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SMB Film Thread 2026


Just watched the new Anaconda, never watched the original, was OK for a brainless Sunday night watch, funny in parts, reminded me of the Jumangi reboots 6/10

Last night, Five nights at Freddys 2 more of the same as the first, maniac ananatromics on the loose 7/10
 
Shelter - A Jason Stratham film, need i say anything else, he dispatches all the baddies and lives to save the day, better than his last outing and entertaining enough for what it is 6.5/10
 
Hannibal (2001) 5/10
Just read the 'biography' of Hannibal Lecter. Decent read that shows how thoroughly Thomas Harris trashed his most famous creation - starting with Hannibal. Decent direction by Ridley Scott, but can't overcome the dire source material.
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Red Dragon (2002) 7/10
This is the one Ridley Scott should have made - instead, it was directed by Brett Ratner (#MeToo; Melania). Not as good as the first adaptation, Manhunter, but a more fitting follow-up to The Silence of the Lambs than Hannibal. As with all the Lecter cash-ins, it misses the obvious truth that he's much more frightening if his screen time is limited. When he's front and centre, the mystique is lost.
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The Two of Us (Le Vieil Homme et l'Enfant) (1967) 10/10
During the Nazi occupation of France, a Jewish scamp is sent by his parents to live with an old, antisemitic Catholic couple. Brilliant contrasting of the idylls of childhood and the countryside against the seemingly distant horrors of the war.
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@Monty Pigeon just seen your post about Werner Herzog on last year's thread but it's locked.

I'd highly recommend listening to Adam Buxton's podcast when he was a guest (EP. 218).

Absolutely fascinating and he's funny as fuck.
 
The Thing With Feathers (2025)

Rubbish. I was looking forward to this because it screened at Sitges, and I photographed Cumberbatch, but this is dreadful.

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Together (2025)

Just as bad, wanted to be a body horror Cronenberg style but lacked all tension, and that main characters had nothing about them to make you want them to survive
 
Lankester Merrin said:
The Thing With Feathers (2025)

Rubbish. I was looking forward to this because it screened at Sitges, and I photographed Cumberbatch, but this is dreadful.

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Together (2025)

Just as bad, wanted to be a body horror Cronenberg style but lacked all tension, and that main characters had nothing about them to make you want them to survive
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Agree with both reviews but a lot seemed to like Together. No idea how that could be. The Thing with Feathers is embarrassing. The final scene on the beach was really cringeworthy.
 
craigypants said:
Agree with both reviews but a lot seemed to like Together. No idea how that could be. The Thing with Feathers is embarrassing. The final scene on the beach was really cringeworthy.
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When he did the Q&A about his new production company (which made this film) I was tempted to ask if he was influenced by the lower tax rate on corporation tax vs income tax

Having watched the movie I started to wonder whether the whole thing was some giant tax dodge
 
28 years later the bone temple: 7/10 better than the last one

Sisu 2 : 8/10 absolutely ludicrous, quite enjoyed it.

We bury the dead: 4/10 painfully slow, boring

Marty Supreme : turned it off, bored to tears, can see why it's popular with film buffs though.
 
Wiz (1978)

In this unmitigated load of psychedelic, hallucinogenic, mind bending horse plop 70s Motown meets The Wizard of Oz. Oz now laughably akin to The Bronx in 1974 New York.

Stars Michael Jackson, Diana Dross and Richard Pryor.
 
Suddenly (1954)

Frank Sinatra’s lads take over a house with a vantage point overlooking the town railtracks. The president is due to arrive. Frank sets up his rifle.

Class. Short, tense and straight to the point - this is a film that I enjoyed immensely. The future echoes are fascinating, but most of all, Sinatra’s performance is the real winner. He’s both calm and dangerously unhinged, though not a caricature. As someone who gets off on killing, and wants to melt away after a payday, he’s great. There’s a lot of unspoken dialogue about what kind of a person he is, and what he’ll continue to be even if successful.

8/10
 
LA Confidential. 1997. 9/10.

As good as fillums get. 30yrs old next year ferchrissakes. Not seen it for nigh on 20yrs and it’s even better than I remembered. Is it better than Chinatown? Who cares? They’re both treading the same ground and the world’s a better place for their existence. Absolutely superb..
Surely it’s the highlight of all their careers Basinger, Crowe, Spacey, Devito, Pearce and Cromwell. The lot of em though the pimp feller was better in Goodnight and Goodluck. The girl in the couple nicked right at the start looks familiar anarl but she’s only on screen for 30secs or so. I think she may have landed a few bigger roles later.

Think I’ll start reading the Ellroys I’ve missed. Iirc I gave up on him halfway through American Tabloid in 1995 though I’m thinking I missed out White Jazz anarl.
riffraff said:
LA Confidential. 1997. 9/10.

As good as fillums get. 30yrs old next year ferchrissakes. Not seen it for nigh on 20yrs and it’s even better than I remembered. Is it better than Chinatown? Who cares? They’re both treading the same ground and the world’s a better place for their existence. Absolutely superb..
Surely it’s the highlight of all their careers Basinger, Crowe, Spacey, Devito, Pearce and Cromwell. The lot of em though the pimp feller was better in Goodnight and Goodluck. The girl in the couple nicked right at the start looks familiar anarl but she’s only on screen for 30secs or so. I think she may have landed a few bigger roles later.

Think I’ll start reading the Ellroys I’ve missed. Iirc I gave up on him halfway through American Tabloid in 1995 though I’m thinking I missed out White Jazz anarl.
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I can’t think why I stopped reading Ellroy. I’ve just checked and I’d read all 8 or 9 of his previous books. Probably the sheer misery, sleaze and seediness.
I watched it tonight after reading the BFI Film Classics book on it last week. In it the writer mentions Bud Schulberg the esteemed Hollywood writer whose dad ran a studio iirc had revealed the secret lookalike hooker agency in the hotel his family first stayed in when they first moved to LA years previously. I thought it was fictional.
 
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ShieldsBlackCat2015 said:
Wiz (1978)

In this unmitigated load of psychedelic, hallucinogenic, mind bending horse plop 70s Motown meets The Wizard of Oz. Oz now laughably akin to The Bronx in 1974 New York.

Stars Michael Jackson, Diana Dross and Richard Pryor.
Click to expand...
I'd never ever heard of this film, yet hours after your post I was watching the Stranger Things series and it was referenced. This always happens 😊 And then I bumped into a film starring Donna Summer that I'd never ever heard of.
 
riffraff said:
The girl in the couple nicked right at the start looks familiar anarl but she’s only on screen for 30secs or so. I think she may have landed a few bigger roles later.
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She's meant to look like Rita Hayworth iirc

American Tabloid is one of the greatest novels ever written, I'd give it another go if I were you
 
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