What films have you watched recently?

Philly_Q

V/H/S/Halloween (Shudder)

It's high time I got back to some horror movies...

This is a collection of five short films, plus a "connecting" story which doesn't really connect anything, all Halloween-themed and all made by different writer-directors.  It's the eighth film in the V/H/S series which started in 2012.

The first couple of V/H/S films were based on the concept that you're watching a "found" video-tape of unexplained terrors, but that idea has largely been abandoned in the later movies, although some of the filmmakers do still go for the smeary, low definition video look.

As with the previous V/H/S films, the individual stories are a little hit-or-miss, but they're all short and get to the point very quickly, so nothing really outstays its welcome.  There are no real duds here, and two or three are really good.  No happy endings though...  This would've been great fun in a cinema with an audience of horror fans.

Dominic

SteveRobinson said:

The Heretic (2024) Amazon Prime

Two young female Mormon missionaries call at guy's house and wish they hadn't. 

Didn't really enjoy this at all. Acting was great, especially the women, but premise and storyline poor I thought and clumsy close-ups on items that would have relevance later on were all too obvious. 3/10

Got to disagree
I'm very slow-processing .....I have a lot of difficulty with following complicated plots ( Spy films,thrillers etc ) so I didn't pick up on anything obvious early on but I thought it was an outstanding film.
Never rated Hugh ....always thought he was a one-trick pony but realised he is a very fine actor in this.
The wierdness , religious fervour and creepy behaviour was enhanced by the intentional clumsy and jarring cinematography .

Dominic

Cinema yesterday ;
Downton Abbey , the grand Finale .
Avid lover of the series and subsequent feature films so naturally I absolutely loved this .
The sets ,acting etc etc 
Very clever in the way some old strings left forever hanging were picked up and tied-off or laced into something to create some of the in-jokes ....ie Lady Mary's indiscretion ......" Was he Turkish ? "
The series as a whole was a Masterpiece but sadly I felt Dame Maggie Smith missing yesterday ...the perfect Martini but just not the same without the Olive .

Col_Decker

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)

It came up in conversation with the Mrs yesterday so I went on Youtube to listen to the sound track (dum dum dum dumdum etc) and saw the whole film is on there for free to watch. Still holds up imo, but looks dated obs.

axisus

Col_Decker said:

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)

It came up in conversation with the Mrs yesterday so I went on Youtube to listen to the sound track (dum dum dum dumdum etc) and saw the whole film is on there for free to watch. Still holds up imo, but looks dated obs.

I have to admit that I love the '70s' look of films from that era. It was a great time for cinema and they didn't rely on special effects to tell stories. Modern effects are amazing, but I do like to revisit 'old school' films.

Keiko

Weapons - An entire class of kids go missing apart from one. Enjoyed this. It has mystery, horror and some comedy. You don't really find out what happened to those kids until way into the film. Don't google it too much or it might ruin the mystery element. 8/10. 

Naked Gun - yeah I knew it was going to be shit but watched it anwyay. You don't really laugh at the jokes so much as laugh because the jokes are so bad. Maybe that was what they were aiming for. The laughs stopped coming about half way into the film, when it seemed to just turn into a really crap action film. Films like this don't really need much of a plot, just cram it with jokes instead, that is kind of what ruins it. Plus Liam Neeson was a terrible choice in my opinion, Anderson pulls it off for the most part, but some scenes are very cringe. 4/10 if I'm being nice, was pretty bored by the end.

Jfingers

Watched Steve on Netflix the other night.

Cillian Murphy as headmaster of a last chance saloon for badly behaved boys at a reform school.

Tracey Ullman also features. I 'enjoyed' it a lot and have thought about it since. It's definitely not a feel good film but it has some excellent performances in it. 

Like a horror film but the horror is sadness. I'd give it an eight if I had to but that feels rude.

Longtallronnie

The Smashing Machine

Follows the story of MMA fighter, Mark Kerr (played by Dwayne Johnson), his career and his relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt). 

I thought it was great, Johnson and Blunt are brilliant in their roles, the fights are brutal without being gratuitous and the soundtrack was excellent (despite Cineworld’s shitty system). 

7.9 knees to the head out of 10. 

