UKC

Mr Holmes, the famous detective, now retired in his coastal rural house, realises his famous memory is fading fast and decides to try to figure out why he stopped work after his last case.

A really fascinating spin on the Sherlock mythology with any sentimentality forgivable given the conclusions he comes to. Ian McKellen is spot-on in the starring role.

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

In reply to Offwidth:

Judge Dredd, Netflix. Presumably a pilot cum.mini-movie for a forthcoming series. True to the comics, so good for fans of hammy dystopia and gratuitous cartoon violence.

Carl Unger has the look but not the voice.

Liked it.

In reply to alan moore:

Pardon?

Do you mean the 2012 film "Dredd" starring Karl Urban, Lena Headey, Olivia Thirlby and Downhill Gleeson? Or is there something else? I know there have long been talks of some sort of continuation but as the film didn't do so well, it seemed to have all got stuck. Or has this somehow miraculously been produced? https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/scifi/2020-07-28/judge-dredd-tv-show-scr...

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Judge Dredd Mega City One apparently. I think the pilot for a forthcoming tv show is out but ive not had much luck finding it so far.

ps very apposite that 'Alan Moore' is the man to break this news

In reply to Kimono:

I keep reading that the pilot was written but had not gone into production (see my link, but that it is from July 2020). Because the post I replied to mention "Carl Unger" I wondered if they meant Karl Urban and were just having a massive spelling/confusion failure moment (maybe he's been watching something with Deborah Kara Unger in!). If it was Karl Urban then it must surely have been the 2012 film because his participation in Mega City One is not confirmed. 
Also given the demographic of UKC, I am sure we would have seen Mega City One more widely trumpeted by now  

BUT alan "not THAT one" moore does also say "mini movie". I don't know! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Sorry. Just me talking garbage again, ably assisted by spellchecker. I was struggling to find the film I watched on IMDb and Bones Urban is not in it...Warrick somebody ( with a similar chin) somebody plays Dredd .

Anyway, I'll get my coat and go and write another cult graphic novel.

In reply to Kimono:

On Netflix this week.

In reply to alan moore:

Dredd. Fantastic film...hugely underrated when it was released afew weeks ago.

On the subject of underrated Sci-Fi; i stumbled on Sunshine (Danny Boyle). A real classic, and well worth your time, especially in lock down.

In reply to THE.WALRUS:

More like "Sunshite"  

In reply to THE.WALRUS:

Again, as I asked Alan Moore, is this a different Dredd to the one from 2012? 

In reply to Offwidth:

Quo Vadis (1951). 

The missing link between Gladiator and Carry on Cleopatra  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Best designed space suit of any film.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Erm, no. Found it on IMDb. They would appear to be one and the same! Very confusing...

In reply to Blue Straggler:

2012 with Karl Urban. It's available on Netflix at the moment.

Feels just like the comic used to feel.

In reply to alan moore:

sorry I somehow missed your 11:22 reply yesterday ! Thanks 

I remain confused

In reply to Offwidth:

Interesting, at least to me , pair of films on BBC IP at the moment. 'Closer to the Edge' about the I.O.M. TT races and 'Crash Reel' about an American Half Pipe Snowboarder. I saw the TT film when it first came out on the big screen but the snowboarding film was new to me.

The attitudes to risk and it's consequences are stark. It does help if one is aware of the years following the making of these films. Personally I have followed the careers of the motorcycle racers featured but have no knowledge of the snowboard scene.

John

In reply to THE.WALRUS:

I'm not sure about fantastic, but watchable and enjoyable, I thought. I liked the fact that Dredd never takes off his helmet, so everything was conveyed via Karl Urban's grimace (a nice companion to Tom Hardy's eyebrow work as Bane).

