Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Diamonds of the Night - About two boys on the run after escaping a train bound for a concentration camp, it was sparse and practically wordless and tried to capture the desperate, disturbed minds of the boys through disjointed editing. Dreams, flashbacks and projections of a possible future were constantly overlapping with reality. It's a terrific film and stunningly enough a debut feature. One criticism might be that it was a bit cold.
 
The Great Wall - A mundane Starship Troopers meets Ancient China hybrid movie.

Visually, a very good movie with choreographed army movements, chinese style drumming etc. But that's it. Colorfully wrapped empty box.

Wafer thin plot line, predictable (and yes, not really believable) story turns, boring acting and nothing that really keeps you interested.

4/10
 
White Girl (2016)

Watched this on Netflix. Gritty drama about a young college girl who moves to a new part of New York with a very active drug scene. She falls for a young local dealer who quickly ends up on the wrong side of the law. Having fallen for this guy big time she resorts to extreme measures, usually resulting in drugs and sex to pay for his lawyer fees to get him off. Morgan Saylor does a decent job as the young cokehead. Don't think I've seen so much smoking and coke use in a movie...it's non stop every few minutes. Apparently everyone in New York must use the stuff. Thankfully the running time is just under 90 minutes, 90 minutes of incessant drug use (I guess that's where the title comes in) but there's a bit of a love story in there if you look hard enough. Ending was a bit predictable and you do end up feeling for the characters in the end but only a bit. Can't say whether it's worth a watch or not.

I'm giving this a 4/10.
 
Watched Moonlight, I found it incredibly boring. Such pretentious garbage, how on earth has this film been hyped so much?
 
The Terrorizers - Very much enjoyed this one. Edward Yang's films are so dense, really need to watch this again at some point. I'm not normally a fan of the whole intersecting lives formula but I thought Yang handled it rather gracefully. He's got a really nice subdued touch without ever turning dull or lifeless, always bristling with life, with everything going along at the speed of life. The 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' scene was the bomb.
 
Assassin's Creed
Haven't played the game so maybe that affects my judgement on this film. Felt very convoluted, not enough big action sequences, although the two that there were felt really great. Such a waste considering the talent on board. They should have focused on this film rather than trying to set up a franchise 4/10
 
Pierce Brosnan's Bond Films: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day

I've rewatched these over a number of recent weeks and, as Brosnan was the Bond I grew up with on-screen and on the N64, they (mainly the first three) are pretty special to me.

In my humble opinion the order from great to watchable shite is:

GoldenEye (1995): Loved it then, love it now. What a film, what a game, what a pun ('I trust you'll stay... Onatopp of things').
TWINE (1999): Things got silly here (painfree villain, Christmas Jones) but it's a blast. Nice to see Judi's M joining Bond in the shit during the third act.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): Jonathan Pryce's media mogul wasn't to everybody's tastes but I think he did a cracking job of portraying a villain who used brains over brawn.
Die Another Day (2002): It's pretty terrible, but worth a watch just to laugh at all the ridiculous ideas they crammed into one film.
 
Criminal (2016)

Available on Netflix. Great crime thriller starring Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot and Antje Traue (damn, she's sooo hot!). Set in England, a CIA agent (Reynolds) KIA has his memories implanted into a hardened, ruthless, unredeemable criminal (Costner) using a process as yet not subjected to human trials. The information from Reynolds' last case is critical to national security but also of interest to the Russians, hence his importance to the British Government, who need to retrieve this information at any cost. But of course, bad guy Costner who is becoming a changed man, thanks to good guy Reynold's happy memories and upright character and beginning to feel emotion has his own plans. I must say Costner does carry off the badass role really well (3 Days to Kill was really good too). Great acting all round though pace was a bit slow at times. Action isn't over the top like a Die Hard movie, this is more of an intelligent thriller. Was a good watch. More roles like this for Costner please....miles better than Neeson.

I'm giving this a 7/10.
 
R.N7 said:
Not really looking forward to seeing MbtS at all, might just give it a miss, sounds pretty heavy-handed.
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It's pretty taut actually. No line is there just to be there, and it's got funny moments as well. I don't know if it's cinematic enough though, thinking back, you can tell Lonergan is more of a playwright.
 
Having seen all the best picture noms now bar one let me do a brief review on them:
La La Land
Harkens back to musicals of the past. It's a bit overrated for what it is. Entertaining it is but left me wanting more. That was probably due to all the people loving it though and feeling myself being disappointed. I'd like to think in a vacuum I'd feel mostly the same.

Arrival
Potentially confusing if you're not engaged. I appreciate what they were trying to do here but while it wasn't a heavy film the dark filters didn't mood heighten. Comes full circle at the end and provides satisfaction.

