True Savior
Member
Imogen Poots is adorable.
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Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| September 2016
- Thread starter Divius
- Start date
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ViewtifulJC
Banned
I like her in an American anna karina cute kinda way
PassiveObserver
Member
Thanks for letting me know this was on Amazon Prime. Been waiting for this one.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
one of my fave noirs, dope
looks bad
Infernostew
Member
It's great.
Sure Poots is attractive but she's never stood out as an actress. and in Green Room
(This could all be my preference for Alia Shawkat talking)
Blair Witch Project may not've been innovative but it is great. Reminds me of a recent watch: it's not exactly found footage, more mockumentary, but Ghostwatch is a cool little haunted house movie. Nails the trappings of a BBC broadcast, essentially Paranormal Activity but 15 years earlier and superior.
it's not her fault as her character is entirely nondescript. Nonetheless it felt like I was supposed to be cool with her being the one to survive alongside Yelchin because...because.
Blair Witch Project may not've been innovative but it is great. Reminds me of a recent watch: it's not exactly found footage, more mockumentary, but Ghostwatch is a cool little haunted house movie. Nails the trappings of a BBC broadcast, essentially Paranormal Activity but 15 years earlier and superior.
best movie I've seen on Prime of late is Maren Ade's first movie The Forest for the Trees. cringe-dramedy about a young teacher overwhelmed by a new city and job.
User 479360
Banned
I watched The Maze Runner when I couldn't sleep this morning, and as you guys said, it was good. I liked it. I'd give it a 7/10, which is a B.
Going to watch the sequel soon.
I forgot Blair Witch opens tonight. I don't know if I feel like going out or not, though. Maybe tomorrow. I have a free popcorn to use and it expires tomorrow, so I have to go one of these nights. And I've been anticipating Blair Witch.
Going to watch the sequel soon.
I forgot Blair Witch opens tonight. I don't know if I feel like going out or not, though. Maybe tomorrow. I have a free popcorn to use and it expires tomorrow, so I have to go one of these nights. And I've been anticipating Blair Witch.
TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared
Member
How has Kubo And The Two Strings bombed (relatively) at the box office? Christ almighty, its amazing! You get this minions crap or that life of pets rubbish and it makes a trillion dollars (may or may not be accurate), while this looks amazing, is amazing, and doesn't make the money it deserves. Where's the fairness?
it's one of the best movies I've seen all year. Pretty great story. terrific action scenes, amazing voice acting, and the effects (or stop motion wizardry, whatever the term is) is breath taking. The best movies never get the breaks.
it's one of the best movies I've seen all year. Pretty great story. terrific action scenes, amazing voice acting, and the effects (or stop motion wizardry, whatever the term is) is breath taking. The best movies never get the breaks.
Don't Breath
Good movie. Had some issues...
but it was a good movie, pretty thrilling.
Good movie. Had some issues...
near the end, how the hell did the blind guy manged to get out of the handcuffs and into the main floor, getting his gun and releasing his dog before they opened the front door? Why did he hear Alex breathe at the end but didn't hear the girl breathin at the start? Etc etc
no marketing and horrendous title probably didnt help
ViewtifulJC
Banned
I've never heard anyone named Imogen
Serious? In what way?
Baron von Loathsome
Member
I just finished The Forbidden Room (2015). It was certainly an interesting film, but between the numerous stories to keep track, the strangeness and disjointedness of those stories, and the sheer length of the thing, it's not something I'd ever voluntarily watch again.
Infernostew
Member
Yes. Solondz type of dark humor is in line what kind of stuff I like in comedies. Honestly, it's one of my favorite films of the year.
Well, it teaches you how to take a bath. That's not a skill a lot of people are familiar with.
never heard about Imogen Poots? She's a cute American actress
guys, War Dogs was good! Jonah Hill and the Third Belushi brother are hysterical and its quite unexpectedly action packed
Messofanego
Banned
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
"Imogen Poots" is a complete, grammatical sentence.
Messofanego
Banned
I loved Wiener-Dog, too, one of my favourites of the year. But then I'm a big Todd Solondz and dark comedy fan.
