What movie did you watch last night? (21 Viewers)

A Most Wanted Man - John le Carre adaptation directed by Anton Corbijn, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a German counter-terrorism operative huffing around looking pallid and a lot older than 46 which sadly in retrospect probably didn't involve all that much make-up work. I enjoyed it quite a bit, it's more about a war between different approaches to counter-terrorism than the actual case itself, and the plotting is not nearly as dense as Tinker Tailor Etc. so idiots like me can actually follow what's going on.

Boyhood - not totally sure what to make of it yet, I didn't get the big emotional kick from it that some people seem to have got but the hook of seeing the characters age on-screen was kind of fascinating in itself and for a nearly 3 hour film it didn't seem to drag. I like the idea that it's all these small moments instead of just checking off the big dramatic milestones of the kid's life but that means when they do try to inject a bit of drama it's jarring and can feel soap-opera-y. I think they generally avoided being overly sentimental, or twisted it enough, like the bit where
he's heading off to college and the mother is brutally honest in admitting that she's crying because of a realization about her own mortality and disappointment at how her life has gone, not because she's going to miss him being around.
The kid does turn into a bit of an annoying emo type towards the end but I suppose it's hardly unrealistic given how self-absorbed most teenagers are..
 
I was so taken with Nebraska that I decided I'd rewatch/watch the ones I hadn't all of Alexander Payne's films. I mistakenly started with Election as I thought that was his debut. In fact he made one film before that called Citizen Ruth, which I got around to last night.

As first movies go it's quite good, it doesn't quite have the same soft touch that his subsequent films have (actually I thought Election was a bit heavy handed too). Stars Laura Dern as a solvent abusing fuckup who finds herself pregnant and who ends up in a tug of war between a pro-life group who want her to have the baby, and a pro-choice group who really want her to have an abortion. It's amusing in spots and it's more about blind fanaticism rather than the abortion debate but it's a film that would never get made today coz twitter would lose its shit.

It also has Tackleberry from the Police Acadamy films in what is maybe the first non-Police Acadamy film I've ever seen him work in.

At this stage I'd say that Nebraska and About Schmidt are my favourite Payne films. Next up, The Descendants, which I haven't seen.
 
I was so taken with Nebraska that I decided I'd rewatch/watch the ones I hadn't all of Alexander Payne's films. I mistakenly started with Election as I thought that was his debut. In fact he made one film before that called Citizen Ruth, which I got around to last night.

As first movies go it's quite good, it doesn't quite have the same soft touch that his subsequent films have (actually I thought Election was a bit heavy handed too). Stars Laura Dern as a solvent abusing fuckup who finds herself pregnant and who ends up in a tug of war between a pro-life group who want her to have the baby, and a pro-choice group who really want her to have an abortion. It's amusing in spots and it's more about blind fanaticism rather than the abortion debate but it's a film that would never get made today coz twitter would lose its shit.

It also has Tackleberry from the Police Acadamy films in what is maybe the first non-Police Acadamy film I've ever seen him work in.

At this stage I'd say that Nebraska and About Schmidt are my favourite Payne films. Next up, The Descendants, which I haven't seen.
For me Nebraska is the clear winner. It’s his funniest, deftest film and it’s bolstered by Bruce Dern’s magnificent, career best performance. The gorgeous score and beautiful black and white cinematography seal the deal for me.


It’s been a few years since I saw About Schmidt so I need to re watch it as I can’t remember much.

Wasn’t that keen on The Descendants. Clooney’s smugness permeates.
 
The Purge : Anarchy

This is a funny one. On the one hand, obviously this film is bollocks, with a total mishmash of a plot that is all over the place.
On the other hand, this is actually really well-made/directed, has a good pace to it, and gets pretty damn great towards the end!

It's a bit weird.
Omar from The Wire is in this film for maybe 5 minutes total, and he is class for that whole 5 minutes. OMAR COMIN. Omar must only pick roles that make him look amazing.
Basically, this film is just a whole bunch of different films pieced together under the whole Purge idea thing. We're talking Battle Royale, They Live, Hard Target, The Warriors, Mad Max, all this kind of shit mashed into one. Naturally, if someone said to me that's what this film is like, I'd go to the cinema expecting the greatest film of all time. So this isn't that film, but those influences aren't really a bad thing as such, it's more like they just own a scene each or something.

Anyway, one of the surprisingly good things here is the acting, which comes from a bunch of people I have no idea who they are. Except Omar of course. The roles these people play are completely standard, generic, ya know, but they still do them well. The main 'good' guy is this cop, and he's bad-ass as fuck. This guy should definitely be given some action films to be in. Bring him in to The Expendables or some shit.
Soundtrack is also fairly good, decent menacing in the background sort of stuff.

Conclusion: This is actually a fun film to go watch, as long as you know the 'plot' or 'story' is a total mess anyway and just go with it. Aside from the plot/writing, the whole thing is actually really well made and pretty decent stuff!
 
Oh yeah also, I forgot to point out, The Purge is basically just an episode of old (best) Star Trek made into a film

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Schindler's_List_movie.jpg


first time watching this since around the time it was released over 20 years ago (shit!)

fucking excellent
 
The Lincoln Lawyer was on Film4 last night. It's precisely that kind of shite that made people hate McCaughna-HEY! for so long. Jesus, it was spew inducingly lazy and self satisfied. Ugh.

Yellowbrickroad: Decent premise, starts out with a certain amount of low budget horror promise, but ultimately it's all over the place. Keeps asking questions the film makers aren't clever enough to answer. Worth a goo if you like cheap horror.

Speaking of which The Shrine is total shite, but sorta enjoyable. Some American journos got to rural Poland. There's a bit of evil, a spot of bother, a touch of claret. Again, cheap horror. The end was one of those where you think the protagonists explanation to the authorities would make a decent film of its own. Like the end of Firewall. Explain yourself, Harrison. Have you seen Firewall? Don't watch Firewall.

And I watched the first Purge movie. I really enjoyed it. Daft, but great idea. Used the same "oh no, they're about to be killed, can some one save them!??! PHEW, someone did in the nick of time!" trope about 4 times. Deadly.

And Prisoners is class. Yeah, I know, I'm totes posting like it's 2013.
 
Watched Nebraska last night ..very good flick.Reccomended.
Great to see Bruce Dern getting a shot...7/10

Night before, Play Misty For Me ..absolutely amazing..9/10
Cannonball Adderly with Joe Zavinal on the keys showing up halfway through rocked my world.
 
Watched Nebraska last night ..very good flick.Reccomended.
Great to see Bruce Dern getting a shot...7/10

Night before, Play Misty For Me ..absolutely amazing..9/10
Cannonball Adderly with Joe Zavinal on the keys showing up halfway through rocked my world.
Yeah Play Misty for Me is terrific but I think Nebraska is an 8 or 9 at least.
 

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