Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Dirty Schwein said:
I can kind of see where Mockney is coming from. I quite liked Shutter Island but the music composition, sound mix and editing were very weak. Which is strange to see from a Scorcese film...
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Funny, I don't agree with that although I see why you'd single out those points. Well not the music, which I thought was very good, but the sound mixing and editing were voluntarily a bit 'messy' imo because of the subject matter.
Mockney said:
Of the 436 films with that twist, it's in the top 75. Below Fight Club, but above Secret Window.
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I can understand some criticism levelled against Shutter Island no problem, but singling out the twist is really bizarre and probably means you've missed the point of the film. No one cares about the twist, and no one is meant to care. You've worked it out about half an hour into the film, the twist is only meant to be there for one of the character's: DiCaprio's. It's not meant to be a twist film, at all. It's a film about madness, and I thought it was excellent from that point of view, thanks notably to DiCaprio's performance (arguably the best of his career, for me), the music, the atmosphere, the setting...
Cedric said:
Cheers, considering that I have seen (and liked) Infernal Affairs I think I will give this one a miss.
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I'd recommend giving it a go. To be honest, I know many many people who have seen both versions and enjoy them, the Caf seems to have a lot of hate for The Departed but I think it's a very good film.
 
Yeah I didn't really get that. It was a spooky pulp book about a cop with a twist for me. Not bad by any stretch, but also not "OMG MARTY & LEO YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN!!"

And his performance clearly can't have been better than Gilbert Grape or The Basketball Diaries, surely?

Fwiw, if he wins the Oscar for Wolf, it'll be deserved. He is fantastic in it. But he probably won't, cos if there's one thing you win Oscars for, it's struggling against adversity & Chewy has that sewn up.
 
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Well a lot of his performances are fantastic, the two you talk of for example, and it's hard to 'rate' acting performances really, but I really loved his performance in Shutter Island, I thought his mental breakdown was incredible.
 
I haven't seen Wolf but...isn't it effectively just Goodfellas in a different setting? I mean, it's naive of me to expect moral lessons from Hollywood movies but their message seems to be 'Crime is fecking glorious! Just look at that Ferrari! But, hey people, crime is bad...or something'.

What a time to celebrate (and it is a celebration) these soulless bastards who routinely feck up the world for the rest of us, purely for their own gain...Cheers, Marty.
 
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SteveJ said:
I haven't seen Wolf but...isn't it effectively just Goodfellas in a different setting? I mean, it's naive of me to expect moral lessons from Hollywood movies but their message seems to be 'Crime is fecking glorious! Just look at that Ferrari! But, hey people, crime is bad...or something'.

What a time to celebrate (and it is a celebration) these soulless bastards who routinely feck up the world for the rest of us, purely for their own gain...Cheers, Marty.
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It's entertainment, not a celebration of crime. Who'd want watch Goodfellas if it was instead called Good men and focused on the lives of an ordinary group of guys going to work and filing their tax returns?
 
True enough. I just have a long-standing problem with the glamorisation of crime.
 
Archie Leach said:
I'm surprised Gilbert Grape is being used as the benchmark for DiCaprio's talent. He plays a kid with autism, which allows for broad behavioural tics the likes of which actors eat up.
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Good catch. It's the subtle stuff that's hard. What they're perhaps trying to say is he used to not care about being 'the intense one'. That was before all the starlets and models though.
 
Archie Leach said:
I'm surprised Gilbert Grape is being used as the benchmark for DiCaprio's talent. He plays a kid with autism, which allows for broad behavioural tics the likes of which actors eat up.
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He was good in stuff like Romeo + Juliet and Total Eclipse but he was always a bit of a poor mans River Phoenix, in fact many of his early roles were initially considered for Phoenix before he died.
 
Archie Leach said:
I'm surprised Gilbert Grape is being used as the benchmark for DiCaprio's talent. He plays a kid with autism, which allows for broad behavioural tics the likes of which actors eat up.
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hungrywing said:
Good catch. It's the subtle stuff that's hard. .
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Both fair points. Definitely for established adult actors, but he was like 17 at the time, which I still think is pretty impressive.
 
hungrywing said:
Good catch. It's the subtle stuff that's hard. What they're perhaps trying to say is he used to not care about being 'the intense one'. That was before all the starlets and models though.
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R.N7 said:
He was good in stuff like Romeo + Juliet and Total Eclipse but he was always a bit of a poor mans River Phoenix, in fact many of his early roles were initially considered for Phoenix before he died.
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He didn't necessarily care but back in the Gilbert days he would've had to taken what he was offered, it was a supporting role after all. You could argue he's too focused on that one type of role these but when Scorsese and Nolan and Eastwood are throwing this stuff at you I imagine it would be hard to say 'no'. I've also heard he was pretty unhappy where his career was post Titanic and so the serious, complicated leading man roles could've been a reaction to that.
 
