Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

The Room is, like, really boring though. The best bits vid on YouTube, that’s eight minutes long, is all you need.

I thought Franco was very good as Wiseau and drew some good, easy laughs. He’s a terrible director though and the film misses the most interesting conflicts in the surprisingly rich book it’s based on.
 


The Cloverfield Paradox - Despite what Ava DuVernay might say, bypassing critics and going straight to Netflix is not the calling card of a game changer, its the calling card of a turkey. Its a mish mash of sci fi tropes and regurgitated classic scenes with very little unique to say for itself. Flirts too much with comedy in the mid point which completely undercuts any emotional investment.

I liked how Bad Robot had decided to take quirky sci fi films and adopt them into the Cloverfield universe. It worked well for Cloverfield Lane and while this film actually fits the origin stories of the Cloverfield Monster from the original film, the connections feel completely forced with scenes tacked on purely for fan service.

Terrible.
 
GBBQ said:


The Cloverfield Paradox - Despite what Ava DuVernay might say, bypassing critics and going straight to Netflix is not the calling card of a game changer, its the calling card of a turkey. Its a mish mash of sci fi tropes and regurgitated classic scenes with very little unique to say for itself. Flirts too much with comedy in the mid point which completely undercuts any emotional investment.

I liked how Bad Robot had decided to take quirky sci fi films and adopt them into the Cloverfield universe. It worked well for Cloverfield Lane and while this film actually fits the origin stories of the Cloverfield Monster from the original film, the connections feel completely forced with scenes tacked on purely for fan service.

Terrible.
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I'm increasingly feeling that JJ Abrams is just a film school devotee and not a proper director. Everything is either a reboot, a reverential scene or someone else's idea that he fails to bring to fruition.

Can Hollywood please invest more in Neil Blomkamp or Duncan Jones rather than this charlatan. They have both created a science fiction world with something new and unusual. Abrams is technically a good director when it comes to logistics and cinematography, but he seems to be creatively bankrupt.
 
buchansleftleg said:
I'm increasingly feeling that JJ Abrams is just a film school devotee and not a proper director. Everything is either a reboot, a reverential scene or someone else's idea that he fails to bring to fruition.

Can Hollywood please invest more in Neil Blomkamp or Duncan Jones rather than this charlatan. They have both created a science fiction world with something new and unusual. Abrams is technically a good director when it comes to logistics and cinematography, but he seems to be creatively bankrupt.
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Yeah his body of work is really looking more and more like a love letter to Spielberg and Lucas. The films are visually stunning but never unique.
 
Cloverfield Paradox

Watched this last night, loving all the original Sci-Fi stuff Netflix are doing lately (Cloverfield/Bright/Altered Carton/Stranger Things season 2/ Black Mirror/Dark), film called 'Annihilation' coming out later this month:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation_(film)

I see negative reviews above, but i personally enjoyed it - Was a fan of the other Cloverfield films though.

Strong start to the film i felt, lost itself a little half-way through and had a strong ending, felt it was quite close to blockbuster Hollywood movie, I've seen far worse with bigger budgets put it that way.

3 out of 5 stars.

There's another Cloverfield coming out later on in the year called 'Overlord' i hope Netflix have got the rights to that one too.
 
3 billboards has the social insights of a Ricky Gervais twitter spat and the filmmaking is very sloppy. It's not simply a case of shallow writing and lazy storytelling, the basic technical craft of filmmaking appears to be lacking too. Choppy cutting and incoherent visuals, bad line readings and unnatural conversations, distracting sound design and jarring tonal shifts. Stuff constantly happens out of nowhere, and character reactions seem to be linked to random number generation.
rape? sure. cancer? why not. violent suicide? that's cool. throw a guy out the window? yep. midget jokes? got some left over from last time. fire bombing, spousal abuse, private sleuthing, Angry cop, Angry woman, black labour matters? fo sho! right ok now lets piece it all together? Do what now?

Much plot, much gags, no much story. In Mcdonaghland developing character is putting Gandhi in a nazi uniform and social commentary is putting Hitler in a turban. His self-satisfied simple-mindedness reminds me of Haggis.

If Mulholland Drive is the film that opened my eyes to the sensory power of cinema then Francis Mcdormand was the actor who revealed the impact that character and performance can have. Having to watch her scribbled-in-crayola character stumble through poorly choreographed scene after poorly choreographed scene was a miserable experience. And what exactly does the director have on Dinklage?

A cheap and nasty thing. 10/10

3 Billboards, GOT, Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, I hope they win all the oscers. Do you ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night.
 
