Film Club
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63 topics in this forum
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The Wrestler [RSC Film Club 31]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 938 views
With the start of summer and the beginning of the European Football Championships, this month's film club is all about the sporting life. The winning film, nominated by @Con, is Darren Aronofsky's 2008 drama The Wrestler, starring Micky Rourke and Marisa Tomei. The film follows Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a wrestler who was big in the 80s but is now well past his prime working small shows on the independent circuit as well as a part time job in a supermarket. He struggles with addiction, injuries and rocky relationships with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and stripper with a heart of gold Cassidy (Tomei). This is a superb fi…
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The Interview [RSC Film Club 30]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 4 replies
- 893 views
This month's film club is all about controversy, films that got people riled up for whatever reason. The winning film was nominated by @Beezand is the 2014 comedy The Interview, directed by Seth Rogen and and Evan Goldberg. The film stars James Franco and Seth Rogen as a talk show host and his producer who manage to arrange an interview with Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un (Randall Park). When the CIA learn of this, they recruit the two to assassinate him. You can probably see where the controversy comes from here. A few months before it was released North Korea threatened action against the USA if it were to be. This led Sony to heavily edit th…
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Parasite [RSC Film Club 29]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 1.2k views
This month we are celebrating the upcoming Academy Awards by watching a past winner. The category we were picking from was Best Director, after having previously done Best Picture and Best Actor with The French Connection and Judgment at Nuremburg respectively, with the winning film being the most recent recipient of the award, B0ng Joon-ho's Parasite. As well as winning the Oscar for Best Director Parasite also won Oscars for Best International Film, Best Original Screenplay (by B0ng and Han Jin-won) and was the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. It was also nominated for Production Design and Editing. Part black comedy, part thriller, …
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Atomic Blonde [RSC Film Club 28]
by LimeGreenLegend- 4 followers
- 14 replies
- 1.3k views
This month's winning genre and film come courtesy of @omarcomin71 who nominated Charlize Theron films, choosing Atomic Blonde as his film. Based on the graphic novel The Coldest City, Theron stars as Lorraine Broughton, an MI6 agent who has been tasked with finding a list of double agents being smuggled into the west on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It is directed by David Leitch, former stuntman and uncredited co-director of John Wick. This is his first credited film, going on to direct Deadpool 2 and Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw. This is a man who knows his action, so I'm expecting some good stuff here. This film also has a fantasti…
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Once Upon a Time in the West [RSC Film Club 27]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 9 replies
- 1.1k views
The category for this month's selection was the Sight and Sound director's poll of the 100 greatest film of all time. The winning film, chosen by @djw180 and @omarcomin71 placed at number 44 in the last poll from 2012 (the poll is conducted every ten years), Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. This was the first film he made after the incredible The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, the last part of the Dollars trilogy, with this film being the first part of it's own trilogy of loosely connected films, the Once Upon a Time trilogy. I haven't seen any films from that trilogy so I'll leave it up to Sight and Sound to give a brief introduction and overview of…
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Can't Stop the Music [RSC Film Club 26]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 19 replies
- 1.5k views
Oh boy, we're starting 2021 off with a doozy. The winning, randomly drawn film for January is @Sinister's pick of Can't Stop the Music. Produced by Allan Carr, who had a small success with another musical a few years earlier, you may have heard of it - Grease, and directed by Nancy Walker, her only feature film directing credit, Can't Stop the Music is a fictional biopic of The Village People starring the group as themselves alongside a pre-Police Academy Steve Guttenberg and a pre-transition Caitlin Jenner. This is a film I have seen way more than it deserves, I could write my review now without re-watching it, so believe me when I tell you that it is bad. …