Also that he had to face the combined menace of the Lannisters and Barksdales

In reply to nufkin:

What was nice was that you get no introduction to Dredd, not only is it not an origin story but there’s very little info given about him even in expository dialogue. It’s basically a “day in the life” kind of story, mixed in with a sort of “Training Day”/origin story for Judge Anderson (a neat device allowing Olivia Thirlby to be the expressive “face” of the film)

My only little niggle was with the opening chase scene, it was made to look far too difficult for a police superbike to keep pace with an absolutely knackered camper van 😃

In reply to Offwidth:

The Detective, and Tony Rome. 

Two Frank Sinatra vehicles made a year apart from each other (1968 and 1967), both directed by Gordon Douglas, both featuring Lloyd Bochner in a support role, both (like nearly all Sinatra films) featuring Sinatra almost playing a version of himself. 

Yet they were very different films. 

The Detective seems like it was very bold for its time, dealing with with a world of homosexuality (even if it does seem to relish painting that world as a deviant underbelly of society) and in a way it's like an extremely downbeat companion to the same year's Bullitt. But it's also a bit of a tedious mess. After an opening establishing Sinatra's role, it lurches cack-handedly into a massively long flashback about how his relationship with Lee Remick began, and you are left wondering what the film is going to actually be ABOUT, for around 40 minutes. And it never really redeems this. 

The previous year's Tony Rome is a very different prospect, and arguably a perfect example of balancing tongue-in-cheek and a bit of campy fun, with an actually interesting plot with a proper MacGuffin etc. Definitely suited Sinatra better, he stays just the right side of winking at the camera, yet the film is no comedy or pastiche. The point of Jill St John's character is questionable but hey I am not complaining. Good support from Gena Rowlands and Sue Lyon in what was probably Lyon's last good role in a good film. There may have been some men in the film too, not sure  
Bit weird having Nancy Sinatra sing the title song with all its allusions to Frank putting it about a bit! 

In reply to Offwidth:

Inside Out. Another one of those 'kids' movies.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

Did you cry though?!  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I thought it was superb but didn't cry.

In reply to Offwidth:

Watched passport to pimlico, lovely stuff 

In reply to JJ Krammerhead III:

Coincidentally a friend brought that up in conversation last night (and it's been at the back of my mind since seeing Stanley Holloway pop up in a couple of small support roles in some other films I've recently watched) so it is on my shortlist. I have it on VHS, taped off the telly, sharing a tape with the 1992 "The Last of the Mohicans"  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Within the first minutes.

In reply to Offwidth:

same here. I think some people were a bit upset at the demise of the imaginary friend (the pink elephant). 

I did get something in my eye during Finding Dory though. 

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

One issue I always had with Inside Out, is that the ending strongly implies that the girl happily cuts all ties with, or even plain forgets, the old best friend in her old town. But then the credit sequence shows "inside a cat's head" and it's funny so we forget that little niggle 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

No tears for that either (not quite as outstanding but still excellent in my view). Kids are lucky ..... so few shit cartoon movies.... albeit kids live action films are sometimes lemons (but not as often as the film output for grown-ups).

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yes that's a point. I think this is a movie for kids who have moved so that's a significant detail, I know my kid related to that.

I liked to bit where inside the Mum's head they threw away the memory of the Brazilian Heli pilot - almost....

What moves me (I've seen it twice) is simply the first sequence of the baby in that state of post-natal bliss. Gets me just thinking about it, fatherhood memories and all that.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I've only seen it once so far but I now own it on DVD (thanks charity shops!) and plan to watch again soon

In reply to Offwidth:

Divines

Very well made film about two young girls from the rougher outskirts of Paris who want to make it big in the world of drug dealing. 

In reply to Offwidth:

It was the bit where Dory sees the pattern and pathway (?) that her parents have been carving out in the sand diligently all this time. Yes on the whole Inside Out is the better film, especially the bit where it goes all abstract art. The van chase/escape with the octopus in Finding Dory was just a BIT much  

In reply to Offwidth:

Bitter Victory (1957). 
Rather well made and interesting "battle of wills" Second World War story. A little bit bold for the time, maybe? Superb performances from the co-leads and also the entire supporting cast. 

