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SMB Film Thread 2025
- Thread starter Fletch73
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Big Jeff
Striker
Aye - looked like me Auntie Sylvia.
Mr Vertigo
Winger
You've never watched Taxi Driver?
SAFCOldie
Striker
I have
Monty Pigeon
Striker
That's like judging an Indian meal on the popadums. You left before the food arrived.
Doogie Hauser
Midfield
Black Friday (1940)
A professor is knocked down by a fleeing gangster. The former has life threatening brain injuries and the latter is all mashed up. The professor’s friend, Boris Karloff, transfers the gangster’s brain into the professor’s head.
A strange sci-fi drama which is utterly stupid in terms of plausibility, but isn’t half bad as long as you accept the crazy premise. The crux is that some of the professor remains, so there’s a battle for dominance in his head. Although, it doesn’t seem a conscious battle - they switch mostly due to exterior stimuli. Stanley Ridges plays the dual role well.
The whole thing comes off as a curious novelty. There’s a subplot about the gangster’s loot involving Bela Lugosi, so the clash of personalities inside the head of the main character never really gets going in a Jekyll and Hyde way.
6/10
Pier 23 (1951)
This was marketed as a film, but I don’t know why. It’s like two episodes of a tv show glued together. Both feature the characters of Hugh Beaumont (a boat business owner who keeps getting offered dodgy cash-in-hand jobs), Richard Travis (a police detective always trying to collar Beaumont for a job) and Edward Brophy (a pissed-up wordsmith who helps Beaumont out).
The first half is about Beaumont picking up an Alcatraz escapee before he can do any damage. Ann Savage features in this section. The second half is about wrestling match-fixing and payoffs.
As individual stories they’re alright. The dialogue is often sharp and occasionally amusing. As a cohesive film it doesn’t really work. The stories are totally unrelated and it feels like you’re watching a tv show with the credits stripped out.
5/10 for what’s shown, but 3/10 as a film.
A professor is knocked down by a fleeing gangster. The former has life threatening brain injuries and the latter is all mashed up. The professor’s friend, Boris Karloff, transfers the gangster’s brain into the professor’s head.
A strange sci-fi drama which is utterly stupid in terms of plausibility, but isn’t half bad as long as you accept the crazy premise. The crux is that some of the professor remains, so there’s a battle for dominance in his head. Although, it doesn’t seem a conscious battle - they switch mostly due to exterior stimuli. Stanley Ridges plays the dual role well.
The whole thing comes off as a curious novelty. There’s a subplot about the gangster’s loot involving Bela Lugosi, so the clash of personalities inside the head of the main character never really gets going in a Jekyll and Hyde way.
6/10
Pier 23 (1951)
This was marketed as a film, but I don’t know why. It’s like two episodes of a tv show glued together. Both feature the characters of Hugh Beaumont (a boat business owner who keeps getting offered dodgy cash-in-hand jobs), Richard Travis (a police detective always trying to collar Beaumont for a job) and Edward Brophy (a pissed-up wordsmith who helps Beaumont out).
The first half is about Beaumont picking up an Alcatraz escapee before he can do any damage. Ann Savage features in this section. The second half is about wrestling match-fixing and payoffs.
As individual stories they’re alright. The dialogue is often sharp and occasionally amusing. As a cohesive film it doesn’t really work. The stories are totally unrelated and it feels like you’re watching a tv show with the credits stripped out.
5/10 for what’s shown, but 3/10 as a film.
Doogie Hauser
Midfield
Detour is firmly in my top 5 films I’ve watched this year, and it’s mostly thanks to her!
riffraff
Striker
It’s a very overrated film imho and I’m a film noir nut.
Doogie Hauser
Midfield
Not by me!
@riffraff
Do you have any good recommendations beyond the obvious ones that dominate the top ten lists? I’m trying to create a watchlist of noirs that are lesser known yet still very good.
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riffraff
Striker
Have you searched for the various film noir nut forums/websites? They’ve always got lists on them.Not by me!
@riffraff
Do you have any good recommendations beyond the obvious ones that dominate the top ten lists? I’m trying to create a watchlist of noirs that are lesser known yet still very good.
Doogie Hauser
Midfield
I have, and they’re very useful, but quite overwhelming in terms of how many recommendations there are. I’ve got some guides, too, but again, they’re almost too comprehensive.
It’s an absolutely massive genre and there seems to be so many different angles under the same umbrella term. Until a couple of years ago I’d not really encountered the type of film that has the procedural voiceover and sticks to a certain department, like the films entitled Expose and Confidential, but that seems to be a sub-genre all of its own. They seem a world apart from something like Scarlet Street.
Also, the first 45 minutes of that film has a mortar attack on an immigration facility, a bomb blowing up a bank, the sexual humiliation of a deranged army officer turning him into a dangerous stalker, Leonardo DiCaprio shagging a hot revolutionary while entire field blows up, a bank heist that turns fatal and a high speed car chase leading to multi-vehicle crashes and the police chasing suspects down on foot.
People can like or dislike what they want but pretending it's an uneventful film suggests they've taken a talking point off their social media feed and daubed it on here without watching any of the film
Drexl
Striker
It just hit $200 million worldwide this weekend which is quite something for an almost 3 hour political action film.
And that calls for “a few small beers”.
Well done for lasting that long. Thought it was shite.
Monty Pigeon
Striker
The Breaking Point (1950) 8/10
Adaptation of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Some terrific dialogue (John Garfield: You don't like cock fights?; Patricia Neal: All that trouble for an egg.). Excellent finale.
Daughters of Darkness (1971) 9/10
French (albeit in English) erotic arthouse vampire movie set in a wonderfully atmospheric hotel in Ostend. Magnificent.
Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025) 9/10
Just seen it at the cinema. The teaser trailer a few months ago looked woeful, so I went in with low expectations. Second best film of the year for me. Excellent exploration of depression and the creative process.
Adaptation of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Some terrific dialogue (John Garfield: You don't like cock fights?; Patricia Neal: All that trouble for an egg.). Excellent finale.
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Daughters of Darkness (1971) 9/10
French (albeit in English) erotic arthouse vampire movie set in a wonderfully atmospheric hotel in Ostend. Magnificent.
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Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025) 9/10
Just seen it at the cinema. The teaser trailer a few months ago looked woeful, so I went in with low expectations. Second best film of the year for me. Excellent exploration of depression and the creative process.
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ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Winger
I lasted but it's nowhere near what I expected from some of the reviews on here. It started OK but then just dragged on far too long and it just faded away and I was glad when it finally ended, 6/10 (would be 7 if not for below).
I'm not one to analyse soundtracks but this was terrible at times as it was just too distracting. Especially just after the hour mark as it went on with the same random piano key bashing for minutes at a time during the next 30 minutes with other bits of what sounded like a band just jamming in between. If it's trying to build suspense and confusion then it failed for me.
Predator Badlands - 7/10 - Does exactly what it says on the tin, aint by numbers plot take your brain out and just enjoy for what it was - closest Ive ever been to watching a subtitled film.
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