What films have you watched recently?

fretmeister

Hackman and Hoffman together were excellent.

BluesLover

Dune (2021). Quite enjoying this, apart from, first a dreadful sound mix that has me riding the volume control, and second, bemusement at how people can have the technology to fly between planets but fight with swords! (Amazon prime £5)
Theatre of blood. Vincent Price at his magnificent best. Love this film. (inc with Amazon prime)

Offset

BluesLover said:

Dune (2021). Quite enjoying this, apart from, first a dreadful sound mix that has me riding the volume control, and second, bemusement at how people can have the technology to fly between planets but fight with swords! (Amazon prime £5)
Theatre of blood. Vincent Price at his magnificent best. Love this film. (inc with Amazon prime)

Now you're talking!!!  Theatre Of Blood is fuggin' brilliant - as is almost everything with VP in it :-)

ICBM

BluesLover said:

Dune (2021). Quite enjoying this, apart from, first a dreadful sound mix that has me riding the volume control, and second, bemusement at how people can have the technology to fly between planets but fight with swords!

That's an important plot device which does actually make sense, if you've read the books - which more than any other film I've ever seen, I would say is almost essential if you really want to understand what's going on.

Basically, personal shields which stop fast-moving projectiles but allow slow movement, so guns are useless but knives and swords still work.

boogieman

Offset said:

BluesLover said:

Dune (2021). Quite enjoying this, apart from, first a dreadful sound mix that has me riding the volume control, and second, bemusement at how people can have the technology to fly between planets but fight with swords! (Amazon prime £5)
Theatre of blood. Vincent Price at his magnificent best. Love this film. (inc with Amazon prime)

Now you're talking!!!  Theatre Of Blood is fuggin' brilliant - as is almost everything with VP in it :-)

Vincent Price is one of my favourite horror film actors (Peter Cushing is the other). They both have that perfect blend of camp theatrical lovey and Shakespearean actor. The Pit and the Pendulum is my favourite VP film, it’s wonderful. 

Talking of horror films, I watched the Jack Palance version of Dracula last night. It’s magnificently awful. Although he looks the part, poor old Jack mumbles his way through the part like he’s got a mouthful of peanut butter sandwich. There’s also some diabolical acting from the support cast and some real, unintentional, laugh out loud moments including one part where Nigel Gray is holding a crucifix in front of a flinching Dracula who’s just about to sink his fangs into a woman’s neck. 

“Put it down” mumbles Jack. 

“Very well” replies Nige, who promptly drops it. As you would. 

 

Offset

boogieman said:

Vincent Price is one of my favourite horror film actors (Peter Cushing is the other). They both have that perfect blend of camp theatrical lovey and Shakespearean actor. 

Peter Cushing is one of my favourite actors, period.  I absolutely adore all of those classic old Hammer films and I never tire of watching them.  He also seemed a lovely man and I didn't realise until fairly recently what very close friends he and Christopher Lee were.  Lee made a wonderfully touching tribute to Cushing on a DVD of Hound Of The Baskervilles, saying:

"I don't want to sound gloomy, but at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again."

Offset

Time Bandits (1981)

On Film 4 today.  Absolutely brilliant - I haven't seen it for ages and it hasn't aged.  Stellar cast, great plot, some wonderful performances and laugh-out loud moments aplenty.  Cleese as Robin Hood still cracks me up.  I absolutely adore it.

10/10.

Offset

Stardust (2007)

On Film 4 (again).  Adapted from the Neil Gaiman novel, this is a film which drew a mixed reception.  And for good reason.

I'll reveal my cards up front - I really like this movie.  Fantastic cast with a couple of standout performances... oh OK, one, and that was Michelle Pfeiffer as the villain.  She's great.  Mark Strong is also pretty good, as he usually is.  However there are a couple of eye-popping pieces of miscasting - Ricky Gervais who, as usual, is just fucking irritating and frankly ruins every scene he's in.  But unbelievably the other is Robert DeNero, who is... awful, and in a cringe-worthy way.

The film is a bit convoluted for younger audiences - and it is a family film - but the effects are great given this is 15 years old and it's very good fun.  Seeing a witch eaten alive by ferrets and wolves isn't something you'll see every week.

The film is flawed but I've enjoyed it each time I've seen it and it has a genuine fantastical quality.

7/10.

BluesLover

Thanks ICBM for info about shields v swords. I haven't read the books so that was really helpful. I'm looking forward to part 2 coming out now!

BigBearKris

"65" (2023).

Adam Driver as a spaceship pilot who crash landed on Earth 65 million years ago.
Mix of drama and jurassic Park - lasted only 90 minutes and seemed bit rushed, especially last 30mins.
Nevertheless - quite entertaining, but don't look for sense, logic or great acting.

4.65/10

smogmonster

'A Sense Of Freedom', which was made for ITV and based on the autobiography of the former Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle, who subsequently became an artist. Irvine Welsh must have based the character of Frank Begbie at least part on Boyle - the transformation from hard case to artist in any case.

I remember watching it when it was first broadcast in early 1981 and was regularly repeated through the 80s but has since been largely forgotten, unlike 'Scum' which was made around the same time and tackles similar themes.

