Amazon Prime Instant Video Rec

[billyk]

Bullitt is on Prime. Just as good as it ever was. And Robert Duval in a minor role as the taxi driver.

Still kinda weird trying to follow the chase scenes. It looks like they are heading for the Golden Gate Bridge, and then all of a sudden they are out in the country somewhere, can’t quite figure out where that is or how they got there.

Edit: of course the chase route was worked out long ago: http://reelsf.com/reelsf/bullitt-car-chase-complete. The jump is from the Golden Gate Bridge on the north side of town to Daly City on the south, but that’s not the only disconnect... and the charger lost 7 hub caps!

[dookeyXXX]

Bullitt is on Prime. Just as good as it ever was. And Robert Duval in a minor role as the taxi driver.

Still kinda weird trying to follow the chase scenes. It looks like they are heading for the Golden Gate Bridge, and then all of a sudden they are out in the country somewhere, can’t quite figure out where that is or how they got there.

Edit: of course the chase route was worked out long ago: http://reelsf.com/reelsf/bullitt-car-chase-complete. The jump is from the Golden Gate Bridge on the north side of town to Daly City on the south, but that’s not the only disconnect... and the charger lost 7 hub caps!

Yeah, if you've lived in SF for any period of time (at least 3 years so that you are familiar with the City and it's districts and streets), that chase scene makes no sense whatsover. I'm guessing they heavily edited it. They actually go over San Bruno Mountain (south of the City, which takes you from DC to Brisbane/South San Francisco/The Airport).


Prime is ripe with late '60s, early '70s crime thriller classics right now, so...if you dig Bullit, check out:

Point Blank (w/Lee Marvin)
The Getaway (another Steve McQueen vehicle)
The Killer Elite (w/Duvall)
The Conversation (w/Gene Hackman; no car chases, but it takes place in SF and is similar in tone and visual style).

[JongDoe]

Bullit chase scene is funny if you watch carefully. The same VW beetle shows up several times as do other vehicles. It is an awesome, classic car chase scene with none of the high tech special effects of today.

[dookeyXXX]

HEREDITARY
4/5
In a NYT article critic AO Scott said “Mr. Aster didn’t invent the techniques he deploys to create his unsettling effects, but he also swerves away from the cliches of the genre.“ I’m not sure what film he watched, but the one I saw was teeming with genre cliches. In fact, it’s one of the reasons the film is equally frustrating and mesmerizing. Writer/Director Ari Aster seems to have taken just about every major cliche from various supernatural and occult horror films and tossed them together into a delirious hodge-podge that teeters between feeling fresh and edgy and being just plain plagueristic, albeit in an ADHD kind of way. The tropes that slip in and out of Hereditary not only serve to create an atmosphere of familiarity, but also succeed in keeping viewers seriously off balance. Bucketfuls of blood-red herrings are tossed about with casual brutality, buffered by a steady trail of breadcrumbs that show us the way back from the ultimately predictable ending; but it’s not the climax of the film that’s worthy of mention, it’s the circuitious journey. The film wavers from themes about supernatural occurences, then it flits with being a ghost story, takes a detour towards a descent into grief-stricken madness, then plays with witches, possession, and satanic cults. It’s all of this and none of it simultaneously. Where the film succeeds is in its fevered nightmare delivery, never letting us know if what we are seeing is real or merely some somnambulistic afterthought of the protagonists. This unreality is set forth in the first few frames and carries on until the final fade-to-black. There are even times when the whole proceeding feels like what a Wes Anderson horror film might look like, if you can wrap your head around that concept. The vibe of the film is greatly aided by the creepy turn from young Milly Shapiro, who spends her onscreen time manifesting the character of Charlie by stuffing her face with chocolate, building weird toy dolls, and playing with dead things. Oh, and the pacing. The film spends long, deceptively tedious moments on nothing, only to have those moments interrupted by scream-out-loud WTF bursts of violent intensity. Ditto for the score: it’s loud when it shouldn’t be, quiet when it shouldn’t be, and completely absent when it needs to be. The whole of the film seems to be focused on bait-and-switch and misdirection, which in less able hands would have come off as a trite gimmick or even a cop-out, but Aster manipulates us like a veteran. So, despite solid acting, a dizzying surrealness, and some genuine horror, the real success of this film is that the viewer never really knows where it is going, at least not until the final moments of the 3rd act. Like a number of other recent “artsploitation” efforts (You Were Never Really Here, Revenge, Killing of a Sacred Deer), Hereditary takes Old School genre elements and gussies them up in slick cinematography, populates them with accomplished name actors (here Toni Collette and Gabriel Bryne), and employs a hip indie rock musician to compose an immersive and chilling score (Colin Stetson, who has been a member/collaborator of Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and others). Granted, the last 30 minutes of the film slip into somewhat generic Blumhouse-styled territory, with the ending being rather trite and of the “seen-it-before” nature, but it’s artfully delivered and ends with a visual link that brings us full circle back to the opening frames of the film that unfolded some 2 hours earlier. In the end this is a slow-burn thriller that confounds, perterbs, but also freaks you out and should linger long after the credits have ceased to roll. So, yes, this film will probably frustrate genre junkies, but at the same time it’s easily worth a second viewing and most likely to create lively post-screening conversation.

