What film are you watching tonight/watched last night???

The Usual Suspects - 8/10 - First watch for a good few years of this crime classic, it starts a little confusingly but gains momentum and the final pay off is good even when you know the outcome, brilliant.
 
There is no signalling, that would have ruined it.
 
Ghost in the Shell (1995) Directed by Mamoru Oshii
4k iTunes
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The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017) Directed by Jared Moshe
View attachment 1363920
First off I'd say avoid the trailer its bloody terrible and really doesn't do the film justice at all, I took a $2 gamble on this mainly because it's from the A24 stable who pretty much deliver the goods on a regular basis, and yep this turned out to be another minor gem especially for the Western genre and its fans, the film stars Bill Pullman as an ageing and not too clever rancho side-man his performance does take a few scenes to get used to but once the film builds with its revenge and friendship themes it does pay-off, aided by a good side cast that includes an excellent Tommy Flanagan this is definitely not in the top league of the genre but it does do a damn enjoyable job, pleased I picked this up and would watch again.7.5/10
Cheers for that. I'm always up for another Western!
 
Fifty Shades Freed (2018, YouTube)

At least I can now say that this franchise and myself have something in common..........we both seem to deal in incredibly disappointing climaxes........but at least with me you can get there 298 minutes quicker........

Ba-dum tish.
 
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Coherence (2013, UK iTunes, also streaming on UK Amazon Prime)

Another rather brilliant low budget sci-fi mind bender in the same vein is the likes of Timecrimes, Primer and Karyn Kusama's The Invitation.

A group of friends gather for a dinner party as a comet passes overhead - suddenly, the lights go out and the whole neighbourhood is plunged into darkness, except for a single house down the street. Two of the group go and investigate and kicks off a chain of events based around the theme of multiple dimensions and the notion of self within and across them all.

Its one of those films where saying too much about the plot will completely ruin it, so suffice to say its group of friends are all well drawn, the only notable face among them is Nicholas Brandon of Buffy fame. They feel real and the issues that arise during this night of rather strange goings on all feel oddly plausible and help root the oddness in a sense of realism.

The script does some really simple yet clever things to help us navigate through the complexities of the plot, which is shot like a cross between traditional and found footage styles, giving an energetic urgency to the whole thing. And even come its ending, the film still manages to give us a somewhat fresh twist on our preconceptions, choosing not to end on a traditional 'how do we get back to normal'? but more of a just-dark-enough 'how do I make the best of this situation for me?'

Mind-bending, yet curiously simple and logical to follow, if you like films like those mentioned above, this is a hearty recommendation.
 
The Hidden - 1987 - Jack Sholder

hidden 222.jpg


Used to see the VHS cover at the local video shop as a kid but have never seen it until now. Great 80s sci-fi actioner. What's good about it?

Could it get more 80s than this still from the film? Ferrari? Check. Stripper? Check. Bag of weapons? Check. Guy in a Don Johnson suit? Check. Shootout in the background? Check! I wish I could show you the reverse view but unfortunately it isn't allowed!

hidden 80s.jpg


- You'll be instantly transported back to the 80s what with the crap and botched synth soundtrack, strippers, police station shootout, Porsches and Ferrari car chase sequences, gloriously OTT violence using military weapons on the streets and in the police precincts of LA.

- It's funny with humour that would probably see the director jailed these days for a hate crime. E.g. early on you see a cripple getting mowed down by a Ferrari in a completely OTT and daft manner. Some farting and belching humour too.

- A great mix between 80s classics like some of John Carpenter's classics and Arnie's classics like Commando and Terminator. Nowhere near as good as those but if you're in the mood for a silly 80s film that's at least entertaining on some level then it's worth checking out.

- Great 80s tropes. Duffel bags overflowing with weapons, strippers, exotic sports cars being driven like they're stolen, and more.

- Some funny dialogue and a sometimes humourous law enforcement partnership between Kyle MacLachlan's Lloyd Gallagher and Michael Nouri's Tom Beck.
Lines like

Con 1 - 'Think the drugs are kicking in...'

Con 2 - 'Nah, dude's from outer space, man.'

After the alien shoots up a local police precinct and some jailbirds get a front seat view of the carnage.

- It has one of the worst soundtracks I've ever heard. The Foley work is sometimes crap as well.

- A Danny Trejo cameo.

