VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[LaGoosh]

42 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

still great, it still ticks all the boxes for why I loved it in the first place but I noticed something this time I'd never clocked before. It's only a small detail but it really made me smile. Fairly early on, when Tracy has invited Somerset round for dinner so he and Mills can get over their dislike for each other, the way the two of them finally start to bond is so reminiscent of the scene on The Orca in Jaws where Quint finally starts to see something in Hooper just as all hell is about to break loose. I might be imagining it but I found it really endearing, the laughing about the vibrating apartment, them letting their guard down

I think Se7en is a pretty perfect movie all round. The dinner scene has one of my favourite understated and almost unnoticeable character beats in any film - Mills brings Somerset a glass of red wine but because he's so uncultured he has filled the glass all the way up to the very brim. Somerset looks at it with this perfect combination of WTF but also too polite to draw attention to it. It's a wonderful and tiny moment. 

[davertfnewman]

8 hours ago, cobra_gordo said:

Se7en AKA Sesevenen. I think I was 15 or 16 when I fell in love with Seven. I mean, it's Fincher doing a neo-noir, detectives in trench coats thriller- perfect for a moody teenager to obsess over. I maybe only watch it once a year or year and a half now though as it's pretty bleak for most of the run time and with the way the world is at the moment, it's not always something I can just chuck on.

It's still great, it still ticks all the boxes for why I loved it in the first place but I noticed something this time I'd never clocked before. It's only a small detail but it really made me smile. Fairly early on, when Tracy has invited Somerset round for dinner so he and Mills can get over their dislike for each other, the way the two of them finally start to bond is so reminiscent of the scene on The Orca in Jaws where Quint finally starts to see something in Hooper just as all hell is about to break loose. I might be imagining it but I found it really endearing, the laughing about the vibrating apartment, them letting their guard down, just a brief moment where they start to click before everything really goes to shit. 7 stars.

A mate of mine got a copy of it a year after it came out and was telling me about the lust scene and I was like "What the fuck are you talking about?!", because it sounded absurd, so I borrowed the video expecting to be having a laugh at the ridiculousness of it and ended up creeped out and finding it in my top five movies of all time. No matter when it's on or how far into it it is, I will watch Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, Live and Let Die, The Exorcist and Clockwise (the John Cleese movie) any time I see it playing.

I do get the "It's too dark for me" feeling - I can't watch many Louis Theroux documentaries these days because life has gotten in the way and taken a toll, whether it's through some form of addiction or dilapidation, but Seven is still there for me. And it is scenes like the dinner party that are the gems of light in it. The fact that the estate agent would rush them in and out because if they didn't they would wise up to the train passing every half hour or so and not want to buy the place doesn't sound so far removed from reality and Somerset not being able to conceal his amusement is realistic too in that one laughs, the other laughs and then finally Mills laughs because it's too infections.

Also a really nice scene with the lighting in the library, which was the bank in The Mask.

Shit, got to watch this film again later!

[LaGoosh]

I think what really makes the film work is that underneath the grisly murders is a deeply sad and human film. The conflict between empathy and apathy which is personified by Mills and Somerset. This is a film filled with victims of a cruel and inhumane world. All the characters are trapped in Hell. The diner scene with Somerset and Tracy is heartbreaking. John Doe, who portrays himself as some kind of righteous avenging angel, revels in perpetuating the misery and cruelty of it. It is a film completely without hope or beauty. It's an incredible piece of work and I'd put it up there against anything. 

[Merzbow]

Plus it's got Peter from Coil remixing Nine Inch Nails during that hellish opening sequence, what a way to start a film.

[waters44]

If anyone just heard a man deflate over the span of two hours it was me in 28 Years Later

I think by the end I really hated it. I need to read as many reviews and listen to podcasts about the film because I’m actually wondering how anyone can enjoy it. I must be in the wrong headspace or out of touch with things. My heads wobbling

Spoiler

And the ending… wtf. Am I in a bad dream?

 

[SuperBacon]

I cba with write ups anymore of all everything I watch as I don't have the energy, but I rewatched Scum the other week, and it really is a fantastic film.

I dunno if I enjoy it, but its just mesmerising. Also the only film that when my Dad found out my sisters had let me watch it when I was far too young, he went absolutely spare.

MECCA ARCHER???

Also saw Midnight Cowboy for the first time. I didn't realise it was quite trippy, and I was really pleased about that. Those film makers and actors were on some good shit in those days weren't they? Great stuff.

