What films have you watched recently?

EricTheWeary

Reggae in a Babylon.

On Prime.

Budget German made documentary from 1978 about the British reggae scene [ surely on that description alone members of The Fretboard will be rushing to take out Prime accounts...]. 

Snippets of interviews, reggae on sound systems and band performances. No one is named, there are two bands who I have no idea who they are. 

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi. The latter featuring Dennis Bovell on guitar who still enjoys a career as a musician and producer ( outside of reggae he produced acts including Orange Juice, Thompson Twins and The Slits) and who people may remember from Rock School. 

It’s a badly made film but the footage is evocative of the time and the band performances are pretty cool.

There is a slightly later film called Babylon starring Brindsley Forde ( of Aswad and The Double Deckers) with a soundtrack by Bovell which, I think, is a low budget crime thriller so that’s next on the list. That list being films nobody else in the family will watch with me...

Moominpapa

EricTheWeary said:

Reggae in a Babylon.

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi.

I saw Steel Pulse at UEA in '78 - they were tremendous.

EricTheWeary

Moominpapa said:

EricTheWeary said:

Reggae in a Babylon.

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi.

I saw Steel Pulse at UEA in '78 - they were tremendous.

Nice. From what I’ve read they did rock venues,unis, toured with punk bands and deliberately chose not to be part of the U.K. reggae scene at the time ( in the documentary they explain that they aren’t rastas in soft Brummy accents). One of those bands I’d have loved to have seen in their heyday. 

Very much had their own thing going on, a lot more structured musically than the kind of roots reggae from Jamaica at the time. Handsworth Revolution is such a classic album. 

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

Reggae in a Babylon.

On Prime.

Budget German made documentary from 1978 about the British reggae scene [ surely on that description alone members of The Fretboard will be rushing to take out Prime accounts...]. 

Snippets of interviews, reggae on sound systems and band performances. No one is named, there are two bands who I have no idea who they are. 

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi. The latter featuring Dennis Bovell on guitar who still enjoys a career as a musician and producer ( outside of reggae he produced acts including Orange Juice, Thompson Twins and The Slits) and who people may remember from Rock School. 

It’s a badly made film but the footage is evocative of the time and the band performances are pretty cool.

There is a slightly later film called Babylon starring Brindsley Forde ( of Aswad and The Double Deckers) with a soundtrack by Bovell which, I think, is a low budget crime thriller so that’s next on the list. That list being films nobody else in the family will watch with me...

I’ll look out for it. Firstly, there’s a load of crap films on Prime and I might as well watch something vaguely interesting. Secondly I went to school with Brindsley Forde. 

EricTheWeary

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

Reggae in a Babylon.

On Prime.

Budget German made documentary from 1978 about the British reggae scene [ surely on that description alone members of The Fretboard will be rushing to take out Prime accounts...]. 

Snippets of interviews, reggae on sound systems and band performances. No one is named, there are two bands who I have no idea who they are. 

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi. The latter featuring Dennis Bovell on guitar who still enjoys a career as a musician and producer ( outside of reggae he produced acts including Orange Juice, Thompson Twins and The Slits) and who people may remember from Rock School. 

It’s a badly made film but the footage is evocative of the time and the band performances are pretty cool.

There is a slightly later film called Babylon starring Brindsley Forde ( of Aswad and The Double Deckers) with a soundtrack by Bovell which, I think, is a low budget crime thriller so that’s next on the list. That list being films nobody else in the family will watch with me...

I’ll look out for it. Firstly, there’s a load of crap films on Prime and I might as well watch something vaguely interesting. Secondly I went to school with Brindsley Forde. 

Wow! 

He always comes across as a nice chap. He’s in the recent documentary about Bob Marley in Britain which is still on the iPlayer.
I saw Aswad live in about 1988 and Brindsley would have still been in the band I think. I saw them again three years ago but he’s long since left. 

Emp_Fab

Last night we watched "A Quiet Place" (Emily Blunt & John Krasinski).

I chose it because it got 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

What a pile of absolute shit.  It had more plot holes than a building site full of fucking moles.

Spoiler alert etc....

It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where people-munching aliens have wiped out most of the human race and streets are overgrown and deserted (think I am Legend), but the twist is that the aliens are blind and hunt only by sound, so everyone that's still alive has to live in total silence as the slightest noise causes these things to come running for their dinner.

So, what's so shit ?  Well.....
Choosing to live in a rural farm surrounded by fields of corn that provide the monsters with perfect cover isn't the greatest idea.  Try moving into a tower block somewhere, so you can at least speak quietly to each other instead of having to sign.  Not to mention it's an infinitely safer place strategically.

How the fuck did the world's combined military get fucked over by a bunch of BLIND monsters ?  YES... BLIND !!  All you'd need to do is dig a big hole, make some noise at the bottom, they all come running, ka-boom.  It's almost as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, yet we are expected to believe that somehow these blind animals have outwitted the human race.