One MASSIVE problem though. 
As fine as his performance is, Curt/Curd Jurgens must be the one of the most miscast actors in a role EVER. He is supposed to be a cowardly pen-pushing Major in charge of a British platoon on a desert mission, but the thing about Jurgens is that he is Bavarian and has a VERY strong and unmistakable accent. The screenplay tries to deal with this in a single throwaway line about him maybe having grown up in South Africa, but it's not convincing at all. At times you might be forgiven for getting confused and thinking it's some undercover story or he's a Nazi who's captured and hypnotised the platoon. Not helped by the fact that he is that he is the "bad guy" in this, in combination with the ensuing decades of Jurgens mostly playing properly Teutonic bad guys. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

You have a remarkably broad appreciation for cinema. Commendable.

Oh I should mention Lewis Black as Anger sold me from the start. I love that guy, he puts me at ease with how I feel about the world.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I've watched Cool As Ice starring Vanilla Ice, two times voluntarily. And The Star Wars Holiday Special three times voluntarily. And even "Love, Actually" (just once and under duress). 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yeah but did you watch Cool As Ice as a deluded teenager like so many also did, usually to impress a girl? Still though, twice.....the cinematic equivalent to waterboarding.

Star Wars Holiday Special is one of my favourites too. I still think it's a secretly a John Waters film.

In reply to Offwidth:

I can't remember if it was a recommendation on here or over on the other channel, but thanks to whoever mentioned it. I watched The King Of Staten Island tonight. Judd Appatow directs. It's excellent. Coming of age story of Scott (Pete Davidson - who also Co wrote and produced it,) a mid twenties stoner wannabe tattoo artist, still living with his mom on Staten Island. A great characterisation by the lead with what feels like realist ad-lib dialogue at times, but not at all done in a jarring way, alongside gentle introduction of back story as to how  the protagonist has come to remain where he is still.

A fantastic supporting cast (including Steve Buscemi who always adds value.) Some laugh out loud funny moments and a few to cause a moistening of the eye. But most of all brilliant, believable, likeable, fully-rounded characters amongst the obvious tropes and types that populate the film. Ultimately you actually care for and about the characters. Not action packed nor a blockbuster, but enough story stuff happens to keep the viewer engaged throughout. Nicely shot. 

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a film as much. Watch it should you get the chance. I watched it on bluray via Cinema Paradiso (films by post,) but sure it'll be on one of the streaming platforms soon. 

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I didn't, no. But it got a wide release at the time. Vanilla Ice was (for about 2 weeks!) the biggest star in the world, as I am sure you remember. It has a tenuous link to Star Wars, as I found a VHS copy of Cool As Ice (which I had heard about mainly via the "Memorable Quotes" section on imdb dot com, which had made me REALLY want to watch it - take a look and you'll see why) for 20p in Camden the same day that I went to see Attack of the Clones. Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski who quickly went on to winning Oscars with Steven Spielberg. Two best bets. Vanilla punching the pretty girl off her horse right near the beginning for no good reason, and Vanilla jumping his bike into a first floor window with no ramp. 

Again I got hold of this when it was difficult to get hold of, in 2001. I found a video store in Brooklyn or Greenwich who sold copies of it "under the counter". Tell this to the kids today and they won't believe you. You might be onto something with the John Waters thing, I think all crew names are pseudonyms because when you look them up, they seem never to have worked before or after! Best bit is the Chewbacca's dirty old Dad VR wank video of Diahann Carroll singing a song. I am sure his leg rubbing inspired Vic and Bob. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I'm going to watch Cool As Ice now, will report back (unless I don't you may be held responsible...). I do recall his brief popularity, it was so brazen it took a while for the masses to catch on how awful it was. I was a Beastie Boys fan, so VI for a moment felt like a threat - a very short moment.

Contraband films are the stuff of legend. That's a good bit of history to be involved with. From what I hear stars like Ford were vocal in not having it released after the TV show was aired.

