What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[steviedresses]

Cocaine Bear! Loved it!

[Stavros]

Proxima (Alice Winocour, 2019)

This film (aired on Film 4 last night) about a French astronaut and her daughter in advance of mum going to the International Space Station, is a sensitive chamber work that loses its way at the end with a scene so preposterous it almost destroys the film. The credits celebrate women who have gone to space who also had children at the time, and that's about it. Matt Dillon sleepwalks through a role of the 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt' astronaut, but the child does a great job.

[Stavros]

Mr Jones (Agnieszka Holland, 2019)

Welshman Gareth Jones once worked for ex-PM David Lloyd-Jones in the 1930s and was one of the first people to report on the famine in the Ukraine (the other was English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge whose reports in the Manchester Guardian were anonymous at the time). The true story claims New York Times journalist Walter Duranty gave some help to Jones when he was in Moscow but denied Jones stories about the famine were true. Though thrown out of the country, Jones made his way to Mongolia where it is alleged he was abducted and murdered by the KGB. The film is at times quite disturbing, with a fine performance from James Norton, whose reputation has only been rising since his roles in Happy Valley, War and Peace, and a drama revolving around Russian oligarchs called McMafia, also based in part on a true story. Not sure why George Orwell makes an appearance while writing Animal Farm which happened around 10 years after the events in the film. Nevertheless, recommended.

[Nikka]

next month going to see the whale :)

[Mirgofino]

'Hellbender' from 2021. A fine horror movie.

[rodinuk]

I watched it too and fully agree about the ludicrous antics in that scene. In mitigation it is a film about space which is not sci-fi, mostly about European space efforts and showing real world facilities for a change. It did add value but was really a character study, not every film about space requires a battle or an accident to be entertaining...


Proxima (Alice Winocour, 2019)

This film (aired on Film 4 last night) about a French astronaut and her daughter in advance of mum going to the International Space Station, is a sensitive chamber work that loses its way at the end with a scene so preposterous it almost destroys the film. The credits celebrate women who have gone to space who also had children at the time, and that's about it. Matt Dillon sleepwalks through a role of the 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt' astronaut, but the child does a great job.

[Stavros]

I watched it too and fully agree about the ludicrous antics in that scene. In mitigation it is a film about space which is not sci-fi, mostly about European space efforts and showing real world facilities for a change. It did add value but was really a character study, not every film about space requires a battle or an accident to be entertaining...

All fair points, with which I agree. I get the impression 'sci-fi' is a genre you like, so I would appreciate some recommendations of films mostly those I have probably not seen or heard of.

[Stavros]

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola 1972)
The Godfather II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

I watched the first two Godfather films when they were screened on Channel 4 last week, though I have them on DVD and have seen them multiple times. They contain some of the finest moments in film, but also have flaws. The primary flaw in both is with the abysmal 'acting' of the two lead women, Diane Keaton and Talia Shire. The women in the Godfather films are weak to the point of being almost irrelevant, while the moment in Sicily when Michael's first wife disrobes on their wedding night is gratuitous nudity, I doubt it would be done today.

In the second Godfather, the Senator from Nevada does play an important role in establishing links between the Mafia and elected members of Congress, but the scene in which he is discovered with a dead prostitute is completely unnecessary.

A few peccadilloes to make the point that Coppola achieved something special in both films which he never repeated, but which remain problematic at times. One could also question the historical basis of the early years, the absence of the links between the Italian gangs, and the Irish and Jewish gangs though Hyman Roth does provide some angle on this in II. There is no sense of how the Mafia captured the docks and transport as a key part of their 'business', and the Mafia was involved in drugs from an early stage in the 1920s contrary to the scepticism of Don Corleone.

But some of the visuals are superb, and the opening wedding scene of Godfather 1 must be as close to cinema perfection as one can get.

[HbgDon]

Shazam: Fury of the Gods

[Ben]

John Wick.
I enjoyed it... albeit there's a lot of bloodshed. But entertaining.
Kind of like a grittier version of James Bond, I guess.
I liked the female antagonist in the film played by Adrianne Palicki.

1415358

[rodinuk]

All fair points, with which I agree. I get the impression 'sci-fi' is a genre you like, so I would appreciate some recommendations of films mostly those I have probably not seen or heard of.
Well I would recommend The Fifth Element but I would imagine you have seen it and perhaps rather strangely Farmageddon starring Shaun the Sheep which is packed with references.

[Stavros]

Well I would recommend The Fifth Element but I would imagine you have seen it and perhaps rather strangely Farmageddon starring Shaun the Sheep which is packed with references.

Shaun the Sheep? Bah! But it does sound a hoot so I will track it down. Fifth Element is ok as an enjoyable essay in nonsense.

[HbgDon]

John Wick Chapter 4. Amazing movie!!

[hardiron4u]

The Angel

A true story Netflix film of an Egyptian espionage spy working for Mossad in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War.

[Stavros]

Moonfall (Roland Emmerich, 2022)

Could be called Moonfail. Roland Emmerich, famous for disaster movies, has made a disaster. You may never look at the Moon the same way again, though you would be a fool -or a fall- to take this seriously, not least when it becomes another version of The Swarm...(that's the 1978 film).

Those of you interested in the real science might like this, but spoiler alert! If such rubbish can be spoiled.
Could the moon ever be pushed from orbit, like in 'Moonfall'? | Live Science (https://www.livescience.com/moonfall-moon-knocked-from-orbit)

[Stavros]

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)

A divorced man takes his 11 year-old daughter on holiday to a resort in Turkey. They swim, go for dinner, chat, go on a tour, play pool, and so on. A film which observes its characters, who through a cam corder record and observe each other (the film is set in the 1990s). The key to the film is that all the small incidents accumulate so that by the film's end, the tenderness of belonging, and the sadness of separation are magnified. So the more I think of it, the better this film is. The Scottish woman who made it, Charlotte Wells, has been mostly a producer - the photography is outstanding and the script is fine- so this is her first feature, and I hope, not her last. I rate this 8/10.

