• The first stage of the forum upgrades has now been completed but they remain in a degraded state and are still being worked on. Normal posting/reading should now be possible.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

SMB Film Thread 2025

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Score. 2001. Dir: Oz. 7/10.

Di Niros a Montreal jazz club owner and part time master safe cracker who won’t thieve in Montreal, Brando is his heist procurer and fence, Ed Norton is a young whipper snapper thief, Angela Bassett is the Air Hostess GF who won’t move in with RDN while he’s still thieving.
A job goes wrong and RDN just manages to escape. He decides he’s getting too old for all this shit and is gonna retire and tells Bassett, she says she’ll consider moving in. He then goes to tell Brando he’s out from now on……..you know what’s next.
BTW Cassandra Wilson and Mose Allison have cameos singing in the background while various scenes are going on.

You’ll all be wishing you were a bilingual jazz club owning master safe cracker long before it’s over…….and that’s just the lasses who read this thread. It looks like a great life.

Shame Sunderland hasn’t got a jazz club. I reckon Ember would’ve been a superb candidate if the dividing wall wasn’t there. The lights ower the river through the windows would make it very NYCish. The Gannett/Le Metro with the changes around there now would do anarl or even Heros back in the day.
Those downstairs places down Summerside anarl.
Marlowe. 2022. Dir:Jordan. 7/10.

It’s just before the USA enters WW2 and Liam Neesons turn to try on Bogies, Mitchs, James Garners, Elliott Goulds and a few others shoes. A glamorous blonde heiress enters the Venetian blind shaded office looking for a wisecracking knight in shabby armour with a bottle in his desk drawer to find her missing lover……well there’s a shock!
It’s the 2014 John Banville (writing as Benjamin Black) attempt at wearing Raymond Chandlers shoes novel The Black Eyed Blonde brought to the big screen. Jessica Lange, Colm Meaney, Ian Hart and Alan Cummings chip in with some scenery chewing.
I don’t mind the franchising out by the Chandler estate or the general iffyness of the resulting novels but by Christ how do the fillums manage to flop with what should be a failure proof formula. Just stick a gun and/or drink in every characters hand and a hat on their head and it should write itself.
 
Last edited:

The Trial of Madame X (1948) - TPTV Encore

Also known as Jacqueline, this much-filmed melodrama is as creaky and old fashioned as they come. The story is daft, the script clunky, the performances mixed and the direction workmanlike. It’s a bit of a rough old cove, but I didn’t mind it as 40-odd minutes of mildly-amusing absurdity.

4/10

The Miami Story (1954) - YouTube

Luther Adler is a gang boss who has Miami sewn up. The police are unable to get anything to stick. A committee of pissed off influential locals take matters into their own hands and hire a former mob boss, acquitted many years ago and in hiding, to challenge Adler’s dominance.

Not bad at all. Barry Sullivan is solid as the star, and the whole thing chugs along nicely towards its somewhat predictable conclusion. These era genre films with an introduction by a real life politician, bigging up citizens and law and order forces, are hilarious. Such blatant cheesy propaganda, yet I really like them! They’re a fascinating document of society,

6/10
 
Me foots knackered so I’ve been dvd bound for a spell and am working my way through ones I don’t expect to fancy keeping. These two are definitely gonna be kept. Wild rides the pair of them.

Bad Lieutenant. 2009. 117 mins. 8/10.
Dir: Herzog.

A sort of remake of a 1992 fillum I’d nivver heard of, is it any good? Nic Cage and Val Kilmer are New Orleans cops in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when Cage injures himself in the line of duty and ends up with a medal, promotion, a bad back and a worsening painkiller habit. His bad back walk and stiff necked turning around are spot on. It’s all down hill quickly from now on though.
Eva Mendes is his GF who is also on the game with a worsening drug habit. There’s a drug related slaughter that Cage gets his teeth into in an increasingly complicated manner.
I liked it.


Seven Psychopaths. 2012. 8/10.
Dir, Pro, Scr Wr: McDonough.

Where on earth to begin? McDonough was also responsible for In Bruges so you know what sort of territory we’re in here.
Colin Farrell is a writers block suffering Irish pisshead screenwriter struggling with his latest effort: Seven Psychopaths. All he’s got so far is the title. His marras Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken have a dog napping scam going on. Woody Harrelson is a Tarantinoesque gang leader. Tom Waits, Harry Dean Stanton and Olga Kurylenko are in it too.
I liked it.


Inherent Vice was gonna be next but I think I’ve had enough lunacy for one day.
 
Last edited:
One Battle After Another (2025)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s most crowd pleasing film since Boogie Nights. Hints of Scorsese and Altman. DiCaprio superb. Penn unhinged. Teyana Taylor very good. A lot of fun.

9/10
 
Our Souls At Night (2017) - 8/10

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda - Louis Waters, a widower, and Addie Moore, a widow, have been neighbours for decades but hardly know each other. One night, Addie visits Louis to suggest they spend the night together, non-sexually, to counter their loneliness. Although Louis is initially somewhat hesitant, he soon agrees.

