films we just saw

rawshark · Post by **rawshark** » Mon May 28, 2007 3:24 pm

Hey Lupogirl - glad you like Jindabyne, well worth checking out. From the director of Lantana it's well worth a watch on the big screen.

Look out for Tell No One too - out on June 15, a cracking French thriller that even Empire magazine liked!

Saw Zodiac last week (very good, I never fail to enjoy a David Fincher movie, although it was a little 'TV-like' and will probably play better on DVD).. 4/5

soulmining · Post by **soulmining** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:41 pm

Have to agree with Muffy, I felt every one of those 158 minutes of Zodiac... I know it wasn't meant to be a fast-paced thriller, but really it could have done with some trimming. Well directed of course, and some good performances - Mark Ruffalo in particular actually impressed me for the first time. Also one or two really atmospheric scenes; the pre-credits killing and the abduction of the mother and baby were excellent. But just far too long...

By contrast, the 168 minutes of POTC: At World's End passed by much quicker... Now I was one of the few people who loved Dead Man's Chest, for me it was a proper old-fashioned Summer blockbuster - sadly this third and final part of the trilogy is hugely disappointing. It's just vapid, the story arc is weak and everyone (aside from Geoffrey Rush) seems to be just going through the motions. Chow Yun Fat could have been interesting but is jettisoned far too early and the much heralded appearance of Keith Richards is just pointless. Even Johnny Depp seems to have reigned in his performance... and there's no stand out action scenes at all. Distinctly average in every way. To sum up - "meh!"

Tomorrow night - season finale of Lost, if the bad weather doesn't knock out our Sky dish again like it did on Sunday night, grrrr!

Laymonite · Post by **Laymonite** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:24 am

soulmining wrote:Tomorrow night - season finale of Lost, if the bad weather doesn't knock out our Sky dish again like it did on Sunday night, grrrr!

So what did you think of it? I thought it was excellent!

SPOILER

I feel really sorry for Jack, as he's my favourite character. And poor old Charlie, sad that he never got it together with Claire. At least he got a snog.

giles edwards · Post by **giles edwards** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:18 pm

I'm a little excited after last Friday night's big screen viewing of Howard Hawk's western Rio Bravo for the first time. This should perhaps be a GITS column, but since it's nothing like a genre picture allow me to explain here.

First off, it's just a terrific picture, so funny and laid back Strangely, it was nothing that I was expecting. I guess years of The Nest and Assault On Precinct 13 had prepped me for something a little more gung ho and less laconic. It really is one the quintessential 'hanging out' movies -- pictures where you're really just riding along with these characters while the action's going on along side you. Which I guess puts it on a par with Johnnie To's The Mission, High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle and Dazed & Confused. But that refreshment and subversion of my expectation meant I really, really dug it the most.

The whole opening is pure cinema, the gags are worthy of Kaufman & Hart and I'm still trying to get over that that's Angie Dickinson in the midst of The Duke and Deano. Oh, and I love that the ruthless bad guys are out-gunned by a smart-ass and an alcoholic and an old duffer essentially lobbing oversized cherry bombs.

Fantastic.

But more than that, the conditions in which I watched it were even more so. One of my best picture-going days ever.

I was in Cannes wth my fiancee we'd just come out op James Gray's new picture We Own The Night (fans of The Yards will be extremely happy, everyone ele will want to go and discover The Yards and Little Odessa pronto -- this new picture is like a more cerebral Copland with one of the best car chases in an age. Just really great, solid genre filmmaking.) Also, we shared the (very edge of the) red carpet with The Godfather's Tom fcuking Hagen. A good time.

But I'm rushing out of the screening because Rio Bravo is playing the Cannes Classics section in 20 mins and I don't want to miss it because I have a....suspicion.

We sit down and there're, like, 30 people in the quite small 15 row screening room. It's 10:30pm on the second last day so it's not surprise at the slow turnout.

And then Edgar Wright comes through the door.

And my suspicions are confirmed because the Cannes guy gets up on the stage an introduces some portly French dude to introduce Hawk's film along with...Quentin Tarantino. He does a good 10 minute spiel to this rather tiny, now shell-shocked, crowd including the ripe tale of how he shows the picture to any girl he likes and she'd better like it yadda yadda etc etc...and then sits himself right behind us so we got a full bore aural assault of that laugh.

I steadfastly refused to get all geeky since people were all over him as soon as the lights came back up but as a first viewing experience of a picture which I now really love (as does the fiancee), I don't think I could have asked for a better series of conditions. In fact, a friend commented to me later that, short of resurrecting the putrid corpse of Howard Hawks for a Q&A, it's perhaps the best way ever to pop a movie cherry.

I pity the rest of those pictures in my 'to watch' pile who now have to contend with the setting of that bar.

It almost made up for having to miss a Scorsese interview to go to some weird screening for work the day before.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:56 pm

I saw Candyman for the first time recently. This is a film that, according to school yard legend, could actually kill you. Whilst I'm not dead I am an hour and a half closer to it having wasted my time on this film. It's bad, not good, terrible and also poor.

I also saw Catch And Release, which was alright. Kevin Smith and Juliette Lewis were great and really raised this film up. Timothy Olyphant, who I quite like, seemed a little wasted (not drunk, he wasn't used to utilise his skills, I mean). The commentary on the DVD is bizarre (watched the one with writer/director Susan Grant and Kevin Smith) as it's heavily censored, with swearwords beeped, with exceptions which they apparently couldn't be bothered to get, meaning you are exposed to horrible offensive swearing and also horrible offensive beeping noises.

giles edwards · Post by **giles edwards** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:06 pm

Genuinely curioius -- what didn't you like about Candyman? It does for daylight what Val Lewton did for the dark.

giles edwards · Post by **giles edwards** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:06 pm

So curious, I needed to know twice!

