Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

sullydnl

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Aside from everything else, just let Aisling Bea speak in her normal accent rather than put on a bad English one.
 

The Corinthian

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Incendies. Another Villeneuve film, from before he went to Hollywood, and this ons is really good. His usual type of great shots and camerawork, combined with great acting and, this time, a story that really works.

To their surprise, twins find out when their mother dies that they have a brother and that their dad is still alive, and that they have to go from their home in Canada to Lebanon (not identified as such, but clearly Lebanon), where their mum grew up and they were born, to find them back. In what unfolds, they learn a lot about their mother's life and the drama of civil war.

The story's details were a little confusing sometimes (well, for me; it was super clear to my wife!), but it is very well developed and the drama is very impactful. I'd really recommend this one.
I watched this ages ago and remember thinking how sad and tragic it was. Phenomenal acting from Lubna Azabal (the main girl) in it aswell.
 

Cheimoon

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Uncut Gems. I know it's supposed to be brilliant, all the critics loved it, most people on here as well, but I'm with @Wibble I'm afraid:
I really liked JoJo Rabbit but turned Uncut Gems off after about 30/40 mins - I hated them all and had no interest in what happened to any of them.
OK, I did actually finish the film, and I can see why people think it's well made: it's a complex story with a ton of characters that's carried successfully all the way to its end, without getting too confusing, and while maintaining its general tone and frantic pace throughout - there aren't really any bits where it falls flat. Many scenes are also a loud mess that somehow make sense anyway. So yes, I can see the skill in that - but it's really hard to appreciate a film if it's a parade of irritating characters and a story I can't care about.

To add to my complaining: also didn't really see what was so good about Sandler in here. It's not that he is bad, but it's just a more dramatic and serious (and more shouty!) version of his usual roles; it's not like there is a lot of depth, emotion, or development in his character. I mean, the character is a relentless optimist, everything he does is lies, he is exactly the same at the end as he was at the start! Further, I read in a couple of places that this was a dark comedy (at least in places), but I couldn't really see much humor at all. Finally, while I loved the sound of the soundtrack (@Sweet Square), I have no idea what it's doing here. I can go with all kinds of soundtracks, but I felt this one didn't fit this particular film. (Also: Gigi D'Agostino over the end titles? Really? Aarrgh!)

So no, not for me. Sorry.
I saw some were shocked at the ending, but doesn't it make sense that Howard does not make it through? He is an idiot and an a-hole, who locks up the people that have been threatening them throughout at what should have their moment of reconciliation. Yes, he manages to make things even better through that final, insane bet - but there was no way they would just get out and take the money - not even if it were all the money, much more than they were owed. It's quite brutal how Howard is suddenly shot, of course, but he was always going to meet a tragic end. He had to.
Halfway there though, @Rooney in Paris! Really looking forward to Good Times now. ;)
 
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Jippy

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Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

Part of Park Chan-Wook's vengeance trilogy, but less feted than Old Boy, it's about a deaf guy whose sister needs a kidney transplant. Him and his girlfriend's dumb kidnapping plan to raise the cash goes badly wrong and sparks a wave of violent revenge.
It's an odd film, very low key, with zero background music and minimal dialogue, almost giving it a documentary or fly on the wall quality at times. The violence is quite extreme in parts too and the film blurs the boundaries of who you're supposed to be rooting for. It's worth watching and there are a few of the top Korean actors in it, eg Kang-ho Song from Parasite and Bae Doona from Cloud Atlas.

6.5/10
 

Hectic

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I bought this jacket once, then went on holiday to NYC with a friend who had also bought the jacket.

We were walking through Manhattan one night at approx 2am and my friend was in his Drive jacket, it was dead for the most part, and these two guys randomly approached us on a street corner... As they approached we slowly realised that one of them was wearing the very same coat :annoyed:

He and my friend embraced then we went our merry ways.

As you can imagine, our collective minds were blown.
I can't believe you've so casually admitted this.
 

OleBoiii

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Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

Part of Park Chan-Wook's vengeance trilogy, but less feted than Old Boy, it's about a deaf guy whose sister needs a kidney transplant. Him and his girlfriend's dumb kidnapping plan to raise the cash goes badly wrong and sparks a wave of violent revenge.
It's an odd film, very low key, with zero background music and minimal dialogue, almost giving it a documentary or fly on the wall quality at times. The violence is quite extreme in parts too and the film blurs the boundaries of who you're supposed to be rooting for. It's worth watching and there are a few of the top Korean actors in it, eg Kang-ho Song from Parasite and Bae Doona from Cloud Atlas.