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Brazil [RSC Film Club 25]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 5 replies
- 931 views
And now for the alternative Christmas film selection, chosen by @djw180 and seconded by myself, the classic Terry Gilliam surreal satire, Brazil. Brazil stars Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Two Popes) as Sam Lowry, an office drone for the Ministry of Information who has dreams of flying and a beautiful woman. One day a simple clerical error starts a chain of events that shakes up his world and introduces him to a memorable cast of characters as he tries to fight the system. This film has an amazing supporting cast including Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent, Gilliam's Monty Python chum Michael Palin and Robert De Niro as the most badass heati…
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Home Alone [RSC Film Club 24]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 10 replies
- 1.3k views
It's time to get festive at the film club with a double bill of Christmassy goodness. First up, our traditional Christmas film, nominated by @Squirrel, the film that made Macaulay Culkin a superstar, Home Alone. Written by the king of 80s teen comedy, John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire, the first two Harry Potter films) Home Alone stars Culkin as Kevin, an 8 year old who is inadvertently left home alone when his family fly off to France for the holidays. Not only does he have to take responsibility for himself for the first time in his life, he also has to protect his home from opportunist…
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The Hunt for Red October [Film Club Extra 07]
by LimeGreenLegend- 5 followers
- 7 replies
- 1.3k views
The world lost a legend of cinema recently with the passing of Sir Sean Connery, so to celebrate his life and career the film club will be watching one of his classics. I think it's a testament to his acting ability and range that, despite being best known for playing James Bond, none of his 007 films were nominated. Instead there were nominations for a wide range of roles from across the decades, with the winner being nominated by @Squirrel, the Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October. Directed by action movie legend John McTiernan, who also bought us Predator, Die Hard and The Last Action Hero, and based on a novel by Tom Clancy, Red October tells the sto…
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Mulholland Drive [RSC Film Club 23]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 1 reply
- 650 views
The month of November in the film club belongs to the legendarily strange director David Lynch, our second taste of his filmography after Dune. However, the winning film for this month is a much more Lynchian work that truly represents his style and the themes that he returns to in a lot of his work. @djw180and @Con both nominated a trip into the unsettling and dreamy world of Mulholland Drive. Mulholland Drive is a surreal neo-noir mystery that tells the tale of Betty, played by Naomi Watts, a young actress just arrived in LA and Rita, played by Laura Harring, who has become an amnesiac after a brutal car crash. When their paths cross life starts to get very…
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Jacob's Ladder [RSC Film Club 22]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 7 replies
- 1.1k views
It's October, so it's time for a horror film, and for the second month in a row we're watching @djw180's pick, the 1990 psychological horror Jacob's Ladder. Directed by Adrian Lyne, who also bought us Flashdance, Jacob's Ladder stars Tim Robbins as a Vietnam veteran who is haunted by the horrors of war as he tries to adjust to civilian life. This is a hallucinatory nightmare world of PTSD that Roger Ebert called a "thoroughly painful and depressing experience" and one that was "powerfully written, directed and acted." The supporting cast includes Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Jason Alexander and, in smaller roles, Kyle Gass from Tenacious D and Macaulay Culk…
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The King [Film Club Extra 06]
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 2 replies
- 1.1k views
Our extra dose of medieval action comes in the form of David Michôd's The King, nominated by @Squirrel. This film is an adaptation of Shakespeare's plays Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V. This is the latest of many adaptations of Shakespeare's epic, the most notable versions being Laurence Olivier's from the 40's and Kenneth Branagh's 80's rendition. Big shoes to follow, but with a cast including Timothée Chalamet as Henry Prince of Wales later Henry V and support from the likes of Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Joel Edgerton, this stands a good chance of living up to the reputation of its predecessors. I've not seen this film, but I love both versio…
