last movie you watched

[Greystoke]

I watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife this afternoon, which I was hoping to watch again before seeing the latest Ghostbusters film, Frozen Empire, but didn't manage to. It's a lot of fun, and whilst it leans into a Stranger Things sensibility along with doses of nostalgia, the young cast is really good and the premise is largely uncomplicated and uncluttered.

I also watched The Settlers, which is the feature debut of director, Felipe Gálvez Haberle. This is a harrowing and violent western that depicts aspects of the colonisation of Tierra del Diego, with the story focusing on three men tasked by a powerful landowner to clear natives from his spread.

Beautifully shot in academy ratio, with striking cinematography that contrasts scenic and often empty vistas with close-ups of men with empty hearts, The Settlers is very much an odyssey of brutality, led by a Scottish former soldier whose capacity for violence comes almost second nature. He's joined by a Texas cowboy, whose experience with Apaches is valued by their boss, and a young Chilean worker, taken along because he's a crack shot.

Haberle directs with an assured hand which allows Simone D’Arcangelo's photography of the landscapes and the characters within, to feel like they are existing in the moment. With the camera lingering and observing long enough to let what happens in certain scenes sink in. Visually, it's very impressive, whilst the narrative deepens in a final act that at first seems like it takes a sharp turn, before implications of cultural whitewashing and the erasure of identity add entirely new layer.

The cast is very good throughout, especially the three leads, whilst Harry Allouche's score is as epic as the landscapes themselves. A hugely impressive debut from a director to keep an eye on. Parables about cruelty and power are rarely more horrifying in cinema.

[ForeverElvis]

I watched the Ten Commandments 1956 last night. Hadn't seen it since about 2017-2018 where I saw it on the big screen as part of TCM Big Screen Classics series.

That was a great experience.

It's a film that I've seen too many times to count, all four hours. In the decades before home video when I was a kid (1960-70’s) it was an Easter tradition with my family with its network TV showing. But watching it last night on a 4K disc on 4K TV. It looked magnificent.

The film, of course, sometimes stagy sometimes preachy, is a spectacular entertainment. Over the course of almost 4 hours it never lulls.

Groundbreaking with its special effects for its time and some really good performances, though at times over the top. Heston is great until he becomes stoic after he sees the burning bush. Then all his line readings are stiff. Anne Baxter is really good and so is Cedric Hardwick as Seti. The standout performances are Yul Brynner and Edward G Robinson.

It was such a monumental undertaking for Demille and Hollywood at that moment in time. I don't think we can really appreciate the size and scope of the film and its undertaking now.
film.

[pmp]

I'm currently stuck re-watching some horror/slasher films that I'm only revisiting because I happen to be writing about them for an article.

Cherry Falls I've seen too many time to still get much enjoyment from, but it's actually a generally good film that would have been better if it wasn't for production problems. There are some VERY odd moments during the course of the movie, and it's even stranger to watch the bonus feature where the writer talk about it as an "arthouse" film. But it's generally good fun, and it all seems rather bizarre that the film debuted on TV in the US rather than in cinemas.

Tonight was Bride of Chucky, which I've only seen once before. Why and how the film works is a complete mystery, other than that the makers are completely aware of the bizarre tone that they want to capture and do it splendidly. On paper, this is a ridiculous and utterly stupid idea - on film, it's a real hoot. I haven't seen the four films that came after, although I've seen the TV series and enjoyed that. At some point I'll catch up on Seed of Chucky and beyond.

[Greystoke]

I'm currently stuck re-watching some horror/slasher films that I'm only revisiting because I happen to be writing about them for an article.

Cherry Falls I've seen too many time to still get much enjoyment from, but it's actually a generally good film that would have been better if it wasn't for production problems. There are some VERY odd moments during the course of the movie, and it's even stranger to watch the bonus feature where the writer talk about it as an "arthouse" film. But it's generally good fun, and it all seems rather bizarre that the film debuted on TV in the US rather than in cinemas.

Tonight was Bride of Chucky, which I've only seen once before. Why and how the film works is a complete mystery, other than that the makers are completely aware of the bizarre tone that they want to capture and do it splendidly. On paper, this is a ridiculous and utterly stupid idea - on film, it's a real hoot. I haven't seen the four films that came after, although I've seen the TV series and enjoyed that. At some point I'll catch up on Seed of Chucky and beyond.

I watched most of the Child's Play films again just over a year ago, and whilst it's a mixed bunch on the whole, they do have their pleasures. This said, I never did stick with the TV series. I might have to revisit that.

Next for me tonight was Okja, which is such a gem of a film. In some respects, it's Mighty Joe Young by way of a satire about the food industry and animal cruelty, as a corporation who genetically modifies giant super-pigs finds that a young girl who raised one of the pigs, doesn't want to give it back.

[Greystoke]

I watched I, Robot this afternoon, which wasn't among the better Will Smith vehicles at the time of its release, although it's another film from around twenty years ago with some amusing ideas of a future in which dazzling technology is everyday, e.g., voice activation, contactless payments, touch screens, and of course, artificial intelligence.