[Stavros]

The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi, 2019)

Somewhere in this conceited drivel there are some intriguing ideas. Unfortunately, one of the key characters has no credibility as a lover, art critic or actor, whereas Mick Jagger in his brief appearances is splendid, and Donald Sutherland is, well, Donald Sutherland as he has been playing himself for the last 30 years (167 films and yet more I dare say). Elizabeth Debicki is the spindly love-interest, or sex-interest, so in descending order, we have
Donald Sutherland 6'4"
Claes Bang, 6'4"
Elizabeth Debicki 6'2"
Mick Jagger 5'10" so he looks like a dwarf. Funny old world, innit?

[broncofan]

The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi, 2019)

Somewhere in this conceited drivel there are some intriguing ideas. Unfortunately, one of the key characters has no credibility as a lover, art critic or actor, whereas Mick Jagger in his brief appearances is splendid, and Donald Sutherland is, well, Donald Sutherland as he has been playing himself for the last 30 years (167 films and yet more I dare say). Elizabeth Debicki is the spindly love-interest, or sex-interest, so in descending order, we have
Donald Sutherland 6'4"
Claes Bang, 6'4"
Elizabeth Debicki 6'2"
Mick Jagger 5'10" so he looks like a dwarf. Funny old world, innit?
This is based on the book by Charles Willeford I assume. I stopped reading it about 70 pages in. From your review, I sense the movie was true to the source material.

[Stavros]

This is based on the book by Charles Willeford I assume. I stopped reading it about 70 pages in. From your review, I sense the movie was true to the source material.

I don't know the book. The film opens with a clever exposition of the 'Power of the Critic' in which the critic shows a painting to a group of American women, most of who we assume buy art. He gives them a moving backstory to the painting and gets a large show of hands when he asks if they would buy it, before flipping the presentation to explain the painting is worthless, that he made up the painting and the story and so on. It is similar to the acidly-written book The Painted Word, in which Tom Wolfe takes art critics to the cleaners, explaining how a small group in the US made the reputations of Abstract Expressionists and with it a while heap of money while the value (in aesthetic terms) of the art itself receded behind the words of the critics. Throw in a reclusive artist who along with his work hasn't been seen for 50 years, and you have the tempting possibility that he has been working and that the painting(s) will be worth a lot of money.

This initiates a deal between the collector (Jagger) and the critic (Bang) to tempt the artist (Sutherland) out of hiding so the collector can reap the financial reward and the critics his reputation. Throw in a tall, thin blonde and a murder, completely pointless in my view, and you have this mess even if the last few minutes flip the story again.
The director has not used the camera to explore the trope -'I paint what I see not what is there' (Turner), or explore price and value though the Jagger character says something along these lines near the end. So it begins well but ends poorly, and is not helped by Claes Bang who doesn't fit, and the other unnecessary scene in which he and Debicki have sex, merely visual titillation if you want to see her breasts, and his hairy torso.

On that basis, the book might be better than the film.

[Stavros]

Tár (Todd Field, 2022)

When the film opens, Lydia Tár is at the summit of her career as a conductor. A pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Gay, in a marriage with the lead violin of the Berlin orchestra she is in charge of, a book about her life coming out, and a concert of Mahler's 5th Symphony which will be recorded and be the last of their recordings of the Mahler Symphony cycle (though it is the least interesting of Mahler's symphonies and luckily we don't hear much of it, or indeed any other music). By the end of the film, Lydia Tár has been sacked, her marriage has collapsed, and she is lucky to get a job conducting an orchestra in Manila for a Cosplay concert (something to do with a video game I know nothing of).

Unfortunately, the film cannot decide if it is about cancel culture, or the perils of power used for selfish ends. The downfall is occasioned by the suicide of a young musician whom Tár has told many people not to hire because of the woman's erratic behaviour though it is alleged they had an affair which Tár broke off, thus causing a #metoo reaction amongst Tár's critics. Someone also uses a camera phone to record a talk on conducting she gives at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, edited to make it look like she is ridiculing or even bullying a young student, albeit one who is so short of a few useful crotchets he might be better off flipping burgers. I wrote down one of his precious lines when he responds to Tár's question about JS Bach-

"Honestly, as a BIPOC, pangender person, I would say Bach's misogynistic life makes it kind of impossible for me to take his music seriously".

There have been so many rave reviews of this film, and there are a few interesting analyses on YouTube, but though I am sure she had some tuition in preparation for the role, it is evident Cate Blanchett can't conduct, while the climactic scene in the Berlin Philharmonie is ludicrous and undermines any serious intent the film might have. Unfortunately, there is a pupil of Leonard Bernstein who conducts and is gay, namely Marin Alsop, and I am sure Todd Field was aware of this. So all in all, a disappointing film which fails to address the subjects of power or cancel culture, as ultimately, I really didn't care about Lydia, and there are no significant other characters in the film to give it the depth that it needs.

[Stavros]

Assassination Nation (Sam Levinson, 201 8 )

This crude, often hysterical film was broadcast on Film 4 last night. It concerns 4 high school girls, one of them Trans (Bex, played by Hari Nef) who become the targets of mob violence when one of them is accused of hacking the phones of high school students and the local Mayor, and leaking it online. The film does have at its core an argument about social media and its excessive influence on how people see each other, but goes further to ask what would happen if people not unlike what one assumes are the Proud Boys and other para-military groups, were to take over local law enforcement, in which they claim to be protecting their 'values'. That the film is set in a town called Salem may be a nod to the past, and I could see the point, but it didn't make the film enjoyable.

Assassination Nation (201 8 - IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6205872/)

[bryanferryfan2]

Miss Meadows with Katie Holmes

[MrFanti]

'Dungeons & Dragons'

[zaphod]

'Dungeons & Dragons'
thumbs up or down?

[holzz]

We were soldiers.

1917.

