VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot...my first solo trip to the cinema.

I have a fondness for it even now.

[Merzbow]

Bounce Ko Gals - This is a real hidden gem that's seemingly been found by the cool kid Letterboxd crowd more recently after it initially didn't review well in the West. A beautiful and dark late nineties time capsule and a damning indictment of men in Japan at that time (and before, there's a horrifying scene of an old man bragging about his "achievements" in the WW2 comfort women atrocities). It's all about the girls though, they're written thoughtfully and given power, a film that could have easily fallen into gross titillation over teenagers simply doesn't. Oh and there's a Communist Yakuza boss who sings The Internationale for karaoke..

Recommended if you ever saw Hideki Anno's Love & Pop which came out the year after.

There's a rare 1080p copy on YouTube.

 

[SaitoRyo]

Out of the Blue

A very bleak, but very, very good, film directed, written by (uncredited) and starring Dennis Hopper. 

Linda Manz is absolutely incredible as the wayward and troubled teen whose world is further turned upside down when her father is released from jail, five years after a tragic event. It's an extraordinary film in a lot of ways, especially when you realise Hopper was initially only meant to act in it but took over everything else after the original director was fired early on, completely reshaping the film into something else. 

I've wanted to watch it for an age and even bought an imported, 4:3 ratio pan-and-scan DVD about a decade ago. It has now been given the proper HD restoration treatment and I'm glad I held off and waited, as it looks great. 

[Lorne Malvo]

September 5 - A suitably tense retelling of the Munich massacre from the perspective of the ABC Sports TV crew. It doesn't quite sustain the high level of tension for it's entire running time but it's still a really good effort. First time I've seen Ben Chaplin in anything for ages, I forgot how much I liked him.

Captain America: Brave New World - About as middle of the road Marvel as you can get, which means it's a massive improvement on their last two years of output.

I'm Still Here - This is just terrific. Fernanda Torres is as exceptional as you may have heard, but Selton Mello is very good during his period on screen too. Brilliantly directed too. Can't wait to watch this again. If I had one criticism, it's that there's maybe one too many endings, but when the bulk of the film is this good I can forgive it that.

The Monkey - I liked it mostly. There's a forced quirkiness to it which I found grating after a while. But for the most part it's a good laugh with some very fun gore, if you're into that kind of thing.

[FLips]

City Slickers

All variously unhappy with their middle aged lives and relationships, Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby sign up for a two week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado to re-evaluate what's important to them.
We thought it was really good. There are some laugh out loud lines and moments in it but there's enough heart and enough drama to pad out the comedy and make the whole thing mean something rather than it be a farce from start to finish. Sometimes the drama is a little heavy handed but they do a brilliant job of countering it with a big laugh so it never feels too bleak, even though if you include the animals there's a body count of 4 midway into the film.

2/3 main leads are likeable and relatable, not so much Bruno Kirby's character though but he does get a big moment during the film that explains his character and gives him something to latch on to. Jack Palance stands out as Curly, the grumpy and lonesome cowboy leader of the cattle drive and he gets his big moments in the sun too including a fantastic line when Billy Crystal says "Hi Curly, kill anyone today?" and he dryly responds "Day ain't over yet". Crystal and Palance work beautifully together, bouncing off each other perfectly.
The rest of the group all have their moments too. It's not quite an even ensemble but nobody is really wasted.

At one point Billy Crystal helps birth a live cow and the baby cow Norman follows him for the rest of the film and it might just be the most adorable thing I've seen. Apparently Norman retired to a ranch near the Grand Canyon and lived to be over 20.

Really good stuff. Exceded our expectations for a random film we stuck on with no knowledge of. Got some of the biggest laughs either of us have done in ages so fair play.

Edited February 25, 2025 by FLips

[johnnyboy]

The Last Showgirl

I loved this so much that I ended up going down a rabbit hole looking at the real life revue show, and its closing, that had inspired this.

[Chest Rockwell]

2 hours ago, FLips said:

At one point Billy Crystal helps birth a live cow and the baby cow Norman follows him for the rest of the film and it might just be the most adorable thing I've seen. Apparently Norman retired to a ranch near the Grand Canyon and lived to be over 20.

