VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[FLips]

Blade Runner

Veterans of the forum with a decent memory may remember my opinion of Blade Runner from when I first watched it back in college 17 years ago, where I described it as “boring” and was rightfully slaughtered for it.

This is my redemption arc.

I will preface this by saying that I do understand why a 17 year old kid might have initially found this boring; it moves at a snail’s pace.
That being said it’s like taking a scenic car journey and being disappointed you couldn’t rubberneck a crash. This isn’t an action film, it’s a visually breathtaking, complex philosophical problem that asks what makes us human and where you draw that line.

As someone who’s biggest fear is death, there was something comforting in watching the replicants, Roy Batty especially, try and come to terms with their own mortality, and like humans do, go through the stages of grief trying to do so. 
At the point where Deckard guns Zhora down I said to my wife I don’t think I’ve seen a more stunningly directed film. Every single shot means something and Los Angeles’ cyberpunk aesthetic is remarkable. As someone from Teesside who lived close to the chemical plant where it’s apparently based on, I immediately noticed some similarities even if they are obviously expanded on massively in the film. “The fire in the sky” as me and my wife called it when we lived near there, is duplicated and on display in the opening shots of the film.

The moral struggle of Deckard, whose job it is to hunt and retire replicants, falling in love with one poses fascinating questions I’m not clever enough to answer. Is he a hypocrite? Do her implanted memories make her more human than the other replicants?
I will say though as fascinating as it is, the romance is a little rushed and at times a little forceful. He gets a bit James Bond with her at one point and we both flinched a bit.

That latter question is one that runs through the whole film though. What seperates the replicants and the humans? They’re capable of emotions, they blend in with society, they work and form bonds. As Pris puts it “I think therefore I am”. 
Should they all be hunted based on the actions of a few? 

By the time we got around to Roy Batty’s “tears in the rain” speech I was on the edge of my seat holding back tears. It’s a beautiful dialogue out of context but within the film it’s something just really wonderful and I felt that emotion. Him saving Deckard despite being a Blade Runner to prove in his dying moments he may be more human than most is incredible.

There’s a lot to think about coming away from the end of the film. Is Deckard a replicant? Do he and Rachael make it away safely?
But also outside of the context of the film, it poses difficult questions to think about in our own world; racism, slavery, the extinction of wildlife and animals, commercialism and consumerism.

I’ll finish by saying this. I was an idiot, it’s a near perfect film and I haven’t even touched on the soundtrack either which like the acting, the direction, the visuals, the concept, and everything else about the film is thrilling from beginning to end.

Edited November 14, 2024 by FLips

[SaitoRyo]

Grand Theft Parsons

I've had this on the 'to watch' list for a while and felt like the time was right after recently reading a Gram Parsons biography. 

This tells the (highly embellished) tale of Gram's friend, right-hand-man and road manager Phil Kaufman (Johnny Knoxville) 'stealing' Parsons' body after his untimely motel room OD death in California's Joshua Tree National Park. The body is stolen so that Kaufman can fulfil Gram's last wishes of being cremated in the park. He rents a yellow hearse from a junkie hippie (Michael Shannon) and they hit the road in an attempt to get the deed done before they can be stopped by Gram's father (Robert Forster) and a crazy former lover (Christina Applegate). 

It's not amazing or anything, but it's a pretty decent buddy road movie. I've always liked Knoxville and Shannon, so it was fun to watch them two interacting. The soundtrack is class, because there's a lot of Parsons tunes on it, but also songs from the likes of Springsteen and Primal Scream. 

It's very much a fictionalised account of the actual event - the father and the ex didn't exist - but you're not watching this sort of zany indie for historical accuracy and it's an enjoyable enough way to spend 80-or-so minutes, especially if you're a fan or have an interest in the story of Gram Parsons. 

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Blade Runner

I’ll finish by saying this. I was an idiot, it’s a near perfect film and I haven’t even touched on the soundtrack either which like the acting, the direction, the visuals, the concept, and everything else about the film is thrilling from beginning to end.

You're absolutely not an idiot. I think there's a lot in that film that won't hit a viewer properly until they've had some life experience and they're able to relate to it. Plus I think as time goes by, you're able to appreciate the visuals and the soundtrack and what they managed to achieve as well. Sometimes you just need that. That and not having those action sci-fi expectations helps a lot.

