The Last Movie You Watched?

The Saloon
3941

5150, Rue des Ormes by Éric Tessier

The second and, as of now, last collaboration between writer Patrick Senécal and director Éric Tessier, 5150, Rue des Ormes is a huge step above their first effort. Less straight horror and more thriller/psychological drama, it’s a very chilling and effective film. The story is about Yannick Bérubé (Marc-André Grondin) who, after hurting himself in a bike accident, seeks help from a nearby house only the discover a dying man inside. The owner of the house, Jacques Beaulieu (Normand D’Amour), is a psychopathic “vigilante” and a fanatical chess player obsessed with the concept of “just” and “unjust”. Now that Yannick has seen what he does, Beaulieu can’t let him leave, so he detains him in a small room of the house. The rest of Beaulieu family consists of the very religious and submissive wife (Sonia Vachon, in a completely against type and successful role), the 16 years-old daughter (Mylène St-Sauveur), whom the father would like her to take over the “business”, and their mentally challenged kid. After having detained him for a while, Jacques makes a deal with Yannick, if he can beat him in a game of chess, he lets him go.

Right off the start we can see that Éric Tessier has improved as a director, you won’t find any shoddily directed scenes like in Sur le seuil, it’s a very well directed and well made film. It also looks as if they had a better budget to work with and if they didn’t they sure used it better. Another element that really stands out is the acting which is very evenly, everybody gives damn fine performances. The story demands a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, but it is very compelling and at time suspenseful, only the ending is a bit excessive. Good film, I’d definitively recommend it.

Also, one of the special feature on the DVD of Sur le seuil was a short by Éric Tessier (forgot to watch it), this one has a short by a certain Patrick Gazé called Mon nom est Victor Gazon. It’s a really cute and heart-warming short, directed as if it was a made-for-school film project, about a kid who reflects on the topic of suicide. I just don’t know what it has to do with this film.

3942

[url]http://img577.imageshack.us/i/centone.jpg/[/url] [size=12pt]Centurion[/size] (2010, Neil Marshall)

I survived the slaughter! So unfortunately, this beautiful Brigantian female warrior didn’t get me.

Like most films of Neil Marshall, Centurion is promising, but far from perfect. It has been compared to Gladiator, but it’s actually closer to Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur (it’s also more or less on the same level). I don’t think the level of violence, or the graphic nature of it, is the real problem. Marshall’s uncompromising, muscular style suits the material (an entire Roman legion annihilated by the Picts) rather well, but it’s all so fast-paced and flashy that you don’t get any time to breathe and get accustomed to the characters. We hop from massacre to slaughter, and hop there are wolves and hop hop, there’s Hardrian’s Wall. Marshall has an excellent cast, but only Kurylenko seems a full-grown character as the bloodthirsty Etain (her soul is an empty space, only Roman blood can fill it up). Michael Fassbender’s Roman officer only gets some depth when he flirts with a local ‘witch’, who speaks the ‘Roman language’, by the way, with a broad English accent.

I read somewhere Marshall was forced to cut a much longer film down to the actual length (97 minutes), so maybe we’ll get a director’s cut in the near future that has more storytelling and character development.

I also had some problems with the digital look of the movie. There’s a tendency to give movies set in ancient times or the ‘dark’ Middle Ages, a dark look (note the symbolism), with a lot of blue and green, and hardly any red tints. Centurion therefore looks as if nearly all scenes were shot during a solar eclipse. Otherwise set design, costume design and make-up-effects are excellent.

3943

Armour of God II - I’ve not seen this for many years, still holds up well. I’d totally forgotten that Aldo Sambrell was in it. Here’s hoping that the first one gets the blu ray treatment.

3944

Arn: The Knight Templar

I enjoyed this Swedish film, quite well made, Arn is a monk you is sent to the crusades for causing Cecilia to fall pregnant out of wedlock whilst she is sent to a nunnery.

Starring Joakim Nätterqvist, Sofia Helin & Stellan Skarsgård

3945

[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:3944, topic:1923”]Arn: The Knight Templar

I enjoyed this Swedish film, quite well made, Arn is a monk you is sent to the crusades for causing Cecilia to fall pregnant out of wedlock whilst she is sent to a nunnery.

Starring Joakim Nätterqvist, Sofia Helin & Stellan Skarsgård[/quote]

Just a question, Yodlaf: do you buy all these BR-discs or do you rent them (or steal them)?

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[quote=“scherpschutter, post:3945, topic:1923”]Just a question, Yodlaf: do you buy all these BR-discs or do you rent them (or steal them)?[/quote]Buy them, why?

3947

The Killer Inside Me ( 2010 ).

Like the 70’s version of this and a fine role for Stacy Keach. He is a nasty character but also has alot of good qualities. In the new version the character is plain nasty. Not read the book so do not know which film is more faithful. The story in the new version is not as clear at times, and Casey Affleck just seems to mumble to much. The scenes where women are beat up and / or killed are very strong.[font=times new roman][/font]

3948

I watched ”Belle de Jour” with Cathrine Deneuve and Jean Sorel directed by Luis Buñuel.

