I think in this case race is a key theme, so if you feel it deals with it badly it's a perfectly legit criticism. With Ghostbusters it was basically just about casting choices.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
Ok, cool. I need to watch it and make my own mind up so. The level of vitriol I’ve read about it just made me think there’s something else going on other than movie criticism.
Three Billboards is brilliant, I loved how subtle the handling of the characters was, and how you experienced a whole range of feelings towards each of them as the film went on. Some of the writing was brilliant, and Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell are great. Woody wasn't bad either, but much easier part to play overall. It's definitely worth a watch, and I really enjoyed the ending (which I think won't satisfy everyone).
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Decent acting and directing. The Irish kid was very good in his role. Score was good but kinda in your face a bit more than needed imo. The plot was my biggest gripe with the movie though. The ending was weird and nothing really gets explained. 5/10
Decent acting and directing. The Irish kid was very good in his role. Score was good but kinda in your face a bit more than needed imo. The plot was my biggest gripe with the movie though. The ending was weird and nothing really gets explained. 5/10
Wonder Woman - All of the cheese and none of the humour. Summed up by one of the penultimate lines of the film 'I learned only love can save the world..' Barf. Smashed doesn't like.
Also what even happened at the end...
Avatar - How did that lead get cast for this series? I want to like this film but I can't get past whatshisface's attempts at acting. So distracting. Only the bad guy seemed to show any ability to act whatsoever, and that made me route for him throughout. Despite him being 50 shades of black in a world that seemingly has no greys. Please just kill off the lead or teach him how to act or something, I really want to like the next 4 Avatar movies.
Also what even happened at the end...
Why did she just randomly tun into like the most powerful being in the universe? Because only love could save the world...? Barf.
Avatar - How did that lead get cast for this series? I want to like this film but I can't get past whatshisface's attempts at acting. So distracting. Only the bad guy seemed to show any ability to act whatsoever, and that made me route for him throughout. Despite him being 50 shades of black in a world that seemingly has no greys. Please just kill off the lead or teach him how to act or something, I really want to like the next 4 Avatar movies.
The Florida Project
Enjoyed this movie. Follows the story of a single mom and her daughter living in a shitty motel near disneyland. Great acting and casting. Not a lot of action if you need that in your movies but kept me hooked throughout. 7.5/10
Enjoyed this movie. Follows the story of a single mom and her daughter living in a shitty motel near disneyland. Great acting and casting. Not a lot of action if you need that in your movies but kept me hooked throughout. 7.5/10
It really isn’t. Leaving aside your politics, the craft of the film is absolutely dogshit. McDonagh’s dialogue is aggressively lame, the editing and cinematography are ungainly and perplexing, the characters are an inch deep and basically just riffs on the reputations of the actors, and the acting itself from a number of those involved is risible.
It’s not just offensive to black people either. Peter Dinklage’s stature is used as a punchline on a couple of occasions and domestic violence is weirdly overlooked as a minor foible.
I don't think it is a film about domestic violence or Peter Dinklage's stature. But I can definitely see it being offensive to black people.
A lot of that is your subjective take on the film, which is fair enough, but the bolded part seems plain wrong to me, if only for Frances McDormand's and Sam Rockwell's characters.
Darkest Hour
If you like historical films that are factual(ish), and great acting, you should watch this. Gary Oldman is made up to get an uncanny likeness to the great man, and delivers the goods. Some other strong performances as well, Ben Mendelsohn as George VI in particular.
There were especially two scenes in the film that touched me deeply. Even though I know those scenes didn’t really happen, they could have, since it’s backed up by historical sources that the themes in them were factual. The Brits really know how to make historical dramas. No action scenes shoehorned in Hollywood-style to keep people awake.
Strongly recommend it. 8/10
If you like historical films that are factual(ish), and great acting, you should watch this. Gary Oldman is made up to get an uncanny likeness to the great man, and delivers the goods. Some other strong performances as well, Ben Mendelsohn as George VI in particular.
There were especially two scenes in the film that touched me deeply. Even though I know those scenes didn’t really happen, they could have, since it’s backed up by historical sources that the themes in them were factual. The Brits really know how to make historical dramas. No action scenes shoehorned in Hollywood-style to keep people awake.
Strongly recommend it. 8/10
I just watched Get Out.
After reading reviews and seeing ratings all I have to say about it is: Underwhelming
After reading reviews and seeing ratings all I have to say about it is: Underwhelming
One from the Heart - The flop that ended up bankrupting Francis Ford Coppola. It's quite a spectacular case of hubris, it's strange that no one at some point had a word with him during the process and told him that this wasn't gonna be the greatest love story ever told. The couple was incredibly unlikeable, especially Frederic Forrest who was totally miscast as a leading man and as a love interest for Teri Garr and Nastassja Kinski. The shift in tones were quite baffling and the way it moved from scene to scene was quite cumbersome. The elaborate sets looked good now and then but mostly gave the scenes an awkward feeling of artificiality. The addition of corny montages and slapstick moments were also fairly bewildering. The best things about it was some of the visual touches from Vittorio Storaro, Harry Dean Stanton by the default, a short haired Nastassja Kinski who I could sit through any film for and the title track by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle.
