Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

[George Owen]

The Village
Village sends blind girl into forest to find life saving anti-biotics.
0/10

Hands down the worse movie I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly trying to do a meta commentary on life, fear, state control and power blah blah blah.

But one more time… They sent a blind girl with no concept of life outside of her own village or what a pharmacy is… into the woods to find anti biotics. Get in the Fcuking bin.

Had forgotten about this movie.

 

[Wibble]

Space Sweepers. Wikipedia calls it a 'space western', and that's pretty accurate. It's a South Korean film set in the future, where the Earth has become a poisonous hell to live in, the rich are living in a kind of Eden floating in orbit, and space sweepers are a kind of cowboys flying through orbit in their space ships, gathering the valuable trash floating around there. There is a lot more that could be added here, as they create quite the backstory and context for a single film; but you'll just have to watch the film for all that. As for the story, one group of space sweepers finds a child that's of particular value for the world, and then has to fight off the owner of a the company that basically owns everything to save everyone.

This was a lot of fun. The world they create is interesting (nothing new, but well done), the main characters are cool, the action keeps going at a nice pace, and there is a lot of good humor. The action can get confusion when there are ships racing and shooting at each other, but that's not too distracting. All in all, nothing deep, but just a really fun ride that I thought was well worth my time (2h16).

Two other things I thought interesting: it's a South Korean film, but it's not all in Korean. People speak their own languages, which is Korean for the crew, mostly English at the company, and then lots of other languages (English, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, Danish, and I'm probably forgetting some) for other characters they encounter. This is not a problem in the story, as everyone has a translator device attached to their ears; and I thought it was great for the feel of the film. Much better than the typical film where everyone just speaks the film's language - like Russian gangsters speaking broken English while having a chat together. I suppose this makes no difference for people watching dubbed versions, and maybe multilingual films are rare because most people don't like subtitles; but I thought this was a good element of the film.

Also, the films looks absolutely great, while Wikipedia says it cost 'only' just over US$20M to make. Maybe it's cheaper to make movies in Korea, and I suppose the actors' salaries were more modest than in your typical Hollywood blockbuster; but it does again raise the question for me why those Hollywood blockbusters are so insanely expensive now. For example, a quick check of recent Marvel movies (Phase 4 MCU ones) shows they all cost US$150-200M to create. Even if those budget estimates are incomplete in different ways, that's a factor 10 difference for no higher quality in appearance or anything. (In fact, this film was a lot richer in substance than most Marvel movies.) That's insane!

Rating? Richer in substance than Marvel means 2/10 or more to me. Sounds like you enjoyed it so 6/10 or higher?

 

[Cheimoon]

Rating? Richer in substance than Marvel means 2/10 or more to me. Sounds like you enjoyed it so 6/10 or higher?

Uhm... You know how hard I find it to rate films, but among comparable movies (action blockbusters, kinda), I suppose it's 8/10. Maybe.

 

[Wibble]

Uhm... You know how hard I find it to rate films, but among comparable movies (action blockbusters, kinda), I suppose it's 8/10. Maybe.

Thanks

 

[TheReligion]

Anyone seen ‘Dragged Across Concrete’ with Vince Vaughan and Mel Gibson?

Has good reviews and tempted to watch it later. Currently on Sky Cinema.

Some of the big hitters here must have?

 

[Cheimoon]

Anna. I see there a lot of films called Anna out there, but this is the 2019 one by Luc Besson. It's about a young Russian woman stuck in life, who gets into the KGB and then needs to find a way to get out alive. That's a bit more info than you get from the trailer or Netflix (where I watched it), but I thought it's useful information, since the trailer made me think this was another one of those slick superspy films - which it really isn't. It's rather a kind of mystery thriller.

It's fairly OK as such. Its thing is to show a section of the film that leads to a surprising ending, and then jump a couple of months (or years) back in time to show what happened ahead of the previous section and thus explain why it played out like that. It's not a bad mechanism, but it's a bit confusing: we start in 1986, then we jump to 1991, then back to 1988 (I think), then forward to a few months after the previous bit in 1991, and so on and so forth. It also happens too often, and Besson is too eager to explain everything - while most of it is fairly obvious before too long; much shorter, fragmented recaps probably would have worked better. So the mystery bit doesn't work very well, but the story and action did keep me interested for the full length of the movie. There are a couple of nice shootouts and the typical spy complications of the plot are well done.

