VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[johnnyboy]

56 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

D.O.A. (1988)

Remake of the 1949 noir about a man who needs to find out who poisoned him and murdered some of those close to him before he himself dies. 

I enjoyed this! I love a good neo-noir and this one has all the elements. It's a very sweaty film, and very stylish, too. Dennis Quaid is really good as the central protagonist. He portrays desperation really well. And who doesn't love Meg Ryan? 

I remember this being in the trailers section of every video we rented in the late 80s.

[gmoney]

Truck Turner

Isaac Hayes blaxsploitation movie also featuring Yaphat Kotto, Scatman Crothers and a Nichelle Nicholls performance that has to be seen to be believed. I looked up what else she'd done genre film wise, hoping for more, but she didn't do another film after this until Star Trek The Motion Picture five years later. What a waste! Anyway this is a complete blast, and wish I watched it twenty years ago. Some genuinely inventive action (and death scenes) and laugh out loud funny at times, if you like this sort of thing and haven't seen this, don't delay and get this watched. 

[Devon Malcolm]

3 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Truck Turner

Isaac Hayes blaxsploitation movie also featuring Yaphat Kotto, Scatman Crothers and a Nichelle Nicholls performance that has to be seen to be believed. I looked up what else she'd done genre film wise, hoping for more, but she didn't do another film after this until Star Trek The Motion Picture five years later. What a waste! Anyway this is a complete blast, and wish I watched it twenty years ago. Some genuinely inventive action (and death scenes) and laugh out loud funny at times, if you like this sort of thing and haven't seen this, don't delay and get this watched. 

I think this is probably about my favourite blaxploitation with the exception of Across 110th Street. I really need to watch it again.

[LaGoosh]

Nicholls completely steals the whole film - she's fantastic in it.

[SaitoRyo]

Catch Me if You Can (1989)

High school movie about a street racer who convinces the class president to bet the 'save the school' money on him winning. 

There were bits about this I liked - Tangerine Dream soundtrack, 80s American high school aesthetic, Loryn Locklin, E Emmet Walsh showing up as the baddy - but the main guy was just so poor. He's trying this whole Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club thing but he doesn't have the charisma to pull it off. The film has a charm to it, though. Reminded me a little of Three O'Clock High. Would have been better with someone different in the lead role.

[Carbomb]

Just been to see Savage House. 

I'm not entirely sure how to characterise it beyond "Richard E. Grant does Richard E. Grant things", playing a rakish, vice-consumed fop obsessed with social climbing, having escaped his origins as the son of pig farmers via all sorts of chicanery and tricks. Having blasted his way through the fortunes of his noble-born wife's family, he receives a letter telling him about the northern tour of a high-ranking duke and duchess, and asking if they might be hosted at his manor. The film covers the days leading up to the big dinner, and he and his wife (played by the always superb Claire Foy) pulling out all the stops to get ready for it, in the hopes it will revive their fortunes and put them high up in the social order.

First thing that came to mind was that I have rarely seen a film set in the 18th century that doesn't use the directorial device of undermining the images of aristocratic grandeur and baroque splendour with depictions of rotting filth behind it all: nightsoil, pox-ridden skin, rotten fruit and veg, animals being butchered and dressed in a dirty kitchen, etc., and this one was no exception. I get why it's done, particularly with this kind of film that's looking to convey a metaphor for the landed gentry, and it is apt, but just seeing it brought home to me how often it's done with this kind of setting. 

It's not in itself a bad film in terms of script, cinematography, set, costume, even pacing - it's just bad at what it claims to be, i.e. a dark comedy. Yes, it's very dark, but laughs are very few and far between - and those laughs are more of the wry, sardonic, and nervous kind, rather than just funny. Grant is always worth a watch, and he turns in a good performance, but the character, despite being a ne'er-do-well, is a bit too sympathetically written to make the dark humour actually funny. At some point, I just ended up feeling sorry for him and rooting for him.

Spoiler

And, fucking hell, is it bleak. It's a film about downfall, punctuated with madness and intrigue. It's basically Requiem For A Dream meets The Draughtsman's Contract meets How To Get Ahead In Advertising.

It's comedy, so YMMV. But without doubt, it will only appeal to those who want it darker.

[Devon Malcolm]

Obsession (cinema)

Really good. Gnarly and uncompromising with its performances and violence, very funny in places, absolutely ravages toxic masculinity and men needing women to 'fix' them. Inde Navarrette - incredible. A round of applause for that nutter of a performance.