Haxan. So Letterboxd has the Hooptober challenge which started today. I bolted that together with the GAF 31 days of horror so I have 46 days of horror ahead lol. Anyway that started with Haxan which is Swedish for witch. This was an amazing film from 1922 that depicts tools of the trade, methods of witch hunting and even a psychological explanation for the witch hunts at the end. I loved it even though it was a bit of a slog. The Hulu version of this was orange which left a weird contrast when it switched to the b&w text parts. Recommended.
I can't believe I wrote this much about this film, but hey, it's good exercise for October.
Kickboxer: Vengeance:
Remaking a film like Kickboxer runs into an immediate issue: virtually every Kickboxer knock-off made since that film came out is already a remake of Kickboxer. Sure, the details might get swapped out for ever-so-slight variations, but by and large, genre buffs for martial arts films of this kind have seen this film over and over and over again. It raises the question of what kind of prestige the name actually brings, as there's a better than good chance even without the name, you would still probably get most of the same cast involved and maybe even Van Damme himself if you asked nicely enough. The movie hasn't even started yet, and it already has troubles justifying itself!
Of course, Kickboxer itself was hardly new and innovative when it came out itself, and to be honest, the fights themselves were never much to write about, but thanks to the solid sense of plot progression, the then-uncommon use of Thailand as a setting and the batshit insanity of all the scenes that had little to do with fighting, including the strange detour towards the end as an out-and-out rescue action film, it's endured as a cult classic since its release and, along with Bloodsport, cemented Van Damme as The Martial Arts Action Star of his time. Perhaps the filmmakers thought they could recapture that same kind of innocent charm the original had: that willingness to be just goofy enough to be compelling, while also having nearly 30 years worth of fighting expertise to give the fights themselves a harder hitting excitement to them. And maybe, just maybe, have this film do for newcomer Alain Moussi what the original helped do for Van Damme.
The result is not very good. While the general thrust of the original plot remains, the filmmakers throw in their own twists along the way to help spice things up. Having Eric die instead of getting crippled seems to be the pace setter, as it hopes to accomplish the task of raising the stakes and establishing the film as a much more serious work than the original. This is by far the most successful element introduced in this version, in that it doesn't really do much of anything at all, neither improving nor diminishing what was already present. Nearly everything else added to the story falls into that latter category, as it tries to throw in more incident than it could ever possibly hope to resolve by its conclusion. For example: Tong Po is now a trainer of other fighters, but no one on the writing staff seemed to question why he is a trainer of other fighters when he otherwise follows the same arc as the character did in the original, and has pretty much the same character trait of being a violent loner. Character motivations also get introduced and subsequently dropped at strange times, especially this film's romantic subplot. It's not even right to call it a romantic subplot, as it happens mid-training montage, and we're supposed to buy it right then and there. No questions asked, and the filmmakers do little to hide that it exists as little more than a narrative reason to get Sara Malakul Lane naked.
Speaking of, the only real lateral move the film can boast is that the quality of acting is pretty much identical to the original. Van Damme is certainly having a fun time as the mentor, and moves so well for his age that one does wonder why they didn't think to do another Kickboxer film that ignores what happens to Kurt in the sequels (spoiler alert: Van Damme asked for too much money), but that's neither here nor there. The only cast member that's having as much fun as Van Damme, and for my money is probably having even more fun, is Sam Medina as Tong Po's personal hype man, who can cut a promo with the best of the WWE. Otherwise, the cast is as stiff and unconvincing as you could imagine: Dave Bautista looks big but never seems particularly intimidating, Alain Moussi has the moves but none of the personality of his predecessor, and aside from Sara Malakul Lane getting naked (which is the only thing her character accomplishes of any note, so I wonder how Lane feels about that aside from the paycheck), the rest of the cast is simply kind of there to fill seats or get their asses kicked. I do appreciate that the filmmakers did nail one element of the original film as far as the casting is concerned: Moussi and the recently departed Darren Shahlavi don't look, sound and even act remotely like brothers, so they nailed that part down.
