VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Hannibal Scorch]

15 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

 

Mission: Impossible III. I think this is the film where Luther dressed like Florida Stanley. Some absolutely ridiculous but fun moments. 

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

My favourite one.

 

I’m pretty sure Florida Stanley stole his look from Luther in MI III.

Also I think you’re the first person I’ve seen rate GP the best. I think it’s right near the bottom for me.

Also, on the other topic, Joel Schumacher made the best and worst Batman films and The Lost Boys. He’s alright by me!

[Lorne Malvo]

The Mission Impossible ranking is always a difficult one for me. I know Fallout is my favourite and Mission Impossible 2 is the worst (although Thandie Newton may be the most attractive human in the world in that film) but I don't think I could seperate the others. The series from MI3 onwards is just consistently excellent (although I haven't watched Final Reckoning yet).

[gmoney]

11 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Also, on the other topic, Joel Schumacher made the best and worst Batman films

Which one are you saying the best? Both of his are atrocious. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

4 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Which one are you saying the best? Both of his are atrocious. 

Pfft, Forever is underrated. Best soundtrack, great turns from Carrey and TLJ, Val Kilmer is a better Bruce Wayne than Keaton as well for my money. It’s fun without being too goofy, the mistake Batman and Robin made. 

[gmoney]

It's the worst Tommy Lee Jones performance I've ever seen. It's actually upsetting. 

I'd rather sit through Batman and Robin than Forever again, at least Arnie's providing campy laughs. 

[Bellenda Carlisle]

They're both better than Dark Knight Rises

[LaGoosh]

Dark Knight Rises is just as mental as Batman and Robin but in a completely different way. The whole Nolan trilogy is pretty bonkers. The politics of the films are so muddled - they manage to be extremely left wing and right wing at the same time. You'll have snappy one liners but people also getting their necks broken, pencils through eyeballs and burnt to death For someone like Nolan who does apparently intricate and complex plots both Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises are filled to the brim with completely wacky plot holes that make no sense whatsoever. I enjoy both movies a lot but cringe big time anytime someone lists them as "best movies ever".

Edited May 28, 2025 by LaGoosh

[HarmonicGenerator]

51 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

The Mission Impossible ranking is always a difficult one for me. I know Fallout is my favourite and Mission Impossible 2 is the worst (although Thandie Newton may be the most attractive human in the world in that film) but I don't think I could seperate the others. The series from MI3 onwards is just consistently excellent (although I haven't watched Final Reckoning yet).

My favourite and least favourite Missions are the same as yours, but I could definitely sort them into a top tier (Rogue Nation, Fallout, Ghost Protocol), a middle tier (Final Reckoning and MI3) and a lower tier (Dead Reckoning, the first one, MI2). They could all shift around within those tiers but I reckon the tiers themselves will stay fairly static on future watches.

[DavidB6937]

I definitely think it's harsh putting any of the others in the same tier as MI2.

[cobra_gordo]

I do have a soft spot for MI2 because it's daft and camp, has Metallica on the soundtrack and Anthony Hopkins character who never gets referenced again.

[Lorne Malvo]

1 minute ago, cobra_gordo said:

I do have a soft spot for MI2 because it's daft and camp, has Metallica on the soundtrack and Anthony Hopkins character who never gets referenced again.

Yeah, even though it's the worst in the series I still have a lot of fun with it.

I think it suffers massively from bad pacing, a shite villain and Thandie Newtons character/performance just being flat. But a lot of the action scenes are the good kind of stupid and the Woo-isms always pop me.

The whole tone of it is just completely at odds with the rest of the series, including Anthony Hopkins weirdly misogynistic IMF head.

[Jesse]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

The whole Nolan trilogy is pretty bonkers. The politics of the films are so muddled - they manage to be extremely left wing and right wing at the same time.

I have no idea what the production process of those movies was like, but as a lifelong Nolan defender I'm choosing to blame David S. Goyer and not look into it any further.

