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SMB Film Thread 2025

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The Brothers Rico (1957)

Richard Conte is an accountant for a firm of villains, but he has been clear for three years. That is, until his brother appears, begging for help. Then Conte summoned before his former boss to track down his second brother, who was involved in a recent murder. Conte is told to get his youngest brother out of the country, because powerful people are worried that he’ll squeal. First, though, he has to find him.

The film is strange insofar as it’s blatantly a noir, with some hard hitting outcomes for people who can’t escape from their past, but there are precious few of the classic visual tropes of the genre. It’s a straightforward race to get to his brother before the mob. For me, this made it seem rather refreshing. I love the visuals of noirs, but I didn’t feel like this film was weaker without them. Conte is excellent, and there’s a solid supporting cast throughout.

7.5/10
 

September 5 (2024)

Was out watching this last night. Peter Sarsgaard heads a team at ABC who are covering the 1972 Munich olympics when people are killed and hostages are taken. It’s a straight forward procedural that takes place over roughly 24 hours, almost entirely in the newsroom. Some good acting coupled with a punchy script (it’s up for best original screenplay at this years Oscars) mean this is very watchable. Sarsgaard seems to only play morally ambiguous individuals these days and does it very well. See also his turn in Apple TV’s Presumed Innocent last year.

7/10
 
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Cockney Mackem said:
21 years of wrongness from Peter Bradshaw

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He’s the film critic version of a Bryan Robson and Wayne Rooney. WTF were/are all of their employers thinking? The man knaars nowt.
“interesting” article in the guarandiauins website film pages from some poor lass who has watched rotten tomato’s 40 worst films to find out which is the worst.
 
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I’ve just read that article. Thanks for the recommendation.

It confirms that RT is borderline useless. I’ve seen reviews getting 6/10 being classified as ‘rotten’. Reviews of C- being called ‘fresh’. Reviews of 6.5/10 being classified as ‘fresh’ and ‘rotten’.

In theory, a film that scores 6/10 across the board can land a 100% score. A film that divides reviewers, from 10/10 down to, say, 3/10, being given 50%. A dull but competent film getting 2/5 fresh everyone and receiving a 0% score.

It’s a useless system, but the site collates reviews nicely.
 
Doogie Hauser said:
I’ve just read that article. Thanks for the recommendation.

It confirms that RT is borderline useless. I’ve seen reviews getting 6/10 being classified as ‘rotten’. Reviews of C- being called ‘fresh’. Reviews of 6.5/10 being classified as ‘fresh’ and ‘rotten’.

In theory, a film that scores 6/10 across the board can land a 100% score. A film that divides reviewers, from 10/10 down to, say, 3/10, being given 50%. A dull but competent film getting 2/5 fresh everyone and receiving a 0% score.

It’s a useless system, but the site collates reviews nicely.
Click to expand...

There's also metacritic, which has the same problem with films that some people love and hate, but it is more transparent about what the critical reaction was and will show you how much the reviews actually liked or disliked the film
 
Doogie Hauser said:
I’ve just read that article. Thanks for the recommendation.

It confirms that RT is borderline useless. I’ve seen reviews getting 6/10 being classified as ‘rotten’. Reviews of C- being called ‘fresh’. Reviews of 6.5/10 being classified as ‘fresh’ and ‘rotten’.

In theory, a film that scores 6/10 across the board can land a 100% score. A film that divides reviewers, from 10/10 down to, say, 3/10, being given 50%. A dull but competent film getting 2/5 fresh everyone and receiving a 0% score.

It’s a useless system, but the site collates reviews nicely.
Click to expand...

Letterboxd ratings are similarly useless. I'd reckon 90% of movies on there are rated 3.something.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Letterboxd ratings are similarly useless. I'd reckon 90% of movies on there are rated 3.something.
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Rotten Tomatoes’ audience ratings are also rubbish. That film I watched yesterday has a 50% rating ffs. ROTTEN.

It wasn’t amazing, but it was a competent and enjoyable genre film. I don’t know who goes onto these sites and gives out insta-click terrible ratings. They can’t watch the full thing, surely? If they do, then they’re wasting their time with an era and genre of film that they don’t like.

I tend to seek out genre-specific review sites nowadays. There’s loads of good noir blogs written by people who talk my language. They’re usually full of good suggestions, and even when I disagree with them, I appreciate their reasoning. Rather than some numskull pressing a button labelled ‘shite’.
 
craigypants said:
September 5 (2024). All from inside ABC televisions control room at the 72 Munich Olympics this is a brilliantly tense movie. Unmissable and less than 90 minutes so another bonus. 8/10.
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watched this last night, really enjoyed it (helped [!] that i've no memory of the original incident as it was before my time)... the authenticity of the set really placed you back in the room in 72, down the pre-computer age where captions were actual letters or to patch a phone through to the studio the guy has to solder the receiver into the console. really well done production. and leonie benesch is awesome...
Monty Pigeon said:
Letterboxd ratings are similarly useless. I'd reckon 90% of movies on there are rated 3.something.
Click to expand...
they are... you're right, i go off the decimal point as if that's the 1-10 rating... :lol:
 
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Watched "The lost city" 2022 last night on channel 4.
A daft adventure yarn starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
A romance novelist is kidnapped by Harry Potter so that she can help find some treasure on an island he's bought.
Her book cover model (Tatum) teams up with Brad Pitt to locate and extract her.
It was canny enough, some laugh out loud moments and fairly enjoyable.
I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10, it was enjoyable bit of escapism.
 
look out piano said:
Watched "The lost city" 2022 last night on channel 4.
A daft adventure yarn starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
A romance novelist is kidnapped by Harry Potter so that she can help find some treasure on an island he's bought.
Her book cover model (Tatum) teams up with Brad Pitt to locate and extract her.
It was canny enough, some laugh out loud moments and fairly enjoyable.
I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10, it was enjoyable bit of escapism.
Click to expand...
Seen it before but watched it again last night. Understands what it wants to be and sometimes that’s enough.
 
The Order (2024)

Very competent and focused. It doesn’t analyse, it just presents the events. There’s some nice photography and the performances are decent. I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed it as entertainment. It left a bad taste in the mouth, but that’s the nature of the subject. I’m glad I watched it, and it’s an interesting chapter of US domestic history.
7.5/10
 
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