Irma Vep

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

Oh, a film about filmmaking shot and projected on film. A director tasked with remaking the classic Les Vampires hires Chinese actress Maggie Cheung, playing herself, for the lead role. Communication problems is one thing but once the director has a nervous breakdown things get a little complicated.

I'd never heard of this film before so it was a pleasant discovery. It's a slightly nightmarish look at making films and there's a lot of awful people in tho particular cast and crew. It's also quite funny. There's some discussion about french art house films vs hollywood blockbusters which maybe is a little forced but was funny anyway.

Pretty odd ending too. but I'll go with it. Interesting film.

Love is Strange

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

John Lithgow and Alfred Molina make for a cute gay couple. The film isn't really concerned with heir sexuality though, or their age, they just have trouble getting an apartment in New York and are forced to stay with friends and relatives. It's a slight little drama with an appealing cast. I say it's slight, I guess I mean, it's really simple but it was certainly effective enough. It just wasn't an entirely satisfying story though. Perfectly enjoyable while it lasted but I won't remember much about it.

The Haunting

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

Recently caught up with the original. But This was the one I saw first. And although I never found it scary as a kid, I did watch it a few times because I was a fan Jan De Bont and Twister and I loved looking at the CG effects and the sound design in the cinema was awesome.

But now I've seen the original and probably know it better than this version I can only see just how horrifically off the mark it is. It's like a total mis-reading of what made the first one so great. Here they remove any ambiguity, suspense or mystery adopt to show everything in bright detail. And it just doesn't work at all.

The late 90's a filled with examples of films that, now they have the technology, decide to show everything, and failed miserably. And now thankfully the backlash to that has past and filmmakers realised that it's always more effective to let the audience do some of the work.

I always liked Lili Taylor, she's far less annoying and more sympathetic a lead than Julie Harris. Even though she's never billed or in any of the advertising. But it's the first time I remember seeing her in a lead role for a mainstream picture. The rest of the cast do what they can. The look like they're having fun in the amazing sets. I like the score too.

As a haunted house film this is a real failure, unless you've never seen a good one. I guess it's a good place to start out if you're really young though, it's goofy but kinda fun. I still have fond memories of going to see it at the cinema. But ultimately it's just a completely hamfisted attempt to be scary.

These Final Hours

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Kate, Lauren

As much as I enjoyed the film it was really really hard to distance myself from the locations and the people I knew in the cast. I was lucky enough to snag an invite to the cast and crew screening, so it was a great atmosphere and despite what I think was a faulty subwoofer that made the last third of the film rather annoying, it was a great night. But it does make it hard to view objectively.

There's a genuine bond that forms between Angourie Rice and Nathan Phillips that's at the heart of the film. If that didn't work then I don't think any of the amazing work by the cast and crew would have mattered, but thankfully they pulled it off beautifully.

It's also very yellow.

Well I hope to see it again when I'm over east, to figuratively and literally distance myself but also to hopefully get a better perspective on the rest of it, watching it with people that aren't involved. I think from hearing about the story when it was filming I had certain expectations or what it might have been but it was far more simpler than I had imagined, so it'll be good to see unburdened by those expectations.

So for now I'll say, I really enjoyed it, it's exciting to have a film like this come from here and get a good release and it's definitely one worth going out to support. Perhaps expect more thoughts on it in a week or two.

The Fall

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

Write up.

I'm trying to get people to watch the new TV series Halt and Catch Fire and they just don't understand how awesome Lee Pace is. So this.

Hercules

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

Big surprise, Brett Ratner made a really boring Hercules film. This is a debugging-the-myth telling, so no awesome creatures, no gods, none of the actual myths. None of the actual fun stuff. No, this is the "truth behind the legend" and if it really was the truth no one would be talking about Hercules today because it's actually just a really average sword and sandles battle movie only there's The Rock in the middle of it.

He's got his group of stock characters, and they follow the usual call to arms, training montages, fighting action sequences and double crossings. He's got your basic tortured backstory and gets his revenge and frees the land. It's all really obviously laid out and at no point did I care about any of it.

And somehow, despite all the sets and action and costumes and the fun cast that have nothing to work with, it all felt really cheap. Using the standard Herculean font for their supers seems really tacky, I wonder if they were trying to be funny?

