VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[SaitoRyo]

Poor White Trash

A trailer park family (and a couple of their cohorts) start stealing in order to get the money to send the kid to college. It's not as dumb as you'd think, though it's still pretty dumb. It has a bunch of recognisable names in it, who elevate it slighty, including Sean Young, Jaime Pressly and Jason London. William Devane is a lot of fun as the grandpa/crooked lawyer who would sell his own family down the river. The cheque cleared so, of course, E. Emmet Walsh is there. 

Fast Company

A total outlier in the David Cronenberg filmography, this is a standard sports action drama set in the world of pro drag racing. It is well made, certainly better made than a lot of similar exploitation fare from the same era (late 70s), and I pretty much automatically love anything with this vibe. Again, nothing about this says 'this is a David Cronenberg film' at all, and he's freely admitted that he did it for the money. Perhaps he can remake it, only this time about people who get the horn when drag racing cars explode. 

The Client

Just a good, old-fashioned two-hour Hollywood thriller that doesn't fuck about. Great performances from Susan Sarandon, Brad Renfro and Tommy Lee Jones. 

[SaitoRyo]

Traveller

An excellent, little-seen 90s indie gem about a couple of Irish-American conmen 'travellers' who drive around North Carolina looking for people to rip off. I really liked it, as it has a 60s/70s New Hollywood feel about it, not to mention a great central performance for the always-reliable Bill Paxton and a soundtrack of classic country song covers. It gets really, jarringly violent at the end, which I wasn't expecting, but it's not like it ruined the film or anything. Well worth a watch for fans of smaller, character-driven crime stuff. 

[Handsome Tex Hardcastle]

Please let me know if there's a "I've just been to the pictures" thread for stuff like this, but a couple of days ago I went to see Jaws in IMAX and it was absolutely glorious. It's been in my top 5 films for decades but I was always annoyed that I never got to see it on the big screen. Visually it holds up remarkably well. Granted, it doesnt look anything like a 2025 film set in the 70s, but it had a certain dated appeal which IMAX really brought out. I enjoyed all the little bits and pieces I hadn't really paid much attention to. 

Chief Brody sitting at the table looking forlorn and distant thinking about nothing but sharks. Matt Hooper knocks at the door and Brodies wife answers. 

"Mrs Brody, I'd like to talk to your husband"

"Yes, so would I"

Going to see old films at the cinema might just be my new thing for the next few months. 

[Devon Malcolm]

27 minutes ago, Handsome Tex Hardcastle said:

Going to see old films at the cinema might just be my new thing for the next few months. 

The Breakfast Club is getting a bit of a run next week for its 40th anniversary, I'm off to see that.

[Chest Rockwell]

This is the right thread for that stuff @Handsome Tex Hardcastle ?

 

(Edit: unless it's a superhero film...)

Edited September 4, 2025 by Chest Rockwell

[DavidB6937]

I've been having a great time with my Cineworld Unlimited card the last few months - old and new movies. Annoyingly I wanted to see Eddington but it only got a 2 week release which seems stupidly short considering how long some of the other shit has been hanging around (and it's more difficult to go during the week).

Anyway - Saturday I'm booked for Jaws, The Roses and Honey Don't! and then Sunday I've got Caught Stealing and Jumanji. So that'll be a fun weekend

It's just been nice to be able to go and watch whatever, and not having to worry about whether it's massively worth the money or not. Got Aliens coming up which I've never seen at the cinema before too.

 

[FLips]

12 Angry Men

LaGoosh’s post finally kicked me up the arse to watch it. Fantastic bit of business. They absolutely come to the wrong verdict, but journey there is incredible. Not all of the 12 Men shine as bright as the others, but it’s an excellent ensemble and there’s some jaw dropping moments to break the non-stop tension.

[LaGoosh]

10 hours ago, FLips said:

They absolutely come to the wrong verdict

Wait, do they? I think the film is not about proving guilt or innocence but "reasonable doubt". It never occurred to me that they made the wrong verdict.

[FLips]

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

Wait, do they? I think the film is not about proving guilt or innocence but "reasonable doubt". It never occurred to me that they made the wrong verdict.

I think they do, personally. The way they reach a 12-0 Not Guilt is excellent from a viewer standpoint, but in reality they discard every bit of evidence they're presented with by coming up with their own version of how it might have happened and complete chance.

The unique knife he stabs him with could have been bought at another store by someone else, and the part where Juror #8 reveals it by stabbing into the table is breathtaking, but what realistically would be the chance that someone else, completely unknown to both the victim and the accused would go out, buy a knife identical to that and then stab him at the exact time the son is out at the house? Either that or the police planted it and they can't explicitly say that in the movie, but how would they know what knife the boy had and why wouldn't the defense bring that up?

Then there's the argument he couldn't remember the name of the movie, or the actors in it mere hours after the murder. They "disprove" this by asking Juror #4 to remember the exact details of the B-Movie he saw after the feature, several days ago. He remembers most of it but gets the name slightly wrong and this is enough for them.

Then the argument about the woman wearing her glasses, which makes sense from how they present it because nobody sleeps with their glasses on but their conclusion is based on exact timings that they've made up or took an educated guess at and they don't know for sure if she put her glasses on or not.

