VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Mr_Danger]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

Andrew Schultz is one of those right-wing libertarian snide cunts. Absolute helmet.

Schulz is deffo one of Rogans ‘edgy’ mates but Eric Andre is good people as far as I know. Definitely not MAGA.

[BomberPat]

I watched Godzilla Minus Zero at the IMAX last night - first time seeing anything in IMAX, so that was fun. 

I was the low man of my group, everyone else absolutely loved it. I thought it was good, but obviously not a patch on Minus One - how could it be? - and a bit clunky in places. The plot seemed to revolve entirely around someone saying they had a plan, then not telling you what the plan was, so half the film was characters flying around in planes while someone barked orders over a walkie-talkie to another group of people to do something that hadn't been explained to the audience. 

The first film did such a good job of threading the needle of Godzilla as a metaphor for the nuclear bomb, and dealing with survivor's guilt, post-war reconstruction, and trauma in general, without ever feeling silly for it, and I don't think this one nailed those themes at all, they just had a lot of characters saying them out loud repeatedly. The human element was so strong in Minus One, and so weak and hackneyed in this one, with some absolutely preposterous acting from Min Tanaka at one point, that it's a good thing that the monster designs were really strong, and that it was visually interesting enough to make up for it. Some fucking dreadful CGI crows, though, it briefly turned into Birdemic for a couple of minutes.

[SaitoRyo]

City of Industry

Late-90s neo-noir starring Harvey Keitel as a retired thief who vows revenge on the man who double crossed him after his last heist. 

This was perfectly fine. A professionally-made film with a great lead performance by Keitel. It's not to be lumped in with the rest of the post-Tarantino crime films from that era, as the criminals don't sit around spouting post-modern pop-culture references (thank God). It's a simple story, decently told and they get it wrapped up within 100 minutes. It has some late-90s/early 2000s things that I don't like it (some of the music, the way certain scenes are shot etc.), but I'd say it's worth a watch overall, especially if you're a Keitel fan (and you'd be a fool not to be really). It's on Tubi.

[Hannibal Scorch]

On 11/5/2026 at 2:44 PM, Supremo said:

Street Fighter truly did feel like, “WWE Monday Night Raw The Movie.” A bloated, style-over-substance, empty-calorie mess that I enjoyed in the moment but will never ever watch again.

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Fittingly, Cody Rhodes plays the most ridiculous man to ever live. Equal parts preposterous and magnetic. The role he was born to play. Funny though; even in playing Guile, with that hair, they still decided his neck tattoo was too ridiculous, so covered it up. What an indictment on your stupid tattoo, RollerCodester. Not even Guile, in the fictional world of Street Fighter, would rock that ink! Laser it off already!

I wonder if Cody would only agree to covering up the tattoo if he could do the job off-screen. Felt downright bizarre when they randomly announced he was already eliminated. The way everything fell apart in the final act, I’m assuming there’s some mad three-hour cut that they’ll eventually release to streaming.

Similarly, Roman Reigns also plays himself. Doesn’t bother turning up for any of the build up, only appearing at the pay per view (tournament) itself, to the point wherein it took me a second to even realise he was playing the same character from the earlier anime sections. Lazy prick, relying on video packages to do the hard work for him. 

It even had those annoying celebrity appearances, straight out of Raw! I don’t even know if Andrew Schulz or Eric Andre are MAGA whoppers, but they’ve spent enough time on WWE television for me to assume as much. Biggest surprise was Dana White not making an appearance.

A load of silly bullshit. Three and a half stars. Will watch the sequel if it comes out. WWE Smackdown The Movie. We love to have fun.

 

I made a similar comment on social media and it was like kicking a hornets nest.

[Jazzy G]

Wow, what an experience Godzilla Minus Zero was. I didn't expect them to go there with their choice of villain, but it was done really well. The stakes escalated, sneaky Americans with their nefarious scheme. 

The underlying theme about running/hiding front your trauma was there. These Godzilla movies are always about the emotions and feelings of the characters, and the monsters turn up and have a scrap. The professor's obsession with avenging Hiroshima, Noda and Aoyama wanting to make amends for their past failures. Noriko accepting herself after what she went through. Koichi right there by her side as they go through it all again. It's always the people's story, Godzilla and Co just happen to be there for the exciting monster fighting fun. 

Spoiler

I thought it was Rodan at first, in spite of them using Ghidorah's theme over the Toho logo at the beginning. The scene where they were trying to get the lightning connectors into him and he turns into King Ghidorah, combined with the scene at sea where Godzilla turns up had me losing my shit. It was great execution. 

The moment where it looks like it's all over and then Godzilla turns up then fires the atomic breath and the music for that initial fight scene was amazing. The little "too soon" from Professor Noda as well. Sets up the final. Act beautifully.

The whole fight between Godzilla and King Ghidora was classic Toho kaiju throw down fun. Cutting off a head with the tail spine was great, and the ending when Ghidorah spouts the Godzilla spines and starts getting his own atomic breath ready at the end? It had been set up at the beginning with the talk of absorbing traits of animals it came into contact with. There were some fantastic visuals throughout and the monster scenes were spectacular. 

I don't know where they'd go from here, or whether you would go somewhere from here. Some kind of 1950s or 60s American built Mecha-Godzilla? Biollante, as was teased for this one? Mothra? There are options. Cast somebody as an older Akiko? This iteration of Godzilla feels like it needs to be more than just "a monster has turned up, how do we send for Godzilla?" It's about Koichi, Noriko and Akiko and how Godillza etc impacts their lives. I guess you could do something about the fugitive lifestyle and how everybody around you just wants to use you, combined with having to step up and do your bit, but some of that would just reread this one. 