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The Iron Giant [RSC Film Club 21]
by LimeGreenLegend- 4 followers
- 14 replies
- 1.7k views
The winning film for this month's category of animated sci-fi, nominated by @Fido_le_muet, is Brad Bird's directorial debut, The Iron Giant, as chosen by @djw180. Based on the children's book by poet laureate Ted Hughes, but transposing the action to America, this film poses the question what if a gun had a conscience? The film, as expected for a Bird movie, has gorgeous animation and real heart and is truly a film for all the family. It has a great cast, including Harry Connick. Jr, Jennifer Aniston and, as the giant, Vin Diesel. I've not seen this since close to release, so am excited to revisit what I remember to be a fantastic film. souls..…
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American Psycho [RSC Film Club 19]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 12 replies
- 2.8k views
For July the film club was tasked with choosing a female-directed film, with the winning entry coming from Canadian filmmaker Mary Harron, who started her career as a music journalist writing for Punk magazine, and was the first person to interview The s*x Pistols for an American publication. She started her film career with the independent movie I Shot Andy Warhol, which is about a failed assassination attempt on the famous pop-artist. This infusion of violence and pop-culture came to the fore once again in her second film, American Psycho, based on the notorious Bret Easton Ellis novel, and our film for this month thanks to @Con and @Squirrel. American Psych…
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The Hurricane [RSC Film Club 18]
by LimeGreenLegend- 4 followers
- 9 replies
- 1.4k views
This month the film club is all about biopics, as submitted by @Fido_le_muet. Although this is the first time that it has been an official genre, we have had a few biopics in the past such as Max Manus, The French Connection and Rush. This month we return to the world of sports with the 1999 biopic of boxer Rubin Carter, The Hurricane, nominated by @omarcomin71. The film, directed by Norman Jewison (In The Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck) tells the story of middleweight boxer, Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter (Denzel Washington) who was wrongfully arrested and convicted of murder in 1966, and sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 1985…
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Seven Samurai [RSC Film Club 20]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 1 reply
- 1.8k views
This month the RSC Film Club is getting medieval on your *ss as we head back to the Middle Ages thanks to @Squirrel and @djw180. The winning selection was my choice (it's not a fix, I swear!), Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. This legendary epic (in all meanings of the term, this is almost three and a half hours long) tells the simple story of a small village constantly raided by bandits. When the villagers are at their most desperate they decide to go out and try to hire some samurai to fight them off. While the story is simple, the characters and their relationships are not, and thanks to the time we're given with them, and the excellent writing and perfor…
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Train to Busan [RSC Film Club 10] 1 2
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 30 replies
- 2.6k views
The concluding half of our Halloween Horror double bill was nominated by @Spinnaker1981, who chose the 2016 South Korean zombie thriller, Train to Busan. The first live action film directed by Yeon Sang-h*, after the animated films The King of Pigs and The Fake, Train to Busan is a classic zombie apocalypse thriller with a twist. What if you were on a train when the world ends? This is another selection I haven't seen, but Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) said of the film "best zombie movie I've seen in forever." That's a man who knows his zombies. Train to Busan stars Gong Yoo as a workaholic father who, for her …
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Blue Ruin [RSC Film Club 16]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 16 replies
- 1.8k views
The film club is all about sweet revenge this month thanks to @omarcomin71, with the winning film nominated by @doubleg213 and @JuniorChubb, Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin. Written and directed by Saulnier, who also wrote and directed the fantastic Green Room, Blue Ruin stars Macon Blair (The Florida Project, Logan Lucky) as a man out for revenge, and that's about all I know about this film. I am looking forward to this though, as it has received excellent reviews, and Saulnier won the FIPRESCI award at the Cannes film festival for this film, an award previously won by legendary names like Orson Welles, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard and Woody Allen. From watc…