Everything everywhere all at once.

[cagney]

Two Tranny Mules For Sister Sara. An all time classic

[MrFanti]

thumbs up or down?
2 thumbs up!

[zaphod]

2 thumbs up!

TY...on watch list now

[MrFanti]

TY...on watch list now
You're quite welcome!

[Stavros]

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Andy Serkis, 2021)

A friend logged into Netflix, so we watched it. It is a silly film, done with such absurd passion it entertains. But is quickly, and mercifully forgotten. One dreads to think what the first in this series was like.

[Stavros]

Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023)

Early on in this film, J Robert Oppenheimer admits to a student that Quantum Mechanics is a paradox, and Nolan thus explores what he sees as a paradox in the man: the creative scientist who helps to create a physics of destruction. Oppenheimer did believe that the advent of nuclear weapons should lead to arms control negotiations between the US and the USSR, and he was opposed, mostly on financial and scientific grounds to the development of the 'H-Bomb' -but he was not opposed to the use of the Atom Bomb on Japan, so it is a mistake, in my view to think of Oppenheimer as some sort of 'Liberal'.

The film moves forward and backward in time, which is confusing for those not familiar with the pre-war attractions of Communism to American intellectuals -not just the Jewish ones intensely aware of what was happening in the Third Reich-; and the post-war attacks on Oppenheimer by so-called 'Realists' for whom arms negotiations were pointless and the development of 'weapons of mass destruction' an essential component of the Cold War. If you are not sure who Lewis Strauss is then about half the film will be confusing, and it is not to my mind made clear that Oppenheimer did not arrive in Princeton at Strauss's request until 1947, two years after the Manhattan Project's detonation of a bomb.

That bomb caused immense damage and long term medical problems for those in New Mexico living downwind, something the film ignores, just as it ignores the bi-sexuality of Jean Tatlock, the Communist Oppenheimer had an affair with, who committed suicide. The sex scenes with Florence Pugh are gratuitous and without meaning. Oppenheimer's wife Kitty was born in Germany but in the film has an American accent. The Senate confirmation hearing that denies Strauss a Cabinet post was not swayed by the vote of a 'young Senator' called Kennedy -JFK was already in his second term and his vote was not decisive, but plays into the Nolan scripture that by the 1950s Oppenheimer represented a 'Liberal' Science cohort with which the 'red-baiting' anti-Communists of Congress such as Senator McCarthy were at war.

Apart from a few minutes, the film is all but swamped in ominous, tense muzak whose aim is to make you feel 'This scene is VERY IMPORTANT'. Indeed, Nolan seems to think his film is VERY IMPORTANT, when it is really just a well-made film that actually avoids asking some of the really hard questions about post-war Nuclear Policy and the strategic thinking behind it.

Is it one of the best films ever made? No.
5/10 for effort.

[Stavros]

Oppenheimer (Directed by Barry Davis for the BBC, 1980)

This seven episode series does what Nolan's little film does not - go into more depth with regard to the associations Oppenheimer had as a young academic at Berkeley in California, how he was elevated to lead the Manhattan Project because of the advent of the Second World War, and how those earlier political associations led to him being expelled from the US science administration in 1954 because of the Cold War.

It underlines the extent to which Oppenheimer's associations did not mean he was ever a Communist as such, though he had what might be termed 'Liberal politics' which in the context of the Depression, the New Deal and the growth of Fascism and Nazism in Spain and Germany was not such a big deal but became an obsession of J Edgar Hoover whose personal views led to the surveillance of Oppenheimer that created the 'damning' file on which his later career ended. But if Oppenheimer was warm to the Liberal social policies of the New Deal, he had no 'Liberal' problems in developing a weapon of mass destruction, even as he became conflicted by it when it was used on Japan, his famous remark being 'We have blood on our hands'.

But it also emphasizes that when leader of the Manhattan Project, he took the view that the 'Atom bomb' was more feasible than the 'Thermo-Nuclear' bomb advocated by Edward Teller. That Teller's view took hold after the war is in a way just one of those things, the science moved on and Oppenheimer's view was shown to be wrong. What is clear is that Oppenheimer and others involved in the Manhattan Project had to come to terms with the human costs of nuclear weapons, with the belief that to stop an arms race, international co-operation should take priority, something that was lost as the hysteria of the Cold War, albeit accelerated by the expansion of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe in the 1950s. It means Oppenheimer was not expelled from the Atomic Energy admin because of the science as much as his politics, at a time when anti-Communism was as hysterical as the supporters of Trump in Congress today, and just as myopic and crazy. But it also speaks to the emergence of the 'Realist' doctrine in International Relations that dominated US security and military policy, leading to the concept of 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and Deterrence. This took place at the same time that the more Conservative politics of the Truman and Eisenhower admins neutralized the UN and its agencies.

The series is this superior to the film, the scenes are longer, not smothered in muzak, though the music (by Carl Davis, who died this week) is just as bad. The film elevates Lewis Strauss to a significant figure, whereas in the Series he is merely a figure in Congress, and there is no hint of any bitterness or rivalry between him and Oppenheimer. General Nichols also is elevated in both film and tv series indeed he protested at his portrayal in the Series claiming he only worked with General Groves once being located at one of the other sites on the Manhattan Project. Sam Waterston gives a stunning performance as Oppenheimer, and David Suchet a venal and compelling Teller.

I would rate this 9/10. It can be seen here-

BBC Oppenheimer - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx_Xa6Qxu9iDukrPIUuXhDLD84tkLEByh)

or on the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer - Oppenheimer - Series 1: Episode 1 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0g3j9tt/oppenheimer-series-1-episode-1?seriesId=p0g3j9m3)

[Stavros]

Fahrenheit 451 (Ramin Bahrani, 2018 )

Another attempt to film Ray Bradbury's book, and a failure on every level. Wooden acting, feeble script.