Where is the electricity coming from ?  The world's been taken over remember....  who the fuck is running the power stations ?  Blind aliens ?  OK, so perhaps there isn't a national grid anymore and they're generating their own electricity on the farm....   how ?  Silent fucking generators ?

Other survivors that live in nearby farms make little fires at the top of their grain silos (like Lord of the Rings beacons).  Why ?  You've all got electricity !  Why bother making fires at all ?  You need to communicate ? - why not use radios ?  You can use radios silently by using morse code and headphones.  Talking of which, Krasinski does try to do this early on in the film, sending 'S.O.S.' via morse on various shortwave frequencies.   Er........  John.......   your neighbours are all alive, remember those fires at the top of the silos ?

The nail on the stairs.....   don't get me started......  FFS......

Turns out the secret to killing them is high-frequency sound....  think feedback....   drives them crazy and whilst they're flailing around in agony, you just pop a cap in their asses.  Now.... if only the combined scientific and military minds of the human race had thought to try using sound as a weapon against creatures that have incredibly sensitive hearing, the world could have been saved!  Think of the wasted months they were trying in vain with cages baited with cheese, those giant fly-papers dangled from bridges and the reservoirs they filled with beer.

One other thing....  how the fuck did millions of aliens....   aliens that have legs like stilts, no hands AND ARE FUCKING BLIND!! manage to navigate across the vastness of space to Earth ?  Special disabled spaceships was it ? 

96% eh ?  Fuck you Rotten Tomatoes.  That's the last time I give any credence to your reviews!

(yes, I know they're just collating other reviews, but I need to vent!)
 

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

boogieman said:

EricTheWeary said:

Reggae in a Babylon.

On Prime.

Budget German made documentary from 1978 about the British reggae scene [ surely on that description alone members of The Fretboard will be rushing to take out Prime accounts...]. 

Snippets of interviews, reggae on sound systems and band performances. No one is named, there are two bands who I have no idea who they are. 

However, I spotted Aswad, Steel Pulse and Matumbi. The latter featuring Dennis Bovell on guitar who still enjoys a career as a musician and producer ( outside of reggae he produced acts including Orange Juice, Thompson Twins and The Slits) and who people may remember from Rock School. 

It’s a badly made film but the footage is evocative of the time and the band performances are pretty cool.

There is a slightly later film called Babylon starring Brindsley Forde ( of Aswad and The Double Deckers) with a soundtrack by Bovell which, I think, is a low budget crime thriller so that’s next on the list. That list being films nobody else in the family will watch with me...

I’ll look out for it. Firstly, there’s a load of crap films on Prime and I might as well watch something vaguely interesting. Secondly I went to school with Brindsley Forde. 

Wow! 

He always comes across as a nice chap. He’s in the recent documentary about Bob Marley in Britain which is still on the iPlayer.
I saw Aswad live in about 1988 and Brindsley would have still been in the band I think. I saw them again three years ago but he’s long since left. 

He was on a celebrity Pointless recently and yeah he seemed a nice guy. He certainly looks great for his age, unlike me, hard to think we’re the same age. I don’t remember a whole lot about him at school to be honest, apart from him telling everyone in class that he was going to be on telly (for Double Deckers). His family moved to north London just after then I think. 

DiscoStu

Murder In The Front Row

Google Play but you can get it on YouTube and Amazon as well.

Documentary covering the birth of the thrash metal scene in San Francisco in the early 80s. Lots of Exodus and Metallica, plus Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax etc.
Really well put together and made me feel like a teenager again, I'd have liked more music clips but that would have made for a crazy runtime.

8/10

JezWynd

Greyhound. Tom Hanks as a destroyer captain on first convoy duty. Non stop action in the Atlantic with lots of CGI. I'm sure it was a labour of love and respect for Hanks but it lacks any characterisation of the men - the only thing we learn about Hank's captain is that he loves God and his wife - and instead focusses entirely on the action which is state of the art CGI for the most part. Very watchable if you like that sort of thing.

Emp_Fab

Yeah, I saw that recently too.  Pretty to look at but the plot was as complex and as thin as a blue Rizla.

PhilW1

'Philly_Q said:

boogieman said:

Never say never again. The ill-advised return of Sean Connery as Bond. He was 53 when he made this, wears a laughably bad wig and although he’s still in very good nick for his age at this point he just comes across as a sad old letch. 

He'd already done that once before, in Diamonds are Forever (he was only 40 or 41 then but already looked ancient).

Funny to think Roger Moore went on making them until he was 57, although he was well past it by then.  And Daniel Craig's 52, but actors today are generally in way better shape than their predecessors.

Every time I see the trailer for the new a Bond movie with Daniel Graig I can’t help thinking he looks more like Norman Wisdom!

Emp_Fab

...and another thing about that bloody blind aliens rubbish; they ran at high speed through the forest, head down, on all fours.

Blind aliens.

Not once did you hear "Donk.... OWWW!".

Stratavarious

Emp_Fab said:

...and another thing about that bloody blind aliens rubbish; they ran at high speed through the forest, head down, on all fours.

Blind aliens.

