Films I watched this week
Discussion
jogger1976 said:
Watched "Under The Skin" with Scarlett Johansson this week. I'd heard good things about it, and the critics absolutely loved it so thought I'd give it a punt.
My thoughts:
Felt a bit cheated after all the hype, so watched "Kelly's Heroes" on DVD
That'a a good review and overview. My thoughts:
- It's shot in quite a gritty, almost documentary/guerilla style. Apparently some of the "actors" where members of the public and didn't recognise SJ (She wears a black wig and kind of resembles a young Liz Taylor in the film).
- SJ gives a good performance in a cold/detached sort of way
- I'd say the cinematography was decent.
- It's painfully slow in places and a large part of the film is her driving round Glasgow in a Sprinter van picking up "victims"
- It's quite abstract and unless you've read the book the film's based upon, you might struggle to wonder what is going on and realise who she really is.
Felt a bit cheated after all the hype, so watched "Kelly's Heroes" on DVD
I had quite mixed feelings about it. To say that at times it was abstract is literal at times.
You are right about the start - being a film buff and (very) amateur filmmaker I spotted how they did the first part. It was ScarJo with a very convincing english accent and a wig driving round Glasgow. She would pick up random blokes off the street to ask directions, ask if they minded showing her before asking if they wanted to go back to her place. As you can imagine, most took her up on the offer! It was filmed with hidden cameras from my Googling.
There were a couple that were in on it, and of course they were all told afterward the van ride so they could film the later scenes, but it was actually real.
After that though, as you say there were some achingly slow sections. Maybe this was the intention, to put you in the 'life' of her character. For all the parts I liked, I found myself thinking afterwards 'Oh, well, that's it then... hmm... not such a fulfilling evening as I'd hoped.' despite being a sci-fi fan.
The Good Dinosaur - Pixar's latest one
Bit disappointing really, visually stunning but very little plot and not one of their clever films that works on two levels 6/10
My 9 year old daughter liked it but that is a low critical bar
Southpaw
Excellent gritty boxing/life drama, spoilt a little by the somewhat Hollywood ending and unrealistic boxing scenes (the amount of knock out punches each fighter takes is a bit of a joke) 8/10
Bit disappointing really, visually stunning but very little plot and not one of their clever films that works on two levels 6/10
My 9 year old daughter liked it but that is a low critical bar
Southpaw
Excellent gritty boxing/life drama, spoilt a little by the somewhat Hollywood ending and unrealistic boxing scenes (the amount of knock out punches each fighter takes is a bit of a joke) 8/10
Edited by Adam B on Tuesday 1st December 11:45
JustinP1 said:
jogger1976 said:
Watched "Under The Skin" with Scarlett Johansson this week. I'd heard good things about it, and the critics absolutely loved it so thought I'd give it a punt.
My thoughts:
Felt a bit cheated after all the hype, so watched "Kelly's Heroes" on DVD
That'a a good review and overview. My thoughts:
- It's shot in quite a gritty, almost documentary/guerilla style. Apparently some of the "actors" where members of the public and didn't recognise SJ (She wears a black wig and kind of resembles a young Liz Taylor in the film).
- SJ gives a good performance in a cold/detached sort of way
- I'd say the cinematography was decent.
- It's painfully slow in places and a large part of the film is her driving round Glasgow in a Sprinter van picking up "victims"
- It's quite abstract and unless you've read the book the film's based upon, you might struggle to wonder what is going on and realise who she really is.
Felt a bit cheated after all the hype, so watched "Kelly's Heroes" on DVD
I had quite mixed feelings about it. To say that at times it was abstract is literal at times.
You are right about the start - being a film buff and (very) amateur filmmaker I spotted how they did the first part. It was ScarJo with a very convincing english accent and a wig driving round Glasgow. She would pick up random blokes off the street to ask directions, ask if they minded showing her before asking if they wanted to go back to her place. As you can imagine, most took her up on the offer! It was filmed with hidden cameras from my Googling.
There were a couple that were in on it, and of course they were all told afterward the van ride so they could film the later scenes, but it was actually real.
After that though, as you say there were some achingly slow sections. Maybe this was the intention, to put you in the 'life' of her character. For all the parts I liked, I found myself thinking afterwards 'Oh, well, that's it then... hmm... not such a fulfilling evening as I'd hoped.' despite being a sci-fi fan.
Blackpuddin said:
Has anybody seen Bridge Of Spies yet? Mrs B and I are off to see it on Wednesday and I'm wondering if I'll need one pre-film cocktail or four.