There are plenty of films that I haven't necessarily loved the first time round when I saw them younger and now I love them. Or I enjoyed them in one way and now I have a completely different perspective on them. Something as simple as Home Alone (just because it's nearly Christmas) is funny as a kid but has a massively different impact as an adult and it's a far more emotional thing for me now.

[Hannibal Scorch]

I felt the same as you @FLips. Tried multiple times to watch in my teenage years and found it boring. I tried again before 2049 came out and had a similar epiphany.

[FLips]

Team America: World Police

After I chose Blade Runner to watch, my wife picked this which neither of us have seen since it originally released and was all the rage at school. Our worries that it wouldn't hold up to the reputation it had when we were 14 was correct, it's pretty rubbish.

Some laughs still come from the puppetry and sight gags. The sex scene is still outrageous and the "fight" scenes still incredibly stupid, but the actual jokes are split mostly into one of three categories; racist voices, mentioning 9/11 and saying fag. Even hidden behind excuses of parody it hasn't aged well, and not just that but in today's climate I can't even imagine a 14 year old now finding much of it funny.

Very much of it's time, late 90s/early 2000s offense for offense sake comedy that doesn't have anything going for it now. South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut does everything this does but better and still has good jokes in it. Give that a watch instead.

[Merzbow]

Heretic

Yet another solid horror in 2024? Hugh Grant is oh so believably creepy and both Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East put in brilliant showings. The first half is excellent but the turn half way through just gets a little too silly and predictable for me, once the initial tension is broken it never really gets back to that greatness. Still a fun watch and I actually stayed for the credits when I heard this.

Sophie's got such a good singing voice, her recent EP is class.

[LaGoosh]

22 hours ago, FLips said:

I will say though as fascinating as it is, the romance is a little rushed and at times a little forceful. He gets a bit James Bond with her at one point and we both flinched a bit.

I see this brought up a lot and don't disagree but it's also an interesting point. Is the romance rushed because Deckard is so lonely and pathetic that he immediately clutches onto any real connection he has? Is it forceful/rapey if Rachael isn't actually a human? Does Rachael really love him or is she a lost and desperate machine with nowhere to go?

I love that film so much.

9 hours ago, FLips said:

Our worries that it wouldn't hold up to the reputation it had when we were 14 was correct, it's pretty rubbish.

I've intentionally avoided a Team America rewatch for this exact reason, I will say that the line in the "America, fuck yeah" song where it goes "so lick my butt and suck on my balls" made me laugh so much when I saw it in the cinema I thought I was going to pass out.

[DavidB6937]

9 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Heretic

Sophie Thatcher

One of my main reasons for watching Yellowjackets (first season on Sky/Now, the rest on Paramount because they're annoying). She's crazy talented.

[Devon Malcolm]

She's in another horror film in a couple of months called Companion, from the same team behind Barbarian. She was good in The Boogeyman as well although it was shit.

[Merzbow]

56 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

One of my main reasons for watching Yellowjackets (first season on Sky/Now, the rest on Paramount because they're annoying). She's crazy talented.

The whole family is seemingly crazy talented, I knew her twin Ellie before even realizing they were sisters through her industrial music. Their big sister is a director too, put out a great little indie film called Provo which I think I mentioned here when I watched it.

Edited November 15, 2024 by Merzbow

[BomberPat]

12 hours ago, FLips said:

Team America: World Police

Some laughs still come from the puppetry and sight gags. The sex scene is still outrageous and the "fight" scenes still incredibly stupid, but the actual jokes are split mostly into one of three categories; racist voices, mentioning 9/11 and saying fag. Even hidden behind excuses of parody it hasn't aged well, and not just that but in today's climate I can't even imagine a 14 year old now finding much of it funny.

It does have the line, "have you ever seen a man eat his own head? Then you haven't seen everything", which still makes me laugh like an idiot to this day. No intention to watch the rest of it, though.

I watched Blood Vessel last night, which is definitely a movie that started with the title and worked backwards. It's the end of World War 2, and some Allied soldiers are adrift at sea in a lifeboat, each one of them with a gloriously bad accent - a Romanian, an Australian, two Brits and two Americans. They sneak on-board a Nazi ship that approaches them, only to find the crew all horrifically murdered. Turns out there's a vampire on-board, that was picked up as part of a Nazi mission to obtain occult artefacts.