6.5/10
Definitely one of the darkest films I've seen. It's Oldboy on steroids, but not nearly as good.

Still better than most films, though. I agree that it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
 

Jippy

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Definitely one of the darkest films I've seen. It's Oldboy on steroids, but not nearly as good.

Still better than most films, though. I agree that it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
Yeah it's not nearly as engrossing as Old Boy, but is interesting from a stylistic point of view.
 

Jippy

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Ichi the Killer is better than both.
Funnily enough, I've got three dvds I need to watch so I can ditch them before I move and Ichi is one, along with Brazil and Vampyros Lesbos. I saw it about 15 years ago and can't remember much apart from him booting over some kid.
 

Sweet Square

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The only person who should wear that jacket is Driver.

It's one of those pieces.
Tbh Gosling character couldn't of pick a worse jacket to wear for robbing banks. I watched the 1978 version not to long ago and while it isn't as good, it did hold up pretty well.


I had to watch this a few times before I enjoyed it.
Yeah this was second time I've watched it all the way through. It's a really strange one as imo it has really good peaks and then can massively drop off in parts. Middle aged divorced doctor Tom Atkins is such a bizarre choice for leading man(Plus the fact every woman wants to sleep with him) and near the end one of the main characters just killed off screen. Tbh without knowing the twist the first half of the film just comes across as a bit rubbish terrible

Yet with all of that I still really like it. It's a bit like a christmas movie but for halloween. The countdown to halloween with the very annoying but catchy adver, the Irish villain is as a evil Terry Wogan and just the overall atmosphere was great. Also to end on John Carpenter Tom Atkins screaming and begging to stop making more halloween movies is a great way to end a horror film.



Easily getting my vote for post of the year. Amazing.
 

Spoony

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Funnily enough, I've got three dvds I need to watch so I can ditch them before I move and Ichi is one, along with Brazil and Vampyros Lesbos. I saw it about 15 years ago and can't remember much apart from him booting over some kid.

Brazil is a masterpiece. I hope you like them both (not seen Vamoyros...). Ichi is like an anime but with real people and isn't up its own arse like Oldboy.
 

Salt Bailly

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The Dry (2020)

Superbly grim mystery set based on Jane Harper’s book of the same name. Eric Bana’s city cop heads back to the drought-ridden hometown he abruptly abandoned decades earlier after an old friend and his family die in an apparent murder/suicide.

I’m usually tentative to press play on films that come with a ‘Sky Cinema Original’ heading, but the reviews for this one were too good to ignore. Excellent writing, performances, cinematography and score , and enough twists to keep you guessing until the very end.

8.5/10
 

Dirty Schwein

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Candyman (2021)
Didn't love this movie. It has that overly, in-your-face, social commentary on race that seems to be in all of Jordan Peele's work nowadays. I think Peele lacks the subtlety to pull themes like this off and in the end, his films feel like they're too preachy with zero nuance. I didn't mind so much in Get Out but it's becoming the only thing he does at this point. The director did a good job technically with some creative cinematography and kill sequences but the story was all over the place and convoluted. It doesn't help that the marketing didn't make it clear that this is a sequel to the original, which I have seen but forgotten the details. Maybe If I had known this, I would have watched the original again and in turn enjoyed this more 4/10
 

Port Vale Devil

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Halloween 3 (Season of the Witch)

Never enjoyed this originally as was a big fan of the Michael Myers films but this wasn’t actually quite as bad as I first thought. Watched it tonight after seeing it featured in the opening credits thread on here and actually enjoyed it.

Pretty much a kind of more suspense than slasher film but it is actually quite good considering it is close on 40 years old. I did actually jump a couple of times but it was more the music than anything too scary.

It has gained quite a popular cult following after the initial failure of the film and I can see why in fairness. I would give it a whirl in the run up to Halloween if you like a nostalgic ‘classic’.

7/10
 

Tarrou

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Fall Time 1995

A bizarre little movie and I can't decide whether I loved it or hated it. It's a crime caper with a distinctly early Jim Jarmusch feel about it, and a really weird homoerotic vibe going on for some reason.

If nothing else it's worth watching to see a peak Mickey Rourke looking cool as feck in a 50s setting, and David Arquette looks fine too.
 

KirkDuyt

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Parasite
FFinally go around to watching this. It's a good film, but with all the plaudits I expected something amazing. Its hardly that in my opinion.

7/10
 

Fingeredmouse

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I liked burning but I preferred parasite.
I'm the reverse: Parasite was really good but Burning has stayed with me in a way that few films do. It's such a slow burner (no pun intended) and as it progresses it effectively rewrites the earlier parts of the film. My favourite Movie of 2018.
 