Yep - just got back and really enjoyed it, dare I say far better than watching spies of the Spectre type last week.A straight forward adventure film, good pace, Tom Hanks was great ( he's turning out to be a grizzly old movie-star, up with the best of them ), great settings and contemporary cars to place the time and mood. Have two pre-movie cocktails and make a brilliant night of it.
I remember ( or thought I did ) the Gary Powers story and it was great to see how it filled out to complete the story with some historical notes at the end. Our man was a bit of an unsung hero actually.
The Land Before Time
It was a lot shorter than I remembered and the animation hasn't aged well but my son (8) said he enjoyed it 'lots' so I guess it still works.
8yr old/10
The Signal
Really enjoyed this one, so many parts during it don't make much sense until you get to the end and go 'Ahhhh that's why'
7/10
Automata
Looked like some promising sci-fi at the start but never really got going and had too many scenes with Banderas shouting a lot of nonsense which was frankly irritating. Disappointing.
5/10
The Machine
The opposite of Automata. At the start it looked like it was going to be some really dodgy low budget Brit sci-fi flick but it actually turned out to be pretty ace. The baddie was done particularly well, you don't think that much of him to begin with but towards the end you're thinking 'what an absolute bd'. Pleasantly surprised.
7/10
It was a lot shorter than I remembered and the animation hasn't aged well but my son (8) said he enjoyed it 'lots' so I guess it still works.
8yr old/10
The Signal
Really enjoyed this one, so many parts during it don't make much sense until you get to the end and go 'Ahhhh that's why'
7/10
Automata
Looked like some promising sci-fi at the start but never really got going and had too many scenes with Banderas shouting a lot of nonsense which was frankly irritating. Disappointing.
5/10
The Machine
The opposite of Automata. At the start it looked like it was going to be some really dodgy low budget Brit sci-fi flick but it actually turned out to be pretty ace. The baddie was done particularly well, you don't think that much of him to begin with but towards the end you're thinking 'what an absolute bd'. Pleasantly surprised.
7/10
Cartel Land
Watched after a quick heads up in this forum but felt it was worth a mention here, part film part documentary on drug cartels operating in Mexico and those who take matters into their own hands to stop them. This is a hard hitting and graphic 'film' that gets right in the action of the raids and gun battles, a small insight into what is a rather bleak and depressing outlook on Mexico and its war with the cartels
The real life Sicario, avalible on iplayer under the Storyville section
8/10
Watched after a quick heads up in this forum but felt it was worth a mention here, part film part documentary on drug cartels operating in Mexico and those who take matters into their own hands to stop them. This is a hard hitting and graphic 'film' that gets right in the action of the raids and gun battles, a small insight into what is a rather bleak and depressing outlook on Mexico and its war with the cartels
The real life Sicario, avalible on iplayer under the Storyville section
8/10
BryanC said:
Blackpuddin said:
Has anybody seen Bridge Of Spies yet? Mrs B and I are off to see it on Wednesday and I'm wondering if I'll need one pre-film cocktail or four.
Yep - just got back and really enjoyed it, dare I say far better than watching spies of the Spectre type last week.A straight forward adventure film, good pace, Tom Hanks was great ( he's turning out to be a grizzly old movie-star, up with the best of them ), great settings and contemporary cars to place the time and mood. Have two pre-movie cocktails and make a brilliant night of it.
I remember ( or thought I did ) the Gary Powers story and it was great to see how it filled out to complete the story with some historical notes at the end. Our man was a bit of an unsung hero actually.
For some reason I've been thinking about this film recently, despite not watching it since it was new. So I decided yesterday to put it on.
The Thirteeth Floor - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809
It's dated a little but I think it's a cool bit of sci-fi, quite low budget, it came out about the same time as The Matrix and there are certain similarities to the plot (I guess also Existenz) and whilst that film is spectacularly awful it did look great which is why that one did well and this one sank without a trace, this is quite low budget and has a small cast but I thought it has aged better than the others, well worth a look.
7.5/10
The Thirteeth Floor - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809
It's dated a little but I think it's a cool bit of sci-fi, quite low budget, it came out about the same time as The Matrix and there are certain similarities to the plot (I guess also Existenz) and whilst that film is spectacularly awful it did look great which is why that one did well and this one sank without a trace, this is quite low budget and has a small cast but I thought it has aged better than the others, well worth a look.
7.5/10
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