Muffy St. John · Post by **Muffy St. John** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:02 pm

I too am curious, I really think Candyman is the very scariest movie I can think of... it screwed me up for quite awhile!

Team Banzai · Post by **Team Banzai** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:50 pm

sounds like you had a blast at the screening giles - a night to remember..

i too am interested re candyman - LOVE the music!

maybe it hasn't stood the test of time as i haven't seen it in yeeears

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Wed May 30, 2007 8:00 pm

I saw Candyman on November 19th 1992 at a London Film Festival screening at the Odeon West End 2. Seriously scary stuff.

Director Bernard Rose (yes, incredibly, the genius behind Snuff Movie!) came on stage to introduce it. He produced a mirror and said "Anyone wants to come up here and say Candyman five times into this mirror, I'll give them £10."

Someone did indeed come out of the audience, Rose gave him the mirror, he said Candyman five times. Rose gave him the £10, round of applause, and the movie started.

When it was over, Rose came back, and after the applause he produced the mirror and said "Anyone wants to come up here and say Candyman five times into this mirror, I'll give them £50."

Nobody moved.

The only movie I've seen this week was the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair from 1968 and really it should have stayed there as it's so much a product of its time. I don't mind splitscreen in something like a Brian DePalma movie but here, 39 years on, it feels like messing about with the image for the sake of it. And the jazz score is just horrible, including the vocal Windmills Of Your Mind. The Pierce Brosnan remake nailed it so much better.

ghouldrool · Post by **ghouldrool** » Wed May 30, 2007 8:18 pm

the film version of Candyman doesnt come anywhere near the high quality of The Forbidden the original story its based on. now THAT would have made a very creepy movie..they better not mess up the Midnight Meat Train.

Candyman does indeed not stand the test of time as i thought it was brilliant a decade and a half ago but that was before i read the original story. Also the first time i watched it after buying the special edition dvd i was taken aback at how sloooow it was, how bland the performances were and the padding! plus that stupid stupid epilogue - that said its been 3 years or so since i last watched it so i guess ill avoid Big Brother by watching it again

its saving grace is Tony Todd, that Glass score and its overall sense of impending doom-the hopelessness of life in the slums very well translated from the manchester set short story. In this respect it must have had some influence on the Hideo film version of Ringu as i always felt a Candyman vibe there.... a vibe made even stronger once i read the original Ringu novel and saw how they changed it for the screen.

EDIT: rewatched The Mummy. Now THAT is how to make a summer blockbuster. Wit, fun, adventure, great score, endearing characters and a great pace

EDIT EDIT: urgh... nope Candyman still not standing the test of time

Team Banzai · Post by **Team Banzai** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:02 pm

awash with screeners galore -which i can't post about of course

hence no recent "just seen" postings

but it's my annual - film feels like you've been punched in the stomach moment!

(a la last years THE LOST)

more details to follow but this is a def find and 1 for inclusion this year

we are nearly through all the features and then on to tackle the approx 6 foot stack of shorts - i really hope there are some crackers in there (for mine and ian's sanity at least!)

thesavageintruder · Post by **thesavageintruder** » Thu May 31, 2007 9:31 pm

Great story, streetrw, about the screening of CANDYMAN. Although i will do most things for £50, you wouldn't have got me on that stage after seeing that movie for the first time. I remember watching it on video aged about 14 and being totally freaked out around mirrors for days after...Having watched it relatively recently i think it really stands up well. I like that it's more sedately paced than the genre movies around at the moment, it really emphasises the shock moments when they arrive. I think Virginia Madsen is superb in it (nice to see her getting some half-decent work in the past few years) and i love Xander Berkely as her cheating husband. The Philip Glass score fits the movie's sense of despair and doom so well...its a modern classic!

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:53 am

It seems I have explaining to do, although I agree with Ghouldrool on a lot of his points which gives me the freedom of flippancy, so thank you.

It didn't hit at all for me. It could be because I'm not at all superstitious and so the idea of someone coming out of a mirror at me tickles my funny bone more than strikes me with fear. The handling of the visits to the 'hood' seemed a little ham-fisted, but I'll come back to that in a moment. I understand a lot of people having formed a relationship with this film in impressionable years, but I don't have that and to me it just seemed dated and themed around actualising a fear that I don't have. Never mind. The only thing I enjoyed was the ambiguityof whether she was actually seeing the Candyman of whether she was a sh*t-smearing mental. But then to really enjoy that you have to pretend that the doctor wasn't killed when she was strapped to her chair.

As a brief footnote, saw Miami Vice. I don't know whetehr Michael Mann shoots on something to make it look like digital or whether he shoots on digital but this looked a bit like a $100m student film. For such a beautiful cast this film was quite ugly. And a little dull.

But back to Candyman. There were some elements to this film that could be considered a little racist. The white upper-middleclass people who are bored and so bring the evil black element into society and suddenly everyone has a bad time(masses of violent crime). Also, the rich white people having to save the poor black people from their oppressor(the Candyman). I'm not saying this was the intention but there's a case that these things occur in the film. Any thoughts?

Reanimator · Post by **Reanimator** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:29 pm

I saw Miami Vice as well on DVD earlier this week. I have to agree with Matt - it was disappointing for a Michael Mann film

Also saw The Woods (mainly because Bruce Campbell is in it albeit in a small role) - starts off pretty well and loses the way a bit towards the end but all-in-all worth watching and only about 85 minutes long