So...Movie...Last One You Saw...Go. Vol XXII

I'll put this up with yours Yaz.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...united-legend/2012/04/18/gIQAH3rqQT_blog.html

 

I don't think we ever really posted together Chico, but RIP. I liked reading your posts.

So last movie............

Bellman and True




The British guy down the street was having a yard sale, so I picked up the VHS for a quarter. It was well worth it.

1980s British crime drama about a alcoholic computer/electronics nerd (Bernard Hill) who gets fired from his job for stealing a disc after his wife walks out, his greed gets him mixed up with some bank robbers who then kidnap his stepson in order to force him to help them break the alarm system at a bank next to Heathrow.

The acting was very good, not many big stars, but they were all did a good job. Hill did particularly well "acting without speaking" and the scenes with the character known only as "the boy" stand out and really make you root for the protagonist.

The biggest problem was the editing. Apparently it was a longer TV series that was cut for the theater, and it shows. It's unfortunate that the longer version is not available, as I would pay to watch it.

No exotic locales, no glorified criminals, and the "high tech" of 1987 makes me laugh, but a good film. Also had a Fawlty towers reference that made me smile! I might have to buy the DVD and add it to my region 2 collection

Don't watch the American remake with Harrison Ford, Firewall, not good.

 

The Divide (2011)
Dir. Xavier Gens



This movie was pretty much savaged by critics, and I understand why. A post-apocalyptic psychological thriller set in an underground shelter beneath what used to be a NYC apartment building. A handful of tenants along with the superintendent end up there and have to co-exist and survive. What little is revealed of the outside world makes little sense and the few details we do get are barely consistent with the initial set-up.

I do understand the director's intentions, which was to explore a darker variant of the "group of strangers united by a disaster" paradigm. Where many a Hollywood flick has our "heroes" overcome challenges and differences to survive together, this movie documents a slow (and increasingly hard to believe and watch) descent into madness and chaos.

Betrayal leads to violence, power struggles lead to blind cruelty and madness. The stronger members of the group taunt and humiliate the weak, a duo of nascent sociopaths prey and (attempt to) sexually assault the pair of women in the group.

It could have been an interesting feature, had the screenplay displayed a higher level of maturity. The few instances of Hostel-like gore made little to no sense, and betrayed the director's gross insecurities about his own material. And based on the overall quality of his movie, with reason.

The cast was largely forgettable. Rosanna Arquette's character devolved into a sad, two-dimensional caricature. The sole exception was Michael Biehn, but even he could not polish this piece of excrement.

 

Damn. First Ross & now Chico? It's been a bad year for BigSoccer.

 

Alive! (2009)
Dir. Artan Minarolli



Albanian film about blood feuds. Koli, a college student in Tirana returns to his native village in a rural part of northern Alabania for his father's funeral only to discover he's now a target in a blood feud because of his father's passing away (his father was disabled and the blood feud code prevents the killing of the disabled.) For a first time director with a small budget, Minarolli did a pretty good job. The beginning of the film was fantastic, the middle was really interesting though it dragged a little at times (though that was probably necessary to convey the feelings of the main character.) The ending was a bit rushed, but definitely had a moment or two where you're totally caught off guard. Not an essential or amazing film, but definitely worth watching.

 

J. Edgar

​

Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.
Di Caprio does a better job than I was expecting but the storyline and direction was all over the place. Dull cinemaphotography, dull directing.
It had some very good moments but not enough to carry it.

Here's a comment from Rotton Tomatoes that seems to best describe it:
"Mr. Eastwood's ponderous direction, a clumsy script by Dustin Lance Black and ghastly slatherings of old-age makeup all conspire to put the story at an emotional and historical distance. It's a partially animated waxworks."
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal

 

Bob's Burgers, The Complete 1st Season (2011)

Good stuff, but better when it concentrates on the kids who are all hilarious. The direction and camera angles really add a lot to the show, which is a bit unique for a cartoon. Anything Kristen Schaal does makes me tingle. Except play a 9-year old girl, in which case I appreciate her from a artistic perspective.

Made by the guy that made Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, an awesome series. Which is probably an unhelpful description as Bob's is on prime time Fox and Lucy was a late night barely noticed single season on Adult Swim.

