What films have you watched recently?

Hootsmon

Went and logged in to my Amazon Prime to see Weapons.......

WTF do they charge me a subscription fee and when I wanna use their services it COSTS me to watch a film.....Bugger Off

Hootsmon

It's not the principle of the thing.....it's the money

strumjoughlamps

Black Phone 2 - proper enjoyed it ran on from Black Phone perfectly. 

I do like Blumhouse films, not the best but always watchable.

duotone

Went to the cinema & watched A Nightmare on Elm Street last week: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/ for the first time. 

Growing up there was video rental shop a couple of minutes walk away & they had the cardboard cut out advertising stand for the film which always caught my eye as a kid!

Overall film rating 7/10.

Philly_Q

Hootsmon said:

Went and logged in to my Amazon Prime to see Weapons.......

WTF do they charge me a subscription fee and when I wanna use their services it COSTS me to watch a film.....Bugger Off

Agreed, but the alternative is to wait six months or more for a film to be free, unless it just happens to be Disney or Paramount or something and you can watch it there.  But Amazon has a much bigger range of films than any of the other streaming channels.

Personally I'll pay up to £4.99, but I'm not going to pay £9.99, £11.99 or £15.99 for a new release.  Or... there's always the cinema - yes it costs, but you get the big screen and the sound system.

BigBearKris

strumjoughlamps said:

Black Phone 2 - proper enjoyed it ran on from Black Phone perfectly. 

I do like Blumhouse films, not the best but always watchable.

Planning to watch it tonight so I'm glad to read a positive review from you.

Philly_Q

Jurassic World Rebirth (Amazon Prime**)

Three decades after the return of the dinosaurs, the general public have largely lost interest and the surviving dinosaurs are confined to a few no-go areas near the Equator, where the climate is most suitable.  A representative from a pharmaceutical company recruits a team to collect blood samples from three of the biggest creatures, to be used for research into drugs to fight cardiac disease (yeah, right, whatever...).  Of course things do not go quite as planned.

Featuring none of the characters from the previous three films, this one stars Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and the recently-crowned "People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive 2025" Jonathan Bailey.  It's a back-to-basics Jurassic Park/World film, with a manageable number of characters who get split into two groups and imperilled by various beasties.  No soldiers, no theme park, and not much of a villain except - of course - Big Pharma.  It's all very well done and perfectly fine as a way to pass a couple of hours, but don't expect any surprises.

(**£4.99 at time of writing @Hootsmon)

TheBigDipper

Last night's treat... One Battle After Another

Highly watchable without being too strenuous. Longer than most, but the time flies by as it tells its story. I can't say I was ever wondering when it would finish, I was just enjoying the ride. Some barbed vignettes of current American life regarding the Homeland military and Mexican immigrants (legal or otherwise, definitely contributing to the Californian economy in this film). 

Worth the ticket price. 

CaseOfAce

Mechanic: Resurrecton on Netflix.

Whilst Oppenheimer languishes for the 3rd month in a row on my Netflix queue I take the easy option and go dumpster diving with the current No.2 Jason Statham movie on Netflix.

I always forget how incredibly well made these movies are. The 3 "hits" the movie is centred on are inventive and compelling. The location footage / DP work is astonishing. First we're in Brazil - then Thailand.. then Sydney... etc.. that the tourist agencies must be wondering where they can buy the stills from.
No question Statham has the compelling presence it takes to be a movie star - and nice to see a Hollywood action star with a good physique not on PEDs or growth hormone. 
The female lead had me wondering where I'd seen her from... and yep -it's the Fantastic Four's Jessica Alba.

Is it as good as The Meg? no.
But it's better than the Meg 2 and A Working Man.

Philly_Q

@CaseOfAce you'd almost convinced me to watch it until you said...

CaseOfAce said:

Is it as good as The Meg? no.

Col_Decker

A Complete Unknown (Disney +)

Obs you all know it’s about the rise of Bob Dylan. Really enjoyed it. Actually got a bit emotional ‘seeing’ the songs sung rather than just listening to them, maybe the lyrics just hit different.

One ‘film thing’ that I couldn’t get past though was how Bob’s harmonica playing was good and in tune. Made it a bit unrealistic as we all know the actual Bob can’t play harmonica for shit. 

Philly_Q

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney+)

Four years after the trip into space which gave them their super powers, things are going well for the Fantastic Four... and then the Silver Surfer turns up to announce that her master, Galactus, is about to devour the Earth...

