Last Movie You Watched? Mark 9

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Watched The Godfather last week and Part II over the past couple of days.

The opinions of both have changed vastly since I first saw them. This being said when I last watched them around October time I thought Part II were the superior film.

Ha I felt similarly… I remember having a conversation with someone and said The Godfather Part II is the only sequel that's better than the first. Then I rewatched them and thought the first Godfather film feels that little bit more complete than the second.

Also think the third film is underrated. Yeah it's not as great as the first two, but it's definitely not bad. If only Sofia wasn't in it...

I still have never seen PART III. I'm so leery because I hold the first two in such high regard I don't want anything tarnishing my opinion of them.

Haven't seen III in a long time, but I remember it merely being okay. It doesn't live up to the first two in any sense, but it doesn't damn them either. Coppola regards it as an "epilogue" as opposed to actually being a part of the series as the title suggests.

I just finished MAGNOLIA. It's well directed, acted, scored, shot, whatever...But to what end? It worked less as a movie and more as a demo reel for the talent at display. Great talent there is, I just didn't care for whatever the hell PTA was trying to convey. I admire any filmmaker with guts to blow their wad when they're given carte blanche by the studio, even if I don't particularly care for it at the end.

And I finished Godfather Part III.

On the second viewing it's not a bad film. It lacks what made the first two so great. Maybe being made so long after them doesn't help amongst other things. Sofia Coppola was neither here nor there, she's immaterial. What I did like was the Michael story coming full circle. Gradually bit by bit in this saga he loses everyone and there's a sense of tragedy when he dies, by himself but for his dog, in Sicily after all that's happened.
Other than that...maybe 4 out of 5.

Late last night or rather wee small hours of the morning, I finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

spurred by BBC4's re-run of Smiley's People I dug out the DVD. It's my third viewing as personally this isn't a film you can do many re-runs of. It's not a criticism of the film. Why ruin a good film?
Personally, this is one of the best films of recent years. I've heard people poke holes in it (the IMDB boards on TTSS for example, seem to consist of people who just don't get it) but it's well acted (Gary Oldman is astounding, can do so much by saying nothing...and as only I can phrase it, it looks good. Even the items on a desk in one shot seem perfect -like the book has been imprinted onto the film. The music is as good, not dictating what you think or feel but accentuating the scenes. You could get away with no soundtrack at all really.
And the final scene is a fine way of wrapping it up.

If people's criticism, and yes I know it's IMDB -hardly the Brains Trust- is that it's slow, boring, hard to understand than God forbid we think about films nowadays. Or that a film puts craft in.

Ende.

XXX (2002)

I was cleaning/decorating, so I needed some background noise. This was on Netflix, and I have never seen it. HAHAHAHAHA! This flick is so dated and its attempt at trying to introduce "the secret agent for the new millennium" is just soooo cute, especially in the context of this "start" of a franchise never really becoming a thing. It makes DIE ANOTHER DAY look timeless. The pandering to EXTREEEEME sports and nuMetal kinda takes me back to my teenage years. It's not at all surprising that once Sony had become partners with MGM on Bond, they pretty much gave up on this.

I still remember reading a review for XXX (or wasn't it xXx?) back when it first came out. The article featured a picture of Van Diesel captioned "fresh" and a picture of Broz-Bond captioned "stale." Basically the review was saying that Ecks Ecks Ecks was going to be the James Bond of the 21st century.

You knew that we were in for a shit century when Von Gasoline was touted as a cultural icon for the times.

The beginning of the movie actually had a James Bond type agent getting killed at a metal concert.



A fun piece of dialogue happened in a scene with Nick Fury

"It's a new world. A new generation. Now, more than ever it's evident that the old ways just don't cut it."

Ten years later we get SKYFALL saying "sometimes the old ways are the best".

Heh, didn't realise Rammstein was in Ecks x3.

American Hustle - an entertaining watch, sure. But with the 'heavyweight' cast it attracted, I think I was expecting ... more. Didn't quite add up to the sum of its parts for me.

Father Brown (1954) - it wasn't as good as I thought it would be sadly though Alec Guinness gives a good performance. Bernard Lee co-stars as a British policeman.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)



Wonderful. I was pulled in right with that opening. Refreshing to see Eastwood in his prime as a filmmaker, after having seen the rather meh AMERICAN SNIPER. Great score too. I also think John Vernon gives my favorite performance of his career. I was planning to watch UNFORGIVEN right after, but I'm feeling tired so I'll just do that tomorrow.

Whiplash (2014)



Is it a great film? I'm not sure, but it's one of the few Oscar noms that actually engaged me. Simmons should easily get his award.

I really liked WHIPLASH but I find the vast praise its receiving a little much. For how absurd much of it is (Simmons' antics particularly) it takes itself too seriously, passing all of it off as if we should be accepting it seriously.

I don't mind absurdity at all, but when a film's tone is this serious
People are calling this "Rocky with drums" but I found the ending also to be a bit troubling as it seems to justify Simmons' monstrous methods as a means to an end. I've only seen it once, so these were just a few quick observations that kept me from loving it. Aside from that a damn good thriller. Intense.

I didn't think it took itself too seriously, some of the absurdity is what gives it some needed levity, particularly insults Simmons puts out. Is his monstrous methods justified? I thought they conveyed that it's basically both yes and no. On one hand, the ending shows that Simmons got what he was looking for in the young student after all the hell he gave him, but then there's that part about an earlier student who went onto great success but eventually committed suicide which hurt him.