Cheimoon

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The Forgotten Battle. (Dutch title: De Slag om de Schelde = The Battle of the Scheldt.) A film focusing on the WW2 period of the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944, which was about creating safe access to the port of Antwerp. The Allies urgently needed a shorter way to provision their troops instead of having to bring in everything through Normandy, and had already taken Antwerp which its huge port. But the Germans still controlled the access way to its port, and getting them out of those positions proved very difficult and costly in human lives. (More information here. Apparently, one British landing in the context of this battle was considered a 'second D-Day'. 'Forgotten battle' is a good name for the whole thing, as I had no idea about any of it before this film!)

I shouldn't dwell on that though, as tthe film doesn't either. The historical context is provided quickly at the start, but otherwise rather serves as background to a drama/thriller that's more focused on the human dimension of war. Three ultimately connected stories are told in parallel: that of a sister of a Dutch freedom fighter; of an English pilot who crash-lands in the area and has to make his way back to Allied territory; and of a young Dutch man who chose to fight for the Germans, and is sent back to the Netherlands after getting injured in Russia.

It's a little fast at the beginning, as the film doesn't spell things out for you; but that pace is good later on, as it keeps things going very well. The way the stories come together might not be great, but it isn't so much about that; the point is rather to show different human elements of a war like this - and I think the film succeeds very well in that sense. Very watchable as a whole and well done - I liked it.
 

Sweet Square

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Knife + Heart(2018)

Homage to old giallo horror movies set around a gay porno set. Overall a fun watch with a good soundtrack and some nice visuals. But not a lot more and not very scary.

7/10
 

ChrisNelson

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Does not in any way live up to its predecessor, gets lost in trying to make itself a comedy and out of 1hr 37mins only the last 15 minutes is anything like entertaining.

Huge disappointment for me, 5/10.
 

CassiusClaymore

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Class Action Park

Documentay about 'the most dangerous theme park ever' built on the green belt outside NYC back in the 1980's and I guess just generally about how kids used to grow up back then when parents didn't give a stuff and health and safety legislation wasn't a thing.

First 2/3's is mostly video footage and talking heads from the people (kids) that worked there detailing all these crazy rides (a water chute that did a loop the loop, vertical drop water slide that gave you a colonic etc..) and antics that used to go on but then it takes a darker tone towards the end with political corruption and heart wrenching accounts from the family of one of the kids who actually died there.
 
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KirkDuyt

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The Godfather part 1
Hadn't seen it in about 15 years. Wife had never seen it at all so I'm forcing her to watch the troligy (yes even 3) with me. Still such an utterly brilliant fecking film. Everything about it is awesome.

12/10
 

2cents

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The Godfather part 1
Hadn't seen it in about 15 years. Wife had never seen it at all so I'm forcing her to watch the troligy (yes even 3) with me. Still such an utterly brilliant fecking film. Everything about it is awesome.

12/10
Yeah I watched it again quite recently after a long time. It’s flawless really, almost every scene is iconic.
 

Vidyoyo

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Sailor Suit and Machine Gun - Liked this. It's a cult Japanese movie from the early 1980s, a parody of the yakuza genre, in which a not your ordinary high school girl becomes the leader of a dying yakuza faction. It's a bit grungy, sometimes funny and, at times, surprisingly tender. Not the kind of film to rank high in the list of best movies of all time but v. enjoyable as a slice of b-movie bravado. 4/5
 

VorZakone

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The Godfather part 1
Hadn't seen it in about 15 years. Wife had never seen it at all so I'm forcing her to watch the troligy (yes even 3) with me. Still such an utterly brilliant fecking film. Everything about it is awesome.

12/10
Almost half a century later, it's still such a well crafted movie.
 

Mihai

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The Dry (2020)

Superbly grim mystery set based on Jane Harper’s book of the same name. Eric Bana’s city cop heads back to the drought-ridden hometown he abruptly abandoned decades earlier after an old friend and his family die in an apparent murder/suicide.

I’m usually tentative to press play on films that come with a ‘Sky Cinema Original’ heading, but the reviews for this one were too good to ignore. Excellent writing, performances, cinematography and score , and enough twists to keep you guessing until the very end.

8.5/10
Very good indeed. Thank you for the recommendation.
 

jderbyshire

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The Godfather part 1
Hadn't seen it in about 15 years. Wife had never seen it at all so I'm forcing her to watch the troligy (yes even 3) with me. Still such an utterly brilliant fecking film. Everything about it is awesome.

12/10
Yeah but did you not feel like the film insists upon itself a bit?