I thought the strange lurid PAL system quality of it was slightly disturbing, like where the Fraggles live, no inside or outside definition. The Wookie patriarch jerking off is so John Waters it could be true.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

Incidentally, someone just mentioned Franklin Mint elsewhere, and every time I hear Franklin Mint, I think of this
youtube.com/watch?v=w9Ql_GTDO7A&

Have you seen Cecil B Demented? Career suicide for Melanie Griffith and you get the impression she knew it was and didn't give two hoots as she was fading anyway. Brilliant madness. 

By the way, I still have my VHS of Cool As Ice. 2020 saw me getting rid of a lot of my "bought" VHS for space reasons - one film taking up all that space, is inefficient - but that's one of the ones I am keeping. 

In reply to Offwidth:

I really really enjoyed Mr Holmes. A shining beacon in this part of McKellen's career where he is mostly phoning it in (I have not seen The Good Liar yet though, and that looks good)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I'll check into it. Anything that relates to JW directly or as a parallel works, I find him a brave and astute guy in a lineage that includes Wilde and Coward who make you aware you are watching art disguised as something else.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Mother of God, I just watched the trailer......

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

I've just been reminded how glorious Alicia Witt looked in Cecil B Demented. Might have to watch it again myself soon!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Actually I was referring to Cool As Ice...

I watched the trailer for CBD too and it just looks awesome, can't wait. I like the allusion to the Patty Hearst.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

Ah right. Somehow I think I’ve escaped the Cool As Ice trailer. It’s a kind of arty film really, you can play the game of seeing if there is cryptic message on his jacket, and iirc there is this bizarrely shot random breakdance scene featuring minor sidekick characters, using very wide angle lens with a salt and pepper shaker static and very much in the foreground . And weren’t they trying to sell Vanilla as a new James Dean?! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

It actually reminds me a lot of Golden Harvest kung fu flicks, shallow story to just showcase some cult stars profile, lots of cheap in-situ scenes etc.

And weren’t they trying to sell Vanilla as a new James Dean?! 

In cool perhaps. Reminds me more of a rat pack member, bad boy who can swing type stuff.

In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

The Wife was much more impressive than I expected even though Glenn Close always seem to shine in her work. It goes well beyond the male dominance in mid century US literature that produced the central fault line in the marriage.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_wife_2018

In reply to Offwidth:

The Culpepper Cattle Company. 

Absolutely brilliant 1971 Western with a really authentic feel to it, "grimy" without stylising the grime or making a big song and dance about it. A very slight story indeed, simply portraying the travails of a fairly standard cattle drive, with a little bit of "coming of age for adolescent lad who joins the drive", but (even allowing for some shootouts and fatalities) there is no "high drama". Almost a "day in the life" kind of thing (well, more like a week in the life). Downbeat but not "in your face" about how downbeat it is. More simply, it's unglamorous. Right down the backroom saloon whore described by the proprietor (and billed in the credits) as "Former Virgin". 
Feels simultaneously "humble / low budget" and "majestic in its own way". I don't really think it could have been low budget, the sweeping shots of herds of cattle and the beautiful location cinematography indicate otherwise. Gorgeous score and great dialogue - a great example of making exposition sound realistic. 

Kevin Costner's good "Open Range" is a bit like the big overblown version of this, with its silly epic shootout that rather spoils it. The brief gun scenes in Culpepper are over in seconds, just as they would have been. No running around and hiding behind barrels and taking pot shots, and no unbelievable long range shots. 

The cast are all fine and it's enhanced somewhat by none of them being stars in their own right. Sure, a couple of recognisable "character actor" faces but nothing to distract. 

I can't think of a thing wrong with it actually, so it gets 10/10. 


edit - looking through "amateur reviews" I see a fair few comparisons to Unforgiven, which I politely spurn. Also The Wild Bunch, and I'd say it is closer in tone to that one (by far) than to the overly neat and tidy Unforgiven, but of course The Wild Bunch is anything but humble and it is VERY stylised. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Great film. Saw it when it came out and rate it as equal to The Long Riders, maybe a notch below The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.

