VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[FLips]

The LoTR Trilogy (Extended Editions)

Only saw these for the first time a few years back and since then my wife has suggested we do the full day marathon with all the meals to go with it.

Watching the films again was easy. Even at around 4 hours a go they’re just perfectly easy to watch, fun and exciting films that never give you unpleasant twists or turns, just feel-good moments one after the other. The hardest bit was trying to eat so many meals in a day.

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

The LoTR Trilogy (Extended Editions)

Only saw these for the first time a few years back and since then my wife has suggested we do the full day marathon with all the meals to go with it.

Watching the films again was easy. Even at around 4 hours a go they’re just perfectly easy to watch, fun and exciting films that never give you unpleasant twists or turns, just feel-good moments one after the other. The hardest bit was trying to eat so many meals in a day.

I try and save these for when things are REALLY bad, as they cheer me up so much.

Genuinely don't think we'll ever see film making like that ever again.

[DavidB6937]

Funny thing about LOTR is that I actually find them too emotional to watch these days.

Back in 2003, I was away from home at uni (originally from Kent but went to uni in Stoke for reasons unknown, apart from it has Alton Towers), barely had any friends because I didn't drink or do drugs, and my girlfriend had broken up with me. So all in all I was having a pretty shit time. My only real enjoyment was DVDs and going to the cinema.

I occasionally bought Empire magazine just to see what was going on and I noticed an advert in the back for a convention. What's a student loan for if not for a bit of fun? So off I went to Milton Keynes (wow, that's a lot of roundabouts) and caught the convention bug way before it was ever made cool by Marvel movies and all that jazz going around these days.

I got heavily involved with crewing and running the events after that. I felt like I'd found my purpose and my people. It was amazing, and those first couple of years were absolutely magical because they managed to get a lot of the main cast and they did screenings with them, and we got to hang out behind the scenes. Obviously it wasn't entirely on Beatles scale but to stand there and see the crowds waiting for Elijah, Sean etc, it was something I'll genuinely never forget. Especially considering this was all happening the same year as ROTK and the year after, and considering conventions were mostly known for having Star Wars and Doctor Who actors years after the fact, it was incredibly special.

They were so kind and generous with their time, and it's lovely to see even now the bond they share, and how they're some of the nicest people you could possibly hope to meet in the industry. There's a video floating around of Elijah turning up at The Shire at a wedding fairly recently I believe and that's exactly the guy I remember. Someone who put his heart and soul into LOTR and still absolutely loves it to this day, like so many of them do. The bond they show in the movies is way beyond acting.

So yeah, it's a life changing trilogy for me in many ways, and as soon as that score hits I'm pretty much sobbing every bloody time. A massive part of my life flashes before my eyes and I just love that I was able to be there at that time to experience something that special. Even now I still see the guys turning up to conventions and being absolutely adored by so many and they deserve it all. I don't think I'll ever meet a better group of people - and I've been incredibly lucky to meet people like Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd etc who were absolute childhood heroes - and I love hearing how much enjoyment so many get from LOTR.

Anyway, excuse my Friday afternoon work avoidance ramble.

[FLips]

Friendship

Massive huge fan of I Think You Should Leave and I'm enjoying (less so) The Chair Company. Finally got around to seeing this, a film where Tim Robinson makes friends with Paul Rudd but then gets unceremoniously dumped by him because he's so fucking weird, and found it pretty meh. It has a few really weird bits that you'd expect from Tim Robinson, but between this and TCC I'm starting to feel sketch comedy might be his strong suit. Him as one character dragged out over a full movie, or multiple full episodes wears pretty thin. 
He's fantastic at completely out of the blue one-shot lines or moments, but all the bits between mean nothing and with all due respect he's good at being Tim Robinson, he's not a good actor at all. This one doesn't have the benefit TCC has of him playing it kinda straight while everyone else around him is weird, which works better at this length.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

We thought this was fantastic. Great villains, great protagonist and some high stakes for them to battle over. Much funnier than we expected it to be, with some moments get a big laugh. It's tense, it's pretty much non-stop start to finish, and has a cracking ending.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

We thought this was fantastic. Great villains, great protagonist and some high stakes for them to battle over. Much funnier than we expected it to be, with some moments get a big laugh. It's tense, it's pretty much non-stop start to finish, and has a cracking ending.