[Stavros]

The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, 2012)

Never been a fan of Redford, though Three Days of the Condor (1975) and All The President's Men (1976) are still worth watching. This film tries too hard to be serious and ask important questions about 1960s student radicalism and how time changes people. At the end one of the characters who, to remain in character should have disappeared, turns herself in to law enforcement. A dismal ending to a film that was never going to succeed with the permanently hysterical Shia LaBeouf

[Fitzcarraldo]

Fitzcarraldo :)
1429099

[Stavros]

Fitzcarraldo :)
1429099

Again?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Again?

Yes. It's magnificent.

[filghy2]

Fitzcarraldo :)


No surprise there, but what about this one?
1429158

[Stavros]

No surprise there, but what about this one?
1429158

Another case of the sequel not being as good as the first one, and that's not a recommendation. Can we not retain some class when contributing to this thread?

[Fitzcarraldo]

No surprise there, but what about this one?
1429158

Ha! I'm not familiar with it.

[Stavros]

I have been buying DVDs of the man from Texas, Wes Anderson, to explore his work. In the past I have been disappointed by Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and it took some time for me to warm to The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). I was enraptured by Isle of Dogs (2018 ), and watched it again at the start of this retrospective, and it never fails, and I am always slightly amused that he got the idea from the actual Isle of Dogs in East London. These days smartened up a lot but when I worked in London's East End, briefly in the 1970s it was famous or notorious for its phantom bus service. Times change. They have buses and the DLR.

Thus The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) has been 2nd on the list, not having seen it before. It is typical Anderson, a gallery of mildly eccentric people who have to deal with the disruption of the status quo that has sustained them for a length of time and made them complacent and bored. The acting he gets from his crew is effervescent, comical, indeed comical-tragical, possibly comical-tragical-clerical, though I sometimes wonder if it is all superficial. But even if not profound, the films are, like whipped cream or Champagne, a delight to experience.

Does this make Wes Anderson an American genius, on the same level as Scorsese and Spielberg?

[bruce_willy]

Does this make Wes Anderson an American genius, on the same level as Scorsese and Spielberg?

No. He's a pretentious wanker who's well past his sell buy date. Asteroid City proves that.

[Stavros]

No. He's a pretentious wanker who's well past his sell buy date. Asteroid City proves that.


I just bought the DVD of Asteroid City! Will give you my 10c at a later date....

[MrFanti]

No. He's a pretentious wanker who's well past his sell buy date. Asteroid City proves that.
I loved Asteroid City....

[MrFanti]

Last Movie: "The Mummy's Ghost"....

[bruce_willy]

I loved Asteroid City....

Why? What did you think was good about it?

[todd1971]

Thunderbolt and lightfoot last night on tubi

[MrFanti]

Why? What did you think was good about it?
Quite a bit.
The fact that it was shot on 35mm film is one aspect...
The changing aspect ratios when the B/W scenes to color are other...
Loved the retro-future plot....

Just a few of the reasons..

[Fitzcarraldo]

Just watched The Exorcist for the first time since the early '80s.

[HbgDon]

Saw X

[Stavros]

Just watched The Exorcist for the first time since the early '80s.

Aside from the nonsense about the Devil, the film has endured well and remains a compelling watch.

[Stavros]

I was not that impressed by The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) when I first saw it, but I now think it is Wes Anderson's second best film, after Isle of Dogs. What it shares with Asteroid City (2023) is a familiar trope: the film about a film, or a film about a play, or a film about method acting, or a film with 'layers of meaning' or overlapping narratives that move forward and backwards in time. If pastel colours dominate TGBH, Asteroid City is mostly Pink, a Sandy Pink, as the US desert location of the story/play was actually filmed at Chichon in Spain, the Cacti being plastic imports, indeed, rather a lot of plastic in this film if you want to be critical/sarcastic.

I think this is the point, but is it Satire or Comedy? I fancy this is the kind of film that would have absorbed many hours of barely comprehensible scribblings in the now defunct Monthly Film Bulletin, which in the 1980s was taken over by Neo-Marxists, Post-Structuralists, Post-Modernists, and Post-It Notes obsessed with 'narrative structures', 'elision', 'vertical displacement' and so on, in the process alienating readers from the film being reviewed.

Asteroid City, with by now its roster of well-known actors/The Anderson Troupe -do they take a pay cut to be on screen for, like two minutes?- is whimsical, even frivolous, but whereas TGBH does at least evoke a past that has been submerged by defeat in war and modernization, and as a result has a melancholic tone, Asteroid City doesn't seem to be about much when the most interesting scenes involve an alien, and by the standards of contemporary cinema, a very plausible one too.

As for The Darjeeling Express (2007), 'Let's make an agreement' -to never see this film again.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Aside from the nonsense about the Devil, the film has endured well and remains a compelling watch.

Friedkin was a masterful director.

[Stavros]

Friedkin was a masterful director.

I agree, with regard to the two permanent classics, The French Connection, and The Exorcist. He made two films of plays, The Boys in the Band (1970) which seems tame now, but was considered edgy when it was on the London stage, and even when the film was released. Friedkin's film of Pinter's play The Birthday Party (1968 ) is superior to the TV film directed by Kenneth Ives in 1987 where Pinter plays Goldberg -this version has the execrable Joan Plowright making a dog's dinner of Meg, a role for which she was not suited, given she can't act.
I have only seen Cruising (1980) once, when it was released, and am not keen on To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) which a lot of people like, and as for Killer Joe (2011), let's just say you might not want to handle a chicken drumstick (let alone eat one) for a while after seeing it, deliciously wedgie though the film is, and maybe Matthew McConaughey's best film.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I agree, with regard to the two permanent classics, The French Connection, and The Exorcist. He made two films of plays, The Boys in the Band (1970) which seems tame now, but was considered edgy when it was on the London stage, and even when the film was released. Friedkin's film of Pinter's play The Birthday Party (1968 ) is superior to the TV film directed by Kenneth Ives in 1987 where Pinter plays Goldberg -this version has the execrable Joan Plowright making a dog's dinner of Meg, a role for which she was not suited, given she can't act.
I have only seen Cruising (1980) once, when it was released, and am not keen on To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) which a lot of people like, and as for Killer Joe (2011), let's just say you might not want to handle a chicken drumstick (let alone eat one) for a while after seeing it, deliciously wedgie though the film is, and maybe Matthew McConaughey's best film.

