So we've got the Love Film service and we received DVDs through the post. But the problem recently is that I haven't been enjoying many of them.
Here is a quick sample of recent picks:
Hannah Takes the Stairs - an American indie film in the little known genre called "Mumblecore". The sound is poorly mixed and the characters witter on about their nothing lives. I turned it off.
Somers Town - I've enjoyed Shane Meadows other films, but didn't warm to this one, perhaps because I knew it had started life as an advert for the Eurostar.
Blame It on Fidel - A French child suffers when her parents become revolutionaries. I found it hard to care.
The Baader Meinhof Complex - The Baader Meinhof gang are a minor obsession of mine, but this made a very interesting period incredibly dull.
Righous Kill - It should have been a warning sign that it was a film starring De Niro and Pacino that I'd never even heard of. Less than the sum of its parts.
There have been two that I have enjoyed
Mad Detective - very interesting film from Hong Kong about an ex-detective with mental powers that are great for detection but not for his own sanity. Like nothing else I've ever seen.
Six Shooter - a short film by Martin McDonaugh. Very funny in an odd, disturbing way.
So I'm looking for some recommendations. What have you seen that you've loved? I will watch pretty much anything, except chick flicks. It doesn't have to be new even.
10 comments:
I'm the same with love film, had some real duds recently and sometimes the dvds are all scratched and unwatchable...
We had 'Barefoot in the park' with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford last week and i really enjoyed that.
Hello!
Their service does seem to have gone downhill recently - most things I've added have "Long Wait" next to them, which didn't used to happen.
I've not seen "Barefoot in the Park" so will add that. I imagine with those two, it will at least be beautiful to look at.
Bored of new blockbuster type movies, the OH and I have been sampling old stuff...except really cruddy old stuff which I wouldn't recommend to you as I'm sure you can live without watching Close Encouters of the Third Kind or Jaws or the Omen trilogoy...
But you might want to pilfer our idea of a theme - we each picked a theme - i chose aliens and he chose trilogies - and then we matched movies to the weekly theme and surprisingly it's been really good fun....
I like the themes idea. Will get thinking about that.
I must admit I quite liked the first Omen film but I haven't seen it for years so it might not be as scary as I remember it being.
Dunno, I'm not a great one for the flicks, but just for the laughs Mel Brookes sometimes does it for me..."Blazing Saddles", the original "Producers" and "High Anxiety" are certainly worth watching...some of the others are a bit more miss than hit though...
Or you could do worse than "Airplane"...(don't even go there for the sequel)...
Expect you've seen all those though...
If you were into fantasy I'd recommend the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy despite their length...but my guess would be you're not...though I have at least one daughter and a grandaughter (of 19!) to disprove the theories that it's a "male thing"...
Of the more serious films, I think the 1959 "On the Beach" is a bloody good (if somewhat dispiriting) effort...OK it was a few years after the film came out, but I was nine and a a precocious newspaper reader at the time of the Cuba missile crisis...and I strongly recall the tension in the press and my mother actually being terrified...she thought it was 50:50 the world was going to end there and then, and who's to say she was wrong...when I saw this film some years later it certainly resonated with me...
"Schindlers List" is, of course, (and rightly so) considered very moving...certainly made a huge impression on me anyway...
Aside from these, there are loads of films I think of as "OK" but few I'd consider "great"...
As you recall, "The Omen" certainly IS good value...always felt is was far more chilling than the pathetic and much hyped 180 degree neck turner...
Happy viewing!
Cogi - thanks for those. I've not really seen any Mel Brooks (I've seen the stage version of the Producers though) so will try some of him.
I have seen the Airplane films many times - I think the original is my Mum's favourite film!
On the Beach sounds interesting.
What is the 180 degree neck turner? Exorcist? Or is Poltergeist? I fell asleep in the Exorcist so clearly it didn't scare me.
Hello. I haven't been to see a film (at the cinema) for absolutely ages and I haven't even watched a film at home for a good few years now, either, come to think of it (just can't face it for some reason). However, I remember all of these as being very, very good - or, at the very least, highly enjoyable. (I'm usually a bit careful to bandy about the word "great" in these circumstances, but "very, very good" is a start, no?)
Cinema Paradiso
Run Lola Run
Goodbye Lenin
My Name Is Joe (give it time and try not to be scared off by the thick Scottish accents)
Fargo
Warriors (BBC drama - again, give it time)
Apart from that, I'm clean out of ideas and I'm fairly certain you will have seen most of them already. But I tried, I tried.
Kind regards etc....
TPE
(Incidentally, I absolutely adored Y Tu Mama Tambien. My girlfriend made me watch it.)
TPE - thanks for the recommendations. I have seen and loved Run Lola Run, Fargo and Goodbye Lenin, so you were on the right track. I've also seen My Name is Joe - it is a good film, but rather too bleak to say I enjoyed it.
I'm ashamed I've not seen Cinema Paradiso so that must go on the list and I've not even heard of Warriors so will investigate that further.
Hello, SandDancer, thanks for taking the time to respond.
Yes, My Name is Joe is shatteringly bleak at times, agreed. I took four attempts before I could bear to see it through. And you're right, of course, it's rather hard to say that one has actively "enjoyed" such a thing, but I still find myself recommending it to anyone who cares to listen (not many, granted, but then I do tend to go on and on).
Warriors. Hmm. Probably not actually a film, technically speaking, although watching it in one go is highly doable (and desirable). In fact, it's on YouTube, if memory serves, although it's formatted in annoying ten-minute long parts. Mildly aggravating.
I can only really say - don't be put off when you read that it is about British peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. This is a searing drama and the performances are faultless and no, thank goodness, it's not a mindless gun-toting look at me I've got a gun and must be radically hard and sickeningly virile etc fest. It is, however, deeply depressing at times, so do be warned.
Now, before I bugger off, one more recommendation: The Master and Margarita, Russian-language version (also on YouTube, as it happens). I discovered this (having entirely loved the book a very long time ago) and just about squealed (in a very manly fashion, of course) with pleasure. Good grief. A joy.
And if you get bored of films......there's always The West Wing or The Wire or England v Australia in The Ashes (coming soon to any sensible TV near you).
Okay, enough already. Nice to have met you.
Kind regards etc....
TPE
Oops. I seem to have become "anonymous" (not for the first time, let me tell you). Anyway, sorry about that, not really sure what's going on there.
Toot.
Post a Comment