VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[gmoney]

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 

Trying to mop up films I haven't seen by some of my favourite directors. This is a Scorsese film done just before Taxi Driver. Ellen Burstyn is a recent widow who tries to take her son to California to become a singer, but gets sidetracked on the journey. It's described in some places as a romantic comedy, and it is funny at times, but not sure I'd describe it as romantic. It's painfully realistic in places, and the relationship Alice has with her son is probably the most real feeling I've ever seen on screen. Definitely worth a watch, it's more than a curiousity.

The Irishman

Finally found time and inclination to watch this. First things first, this film looks like shit. Not just the de-aging, which is distracting, there is a really horrible sheen on everything. I don't know enough about post processing to know what they do, but this felt exactly the same as Mindhunters, a Netflix series from around the same time in there's something artificial in the picture that makes everything seem uncanny and super weird. Once I got past that, this is a fantastic film that flies by, justifies the runtime. Another incredible Pacino performance to add to the list to wave at wankers who criticise him. Joe Pesci was fantastic. I thought the story they tell with De Niros daughter being horrified by him was fascinating. I wish I didn't hate how this film looks. 

Sisters 

Brian De Palma film with Margot Kidder. More Hitchcock inspired stuff here, really good though until the slightly flat ending. 

[SaitoRyo]

Oh man, I LOVE Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore @gmoney. Might be a top 15 film for me tbh. It's very funny in places, too ("So long, suckers!"). Kris Kristofferson is the man, of course.

The Faculty

Hadn't seen this for an age. A total VHS/Sky Movies classic back in the day. It's still a lot of fun and has a star-studded cast who are giving it their all. Naturally, some of the late-90s CGI has aged pretty fucking badly but, thankfully, there's not too much of it. 

Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald

I really, really liked this, since it's basically two hour of Norm bits. Didn't appreciate the whole 'This guy's legacy is how many of his YouTube clips you'll watch!' theme, but it got better as it went on. Some amazing archive/behind-the-scenes footage in here. An essential watch if you're a Norm fan.

Shadowhunter

Burnt-out LA detective Scott Glenn is sent to the Navajo reservation to bring back a murder suspect but, inevitably, it all goes a bit tits-up and he ends up having to track the 'skinwalker' with the help of some locals. This is the sort of thing you'd have stumbled across in a video store back in the early 90s as part of some sort of 3-for-a-fiver offer. Predictible, cliched and actually quite comforting because of it? Flirts with being an out-and-out horror film before settling into a cat-and-mouse thriller. Had the feeling of being an X-Files two-parter. I liked the first half more than the second, but this was a perfectly fine way to kill 95 minutes and I'm glad I was able to find an HD copy after only ever seeing low-res rips.

[gmoney]

Street Fighter 

Passable. There was enough daft enjoyable stuff the paste over the creaky script and dodgy needle drops (What's Going On being one of the worst songs of all time and a major centerpiece of this film should annoy any right thinking person,  anachronistic or not). I thought Roman Reigns massively outshined Cody in the cameo stakes. The ending was cheeky as fuck. 

[SuperBacon]

I think @Devon Malcolm once told me not to watch the Final Destination films, but the kids wanted to watch them and so we did. He was right.

I saw the first one in the cinema with my Dad, who hates this type of film, and still think it's a decent film with a good premise. I didn't realise that it originally started as an X Files script, which makes complete sense, and the cast are all suitably early 00s which is nice. It's solid.

The rest all blur into one for their shitness, 3 being the slight outlier but that's really only because Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in it. 4 and 5 feature some of the worst CGI in the world, and also too much gore which is unnecessary, in that I mean if a body is falling it will splat twice rather than once and just looks silly. Then again, it's all silly bollocks.

I once stayed in London after a Spurs game with my youngest and we had an evening to kill, and she kept pleading with me for us to go see Bloodlines at the cinema, and I felt suitably smug as I thought about the 20 quid I'd saved on refusing to go and see it, as its probably the worst of them all.

