NotThePars Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 It doesn't look like we have a thread for old TV shows that aren't American, so I'll stick this in here. Alternative 3 - Anglia TV faux-documentary about an investigative news programme that seems to uncover a devastating global conspiracy while researching a show on the "brain drain" of British talent to other countries. This is one of the rare TV experiences that presented itself as factual and wound up a whole bunch of credulous people, similar to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio play, or later on, Ghostwatch. It's pretty well done, and about as plausible as something like this can be, but the really surprising thing is how pertinent certain aspects are more than forty years on. The possible conspiracy theory, with world governments withholding a devastating truth from the public, is perfect for the modern internet age, and the central conceit couldn't be more relevant to the 21st century. I don't think too many people would be surprised if the end goal is being worked on right now either. I've been pretty vague in case anyone else fancies seeing it - it's probably more satisfying to go in blind.Where did you watch 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy boo Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Greenland. I didn't feel it was insulting my intelligence but it was cliche ridden. Won't watch again. It's ok.I thought it was pish. But then I can't stand Gerrard Butler. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotThePars Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 I think boxing has lent itself well to films over the years. As for the rest, as you say, the less actual sport there is in the film the better it tends to be. I would definitely watch a Neasden FC film, though.Boxing and wrestling have loads of ready-made individual focused narratives in them like the fading legend refusing to throw in the towel or a talent refusing to throw a fight on top of all the violence and degradation. My god I’ve just thought of a big budget Oscar-baiting dramatisation of the Montreal Screwjob. Let’s make it happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukDukGoose Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, jimmy boo said: 2 hours ago, Merkland Red said: Greenland. I didn't feel it was insulting my intelligence but it was cliche ridden. Won't watch again. It's ok. I thought it was pish. But then I can't stand Gerrard Butler. Weirdly they chose to let you think he was American until about half way in to the film where they confirmed he was Scottish. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 On 20/02/2021 at 13:09, tongue_tied_danny said: Green Street is embarrassing pish. The Football Factory is marginally less pish. Of all the hooligan films that I've seen ID is probably the best. Awaydays could have been good but the fight scenes were unrealistic. It had a bunch of teenagers twatting and then slashing grown men. If they'd shown more accurate "pavement dancing" then it would have been much better. None are good, neither are any books, fiction or non fiction. It's just not a subject that translates well to any medium. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfha Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Death of Me Wickerman-esque, but ultimately a bit meh. There was a lot of running around. Some things didnt make much sense; she was dragged to a walled garden and left outside and when she woke up she went in through the gate instead of turning on her heels and making a break for it, and then she was tied to a post with lots of rope and easily got free. I only kept watching it to see where it led. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 15 hours ago, BFTD said: My mum's favourite film of all time is Death Wish 2, by the way, and she's not the only woman I've known who loved it. Very odd, considering it's pretty repulsive in some ways. I think from your perspective this is one of those things you really shouldn't think too deeply about. It does further confirm my theory that no matter how shite a film/band/book is there is someone out there who truly loves it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 2 hours ago, NotThePars said: Where did you watch Sorry, I forgot we'd started mentioning sources a while ago! I rented it from Cinema Paradiso on DVD, but it looks like someone's posted it on YouTube. The quality looks very similar from quickly skimming, and was obviously taken from an old video with little cleaning up. I don't think I mentioned the soundtrack by Brian Eno, which was released separately, and also has a bit of a cult following. Apparently the programme was, to use the cliche, huge in Japan and used to be a staple of Japanese TV, inspiring various similar shows. Ironically it was only shown the once in the UK. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 12 minutes ago, Detournement said: I think from your perspective this is one of those things you really shouldn't think too deeply about. It does further confirm my theory that no matter how shite a film/band/book is there is someone out there who truly loves it. To be fair, the soundtrack by Jimmy Page is excellent and suits the film really well. Apparently there's an extended version of the movie with a couple of extra minutes of rape. Because, y'know, everyone who saw that film thought, "not bad, but could really use even more leering, prurient, sleazy footage added to the rape scenes". I see Michael Winner was posthumously accused of being a Harvey Weinstein by several actresses a few years ago, which will have surprised precisely nobody. