Amazon Prime Instant Video Rec

[dookeyXXX]

I stumbled upon this awhile ago and finally watched it last night.
It's a quirky genre mash of the hit man with a conscience trope augmented by supernatural hijinks (in the vein of Ghost) and a bizarre love tetrahedron.
The plot has a few hiccups but the pacing and solid acting let's you forget and forgive the minor inconsistencies. A couple of the action scenes are clunky, too, but the finale is pretty tight and the twist ending is nice.

The trailer doesn't do the film justice, but here it is anyway:



RIYL
The Wild Goose Lake; A Chinese Ghost Story; Angel-A: Chungking Express; The Villainess; First Love

[dookeyXXX]

Merry Sickmas!
This holiday horror ditty is gonzo bonkers.
Teeming with yuletide sneer and slasher excess, it takes a page from Home Alone, crumples it up, and tosses it into a boiling pot of glogg.

I didn't include the regular trailer as it gives away some of the more crafty and bugged out elements of the film.



RIYL:
The Babysitter; Anna and the Apocalypse; Scouts Guide to the Zo,bie Apocalypse; Sean of the Dead

[JimmyCarter]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but just saw UHF is available on Prime.

[dookeyXXX]

SON OF RAMBOW
This has been on my radar for several years now and I finally watched it tonight (it just popped up on Prime this week).
This little film came out rather quietly in 2008 and slipped under many a radar (mine included).
All I can say is that I would be rather surprised if Taika Waititi didn't watch this film a few times before making Jojo Rabbit; it has the same style of off-kilter, quirky humor, not to mention somewhat similar characters.

RIYL
First Blood; Jojo Rabbit; Moonrise Kingdom; I Declare War; Microbe and Gasoline

[Mike Pow]

SON OF RAMBOW
This has been on my radar for several years now and I finally watched it tonight (it just popped up on Prime this week).
This little film came out rather quietly in 2008 and slipped under many a radar (mine included).
All I can say is that I would be rather surprised if Taika Waititi didn't watch this film a few times before making Jojo Rabbit; it has the same style of off-kilter, quirky humor, not to mention somewhat similar characters.

RIYL
First Blood; Jojo Rabbit; Moonrise Kingdom; I Declare War; Microbe and Gasoline

Great movie

[splat]

Currently going through Philip K Dicks electric dreams...

[MontuckyFried]

Currently going through Philip K Dicks electric dreams...

That's a fun one. What an all-star guest line up. Enjoy!!!

Sent from my Pixel 3 using TGR Forums mobile app

[dookeyXXX]

If you dig Old School-styled stop motion animation and off-kilter whimsy, and wry surrealism, then this is a fun cinematic romp (in French with English subtitles):




RIYL
Amelie; Gumby; Ernest and Celestine

[dookeyXXX]

GALLIPOLI
Wow.
I have no idea how I have overlooked this film all these years, also not sure how I missed it back in 1981, unless it had a very limited US release.
It is less a war movie and more a coming-of-age film. Yet it does contain quite a bit of socio-political commentary; it's just delivered in a quietly blunt manner.
The ending of the film, while predictable, manages to be both poignant and ironic, and packs an emotional wallop.
The cinematography is great and it again reminded me that Peter Weir knows how to shoot a scene and has made some stellar films over the years (Picnic At Hanging Rock, Master And Commander).
The only out-of-place aspect of the film was the somewhat jarring electronic score. Also, at times it really reminded me of Chariots of Fire for some reason (the running sub-plot and the electronic music, perhaps?).
Also, how did Mark Lee not become a big star? He was just a wee bit more charismatic than the young Mel Gibson.
Still, this is a great film and highly recommended.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Very good film, a real punch in the gut. His next film "The Year of Living Dangerously" was also very good.

"The Last Wave" was the first film to blow my young mind.

[GeezerSteve]

Breaker Morant and Gallipoli came out in consecutive years, both Australian New Wave, both fine anti-war movies, some production overlap.

Breaker Morant compares favorably to Stanley Kubrick's great anti-war film Paths of Glory, IMO the greatest English-language anti-war movie of all time.

Watching all 3 in sequence is a trip.

[dookeyXXX]

^^
I need to track down both Breaker Morant and The Year Of Living Dangerously.

I have Paths Of Glory in the queue.

[PNWbrit]

Breaker Morant and Gallipoli came out in consecutive years, both Australian New Wave, both fine anti-war movies, some production overlap.

Breaker Morant compares favorably to Stanley Kubrick's great anti-war film Paths of Glory, IMO the greatest English-language anti-war movie of all time.

Watching all 3 in sequence is a trip.

