Movie Record 2021 Edition - The Bear and Badger

b0r1s

33. Life decent enough Alien rip off with solid cast that does the Alien thing far better than the shite Prometheus and Covenant. It’s weakness is the characters are too normal so you don’t have any empathy when they inevitably come up a cropper. With the OG alien you had a crew of character actors that all stood out. Anyway worth a watch and the alien was very well done.

Gremill

35. Alien Covenant
Pretty average, but not as bad as some had painted it. Certainly better than Prom. 6

poprock

Collateral
Cruise is surprisingly solid as a stone cold hitman who hires Jamie Foxx’s cab. More action towards the end than I remembered.

Kow

Gremill wrote:

35. Alien Covenant
Pretty average, but not as bad as some had painted it. Certainly better than Prom. 6

Absolutely the opposite. People absurdly complained that David's actions weren't explained in Prometheus, so in Covenant David literally explains the plot to himself. A terrible shit film.

hylian_elf

Oh I was about to say I haven’t seen it and should probably give it a watch. Thanks is for saving me 2 hours or so of my life. Exposition like that is basically the worst thing in movies for me. To the extent that an otherwise great movie will get derided by me for it.

g.man

Gremill wrote:

35. Alien Covenant Pretty average, but not as bad as some had painted it. Certainly better than Prom. 6

b0r1s

Just excellent. Absolutely all my thoughts of these shite films wrapped up in 7 minutes. :-D

hylian_elf

OK the first 2 minutes were hilarious and actually make me want to watch the film now!

b0r1s

Please don’t. Or do as a comedy.

Gremill

g.man wrote:

Gremill wrote:

35. Alien Covenant Pretty average, but not as bad as some had painted it. Certainly better than Prom. 6

All off which is absolutely true, but weirdly (like Prom), it didn't stop me from having an averagely enjoyable time as I watched it. Like Prom, I'll never watch it again - but hey, at least in the Ridley-verse everyone is consistently dumb as fuck.

Who do they keep letting him makes films? He's an awful, awful director.

bad_hair_day

The Martian (2015) was great. I think Scott’s Achilles is his tendency to film projects with less than complete scripts, which often can’t be salvaged in the edit.

Little Franklin

Things to come. 1936 Sci-fi. Amusing to see a film exploring the ideas of space travel and a post apocalyptic world, but doing it before the invention of nuclear bombs and the space race. A propaganda movie for science. Everything would be great if we just put the scientists and engineers in charge.
5/10

Fresh (1994). Seemed like a dull coming of age in the ghetto movie at first, but then it transforms into a Machiavellian film-noir thing. Interesting but I couldn't follow exactly what was going on.
6/10

Hair (1979). Anti war hippy musical. Some good songs but it's not much of a musical. If you took the music out you'd still have an okay Milos Forman movie.
6/10

Little Franklin

Ridley Scott's a straight forward, workman like director. The quality of his films depends entirely on the quality of the scripts he's handed.

regmcfly

poprock wrote:

Collateral
Cruise is surprisingly solid as a stone cold hitman who hires Jamie Foxx’s cab. More action towards the end than I remembered.

This movie rules. The Audioslave / fox moment.

davyK

Ridley Scott did Alien and Bladerunner so I don't care how bad or good he is now.

Black Hawk Down was a good chunk of entertainment, as was Gladiator. But he was in his 60s then.

Knowing when to stop is important.

davyK

The Martian is a cracker too though......

jdanielp

b0r1s wrote:

Just excellent. Absolutely all my thoughts of these shite films wrapped up in 7 minutes.

Agreed. Also reminded me of Top Cat.