He also directed Sonny and Cher's movie Good Times. There's a great biography of him titled Hurricane Billy.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts.

[Ben]

The Double w/ Jesse Eisenberg...

1434848

[Imatwork]

Upgrade .One of the best that most people haven't heard of Logan Marshall-Green is brilliant and should be the next Bond if they can find a Daniel Craig dream sequence.

[green2022]

I just saw the Director's Cut of "Kingdom of Heaven" on DVD. It is very good. When it came out, it was poorly received, but 20+ years on, I think it is a classic.

[Stavros]

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One (Christopher McQuarrie, 2023)

Or: MI Greatest Hits. A re-hash of what we have seen in MI 1-6.

The only real talking point is that it is in sync with the panic over sentient AI, and the continuing development of invisible war machines (mostly airborne, but no reason for it not to be a sub).

I actually became confused as to who the characters were, and frankly, didn't care. Entertaining, that's as much as I can say,

[Stavros]

Planet of the Apes (Franklin J Schaffner, 1968 )

This aired on BBC Four the other night, or early morning and I wasn't going to watch it , but did. I saw this when it first came out and it remains a watchable film. The early scenes are however poor -after deep hibernation and in what looks like a hot dry environment, the three surviving astronauts decline a drink of water, and don't seem hungry either. Also, what looks like Utah or the West, doesn't quite match up with the astonishing final scene. That said, it has a tight script, and is filmed in the old, 1930s-40s style. And still better than any of the sequels. And Charlton Heston perpetually arrogant.

[Stavros]

Rolling Stone has this review of the latest film by Ridley Scott, Napoleon.

I have not seen it yet, but from the trailers it seems the Corsican spends most of the time with his hat on, though I think he takes it off when he is in the bedroom. This is what made me laugh out loud, regarding the first sexual encounter between the First Consul of France, and, presumably, a woman called Josephine, as the script has her say this

"Having established Bonaparte’s lust for glory, and introducing the widowed Josephine as both an obscure object of desire and an equally committed striver, the movie begins to turn a punch-drunk eye to their overall lust for each other. She first seduces him by lifting her skirt and telling him that “if you look down, you will see a surprise” ".
‘Napoleon’: Ridley Scott’s Portrait of an Emperor as a Total Douchebag (rollingstone.com) (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/napoleon-review-ridley-scott-joaquin-phoenix-vanessa-kirby-1234885783/)

If only, unless history has deceived us, and she was Joe when born...(not to be taken seriously, like the film?)

[Stavros]

Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail, 2023).

Get away from the city and its annoying people for a quiet weekend in the country with no email or social media to bother you, then find you need all the gadgets and comms- and people without whom life is barely possible. Right now a lot of my world is on my mobile phone, from my instant contact with relatives to my bookings for hotels, operas, the 49 Euro Deutschland Ticket to my flight home- lose it and I am lost, and though I have some print outs, I have become dependent on my phone to a scary extent, but if the world is going to end anyway I might as well sit back and watch the last episode of Friends, only I have never watched an episode of this bourgeois drivel, so it would be something else.

As for the film, it starts as it means to go on, and doesn’t explore the topics it raises, and has mostly obnoxious people. We need each other to live. Do we need each other to survive? Is it now down to satellites beyond our control?

[Mirgofino]

'Robin Redbreast' from 1970 on DVD. Excellent, early folk horror movie.

[Stavros]

The Killer (David Finchet, 2033).

Michael Fassbender stares out of a window in Paris, a workaday Schopenhauer in search of a purpose that passes him by like his ability to shoot a target, but the killer is the script, with muzak scored by The Smiths, a lethal mixture that has no antidote other than the ‘off’ button on your remote. This tired genre on this evidence does not have one foot in the grave, it is dead and buried. I am sure Fassbender was well paid, at least he got something worthwhile, and at least I didn’t have to contribute to my host’s Netflix sub.

[TSlover6912]

A Fistful of Dynamite 1971

Set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the film tells the story of Juan Miranda, an amoral Mexican outlaw, and John Mallory, a former member of the Irish Volunteer Army. After they accidentally meet under less-than-friendly circumstances, Juan and John involuntarily become heroes of the Revolution, despite being forced to make heavy sacrifices.

[Stavros]

Rebel Moon, Part One: A Child of Fire (Zack Snyder, 2023).

Seven Samurai fused with Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Dune and much else makes this pastiche an inedible concoction that cannot be saved by its visuals. And to think there is even more to come. That said, it might appeal to the average 13 year old who has never read a book.

[Ben]

It's a Wonderful Life.
I'd never seen if before. It's okay, watchable.

1440914

[Stavros]

The Creator (Gareth Edwards, 2023)

2065 and the world is convulsed in a war between Humans and AI Robots. Guess who wins. I had never heard of this film, I guess it was straight to DVD that should have been straight to the bin. I bought it on a whim, but no amount of prayers can save it.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Big Trouble in Little China, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell commentary track.

I saw this movie when it was initially release. I think I saw it opening weekend. Anyway, I enjoyed it then, didn't realize it was a flop, and liked it way before it became a cult hit.

I saw it on the big screen again a few years back, I think for the 30th anniversary. I've had the two-disc DVD set for a few years, but this was the first time I listened to the commentary. Carpenter and Russell commentaries are always a lot of fun. They're great buddies and have a lot of laughs. The commentary is from around 2000, though, so it's amusing to hear them talking when they're both younger than I am now.

[Fitzcarraldo]

It's a Wonderful Life.
I'd never seen if before. It's okay, watchable.