That little CUNT in the opening scene with that penny, I was glad when he got (spoiler, sure none of you are arsed) crushed by that piano. 

Anyway, all crap apart from the first, the only slight positive is they're all only around 90 minutes long, and let's be honest weekly I watch a far worse waste of my time for that length. Best death was the sunbed one in whatever film that was in.

Final Destination (8)
Final Destination 2* (3)
Final Destination 3* (5)
The Final Destination* (2)
Final Destination 5* (2)
Final Destination: Bloodlines* (2)

Slightly related I also watched the Devon Sawa film Idle Hands, which might be the worst film I've ever seen, which is a super high, or low, bar for me.

[DavidB6937]

2 gets a bit more love from me for the log scene. But yeah they're pretty much all similarly silly.

[SaitoRyo]

34 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I think @Devon Malcolm once told me not to watch the Final Destination films, but the kids wanted to watch them and so we did. He was right.

I saw the first one in the cinema with my Dad, who hates this type of film, and still think it's a decent film with a good premise. I didn't realise that it originally started as an X Files script, which makes complete sense, and the cast are all suitably early 00s which is nice. It's solid.

The rest all blur into one for their shitness, 3 being the slight outlier but that's really only because Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in it. 4 and 5 feature some of the worst CGI in the world, and also too much gore which is unnecessary, in that I mean if a body is falling it will splat twice rather than once and just looks silly. Then again, it's all silly bollocks.

I once stayed in London after a Spurs game with my youngest and we had an evening to kill, and she kept pleading with me for us to go see Bloodlines at the cinema, and I felt suitably smug as I thought about the 20 quid I'd saved on refusing to go and see it, as its probably the worst of them all.

That little CUNT in the opening scene with that penny, I was glad when he got (spoiler, sure none of you are arsed) crushed by that piano. 

Anyway, all crap apart from the first, the only slight positive is they're all only around 90 minutes long, and let's be honest weekly I watch a far worse waste of my time for that length. Best death was the sunbed one in whatever film that was in.

Final Destination (8)
Final Destination 2* (3)
Final Destination 3* (5)
The Final Destination* (2)
Final Destination 5* (2)
Final Destination: Bloodlines* (2)

Slightly related I also watched the Devon Sawa film Idle Hands, which might be the worst film I've ever seen, which is a super high, or low, bar for me.

Me and The Wife re-watched Final Destination fairly recently. It's a good time and we enjoyed ourselves, so decided to watch the second one. It was watchable, so we went for the third (which I remembered watching in the cinema) and I think there was an understanding afterwards to just stop there. The premise simply doesn't warrant that many fucking sequels and you can see the diminishing returns coming a mile off.

Curious what you hated about Idle Hands so much, mind. Another recent re-watch with The Wife, which we both fell asleep during. Was a Sky Movies classic when I was a kid, though, so I enjoyed what I saw because of the nostalgia factor. Admittedly, it is very daft and a lot of the stoner humour doesn't land and can be grating, but worst film ever? Like I said, curious...

[SuperBacon]

8 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

Curious what you hated about Idle Hands so much, mind.

It just constantly wound me up to be honest. Nothing I could particularly point to, and I don't mind Sawa, but I found it incredibly irritating and was willing it to end.

Forgot to say, I bloody love The Faculty, which I see you watched. A really fun, shlocky film.

[Mr_Danger]

Mighty Joe Bong alone should mean it doesn’t fall below some of the shite you willingly watch Bacon. Final Destination series s similar to the Saw series. You’re there for one reason and one reason only. You either get your fill in the first couple or you sit through them all.

[mim731]

6 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald

I really, really liked this, since it's basically two hour of Norm bits. Didn't appreciate the whole 'This guy's legacy is how many of his YouTube clips you'll watch!' theme, but it got better as it went on. Some amazing archive/behind-the-scenes footage in here. An essential watch if you're a Norm fan.