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Max Manus: Man of War [RSC Film Club 17]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 1.6k views
War was the theme for May's film club, with the winning film being Max Manus: Man of War nominated by @Lann. Max Manus is a Norwegian biographical film detailing the exploits of resistance fighter and saboteur, Max Manus and is based on books that he wrote himself. It was directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales and stars Aksel Hennie as Manus. The film is one of the biggest recent hits of Norwegian cinema, winning a record seven Amanda awards (the Norwegian Oscars) in 2009 at the Norwegian International Film Festival. I've not seen, nor heard of this film before, so can't say much e…
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The Lost Boys [RSC Film Club 09]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 19 replies
- 1.9k views
The first half of our Halloween Horror double feature is the film that made vampires cool again, blazing a trail for stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight. Nominated by @Pb76, 1987's The Lost Boys. Directed by the man who nearly killed Batman, Joel Schumacher (Falling Down, Batman Forever, Phone Booth) and starring an ensemble cast of established and up-and-coming actors like Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Feldman, The Lost Boys is the story of a new kid in town who suspects something is up with the local biker gang, led by the charismatic David (Sutherland). I've got not much more to say, having not seen this before, but I kn…
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The King of Comedy [RSC Film Club 15]
by LimeGreenLegend- 2 followers
- 16 replies
- 3.6k views
This month, because of the website merge, we forgo the genre nominations and instead put forward our favourite films. The winning entry was mine! This means our film for March is Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. The film stars Robert DeNiro as Rupert Pupkin, autograph hunter, wannabe stand-up, and obsessive fan of late night talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). He feels that if he can just get a spot on Langford's show then he can show the world how funny he is, and he resorts to some desperate measures to try to achieve this goal. Out of the nine collaborations between Scorsese and DeNiro this is my absolute favourite, beating out films l…
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Dear Basketball [Film Club Extra 05]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 756 views
A few days ago the sports world lost one of its most beloved and iconic figures when Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, tragically lost his life at just 41 in a helicopter crash which also took the lives of eight other people, including his 13 year old daughter Gianna. This impacted not only the basketball world, or America, but the entire globe. Kobe didn't just win championships and awards on the basketball court, he also won an Oscar for the film he wrote, narrated and produced, Dear Basketball. It took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2018. In the film we see Kobe as a child dreaming of being a player for the LA La…
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Judgment at Nuremberg [RSC Film Club 14]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 2.1k views
Our film for Oscar season, with a best actor winning performance from Maximilian Schell, is the 1961 courtroom drama Judgment at Nuremberg, nominated by @djw180. Directed by Stanley Kramer (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) and with a cast including Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster and Marlene Dietrich as well as Schell, the film tells the story of the Nuremberg trials, where prominent n*zis and n*zi collaborators were tried for crimes against humanity. As well as the best actor Oscar, the film also won the statue for best adapted screenplay for Abby Mann, and was nominated for nine other awards, including best picture, be…
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Four Lions [RSC Film Club 13] 1 2
by LimeGreenLegend- 3 followers
- 34 replies
- 3.4k views
We're starting off 2020 with a bang, quite literally! Our genre for the first film club of the new decade is comedy, with the winning entry being the controversial Chris Morris film, Four Lions. Written and directed by incendiary British comedian Chris Morris (The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam) Four Lions, released in 2010, is his film debut. It stars Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak, and Adeel Akhtar as four radicalised British Muslims who want to blow something up. They just don't know what, or how to do it. Morris has always been a controversial figure in the British comedy world. The special episode of his television show Brass Eye, "Paedogeddon", s…
