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SMB Film Thread 2025

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Lankester Merrin said:
I would love to know the story behind that movie. The lack of a cinema release, JK Simons disappears half way through leaving Nicholas Hoult to carry the 2nd half of the movie himself. Very odd
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Part of the answer is Warners. Nolan walked out on them because they said they were going to stream all their films instead of theatrical release (later changing their minds when it was a disastrous failure). They spent £100m on a Batgirl film then cancelled it and deleted all copies for a tax break. Then they give Clint Eastwood the money to make the film then change their minds and say they don't want anything to do with it any more. They show it in about 10 screens then dump it to streaming. Double Oscar winning director, who by all accounts has made a perfectly decent film for not a huge amount of money. Warner are f***ing weirdos
 

Dr Morelle (1949)

Early Hammer crime B movie. Based on a popular radio character, but the series didn’t progress beyond this single entry.

Valentine Dyall is a sleuth called upon by Julia Lang to assist her in an investigation into the disappearance of her friend, Jean Lodge. Jean Lodge is the stepdaughter of Philip Leaver, and heir to the fortune of her late mother, should she ever choose to get married. Local author Peter Drury stands to gain both a wife and fortune after a whirlwind romance.

Blatant stage play-suitable whodunnit with absurd plot holes in the denouement, especially concerning motives, but strangely innocent and an entertaining diversion. Hugh Griffith is sweetly hilarious as the eccentric butler, ten years before his Oscar in Ben Hur. Valentine Dyall does enough in this to prove that he would have been a decent shout for a Sherlock Holmes role.

The straightforwardness of the whole thing is quite refreshing. I enjoyed it.

5/10, but for enjoyment, an extra point.
 
Harry Gates said:
Sounds a wee bit like Ruthless People.
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The Switch was published in 1978, Ruthless People came out in 1986. Iirc there was also a Mel Gibson film that nicked the opening of an Elmore Leonard book concerning a bomb victim sitting on a toilet wired to explosives. Devito and Gibson were suggested but the “Shorty” whose star pretensions were mocked in the film was auld Dustin apparently.

As always with fillums of Elmore Leonard’s modernish novels the book is better. Only Jackie Brown and Out Of Sight come close. Get Shorty and 52 Pick Up scrap it out for a distant third place. His 50-60s western novels generally film better 3:10 from Yuma etc.
 
riffraff said:
The Switch was published in 1978, Ruthless People came out in 1986. Iirc there was also a Mel Gibson film that nicked the opening of an Elmore Leonard book concerning a bomb victim sitting on a toilet wired to explosives. Devito and Gibson were suggested but the “Shorty” whose star pretensions were mocked in the film was auld Dustin apparently.

As always with fillums of Elmore Leonard’s modernish novels the book is better. Only Jackie Brown and Out Of Sight come close. Get Shorty and 52 Pick Up scrap it out for a distant third place. His 50-60s western novels generally film better 3:10 from Yuma etc.
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Lethal Weapon 2
 
Fetch Fletch said:
Lethal Weapon 2
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That’s the one.
Freaky Deaky was the Elmore Leonard book that opened with the master criminal on the exploding toilet scene, it was published in 1988 and badly filmed in 2012. LW2 was released in 1989 iirc and was a bodging of three screenplays iirc and was being rewritten on the hoof during filming. Which was how MG was linked to the “Shorty” character.

I may rewatch the LWs as I saw the original on our local big screen last year on an anniversary rerelease. It’s still a classic buddy movie.
 
Guilty by Suspicion (1991) 7/10
Together at last, by popular demand: Robert de Niro and Norm from Cheers. They play Hollywood pals caught up in the anti-Communist witch-hunt. If either wants to save his career he must denounce the other. Loosely based on the drama surrounding the making of High Noon. Sam Wanamaker, who in real life was exiled to UK by the blacklist, plays a lawyer.
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Quatermass and the Pit (1967) 6/10
Odd discoveries are made in a London Underground Station. Professor Quatermass is brought in to investigate. As has since been pointed out, the finale of Ghostbusters seems to have been heavily inspired by the ending here.
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Meet John Doe (1941) 8/10
A film that's possibly more relevant now than when it was made. Opens with a spotty intern firing the veteran staff of a newspaper. One columnist (played by Barbara Stanwyck) keeps her job by faking a letter from 'John Doe'. She then needs a patsy to pose as John Doe, and selects a homeless ex-baseball pitcher played by Gary Cooper.
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Kneecap (2024)

Two Fenian Irish lads upset the Orange lot through the medium of hip-hop with a sympathetic teacher. Micheal Fassbender crops up every now & then. Based on a true story, 6/10 easy watching, laughed a few times.

