Watch, Watched, Watching: Watching Severance and working for Lumon

[polishgenius]

11 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I’m a dumb American. Give me some great British gangster films. Love Sexy Beast and like Lock,Stock…

 

Gangster No. 1 
Layer Cake (it's legit mad that there's only four years between them, the feel is so different)
Get Carter (the original of course)
Snatch is a must if you like Lock Stock and haven't seen it 

 

Not considered a classic, but Wild Bill is a fun, sweet movie about a notorious ex-gangster just out of prison and trying to live a life as dad. 

[DMC]

29 minutes ago, Ran said:

De gustibus non est disputandum. De gustibus non est disputandum. De gustibus non est...

 

20 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

One of my favorite scenes from The Sopranos

Yeah, definitely one of my favorites too.  Poor little guy!  As you were saying, this depicted that shift.  And it's good to point out that Hollywood - and in turn the American public - was entranced with first westerns, and then after the Hays Code was eliminated, mafia films. 

That's why I love Tarantino - his films are extraordinarily apt at simultaneously merging this, criticizing this, and respecting this.  Albeit I agree with Ran some of the violence in his later films seem unnecessary - that's an interesting thought to examine I may get back to.  

[Ramsay B.]

17 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

Gangster No. 1 
Layer Cake (it's legit mad that there's only four years between them, the feel is so different)
Get Carter (the original of course)
Snatch is a must if you like Lock Stock and haven't seen it 

 

Not considered a classic, but Wild Bill is a fun, sweet movie about a notorious ex-gangster just out of prison and trying to live a life as dad. 

Snatch is a classic and I’ve seen Layer Cake. Will definitely check out the others.

One of my favorite gangster movies ever is Animal Kingdom and that’s from Australia. Not a typical gangster film but it is about a crime family.

[DMC]

Lock Stock and Snatch are def part of any well-purposed canon.  The original Get Carter too.  Layer Cake?  Meh.

[hauberk]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

I am one of those people. I've never watched any of the Godfather movies, Goodfellas, Casino, and same with TV shows like The Sopranos or Peaky Blinders. I watched The Departed and hated the story, I thought The Irishman was OK and yes a it's well done movie apart from the de-aging stuff. The only gangster related movie I've watched more than once and enjoy is The Untouchables, because there are clear good guys in it and it's based on real events with Capone getting his comeuppance in the end.

And you can add movies and TV shows about drug cartels for the stuff I don't care for. Breaking Bad is the sole exception, and even that one was a one time viewing for me. 

Peaky Blinders I quite liked. I sat through all of Breaking Bad. Initially mildly intrigued by the depths a desperate man would go to and then scratching my head at all the love it was getting. 
 

I have a lot of love for The Untouchables and quite liked the recent Highwaymen with Costner and Harrelson. 

[Ramsay B.]

18 minutes ago, DMC said:

Lock Stock and Snatch are def part of any well-purposed canon.  The original Get Carter too.  Layer Cake?  Meh.

Yeah, didn’t care for Layer Cake either.

[williamjm]

11 hours ago, Isis said:

Excuse me, but has someone made a series version of the Guy Ritchie film, The Gentleman?

???

It won't be the same without Hugh Grant and his accent choices.

[Veltigar]

I watched the first two episodes of Shogun yesterday. Pretty good all in all and definitely looking forward to the rest. From what little I know, it seems to represent the material culture of 1600 Japan quite well, which was strangely enough my favourite aspect of these two opening episodes.

Some of the introductory history bits were a bit annoying, but I'll complain about those in the Shogun dedicated thread I guess  

 

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

One of my favorite gangster movies ever is Animal Kingdom and that’s from Australia. Not a typical gangster film but it is about a crime family.

Yeah Animal Kingdom is great. I think that was the first film I saw Ben Mendelsohn in, and he plays a total bastard. It's also remarkable for how little Guy Pearce is actually in it. He featured prominently in the marketing.

The Hard Word is also pretty good, if you need more Aussie crime film and Guy Pearce in your life. Though it's been a while since I've seen it. They used to have it on HBO but that was ages ago.

[Nictarion]

8 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:

One of my favorite gangster movies ever is Animal Kingdom and that’s from Australia. Not a typical gangster film but it is about a crime family.

Chopper is another good one from Australia. Rarely ever see anyone talk about it. 

[JGP]

3 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Yeah Animal Kingdom is great. I think that was the first film I saw Ben Mendelsohn in, and he plays a total bastard. It's also remarkable for how little Guy Pearce is actually in it. He featured prominently in the marketing.

Yes, a great film.

And, speaking of great marketing, the trailer was inspired, and really set the hook for me once All Out of Love kicked in with that eerie through-tone. 

 

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

53 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

Chopper is another good one from Australia. Rarely ever see anyone talk about it. 

I have it on disc. It's been a while but yeah. Brilliant performance by Eric Bana. 

[Ran]

Watched Winter's Bone again recently, what a breakthrough performance by Jennifer Lawrence. Have to say, John Hawkes almost stole the movie from her in every scene he was in.

