What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #2
Horror, gangster, romance and sci-fi television
Back again with another installment of "What I Watched, What You Watched," and due to my time in San Diego covering Comic Con and the fact one of the selections included this time around is the complete season from a television show this installment doesn't have as many titles, but the second page has a little extra something I hope you'll be interested in checking out.
As a reminder to those that either didn't read the first installment (read it here) in this new feature series or forgot, "What I Watched, What You Watched" is a chance for me to share with you the movies (and sometimes television shows) I have been watching that don't necessarily make it into the headlines every week. My goal is to do this on a weekly basis unless things get in the way (such as this time around).
I hope this will spark conversation based on the titles I watched as well as get you to share some of the films you may have watched recently and suggest future titles for myself and others to add to our Netflix queues, which if you are Netflix subscriber you can connect with my queue by clicking here. With that said, let's get started as this time I have four movies and one television show to share with you.
| [REC] (2007) |
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QUICK THOUGHTS: Yup, I finally saw this 2007 first person thriller and it works, it really, really works. A lot of credit to the writers who created a story in which the character's continued use of the camera was warranted, especially in the film's closing and more terrifying moments. I would think most of the people that saw Cloverfield would agree, like it or not, the use of the camera in that one was a bit of a stretch since at the point you are being chased by either the giant monster or those littler ones you would pretty much abandon the home movie and try to save yourself. With REC however, the Angela character played by Manuela Velasco is extremely well done in how she doesn't flip her lid immediately and is more upset with the fact they are trapped in a building, seemingly illegally and without cause. And even once she learns of the danger they are in, she still wants to keep the camera rolling as proof of what her and the rest of the captives have been trapped with.
From what I have been told, Jennifer Carpenter's portrayal of the same character in Quarantine goes a bit crazy much sooner causing the performance to be a little less effective. I haven't seen it yet so I can't say, but after seeing REC I'm not sure I care to. I also don't know what they are going to do with a sequel, especially one in which it looks like they are again going for the first person angle, which seems like redundant overkill, but who knows. |
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| Band of Outsiders (1964) |
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QUICK THOUGHTS: I hardly know how to classify Jean-Luc Godard's gangster drama, but to call it "gangster" and leave it at that would be to certainly confuse modern American audiences going in with expectations of The Godfather or Goodfellas. If anything this is Godard's re-telling of the early American gangster drama, and going beyond what he did with Breathless, these characters almost seem to be playing characters themselves. In comparison, I would say Breathless's Michel Poiccard was influenced and at times attempts to mimic American gangster films while Franz and Arthur (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) in Band of Outsiders almost seem, at times, to be a parody of them. Frey's performance, by far, was my favorite of the bunch as he coolly sashays through every scene. Even when Odile (Anna Karina) turns down his offer for a cigarette only to accept Arthur's he makes a small gesture noting his frustration at her acceptance of the more brutish of the two, but moves on almost as if he knows something those two do not. Then there is the dance sequence in the cafe, the best part of the film and an example of how classifying solely as a gangster film and not mentioning the sex appeal and the goofy behavior throughout would be to read it wrong entirely. However, all of this said, I can't say Band of Outsiders moves me one way or another. After repeated viewings I may grow to like it more, but it didn't register as an instant classic for me the way Breathless did.
Below, is the dance scene I referenced. Franz is the one wearing the suit, but this one really shows off Karina. The narration you hear is done by Godard. Enjoy. |
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| The Hit (1984) |
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QUICK THOUGHTS: Along with Band of Outsiders and Le Samourai (fantastic film), I bought Stephen Frears's The Hit back toward the end of June and finally got around to watching Band and The Hit in the past couple of weeks. Between the three movies, Le Samourai directed by Jean-Pierre Melville is the definite must buy, but The Hit is a stand-out starting with its performances followed by a fascinating ending.
The film stars Terrence Stamp as Willie Parker, an informer who sends his one-time gangster buddies to jail in exchange for a peaceful life in a Spanish village. Of course, come ten years later, the boys are out of jail and a couple of hit men turn up, kidnap Willie and we follow their journey to Paris where it is assumed he will be executed at the hand of those he fingered. The hit men are played by John Hurt and a 21-year-old Tim Roth. Having the three together in almost every single scene for the film's final hour is a pleasure, especially Roth's performance, which I absolutely couldn't get enough of. |
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| Battlestar Galactica 4.5 |
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QUICK THOUGHTS: Laremy just reviewed the second-half of the fourth and final season of "Battlestar Galactica" (read that here) so I felt a second review from me for the Blu-ray complete series would seem a bit redundant. I will say I think this is a tremendous television series and Universal's complete series package is impressive to say the least, but I can never get over how much I hate the word "frak," there is no reason for it to exist and the way it is used is ludicrous. My annoyance with that one singular word was the reason I took so long to return to this series and wasn't able to even watch the first half of the fourth season when it arrived for review back in January.
However, I got over it and even got over the melodrama between Adama and Roslin and Adama's frequent bouts of insanity such as spontaneously deciding to go crazy and paint a wall only to fall backwards on it with his arms spread wide while trying to convince me he is crying, or the especially disgusting moment he sits down drunk in an alley and pukes all over himself. Yeah, that didn't exactly work for me, but the overall gist of this show is enough to make you forgive the bad parts and eat up everything else. On top of that the series finale was so well done I am now anticipating the upcoming straight-to-dvd movie "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" which hits DVD/Blu-ray on October 27. Check out a trailer for "The Plan" directly below and I also included it in the "Buy Now" link along with other "BSG" titles available for purchase. |
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