It works as a little two hander., and I don't think we need any more from here, especially since they've done pretty much everything that needs to be done in terms of Godzilla and enemies. Let this be its own cycle and leave it in its own bubble, like Shin Godzilla, and the other Godzilla eras before it.

Sorry for the essay. Best movie I've seen at the cinema all year. How To Rob A Bank looked like it could be entertaining from its trailer. Not sure what to make of that Danny Boyle film about that shitty newspaper. 

[gmoney]

Body of Evidence

Trashy  Madonna vehicle. Erotic thriller in the mid-90s Basic Instinct vein.  Madonna's so wooden she infects Willem Dafoe. Loads of stuff doesn't make sense and it's a slog sometimes even though it's not that long, but I do love a courtroom scene and there are a lot here. Genuinely mucky as well.

Clan of the White Lotus

Really fun Shaw Brothers kung fu madness. I found out afterwards this was a sequel and the beginning scene was from the last one, where the heroes vanquished the last enemy, who was played by the same guy and looks identical to the main bad guy in this one. So that cleared things up a bit. Shows how much I was enjoying the action that it didn't matter a jot that wasn't clear.

9 Deaths of the Ninja

Strong Cannon film vibes from this one, though it's not a Cannon. It's has got one of the guys from American Ninja movies in it, Sho Kosugi. A bus loads of kids are kidnapped in the Philippines and our heroes attempt to rescue them. The bad guy in this is insane, like David Cross doing Dr Strangelove. A daft laugh.

Green Room

Watched this after the recommendations in the Patrick Stewart thread. Really tense with good performances across the board. Stewart is masterfully threatening. The facade of reasonability and the cold calculating ruthlessness were chilling. 

Bamboozled

A frustrated black comedy writer decides to write a minstrel show in an effort to get fired from his job, instead the show becomes a huge hit. Sort of a cross between Network and The Producers, while shining a light on racism in movies and TV in the past and present. Not subtle at all, and all the better for it to be honest. It's not perfect, Damon Wayans as the writer is a little too broad I think, and isn't in same tone as everything else, and lots of it was shot on DV cameras which looks like shit, but it's really affecting overall.

Edited 10 hours ago by gmoney

[BigJag]

@Jazzy G were you tempted by any of the Godzilla promotional merchandise? The Godzilla head drinks holder was very tempting.

A friend and I watched Streetfighter last night. I thought it was good fun and will hopefully watch it again with some other friends that couldn't make it last night. Cody has made the Guile role is own. Pretty much everyone is well cast. I'm sure Streetfighter fanatics will find plenty of errors and things to get angry about. I've never enjoyed the game. Largely due to me being absolutely rubbish at it. However it's legendary status has not been lost on me. Its a fun film with very familiar characters.

[Jazzy G]

It was all Shaun The Sheep merchandise where I went, so I didn't get to see anything. 

[Lorne Malvo]

Been continuing the DVD / Blu-Ray collection.

Hitch - A very weird set-up for this film, which is essentially 'being a predatory lying pick-up artist is okay if you're doing it out of love!' 2005 was a simpler time, I guess. Once you've over that quite massive stumbling block, the charm of Will Smith powers this film all the way through. Easy to forget now he's a huge weirdo but back here he really was quite good.

The Fugitive - It's just great, isn't it? Never puts a foot wrong and is so rewatchable. The only downside being ever since I watched it I've been walking around the house occasionally going 'Your fugitives name is Dr Richard Kimble... go get him!' like I'm commentating on Gladiators or something. A cracker.

Firewall - Harrison Ford is a security expert who has to rob the bank he works for, otherwise Paul Bettany will kill his family. It's bang-average. Has a thread with Robert Patrick that just gets dropped completely. You stop buying into it about 30 minutes in when the ruthless evil lot who have taken over Harrison Fords house let him run around without keeping an eye on him for about the fourth time. Stop hiring such inept mercenaries, Bettany!

Training Day - Antoine Fuqua has never came close to this. One of those films that has your arse twitching even when you've seen it countless times. A cracker.

Rumour Has It - I love a rom-com and can put up with even the most dogshit of them, but this really tested my patience. Jennifer Aniston in one of those roles that showed why she never quite managed the jump from TV to Hollywood, a bad Mark Ruffalo performance (I didn't even know those existed) and then Earnest Kevin Costner turns up at his most Earnest and I almost did a little bit of sick in my mouth. It's worst crime is the whole plot revolves around The Graduate, so you're constantly being reminded that a much, much better film exists. I'd rather be watching that!

Lethal Weapon - I said on here a few weeks back that there's a bunch of 80s classics I can't get on with, and Lethal Weapon was one of them. Ignore me, I'm an idiot. It's great, obviously. There are some parts of the entire 80s'ness of it all that I still bristle up against (will somebody please turn that fucking sax down) but for the most part it's as good as everyone thinks it is. I've never seen any of the sequels but will be checking those out next.

Syriana - One of those 'seperate threads eventually weave together' films they don't seem to make anymore. I just don't get films like this. If you're going to spend 2 hours telling me the oil industry is corrupt and Washington and the CIA are complicit, at least say something more than that because I could've told you that myself without wasting so much time. Rubbish.

Swordfish - I loved this back when I was 14 and Channel 5 showed it every week. It's obvious I was swayed by Halle Berry's tits. It's not great. Hugh Jackman doesn't convince at all as a world-class computer hacker and John Travolta is crap here too. To it's credit, it embraces just how daft it is and goes batshit in the last half hour; it's a shame the whole film wasn't pitched at that tone, as that would've been a lot more fun. 

Edited 10 hours ago by Lorne Malvo