Last edited:
Just watched The Duel on Netflix. It's a western with a super natural twist. The film could have been great but unfortunately they stay on the peripheral on the interesting aspects of the film, most of it in the end is unexplained.
Woody Harrelson was superb in his role. 6/10
Woody Harrelson was superb in his role. 6/10
The Shape of Water
Great soundtrack and cinematography. Set in a cold war America, it follows the story of a mute woman who works at a government facility and develops feelings for a fishman type creature that is being kept there. Enjoyable movie to take your significant other to but nothing too amazing. Solid but not superb. 7/10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Great cast and good acting. Enjoyed the score as well. Sam Rockwell is a very underrated actor. One of those movies where you don't feel it was as long as it actually was which is a positive for me. If I was nitpicking i'd say the ex husbands girlfriend and the secretary at the ad agency to a lesser extent seemed a bit like caricatures rather than the characters with depth we given throughout the movie. Definitely worth a watch. 8/10
Great soundtrack and cinematography. Set in a cold war America, it follows the story of a mute woman who works at a government facility and develops feelings for a fishman type creature that is being kept there. Enjoyable movie to take your significant other to but nothing too amazing. Solid but not superb. 7/10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Great cast and good acting. Enjoyed the score as well. Sam Rockwell is a very underrated actor. One of those movies where you don't feel it was as long as it actually was which is a positive for me. If I was nitpicking i'd say the ex husbands girlfriend and the secretary at the ad agency to a lesser extent seemed a bit like caricatures rather than the characters with depth we given throughout the movie. Definitely worth a watch. 8/10
Last edited:
Mercy
When four estranged brothers return home to say their last goodbye to their dying mother, Grace, hidden motivations reveal themselves. Starts off well but when the second act ends, it just shows the act again, from a different viewpoint. Now that's fine if there lots to learn from the alternate perspective but here, there wasn't, it was pretty much what you have already deciphered, so felt like a complete waste of time. Once the antagonists are revealed, it's also a let down. Shame, the tone and look of the film had great potential but it felt like they had a 60 minute story stretched into 90 minutes 4/10
When four estranged brothers return home to say their last goodbye to their dying mother, Grace, hidden motivations reveal themselves. Starts off well but when the second act ends, it just shows the act again, from a different viewpoint. Now that's fine if there lots to learn from the alternate perspective but here, there wasn't, it was pretty much what you have already deciphered, so felt like a complete waste of time. Once the antagonists are revealed, it's also a let down. Shame, the tone and look of the film had great potential but it felt like they had a 60 minute story stretched into 90 minutes 4/10
Mindhorn
From Mighty Boosh writer Julian Barratt and horrid history guy Simon Farnaby comes this comedy drama. Barratt plays a washed up actor, star of the 80's detective drama Mindhorn, a man with a bionic truth detecting eye. He is drawn into a real life crime drama taking place on the isle of Man and uses it as an opportunity to spark his career back into life.
It has influences of Alan Partridge, Bionic man, Bergerac and has some good plot twists and conspiracies. Barratt gives a great performance, showing some real depth rather than the OTT stuff I have seen him do before. He is particularly effecting when showing the lonely side of the character.
The plot gradually descends into strange costume re-enactments and the nature of fandom amidst the islands tourist locations. His ex wife, played by Essie Davies holds everything together in the real world and gives things some grounding in reality.
If you grew up on a diet of TV detective dramas in the 70's and eighties you will love some of the references in here. It's a fun film with a couple of genuinely touching moments as well as a lot of silliness.
it's not as good as Farnaby's other film out at the moment, Paddington 2 but it is a diverting and well paced film.
From Mighty Boosh writer Julian Barratt and horrid history guy Simon Farnaby comes this comedy drama. Barratt plays a washed up actor, star of the 80's detective drama Mindhorn, a man with a bionic truth detecting eye. He is drawn into a real life crime drama taking place on the isle of Man and uses it as an opportunity to spark his career back into life.
It has influences of Alan Partridge, Bionic man, Bergerac and has some good plot twists and conspiracies. Barratt gives a great performance, showing some real depth rather than the OTT stuff I have seen him do before. He is particularly effecting when showing the lonely side of the character.
The plot gradually descends into strange costume re-enactments and the nature of fandom amidst the islands tourist locations. His ex wife, played by Essie Davies holds everything together in the real world and gives things some grounding in reality.
If you grew up on a diet of TV detective dramas in the 70's and eighties you will love some of the references in here. It's a fun film with a couple of genuinely touching moments as well as a lot of silliness.
it's not as good as Farnaby's other film out at the moment, Paddington 2 but it is a diverting and well paced film.
They’re not characters, they’re extensions of the actors.
Sam Rockwell is becoming the young man’s Gary Oldman.
I don't even know what that means!
