Yeah, that was such an odd one. I actually think they might have done it because the CGI was unwatchably bad in full colour. They hoped it would less jarring in sepia. Definitely the worst fx I can remember in a high profile movie. Even for Netflix.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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Yeah, that was such an odd one. I actually think they might have done it because the CGI was unwatchably bad in full colour. They hoped it would less jarring in sepia. Definitely the worst fx I can remember in a high profile movie. Even for Netflix.
Drive
Late 90's/early 2000's American martial arts film from the stunt team that did all of the fight scenes in the Power Rangers TV show. Notable for being an American martial arts film that's not cack, even if it is fairly low budget and doesn't make a lot of sense. Mark Dacascos plays Toby Wong a super assassin from Hong Kong that had a "turbo drive" inserted in his chest in place of his heart, which boosts his adrenaline and turns him into a kung fu machine. He runs away to LA to sell it and get out of the business but is hunted by other assassins. So he kidnaps a fella and gets him to drive him from San Francisco to LA, much kicking ensues.
My main memories of this were that I enjoyed it, a lot of the fight scenes were clearly a small Asian man with a completely different haircut from Mark Dacascos doing the fighting and Britanny Murphy bringing her mad Clueless energy turned way up. Also the DVD extra's featuring an interview with Dacascos where he couldn't look any more stoned even if he was shooting up during it. Watching it again nearly 2 decades later, I still enjoyed it but am even more baffled by the stunt work. The scenes that are clearly not Dacascos all involve stuff that seem like he could have easily done given some of the other stuff he got up to. Like the bit where he's throwing plates at people and it's clearly the Asian lad and not Dacascos. Maybe they were re-shoots, it was just weirdly distracting.
Overall it's absurd, doesn't make a lot of sense and if you think about it too much then it completely falls apart. Yet it's still a very fun watch, it speeds along relentlessly, the fight scenes are all well done and mostly fairly creative, such as the stun sticks versus boots in the motel and it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Also the thief guy from Conan the Destroyer is in it which is....a bonus? Maybe?
7/10
Late 90's/early 2000's American martial arts film from the stunt team that did all of the fight scenes in the Power Rangers TV show. Notable for being an American martial arts film that's not cack, even if it is fairly low budget and doesn't make a lot of sense. Mark Dacascos plays Toby Wong a super assassin from Hong Kong that had a "turbo drive" inserted in his chest in place of his heart, which boosts his adrenaline and turns him into a kung fu machine. He runs away to LA to sell it and get out of the business but is hunted by other assassins. So he kidnaps a fella and gets him to drive him from San Francisco to LA, much kicking ensues.
My main memories of this were that I enjoyed it, a lot of the fight scenes were clearly a small Asian man with a completely different haircut from Mark Dacascos doing the fighting and Britanny Murphy bringing her mad Clueless energy turned way up. Also the DVD extra's featuring an interview with Dacascos where he couldn't look any more stoned even if he was shooting up during it. Watching it again nearly 2 decades later, I still enjoyed it but am even more baffled by the stunt work. The scenes that are clearly not Dacascos all involve stuff that seem like he could have easily done given some of the other stuff he got up to. Like the bit where he's throwing plates at people and it's clearly the Asian lad and not Dacascos. Maybe they were re-shoots, it was just weirdly distracting.
Overall it's absurd, doesn't make a lot of sense and if you think about it too much then it completely falls apart. Yet it's still a very fun watch, it speeds along relentlessly, the fight scenes are all well done and mostly fairly creative, such as the stun sticks versus boots in the motel and it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Also the thief guy from Conan the Destroyer is in it which is....a bonus? Maybe?
7/10
Is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind worth persevering with? I watched about fifteen minutes & couldn't take to it.
I'd say so, but it was a long time ago that I watched it. Loved it at the time. Might rewatch it.
Certainly better than some of the films you've endured recently.
aye worth soldiering on
District 9 (2009)
How The Hurt Locker won Best Picture nearly 10 years ago is proof of just how pretentious the Oscars really are. When you consider it was up against the likes of Avatar, The Blind Side, Up, Inglourious Basterds and the magnificent District 9, it just makes the choice even more baffling.
With a relatively low budget that belies the look and feel of this film, District 9 just came from nowhere to a lot of critical acclaim. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, it's a sci-fi story with so many layers to it, plenty of style and plenty of substance. A social allegory pertaining to the marginalisation of an alien race, ostracised and segregated into a slum-like area, named District 9 because they are different and don't fit in with their surroundings and the rest of society, well because they are aliens. The irony of the story being set in Jo'burg is not lost here either.