All in all, a mix of genres and a mixed bag of a film. For a spy thriller, I might give it a Wibble rating of 6/10 or 7/10.

(I don't know how big I hit, but I don't know that film, @TheReligion.)

 

[TheReligion]

I thought you would be able to give me a review @Cheimoon

 

[Dirty Schwein]

The Village
Village sends blind girl into forest to find life saving anti-biotics.
0/10

Hands down the worse movie I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly trying to do a meta commentary on life, fear, state control and power blah blah blah.

But one more time… They sent a blind girl with no concept of life outside of her own village or what a pharmacy is… into the woods to find anti biotics. Get in the Fcuking bin.

 

[AaronRedDevil]

Nightmare Alley

What an absolute waste of money and 2 and a half hours of that shite. 0/10.

Finch

Beautiful movie. It’s basically Tom Hanks in an apocalypse. Its very like Cast Away. He’s an mechanical engineer or something like that and He Makes a robot to look after his dog if anything ever happens to him. they journey across America to reach a safer place to wait to escape an on coming storm. The robot was hilarious. Definetly recommend it. I enjoyed it very much. 8/10

 

[Cheimoon]

I thought you would be able to give me a review @Cheimoon

Well, you know my style - just imagine something friendly I'd say about it.

 

[Andy_Cole]

The Village
Village sends blind girl into forest to find life saving anti-biotics.
0/10

Hands down the worse movie I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly trying to do a meta commentary on life, fear, state control and power blah blah blah.

But one more time… They sent a blind girl with no concept of life outside of her own village or what a pharmacy is… into the woods to find anti biotics. Get in the Fcuking bin.

It’s been so long since I’ve watched this. Was that actually the premise haha.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

It’s been so long since I’ve watched this. Was that actually the premise haha.

There’s a story there. It’s a solid wrapper.

But 30 mins of the movie is a blind girl in the woods in pursuit of a pharmacy, despite not knowing what one is.

It’s an abomination.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Shallow Hal
Fcuking hell it’s offensive. Genuinely amazed that two Hollywood stars signed on for it to be done that badly.
20 years Ago I giggled at others expense. Disfigured kids, overweight or ugly women… I was a douche. But it’s re-release and a rewatch has blown me away. the premise is sound but the execution is offensive.
4/10

 

[Sweet Square]

Shallow Hal
Fcuking hell it’s offensive. Genuinely amazed that two Hollywood stars signed on for it to be done that badly.
20 years Ago I giggled at others expense. Disfigured kids, overweight or ugly women… I was a douche. But it’s re-release and a rewatch has blown me away. the premise is sound but the execution is offensive.
4/10

The only way I can make sense of it is down to the fact the early 2000's was just a awful time for almost everything. It's kinda of amazing looking back at some the shite that was put out(Jerry Springer, wrestling, blackface SNL sketches, etc).

Imo Louie something way better and more interesting with the idea

.

 

[Wibble]

Shallow Hal
Fcuking hell it’s offensive. Genuinely amazed that two Hollywood stars signed on for it to be done that badly.
20 years Ago I giggled at others expense. Disfigured kids, overweight or ugly women… I was a douche. But it’s re-release and a rewatch has blown me away. the premise is sound but the execution is offensive.
4/10

I remember watching it when it came out primarily because There is Something about Mary was so good and utterly hating it primarily because the things you mentioned made it very unfunny. Hardly surprising when you look at their output since TISAM which has been universally terrible.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

Nightmare Alley

What an absolute waste of money and 2 and a half hours of that shite. 0/10.

0?

No one should listen to this guy

 

[AaronRedDevil]

0?

No one should listen to this guy

It was boring and I didn't care for the movie. didn't even like the circus part and sadly that was the more interesting part of the movie. Great cast, completely wasted.

