Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Lost Highway

Bit of a mixed bag. Felt a bit meandering at points and bordered on weird for weird's sake, which is something I rarely say about Lynch in spite of how fecked up his stuff can be. Took a while to get going, and sometimes felt it was occasionally substituting genuine tension for people brooding around not doing much. But there's also some brilliant images in there and some interesting ideas on show, and the stuff with the Mystery Man is very interesting. You can see it's definitely a precursor to some of Lynch's later works, but I do kinda feel he did a lot of this better in Mulholland Drive for the most part.
 
The Lady Vanishes would not put it in my top 10 Hitchcock but it's still a fun watch, one of his last before he moved to the States.
 
Fahrenheit 451
Poor. Somehow managed to remove all of the best aspects of the book and not replace it with anything clever or original. Despite that, every human being should watch it as Sofia Boutella is astonishingly beautiful.
 
I watched Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) because I suspected it was the sort of film I would adore and, sure enough, I did.

However, one thing I most certainly didn't think whilst watching the film was "I'd love to see J.J Abrams do an American remake of this." Yet apparently we live in the sort of sick world where people think that's a good idea.
 
sullydnl said:
I watched Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) because I suspected it was the sort of film I would adore and, sure enough, I did.

However, one thing I most certainly didn't think whilst watching the film was "I'd love to see J.J Abrams do an American remake of this." Yet apparently we live in the sort of sick world where people think that's a good idea.
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I liked it a lot as well. The last thing the world needs is a bland, commercial American remake.

On another note: Any Kurosawa fans on here? I just ordered the Blu-ray version of Rashomon.
 
Amarcord

Very, very good nostalgia piece from Fellini. Arguably sort of loses its way in the second half a little bit, but the film's always loose enough that the lack of a continuous narrative structure doesn't really diminish it at all. Comedy and the elements of fascism went well together to make a film that felt fairly uplifting in part while also being extraordinarily bleak as well.
 
About Time

A very good film if you want to watch a romantic comedy with your significant other. The father-son scenes are really well done, really loved it.
 
The Endless

Not sure how to describe this. Horror movie, where brothers who have escaped a cul decide to go back and see how they are getting on years later? Loved it, its low budget but also incredibly well written. The sense of impending doom is palpable.
 
Slevs said:
About Time

A very good film if you want to watch a romantic comedy with your significant other. The father-son scenes are really well done, really loved it.
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I remember enjoying this a lot more than I expected to considering it's billed as a bit of a cheesy rom-com, but the mechanics of the time travel stuff were a bit all over the place. Still, not too bad. Nighy's very good.
 
Stormsurfer21 said:
I liked it a lot as well. The last thing the world needs is a bland, commercial American remake.

On another note: Any Kurosawa fans on here? I just ordered the Blu-ray version of Rashomon.
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He's god! First time watching Yojimbo was a revelation.
 
Tag - 4/10
Genuinely fun subject matter that someone manifests into the kind of movie that doesn't know what it wants to be. All of the set-ups are great but the pay offs and punchlines are too fantastic.

The moments of the film with a firmer foot in reality are the funniest, as they work within the original premise of the movie. Using a 'tag' at a funeral as part of a montage, but having someone dive through a second floor window, roll down a roof and land intact on a driveway is absurd.
 
Dark Crimes
A murder investigation of a slain businessman turns to clues found in an author's book about an eerily similar crime. Jim Carrey doing his best Roy Keane impersonation (physically and in his bitterness) in this overly moody and awfully boring crime thriller. Loved the premise, hated the execution 3/10

Rampage
The Rock takes on giant gorillas/alligators/wolves in this blockbuster movie that requires absolutely no thinking. It is what it is. I was bored but the final action set-piece was equally bonkers as it was a spectacle. Some of the ropey GFX/CGI was laughable but made for a better viewing performance 4/10

The Midnight Man
A girl and her friends find a game in the attic that summons a creature known as The Midnight Man, who uses their worst fears against them. As generic as the synopsis suggests. Character making stupid decisions, features nothing scary, just silly moment after silly moment 2/10
 
Coco

When you don't think Disney can pull at your heart strings any longer. When you feel like they have played every trick in the book to make you emotional and care about what you seeing. They just pull another one out of the hat. Girlfriend and I were sobbing with happiness at the end.

Wonderful movie
9/10
 
Slevs said:
About Time

A very good film if you want to watch a romantic comedy with your significant other. The father-son scenes are really well done, really loved it.
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Yeah it's worth a watch if only for how touching the father/son relationship is. Very accurate I thought.
 
