Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

An American Warehouse in London

Last time I buy DVDs from Home Bargains.

0/10
 
Scanners - This could quite easily have fallen apart and become just a trashy B film in the hands of any other director, but Cronenberg directed the feck out of this. Maintained the right tone and injected just the right amount of camp throughout. It also benefited from being played loud as hell on a decent sound system.

Phase IV - That deleted original ending was everything Saul Bass' career had been leading up to, kinda left the rest of the movie in a sort of bittersweet haze. The insect cinematography was ace, just a shame the humans in it left a lot to be desired.

Blood and Black Lace - The ropey dubbing really makes these giallo films start out with a handicap. This one just about managed to overcome the handicap and shine with it's gorgeous colourful visuals and swinging latin soundtrack.

Dead of Night - Man that scene where the dummy walks must have given childhood scars a-plenty.

Wolfen - I enjoyed it, despite the rather muddled end result. Rosenbaum's write up:

According to the current state of received ideas, rightwing formalism in movies (e.g., Escape from New York or Raiders of the Lost Ark) is “good clean fun,” not politics at all, while leftwing formalism (e.g., Numero deux) is supposed to be pleasureless politics, no fun at all. The incredible thing about Wolfen — a spectacular, metaphysical mystery-horror fantasy about New York that’s visceral and leftist in about equal doses, often at the same time — is that it builds its exciting, unfashionable politics largely through pungent sounds and images.

Some stunning uses of visual and aural subjectivity suggest what the world (specifically, lower Manhattan and the south Bronx) looks and sounds like to wolves, who are poetically linked to members of other vanishing and territorial dispossessed species, like Indians. Not everything in this visionary metaphor pans out politically or logically –- it’s not clear why blacks are frequent victims while, say, Indians are not –- but on a gut poetic level, it conceivably says as much as Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” does in Woodstock. In contrast to the reported uses of black and white footage to approximate ordinary canine vision in Samuel Fuller’s upcoming White Dog, Wolfen exudes some of the most gorgeous Day-Glo colors this side of solarizing –- many of them lushly reverberating tones on the multilayered soundtrack. And the fact that the mystery exposition is very gradual lets these achievements work at leisure on the imagination; not knowing what’s going on becomes an agreeable sensation, and a productive one.

Over the years I’ve come to regard Woodstock, paradoxically, as the Triumph of the Will of counter-culture – a visionary epic taking place in Heaven (“three days of love and music”). It’s not surprising that the offscreen terrorist group in Wolfen that is confused with the wolves (whose police informer turns out to be Wadleigh himself) is called Gotterdammerung, twilight of the gods. Wadleigh continues to see Woodstock as political, and in a recent phone interview stressed that he had nothing to do with the chopped-up, depoliticized Woodstock Revisited, with added commentary, that was shown recently on TV. (Considering his need of a large canvas, it’s understandable that he was opposed to Woodstock turning up on TV in any form.) Nor can he be said to have had everything to do with Wolfen, having been replaced by John Hancock as director (who remains uncredited) before the end of shooting. (Many writers were hired and replaced, too.)

Linking Wadleigh to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl may sound capricious and unjust; yet it’s hard to think of many other talented counterparts to an epic, lyrical naivite that is at once so exalted and passionately pluralistic in its reverence for collective strength and power. The fact that Wadleigh exalts an outsider’s society of mavericks and underdogs in both parts of his diptych has to be considered, too. It’s worth noting, however, that Leni also had a thing about wolves as superior beings — check out her Tiefland (1945) for copious illustration.

In fairness to the full range of Wolfen — which boasts a fine, understated performance by Albert Finney as a detective, with one of the best manufactured American accents I’ve heard since Olivier played Eugene O’Neill’s James Tyrone on the London stage — the movie has some of the delicate economy and reticence associated with the team of producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur in the 40s, especially in their luminously feline quickies, Cat People and The Leopard Man. Their poetic movies hold their monsters mainly at bay and offscreen — wispy notations in the mind’s eye that creep through parks, alleyways, zoos, and bedrooms, and linger in ambiguous pockets of quiet and dark.

At different points in our conversation, Wadleigh cited both the film’s length and “resistance to doing things that were experimental” that led to his leaving Wolfen, without going into further detail. The current Cinefantastique reports that he exited “`for political reasons,’” meaning, “the exact reasons are still unclear”; what’s clear enough from still other sources is that they’re too complex and various to allow for any easy paraphrases here.
Click to expand...

https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2018/06/wolfen-pleasures/
 
Sorry To Bother You. Smart and funny satire on the subject of capitalist exploitation and the question of black identity within such a system. Great cast, well written, very interesting direction with a real confidence in it's visual design. It has a lovely hand crafted feel. It's directed by Boots Riley of The Coup and the film is full of his usual political, urban astuteness.

I dig it and others will too. This aint no filthy rich Bey-Z, Kanye bullshit, this is the real shit, black radicalism Corbyn style. #Eboue will love it despite his racist views. It's not Corbyn style.

A Royal Affair. A fun Danish period drama. Good acting and it looks good. The one thing that nearly annoyed me was the very on the nose idealisation of the Enlightenment, which is projected through a prism of today's vapid liberalism; a bunch of trite god is wrong you god loving idiot and I heart Roussea stuff. Apart from that though it's good.
 
Have watched Wonder Woman yesterday, no idea what to think.

I enjoyed it, mainly because of Gal Gadot and the cinematography. I also really liked the twist at the end.

