The Recommended Movies Thread

[STEVE G]

SM, you'll have to let us know if you can find a copy of the new version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
It's probably the first movie in about five years that sounds attractive to me and I might even pay to go to a cinema!

[pharvey]

SM, you'll have to let us know if you can find a copy of the new version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
It's probably the first movie in about five years that sounds attractive to me and I might even pay to go to a cinema!

Yep, read a report on this one yesterday - looks well worth a watch.

[dtaai-maai]

A chiller from the vaults that I came across after reading an article about Orson Wells' infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast and its legacy (you can download that from many online sources nowadays...well worth it). Anyways.....back in 1992 the BBC got themselves in a sh*t tsunami of publc backlash for a little number they broadcast one frosty Halloween night.... GHOSTWATCH...the drama mockumentary (before they were common) that inspired heart attacks, suicides, publc hysteria and bedrooms full of screaming kids for weeks and weeks from Lands End to Jon O Groats.

Michael Parkinson...yes THAT Parky.....leads a cast of other daytime chat and light entertanment names on a little excursion to a haunted house in suburban London where two little girls and their mum are suffering at the hands of a violent poltergeist haunting by an entity the girls call "Pipes". It starts as a light hearted Halloween romp with cynical old Parky playing the cynical card and the crew all breathless, but soon the shivers start and you are graduall drawn in as the story of the house is told....and then all hell breaks loose.

For its time it was truly groundbreaking, and unlike many a later attempt at the same is actually genuinely creepy and disturbing. Its excellent pacing and build up, when combined with the use of "Crimewatch" style documentary filming and crews works perfectly and its still as effective today. At the time nobody realised it was a play, so you can see why it caused such chaos when it was broadcast. I remember watching it when it was broadcast and being shocked by it.....its only in the last couple of minutes you get (from the deliberately over the top ending) that its all a staged drama....a lot of watchers didnt though. Even after all this time it still delvers chills.

Lets put it this way....it was one of the few programmes the BBC ever slapped an embargo on and has only ever, as a result, been shown that once and only recently become available on DVD and online. Have a read about it on wikipedia....its a landmark in TV apparently.

If you fancy a bit of a shiver and nervous glance over your shoulder at that sound out in the garden check it out at VeeHD.com and stagevu.com. I strongly recommend it .... and keep your eye out for Pipes as he pops his grisly visage up in the background or window reflections from time to time.

Have to take issue with you on this one, SM, to the extent I can't believe we're talking about the same tv programme! It was cheesy, amateurish, with lightweight TV presenters playing themselves rather badly, and completely unbelievable.

I'll let you off this time, but don't let it happen again or I'll cancel the payments.

[sandman67]

DM

sorry bout that bro... I liked it.... these are the same accusations that can be lobbed at Paranormal whatsisname and lots of "found footage" films...I just liked the pacing and buld up, and as it trumped Blair Witch and all the others by a good few years, and on a titchy budget, and was clever in using Parky to add reality....gets a badge IMHO

ANYWAYS

will keep a solid eye out for good copies of Tinker.....

AND

THE GUARD is out in DVDSCR (screener so usually OK to good copy and good sound) versions at oneclickmoviez.com....I wll drop a copy later on early tomorrow morning and take a looksee....sounds great.

[sandman67]

just a word of warning for Thai film fans

the copies of King Naresuan 1 & 2 you can find online are fine, but unfortunately the subtitles are not - they are utter nonsense - so dont bother unless you can speak Thai....or go down to Singapore or back to the UK where you can buy a DVD of the films with english subs

[sandman67]

Another one in SUCKER PUNCH mode.... BUNRAKU

In a world where guns are banned and the sword and knife rule, the king of the gangs is The Woodcutter, whose right hand man is the terror of gangs and axe is always ready to cut heads. Into town drift two strangers - a samurai and a card sharp, who under teh guidance of a barman with a past hatred of The Woodcutter set out to clean up the town and put things right.

Its like Clint Eastwood mashed up with Sucker Punch, Sin City, Dick Tracy and Warriors Way, and is set in a hyper-cartoonish origami daygo 50s steampunk oriental world of manga mayhem. Its also got a bit of a stellar ensemble cast with some surprsing names...Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, Ron Perlman, Woody Harrelson and on and on and on....

Its real eye candy, with some frenetic fights and a nice manga take on the man, or in this case men, with no name revenger genre. The acting isnt important, but is done well to fit the mangaish genre and highly stylised orgami like puppet theater appearance of the film.

A solid three cheers keeper.

Out and about in all the usual places in lovely crispy clean VODRIP formats.

[Homer]

'Crime Wave' is a treat, but not for everyone. A 'B' Picture made in 1952 it's part film noir and part police procedural. Shot in 15 days with no stars (Charles Bronson wasn't a star then) it's generic unless you're focusing on the direction, cinematography and locations.

Film noir fans have rediscovered this film, due in large part to author-screenwriter James Ellory spreading the word. The visuals are as good as any film noir I've seen. The director took what would have been routine scenes and transformed them. For example, the scene where we learn how much an ex-con is controlled by his wife has one visual - she grabbing his wrist as he reaches for a ringing phone. The dialog plays out after the phone stops ringing but the shot stays on the hands. Acting hands.

