What films have you watched recently?

Stratavarious

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

A Hitchcock classic and a regular watch here. 

Incredibly well scripted with a great balance between comedy and suspense.  Not one wasted moment or scene and the actors are all top notch.

8/10 but a 10/10 if you have an unjaded kid of 8-12yrs old just getting into movies. 

Philly_Q

The Gates (Shudder)

This was on one of my many, lengthy watch lists and since @Offset mentioned it earlier I thought I might as well watch it today.

Oh my giddy aunt, this is hard work.  It's getting on for two hours but feels more like three, and yet almost nothing happens.  It's so talky, just a load of nonsensical jabbering, and whenever the film threatens to take off into something exciting it almost immediately gives way to yet more portentous blether.

I agree that it is vaguely reminiscent of The Asphyx - it feels like a 2020s recreation of a 1970s film set in the 1900s.  But oh my god, if arch ham John Rhys-Davies gives the most down-to-earth, relatable performance in a film you know you're struggling.

JEM

Shrews said:

Apollo 13 (Prime)

It's a while since I've seen it and whilst it's 'Tom Hanks Solid' the fact that it's based on a true story makes it compelling to watch in it's own right. I think they get the balance right between the complex technical stuff, tugging on the heartstrings and making it dramatic enough to keep the interest alive.  A good job from start to finish.

With regards to what actually happened, surely it's right up their with the greatest teamwork achievement of all time?

Everyone of the cast plays a blinder. 

9/10 

If you haven't already I'd recommend reading Lost Moon. It's Jim Lovell's account of the mission that the film was based on. It has quite a bit more technical detail but still manages to tell a compelling story.

Offset

Philly_Q said:

The Gates (Shudder)

...it feels like a 2020s recreation of a 1970s film set in the 1900s.

Precisely my thinking.

And in case you thought I was being a little more tolerant/generous than the film deserved, I DID have a couple of glasses of plonk before settling down to watch it which did numb the pain :-)

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Philly_Q said:

The Gates (Shudder)

...it feels like a 2020s recreation of a 1970s film set in the 1900s.

Precisely my thinking.

And in case you thought I was being a little more tolerant/generous than the film deserved, I DID have a couple of glasses of plonk before settling down to watch it which did numb the pain :-)

Likewise, which might have made me less tolerant and generous.  Swings and roundabouts. 

Offset

The Asphyx (1972), Prime

Given I referenced it in a review earlier this week, I decided to settle down to watch it again last night.

Starring Robert Stephens, Robert Powell and Jane Lapotaire this is a classic Victorian-set Hammer-esque British film.  Its' subject-matter is slightly off-kilter from the usual fare of this era however and centres on a theory held by the main protagonist (Stephens) that at the point of death, an 'asphyx' comes for that individual to take their soul (or something like that).  He further conjectures that if the asphyx could be captured, that individual would remain immortal for as long as it remained trapped.

There are some fairly glaring holes in the plot but if you can effectively suspend your disbelief, it's a great romp.  It has that nice 'feel' to it that all British horror films of this period possess, and there are good performances all round.  It also has a nice  sense of foreboding and I've always found there to be something slightly disturbing about it.  An execution scene in particular is quite unnerving.

Sometimes films I first watched 40+ years ago disappoint many years later, but this one doesn't.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again after a hiatus of some years.  I guess nostalgia plays some part (in the opening scenes I spotted a white Volvo 121 identical to the one my Dad used to own) but it's an effective old-school horror movie (and 10x better than The Gates to which I compared it earlier in the week).

Moral: Immortality always has a price 

7/10.

Timcito

Offset said:

The Asphyx (1972), Prime

Given I referenced it in a review earlier this week, I decided to settle down to watch it again last night.

Starring Robert Stephens, Robert Powell and Jane Lapotaire this is a classic Victorian-set Hammer-esque British film.  Its' subject-matter is slightly off-kilter from the usual fare of this era however and centres on a theory held by the main protagonist (Stephens) that at the point of death, an 'asphyx' comes for that individual to take their soul (or something like that).  He further conjectures that if the asphyx could be captured, that individual would remain immortal for as long as it remained trapped.

Sounds legit!

This seems to be the kind of cornball that I really enjoy. 

fretmeister

Does anyone know if there is a fan edit of Prometheus that has put all the deleted scenes back in where they should be? Like the Dune Spicediver edit?