Little Franklin

Arsenic and Old Lace (1942). A fun farce, but the goofball, Frank Capra-ness, of it can be grating. Would be better on stage than on screen.
7/10

I love Peter Lorre.

davyK

Night of the Living Dead. The old original. I've had this on DVD for a long time but I don't remember watching it. After viewing it tonight I can remember bits of it - so I must have watched it before, but it's a great deal better than I thought it would be. Romero presents us with some horrific scenarios in the last third of the film. It doesn't overstay its welcome at 90 mins and is a bit slow in the middle when the acting creaks a bit but it's still an enjoyable film. It feels modern in its use of media like TV and radio to convey the scale of the situation in what is a very small restricted film. Dawn (1978) is still the best of the lot in my mind but this must have been pretty horrific in its day. Well worth watching if you like the Romero zombie films.

The disc has two commentaries on it that I may give a listen to over the next week or two.

Little Franklin

"They're coming get you Barbara."
I'm sure I've seen that clip in the background of like 5 different movies. Presumably it's used a lot because it's out of copyright.

Sound of Metal. 2020. Riz Ahmed hasn't got much range but he was born to play intense, introverted, rage filled characters like this.
8/10

b0r1s

34. They Live - seems wrong watching this in hi-def. last time I properly watched this was on VHS. It’s a lot slower than I remember and at it’s core it’s still relevant today, probably even more so. And that alley fight. Oh boy!

Minkymu

“ just try the damn sunglasses on!.......”

davyK

Battle of Algiers Wow what a film. There is a strong resonance with the Irish situation but of course there are many differences between here and Algeria - the race factor not the least. But the escalation shown here is all too familiar to someone like me.

Spectacularly shot and it has a Morricone soundtrack - with hints of what is to come - I noticed one car journey sequence with a very similar track to that used in The Godfather when Michael is dropped off at the restaurant to kill Sollozo and the police chief.

This paints an unsettling, clear picture of the wrongs of terrorism and colonialism, and the indomitable spirit of the oppressed. I recognised the feelings of anger at each outrage, so this was an emotional watch for me. The questions of how independance can occur with no blood still hang in the air, sadly. A stunning piece of film that belies its age with its stylish technique.

davyK

Treated myself to a rewatch of Paths of Glory. If there is a film that better conveys the madness of war I have yet to see it. Noone points a camera quite like Kubrick and his sparing use of military music adds more impact.

Douglas is titanic in this and the song at the end by the girl that Kubrick would end up marrying underlines the tragedy of it all and the sadness - how else could such a film end - but with a heavyweight emotional kicker like that, matched only by its beauty and gentleness.

nick_md

Paths Of Glory is a creeper for top 3 Kubrick imo. #1 is, in my adult years, Barry Lyndon, just such a masterpiece. Everything about it. Saw the costumes up close at the exhibition, exquisite. I'd jostle between the Shining, Orange, Paths and 2001 for 2nd, but BL is the one for me. Can't believe it didn't get the love it deserves on release, but it seems that's a trend for Kubrick films. Even EWS I'd rate in his upper half, brilliant film, but then ask me about any of his others and I'd say the same.

Anyway, Barry Lyndon #1 Kubrick, prove me wrong.

davyK

I keep changing my mind. My no.1 Kubrick is the latest one I have watched.

Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut are up there. They probably benefit from rewatches more than most of his work.

I've seen 2001 and The Shining projected. Would love to see Barry Lyndon on the big screen.

hylian_elf

Dr Strangelove! 2001 is prob my favourite though.

davyK

Oh!! forgot I have seen Strangelove projected too. Small indie cinema in Belfast re-runs this type of thing from time to time.

davyK

Have still to see Lolita and The Killing...

Pretty sure I have seen a bit of The Killing but it was so long ago.

Lolita will be worth watching simply because of James Mason.

Funny - I'm avoiding watching them because then I won't have a "new" Kubrick film to watch.

Little Franklin

On the Beach (1959). A weird one. People in Australia have a few months to live before a radioactive cloud, that's already killed the rest of the world, hits them. Rather than society collapsing, everyone calmly carries on going to work, the beach, cocktail parties, queueing for suicide tablets. One funny scene has a racing tournament where the drivers apparently all decide there's no point worrying about safety and start crashing an burning. A striking idea but mostly just dull.
3/10

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