VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Hannibal Scorch]

Me and Onyx2 just came out of seeing Spinal Tap 2.

It wasn’t terrible, but not a patch on the first. Laughed more then a handful of times, but there was no real plot, far too much of  a focus on their music and a good 10-15 years past when it should have been made. I’m glad it exists, but don’t go out of your way if you’re not a fan.

For sub 90 minute comedies, The Naked Gun is still the far better choice.

[SuperBacon]

13 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Carrie (1976)

After we watched The Long Walk, my wife asked me to show her more King adaptations so we've gone back to the source. The movie is excellent, Sissy Spacek's physical acting really sells the entire thing and the prom is so wonderfully done that until they cut to the bucket of pig's blood my wife forgot what movie we were watching and was just enjoying the lovely coming of age romance.

I love it, definitely one of my favourite horrors. Those kids deserved it.

Also, not that anyone asked but when I watched it last I discovered two samples from turn of the century indie rap favourites and that always pops me big time (Buck 65 -The Centaur and Aesop Rock - Shovel if you're interested)

[WyattSheepMask]

9 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

 

For sub 90 minute comedies, The Naked Gun is still the far better choice.

Got round to watching this the other night, and I’ll admit that I was wrong and it’s not the complete disaster I thought it was going to be.

I’m not clamouring for a new trilogy or anything like that and I wasn’t expecting it to be on par with the originals, but there a few very good laughs to be had throughout. There some jokes that don’t really land and the OJ joke didn’t get more than a titter this time round though, on reflection they probably shouldn’t have given that away in the trailer, but there is some clever word play that gets laughs and the whole thing does breeze by in no time. 

[SuperBacon]

On 9/15/2025 at 11:22 AM, cobra_gordo said:

Almost Famous. 

Another film I watched for the first time with my eldest last week.

I knew she'd love it, but she absolutely LOVED it.

I was her age when I saw it at the cinema and becoming obsessed with music, and  she feels the same way (she's so knowledgeable about music and is always wanting to learn and that warms my heart big time. My youngest too)

The Tiny Dancer bus scene always gets me going with the tears, and this time around I had more time for Stillwater as a band. Kate Hudson is phenomenonal. 

Deschanel is one of the worst actors ever though. She is dreadful. 

[Devon Malcolm]

I really liked Almost Famous when I first saw it at the cinema but I rewatched it last year and didn't like it as much. Somewhere along the line I just completely went off Cameron Crowe. It's still his best film though.

[Devon Malcolm]

Obviously had to do a bit of a Robert Redford retrospective. I resisted Sneakers and All the President's Men because I watched them (again) a few weeks ago. Not that would normally stop me.

But I did stick on The Sting, which is basically perfect. Endlessly rewatchable for a film with such a pronounced reliance on twists, too, just incredible. Also put on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, first time I'd watched it in ages. A lovely, funny and melancholy piece of work, only a bastard could hate it. Barefoot in the Park is a great romcom too, one of those over-the-top ones that goes for laughs over romance first and foremost. What a great actor he was.

Also:-

Caught Stealing (cinema)

I was guarded about this because although it's my kind of thing, Darren Aronofsky is shit. He could have been making films like this for his whole career, just think. Lots of fun even if the tone is all over the place and sure to alienate many. Brilliant cast, too. Vincent d'Onofrio and Liev Schreiber as a pair of Hasidic gangsters? Absolutely.

The Breakfast Club (cinema)

The most problematic great film of the 1980s. If they remade this today then the Ally Sheedy makeover would be in reverse and that would be correct.

The Blob (1988)

I like this more and more every time I see it. It's so underrated in the monster movie stakes. Much better than the original and the effects still look superb.

The Key (Talking Pictures TV)

Excellent war drama with William Holden and Trevor Howard in a strange three-way relationship with Sophia Loren. Probably the least talked about Carol Reed film but it's as good as you'd always expect from him. Well performed as you'd expect as well from these three.

Velvet Goldmine 

Really disappointing. Todd Haynes is an amazing filmmaker but this just doesn't work. Too much music, not enough on the characters and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is always rubbish. Toni Collette innocent as always.

Last Straw 

Awful thriller about a young woman terrorised during her nightshift at an isolated diner. Nothing going for it at all apart from the soundtrack.

Two Weeks in Another Town

High-pitched melodrama in which Kirk Douglas walks out of a psychiatric institution and straight on to Edward G. Robinson's madhouse Italian movie set. Love this sort of thing with the high theatre performances and colours. Not for everyone *at all* but definitely for me.

Iron Angels 2 / 3 (YouTube)

I watched the first one last year and these two sequels are just as enjoyable. Really underrated Hong Kong action trilogy - makes little sense at any point but the action delivers and that's all anyone's here for. Incredible body counts, too.