He's 40 now, still has his youthful good looks, still banging supermodels and probably gets a kick out of all these big movie star roles. Maybe we'll see a different Leo when he's finally gotten old.
 
Film critic Armond White has been in the news lately for heckling Steve McQueen at an award ceremony. He branded 12 Years Slave as torture porn designed for white people to feel good about their own guilt. He's got some strange contrarian views but he's an interesting read and I often read his reviews for a different perspective on a film.

Some quotes:

Toy Story 3
"Toy Story 3 is so besotted with brand names and product-placement that it stops being about the innocent pleasures of imagination -- the usefulness of toys -- and strictly celebrates consumerism."

Inception
“Christopher Nolan doesn’t have a born filmmaker’s natural gift for detail, composition and movement, but on the evidence of his fussily constructed mind-game movies—Following, Memento, Insomnia and the new Inception—he’s definitely a born con artist. Who else could rook Warner Bros. out of $200 million to make Hollywood’s most elaborate video-game movie and slap on a puzzling, unappealing title?”

Synecdoche New York
"Pity those nerds and fashion-sheep who'll waste time trying to connect Kaufman’s symbols, cite the many David Lynch references and puzzle for ways to use 'synecdoche' in daily conversation."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
“Why waste spleen on Michael Bay? He’s a real visionary—perhaps mindless in some ways (he’s never bothered filming a good script), but Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is more proof he has a great eye for scale and a gift for visceral amazement. Bay’s ability to shoot spectacle makes the Ridley-Tony-Jake Scott family look like cavemen.

There Will Be Blood
"'No!' is the first word spoken in There Will Be Blood, and it should be the last said in response to Paul Thomas Anderson's latest pretend epic."

(500) Days of Summer
"It is so annoyingly cute about the smartness of middle-class young white people in love that one quickly realizes it is only about that - not love nor passion as everyone experiences it."

Grown Ups
"Sandler’s reckless comedy pokes fun at his clique’s immaturity. He doesn’t pretend to create character studies; rather, he satirizes their common silliness as they revisit adolescent pranks and attitudes. One ploy of Sandler and Fred Wolf’s screenplay is to democratize humor—spread affectionate derision all around—by repeating jokes that grow into an appreciation of our full humanity."

Avatar
"The corniest movie ever made about the white man's need to lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt."

Little Man
"Does the Wayans family realize that the concept behind Little Man, their latest collective project, makes it a near-classic comedy? Director Keenen Ivory Wayans and his performing brothers Marlon and Shawn are notorious for childish impudence and sarcasm in such hits as Scary Movie and White Chicks. But in Little Man, dealing with their habitual irrepressible immaturity unleashes something poignant. It makes this silly, lightweight film almost deep."
 
SteveJ said:
I haven't seen Wolf but...isn't it effectively just Goodfellas in a different setting? I mean, it's naive of me to expect moral lessons from Hollywood movies but their message seems to be 'Crime is fecking glorious! Just look at that Ferrari! But, hey people, crime is bad...or something'.

What a time to celebrate (and it is a celebration) these soulless bastards who routinely feck up the world for the rest of us, purely for their own gain...Cheers, Marty.
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It shows that having a lot of money and no fun can be great fun for a while but ultimately it left most of them fecked.

The film that's effectively goodfellas for me this year is American Hustle.
 
The Counselor

I actually quite liked it, well.. it wasn't as horrible as I expected having read some reviews.
I'm usually not Fassbender's biggest fan but I thought he was great in this. The dialogue is a 2 hour parody of Shakespeare's works though.
If it wasn't for a scene involving a yellow Ferrari and another one with a really scary gadget I wound't have given this film a 6/10
 
R.N7 said:
Film critic Armond White has been in the news lately for heckling Steve McQueen at an award ceremony. He branded 12 Years Slave as torture porn designed for white people to feel good about their own guilt. He's got some strange contrarian views but he's an interesting read and I often read his reviews for a different perspective on a film.

