DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[tiger_rick]

Watched The Blind Side last night. It was pretty good. It's really well acted and the characters are really warm. It lacks any real drama though. Considering how edgy the 'Big Mike' character and his circumstances should have been, it's all pretty tame. There is only a momentary piece of doubt in the whole thing, otherwise it's all plain sailing. It's a nice heart warming piece though.

[JLM]

What else was good about it rick?

 

What other positives might one take from the movie?

 

Any stand out individual performances at all?

 

[tiger_rick]

Sandra was pretty good but it didn't strike me as an oscar winning performance. Her performance doesn't really compare to either of the lead men in The Road for example. I suppose the competition on the female side can't have been up to much.

[Jas]

Gotta agree with you Steveo, Oldboy is truly amazing

[Jas]

Also accidentally caught Clue on itv4 I think week ago? Still very, very funny and all amazingly held together by the superb Tim Curry as the butler Wadsworth.

And according to wiki

[JLM]

Clue also has one of my favourite comedic murders of all time:

 

"I...am... the singing telegram!"

 

BANG!

[Carbomb]

Wadsworth: Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Professor Plum: Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.

Wadsworth: So your work has not changed.

 

That's the old style of British humour I so love and has become so rare in recent British comedies. My favourite series of all time is Yes, Prime Minister (and Yes, Minister), and there's one episode that has a similarly structured gag - the Prime Minister's been asked to address the Arts Council, but has just found out he's going to be harangued and ridiculed as a philistine during his speech for giving them such a small budget. He calls in Sir Humphrey, the Cabinet Secretary:

 

PM: "Humphrey, I have a problem. I have to give a speech to a bunch of self-righteous, posturing, theatrical drunks."

SH: "You mean the House of Commons?"

 

Great stuff.

[Frankie Crisp]

That's the old style of British humour I so love and has become so rare in recent British comedies

Couldn't agree more. Although not a British comedy, I was watching North by Northwest for the millionth time the other night and the one-liners Cary Grant and James Mason come out with are one of the reasons why I love it so, so much. Many of the lines in this film wouldn't be as well delivered if they weren't via the refined sarcasm of flippant Brit. Even Eva Maria Saint gets in on the act. A few examples:

 

Grant makes a phone call from the police station after being arrested, following his abduction and his captors getting him drunk before putting him in a car:

 

"No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser"

 

Whilst wearing sunglasses indoors to avoid being spotted when he's on the run, Grant tries to buy a train ticket:

 

Ticket Seller: "Something wrong with your eyes?"

Roger Thornhill: "Yes, they're sensitive to questions"

 

Talking to the female lead upon meeting her:

 

Roger Thornhill: "What's wrong with men like me?"

Eve Kendall: "They don't believe in marriage"

Roger Thornhill: "I've been married twice"

Eve Kendall: "See what I mean?"

 

Carbomb; if you've never seen it, get yourself a copy. The one liners are great but so is the rest of the writing.

[patiirc]

Clue also has one of my favourite comedic murders of all time:

 

"I...am... the singing telegram!"

 

BANG!

 

If ever there was a favourite cinematic moment poll on here, that would be my number 1 and has been since the first time I viewed it!

[Jas]

Clue also has one of my favourite comedic murders of all time:

 

"I...am... the singing telegram!"

 

BANG!

 

If ever there was a favourite cinematic moment poll on here, that would be my number 1 and has been since the first time I viewed it!

 

Also the manner in which the door was shut afterwards as if to say fuck off

[Carbomb]

That's the old style of British humour I so love and has become so rare in recent British comedies

Couldn't agree more. Although not a British comedy, I was watching North by Northwest for the millionth time the other night and the one-liners Cary Grant and James Mason come out with are one of the reasons why I love it so, so much. Many of the lines in this film wouldn't be as well delivered if they weren't via the refined sarcasm of flippant Brit. Even Eva Maria Saint gets in on the act. A few examples:

 

Grant makes a phone call from the police station after being arrested, following his abduction and his captors getting him drunk before putting him in a car:

 

"No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser"

 

Whilst wearing sunglasses indoors to avoid being spotted when he's on the run, Grant tries to buy a train ticket:

 

Ticket Seller: "Something wrong with your eyes?"

Roger Thornhill: "Yes, they're sensitive to questions"

 

Talking to the female lead upon meeting her:

 

Roger Thornhill: "What's wrong with men like me?"

Eve Kendall: "They don't believe in marriage"

Roger Thornhill: "I've been married twice"

Eve Kendall: "See what I mean?"

