What films have you watched recently?

strumjoughlamps

Mother, Couch

nice little indie flick with Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ellen Burstyn, Taylor Russell and the excellent F. Murray Abraham. All well acted and kept you watching. Only shame is Lara Flynn Boyle has fell foul to the industry and had her face injected; it makes me sad.

Brio

Jesus, she's gone full Bride of Wildenstein.

Offset

Operation Crossbow (1965), BBC2

Ensemble cast - absolutely stellar.  Pretty much a who's who of '60s A-listers.  I have to say however that whilst quite an enjoyable romp enhanced by the constant parade of recognisable faces, as a piece of cinema it leaves something to be desired.  Hard to put one's finger on it... I should have adored it but I didn't.  Set against other contemporaneous war films with similarly starry casts  like Where Eagles Dare, The Guns Of Navarone, The Battle Of Britain etc it falls decidedly short.  Perhaps it's the plot, flow, dialogue... I don't know.

However, along with that cast there are two other features worthy of note.  First is the use of Holkham in Norfolk to replicate the flying bomb site in Germany (see also BBC's 'A Warning To The Curious').  My childhood haunt and immediately recongisable.  The second was a small role for producer Ponti's wife, Sophia Loren.  Never has she looked more gorgeous.  Without doubt the most beautiful actress not only of her generation, but of any generation.  She was 31 when this was made and just looked stunning.

Film - 6/10.

Sophia Loren - 11/10 and then some.

littlegreenman

Alien: Romulus

Not brilliant, but I enjoyed it rather a lot. Helped by the pretty much unknown cast, with the *unspoilered* exception. End of level baddie was a bit lame though...

rze99

Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Movie Film 4 Folk/Thriller/horror. Sex and Violence

An isolated Shropshire Puritan family ruled over by an old and strict husband are visited by a young couple on the run whose beliefs in an alternative and sexually free lifestyle cause a tragic breakdown of relationships and then things turn extremely violent. Charles Dance and Maxine Peake both turn in terrific performances.

Very good.

7/10

rze99

The Nightingale
Movie Film 4 Horror/Thriller/sex crimes violence

A young Irish couple with baby are in Tasmania during tyrannical British rule and are, due to their criminal record in effect owned by an amoral Lieutenant desperate for promotion who is leading an ill-disciplined squad of thuggish prison guards. 

The young wife is beautiful and sings folk songs for the soldiers, believing it will help her be treated favourably, however, instead she suffers extreme sexual assault and then one crime leads to many others and her desperate escape from the British.

Tense, extremely harrowing and very violent including multiple rape scenes, but contextually appropriate. This is very upsetting and moving not for the faint hearted.

An absolutely brilliant central performance by the lead Aisling Franciosi.

Grimly Excellent.

9/10

Offset

Carnifex The Outback Beast (2024), Prime.

The latest in my low-rent movie odyssey.

Laughable creature, pedestrian acting, devoid of plot.  And boring.

1/10, and that's for the cute dog. 

FarleyUK

Speak no Evil

Dripping with tension, James McAvoy delivers (as usual), although he could have at least attempted to stay in the West Country accent... instead, we get a weird jumble of Scottish, American and Bristol.

Also around 30 minutes too long IMO.

7/10

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Carnifex The Outback Beast (2024), Prime.

The latest in my low-rent movie odyssey.

Laughable creature, pedestrian acting, devoid of plot.  And boring.

1/10, and that's for the cute dog. 

Ha, I nearly watched that last night, but settled for Final Destination 5. I won't bother now.

breakstuff

FarleyUK said:

Speak no Evil

Dripping with tension, James McAvoy delivers (as usual), although he could have at least attempted to stay in the West Country accent... instead, we get a weird jumble of Scottish, American and Bristol.

Also around 30 minutes too long IMO.

7/10

Not seen this version but the Danish original is absolutely brutal. I suspect this version is a little more 'Hollywood' by the looks of the trailer.

Kermode gave it a good review though, so I might still give it a watch.

WezV

I can't keep up with this thread... but it's been a busy year for film watching so far, mostly replacing TV shows for us.  This is everything since 1st Jan from my wife's letterbox. 



Apparentyl these are what i picked as my best and worst at the end of each month.

Best:
Deadpool & Wolverine
Spring
I saw the TV Glow
Mary And Max
Late Night with the Devil
Spaceman
Little Miss Sunshine
Aftersun


Worst:
Nightswim
Madame Web
The Fanatic
Imaginary
Benny's video
Mystery Men
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022
Bodies Bodies Bodies

breakstuff

Philly_Q said:

Offset said:

Carnifex The Outback Beast (2024), Prime.

The latest in my low-rent movie odyssey.

Laughable creature, pedestrian acting, devoid of plot.  And boring.

1/10, and that's for the cute dog. 

Ha, I nearly watched that last night, but settled for Final Destination 5. I won't bother now.

Yeah, I considered it too until I looked at the IMDB score. For horror films I pretty much discount anything below five so I gave it a pass. Watched The Tank instead which, to be honest, is pretty pants too.

Offset

breakstuff said

Yeah, I considered it too until I looked at the IMDB score. For horror films I pretty much discount anything below five so I gave it a pass. Watched The Tank instead which, to be honest, is pretty pants too.

I've watched that too.  It isn't great, no, but it's a lot better than Carnifex.

EricTheWeary

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 

I quite liked it. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. Seemed expensive and well done but hugely inconsequential. Just one of those where you’d think that earlier on someone would have said “before we spend millions and millions of dollars let’s just tighten up the script first.” 

DrCornelius

@WezV  - I absolutely loved Mystery Men ! (if this is the same Ben Stiller superhero thing ?)

Haych

Hot Seat

Have been in London for work the past couple of days so have reminded myself why I refuse to buy a TV License. 

Last night I turned on this Mel Gibson film made in 2022.  The plot is some computer geek is glued to his chair at the whim of a madman bomber who’s out to perform a high tech heist, but needs a patsy to take the fall for him. His chair is rigged to blow up if he doesn’t remain seated and follow the bombers instructions. 

Gibson is a bomb squad officer who’s on hand to work it all out and save the day. 

Utter bollocks doesn’t begin to describe how poor this film is in every conceivable way. 

-8.7/10

WezV

DrCornelius said:

@WezV  - I absolutely loved Mystery Men ! (if this is the same Ben Stiller superhero thing ?)

It is.  I wanted to like it when it first came out, but didn't.   Saw something recently about it so thought I would give it another go.  I still didn't like it

Philly_Q

Memory (Netflix)

Liam Neeson plays a hitman with early onset Alzheimer's who refuses to kill a young girl and gets involved in... something.  A lot of British actors do bad American accents.  A lot of Bulgarian actors pretend to be Americans.  I felt like I had dementia trying to follow the plot of this shit.

Philly_Q

Holy fuck @WezV what is that post? Impressed you've seen Strange Darling, I didn't think it had been released yet.

WezV

Just the year so far, will try to update monthly now.

We've got a big list of films we want to (re)watch, and randomly select 1 or 2 each day. I know it seems a lot, but people wouldn't blink if you said you watched a couple of episodes of TV.  it's no different really.

 We add films to the list for various reasons, might be new stuff, might be DVDs we own, might be stuff we vaguely remember and want to watch again.  You can see it's a mixed bag.

I may have been a bit naughty with Strange Darling.  Well worth a watch though.  It nicely subverts your expectations.