Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Going through a horror binge...

An American Werewolf In London - Tried to weave horror and comedy together but the end result contained neither. An undercooked novelty that moved ploddingly along without much excitement.

The Grapes of Death - In spite of the dodgy acting, laughably poor special effects and gratuitous sex, there's just enough dreamy vibes and offbeat artistic choices that makes me return for more entries in Jean Rollin's filmography. This was another good 'un.

The Shout - Incredibly brooding stuff from Alan Bates but the film felt more like a filmmaking exercise than a proper film, like a rehearsal ahead of the actual film, a film I'd like to have seen.

Love Massacre - It's been a while since I saw a film so badly in need of restoration. The colours of the extant print were so subdued that the white hardcoded subs often merged with white backgrounds. It's a shame since deep colours seems to be an essential component of the original vision. I thought it was a superb minimalistic slasher that deftly utilized it's desolate San Francisco setting.

Ganja & Hess - One of a kind avant garde/blaxploitation horror, using vampirism an a metaphor for drug addiciton. Nice distorted visuals, an incredible dissonant soundtrack, yeah, I really enjoyed it. It was also sexy AF.

The Leopard Man - A few nice RKO/Val Lewton quirks but not enough to rescue it from slightness.

Poltergeist - I was lead to believe that this was a Tobe Hooper film but instead I got a Steven Spielberg one. Disappointed, as I could feel his fingerprints all over the things I thought were so-so about the film. I thought the initial spectral gestalts were spooky as hell and well done but the following ones rather lame and tacky. The last 20 minutes or so felt completely superfluous, left me totally indifferent.

Carol Anne made me think of this song:

 
Red Dreams said:
Sicario: Day of the Soldado

I liked it. There is the 3rd film coming out soon after to tie up all the loose ends.

7/10
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Makes sense. It very much felt like a middle film in a (largely needless) trilogy. It was ok but the first was better and it annoys me when sequels feel like they need to try and repeat set pieces that went down well in the previous film. "People loved that, so let's do it again, but louder."
 
Not really a movie review but I went to an art installation over the weekend that will appeal to all you movie nerds. It's called "The Clock" and is a 24 hour long movie, where each minute is based around a movie clip which features that exact moment of time. While sitting in incredibly comfy sofas, in total darkness. Amazingly, they not only found enough clip for every minute of every hour but edited it so that the cuts from one movie to the next (and often back and forth) work really well together. Mindblowing the work that went into it. If you're a movie buff then you'll have hours of fun picking out all the more obscure clips.

@Spoony , you need to see this.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Not really a movie review but I went to an art installation over the weekend that will appeal to all you movie nerds. It's called "The Clock" and is a 24 hour long movie, where each minute is based around a movie clip which features that exact moment of time. While sitting in incredibly comfy sofas, in total darkness. Amazingly, they not only found enough clip for every minute of every hour but edited it so that the cuts from one movie to the next (and often back and forth) work really well together. Mindblowing the work that went into it. If you're a movie buff then you'll have hours of fun picking out all the more obscure clips.

@Spoony , you need to see this.
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Is the actual exhibition 24 hours!?! That's nuts.
 
Mata Batin
After her parents die, a woman returns from Thailand to Indonesia to look after her sister, who appears to be seeing ghosts. At times, this looked well made but every scary set-piece had the most awful GFX work, really took away from the movie. The few moments they relied on actual practical effects, it was much more effective. The film borrowed a lot from J-Horror and the final act just straight up ripped off Insidious. Very flawed 4/10

Hold The Dark
After the deaths of three children suspected to be killed by wolves, writer Russell Core is hired by the parents of a missing six-year-old boy to track down and locate their son in the Alaskan wilderness. Was excited as this was directed by the guy that did Blue Ruin and Green Room, both top films. This however, was so fecking slow and although the plot at times was interesting, it felt way too ambiguous overall and left me confused. Made more sense when I read about it afterwards but there weren't enough clues to decipher things during it's runtime. Was itching for it to end 3/10
 
