Vince Vaughn but he isn't the best actor in the world. Not the most refined war film you'll see, but highly enjoyable with that in mind 7.5/10
Very entertaining fight scenes, doesn't get overly hung up on the romance side of things (in fact, this seems to get forgotten about half way through), light hearted in places and intense in others. I liked Vince Vaughn but he isn't the best actor in the world. Not the most refined war film you'll see, but highly enjoyable with that in mind 7.5/10
Thought the scene where the guy lifted the half torso while running and gunning was cheesy, not because of the torso, which apparently actually happened according to some bloke on imdb, but because the guy was shooting a semi auto (??) with one hand, with zero recoil and managing to hit bare heads
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Probably similar to what I thought. The war scenes were absolutely brutal and also beautiful in a way because they were so harrowing and the cinematography and soundtrack was so brilliant for them, definitely the most 'impactful' I've seen since Omaha Beach in SPR.
However the whole backstory pre-war was very corny, predictable and cheesy and a bit of a let-down. I know Gibson's a big fan of the Catholic, soppy love story element of films but it was very OTT and felt so unrealistic compared to the very realistic war scenes.
In the Shadow of the Blue Rascal - Gritty Parisian drug world thriller by way of Kenneth Anger. Fairly incomprehensibly but I loved every second of it. The thumping post-punk soundtrack was a constant, hypnotic presence. I think Terrence Malick's mysterious Paris exile could be explained that he doing a lot of coke and smack at the time and shot this film incognito over the span of a few years.
Fifty Shades Shitter
Hard to describe how bad this is. Any 15 year old girl could have written it. No story as such, a few random infrequently interspersed random events in between equally random sex scenes that are about as intensely unerotic and brief as it gets. A made for late night TV film that should be missed even if it was on TV.
Split
Great acting by the lead and an interesting and unusually novel subject matter made this an enjoyable film. Worth a watch.
Chronicles
Rewatched this the other day, one of my favourite paranormal films that starts with a simple idea and escalates it to a climax. Seriously cool and disturbed all at the same time. If you like the paranormal/magic you really should have seen this already.
Hard to describe how bad this is. Any 15 year old girl could have written it. No story as such, a few random infrequently interspersed random events in between equally random sex scenes that are about as intensely unerotic and brief as it gets. A made for late night TV film that should be missed even if it was on TV.
Split
Great acting by the lead and an interesting and unusually novel subject matter made this an enjoyable film. Worth a watch.
Chronicles
Rewatched this the other day, one of my favourite paranormal films that starts with a simple idea and escalates it to a climax. Seriously cool and disturbed all at the same time. If you like the paranormal/magic you really should have seen this already.
Arrival - Really don't get the hype. Thought it started off well and was an interesting take on the genre but then ended a bit messy and I still don't understand how altering the way in which you think can alter your perception of time.
Fences - Denzel Washington directs August Wilson. I'm always weary of stage-to-screen adaptations because they usually don't break free of the original and end up as filmed plays and mostly pointless. This definitely feels like a play but Washington and Viola Davis inject enough life into the whip crack, breathless dialogue for me to see past it. I enjoyed this. Washington has always been excellent at making horrible men likeable.
Finally got to see Kubo - its a shame it didnt do well at the box office, but then the studio owner is the same dude who owened Nike and apparently he does it for the love and the art behind it rather than just for financial gain so it shouldnt stop stop motion movies from happening.
This was such a fun well thoughtout movie with an interesting plot behind it.
This was such a fun well thoughtout movie with an interesting plot behind it.
Saw it myself a couple of days back. Really lovely film. Didn't realise how much of it was stop motion modelling until the scene in the credits.
Yeah I really liked seeing that. The studio that does it has had movies ive liked, and from reading online it hardly had a bad review from critics. Actually ive seen three movies from the studio (think theyve done four or five) and each one was fantastic.
Saw Bleed For This last night, pretty good. Not usually a fan of boxing movies but thought they did a great job of it.
By the way, finally watched Happy Together the other evening. Thought it was brilliant and intense, maybe even too intense. Not really into to WKW, but that film was top drawer, imo. Thought the portrayal of Buenos Aires stepped a bit too close to cliché territory, but the sets, the situations, the whole schtick of those particular Asian characters in Buenos Aires and the black and whiteness was fantastic and very original.
9 cocks up
Glad you enjoyed it!
