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SMB Film Thread 2025

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I can’t find the pallion film studios thread

The man is a fool with little or no understanding of anything apart from ranting
 

Inherent Vice. 2014. 8/10…..I think.

A PaulThomas Anderson screenplay/direction of a Thomas Pynchon novel meant the one thing I knew as I stuck the dvd in the tray was that I wouldn’t know wtf was going on. We’re in late 60s or early 70s LA and Joaquin Phoenix is a hippy stoner PI and an old flame walks in asking him to look for her BF. They’ve got some nerve these old flames I’m telling yah. The usual PI stuff ensues. I finished it a couple of hours ago and after two reads of its wiki page think I’ve a handle on what I’ve just seen. Possibly.
Anderson, Joaquin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro and Joanna Newsome the harp player lass all have a lot of fun with the PI fillum tropes and some of them may even know what’s happening maaaaan.
A keeper.
Monty Pigeon said:
As someone said on Bluesky today, he's probably done it because he's still angry about the final shot of Caché.
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Or the Ryder Cup.
 
The Lighthouse (2019)

Tried to watch it a while ago and realised pretty early on that I wasn’t mentally prepared for what was coming, and left it until now. Can confirm it was mental. Incredible acting by the pair of them. Not sure exactly what happened - but it was entertaining in an artsy way. Will need a re-watch when I am feeling psychologically fit and ready.

8/10
 
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The Vengeance Trilogy by Park Chan-wook

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002) 6/10
Every bit as stylish as the other two films, but the story doesn't really hold together and much of the violence is gratuitous.
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Oldboy (2003) 10/10
Takes a lot of themes of the previous film - kidnap, the death of sibling, a lost daughter, vengeance - but executes them to perfection.
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Lady Vengeance (2005) 10/10
Marginally the best of the three. A woman serves a prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit in order to gain the skills to reap revenge on the real perpetrator. Brilliant use of baroque music for the soundtrack.
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Watched the long walk tonight and although some great performances it was brutal and harrowing - way over the top graphic violence with close on people geting the heads blown off - walk, get tired have head blown off repeat meanwhile it has the vibes of stand by me with the main characters. 5/10 and I love dystopian movies
 
Animal kingdom. Aussie film
Guy Pearce, Joel edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn

Pretty grim and depressing film about an orphaned 17 year old who ends up living with his grandma and dodgepot uncles in Melbourne .

Nothing appealing about this film. Have to say Ben Mendelsohn is an unreel creepy fucker, class performance, awful bastard in this.

Cobra gives it 6/10
 
Motor City Cobra said:
Animal kingdom. Aussie film
Guy Pearce, Joel edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn

Pretty grim and depressing film about an orphaned 17 year old who ends up living with his grandma and dodgepot uncles in Melbourne .

Nothing appealing about this film. Have to say Ben Mendelsohn is an unreel creepy fucker, class performance, awful bastard in this.

Cobra gives it 6/10
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Became an excellent US TV series.

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Monty Pigeon said:
The Vengeance Trilogy by Park Chan-wook

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002) 6/10
Every bit as stylish as the other two films, but the story doesn't really hold together and much of the violence is gratuitous.
You must be logged on to see media items

Oldboy (2003) 10/10
Takes a lot of themes of the previous film - kidnap, the death of sibling, a lost daughter, vengeance - but executes them to perfection.
You must be logged on to see media items

Lady Vengeance (2005) 10/10
Marginally the best of the three. A woman serves a prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit in order to gain the skills to reap revenge on the real perpetrator. Brilliant use of baroque music for the soundtrack.
You must be logged on to see media items
Click to expand...
Better, would be watching Lady Vengeance if you said it was as good as Old Boy, hope it doesn't disappoint.
 
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Sinners (2025) 8/10
Partly shot in 70mm, and looks terrific. Personally I'd have preferred more blues and fewer vampires, but it does its job as a genre movie, and Buddy Guy steals the whole thing at the end.
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Brainstorm (1983) 8/10
As with Sinners, partly shot in 70mm, with aspect ratio changing accordingly. Directed by effects wizard Douglas Trumbull, it centres on scientists experimenting with virtual reality - and is more relevant than ever. (It's the movie Natalie Wood was making when she died, and her sister had to stand in for some of her shots.)
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The Goonies (1985) 6/10
Precocious kids go in search of pirates' treasure buried by 'one-eyed Willy'. Not a great movie, but hugely influential. Stranger Things wouldn't exist without it.
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The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie. 1976. 7/10.
Dir and Scr Wr Cassavetees.