I don't mean to be an arsehole by asking this, as I know there are a lot of fans of his work on here, but does it deal with the allegations about his inappropriate behaviour towards women that came out after his passing? Or is it not that sort of doc? Totally get it might not be.

I get that he's not alive to defend himself, and he's a revered comedian but that all seemed to get swept under the carpet very quickly. 

[SaitoRyo]

18 minutes ago, mim731 said:

I don't mean to be an arsehole by asking this, as I know there are a lot of fans of his work on here, but does it deal with the allegations about his inappropriate behaviour towards women that came out after his passing? Or is it not that sort of doc? Totally get it might not be.

I get that he's not alive to defend himself, and he's a revered comedian but that all seemed to get swept under the carpet very quickly. 

Nope, not a mention. It's really not that sort of doc. Very much a 'this guy was hilarious and everyone loved him, even if he was a little bit odd in some ways' thing. 

To be honest, I only vaguely remember some of that stuff. Was it one or multiple accusations of sexual harrassment? Wouldn't surprise me at all, him being a comedian of a certain generation, but I've not really heard anything since shortly after his passing.

[Jazzy G]

I've only seen Final Destination 3. Saw it at the cinema with some friends from work and their friends. Thought it was a comedy from how ridiculous it was. Tongue was very much in cheek throughout. 

[mim731]

6 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

Nope, not a mention. It's really not that sort of doc. Very much a 'this guy was hilarious and everyone loved him, even if he was a little bit odd in some ways' thing. 

Ah ok that makes sense, wasn't sure if it was more of a biographical thing or a focus on his comedy style, so it makes sense that the tone means it's probably not the sort of doc to cover it.

7 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

To be honest, I only vaguely remember some of that stuff. Was it one or multiple accusations of sexual harrassment? Wouldn't surprise me at all, him being a comedian of a certain generation, but I've not really heard anything since shortly after his passing.

There was definitely some reports of sexual harassment, unwanted groping and some stuff about him just being quite unpleasant/creepy with women in comedy clubs, but it all went away very quickly. He also made some pretty shitty comments about the MeToo stuff. I suspect the fact he's dead, and he's so beloved mean it won't resurface, but I was just curious if it had made it into the doc. 

[SaitoRyo]

Sunset Grill

A private investigator (and ex-cop) must team up with his ex-wife's new fella (his former co-worker) when someone close to him is murdered. 

What a strange film this is. Sort of like a neo-noir, but with a few odd shifts in tone. So much talent there, including Peter Weller and Lori Singer, but it's clearly an undercooked straight-to-video film from the early 90s. If it had a bit more budget and a bit better script, I think this would be more well-known and well-liked. I enjoyed it, but I found my attention drifting towards the middle. There's some fun stuff in there, even if it loses its way. Weller's on really good bizzaro form, too, so I'd recommend it for his performance if nothing else. 

[BomberPat]

Street Fighter

I don't think I have ever seen another film that was so enthusiastically four stars in the moment, but which I know will be lucky to get two stars on a repeat viewing - it will not hold up at all, the plot and tone are all over the place, they try and cram four hours worth of story into a two hour film, half the cast can't act, the soundtrack is wildly anachronistic, and you can practically see the seams where things have been saved in the edit, but I had an absurd amount of fun watching it.

 

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Street Fighter

I don't think I have ever seen another film that was so enthusiastically four stars in the moment, but which I know will be lucky to get two stars on a repeat viewing - it will not hold up at all, the plot and tone are all over the place, they try and cram four hours worth of story into a two hour film, half the cast can't act, the soundtrack is wildly anachronistic, and you can practically see the seams where things have been saved in the edit, but I had an absurd amount of fun watching it.

 

I think it's easy sometimes to get caught up in the potential legacy of a movie. I quite enjoy these one time "fuck it that was fun but absolutely never watching it again" experiences, especially in the cinema with an audience where you're all laughing at the same stupid shit knowing it's absolutely fucking ridiculous. There's absolutely room for stuff like this and He Man. Not everything needs to be The Odyssey - although I'm not sure I'd ever watch that again either.