The Best of Youth - My god, not sure how I managed to sit through this. 6 hours of cheesy, cliched and monotonously sentimental tosh. It followed the bland lives of bland and inexplicably good looking people over 40 years as random pieces of Italian history went on around them in the background. How did this ever end up in cinematic circles, not to mention getting so much overwhelming praise? This vapid, one-note monstrosity should be buried in some TV vault before more people like me have the misfortune of seeing it.
Your Name
If, like me, you've never really got Japanese animated movies (are they all called animés? Of just the sci fi ones?) this seems to be a pretty good gateway drug. Really sweet, warm-hearted and absolutely beautiful to look at. Plus it does a time travel/multiverse narrative far better and with less plot-holes than almost any other movie I can think of. Sound track was great too. Who knew Japanese pop music could sound so good?
If, like me, you've never really got Japanese animated movies (are they all called animés? Of just the sci fi ones?) this seems to be a pretty good gateway drug. Really sweet, warm-hearted and absolutely beautiful to look at. Plus it does a time travel/multiverse narrative far better and with less plot-holes than almost any other movie I can think of. Sound track was great too. Who knew Japanese pop music could sound so good?
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7 Days in Hell
I'm not really sure what I just watched, but I laughed quite a bit.
I'm not really sure what I just watched, but I laughed quite a bit.
Watched Murnau's Nosferatu the other night with an orquestra playing music live and it was fantastic. It's the second time I go to something like that and it was much better this time with the focus being on the movie and not on the music.
I've also been volunteering at the downtown cinema for the last few months and it is finally open again! I'll be there helping for the next few months and I get to watch all the movies I want for free on the big screen. Moonlight was great, especially the last 'chapter' but I was a bit disappointed in how a few parts of the story were told. I'll blame that on my expectations being too high due to the WKW comparisons here. Manchester by the sea was good. La la land was ok.
I've also been volunteering at the downtown cinema for the last few months and it is finally open again! I'll be there helping for the next few months and I get to watch all the movies I want for free on the big screen. Moonlight was great, especially the last 'chapter' but I was a bit disappointed in how a few parts of the story were told. I'll blame that on my expectations being too high due to the WKW comparisons here. Manchester by the sea was good. La la land was ok.
Japanese pop music got me into Korean pop music which was the 2nd best discovery I've made in the last 5 years. My #1 discovery is Japanese anime.
Agree on Your Name btw. It really does typify everything that's great about anime.
I got around to Ashes of Time (Redux) at last, was expecting a mixed bag but really enjoyed it. Increasingly sad about Leslie Cheung with every film of his I watch, he had such a great screen presence. Anyone seen the non Redux version, how does it compare?
I've just downloaded Doctor Strange which is now available as BlueRay.
Not a fan of superhero movies but I am a fan of Cumberbatch so will give it a watch.
Not a fan of superhero movies but I am a fan of Cumberbatch so will give it a watch.
I remember giving it a try once but the rip was pretty terrible so I ended up abandoning it, the opening was different iirc.
Hacksaw Ridge. Wow, what a film. What a sublime, offensive, hypocritcal, primitive, ridiculous film. You have to admire the absolute fecking gall of Mel Gibson for lending his ample, sado-fascist filmmaking talents to the beatification of a conchy soldier.
The film focuses on pacifist honour and spriritual service... for about 30 seconds, and then Gibson returns to his true calling; that of masterfully filming demonic Japs being burnt to death by hellfire from God's flamethrower. This is crass, obnoxious cinema at it's finest. The script is Mel's usual sub movie of the week melodrama, shot through with his trademark mix of mad, exploitative violence and a horror movie aesthetic.
Mel Gibson is Hollywood's great outsider artist, painting the walls of his padded cell in excrement with the same verve with which Michelangelo applied pigment to the Sistine Chapel. Awful and majestic and always bizarre.
The film focuses on pacifist honour and spriritual service... for about 30 seconds, and then Gibson returns to his true calling; that of masterfully filming demonic Japs being burnt to death by hellfire from God's flamethrower. This is crass, obnoxious cinema at it's finest. The script is Mel's usual sub movie of the week melodrama, shot through with his trademark mix of mad, exploitative violence and a horror movie aesthetic.
Mel Gibson is Hollywood's great outsider artist, painting the walls of his padded cell in excrement with the same verve with which Michelangelo applied pigment to the Sistine Chapel. Awful and majestic and always bizarre.
