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SMB film thread 2024

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Another Everton Fan said:
Haven't seen it yet but assuming 'A Quiet Place: Day One' is just the cash grab from the studios. It's the only one John Krasinski isn't heavily involved in and he's said he's making 'A Quiet Place: Part 3' to finish off the trilogy.
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Actually thought it was an improvement on the others. Not brilliant but good

Wasn't filled with monster action. Had enough of a character thread to hold it all together in a more reflective, emotive vibe

Joseph Quinn off of Stranger Things is really good in it too playing off the lead
 

Heaven's Gate [1980] 8/10 (Remastered Final Cut)
James Averill is the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyoming, when a battle erupts between the area’s poverty-stricken immigrants and its wealthy cattle farmers. The politically connected ranch owners fight the immigrants with the help of Nathan Champion, a mercenary competing with Averill for the love of local madam Ella Watson. As the struggle escalates, Averill and Champion begin to question their decisions.

An epic as visually stunning as Barry Lyndon or Lawrence of Arabia that suffers from a meandering narrative and unsatisfactory ending.
The leads - Kristofferson, Walken and Huppert - are all great. 3hr 30mins is too long, though.
 
Hit Man
This was pretty well reviewed so decided to give it a go.
Not quite what I was expecting but it just about kept my interest throughout.
6/10

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Very silly/ often fabricated "biopic" of Al's rise to superstardom.
Funny and watchable throughout but does lose it's way a bit towards the end.
7/10
 
Roman maroni said:
Just watched Longlegs, very good, creepy and weird.
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What's it about?
CPLforever said:
Just watched Midsomer. Out a few years ago and supposed to herald the revival of the folk horror genre.

Quite good but a much overdone premise. If I came from the far north, Scotland, Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland and was a bit religious I would be suing. There's not a normal, non human sacrificing religious cult up there according to film and TV makers.
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It was a metaphor for a breakup, very well written and you can't be serious about your last comment surely, it's a film.

I enjoyed it. Gruesome mind.
 
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The Host (2006) 8/10
Korean monster film by Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite. The CGI isn't up to much by current standards, but an excellent film that subverts the genre.
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Burning (2018) 9/10
Another by Lee Chang-dong (see previous post). Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. A working class man bumps into an old schoolmate. They sleep together. She asks him to look after her cat while she's on holiday in Africa. She returns home having acquired a mysterious, rich boyfriend. Then she disappears. Tense, psychological thriller that, as usual with Murakami, leaves some questions unanswered.
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L'Armee des ombres (Army of Shadows) (1969) 9/10
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, who draws on personal experience for this thriller about the French Resistance. Brilliantly done, but Melville operated his own film studio and made movies on a shoestring. On VHS or DVD, the limitations of budget aren't that evident. In 4K you can certainly see the joins in the sets. No matter, it's a great film.
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Fletch73 said:
Heaven's Gate [1980] 8/10 (Remastered Final Cut)
James Averill is the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyoming, when a battle erupts between the area’s poverty-stricken immigrants and its wealthy cattle farmers. The politically connected ranch owners fight the immigrants with the help of Nathan Champion, a mercenary competing with Averill for the love of local madam Ella Watson. As the struggle escalates, Averill and Champion begin to question their decisions.

An epic as visually stunning as Barry Lyndon or Lawrence of Arabia that suffers from a meandering narrative and unsatisfactory ending.
The leads - Kristofferson, Walken and Huppert - are all great. 3hr 30mins is too long, though.
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I find it gets better with each viewing. Although a lot of the scenes seem to go on too long, on subsequent viewings you can just enjoy the spectacle.
 
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Fly Me To The Moon

Saw it at the cinema, though I believe it's an Apple TV production so will be available to subscribers to watch at home. Tells the story of a PR lady hired by NASA to reignite America's love of the race to the moon, and to simultaneously create a faked recording of the moon landing.

Bit of a strange film - couldn't seem to work out if it was a romantic comedy, a serious movie about the space program, or some kinda farcical satire on conspiracy theories. Ended up just being a bit of a light-hearted non-entity of a film. Chemistry between Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johanssen was non-existent. Woody Harrelson was decent, but it says a lot when the most memorable performance of the movie is by a cute little cat that has about 5 mins screen time.

4/10
 
The Train

Not too bad. But typical of many horror movies. A group of American teenagers find themselves in a foreign country and facing being chopped up by some deranged people. This time its a college wrestling team in a tournament in Ukraine. They mysteriously get on the one wrong train running and end up sharing the tracks with the one group of people who harvest the body parts of foreigners and put them in local patients.

Unlikely as it is the film I think is decent.
 
Prayers for the Stolen [2021] 9/10
Three young girls live in the rural mountains of Mexico dominated by the violent drug trade and the threat of sex-trafficking. Trained by their mothers to flee at any moment the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground to escape the threat of being stolen.

Beautiful film about childhood bonds in the face of devastating brutality.
 
Reptile on Netflix. Benicio Del Toro crime thriller/drama, which is neither thrilling or dramatic. It’s so slow. Persevered to the end. Bonus point for how well Alicia Silverstone is looking if not for her or anyone else’s performance.
3/10
 
My Dinner with Andre [1981] 1/10
Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.

F**k me, one of the dullest films I've ever seen (I only got through it by watching at double speed). Andre, who talks for 95 percent of the film, has attained a modicum of self-awareness and now thinks he's the Dalai Lama. He's not, unless the Dalai Lama is a pretentious, bloviating gobsh**e. Wallace just sits and listens for most of the film looking constipated. A 110 minute snorefest that should have been a 40 minute short. One point for Andre's cardigan. Absolute cack.
 
Fletch73 said:
My Dinner with Andre [1981] 1/10
Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.

F**k me, one of the dullest films I've ever seen (I only got through it by watching at double speed). Andre, who talks for 95 percent of the film, has attained a modicum of self-awareness and now thinks he's the Dalai Lama. He's not, unless the Dalai Lama is a pretentious, bloviating gobsh**e. Wallace just sits and listens for most of the film looking constipated. A 110 minute snorefest that should have been a 40 minute short. One point for Andre's cardigan. Absolute cack.
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I quite liked it, though it probably helped that I came to it after Vanya on 42nd Street, also starring Wallace Shawn and directed by Malle, adapted from Chekhov by Andre Gregory.

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My Dinner with Andre is full of stuff to think about, eg the sequence about conspiracy theories:

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Snowpiercer (2013) 7/10
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi action film. Not sure that it's entirely believable that in the event of a climate disaster all the survivors would take refuge on a train perpetually circling the globe. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, so don't expect the usual cliches of the genre. Tilda Swinton is brilliant, playing the main villain as a Yorkshire WI chairwoman from hell.
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Poetry (2010) 10/10
The best of the Lee Chang-dong films I've seen. A woman struggling with the early stages of Alzheimer's joins a poetry class. Meanwhile, her layabout grandson is implicated in the suicide of a girl who had been raped by a group of her classmates. The woman needs to find money to pay compensation to the girl's mother. The ending is exceptionally moving.
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Between the Lines (1977) 9/10
Excellent ensemble film centered on the people working at a alternative newspaper in Boston that's in the process of being taken over by a big media company. Great performances from the likes of Jeff Goldblum, John Heard and Bruno Kirby. Full movie here:
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Monty Pigeon said:
Between the Lines (1977) 9/10
Excellent ensemble film centered on the people working at a alternative newspaper in Boston that's in the process of being taken over by a big media company. Great performances from the likes of Jeff Goldblum, John Heard and Bruno Kirby. Full movie here:
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Oooh, never heard of that one. Cheers. 👍
 
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