Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[proteus]

'Wild at Heart' is the ultimate first date movie imo
Bobby Peru....what a guy.

Saw Snowtown (poss not a great first date movie),and need to watch it again before I can recommend it ,it left a grubby stain in my memory and not sure if I wanna revisit it any time soon though.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1680114/



re DVD copying software,I always used Nero with no probs.

 

[Slothrop]

i dont go to the cinema a lot. been three times in the last 5 years. i watch tinker tailor solider spy yesterday thought and i ejoyed that. i didnt know what the fuck was going on but i did enjoy it. i liked how the old blokes were the stars and the young blokes seem dopey and feckless.

One of the genius things about Le Carre is that in a conventional spy story, people like Jim Prideaux and Ricky Tarr - daring, romantic, ruthless men of action - would be the heores, but in Le Carre's stuff they just come off as being a bit sad and clueless.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

ppl walked out when i saw snowtown, during that bathroom scene. which to be fair, was just unnecessary i thought. pretty gruelling, disturbing stuff. its basically like a twin to animal kingdom, as far as minimal, australian arthouse violence movies go.

 

[IdleRich]

Found footage films always do my head in because I keep thinking ''WHY would they film that?''

Fair point I think. I could forgive that once or twice when it was a new thing but now it's pretty much become a genre in its own right someone needs to address that question. I mean, I think in Rec it's a SWAT team or something with cameras on their helmets, fair enough, but people filming with a video camera when they're being attacked by aliens... unlikely to say the least.

Anyway, watched The Skin I Live In by Almodovar - really enjoyed it although I was left with the suspicion, as with a lot of his films, that it was flashy pseudo-transgressive stuff that didn't really add up to anything. It's got all his usual tropes of course - fucked up families, transexuals, a couple of rapes, Antonio Banderas, non-linear story line and so on and so forth.... but it is a lot of fun and that shouldn't be overlooked I think. Very influenced by Eyes Without A Face I'd say although the twists and turns of the story take it further from that than you might originally think. That said, if he didn't basically take that film as a starting idea then I'll eat my hat.

 

[baboon2004]

although I was left with the suspicion, as with a lot of his films, that it was flashy pseudo-transgressive stuff that didn't really add up to anything. .

Always left with this suspicion too, could never really get into his films.

The Seventh Victim - Val Lewton, very good Satanic ritual flick.

Also started to watch Down Terrace, by the guy who went on to make Kill List. Very taxing, not half as good as that film, although clearly inspired by the same things.

 

[routes]

Anyway, watched The Skin I Live In by Almodovar - really enjoyed it although I was left with the suspicion, as with a lot of his films, that it was flashy pseudo-transgressive stuff that didn't really add up to anything. It's got all his usual tropes of course - fucked up families, transexuals, a couple of rapes, Antonio Banderas, non-linear story line and so on and so forth.... but it is a lot of fun and that shouldn't be overlooked I think. Very influenced by Eyes Without A Face I'd say although the twists and turns of the story take it further from that than you might originally think. That said, if he didn't basically take that film as a starting idea then I'll eat my hat.

i saw this recently too and i also enjoyed it alot and i was also left with the same nagging suspicion. very pretty film tho.

 

[yyaldrin]

Now THIS is something that does justice to Van Gogh's Starry Night. Vivid, colourful, original, fresh. Story about a 13 year old kid and her first high school experiences. Fighting parents, summer boyfriend. It's total cuteness. Things doesn't get more kawaii than this. Loved it!

 

[luka]

ive never read the books slothrop but thats certainly how it came across in the film and i liked it. the trailers were promoting two seperate films about CIA agents who jump off buildings, have sex with beatiful women, killmen with a single karate chop, speak 22 languages flutently, have iqs of over 200, fly helicopters etc so it was a good contrast.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

snowtown its basically like a twin to animal kingdom

I wouldn't quite say that. obviously there are a lot of parallels but the violence at the heart of each is completely different in motivation and execution. the characters in animal kingdom kill to protect themselves (or for revenge). they operate within some kind of moral framework, however warped. they don't go out of their way to inflict pain. it's a lot more loosely based on the events that inspired it, so it's more stylized, somewhat shielding the view from its violence. snowtown is...well if you seen it you know. the biggest similarity to me was the protagonist of a teenage boy (great performances in both) on the verge of adulthood using virtual silence as a survival technique to navigate through all the incredibly fucked up adults surrounding him. I didn't think the bathroom scene was gratuitous or excessive either. you can see worse in countless torture porn garbage, and unlike those snowtown earns its violence. considered how gruesome and cruel the actual murders were you could say it's actually pretty restrained in showing explicit violence.

anyway snowtown is easily one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, which I guess is appropriate given the subject matter, but it's also extraordinary, unlike most films has something important to say, and I would definitely recommend it so long as people are aware of what they're getting themselves into. even if you're totally inured to cinematic violence it's a film that will stick with you for a long, long time.