Lion
Based on a true story. Best I've seen from Dev Patel so far. Heartwarming story and gives you hope at the end. Decent job by Sunny Pawar as a child actor though I'm comparing him to Jacob Tremble's performance in Room last Oscar season.

Hell or High Water
Modern way western. Not over the top. Enjoyable. Felt connected with the characters. Guns. Banks.

Hidden Figures
Only one I've managed to see twice and it was just as good second time round. Truly uplifting story particularly for women of colour. Janelle Monae wowed me here. She's got chops, not just a singer.Powerful.

Hacksaw Ridge
Andrew Garfield and violence. Those are the best aspects to this film. Gibson provides a great entry back into the Hollywood fold. Good going as a war movie in the second half particularly.

Fences
Amazing acting class this. Denzel and Viola show you their ranges here. From the subtle to over the top. It's a play on film but it's such great acting by those two in particular you don't mind. Two heavyweights showing you their talent and you'll be thankful they did.

Moonlight
My pick for the win. Naomi Harris was the standout here while Mahershala Ali made you connect with him even though he's a drug dealer. It's about the struggles of acceptance of a gay, black male in a culture that dislikes him for it but can be applied to anyone struggling to find themself/facing discrimination. That's how good it is that it can cross boundaries.
 
Oh two more I've seen recently:

Joy
Not sure what J Law did to earn a nom here when she did. It's a decent film and she's fine in it but nothing amazing. Can be put on when you need something to pause boredom.

Nocturnal Animals
Very nice. Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty good here. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Shannon stole the show here though. Captivating performances. Tom Ford's second film and I was surprised.
 
Arrival (2016)

Crap.

The Mirror (1975)

I haven't got a clue what I just watched.
 
roseguy64 said:
Having seen all the best picture noms now bar one let me do a brief review on them:
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Just to put you on the spot a little bit, as I'm working out which order to watch them in so I can be outraged at whichever one wins it, which order would you rank them, best to worst?

At the minute I've only watched Arrival and will be watching a couple later.
 
LouisDanGaal said:
Just to put you on the spot a little bit, as I'm working out which order to watch them in so I can be outraged at whichever one wins it, which order would you rank them, best to worst?

At the minute I've only watched Arrival and will be watching a couple later.
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Moonlight
La La Land
Hidden Figures
Hell or High Water
Fences
Lion
Hacksaw Ridge
Arrival
 
Deepwater Horizon

Hollywoodized account of the BP oil disaster from 2000. Suitably tense first half gave way to disaster movie tropes in the second half. Malkovich's accent was intriguing. Decent watch although I felt they barely gave any consideration to the environmental impacts. Shocked that only 11 people died tbh.
 
Saw Hidden Figures last night, it was a nice watch with some nice moments, but nothing ground-breaking or anything. From the 4 Oscar movies i've seen, Lion is still the best... but then I'm yet to see Moonlight.
 
I thought Fences was pretty good. Agree with others who have said it was very stagey. The dialogue felt written and you could see the stage directions all over the performances. The excessive use of the baseball motif looked out of place on screen and there is very little cinematic impetus. The scene in which the mother breaks down was the only moment when the film seemed to really transcends it's stagey confinements. I can imagine the play being exceptional and there is something fun about seeing a bunch of high grade thesps playing off against each other.

The whole resentful father angle, particularly his relationship with his older son resonated with me and I loved the wrestling with death thing. The last shot felt badly executed though and it doesn't quite justify it's running time.
 
Automata (2014)

Available on Netflix. Slow burning sci-fi movie in the vein of Chappie, I, Robot and Ex-Machina (loosely) and starring Antonio Banderas who was actually very good. Film also features Melanie Griffith, who I must say is not a very good advert for plastic surgery. Set in the near future where most of the earth's population has been decimated due to climactic changes caused by the sun, the remaining populus create robots to assist in maintaining and protecting what life there is left. Of course, with any robot movie, you are going to get the self awareness issue where they begin to exceed their protocols and outgrow their makers. Banderas plays an insurance agent for the robot production company who investigates complaints when they go wrong. He soon stumbles into a plot that has been kept under wraps by the company and the usual conflicts ensue. There were a few plot holes that you just have to live with but the film is well made albeit a little slow but engaging enough. I'll probably need to watch it again to appreciate it more.

I'm giving this a 6/10.
 
"they worship everything and value nothing."

La La Land should win the OSCAR. After all the acdemy is about rewarding bland, inoffensive facsimiles of films. the musical for people who don't like musicals is the film-musical equivalent of elevator Jazz.