Some quotes:

[/spoiler]
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Him and Rex Reed are both cnuts. White pulled similar shit a few years ago when he made Annette Bening cry.
 
R.N7 said:
Film critic Armond White has been in the news lately for heckling Steve McQueen at an award ceremony. He branded 12 Years Slave as torture porn designed for white people to feel good about their own guilt. He's got some strange contrarian views but he's an interesting read and I often read his reviews for a different perspective on a film.

Some quotes:

Toy Story 3
"Toy Story 3 is so besotted with brand names and product-placement that it stops being about the innocent pleasures of imagination -- the usefulness of toys -- and strictly celebrates consumerism."

Inception
“Christopher Nolan doesn’t have a born filmmaker’s natural gift for detail, composition and movement, but on the evidence of his fussily constructed mind-game movies—Following, Memento, Insomnia and the new Inception—he’s definitely a born con artist. Who else could rook Warner Bros. out of $200 million to make Hollywood’s most elaborate video-game movie and slap on a puzzling, unappealing title?”

Synecdoche New York
"Pity those nerds and fashion-sheep who'll waste time trying to connect Kaufman’s symbols, cite the many David Lynch references and puzzle for ways to use 'synecdoche' in daily conversation."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
“Why waste spleen on Michael Bay? He’s a real visionary—perhaps mindless in some ways (he’s never bothered filming a good script), but Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is more proof he has a great eye for scale and a gift for visceral amazement. Bay’s ability to shoot spectacle makes the Ridley-Tony-Jake Scott family look like cavemen.

There Will Be Blood
"'No!' is the first word spoken in There Will Be Blood, and it should be the last said in response to Paul Thomas Anderson's latest pretend epic."

(500) Days of Summer
"It is so annoyingly cute about the smartness of middle-class young white people in love that one quickly realizes it is only about that - not love nor passion as everyone experiences it."

Grown Ups
"Sandler’s reckless comedy pokes fun at his clique’s immaturity. He doesn’t pretend to create character studies; rather, he satirizes their common silliness as they revisit adolescent pranks and attitudes. One ploy of Sandler and Fred Wolf’s screenplay is to democratize humor—spread affectionate derision all around—by repeating jokes that grow into an appreciation of our full humanity."

Avatar
"The corniest movie ever made about the white man's need to lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt."

Little Man
"Does the Wayans family realize that the concept behind Little Man, their latest collective project, makes it a near-classic comedy? Director Keenen Ivory Wayans and his performing brothers Marlon and Shawn are notorious for childish impudence and sarcasm in such hits as Scary Movie and White Chicks. But in Little Man, dealing with their habitual irrepressible immaturity unleashes something poignant. It makes this silly, lightweight film almost deep."
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So basically he's the film critic version of rednev. Contrary for the sake of it.
 
Don't forget that Armond White thinks Stephen Schpielberg is like the greatest director ever. How much more non-contrarian generic white bread mainstream can you get. He's like a massive Michael Jackson fan as well.

I think he's a fecking dork, though he had some valid criticism of 12 Years.
 
Nobby style said:
Don't forget that Armond White thinks Stephen Schpielberg is like the greatest director ever. How much more non-contrarian generic white bread mainstream can you get. He's like a massive Michael Jackson fan as well.

I think he's a fecking dork, though he had some valid criticism of 12 Years.
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Did he have the same criticism for Amistad I wonder?
Any film made about slavery is going to cop that, valid or not. I'm just waiting for Spike Lee to open his trap, the irrelevant bastard.
 
Watched The Hunger Games 2.

I thought the first one was surprisingly good, though afterwards I figured that was because I went in with low expectations. So I was surprised again to find that this one was better if anything, mostly because the build up to the actual games was more interesting in this one.

I can definitely see why people wouldn't like this type of film but it'd be hard to argue that it wasn't very well made at least. As good as you could reasonably expect any of these teen movies to be.

That's mostly down to Lawrence though. Proper movie star.

I also caught a bit of Death Proof, which reminded me how much I hated it the first time I saw it. Christ it's awful. I mean really, unforgivably terrible.
 
sullydnl said:
Thing is, there really wasn't any consequence to the real life guy's crime. He went to a relatively nice jail for a few years, then started doing motivational speaking based on his life. He made over a million from the sale of his books alone and failed to make the restitution he was legally obliged too. Yet he faced no real consequences. He got away with it, really.

