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SMB Film Thread 2025

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Just finished The Ballad Of Wallis Island. Man I absolutely love Tim Key. He probably doesn’t want it but I wish he got more recognition for what he does. He’s a real gem of a bloke like.

Anyway the film was great. Proper Sunday afternoon film. Looked great, really sweet story and very enjoyable. 9 and a half out of ten and my favourite film of the year so far.
 

The Shadow on the Window (1957)

Phil Carey and his wife are separated. He’s a policeman and she’s doing some bite and pieces work where she can. Wife and son are at an old bloke’s house. Son goes for a wander. He returns to see the old man and his mam being beaten by three home invaders. Traumatised, he stumbles away and is picked up by a truck. The authorities can’t work out his name, or what happened.

Part police-procedural and part study of human relationships, this has a rapid pace and focused eye. It’s quite cheap and basic, and there’s very little I would say was first class, but for a B crime film it’s enjoyably entertaining. Carey is solid, but in a ‘eyes focused on the goal’ way. He doesn’t allow emotion to enter the situation, which I think is a narrative choice rather than anything disparaging about his acting. The three crooks are a bit hammy, but I didn’t watch this for Oscar shit. Very decent. 6.5/10

Bad Boy (1949)

Audie Murphy’s first starring role. He’s a 17 year old hoodlum who is given one chance to turn it around - on a ranch under the supervision of a socially conscious couple. He repeatedly screws it up, but the ranch chief Lloyd Nolan investigates the reasons behind his derailing behaviour.

Solid and engaging. It’s one of those films that you want to have a happy ending. The psychological themes explored are so basic, and there’s way too much nonsense, but for what it is, created in 1949, it’s just fine. Murphy provides a mix of good, solid convincing work, and ropey, fairly weak moments. He’s definitely engaging to watch, though. A better film to watch than its critical components suggest.

6.5/10
 
Doogie Hauser said:
The Shadow on the Window (1957)

Phil Carey and his wife are separated. He’s a policeman and she’s doing some bite and pieces work where she can. Wife and son are at an old bloke’s house. Son goes for a wander. He returns to see the old man and his mam being beaten by three home invaders. Traumatised, he stumbles away and is picked up by a truck. The authorities can’t work out his name, or what happened.

Part police-procedural and part study of human relationships, this has a rapid pace and focused eye. It’s quite cheap and basic, and there’s very little I would say was first class, but for a B crime film it’s enjoyably entertaining. Carey is solid, but in a ‘eyes focused on the goal’ way. He doesn’t allow emotion to enter the situation, which I think is a narrative choice rather than anything disparaging about his acting. The three crooks are a bit hammy, but I didn’t watch this for Oscar shit. Very decent. 6.5/10

Bad Boy (1949)

Audie Murphy’s first starring role. He’s a 17 year old hoodlum who is given one chance to turn it around - on a ranch under the supervision of a socially conscious couple. He repeatedly screws it up, but the ranch chief Lloyd Nolan investigates the reasons behind his derailing behaviour.

Solid and engaging. It’s one of those films that you want to have a happy ending. The psychological themes explored are so basic, and there’s way too much nonsense, but for what it is, created in 1949, it’s just fine. Murphy provides a mix of good, solid convincing work, and ropey, fairly weak moments. He’s definitely engaging to watch, though. A better film to watch than its critical components suggest.

6.5/10
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You're like the thread's special adviser on films from the 1940s and 50s
 
Been catching up on two seasons of Andor this week, so the movie-watching has suffered. Managed to fit some in, though.

Mimang (2023) 6/10
Korean answer to Richard Linklater's Before trilogy. Over the course of several years, a man and woman meet up in Seoul and walk and talk. Not much happens, and not a great deal is revealed about the characters or their lives.
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Mountainhead (2025) 7/10
A group of billionaires meet up in a mountain home while the world falls apart due to their actions. Apparently production was rushed through in order to release it asap. Shame, because the script could have done with a couple more drafts. Even so, some genuinely funny moments, and captures the empty narcissism of the tech bros very well.
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The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013) 6/10
Danish adaptation of the Scandi noir book that formed the basis for the new Netflix series Dept Q. Okay, but nothing special.
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Shock (1946)

Anabel Shaw is awaiting the return of her husband. He’s been presumed dead and she hasn’t seen him for two years. She is going to meet him at a hotel, but his flight is delayed. From her balcony, she watches a domestic unfold in another room. Psychiatrist Vincent Price is asking his wife for a divorce. She promises to ruin him, so in a rage, he batters her with a candlestick. Shaw is so distraught that she goes into shutdown. The hotel doctor can’t do anything with her, so he calls on Price, who realises that she’s witnessed his act. He takes her to his hospital to ‘treat’ her while he disposes of his wife.

