VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[johnnyboy]

8 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

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...

As a kid I was very confused as to why it was nothing like Romancing the Stone or Jewel of the Nile.

[DavidB6937]

I really loved The Roses. Mostly because it's exactly how I could see myself being in a relationship breakdown. The humour and the scathing insults. All incredibly British. The whole cinema had a lot of fun with it.

[Devon Malcolm]

1 minute ago, DavidB6937 said:

I really loved The Roses. Mostly because it's exactly how I could see myself being in a relationship breakdown. The humour and the scathing insults. All incredibly British. The whole cinema had a lot of fun with it.

I've ummed and ahhed about seeing this and I'll probably get round to it at home. I do hugely recommend The War of the Roses though, to anyone who hasn't seen it. One of the best black comedies Hollywood has made.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

The Naked Gun - Enjoyed it, not a patch on the Leslie Nielsen films but enjoyable and a few good laughs. I do hope though that they do not make anymore - although I suspect that they will

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer - Just felt like a retelling of the original to be honest, not bad but nothing really memorable. One thing though, back in the real word, I cannot believe the criticism Jennifer Lover Hewitt got at the premier of the film, she looks amazing

[FLips]

Picked up a few more bits over the last couple of weeks. 

Bloodsport
Donnie Brasco
Barton Fink
Starship Troopers
Weird Al Yankovic's UHF
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Movie, not TV show)

A mixed bag I'm sure you'll all agree. Got a week off at the end of September so planning to sit and binge watch a load of films before we enter spooky season and I moved onto all of the horrors again. Excited to watch some of my favourites from last year like Child's Play and Fright Night. Got a few new ones to catch this year too that we've been picking up as we go, including Child's Play 2 and 3, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

[SuperBacon]

57 minutes ago, FLips said:

Donnie Brasco

One of my very favourites, and most definitely Depps best ever performance (low bar innit).

I was a bit of a weird child who was watching that at 12, reading the real life book by Joe Pistone and finding comfort in gangster films. Brilliant Pacino performance as well obviously, and I love the score on this.

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Starship Troopers

One of the most fun films ever. 

[TheBurningRed]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

the real life book by Joe Pistone

The book is fantastic. I got a book which came with a disc wire the wiretap tapes between Pistone and Lefty. 

[SaitoRyo]

Macon County Line

This one surprised me. Everything about it - the title, plot and when it was made - would lead you to believe it would be a straight-up explpoitation film. But despite having some exploitation elements, it's really not. It's weird, but interesting. There's bits of B-movie actioner, noir and, at the end, it turns into a full-on horror film. An interesting experiment that doesn't quite work all the way through, but is fascinating in its own way and there's enough good stuff in there to keep you glued to it throuhgout. I'm glad it exists and am surprised it doesn't get mentioned, like, at all. 

No Mercy

Another one that doesn't quite work all the way through but has enough good stuff to keep you interested. I'll watch an 80s neo-noir action thriller any day of the way, especially if they have Richard Gere and Kim Basinger starring in them. Those two are eye fucking the first time they see each other, so you know where it's going, especially when they're handcuffed together on the run in sticky New Orleans. Good atmosphere to this one and the stars are on form, even if there's really nothing original or surprising about it. 

[LaGoosh]

11 hours ago, FLips said:

Barton Fink
Starship Troopers

Absolutely love both these movies.

Barton Fink is probably the most overlooked Coen brothers movie but it might be their best.

Starship Troopers is just wild and totally unique in that it can be enjoyed either as a dumb mindless but exciting sci-fi action thriller or as an intelligent, hilarious political satire and it works perfectly as either of them.

Edited September 8, 2025 by LaGoosh

[BomberPat]

Black Dynamite

Genuinely amazed I had never seen this one before. There seems to have been a spate of Blaxploitation parody in the '00s, but I don't think any nailed it quite like this. Most leaned too far into silliness, whereas this has a brilliant mix of being a genuinely affectionate take on the genre, and having the Darkplace thing of really expertly making a bad film - I found myself laughing as much, if not more, at badly framed shots, visible boom mics, and intentional continuity errors as I did at the scripted jokes. I don't think I've ever seen intentionally bad white balancing in a movie before!

Some of it doesn't land, but enough of it does that it really worked for me. Loved it.

[gmoney]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Barton Fink is probably the most overlooked Coen brothers movie but it might be their best.

 

I feel this way about The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink is fucking excellent. 

[Devon Malcolm]

7 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Macon County Line

This one surprised me. Everything about it - the title, plot and when it was made - would lead you to believe it would be a straight-up explpoitation film. But despite having some exploitation elements, it's really not. It's weird, but interesting. There's bits of B-movie actioner, noir and, at the end, it turns into a full-on horror film. An interesting experiment that doesn't quite work all the way through, but is fascinating in its own way and there's enough good stuff in there to keep you glued to it throuhgout. I'm glad it exists and am surprised it doesn't get mentioned, like, at all. 

Such a cracking film, this. I do enjoy this hixploitation sub-genre. The sequel is also quite good and worth seeing. Nick Nolte and Don Johnson!

[SaitoRyo]

3 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Such a cracking film, this. I do enjoy this hixploitation sub-genre. The sequel is also quite good and worth seeing. Nick Nolte and Don Johnson!

Nolte and Johnson, a certifiable dream team. I'll probably give the sequel a go at some point.

Yeah, I've been watching a lot of hixploitation stuff these past few years. There's a lot of shite but quite a few diamonds in the rough. A lot of them, including Macon County Line, were incredibly profitable but, since exploitation stuff is inherently ephemeral, they seem to have faded from the general consciousness. Unlike, say, Italian horror/giallo cinema from that general era, this stuff hasn't really been reappraised (besides a few directors like Tarantino and Joe Dante giving them credit). 

[SaitoRyo]

Truth or Consequences NM

Of the glut of post-Tarantino indie crime thrillers that emerged in the mid-to-late 90s, Truth or Consequences NM is far from the worst. It's not amazing or anything, but while it clearly takes its cues from films like True Romance it's not a direct knockoff, either.

It's a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde story type story directed by Kiefer Sutherland, who also co-stars as the trigger-happy member of a group who rip off (and kill) a powerful drug dealer and then hit the road to outrun the big boss (Marin Sheen). Vincent Gallo and a bunch of other actors you will know of are in it. The sort of thing you'd stumble upon while channel hopping at like 11pm and not be mad that you stuck around to watch it when it's over. 

Edited September 11, 2025 by SaitoRyo

[FLips]

The Usual Suspects

It’s a great cast, but knowing the twist exposes how average the actual film is. They’re so hyperfocused on the big reveal that they forget to fill the bits around it with interesting stuff.

Gangs of New York

Not Scorcese’s finest work but it’s OK. Doesn’t need to be as long as it is, has some of the worst Irish accents this side of Blown Away, and builds the entire film around a confrontation that doesn’t even happen properly.
That being said, Daniel Day Lewis is fantastic and carries the whole thing as an absolute bastard, and I’m always happy to see John C Reilly. The violence is plentiful, and the costume/set design is really good too. Worth a once over but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again the same way I would some of his other films.