What We Watched 10th - 17th

We brothers are, in case you hadn’t guessed, firm film fans. Our brains are always debating what film best describes the situation we’re in at that moment, our Love Film accounts are always buzzing with new, exciting films, whenever we meet up we find ourselves spending 85% of our time discussing all matters film. We are, as a drunk man in Wetherspoons once pointed out, geeks, massive film geeks. Now as you can imagine being fans of film we spend a great deal of our time watching film after film after film after film, so we decided to begin a section covering what we have watched this week (I suggested the name “Our Week in Film” but Joe’s nose was firmly turned up at this suggestion) so welcome to this new Cinemazov section. Covering Joe and I’s film watching lives this week. That’s the 10^th to the 17^th by the way.

ENJOY!

SAM

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

This film is one of the last films renowned Swedish director Ingmar Bergman ever made and it covers all of the themes and motifs Bergman loved and utilised throughout his illustrious career. It tells the tale of the theatrical Ekdahl family and how they cope with life, love, death, theatre and religion. It’s time frame is epic and it sometimes feels as long as his entire back catalogue put together. Covering 4 episodes and clocking in at over 5 hours long F&A occasionally feels like a bit of an endurance test however it is worth sticking with, Bergman’s finger prints are littered all over this sumptuous saga and a must for any fan of Ingmar’s.

Carnage (2011)

Absolutely sublime anarchic fun. It was such a joy to see 4 brilliant actors quite clearly having such a fun time and generally arsing around in splendid style. Thoroughly enjoyable and the perfect antidote to the heavy going nature of F&A.

Team America: World Police (2004)

It may sound a bit melodramatic for a film of this nature but it is a truly admirable feat that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to abandon longevity and instead opt to make a film that serves to parody such a specific time and place. Aping perfectly America’s reaction to 9/11 it is a sublime mockery of a time and place we all remember so well, and done with puppets. That being said it totally stands up and is as funny and enjoyable as it was back in the day.

Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Talladega Nights starts out so strong. The excellent , hilarious and frigging awesome origin story from little lad with a need for speed to America’s greatest Nascar driver ever of Ricky Bobby is consistently hilarious, clever and a damn joy to watch. The dinner table scene alone with the ruminations of the looks of Jesus Christ to how Bobby’s kids are going to teach Chip a lesson is a lesson in awesome contemporary comedy. Then however I feel it slips off, the middle is a bit of a dud I feel it tails off and whilst it has moments of humour it never picks back up to the levels it begins with. Alas. That being said Joe says its well better than Anchorman as does my housemate so…

The Muppets (2011)

Amazing Amazing Lemon Amazing. Read my review for specificities on its amazingness. The montage Rowlfe joke still makes me giggle just thinking about it.  

Harold and Maude (1971)

I’ve heard a lot said about this film and was a touch concerned that it wouldn’t live up to these high expectations I had. However I need not have worried it is an absolutely brilliant film, a bona fide cult classic. The faux suicide attempts are so damn funny it hurts me, for an idea so dark and potentially tasteless to be handled with such humour and levity is a testament to this film’s greatness in of itself. Brilliant. So good in fact, as soon as I finished watching it I added it to my Amazon wish list. That’s a sign of a good film.

A Bay of Blood (1971)

Why? Why oh why? WHY!? Why is it that the video nasty horror films with the best gruesome names always the ones that are so pants? Driller Killer, Cannibal Holocaust and now A Bay of Blood, all promise so much but deliver so little. Boring, poorly shot, overlong (despite being consistently less than 90 minutes) and with utter pants violence and gore. A Bay of Blood’s story is confusing and hard to follow, poorly acted and cram full of naff horror, no tension and crap acting. What I needed to lift me out of this crap horror funk was a really good horror film…

KILL LIST (2011)

That’s right. My favourite film of 2011 and easily one of the best horror films produced in years. It’s tense, scary, funny, gloriously gory and frigging awesome. Admittedly transposing it from the intense setting of a dark, full, loud cinema to the small, light, quiet, slightly naff setting off my living room did remove some of its original impact but not much. It was still brilliant. Utterly top drawer.

Bombay Beach (2011)

Half way through Alma Har’el’s debut feature documentary Bombay Beach I had a moment of bizarre clarity, without really realising it it dawned on me that this film was absolutely amazing. Review Forthcoming

JOE

Ratcatcher

Lynne Ramsey's first film is exactly like her short films; bleak, Scottish and sad. It's interesting but really does feel like a collection of short films (it was originally intended as 20 short films that all would tie together). It all pays off in the end though and it's always referring back to the pivotal moment to inspire some thought. It also looks pretty awesome. 3.5 Stars.

Morvern Callar

Ramsey's second film is awesome. The story and lead character are incredibly interesting and occasionally challenging. Movern is a confusing lead that's not exactly a likable person but at the same time we tend to sympathize with her. She's very interesting to watch and as we try to figure out whats going on in her head we want her to do stranger and stranger things so we get an even greater understanding. Character pieces tend to be the kind of films that aren't very good but star Meryl Streep or Morgan Freeman giving a stellar performance. This is instead a great actress showing off what a great director Ramsey is and what a brilliant screenwriter she is too. 4 and a bit stars.

The Devil's Backbone

It’s a great film sure, and a billion and twelve times better than your average ghost story but I think I still prefer Cronos. Very almost 4 stars.

Gnomeo & Juliet

It’s a little bit better than I thought it would be but essentially it’s unrelentingly naff. The Elton John music was so dumb though, I mean most of it made no sense at all. 2 and a half.

Sleeping Beauty (2011)

It was so cold and numb that it never feels graphic just terribly depressing. I also loved that it was the male side of this creepy sex industry, you even end up feeling bad for the bald creepy guy. Beautiful. 4 Stars.

Alien

If you haven’t seen the original classic then now is the time, Prometheus is right around the corner and this film is only ever brilliant.  4 Stars.

Hausu

I can’t say anything about this film other than you really need to see it to understand why it’s so awesome. For best results see it with some like minded comedy horror films, I watched it on Valentine’s day with my girlfriend.....winner. 5 Stars.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (Music by Air)

Not a feature just a short film but I wanted to mention it for the brilliant music. Buy the amazon download with the film attached. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voyage-Dans-Lune-Video/dp/B00745Y0KU/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk 5 Stars.

Captain America: The First Avenger

It’s fine and in no way diminished my excitement for the upcoming Avengers movie but it’s just a generic action film with a terribly bland villain. A bit less than 3 stars.

Tyrannosaur

Three great performances and some great writing but beyond that it’s not as compelling as it’d like to think, if it were not for the ending this film would forecast a promising future for Paddy Considine with it however it manages to save itself from being a generic Ken Loach spin off and become somewhat interesting. 3 and a bit stars.

Origins: Spirits of the Past

As I’m yet to see Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind I can’t say whether this adds anything to the formula, I’ll get back to you on that, other than that it looks awesome and it’s hella cool for the most part. 3 Stars going on 4.

Attack The Block

The monster design gets a billion thumbs up and the conversations between the kids is actually believable rather than that usual mixture of obvious jokes from a writer that’s never seen a mid teen in the flesh. But it sticks to it’s plot line as rigidly as you can imagine and when they say “Inner city vs outer space” that’s exactly what it is, nothing more, nothing less. 3 stars easily.

Told you it was a lot.