1440914

Quite the terse review for an acknowledged classic.

[Stavros]

Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)

This aired on the BBC in the early hours. A bog standard Russian Mafia film with all the usual stuff: the calm but ruthless Daddy, his out-of-control son (ie, Don Corleone and Sonny); the equally calm but devious chauffeur who slowly climbs the ladder (ie, Michael) and the innocent amongst thieves, the astonishingly beautiful, and wasted Naomi Watts. A waste of time and money with a plot that never holds the interest and has credibility issues, but what can one expect from Cronenberg?

[Stavros]

Thoroughbreds (Cory Finley, 2017)

Saw this on tv. The idea might not be original, but I found this a fascinating exercise in personality swapping, though without the profundity of Bergman's Persona. Anya Taylor-Joy is outstanding as someone who morphs from pampered college girl to demon under the influence of a stunning psychopath. I think there is something here about gender roles. Rather like to see this again.

[Stavros]

Dune, Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024)

It was a time of destiny, it was a time of war. It was a time of saviours, it was a time of spies. It was a time of storms, it was a time of...whatever, it just goes on and on and on.

Visually fantastic, but the story? I just don't care. Saw it in the cinema for the big screen experience. Note: if travelling from North to South, take the Worm Express, as there ain't no Kamils on Arrakis.

[Stavros]

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)

This is the kind of film that appeals to those who have read their Barthes, Foucault, Lacan and that generation of philosophes, as over two and half hours it presents an event which has at least three different points de vue, with the added delight that a German woman who lived in London with a French man has removed with him to an alpine chalet outside Grenoble where they converse, most of the time in English before and after his mysterious death. Half or more of the film is set in Court, and the conclusion of the Court is not necessarily a conclusion of anyone watching the film. For some reason, the Border Collie in the film is called Messi.

It could have been a pretentious disaster, but the editing, camerawork, and the script that has won most of its awards, make this a fascinating film, the only let down for me was the Prosecutor who I thought was too young, and too aggressive. I give this 8/10.

[Stavros]

The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021)

Another spiteful, nasty film from Campion. The film is bleak, with no redeeming features, while the basic premise of the film claims one needless death can be paid for by another, both by the hands of men. Horrible.

[Stavros]

Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997).

This aired on Film4 the other night, and though I have watched parts of it before this was the first time I watched it all the way through. It is rubbish, or course, but entertaining in its own by-the-numbers way. The bad guys lose, the good guys win, but what struck me most about the film is probably an in-joke -the alpha heroic President of the United States of America, who refuses to escape in his pod, remains on the plane and rescues the situation and defeats the terrorists -without removing his jacket. It is half off in one scene, but no matter whether he is hiding or fighting that piece of cloth remains in situ on his broad shoulders. Hilarious.

[Stavros]

Rotten Tomatoes’ 300 Best Movies of All Time | Rotten Tomatoes (https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-movies-of-all-time/)

This list is compiled from reader's reviews, which is why it has little or nothing to do with Film as either art or entertainment, but merely the limited bank of opinion on a website. This explains why Spotlight is No 20 but Lawrence of Arabia is at 173 and another Lean classic, Dr Zhivago doesn't make it all. Neither does Ghost, which has in Whoopi Goldberg one of the finest comedy acts in movie history. Dirty Harry? Nah. Help me out with that one, one of the most penetrating cop films ever. But The French Connection does come in at 248 (!).

Just sad really.

[Stavros]

Coming soon (but probably not to a cinema near you) -documentary about Tara Emory

The End of Wonderland review – trans porn star deals with eviction and a hoarding crisis | Film | The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/07/the-end-of-wonderland-review-trans-porn-star-deals-with-eviction-and-a-hoarding-crisis)

[Stavros]

No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky, 2023)

I don't know about hard feelings, but you have to be a hard core Jennifer Lawrence fan to want to sit through this. I hope she was well-paid. The film is set in Montauk, New York, which is only familiar to me before from Leaves of Grass. At least there is something there to enjoy. Shame about the film.

[Stavros]

Cast Away (Robert Zemeckis, 2000)

This aired on tv the other night, and it was the first time I have seen it. In general it is quite a good film, but in some specifics it begs a lot of questions, not the least of which is, do people who are used to being gregarious, go mad if they are isolated and on their own for as long as 4 years? Did Tom Hanks really have enough water for the journey once off the island, and what did he eat? Also, leaping from a week or so after the crash to 4 years was a jolt. That said, it was a watchable film, and it was a big hit at the box office.

[Stavros]

Once Upon a time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

I understand that the definitive version of this film either does not exist, or is being hoarded by someone. What I have is the 2-disk version, and though I have seen it and the cinema release version a few times before, this time around, on its 40th anniversary, I have to say I dislike it. I know it is compared to Coppola's The Godfather, but that only makes it worse. Coppola's two films have everything going for them -the visuals, the music, the scripts and of course, the acting. All Leone has is a good eye, because the script is poor, and the acting wooden, even De Niro can't breathe life into his character; the best comes from Jennifer Connolly who was 13 or 14 when the film was made. The actual story is not substantial, being a re-hash of most group themes in films: either they are strong but then fall apart through greed and betrayal, or they are weak but become strong through an act that cements their solidarity -Godfather has both. The more obvious problem is that at times the jump from the 1930s to the 1960s looks so sudden you think there is a scene missing, and there probably is. All in all, Leone will be remembered for his other films. He spent too much time on this film, and it shows.

[Stavros]

The French Despatch (Wes Anderson, 2021)

If you don't like Anderson's films, you definitely won't like this one. I do, and I did. This aired on Film4 last night. It is a very clever film with a deadpan narrative that uses a fictional version of the New Yorker based in Ennui -or Paris, if you like- and not only pays homage to language through its writers, for example James Thurber and James Baldwin, but the editor, but also either pays homage or mocks the language of film too. In particular the scene with student revolutionaries could be an homage to Godard but as that is not possible, as Godard was and remains an insult to cinema and human intelligence, it stands as a delightful mockery; while car chases suggest the Bourne Identity. Well I loved it. And his ensemble cast fizzes through their lines.

