Seven Psychopaths

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Naomi, Andrew

Fantastic. I love how being self-refferential gives you and excuse for terrible writing of female characters. And what a great cast. Doing what they do best with brilliantly written characters. So enjoyable.

Such great dialogue too. I think anyone would have fun delivering it. Martin McDonagh has taken all the great things that worked from In Bruges and just made it more fun, with a few winks to audience. Again, there's a real sadness lurking just beneath.

The ending is something I'm still thinking about. There's also a mid credit sequence that is telegraphed well in advance but the payoff isn't quite what I was expecting. I think because I really loved the ending and this changed the tone slightly it threw me a little but nothing that's going to taint your enjoyment or anything.

Definitely make sure to check it out.

2 Days in New York

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

I guess you could call this a sequel to 2 Days in Paris. Julie Delpy's films are pleasant enough. It has moments of awkward comedy, not in the good way, but then some great moments of dramatic awkwardness. A little tough to pin down.

I guess it's just the broader comedy didn't work for me. Falls flat. As do the visuals. But the film was okay besides that I guess.

Intouchables

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Yeah it was a nice little film. Light and fluffy and never went anywhere very challenging. It's all there in the trailer, pretty much nothing else happens.  

Bachelorette

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is just a wannabe Bridesmaids. From the trailers I saw at the cinema it looks like a pretty trash rom-com. But then I noticed a few things in the opening credits that made me sit up a little most notably that this is an adaptation of a play.

I don't think this could be further from the fun of Bridesmaids. This is scarring. Horrifying. These characters are fascinating and extreme and terrible, terrible people. Like other Dirty Sanchez productions, you are following characters that are broken and the film walks the line between getting you to laugh at them and just plain being shocked or infuriated by them.

This film is not really going for laughs at all. While I found a lot of it funny and really liked some of the performances, Isla Fisher was a very unexpected stand out, the heart of this film is sad and bitter.

One of the plot lines didn't really work for me and there is a really odd marriage (no pun intended) of gritty character work and terrible rom-com cliche. Those few moments really pull me out of what was an otherwise unexpected surprise and one I quite enjoyed.

The Mummy

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Well I love the first Stephen Sommers remake of this, so it's great to finally see the original. I think Boris Karloff is far more interesting here than in Frankenstein, perhaps due to the face that he is actually allowed to talk. Again, great make-up.

Man, these film get through the set ups so fast and they wrap up almost immediately as well but then there are just huge long stretches in the middle where more often than not, not much is going on. At least the damsel in this story actually has something to do and is far more interesting than in Dracula or Frankenstein.

Frankenstein

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Henry Frankenstein? I never knew he had a different name in this version.

Well Frankenstein's monster is not the only thing that's slow moving in this picture. I guess you can't judge films like this by todays standards and I appreciate its historical impact and all but watching it late at night it was putting me to sleep.

Still, that make up holds up. It's iconic and creepy. This monster doesn't speak at all though. And he's hilariously credited as being played by "...?"

And yes, he is a very sympathetic monster, it's so easy to see why he's many peoples favourite. That scene with the little girl is so great, I'd seen it before but never in context with the whole picture. Great stuff.

Dwight Frye shows up again playing another great craaaaazzzy character. He's awesome.

Dracula

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Ok Time to start going through this Universal Monster Bluray set. I'm ashamed to admit I have only ever seen Wolfman before. Better late than never though right?

Tod Browning's Dracula. Bela Lugosi. This may in fact be the first thing I've seen him in. Love the way they light his eyes in those close ups. But I gotta admit Dwight Frye was the stand out for me. His crazy servant act was by far the creepiest thing in the film for me.

Love that castle set too. 

This still feels very stagey. After all they did base it off the play from the time. I hear the Spanish version they shot concurrently has a bit more cinematic flare. That's also included on the disc so I might have to give that a watch too. 

Anyway great to finally see this classic. I can appreciate its historical significance even if the film itself didn't do much for me today. It's iconography is so ingrained in our culture though it's had not to be impressed by its endurability. 

End of Watch

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

We've had a few films now that are in this pseudo-found-footage style. District 9 and Chernobyl Diaries come to mind. Here we have a gritty cop drama which has a lot of found footage elements mixed in with a Cops doco style that fleshes out scenes as well. Looks like they shot on every imaginable style of digital format available. 5D, GoPro, AVCHD and the higher end SI.