 

Carbomb; if you've never seen it, get yourself a copy. The one liners are great but so is the rest of the writing.

 

I'm happy to report that I've seen North By North-West, and I agree that it's fuggin' brilliant. The "No, they didn't give me a chaser" line particularly stands out for me, and it made me chuckle when I first saw it.

 

To be honest, whilst it'll never depose Withnail & I for me as my favourite movie ever, I still think it's one of the best movies ever made.

[Merzbow]

Last film i got through was Noriko's Dinner Table a sort of follow-up to the cult Japanese Horror Suicide Circle.

 

It is a MUCH different film than the first and has none of the Horror elements but ends up being a much better film.

It's mainly based around a girl called Noriko who is portrayed as the lonely and sad teenager who wishes to escape to Tokyo but her dad will not let her as she'll "meet bad guys and get pregnant" so she finds an online community (same one from the previous film) and goes by the name "Mitsuko", she starts to get close to people and they all "help" eachother then she ends up idolising one of them called "Ueno54" who is the main mind behind the forum.

 

"Mitsuko" runs away to meet "Ueno54" and then a dark mindfuck of a story begins where they are in a business of acting as Daughters for lonely men who may or may not have lost thier families.

 

I won't give any more away as it was well worth watching and getting throughly confused over, plus i'm shit at writing things like this.

 

So weird thinking about this as i'm meeting someone really well known from an imageboard/forum myself this month...

[ultimo the great]

Last film i got through was Noriko's Dinner Table a sort of follow-up to the cult Japanese Horror Suicide Circle.

What are the odds that another person on here has watched Noriko's Dinner Table this month?

 

I really liked Suicide Club and went into Noriko's Dinner Table not even knowing they were connected (just watching Sion Sono films after seeing the stunning Love Exposure, 5 so far) and as you say their very different. Suicide Club is this cult classic in the making mystery which has more in common with JHorror than NDT. Noriko's is just one long mindfuck that just draws you in to the emotions of the family and stays in your mind for days.

 

Been a bit of an all asian month for me Blue Spring, Now I, Air Doll, Lalapipo, Electric Dragon 80,000 V, Attack The Gas Station and It

[Glen Quagmire]

Went to see the Hot Tub Time Machine at the weekend, had been receiving mixed reviews though the sum up of one of the more positive write-ups was "Hangover meets Back To The Future". Not too far wrong with that, but the comedy element is a little darker than that of the Hangover. A decent enough flick I thought (though not quite as good as the Hangover unless you think the Hangover was overrated), especially...

 

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

...when they realise that once they've stopped following the Butterfly Theory, go "fuck it" and use their knowledge of the future to their advantage, or at least until Lou screws up big time on an American Football prediction that not only sees him lose a stack of cash he's built up on other bets during the game but also sees him "forced" to give a blow-job on his friend Nick which sees Nick faint, wake up later to see thinking he shot his load on Lou's face before realising it's a joke...

 

 

...Some of the humour is a bit gross if you can't stand for that especially in the first few minutes, but it's a good movie to pass the evening with. 7/10 giggities.

[Glen Quagmire]

On a couple of other movies that have been discussed on the last few pages, I didn't get the hype behind Iron Man 2 - the performances from the main characters were solid but I could just not get into the storyline which was pedestrian by numbers. Stark was an interesting character even coming to the point of being egotistical but apart from Vanko in a couple of scenes everything just blended into the background. Not worth the hype, and a reminder to myself that I rarely "get" big budget Hollywood flicks. Five giggities out of ten.

 

Whoever mentioned "Away We Go", I seen this back in the cinema in the Autumn and while it was not outstandingly strong in any particular area, I thought it told a story very well about how people live and cope with families - the kid in Phoenix was a good laugh not to mention the husband, while the Montreal scenes shows...

 

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

...a deep unhappiness covered up by the public perception of life being wholesome, especially in the niteclub, which I enjoyed in a dark way, maybe that's personal...

 

 

...if it's for rent or you can splash six pounds for it on Play.com, it's worth watching. Seven giggities out of ten.

 

Date Nite - seen this over a fortnight ago, just a brief write-up. The writing is definitely set up for an American audience with the casting in place, Steve Carell and Tina Fey (drop in note - complete MILF) play their parts well but the story lacks depth. Six giggities out of ten.

 

As for Four Lions, sounds like a flick I'd watch but unfortunately the local cinema ain't showing it.