VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[ReturnOfTheMack]

They Will Kill You.

Yeah, just some silly fun. 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Masters of the Universe was everything the 87 film should have been, felt for a lot of it like a first draft for a pilot backstory for the 80s cartoon, gorgeous aesthetics and a good mix of standard humour and the type of nudge nudge jokes that would go over young heads

I hope though, given a major teaser in the credits, that Amazon/MGM press forward with a sequel because there’s so much more to explore in the franchise 

[davertfnewman]

I watched MOTU today and am a lifelong fan. Enjoyed it but thought they could've cut about thirty minutes out of it to trim the fat.

[Mr_Danger]

Disclosure Day. We’re in to end game Spielberg now and after doing the most interesting thing he’s done in years with The Fabelmans he’s returned to the safety well with an extraterrestrial based conspiracy thriller. You know what you’re  getting here, he’s done it all before and he still does it better than anyone. What did strike me is that more than ever Spielbergs lack of cynicism stands out with the plot of this. 

Spoiler

That he thinks that the existence of aliens being revealed would be this big world war ending revelation and not meme’d within seconds and written off as AI is quite endearing.

I brought the kids with me to watch it and it kept them hooked for the 2 hours 20 minute run time and whilst they couldn’t really get their heads around the plot completely it was nice for them to experience some big screen Spielberg. 
 

I hear he has a western planned which is crazy to think it’s a genre he’s never touched but it certainly excites me more than aliens and chases.

[DavidB6937]

Had a nice cinema catch up weekend.

Disclosure Day

Honestly nowhere near classic Spielberg but he's never going to be able to re-capture that 80s magic so it's basically as good as it gets now. Giving me Emily Blunt is a good way of winning me over pretty much immediately. I did think he did a good jump of ramping up the tension and the cast were pretty solid overall. But..

Spoiler

Fuck that ending.

I'm not someone who hates on ambiguity. In general I quite enjoy being left to ponder and discuss etc, but this wasn't the movie or story being told. This was about how important it was to the world to be open and to share these things, so fuck ending on 'listen' and then trying to be smart and cut there. I get what they were trying to do but it really felt like a flat ending after they'd done such a good job of ramping it up to the disclosure itself. I'm sure it works for some but for me it just made everything else feel a little pointless. I hated feeling disappointed walking out because they'd done such a solid job beforehand.

Backrooms

One of two very hyped and much discussed horrors out at the moment, so I was intrigued. I've not been in the mood for horror at the cinema in a long time, despite it being my favourite genre for many years, so this was a bit of a risk for me. I knew nothing of the online lore or any of that stuff so I was pretty much going in blind which I prefer.

Good. Really good actually. For my own personal tastes I would've preferred an 18 and pushing it a bit more so it didn't feel quite as intense as it could have for me, but that's a very minor personal criticism. On the whole the direction played really well with the tension and confusion, as did the performances of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.

This is the kind of movie where ambiguity is absolutely necessary. You don't want all the answers. It's far creepier not knowing for sure the whys and wheres etc. A lot of this stuff works better if there's not even a why! It doesn't need it. Really enjoyable and definitely glad I saw it at the cinema with a bunch of other people on the edge of their seats.

Tuner

I'd seen the trailer a while ago and thought it seemed like the kinda movie I'd watch at home, but I needed something to kill time before He-Man so there you go. I've loved Leo Woodall since One Day on Netflix so really glad to see him getting bigger roles like this, and alongside Dustin Hoffman! Both play off each other really well and I love the concept - a guy has problem with his hearing but this helps him to crack safes just by listening to the dials. Obviously this all goes downhill but it's great fun. Havana Rose Liu is someone I'd very much like to watch play piano any time.

Masters of the Universe

I wasn't massively fussed about seeing it at the cinema despite loving He-Man as a kid. I've not really held onto it over the years in the ways I still love Marvel and Nintendo and wrestling, so I don't have any particular 'oh god they shouldn't have done that!' feelings that a lot of the old men on Twitter have. And I'm glad because this was so much fucking fun. Absolutely ridiculous in the best way. It knows it needs to go super camp and silly and it really does and it works and Camila Mendes certainly doesn't hurt and seeing Kieran from Traitors S1 in the movie just makes it even weirder.

The overall laughter and buzz in the cinema during this was stronger than anything I saw this weekend. I think it'll absolutely be a cult classic through streaming. 