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Gremlins [RSC Film Club 12]
by LimeGreenLegend- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 1.7k views
It's December, so of course we'll be watching a Christmas movie for this month's film club. The winning film was nominated by @Spinnaker1981, 1984's Gremlins. Directed by Joe Dante (The Howling, Innerspace, Small Soldiers) and written by Chris Columbus (writer of The Goonies, Young Sherlock Holmes and director of Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter films), Gremlins stars Zach Galligan as Billy Peltzer, a teenager who receives a strange, but cute, new pet for Christmas. As long as he follows the three rules for looking after them, don't get them wet, don't expose them to light, and don't feed them after midnight, then everything will be fine. He doesn…
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181Rate the Last Film you Watched 2: Electric Boogaloo
Over the last couple of years I've been slowly making my way through every Disney animated feature film and, having recently watched Wish (which will be in my next batch of reviews) I've now seen all of them - that is until Moana 2 releases later this year. So I'm now presenting my official tier list which is the definitive ranking of all 62 Disney films (each tier goes from best to worst so it's all in order). S Tier (10/10) - Beauty and the Beast / Fantasia / The Lion King / Pinocchio / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs A Tier (8-9/10) - Aladdin / Sleeping Beauty / Lilo and Stitch / Alice in Wonderland / One Hundred and One Dalmatians / Tarzan / Fantasia 2000 / The Princess and the Frog / Bolt / The Jungle Book / Robin Hood / The Little Mermaid / The Rescuers / Hercules B Tier (7/10) - Mulan / The Great Mouse Detective / Cinderella / Big Hero 6 / Zootopia / Tangled / Moana / The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh / Frozen / Brother Bear / The Rescuers Down Under / The Fox and the Hound / Pocahontas / Wreck It Ralph / Peter Pan / The Hunchback of Notre Dame / Treasure Planet / The Three Caballeros C Tier (5-6/10) - The Lady and the tr*mp / The Emperor's New Groove / The Aristocats / Bambi / Strange World / Encanto / Atlantis The Lost Empire / Oliver and Company / The Sword in the Stone / Winnie the Pooh / Ralph Breaks the Internet / Meet The Robinsons / Dumbo / Raya and the Last Dragon / Saludos Amigos / The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad / The Black Cauldron / Wish / Frozen 2 F Tier (sh*t) - Make Mine Music / Melody Time / Fun and Fancy Free / Dinosaur / Home on the Range / Chicken Little -
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Rate the Last Film you Watched 2: Electric Boogaloo
What I Watched This Week #149 (Nov 4-10) And Then There Were None dir. Rene Clair/1945/1h38m Adapted from the Agatha Christie novel – the world's best selling mystery book, which has a rather unfortunate original title that you'll have to Google for yourself – this tells the story of ten strangers invited to an island off the English coast by an unknown host. There they discover that they are all responsible for somebody's death, and soon they start dropping off one by one. This setup sounds clichéd now but you can't make that argument here as this story invented that cliché. What I like here is how playful and light the direction is, giving the film a macabre sense of humour. This is also true of the performances, particularly those of Barry Fitzgerald as Judge Quinncannon and Walter Huston as Dr. Armstrong. The mystery itself is a good one and had me guessing up to the reveal. I don't think this is as good as the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films of the 60s, or the Peter Ustinov's Poirot films from the 70s, but if you're a fan of a good murder mystery then you will enjoy this. 7.5/10 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon dir. Ang Lee/2000/2h This fantasy martial arts film stars Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat as two master warriors, Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai, who must work together to track down a powerful sword that was stolen by a young thief, Jen (Zhang Ziyi), who is also the daughter of a nobleman. This is a gorgeous looking film full of vibrant colours that is famous for its spectacular wire work that sees the characters float and fly through the air. This makes for some unique fight sequences where they hop along rooftops or duel high up in a bamboo forest. The two leads are both great, especially in the scenes they share where they have to deal with their repressed feelings for each other. I did feel like there were some pacing issues early on, and the story becomes slightly convoluted just for the sake of creating more drama, but it does tie up quite nicely at the end where Jen is able to find some freedom and an identity of her own that isn't defined by anyone else, that is if you take it symbolically. 