RIYL
Rosemary’s Baby, Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lords of Salem, Oculus

[ticketchecker]

Marvelous Mrs Maisel is pretty fucking funny

[PNWbrit]

Chasing Shackleton.

3 part BBC documentary

'Can six men endure Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic rescue mission today? Using a replica boat, and the same equipment and clothing as would have been used in 1914, explorer Tim Jarvis and his crew attempt to follow in Shackleton's wake, going beyond the point of no return, using their firsthand extreme experience measured against historical accounts to unlock the secrets of survival"

[billyk]

Marvelous Mrs Maisel is pretty fucking funny

Yeah, actually enjoyed that. Didn’t think I would.

[dookeyXXX]

PARIS JE T'AIME
4/5

Cool and quirky anthology comprised of a bunch of short vignettes centered around the theme of "love" and set in, surprise!, Paris.
Lots of great casting choices, some really strange entries (the Coen Bros and Vincenzo Natali installments particularly), and just an overall solid film.
The only "blemish" is the last few minutes of needless montage right before the credits where the producers (is my best guess) felt the need to try and connect all the films (they didn't need to be connected as the way the film is constructed it's like a day and night in the life of the city itself).

[Ripzalot]

Bullit chase scene is funny if you watch carefully. The same VW beetle shows up several times as do other vehicles. It is an awesome, classic car chase scene with none of the high tech special effects of today.

https://youtu.be/xkNdi8SV_uA

Sent from my SM-A600FN using Tapatalk

[dookeyXXX]

Leave No Trace
4/5

A slow-burning, very quiet, visually tranquil, and emotionally potent rumination on family and the definition of “home” which is further augmented by an overtly subtle anti-war message and pointed criticism of bureaucracy.
Lack of backstory and the minimal dialogue was a cool technique; it kept the vibe of the film very introspective.
I really dug how the film began and ended with similar imagery; it was a nice visual bookend.
And Ben Foster was great, using his body and facial expressions to convey the things that words usually do.
Very haunting film with lingering after images.

RIYL: Wendy and Lucy; Into The Wild; A Winter’s Bone

[ICantLogIn]

answer me this: there is a scene in the trailer where the main character, is luring a cat, and then it cuts to a crazy zombie shot.
IS THERE ANY ZOMBIE (or human) ON FELINE VIOLENCE?? wife will not continue to watch if there is. No dogs/cats can die in any show/movie we watch

Haha my wife is the same way. Movie over is a animal is killed.

[dookeyXXX]

THE LOVED ONES

Imagine Sixteen Candles if the Molly Ringwald character had been a psychopath with a drill.
Yeah.
This is a gonzo, modern day Ozploitation classic.
Sure, it revisits familiar "torture porn" territory, but it does so with a twisted sense of glee coupled with great pacing, solid acting, and plenty of cat-and-mouse tension.
If you're a horror film buff, this flick is great fun.

