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SMB Film Thread 2025

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Scorer said:
Agreed, potentially very good and has occasional flickers. Only really watched all way through because I’m an absolute sucker for werewolf/animal transformation movies. Sadly most are a bit shite but American Werewolf in London keeps me going back!
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Wolf Man was absolutely dogshit this year. Quite apart from a really poorly written story, the "werewolves" looked like all they needed was a couple of nights in Centre Point, a bath and a fresh set of clothes and they could attend a job interview on Monday
 

Cockney Mackem said:
Wolf Man was absolutely dogshit this year. Quite apart from a really poorly written story, the "werewolves" looked like all they needed was a couple of nights in Centre Point, a bath and a fresh set of clothes and they could attend a job interview on Monday
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Yeah, I like my werewolves viscerally brutal and totally unlike their human character. Wolf Man was immensely disappointing.
 
Got Rififi ready to watch on blu ray sometime.

The Man Upstairs (1958) - Blu Ray

Richard Attenborough wakes after a nightmare and quickly locks himself in his room. The other inhabitants of his boarding house react to his aggression in different ways. Donald Houston, Alfred Burke, Kenneth Griffith and Bernard Hill head a good ensemble that looks at group reactions to mental health. It’s too simplistic in many ways, but for its time, a fascinating look at society. There’s some very pleasing camerawork, too.

7/10

Outside the Law (1956)

Ray Danton has turned his life around in the military. He’s asked to join a taskforce looking into counterfeit currency, after his mate is shot dead in Berlin. Tempers flare as he realises that his father heads the investigation, from whom he is estranged.

It doesn’t say anything profound and it’s pretty run of the mill, but as a typical 50s corruption noir, it’s decent enough.

5.5/10

Impulse (1954)

Bored idiot Arthur Kennedy gets involved in the affairs of the ne’er do well Constance Smith, who is covering up a jewel theft for her brother. In typical noir fashion, he
Makes every stupid decision imaginable.

Written and directed by Cy Endfield under two different pseudonyms, it’s a decent Brit B film that looks into the propensity of thrillseekers to ruin their life through a series of rash decisions. The main character is a moron.

6/10
 
Monty Pigeon said:
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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just watched sinners, quite enjoyed it. A bit of a different take on the vampire thing
 
Avengement

While on prison furlough, a lowly criminal evades the guards and returns to his old stomping grounds to take revenge on the people who turned him into a cold-blooded killer.

The cast line up says everything you need to know about the film. Green street v rise of the foot soldiers
2/10
 
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Cee Jay said:
just watched sinners, quite enjoyed it. A bit of a different take on the vampire thing
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Yeah I watched Sinners tonight, would probably give it an 8.5/10.

Liked the music, thought the actors were great, enjoyed the overall plot, and the nods here and there to both the historical and social commentary of the time - ie the Asian family owning shops on both the white and African-American side of the street, and the fact the main vampire was Irish.

Marked it down because I thought (like a lot of "monster" films) the Vampires seemed to get ridiculous weaker towards the end of the film.

Still though the rest made up for it.
 
Pig: a really good film in a quietly quirky way. One of Nicolas Cage’s better low key performances. 8/10
Struggling to think of an actor with such a mixed bag track record. Cage can act and is occasionally fantastic but certainly knows how to choose an absolute pike of shite too.
 
Scorer said:
Pig: a really good film in a quietly quirky way. One of Nicolas Cage’s better low key performances. 8/10
Struggling to think of an actor with such a mixed bag track record. Cage can act and is occasionally fantastic but certainly knows how to choose an absolute pike of shite too.
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In the same bracket as nielson tbf.
 
A Quiet Life (2010) on Amazon Prime.

Italian with subtitles. Directed by Claudio Cupellini, who also directed 19 episodes of Gomorrah. The lead actor is Toni Servillo though Marco D'Amore (Ciro from Gomorrah) is the other main character. Plot is a former Camorra soldier trying to escape his past with a new life in Germany... until his past catches up with him again. Bit like a slower burning more understated Gomorrah to be honest, not a bad watch.
 
safcforever said:
Avengement

While on prison furlough, a lowly criminal evades the guards and returns to his old stomping grounds to take revenge on the people who turned him into a cold-blooded killer.

The cast line up says everything you need to know about the film. Green street v rise of the foot soldiers
2/10
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Avengement is canny fun. Some cracking one liners. 😎 a cobra score of 6/10
 
Casino

5/10

Tedious.
Daz965 said:
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Watched this again last night after having seen it when it first came out. Excellent psychological thriller with great direction and acting. Tim Robbins is superb. Reminded me of the short story 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' by Ambrose Bierce (1890) which was dramatised and later shown as a 'Twilight Zone' episode.
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Went with mates to see this at the cinema on release, tripping, each of the 3 times. Iirc Macaulay culkin isn't in the film credits. Absolutely loved it at the time, but not seen it since and the altered state may have played a big role in the experience. Thought Tim Robbins would have gone on to star in a lot more movies than he did. Albeit he had a very successful career still.
 
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One-Armed Swordman (1967)

The film that sent Jimmy Wang Yu into HK superstardom. It’s tame by the standards of even a few years later, but at the time, the bloodletting was something that audiences lapped up.

Scripted by the prolific Ni Kuang, and directed by Chang Cheh, it’s a story about a martial arts master who is saved by his student. The student dies, leaving behind a boy who is adopted by the master. The boy grows up disliked by his contemporaries, and when he tries to leave, the master’s daughter slices his right arm off.

The martial arts are simplistic and slow, and clearly influenced by the Japanese samurai filmmaking tradition. Most of the film is a drama about trying to escape the cycle of violence. It was a hugely influential film that cemented the direction of HK action cinema. Wang Yu made a career out of ‘one armed’ films after this.

Wang Yu is pretty good in his role, and the settings are wonderful. They are so obviously studio sets that’s it’s almost laughable, if they weren’t so lavish and appealing to the eye. The snow scene in particular is absolutely lovely.

8/10 for the likes of me, who laps this stuff up.
 
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