Paths of Glory could be justified in a list of 10 best ever movies.

[otto parts]

^^
I need to track down both Breaker Morant and The Year Of Living Dangerously.

I have Paths Of Glory in the queue.

Dooks-Year is just god dang terrific, shocked you’ve never seen....


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[dookeyXXX]

Dooks-Year is just god dang terrific, shocked you’ve never seen....


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Man, there's a ton of shit that I've seen (that others have not) and then there's a ton of shit that I haven't seen (that others have)...

[EWG]

Gallipoli is an emotional atom bomb. Extremely well done. Saw it in college at some point (not sure why one of us picked out the video) but it crushed us all.

GALLIPOLI
Wow.
I have no idea how I have overlooked this film all these years, also not sure how I missed it back in 1981, unless it had a very limited US release.
It is less a war movie and more a coming-of-age film. Yet it does contain quite a bit of socio-political commentary; it's just delivered in a quietly blunt manner.
The ending of the film, while predictable, manages to be both poignant and ironic, and packs an emotional wallop.
The cinematography is great and it again reminded me that Peter Weir knows how to shoot a scene and has made some stellar films over the years (Picnic At Hanging Rock, Master And Commander).
The only out-of-place aspect of the film was the somewhat jarring electronic score. Also, at times it really reminded me of Chariots of Fire for some reason (the running sub-plot and the electronic music, perhaps?).
Also, how did Mark Lee not become a big star? He was just a wee bit more charismatic than the young Mel Gibson.
Still, this is a great film and highly recommended.

[PB]

Homecoming: second season is out. Took 3 episodes to start making sense, very different feel compared to first season, jury's still out for me.

[Dantheman]

We were getting bored with Netflix so I decided to drop it last month and bought a year-long full Prime membership. My 10 y.o has been loving The Grand Tour. What other good stuff is on here that I can watch with the kid that isn't a "kids" show? I'm not too concerned with language up to a point (TGT has nothing on what he hears at the skatepark and the lift line at Brighton, but he's still too young for Tarantino-level profanity at home), but sex/violence needs to be pretty minimal.

[Marshall Tucker]

Anti war greatest?

by a very, very wide margin.

[PNWbrit]

Coppola doesn't agree that it's an anti-war film.

[dookeyXXX]

COME TO DADDY
4/5

Whoa. This is a bugged out, f$%ked-up slab of PoMo neo grindhouse bravura.
It twists, turns, and smacks you upside the head with off-kilter violence and quirky performances.
The coolest thing is that the trailer is one giant red herring that sets you up for a headcracking and deranged good time.

RIYL
Swiss Army Man; Lucky Day; Borgman; Mandy

[bobz]

Me & my kid just watched Hunt For the Wilderpeople (probably available for rent on Amazon, but we saw it free on Kanopy, if you have access to that), by Taika Waititi, more recently known for JoJo Rabbit (and supposedly on tap for a future Star Wars movie). It's an outdoorsy comedic (adopted) father - son adventure tale, occasionally silly, but overall wonderful, fun, and something different.


Speaking of movies by Kiwi directors who went on to bigger projects, I also recently saw Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (on Hoopla, I think). I can't really recommend that one, but it is kind of, uh, special. The whole point of the film is to set up multiple scenes of disgusting personal violence, and since it's humans versus extraterrestrials in human form, and the latter characters don't die easily, well, there's a kind of economy where individual characters get to be gutted and dismembered more gratuitously, and sometimes more than once, than if they were human victims. Oh, and there's a running joke where a guy who cracked his skull keeps needing to stuff (mostly his own) brains back into his head when they accidentally spill out. 1.5 stars (at best), Joe Bobz sez check it out.

[dookeyXXX]

...I also recently saw Peter Jackson's Bad Taste ... Joe Bobz sez check it out.

I grew up reading JBB's movie reviews. Always wish I had been extra nerdy and had clipped them out of the paper and kept them in a scrapbook...

FWIW, Bad Taste just popped up on Prime. I suggest it as a late nite "red eye matinee"...but, yeah, not Jackson's best (that would be Dead Alive).

And Hunt For The Wilderpeople is fantastic.
Taika Waititi's even earlier film, Boy, was on Prime last time I checked. Have not seen it yet, but it is in my queue.

[PB]

x3 on HftWpeeps. In fact, now I want to re-watch it!

[dookeyXXX]

If the trailer for Come To Daddy intrigued you (see post #622 above) and you wish to indulge in a gonzo PoMo grindhouse evening, this would make for a killer (and demented) double-feature:




Heck, go for broke and make it a triple-feature with Better Watch Out (see post #603).