VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[gmoney]

Greetings

A very early De Palma film. This one's shit. There's no plot, it's loosely centered on three men avoiding the Vietnam draft and we see various unconnected scenes featuring them. It's a comedy, it's also not funny in any way. Notable for being Robert De Niro's first credited feature film. He's fine, but it's not a reason to see this. Nearly turned it off a few times, but powered through, to my detriment. 

The Five Heartbeats 

A fictional biopic about a Motown style soul group, following them over 30 years. It's a good companion piece to That Thing You Do. I'm a sucker for films that have an epic scope, and while this is pretty cheesy in places, I was really invested. Interesting to see director and one of the stars, Robert Townsend, doing a non comedy. Great cast choc full of people you've seen in small roles elsewhere, shining here. 

Edited October 21 by gmoney

[SaitoRyo]

On the Line (1984)

Mexico/US border drama about a rookie border patrol agent who falls in love with a Mexican prostitute, while his new boss tries to take down the rookie's ex-agent-turned-human-trafficker uncle. The film's poster sells it as some sort of wild actioner, but it's really not. It also sells David Carradine as being the main star, but he's really not. Despite this, it's not an exploitation film and is actually rather introspective and quite good overall. A good companion piece to the more well-known Borderline and The Border, which were made around the same time. It's currently available to view in reasonable quality on Tubi.

 

[Mr_Danger]

Forgotten Island seems to have cherry picked the best aspects of recent animation successes and made a really great film out of them. A good story with a really sweet believable friendship at its core. It’s definitely one of the kids films I don’t regret sitting through. 

[Devon Malcolm]

Iron Lung

Markiplier can't follow in the footsteps of the Phillippou brothers and Kane Parsons on the 'YouTubers making great horror films' front, unfortunately. Very long and very dull, can only see this appealing to fans of the game as I never knew what the hell was happening. Not a total disaster but just not very good.

It Ends

Huge disappointment. Timeloop-ish horror film about some college friends stuck on a road that goes nowhere both literally and figuratively. Never amounts to anything more than lots of shouting and boredom. I don't see the fuss at all.

The Wailing (2024)

Excellent Spanish horror with shades of It Follows. One of the few horror films about trauma that actually works. Can see why Ester Exposito is such a huge star in Spain, she's great here, but Argentine Kristen Stewart (Malena Villa) is even better.

Shocker

Wes Craven's absolutely mental sci-fi horror film about an executed serial killer (Walter Skinner himself!) who comes back to life as an electrical force. The TV shows scene might be the best thing Craven ever shot. Brilliantly inventive and a fucking blast.

I Bury the Living

Superb old psychological horror film about a cemetary manager who thinks he's killing off half his town via a curse. Surprisingly bleak and atmospheric, one of the few American 1950s horror films outside of the sci-fi monster ones that works.

Marebito

J-Horror outlier about a mentally disturbed photographer who finds a feral woman chained up under a Tokyo subway station. Nothing like most of its peers and all the better for it. Not the happiest film you'll watch though.

The Nest (1987)

Cockroach infestation sci-fi horror. Watched half of this out of the corner of my eye. Some superb practical effects from what I saw of it, goes enjoyably daft near the end. Good fun, I think!

Homicidal

William Castle made some amazing films around this time and this is no different. As much as it borrows heavily from Psycho, it's also completely its own thing and also far more mental. Loved it.

Night of the Reaper

Appalling slasher film from the same guy who directed Bodycam, which was also fucking shite. The last half an hour is some of the stupidest shit I've watched for ages.

Buzzkill

From the director of Slay, another fun horror-comedy with a weird gimmick of the central character seeing visions only when she's drunk. Jem Garrard definitely has something, it's just a shame they're stuck with Tubi money.

Happy Birthday to Me

Definitely one of the weirdest and most unpredictable slashers of the 80s. I don't love the big swing it takes at the end but the rest of it always kept me guessing and some of the death scenes are still brilliant to this day.

Inferno (1980)

Probably Dario Argento's most incomprehensible film, and that's saying something. He still makes it work through sheer style, brutality and unpredictability. One of his very best.

Zombie Flesh Eaters

I didn't used to like Lucio Fulci that much but he's grown on me in recent years and I much prefer this to when I first watched it over a decade ago. Slow-moving until it loses its shit in the last half-hour. The shark scene is still one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen in a film. Even Tom Cruise wouldn't do that.

Kill Me Please

Brazilian serial killer mystery mixed with coming-of-age high school drama. Excellent lead performance from Valentina Herszage, becomes increasingly more unnerving up to a smart, quiet ending. Not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but I really liked this.

Edited October 24 by Devon Malcolm

[HarmonicGenerator]

Wildwood is incredible. The final act is one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen in a cinema. Unbelievable artistry. A nailed on 5 stars. See it, see it on a huge screen, just see it.

[gmoney]

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

Pretty surface doc going over the basics of Herzog. It's probably impossible to make a boring documentary about him, but this really didn't go over anything I didn't already know, and I don't consider myself an expert. Having just watched the De Palma doc recently where they went over every one of his movies giving them pretty much equal weight, I was crying out for something like that. I want to hear his thoughts on Salt And Fire damn it!

