Just would like to say Ted i genuinely enjoy your reviews, Im just some guy in New Zealand who loves reading your reviews while enjoying a whisky in the weekend
No worries, I wasn't looking for approval so appreciate the very kind words. Just hoping to read more of what other folks are watching and their thoughts, break the monotony. It's a great way to find blind buys and stumbleupons I think!
I can't remember how i stumbled upon the very obscure 1983 British comedy Party Party. All i recall is seeing a snippet somewhere and immediately heading over to Jeff to order the DVD, which I am surprised to see is still in print.
I had caught the trailer before watching the film but otherwise knew absolutely nothing about it. In fact when trying to dig up information on it there appears to be absolutely nothing about it online. So going by my impressions of the film, I can only really liken it to something along the lines of American Pie, Sixteen Candles and Animal House. Or even Julien's favourite films (along with Waterloo), Sophie Marceau hyperfilms La Boum and La Boum 2!
Keep in mind though that despite those comparisons this film is very British in it's delivery of comedy. It's co-written by and also stars Daniel Peacock, who you may know as part of Comedy Strip Presents... but far more likely you will recall him as Mental Mickey from Only Fools and Horses.
Mental Mickey was only in one episode during Season 4 when Rodney forms a band called A Bunch of Wallies. Peacock plays the frontman and is absolutely hilarious in his role.
"I TOLD YOU ONCE RODNEY I AIN'T GONNA TELL YA AGAIN SON. I DO THE 1, 2, 3, 4'S!!!!" and "...I AIN'T EVER BEEN TO RAMPTON!!!!!...............I've been to Broadmoor once or twice but anyway...."
Those are a couple of classic moments from Mental Mickey, but his character Toby in Party Party is the complete opposite. A shy, timid and not very bright lad who loves Wild Stallion cologne and has his eye on local beauty Brenda. Peacock does a great job playing Toby, some moments later in the film are genuinely cringe!
The premise for Party Party is pretty straightforward. Local lad throws a New Years Eve party at his home while his parents are out (and good God is it cringe when they come home!!! ). Chaos then ensues. That's it.
Most of the fun you'll get out of the film is in spotting all of the cast and trying to guess where you saw them before. You've got an absolute wealth of famous names here including the late Gary Olsen (from 2 Point 4 Children), Caroline Quentin, Jacko from Brush Stokes!!! (Karl Howman), Billy from Eastenders (Perry Fenwick). Even the Every Loser Wins LEGEND Nick Berry is in this! The nostalgia alone from guessing where you saw who and what from is worth watching Party Party for alone.
The film itself is alright. It is VERY crude and very much of its time. That is to say that the kind of humour on display here wouldn't go down well with audiences if it were made today. In that way it's also a glimpse of a past era, long gone now. It's not all about sex and crude jokes though, the end is actually rather endearing and I found I did care about the outcomes for each of the characters. The humour doesn't hit the mark every time though but I didn't really mind that much as I was too busy drowning in nostalgia!
One element that the film really does deserve a big, shiny gold star for is its soundtrack. This is absolutely stellar and features all the top new wave, new romantic, rock and roll and electronic acts of the day. You've also got the title track Party Party by Elvis Costello which was never released anywhere else in his catalogue, only on the Party Party soundtrack. A few other names to drop in include Bananarama, Altered Images, Pauline Black, Madness, David Bowie, Bad Manners, Midge Ure, Sting, Modern Romance, The Go Go's and even Chas and Dave! That's just a few names there, the soundtrack is absolutely jammed with mega music and well worth hunting down.
I am guessing the soundtrack might be why this film is still stuck in DVD limbo. You get a 4:3 presentation and a 2.0 Dolby Digital track, that's it. No extras, no nothing. The print quality isn't great and it is a desperate shame this hasn't been brought to Blu Ray and in its proper aspect ratio. I'm genuinely gutted about it as I feel the film deserves better, especially as a time capsule piece if nothing more.
