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September film thread

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 Offwidth 07 Sep 2017
Off climbing for a few weeks so won't be posting much on films this month but just watched an amazing documentary film about the so called 'Angola Three'... such behaviour in the past is well known but its hard to believe so many of the things exposed in this film went on so long.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6572608/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola_Three

 Blue Straggler 24 Sep 2017
In reply to Offwidth:

Seen quite a few films in the past week to compensate for having been away on a trip for 3 weeks previously, but I don't think anybody is going to be interested in what I think of some of the more mainstream efforts in that lot so I'll just mention:


"mother!", the latest Darren Aronofsky film.
I really liked it, it is incredibly audacious, bold, ambitious etc. To take Jennifer Lawrence, arguably one of the world's top five movie stars in terms of bankability etc, plus some fairly major actors in support, and throw them into a very abstract (if heavy-handed) arty allegory that plays like an inversion of Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel, with a side helping of the confusion levels of Lost Highway....and then misleadingly market it as a psychological horror/thriller, is genius.
It's a bit of a slow starter but it accelerates into an incredibly intense piece of cinema and a story that can ONLY work as a film. Lawrence shoulders the burden of a thankless and complex role completely carrying the film, brilliantly. The rest of the cast is pitch-perfect too.
9/10.

BUT a very "Marmite" film. I can see a lot of people hating it and it would be a hard one to defend against anyone shouting "well it was just a load of pretentious bollocks". But I loved it.
 Blue Straggler 24 Sep 2017
Oh and as an in-flight movie I saw an interesting drama which is also seemingly quite a "Marmite" film.

The Dinner, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan and Rebecca Hall.

Again maybe a bit pretentious in the way it's set up, very theatrical and so on, and possibly overambitious and trying to do too many things at the same time, but I found it engaging, well written, superbly acted (surprisingly, Steve Coogan takes the dramatic acting honours, as a man brought low by a breakdown in his past, shown well in flashbacks).

8/10
 Blue Straggler 01 Oct 2017
In reply to Offwidth:

Again not the cinema (although the film is quite recent), just something I saw on TV last night which needs special mention because it was so bad.

I expected it to be bad, for numerous reasons; sadly it turned out not to be a "so bad it's good" thing.

"Criminal"
Starring Kevin Costner.
Now, a 2016 film starring Kevin Costner should already be sounding alarm bells.
However the cast also included Ryan Reynolds, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot, Alice Eve, Gary Oldman, and Antje Traue. None of whom guarantee "quality", but you kind of think it'll at least be worth watching with all that lot in it.

Nope.

The initial premise is that CIA man Ryan Reynolds is killed mid-mission and the only way to find out how far he'd progressed and how to save the world, is to transfer his memory (from his brain that has been kept "alive" with some wires) into another brain. So they use ultra-criminal Kevin Costner who's been in a maximum security prison for many years, as the guinea pig. As you do.

It all manages to go DOWNHILL from here.

Just flagging it up in case anyone else thinks "hey it might be good for a laugh"

The best aspect is the character names.
Jerico Stewart, Quaker Wells, Peter Greensleeves, Very Attractive Nurse, Kebab Hooligan #1, Kebab Hooligan #2
 d_b 02 Oct 2017
In reply to Blue Straggler:

Kebab Hooligan #2 sounds like the best job in Hollywood!
 Blue Straggler 02 Oct 2017
In reply to davidbeynon:
Disappointingly there were no kebab hooligans at all! Costner goes in a burger/kebab shop, nicks someone's food then beats up some plumbers outside so he can nick their van. I assume the plumbers were meant to be the "kebab hooligans" (they were rude to Kevin and thought they could have him in an outnumbered fight)

I've made it sound much better than it was
Post edited at 22:29
 Tom Valentine 03 Oct 2017
In reply to Offwidth:

Yesterday's Sky Movie offering was Bridgend.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone .

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