VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[FLips]

The Fifth Element

It’s absolutely bonkers isn’t it? It’s Star Wars meets Mystery Men meets Zoolander meets god knows what else. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was watching but I loved it. 
I always assumed it was some generic sci-fi action film but now I don’t know what it is. It‘s like they couldn’t decide what type of film to make so just made a few at once.

Gary Oldman wearing a football cone on half his head and hamming it up with his redneck accent is to behold. As is Chris Tucker with his big Wheat Crunchies hair. 
The film must hold some sort of record for character and  tv actors that made me go “I know them!”

Loved it.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Brian and Charles (cinema)

Nice enough if predictable comedy about a lonely bloke who builds his own robot. Jumps over a few key points but it is very funny at times and well acted. Glad I popped out to see it.

Femme Fatale

Later Brian De Palma is mostly junk, sadly, and this is arguably the last decent film he made. I mean, it's still really stupid but at least it's enjoyable even if it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense late on.

11 Harrowhouse (ok.ru)

Good little heist film that nobody knows as Charles Grodin, James Mason and Candice Bergen steal a shitload of diamonds. Terrible voiceover, brilliant cast and an unexpected car chase at the end around Trevor Howard's country estate.

Once Upon a Time in America (Netflix)

Unreasonably slow, long, boring and unpleasant. A classic example of a director who really needed somebody to tell him that this is self-indulgent shit. Even the performances are pretty dull, except for Elizabeth McGovern.

The Martian

Fuck you, Mars.

Murder in the First (ok.ru)

Great cast, mediocre courtroom drama, the sort of thing that was made several thousand times in the 90s.

Double Jeopardy (Netflix)

The sort of junky, nonsense, brainless thriller that stopped getting made almost as soon as the 90s ended. Tommy Lee Jones looks really annoyed to be in this and I see his point but I thought it was a great laugh. Also, I love Ashley Judd.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Hell High (Arrow) - 80s slasher about a teacher who’s traumatised by an event from her childhood and harassed by a student, whom she embarrassed in class, and his friends before she takes violent revenge. Super cheesy and gory but not a lot of kit off action as is common in these films

Bohemian Rhapsody (Netflix) - biopic loosely based on the golden years of Queen and front man Freddie Mercury covering him joining the band, the fall out of him coming out to his wife/friend Mary and falling out with the band culminating with the legendary Live Aid performance at Wembley. Late to the party as usual watching this but I quite enjoyed it

Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb (Legend) - some classic Hammer horror about a team if archaeologists haunted by the spirit of an Egyptian princess who’s resting place they desecrate. Only half watched this but what I saw I enjoyed

Twins of Evil (Legend) - more classic Hammer, this time starring the iconic Peter Cushing as a puritan out to destroy witchcraft only for one of his twin nieces to fall under the spell of a vampire. I’m around 3/4 of the way through and it’s great, Cushing is a nasty bastard and the titular twins are delightfully sexy

[Factotum]

Got into a Neo Noir kind of mood last week:

YEAR OF THE DRAGON Michael Cimino fascinates me as a Director. His story is wild. I had utterly forgotten everything about this film and realised that despite its flaws, its a really enjoyable film with a great Rourke performance. It is delightfully horrible with some nice surprising turns for a crime film from the 80s. You can also tell Oliver Stone co-wrote this! Cimino's crime films remind me of Abel Ferrara's. This would make a good double bill with KING OF NEW YORK

MONA LISA Bob Hoskins, how we miss you. You just bloody love Hoskins in this. I love a 'descent into hell' film, and Bob's look of utter bewilderment as he goes around the porn clubs and encounters prostitutes is astonishing. Great support cast. Like a sort of likeable Taxi Driver. I can see why Hoskin's got nominated for everything for it.

Tequilla Sunrise The 3 best looking people on the planet at that time team up for a ridiculously enjoyable film. They needed to do about 50 Kurt Russell spin off's with his character.

[Factotum]

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER - Picked the new Criterion release up of this. Fucking hell I had forgotten how good it is. I love Robert Mitchum anyway, but he's terrifying! Highly recommend the Disc if you can. There's a full 2 1/2 hour version of Laughton directing the film in between takes. It's utterly fascinating

[Chris B]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:15 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Once Upon a Time in America (Netflix)

 

 

Unreasonably slow, long, boring and unpleasant. A classic example of a director who really needed somebody to tell him that this is self-indulgent shit. Even the performances are pretty dull, except for Elizabeth McGovern.

I absolutely loathed this film - the rape storyline, in particular, was horrendously poorly-judged, especially how it's resolved. While I like some Leone, I'm baffled by the generally fawning reviews to this one.

[DEF]

I absolutely love Leone's westerns but Once Upon A Time in America is one of the single most disappointing and unbelievably boring experiences of life. Never again.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by DEF

[Keith Houchen]

Following our Devon’s lead, I’m going to watch The Fast And The Furious films as I recorded them all on ITV2 or something. First one was an enjoyable disposable silly film, 3 Clarksons out of 5. 

[Factotum]

18 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Following our Devon’s lead, I’m going to watch The Fast And The Furious films as I recorded them all on ITV2 or something. First one was an enjoyable disposable silly film, 3 Clarksons out of 5. 

POINT BREAK with Cars that first one and nothing wrong with that

[Keith Houchen]

On 7/28/2022 at 3:00 PM, Keith Houchen said:

Following our Devon’s lead, I’m going to watch The Fast And The Furious films as I recorded them all on ITV2 or something. First one was an enjoyable disposable silly film, 3 Clarksons out of 5. 

2 Fast 2 Furious. Was strange in the fact that usually films start good and drop off. This was poor until the final heist/chase which was marvellously GTA. Current standings in the code, 12

[Keith Houchen]

The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift. 
 

I know these aren’t exactly acting masterclasses but this was poor. Decent car stuff though and that’s what they’re all about. Two Musawas out of five. 
 

1-2-TD

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

The Fast And The Furious - Tokyo Drift. 
 

I know these aren’t exactly acting masterclasses but this was poor. Decent car stuff though and that’s what they’re all about. Two Musawas out of five. 
 

1-2-TD

Just to confuse you, Tokyo Drift is set after F&F 6.

[chokeout]

The mental gymnastics they end up doing to fit Tokyo Drift into a timeline is hilarious. 

 

[Keith Houchen]

8 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Just to confuse you, Tokyo Drift is set after F&F 6.

What the fuck???  Forgot to say, Sonny Chiba rocking up like Don Fanucci was cool. 

[bAzTNM#1]

On 7/26/2022 at 2:58 PM, Factotum said:

MONA LISA Bob Hoskins, how we miss you. You just bloody love Hoskins in this. I love a 'descent into hell' film, and Bob's look of utter bewilderment as he goes around the porn clubs and encounters prostitutes is astonishing. Great support cast. Like a sort of likeable Taxi Driver. I can see why Hoskin's got nominated for everything for it.

Michael Caine plays such a prick in it. It's amazing he didn't do more "bad guy" roles (that I can remember).