[davertfnewman]

Just now, SuperBacon said:

Also saw Midnight Cowboy for the first time. I didn't realise it was quite trippy, and I was really pleased about that. Those film makers and actors were on some good shit in those days weren't they? Great stuff.

In a similar way, I watched Sexy Beast for the first time recently and didn't realise it had a Donnie Darko-esque demonic rabbit in it.

[johnnyboy]

2 hours ago, waters44 said:

I think by the end I really hated it. I need to read as many reviews and listen to podcasts about the film because I’m actually wondering how anyone can enjoy it. I must be in the wrong headspace or out of touch with things.

I think it's something you can go in expecting a and when it delivers e, f, and g you're probably within your rights to be disappointed.  I thought it was cracking, but... (Also ending spoiler)

Spoiler

Straight zombie gorer it isn't.

The Jimmy stuff was teased throughout, carved on the hanging infected and the wall.

Wouldn't Kill Bill have been one of the last DVDs to have hit the shelves before the rage?  That's where I assumed Jimmy and co had got their fighting style and outfit inspiration from.

Once the madness had settled down the islanders had normal shit to deal with too.  I'm fascinated that it's a real place.

F1

Pisstake long.  Pretty decent, but you'll need an empty bladder and a comfy seat.

Some of the moaning discourse online will be about the somewhat fast and loose application of the rules and car capabilities.  It's not a documentary is it.  Brad Pitt was going to join a team and finish last every race was he?  Grow up.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Signed up for Shudder through Amazon Prime and watched a couple of documentaries I’ve been wanting to see over the last two weekends 

In Search of Darkness 3 - absolutely loved the first two and this was more of the same, just shy of 5 & 3/4 hours of talking heads going through select horror films from the 1980’s including the likes of Critters, Slaughter High, Prom Night, Puppet Master and so on

Doc of Chucky - a full extensive look at the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise from concepts to production to casting on all 7 films and featuring interviews with Don Mancini, Brad Douriff, Jennifer Tilley, Fiona Douriff, Alex Vincent and many more cast and crew. The only disappointment is they didn’t cover the TV series and, for obvious reasons, the remake movie

[Chris B]

50 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

I think it's something you can go in expecting a and when it delivers e, f, and g you're probably within your rights to be disappointed.  I thought it was cracking, but... (Also ending spoiler)

  Hide contents

Straight zombie gorer it isn't.

The Jimmy stuff was teased throughout, carved on the hanging infected and the wall.

Wouldn't Kill Bill have been one of the last DVDs to have hit the shelves before the rage?  That's where I assumed Jimmy and co had got their fighting style and outfit inspiration from.

Once the madness had settled down the islanders had normal shit to deal with too.  I'm fascinated that it's a real place.

I really enjoyed 28 Years Later, and it's been in my head since watching it. In some ways, I found it similar to watching The League of Gentlemen with Papa Lazarou - the first time I watched that, I found it utterly unnerving, and it took me a while to think about how ridiculous what I'd just been freaked out about actually was.

In a similar way, I think 28 Years Later is slyly funny and satirical. And nothing more than the spoiler we're talking about here...

Spoiler

It's a Jimmy Savile cult. Mixed with other stuff, sure, and possibly Kill Bill, but the Jimmy bit, the tracksuits, the hair, the chunky jewellery - it's Savile. It can't not be.

And it makes sense that it's intentional. It's a world where pop culture and news stopped in 2002. They don't know what we know. 

If you think about the whole thing being a satire, with Britain cut off from Europe and the wider world, wallowing in the past and in nostalgia, then a cult based around one of the most notorious paedophiles and assaulters in history... it's quickly becoming kind of hilarious to me. Throw in the whole 'alpha' thing, and it just becomes more so.

I can't entirely believe they went there with all this, but it's far more interesting than I thought it was going to be. 

 

[Surf Digby]

The Seventh Curse

It's a Wong Jing film, which basically means it'll be weird, have some infantile humour shoe-horned in, some gratuitous nudity, and look like it's low budget, but somehow manage to have some top-draw names.

I'm not even sure I can remember the plot, because it was fucking bonkers, Something about a doctor getting cursed and having to go and rescue a woman from a primitive tribe, after he spotted her bathing in a river (nudity - check).
Chow Yun Fat was a professor, which we could tell because he smoked a pipe, and Maggie Cheung (star names) was a novice reporter, who also happened to be a weapons expert and the daughter of someone super-rich, so could conveniently fill any plot hole that would have otherwise involved a bit of thinking. Sibelle Hu and Yasuaki Kurata also put in an appearance, just to increase it's marquee value.

