The Second mrbasehart Film Challenge!

[mrbasehart]

Oh good, I was wondering when you'd start with this.

And I still need to see Martyrs myself. As a gorehound I am intrigued at its premise.

Seriously, if you're looking for "fun" from this movie, there's none to be found. 

I'll be fine. I like to think I've seen enough exploitation flicks and mindless gorefests to have a high tolerance for that sort of thing.

Have you seen Irreversible or Salo? I think those are more apposite to Martyrs than the exploitation genre.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Oh good, I was wondering when you'd start with this.

And I still need to see Martyrs myself. As a gorehound I am intrigued at its premise.

Seriously, if you're looking for "fun" from this movie, there's none to be found. 

I'll be fine. I like to think I've seen enough exploitation flicks and mindless gorefests to have a high tolerance for that sort of thing.

Have you seen Irreversible or Salo? I think those are more apposite to Martyrs than the exploitation genre.

Irreversible yes (thought it was pretty good), Salo not yet.

[GregMcduck]

I'm glad you liked F for Fake, it's been my favorite all-time film for a few years now.

[mrbasehart]

I'm glad you liked F for Fake, it's been my favorite all-time film for a few years now.

I did.  And I expect it's a film that I'd like even more on repeat viewings.

[mrbasehart]

Carry On Up the Khyber is a fine addition to the Carry On franchise, which utilizes both the quality of its cast and the absurdities of its humour to maximum effect.  Sid James takes a rare upper-class role as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the British Govenor in charge of a smallish outpost during the British rule of India, and because of a minor incident involving underpants, he finds his control over the natives is slipping, and the rebellion is led by the *incredibly* Indian Kenneth Williams, who plays the Khasi of Kalabar.  Very high brow stuff indeed, and probably not to everyone's tastes, especially considering the slightly outdated approach to race and sex, but it's frequently funny with silly little bits of dialogue "I say, you're a bit of a shot, aren't you?" "Thank you your excellency.  I hope I heard you right." and the ending, with the Govenor's mansion being bombarded by Indian rebels while the British elite totally ignore them while their mansion falls down around their ears almost approaches metaphor.

[Tripe]

Carry On Up the Khyber is a fine addition to the Carry On franchise, which utilizes both the quality of its cast and the absurdities of its humour to maximum effect.  Sid James takes a rare upper-class role as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the British Govenor in charge of a smallish outpost during the British rule of India, and because of a minor incident involving underpants, he finds his control over the natives is slipping, and the rebellion is led by the *incredibly* Indian Kenneth Williams, who plays the Khasi of Kalabar.  Very high brow stuff indeed, and probably not to everyone's tastes, especially considering the slightly outdated approach to race and sex, but it's frequently funny with silly little bits of dialogue "I say, you're a bit of a shot, aren't you?" "Thank you your excellency.  I hope I heard you right." and the ending, with the Govenor's mansion being bombarded by Indian rebels while the British elite totally ignore them while their mansion falls down around their ears almost approaches metaphor.

God I love most of the Carry On movies. 

[mrbasehart]

Once they get into the 1970s, they become pretty hard to like.  You can see the transition in those movies from bad Carry On to excrement like the Confessions movies.  All they did was lower the standard of humour and add tits.

[Tripe]

Oh sure, hence the "Most Of", but when they were on form they were great.

[mrbasehart]

Bruno is Sascha Baron Cohen's follow up to Borat, taking another of the characters from his Channel 4 TV show and utilizing the format of Borat, in which there seems to be a mixture of fictional scenes alongside "real" set-pieces.  There's really no plot, other than Bruno's motivation to become the biggest star in the world and the various schemes he enacts to get there.  I think the humour was certainly more cringe-inducing this time around, and although I often found it hilarious, I also found it quite hard to get through.  I've never been the biggest fan of that kind of humour - I've had problems with The Office, for example - but I think it certainly works more times than not here.  Perhaps my favourite moments were Bruno's appearance on a local TV talk show, where he casually exhibits photos of his adopted son in a jacuzzi surrounded by a group of naked men, and the scene where he gets martial arts instruction on how to defend himself from gay attackers.  I do think this is probably the last time Cohen can get away with something like this, though he seems to be a talented enough performer in his own right - Talladega Nights and Sweeney Todd prove it - that he can make it without risking his own bloody life on the streets of Israel or dry humping with another dude in the middle of an MMA ring surrounded by rioting fans.

[stansimpson]

Bruno is Sascha Baron Cohen's follow up to Borat, taking another of the characters from his Channel 4 TV show and utilizing the format of Borat, in which there seems to be a mixture of fictional scenes alongside "real" set-pieces.  There's really no plot, other than Bruno's motivation to become the biggest star in the world and the various schemes he enacts to get there.  I think the humour was certainly more cringe-inducing this time around, and although I often found it hilarious, I also found it quite hard to get through.  I've never been the biggest fan of that kind of humour - I've had problems with The Office, for example - but I think it certainly works more times than not here.  Perhaps my favourite moments were Bruno's appearance on a local TV talk show, where he casually exhibits photos of his adopted son in a jacuzzi surrounded by a group of naked men, and the scene where he gets martial arts instruction on how to defend himself from gay attackers.  I do think this is probably the last time Cohen can get away with something like this, though he seems to be a talented enough performer in his own right - Talladega Nights and Sweeney Todd prove it - that he can make it without risking his own bloody life on the streets of Israel or dry humping with another dude in the middle of an MMA ring surrounded by rioting fans.

I recommended "Borat".  Did you get around to that one yet?  If so, that'd be interesting to see how someone responded to "Borat" after being exposed (pun!) to "Bruno".

[mrbasehart]

Oh man.  I thought that was a typo on my part.  I've seen Borat, though apparently I didn't rate it.  *facepalm*

[stansimpson]

Oh man.  I thought that was a typo on my part.  I've seen Borat, though apparently I didn't rate it.  *facepalm*

I believe you were looking for this...



You def liked Bruno a lot more than I did.  If it weren't for maybe the last half hour, I would've regretted watching it entirely.  It's hard to laugh at antagonizing Middle East relations on pretenses of cooperation.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Yeah, you liked it more than I did as well. I laughed and enjoyed it well enough, but it felt a little stale. Only parts that really felt totally real was the cage match and the interview with Harrison Ford.

Also, I just skimmed your watched films list and noted you gave Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels a 2. That's heresy good sir, pure and simple heresy.

[mrbasehart]

Yeah, you liked it more than I did as well. I laughed and enjoyed it well enough, but it felt a little stale. Only parts that really felt totally real was the cage match and the interview with Harrison Ford.

Also, I just skimmed your watched films list and noted you gave Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels a 2. That's heresy good sir, pure and simple heresy.

I think it's an over-rated piece of shit.   

[Relaxing Dragon]

Yeah, you liked it more than I did as well. I laughed and enjoyed it well enough, but it felt a little stale. Only parts that really felt totally real was the cage match and the interview with Harrison Ford.

Also, I just skimmed your watched films list and noted you gave Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels a 2. That's heresy good sir, pure and simple heresy.

I think it's an over-rated piece of shit.   

The comment cut me deep, but the smiley face helped the healing begin.