I videoed this in the early 80s from the telly and liked it. Watched it a few times since. Managed to a snap up a cheapish Criterion edition dvd recentlyish but hadn’t got round to watching it. I didnt know this was a double dvd edition. Ones the 1978 104 min version I remember watching and the other is the original 1976 (according to criterion) 128 min version that was released for a week in USA cinemas before being withdrawn after universally being slagged to be replaced by the 1978 104 min version. A lot of websites have the longer one at 135 mins for some reason…..opening n closing credits maybe? So I watched the longer 128 min version….I know I know who’s playing me in the film of this review?

Reet then. It’s the mid 70s and Ben Gazzarras a burlesque/strip club owner in LA with pretensions. He’s a shite gambler anarl. We meet him finally paying off his long overdue gambling debt and to celebrate he goes out on the lash with three of his girls “artistes/strippers” to a mob owned pop up card game……….you just know what’s gonna happen don’t you?

btw one of the girls was married to Di Niro at the time irl.

The short version is way way better as it cuts out loads of the club scenes which are mainly rambling conversations interspersed with nudey ladies dancing. Most of whom were actual rippers in the club used for filming. David Bowie is apparently seen in the club audience. There’s a scene where a young lass auditions for a job there and I know her face from somewhere and meant to research who and the corr3ct spelling of the directors name before starting this review but forgot and me teas almost ready so that’s about it.
I struggled to follow a lot of what was said and there’s no subtitles either. Modern tellys are shite speaker wise and our sound bars been in the loft for years.
Whatever you do watch the short version ferchrissakes.
 
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riffraff said:
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie. 1976. 7/10.
Dir and Scr Wr Cassavetees.

I videoed this in the early 80s from the telly and liked it. Watched it a few times since. Managed to a snap up a cheapish Criterion edition dvd recentlyish but hadn’t got round to watching it. I didnt know this was a double dvd edition. Ones the 1978 104 min version I remember watching and the other is the original 1976 (according to criterion) 128 min version that was released for a week in USA cinemas before being withdrawn after universally being slagged to be replaced by the 1978 104 min version. A lot of websites have the longer one at 135 mins for some reason…..opening n closing credits maybe? So I watched the longer 128 min version….I know I know who’s playing me in the film of this review?

Reet then. It’s the mid 70s and Ben Gazzarras a burlesque/strip club owner in LA with pretensions. He’s a shite gambler anarl. We meet him finally paying off his long overdue gambling debt and to celebrate he goes out on the lash with three of his girls “artistes/strippers” to a mob owned pop up card game……….you just know what’s gonna happen don’t you?

btw one of the girls was married to Di Niro at the time irl.

The short version is way way better as it cuts out loads of the club scenes which are mainly rambling conversations interspersed with nudey ladies dancing. Most of whom were actual rippers in the club used for filming. David Bowie is apparently seen in the club audience. There’s a scene where a young lass auditions for a job there and I know her face from somewhere and meant to research who and the corr3ct spelling of the directors name before starting this review but forgot and me teas almost ready so that’s about it.
I struggled to follow a lot of what was said and there’s no subtitles either. Modern tellys are shite speaker wise and our sound bars been in the loft for years.
Whatever you do watch the short version ferchrissakes.
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Been looking for Cassavettes DVDs today actually but they’re all £20+ and not on any UK streaming services. Thought Mubi or BFI would have at least one but nowt.
 
lchavez said:
Been looking for Cassavettes DVDs today actually but they’re all £20+ and not on any UK streaming services. Thought Mubi or BFI would have at least one but nowt.
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Google 'Internet Archive Cassavetes' and you'll find some of his movies - including The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - available to stream. (A lot of other hard-to-find films are there too).

Is it legal? Yes. There's an explainer here:

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Monty Pigeon said:
Google 'Internet Archive Cassavetes' and you'll find some of his movies - including The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - available to stream. (A lot of other hard-to-find films are there too).

Is it legal? Yes. There's an explainer here:

You must be logged on to see external links
Click to expand...
Spot on mate. Thanks a lot for that 😎 there is quite a few on there.
 
Tomorrow at Ten (1962)

Robert Shaw kidnaps the rich son of Alec Clunes (dad of Martin) and locks him in a rented house in the middle of nowhere. He leaves him with a bomb designed to go off at 10 the next morning unless a ransom is paid. John Gregson (Genevieve) and Kenneth Cope (Carry On at Your Convenience) lead the investigation, answering to their career-minded boss Alan Wheatley (50s Robin Hood’s Sheriff).

This is a really solid, entertaining watch. It’s only 75 minutes and flies along at a cracking pace. Even the dialogue-heavy scenes are sharp and engaging. Gregson makes his arguments forcefully and convincingly. Lance Comfort directs with assurance, and Shaw makes an intriguing villain, full of brazen confidence, yet vulnerability. The cast is excellent - Harry Fowler, William Hartnell and Renee Houston also crop up - and the whole thing comes across as a superior example of cheap British early 60s B quality.

7/10
 
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