Backrooms (cinema)

More or less lived up to my expectations. Clearly at its most interesting when the cast are just exploring but Ejiofor and Reinsve are superb in the leads and the set designs are some of the best I've seen in a horror film for a while. Weakens near the end but deserves its success. I will watch it lots.

Hokum (cinema)

Damian McCarthy definitely has something. Not as strong as Oddity but a really sturdy haunted house effort and a couple of nice shocks. A few too many jump scares but some nice bits of humour and a decent ending.

Most of the other stuff I've watched and rewatched recently has been crime films and old noirs.

One False Move

Arguably the greatest neo-noir outside the 1970s. A magnificent, dark, violent piece of work set against a backdrop of racism and small town idolatry. It's ridiculous this isn't widely known and renowned, and Bill Paxton was arguably never better.

Under the Silver Lake

I know this still proves divisive but I absolutely love it. Would make an awesome double-bill with Babylon or maybe even Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Crumbling dreams and aspirations in Hollywood is always a rich mine for films to dig in to.

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck needs to go back to making gritty crime films like this and The Town, which I also rewatched, because he immediately had a really good knack for them. Both of these are excellent, although the longer cut of The Town is too long and unnecessarily so.

The Killer (2023)

# If a double decker buuuuuuus.... #

Shakedown (1950)

Probably an influence on Nightcrawler in the 'obsessive journalist will do anything to get a story' stakes. Howard Duff here, for instance, urges a woman in a burning building to jump out of a window so he can get a good shot. Needless to say it's great.

The Big Heat

One of the most ruthless and cruel classic noirs, and I'm not sure Lee Marvin was ever more terrifying than in this. What an actor he was. A monument of 1950s cinema.

The Hot Rock

Cracking crime caper with Robert Redford and friends having to pull off four different heists. Funny, clever and a really good ending. Double-bill it with Sneakers.

Just Before Nightfall

An object lesson in how to pace your film. A steadily escalating situation a murderer can't keep escaping from. Claude Chabrol made a lot of films and I've not seen him miss yet. Excellent.

Lake George

I hadn't even heard of this until recently, which is ridiculous considering it's headed by Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon. Pretty funny and nastily violent crime film with a couple of cracking twists and a nice ending. A gem.

Witness in the City

Brilliant French thriller about a man who avanges his wife's murder but then ends up on the run and pursuing a witness to his own crime. One of those films that's a journey into inevitable bleakness. Lino Ventura was an incredible screen presence.

The International

Worth seeing for the Gugenheim shoot-out alone but the rest of it's quite good, too.

LA Confidential

I still don't know why half the cast is Australian but I don't suppose it matters. Everything about this is so smooth and entertaining. Hasn't aged a bit - apart from having Kevin Spacey in it.

Belly

Thought this was shit. Never really cared for Hype Williams' music videos but his film's worse. Appalling acting, cliched story, just bollocks.

Blue Collar

Even better than the first time I watched it. That ending is one of the most low-key devastating ones I've seen. A shame Paul Schrader is such a weird cunt now.

[SuperBacon]

5 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Belly

Thought this was shit. Never really cared for Hype Williams' music videos but his film's worse. Appalling acting, cliched story, just bollocks.

It's obviously a bit of a cult classic with rap fans, but yeah it's dreadful. It's so po faced as well, absolutely zero levity.

[Hannibal Scorch]

Masters of the Universe is incredibly camp. I wasn’t expecting that level but man it delivered. Not an amazing film, but very funny. It’s bloated though, took ages to really get going and contains the best Jared Leto role in decades. Not a fan of his but he stole the film.

Scary Movie was incredibly shit. I can’t remember the last time I saw a comedy and didn’t laugh once. I even laughed more at Clerks 3. I wasn’t alone. Most of the cinema was quiet throughout with a few people laughing occasionally. A waste of everyone’s time. Even those who are talented.

Edited June 8 by Hannibal Scorch

[hallicks]

6 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Masters of the Universe is incredibly camp. I wasn’t expecting that level but man it delivered. Not an amazing film, but very funny. It’s bloated though, took ages to really get going and contains the best Jared Leto role in decades. Not a fan of his but he stole the film.

MOTU was a blast. It's a fine line to walk between "in on the joke" and "still making a worthwile film" but they absolutely did. I mean they absolutely had me at

Spoiler

HEYYYYAYYYAYYYAYYAAA - or "Fabulous secret powers", to give it the correct title. That bit alone was worth the price of admission. I follow the creator of that on Instagram and he's had some involvement in the promotion around the premiere and it's lovely to watch and to see him get his flowers. 

It's telling that it was an enjoyable Jared Leto performance, as you can neither see his face nor hear his voice. 