Here's the biggest problem with the film: for something that can't go more than 10 minutes without someone beating the shit out of another human being, it's kind of staggering that all of the fights are pretty inept. This is more on the filmmakers than the actors themselves, who are certainly all capable physical performers, with poor staging throughout and disastrous editing that almost always never finds a good point of impact to cut on. I'm sure this was a fairly cheap film all things considered, so coverage was always going to be tight if it happened at all, but it's all too frequent when shots of combat have something wrong about them and carry on the grim sensation that the filmmakers seemed convinced that it could all be fixed in post. Forget matching up to the likes of The Raid: I don't even think it tops the original Kickboxer, and the decision to go for quantity over quality is a fatal mistake that the film keeps making repeatedly. The poor editing also factors into the non-fight scenes just as frequently, but with these kinds of films, you expect the non-fight stuff to not get the same level of TLC. But for the fights to suck is simply unforgivable. Even the massive expansion to the final showdown between Kurt and Tong Po, clocking in at just a little bit under a half-hour, never solves the problems that the other fights had from a technical perspective, and seems to hope that the increase in bloodshed will make up for how ineffectual the rendering of the moment-to-moment movement of the fighters and the camera itself looks and feels. By the time that fight's power-up moment happens, what should have been the film's big "fuck yeah!" moment winds up feeling nonsensical and wholly unearned.
And yet, I can't bring myself to hate this film, despite its underlying profound failures. Perhaps there was just enough of that accidental magic from the original film left to help this coast by long enough to not feel like a waste of time, and that there were enough silly scenes going on in an otherwise overly self-serious film to at least attempt to match that same level of goofball charm. A lot of that does have to do with Van Damme's large presence in the film, as there's a sense that he is trying his hardest to course-correct the film into what it should have been, an earnest cheesy martial arts film that anyone can enjoy, even as it barrels along otherwise. Even now, I think my idea of shifting the story over to a direct sequel to the original film would have been the smarter play, even if it didn't necessarily offer up the sequel opportunities that a reboot would (and even as I type this out, they are already working on a sequel to this for release next year, featuring most of the same cast).
I feel like the credits get to the root of my conundrum pretty well. While the film proper doesn't attempt to do anything remotely resembling the original's much beloved dance scene, they do throw a bone at fans with having Moussi do his best to capture Van Damme's old moves as the credits begin. To make things more obvious, the credits then decide to run a split screen with footage from the original film's dance scene running alongside Moussi's take, turning it into a kind of weird pantomime. There's really no purpose to this other than having a knowing reference, and Moussi isn't nearly as self-deprecating to make his routine come close to what Van Damme attempted originally. And yet, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a compelling argument as to why Van Damme's drunk dancing works at all, which drives home that ineffable quality of the original film that can't be articulated with the words that I can offer: it just does. If that's what it comes down to, that the original Kickboxer simply "just works," I think it's fair to say that this film qualifies as "almost works." It just does.
Kickboxer: Vengeance:
Remaking a film like Kickboxer runs into an immediate issue: virtually every Kickboxer knock-off made since that film came out is already a remake of Kickboxer. Sure, the details might get swapped out for ever-so-slight variations, but by and large, genre buffs for martial arts films of this kind have seen this film over and over and over again. It raises the question of what kind of prestige the name actually brings, as there's a better than good chance even without the name, you would still probably get most of the same cast involved and maybe even Van Damme himself if you asked nicely enough. The movie hasn't even started yet, and it already has troubles justifying itself!
Of course, Kickboxer itself was hardly new and innovative when it came out itself, and to be honest, the fights themselves were never much to write about, but thanks to the solid sense of plot progression, the then-uncommon use of Thailand as a setting and the batshit insanity of all the scenes that had little to do with fighting, including the strange detour towards the end as an out-and-out rescue action film, it's endured as a cult classic since its release and, along with Bloodsport, cemented Van Damme as The Martial Arts Action Star of his time. Perhaps the filmmakers thought they could recapture that same kind of innocent charm the original had: that willingness to be just goofy enough to be compelling, while also having nearly 30 years worth of fighting expertise to give the fights themselves a harder hitting excitement to them. And maybe, just maybe, have this film do for newcomer Alain Moussi what the original helped do for Van Damme.