Party Party is an alright film but if you were there, and you lived it, this film will drown any child of the 1980's and even 1990's in nostalgia overload. Party Party, while not comedy gold, is still a very fun film and certainly rewatchable. It's definitely earned a place in my list of favourite films for the nostalgia alone, the rest, including the soundtrack, is a massive bonus.
I also think a petition should be made for Universal (or whoever is the current rights owner) to get this out on Blu Ray. I just imagine the soundtrack might be a red tape minefield though...
Recommended.
Side note:
Here is a theatrical release poster for the film in Greece. I didn't even see it was released there. I think it's a better design than the UK ones as it captures more moments from the film. Very cool and super rare I'd imagine.
I was reading a piece in The Sunday Times yesterday that made mention of this film as one to look out for. So after watching England kick Germany's arse at Wembley again followed by a cheeky evening cycle, I got home with a sack of fish and chips and sat down to watch Boiling Point.
The premise is pretty simple. We follow a head chef at an exclusive restaurant, close to Christmas, and follow him during an extremely busy service. The film wastes no time in throwing you straight in to the action. You are right there, alongside chef Andy Jones (played absolutely clinically perfect by top drawer actor Stephen Graham) as he's walking in to work to start his shift. Even before he gets in the door he's on the phone, under pressure.
Boiling Point slowly chips away, gnawing at the viewer, making each minute of its 93 minute runtime that passes ever more suffocating, strangulating and claustrophobic. As someone who worked in the restaurant trade many moons ago, it was good to see that the depiction of pressure and conflict in the team was depicted with a superb degree of accuracy. If you've been there, and you've truly experienced the heat of a busy service, particularly on notable dates e.g. Christmas, New Year, Bank Holidays and so on, then this film will really hit home with you.
It's not just the heat of the kitchen that's depicted here but what's going on out on the floor and behind the bar. There's some great little details that shine here and may prove familiar again to anyone that's worked in the trade. Everyone hates the floor manager, someone on the bar and a waitress/waiter that flirt like mad, the person on the team that knows a club to go to after work for a few drinks and can get everyone in no problem, the difficult customers who treat you like the s**t on their shoe, the chef with a drink problem, the junior chef that messes up a dish, the table that sends food back even though there's nothing wrong with it. The list goes on.
What really shines though is the believability of the acting and the genius of the casting. You don't have time to think about who's who and who's done what. Each role is delivered with such passion and this air of genuity that you would be forgiven for believing they had worked in that restaurant for years. The acting is that good.
Can Boiling Point get any better then? Yes. Yes it can.
Part of what I think makes the film so good is that it is shot in one take. And I'm not talking about no 1917 one take blockbuster that was actually stitched together.
No.
BOILING. POINT. WAS. SHOT. IN. ONE. TAKE.
NO EDITS. NO BS.
ONE. TAKE.
In fact when the film was preparing to shoot in March 2020, just as the pandemic began, the crew had planned to make 8 individual takes of the film. Due to the concerns for cast and crew safety and their running out of time to lock down this was reduced to 3 takes and then selecting the best one of the 3 as the final film. There were no edits, no reshoots, nothing. What you see, start to finish, one camera shot is the film. It is said that the crew hid different props around the building as the film was shot in order to complete the take. Food, plates, cutlery etc.
This is one of those times where the one take idea works and it works brilliantly because it adds to the tension and building pressure of the teams situation. It really is quite something and along with the acting of the cast comes together to form a film that I think is really quite special.
I watched the film on Netflix and in Dolby Vision, which really set a lovely tone for the picture. Use of sound was superb too as there is no soundtrack to the film as such, just ambient noise and verbal exchanges. The lack of soundtrack really enhances the film I think, it takes away the whole 'this is a film' vibe and instead keeps your attention firmly focused to what's going on. Oh, one very small titbit of information for you, stick around for the end credits as there is a scene earlier in the film before service starts that the team take a selfie. This photo is shown after the credits. One other item of note to add is that Hannah Walters who plays Emily is married to Stephen Graham in real life, so it must have been a little odd for them to have made this film co sidering how it plays out!