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

lower tier (Dead Reckoning, the first one,

[Magnum Milano]

On 5/25/2025 at 10:27 AM, SaitoRyo said:

Fear Street: Prom Queen 

It's alright. Not great. Not outright terrible. It's gory and has a belting 80s pop soundtrack. It's over in about 80 minutes, too. 

I watched this last night and what you've written pretty much sums up my feelings.  Not great, a bit predictable and almost paint by numbers, but I didn't come out of it having regretted watching it.

Spoiler

As soon as it was revealed there were two killers, I thought it was obvious that it was Tiffany's parents. There were some nice kills in there too, especially the circular saw to the face. I thought more could've been made about what went on with Lori's parents (maybe a flashback scene or something) and I actually thought it was something that had been in one of the previous Fear Street movies.

Realised I've not posted in here for a while, so here are a few writeups of stuff I've seen from the past couple of weeks.

Play Misty for Me (1971)
Dave Garver, a Californian radio DJ, has what he believes is a one-night stand with a woman he meets in a bar one night after work. She begins to impose herself into his life, things taking a frightening turn after she spots him meeting with his ex-girlfriend who is back in town. Jessica Walter is superb as Evelyn Draper, the obsessed fan with borderline personality disorder who can turn at the drop of a hat. There’s nice interlude at the Monterey Jazz Festival, like they’re bringing you back down, before Evelyn’s return and the final climax.

The Fugitive (1993)
Wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife and sentenced to death by lethal injection, when the bus that’s transporting him crashes, Dr. Richard Kimble manages to escape. Determined to clear his name, he sets about trying to find the real killer, while at the same time avoiding the U.S. Marshals who are on his case. When Kimble was trapped in that tunnel, I was thinking how on earth does he escape from here? It was still so early in the movie, there’s no where to go and surely he can’t be caught already? Excellent in every aspect and Tommy Lee Jones is superb.

Fall (2022) (BBC iPlayer)
Two thrillseeking best friends get stranded at the top of the 2,000ft B-67 TV tower when the ladder they were climbing breaks just as they were about to start their descent. WTF was I doing watching this when I don’t like heights? Not for the feint of heart.

Experience Preferred... But Not Essential (1982) (ok.ru)
Set in 1962, a student spends the summer working as a waitress in a Welsh coastal hotel. We get to meet the various members of staff along the way, all of whom have their own issues, although in saying that, nothing truly major happens, they just go about their everyday lives. I’ve seen it referred to as a coming-of-age story and I can kind of see that. The script is funny and witty, there’s plenty of dry humour, one that is well worth seventy-five minutes of anyone’s time.

The Substance (2024)
After being fired from her long-running aerobics show due to the producer wanting to replace her with a younger model, an aging Hollywood star injects herself with a mysterious black-market serum that promises a younger and better version of yourself. Things start off strong but it’s a poor conclusion with the mutant Monstro Elisasue returning to the studio in order to host the New Year’s Special. Demi Moore, who I’m guessing was sixty when she filmed this, looks incredible for her age. Talking of incredible, so are those FX, prosthetics or whatever it is that they use in this day and age. 

Beautiful Darling (2009) (Plex)
A profile of Candy Darling, the transgender actress who is probably best remembered as one of Andy Warhol’s Superstars and was the subject for Lou Reed’s song ‘Walk on the Wild Side’. I bet this period was an amazing time if you were part of Warhol’s inner circle. Lots of fascinating material here provided by Jeremiah Newton, Darling’s best friend who managed to save a lot of her personal possessions. She was so pretty but you get the impression the one thing she wanted more than anything, that she never found, was love. Darling passed away in 1974 aged just 29 from lymphoma. 

Blink Twice (2024)
Tech billionaire Slater King invites two cocktail waitresses who are working at his fundraising event, to join him and a group of his friends on his private island. What starts out as a dream getaway turns into their worst nightmare. Was this based on Jeffrey Epstein? Very slow paced to begin with as the first forty-five minutes is spent watching them partying. By the time this got interesting, I was already zoning out because of how long it had taken to get going.

[LaGoosh]

Play Misty For Me is an overlooked gem. Love that film.