The result is not very good. While the general thrust of the original plot remains, the filmmakers throw in their own twists along the way to help spice things up. Having Eric die instead of getting crippled seems to be the pace setter, as it hopes to accomplish the task of raising the stakes and establishing the film as a much more serious work than the original. This is by far the most successful element introduced in this version, in that it doesn't really do much of anything at all, neither improving nor diminishing what was already present. Nearly everything else added to the story falls into that latter category, as it tries to throw in more incident than it could ever possibly hope to resolve by its conclusion. For example: Tong Po is now a trainer of other fighters, but no one on the writing staff seemed to question why he is a trainer of other fighters when he otherwise follows the same arc as the character did in the original, and has pretty much the same character trait of being a violent loner. Character motivations also get introduced and subsequently dropped at strange times, especially this film's romantic subplot. It's not even right to call it a romantic subplot, as it happens mid-training montage, and we're supposed to buy it right then and there. No questions asked, and the filmmakers do little to hide that it exists as little more than a narrative reason to get Sara Malakul Lane naked.
Speaking of, the only real lateral move the film can boast is that the quality of acting is pretty much identical to the original. Van Damme is certainly having a fun time as the mentor, and moves so well for his age that one does wonder why they didn't think to do another Kickboxer film that ignores what happens to Kurt in the sequels (spoiler alert: Van Damme asked for too much money), but that's neither here nor there. The only cast member that's having as much fun as Van Damme, and for my money is probably having even more fun, is Sam Medina as Tong Po's personal hype man, who can cut a promo with the best of the WWE. Otherwise, the cast is as stiff and unconvincing as you could imagine: Dave Bautista looks big but never seems particularly intimidating, Alain Moussi has the moves but none of the personality of his predecessor, and aside from Sara Malakul Lane getting naked (which is the only thing her character accomplishes of any note, so I wonder how Lane feels about that aside from the paycheck), the rest of the cast is simply kind of there to fill seats or get their asses kicked. I do appreciate that the filmmakers did nail one element of the original film as far as the casting is concerned: Moussi and the recently departed Darren Shahlavi don't look, sound and even act remotely like brothers, so they nailed that part down.
Here's the biggest problem with the film: for something that can't go more than 10 minutes without someone beating the shit out of another human being, it's kind of staggering that all of the fights are pretty inept. This is more on the filmmakers than the actors themselves, who are certainly all capable physical performers, with poor staging throughout and disastrous editing that almost always never finds a good point of impact to cut on. I'm sure this was a fairly cheap film all things considered, so coverage was always going to be tight if it happened at all, but it's all too frequent when shots of combat have something wrong about them and carry on the grim sensation that the filmmakers seemed convinced that it could all be fixed in post. Forget matching up to the likes of The Raid: I don't even think it tops the original Kickboxer, and the decision to go for quantity over quality is a fatal mistake that the film keeps making repeatedly. The poor editing also factors into the non-fight scenes just as frequently, but with these kinds of films, you expect the non-fight stuff to not get the same level of TLC. But for the fights to suck is simply unforgivable. Even the massive expansion to the final showdown between Kurt and Tong Po, clocking in at just a little bit under a half-hour, never solves the problems that the other fights had from a technical perspective, and seems to hope that the increase in bloodshed will make up for how ineffectual the rendering of the moment-to-moment movement of the fighters and the camera itself looks and feels. By the time that fight's power-up moment happens, what should have been the film's big "fuck yeah!" moment winds up feeling nonsensical and wholly unearned.
And yet, I can't bring myself to hate this film, despite its underlying profound failures. Perhaps there was just enough of that accidental magic from the original film left to help this coast by long enough to not feel like a waste of time, and that there were enough silly scenes going on in an otherwise overly self-serious film to at least attempt to match that same level of goofball charm. A lot of that does have to do with Van Damme's large presence in the film, as there's a sense that he is trying his hardest to course-correct the film into what it should have been, an earnest cheesy martial arts film that anyone can enjoy, even as it barrels along otherwise. Even now, I think my idea of shifting the story over to a direct sequel to the original film would have been the smarter play, even if it didn't necessarily offer up the sequel opportunities that a reboot would (and even as I type this out, they are already working on a sequel to this for release next year, featuring most of the same cast).