Film was shot at a time when the LAPD was cooperating with the film industry. When the lead detective gets out of his car and walks into the homicide division at City Hall, it's the actual entrance, hallway and homicide office. Most of the film, exteriors and interiors, was shot on location.

This film is the roots of greater Los Angeles based crime films. Stanley Kubrick's first film worth watching, 'The Killing', is basically the same plot with Sterling Haden playing the lead in both. James Ellroy wrote the character played by Russell Crowe in 'LA Confidential' based on Haden's character in 'Crime Wave'. Film was shot in 1952, released in 1954. Charles Bronson's first credited screen role was in a 1952 movie, so this film was probably his second.

73 minutes, Black & White.

Two versions are available on torrent sites. One has commentary by James Ellroy and an author known for his non-fiction books on film noir. It appears the entire film is available on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... +1954&aq=f The trailer is on YouTube but it clearly wasn't done by the director so it gets the feel of the movie all wrong. Nice shots of LA locations, however.

[richard]

Watched Ironclad the other day, as recommended by SM a couple of pages back - great movie, definitely a keeper.

................my kind of stuff

[sandman67]

Seems to be a pretty poor month for crime flicks, as yet another two bob turkey hits the counter like a sack o manure

MADSOS WAR

Set in the Oirish Gangland scene of Boston this tells the tale of low level crim Madso Madsen and his crew of useless buggers who get themselves entangled in a two way gang war when the big overboss goes on the lam to avoid the FBI, leaving behind a power vacuum and two wannabe replacement firms. When two of Madsos crack head crew accidentally burn down the big mans house while trying to fnd his stashed loot all hell breaks out, and Madso is smack in the middle.

And there it is...the set up IS the plot...all the rest is a badly tangled mess of cliches wrapped round a two bob production filmed on a steadycam by some twonk whose seen one too many epsodes of NYPD Blue, and thinks shakey cam is cool.

If theres nowt else to watch its a hour and a half of bubblegum for the eyes. Personally Id just dig out a copy of THE DEPARTED and save yourself the download time. Mediochre at best, its headed for my trash can.

And my vote goes to the Boston accent as the most annoying US accent of all.

[barrys]

Apologies if it's been mentioned here already, but watched a good movie last night: Unknown" with Liam Neeson, pretty good plot and decent action.

[sandman67]

woop woop wooop

thats the old early warning system again

DVDRIP versions of two apparently tasty flicks are now kckng about, including at oneclckmoviez.com

GREEN LANTERN - latest comic book superhero adaptation....looks good on the trailer



BIG FAT GYPSY GANGSTER - latest Brit cheeky chirpy gangster comedy flick that gets good reviews...looks well tasty



however, as both are only so far out in DVDRIPs that are over 1gig I will be waiting till more reasonable size copies hit the sites in a few days

[sandman67]

Ok...dropped a nice 700mb DVDRIP of GREEN LANTERN from veehd.com and gave it a watch....and its not too shabby at all. Id say it falls into the "Superman" category of flicks rather than a darker "Batman" sort of superhero flick, and at times has shades of THE MASK about it....sort of a cartoony feel. But its top notch eyecandy bubblegum fun, with shed loads of dayglo CGI thrown in left right and centre.

Hal is a screw up test pilot who gets too big for his own boots on a regular basis and messes up. One night he gets abducted by a glowing green ball of fire and whipped off to a UFO crash site, summoned there to be the dying pilots replacement in the intergalactic peace keeping force of green clad heroes,...the Green Lanterns. Theres a super bad baddy to biff, and his sniggering Earth bound evil mad scientist minion to bop, so Hal has to shape up and ship out before the Earth gets eaten and he misses out on the snog wth the foxy chick before the end credits.

Pretty standard superhero stuff, and comfortably stays within the "origins film" format thats beng done with all the name supers this year, but done well and with the usual end of credits hook to the next film....and at nearly 2hrs you get your moneys worth.

Out and about now at VeeHD and elsewhere in reasonable 700 meg size DVDRIPS so well worth a watch for superhero fans. A three rousng hurrahs keeper.

[sandman67]

Thanks to the spot on tip earlier n the thread Ive just spent a happy hour n a half laughng along to THE GUARD...its a corker.

Its like Father Ted meets the Police.....excellent off kilter laugh out loud stuff. Brendan Gleeson plays a curmudgeonly poltically incorrect Father Jack like policeman in sleepy Galway, whose life in between getting drunk and shaggng escorts is one long drag of boredom. When Don Cheadles black FBI drugs cop flys into town hot on the trail of an international cocaine smuggling gang the two run headlong into each other, and end up as the oddest of odd couples tryng to crack the case.

Like Father Ted its chock full of odd humor, mad characters, and classic dialogue and even throws in some pathos, philosophy and thrills along the way. Top entertainment, great scripting and acting...utter class from scene 1 to the end credits.

Defintely a thee pints o the black stuff keeper all the way.

Out and about in lovely DVDRIP formats at all the usual sources

[sateeb]

Thanks for the heads up....Downloading The Guard now....ready in about 40mins on U Torrent.

[barrys]

Watched it last night - thoroughly enjoyed it - some great views of Connemara too - first time I've felt nostalgic for the ould sod in quite a while - Brendan Gleeson is superb.