Kelly, Rogers, Astaire could carry generic, insipid writing not because they were good actors but because they were great performers. Stone and Gosling are good actors but with very little panache - let alone skill for this type of thing - they struggle to elevate the script above the other hundred and one indie romances. (Its plot actually reminded me most of an old Saved By The Bell episode). Whiplash was similarly flimsy in terms of script but it had a violent, crazed energy that made up for it. La La Land hasn't much of anything except some nice set dressing towards the end.

It's just a game of dress up, it's The Artist (the silent film for people who don't like silent cinema), it's Natalie Portman as a Ballet dancer, It's CNN fake celluloid.

It's Donald Trump, and he's going to fecking win again.

Moana is a better musical. In fact, having now seen most of the OSCAR nominated films and if we were to award films based on filmmaking technique, ambition, originality and realisation, then there are 3 films in the animated category more worthy than anything in the best picture class. (Not Zootopia).

Sorry it's only opinions. But at least I'm not on the side of the nazis.
 
dumbo said:
"they worship everything and value nothing."

La La Land should win the OSCAR. After all the acdemy is about rewarding bland, inoffensive facsimiles of films. the musical for people who don't like musicals is the film-musical equivalent of elevator Jazz.

Kelly, Rogers, Astaire could carry generic, insipid writing not because they were good actors but because they were great performers. Stone and Gosling are good actors but with very little panache - let alone skill for this type of thing - they struggle to elevate the script above the other hundred and one indie romances. (Its plot actually reminded me most of an old Saved By The Bell episode). Whiplash was similarly flimsy in terms of script but it had a violent, crazed energy that made up for it. La La Land hasn't much of anything except some nice set dressing towards the end.

It's just a game of dress up, it's The Artist (the silent film for people who don't like silent cinema), it's Natalie Portman as a Ballet dancer, It's CNN fake celluloid.

It's Donald Trump, and he's going to fecking win again.

Moana is a better musical. In fact, having now seen most of the OSCAR nominated films and if we were to award films based on filmmaking technique, ambition, originality and realisation, then there are 3 films in the animated category more worthy than anything in the best picture class. (Not Zootopia).

Sorry it's only opinions. But at least I'm not on the side of the nazis.
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Ok, I'm intrigued now. Which 3?

I enjoyed Moana, Kubo is very good and agree Zootopia is a bit meh. What's number three?

I suspect you're right about the best picture noms. A very underwhelming bunch.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Ok, I'm intrigued now. Which 3?

I enjoyed Moana, Kubo is very good and agree Zootopia is a bit meh. What's number three?

I suspect you're right about the best picture noms. A very underwhelming bunch.
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Moana, Kubo and The Red Turtle. All incredibly well crafted, inventive films. I don't think any of them are a masterpiece but what seperates them from the other nominated films, at least in my mind, is the high level of filmmaking competency. They are all well rounded, fully realised creations. The other live action noms have fairly obvious flaws in my view, even though I enjoyed most of them.

I was going to say that it's as strong as I've seen the animation category but having checked last years nominations and perhaps 2016 was even stronger.

For what it's worth, Elle would probably be my "best" film of 2017, even though The Witch was my favourite.
 
dumbo said:
Moana, Kubo and The Red Turtle. All incredibly well crafted, inventive films. I don't think any of them are a masterpiece but what seperates them from the other nominated films, at least in my mind, is the high level of filmmaking competency. They are all well rounded, fully realised creations. The other live action noms have fairly obvious flaws in my view, even though I enjoyed most of them.

I was going to say that it's as strong as I've seen the animation category but having checked last years nominations and perhaps 2016 was even stronger.

For what it's worth, Elle would probably be my "best" film of 2017, even though The Witch was my favourite.
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Haven't seen Red Turtle. It's going on my list.

Have you seen Monster Calls? Have to admit I'm kind of baffled how it got so completely overlooked.
 
:lol:Does anyone remember that bloody film, it won the Oscar, everone was talking about it, it had that dog that did tricks and er black and white, Pete hated it. Easy come, easy go.
 
I don't even remember the dog. I only remember that he finally spoke at the end but I can't really recall what he said. It's strange because judging by my reactions in this thread at the time I seem to have professed an admiration for the film of sorts, but 2011-2012 was kind of a dark, muddled period where I partied too hard and was way too easily impressed by new movies.
 
R.N7 said:
I don't even remember the dog. I only remember that he finally spoke at the end but I can't really recall what he said. It's strange because judging by my reactions in this thread at the time I seem to have professed an admiration for the film of sorts, but 2011-2012 was kind of a dark, muddled period where I partied too hard and was way too easily impressed by new movies.
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:lol:
 
A Separation in foreign language category, absurdly absent from the main list.
 
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