 

[Moriarty]

Finally got around to opening my box set of 'The Sleepy Eyes of Death' starring Raizo Ichikawa as the anti-hero, Nemuri Kyoshiro. The first film in the series is 'The Chinese Jade' and co-stars Tomisaburo Wakayama as Chen Sun, master of Chinese boxing. It's probably the least interesting film because Kyoshiro is depicted as a somewhat benign figure, although we get a glimpse of his hatred of religion, his barely-concealed misanthropy and his mastery of the full-moon sword technique. Kyoshiro even shows some emotion for the doomed Chisa, especially after he gains possession of the title object. The series gets darker as it goes along and the history of the 'Son of the Black Mass' is revealed, but this is a good intro for anyone new to the genre.

 

[Salt Bailly]

I remember watching it when it came out primarily because There is Something about Mary was so good and utterly hating it primarily because the things you mentioned made it very unfunny. Hardly surprising when you look at their output since TISAM which has been universally terrible.

*There's.

Are we talking about the M. Night Village? Thought it was decent back in the day.

Couple of creepy scenes too.

 

[Wibble]

*There's.

Are we talking about the M. Night Village? Thought it was decent back in the day.

Couple of creepy scenes too.

In reply to a post about Shallow Hal.

The Village was utter garbage at the time like everything he has made after The Sixth Sense.

 

[Cheimoon]

In reply to a post about Shallow Hal.

The Village was utter garbage at the time like everything he has made after The Sixth Sense.

I thought Unbreakable was fun. I also thought Signs and The Village both started OK before they turned to shut in the second half of so. (I don't remember exactly where it started going downhill in each film.) I haven't been interested in anything he made after that though.

 

[Salt Bailly]

In reply to a post about Shallow Hal.

The Village was utter garbage at the time like everything he has made after The Sixth Sense.

Not a fan of Split?

 

[hungrywing]

In the Heights (2021) 8.0/10

Pretty well done.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

It was boring and I didn't care for the movie. didn't even like the circus part and sadly that was the more interesting part of the movie. Great cast, completely wasted.

I couldn't disagree more. It was a brilliant noir film, a great adaptation from a classic novel, filled characters making choices that have real consequences (sorely missing in all the Marvel fantasy stuff out there).

But different strokes. Of course, everyone prefers different types of movies but based on you giving it a 0 (no way even someone that doesn't like that can give it a zero with how well it's acted and the attention to detail in cinematography) and your description of Finch as a post-apocalyptic Castaway (sound so cliche and derivative), I'd probably think that's a boring movie myself.

 

[Wibble]

Not a fan of Split?

No. I hated it. A better film that the other 2 in the trilogy in many ways but the use of child physical/sexual abuse as a plot device was a terrible choice imo.

And the multiple personality thing was ludicrous even if Patterson did a better than could be expected job with the ropey material.

 

[Sky1981]

Don't Look Up. Pretty good but not altogether successful as a film, I thought. The first hour+ is very strong. I was laughing a lot at the way they bring up all the stupid stuff that happens around science and politics, and the film is worth it just for that first half.

After that time, however, I found it got a bit stale. It's more or less when the comet first becomes visible, so they do introduce that new element and its follow-ups at the right time. But what follows are a lot of big rallies and demos and so on, and that's nothing new or different - they basically didn't have to film any of it, and could have just altered shots from Trump rallies and similar events. And it's not great satire if it's not funnier or weirder than reality. I was also rather underwhelmed by the ending: for a film that's all about clever black humor, the simple technological failure (it wouldn't happen so dumbly) and sentimental finale seemed off. I also though the affair between the professor and the tv host was a distraction: it isn't very poignant and is anyway only partly related to the rest of the film.

So it was a bit uneven to me, but mostly a fun watch. (I'm saying this as someone who is already very cynical about the climate change debate and the general dynamics of politics and the media, so this wasn't a hard-hitting film for me, just a fun way to express that cynicism.) I'm amazed this apparently cost $75M to make though (according to Wikipedia). Films have really become bottomless pits; make the director (Adam McKay) work with half that budget, and the film's success as a pitch-black satire wouldn't be any less for it. (Although I see his The Big Short also supposedly cost $50M. Damn!)

