DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[DJM]

V/H/S

Could have done with a bit more editing but I did enjoy it. I'm not usually a fan of found footage horrors, Blair Witch aside, some nice bits in this, even if most of the people in it were twats.

Keith - I watched V/H/S a few months ago. I thought the last segment with those blokes who go to the wrong house was great and the one set in the woods was pretty good. Otherwise I could take it or leave it. The sequel is supposed to be far better.

 

Yeah, I would recommend giving V/H/S/2 a watch. I found Safe Haven (directed by Gareth Evans who made The Raid) in particular to be very good, but on the whole it is a better series of short films than the 1st film.

Edited January 20, 2014 by DJM

[Devon Malcolm]

Just watched Killing Them Softly. It's largely rubbish, stupidly unsubtle and fairly boring aside from James Gandolfini going on about prostitutes. Don't bother.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Devon Malcolm

[Maverick]

Expected alot more from that film given the people involved. Found it pretty tepid really. Disappointing.

[Arch Stanton]

Yeah, it's rubbish but for one or two funny lines.

 

I watched Pain And Gain last night, starring The Rock, Marky Mark and Papa Doc. It's watchable and pretty entertaining without being anything brilliant. A decent way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday evening. Wrestling fans will probably enjoy The Rock's performance, moreso than most of the films he's done in recent years anyway. He's pretty funny in it. Not knowing much about it beforehand I thought there was going to be more bodybuilding involved, but it's really just a true crime story where the main characters just happen to be bodybuilders.

[Murtz]

Yeah, it's rubbish but for one or two funny lines.

 

I watched Pain And Gain last night, starring The Rock, Marky Mark and Papa Doc. It's watchable and pretty entertaining without being anything brilliant. A decent way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday evening. Wrestling fans will probably enjoy The Rock's performance, moreso than most of the films he's done in recent years anyway. He's pretty funny in it. Not knowing much about it beforehand I thought there was going to be more bodybuilding involved, but it's really just a true crime story where the main characters just happen to be bodybuilders.

I think I enjoyed this more knowing it was a true story. Most of it was just so far fetched, but because most of it actually happened it made it less ridiculous.

 

I watched 12 Years a Slave the other day. Really hard hitting and deep throughout. Call it Django Chained if you will. The acting my the main guy and Fassbender were brilliant, pretty obvious why they've been nominated for Oscars.

 

I'd never heard of Steve McQueen before this one, will be checking out his other films Hunger and Shame next.

[Steve Justice]

The Great Escape is pretty good too.

[Nick James]

Pain and Gain is made even better by The Rock wearing the same silk shirts that he wore at the height of his initial heel run on Raw.

 

This for example:

 

[bAzTNM#1]

Wes Craven's "Serpent and the Rainbow" is a creepy film. It's about Bill Pullman who goes to Haiti, trying to find out what is in the secret potion that they use to turn people into "zombies". It's actually pretty decent. Quite gory too.

 

P.S. Also a fan of the cover-art. Great stuff.

[chokeout]

Wes Craven's "Serpent and the Rainbow" is a creepy film. It's about Bill Pullman who goes to Haiti, trying to find out what is in the secret potion that they use to turn people into "zombies". It's actually pretty decent. Quite gory too.

 

P.S. Also a fan of the cover-art. Great stuff.

 

It's an unusual one. A lot of it is quite 'straight' for a Craven film and it works really well, Pullman is fantastic. The spirit guide stuff doesn't sit with the rest of the film though. Still a really good film though, Cathy Tyson was in it as well during that 15 minutes she was touted as the next big thing.

[Devon Malcolm]

"I don't see the Ambassador here, do you?"

[Arch Stanton]

I'd never heard of Steve McQueen before this one, will be checking out his other films Hunger and Shame next.

I hated Shame. Probably the least enjoyable film I've watched in years.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I was so impressed by 12 Years A Slave I thought I'd check out Hunger and Shame, but I can't say either have appealed to me at all before. Are they not that great?

 

 

WARNING: Waffley opinions about 12 Years A Slave below. Feel free to skip if you think I'm saying a load of bollocks.

 

 

12 Years... is a stunning accomplishment, though. The g/f and I found ourselves unable to speak for about 5 minutes afterwards... there just didn't seem to be words to articulate it. I can't put my finger on the feeling, but people I know who've seen it, and people she knows who've seen it, have had the same experience.

 

I've never really noticed how integral sound effects are to a film in quite the same way as I have with 12 Years A Slave - they're absolutely incredible at evoking and intensifying the scenes. The sound of the chains when Solomon finds himself kidnapped just sound so heavy, which I understand is a very odd observation, but when you hear those chains, you almost lose hope right along with him. A lot of the most shocking moments in the film - not just the floggings, but also a moment with a bottle that's utterly brutal and unexpected - give you that same feeling due to the sound. It's really well done.