Edit - Is it allegory dressed as a lighthearted and silly sci-fi romp? The alien loves Ferraris, hot broads, fierce firearms and good scran. Does he do drugs at some point? Probably. He's like the alien version of Patrick Bateman! There is a scene where the car salesman closes the deal with some cocaine stashed in his mini model Ferrari on his desk! Gloriously 80s madness.
 
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Coherence (2013, UK iTunes, also streaming on UK Amazon Prime)

Another rather brilliant low budget sci-fi mind bender in the same vein is the likes of Timecrimes, Primer and Karyn Kusama's The Invitation.

A group of friends gather for a dinner party as a comet passes overhead - suddenly, the lights go out and the whole neighbourhood is plunged into darkness, except for a single house down the street. Two of the group go and investigate and kicks off a chain of events based around the theme of multiple dimensions and the notion of self within and across them all.

Its one of those films where saying too much about the plot will completely ruin it, so suffice to say its group of friends are all well drawn, the only notable face among them is Nicholas Brandon of Buffy fame. They feel real and the issues that arise during this night of rather strange goings on all feel oddly plausible and help root the oddness in a sense of realism.

The script does some really simple yet clever things to help us navigate through the complexities of the plot, which is shot like a cross between traditional and found footage styles, giving an energetic urgency to the whole thing. And even come its ending, the film still manages to give us a somewhat fresh twist on our preconceptions, choosing not to end on a traditional 'how do we get back to normal'? but more of a just-dark-enough 'how do I make the best of this situation for me?'

Mind-bending, yet curiously simple and logical to follow, if you like films like those mentioned above, this is a hearty recommendation.

This is on iTunes for £1.99, from your review seems like its worth getting.
 
This is on iTunes for £1.99, from your review seems like its worth getting.
Aye absolutely. Picked up a few cheapies this week on iTunes, including this one, and all have been well worth the price of a rubbish corporate coffee. :smashin:
 
The Hidden - 1987 - Jack Sholder

View attachment 1364504

Used to see the VHS cover at the local video shop as a kid but have never seen it until now. Great 80s sci-fi actioner. What's good about it?

Could it get more 80s than this still from the film? Ferrari? Check. Stripper? Check. Bag of weapons? Check. Guy in a Don Johnson suit? Check. Shootout in the background? Check! I wish I could show you the reverse view but unfortunately it isn't allowed!

View attachment 1364503

- You'll be instantly transported back to the 80s what with the crap and botched synth soundtrack, strippers, police station shootout, Porsches and Ferrari car chase sequences, gloriously OTT violence using military weapons on the streets and in the police precincts of LA.

- It's funny with humour that would probably see the director jailed these days for a hate crime. E.g. early on you see a cripple getting mowed down by a Ferrari in a completely OTT and daft manner. Some farting and belching humour too.

- A great mix between 80s classics like some of John Carpenter's classics and Arnie's classics like Commando and Terminator. Nowhere near as good as those but if you're in the mood for a silly 80s film that's at least entertaining on some level then it's worth checking out.

- Great 80s tropes. Duffel bags overflowing with weapons, strippers, exotic sports cars being driven like they're stolen, and more.

- Some funny dialogue and a sometimes humourous law enforcement partnership between Kyle MacLachlan's Lloyd Gallagher and Michael Nouri's Tom Beck.
Lines like

Con 1 - 'Think the drugs are kicking in...'

Con 2 - 'Nah, dude's from outer space, man.'

After the alien shoots up a local police precinct and some jailbirds get a front seat view of the carnage.

- It has one of the worst soundtracks I've ever heard. The Foley work is sometimes crap as well.

- A Danny Trejo cameo.

Edit - Is it allegory dressed as a lighthearted and silly sci-fi romp? The alien loves Ferraris, hot broads, fierce firearms and good scran. Does he do drugs at some point? Probably. He's like the alien version of Patrick Bateman! There is a scene where the car salesman closes the deal with some cocaine stashed in his mini model Ferrari on his desk! Gloriously 80s madness.

this is the perfect film for a double bill with Dead Heat.
Or just watch Dead Heat seeing as you've already watch The Hidden.


 
Now You See Me 2 (2016, US iTunes)

The first act of this built riotously upon the surprisingly fun first film - the Horseman are called out of 'retirement' to expose a tech CEO's new smartphone which has massive data privacy issues, yet midway through their show, they realise they've been set up and on their escape are transported to Macau, where the real meat of the plot kicks in.