It's not funny because with trump It's actually stop being a satire. 100% believeable

 

[Wibble]

Don't Look Up. Pretty good but not altogether successful as a film, I thought. The first hour+ is very strong. I was laughing a lot at the way they bring up all the stupid stuff that happens around science and politics, and the film is worth it just for that first half.

After that time, however, I found it got a bit stale. It's more or less when the comet first becomes visible, so they do introduce that new element and its follow-ups at the right time. But what follows are a lot of big rallies and demos and so on, and that's nothing new or different - they basically didn't have to film any of it, and could have just altered shots from Trump rallies and similar events. And it's not great satire if it's not funnier or weirder than reality. I was also rather underwhelmed by the ending: for a film that's all about clever black humor, the simple technological failure (it wouldn't happen so dumbly) and sentimental finale seemed off. I also though the affair between the professor and the tv host was a distraction: it isn't very poignant and is anyway only partly related to the rest of the film.

So it was a bit uneven to me, but mostly a fun watch. (I'm saying this as someone who is already very cynical about the climate change debate and the general dynamics of politics and the media, so this wasn't a hard-hitting film for me, just a fun way to express that cynicism.) I'm amazed this apparently cost $75M to make though (according to Wikipedia). Films have really become bottomless pits; make the director (Adam McKay) work with half that budget, and the film's success as a pitch-black satire wouldn't be any less for it. (Although I see his The Big Short also supposedly cost $50M. Damn!)

I'd largely agree. It needed to be darker, edgier, and more than anything funnier imo. The post-Trump world does make satire harder and harder though.

As for the cost I'd say the vast majority of that went on salaries given the cast.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

In reply to a post about Shallow Hal.

The Village was utter garbage at the time like everything he has made after The Sixth Sense.

Split is fine and Unbreakable is better than Sixth Sense (and is one of the best superhero films).

 

[Dirty Schwein]

*There's.

Are we talking about the M. Night Village? Thought it was decent back in the day.

Couple of creepy scenes too.

I thought Unbreakable was fun. I also thought Signs and The Village both started OK before they turned to shut in the second half of so. (I don't remember exactly where it started going downhill in each film.) I haven't been interested in anything he made after that though.

This is M. Knight's biggest issue (aside from the tumescent dialogue). His concepts are good but the after the setup, he struggles to see them through. If the twist ending doesn't land, his films fall apart.

 

[Wibble]

Split is fine and Unbreakable is better than Sixth Sense (and is one of the best superhero films).

I hated unbreakable. Utterly ludicrous plot.

 

[JohnZSmith27]

I couldn't disagree more. It was a brilliant noir film, a great adaptation from a classic novel, filled characters making choices that have real consequences (sorely missing in all the Marvel fantasy stuff out there).

But different strokes. Of course, everyone prefers different types of movies but based on you giving it a 0 (no way even someone that doesn't like that can give it a zero with how well it's acted and the attention to detail in cinematography) and your description of Finch as a post-apocalyptic Castaway (sound so cliche and derivative), I'd probably think that's a boring movie myself.

I'm with you, I loved Nightmare Alley. Saw it last night. The set design and costumes are incredible. I must read the novel.

 

[Bilbo]

The Village
Village sends blind girl into forest to find life saving anti-biotics.
0/10

Hands down the worse movie I’ve ever seen. It’s clearly trying to do a meta commentary on life, fear, state control and power blah blah blah.

But one more time… They sent a blind girl with no concept of life outside of her own village or what a pharmacy is… into the woods to find anti biotics. Get in the Fcuking bin.

Its been a decade or more since I saw this, but wasn't the whole point of sending the blind girl that she wasn't able to see that they were living in modern times?

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Its been a decade or more since I saw this, but wasn't the whole point of sending the blind girl that she wasn't able to see that they were living in modern times?

Yes and no.

Option 1
Any of the 15 people that knew the truth could have ambled through the woods, grabbed some penicillin and got back home before dinner.