Ant Man and Wasp Woman. Fairly watchable, but the story is a piece of shit and it's little surprise when the credits show half a dozen writers. The other big problem is that the two Deadpool films sandwiched between the last Ant Man have really stolen the little guy's thunder. You don't really need two off-beat superhero series that push back against Iron Trump and his gang of Marvel snowflakes. However the action is inventive and they still wring some fun out of the size and scale concept, and the villain was almost great but she couldn't act, so no. A couple of laughs though. Still, I reckon that despite setting up the sequel, this is pretty much the end of the road for one of the few interesting cinematic superheroes. Wasted potential, now back to the dull shit.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Hold The Dark
After the deaths of three children suspected to be killed by wolves, writer Russell Core is hired by the parents of a missing six-year-old boy to track down and locate their son in the Alaskan wilderness. Was excited as this was directed by the guy that did Blue Ruin and Green Room, both top films. This however, was so fecking slow and although the plot at times was interesting, it felt way too ambiguous overall and left me confused. Made more sense when I read about it afterwards but there weren't enough clues to decipher things during it's runtime. Was itching for it to end 3/10
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Yeah I really enjoyed the first two thirds or so but it just petered out in to a big bag of meh. Real damp squib of a "look at me, I'm a metaphor" ending.
 
Based on recommendations in here I watched Spy last night. Me and the wife were laughing quite a lot and I enjoyed it overall. It's nice to have a good adult comedy for once that isn't really juvenile. There were some silly bits but overall it was a good laugh. That fat cow is pretty talented.

I really like Peter Serafinowicz too. He's always good and a genuinely funny bloke.
 
Didn't love Hold The Dark either. It has some really good action but it's another snowflake-noir that lacks focus and purpose. The whole wolf and darkness as representation of the primal, the animalistic, the void theme is a dead horse in an old hat, beaten to within an inch of its annihilation. The script doesn't have the weight or poetry of a Jack London, Cormac McCarthy or a Dan Simmons and it doesn't have the snappy genre rhythm of something like The Grey. If they simplified the plotting, reduced the running time and upped the stakes by focusing in on fewer characters, you might have something closer to the director's previous films and something I'd have probably enjoyed a lot more.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
Hold The Dark
After the deaths of three children suspected to be killed by wolves, writer Russell Core is hired by the parents of a missing six-year-old boy to track down and locate their son in the Alaskan wilderness. Was excited as this was directed by the guy that did Blue Ruin and Green Room, both top films. This however, was so fecking slow and although the plot at times was interesting, it felt way too ambiguous overall and left me confused. Made more sense when I read about it afterwards but there weren't enough clues to decipher things during it's runtime. Was itching for it to end 3/10
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That's pretty harsh I think. It wasn't that bad, but why was everyone whispering in it?!
 
Downsizing 3/10

The concept was very good, & it made you think 'what if'. Sadly though, like so many movies nowdays it seemed to want to hammer home a message to it's audience rather than entertain & engage it. The message this time is about how us horrible humans are destroying the planet. Don't know about anyone else, but I'm sick of having this sort of stuff rammed down my throat - along with multiculturalism, women being as strong & as bad-ass as men etc - every time I sit down to watch a film. I'm not against those things, but it's not even a subliminal message anymore, it seems to be woven into the very story itself. It probably explains why me & the missus very rarely go to the cinema these days. I don't believing in spending money to be lectured in an theatre that is designed for people to enjoy a little bit of escapism from the real world.
 
Operation Finale, based on the story of how Mossad attempted to extract Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to Israel in the 1960s to stand trial for his role in the Holocaust. I think this is the third or fourth movie I have seen on this subject, this is probably the best. Not a great deal of action, but very thought provoking and well worth a watch.
 
Identity
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain-storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one. Seen this a few times. Really enjoy it. Cast were all up for it and loved the mystery, although it's quite telegraphed. Just a fun 'who dun it' mystery 8/10

And-Man & The Wasp
Another mediocre marvel movie. Not amazing, not terrible. Liked the mid-credit stinger though 5.5/10
 
Await Further Instructions

It's Christmas Day and the Milgram family wake to find a mysterious black substance surrounding their house. Something monumental is clearly happening right outside their door, but what.
This was surprisingly pretty good.
Very good story about human nature, how suspicion can drastically change people.
Ending was a bit strange

6.5/10
 
Life is Beautiful (1997)

A gentle Jewish-Italian waiter, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a pretty schoolteacher, and wins her over with his charm and humor. Eventually they marry and have a son, Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini). Their happiness is abruptly halted, however, when Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora and taken to a concentration camp. Determined to shelter his son from the horrors of his surroundings, Guido convinces Giosue that their time in the camp is merely a game.