Fascinating noir drama. It has pretty much zero suspense, but I liked watching Price sweat about what to do. He has the opportunity to control Shaw, and make her condition worse, implanting various red herrings and misinterpretations in her mind to deflect from his own act, and even ruin her mind to the point where she needs to be sent to an asylum. However, it conflicts with his Hippocratic Oath, and her husband is insistent on overseeing her recovery. It’s interesting to watch his solutions, and the way new problems keep arising. Once again, some of the 40s psychology is very rudimentary, but putting that aside, it’s a neat, entertaining film. Price is fantastic - all calculating menace, yet easily influenced, and at war with his own morality. He’s mostly genial and gentle in this, with a soft spoken delivery, but there’s always a slightly panicked edge to him.

7/10
 
Ballerina (2025)

Ana De Armas dances circles around an army of bad guys in this John Wick spin off, with a few solid performances from returning actors including Ian McShane, Angelica Houston and Keanu Reeves.

One of the most imaginative grenade kills I’ve ever seen, with some excellent set pieces - the nightclub fight scene is hugely entertaining. De Armas is very convincing, she should rightly get a few sequels out of this. This film is worth your time. I enjoyed it a lot.

8/10
 
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Drexl said:
Ballerina (2025)

Ana De Armas dances circles around an army of bad guys in this John Wick spin off, with a few solid performances from returning actors including Ian McShane, Angelica Houston and Keanu Reeves.

One of the most imaginative grenade kills I’ve ever seen, with some excellent set pieces - the nightclub fight scene is hugely entertaining. De Armas is very convincing, she should rightly get a few sequels out of this. This film is worth your time. I enjoyed it a lot.

8/10
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The flame thrower scenes were top class.
 
Ballerina- very good addition to the John wick canon. Some great set pieces, couple of nice throw away lines, lance reddick rip on what would have been his birthday.
 
Atonement (2007) - Netflix

Rewatched this for the first time since seeing it at the cinema as I'd noticed it was due to have Netflix on the 15th June. Pretty much flawless adaptation of a tremendous novel, a perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

9.5/10
 
The Last Run [1971] 7/10
A retired getaway driver (George C. Scott) living a peaceful life in Portugal is asked to pull off one last job - drive an escaped prisoner and his girlfriend to France.

Blind Date [1959] 7/10
Young painter Jan has an affair with a rich married woman who is found murdered. Stanley Baker is the lead detective who doubts his guilt. Directed by Joseph Losey.

Armored Car Robbery [1950] 6/10
A well-planned robbery. An ice-cold thief. A murdered cop. A vengeful partner.
 
Ballad Of Wallis Island (2025) - 7/10 - Enjoyed it. Quirky little British movie with a nice vibe (imagine The Dectectorists). The Tim Key character maybe a bit too annoying but it balanced out with the plot I guess. Sort of predictable but had a nice charm about it. Looked up the short it was based on and interesting to see how it was developed with the extra characters.
 
Finished Andor S2 on Friday so we decided to rewatch Rogue One at the weekend.

I remember being blown away by the CGI of Cushing and Princess Leia at the time, but it’s 9 years old now and it’s really aged. AI would do a much better job nowadays I imagine.

Also, after watching a very slow paced Andor with a lot more politics and background, we found Rogue One just a bit hammy and the script wasn’t great compared to the series we’d just watched. Sadly, not as good as I remembered and probably because of recency bias due to the series.

Still one of the better SW films, and certainly the best newer ones.
 
HellsBells said:
Finished Andor S2 on Friday so we decided to rewatch Rogue One at the weekend.

I remember being blown away by the CGI of Cushing and Princess Leia at the time, but it’s 9 years old now and it’s really aged. AI would do a much better job nowadays I imagine.

Also, after watching a very slow paced Andor with a lot more politics and background, we found Rogue One just a bit hammy and the script wasn’t great compared to the series we’d just watched. Sadly, not as good as I remembered and probably because of recency bias due to the series.

Still one of the better SW films, and certainly the best newer ones.
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felt the exact same, the pacing of rogue one was so at odds with Andor it just felt a bit shit.
 
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