RIYL
Wolf Creek, Misery

[LeeC]

Bullitt is a favorite.
If I had my dads old cars, I could retire.
He had both of those cars, at the same time. Somwhat different mustang, as he had a Mach 1 with a 428 shaker scoop,
but I remember going to school in the 68 charger at 140mph, on a 2 lane.
Small list od what I can remember
68 charger
Mustang GT350
69 Mach 1
Galaxy 500
Mustang GTCS
Amx 390
Fairlane 500
78 Indy Pace Car
3 Trans Am's 78-79, and a Bandit Trans Am.
Plus some, I forget. Dad had great taste.

[bagtagley]

Chasing Shackleton.

3 part BBC documentary

'Can six men endure Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic rescue mission today? Using a replica boat, and the same equipment and clothing as would have been used in 1914, explorer Tim Jarvis and his crew attempt to follow in Shackleton's wake, going beyond the point of no return, using their firsthand extreme experience measured against historical accounts to unlock the secrets of survival"

Is that a heads up, or are you suggesting it?

[dookeyXXX]

HOUSE OF GAMES
5/5

A gonzo bravura thriller-cum-heist-cum-PoMo noir-cum-glorious confidence game mindfuck from David Mamet.

If you like films that keep you on your toes via great acting, impeccible dialogue, and a plot filled with so many twists that it'll leave you dizzy, then this is a bonafide classic.



RIYL:
The Underneath; Red Rock West; Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead;

[PNWbrit]

Is that a heads up, or are you suggesting it?

recommending it on Prime.

[dookeyXXX]

ANNIHILATION
While nowhere near as brilliant as Ex Machina and even though I totally shake my head at the plot changes and liberties with the source material that Alex Garland made, I still would recommend this film.
It's a dark, twisted, and disorienting sci-fi horror film that, in many ways, reminded me a lot of Prometheus (a film I kind of hated on first watch, but ended up realizing that I actually liked it upon post-screening reflection and discussion).
I will say this: the film looks great (it is visually stunning) and the cast is solid.
The score, by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and Ben Salisbury, is completely immersive and adds a lot of tension and drama and heightened mystery to the proceedings, too.
I saw it in the theaters when it was first released and even all these months later I'm still not quite sure where I stand overall with the film as it had some plot/story problems and some annoying ambiguity that never got resolved.
The one thing I am certain of: I felt the ending was a bit crap/cliched.

I was intrigued enough to track down the novel and read it and I will say that it deals with some of the ambiguity that's in the film much better and the overal tone of the book is really soaked in confusing dread. I'd recommend watching the film first then reading the book if you are a gung-ho, hardcore sci-fi nerd.

[PB]

HOUSE OF GAMES
5/5

A gonzo bravura thriller-cum-heist-cum-PoMo noir-cum-glorious confidence game mindfuck from David Mamet.

If you like films that keep you on your toes via great acting, impeccible dialogue, and a plot filled with so many twists that it'll leave you dizzy, then this is a bonafide classic.



RIYL:
The Underneath; Red Rock West; Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead;

Absolutely agree - this its a film that will get under your skin, burrowing inevitably towards your brain. The trailer however .... embarrassing

[PB]

ANNIHILATION
While nowhere near as brilliant as Ex Machina and even though I totally shake my head at the plot changes and liberties with the source material that Alex Garland made, I still would recommend this film.
It's a dark, twisted, and disorienting sci-fi horror film that, in many ways, reminded me a lot of Prometheus (a film I kind of hated on first watch, but ended up realizing that I actually liked it upon post-screening reflection and discussion).
I will say this: the film looks great (it is visually stunning) and the cast is solid.
The score, by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and Ben Salisbury, is completely immersive and adds a lot of tension and drama and heightened mystery to the proceedings, too.
I saw it in the theaters when it was first released and even all these months later I'm still not quite sure where I stand overall with the film as it had some plot/story problems and some annoying ambiguity that never got resolved.
The one thing I am certain of: I felt the ending was a bit crap/cliched.