From a narrative perspective, it's quite generic stuff, with Smith playing a cop who rails against the system and ends up outside the law when he gets too deep into a case he's involved in. Unfortunately, the robots, especially "Sonny," a robot who has apparently developed its own sense of intelligence, isn't especially involving or interesting as a character or an entity in the film. And it's certainly Smith who carries the film amidst a lot of visual effects, which undoubtedly show their age, and less than brilliant direction from Alex Proyas.

Expectedly, there's a lot of chases and Smith doing some running, as was typically the case in his films at that time, although there's a distinct lack of heft and weight to the physics of the robots. But it never labours its point and with a running time of under two hours, brevity is in its favour.

[Greystoke]

This was expected, and it has been screening on Sky UHD for some time, but it will be great to have Chinatown on 4K later this year.

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[Rob]

[pmp]

Tonight, continuing the rewatch of films for an article I'm working on, I returned to Hellbent, a 2004 indie slasher movie. Hellbent sets itself apart from others of its ilk as the group of characters at the heart of it are gay. It is probably best described as "watchable," with it having surprisingly decent production values considering its ultra-low budget - there are far worse gay indies from this period in the US than this. BUT, it's most definitely not great, mostly because there is no rhyme or reason behind the killings. There's no back story at all - we don't even find out who the killer (dressed as the devil) actually is or why he's slaughtering gay men at a queer festival of some kind. Had that been rectified at the script stage, this might have had more of an impact, beyond its DVD release on the TLA label. As it is, it's really just remembered as a relatively decent gay-themed indie of the era that is ultimately not particularly memorable.

[pmp]

Finally, I've got around to re-watching the films for the paper I'm (re)writing about, among other things, the final films of Wes Craven. I wrote a draft about three years ago, but had a falling out with the editor of the book it was due to appear in, and so it got set aside, but now a journal's going to publish it, and I need to do rewrites. So last night I rewatched My Soul to Take, and today I had the unenviable "pleasure" of Cursed. Cursed is a pretty wretched concoction that only seems to get worse with each rewatch. I'm more fond of My Soul to Take for various reason, even if the premise is oddly complicated. But it's a good looking film, with far more Craven touches than Cursed. I was planning to watch Scream 4 last night, too, but then someone kindly pointed out the scene I was looking for, and so I just watched that instead! I'll probably return to My Soul to Take in a decade or so, but have no intention of ever watching Cursed again, unless I end up doing my planned two volume history of gay characters in film. But that's been planned for about eight years, and I haven't started yet!

Thankfully, tomorrow I can go back to watching films I actually want to see!

[Greystoke]

I noticed Amazon have Warner Archive's Some Came Running and There Was a Crooked Man Blu-rays available to pre-order for £9 each at the moment.

[pmp]

I noticed Amazon have Warner Archive's Some Came Running and There Was a Crooked Man Blu-rays available to pre-order for £9 each at the moment.

Thanks for that. I grabbed Some Came Running - which was essentially free as Amazon have given me a gift card in compensation. Sadly, my discs from the Archive sale at Moviezyng are currently stuck in customs, and have been there since Saturday. That's a first for them. I'm guessing I ordered too many in one order and didn't get away with it. Presumably there's a card in the post telling me to go online and pay VAT, but held up with Easter.

Tonight, I watched Peril on the Night Train, the second of the BBC Famous Five feature-length adventures directed by Nicholas Winding Refn - a bizarre combination of subject and director, but I've enjoyed both of the ones that have been screened so far, and I thought this latest one was a considerable improvement on the first, given that it didn't go into weird supernatural places and was a plain old espionage drama. It draws quite heavily from all those train crime thrillers of the 30s and 40s - not least The Lady Vanishes and Terror by Night. There's a few odd uses of language for what is supposed to be 1938, but other than that this a fun adventure with a likeable cast. Oddly, there's both nice location shooting and some rather rough looking green screen work (for the same location!), but it's not particularly distracting. I'm not totally sure who these films are aimed at, though. They're not based on Blyton stories, but this one certainly was in the flavour of one of the original books, but I'm not sure if they are too old-fashioned for kids and not close enough to the original stories for adults.

[Greystoke]

I've been enjoying the TCM retrospectives that have been happening this week, although it's a channel that I still miss on Sky. But their YouTube channel is worth exploring and I enjoyed the feature below.

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[pmp]

I've been enjoying the TCM retrospectives that have been happening this week, although it's a channel that I still miss on Sky. But their YouTube channel is worth exploring and I enjoyed the feature below.

High, do you have much experience of items being stuck in customs? A week seems a long time, or am I panicking its stuck in the system too early?

[Greystoke]

I've been enjoying the TCM retrospectives that have been happening this week, although it's a channel that I still miss on Sky. But their YouTube channel is worth exploring and I enjoyed the feature below.

High, do you have much experience of items being stuck in customs? A week seems a long time, or am I panicking its stuck in the system too early?