It’s the actual 3 members of the band playing themselves, who knew.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Guilty by Suspicion (1991) 7/10
Together at last, by popular demand: Robert de Niro and Norm from Cheers. They play Hollywood pals caught up in the anti-Communist witch-hunt. If either wants to save his career he must denounce the other. Loosely based on the drama surrounding the making of High Noon. Sam Wanamaker, who in real life was exiled to UK by the blacklist, plays a lawyer.
You must be logged on to see media items

Quatermass and the Pit (1967) 6/10
Odd discoveries are made in a London Underground Station. Professor Quatermass is brought in to investigate. As has since been pointed out, the finale of Ghostbusters seems to have been heavily inspired by the ending here.
You must be logged on to see media items

Meet John Doe (1941) 8/10
A film that's possibly more relevant now than when it was made. Opens with a spotty intern firing the veteran staff of a newspaper. One columnist (played by Barbara Stanwyck) keeps her job by faking a letter from 'John Doe'. She then needs a patsy to pose as John Doe, and selects a homeless ex-baseball pitcher played by Gary Cooper.
You must be logged on to see media items
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Quatermass. It’s a 9 from me! Always loved the breadth of the concept. The haunted house bit scared the shit out of me as a kid.
 
Not sure if I love this or hate it.
For one, Blomkamp did great satire in District 9, on the other it’ll be Sharlto Copley chewing up scenery and too much South Africa.

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Fetch Fletch said:
Not sure if I love this or hate it.
For one, Blomkamp did great satire in District 9, on the other it’ll be Sharlto Copley chewing up scenery and too much South Africa.

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Would you like to know more?

This could work. It could be excrement. Only the original film isn’t worth stamping on, so I fear the latter.
 
Fetch Fletch said:
Not sure if I love this or hate it.
For one, Blomkamp did great satire in District 9, on the other it’ll be Sharlto Copley chewing up scenery and too much South Africa.

You must be logged on to see external links
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Here are all the things wrong with this idea

  1. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
  2. It's not Paul Verhoeven
  3. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
  4. Elysium
  5. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
  6. Chappie
  7. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
  8. Demonic
  9. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
  10. Gran Turismo
  11. They're remaking Starship Troopers. They shouldn't be remaking Starship Troopers
 
Fetch Fletch said:
blomkamp in the dictionary is defined as “the law of diminishing returns”.

But then again mobile infantry made me the man I am today.
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I saw it four times on release. Just an unbelievable film. I’m concerned that it’s a ‘reimagining’ of the novel. I know it’s almost 30 years since the original, but the universe and aesthetic is all there, fully established, even with new recruits/protocitizens.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want TLODR to ape the work of Verhoeven and balls it up. Maybe it should be a soft reboot or whatever buzzword shite they’re using. The sequels did enough damage to the original.
 
rockaway said:
Kneecap (2024)

Two Fenian Irish lads upset the Orange lot through the medium of hip-hop with a sympathetic teacher. Micheal Fassbender crops up every now & then. Based on a true story, 6/10 easy watching, laughed a few times.

It’s the actual 3 members of the band playing themselves, who knew.
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Fassbender is proper cool. When he turns up and shoots the dissidents is probably my favourite bit.
 
Cockney Mackem said:
Part of the answer is Warners. Nolan walked out on them because they said they were going to stream all their films instead of theatrical release (later changing their minds when it was a disastrous failure). They spent £100m on a Batgirl film then cancelled it and deleted all copies for a tax break. Then they give Clint Eastwood the money to make the film then change their minds and say they don't want anything to do with it any more. They show it in about 10 screens then dump it to streaming. Double Oscar winning director, who by all accounts has made a perfectly decent film for not a huge amount of money. Warner are f***ing weirdos
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Cheers, clearly you know a bit more than me!

The economics of streaming and the economics of movies are miles apart. Movie economics is based on bums on seats, people watching movies. Streaming is about selling subscriptions regardless of whether anyone is watching or not. Clearly some movies are failling through the middle

Add to that the potential for weird tax write offs and you have a mess.
 
Ticket to Paradise 2022.
George Clooney (yum yum 🤤) and the beautiful Julia Roberts star in a romantic comedy together as divorced and rather hostile ex spouses.
Their daughter goes on a holiday and meets a lovely young man in Bali, they team up to try and sabotage the wedding so she doesn't make the same mistake they did.
I thought it was canny, a nice film to uplift my spirits and it didn't take too much thinking about. Was funny and touching in places, the scenery was idyllic and I'd give it a solid 7/10.
 
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