[Stavros]

Madame Web (SJ Clarkson, 2024)

Oh dear, what a tangled web she weaves, when at first she seeks to relieve, us of the misery of franchise films.

[Stavros]

High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)

Low on talent, interest and anything else, another milestone in the decline of a once promising career in films for John Cusack. I am only glad I didn't have to pay to watch this.

[Stavros]

Old (M Night Shyamalan, 2021)

Aired on Film 4 last night. Lacking in credibility, the screenplay is as bad as the acting. Dire. One of Shyamalan's worst films.

[fred41]

I agree. What makes some of his films so aggravating, is that - sometimes, there’s a better movie hiding in his script, but he’s unable to see it, because he is far too busy adding in layers of increased absurdity just to make his thin premise and attempt of a ‘gotcha’ ending possible. Many of his film would probably have worked in half hour TV shows of old, such as Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, but don’t work as long winded films. I’m surprised he still draws in enough cash for a production quality and star power his movies simply don’t deserve. Many of them would be far better as low budget pulp.

[FionaFortune]

Deadpool and Wolverine - It is a funny take on the MCU superhero genre, but not
enough there to want to see it again.

[Stavros]

I agree. What makes some of his films so aggravating, is that - sometimes, there’s a better movie hiding in his script, but he’s unable to see it, because he is far too busy adding in layers of increased absurdity just to make his thin premise and attempt of a ‘gotcha’ ending possible. Many of his film would probably have worked in half hour TV shows of old, such as Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, but don’t work as long winded films. I’m surprised he still draws in enough cash for a production quality and star power his movies simply don’t deserve. Many of them would be far better as low budget pulp.

Good points with which I agree. Shyamalan can create a narrative which flips at the end, a trick that cinema has pulled for a long time, and is terrific when it works, but lame when it does not. It just doesn't work in Old.

[Stavros]

Civil War (Alex Garland, 2024)

I actually purchased the DVD for this. There are no special features on the disk, probably because this is not a special film. I am not sure if it is about a civil war in the US or the Voyeurs who don't want to fight but photograph the people who do, albeit at some risk to themselves. But that also means us, watching people watching other people kill each other. If that is supposed to reflect the time we live in then Vietnam got there before this film, and dare I say the impact it had on what Lefebvre might call the mentalité of Americans was profound in ways this film is not. And while some might say this is what Steve Bannon's 'Stalingrad every day' might look like were Trump to transform the US, were the context to this film 9/11 and the prurient observation of other people's grief, I doubt the film would even have been made.

[Stavros]

Men (Alex Garland, 2022)

A tree, an apple. Woman takes the forbidden fruit, bites it, all hell is let loose. Garland garlands his film with images from mythology that relate to male and female fertility, in a narrative of distress, danger and the idea that the woman seems to accept, that 'all men are the same', not least because they are Rory Kinnear, but not a judgment of the man in real life. Either this film is a confrontation with misogyny, or pretentious art house crap, with a climax derived from Hieronymous Bosch and other images of hell. It was hell to sit through and I hope I never see it again.

[Stavros]

Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022)

An entertaining film loaded with cliches -eg nice house, shame about the basement-, with I suspect a coincidental nudge to Parasite, and a climax that suggests The Ronnettes Be my Baby is actually rather a creepy song. But a dread-full ad for Detroit.

[Stavros]

Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)

I travelled to Birmingham to see this film, along with 10 others, 3 of whom walked out before the end. I paid £5.99 for the ticket, so I guess the cinema made at least £69.89 or c$88.13.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire, or, the decline and fall of New Roma, aka Manhattan/New York/USA. All of the main female characters are under 30, all of the men over it. Most of the women are semi-dressed most of the time, only the two mothers in the film fully clothed and over 30. In one scene, Shi'a la Beef goes down on someone called Aubrey Plaza, whoever she is. I don't think she washed before the scene, but who knows? Adam Driver does what Adam Driver in all his films, stare into space with a blank expression in the vain hope nobody will notice, and I don't think many do. Jon Voight is a mega-rich Banker, or should that be a mega-rich W....his one time partner in a film still worth seeing, Dustin Hoffman has lines that include the words Fuck! and Shit! but I couldn't understand much else of what he had to say, which luckily is not much. Imagine, this crap goes on for over 2 hours.

The film is an embarrassment, with 85% of the dialogue unintelligible without sub-titles, the rest adolescent garbage.

The film cost Coppola at least $120 million, I suggest you save your dollars, pounds or Krone, as I guess this rubbish will turn up at 2am on a channel in California sometime in the future, right after re-runs of the Johnny Carson Show, so you can see it for free.

[MrFanti]

'Abigail'.....

[Stavros]

'Abigail'.....

And yet you don't have an opinion to share? Is it worth seeing? What's it about? I have not heard of it, so this is what I found

Abigail (2024) - IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27489557/)

[JDunn]

Soft and Quiet , it’s a bit disturbing but it’s really well made

[Yvonne183]

Last Exit to Brooklyn. It has some scenes of depravity, of trans type people. Mostly it's a violent film with a pretty blonde sort of con artist, who reminds me of myself. Also has a union strike for you commies out there. (joke)

[Stavros]

Last Exit to Brooklyn. It has some scenes of depravity, of trans type people. Mostly it's a violent film with a pretty blonde sort of con artist, who reminds me of myself. Also has a union strike for you commies out there. (joke)

Cannot stress too much what an amazing book Hubert Selby Jr wrote, I urge you to read it if you haven't, but it is significantly more explicit that the film could be. It helped convince me I was right to judge my desires to be natural, not some weird fetish.