I didn't actually know that Ratner directed this going in but I was surprised it wasn't getting much of an advertising push. But seeing his name at the end, it suddenly made sense why it was all such mediocre fluff. These poor actors struggle to stay afloat in this one. Probably won't be seeing this again.

The Haunting

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

Robert Wise seemed to have a go at every genre. I like this one for how simple and effective it is with its haunting. It's really the classic haunted house movie. Some beautiful cinematography and everything scry is conveyed with angles, editing and some sound, relying on the performances of the actors to really sell it and get us worked up with them.

I do find Julie Harris really annoying now though. 

I grew up with the remake and only later discovered the vastly superior original. Now when I think about it it seems like they completely missed the point of how and why this works and just take the scary elements and made them as bombastic as possible. I liked it because of all the then brand new CG effects. The original doesn't need any of that to work and is far more effective. 

It's a great creepy old film though, definitely a must see. 

Deliver Us from Evil

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

Jerry Bruckheimer has made his first horror movie! Well, if you can call it that. It's more of a police procedural but then there's an exorcism at the end. Director Scott Derrickson gives it a few good jump scares but unlike Sinister, or even The Exorcism of Emily Rose this film fails to tell an actual compelling story so I just never really cared. Perhaps just a problem when telling uncinematic true stories, even Exorcism of Emily Rose was like that at parts. But at least that was about something. This just feels like some things that happened one time. 

The cast do what they can. It's just really hard to see Joel McHale in this role. Olivia Munn suffers greatly playing the underwritten wife who's supposed to add some kind of emotional beats to the story but just comes off as nagging and then has to be rescued at the end.

You know how there's some stock sound effects that you hear in a billion movies? And when you hear them it immediately destroys your suspension of disbelief. It's one thing to use that old door creek sound. Unfortunately our main character hears children laughing and playing right before something scary happens. And the sound effect they used for that is one of my all time most hated sounds. So right before anything scary I was immediately frustrated and taken out of the film. Suffice to say, besides the two or three obligatory jump scares nothing here worked for me. 

But it looked pretty. Some nice make up. 

Transformers: Age of Extinction

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched with: Michael

Write Up.

Wow, it's so much worse the second time. I just wanted to see where the aspect ratio changes at IMAX were, but it was nauseating. It seems they kept the RED footage full frame too? Evidently the cutting between all the camera formats within a scene means the frame jumps every two or three shots and once you notice it that's all you can look at. Because the rest of the film doesn't hold up in any way.

Lifeforce

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

I saw this once ages ago and barley remembered it. It's a fun film, but kinda all over the place. Space vampires. Sort of. It's also predominantly British which makes it feel like an old Hammer horror film. The make up and animatronic effects are fun and Henry Mancini's score is wonderfully grandiose. There's some neat old school effects (and some not so great ones too).

The plot and tone goes all over the place though. While there's some pretty outrageous stuff theres also a lot that doesn't work very well. Ideas that aren't fully developed and crammed in to an overstuffed story. And then a heap of expository dialogue scenes that are just laughable.

It's such a strange film, I don't know if I really like it or not. I feels like the kind of film I should like and there's certainly a lot going for it. I'll have to try again in another few years.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

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

Write Up.

Man, it's just so great. I don't see what they're gonna do from here but it'll be hard to top.

The Other Woman

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

Write Up.

Sex Tape left a real bad taste in my mouth. But I remembered this not being too bad. However it's really hard to watch after having seen They Came Together. Man that film just nails it.

The Birthday

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

Write Up.

Man, this film just delights me. There's quite a bit of detail in the backgrounds and some great and unusual directorial choices. This film is getting harder and harder to find, so glad I have a copy! Perhaps not the director is making bigger films they might become more readily available.

Sex Tape

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

That was pretty damn abysmal. In order to facilitate this ludicrous plot it requires the characters to make impossibly dumb decisions which just makes them seem like real idiots. Worse than it not making any sense, it doesn't seem to be trying to be funny. It just goes through the motions and hopes that having outrageous things like doing drugs and being chased by a dog will elicit laughter. Well, it did from the crowd but I found the whole thing really dull.

Palo Alto

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

There's another Coppola?

James Franco writes short stories?

These are the things we learn at festivals.

A snapshot of teens being teens, not quite a full coming of age, there's not really enough closure for that. But it does a good job of not feeling like a string of vignettes. It's a little dark and troubling at times and the young cast do a fine job.

It's such a festival film though.