Is the new Cloverfield found footage like this first one? I can't be doing with all that.
 
dumbo said:
3 billboards has the social insights of a Ricky Gervais twitter spat and the filmmaking is very sloppy. It's not simply a case of shallow writing and lazy storytelling, the basic technical craft of filmmaking appears to be lacking too. Choppy cutting and incoherent visuals, bad line readings and unnatural conversations, distracting sound design and jarring tonal shifts. Stuff constantly happens out of nowhere, and character reactions seem to be linked to random number generation.
rape? sure. cancer? why not. violent suicide? that's cool. throw a guy out the window? yep. midget jokes? got some left over from last time. fire bombing, spousal abuse, private sleuthing, Angry cop, Angry woman, black labour matters? fo sho! right ok now lets piece it all together? Do what now?

Much plot, much gags, no much story. In Mcdonaghland developing character is putting Gandhi in a nazi uniform and social commentary is putting Hitler in a turban. His self-satisfied simple-mindedness reminds me of Haggis.

If Mulholland Drive is the film that opened my eyes to the sensory power of cinema then Francis Mcdormand was the actor who revealed the impact that character and performance can have. Having to watch her scribbled-in-crayola character stumble through poorly choreographed scene after poorly choreographed scene was a miserable experience. And what exactly does the director have on Dinklage?

A cheap and nasty thing. 10/10

3 Billboards, GOT, Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, I hope they win all the oscers. Do you ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night.
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Yeah, exactly.
 
dumbo said:
3 billboards has the social insights of a Ricky Gervais twitter spat and the filmmaking is very sloppy. It's not simply a case of shallow writing and lazy storytelling, the basic technical craft of filmmaking appears to be lacking too. Choppy cutting and incoherent visuals, bad line readings and unnatural conversations, distracting sound design and jarring tonal shifts. Stuff constantly happens out of nowhere, and character reactions seem to be linked to random number generation.
rape? sure. cancer? why not. violent suicide? that's cool. throw a guy out the window? yep. midget jokes? got some left over from last time. fire bombing, spousal abuse, private sleuthing, Angry cop, Angry woman, black labour matters? fo sho! right ok now lets piece it all together? Do what now?

Much plot, much gags, no much story. In Mcdonaghland developing character is putting Gandhi in a nazi uniform and social commentary is putting Hitler in a turban. His self-satisfied simple-mindedness reminds me of Haggis.

If Mulholland Drive is the film that opened my eyes to the sensory power of cinema then Francis Mcdormand was the actor who revealed the impact that character and performance can have. Having to watch her scribbled-in-crayola character stumble through poorly choreographed scene after poorly choreographed scene was a miserable experience. And what exactly does the director have on Dinklage?

A cheap and nasty thing. 10/10

3 Billboards, GOT, Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, I hope they win all the oscers. Do you ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night.
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I liked the film but I also liked this review. *applauds*
 
sullydnl said:
I liked the film but I also liked this review. *applauds*
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oh cool. I'm messing around a bit as well - mainly giving it a harder time than it deserves because of the OSCAR nod. It's bombastic, snappily paced with a ton of gags and a great cast, if the tone was pitched slightly differently it might have worked for me. It's somewhat gimpy construction and slightly wonky take on social issues on their own aren't really enough to raise my ire. The awards nods and 5 star reviews help with that.
 
Finally saw Get Out the other day. 10/10 deserves every Oscar.
 
Ivan‘s Childhood 8/10

I knew Tarkowski was good. I actually love the guy. But even he shouldn’t be this good with his first movie. That’s unreal. What a brilliant artist that man was.
 
Andrei Rublev - 10/10

Watched it for a second time today and was again amazed. Maybe the best movie ever made, definitely the greatest end to a movie ever.
The soul of art itself has never been captured as well in a movie before. The movie is nothing less, than a look into the core of what it is, that makes us human.
 
HTG said:
Andrei Rublev - 10/10

Watched it for a second time today and was again amazed. Maybe the best movie ever made, definitely the greatest end to a movie ever.
The soul of art itself has never been captured as well in a movie before. The movie is nothing less, than a look into the core of what it is, that makes us human.
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Nothing like a Tarkovsky binge. Have you seen the rest?
 
R.N7 said:
Nothing like a Tarkovsky binge. Have you seen the rest?
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Since yesterday. A cinema nearby is showing all of his work. At the end of the month they’ll even show his shortfilms.
His movies are uniquely poetic and beautiful.
 
HTG said:
Since yesterday. A cinema nearby is showing all of his work. At the end of the month they’ll even show his shortfilms.
His movies are uniquely poetic and beautiful.
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Nice! Don't be like a certain French guy who skipped a Solyaris screening just because he couldn't be arsed.
 
I bought Stalker, Solaris and Ivan's Childhood from the Criterion Collection and it's amazing how watchable they are on a television, despite their length and pacing. Just engrossing. I still haven't caught up with Andre Rublev.
 
Archie Leach said:
I bought Stalker, Solaris and Ivan's Childhood from the Criterion Collection and it's amazing how watchable they are on a television, despite their length and pacing. Just engrossing. I still haven't caught up with Andre Rublev.
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I've never seen them on a big screen but I've always found them to be excellent solo watches. A small screen, headphones on, dark room and just let yourself get drawn into them.
 