[Stavros]

The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024)

A new twist on an old theme -how does someone in their 60s revive their lost youth? Does it end well? what do you think? From Faust through Frankenheimer's Seconds, the message stays the same. Demi Moore not in bad shape for a 62 year old, and you see most of her as this is a very body, and often ass-conscious film. It is very well made and one of the best new films I have seen this year, along with Anatomy of a Fall. I rate this 8/10 even with its predictable conclusion. Also I don't think of this as part of the 'horror' genre, as it has a biting satire to it and is never really shocking.

[Stavros]

The Empty Man (David Prior, 2020)

Buddhism meets Friday the 13th, which sounds like a contradiction in terms, and is, though the explanation might leave you feeling empty.

Filmed in South Africa, set in Bhutan and the US, October encourages cinema and tv (this was shown on Channel 4's Film 4 channel) to show 'horror' films, one of the least interesting genres along with superheroes, musicals and anything to do with vampires, zombies and Melissa McCarthy.

A

[Stavros]

Paul Morrisey has died at the age of 86. He emerged as an independent film maker in New York in the 1960s, and as well as being associated with the Velvet Underground (about whom he made a film, see link below), he was asked by Andy Warhol to make films under the Warhol brand when the artist partially withdrew from public life following the assassination attempt.

Where Warhol himself merely turned on the camera and let it roll for hours, Morrisey at least attempted to tell a story, mostly about young rootless people in New York taking drugs, living on their wits, and often having sex with each other and arguing. It was at the time the only place where you would see a transgendered person as they were in real life, the most famous being Holly Woodlawn, the person cited in Walk on the Wild Side and maybe the most famous Trans person of the Stonewall era. The quality of the films was not great, given their budgets, and today they are seen more as satire than straight forward stories about people in the less glamorous neighbourhoods of Manhattan, sort of Lower East Side before Alphabet city became the core of the Punk scene -it was like Punk before Punk.

Women in Revolt is a bit of a daft film, but has its moments, and at one screening at the ICA in London, a German woman sitting behind me was evidently so outraged by the non-Feminist aspects of the film as she saw it, screamed the word Scheisse! as the film ended. Many of the films were not licensed for public viewing and I saw them under 'private club' conditions either at the ICA, or the New Cinema Club.

Some trailers can be found in this link, plus other things and the Wikipedia article.

Paul Morrissey – Movies, Bio and Lists on MUBI (https://mubi.com/en/cast/paul-morrissey)

Paul Morrissey - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Morrissey)

[Yvonne183]

Cannot stress too much what an amazing book Hubert Selby Jr wrote, I urge you to read it if you haven't, but it is significantly more explicit that the film could be. It helped convince me I was right to judge my desires to be natural, not some weird fetish.

Hi Starvos. I read the book some time in the 80's and my wasted brain doesn't remember much about it. I do remember some older guys in the hood talking about the book, cause of what you mentioned. Maybe "City of Night" was similar in that way.

I just watched "Parting Glances" partly about coping with AIDS in the 80's. With Steve Buscemi.

[Stavros]

Hi Starvos. I read the book some time in the 80's and my wasted brain doesn't remember much about it. I do remember some older guys in the hood talking about the book, cause of what you mentioned. Maybe "City of Night" was similar in that way.

I just watched "Parting Glances" partly about coping with AIDS in the 80's. With Steve Buscemi.

Are you sure your brain is 'wasted' when it might just be resting? City of Night is a gay classic, if I recall mostly set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and a lot, a lot of cubicles in the 'Head'...gay or not, it's a great read.

[Stavros]

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)

This is the kind of film that appeals to those who have read their Barthes, Foucault, Lacan and that generation of philosophes, as over two and half hours it presents an event which has at least three different points de vue, with the added delight that a German woman who lived in London with a French man has removed with him to an alpine chalet outside Grenoble where they converse, most of the time in English before and after his mysterious death. Half or more of the film is set in Court, and the conclusion of the Court is not necessarily a conclusion of anyone watching the film. For some reason, the Border Collie in the film is called Messi.

It could have been a pretentious disaster, but the editing, camerawork, and the script that has won most of its awards, make this a fascinating film, the only let down for me was the Prosecutor who I thought was too young, and too aggressive. I give this 8/10.

Not as impressive the second time around, clever though it is. To clarify, the dog is Messi in real life, but named Snoop in the film.

[MrFanti]

The most ridiculous "Where The Scary Things Are"....

[Stavros]

A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018 )
A Quiet Place II (John Krasinski, 2020)

I had only seen parts of the first in this sequence, so decided to revisit both, and I think there is another one out there. It is classed as 'Horror' as genres go, though I think it is more a 'Thriller' via SciFi though these are loose categories. Given how manu poor films with aliens there are, these films are very good indeed with regard to character building, the tensions created by the dangerous environment they are in, and I like that we don't know how this invasion happened or when. If there is one criticism in the first film, I don't think Emily Blunt would look to clean after giving birth -her hair doesn't look any different, for example.

Bears comparison with Bird Box (2018 ) in which the danger is not in sound but sight, but also a film that has a terrific performance from Sandra Bullock and is as believable as A Quiet Place.

[BlüeKarma]

https://i.imgur.com/kKMc6SM.jpeg

[Stavros]

A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski, 2024)

The story is thinning out, but it is quite an effective film, shot mostly in London rather than New York City. At one point the two main characters are running away from Canary Wharf underground, but it doesn't matter. The visuals are great for a film about the world in melt down, albeit with some reference to the condition parts of Manhattan were in on 9/11.

Then there is the cat (they used) that doesn't meow. Not a bad watch, an affecting performance from Lupita Nyong'o.

[Ben]

Hustlers... w/ Jennifer Lopez. I liked it. Was impressed w/ Jennifer Lopez's performance too. It's entertaining, interesting too....

14751611475162

[Stavros]

Hustlers... w/ Jennifer Lopez. I liked it. Was impressed w/ Jennifer Lopez's performance too. It's entertaining, interesting too....

14751611475162

Not a fan, and still can't understand why they used the music of Chopin. But if you enjoyed it, good for you.