There's a real authenticity to the proceedings in amongst the few moments of shaky cam. I personally didn't like any of the characters so I never really cared about what was going on but your milage may vary in which case the long build to the end sequence will probably work wonders. It's well staged and feels like a very modern spin on an old Western motif.

David Ayer proves once again he's knows his stuff when it comes to police procedurals. I thought this one was alright.

An American Werewolf in London

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate, Bobby, Xoe, Tara

Write Up

Beware the moon.

Again, seeing this work a crowd was a treat. Played much funnier that I had anticipated, but I think everyone was just giddy to get to see it on the big screen. Beautiful.

The Thing

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate, Bobby, Xoe

Write Up.

Unbelievable seeing this on the big screen. The film just plays so well at the cinema with a crowd. I don't think I've ever enjoyed this film so much or got more wrapped up in it. It's just so well made, the actors all step up, that dog's acting still amazes me. That blood test scare that always makes me jump was just wonderful to experience with a crowd. And the digitally restored print look beautiful. Brilliant first half to an awesome horror double.

Prometheus

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Write Up.

As I suspected, the writer's commentary is far more interesting and entertaining than Ridley Scott's. It does go a long way into explaining some of the unanswered questions and more importantly, how the film ended up that way. I just wonder, if they could perfectly anticipate the reaction from the audience as to how frustrated with the film they would be, why wouldn't they think to change it? It seems they purposefully made an infuriating film, that's just silly.

Excision

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Well this was an odd find. Never would have thought of AnnaLynne McCord, the girl I primarily know as the bitch from Fired Up! would have done something like this. She gets an ugly makeover here.

It's a very dark and pretty sick coming of age story, whilst at the same time manages to be funny and occasionally sweet. It that sense it reminds me a little of May. It's the sort of film that has John Waters playing a priest and Traci Lords an overbearing christian mother. She's actually really good too.

It's an interesting cast. The film is well put together and has quite a unique tone. The graphic dream sequences a surreal and beautiful and could be a little too much for some viewers.

It's a funny and sad tale. The central character is fascinating and McCord gives it her all. Very enjoyable and beautifully uncomfortable film.

The Man with the Golden Gun

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Sheriff J.W. Pepper is back! UHHHH Kill me now.

This one has the whole kung-fu-spliotation going on too. Kinda fun.

Christopher Lee as the 3-nippled bad guy is alright though. He has his crazy fun-house death match thing going on. I guess this one gets pretty ridiculous, probably no more so than the last outing. The whole solar energy lazer beam thing is pretty comic book villain stuff but still quite fun. 

Britt Ekland, what a ditz.

Funny Games

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

Always nice to share with friends. Good times and funny games indeed.

Chernobyl Diaries

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

What a missed opportunity. Such a great concept but the execution is obvious and never really takes off. So much could have been explored, instead there's just a bunch of mutants stalking kids and no pay-off or explanation as to why.

No surprise Oren Peli, who created the first Paranormal Activity, came up with this one as the ending feels almost exactly the same except without the good scares proceeding to make it worthwhile. There's a lot of nice atmosphere and I really liked the production design, where they shot looks very authentic.

I presumed this was a found footage film and indeed it starts out that way for the first 3 minutes but immediately after the intro sequence it becomes just a documentary style film, which still works to sell the realism but allows for edits a bit more and they don't have to worry about explaining who is always filming and why.

The actors are all okay I guess. I think it's pretty much just there's just a set up and a few scares and nothing else on offer here.

Live and Let Die

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Onto the Roger Moore years. And firmly entrenched in the 70's. Bond does Blacksploitation. Hah. I've seen bits of this before, I remember the speedboats and voodoo.

This one has some cool stuff in it. Notably the theme song. And Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman reading Tarot cards. Stuff gets strangely supernatural in this one, the finale feels like a plot that could be more at home in an Indiana Jones story. However we now have villains who are just drug dealers instead of trying to take over the world.

A cool speed boat chase. But man does it go on. And then they introduce that horrifying bumbling stereotype Sheriff Pepper. Yikes.