The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (Talking Pictures TV)

Pretty funny comedy western with stuffy English posho Kenneth More setting off to the West to sell guns and marrying Jayne Mansfield. No offence, Kenneth, but it's unlikely. A good laugh, the drinking scene being the highlight.

Them!

Speaking of underrated monster movies, this giant ant one from the 50s is definitely one of the best but doesn't get talked about often enough. I've watched it loads, it's always a good time.

Barquero (Great! Movies)

Another Lee Van Cleef recommendation for the western fans on here. Clearly trying to ape the style of the Italian ones but plays out more like a cat-and-mouse thriller with Warren Oates out of his absolute mind on drugs and ranting at horses because he thinks they're staring at him. Really good.

Cabin Boy (Talking Pictures TV)

Not your usual TPTV fare this, is it? Funny though. Wanna buy a monkey?

My Best Friend's Wedding (Film 4)

Shite, this. Who in their right mind thought that having such a dislikeable lead character would make this at all charming? Cameron Diaz the saving grace but really bad.

A Prayer for the Dying (Talking Pictures TV)

Slightly weird but enjoyable action-thriller with IRA commando Mickey Rourke getting mixed up with a priest (Bob Hoskins) and a dodgy funeral home director (Alan Bates). Rourke's accent is surprisingly decent and so was this.

Edited September 19, 2025 by Devon Malcolm

[FLips]

Westworld
A theme park where people can live out their fantasies with realistic androids takes a sinister turn when a virus starts spreading through them, causing them to turn hostile. 
Thought this was terrific, if a little imbalanced. It spends 2/3 of the film building up the theme park and setting the tone for the eventual disaster, but then when disaster strikes it's over in a flash. I could have done with an extra half hour of Yul Brynner stalking the two protagonists, but what we do get is brilliantly done with some gobsmacking effects for the time. 
While I don't know if this was particularly the innovator, there's a good resemblence to films like Alien and Terminator, particularly in some of the jump scares and the obvious "cyborg stalks a man" thing.

[The King Of Swing]

The Blob remake, is a cracking little monster movie. Really does hold up incredibly well.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Terminator 2 Judgement Day - I have probably watched this film hundreds of times over the years and today I watched the 4K disc that I brought about 2 years ago but never watched and I was surprised it was not the Directors Cut / Special Edition, which got me thinking I think I have only ever seen the theatrical cut a couple of times, probably when I have watched it when it was on TV

Even when I was able to buy it on VHS I got the T-1000 edition which was the special edition, admittedly with a few scenes cut to get past the film censors. When DVD’s became the main thing, I had a region 1 Player so I ended up getting T2 special edition which featured the Directors Cut although you had to enter a code on the remote to access it (082797 - I think, from memory), then Blu Ray and finally the 4K version.

I do prefer the Directors Cut it just adds more to the story, with the exception of the alternative ending, which is just not very good 

 

Edited September 20, 2025 by Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz

[SaitoRyo]

Americana

Indie neo-western crime drama made in 2023 but only now getting a release because Sydney Sweeney is in it and has since become a phenomenon. 

People might watch it for Sweeney, who plays a small-town waitress with a stammer that wants to be a country singing star, but she's merely one member of an ensemble cast that also includes Halsey and Paul Walter Hauser. 

By rights, I should have loved this, as it's the exact sort of thing I typically like. And there were things about it that I really, really liked about it, but it ran out of steam towards the end and didn't quite fulfil its early promise, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, any film that has Emmylou and Townes on the soundtrack and really showcases classic Americana iconography is alright by me, but I felt as though it was trying too hard to be like the many films that clearly inspired it, rather than its own thing. Good, but not great. I might like it more on rewatch. 

Nowhere to Run (1993)

In the upper tier of Jean Claude Van Damme films, for me. 

JCVD is a Quebcois (OK then) who was WRONGLY sent to the slammer. His friend (the one who should have been in jail) helps him escape the prison bus and then JCVD goes on the run, stumbling upon a farmhouse where a widow (Rosanna Arquette) and her two kids live. He immediatley plays peeping tom and watches through the window as she gets her kit off, before forming a bond with the family and deciding to singlehandedly fight some rich tycoon piece of shit who is trying to force them off their land. Ted Levine plays the tycoon's heavy. 

Listen, if you're not on board with a film where JCVD (who doesn't use his kickboxing at all in this one) commandeers a piece of heavy machinery in order to knock down a water tower, thus putting out a huge fire that was seconds away from causing a massive gas tank explosion, then I don't know what to tell you. 

And did I mention that I Rosanna Arquette gets her tits (and arse!) out? Worth the price of rental alone, that.