8/10 A Quiet Place dir. John Krasinski/2018/1h31m Emily Blunt and John Krasinski (who also directs) are the parents of three young children living in a world populated by blind creatures that hunt by sound, forcing them to live silently. Adding a ticking clock to proceedings is the fact that Blunt's character is pregnant. This film has a brilliantly tense atmosphere that is sustained through the entire runtime with a couple of standout set pieces that had me on the edge of my seat. I'm not a huge fan of the design of the creatures and I feel like we see them too much but the always feel like a threat. Blunt and Krasinski both do a good job and have a natural chemistry which is to be expected as they are married in real life, but the real star of the film is Millicent Simmonds as their daughter Regan who is deaf (as is Simmonds). This feeds nicely into the film as it allows them to communicate by sign language, something very useful in a world like this, and also has other ramifications later on. 8/10 Heroes Shed No Tears dir. John Woo/1986/1h33m Heroes Shed No Tears is John Woo's first proper action film and he cements his reputation for b*lls to the wall mayhem and org*es of explosions right out of the gate – although I didn't see any doves. Eddy Ko Hung stars as Chan Chung, leader of a group of Chinese mercenaries hired by the Thai government to kidnap a druglord. That's the easy part, getting out alive is the hard part, especially with an insane General (Bruce Jang Il-Sik) hunting them down. This film is relentless with hardly a few minutes passing before a shoot out or something blows up, with those gaps filled with an entertainingly dramatic narrative that veers into melodrama as Chung's wife and young son are caught up in the action. It does feel somewhat disjointed at times, with one particularly long gambling scene there just for comedic relief. Not as polished as his later works, that rough and ready vibe gives it charm, and a supporting cast of likeable characters make this a fun watch. 8/10 Firebrand dir. Karim Ainouz/2023/2h Firebrand is a historical drama about Katherine Parr (Alicia Vikander), the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII (Jude Law). Anyone paying attention in history class will recall the method for remembering the fates of his wives – divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived – so we know she doesn't meet a bloody end, so the film does an excellent job of building the tension and sense of threat in their relationship. At this point Henry is getting sicker and sicker from an infected wound in his leg and his increasing paranoia makes him a volatile character. Law does a brilliant job here, managing to go from a pathetic, weak figure to an imposing monster, often in the same scene. This may be the best performance he's ever given. Vikander is equally impressive. Her Parr is a powerful woman – she was made regent while Henry was abroad fighting – but aware that her life is always on the line. An excellent supporting cast including Eddie Marsan as Edward Seymour and Simon Russell Beale as the scheming Bishop Gardiner, and vivid period costumes and production design round out an enthralling film. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Respect dir. Benoit Forgeard/2011/14m This short film is about a man, Steph (Thibault Sauvaige) having an argument with his partner over breakfast, only that his partner is Flippy, an anthropomorphic bear mascot for a breakfast cereal. Flippy is a controlling *sshole who is physically and verbally abusive to Steph, who wants to leave to go to ninja school. There's a sense of absurdity and playfulness here that is let down by the blandness of the production. Everything about it feels flat, the direction, lighting and performances, with none of it matching the tone of the story. But there is something about the concept that piqued my interest enough to check out another of the director's films. 5/10 f*ck UK dir. Benoit Forgeard/2012/13m Another absurd short from Benoit Forgeard, f*ck UK follows the exploits of Michel (Gaspard Proust), leader of a fringe group that hates the UK and wants to wipe every trace of anything British from France. But it turns out that this is all because he's in love with an English woman, Jane (Julia Vandoorne), who he is angry at - “I am French, you are strange. I will never come to your country of sh*t”. The direction is much better here than in Respect with a nice use of montage, and this film is actually funny with some laugh out loud moments. More of a sketch than a film this also benefits from a solid performance from Proust as the surly and childishly petulant Brit hater. 