I think that's the point in the film though. You don't see his comeuppance, victims, or any consequences because as far as he's concerned there are none. The not-very-subtle reference in the movie to Lehman brothers et al is telling. Scorcese is showing you what happened without imposing morals but he's also telling you that this the kind of attitude that caused the financial mess. He leaves it up to you to decide what you think of it, whether Belfort's life should be admired or if he's a scumbag.
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I'd agree with this.

He started off green, and after Matthew Mcconaughey's character explains that it's all a scam to use other people's money to get rich off commission, he basically turns into a greed fuelled monster. It highlighted what the whole system is based on, especially as the magazine article that exposed him getting rich from shady deals inspired a multitude of job applications to his firm. We later see him turn down the chance to get away unscathed due to his greed and ego taking over, which ultimately led to his downfall. Interestingly enough this was set to him inspiring his troops with the same odd chant used to initially inspire him.
The thing is, his downfall was ultimately barely any punishment at all whilst the guy that took him down was still taking sweaty subway journeys looking as if he's pondering if he'd made any difference, or where it had got him in life?

Ultimately it didn't make any difference as the boom/bust cycle continues and we encourage greed with multi-million dollar bonuses and protect these institutions with government backed bailouts etc. These were/are the sort of people that influence global finance on a daily basis. Fuelled by greed, drugs and sex.

Those looking for an intriguing character arc, or evidence of the consequences of his actions are barking up the wrong tree. There's no need to ram that down our throats because we've lived through a similar version of it since 2008. It's based on a true story, and he basically didn't give a feck about anybody or anything other than money, drugs and sex and he got away reasonably unscathed. I didn't find the film dragged at all despite its length. It's vulgar, hilarious and engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
The Counselor - Wow, such decapitation, much cynicism. The film really should have been called "Country for Old Dirty Men", the first scene was one of the least erotic movie scenes ever and the car sex scene was some sort of zenith of uneroticness and uselessness in the 21st century.
 
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Robocop (2014)

Average. There is always a hint of awesomeness to come, but never does. More like a drama than a proper action movie. The few sequences that are are pretty good, but just does not make the 'excellent' cut off. They made it more like a revenge story rather than a Robocop saving the day hero stuff. You are just expecting a super-villain, but just a few mins fight against some robots and that's it! Lame climax.

Rating: 6/10

Cheesy line: "So you guys playing the good cop/bad cop?" "No, we are playing the bad cop/Robocop"
 
Red Dawn (1984)

A bunch of kids led by Patrick Swayze get together and fight against some Russians during world war 3. Almost everything about this film is shite, the acting, the script, the production, the ridiculous racial stereotyping. It has something about it though, I suppose you could say it's the type of shite you can get behind, in a "it's so bad it's funny" kind of way, and therefore mildly enjoyable if you don't take it seriously, at all.

5/10
 
Absolute Fruit Cake said:
Robocop (2014)

Average. There is always a hint of awesomeness to come, but never does. More like a drama than a proper action movie. The few sequences that are are pretty good, but just does not make the 'excellent' cut off. They made it more like a revenge story rather than a Robocop saving the day hero stuff. You are just expecting a super-villain, but just a few mins fight against some robots and that's it! Lame climax.

Rating: 6/10

Cheesy line: "So you guys playing the good cop/bad cop?" "No, we are playing the bad cop/Robocop"
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Is 'Bitches....leave' in it?
 
Archie Leach said:
I'm surprised Gilbert Grape is being used as the benchmark for DiCaprio's talent. He plays a kid with autism, which allows for broad behavioural tics the likes of which actors eat up.
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I haven't that film and while you have a point it, depends on how you play the part. It's pretty easy to ham it completely as a "typical perception of XYZ type of person".
 
Not sure if its been mentioned but Captain Philips is a fantastic film
 
I, Frankenstein

Oh dear. This is bad, there's no two ways about it. The storyline and dialogue is cheesy as hell (which I expected, to be fair). However, this does make it all quite funny, and Yvonne Strahovski's in it, so I can't hate it. Oh, and the dude from Underworld with the hilariously deep voice.

4/10 - I wouldn't advise going to see it, but enjoyably silly enough to watch when it comes out on Sky or whatever.
 
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