Conversa Acabada (1981) - 8/10 A movie about the friendship between Mário de Sá Carneiro and Fernando Pessoa between 1912 and 1916 ending with the Mário's suicide in 1916. Fascinating look at 2 of the most influencial portuguese poeple of the XX century, the way their friendship, career and writing evolved and how the war and the end of the monarchy impacted them. Only problem with it is it should have been about 20 minutes shorter as it got too repetitive at times.
Insiang and Manila in the Claws of Light - Two fantastic pieces of Filipino melodrama/neorealism by Lino Brocka. For me, it blew similar works done by the likes of Pasolini right out of the water. The restorations done by Marty Scorsese and the World Cinema Foundation looked gorgeous as well.
Last edited:
The Room
I want to watch disaster artist but the wife hasn't seen the room, which was tearing me apart, so we stuck it on. We laughed so much I elbowed her in the eye, but I did not hit her, I swear, I did naaat... Oh hi mark! Hi Doggie/10
Snowman
God this was boring. The film appeared to be like a TV episode, so flat and a predictable story and reveal of the killer. Fell asleep a few times... Thankfully 3/10
I want to watch disaster artist but the wife hasn't seen the room, which was tearing me apart, so we stuck it on. We laughed so much I elbowed her in the eye, but I did not hit her, I swear, I did naaat... Oh hi mark! Hi Doggie/10
Snowman
God this was boring. The film appeared to be like a TV episode, so flat and a predictable story and reveal of the killer. Fell asleep a few times... Thankfully 3/10
Wtf?!Darkest Hour - first hour played like an above average episode of The Crown, and even made the same strange decision to create a pretty young secretary to hang around Churchill to reveal his humanity, or something. The second hour unravels into saccharine, execrable nonsense. A scene on an underground train is especially egregious. It ends with the same speech as Dunkirk but does it with all the chest-beating bombast Nolan was at pains to avoid. Gary Oldman does his best John Lithgow impression but falls a little short.
Star Wars The Last Jedi - What the feck are they doing to this franchise??/10
Wait, wait, let me guess! Is it....make it interesting and accessible to a new generation of children?
It’s that, right? Definitely that.
You only need to remember that most people who complain loved the first three. Return of the Jedi has Ewoks. Lots and lots of Ewoks.
Yeah you're probably right.
Elizabeth Nell was a real person and the film shows her relationship with Churchill extremely well. The only obvious inaccuracy is that she started working for Churchill just after he became PM not just before. The rest is almost straight from her autobiography.
There is no proof this exact exchange occurred but Churchill pulled a disappearing act quite frequently to talk to people in the street to gauge their opinions and reaction to what was happening.
That was his actual speech. Delivered in a very similar manner to the real thing.
And Dunkirk was very disappointing. It even missed much of the important and interesting detail of the small ships rescue. The Darkest Hour wasn't perfect but it was a much better film than Dunkirk.
You only need to remember that most people who complain loved the first three. Return of the Jedi has Ewoks. Lots and lots of Ewoks.
You know how there are some people who voted for Trump or Brexit that arent crazy racist assholes? That are genuinely quite intelligent and had quasi-plausible personal reasons for doing so? But that despite all that, the fact they were consciously willing to align themselves with some of the very worst elements of society, and enable an agenda that would benefit them, in full knowledge of the effects, still kind of makes them just as bad by default?
I feel the same way about people who vehemently hated the new Star Wars. There are many perfectly reasonable reasons to dislike the film, of course (it’s a silly family space opera) but if you’re gonna make a big song and dance of it, you’re doing so in the full and conscious knowledge that you’re aligning yourself with people like Ben Shapiro, and the guys who edited the film to take all the women out. You’re throwing your lot in with the peak entitled neckbeards and angry Elliot Rodger MRA types. Thems your peeps. And while they might not all personally fit that description, the fact they’re willing to fight in that corner kinda makes them literally nothing short of pure evil, by association.
I know that’s not remotely fair, of course. But it’s nevertheless still definitely true.
Last edited:
Yeah Wibble I don’t care about any of those things. They don’t affect the criticisms in any way.
I didn't even hate it but come on. Cultural preferences on a single subject do not equal politics or an entire worldview.
I didn't even hate it but come on. Cultural preferences on a single subject do not equal politics or an entire worldview.
Sure, but if I went to the pub with Paul Joseph Watson, I’d struggle to find any common ground, whereas a Last Jedi hater would be able to at least squeeze a good 10 minutes out of it. Ipso facto, pure evil.
They don't? It seems that some of the things you didn't like actually happened rather than being created for affect.
They almost certainly didn’t happen and they were badly presented, so they serve neither an historical nor dramatic purpose.
Did they leave in the part when he caused a famine?
No but he was rude and sweaty so I think they captured both sides of his character.
Is this the Sunday supplement version of movies in here now?
Anyway.
The post. 7.2/10.
Competent political thriller.
Anyway.
The post. 7.2/10.
Competent political thriller.
It's more of a 7.1 and three fifths for me.
The train scene was especially cringey, and they threw a token black actor in for good measure! Other than that, I thought it was a very good film and Oldman was excellent.