3949

The Whip and the Body - Mario Bava, 1963

Only an average horror movie. Boring for most of its runtime. (At least it was way beneath 90 min)

3950

In that case you spend a lot of money on Blu-ray

I buy a new DVD every now and then (for instance a recently released spaghetti, or a release of any of my favourite directors), and sometimes buy several at the same time, but in that case they’re from the type ‘3 for 10 €’ or something similar

But like I said: I was just wondering …

3951

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:3950, topic:1923”]In that case you spend a lot of money on Blu-ray[/quote]I do spend a fair amount of cash on films, not all expensive though, for instance that Arn The Knight Templar was only £7 :wink:

3952

I didn’t realise Blu-Rays were that cheap these days.

3953

Me neither. I haven’t bought a player so far because the discs were so expensive

Still want to be sure, before I buy one, that Blu-ray will be the new standard. In Belgium they’re still under ten per cent of the sales of regular DVDs. About a year ago, they had 7 % and it was said they needed 15 % within sixteen months to have a fair chance of making it. Seems they still have something to do.

3954

New releases on Blu Ray here are still close to £20 which is crazy and a complete rip off in my opinion. But, like with DVDs, as the titles get older and the releasing company is left with a ton of unsold stock in their warehouses, the prices drop dramatically (and quite quickly). Current ‘sale’ prices range from £7-£10. Still got a way to go to challenge the £2.99 that we pay for a lot of DVDs though.

3955

Regarding films I have seen before…it would have to be something I really wanted an upgrade for to go for the Blu Ray. I may have had the vhs and dvd for the film down the line which have all been cash spent, and now to pay yet again for the Blu Ray. You can cover some of the difference by selling the older format versions of course. But I still view alot of vhs or T.V prints that have not made it to dvd, so the chances of a Blu Ray release may be slim for these titles.

3956

I use the playstation 3, but I agree with Phil prizes are normally over 20€ which is a robbery IMO for most cases normal editions not that we are talking about criterion ones, and not everyone can take advantage of Blue ray with their sets, and in older films there isn’t really that much advantage (not the same for recent films of course), companies are profiting from films they have already sold as VHS/Beta tapes, laserdisc DVD, If I buy the Blade Runner BlueRay I only be missing the LaserDisc if there’s one that is.
I bought a few but only ones around 10/12€ which still are few, but I’m not gonna replace my DVD collection with BRay that’s for sure

3957

Panic in Year Zero (Ray Milland)

A very satisfying Post Apocalyptic/Cold War era road film. Ray Milland directs and stars as a husband with 2 kids who find that there hometown of LA (and pretty much the whole world) has been hit by nuclear bombs while they are heading for a camping trip. They decide to travel the roads further in search of supplies and safety. Very nice film. But definitely cheap as there is a lot of sound stage use and most of the outdoor shots seem to be filmed outside LA.

3958

Jean Vigo’s Zero for Conduct

A somewhat surreal medium-length film about four rebellious boys in a bordering school. There’s alot to admire about this film, and its influences on “If…” is very apparent.

3959

[size=12pt]Naked[/size] (1993, Mike Leigh)

Never was my favourite Leigh, and don’t think it ever will be
Some funny moments, some devastating moments as well, but all in all this comedy/drama feels a little too calculated in its bleakness. Moreover most characters (especially David Thewlis’s) are such hopeless pricks (or cunts) that it’s very hard to relate to any of them.
A shouting couple provide the film with its best moments

3960

I’ve watched a wide mix of things since last night and earlier today.
Including:

OSS 117 - SEGRETISSIMO (aka, OSS 117 RETURNS, starring Kerwin Matthews)
KOGARASHI MONJIRO (aka WITHERED TREE, starring Sugawara Bunta)
$100,000 FOR LASSITER (aka DOLLARS FOR A FAST GUN, with Robert Hundar)
RAKHT CHARITRA 2 (Hindi film directed by my friend Ram Gopal Varma)
JUAN COLORADO (Mexican Western starring Antonio Aguilar)

All of the films were, at least, entertaining. But, none of them were particularly outstanding, really.

Ram’s first RAKHT CHARITRA was superb…whereas his follow up was merely good.

JUAN COLORADO had been over-hyped to me, I guess. It was a well-done, entertaining film, but not the masterpiece I had been led to believe it was.

I really enjoyed $100,000 FOR LASSITER. I love the early Marchent Westerns! But, this one leaned a little too far towards the light-hearted to be anything more than just a fairly decent Spaghetti Western (with a few truly excellent scenes), in my estimation. I had seen this one before, several years ago…but, I didn’t recall much about it, for some reason.

I was surprised to be let down by KOGARSHI MONJIRO the most. I had heard this was a “rare gem” among both the Samurai and Yakuza movie genres; but, I found it to be a little slow and I couldn’t get into the characters much. Still it had its moments and was by no means a complete waste of time.

The OSS 117 film was mostly what I expected it to be; so, in a way it was the best of the bunch (though, in retrospect, that isn’t saying all that much! ha ha!).