It's a film that's clearly intended to be accompanied by alcohol, with that clunky mix of low-brow comedy, campy horror and "fuck the stuntmen, there's plenty more where they came from" action that 1980s HK movies are famous for.

Special effects are special in the way you pat your younger sibling on the head and call them special. 

Had I seen this as a teenager, it would have possibly become one of my favourite films ever. It's surprising that I never did, considering I used to be utterly in love with Maggie Cheung (and rightly so).

[Carbomb]

Went with a friend to see The Phoenician Scheme on Saturday. Having not seen much Wes Anderson before (only The Royal Tenenbaums), I rather enjoyed the Anderson style - it's so distinctive that I already knew about it by cultural osmosis, but had never really seen it done as such; Tenenbaums was a bit toned down by comparison. This was a fun little sort-of-heist caper; the dialogue is snappy, as are the visual gags, which Benicio del Toro delivers with timing and skill in the main role as essentially what is a Bond villain, and the supporting cast are, as expected, just as great. Big name cast, too - Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright, F. Murray Abraham, Donald Sumpter, it's insane. Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton is very good in the main supporting role of del Toro's character's daughter; I understand this is essentially her first big film role, and she doesn't let herself down. There's a big Commedia dell'Arte element to this as well - alongside the main narrative, there are dreamscape scenes set in a theatrical Heaven with the parts of the set quite clearly visible.

As a virtual Anderson neophyte, I liked this, but I also appreciate that there's potential for his arch, knowing style to get quite annoying in the way Tim Burton's films got annoying. Both directors have a thing; a thing that gets very insistent. That said, I'm very much looking forward to consuming some more of his work - I've wanted to watch quite a few of them for some time now: Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Asteroid City, The French Dispatch - all of these appeal the most, I think. 

[johnnyboy]

6 hours ago, Chris B said:

In a similar way, I think 28 Years Later is slyly funny and satirical. And nothing more than the spoiler we're talking about here...

You're absolutely correct.  The way that scene was cut, weapons, etc certainly took me down one path but I think you're bang on.  

Also, I'd like to know when I'll stop waking up in a cold sweat after hearing the "Boots" poem haunted recording in my dreams.

Edited June 24, 2025 by johnnyboy

[mim731]

7 hours ago, Chris B said:

I really enjoyed 28 Years Later, and it's been in my head since watching it. In some ways, I found it similar to watching The League of Gentlemen with Papa Lazarou - the first time I watched that, I found it utterly unnerving, and it took me a while to think about how ridiculous what I'd just been freaked out about actually was.

In a similar way, I think 28 Years Later is slyly funny and satirical. And nothing more than the spoiler we're talking about here...

  Reveal hidden contents

It's a Jimmy Savile cult. Mixed with other stuff, sure, and possibly Kill Bill, but the Jimmy bit, the tracksuits, the hair, the chunky jewellery - it's Savile. It can't not be.

And it makes sense that it's intentional. It's a world where pop culture and news stopped in 2002. They don't know what we know. 

If you think about the whole thing being a satire, with Britain cut off from Europe and the wider world, wallowing in the past and in nostalgia, then a cult based around one of the most notorious paedophiles and assaulters in history... it's quickly becoming kind of hilarious to me. Throw in the whole 'alpha' thing, and it just becomes more so.

I can't entirely believe they went there with all this, but it's far more interesting than I thought it was going to be. 

 

Spoiler

I agree on the Saville thing, although I do think that despite that satirical edge there's also an implied darker facet that we as an audience do know about the Saville stuff. As such we've just seen a 12 year old left alone with a cult based around a notorious paedophile, which certainly on some level suggests a level of menace/foreboding that was not where I expected things to go. 

It was still utterly ridiculous (clearly deliberately) but that felt unnerving.

Beyond the spoilered bit I'm not totally sure I loved it. Will be one I need to think about/maybe see again. It was definitely a film that was oddly paced, and had some underdeveloped characters that weren't fleshed out where they could have been in favour of a stylistic approach. Feels like a lot of dangling plot points too, but then that's not unexpected in the first film of a trilogy I suppose.

I would maybe have preferred it worked better as a self contained thing, but as it's already a sequel (albeit one that it doesn't seem to make the most of that connective tissue) that's fair enough. 

It did remind me a lot of 

Spoiler

Neil Marshall's Doomsday, spoilered in case it gives too much away. 

 

[Jesse]

10 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Asteroid City

This was my first Anderson and it immediately catapulted into my all-timers list. Seen it two more times since then and it still hits me like a truck every time.