The argument about the knife wound is based on the assumption he flicked it open a certain way and it not being premeditated, based on one juror saying "yeah he'd have done it like this". No proof whatsoever, just guesses.

Most of the film is like this, and I assume it's the reason why main "guilty" voters don't present any evidence to the contrary, and rather are all voting guilty out of spite over personal issues, or laziness to go watch a ball game, or discrimination because he's a slum kid, and why none of them are actually won over by the evidence, but because they're made to take a hard look at themselves.

I would personally say the only Juror in there who acts rationally and sensibly is Juror #4, who is finally won over by the glasses case, but even that is only because they're following their own made up rule of "all the other evidence didn't matter, only the woman who witnessed it is the true evidence".

For the men's Not Guilty timeline of events, you have to discount two eyewitnesses and believe that the boy didn't stab him, it fell out of his pocket when he went to see a movie he can't remember anything about, and someone else completely unknown with the exact same unique knife just happened to turn up in this window of time and murder his dad, wipe the prints but leave the knife, and leave. All of this while the two eye witnesses who did see it, just maybe went back to bed and didn't go over to check or watch while the police turned up or anything.
The most important line uttered in the film is when I believe Juror #4 says "Yes it's possible, but it's not probable" which they all promptly ignore.

Like I said though, excellent film and that isn't a criticism of it in any way, because the film isn't really about if they're right or wrong ultimately. But yeah that lad should be in the chair, I bet he can't believe his luck.

[SaitoRyo]

Promised Land (1987)

Fairly obscure 80s drama about two high school guys who had a lot of potential and were expected to go and become something special (a basketball star and a senator, respectively), but struggle to get far in Reagan's America. 

I really liked this, though it is rather bleak at times. It does a really good job of capturing that small-town hopelessness and features good, honest performances from Keifer Sutherland, Meg Ryan and others. It's on Tubi, for those who are interested. 

[FLips]

Duck, You Sucker!/A Fistful of Dynamite/Once Upon a Time...The Revolution

Part of an unofficial "Once Upon a Time" Trilogy for Sergio Leone, sandwiched between "...In The West" and "...In America", it was the only one I'd not seen yet. 

It's good, not great.
It has the most impressive action sequences of his films, with some really big blockbuster explosions, shootouts, and an excellent train crash finale, but like his other films it's around the 2h30m mark so you can't just pop it on as a quick watch and sadly it's the rest of the film where it falls apart a bit. Rod Steiger and James Coburn play a Mexican bandit (Juan) and fugitive IRA member (John), respectively, who get caught up in the Mexican Revolution.
The film is grotty, pulling no punches with the violence and death involved in the revolution, with a lot of civilian executions throughout. It's also tough to get behind either of the "protagonists" because neither of them have the star power of a Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro or Henry Fonda and neither are particularly likeable, particularly Juan who opens the film by robbing a stagecoach, raping a woman and throwing them all naked into a ditch.
There's also a weird bunch of flashback sequences meant to show John in the IRA, why he fled, and how it ties together with his situation now, but they're jarring because collectively 90% of them are him necking on with a woman that looks much younger than him while his weird mate watches or joins in. (I just checked, 43 and 24).

I read that originally it was meant to be Jason Robards and Eli Wallach in this, and that would have improved it tenfold.

It's a huge comedown from "...In The West" which immediately became my favourite film of all time after I watched it, and it's also derivative of his past Westerns; using the same character tropes, story beats and plot points. I preferred it to "...In America" but only because of the brutal rape scene and underage stuff in that, which I think has soured me from watching it again. 

Excellent action, a Morricone score, beautifully shot as you would expect; it's just a bit bleak and doesn't tread much new ground from his older films.

 

Edited September 6, 2025 by FLips

[Thunderplex]

Recorded a film called Boys from County Hell on Film Four the other night.  Wasn’t expecting much, but it was an excellent comedy horror.  Set in Ireland where Bram Stoker was born, it was well paced, the characters were likeable and the cinematography was great.  Recommended.

[johnnyboy]

The Roses

I think I prefer this to the Douglas/Turner War of the Roses, even though that's still a cracker.  The raw fury was replaced with far more seething and sarcasm.

[Onyx2]

36 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

The Roses

I think I prefer this to the Douglas/Turner War of the Roses, even though that's still a cracker.  The raw fury was replaced with far more seething and sarcasm.

We rewatched the 1989 one this evening due to watching the new one last week. It's quite weak and definitely a product of the times. Both leads are good but there is absolutely no work put in to show that they even like each other before the hatred kicks in, not a jot of either of them being a parent, and while Michael D gets lots of scenes complaining to Danny D about his relationship Kathleen gets none. Literally none of her perspective is represented. It's at least 20 minutes too long as well. 

[davertfnewman]

Weirdly, The War of the Roses is a movie I watched when I was a kid when we first got Sky because there was a real feeling of "Get the most out of this if you're paying for it". Not a movie I would've watched in retrospect, wasn't for me, but it does have one memorable moment at the end: as they both die, Michael Douglas puts his hand over Kathleen Turner as they die, as if to admit he does love her after all this, and she brushes it off, which I thought showed some power. She gets the final "Fuck off/Fuck you!".

Edited September 7, 2025 by davertfnewman