What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Originally Posted by JDR13
There was just no point in watching it after seeing the original so recently. It's almost a shot for shot copy. Also, while I usually like John C Reilly and Tim Roth, they both seemed pretty uninspired in this.

Aye. I had a couple of years between viewings but even so -

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Though @joxer probably wont like it as he could well have written one of those >1 in 10 dislikes that is essentially "War movie? No thanks."

It's a documentary.
I won't be saying no thanks, but I'm not eager to watch it asap.

Won't promise anything because just so you know I still have more than 400 titles to watch.
That list isn't going lesser - as soon as I watch a few, I find more interesting suggestions. Maybe I should have sticked with Hollywood only. That way I'd have only a couple of dozen movies more to see I'm interested in - ones I don't believe are dull mediocrity.

But then again, I'd be very unhappy.
I still don't know what happened to Hollywood, from revolutionizing the art every year in past century, last two decades became a problem for me to find 5 movies annually I'd call great.
Luckily worldwide cinematographies filled the gap. India, South Korea, Japan and China aside, I still can't believe how some relatively small and unknown industries can produce pure gems.
And example from Netflix, Under the Shadow, such crazy originality in style and story approach where people, certain people, begin to understand that worse demons than opposite side during a war are to be found in their own neighborhood.

I was impressed by both Hereditary and Midsommar. I watch a lot of horror, so doing something very different and it still being quite harrowing I thought was impressive. There's a degree of frustration with the way the story is told, yes, but I think in Hereditary it wasn't too hard to work out what was going on by the end.
It wasn't like that execrable I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House which genuinely was all style and little substance to my mind.

Us was great until the last section where there was way too much exposition. It was needed to make sense of the why, but the movie could have been rewritten to spread that shit out.

Originally Posted by joxer
Cold Prey (2006)
Cold Prey 2 (2008)

Big fan of these two movies. Yeah, the third was a bit limp in comparison, but the first two are modern slasher classics. I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't tried to dilute all the goodness out of them in the remake mill.

Originally Posted by joxer
Dead Snow (2009)
Dead Snow 2 (2014)

Fan of these two as well, though they get a little too silly at times.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
Big fan of these two movies. Yeah, the third was a bit limp in comparison, but the first two are modern slasher classics. I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't tried to dilute all the goodness out of them in the remake mill.

Huh, me too. I'm fairly knowledgeable about horror movies, primarily North American and Eastern ones, but I've never heard of these at all and now I want to check them out if I can find them streaming anywhere.

EDIT: sounds like they're working on it.
"In 2017, WWE Studios has acquired the exclusive English-language remake rights to the franchise and has sealed a deal for an option to purchase the screenplay Casey La Scala is writing. The American remake will also be named Cold Prey."

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Huh, me too. I'm fairly knowledgeable about horror movies, primarily North American and Eastern ones, but I've never heard of these at all and now I want to check them out if I can find them streaming anywhere.

Well, not on Netflix AFAIK. I saw it on DVD.
Apparently it's available on iTunes?

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
EDIT: sounds like they're working on it.
"In 2017, WWE Studios has acquired the exclusive English-language remake rights to the franchise and has sealed a deal for an option to purchase the screenplay Casey La Scala is writing. The American remake will also be named Cold Prey."

Not certain who Casey La Scala is. I can imagine someone like Eli Roth giving it a good go, though I imagine the gore content would go up if he was involved.

Originally Posted by joxer
Kraftidioten (2014)
One of the best revenge movies ever made in films history and of course hollywood had to make a lousy remake. Watch the original!

Oh, missed this. This is a great movie! There's a remake? You shouldn't have mentioned that because I'm now duty bound to track it down and watch it.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
I was impressed by both Hereditary and Midsommar. I watch a lot of horror, so doing something very different and it still being quite harrowing I thought was impressive.

I agree about Hereditary, but I found nothing harrowing about Midsommar. The few parts that would have at least had some shock value were telegraphed in such a way that I expected them long before they happened.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
Us was great until the last section where there was way too much exposition. It was needed to make sense of the why, but the movie could have been rewritten to spread that shit out.

I thought the exposition was absurd anyways. Imo, the movie would have been better if…

A Serbian Film. It's taken me 11 years to work up to watching it after an initial spoilery review presented it as the vilest piece of crap ever filmed. After seeing it, I'd say the while the review accurately described the content, it wildly misrepresented the quality. The closest thing I'd compare the experience to would be Pasolini's Salo, but with a strong narrative and a modern kinetic pace. Fair warning if you consider watching this, it was banned in 46 countries for featuring acts of sexual depravity that are illegal even when simulated (as they are here). Some people get upset even when they are only looking at rubber. The plot concerns a retired but broke male pornstar who gets lured into a faustian bargain to make one last film. Things do not go well for him. Despite all the sex this is not intended to tittilate, nor even entertain. It's an Art piece passion project by Srđan Spasojević visualizing his belief that sex and violence are so pervasive in Serbian society that everything is corrupted, and is literally destroying families. When asked to describe the the film he said: "Serbia fucks you at birth, Serbia fucks you in life, and Serbia fucks you in death." That's a conservative perspective for sure, but I think only a Serbian could fairly argue with it.
You may take issue the content, but what cannot be denied is the high standard of talent thoughout the production. Top Serbian actors and craftsmen all giving their best and as first-time writer/producer/director Spasojević never drops the ball.

New trailer for Dune

The Sleeper awakens!!!

Anyone seen this one? I thought it looked promising for a late night movie.

The reviews are mixed, but I think the premise seems fairly interesting. I don't have anything in the queue at the moment, so maybe I'll check it out tonight or tomorrow.

Yeah, will give it a go. With reviews, I find that if there's consensus that something is shite, I'll very likely agree, but some of my favourite stuff has had mixed reviews.

I watched Ready or Not (2019) last night and had a blast. One of the best made, most fun horror movies I've seen in a minute. Samara Weaving is great, as is the entire cast. It has gore and suspense and she goes through the wringer, but it's also funny and keeps a light tone throughout. Makes me want to seek out prior projects by Radio Silence (like Southbound)

Speaking about potential movies, I hear this is getting great reviews from some of the movie reviewers I follow. Not sure when I'm gonna watch it, but I'm really curious about it.

I'm in.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
I watched Ready or Not (2019) last night and had a blast. One of the best made, most fun horror movies I've seen in a minute. Samara Weaving is great, as is the entire cast. It has gore and suspense and she goes through the wringer, but it's also funny and keeps a light tone throughout. Makes me want to seek out prior projects by Radio Silence (like Southbound)

Yeah, I agree, that one's pretty good. Watched it earlier this year with the missus. Thought it was a lot better than The Babysitter, the horror movie she did just prior to that one.

@JDR13 and Ripper:
Blood Red Sky is on my must-watch list. I imagine it isn't as good as the trailer makes it look (so few are), but as long as a few things are done right I'm pretty forgiving with horror movies.
Edit: I'd be interested to know how much blood n guts are in it. My son (14) would like to see it with me, but not if the gore is OTT.

What's with Nicolas Cage doing all the weird indie stuff lately? It's like he's suddenly trying to make up for all those years of cliche hollywood flicks.

Another new one I'm curious about. This released yesterday…