Obsession

I couldn't decide between seeing this or Backrooms so went back to the cinema today just for this. Incredible. Absolutely more my kind of horror than Backrooms so I'd definitely be more inclined to watch this again but damn Inde Navarrette was a tour de force in this from start to finish. Her career deserves to skyrocket if she can get some really great roles after this. You can definitely see the Hereditary type influence in the performance but it never feels like it's copying anything. And again with the ambiguity - there's some clear interpretations but just enough to make you think 'but..' and I like that.

Spoiler

Though any theory that suggest she's the cat or something.. just no

Love that there's two fresh horrors out that are getting people talking. The world needs more of that.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Just back from Masters Of The Universe. Loved it, I had low expectations but it was everything i could have hoped for.  

[davertfnewman]

Another comment on MOTU, beyond the Brian May score and soundtrack involvement with Queen songs, it's the first superhero movie in a while that took inspiration from Flash Gordon. More need to for that simple sense of fun. MOTU needed to take even more from it, with a faster pace and getting quicker to the end. It's also interesting how British a movie it was too, with obvious use of locations and actors.

Edited June 14 by davertfnewman

[Merzbow]

I decided to give Faces of Death a chance, aside from Charli XCX having one of the worst accents known to mankind it's actually not too bad, it beats you over the head with social media social commentary but I expected that going in and it ends up being a very fun little low budget slasher. It won't blow anyone away or win any awards but Barbie Ferreira has a great outing and Dacre Montgomery is creepy as fuck, don't think I've ever seen him in anything before.

[Mr_Danger]

Been on the Dacre Montgomery train since he nearly made Nancy’s mum cheat on Where’s Wally.

[Jesse]

Can't be bothered with being negative about Disclosure Day. Spielberg still makes movies that feel like movies are supposed to and it felt so refreshing to go and watch something with that very specific sensibility. It's actually made me realise how few Spielberg movies (only 7 out of 37, including his first one that's basically lost afaik and the extended cut of Duel) I've watched so that's my next movie project sorted.

Only negative about the movie is that my wife recently had what I thought was her first seizure (but apparently is her second or third, she's unsure) then partway through this movie she had her eyes closed and fell against me so I tapped her and she came round. I was annoyed at her for falling asleep (something she does often enough that I have a letterboxd tag for it) and making me think she'd had another seizure, only to find out once we left the cinema that she had actually blacked out. So half a star off for making my wife unconscious but half a star added back on for guiding us to a possible epilepsy diagnosis.

[BarryOVega]

Vampire’s Kiss wanted to watch this for years, saw it’s on Prime so watched it yesterday, Cage is great as you’d expect, so many of his roles you can’t imagine anyone else playing them, I know the films much more famous for the meme but I thought it was great, though not great enough for me to give it 5 stars on Letterboxd

Peak Jennifer Beals in it as well for people of a certain age

Separate from that, Jesse’s post above made me look up Spielberg’s filmography and I’ve seen 22 out of 37, think there’s only Sugerland Express and Disclosure Day I’m arsed about seeing anytime soon though 

[mim731]

Disclosure Day. Fucking hell, that might be one of the worst films I've ever seen. The acting and the writing were just abysmal. I love me a bit if Spielberg but this was atrocious, nonsensical and downright lazy in places. Dogshit.

Sorry, I'm just after leaving the cinema and I am a bit annoyed. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

I honestly can’t remember a film that has divided people as much as Disclosure Day. Proper marmite film.

[HarmonicGenerator]

We’re in the “really liked it” camp. It felt strangely wholesome and naive and optimistic compared to the real world but I liked that about it. I had a good time and the ending worked for me.

Spoiler

Why AEW haven’t booked “Red Wrestler” vs “Blue Wrestler” this week, or even just included Lance Archer and Brian Cage on a show, is bizarre. The first wrestlers since Pat Roach to be in a Spielberg film (I think)! The film opens with a Brian Cage POV shot! Come on Tony!

 

[Mr_Danger]

9 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

We’re in the “really liked it” camp. It felt strangely wholesome and naive and optimistic compared to the real world but I liked that about it. I had a good time and the ending worked for me.

  Reveal hidden contents

Why AEW haven’t booked “Red Wrestler” vs “Blue Wrestler” this week, or even just included Lance Archer and Brian Cage on a show, is bizarre. The first wrestlers since Pat Roach to be in a Spielberg film (I think)! The film opens with a Brian Cage POV shot! Come on Tony!

 

Yeah that’s where I fell. I could well imagine Michael Bay making this film shot for shot and it not hitting with me at all. Spielberg is just a massive film dork and that always shines through and it was comforting to see him back doing this stuff even if the real world is much more cynical than the world he lives in.