All from the sub genre called by some "mud and rags western"

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Figured you'd be onto this like a pigeon on a dropped chip  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

The Endless (2018). I had no idea what this was when watching it, so it took a while to figure out where it was slowly heading and by the end, if anything, it felt slightly too blatent. Still, a clever indie movie I'd happily recommend for those who are not stuck in a rut. 

In reply to Offwidth:

Not for the first time I've accidentally bought into Amazon Prime..

This time I'm planning to make the most of my free month rather than jacking it in straight away.

So my intention is to view good quality stuff which is exclusive to AP.

Started last night with The Green Book, thought it brilliant.

Tonight is going to be Knives Out and possibly One Night in Miami. 

I welcome any other suggestions for  Amazon Prime stuff, either film or TV.

( I'm a very big fan of Harry Bosch in print but wouldn't want to use up my free month watching six series  of his detective stories.)

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Although you've said you don't want to waste the month watching Bosch, both Mrs Ridge and I enjoyed it immensely. Although it's based on the books, it's been updated with Bosch now some Gulf war special forces type (a bit of tired theme these days) rather than Viet-Nam tunnel rat. Maybe takes a while to establish the characters, but once you're into the series it's excellent.

In terms of free films, they have “3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”, which if you've not seen it is really good. Also “The Great Alone”, about the Iditarod race in Alaska. We watched it thinking it would be a ‘Spine Race with Sled dogs” easy documentary thing to pass the evening, but as it got into Lance Mackey's background it became darker and oddly uplifting.

Edit: Almost forgot “A lonely place to die”, which mixes trad climbing (see another thread for the UKC reaction) with Sean Harris playing his usual psychotic killer role. OK with a couple of beers if you don't take it too seriously 😉

In reply to Ridge:

Does Harris mumble a lot? If so I'd have to forego the beer.

Thanks for the Bosch update. I saw the first one on a previous encounter with AP and thought Titus Welliver did a good interpretation. I remember reading years ago that Connelly was so distrustful of Hollywood turning a decent version of his hero on screen that he was thinking of selling all his film rights to Scandinavian producers. Apparently it didn't happen .

Everyone counts or nobody counts.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

You keep asking that. It's been answered before. Why not just stop going on about him, watch the bloody film, and turn on subtitles if it's too difficult for you to hear it? 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

There are some people in life it's worth going on about, either in a positive or negative way.

Same as there are some routes it's worth going on about Cordelia (HVS 5a) and some topics about life/ art/philosophy.

We all have our foibles.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

WATCH THE FILM and let us know whether you felt Sean mumbled because we are on TENTERHOOKS here, Tom V. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Just watched the his final scene on You Tube and he's definitely mumbling there, though to be fair it looks like someone has given him a fat lip (or two) so I suppose it's acceptable. 

Got me interested in the rest of the film, though,

In reply to Tom Valentine:

It's a 95 minute film. I am sure you've spent more time going about Sean Harris mumbling, than it would take to watch the bloody thing. Which is, as has often been said by quite a number of people on these forums, a decent little film. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Very annoying that i can't find it on Sky or Netflix, and to pay for it on my newly found free Amazon would go against the grain a bit. Took solace in watching Harris in  a short film where he  copulates with  a dead woman , which might not be everyone's cup of tea.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Sorry it was on free when I watched it!

”Open Grave” is still free. A cheery little tale of a bloke up wakes up in a hole full of shot corpses with no idea how he got there.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I think it was just shown on the BBC, hence all the posts about it. You should be able to watch it on iPlayer. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Not a bad film as you say but the climbing sequences  might spoil it  for people such as us. I noted and agreed entirely with your criticisms on another thread and had a few more besides.

As for Harris, I did have to press the replay button a couple of times when his diction proved worse than that of the foreigners he was talking to but not his worst performance. 

There are plenty of films where people's accents are so thick that subtitles might be an option but they are usually Texans or similar, not homegrown Englishmen.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I managed three minutes of "Crock of Gold" (new 125 minute documentary feature about Shane Macgowan) before caving in and putting the subtitles on.