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Frankie Crisp

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Most of these are via nefarious means.

Kill List (2011) (All 4)

A pair of contract killers take on a job that sees things spiral out of control. A straightforward Hitman flick all of a sudden turns into some creepy cult horror. I’m not sure what to make of this. Incredibly graphic violent and the ending is truly shocking. I was left with more questions than answers though.

Sightseers (2012)

A seemingly ordinary couple’s first holiday together, caravanning around the Lake District, takes a dark and sinister turn. Steve Oram and Alice Lowe are both great here and I preferred this over Kill List (Ben Wheatley is the director of both). Not my own words but Natural Born Killers for the Radio 4 generation sums this up perfectly.

Jealous Alan (2019) (BBC iPlayer)

Two best friends fancy the same girl, or do they? Thought provoking decent short Scottish film.

Our Ladies (2019)

A group of Catholic school girls head to Edinburgh for a choir competition but are more interested in hitting the town, partying and getting laid. A gem of a coming of age comedy. Very well acted and a great soundtrack. There’s also a poignant ending as we find out what happened next to the girls.

Booksmart (2019)

Best friends Amy and Molly have spent their high school years studying in order to get into the best College, when they realize what they’ve missed out on they’ve one night to make up for it. A funny, surreal in places, comedy that also deals with issues of friendship and unrequited love. The two leads, Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, are both excellent.

Tag (2018)

The true story of a group of friends who have been playing the game of Tag, every May, for the last 30 years. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, however I’m guessing there is a fair bit of creative license going on to bring the story to the big screen. Isla Fisher’s intense and uber-competitive character is a hoot. 

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22 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Fear Street Part 1: 1994. Seen a lot of fuss about this and whilst I enjoyed it I didn’t find it better than decent. It’s got a likeable cast and has a couple of graphic killings and even though the story is a bit wishy washy I appreciate the more original aspects of it. I’m down for Part 2 next week at least. Just avoid the hype of the people wanking themselves silly over #references!

I found it all fairly unremarkable. Nothing egregiously bad, but nothing that made me feel like I'd be missing out if I stopped watching at any point. My other half liked it, so I'll probably watch the next one, but it was pretty bog-standard slasher flick fare.

It's an RL Stine thing, and he's good at creating the sense of horror as something kind of innate, that sins of the past manifest in the future, that certain locations are cursed by what happened there, even if he does so in a very kids'/young adult book way. Translating that into an 18+ environment but not making the background any more fleshed out or believable really meant that it was just all surface. Nothing about the world or its history felt remotely plausible - even in the sense of a hyper-stylised horror flick - so it was just people running and screaming from one plot point to another, surrounded by clichés.

There were a couple of things left unresolved that made me think they'll be brought back up in future episodes, and in that respect it moving backwards chronologically could be an interesting choice, and it's only really for that reason that I'd be interested to watch it again. But even then, I have no expectation that any explanation to those unresolved plot points will be anything more than the same level of cliché or unearned plot development.

It just felt like they wanted a new Stranger Things, really, and missed every point that made that series endearing.

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22 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

They redefined the term jumping the shark about 4 films ago. Jumping a shark wouldn’t even be a high spot in those films. I don’t think the people still on board for that franchise give a shit about plot and character.

Never seen any of them. Mrs Jazzy enjoys them, but I've just never been arsed. I hear it picks up around the 5th one, but then tails off again? 

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7 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

Never seen any of them. Mrs Jazzy enjoys them, but I've just never been arsed. I hear it picks up around the 5th one, but then tails off again? 

The best one's have the Rock in them so 5, 6 and 7. 4 is a good starting point as it was in essence a soft reboot.

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1 hour ago, Magnum Milano said:

Tag (2018)

The true story of a group of friends who have been playing the game of Tag, every May, for the last 30 years. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, however I’m guessing there is a fair bit of creative license going on to bring the story to the big screen. Isla Fisher’s intense and uber-competitive character is a hoot. 

Judging by this review. not too much creative license!

https://letterboxd.com/ct_sexybeast/film/tag-2018/

But yeah, I enjoyed this a lot too, thought it deserved a much better reception.

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8 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Judging by this review. not too much creative license!

https://letterboxd.com/ct_sexybeast/film/tag-2018/

But yeah, I enjoyed this a lot too, thought it deserved a much better reception.

Some of the stuff just felt a bit OTT and unrealistic to me; like Bob trying to throw a chair through the glass panel in the building to escape from Hogan, the scene at AA, at the shopping centre, the "miscarriage", but maybe it wasn't then after all?

Ed Helms is someone I don't actively seek out after ending up loathing Andy in the Office but he was good here.  Added points for Rashida Jones too.

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I did enjoy Tag but the 

Spoiler

whole fake miscarriage

 

bit didn't sit well with me and left a bad taste. Thought it was unnecessary.

I watched a couple of teen horror comedy films from 1999.  Jawbreaker and Idle Hands. Both so incredibly of their time, The Donnas play the prom in the former and The Offspring in the latter,  but good fun.  Do those low budget, silly horrors still get made?  Obviously it's Disneys fault if not.

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13 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Do those low budget, silly horrors still get made?  Obviously it's Disneys fault if not.

Occasionally, but low budget horror these days tends to have nothing happen for an hour and a half and then about 10 minutes of mad, incoherent shit before an abrupt crap ending.

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I’ve watched loads of shark films this last week or so. 

The Reef (2010)

Some tense moments but, like most Fergal films, very predictable.