There aren't words available to praise this movie enough. That the director takes a movie, so fundamentally depressing in narrative and historical context and make the viewer feel warm, joyful, even amused is a credit to both the direction and production, as well as the incredible performances within this movie. Everyone at some point ought to watch this movie in their lifetime.

10/10
It scores a maximum rating because it does something seemingly impossible. Turn a Holocaust movie into a romance/comedy that leaves you remembering only the beauty of life.
 
Recently saw Leave No Trace, Upgrade and Eighth Grade. Can recommend them all. Upgrade might be a bit generic and predictable, but it's enjoyable. Leave No Trace is probably one of the movies of the year for me, but might not be for everyone. Ben Foster and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie are excellent in it. It's from Debra Granik, who did Winter's Bone.
 
Hoof The Ball said:
Life is Beautiful (1997)

A gentle Jewish-Italian waiter, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a pretty schoolteacher, and wins her over with his charm and humor. Eventually they marry and have a son, Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini). Their happiness is abruptly halted, however, when Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora and taken to a concentration camp. Determined to shelter his son from the horrors of his surroundings, Guido convinces Giosue that their time in the camp is merely a game.

There aren't words available to praise this movie enough. That the director takes a movie, so fundamentally depressing in narrative and historical context and make the viewer feel warm, joyful, even amused is a credit to both the direction and production, as well as the incredible performances within this movie. Everyone at some point ought to watch this movie in their lifetime.

10/10
It scores a maximum rating because it does something seemingly impossible. Turn a Holocaust movie into a romance/comedy that leaves you remembering only the beauty of life.
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I quite enjoyed it .
The person I watched it with was cringing at the slapstick comedy and stopped watching about 20 minutes in.
 
Ant Man & The Wasp

Meh

Mandy

Meh-ntal. Like a bad acid trip, which I'm sure was the intention. Quite liked the 80's aesthetic although this seems to have been the 'in thing' in Hollywood for the last few years. Cage outcages himself at times so worth watching just for that.
 
Leave no trace was a bit disappointing. Pursuit of happiness in the woods. Viggo Mortensen did it much better in his film last year.
 
A Star Is Born - good film but not quite as good as it could've been. It had a lot of potential thematically and it tried to explore some interesting ideas but a lot of them felt flat and underdeveloped, despite the long run time. The first half of the movie is its strong side, I think. Felt real and charming. Then middle and closing act felt very rushed.

Apart from that, I thought Cooper did a good job with the directing. I like the raw and grounded style. The concert scenes, in particular, were brilliant. The acting was good, all round, especially Lady Gaga's. There's a vulnerability to her that I like and she doesn't hold it back. There's a good actress there. And a fecking great singer, have to say.

8/10 - a tad generous perhaps but I enjoyed the music, so I gave it a bonus.
 
Scarecrow said:
A Star Is Born - good film but not quite as good as it could've been. It had a lot of potential thematically and it tried to explore some interesting ideas but a lot of them felt flat and underdeveloped, despite the long run time. The first half of the movie is its strong side, I think. Felt real and charming. Then middle and closing act felt very rushed.

Apart from that, I thought Cooper did a good job with the directing. I like the raw and grounded style. The concert scenes, in particular, were brilliant. The acting was good, all round, especially Lady Gaga's. There's a vulnerability to her that I like and she doesn't hold it back. There's a good actress there. And a fecking great singer, have to say.

8/10 - a tad generous perhaps but I enjoyed the music, so I gave it a bonus.
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Agree with this, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Gaga can act, I loved the little performances from the like of Dice and Chappelle but Sam Elliott was so good in his limited time on screen.
 
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