This starts very well.  The "origin" stuff is out of the way within the first ten minutes, and I love the 1960s, Jetsons look of the film (although it never explicitly says it's the '60s, I'd say there's more of a parallel universe vibe).  As for the casting, I didn't know who Vanessa Kirby was when this was announced, but I do now and yes, she's perfect as Sue Storm.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn are fine as, respectively, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, but it almost could've been anyone.  I'm a fan of Julia Garner, but the Silver Surfer is basically a CGI creation.  And Pedro Pascal - star of seemingly every Hollywood movie of the last half decade - is a very good, likeable actor but is he the ideal choice as super-brain Reed Richards?  Not really.

After the first half hour this is yet another load of CGI with yet another buildings-falling-down finale.  It's alright, but I was expecting better.

BillDL

I just watched Samuel L. Jackson in Unthinkable (2010) on TV.

I really wish I had watched this 5 years ago and I would probably have enough new tricks up my sleeve to eventually find out which management-hating employee wrote an insult about me on the partition of the toilet cubicle.

Brio

Unthinkable was amazing. I really didn't know where it was going.
Carrie-Anne Moss's evolution in the film was hypnotic.

Winny_Pooh

Weapons

Was quite looking forward to this. Nice cinematography, clean. Characters are decent and the pacing is interesting but a bit slow.
Overall there's less psychological hooks than expected & when the film ends it feels like you've watched a homage to 80's teen horrors. Could be fun to watch with older teens as it's got some gore but is never actually too dark or disturbing. Stranger Things has more creepy monsters. 

6.5/10

Reminded me that Ari Aster is one level up. Eddington was simultaneously more creepy, smart and unpredictable.

axisus

I went real old school yesterday and saw Jack the giant killer (1962). This was one of those films that blew my mind as a kid, the story was absolutely enchanting and wonderful. Watching it much older, you see that the effects are pretty poor. For those of us who grew up with the brilliance of Harryhausen, this film is the Temu version of Stop motion monsters. They look a bit weird, and the movement is less than amazing, but .... if you can put your 'kiddie specs' on (like I did) it is still a most enjoyable film. 

I remember as a kid being totally freaked out by the 'witches' attacking a ship, especially these two. The top one screams and blasts wind out to knock everyone over. They aren't stop motion, it's actors in costumes - er ... spoiler there!





Anyway, I really enjoyed it! I have my own DVD, but it's available to watch for free on PLEX.

Revert to your inner child and give it a look!

Philly_Q

Bring Her Back (Amazon Prime, £4.99)

After the death of their father, teenage step-siblings Andy and Piper are placed in foster care with an eccentric woman named Laura, who already has another foster-child, a strange mute little boy named Oliver.  Laura sees Piper as a substitute for her own recently-deceased daughter Cathy, and when she learns that Andy is going to apply for custody of Piper when he turns 18, she starts a campaign to drive a wedge between the siblings.

This story could have been done as a serious straight drama about damaged people dealing with abuse and grief, especially with the excellent Sally Hawkins on board as Laura, but the Philippou brothers (who also made Talk to Me) manage to also make it a full-blown horror movie with some really gruesome scenes.  There are little details in the plot which I only began to understand when thinking about it afterwards, so I'm sure there's re-watch value.  Excellent.

I sincerely hope there was someone on set taking care of the little lad who plays Ollie, that kid has to go through some insane shit during the course of the film.

BigBearKris

Philly_Q said:

Bring Her Back (Amazon Prime, £4.99)

After the death of their father, teenage step-siblings Andy and Piper are placed in foster care with an eccentric woman named Laura, who already has another foster-child, a strange mute little boy named Oliver.  Laura sees Piper as a substitute for her own recently-deceased daughter Cathy, and when she learns that Andy is going to apply for custody of Piper when he turns 18, she starts a campaign to drive a wedge between the siblings.

This story could have been done as a serious straight drama about damaged people dealing with abuse and grief, especially with the excellent Sally Hawkins on board as Laura, but the Philippou brothers (who also made Talk to Me) manage to also make it a full-blown horror movie with some really gruesome scenes.  There are little details in the plot which I only began to understand when thinking about it afterwards, so I'm sure there's re-watch value.  Excellent.

Yes, very good film indeed. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

^^^Agreed, really enjoyable little horror film.

Dominic

Just watched Monsters;The Ed Gein Story on Netflix
Hunnam was great as the weirdo psyco freak Ed who has spawned so many Horror Villains as a re-iteration