Being referred to in a derogatory manner, having limited rights, shunned by most of society but having some supporters puts a novel twist on an all too familiar theme that is very topical even today. The intelligence of these aliens and their sophisticated technology juxtaposed with the squalour and basic conditions of the slums in which they reside provide a really stark and vivid contrast and makes for compelling viewing as they do their best to adapt to their new life.
In addition to providing a social commentary on prejudice and greed, the film provides heart with themes of family, loyalty, friendship, courage and redemption. The story is great, dialogue is great, effects are great even by today's standards and pretty graphic in places. Visually it looks great. It has that understated look of quality and realism without being being CGI or effects heavy. Shot in a pseudo-documentary style, Sharlto Copley does a sterling job in the lead role as his whole life unravels before him as he finds the tables turned on him in truly dramatic fashion.
The film gets to you and stays with you long after the credits have finished. I have seen it before but enjoyed it just as much on this viewing. Yeah, you may have seen elements of this film in others before it and after it but it's still great. Can't recommend it enough.
I'm giving this a 9/10.
How The Hurt Locker won Best Picture nearly 10 years ago is proof of just how pretentious the Oscars really are. When you consider it was up against the likes of Avatar, The Blind Side, Up, Inglourious Basterds and the magnificent District 9, it just makes the choice even more baffling.
With a relatively low budget that belies the look and feel of this film, District 9 just came from nowhere to a lot of critical acclaim. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, it's a sci-fi story with so many layers to it, plenty of style and plenty of substance. A social allegory pertaining to the marginalisation of an alien race, ostracised and segregated into a slum-like area, named District 9 because they are different and don't fit in with their surroundings and the rest of society, well because they are aliens. The irony of the story being set in Jo'burg is not lost here either.
Being referred to in a derogatory manner, having limited rights, shunned by most of society but having some supporters puts a novel twist on an all too familiar theme that is very topical even today. The intelligence of these aliens and their sophisticated technology juxtaposed with the squalour and basic conditions of the slums in which they reside provide a really stark and vivid contrast and makes for compelling viewing as they do their best to adapt to their new life.
In addition to providing a social commentary on prejudice and greed, the film provides heart with themes of family, loyalty, friendship, courage and redemption. The story is great, dialogue is great, effects are great even by today's standards and pretty graphic in places. Visually it looks great. It has that understated look of quality and realism without being being CGI or effects heavy. Shot in a pseudo-documentary style, Sharlto Copley does a sterling job in the lead role as his whole life unravels before him as he finds the tables turned on him in truly dramatic fashion.
The film gets to you and stays with you long after the credits have finished. I have seen it before but enjoyed it just as much on this viewing. Yeah, you may have seen elements of this film in others before it and after it but it's still great. Can't recommend it enough.
I'm giving this a 9/10.
Starfish features many a My-First-Indie cliché: Nubile white damsel neuroses - check. Nubile white damsel underwear shots - check. Glum as aesthetic choice - check. Radiohead soundalikes, scored on defunct retro media formats - check and check. Fantasy creatures as manifestation of trauma - check. Shallow literary references - check.
Yet despite seeming to have been tailored to both every blogger's inner precocious thirteen year old and every middleaged critic's inner sleazebag, Starfish is a film that works. It contains some really pretty scenes, some effective creeps and scares, and the film has a mesmeric flow scene to scene that suggest filmmaking talent below the surface.
Many of my criticisms of Us could also be levelled against Starfish. I could try to rationalise why they didn't bother me here so much (beyond me being a massive racist) but instead I'll settle for saying Starfish is good and Us is crap.
Yet despite seeming to have been tailored to both every blogger's inner precocious thirteen year old and every middleaged critic's inner sleazebag, Starfish is a film that works. It contains some really pretty scenes, some effective creeps and scares, and the film has a mesmeric flow scene to scene that suggest filmmaking talent below the surface.
Many of my criticisms of Us could also be levelled against Starfish. I could try to rationalise why they didn't bother me here so much (beyond me being a massive racist) but instead I'll settle for saying Starfish is good and Us is crap.
Halloween 2018
I’m not even finished yet, but I can definitely put it in the ‘pish’ section of movies I’ve watched. It’s moody and all that, and the sounds good, but it’s just so meh. There’s really long sections that might work if there was any tension, but there’s not so I find myself thinking ‘get fecking on with it’. Characters are all shit. They’re played well enough, but again meh.
Meh out of 10
I’m not even finished yet, but I can definitely put it in the ‘pish’ section of movies I’ve watched. It’s moody and all that, and the sounds good, but it’s just so meh. There’s really long sections that might work if there was any tension, but there’s not so I find myself thinking ‘get fecking on with it’. Characters are all shit. They’re played well enough, but again meh.
Meh out of 10
Ok so it's not the biopic of a certain Liverpool FC captain?