7/10 10 Rillington Place dir. Richard Fleischer/1971/1h46m Based on a true story, 10 Rillington Place stars Richard Attenborough as John Christie, a softly spoken middle aged man who rents out flats at the titular address in which he also lives in late 40s London. He also happens to be a serial killer. When he rents out a flat to simple, trusting Timothy Evans (John Hurt) and his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) he finds another target, and someone to take the blame. This is a thriller that is chilling in its restraint, building up the tension masterfully. This is all down to the performance from Attenborough who manages to channel the menace he showed in Brighton Rock as an angry young man and suppress it all internally as an older man who now knows how to focus his rage. A young Hurt is also good, giving a very sympathetic performance as an innocent man in way over his head and accused of a crime he didn't commit, though he does come across as a bit too naïve at times. The film also has a epilogue that isn't really needed. Sure, it's nice to know that Christie eventually went on to face justice, but there's a much better ending place, narratively speaking, a few minutes earlier. 8.5/10 Austin Powers in Goldmember dir. Jay Roach/2002/1h34m Mike Myers is back for the final time as the swinging 60s superspy, again battling Dr. Evil (also Myers), who this time has teamed up with 70s disco kingpin Goldmember (also also Myers) to hold the world hostage. Powers is assisted by former girlfriend Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé) and his father Nigel Powers (Michael Caine). Also returning are Dr. Evil's henchmen Mini Me (Verne Troyer) and Fat b*stard (also also also Myers). Opening with a spoof of a spoof that sees Tom Cruise play Powers in a Mission Impossible rip off directed by Steven Spielberg, this is a film that knows what it is and will make any stupid joke to get a laugh, with most of them landing. The plot is basically pointless, with it being just a vehicle for Myers to play around and it's as much fun to watch as it must have been to make. Caine is hilarious as the elder Powers getting good use of his under utilised talent for comedy and Goldmember might be my favourite one dimensional character in any comedy. I also love that the ending of this comedy spoof of a Bond film was later used as an actual plot point for the actual Bond film Spectre. Not as good as the original, I'd say that this and the second film are about equal and are still a lot of fun to watch. 7/10- 2
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107HELLDIVERS 2
Galactic War update. Day 278-284 -
181Rate the Last Film you Watched 2: Electric Boogaloo
Throne of Blood (1957) dir Akira Kurosawa This is Kurosawa's version of Macbeth. It's not like the more usual Shakespearian adaptations that use the original lines, rather it's the same basic story with different lines in a different setting; medieval Japan. It's unmistakeably Macbeth right from the start as the camera pans across a misty, mysterious, highland landscape. Toshirô Mifune stars Washizu (i.e. Macbeth), initially a soldier (I guess you would say Samurai, although I am not totally sure of the correct usage of that) in the army of the local lord (i.e. King Duncan). Washizu and another soldier, Miki (i.e. Macduff), are on the way back from a victorious battle to their lord's castle. They get lost in forest and come across a spirit (equivalent of the witches) who foretells their promotion and that eventually Washizu will be the new lord but it will be Miki's son who succeeds him. They are promoted, Washizu tells his wife (Lady Macbeth, obviously) about the prophecy and it is she who encourages him on the path of deceit, betrayal and murder that will see him full-fill the rest of the prophecy but attempt to change it so that a son of his own succeeds him. One thing I did find slightly odd, and funny, is that whereas in Shakespeare's original (and the historical facts it is based on) Macbeth becomes King of Scotland, here Washizu becomes Lord of Spider's Web Castle. I am assuming that in Japanese “Spider's Web Castle” sounds more impressive than it does in English. It is very well made, of course, and the actors are good, particularly Isuzu Yamada as Lady Washizu. Like Olivier's Shakespeare adaptions it does not seem dated, and I think the Shakespearian style is what helps there. There is some very impressive cinematography, both of the landscapes and some of the castle interior scenes. One that sticks in my mind is when Lady Washizu hatches one of her plans we see her walk into another room, that is pitch black and then emerge shortly after carrying some bottles of drugged saki. The camera stays fixed for all of this, with the doorway to the dark room in the centre so it's almost like she disappears and then reappears, as if using magic. Definitely well worth watching if you are into Shakespeare or Samurai films. 9 / 10- 2
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588What was the most recent thing you bought?
Here's the last thing I bought! It's mighty expensive at $1600, but it makes a easy go of a complex operation. Set it and forget it and keep a sponge wet it's about all it takes! All it takes is a 4-day dry and a 4-day cure.
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