VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Harry Wiseau]

Just got back from seeing The Odyssey at IMAX, bloody epic. Of course it's ace it's Nolan doing the Odyssey, everyone nailed it. A Jason the Argonauts for the now generation. Even Travis Scott is good in it, add Robert Pattinson, ooooh what a prick. A proper epic film, see it on the biggest loudest screen you can

Edited July 17 by Harry Wiseau
So, I've got a new phone you see and it really doesn't like me so when I do the Swype typing thing it really isn't used to the way I type and words are just very very very wrong

[LaGoosh]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

I watched The Fifth Element last night, a film that's never been on streaming and only watched in the cinema or on Channel 5.

I did see it in the cinema in 1997, but have forgotten absolutely everything about it, so was a good surprise. A fun romp, even though its slightly too long, but what a mad cast and one for that thread.

Ian Holm, LUKE PERRY!, Tricky, Lee Evans, Tiny Lister as president and apparently bare knuckle boxer and East end "gangster" Lenny McLean (must've missed him) is mad.

Korben Dallas is a brilliantly NXT name as well. Multi pass indeed. 7/10

Jean Paul Gaultier as the costume designer too, no less. A bonkers, incredibly horny film that I loved as a kid. Haven't seen it in years.

[SuperBacon]

4 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Jean Paul Gaultier as the costume designer too, no less. A bonkers, incredibly horny film that I loved as a kid. Haven't seen it in years.

Currently on Sky Movies/NOW TV movies if you have it.

[BarryOVega]

Just watched Honey Don’t, reminded me of The Nice Guys and not just because of the private detective link, the atmosphere(if that makes any sense) was exactly the same despite being set 50 years after the Nice Guys

Anyway everyone was brilliant in it, wasn’t predictable in any way and a film this decade under 90 minutes? That’ll do me

[hallicks]

Ghost in the machine (2026) - Kinema

If you've ever felt slightly uncomfortable about AI usage and proliferation, I would recommend this. In fact, I think I would recommend this to pretty much every person who considers themselves of a somewhat reasonable persuasion, even if they're not particularly interested in tech. This doc/film traces the roots of AI to 19th century eugenics and colonialism, via 1930s/40s fascism, through to it's current iteration of eugenics, techno-colonialism and fascism. Featuring all the worst people involved, past and present, as well as some excellent talking heads.

I think it's quite accessible. It's also horrific in a lot of ways, as it very plainly illustrates not only the general appallingness of big tech, but also how they're able to co-opt governments; notably (but not solely) the Business Laws Amendment act 2024 in Kenya, that made it illegal for a tech worker to sue its employer, even if the employer has treated or harmed them in an illegal manner. I was also completely unaware how much of this AI "boom" had been leveraged on the backs of worker exploitation in the Global South over the past decade.

Maybe one for the documentaries thread, but as I had to pay £15 to rent it, I'm calling it a film. 

[air_raid]

Last night we watched Leave The World Behind (Netflix) on the recommendation of the raid-in-law.

It was a very Kingesque suspense-fest putting me in mind of both The Stand and (the excellent) The Life Of Chuck, well crafted, by and large well acted and accompanied by a score that underpins the tension nicely per a Shutter Island, and with a similar undercurrent of “not everything is as it seems.” It was nice to see Ethan Hawke get his teeth into a role before this generation forgets he was anything more than ”Robin from Stranger Things’ dad” and Mahershala Ali and Julia Roberts are both predictably excellent emoters, the latter all toothy smiles or icy stares depending, though the standout is Myha’la as Ali’s acerbic daughter. The story mostly delivers exactly what I was hoping for from the premise without overstaying its welcome despite a meaty 2hr 20 run time - more on that momentarily.