Option 2
Send a blind girl. With not a single idea of what a pharmacy is. It would have been a challenge to send her into the woods to bring back firewood. Telling her to look for anti biotics…. It’s just impossible.

 

[Bilbo]

Yes and no.

Option 1
Any of the 15 people that knew the truth could have ambled through the woods, grabbed some penicillin and got back home before dinner.

Option 2
Send a blind girl. With not a single idea of what a pharmacy is. It would have been a challenge to send her into the woods to bring back firewood. Telling her to look for anti biotics…. It’s just impossible.

Hmm - hard to argue against Option 1 being a better decision.

Shyamalan is an odd case. Comes out with a genuine wow twist movie in the sixth sense. Huge star, new wonderkid director etc etc. Clearly knows how to frame a shot and build some tension, but decides to hamstring his entire career by being the 'twist' guy, when he could probably have had a very solid career as just a 'good movie' guy. Have to say I loved Unbreakable and really enjoyed Split, but most of the rest is laughable stuff.

 

[Cheimoon]

As for the cost I'd say the vast majority of that went on salaries given the cast.

Yeah, true; but it's not as if the film needs all these stars to make its point. Not even for marketing do you need all of them. And there were a lot visual effects as well, which appear to be expensive. (Why else are Marvel films this expensive? Not a lot of star there usually.)

Anyway, these budgets have become a pet peeve of mine. So much money that didn't have to be spent to achieve at least as good a result. But then I guess they anyway wouldn't spend the leftover budget on more daring films, or donate it to social programs in L.A.

Its been a decade or more since I saw this, but wasn't the whole point of sending the blind girl that she wasn't able to see that they were living in modern times?

Yes and no.

Option 1
Any of the 15 people that knew the truth could have ambled through the woods, grabbed some penicillin and got back home before dinner.

Option 2
Send a blind girl. With not a single idea of what a pharmacy is. It would have been a challenge to send her into the woods to bring back firewood. Telling her to look for anti biotics…. It’s just impossible.

You guys should probably spoiler this, it gives away everything...

 

[MrMarcello]

No. I hated it. A better film that the other 2 in the trilogy in many ways but the use of child physical/sexual abuse as a plot device was a terrible choice imo.

And the multiple personality thing was ludicrous even if Patterson did a better than could be expected job with the ropey material.

Thoughts on Identity?

Been a while since I viewed the film but seem to recall it was a multiple personality plot, or dissociative identity perhaps.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Hmm - hard to argue against Option 1 being a better decision.

Shyamalan is an odd case. Comes out with a genuine wow twist movie in the sixth sense. Huge star, new wonderkid director etc etc. Clearly knows how to frame a shot and build some tension, but decides to hamstring his entire career by being the 'twist' guy, when he could probably have had a very solid career as just a 'good movie' guy. Have to say I loved Unbreakable and really enjoyed Split, but most of the rest is laughable stuff.

Yeah, he was never able to best Sixth Sense and the twist that the guy was Bruce Willis the whole time.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Hmm - hard to argue against Option 1 being a better decision.

Shyamalan is an odd case. Comes out with a genuine wow twist movie in the sixth sense. Huge star, new wonderkid director etc etc. Clearly knows how to frame a shot and build some tension, but decides to hamstring his entire career by being the 'twist' guy, when he could probably have had a very solid career as just a 'good movie' guy. Have to say I loved Unbreakable and really enjoyed Split, but most of the rest is laughable stuff.

Best twist of his catalogue is in The Visit. Another imperfect movie but the phone call scene is harrowing. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up just thinking about it.

 

[Wibble]

Thoughts on Identity?

Been a while since I viewed the film but seem to recall it was a multiple personality plot, or dissociative identity perhaps.

I either haven't seen it or I've forgotten it if I have I'm afraid.

 

[Oldyella]

Ad Astra

This is right up my wheel house, a long slow Sci-fi movie with lovely shots and a great soundtrack. Brad Pitt is always a watchable performer too.

9/10 personally but I can imagine it's an easy movie to hate.