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 @BFTD Jimmy Page isn't exactly without skeletons in his closet either. Winner may well have been a standard casting couch creep but Weinstein seems genuinely psychotic. Sadly the days of good old exploitative cinema are in the past. We are trending towards every movie being made for 12 year olds. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpInTheAyr Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Rise of the Footsoldier (extreme edition) is the Godfather of football hooligan films. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 24 minutes ago, Detournement said: @BFTD Jimmy Page isn't exactly without skeletons in his closet either. Winner may well have been a standard casting couch creep but Weinstein seems genuinely psychotic. Sadly the days of good old exploitative cinema are in the past. We are trending towards every movie being made for 12 year olds. Is Page one of the ones who fucked kids? That's starting to seem like a very naïve question about anybody from a Seventies rock band. It's cyclical. Hollywood seems to be moving back towards making films for more of an adult audience again, but I can't see the lower-end of the industry ever giving up making the films that pander to our baser instincts. It's virtually a rite of passage for directors and actors to make a few dodgy exploitation flicks before being trusted with anything more worthy. Incidentally, someone seems to have found a Hungarian lad who's the spit of Charles Bronson to make Death Wish rip-offs with 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Jimmy was pumping Lori Matrix when she was 14 years old. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRoseKillie Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Jimmy was pumping Lori Matrix when she was 14 years old. Maddix, no? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detournement Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 12 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said: 2 hours ago, Detournement said: Jimmy was pumping Lori Matrix when she was 14 years old. Maddix, no? Aye auto correct got me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 21/02/2021 at 19:01, Detournement said: Jimmy was pumping Lori Matrix when she was 14 years old. Standard. Didn't Steven Tyler run off with some lassie the same age? There seems to have been a period of time when it was genuinely considered a perk of being a rock star that you got to molest children. I don't consider myself the most hardline of parents, but I'd like to think that if some rich drug-addled alkie arrived and offered to take my kid away on tour for sexual purposes, I might have something to say about that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 Possessor - psychological horror from David Cronenberg's son Brandon. Andrea Riseborough plays an assassin who works for an organisation that uses technology to take control of people's bodies and commit untraceable crimes. I know I've seen Cronenberg's first film, Antiviral, but weirdly can't remember it at all. On the basis of this, though, he's certainly a chip off the old black, as Possessor would fit nicely into his dad's body of work. Plenty of the Cronenberg themes are present, with the unsettling melding of technology with the organic, some shockingly brutal violence, a bit of unpleasant gore, and some really quite creepy imagery. It provokes questions without sledgehammering the point, contains uniformly good performances from all concerned, and reminded me of why I was such a Cronenberg fan in my youth. I think he'll have even better movies in his future, but I'm delighted to see that there's someone else making this kind of thing. Piercing - an obsessive-compulsive young man attempts to indulge his fantasy of murdering a woman with an icepick. I really didn't quite know what to make of this. Essentially a two-hander, the antihero hires a prostitute to murder, only for things to quickly go awry, and the rest of the piece revolves around the two of them attempting to feel each other out. We get inside his mind on occasion and see some of the reasoning behind his obsession, while his potential victim's motivations remain fairly mysterious. That probably makes it sound a bit more interesting than it actually is, unfortunately; the film might have somehow whooshed me, but I found it quite dull past a certain point, and it was only 70-odd minutes long. It certainly has an interesting aesthetic, giving the impression of being a film made in the late 70s/early 80s, making bizarrely extensive use of models of tower blocks, and pinching music from various giallo films, but it didn't amount to much for me and just made me want to have a Dario Argento fest in the near future. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanton Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 The 39 Steps. The Hitchcock version, watched this on Saturday afternoon it's a pretty decent version . Found myself laughing at the scene where Hannay ( Robert Donat ) was supposed to be frying a piece of fish on a gas stove whilst smoking a cigarette at the same time . 7/10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpInTheAyr Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 Palm Springs. Excellent trippy comedy from Andy Samberg and JK Simmons. Pleasantly surprised by how charming this was. Best going into it without looking up the synopsis 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScarf Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 On 21/02/2021 at 10:36, Gianfranco said: I’d say the last 3 mission impossible movies have been better than the last 3 Bond ones. I’ve never seen Mission Impossible 3 so might make an effort to go back and watch it. Yep, MI 4, 5 and 6 are all miles better than any Bond film since Craig's first one in 2006. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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