Better Off Dead

Very daft comedy starring John Cusack in a rare non-irritating performance. You can tell this went on the influence the Wet Hot American Summer team, probably more the Zucker Abrahams Zucker movies. If a joke misses, there's another not far away that hits. Good stuff. 

The Fury

More De Palma I'd not seen. Anytime I felt myself losing interest something absolutely insane or ridiculous would happen, whether that be a woman bleeding from her fingernails or a huge group of smiling Middle Eastern men in keffiyehs getting on fairground ride, laughing and waving. On the one hand it's not a classic, but it's got so much good shit in it. 

[SaitoRyo]

Analyze This

Hadn't seen this one for an absolute age. It's a lot of fun. De Niro and Crystal are perfect for their roles and play off each other really well. Sharp script boosted by a strong supporting cast. I'll probably re-watch Analyze That on the back of this, though I've read it's meat to be pretty bad in comparison. 

Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

Cinema trip with my son. We had a great time. How could you not? It's just classic Aardman. You're ALWAYS going to have a good time with them. Really fun and done in 75 minutes. Lovely stuff.

Joshua Tree

1993 action thriller starring Dolph Lundgren, alternatively known as Army of One. As far as 90s actioners starring Lundgren are concerned, this one is destinctly upper tier. He plays a trucker who is set up and sent to jail, escapes on the way there and then kidnaps a woman as he tries to evade the corrupt cops, not realising she's a deputy sheriff. She is absolutely lush, mind, so you're just counting down the minutes until they have it off big style. Some good, violent action in this one, which is better than you'd expect.

Kingpin

First time seeing this, though it has been on my list for ages. I thought it was alright. Funny in places, but not especially funny overall. It's a Farrelly Brothers film, so you know what sort of humour you're signing up for. Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Randy Quaid are all very good, but I hoped for bigger laughs that never really came. Didn't hate it or anything, mind.

[johnnyboy]

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Rural teen beauty pageant black comedy mockumentary.  Everyone is in this.  I'm disappointed that I'd never seen it before as from start to finish I had a smile on my face.

 

[Statto]

Two of my favourite films of my teens back-to-back there. Haven't seen either in a long time, I suspect the latter has aged a little better...

We did a bowling event for work about a month ago and one of my colleagues commented on my unusual bowling style. It's because the only bowing influence I've ever had is Ernie McCraken.

[Hannibal Scorch]

I knew I was going to hate Street Fighter when it started off with What’s Up as a needle drop before realising this sequence was set in 1987. It’s one of my absolute pet peeves in any movie.

The animated sequences were great. But the story, acting and over use of Andrew Shultz grated. Even the one thing I was looking forward to, Dastmalchian, was awful as Bison. And the way it ended felt like they run out of budget. Considering it’s bombed more than Masters of the Universe, don’t hold your breath for SF II. Out of the fighting game movie battle, I rate both Mortal Kombat (95 and 21) over Street Fighter. 
 

Ghosts The Possession of Button House was everything I hoped for and more. More satisfying than the end of the TV series, very funny and sweet to boot. Glad it’s been so successful. Give me more!

[Jazzy G]

I think I read somewhere the cast were signed on for three movies. Even if there's no real market for cinematic releases they'll go straight to streaming in the hopes that some die hard Street Fighter fans will sign up for Paramount Plus. They could even animate them to save on budget. I think we will get a sequel, I just don't think I'll be booking into a 10am Saturday showing for it. 

Also I still need to finish watching Cheers and the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. 

[SaitoRyo]

Galvestone

A seemingly terminally-ill hit man is set up in New Orleans, but ends up surviving and rescuing a sex worker and her kid sister. He vows to return to Galveston and seek vengeance before his time runs out. 

I really, really wanted to like this one more than I did, considering it's a neo-western revenge crime thriller. Right up my street. And it's fine. It's not bad. It's just not very good, in my opinion. I thought Ben Foster and Elle Fanning were both great in the lead roles, but they don't add up to a great film, unfortunately. Felt like something was missing and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. I thought the last five or six minutes were very powerful, however.

[johnnyboy]

We Need To Talk About Kevin

You know that something bad has happened or is about to happen, and then you just hope it won't be as horrific as you think it will be.*  A fantastic film, but not a date nighter or one I will probably ever watch again without therapy.

*

Spoiler

It's possibly more horrific.

 

[SuperBacon]

Ghostbusters is still one of my favourite films, and I never tire of it, but on this rewatch I've come to the conclusion that even though I like it a lot, Ghostbusters II is a bit crap isn't it?

A really shite baddie, I don't like the bit with the Statue of Liberty and it all felt really cheap this time (bearing in mind I've probably seen it 50 times)

However, Bobby Brown went all out on that song, so that adds another point, and "WINNNNSTOOOOOOON" gets another as it scared me as a kid.

Seven, erm 7 was terrible, but then you already knew that.

[LaGoosh]

17 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Seven, erm 7 was terrible, but then you already knew that.

Se7en? I've literally never heard anyone say that film is terrible! It's a brilliant film.

Ghostbusters 2 is a bit cack but definitely has it's charms. I think it's mostly let down by Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver clearly not being arsed about the whole thing. I love some of the monsters in it, especially the court house scene.