Oldyella said:
The Endless

Not sure how to describe this. Horror movie, where brothers who have escaped a cul decide to go back and see how they are getting on years later? Loved it, its low budget but also incredibly well written. The sense of impending doom is palpable.
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Really liked it too. The director has made a couple of other great movies in recent years, Spring and Resolution, that are well worth watching too.
 
Anon 7/10
Set in a soon-future world, all human memories are recorded with the state having access to everything. Crime has almost ceased to exist. An assassin has found a way to infiltrate this system and is bumping people off, leaving no trace.

Awesome movie. So enjoyable. Interesting but obvious enough premise done very nicely. A solid if unspectacular effort across the board that results in a great way to spend 90 minutes. Owen is always watchable and Seyfried even more so.
 
Babel. Watchable pap for 90 odd minutes before dragging out it's last hour. Cheap, manipulative storytelling, characters as mere by-products of oh-so-clever plotting. I guess it's pretending to say things about the connection we have to each other and our shared humanity but it's just a bunch of ludicrousness and the watching of how people react to such things. As always it's put together with a machine like efficiency, well shot, slick and it all fits together. It has the style of a pair of Jimmy Choo's and the sole to match. So the joke doesn't work on many levels.

Oh it's his least boring film.
 
Badlands

Undoubtedly very good in that it's well-made, has a nicely poetic narration and some brilliant landscape shots etc, but it all felt a bit hollow and meaningless. Which I think is kind of the point, but still...a day or two after watching and it already feels quite forgettable, albeit obviously very influential for some blatant copycat films which came after. Martin Sheen also does quite a good sociopathic James Dean caricature.
 
Cheesy said:
Badlands

Undoubtedly very good in that it's well-made, has a nicely poetic narration and some brilliant landscape shots etc, but it all felt a bit hollow and meaningless. Which I think is kind of the point, but still...a day or two after watching and it already feels quite forgettable, albeit obviously very influential for some blatant copycat films which came after. Martin Sheen also does quite a good sociopathic James Dean caricature.
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No mention of the score?
 
A Better Tomorrow

The film that launched the careers of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat. That scene with the guns and the potted plants :drool: classic. A seminal film in the action genre.
 
The Square

Weird Swedish art film. The equivalent of a nilsson post in the 50k thread. I wonder what's in the water over there. The only memorable scene is one with some sort of chimp-man taking art a bit too far.

R.N7/10
 
Selfie From Hell
A dark figure appears and kills people that take 13 selfies of themselves :lol: This was based off the 1 minute viral YouTube hit and stretched out into a feature.... should have left it alone or got competent filmmakers on board. Lights Out worked because they got the original director (David Sandberg) and teamed him up with a professional screenwriter (Eric Heisserer - the dude that ended up writing Arrival). This film was lazily written, awful dialogue, bad acting, erratic cinematography, shitty sound design, jump scare every 30 seconds etc. Just a bad all round movie. At least it was quite short and had one decent scene 1.5/10
 
Election

“Nothing personal.”

Is there a difference between how the triads conduct business in a world of modern capitalism and how they conducted their business during the Qing dynasty? After all, power, or better yet the lust for power is a very primal thing. Simon Yam's performance perfectly illustrates this.

8/10
 
What We Do in the Shadows

Good fun, very clever and quotable. Satirises the deadpan mockumentary style down to a tee.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Will give that a crack. Any of the cast from the movie in the Tv series?
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Yep. A bunch. NZ has a small (but talented) pool to draw from.

Lots of actor/actress crossover with Flight of the Concords, Ragnarok, Wilderpeople, What we do in the Shadows.
 
The Secret Of Marrowbone
A young man and his three younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live. Really well shot movie but the marketing made it appear to be a horror when it's really a family drama/mystery with some horror elements thrown in. Really slow burn movie and the plot/tone seemed all over the place. The acting was hit and miss and overall, it was quite a let down 4/10

Inside Man
A police detective, a bank robber, and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation. One of my favourite Denzel movies. He and Clive Owen are awesome in it and the story is a real fun heist movie. Don't get many of that type these days 8/10

Safe House
A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge. Denzel and Ryan Reynolds do a good job but not really on board with the action cinematography (same guy that did the Bourne shaky stuff) and the movie just becomes standard action fare 5/10
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Inside Man
A police detective, a bank robber, and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation. One of my favourite Denzel movies. He and Clive Owen are awesome in it and the story is a real fun heist movie. Don't get many of that type these days 8/10
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Anyone who hasn't seen this is missing out. One of my favourites, this one.
 
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