Not once did you hear "Donk.... OWWW!".

Maybe they are like bats?

Stratavarious

I just started Quadraphenia, then stopped.  

My movie buff son has not seen it yet. So we will watch it later on the big TV. 

Maybe a double bill with Saturday Night Fever.

BigBearKris

Emp_Fab said:

Last night we watched "A Quiet Place" (Emily Blunt & John Krasinski).

I chose it because it got 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

What a pile of absolute shit.  It had more plot holes than a building site full of fucking moles.

Spoiler alert etc....

It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where people-munching aliens have wiped out most of the human race and streets are overgrown and deserted (think I am Legend), but the twist is that the aliens are blind and hunt only by sound, so everyone that's still alive has to live in total silence as the slightest noise causes these things to come running for their dinner.

So, what's so shit ?  Well.....
Choosing to live in a rural farm surrounded by fields of corn that provide the monsters with perfect cover isn't the greatest idea.  Try moving into a tower block somewhere, so you can at least speak quietly to each other instead of having to sign.  Not to mention it's an infinitely safer place strategically.

How the fuck did the world's combined military get fucked over by a bunch of BLIND monsters ?  YES... BLIND !!  All you'd need to do is dig a big hole, make some noise at the bottom, they all come running, ka-boom.  It's almost as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, yet we are expected to believe that somehow these blind animals have outwitted the human race.

Where is the electricity coming from ?  The world's been taken over remember....  who the fuck is running the power stations ?  Blind aliens ?  OK, so perhaps there isn't a national grid anymore and they're generating their own electricity on the farm....   how ?  Silent fucking generators ?

Other survivors that live in nearby farms make little fires at the top of their grain silos (like Lord of the Rings beacons).  Why ?  You've all got electricity !  Why bother making fires at all ?  You need to communicate ? - why not use radios ?  You can use radios silently by using morse code and headphones.  Talking of which, Krasinski does try to do this early on in the film, sending 'S.O.S.' via morse on various shortwave frequencies.   Er........  John.......   your neighbours are all alive, remember those fires at the top of the silos ?

The nail on the stairs.....   don't get me started......  FFS......

Turns out the secret to killing them is high-frequency sound....  think feedback....   drives them crazy and whilst they're flailing around in agony, you just pop a cap in their asses.  Now.... if only the combined scientific and military minds of the human race had thought to try using sound as a weapon against creatures that have incredibly sensitive hearing, the world could have been saved!  Think of the wasted months they were trying in vain with cages baited with cheese, those giant fly-papers dangled from bridges and the reservoirs they filled with beer.

One other thing....  how the fuck did millions of aliens....   aliens that have legs like stilts, no hands AND ARE FUCKING BLIND!! manage to navigate across the vastness of space to Earth ?  Special disabled spaceships was it ? 

96% eh ?  Fuck you Rotten Tomatoes.  That's the last time I give any credence to your reviews!

(yes, I know they're just collating other reviews, but I need to vent!)
 

For the record - I thought that movie was 4/10 at best but...

You must be a real pleasure to watch something together mate, blimey.

andyp

DiscoStu said:

Murder In The Front Row

Google Play but you can get it on YouTube and Amazon as well.

Documentary covering the birth of the thrash metal scene in San Francisco in the early 80s. Lots of Exodus and Metallica, plus Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax etc.
Really well put together and made me feel like a teenager again, I'd have liked more music clips but that would have made for a crazy runtime.

8/10

I’ve been wanting to see this for ages. I had been hoping to buy it on Blu Ray but it seems to be online purchase only... so looks like I’ll go via Amazon prime.

Emp_Fab

I don't complain during the film !  I keep quiet.  I don't want to spoil it for my co-viewers.  It only occurs to me how annoying the plot was afterwards.  Usually when I'm in the bath.

I do all my best thinking in the bath.

Philly_Q

Triple Threat

Spent the usual half hour or so trying to find something to watch on Netflix... I started watching some dreadful nonsense called Tik Tok, gave up after ten minutes and ended up with this martial arts actioner starring Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen and Scott Adkins (plus Michael Jai White and Michael Bisping - the new Vinnie Jones?).

Minimal plot, lots of fighting and shooting, as you might expect, but all a bit underwhelming.  It does exactly what it says on the tin and no more.

Moominpapa

The Meg (2018) A jolly piece of "oh no, a prehistoric creature has survived into the present day and is going to eat us all"  tosh starring Jason Statham. Complete hokum, but if you are a bit drunk on a weekend night and don't want to use your brain at all, this is the one for you.

HAL9000

Elizabeth (the Cate Blanchett one). The story of the tumultuous early years of Elizabeth’s reign. Historically inaccurate but surprisingly watchable and visually spectacular. Not really sure how to rate this one due to the discrepancy between historical accuracy and cinematic spectacle. Probably 1/10 for accuracy and 8/10 for cinematography. In theory that should make it 4.5 but in reality it’s far better than that. An odd one and a bit of a mixed bag. Ok then - 7/10 (ish).