 

In preparation for the upcoming Avengers movie, which my daughter is all geeked out to see, we watched Captain America and we'll catch Thor next weekend. I wanted to go with Capt America first since I'd heard decent things about the movie, but if it is in fact better then Thor, I am in trouble. I've disliked other big-screen adaptations of the comics, but this was the first one that had me grabbing the box to see how much longer I had to wait before I could go to bed.

 

You're not the first on here to express a strong dislike for "Captain America". I have to admit it leaves me a bit baffled. I did not consider it the best superhero movie of the last couple of years, but it certainly wasn't the worst. And I found it far superior to "Thor".

 

I'm wondering if the dislike has to do with the time frame the story takes place in. Maybe the WWII era just isn't happening for most people nowadays. We've seen the Nazi bit all before. It gives the picture a "dated" feel -- 1941 was 70 years ago!

Also, I wasn't too keen on seeing it as much as the other Marvel films because Captain America has never come across as a very exciting superhero. For me, Superman has the same problem. They're kind of bland and boring compared to the rest.

 

I liked the slightly cheesy 1940s setting, Chris Evans was very charming in the titular role and Hayley Atwell looked like she stepped right off a recruitment poster. Even Hugo Weaving and Tommy Lee Jones were enjoyable in roles that were essentially merely two-dimensional clichés.

 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Dir. Guy Ritchie



I know that many Holmes purists (some of whom post on here, as I recall) loathe the Ritchie Holmes flicks, but I found the original as well as this sequel very enjoyable. Downey Jr's take on the character might be quirky and out of the ordinary (as well as his accent being somewhat odd), but he brings enough charm to the character to get away with it. I absolutely love Jude Law's Watson (which is doubly amazing considering I have little love for Law as an actor).

The story here was fast-paced and entertaining, taking the cast of characters all over Europe in the process. Stephen Fry was a nice addition to the ensemble (he's now reached that stage of his career where his mere presence adds a hint of class to any scene he's in). If I have to list some points of criticism, I felt like Noomi Rapace's role deserved a bit more meat, and the climax came terribly abrupt and left the audience wanting a bit more. Although with there being more than a strong hint of another sequel, perhaps the idea is for further resolution/closure to come in the third installment.

 

I didn't mind the setting, I knew it was going to be "historic", but it was largely the insanely advanced weaponry that Red Skull had developed, the planes and of course, his car. Part of the appeal of Capt America was that his world was a little more grounded in reality. I agree that Agent Carter looked the part, but when she's with the assault force, she looked ludicrous, perfectly made up hair, leather jacket, she was just stupid. And you're telling me that the brilliance of a guy like Starke couldn't find the ship Capt A went down with. And that was another thing. I'm not as immersed in the Marvel world as I was in the DC milieu, but I don't think Starke was involved, and to a purist like me, this is a way too cutesy attempt to tie in the commercial success of the Iron Man movies with this one. I also remember Capt America always kicking Red Skull's butt, but in the movie it didn't work out too well. The Red Skull was just lame. He really posed no threat at all.

 

Maybe this was a little nod to the real-life example of a mad technologist tycoon being used by the government to go find and recover something.

As well as a tie in to another movie.

 

Les Adventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
Dir. Luc Besson



Surprisingly enjoyable, certainly considering how little I had liked many of Besson's recent efforts. Based on a French comic book I'm not personally familiar with, this is a very tongue in cheek, Gaullic take on 1930s adventure serials. Louise Bourgoin plays the titular character and is another in a long line of French actresses who exudes an effortless charm, possesses a seemingly-but-not-quite-oblivous sexiness and has mastered the art of alluringly smoking cigarettes. Seriously, do the French have some factory where they just churn them out?

The plot is an amusing and quirky amalgam of the usual tropes you'd expect in such features. A Pterodactyl wreaking havoc on Paris, a bunch of revived mummies, a villain obviously modeled after Raiders' Major Toht, ... all pass the revue. The screenplay is littered with cute little jokes (and I assume I missed many more due to not being French). I especially enjoyed when she used the Marseillais accent (sounding more like Yves Montand than Yves himself ever did in the process ) to lie her way into the prison dressed as a nurse, the winking reference to Tintin with the Broken Ear statuette and the Mummy's joke about putting a pyramid in front of the Louvre.