 

[empty mirror]

saw wild at heart at the bfi today. it was really good, better in fact, than i remember it. maybe nicolas cage's best film? saw ken russells the rainbow too, and though i thought some of it was like a tick box approach to cover every base, i loved it. made me think a bit of katie tippel.

wonderful! i think this is probably my favorite cage film. but i recently got around to Vampire's Kiss and that is hands-down his best performance. it is really stunning. it is amazing that he's now thought of as so flat when you can see his wide range in VK. he's an amazing actor to sit down and think about. he's worked with some of my favorite directors (lynch, herzog). he's run the gamut of high/low art. he's equally compelling and repulsive. i don't want to say it but he may be my favorite actor of his generation.

 

[slowtrain]

We watched Wild At Heart last night, it wasn't amazing. It was pretty good but it wasn't great. There were some really good shots but it wasn't great overall.

 

[IdleRich]

I thought that Wild at Heart was a fairly slight and silly film. Enjoyable enough but I couldn't find anything to get my teeth into. It's based on a character created by the guy he took Lost Highway from, I didn't enjoy the books that much either to be honest.

 

[Corpsey]

I really want to see Snowtown but I can never quite face watching it. I've read a lot about it and the murders, and that was enough to depress me (though relatively nowhere near as depressing as reading about Fred West). Several people have told me that its both great and (at points) almost unendurable.

On a completely different tip, I saw 'Mission Impossible 4' at the cinema last week and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Its directed by Brad ''The Incredibles / Iron Giant / Ratatouille'' Bird and its great fun. Tom Cruise's character is curiously lacking in characteristics but if you just accept that the entire plot is a frame to hang breathtaking action sequences on, it does the job. Probably worth watching at the cinema for maximum effect.

Also saw ''Warrior'' this week, the film about MMA fighting with Tom Hardy in it. Quite cliched and cheesy at points but the fight sequences are gripping and the three principal actors are better than the script is. Nick Nolte especially.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

agree about cage. i like watching him even when hes doing a crappy film (well apart from bangkok dangerous, that was pretty bad). wild at heart has a lot of memorable if not actually that great lines. i think sailor and lula are my favourite cinema couple on the run. i really want to see it again now.

snowtown is a bit too cold and restrained for me (theres something between this, AK and martha mary martha marlene actually, it seems a popular aesthetic at the moment - theyre all sort of distant and very neutral/ambiguous, borderline empty, in their general tone). its hard to warm to it. which is the point obviously. but its still pretty bleak/austere/severe viewing. i do think the bathroom scene didnt need to be as long or gruelling as it was - its obviously there to test the viewer and to ram home just how awful the guy was, just in case there was any doubt. that there isnt actually that much violence in the film except for that scene prob makes it even harder to take. so it def does 'earn' it, and yeah, its not like saw 3, just cos theres no delight or joy to be had, which is prob the type of violence there needs to be more of, but its a bloody tough watch (a bit haneke maybe?). the reason i said its like animal kingdom is cos of the similarity in the leads. and theyve got a similar aesthetic and pacing.

 

[Corpsey]

I love Nicolas Cage, he makes shite films watchable. I dunno how self-aware he is (I listened to a bit of ''The Rock'' commentary and he was talking quite loftily about the rhythm/melody of his line-readings) but he seems to understand when he's in a hammy piece of fluff and amps up his bug-eyes accordingly.

Used to loathe him as well, until I saw ''Bad Lieutenant''. Then for some reason I ''got'' what he was doing and what he usually does in films like ''Face/Off'', ''Con Air'', ''The Rock'' etc. He was great in ''Adaptation'' too, much subtler.

I haven't actually seen many of his more feted roles ''Leaving Las Vegas'' and that Coen brothers one. Probably should.

 

[grizzleb]

Bad Lieutenant is some next-level ish. Cage's performance in that rules so hard. Need to watch that again, I lolled so hard the first time.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

bad lieutenant is one of the greatest films of the last 10 years. that shaving scene alone was next level genius. i wish herzog and cage would work together again.

cage is also just brilliant cos he does a truly excellent version of love me tender at the end of wild at heart. and for that line he delivers about his jacket.

a great man.

 

[mistersloane]

Ugetsu by Kenji Mizoguchi. I can't recommend it more highly. Utterly brilliant film. Buy it now.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugetsu

 

[slowtrain]

i wonder how many people went out and bought a snakeskin jacket?

we spent a long time looking up cars for sale after watching that film

then we watched brum on youtube.

 

[luka]

one of my favourite pieces of trivia as follows-leaving las vegas director mike figgis' son, arlen figgis, was one of the original djs on legendary pirate station kool fm. he went under the name fabrock.