 

Chiwetel Ejiofor is outstanding throughout; the determination and the dignity he shows is just so impressive. I can't even begin to relate to what Solomon Northup goes through as a slave, obviously, I'm a middle class white 21st century British person, but Ejiofor makes sure you always feel for what he's going through in a human way rather than a 'slavery was horrid, wasn't it, shall we have a cup of tea now?' sort of way, if that makes sense. And the ending is just devastating - what he says in the final scene hits you really hard, because it's the last thing you could imagine someone saying who has gone through what he went through.

 

I also really liked the way Steve McQueen handled a lot of the most shocking abuses that Solomon and Patsey suffer - these long, lingering shots that go on longer than you, as a viewer hoping for that abuse stop, want them to go on, and long enough that you can't look away either. There's a scene with an attempted hanging that just keeps the camera on the victim unrelentingly, and you're desperate for it to cut to somebody coming to the rescue, but nobody's coming, and you just keep watching, and there's nothing you can do but hope the victim can keep themselves alive. There's a flogging scene involving Michael Fassbender that's utterly brutal, and again you're desperate for it to end, but you know it won't. That's juxtaposed with the aftermath of other slaves looking after the victim that's almost harder to watch in a way - and again, the sound, and Ejiofor's performance really enhance what you feel when you watch it.

 

The scene that stuck with me most was the first beating Solomon endures, with a wooden paddle. I have to bring up the sound again, because the first time it connects with his back, it jolts you completely - it is, and I'm using the word again, brutal. The shocked screams Solomon lets out feel completely genuine. And McQueen lets it go on, and on, and there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to make it end - even when the paddle breaks, they just get another one, and the beating continues.

 

None of this comes off like provocative 'look how awful this was, look at all the horrible abuse, LOOK AT IT' sort of stuff (unlike, say, Toni Morrison's Beloved novel where the abuse is just so awful you can't bear to read on... but maybe that's the point she was making there). The balance between showing how awful things were and not overplaying it is achieved really, really well.

 

Excellent film.

[bAzTNM#1]

"I don't see the Ambassador here, do you?"

Bit where he puts a nail through Bill Pullman's cock was unbelievably brutal.

 

"I can't hear you scream!"

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Still can't hear you!"

NAIL THROUGH THE COCK.

 

Worrying thing is, it's supposedly based on a true story.

Edited January 22, 2014 by bAzTNM#1

[KingOfMetal]

NAIL THROUGH THE COCK.

 

 

Watched Gravity this morning. Enjoyed it for the most part and thought that visually it great. Whilst it was a film based around the big set pieces, I don't think that the moments between dragged as much as I thought they would do. I was concerned that it was just going to be Sandra Bullock floating around (at least Bender grew a civilisation on his torso), but thankfully that wasn't the case. the only thing that threw me off a was the scene were she was howling, that was abit weird.

 

Next up:

Captain Phillips? or The Wolf Of Wall Street?

Edited January 22, 2014 by KingOfMetal

[seph]

NAIL THROUGH THE COCK.

 

 

Watched Gravity this morning. Enjoyed it for the most part and thought that visually it great. Whilst it was a film based around the big set pieces, I don't think that the moments between dragged as much as I thought they would do. I was concerned that it was just going to be Sandra Bullock floating around (at least Bender grew a civilisation on his torso), but thankfully that wasn't the case. the only thing that threw me off a was the scene were she was howling, that was abit weird.

 

Next up:

Captain Phillips? or The Wolf Of Wall Street?

 

You know Pain and Gain?

 

Y'know, where the trailers build up this big-balls image of gangsters, hookers, massive drugs and Honda Accords, then you saw the film and got a completely different movie altogether? that does a much better job of shining a harsh light on that lifestyle, how it's got and how it all goes tits-up than the wanksta paean Scarface did?

 

Good. Now watch Wolf of Wall Street.

 

In one sentence Leonardo Di Caprio deserves an Oscar, Martin Scorsese deserves an Oscar, Jordan Belfort deserves a bullet in the asshole and Jonah Hill's been watching too many Morton Downey Jr. tapes. In a few sentences, besides blistering performances from Leo and Jonah the film is a clinical exercise in determining what you can get away with in making a film. If Tarantino had made it it would've been cut to shreds or flat-out denied a certificate with the levels of nudity (both genders!), sex and drugs going past obscene, straight through comical into 'this actually got passed?' territory. Besides that ludicrous/hilarious excess and the bemusement of wondering what in the blue fuck Joanna Lumley is doing here, the film gleefuly plays through the good-times / bad-times tropes and points towards Jordan's eventual comeuppance only to have one defining (and rending) scene that shows what a vile cunt Belfort is - and how lightly he got off on the whole thing. For your average Joe who thinks they're a person of good morals it's a real shot in the mouth.

 

I haven't laughed and cringed watching one film for so long, don't get me wrong... but it's a great exercise in not buying what trailers tell you. More films should do this instead of packing the goddamn jokes in two minutes and making people pay to sit through shit to get to them.

Edited January 22, 2014 by seph