I've avoided it. Now its a much watch
Its pretty good if you like the smaller super non hero movies. Which I do
The Omen - Spectacular death scenes, the rest of the film I'd say was fairly...now there's a perfect word for this in Swedish but the English translation of it sounds a lot more poncier than the Swedish word, the word is 'adroit'. So, yeah, a very adroit thriller, competent but nothing more than that.
I've not really been curious to watch Hacksaw Ridge due to the reports that it's about Christianity saving the US from hellish faceless monsters. Gibson is probably the only one who can get away with stuff like that these days, maybe Eastwood too.
I didn't get that impression at all. Most War movies don't really give any characterisation to the enemy, other than they're the evil enemy. Most war movies I've seen are American, therefore it's always American hero saves the day from incompetent allies and evil enemies.
It was also supposed to be a brutal bloody conflict in the Pacific with the Japanese prefering death over surrender which was reflected in the brutality of the film. The miniseries The Pacific also portrayed it that way if I recall correctly (it's been a few years since I watched it).
The Christian guy gets pretty fecked over for his beliefs by his own comrades/superiors for most of the film. He changed their attitudes with his bravery rather than making them all believers in his faith.
It was a bit cheesy in places (mainly around his religious beliefs and romantic subplot) but they show interviews with the real-life main character at the end of the film and I got the impression that he was very similar to the way he was portrayed. Especially as he references some of the cheesier bits of the movie.
Moonlight. Stylish and ambitious film that falls a little short.
The acting is sometimes excellent but not always (Kevin the teeanger in particular was great). It's clean and handsome, full of wistful pans and lingering portrait shots, scored by very noticeable classical arrangements. It occasionally resembles a fashion shoot, where everyone from the corner boys to the rock head mother look absolutely beautiful. That's not to say that it's all style over substance - and some of that style acts as worthy substance - but it felt a little ephemeral, or like a delicately crafted yet brittle sugar sculpture. An entirely different film (and perhaps it's not a fair comparison) but besides something like Tongues Untied the film looks awfully parochial.
One thing that I did like was the critical focus on visual representations of overt masculinity. Muscles and fists, wealth, power and aggression are shown in contrast with character's sexual and human insecurities.
I think it's a good film, that provides a social good - perhaps a better, more challenging film might not be so accessible. The academy will no doubt love it. I'd just rather have a great film.
The acting is sometimes excellent but not always (Kevin the teeanger in particular was great). It's clean and handsome, full of wistful pans and lingering portrait shots, scored by very noticeable classical arrangements. It occasionally resembles a fashion shoot, where everyone from the corner boys to the rock head mother look absolutely beautiful. That's not to say that it's all style over substance - and some of that style acts as worthy substance - but it felt a little ephemeral, or like a delicately crafted yet brittle sugar sculpture. An entirely different film (and perhaps it's not a fair comparison) but besides something like Tongues Untied the film looks awfully parochial.
One thing that I did like was the critical focus on visual representations of overt masculinity. Muscles and fists, wealth, power and aggression are shown in contrast with character's sexual and human insecurities.
I think it's a good film, that provides a social good - perhaps a better, more challenging film might not be so accessible. The academy will no doubt love it. I'd just rather have a great film.
great review. My reaction was a tad more 'meh' though. Manchester by the Sea
Blatant Oscar bait apropos of nothing.
Passengers
Absolute cack. The bastard child of Castaway and Titanic that nobody wanted.
As I said in a previous comment, Passengers only makes sense as a star vehicle, which I'm sure is what was intended. The studio thought the starlight of Pratt and Lawrence would blind the audience to the paper thin story. Unfortunately the characters weren't particularly compelling and their relationship didn't strike many sparks, so that left the movie running on fumes.
Ouija: Origin of Evil
It was alright. I liked the ending, but wanted more of the backstory of the haunting. It was also distracting that the mom looked like an older version of the girl I've had the most serious relationship with.
6.5/10
It was alright. I liked the ending, but wanted more of the backstory of the haunting. It was also distracting that the mom looked like an older version of the girl I've had the most serious relationship with.
6.5/10
You are aware it is a true story?
Anyway, Manchester by the sea
tumescent. Like attending a 2 hour funeral.
Casey Affleck doing his Gosling-Driver impersonation, and getting acclaim for acting by not acting.
Seems like playing a role "aspergers" get positive attention.