I was intrigued enough to track down the novel and read it and I will say that it deals with some of the ambiguity that's in the film much better and the overal tone of the book is really soaked in confusing dread. I'd recommend watching the film first then reading the book if you are a gung-ho, hardcore sci-fi nerd.

Interesting recommendation on movie over book - Vandermeer aka The Mycologist, needs a well fleshed out story to make up for his obsession with all things fungal, so I would argue that the book would actually be good prep for the movie. Annihilation as a movie seemed tentative at times, and often purposefully confused. I noticed that you did not give the movie a rating (on purpose? TBD?) I would only give it 3, maybe 3.5, out of 5.

[dookeyXXX]

Interesting recommendation on movie over book - Vandermeer aka The Mycologist, needs a well fleshed out story to make up for his obsession with all things fungal, so I would argue that the book would actually be good prep for the movie. Annihilation as a movie seemed tentative at times, and often purposefully confused. I noticed that you did not give the movie a rating (on purpose? TBD?) I would only give it 3, maybe 3.5, out of 5.

I looked back through my movie log and I initially gave it a 3 out of 5 when I saw it back in March of 2018...

I found the book much more immersive. The film, well as you stated it was confusing, but part of that is why I liked it in hindsight. I think the ending of the book is much stronger, though.
Still worth a watch for the visuals and strange detached nature of it all. For some reason it also reminded me of Altered States...

[Flyoverland Captive]

Absolutely agree - this its a film that will get under your skin, burrowing inevitably towards your brain. The trailer however .... embarrassing

Watched it tonight.

The first half definitely feels like a Mamet play; staging, dialog, etc. The cheesy 80’s vibe and wooden acting doesn’t help. But it gets going about midway through...

My wife, who worked in the Juliard costume shop in the late 80’s, laughed at the period costumes. “I made that padded shoulder POS, for many actors” she’d laugh.

Worth a watch. A slow burner, by today’s standards; the resolution is incomplete. Which in certain circumstances, like here, works.

[dookeyXXX]

2 From Argento

Two of Dario Argento's seminal 1970's giallos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giallo) are on Prime right now.
Totally worth watching if you dig wigged-out, super stylish films that unquestionably influenced the American slasher films of the '80s.
Argento is a master of color and style, although sometimes his scripts suffer in favor of visual nuance.
Still, if you dig Hitchcock and crazy thrillers, these two are among his best efforts.
You'll see how he influenced generations of horror and thriller films, too (such as the very similar trajectory of Brian DePalma, for example).

CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971)
I've read that this is one of Argento's lessor admired efforts, but it's one of my favorites. The story is pretty linear (something that is often a rarity in Argento films) and the acting is pretty decent (quite a number of his films featured waning American or British actors along with Italian actors, so there was often dubbing). It's one of his more straight forward giallos. But the production design and camera work is amazing.

This trailer is super cheesy, but gets mad points for not even remotely spoiling any of the plot!



DEEP RED (1975)
The opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission.
Uber stylish and unquestionably a precursor to the whole slasher genre that would saturate American cinema in the '80s.
The Goblin score is seminal and escalates the proceedings to another level.
It's a bit hokey in the long run, but the visual intensity should win you over.

[otto parts]

HOUSE OF GAMES
5/5

A gonzo bravura thriller-cum-heist-cum-PoMo noir-cum-glorious confidence game mindfuck from David Mamet.

If you like films that keep you on your toes via great acting, impeccible dialogue, and a plot filled with so many twists that it'll leave you dizzy, then this is a bonafide classic.



RIYL:
The Underneath; Red Rock West; Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead;

The Spanish Prisoner, also fun and also Mamet, is on the pay channels this month as well. Lighter and also terrific.

[dookeyXXX]

If you dig Mamet and want more...

Things Change is currently on Prime.
Way more light-hearted than House of Games, but the same Mamet dialogue and a great cast.

[otto parts]

Loved it, will watch again.
Assume you’ve seen Spartan too,
think Redbelt his only misfire.