VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[SaitoRyo]

All The Right Moves

Tom Cruise wants to get out of his dead-end small town and sees a college football scholarship as his ticket (to getting an education and becoming an egineer). But then he falls out with the high school team's coach (Craig T. Nelson) and there's a bunch of other drama happening as his life seems to be falling apart before it really starts. 

Teen dramas used to have a bit more bite to them and The Cruiser is in good early 80s form. An easy to watch coming-of-age movie that, thankfully, doesn't veer over into melodrama territory. I liked it. 

[BomberPat]

Erik The Viking

First time watching this in years. Similar to a lot of post-Python projects, it just never quite lands the tone, and just ends up being a bit of a meandering mess. It has its charm, but it's far too long, and has a few interesting ideas that it never really explores, and a lot of jokes that must have already felt pretty tired at the time. 

A Cock And Bull Story

Interesting one this. A sort of film-within-a-film thing, about the production of an adaptation of the supposedly unfilmable novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, with some fun cameos that I won't spoil. It's directed by Michael Winterbottom, so very much a precursor to The Trip, with Coogan and Brydon playing versions of themselves - Coogan is the arrogant but insecure star who is trying to use the film to reinvent himself as a serious actor, while Brydon's a kind of affable fool and hanger-on. It flits between scenes of the movie, and scenes of the actors and crew making it, and arguments around what aspects of the book should make it in, roughly following the plot of the book, in which Tristram Shandy (played by Coogan) attempts to tell his life story, but keeps getting distracted and going off-topic, so that he barely makes it past the story of his own conception.

It's funny, and Brydon in particular is excellent - the second appearance of his Roger Moore impression is great - if a tad pretentious at times, and peters out into a pretty unsatisfactory ending. 

There's a funny story about the film for me, though - I first watched it years ago, late on BBC2 after coming in from a night out, and enjoyed it enough that I bought and read a copy of Tristram Shandy. I recommended the movie to my brother, and I don't know if he had got round to watching it yet or not, but not long after that he ended up chatting to a bloke in the pub who turned out to be a visiting expert on the life and works of Laurence Sterne. He blagged his way through a conversation about Tristram Shandy by describing it as "post-modernism before there was any modernism to be post- about", which is a line used by Steve Coogan in the movie - a character who has quite clearly not read the book he's talking about, though the description is a pretty good one. That blagging endeared my brother to this visiting academic, they found some common ground in a local connection between Sterne's family and my brother's work, and fast-forward a decade or so and my brother is now himself a published expert on the life of Laurence Sterne. And I still don't think he's read Tristram Shandy.

[FLips]

Me and a mate went to see Cock and Bull Story in the cinema when it came out and as you would imagine, two 15 year olds who only went because they liked Alan Partridge didn’t really understand it at the time. Would be keen to revisit it.

[hallicks]

27 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Erik The Viking

First time watching this in years. Similar to a lot of post-Python projects, it just never quite lands the tone, and just ends up being a bit of a meandering mess. It has its charm, but it's far too long, and has a few interesting ideas that it never really explores, and a lot of jokes that must have already felt pretty tired at the time. 

A Cock And Bull Story

Interesting one this. A sort of film-within-a-film thing, about the production of an adaptation of the supposedly unfilmable novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, with some fun cameos that I won't spoil. It's directed by Michael Winterbottom, so very much a precursor to The Trip, with Coogan and Brydon playing versions of themselves - Coogan is the arrogant but insecure star who is trying to use the film to reinvent himself as a serious actor, while Brydon's a kind of affable fool and hanger-on. It flits between scenes of the movie, and scenes of the actors and crew making it, and arguments around what aspects of the book should make it in, roughly following the plot of the book, in which Tristram Shandy (played by Coogan) attempts to tell his life story, but keeps getting distracted and going off-topic, so that he barely makes it past the story of his own conception.

It's funny, and Brydon in particular is excellent - the second appearance of his Roger Moore impression is great - if a tad pretentious at times, and peters out into a pretty unsatisfactory ending. 

There's a funny story about the film for me, though - I first watched it years ago, late on BBC2 after coming in from a night out, and enjoyed it enough that I bought and read a copy of Tristram Shandy. I recommended the movie to my brother, and I don't know if he had got round to watching it yet or not, but not long after that he ended up chatting to a bloke in the pub who turned out to be a visiting expert on the life and works of Laurence Sterne. He blagged his way through a conversation about Tristram Shandy by describing it as "post-modernism before there was any modernism to be post- about", which is a line used by Steve Coogan in the movie - a character who has quite clearly not read the book he's talking about, though the description is a pretty good one. That blagging endeared my brother to this visiting academic, they found some common ground in a local connection between Sterne's family and my brother's work, and fast-forward a decade or so and my brother is now himself a published expert on the life of Laurence Sterne. And I still don't think he's read Tristram Shandy.

Cock and bull story is the only film I’ve ever been to in a commercial cinema that I’ve seen people walk out of in the middle of it. My housemate at the time sold it to us on the back of the trailer which had Rob Brydon doing an Alan Partridge impression. Needless to say, that was the last laugh, though I’m sure I’d enjoy it more  if I tried it again now. 