Offset

Not a film as such but for those of you who are big fans of The Wicker Man, you may share my interest in this.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/06/an-unkind-film-letters-reveal-rift-between-director-and-writer-of-the-wicker-man?CMP=share_btn_url

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Not a film as such but for those of you who are big fans of The Wicker Man, you may share my interest in this.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/06/an-unkind-film-letters-reveal-rift-between-director-and-writer-of-the-wicker-man?CMP=share_btn_url

Interesting.  Although I'm not sure I want to buy their book.

goldtop

Evil Does Not Exist (BBC iPlayer) Japanese nothing-happens-drama until in the last few minutes something finally does happen. Baffling ending, and even finding Kermode's movie review didn't help. From the same director as Drive My Car. 3/10

Offset

Philly_Q said:

Offset said:

Not a film as such but for those of you who are big fans of The Wicker Man, you may share my interest in this.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/06/an-unkind-film-letters-reveal-rift-between-director-and-writer-of-the-wicker-man?CMP=share_btn_url

Interesting.  Although I'm not sure I want to buy their book.

I think The Grauniad review is sufficient 

rze99

goldtop said:

Evil Does Not Exist (BBC iPlayer) Japanese nothing-happens-drama until in the last few minutes something finally does happen. Baffling ending, and even finding Kermode's movie review didn't help. From the same director as Drive My Car. 3/10

Thanks for the review -  I was curious about this - it’s now off my list.

CaseOfAce

Almost finished Play Dirty - the Mark Wahlberg flick on Prime.
It zips along but absolutely ludicrous with standard modern day lazy scriptwriting. 

Features a horrific callous scene where Wahlberg and mate knock unconscious one of the baddies who comes up to investigate a staged suicide attempt so they can gain access to the apartment below. They promptly chuck the comatose baddie off the roof. Really nasty - even given the title of the movie. 

Philly_Q

^^ @CaseOfAce spoilers man!  I'm now trying to forget what I just read, in case I decide to watch it.

CaseOfAce

Philly_Q said:

^^ @CaseOfAce spoilers man!  I'm now trying to forget what I just read, in case I decide to watch it.

Apologies Philly = have edited original posting.

Philly_Q

All You Need Is Death (Shudder/Amazon Prime)

A musical young couple are travelling around Ireland trying to make "field recordings" of near-forgotten old folk songs which - at least in the world of this film - may be worth a lot of money.  They track down a woman called Rita Concannon who drunkenly sings a song in a strange, pre-historic language... and in so doing unleashes dark forces...

I love the "folk horror" genre, and the basic idea here certainly had potential... but the direction and performances are so flat that it simply doesn't work.  At all.  I wasn't just bored, I was pissed off that I'd watched it.  The title is completely nonsensical as well.

Stratavarious

Pulp Fiction.. 

A good few years since I last sat through it..  

Thoroughly deserving of a top ten movies of all time title.. not a single wasted scene or moment.

Didn’t realise that Steve Buscemi plays the Buddy Holly Waite cameo before.

10/10

Philly_Q

Play Dirty (Amazon Prime)

Comedy heist movie with Mark Wahlberg.  I thought I'd give it a go since it was mentioned earlier on this page.  I really can't be bothered trying to summarise the plot.

This is brought to us by Shane Black, the specialist in irreverent, violent action-comedies who wrote the first Lethal Weapon film and previously directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys and The Predator.  Just about every character here is an unlikeable cold-blooded murderer, but it's meant to be funny and we're supposed to be on-side with Parker (Wahlberg) and his crew... because they're the main characters.  The violence is all very mean-spirited and the wisecracking dialogue mostly falls flat, but it's just about tolerable during the heist scenes because nobody's talking so much.  Unpleasant.

axisus

CaseOfAce said:

Almost finished Play Dirty - the Mark Wahlberg flick on Prime.
It zips along but absolutely ludicrous with standard modern day lazy scriptwriting. 

Features a horrific callous scene where Wahlberg and mate knock unconscious one of the baddies who comes up to investigate a staged suicide attempt so they can gain access to the apartment below. They promptly chuck the comatose baddie off the roof. Really nasty - even given the title of the movie. 

That reminds me of the scene in Get Carter:

Micael Caine punches a guy in the stomach a couple of times, then just turfs him over the wall of the multi story car park that they are on. It shocked me a bit the first time I saw the film, but it's a great movie.