I feel like the credits get to the root of my conundrum pretty well. While the film proper doesn't attempt to do anything remotely resembling the original's much beloved dance scene, they do throw a bone at fans with having Moussi do his best to capture Van Damme's old moves as the credits begin. To make things more obvious, the credits then decide to run a split screen with footage from the original film's dance scene running alongside Moussi's take, turning it into a kind of weird pantomime. There's really no purpose to this other than having a knowing reference, and Moussi isn't nearly as self-deprecating to make his routine come close to what Van Damme attempted originally. And yet, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a compelling argument as to why Van Damme's drunk dancing works at all, which drives home that ineffable quality of the original film that can't be articulated with the words that I can offer: it just does. If that's what it comes down to, that the original Kickboxer simply "just works," I think it's fair to say that this film qualifies as "almost works." It just does.
UberTag
Member
No festival flicks today but I do have a couple movies to talk about...
Your Name aka Kimi no na wa. - This was visually arresting... but we all knew it would be because it's Shinkai. I enjoyed a lot of the character interactions during the body swapping although the supporting cast all ultimately wound up as incidental outside of the two leads. Then the film turned into Lion of all things - using the Internet and memories to track down a lost friend and without the insulting Google Earth infomercial this time around. And then we transitioned into a mix of Interstellar with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
This was enjoyable and all but I can't help but feel that its IMDB score (currently an 8.8) is being propped up a little on hype. Despite the drama on display I don't exactly feel like either of these characters grew over time or changed in a significant fashion. Nevertheless, it was a breath of fresh air and helped to lessen the sting of The Red Turtle and how underwhelmed I feel about the latest Moana trailer. 8/10
Train to Busan - I'm of a mixed opinion with this film in that I enjoyed a lot of the zombie setpieces (although limbs are surprisingly resilient compared to The Walking Dead) yet rather hated most of the forced melodrama - much of which was focused around making Seok Woo the hedge fund trader into a good person/father. The dialogue came off as laughably contrived and I sure as hell know this isn't due to the language barrier because this is a far cry from what we got from The Wailing earlier this year. 6/10
Up to bat first tomorrow... Jeff Nichols tries to redeem himself in my eyes with Loving after delivering what I still consider to be the worst film I've watched in 2016 in Midnight Special.
Your Name aka Kimi no na wa. - This was visually arresting... but we all knew it would be because it's Shinkai. I enjoyed a lot of the character interactions during the body swapping although the supporting cast all ultimately wound up as incidental outside of the two leads. Then the film turned into Lion of all things - using the Internet and memories to track down a lost friend and without the insulting Google Earth infomercial this time around. And then we transitioned into a mix of Interstellar with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
This was enjoyable and all but I can't help but feel that its IMDB score (currently an 8.8) is being propped up a little on hype. Despite the drama on display I don't exactly feel like either of these characters grew over time or changed in a significant fashion. Nevertheless, it was a breath of fresh air and helped to lessen the sting of The Red Turtle and how underwhelmed I feel about the latest Moana trailer. 8/10
Train to Busan - I'm of a mixed opinion with this film in that I enjoyed a lot of the zombie setpieces (although limbs are surprisingly resilient compared to The Walking Dead) yet rather hated most of the forced melodrama - much of which was focused around making Seok Woo the hedge fund trader into a good person/father. The dialogue came off as laughably contrived and I sure as hell know this isn't due to the language barrier because this is a far cry from what we got from The Wailing earlier this year. 6/10
Up to bat first tomorrow... Jeff Nichols tries to redeem himself in my eyes with Loving after delivering what I still consider to be the worst film I've watched in 2016 in Midnight Special.
BaronLundi
Member
she's great at faking a terrible New Jersey accent. I couldn't help but seeing Christopher from the Sopranos when she was talking in that Bogdanovitch movie.Which is a damn shame because she's indeed adorable.
Imogen Heap was all the rage, a couple of years back.
Hide and Seek was just about in every other commercial and TV show.