Is it overpraised? I've avoided a lot of the raving reviews of all the nominations, wanting to get into these films clean. Maybe it is, but given the rest of the competition I'm not surprised that it's become a big favorite. It's a weak year, maybe if there were stronger films then WHIPLASH would have just been regarded as another highly acclaimed film. I dunno. All I can say is that I enjoyed it more than the other noms so far (haven't seen SELMA, FOXCATCHER or GRAND BUDAPEST yet), aside from maybe BIRDMAN which still leaves an impression on me today unlike the rest of the noms I've seen.

I'll probably see it again once it comes out. It's probably my favorite out of the nominated films as well (with BUDAPEST).

I went to music school at university (for jazz, actually), and I can say that it's not really anything like it's portrayed in WHIPLASH.

That being said, I don't think the movie was really trying to be fully serious. It's so over-the-top that it's borderline satirical at points, IMO. I feel like the movie portraying things almost comically was probably the best direction to go in order to prove it's point. But that's kind of why I really liked it, because the internal rationalization of what it takes to be really dedicated is a very real thing that performers go through (I can attest), and that is highlighted even more by setting it amongst all these ridiculously absurd situations in the film (like the kid literally fleeing the scene of a car crash to get to a gig and bleed all over the stage).

I enjoyed the hell out of WHIPLASH. Really, really good flick.

Blade Runner (Final Cut) - the restored, remastered and 'tweaked' 25th anniversary release of Ridley Scott's influential and prophetic sci-fi noir.

Bloody magnificent :D .

Starsky & Hutch

comedy was the right way to go but then it's miss and hit. I always try to picture Glaser and Soul watching this at the premiere. Heard Soul in interviews get a little annoyed at it so he must've done something in the cinema like strangle Wilson. And yet what I like is at the end. The Torino tearing down the golf course and into the harbour to some 70s-esque cop music.
Something to pass the time.

World War Z - I know it had a troubled journey to the screen, but it's really not so bad ... fairly entertaining action-horror, overall. A slightly curious thing is that maybe the makers were going for a 12A cert (which they didn't get), because this is easily the least gruesome thing featuring zombies that I've ever seen and there's not much swearing either.

Capaldi's credit as a 'WHO Doctor' in something released shortly before he was announced to the world as the new Doctor amuses.

Watched AIRPLANE again. It's funny. For my money the funniest moment is the older man starting to dance as "Stayin' Alive" fires up on the jukebox. I rarely laugh out loud, even during moments I find funny, but that bit always gets me. Fucking hilarious.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Well, that was disappointing. I'm very mixed. On one hand, I enjoyed it in parts while finding others insufferable. The talks of this being a Roger Moore film for the 21st century couldn't be more false. I was wondering why Moore wasn't brought along as a veteran Kingsman agent or something, just to give a nod to the kind of flamboyancy and flippancy of an era that's long gone. Well, I can see he probably would have never agreed to be in it anyway if it was offered. I didn't like the ultra violence, or at least its cartoonish style. I hated that sped up thing that Vaughn does with the action (particularly in the bar and church). Characters talk about how they prefer the old Bond films, before the series took itself more seriously, yet this film seems to take that sentiment up a notch by amping up the humor in a way that not even those old Bond films went for. For example, the main villains were not treated like jokes (why waste Samuel Jackson by giving him a lisp is just baffling) and there wasn't a gag every five minutes in those flicks. I'm all for bringing back some of the fun of the older films (and I hope SPECTRE brings some of it back to a degree) but at least the older films knew how to keep the right balance.

But onto the positive stuff. I dug the gag at the end, it's the only part that really felt in line with those Moore films (including having the decency of not showing our man in action, leaving it to the imagination). In the context of what the rest of the film (Lancelot getting a very curious demotion, ect), yeah, I'm not crazy about it. Might have worked better to just have the two agents shag at the end instead of with that princess (but then again I guess the literal damsel in distress was the joke, I don't care for it). While I'm not crazy about the OTT violence, I dug the henchwoman in concept. That's pretty awesome. It's curious that she's not given a more extravagant death though. Just cut and poisoned. After having people sliced in half and heads exploding, you think they'd up it with her. Not that I'm complaining, it's just a curious decision. I like Eggsy okay. I LOVE Colin Firth and admit that my enthusiasm with the film died when his character was offed. I would have preferred to have him to have been the lead.

I haven't seen KICK-ASS since it was first available for rental, I'll probably not see this again either. Vaughn's just not on my wavelength and I might as well cross him off the list of directors I want for Bond in the future, even when they inevitably take a lighter direction after Craig leaves.

Tora Tora Tora

the piece de resistance remains the attack sequence. Considering when this was filmed it was very well done -some of the model work is jarring but otherwise it's fantastic. It's been re-used in other films, notably Final Countdown and other films have messed it right up, Pearl Harbour.
The film's criticised for acting but Martin Balsam and James Whitmore in particular stand out for me.
Above all is Jerry Goldsmith's score. Shades of Planet of the Apes, even Star Trek Insurrection (or vice versa of course) but pure gold.

American Sniper - granted, it doesn't do anything wildly different with the war movie/biopic genre. But still a good watch, with both Cooper and Eastwood on fine form.