UKC

Recorded this several months back, finally got round to watching it tonight.

Tripe. Stupid, 2 dimensional characters dying at regular intervals from doing stupid things, interspersed with cod philosophy. What a waste of 2 hours. 
 

And that after watching Enys Men last week. That was tedious codswallop too. I’m not doing very well picking stuff to watch…

I watched 1997's Candyman: Day of the Dead (aka Candyman 3) on Saturday. It is as if they deliberately set out to make a very bad film, and succeeded. Possibly the worst film I've ever seen, and I've seen Stuber. 

(incidentally, 1995's Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh - aka Candyman 2 - is a worthy sequel to the 1992 original) 

Not seen either of those. Or Stuber. I can well imagine that the soundtrack for Candyman 3 was the noise of the base of a cylindrical wooden container being scraped…

Have you seen Enys Men? Mark Kermode gave it a glowing review. I… don’t agree with him on that…

Not seen Enys Men. It looked like the kind of dull worthy thing that people pretend to like. 

I thought Enys Men conjured up a strongly eerie atmosphere and had a genuinely distinctive look. Managed to catch it when it showed for one performance only at our local Light and there was a reasonable turn out. I remember one or two reviews comparing it to an art installation and I guess I wouldn't have been surprised to see it playing on a loop in one of those darkened rooms in galleries where people sit down for a crafty rest. I'm very forgiving of esoteric/pretentious stuff though.

I agree with Andy. I saw Enys Men with a friend who has a penchant for weird arty stuff and so my expectations were set appropriately. If you went to see it expecting a proper movie with a story you'd be very disappointed. 

Yes- that’s exactly it… would certainly work as an installation.

The same director also did Bait- which got excellent reviews. Is it similar to Enys Men? Or does it have a plot, and dialogue…?

You need to find yourself a film reviewer who has more similar taste. 

I thought Bait was a very interesting art movie with witty social commentary but it was nothing like an installation. On rotten tomatoes the critics loved it but most of the audience reviews were dissapointing. 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bait_2019

Usually i enjoy Kermode’s recommendations, that’s why this one was so jarring… I’ll give Bait a look then if it turns up on streaming 

Fair enough... I think Kermode has an unusual 'palate' which is hard to match exactly. I can agree with him strongly one day and the opposite another. Kermode on Covenant was amusing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052r5t3

Bait seems to be viewable here:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8gsuye

Prompted by this thread, I watched Bait again last night (streamed it on Prime). I'm very pleased I did. It still strikes me as an excellent and wholly distinctive film. Like Enys Men, it's dreamlike and disorientating - but far less so. As Offwidth has said, it certainly has plot and dialogue. It also has some nice touches of humour - and possibly the first inflatable penis costume in the movies? Also like Enys Men, the film has been manipulated (or scratchily home developed?). It's in hypnotic black and white and looks like little else. I think Jenkin is a real treasure.

Warning: I also found Enys Men fascinating, and as far as I can tell I wasn't pretending - so treat this opinion with caution.