You didn't like the Red Turtle?
UberTag
Member
I'm afraid I did not. Here are my comments on The Red Turtle from earlier...
Infernostew
Member
Yeah. Having lived in New Jersey all my life, almost no one talks like anyone on The Sopranos.
Antwone Fisher (2002): Denzel Washington's directorial debut has obvious inspiration from the then-recent Good Will Hunting, though it feels a bit odd to make such an observation about a film based on a man's real life. In any event, the film Antwone Fisher never really takes off, despite a strong performance from Derek Luke in his film debut. The film never generates true narrative momentum, and an attempt at a sidestory with Washington's psychologist character and his marital troubles goes absolutely nowhere, feeling like something that was included either because the screenwriters felt that the psychologist should be more of a character, or else that Washington himself needed more screentime. There's a great cameo appearance by Viola Davis, back when she was just beginning her ascent up the ladder to become one of the most respected actresses in her age group; she says quite a lot with very little dialogue.
The Witch (2016): While the more overtly supernatural moments sometimes run up against the limits of Robert Eggers' directorial skill with such a low budget, the film at its core is the gradual self-destruction (with a little outside help) of a Puritan family in isolated colonial Massachusetts, and that material is frequently riveting. The actors are all well-chosen, and deliver the deliberately period dialogue comfortably (this also shows why movies generally don't do this, because it's at times hard to follow, particularly when spoken with the accents used here).
The Witch (2016): While the more overtly supernatural moments sometimes run up against the limits of Robert Eggers' directorial skill with such a low budget, the film at its core is the gradual self-destruction (with a little outside help) of a Puritan family in isolated colonial Massachusetts, and that material is frequently riveting. The actors are all well-chosen, and deliver the deliberately period dialogue comfortably (this also shows why movies generally don't do this, because it's at times hard to follow, particularly when spoken with the accents used here).
Baroquemantic
Member
I'm looking for the name of a movie. It's live action and about this human and alien on some planet. They don't get along at first, but eventually they do. The alien dies but has a kid. It ends up as a slave or something in a factory towards the end of the movie. That's all I can remember. Anyone know what this is?
Baroquemantic
Member
That's it. Thanks!
Yeah it saw it in theaters a month ago. It's not a great film - very simplistic story for it's style and oh so cliched.
Infernostew
Member
Exactly how I felt.
Loved both of these, two highlights from the early part of the year. Mary Elizabeth Winstead can have my heart.
It's hard for me to decipher my feelings on The Blair Witch Project (1999). I certainly enjoyed it, it was a very interesting film, but knowing the ending and some of the more infamous camera shots kind of tempered the experience for me. I can't help but feel like seeing this in the theaters in '99 in the heat of all the rage around this movie wouldve provided a much more moving experience. Still, I did enjoy and do see why it became a sort of cult classic.
Yea I can see why people like the lobster and cloverfield, but they didn't really blow me away. I fell for the hype I think. Mary Elizabeth Winstead <3
Good news guys is that I have:
Hail Caesar
Midnight Special
Everybody wants some
all sitting in front me. going to be a good movie marathon tomorrow.
Good news guys is that I have:
Hail Caesar
Midnight Special
Everybody wants some
all sitting in front me. going to be a good movie marathon tomorrow.
User 479360
Banned
I can't wait to watch Everybody Wants Some again. It's awesome. I'm glad I drove 30 minutes to see it and Green Room in theatres (and got one ticket free!)
I just got home from seeing 2016's Blair Witch, which was pretty good. Man, Lisa is hot.
I just got home from seeing 2016's Blair Witch, which was pretty good. Man, Lisa is hot.
So far for this month:
Sorcerer (1977)
Wages of Fear (1953)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Monsters (2010)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Ithaca (2016)
So far my favorites from this month have been Kubo, Seven Samurai, and Sorcerer. Ithaca blew, totally forgetful.
Sorcerer (1977)
Wages of Fear (1953)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Monsters (2010)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Ithaca (2016)
So far my favorites from this month have been Kubo, Seven Samurai, and Sorcerer. Ithaca blew, totally forgetful.
- Status