[FLips]

Naked Gun (1988)

Another one I’d never seen and quite frankly wasn’t missing much. Spaceballs must have been the exception to the rule because this bored me to death. I zoned out until halfway through the Mariners v Angels game I turned it off completely. Obviously I’m in the minority here but I’d even go as far as to say it was kinda cringe.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2025 by FLips

[DavidB6937]

Downton Abbey - The Grand Finale

Considering I'd never even watched the show a month ago, I bawled like a fucking baby by the end of this. No shame. The movie itself was.. fine? It's an odd one to translate to the big screen so all three movies have been a bit strange, but they wrapped it up really beautifully and it's now one of my biggest guilty pleasures ever. No idea what I do with my time now.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

If I hadn't been crying over Maggie Smith a few moment before, perhaps this may have hit a little differently, but it felt a little too safe and predictable. Not enough Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Cute but not one that'll stick with me.

[hallicks]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Naked Gun (1988)

Another one I’d never seen and quite frankly wasn’t missing much. Spaceballs must have been the exception to the rule because this bored me to death. I zoned out until halfway through the Mariners v Angels game I turned it off completely. Obviously I’m in the minority here but I’d even go as far as to say it was kinda cringe.

2 is better, especially the last 25-30 minutes. Richard Griffiths has a good outing. 

[cobra_gordo]

The Running Man (1987). Was telling my wife about a conversation I was having with two of my mates where we'd asked "If you were going to put on a three movie Schwarzenegger marathon with friends, beers and pizza, what would they be?" and how The Running Man appeared on all our lists. She then admitted she'd never seen it so I stuck it on.

I was first shown this aged 5 by my two older cousins who'd started off showing me one of the Friday the 13th sequels, got a bollocking for it off my parents, were told to put something more appropriate on and stuck The Running Man on instead. Between them and my dad by the time T2 came out (which I was OBSESSED with) I'd seen all the big hitters- Predator, Terminator, Commando, Total Recall, Aliens, Robocop. The Running Man was always a firm favourite as it's plenty daft enough, loads of action, one liners, a really memorable soundtrack, a detestable piece of shit villain and my favourite Arnie quote ever ("I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your goddamn spine).

Does it hold up? I think so but it's a real comfort watch and I've seen it a dozen times. My wife enjoyed it but thought it was naff in places and dated. She did like all the little bits of advertising and posters for other shows on the ICS network and the foreshadowing of reality TV. She thought Killian was a prick and was revolted by Dynamo in his big white pants but made zero reaction to this amazing shirt which makes me question her taste altogether.

Also, this bit of music and Paula Abdul's choreography as the show is about to start is a 10/10 on it's own.

Enemy Of The State. God I miss Gene Hackman. God I miss not thinking Will Smith was a washed up weirdo. This is such a dependable action thriller, last watched it earlier in the year but there's plenty going on for it to not be boring. Fantastic cast too and whilst Will Smith is at his late-90's charismatic best it's Hackman and John Voight, who always plays a piece of shit really well, that steal the show for me. Tom Sizemore and Stuart Wilson also in the running for the I Could Watch This Bloke Read A Phonebook And It Would Be Entertaining award. Will probably watch this again in another 6 months, it's effortlessly rewatchable.

[SoloJones]

3 hours ago, cobra_gordo said:

The Running Man (1987). Was telling my wife about a conversation I was having with two of my mates where we'd asked "If you were going to put on a three movie Schwarzenegger marathon with friends, beers and pizza, what would they be?" and how The Running Man appeared on all our lists. She then admitted she'd never seen it so I stuck it on.

I was first shown this aged 5 by my two older cousins who'd started off showing me one of the Friday the 13th sequels, got a bollocking for it off my parents, were told to put something more appropriate on and stuck The Running Man on instead. Between them and my dad by the time T2 came out (which I was OBSESSED with) I'd seen all the big hitters- Predator, Terminator, Commando, Total Recall, Aliens, Robocop. The Running Man was always a firm favourite as it's plenty daft enough, loads of action, one liners, a really memorable soundtrack, a detestable piece of shit villain and my favourite Arnie quote ever ("I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your goddamn spine).

Does it hold up? I think so but it's a real comfort watch and I've seen it a dozen times. My wife enjoyed it but thought it was naff in places and dated. She did like all the little bits of advertising and posters for other shows on the ICS network and the foreshadowing of reality TV. She thought Killian was a prick and was revolted by Dynamo in his big white pants but made zero reaction to this amazing shirt which makes me question her taste altogether.

Also, this bit of music and Paula Abdul's choreography as the show is about to start is a 10/10 on it's own.

Watched this for the first time last week, really fun stuff although I wanted Kurt Fuller to get more airtime. Jesse Ventura as Captain Freedom is great fun too.

Edited September 22, 2025 by SoloJones