R.N7 said:
Nice! Don't be like a certain French guy who skipped a Solyaris screening just because he couldn't be arsed.
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I'm actually skipping Solyaris. But only because I watched it at the cinema a few months ago already. So I hope I'm excused.
 
HTG said:
I'm actually skipping Solyaris. But only because I watched it at the cinema a few months ago already. So I hope I'm excused.
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Early Man

Well I wasn't expecting that!! Expecting something along the lines of The Croods but with the Aardman take what you get couldn't be anything further from this. The opening scenes sets the premise and tone for the film, which is basically a prehistoric football match between early Cave Men and the more advanced Bronze Age dwellers. Yes, it's just a football match and that's it! The film only develops about 5 or 6 of the characters and the rest are just fillers...cause of course you need 22 players for a football match.

They manage to get references to Real Madrid, Arsenal and Man United (of course) in there but it won't have you splitting your sides any time soon. Predictable ending as with all of these sporting underdog stories. It's just the usual Aardman fare!

I'm giving this a 5/10.
 
Darkest Hour is all bold mannerisms of big personalities clashing in small rooms. Shot on stark sets, lit with a dramatic chiaroscuro, I thought it a rousing, romantic hagiography of Churchill. To hell with realism I dug it's big theatricalities and expressionistic visuals. I found the train scene, for instance, was in keeping with the general tone - ridiculous but good. It all worked really well.
Bpvzsky.jpg
 
One of my best recent movie experiences was when I watched Risky Business at night. Didn't expect it to be that mature/adult-esque for what I thought was a teen movie. Also, the soundtrack was magnificent.
 
The Ritual

A few mates from England decides to go hiking on the border between Sweden and Norway. They decide to take a short cut and wander through the forrest where an ancient deity resides, shit gets real.

I really liked it up until:

They decided to show the deity, and it looked like a moose on meth

Still a decent watch

5/10
 
Watched 'The Road' last night. 7.5/10.
Doesn't do much wrong the but it is bleak bleak bleak.
It could probably be pinned on the end of 'The Book of Eli' actually.
Very fallout 3.
 
Ian Reus said:
Watched 'The Road' last night. 7.5/10.
Doesn't do much wrong the but it is bleak bleak bleak.
It could probably be pinned on the end of 'The Book of Eli' actually.
Very fallout 3.
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I watched it years ago, really hungover, and it fecking scarred me for days. It's a really tough film to watch.
 
To weigh in on the Cloverfield Paradox discussion, I thought it was hugely enjoyable. Not in the conventional way, of course. Or indeed in any of the ways they presumably intended. It was utterly terrible by any and all conventional standards. But it managed to be that very special kind of terrible that was both unaware of, and completely committed to it's own utter terribleness. Something which made its many frequent ridiculousnesses almost charming. In an amusingly terrible way.

One of my favourite aspects of it's almost endearing terribleness, is that it can't be pinned down or blamed on it's re-writing, or indeed on any one particular thing. The bits that were very clearly added in later to retcon it into the Cloverfield Universe were spectacularly terrible, sure. But they were no more or less terrible than some of the more terrible parts of the evidently original film. And even without plotting of near satirical terribleness, you'd still be left with dialogue that renders most of the characters at Prometheus levels of cinematic space job incompetence...

In a word. Terrible.

Highlights include.

A clearly added on subplot about the main character's husband rescuing a little girl from 'somewhere' for 'reasons', that impressively manages to both ruin the entire suspenseful conceit of the main plot (by revealing both the status of the Earth and the existence of the monsters half way through the film) and also go absolutely nowhere and achieve absolutely nothing as it's own thing.
The crew's doctor chickening out of performing an autopsy - the one and only doctory thing required of him (shout out to Prometheus! Wat Waaat!) and then doing absolutely nothing of any note for the entire rest of the film.
Chris O Dowd losing his arm in a comical slap stick scene
Chris O Dowd's disembodied arm coming back to life in comical a slap stick scene
Chris O Dowd's now sentient disembodied arm writing a message in pen that solves a crucial plot point in a comical slap stick scene
Anything involving Chris O Dowd's comical disembodied arm.
The bit where the entire plot is essentially explained by a cheap looking News Bulletin interview with a conspiracy theorist that they're all inexplicably watching on an International space station.
Anything involving Chris O Dowd's comical disembodied arm.
All of the dialogue.
WORMS!!
The bit at the end where Gugu (I've no idea what her character's name was) decides to stay in that dimension, but abandons her escape pod at the last minute to stop Crazy Blonde Lady from killing her crew, only to arrive after she's essentially already killed them all (at least to her knowledge) but then decides to fight her to the death anyway, despite them both essentially having the same goal of staying where they are, and there being nothing left worth stopping her for anyway.
The English husband of the English lead listening to radio reports about the devastation of "Downtown" and "The Residential District"... Because 'places'.

I very much feel this is the kind of list I'll enjoy returning to.
 
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