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

[Steve Justice]

Difficult to say really. It's quite a broad genre. If I were to include all genres, then probably my favourite is What We Do In The Shadows. I'm also very fond of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Big Lewbowski. Quite a few really. 

[BigJag]

I've always thought that Wise Guys is a very funny film. It seems to fly under most peoples radar too. Danny Devito, Harvey Keitel, and Capn Lou Albano as the hitman.

[Steve Justice]

31 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

Black comedy/"dark comic drama" is all over the IMDB page.  Fair enough if you didn't like it, but criticising it for being exactly what it said it would be from the marketing, trailer, synopsis etc is a bit unfair.  If you love some trailer bait and switch check out "Downsizing."

There have been some reviews that have said that the humour punctured the drama a bit too much, probably only the

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girlfriend needing a piss

for me.  Apart from that I thought that it held the balance well.

This is what I saw on imdb. 

That, along with its hype I'd read on social media and stuff was enough to make me want to watch it. I don't watch trailers because I find they give too much away and can spoil the film. A full synopsis and reviews can flat out give things away too, so I tend to avoid them.

[NoUseforaUsername]

It's crazy that a supposedly serious movie in which Sam Rockwell seemed to model his character on Roger from American Dad's cop alter-ego and "the can't talk, batin" guy from Idiocracy was nominated for best picture.

It's really amazing how undercooked the movie was.

No idea from the first what they're doing with Harrelson's character, his role in the (improper?) investigation of the girl's death, and how to resolve it - so cliched cancer revelation and cop out suicide scene to simultaneously write him out and earn him sympathy.

Flashback scene so cliched and tone deaf it ends with McDormand's daughter saying "I hope I get raped and killed" before she gets raped and killed; something so absurdly on the nose and stupid I almost expected it to be punctuated by the Seinfeld slap bass music.

Rockwell, when not uttering something like "I lost muh badge", or strutting around like the school jock overacting in the school play to make the girls laugh, commits an act of prolonged, attempted murder (later forgotten about, sans another "I lost muh badge" scene), which if it wasn't so uncomfortable, you'd think was played up for laughs, then struts back into the police station while the camera cuts to clumsily written black guy revealing badge for the camera to show he's about to be cleaning up the "rednecks" mess.

Speaking of which, the movie wants to have its cake and it eat it too, by making the black characters the conduit for the viewer, the only characters with any kind of normality and nobility in this crazy movie; yet, not go as far as to give any of them a leading role. No, can't be doing that! So trite characters written lazily as a form of mea culpa it is.

Lest I go on all day, perhaps the winner in terms of ridiculousness is the rapist/murderer loudly discussing his rape/murder for no logical reason in a pub in the hamlet where the rape/murder happened, while Rockwell sits in the booth directly behind him; this after rapist/murderer intimidated McDormand's character in her workplace for no logical reason. Yet, despite the brazeness and carefree nature of the latter act, he completely loses all sense of composure when confronted by Rockwell.

Consistent writing again. And not hackneyed in the slightest.

And that cop out ending... and the offensively written little person... and the trophy girlfriend who felt like she was transplanted from one of the straight to DVD American Pie's... and Woody Harrelson having a wife who looked even younger than the aforementioned "trophy girlfriend"... re: ending Maybe they'll do a road trip comedy next, where Rockwell says offensive things to black people and McDormand runs around kicking people in the nads.

My guess is that this movie will be looked at for what it is, the same as Crash in a few years.

It's a gimmick, built on an interesting premise (perfect for the viral era we live in), but sadly doesn't go anywhere with it.

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by NoUseforaUsername

[Devon Malcolm]

3 hours ago, Steve Justice said:

Difficult to say really. It's quite a broad genre. If I were to include all genres, then probably my favourite is What We Do In The Shadows. I'm also very fond of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Big Lewbowski. Quite a few really. 

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a black comedy. Murder, kidnapping, suicide, incest. I don't really see how Three Billboards' subject matter is unacceptable but that's all fine.

[Steve Justice]

9 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a black comedy. Murder, kidnapping, suicide, incest. I don't really see how Three Billboards' subject matter is unacceptable but that's all fine.

Obviously I was wrong about Three Billboards not being a black comedy, but the humour between these two films is very different. In KKBB, practically everyone is funny. In Three Billboards, Sam Rockwell was the only funny one. And it was more 'bumbling idiot' slapstick humour than dark humour. It felt very out of place. 

[Devon Malcolm]

You're not wrong that Rockwell's character felt out of place, and that was one of my biggest issues with the film, probably the biggest. I wasn't really a fan of it at all.

But Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is still a black comedy. It really doesn't matter how much of it was played for laughs. The discussion is why certain subject matters aren't fine for comedy and some aren't.

[Steve Justice]

I'm not really saying that though (at least, not anymore). My point about not having humour attributed to it was when I was still under the impression it was supposed to be a flat out crime/drama. If it was supposed to be a serious film about rape/murder, then it definitely shouldn't have humour attributed to it. As I said, I was wrong about that and it was intended to be a black comedy, so I don't really have a problem with that aspect really. Just the humour itself.

Well, that and I thought the film was pretty terrible overall.

[LEGIT]

If I'm honest I still don't know how I felt on 3 Billboards. I went to see it when it first came out. I did feel some scenes were quite contrived, as the poster a few posts up says. But it was well acted. Rockwell in particular, I felt his acting was top notch. The character, well I quite liked the whole redemption theme, from racist alcoholic to wannabe hero, but it still a mess without a fitting message or point for me.

I'm sure the film ultimately had a point but I didn't get it.

 

[Loki]

I thought 3 Billboards was fantastic, quite surprised by the lukewarm reception it received here.  I very much get Devon's criticism of Rockwell but I think he is very much a marmite actor - personally I really enjoyed him in this and found his character arc to be the strongest thing in the film.

It felt a LOT like an early Coen Brothers movie, and there are so few people who can even attempt that, that I applaud any effort, particularly one as good as this.

So, I did watch Witch.  It was... good?  I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it as I was watching, but Mrs Loki and I ended up talking about it a lot afterwards so it definitely made an impact.  Not scary horror, but tense horror which to be honest I enjoy more.  I was a Silent Hill more than a Resident Evil guy.

Is there a thread for talking about tv series?  I honestly watch more tv stuff than film nowadays...

[ColinBollocks]

19 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

Ghost Stories

A few jump scares, a few intentional laughs, but otherwise it played out like a rejected Tales of the Unexpected script.  A TV special for Halloween, maybe, but not worth a trip to the multiplex.

If you fancy a horror in the cinema this week I'd highly recommend A Quiet Place instead.

Oddly, both have really strong ratings on RT so maybe you will love Ghost Stories after all.

Yeah. Was a little underwhelmed by the film too. I thought some of the OTT and rubbish acting made it feel like a bit of a telly show too.

Edited April 8, 2018 by ColinBollocks

[Mr_Danger]

I watched 12 Strong the other night. It felt like a missed opportunity. The story is much more interesting  than the execution made it seem and I just kind of stuck with it to see what happened at the end. I think it either needed the Hollywood treatment a bit more and have it more loosely based on real events or it needed to focus on other real life factors and dialled up the tension that way. 

[Frankie Crisp]

Backcountry (2014). I’m never going camping again.

I hadn’t heard of this but stumbled across it on a Wikipedia click-a-thon; it’s a really tense film about a couple who get lost in the Canadian woods and yep, end up near a bear. A really, really big fucking bear. Bit of a slow start but once it got going I was so invested in it. 

Not perfect as there’s a bit of scene-padding, but I guess without it they wouldn’t have made an hour. Basically a suspenseful shark film but with a bear, and one particular scene that wasn’t far off making me turn away before my tea came back up. Definitely recommend, though.

Unless you don’t like big bears, because this won’t change your mind.

Edited April 10, 2018 by Frankie Crisp
Bears.

[Fatty Facesitter]

Caught Ready Player One today. Loved it. Some of the acting is a *bit* wooden at times but aesthetically it looks amazing, it's choc full of throwbacks and has an absolutely belting soundtrack. Don't have to know much about gaming to get a kick out of it. If you've got some extra pocket money kicking around, watching it in IMAX is a whole different ballgame. 

Also I have fallen hopelessly in love with Olivia Cooke. She is sickeningly beautiful. 

[Merzbow]

43 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Caught Ready Player One today. Loved it. Some of the acting is a *bit* wooden at times but aesthetically it looks amazing, it's choc full of throwbacks and has an absolutely belting soundtrack. Don't have to know much about gaming to get a kick out of it. If you've got some extra pocket money kicking around, watching it in IMAX is a whole different ballgame. 

Also I have fallen hopelessly in love with Olivia Cooke. She is sickeningly beautiful. 

You'll be happy to know she's in another movie coming out right about now, Thoroughbreds. It looks good too.

I saw Ready Player One a few days ago myself, it's not my cuppa tea as I've an aversion to pop-culture nostalgia but I had a spare Groupon ticket I had to use. I was surprised at how decent it was, It's certainly no Pixels and is well worth a watch if you're after a fun popcorn flick. I must admit I got a little kick out of seeing a certain bike and another weeb reference.