Could never see this ever being made nowadays, tv drama currently is far too sanitised and formulaic, and the people who commission it are obviously afraid to upset the authorities. The producers of A Sense Of Freedom' were forced to film in a disused Dublin prison as they were denied access to any UK based facilities. There were also tales of fire engines being used to disrupt the filming of outside scenes shot on location in Glasgow.

I recommend it, if only because it demonstrates how much better tv drama was in the 70s and 80s. It is up on YouTube, for the time being at least.

Now to read the book.

Offset

smogmonster said:

I remember watching it when it was first broadcast in early 1981 and was regularly repeated through the 80s but has since been largely forgotten, unlike 'Scum' which was made around the same time and tackles similar themes.

'Scum' - what a movie.  Ray Winstone was ferociously scary as Carlin.

"Where's yer tool?"

"What tool?"

"This fuckin' tool!"

You're absolutely spot-on - this would never be made today.  You've made me want to re-watch it and I'm going to check out 'A Sense Of Freedom'.

stufisher

Great call @smogmonster 'tis indeed a great film and an apposite testimony to the hard-edged and austere era in which it was filmed. I'll be checking out YT tonight and will share this awareness with my buddies, as they'll all wanna re-watch it too.

I remember going to see David Hayman play The Hardman at the Glasgow Apollo in 1979/1980 ... a powerful portrayal of Jimmy Boyle indeed ... has stuck with me ever since.

Whilst we're on the theme, I'd recommend to anyone that they check out 'Just a boy's game', 'Just another Saturday' or indeed any of Peter MacDougall's plays from 70s/80s. The above two featured on BBC's Play For Today series (remember that?) and we're absolutely on-point for life in Glasgow/Greenock at the time. Fantastic ... right in yer face ... untethered ... tense ... Frankie Miller is totally credible and John Morrison is cast perfectly as an impressionable 'showman' in a violent, unrelenting, sectarian, polarised, confused society.

 I bought this boxset a long time ago ... highly recommended:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-McDougall-Collection-Disc-DVD/dp/B000VVT1NA

stufisher

For completeness, I thought I'd just check YT ... as if by magic:

Just Another Saturday isn't free

Timcito

Nicholas Nickleby - the 2001 version with Charles Dance as the evil uncle Nickleby. It's a great story but something of a fantasy if we think realistically (cynically?). The story opens with a regime of evil in power. Crooked economists and toffs have all the money and influences, children are abused in school, and good people are poor and powerless. In the end, all the good people are rewarded, even though one dies, and the bad characters are all punished. But it's still a great story, and the casting in the film works well.

Keiko

BigBearKris said:

"65" (2023).

Adam Driver as a spaceship pilot who crash landed on Earth 65 million years ago.
Mix of drama and jurassic Park - lasted only 90 minutes and seemed bit rushed, especially last 30mins.
Nevertheless - quite entertaining, but don't look for sense, logic or great acting.

4.65/10

Yeah, I saw it too, utter pants. Avoid. Like a low budget Jurassic Park.

Just from an enjoyment persepective, it's the usual monster movie plot that has been done to death. Everything in nature is hell bent on immediately killing humans on sight for some strange reason, with the usual "happy ending" (for the humans). *yawn*.

On another level I have a genuine hatred for "hurray we killed it" films. Jaws etc. They have a lot to answer for in the real world in my opinion. Not what the world needs, but hey there are millions of bell ends in the world who love watching those films and so it makes some people in America a lot of money, so that's the end of that discussion.

and no it wasn't my choice to watch it.

Philly_Q

Violent Night

What better to watch just after Easter than a Christmas movie? 

I'd seen mixed reviews of this.  It starts badly with a scene needlessly set in "Bristol, England" which looks more like some large city in Canada, then moves on to some clunky unfunny comedy... but ultimately it turns into Die Hard meets Home Alone, with David Harbour as an ass-kicking but very likeable Santa Claus.  I loved it.

bobblehat

Monster Hunter - Netflix  

Absolute garbage. I'm usually happy to watch this kind of nonsense but this was woeful. 

Murder Mystery - Netflix

Almost turned it off after 10 minutes but stuck with it and sort of glad I did. Its not on a par with Knives Out but once it gets going its entertaining enough. 7/10

MIdway - Prime

World War 2 Pacific drama. 7.5/10

Haych

Murder Mystery 2

Much like the original film it's quite entertaining but doesn't have much substance, not that you'd really expect it to.

We enjoyed it, it was a decent laugh and some of Adam Sandler's one liners are brilliant.

6.5/10. Netflix

ICBM

Keiko said:

On another level I have a genuine hatred for "hurray we killed it" films. Jaws etc. They have a lot to answer for in the real world in my opinion. Not what the world needs, but hey there are millions of bell ends in the world who love watching those films and so it makes some people in America a lot of money, so that's the end of that discussion.

Spielberg has recently apologised for causing an increase in the huge numbers of sharks killed, due to Jaws. It won’t make any difference of course, but at least he has some awareness of the problem.