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SMB Film Thread 2025

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Elevation (2024)

Post apocalyptic thriller with characters so thinly drawn it's hard to identify with the last remnants of the human race. There are aliens. Or maybe robots. Or maybe alien robots. Lots of action takes place in the dark.

Luckily the world is saved by American civilians with long guns.

Shit.
Turned it off after 15 minutes because I just didn't care.
 

Smile 2
Decent sequel to decent original.
7/10

I Saw The TV Glow
Well shot and directed, but ultimately just not that interesting.
5/10

The Monkey
Gory horror comedy played very much for laughs.
Good fun for those of us who like this kind of thing.
7.5/10
 
I graded The Brutalist 8/10 the other day but after thinking on it a few days it might actually be a 9. I can’t get that early shot of the Statue of Liberty with the soundtrack blaring out my head.
 
I like films with great dialogue, great acting and emotion.

I don’t like films that are all CGI and superhero stuff.

So I don’t go to the cinema anymore. I can buy popcorn in Tesco.
 
She's Funny That Way (2014) 5/10
Supposed screwball comedy directed by Peter Bogdanovich, though it has the look and soundtrack of one of Woody Allen's later, lesser films, with Owen Wilson in the Woody Allen role. Trouble is, it's not especially funny. (Rhys Ifans effectively plays himself; an actor who turns out to be an utter prick.)
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Never Cry Wolf (1983) 9/10
A forgotten gem. Charles Martin Smith (usually seen playing nerds) is a researcher sent to the Arctic to study wolves, based on a real-life expedition by Canadian zoologist Farley Mowat. The shoot in Alaska and Yukon took two gruelling years, but was worth it. Many breathtaking scenes.
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Mission to Moscow
(1943) 2/10
Pro-Russian Hollywood propaganda directed by Michael Curtiz two years after he made Casablanca. Interesting to see Hollywood artifice recreating Germany, Moscow, and even Churchill's garden at Chartwell in the studio, but the the message - 'Stalin is a good lad' - is a hard sell.
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To Live and Die in L.A.
Saw it when I was a kid but rewatched it (Prime).
I love it - Pure 1980s - 8/10.
I don't really get why William Peterson kind of disappeared after Manhunter until CSI.
 
Watched Where Eagle's Dare, just fancied some good old fashioned war action. What a bloody movie! Great performances, slow brooding build up, intricate story spread over a surprisingly long 2 1/2 hours (which flashed by). 8/10
Mrs Raff got me the book at Xmas as I end up watching it every time I stumble upon it while flicking through the guide. Of course I’m joining in with the “Broadsword calling Danny Boy” bits. I was even joining in nwhile reading the book. Crackin film. Books very of its time though.
There's a good book about it.

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Mine was the Mclaine original. I mayinvestigate that one.
 
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To Live and Die in L.A.
Saw it when I was a kid but rewatched it (Prime).
I love it - Pure 1980s - 8/10.
I don't really get why William Peterson kind of disappeared after Manhunter until CSI.

Could have been his insistence on full frontal nudity in every film
RIP George Armitage. Director of two of anyone with a bit of tastes favourite fillums Grosse Point Blank and Miami Blues. He also did the second of the two dreadful The Big Bounce attempts but the least said about that the better. RIP.

Watching Grosse Point Blank now
 
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Anyone like time travel movies? I've just watched Primer (2004) earlier toneet and was watching a timeline explanation on Youtube. I then noticed this suggested video so watched it and thought it was canny enough to share, as is the 2nd one

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The Gorge - Apple tv complete horseshit
Its total and utter crap with a decent Trent Reznor soundtrack which brings out the Nine Inch Nails fanboys. Oh and gratuitous arse shots for Anya which brings.out the 12 yrar olds.
Love Hurts (2025). Abysmal American action comedy with Ke Huy Quan. Turned off after 15 minutes. DO NO WATCH! I'm warning as a friend. Sub-zero movie. In my opinion most American comedies this century are completely unfunny. Would like a recommendation if you have one.
 
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High Plains Drifter (1973) 8/10
A seriously strange Western. Clint Eastwood is the stranger who rides into town. The town is hiding a collective secret, and Eastwood is there to dispense justice - through rape, murder, and fire.
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The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) 9/10
An interesting companion to the previous film. The citizens of a Western town go searching for the murderers of a cattle farmer, intent on serving instant justice. The three men they catch swear they're innocent. Will they get a fair trial, or will they be lynched?
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Some Came Running (1958) 9/10
Frank Sinatra as a GI who wakes up on a bus as it pulls into his home town. Drunk, he'd been put onto it by companions in Chicago who presumed it's where he was heading. A floozy, played by Shirley MacLaine, is also on the bus, having followed him. A love triangle ensues, complicated by the past Sinatra was trying to escape. Excellent melodrama based on the book by James Jones, who also wrote From Here to Eternity.
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High Plains Drifter is great. I remember getting home after a few drinks and my dad was watching it. It was like some deranged trip, full of metaphors and ambiguity. I still can’t completely work out what is happening.

Ox Bow is even better. Powerful stuff.
 
The Bishop's Wife (1947) 7/10
Cary Grant as an angel who appears in New York one Christmas ostensibly to help a bishop (David Niven) built a cathedral, only to fall for the bishop's wife. All a bit schmaltzy, but Grant's on top form.
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Two films that are so familiar to me I was sure I'd seen them. Turns out I hadn't:

THX 1138 (1971) 8/10
George Lucas's pre-Stars Wars foray into sci-fi, set in a dystopian future in which everyone is bald and drugged, and sex is banned. Robert Duvall starts a secret relationship, gets found out. I watched the director's cut from 2004, to which a few CGI additions were made.
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From Here to Eternity (1953) 9/10
The lives and loves of a bunch of servicemen in Hawaii on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Great performances from Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, and Deborah Kerr. Features one of the most famous kisses in movie history.
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Interesting precedent set in India. A cinema-goer has been awarded compensation for having to sit through ads: £450 for the wasting of his time, and £45 for 'mental agony'.

For me, the ads have always been part of the cinema experience.

 
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