New girl Lizzie Kaplan feels a much better fit to the rest of the boys than Isla Fisher ever did, all goofy overconfidence squashed into the sexiest array of thigh high boots this side of Pornhub, and some of the other new characters who shall not be named for fear of spoiling genuine surprises (clue: Harrelson's epic new hair) are decent additions, giving the whole thing a genuine feel of a continuation from the first film.

And yet the film's midpoint setpiece brings the whole thing crashing down in a fit of hideously annoying card play that sees a tech maguffin stolen from a high security site with nothing more than awfully cheap CG and a reliance on completely magic and gravity-free stupidity. The ways the film had these guys throwing this playing card around with not only pinpoint accuracy, but timing so that at least six people all looked in exactly the right direction at the same time was borderline insulting and unfortunately, the film never recovered.

Even its grand finale, which at least the first film gave some levels of plausibility to, here, set in London on New Years Eve, felt reliant on things that not just magic but modern technology couldn't even do, and it just rendered the whole point of the film, that if not magic at least sleight of hand was at play for all of its tricks, completely redundant.

Its a shame as the gang are all a pleasure to watch and the new locations of Macau and London gave it a fresher feel than its predecessor. But its now reliance on completely insane CG for all of its 'magic' meant the film lost the complete point of itself and all the fun and joy of the first along with it.

Massively disappointing.
 
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The Mad Fox (1962) Directed by Tomu Uchida
iTunes Arrow Films
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This was a huge surprise and to be honest I wasn't really expecting much but if like me you like the look and style of traditional folktales then this is an absolute beauty, the tale itself is great and the way its story is told in 3 different styles really comes off in such original way, so many stunning moments await from red filtered scenes of doom to a stunning surreal dream that immediately had me thinking of the beauty of The Ghost of Tsushima with its fields of flowers, honour shrines and fox hunts and finally topping it off comes the wonderfully designed stage-like set that folds in on itself which was just another total wow, another huge applaud to Arrow for bringing these forgotten gems to the screen, great stuff.8.5/10
 
The Mad Fox (1962) Directed by Tomu Uchida
iTunes Arrow Films
View attachment 1364887
This was a huge surprise and to be honest I wasn't really expecting much but if like me you like the look and style of traditional folktales then this is an absolute beauty, the tale itself is great and the way its story is told in 3 different styles really comes off in such original way, so many stunning moments await from red filtered scenes of doom to a stunning surreal dream that immediately had me thinking of the beauty of The Ghost of Tsushima with its fields of flowers, honour shrines and fox hunts and finally topping it off comes the wonderfully designed stage-like set that folds in on itself which was just another total wow, another huge applaud to Arrow for bringing these forgotten gems to the screen, great stuff.8.5/10
Thanks for this. This has just gone on the list. Really value your POV on this stuff and going through the Arrow catalogue on your own to find these gemeralds is pretty time consuming!
 
^
Don't you do iTunes Tom they often have crazy Arrow sales when you can pick up the films for under £3 this one cost me around £2.20 from the US store.
I do not. But I'm a bit weird. I think I only own two movies digitally.
It's not like a principled stance I just...haven't really done it.
I did have the Arrow channel on Amazon for a while and that was great but I traded it in for BFI early on in lockdown and there's no way I have time to properly get the most out of both with...last count four jobs and two young boys.
 
The Man Behind the Poster (Sky)

Documentary about Drew Struzan - the artist responsible for a lot of the classic movie posters of the 1980s (Raiders / Thing / BTTF etc)

Very interesting story. Drew comes across as a top bloke, very modest and down to Earth. He has a lot of very famous fans.

The only downside with watching this was realising how poor a lot of modern photoshop face posters are and that the craft of hand painting has been replaced by computers. Shame :(
 
Monsters (2010) Directed by Gareth Edwards
Monsters-2010-film-images-f7cf046e-c282-4d1f-b6a9-48d558d02f9.jpg

Still amazing to think this whole film cost under $500,000 dollars to make you would never believe it looking at the thing, it's guerrilla filmmaking at its best in getting not only the right settings to tell its up-river tale but also the right political environment to match its story, still love this one especially in the way it unconventionally plays out and yep I still love the monster moments that thrill but also give out that certain kind of awe and sadness at the same time.8/10
 
Even after all these years and about 20 watches, I can't resist Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

And no-one has ever successfully explained to me yet just what the hell Morgan Freeman's character is all about! :laugh:
 
Let me know when you find out :D
 
It's one of cinema's greatest mysteries. It'll never be explained.
 
"And tell them Christmas is cancelled." 😂
 

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