It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but as a geriatric millenial with a nerdy/spoofy sense of humour, this was right up my street and had me laughing out loud a lot. 

Agreed that it was far too long, mind.

[gmoney]

Donnie Brasco

It's probably 20 years since I saw this and my opinion on it has not greatly changed. It's a pretty average gangster movie elevated massively by the performance of Al Pacino. His performance is funny, depressing, pathetic, scary at different times, sometimes all at once. I posted recently about an annoying social media post slagging off his career as being one dimensional and I just cannot understand how someone could watch this and say, Scarface, The Godfather, Heat or any other top tier performance of his and think "oh this is just him playing the same role". The whole scene at his house, giving a gift of cash to Donnie, cooking him dinner, shitting himself when the pan catches fire and making his girlfriend deal with it, and finally asking to borrow some money as Donnie leaves, taking the cash he just gave him. It's all so perfect, so great. Johnny Depp is fine in this, probably better than I remembered, but I did find myself mentally casting other people (Gary Oldman? Not Italian enough...) because he's just fine. Nice crop of actors in smaller roles, Bruno Kirby and Željko Ivanek (the arsehole governor from Oz) stood out as particularly good. 

[SaitoRyo]

Varsity Blues

American Football is the most important thing in a small Texas town, where the new college quarterback begins to question the team's ruthless coach while trying to figure out what he wants to do with his own life. 

A movie I felt like I'd seen before, even though I hadn't. That's not a criticism, as I liked the familiarity of it all. It's a fun high school/sports movie riddled with cliches. Jon Voight is on form as the bastard coach prepared to win at all costs. James Van Der Beek and his mates and their girls aren't half bad, either. A late Friday night breeze, it was.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

AKA Burt and The Boys (and The Girls) Having a Laugh: The Musical. 

Look, musicals are a bit shite and I generally cannot be arsed with them. But most musicals don't have Reynolds and Dolly Parton as the leads and I had a lot of fun watching this. More than I thought, actually, because the musical numbers are generally decent and tongue-in-cheek.

Reading up afterwards about how miserable Dolly and Burt were for personal reasons was a bit of a comedown, but they don't show it on screen. And I still get a kick out of this showing up on the BBFC banned list for a minute because the puritans thought it was some sort of hardcore pornography. It's not, but it is a surprisingly sex-work-friendly big-budget Hollywood film from the Reagan era. 

[cobra_gordo]

Fair to say that Obsession has completely stayed with me since seeing it on Saturday. I can't stop thinking about it. The tension, the sense of dread, the sound design, Inde Navarette's INCREDIBLE performance- I loved every second. My wife on the other hand has since described it as the worst film she's ever seen but take that with a pinch of salt as she was so scared she had a blanket over her face for the majority of the film. I'm going back to see it again this week.

[LaGoosh]

Yeah I've been thinking about it loads since seeing. Loads to take away from it and it doesn't spoon feed you any of its messages and leaves it to the audience to go away and work it out.

I love that it's essentially a quirky rom com premise but taken to its nasty, nihilistic endpoint. And I think it's very clever that Bear, the protagonist, will likely end up on the list of films biggest villians. What a horrid pathetic little shit he is, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't seen shades of his behaviour in friends of mine. Brilliant. 

Edited June 9 by LaGoosh

[cobra_gordo]

Just back from seeing Obsession for a second time. The first time I've done a solo cinema trip since being the only one of my group of mates that wanted to see Beavis and Butthead Do America in 1996.

No irony but I adore this film and it was even better the second time round. It was nice to be able to relax and just absorb the film, the nearly two hour run time breezes by when you know where the jump scares are. Still got me a couple of times, one in particular just before the end that really makes use of the sound design I gushed over in my previous post.

Spoiler

Where it cuts from them sat on the sofa after Nikki has shot Ian to Bear in the bathroom with the gun. The sudden banging on the door from complete silence has caught me off guard both times. Also I'm convinced the sound they've used for the banging is gunshots.

I also really enjoyed spotting some extra details that are subtly peppered in throughout.

Spoiler

Ian and Nikki being close together on the photo booth pictures is something I didn't clock the first time round but it's a bit blink and you'll miss it.

I'd also seen online that Sarah is always on Bear's left and Nikki is always on his right so made a conscious effort to pay attention to that.

It might sound lame but Obsession seems to hit me in the chest unlike any other film in recent memory. I can honestly see it becoming a comfort watch for me alongside Texas Chainsaw, The Wickerman and Scream. I'm so chuffed it's raking in money at the box office.