What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

A young man who's farther he has not seen since he was a child , is killed in car crash while checking his father's apartment ( who was a private eye) he finds a Pokémon who was his father's partner and they set out to investigate the crash which leads them to his father's last case which has implications for both humans and Pokemon's.

A easy and enjoyable watch which is thanks to Ryan Reynolds performance as Detective Pikachu. The world with its mixture of humans and Pokemon's was charming and visually stunning , the effects where better than any seen in DC superhero films and found this a lot more enjoyable than any of those probably because of its light-hearted nature and you can actually see what's going on with it not being as black as the night.


Now watching Taxi driver, which is the polar opposite of Pokémon. Taxi this is not!

[MrBarlow]

Queen Of The Damned. 2002.

Lestat awkens after a 100 years sleep and re-invents himself as a rock star only to anger the other vampires. Queen Akasha awakens and draws in Lestat to be her new king.

Stuart Townsend steps in the role that Tom Cruise made in the previous film, can you see Tom Cruise as a rock star in a horror flick. This I really wanted to enjoy but seems more focussed on Lestat rather than Akasha played by Aaliyah (who died after principal photography of the film) who appears near the hour mark and is on screen for about 20 minutes or so. We do meet the man Marius played by Vincent Perez, who was the one to turn Lestat and teach him, the good thing with the film is the soundtrack.

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[J Harker]

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert. 2022.

What the hell was this. I don't even know how to review this madness. Something about Michelle Yeoh and her husband running a Chinese laundry when interdimensional forces do something involving people with hot dogs for fingers, oh and there's a fight with dildos. Just sheer off the charts bonkers and not in a particularly good way. How the hell this won Oscars is beyond me. The Banshees of Inisherin is a far far far superior film. Hell I'd have given the best picture to Cameron's Avatar dross over this.

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Everything Everywhere All at Once. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert. 2022.

What the hell was this. I don't even know how to review this madness. Something about Michelle Yeoh and her husband running a Chinese laundry when interdimensional forces do something involving people with hot dogs for fingers, oh and there's a fight with dildos. Just sheer off the charts bonkers and not in a particularly good way. How the hell this won Oscars is beyond me. The Banshees of Inisherin is a far far far superior film. Hell I'd have given the best picture to Cameron's Avatar dross over this.

I'm the same way regarding this film, for me, it's like The Emperor's New Clothes. It's a film virtual everyone loves, bit I didnt see what all the fuss was about.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

I'm the same way regarding this film, for me, it's like The Emperor's New Clothes. It's a film virtual everyone loves, bit I didnt see what all the fuss was about.

I was curious. The trailers hadn't really grabbed me but it was on Prime so we thought why not. Utter nonsense.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[trebor8273]

I can see why people said Joker has similarities to this film both have a unstable loner who believe the world's against them.

DeNiro plays Travis a Vietnam vet who suffers from insomnia and takes a job as a taxi driver, but this only makes the unstable Travis worse as he sees the absolute worse humanity has to offer . There is a small sliver of light in his dark world in the form of Cybal Shepard's character but he screws that up by taking her to see a porno in a filthy cum stained cinema ! But he completely goes over the edge when he meets Jodie Fosters child prostitute , Foster really should of gotten best supporting actor for her role. The film ends in a bloody shootout , I was surprised that he actually survived . A excellent film that deserves it's classic status.


Now watching

[Demoncrat]

Smoking Causes Coughing (2022, Quentin Dupieux)

Wanna see the strangest Power Rangers film ever? Form a queue ...
Being the adventures of five trusted and true types sent on a sabbatical after advice from the top. They pass their time swapping stories and the like, when an old adversary rears his head ...
That's what happens. To actually describe these scenes? Pass. Watch the trailer if you dare
He does not give a flerk does this QD imho, TF for that says I.
Ahem. As always, it's a brisk wee turn, so you won't get bored.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

In a Lonely Place (1950)

What a film this is, and what a performance from Humphrey Bogart.

He plays a short fused Hollywood screen writer Dixon (Dix) Steele, down on his luck and without a hit film to his name in a few years. When he takes a young woman back to his apartment to read his latest work for him and she ends up murdered later on that night, Steele is immediately arrested by the police, only to be given an alibi by neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame). Before long the two begin a fractious relationship.

It's testament to Bogart that following a run of iconically cool roles beginning with 1941's The Maltese Falcon and taking in such acclaimed films like Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Key Largo (Both 1948) he would then portray the unscrupulous and violent Steele and garner so much acclaim for it. His ultimate portrayal of an anti-hero.

What happens in the murder case following Steele's alibi thanks to Gray is barely of any consequence in the second half of the film. It's all about the characters. In A lonely Place is a title that fits Steele to a tee. He's in a lonely place career wise, mentally certainly and very much so when it comes to his love life.

Steele falls in love with Gray and then she begins to get doubts about his innocence thanks to several violent temper flare ups. Gloria Grahame excels here as Laurel Gray. A bit flighty, a victim herself and extremely insecure.

Nicholas Ray directs, he would go on to direct Rebel Without a Cause five years later which gained him the bulk of his fame, but he does a stellar job here in only his fourth film. The way he makes the murder mystery incidental to the mesmeric character study that unfolds is crafted expertly. Most film makers would have you itching to know the identity of the killer but Ray, Bogart and Grahame make you forget about it until it's almost matter of factly revealed during the final few moments. However it's not just the way Ray works with his actors. He has some great compositional sense as well.

In the early scenes he shoots Martha Stewart (The murdered girl) reading the screenplay to Steele at his home, except the way Ray uses the camera she's talking to the viewer and it works beautifully. It shows her personality and her effervescence remarkably well in what is only a few minutes screen time and we come to fall for her completely making her murder all the more shocking.

The script is a delight, the direction exemplary and the acting phenomenal. In A Lonely Place is quite simply Hollywood at it's finest.

[Dave Boy]

So, after a break due to stuff happening in my life, I picked up where I left off and watched all of Ray Harryhausen's movies..

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After each movie I re-read the chapter in 'Ray Harryhausen An Animated Life' book and re-read 'The Ray Harryhausen Scrapbook'. I previously also read the 'Titan Of Cinema' book.

Thanks for everything Ray.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Which were your favourites, Dave?