One of my all-time favourites. I've watched it loads, it never deteriorates in quality. Actually, the Tony Scott remake is pretty good too, if obviously nowhere near as good.

Saw a poll recently that said the ending (to the original) was the greatest movie ending of all time, and I honestly can't think of a better one.

[Mr_Danger]

Predator:Badlands. Loads of people are gonna be unhappy with this. There’s a healthy dose Disneyfication going on and people aren’t going to enjoy a Predator film that lays somewhere between Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy. As it is I had a ton of fun with it and I got to watch a Predator film with my kids in the cinema. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending it to normal kids but mine found it fairly tame and the lad got to see his first film with subtitles so culture wins!

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Predator:Badlands. Loads of people are gonna be unhappy with this. There’s a healthy dose Disneyfication going on and people aren’t going to enjoy a Predator film that lays somewhere between Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy. As it is I had a ton of fun with it and I got to watch a Predator film with my kids in the cinema. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending it to normal kids but mine found it fairly tame and the lad got to see his first film with subtitles so culture wins!

Off to see this tomorrow. It'll be the first one I've seen in the cinema actually so looking forward to it. Watched all the rest at home over the past week. Not like it's a top quality franchise that no one can touch or anything is it? It's all daft fun.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Went to a secret mystery preview at my odeon tonight really hoping it was gonna be the Running Man 2025 and it was! It was sold out and people cheered when the title screen came up so the vibe was great and really set me up to enjoy it. It was really cool, the social commentary and satire was razor sharp and it was really fun and spectacular. Glenn Powell had no problem carrying the film and I liked his character more than I expected. Could have done with another 10 mins in the last act to give everything a bit more clarity and room to breathe but I enjoyed it a lot.

Running man today and Predator tomorrow, 1987 is back baby.

 

Edit: I also saw Die My Love yesterday which was such a rough watch that it nade me dangerously upset, no wonder I usually avoid shit like this. Google said it was a comedy when i looked it up which is the least true thing of all time. JLaw was so convincing I had to remind myself it was just a film, she was naked in it loads which was the only thing about it that wasn't distressing.

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Bellenda Carlisle

[DavidB6937]

@Bellenda Carlisle Running Man looked like such a fun watch with the right cinema crowd so looking forward to that. But as soon as I saw the Die My Love trailer I knew that wasnt for me. Some exceptional performances I imagine but I'm pretty sure it'd take me weeks to recover emotionally.

[Devon Malcolm]

12 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Predator:Badlands. Loads of people are gonna be unhappy with this. 

Ahh you saw my Letterboxd review!

[LaGoosh]

I enjoyed it. A pretty inoffensive fun adventure film. I love Predator but I'm not hugely beholden to the lore/tradition of it so I'm fine with this one being so opposite to what's come before. At least they're trying to do something a bit different with the series rather than awful, brain dead nostalgia porn shite like Alien Romulus. 

I hope they go back to a more violent adult tone for the next one though. I'm fine with one film being kid friendly hijinks but I'd rather the series kept the darker tone long term.

[Mr_Danger]

15 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Ahh you saw my Letterboxd review!

Was it the monkey sidekick?

[LaGoosh]

The film to me basically felt like if you replaced the Predator with Chewbacca and Elle Fanning with C3PO it would have been pretty much exactly the same. I mean this as both compliment and criticism. 

The most 3 star film imaginable. 

[Mr_Danger]

Yeah, watching a grumpy blunt warrior being annoyed by a talking head attached to his back whilst trying to kill monsters really made me think Dan Trachtenberg probably should have just been the show runner on Amazon’s God Of War live action series. 
 

 

[davertfnewman]

Frankenstein (2025) - watched it over two nights, with an obvious point to switch off and switch back on. Perfectly fine and watchable, but just has this weirdness of nothing seeming real at all within it, be it the colours or the effects. Best part of it is Jacob Elordi as the creation and Lars Mikkelsen as the captain of the ship, with Oscar Isaac acting more like he's in a 2025 movie than a period movie. Some changes to the established story, which is fine, and some moments where you shudder and squirm watching it, but also some that will bounce off you because they don't look believable, including violence to people and animals. Glad I watched it, but wouldn't watch it again.