And I was well over an hour into the movie before I recognized Jean-Paul Rouve as the "Great White Hunter". For some reason he really looked and sounded like Benoit Poelvoorde...

 

Van Dammethon 30

Spin kicks are legal in Van Dammsterdam, but it's mostly the tourists that do it.



Derailed (2002)

Van Damme is a private troubleshooter tasked to protect a cat thief who has stolen weaponized smallpox from a Slovakian(?) military base. They escape the blockade and get on a train, but an evil European terrorist takes over the train to get the vials for himself. A deadly cat and mouse hunt begins, and things take a turn for the worse when the virus gets released. And Van Damme's family are on board. And the train's brakes are disabled (the writer obviously not knowing how train brakes work). And a drunk train conductor on another train causes a collision. And NATO sends AH-64 helicopters to blow up the train. You'd think this ratcheting of events would eventually create tension, but no.

A B movie in every sense. The plot, direction, acting, even Van Damme - everything was sub par. And the special effects were below that. In fact, it actually has an action scene that is so bad it's funny, and I never thought I'd see that in a Van Damme film. This isn't the worst thing I've seen, but it's in that zone and is the absolute low point in the films of Jean-Claude Van Damme. There is a rap song over the credits that detail all the elements of the plot. You are better off just listening to that instead of watching the film itself.

Van Damme's wife is the actress that played Leah Brahms in Star Trek. She was the one bright spot in the otherwise hopefully forgettable movie.

 

I believe I only have Knock Off and the just released Dragon Eyes left to review. But Van Damme is making new movies at a feverish rate (including the late summer's Expendables 2), so the Van Dammethon will continue.

 

I read some of the novels as a kid, but I never really geeked hugely on the cinematic/TV Holmes, which is probably the reason why I found it easier to enjoy these movies.

 

I read all the Conan-Doyle Homes books when I was a kid. We had a great lit teacher who would spend the class just reading to us from the books. Then we'd discuss. He got me into reading the rest.
Then came the Jeremy Brett TV tales so my thought proccess was 'fixed'.

That's why I didn't see the movie as being "Sherlock Homes" and as much as I like Downey, I really disliked him in it, The parody of Homes, the bad accent and falling dragon style as it was.

I'll pass on the latest.

 

It's interesting the amount of Van Damme movies that get reviews here. I wrote him off years ago as a kick boxing formula. Same story in diffent guises.

Good guy want's to help and saves girl, or friend. Girl or friend then get's brutally killed/maimed. Good guy seeks revenge and gets shit kicked out of him. Then comes back from near death, (complete with eye hanging out arm in a sling,) to take on the sneering overconfident villain in a one on one. After a good start he get's beat up again and just as he's about to succombe to the baddies strength, gile and just plain meaness. He get's in the telling blow, triumphs and get's the girl. In Asia, Russia, everglades, or on a train!

Trouble is Back in '94 I really enjoyed the first of his I saw. "Timecop" smart SciFi tale. But then lost interest.

​

 

Well, it's mostly just spejic's personal quest. Actually, if there is a recent defining example of the word "quixotic", it seems to me that Van Dammethon is it. I'll never watch another van Damme movie, but I've enjoyed sitting ringside for the reviews....

 

Midnight in Paris (2011)
Dir. Woody Allen



I found it mostly enjoyable, though primarily because it seemed a very apt movie for a year in which the Oscar for best movie went to a silent feature and an old master like Scorcese essentially wrote a cinematic love letter to the earliest beginnings of his beloved medium. Allen's movie is submerged in the same type of nostalgia, but is the sole feature out of the three that acknowledges the limits of that sentiment. Perhaps it is a bit lacking in subtlety for our 21st century hero to fall in love with a 1920s Parisian girl only to find out she herself is pining for la belle époque, but it did drive the point home quite effectively.

Marion Cotillard was her usual enchanting self and even Rachel McAdams can't help but bring a certain level of charm to a character that should really be entirely unlikable. But of the supporting actors, I most enjoyed Adrien Brody's hilarious yet very well-done cameo as Salvador Dali. Rhinocéros, indeed.

 

My Fav. character was Corey Stoll who played Hemingway.
Are you brave..? Do you box? He had some great lines.



The part that looked out of place was Owen Wilson's. I like him but I was uncomfortable with him in that role.