Decided to give this one a try after hearing it being discussed on @Cockney Mackem film podcast, bit of a slow burner but a good watch. Redford and Fonda still have it.

And @Cockney Mackem - don’t bother with Old Guard 2, offers nothing new from first one unfortunately!
 
One Battle After Another (2025)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s most crowd pleasing film since Boogie Nights. Hints of Scorsese and Altman. DiCaprio superb. Penn unhinged. Teyana Taylor very good. A lot of fun.

9/10
Struggling to think of any other current actors with a better track record than Di Caprio
 
The Old Way (Ming xuan yi qiang - 2025) Amazon Prime

Historical martial arts drama about a trio of gangsters who agree to rescue a woman from a marriage to a member of a powerful bandit clan. The lead gangster has an ulterior motive for tackling this particular group of scumbags.

A decent enough watch, even though it has nearly zero originality and rips off older films that have done the same story/action better. Having said that, the three leads have a nice dynamic, and there’s some humour amongst the bleak content, so you’re at least rooting for them. More time was given to character and backstory than I anticipated. There’s plenty of cheese in the closing scenes, but the martial arts bits aren’t bad at all. There’s some wirework used, but it’s not overdone, and the cinematography is generally nice.

6/10


On another note, Shawscope Vol 4 has been confirmed by Arrow. As predicted, it’s full of fantasy and horror films.
 
One Battle After Another (2025)

I was really excited for seeing this as a huge PT Anderson fan, but tried to remain as detached and impartial as possible. Also I avoided reading any reviews or synopses.

Couldn't help but be completely sucked in and engrossed from start to finish. Probably the best new film one seen all year. Agree with some of the other comments on here - can't really give it anything other than...

10/10
 
L'Innocent (The Innocent) (2022) 8/10
A 60-something woman teaching drama in a prison marries a convict before his release. Her son is initially opposed, but gets caught spying on his new father-in-law and is roped into a heist...
You must be logged on to see media items

Riefenstahl (2024) 8/10
Bumped this up my watch list thanks to @Fletch73. Excellent revisionist documentary which uses unseen archives to thoroughly demolish Leni Riefenstahl's carefully restored post-WWII reputation. Time and again the mask slips and she shows her real self. Awful woman.
You must be logged on to see media items

Vanilla Sky (2001) 8/10
Cameron Crowe's remake of the Spanish Abre los ojos. Complex sci-fi story neatly put together. Tom Cruise in one of his facial disfigurement roles.
You must be logged on to see media items
 
Struggling to think of any other current actors with a better track record than Di Caprio

Not arf. Since he took control of his career his feature filmography is

Gangs of New York
Catch Me If You Can
The Aviator
The Departed
Blood Diamond
Body of Lies
Revolutionary Road
Shutter Island
Inception
J Edgar
Django Unchained
The Great Gatsby
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Revenant
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Don't Look Up
Killers of the Flower Moon
One Battle After Another

Even his worst films have got something to recommend them and only one I would actively avoid because I can't abide Baz Luhrmann

14 of the 17 eligible films on that list were nominated for at least one Oscar
 
Not arf. Since he took control of his career his feature filmography is

Gangs of New York
Catch Me If You Can
The Aviator
The Departed
Blood Diamond
Body of Lies
Revolutionary Road
Shutter Island
Inception
J Edgar
Django Unchained
The Great Gatsby
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Revenant
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Don't Look Up
Killers of the Flower Moon
One Battle After Another

Even his worst films have got something to recommend them and only one I would actively avoid because I can't abide Baz Luhrmann

14 of the 17 eligible films on that list were nominated for at least one Oscar
Only 50 year old as well, will be interesting to see how he adapts for the next stage of his career.
 
Not arf. Since he took control of his career his feature filmography is

Gangs of New York
Catch Me If You Can
The Aviator
The Departed
Blood Diamond
Body of Lies
Revolutionary Road
Shutter Island
Inception
J Edgar
Django Unchained
The Great Gatsby
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Revenant
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Don't Look Up
Killers of the Flower Moon
One Battle After Another

Even his worst films have got something to recommend them and only one I would actively avoid because I can't abide Baz Luhrmann

14 of the 17 eligible films on that list were nominated for at least one Oscar

Amazing run. Historically, one of the few people who comes close in terms of film selection is John Cazale. Prior to his death from cancer aged 42, his filmography is:

The Godfather
The Conversation
The Godfather II
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter
 
The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

Delightfully twee and undemanding film about old people in a retirement home facing closure that solve cold murder cases. As you would predict, murders start happening close to home. Excellent cast. Brosnan in particular was very good, Mays was a bit too bumbling. Did you spot Helen Mirren's "husband" telling her she looked just like the queen? Ho, ho, ho.
 
Night Of The Reaper
I'd heard good things about this new slasher flick on Shudder but it didn't do it for me.
2/10

House Of 1000 Corpses
I decided to re-visit Rob Zombies debut film.
I'm not a fan of Zombie's films at all, but this is one of his better ones, which is admittedly feint praise.
The opening with Captain Spalding and the ending with the Dr Satan stuff is actually decent, it's just what comes between which I have the issues with.
4/10
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top