VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Hannibal Scorch]

The Amateur - Weirdly paced, drags for a while but a good concept and would be happy to see a sequel. Remy Malek remains a fascinating actor in I can’t work out if he’s good or shit.

Sinners - I enjoyed the heck out of this. Paid the extra to see it in lieMax based on that amazing Ryan Coogler tweet about different film formats. Beautiful looking film, fun story. like a better From Dusk till Dawn.

Warfare - The cinema is a safe space. But there was something in this that gave me real stimulation overload. Despite that, which isn’t the directors fault, I thought this was really enjoyable but harrowing. Made you feel really claustrophobic and in the moment, devastatingly. Alex Garland co-directs and writes the opposite of his 2024 Civil War by the focus purely focused on the soldiers in the thick of it (and this is based on real events experienced by co-director Ray Mendoza). Hard to recommend as it’s a rough watch, but I very much enjoyed it.

[tiger_rick]

On 4/20/2025 at 10:30 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Never watch the trailers. They're almost always misleading, shit, full of spoilers or all three.

You saying it wasn't a penguin?

Edited April 22, 2025 by tiger_rick

[Merzbow]

The Matrix.. fucking hell I don't think my opinion of a film has changed so much since first watching it, I dare not ever go back and stick on The Crow which I bet I'll hate, too.

Laughably dumb fake deep philosophy wrapped in a generic White Saviour trope (or should that be the other way around?) and action that's just awful, what happens when you give two hack sisters who watched too much John Woo without understanding the basics of how his combat works too much money.

[Thunderplex]

Captain America Brace New World.  Completely pointless.  Loved the Falcon and Winter Soldier show so hoped it would be more of the same.  God knows what it was like before the reshoots, but it was just a bland mess.  Watch the trailer and you have seen the whole film.

[SuperBacon]

2 hours ago, Merzbow said:

The Matrix.. fucking hell I don't think my opinion of a film has changed so much since first watching it, I dare not ever go back and stick on The Crow which I bet I'll hate, too.

Laughably dumb fake deep philosophy wrapped in a generic White Saviour trope (or should that be the other way around?) and action that's just awful, what happens when you give two hack sisters who watched too much John Woo without understanding the basics of how his combat works too much money.

I love The Matrix but I enjoy it very much on a base level, I'm not really arsed about the "lore" or any of that bollocks. It'll always hold a special place in my heart because of the time it came out, what I was going through at the time etc and will always bring some comfort.

It is telling though that you all know I'll sit through any old shit, but the third one is the only film I've ever walked out of.

[FLips]

Casino
Would you believe it, it's another weird letterbox poor quality DVD!
Luckily, and counterproductively, it was available on ITVX.

Quite disappointed with this one to be honest. You'd think with DeNiro and Pesci heading it you'd be in for a tour de force but sadly the film focuses way way too much on Sharon Stone's drug addict, Ginger. It felt like 1/2 of the runtime was her screaming and crying as DeNiro pulled a face. Their romance and DeNiro's gullability in giving her access to all the money and jewelry is unrealistic too.
Pesci is basically the same character he plays in Goodfellas except he isn't as interesting in the context of this film.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad film and we still enjoyed it, but it didn't grip us like some of the other outings with these two leads. The bits that are good are great though, the hammer scene and the baseball bat scenes are grim and it has a very stylish opener with the car bomb scene but sadly they cop out of that during the actual film.
Great soundtrack too, a lot of Devo which is right up my alley.

--

Popped into CEX on my way home today and got a few more bits too.

The Hateful Eight - £2
Escape From New York - £4
Casino (Special Edition with updated widescreen) - £1.50
Glengarry Glen Ross - £1

£8.50 total which is a steal I think. Technically deduct £1.50 off it for when I return my other copy of Casino. Especially happy with Glengarry for £1 but the format says 4:3 on the back so I imagine it won't look great on the big telly but should look fine on my combi. It shouldn't have the same issues as Goodfellas and Casino which run in non-anamorphic widescreen.

I almost picked up South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut for £1 too but it was a double sided widescreen deal so gave it a miss too.

 

[Merzbow]

DVD's are often shit, they became so cheap to produce that companies stopped giving a shit about quality and still pump them out today. I think we're both in a golden and dark age of physical media, on the whole it's a lot smaller market but we've also got boutique blu-ray companies putting more care in to releases than ever.

[gmoney]

I do think Casino is lesser film than Goodfellas generally, but I'm not sure it's the focus on Sharon Stone that's a weakness for me, I love her performance in it. You're right about Pesci being a retread, and it is a bit flabby in places, but I do love it in its own right as well. 

[SuperBacon]

34 minutes ago, FLips said:

Glengarry Glen Ross - £1

Shelley Levene approves.

[Lorne Malvo]

Y2K - I don't usually agree with that old 'so bad it's good' thing - a bad film is just bad, usually - but I feel like it fits here. Really stupid, but in a way where I was laughing with the film rather than at it. It may help that I've got a massive soft spot for the late 90s/early 00s aesthetic. Rachel Zegler easily the best thing about it.

You're Cordially Invited - Will Ferrell in a bit more of a toned-down mode than usual. I quite enjoyed this actually, up until a certain point (which always happens in these films) where the behaviour of the characters switches to full-on unhinged criminality from which there would surely be no way back from. I wish Reese Witherspoon would do more films.

Fight Or Flight - Bullet Train without the annoying sub-Guy Ritchie bits. It's absolutely fine. Perfectly adequate 'watch it on a Friday night and never think about it again' fare. Actually, that could sum up all 3 of these films.

[LaGoosh]

Casino is a weird one because on paper it has all the right ingredients for a good film but is just not good at all. It's just a pretty dull and miserable slog.

[Mr_Danger]

Sinners. Tremendous right up to the point it all kicks off and

Spoiler

the Vampires turn everyone white.

Then it’s just very enjoyable for me but everything before it is brilliant. Great score and great Delroy. 

[Rossman]

On 4/24/2025 at 6:55 PM, FLips said:

The bits that are good are great though, the hammer scene and the baseball bat scenes are grim and it has a very stylish opener with the car bomb scene but sadly they cop out of that during the actual film.

Great soundtrack too, a lot of Devo which is right up my alley.

 

If you freeze it at the right point or watch very carefully. You can clearly see where DeNiro gets switched for a dummy.

 

 

 

 

[davertfnewman]

I don't know, it was a little too subtle for me, I felt this did it better.

 

[Mr_Danger]

1 hour ago, Rossman said:

If you freeze it at the right point or watch very carefully. You can clearly see where DeNiro gets switched for a dummy.

 

 

 

 

That’s how Rocky and Bullwinkle got made too.