DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[Devon Malcolm]

Just watched "A Serbian Film" (That's the name of it) and erm, i dont quite know what to say apart from that it had a new-born baby being raped in one scene....

 

Fuck...is there an excuse for that to be in a movie?

 

Pretentious filmy answer

A Serbian Film is the first independant film to come out of Serbia. Previous output from there was all government funded and they heavily controlled imagery of violence/sex/etc. Thus the film is very much a reaction to how filmmaking has been in the past. There is a Serbian curse that directly translates to "may you be fucked from birth" and several of the scene in this film are based on similar curses taken literally.

 

More likely answer

There are a whole load of sick people who get off on watching horrific imagery, but they convince themselves if its not real then its OK! Filmmakers have realised there is plenty money to be made (and I'm sure several start as fans of the genre) and make films which are little more than a collection of increasingly horrific images with little plot. The fans all get off on these films and chat about how "totally fucked up" this latest film whilst labelling themselves horror aficionados rather than serial killers in the making

 

 

 

I've not actually seen it, but have read a couple of articles on it..

 

Absolutely spot on, this. I watched a film called Grotesque a few months back which the BBFC stupidly banned and ended up giving it more publicity than the piece of shit deserved. It's just a batch of 'shocking' scenes with no real plot to speak of. A Serbian Film sounds like it is much the same. You'll see more and more films like this - it's an unfortunate side-effect of the last 15 years being a really good period for horror films.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Gladstone Small

[organizedkaos]

Indeedy, I do like horror as a genre in particular films as Loki described earlier :

I think unnerving IS scary though. It's pretty easy to make someone jump in a film - look at Paranormal Activities. But a "scary" film for me puts the shits up you generally, so that after you've finished watching you basically have trouble sleeping, or keep looking at the darkened windows and wonder what's out there.

 

Its the horror fans who just seem to obsess over which films has the most fucked up kills/mutilations/whatever. They don't care about plot or the characters simply watching people getting tortured and killed in different ways. Firstly that makes for a shit film and secondly I don't think its a particulally healthy interest

[Devon Malcolm]

I am interested in A Serbian Film in so much that they banned Grotesque for having 'no discernible plot or artistic merit' and I want to see if it falls under the same banner. As far as I'm aware, A Serbian Film has had 4 minutes of cuts but that is all so far.

[Mr. Seven]

On the subject of "films seen this year" I'm trying to remember what I've seen in the cinema and such. Off the top of my head...

 

Green Zone - Pretty formulaic and somewhat pointless actioner. Also contains a really irritating Deus Ex Machina. 2/5

 

The Ghost - Good performances, well directed and has a decent sense of tension throughout but the ending is a bit silly. 3/5

 

Robin Hood - Can't understand the overwhelming negativity surrounding this. It's perfectly enjoyable without being outstanding. 3/5

 

The Expendables - As I said before it takes a while to get to the fireworks factory but once you get there it's great fun. People hating on this film are missing the point. 3/5

 

Kick-Ass - The single most obnoxious film of the year. Not funny, not clever and only Nic Cage saves it from being a total abortion. 1/5

 

Scott Pilgrim VS The World - Entertaining but a little too reliant on visual gimmickery and Michael Cera's one-dimensional schtick is becoming a problem. 3/5

 

Inception - The most overrated film of the year and probably forthcoming decade. It's decent but sweet jesus people really got conned by this. 3/5

 

The Crazies - Often comes across like a Greatest Hits of other horror films and thus offers little new to the genre but has charm and an admirable overwhelming sense of dread throughout the proceedings. Combine that with some inventive death scenes and the presence of Timothy Olyphant and it's a worthy remake. 3/5

 

Toy Story 3 - Probably not as good as 2 and the 3D is by and large useless but apart from that it's a wonderful swansong for the toys we grew up watching. 4/5

Predators - Boring. 2/5

 

Iron Man 2 - Huge lull in the midsection, needed more Rourke and I wasn't too happy with just how smarmy Downey Jr was in this. It's still really good fun when it wants to be though. 3/5

 

Shutter Island - Despite an ending that you can easily figure out from the trailer, this is still my favourite film of the year so far. Proof that it's about how you get to that ending that's what matters, not just having a nice fancy rug-pull in your bag of tricks. Yet another excellent performance from Leonardo DiCaprio too. It's not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than most this year. 4/5