Boiling Point is hopefully available on Netflix or AppleTV+ where you live. I cannot recommend it highly enough, it's absolutely divine and definitely one of the very best films I've seen in 2022, and actually in recent years. Boiling Point is a special film. Exceptional.
Supplementary:
I had a look on Just Watch and for some of the markets don't have Boiling Point on Netflix. I think it is on Apple TV+ to rent for a small fee worldwide.
Some services have it listed on AD supported channels. I strongly recommend watching this film properly, without ads interrupting every 5 minutes. The interruptions would destroy the flow of any film but particularly this one. Even pay to rent it, I think it's well worth it. Hopefully a physical 4K disc will be released for a Day 2 purchase, after Napoli La Camorra Sfida La Cite Risponde which is a day 0 purchase!
I am currently watching right now is no time to die movie with subs and For me this film was perfect! Exciting, tense, heart breaking, just epic from start to finish.
Been slowly, very slowly - I got the box set a whole year ago, after all - going through the ten disc Computer Graphics Anthology set.
Disc #8 is titled "Showreels" and it took a while of watching to figure out what that actually meant, and it's basically portfolio for various production companies, a montage of snippets from commercials and TV idents (which I'm sure some collector would love to see) showing what they can do with the medium.
Also the disc itself was still sealed, much to my surprise. Wonder if the last two are still sealed too.
Watched Star Wars, again...after getting the new box set, I watched the first two films on my parents' old CRT television, but only realized after the fact that the left audio channel on it was busted so I now I have to watch them again for a proper technical evaluation, and this is fresh off the heels of checking out the various sound mixes on the 4K77, so I've pretty much lost count on just how many friggin' times I've watched just the first movie alone within the past month. And I think I need to check out the JSC again to see how that compares with the THX remaster in terms of the audio mix and transfer!
I'm at a point where I start zoning out in the middle of the movie and pick up continuity errors I never noticed before, or how I'm pretty sure the ghost of Alec Guinness is going to appear to me one night imploring me to stop.
Been ages since I've bored anyone to death with verbal diarrhoea, but here's some for you if you are interested. I watched a double feature yesterday back to back from the Pemini Organisation box set I bought recently from Indicator (aside, buy it, it's absolutely excellent).
First up was the short film that started the whole (alas short-lived) Pemini Organisation project. 1972 thriller Hunted, starring a young Edward Woodward, and the magnificent June Ritchie whom I had oddly enough spotted earlier in the day when I was watching an episode of Tales Of The Unexpected. Specifically, the excellent episode Operation Safecrack, season 5 episode 3, where she plays Jenny. Oh and by the way, allow me to divert for a moment to include the following titbit of information. I was watching a lot of episodes of Tales of the Unexpected over the festive season this year, and I noticed that in one episode about a man who is found in a locked room with another man who has been shot and has to prove his innocence, the detective in that episode is none other than Danny Driscoll of The Driscoll Brothers in Only Fools and Horses!
Back to Hunted, and what a great little short film it is. This is one of those one room, one location features that ensnares the viewer, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the final plot twist at the end. It's really well shot and superbly acted by both lead roles. It is a shame though that the 14 minutes of prologue footage that was shot later on, when Hunted was touring the cinema circuit, has been lost forever. Though you do get a nice prologue dialogue with location photos that have survived the annals of time included on the blu ray and narrated by Peter Crane. Hunted is a fantastic short film and a great way to kick off the box set. It's just such a shame that the prologue footage is gone forever.
Next up in the box set is the feature film debut from the Pemini Organisation. 1973 grimy thriller Assassin, starring the late Ian Hendry, and also featuring one Verna Harvey, who you may recall I talked about earlier this year in Marlon Brando and Thora Hird's 1971 dairy-fuelled S&M shagging fiesta Nightcomers!