It's on a shoestring budget and some of the acting is awful, but there's some really good creepy atmosphere, and the design of the vampire is a kind of mix of Nosferatu and a more explicitly bat-like face with giant ears, and it's sufficiently creepy. It could do more with the premise, but it was a solid three stars.

[Devon Malcolm]

Small Things Like These (cinema)

There's a scene in this that was scarier than anything I watched in October. Anyone who's seen it will know the one. Really excellent and quiet drama about the Magdalene Laundries with a great Cillian Murphy performance. The Catholic Church is the biggest villain in cinema and rightly so.

Chime (2024)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's new one is only 40 minutes long but like with his best films, Pulse and especially Cure, it's a disarming and unpredictable psychological horror film that is nothing like you'd expect. Absolutely love this guy's films.

Oddity (Shudder)

Superb Irish horror film about a blind woman who tries to find the truth behind her twin sister's murder. Great atmosphere throughout, a well paced story, and unusually for a horror film it absolutely lands the ending. Really surprised by this one.

Mothers' Instinct (Netflix)

Relieved that I didn't pay to see this at the cinema. Jessica Chastain is a guarantee of a mediocre-to-bad film and has been for years. Just a totally predictable load of shit with only Anne Hathaway's performance to recommend it for.

I.S.S. 

Decent sci-fi thriller set during an ongoing nuclear war between America and Russia. Isn't too ambitious but it's a breezy and well acted 90 minutes or so.

Greedy People

Really disappointing black comedy crime film that struggles all the way through with its tone and absolutely fucks its ending. Not good at all, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always watchable and the cast as a whole is really good.

Life After Fighting

Surprisingly decent Australian martial arts action film. I reckon you'll love this, @John Matrix. It's half an hour too long but the final third has got some superb action stuff in it, and very well shot too.

Kinds of Kindness 

Nope, not good at all. Not a great year for Yorgos Lanthimos because Poor Things wasn't that good either. None of the stories in this work and Hunter Schafer is only in one of them. Goes on for fucking ever as well.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

It - the 90s Tim Curry one. Might be a big old case of nostalgia, but I still love this one. The kids are decent across the board and Curry is my Pennywise. 4/5

It Chapter 1 & 2 - relies far too heavily on cgi scares. New Pennywise is different enough from the previous one, and kid-centric first part is much better than part 2. 3/5

Barbie - the whole film should have been set in Barbieland. The real world there, much like it is here, sucks. 3/5

Dune: Part Two (first watch) - in the unjustified hatred thread, I nominated Timothee Chalamet. Then I watched this. I may have to retract my statement. There was a scene where he spoke to the Fremen tribes, and his voice was deep and powerful. I didn’t know he had it in him. Bravo, Tim. A waste of Florence Pugh though. 4/5

Inside Out - an average Pixar outing. Bonus marks for Richard Kind as Bing Bong. 3/5

Inside Out 2 (first watch) - NO FUCKING BING BONG. 3/5

In Fear (first watch) - 2013 horror set in Ireland. Started off well and built up some nice tension, but blew it in the final third. 2/5

Parasite - second time watching this, and I had completely forgotten about the turn this takes in the second half. Cracking film. 4/5

Past Lives (first watch) - on paper, this is the type of film that I should love. I’m a huge fan of the Before trilogy, and aching, yearning romance is my bag. But this didn’t quite gel for me. I loved the two leads and I can’t put my finger on why I wasn’t blown away by it. Possibly a rewatch in a few years time. 3/5

[Jesse]

Watched Trap tonight and loved it. Seen it described as Josh Hartnett doing a Hitman level for most of its runtime and that felt very accurate. Thought this was a pretty fun, breezy watch with good tension at points throughout and Hartnett doing a great job in the central role. Not a movie that will stick with me, but one I had a good time watching.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Jesse said:

Watched Trap tonight and loved it.

It’s a great idea, well acted by Josh Hartnett but it’s terribly elicited. It’s as realistic as a wrestler being thrown into the turnbuckles and their body turning around. I’ve seen it twice and the (many) plot holes were even more glaring the second time round. Awful passion project for his daughter.
 

Also as much as I do (generally) like your write ups @Dr. Alan Grant, and you’re correct on Timothée, You think Inside Out, average Pixar? What?!?