Always be my maybe
Pretty much your standard rom-com plot, but the leads are decent enough, and its probably worth an extra point for the Keanu appearance.
7/10
Pretty much your standard rom-com plot, but the leads are decent enough, and its probably worth an extra point for the Keanu appearance.
7/10
Watched this last night because a few people on Twitter were saying it was being criminally ignored by the movie going public and was a classic coming of age type movie. I was underwhelmed, funny in parts but ultimately its all been done better before.
The inevitable rift between the friends came quite late in the movie and is resolved relatively quickly, and I didn't buy that 2 social outcasts were suddenly accepted by everyone at the party with minimal awkward interactions. Compare that to all the embarrassments in American Pie or the scheming of the popular girls in Mean Girls and this was a relatively stress free rise to popularity. Also a lot of weird characters that seemed unnecessary; what did the taxi driving principal, the teacher sleeping with a student or the pizza driver being a killer really add to the story?
Would agree with 6 out of 10
The Snowman (2017)
Had awful reviews but I liked it. Fassbender good, as usual.
7.5/10
Had awful reviews but I liked it. Fassbender good, as usual.
7.5/10
Really? I gave this a pass due to the bad reviews. Thought the trailer looked good. Hmmm
It was a bit slow and nothing you haven't seen before but not awful as since reviews said.
If anyone is interested Saving Private Ryan is being screened around the UK due to it being 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Once you get past the beach act, it tails off considerably, for me.
Xmen dark Phoenix
meh as feck. It lacked something, maybe the touch of singer, but it felt rushed and just not very interesting. Lots of stuff there that might have been interesting if it was fleshed out, but no. Just as shit as last stand. The Phoenix saga will never see justice done on the big screen.
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it's the same guy who worked on the last film no? Not sure what we saw in the first bad attempt that deserved a second shot at it. Shame as the story itself should be epic if they followed the original story.
It's worth seeing in it the cinema for that one part but yeah I agree that the movie really loses something after that.
Its odd as the story should really be enough to carry the film but the middle of the just sort of happens without well anything happening and then final battle is basically a action movie(It doesn't help that Spielberg has a awful habit when it comes to his serious films of bringing in the score at just the worst possible time, is not so bad with Private Ryan but it made Lincoln impossible to watch.)
Also once you seen how the soviets made war movies, it puts everything else to shame.
I’m getting my Bryan’s mixed up. Meant to say singer. But yeah, Kinberg wrote last stand as well. If anything, this might be worse. Don’t how he got a second shot at it. He must know where bodies are buried.
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
9/10
I loved this.
9/10
Great movie. Maybe in my top 10
It's a pretty much perfect film. The scene shot in the stadium is amazing.
District 9 (2009)
I thought this was dreadful. Seeing as it received great reviews everywhere, I think I've missed the point (again) - is it meant to be humourous?
2/10
I thought this was dreadful. Seeing as it received great reviews everywhere, I think I've missed the point (again) - is it meant to be humourous?
2/10
Godzilla King Of Monsters
My IQ went down considerably after watching this but I didn't expect anything different. Boring human stories mixed with amazing monster action. I just wish they cut down on the former. Ken Watanabe was embarrassing in this with his boner for Godjeea 6.5/10
My IQ went down considerably after watching this but I didn't expect anything different. Boring human stories mixed with amazing monster action. I just wish they cut down on the former. Ken Watanabe was embarrassing in this with his boner for Godjeea 6.5/10
I seem to remember enjoying it. Part sci-fi, part comedy and part drama with strong parallels to apartheid South Africa.
Edit: I did enjoy it but ......
http://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-redcafe-movie-review-thread.165633/page-215#post-6826540
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I hated it too. The main character was an absolute scumbag and you were supposed to root for him in the end?! It was ridiculous.
Anyone have thoughts on Lost Highway, please?
Been a long time since I watched it but I remember not really getting it either. I thought the point was we were meant to route for the aliens rather than the humans. But it been a long time since I watched it so who knows, I have no desire to rewatch it though and I rewatch all kinds of shit!
What the beggar's that supposed to mean, Mr N?
Doh! I'm too stupid for this cryptic stuffz!
Its the worst david lynch film. Waste of 2 hours unless you absolutely love him.
Them 2 gifs are a pretty perfect review of the film actually
Mad shite.
Cheers, folks. Due to these cryptic clues, I watched Russian Ark instead.
Lost Highway is a damn fine cup of movie.
Insomnia (2002)
Very good stuff, even if it's a bit of a glorified tv movie. Hilary Swank is great.
7.5/10
Very good stuff, even if it's a bit of a glorified tv movie. Hilary Swank is great.
7.5/10