Cage Dive (2017)

I didn’t mind this, although I can understand why it’s disliked. They played too much on the reality TV thing. The flare scene is just dead funny.

47 Metres Down: Uncaged (2019)

Aiden from Sex and the City is treated better by a shark than he was by Carrie Bradshaw.

Bait (2012)

Oh god, this was good. Stupid, over the top but everything I need in a film when I can’t be arsed thinking. Getting legged off by a shark in a shopping centre. Boss.

47 Metres Down (2017)

47 minutes too long.

Frenzy/Surrounded (2018)

JUST USE THE MASSIVE FLOATING BIT OF WOOD TO SLOWLY MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BOAT YOU DAFT TWATS

The Shallows (2016)

I like it. It’ll never move any award ceremonies but it’s good fun even if the shark clearly plays Chess in its sleep. Great fun.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

The best shark film not called Jaws. It’s just so much fun. Terrible acting by the leading lady, Thomas Jane being overly serious, LL Cool J bossing it, a parrot and a scene with an oven. Ten stars.

 

Edited by Frankie Crisp
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1 hour ago, Keith Houchen said:

I did enjoy Tag but the 

  Reveal hidden contents

whole fake miscarriage

 

bit didn't sit well with me and left a bad taste. Thought it was unnecessary.

In the middle of what was otherwise a really good-natured film, it felt so out of place and unpleasant. Absolutely no idea what they were going for with it.

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20 minutes ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Bait (2012)

Oh god, this was good. Stupid, over the top but everything I need in a film when I can’t be arsed thinking. Getting legged off by a shark in a shopping centre. Boss.

Yeah, it was quality, this.

Do crocodile films next!

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The Tomorrow War. (Prime) 

Shove as many film homages as you can into two hours 17 minutes worth of run time. Amongst other films blatantly stolen (sorry, gently paid tribute to) from include. (and this list isnt exhaustive) Alien, The Thing, Predator, Evolution, Starship Troopers, Edge of Tomorrow, World War Z, 28 Weeks Later, Rampage, Transformers. 

Missing the wit of Bruckheimer or Emmerich action flicks yet going for the same vibe it's too long, is all over the place and not something I'd be keen to watch again tbh. 

Notable because Amazon paid Paramount 200 million quid for it and the complete waste of Betty Gilpin in it :/

Others watched

The Beach (Disney Plus) 

Aged horribly. Richard is an utter douche. Book is much better. Cinematography is brilliant and the 'Moby shot' is still amazing. 

The Dead Don't Die (Netflix) 

Meta zombie movie where not much  actually happens aside from the end of the world. Adam Driver is again magnificent, Tilda Swinton was marvellous as a Scottish Undertaker. Not everyone's cuppa tea. 

M. A. S. H (Disney Plus) 

Magnificent. 

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4 minutes ago, patiirc said:

The Dead Don't Die (Netflix) 

Meta zombie movie where not much  actually happens aside from the end of the world. Adam Driver is again magnificent, Tilda Swinton was marvellous as a Scottish Undertaker. Not everyone's cuppa tea. 

I was so disappointed with this film, such a waste of a great cast. As you say not much actually happens. 

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1 hour ago, Frankie Crisp said:

I’ve watched loads of shark films this last week or so. 

The Reef (2010)

Some tense moments but, like most Fergal films, very predictable.

Cage Dive (2017)

I didn’t mind this, although I can understand why it’s disliked. They played too much on the reality TV thing. The flare scene is just dead funny.

47 Metres Down: Uncaged (2019)

Aiden from Sex and the City is treated better by a shark than he was by Carrie Bradshaw.

Bait (2012)

Oh god, this was good. Stupid, over the top but everything I need in a film when I can’t be arsed thinking. Getting legged off by a shark in a shopping centre. Boss.

47 Metres Down (2017)

47 minutes too long.

Frenzy/Surrounded (2018)

JUST USE THE MASSIVE FLOATING BIT OF WOOD TO SLOWLY MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BOAT YOU DAFT TWATS

The Shallows (2016)

I like it. It’ll never move any award ceremonies but it’s good fun even if the shark clearly plays Chess in its sleep. Great fun.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

The best shark film not called Jaws. It’s just so much fun. Terrible acting by the leading lady, Thomas Jane being overly serious, LL Cool J bossing it, a parrot and a scene with an oven. Ten stars.

 

Do snake films next and start with this.

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Not watched half as much as I'd like lately, due to Euros and Wimbledon. 

The Mauritanian wasn't great. Really harrowing in parts, a strong cast all on point, yet still really quite boring. Although that is usually the case with these 'based on true events, please give us an Oscar!' type films so I shouldn't be surprised. I was much more surprised by Black Bear which is typically the kind of thing I hate but Aubrey Plaza's performance alone was enough to keep me compelled, she's excellent in this. Antebellum was a real missed opportunity. Some good ideas but none of them really executed well. Janelle Monae does good work though.

Nobody is fantastic. One of my faves of the year so far, I've watched it twice now and actually think I prefer it to any of the John Wick films. We better get a fucking sequel to this. Shiva Baby is excrutiating, in the best way. Just 80 minutes of awkwardness and embarassment, Rachel Sennott is one to keep an eye on. Wasn't that arsed about The Father - it's a fine showcase for Anthony Hopkins but 10 minutes in I felt like I'd seen everything it had to say, and by the end that feeling was justified.

A Quite Place Part II is just as good as the first, which is very good. Expands the story but without sacrificing any of the tense tightly-wound set pieces that the first did so well. 

Freaky is now officially out over here so I reckon a cinema re-watch of that is in order this month.

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