Spoilers: Norman is in city slickers 2 and John Lovitz gives him a handjob.

Edited February 25, 2025 by Chest Rockwell

[FLips]

40 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Spoilers: Norman is in city slickers 2 and John Lovitz gives him a handjob.

Oh no.

[FLips]

Borderlands

It has Kevin Hart in a rare appearance that isn’t firmly buried up The Rock’s arse, and Jack Black in a film that’s nearly all outdated wonky CGI. 
My wife was impressed with Jamie Lee Curtis’ cleavage but that’s the only positive I can bring from this. Rough.

Edited February 25, 2025 by FLips

[LaGoosh]

Instead of Borderlands people should watch The Borderlands, an absolutely excellent British horror.

[Just Some Guy]

Banshees of Inisherin.

One bloke falls out with another on a small island off the coast of Ireland in the 1920s.

Amazing performances from everyone including a miniature donkey.

It's darkly humorous or as Just Some Girl put it, "Fucking depressing".

Don't listen to Just Some Girl, it's a great film.

Just a bit shit I've had to wait a couple of years for it to break free from the clutches of Disney+ 

[Statto]

We watched Banshees with the in-laws over Christmas. For someone who regularly boasts he is a "proven intellect", my father-in-law just spectacularly missed the point of the whole thing. 

Got none of the metaphor or anything like that. Just kept insisting Padraic must be gay and in love with Colm, or else he'd leave him alone. 

[Mr_Danger]

The Gorge. Great premise, Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy have to stand guard in opposing towers either side of a mysterious gorge for 12 months with no contact with the outside world or each other. Some shit happens and it turns in to a run of the mill horror film that over explains everything and despite having  cool imagery is absolutely nothing special at all. Still that first bit shrouded in mystery  with Anya Taylor Joy and Miles Teller being fit as fuck is pretty good. Strange to see them in such fodder but I guess Apple are paying out.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I’ve finally finished watching all the Resident Evil films. My god. The first one and third (Extinction) are okay. They’re not good films by any stretch, but they’re watchable. The first at least has elements of horror and a mansion/lab that feels like a semi-accurate adaptation of the games. Extinction’s desert setting was a nice departure.

But the other four films are godawful. Particular the second (Apocalypse) and last (The Final Chapter). I quickly realised that, some character names aside, these films have no relation to the games at all. Those two feature the worst editing I have ever seen on screen. A zillion cuts for every action scene. Anyone involved should have had no career afterwards. Characters and cliffhangers from previous films are forgotten or ignored, twists are nonsensical, the guy who plays Wesker is laughably bad and even Milla Jojovich looked bored 3 films in. They fail as horror films, they fail as action films and they fail as game adaptations.

Not that it matters (and having literally just finished The Final Chapter, I’m not sure anything matters anymore), but the ranking is…

1. Resident Evil 

2. Extinction

3. Retribution

4. Afterlife

5. Apocalypse

6. The Final Chapter

I’ve also watched The Masque Of The Red Death (the colours!) and Shaun The Sheep Movie. Both of which are leagues above those steaming turds above. And following my Pixar marathon of last year (and taking a minor break from my Carry On one), I’ve rewatched all the Tarantino films. Top 3 are Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and The Hateful Eight. Death Proof lingers at the bottom. 

To those in here who said not to bother watching the RE films, thank you for your warning. Shame I didn’t listen. 

[Merzbow]

9 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

The Gorge. Great premise, Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy have to stand guard in opposing towers either side of a mysterious gorge for 12 months with no contact with the outside world or each other. Some shit happens and it turns in to a run of the mill horror film that over explains everything and despite having  cool imagery is absolutely nothing special at all. Still that first bit shrouded in mystery  with Anya Taylor Joy and Miles Teller being fit as fuck is pretty good. Strange to see them in such fodder but I guess Apple are paying out.

I've seen people going insane saying that this is the end of Anya's career over this one throwaway movie, it's not like she's going to be playing one of Dune's most important characters or anything soon...