Also watched a documentary called Pianoforte, following a number of young pianists taking part in the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition, held every 5 years. It's one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world and can basically make an aspiring concert pianists career. Incredible amount of dedication needed.

[Corvinus85]

I'm six episodes into Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It's good but I'm not quite as enthralled by it as others who've posted about it here were.

I've been watching Constellation on AppleTV and caught up to the last episode last night. It's intriguing and Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks are pretty good. I hope it sticks the landing with its weird plot. The last episode certainly revealed a lot of what I've already been suspecting.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Marvels.

The good:

The Khan's were charming. There were some interesting moments. Some scenes that were genuinely funny. I laughed at the insanity of the evacuation scene. Some good visuals. 

The bad:

Even making allowances for a chaotic production process (given this film was made during the pandemic) it's a fucking mess. This isn't one movie; it's three movies smashed together. And one of the three is boring as shit. 

If there was ever an argument against the MCU approach of "Shoot the damn thing, test it, and fix it with reshoots, it's on full display here. There's no possible universe where this thing hangs together.

Some of the visuals are great, some of the visuals barely rise to the level of prestige cable TV, and some of the visuals aren't finished. I didn't realize the statue of liberty looked like that. Someone forgot to tell their overseas VFX team that the copper has a patina. 

And dear God I felt every second of that runtime. It's utterly baffling reading some of the positive reviews on RT. 

[SpaceChampion]

Curb Your Enthusiasm, they're going to end it with

Spoiler

Larry David in jail, aren't they?  To double down on the Seinfeld finale would be hilarious actually.

 

[Nictarion]

14 hours ago, Ran said:

Watched Winter's Bone again recently, what a breakthrough performance by Jennifer Lawrence. Have to say, John Hawkes almost stole the movie from her in every scene he was in.

Winter’s Bone is great. 

Leave No Trace is another really good one from the same director (Debra Granik) if you haven’t seen it. 

[BigFatCoward]

On 3/3/2024 at 7:32 PM, polishgenius said:

 

Gangster No. 1 
Layer Cake (it's legit mad that there's only four years between them, the feel is so different)
Get Carter (the original of course)
Snatch is a must if you like Lock Stock and haven't seen it 

 

Not considered a classic, but Wild Bill is a fun, sweet movie about a notorious ex-gangster just out of prison and trying to live a life as dad. 

Love, honour and obey is criminally under valued. Though its probably more of a comedy. 

Edited March 5 by BigFatCoward

[dbunting]

Watched Dune 2 this weekend, went to the theater specifically to give this more of a chance since I watched part 1 at home and wasn't wowed by it. Yeah, the size of the screen didn't make a difference. If you liked P1 then I'm sure you'll like P2, it just isn't for me.  I'll leave details in the Dune thread.

[Maithanet]

Rewatched Alien for the first time in ~15 years (although I watched it many times as a teenager).  It really stands up as an all-time great film.  The movie does an incredible job of making both the text (killer alien on a spaceship) and subtext (anti-capitalism) work seamlessly.  The Company (never mentioned on screen, but visible in a couple screenshots as Weyland-Yutani) is faceless, unfeeling and unrelentingly evil. 

Spoiler

It knew that there was an alien signal on LB-462, it knew it could be dangerous and wanted to bring back a specimen, so it sent a small crew least able to defend itself.  It replaced the science officer with Ash "two days before" they shipped out.  Ash is actually an android programmed to do The Company's dirty work, who sets about sabotaging everything the crew did to try and survive. 

Ash let the expedition party back on the ship when strict quarantine rules say they cannot be allowed onboard.  Ash knew something was implanted in Cain when he woke up, but didn't tell anyone or help him (this is clear in Ian Holm's acting and the camera focusing on his nervous face).  Ash yelled at Parker not to kill the Alien when it pops out of Cain "DON'T TOUCH IT!!" because at that time it was small and vulnerable.  Ash rigs up some tracking devices which he says key on "micro changes in air density".  This is a lie, as Ripley realizes, because it tracks Jones the cat through a sealed door.  It never tracks the Alien at all, and presumably was rigged specifically not to work in the hope the crew either fails to find the Alien or gets killed looking for it.  He does not help Dallas protect himself in the air shaft (a plan that could have worked) and thus Dallas gets only useless information from him and Lambert until he is ambushed.  And finally once Ripley catches wind to what The Company is doing, he attempts to murder her (and presumably would have killed Lambert and Parker next). 

The overall takeaway is that the film is contrasting the distant, homicidal greed of The Company with the unseen terror of the Alien.  The Company sets plans in motion to kill the crew for profit from star systems away, we never learn any of those people's names and we never will.  In contrast the Alien is also hidden for virtually the entire movie, if I had to guess it's screen time is probably about a minute for the whole film.  But the combination of The Company and the Alien strips away the humanity (logical thinking, empathy, communication) from the entire crew.  The exception is Ripley, who maintains all these human traits and survives. 

This is a great film, with great acting.  Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto are all great as supporting characters.  And of course Sigourney Weaver knocks it out of the park.  Ripley isn't quite the action hero superwoman she becomes in Aliens but she's still quite a badass and makes a lot of smart decisions under pressure.