As always, no film is without flaw. The opening scene and whimsical credit sequence would have been more befitting a Don’t Look Up than a The Day After Tomorrow though the film doesn’t waste too much time deciding what it is. The story leans too heavily on other stories to make its point, with explicit references to The West Wing (once) and Friends (four or five scattered instances from virtually very start to very end) which I always find lazy. There’s a completely unnecessary scene of Hawke & Roberts’ teen son ignoring/alleviating the mounting stress of the situation by attempting to masturbate which is neither required in order to highlight his obvious interest in their hosts daughter nor welcome. The race card is played, precisely at the moment I’d started to believe we’d finally stumbled upon a story where families of different colours could interact throughout with no need to draw attention to skin colour - as ever, though, a black character brings it up, so we’ll let it slide because reasons. Biggest problem of all, the movie spends so much of its duration asking questions, that it leaves hardly any time for answers hence when the ending arrives abruptly it leaves you asking “is that it then?” which you could find unforgivable for a film this long. Finally, Kevin Bacon is criminally underutilised though his longest scene rather smartly subverts one of Kings most common tropes of apocalyptic paranoia - pleasingly, to put the top slice on this unplanned shit sandwich, one of four times to my count you feel the direction/imminent event is obvious but then doesn’t happen that way, but in a logical manner, not twists for twists sake.

Overall, a very enjoyable film. A teacher at school told me to never cheapen a review by scoring it but to make life easy let’s call it a solid 7. I wouldn’t bother watching it again but I’m glad I did watch it.

 

[Merzbow]

Five Nights at Fredd... I mean Backrooms:

Bloody hell this was laughably bad, I was over the visual gimmickry within half an hour and had to sit through yet another awful American allegory for "trauma".

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Five Nights at Fredd... I mean Backrooms:

Bloody hell this was laughably bad, I was over the visual gimmickry within half an hour and had to sit through yet another awful American allegory for "trauma".

I've enjoyed some other horrors more this year but "laughably bad" feels really harsh. They did a great job setting a tense and confusing atmosphere and while it lost me a bit towards the end I've seen a lot worse over the years.

[Merzbow]

I'm just fed up of the lazy trauma trope, I know it's always been used but ever since Ari Aster broke out it feels like it's all anyone can do.

[Richie Freebird]

Couple of bangers recently. I saw HEAT and The Devil's Advocate in fairly short order this weekend. Can't believe I made it to my current age without really knowing much about either film. Pacino is excellent in both. 

[DavidB6937]

13 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I'm just fed up of the lazy trauma trope, I know it's always been used but ever since Ari Aster broke out it feels like it's all anyone can do.

Yeah, I've seen the debate the past few years that it's overused. It's interesting to me as I feel like I've seen a lot of trauma related horrors over the years, but maybe it's become less subtle and more direct in modern horror.

[Mr_Danger]

The Odyssey. The ultimate dad film. Up there with his best. Manages to be all things Nolan whilst keeping the classic feel. Don’t know why I didn’t see it before but Interstellar was clearly inspired by this story and will make a nice little ‘dads miss there kids upbringing’ double. Everyone is great but Robert Pattison gets a special mention for being a cracking little shit. I watched it on the mediumest sized screen possible and still liked it.

[Merzbow]

Just saw it myself, very well made but still the same old sterile mechanical feeling that pervades all Christopher Nolan flicks. That's not saying I didn't enjoy it, I certainly did as it's a story I've always liked but this is a man who's amazingly technically gifted yet doesn't possess a soul. Both Matt Damon and Robert Pattinson were outstanding, Tom Holland is fucking shit.

[Jazzy G]

I saw Mike Bassett England Manager was on Amazon Prime, so thought I'd give it a watch. Ricky Tomlinson is great in it. Bradley Walsh is Bradley Walsh. It's an entertaining enough way to kill an hour and a half. You can see some of the gags coming a mile off, but they're still done well enough that it's entertaining. 

[wordsfromlee]

The Sheep Detectives

Wank. Stopped paying attention after about 45 minutes, but I wasn’t expecting it to be anything better than average. The kind of movie my mother-in-law would lap up. 
  
There some dodgy English accents and even dodgier wigs but the worst thing about it for me was the uncanny valley feeling from the setting. It was obviously set in a Cotswold-esque town, yet the police uniforms, police cars, postman uniforms etc were all this generic off-brand that definitely weren’t British. I’m not sure why they couldn’t use British police uniforms or cars. 
  
I presume it’s because “British cosy crime” is a massive genre in the US at the minute, so they need it have the vibe of something like Midsummer Murders but also places-less at the same time. 

Edited July 19 by wordsfromlee