 

Knight & Day - Another film that received unfair negative press, it's a perfectly fun and serviceable action romp. I guess a lot of it depends on your opinion of Tom Cruise, but if like me you can get past his media indiscretions and appreciate the fine work he does, you should enjoy this. 3/5

 

I think that's all I've seen.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Mr. Seven

[KFR42]

Went and saw Scott Pilgrim vs the world last night. Had me in absolute stiches. As the guy above said, its all about visual gimmickery, but unlike the guy above I'd actually add marks for that as they were phenomenal. Hilarious film.

 

I saw the expendables earlier in the week. Pretty much did what it said on the tin. Shooty shooty, explosion explosion. Not the greatest film ever, but I still enjoyed it.

[King Pitcos]

Best of the year so far for everyone? I'd say Inception or Four Lions.

[FLips]

Toy Story 3.

[ultimo the great]

Here's a couple:

 

Dark Water

The original Jap version put the shits up me.

 

Them

A low budget Romanian film but, again, pretty scary.

 

Obviously, both films a lot scarier if watched late at night with all the lights off and the sound turned up. Preferably alone. I think "how" you watch scary movies is quite important.

Dark Water is the best of the japanese horror wave of the late 90's-2000's but Them is really an average film from the french extreme wave. I'd have Switchblade Romance, Inside, Martyrs and probably Frontier(s) above it.

 

Top 10 of the year so far

 

A Prophet *****

Mother *****

How To Train Your Dragon ****

Revanche ****

Up in the Air ****

Lymelife ****

Tony ****

Paranormal Activity ****

The Princess And The Frog ****

Dogtooth ****

 

Out of 5

 

Rest of the Year

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

 

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ****

Kick-Ass ****

I Love You Philip Morris ****

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ****

Black Dynamite ****

Everybody's Fine ***

Date Night ***

The Girl Who Played With Fire ***

The Secret In Their Eyes ***

Perrier

[Devon Malcolm]

Dark Water is the best of the japanese horror wave of the late 90's-2000's but Them is really an average film from the french extreme wave. I'd have Switchblade Romance, Inside, Martyrs and probably Frontier(s) above it.

 

Them is really nothing like any of those three films. I really liked Switchblade Romance but Martyrs and Inside are largely disappointing shock effect stuff, completely lacking in subtlety and hysterically acted.

 

I wouldn't say Dark Water is as good as A Tale Of Two Sisters but it is excellent though. My eldest daughter has a toy rabbit that looks exactly like the rabbit on the front of that bag. Not good.

[Carbomb]

I wasn't a fan of Dark Water. It's basically a re-working of the Ring premise. Considering the writer is the guy who wrote Ring, it's a bit lazy.

[Loki]

Yeah, Them is in a completely different category to those others, plus it's not French Switchblade Romance I kind of enjoyed but unfortunately once you get to the "ooh twist" ending it renders the whole film completely irrelevant as everything you've seen is contradicted. That's NOT good writing IMO.

[Devon Malcolm]

The ending to Switchblade Romance is appalling. I like the idea of what they did in principle, but they went about it in entirely the wrong way. After it I was wondering if I could still call it a good film after such a shite ending, because it really does contradict everything before it.

[Twatters]

Are there 2 films called Them? I've watched the French film and didn't think much of it. It was like a poor version of Eden Lake.

[Devon Malcolm]

Are there 2 films called Them? I've watched the French film and didn't think much of it. It was like a poor version of Eden Lake.

 

Except Them came two years earlier.

 

There was another Them back in the fifties about giant ants, and it was also great.

[Twatters]

Are there 2 films called Them? I've watched the French film and didn't think much of it. It was like a poor version of Eden Lake.

 

Except Them came two years earlier.

 

There was another Them back in the fifties about giant ants, and it was also great.

 

I didn't say which one was first. I just meant that i thought Eden Lake was alot better.

 

Just watched Land of the Dead. To be honest it doesn't take much for me to enjoy a zombie film but i think this is one of the better ones. It's based around zombies becoming more intelligent. Nothing that original and it gets a bit cheesy but still a fun and entertaining film, with some cool deaths and a few decent performances. Poundland comes up trumps again!