There's 33 deleted scenes of varying lengths and some of them, when watched alone, really seem like they would massively improve the film. Might even raise it to 'just about worth your time'.

Any ideas?

Philly_Q

Offset said:

The Asphyx (1972), Prime

I wonder if it's the full-length version?  I remember years ago tracking down an Australian DVD which had some scenes inserted from a much lower-quality print, but subsequently I'm pretty sure they were able to fully restore it in HD.  I've probably got 3 or 4 versions on DVD and Blu-ray, somewhere.

bobblehat

The Bee Keeper - Usual Jason Statham action nonsense but good fun and relatively short. 7/10

goldtop

bobblehat said:

The Bee Keeper - Usual Jason Statham action nonsense but good fun and relatively short. 7/10

Damned with faint praise.

Tone71

Bob Marley - One Love

Really enjoyed it, we all know most of the story and there's nothing new, but a great film 8/10

SteveRobinson

Irish Wish (2024) Netflix

Romance set in Ireland starring Lindsay Lohan.

Daughter #2 was round for the evening and as she pays for all the streaming services we had to watch something she'd like. I didn't. 1/10 absolute tops.

boogieman

Stratavarious said:

Offset said:

Stratavarious said:

Iron Sky…

Watching this one again. 

The Nazis set up a base on the dark side of the moon in 1945 and now they are planning to come back!  

It's exactly as mad as you’d expect.   Underrated on IMDB.  Solid satire.

8/10

Immediately added to my watchlist.  Did you watch it on a streaming service (and if so, which one)?

I have it on DVD..  there is a sequel too.

The sequel is rubbish unfortunately. 

rze99

The Outfit

2022 Movie Netflix 

Mark Rylance stars as Leonard, an enigmatic English suit cutter in Chicago, formerly of Savile Row. His small tailor shop provides high end suits for the only people around who can afford them: a local mobster family with a vicious reputation and who use the back rooms of his shop as a messaging room, where the plot slowly develops.

Slow burner, but effective, rather like a stage play. The less you know about it the better.

Recommended, 7/10

 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Civil War

Really enjoyed this. Completely terrifying in its believability of course, but really well paced, well acted and gripping piece of drama. Kirsten Dunst is brilliant as ever, and Jesse Plemmons manages to completely steal the one and only scene he is in.

8/10

Back to Black

Disappointing. Very superficial look at her tragic life and downfall, added absolutely nothing interesting to what anyone already knows about her life. The few marks I'd give it are for the lead actress who was fabulously convincing. By contrast, the fella who plays Blake Fielder-Civil is dreadful.

4/10

swiller

Interstellar.
First time watch. I'd not heard of it before ???, but on my twitter feed today as its back in cinemas in autumn on a 10 yr anniversary. Thought id give it a go with a few hours to spare and space to crank the surround sound loud.
FAKING HELL!!!!
10/10. Ive not seen a better film. Deffo not a huge sci fi fan either. Thought id watched all the masterpieces of cinema. Good god its really good.

Philly_Q

The Beekeeper (Sky something-or-other)

Jason Statham plays a former member of a hush-hush (so much so that even the CIA know almost nothing about them) national security team called The Beekeepers, who has retired to, er.... keep bees.  Keep it low key, eh? 

("There's a trace of the British Isles in your accent", says an FBI agent, just hours after the violent death of her mother.)

Anyway, Statham is out for revenge after an elderly friend has been robbed of her life savings by a very unlikely-looking scamming organisation which has connections in extremely high places but is apparently completely untraceable by the police or the FBI.

I can only imagine this is meant to be a comedy - especially judging by the characters of the "new" Beekeeper who attacks Statham at a petrol station, and the clownish South African security man with a false leg - but nobody seems to have told Statham.  He can actually do comedy, but his character here is totally boring and humourless.  Even the action scenes are complete shite.

I expect Jason Statham films to be disposable entertaining nonsense, but this is so utterly stupid it's almost beyond belief.

bobblehat

Oppenheimer  - Given aIl the hype and awards I was a little underwhelmed. 7/10

BigBearKris

bobblehat said:

Oppenheimer  - Given aIl the hype and awards I was a little underwhelmed. 7/10

Agreed.

I just told my missus that I want to rewatch it in case I wasn't in right frame of mind the first time. I found it very slow paced (not necessarily a bad thing) and characters quite flat. It never got the momentum going, which I was surprised about.