However, it has to be one of the dumbest movies in recent times. The script from the second half can't be any longer than a single sheet of paper. Can't even remember if Gal has strung more than two sentences together.
 
Black Panther 5/10

Disappointing, no idea why this got such great reviews. Michael B. Jordan is awful.

Also thought it was a bit racist.
 
Last edited:
Borden said:
Black Panther 5/10

Disappointing, no idea why this got such great reviews. Michael B. Jordan is awful.

Also thought it was a bit racist.
Click to expand...
I agree with everything you said there except the bit in bold. Thought he was the best thing about the movie.
 
L.A Confidential - love a good detective / cop movie and this is surely one of the all time greats?

John Q - been on a Denzel binge recently and this is one of my favourites. Similar to Dog Day Afternoon or The Ngotiator. Better than them? Probably not, but very good in its own right.

Training Day - see above. Denzel at his finest and a good cop movie. Win win.

Memento - One of Nolan's best. Despite being a film that keeps you guessing, it manages to hold a lot of replay value.

The Last Boy Scout - How is this not the exact same film as Die Hard 3?

The Rock - also been on a Nic Cage binge recently. His best film? Definitely top 3.

Red Rock West - see above, althought not one of Nic's best, it's one of my personal favourites.

Unbreakable - I miss the days when M. Night Shyamalan made good films.

Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood talking gravelly and squinting a whole lot. What's not to love?

Dredd - I honestly think it's one of the best comic movies around. I'm not sure why it didn't get more praise.

A Star is Born - This film is getting higher ratings than all of the above and it blows my mind. I feel like I'm missing something. A film with nothing to say (except 'give me an oscar') tries (I think?) to take a light jab at modern music having nothing to say. Maybe? It didn't really venture too deeply into anything tbh. Cooper was decent. Lady Gaga's part seemed to just be written for Lady Gaga. They may as well have just called her Laday Gaga in the movie.
 
SmashedHombre said:
I actually haven't. How does it compare to Unbreakable?
Click to expand...
Difficult to say as I haven't seen Unbreakable for a while and Split is more of a horror/thriller type movie. It's by some distance his best movie since Unbreakable though and McAvoy is absolutely brilliant in it so I'd 100% recommend you watch.

If you decide to watch then here are the trailers for the final movie in the trilogy

 
Eight Grade - bit disappointed with that one, overall, considering the reviews. 6.5/10

It's a seemingly honest and genuine depiction of what teenage life is like for today's generation and I appreciate that insight. It's not exactly a novel idea though and there isn't much of a story. Nothing really happens for the majority of the movie, which doesn't make for a good pacing and an engaging experience.
I'm not the target demographic. Perhaps the "connection" that younger people might have with it could carry it through. It was boring for me, personally, and also a bit uncomfortable. The latter is not a dig though - any honest depiction of those years should be uncomfortable and achingly cringy, I think. The top notch acting and raw directing style make that feeling palpable.
 
I quite enjoyed Bad Times at the El Royal. Not an earth shatteringly good movie or anything, just a decent watch, well-acted, interesting story.
 
Apostle
In 1905, a drifter on a dangerous mission to rescue his kidnapped sister tangles with a sinister religious cult on an isolated island. By the director of The Raid films. Gorgeous cinematography and very violent in places but felt overly long and self-indulgent. Had the same issue with The Raid 2 5.5/10

Leave No Trace
A father and his thirteen year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon, when a small mistake derails their lives forever. Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie were great in this slow burn, low key drama that at times was heartbreaking but overall, it wasn't really my type of movie. I felt like I needed a little more from the actual plot but I can see people liking this a lot if you have patience 6/10
 
Yeah I watched Apostle the other night too. Felt it went a bit mental in the final act and the lead actor was seriously lacking any kind of screen presence. Apart from that a decent watch though. A few proper 'look away' gore moments if that's your jam.
 
I was scared off of it just due to a review mentioning it had a lot of screaming from a child which is anathema to me .
 
The Basement
A seemingly innocent man is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, who forces his victims to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder. Everyone here knows I watch a whole load of shit films... absolute shit. But this is one of the rare few films I just couldn't finish. Only managed 30 minutes and my mind couldn't take the torture 1/10
 
First Man - tells the story of the 8-year lead-up to the Moon Landing. It offers a somewhat more intimate look and is centered around Neil Armstrong. The story is compelling and interesting enough to carry you through the bland short dialogue and annoying shaky close-ups of people. Those work for the claustrophobic scenes in the capsules but they get annoying during dinner scenes. Nothing too impressive about the cinematography and music. The acting is solid all round. I don't think the experience was as emotional as it could've been - should've spent some more time with the other characters, as the main one is not enough to carry it. 7/10
 
Dirty Schwein said:
The Basement
A seemingly innocent man is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, who forces his victims to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder. Everyone here knows I watch a whole load of shit films... absolute shit. But this is one of the rare few films I just couldn't finish. Only managed 30 minutes and my mind couldn't take the torture 1/10
Click to expand...


Have you seen the 2009 horror movie - The Loved Ones ? It's somewhat similar well actually it's like Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prom night edition. It's worth a watch.
 
Sweet Square said:
Have you seen the 2009 horror movie - The Loved Ones ? It's somewhat similar well actually it's like Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prom night edition. It's worth a watch.
Click to expand...
I have that on my list, just never get round to seeing it. Might do soon!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.