This is a quality film. It focuses more on the assassin (played by Hendry) and the thoughts, feelings and processes that the hitman would go through prior to their next job. It's really nice to look at too, with some great shots particularly in the opening sequence and also later on where a more guerilla-style takes precedent as the story picks up the pace. Harvey's role as 'The Girl' initially feels a bit 'filler', but when you look back at the film as a whole you can see the role was added to reveal an extra layer to the psyche of the assassin, an emotional and almost human side but also how that can easily be surpressed. The look and tone of the film is gritty and grimy and almost leaves you feeling like you need to have a wash afterwards.
What's really interesting is the back story around how the film was made, and in particular the daily struggles that the cast and crew would have with Ian Hendry in particular, who at the time was battling the demons of alcohol and alas would sadly succumb to health issues from this in 1984 at the age of just 53. A talent gone much too soon. Still, his role in Assassin is to be admired, for he and the rest of the cast put in cracking turns here for what is a thoroughly enjoyable film. Recommended.
Come and See (1985) - It’s a movie everyone should see but you will never want to watch it again. It is by far the best war movie and one of the most disturbing films of all times. The production quality, costumes, cinematography and sound design are so good that it’s like you are there. Spielberg watched this movie before making Schindler’s and Private Ryan. This film’s influence on those movies is extremely obvious. 11/10.
_________________ Coming Soon Derman Labs Anything Of Substance
Most of the added scenes aren't really new anymore since the special edition added a good chunk of them back, but apart from a few whole scenes added back in, most of the added stuff is just trims and scene extensions with more dialogue. It's pretty seamless for the most part, although they definitely make the film far more bloated and there are a few scenes that made me go "yeah I can see why this was cut". For example, in both theatrical and the special edition, when Lex says "by causing the deaths of innocent people", it cuts right to the missile launch, which is a nice dramatic transition - but in the TV version, there's this weird split second cut to Superman as if it wants to show his reaction, but then immediately changes it's mind and cuts back to Lex winking at Otis, and then to Otis winking back at him, and THEN it cuts to the missile launch.
Also the TV cut makes a plot hole I never noticed before way more obvious; Otis botches the reprogramming of the first missile and I always assumed the reason Teschmacher does it next is to fix it, but because of an added scene of Luthor raging about Otis' mistake, I now realize that the one she reprograms is the second missile, and she punches in a completely different set of numbers, meaning this should be the second missile in Lex's double jeopardy - but Otis' mistake is never actually corrected, at least on screen.
Viewed TENET for another experience in null entropy retro genre. Nolan created a masterpiece with an all star cast to deliver the plot. Denzel Washington has to be proud of his sons role as main protagonist.........
Anticipated Nolans next project to drop this month so went ahead and viewed TENET again.
Cheers to the membership .....
_________________ Acta Non Verba ..... Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum .... Si Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc ......
My CLD-99 broke down some time ago so I’ve been making do with the unsophisticated but indestructible LD-V2200 that was a decade old when someone gave it to me 25 years ago. Needless to say this damped my passion for the format and I haven’t been watching a lot on LD over the past…year or more, I think.
However last week I drove two hours to meet up with Duane who himself had to travel some distance. He took my 99 with hopes of fixing it (he’s brought it back from the dead before) and sold me a nearly flawless CLD-95. If and when he fixes the 99 we’ll both make similar trips again because he and I have agreed to not mail LD players.
Now I’m back into it and I’m watching LD every day again.
Dangerous When Wet (1953) Babe (DTS) Kenji’s Spring (gets better every time) Gauche the Cellist (an absolute masterwork without equal) Lots and lots of Loony Tune comps.
_________________ All about LD care, inner sleeves, shrink wrap, etc.
Great to hear this zeta! Similar thing with me too atm, only this involved a change in video projector (Sony VW500 4K Lcos to JVC X7000 D-ILA pixel shifter) I really wasn’t expecting how amazing even just average quality LD transfers were going to look beamed on one of these beauties. No comparison to BDs of course but by SD standards will easily give the average DVD a run for its money.
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