[gmoney]

A Cock and Bull Story is a bit patchy, but I absolutely love the bit when Coogan goes on about how much he loved Cold Mountain and Mark Williams' military historian character calls it complete shite because they made mistakes with the period costumes. I think about that scene regularly. 

[FLips]

Buckaroo Banzai (Again)

Despite not getting it at all and finding it boring, I couldn’t get it out of my head for days after. Like an unsolved puzzle I had to figure it out.

And yeah, I get it now. It’s still weird and mostly nonsense, but on second viewing when you know the expectations going in and aren’t stunted by not knowing the plot, it’s way better. Things make more sense, jokes land better, and you can appreciate it for what it is, an oddball group of characters just doing weird shit. Put it up there with Napoleon Dynamite and Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in “Films I didn’t get until I watched them more than once and now I won’t be able to stop quoting the fucking thing”.

Edited August 22, 2025 by FLips

[davertfnewman]

On 8/22/2025 at 9:56 AM, FLips said:

Me and a mate went to see Cock and Bull Story in the cinema when it came out and as you would imagine, two 15 year olds who only went because they liked Alan Partridge didn’t really understand it at the time. Would be keen to revisit it.

Still better than going to see The Parole Officer when I was nineteen with a mate, the only bright side for us was a brief flash of Lena Headey's tits.

Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein (dubbed into English as Monster of Frankenstein)

Adapted from a Marvel Comics series (adapted from the original Mary Shelley novel), this films looks great and is full of shots and backgrounds that could easily be recycled into other movies of the time, even if the character designs are typically anime with the eyes and noses. However, everything you hear is pretty dreadful, between an overwrought score, the constant need to fill the air with sound even when people aren't talking (grunts and sighs aplenty), and the acting, with a good cast comprised of familiar voices from shows like Robotech and Dogtanian but doing an awful job with a lazy script. Apparently anime conventions used to feature bits of it in bad anime panels, but it doesn't even merit a Rocky Horror "tribute".

[DEF]

12 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

Still better than going to see The Parole Officer when I was nineteen with a mate, the only bright side for us was a brief flash of Lena Headey's tits.

Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein (dubbed into English as Monster of Frankenstein

Ooh thanks mentioning this. I've never heard of it and I love old Marvel Horror books and old (badly dubbed) anime. Gonna have to give this a go 

[davertfnewman]

It's on YouTube, as is another one called Dracula - Sovereign of the Damned, which I'm going to watch today.

Dracula - Sovereign of the Damned

Same animation house and dubbing company as for the aforementioned Frankenstein, but a modernisation (for 1980) of it with some Dracula history in it (as well as a score more inclusive of synth and disco!). Dracula is brought forth in Boston by Satanists who offer him a sacrifice, Dolores, who he instead flies off with and knocks up. Satan's not happy about it, so he and his bride and kid are brought back into the Devil's clutches at the same time as he's being hunted by Frank Drake (descendant of Drac) and the bloodline of Harker and Van Helsing. All goes worse from there.

The dialogue is at least a bit better in this one, although there are times where it's run-on sentence aplenty to match dialogue to the animation, monologue-mania. Dracula, clearly villainous, isn't presented as the main villain, much like the monster wasn't in Frankenstein, so there is an attempt to approach more complex characterisation, even if it's flawed.

Edited August 26, 2025 by davertfnewman

[johnnyboy]

The Life of Chuck

My face has not stopped leaking yet. 

Nicely put together unless...

Spoiler

You get existential dread bad.  I'm which case you'll have no fingernails left.

 

[DavidB6937]

@johnnyboy I've barely made it through the trailer any time I've seen it at the cinema. I'd love to see it but i have concerns I'll be a wreck after.

[SaitoRyo]

Summer of 69

A high school loser hires a local stripper to teach her confidence and unlock her sexuality so that she can bag her dream guy. The stripper, meanwhile, charges a fortune for her services so she can save/buy the floundering stripclub she works at. 

Look, it's the sort of film you watch with your partner when you're knackered on a Friday night and looking for something breezy on a streaming service. There were a few laughs. It was alright. Charlie Day shows up for a couple of scenes. 

The Last American Hero

What an unheralded gem of a film this is! 

Another one of those great overlooked 70s (sports) dramas for people to stumble across. Jeff Bridges enters NASCAR in order to help get his father out of jail and save the family's moonshine business. Sounds like typical hicksploitation stuff on paper, but it's really not. It's genuinely a really good, well-made and quietly engrossing film based on the true story of Junior Johnson. Bridges is great and it's dotted with familiar character actors like Ned Beatty and Gary Busey. The actual racing scenes are very well done, too. 

[johnnyboy]

5 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

@johnnyboy I've barely made it through the trailer any time I've seen it at the cinema. I'd love to see it but i have concerns I'll be a wreck after.

I really wouldn't watch it right at this minute.  It pulls a lot of heart strings.

[DavidB6937]

Jaws 50th Anniversary it is instead then ?

[Merzbow]

Eenie Meanie

I'd love to say I enjoyed this more than I did as there's a genuinely fun heist movie in there somewhere but so much of the run time is spent pilling on the schmaltz that just feels horribly forced and unorganic. Samara Weaving does a decent job with what she was given though, she deserves better. I will say the actual car driving segments are great though, better than I've  seen in some big budget films but I wish there were more of them.