Usually they contact you and ask for whatever is owed to be paid. I've only had this happen once, I think. But I'm sure Royal Mail sent a card with what I owed and I went to the sorting office to pay and collect.

Might be worth getting in touch with your local sorting office, or asking the sender if they know where it's being held.

[Greystoke]

Tonight I watched Ricochet and The Grandmaster. The former, directed by Russel Mulcahy, stars Denzel Washington as a cop-turned-detective and now district attorney, whose life is turned upside down by an escaped convict, played by John Lithgow.

To call Ricochet absurd would be an understatement. It's a film full of stupid characters doing stupid things because the stupid plot tells them to. It has a Naked Gun sensibility without actually trying to be funny, with the dialogue being as bad as the performances. Washington does have the force of his personality on display, but Lithgow is woefully miscast, whilst the story gets more and more ridiculous after an absurd first act in which Washington holds Lithgow at gunpoint, before stripping to his underwear only to have a small gun concealed in his jockstrap.

It's quite violent and bloody at times, and there's a lean towards Driller Killer-type violence during a prison break where Lithgow's character tells one of the parole board that he's going to floss his teeth with his wife's pubic hair when he gets out. Whilst it leads to a climax that's totally in tune with how daft the film is up to that point. One of the worst films Washington has starred in.

Conversely, The Grandmaster is sublime filmmaking from Wong Kar-wai, with Tony Leung starring in a romanticised biopic of famed Chinese martial artist, Ip Man. It's beautifully made, with striking cinematography from Philippe Le Sourd, and a wonderful performance from Zhang Ziyi as another martial arts master and love interest of Leung's Ip.

Some characters aren't particularly well developed, whilst the plot largely centres around a series of conflicts that are imaginatively staged, if conventionally revenge themed, but it's brilliantly executed for the most part. And whilst Ip Man is the film's central character, there's genuine poignancy and a sense of melancholy in Zhang's Gong Er, who is the heart of the film in many respects.

[Greystoke]

I watched First Cow this afternoon, which is a film I liked a great deal when I first saw it, and after a second viewing, I once again found it quietly effective and certainly well directed by Kelly Reichardt. Whose story about an intelligent cook and an enterprising Chinese immigrant in 19th-century Oregon, is compelling in its simplicity and the bucolic nature of a story set outside of a small township, where John Magaro's "Cookie," and Orion Lee's "King Lu," steal milk from the only cow in the area to make and sell sweet baked goods.

Beautifully framed in Academy ratio by DP, Christopher Blauvelt, Reichardt manages to focus on people and character whilst depicting the time and place with a minimalist and grimy authenticity that blossoms with warmhearted charm. Great support from Ewen Bremner, as a Scottish big mouth, and Toby Jones as the landowner who owns the prized cow, brings a whole new dynamic to the film when tensions begin to rise. Lily Gladstone is also a welcome presence in a small role. Quite wonderful filmmaking.

[ForeverElvis]

Watched The Untouchables (1987) last night.

Hadn’t seen it in a couple of decades, or more.

On 4k it looks terrific. Typical for Brian de Palma the violence is graphic (for the time, nothing like today) and the detail I can see on 4k was noticeable.

I saw this on the largest screen in my city on its 1987 release. Theatre held close to 1000 and screen was massive.

This film felt big. There is a sweeping, epic feel to the camera movement and composition of the shots that is lost at home. Editing is tight, pacing excellent. The film runs two hours and speeds by. Made today this would be a 165 minute film that dragged.

Performances by Connery (“you want to know how to get Capone? He brings a knife, you bring a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.”) And, to the nebbish accountant, a terrific Charles Martin Smith, “ you carry a badge, carry a gun.” Connery, brings gravitas to the role and won a well deserved Oscar.

Kevin Costner, quite good in the role that catapulted him to stardom, is naive and earnest at the beginning, toughened and scarred by the end.

Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith, Robert De Niro, Patricia Clarkson, Billy Drago are all very good. Makes you think, what a star-studded cast. But, in 1987 only Connery and De Niro were really well-known.

No one else was a star, most had had significant supporting roles before.

Costner had several supporting performances (some uncredited) - most notably Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado and as a corpse in The Big Chill. But, it was 1987 with this film and No Way Out, with Gene Hackman, that made him.

The art and set direction are top-notch. It really looks like 1930, a major accomplishment when a significant portion of the film is shot outside in Chicago in 1987 (remember no CGI).

The sound editing is terrific. The Tommy guns blast out of my speakers. The period car engines roar. I must also point out Ennio Morricone’s score is excellent.

If you’ve not seen this in a while or not at all, it’s a must-see. The climax, paying homage to Battleship Potemkin, is incredibly well edited, and IS the sequence you come away with remembering the most.

[pmp]

Last night while switching channels, I caught a few minutes of a horror movie from 2019 called "The Shed." A terrible name for a movie, but it seemed good enough for me to go on Prime tonight and watch it. It gets hammered on IMDB, but I found it to be not too shabby at all. Clearly made on a smallish budget, it tells the story of an abused and bullied teenager who finds out that there is a vicious vampire living in the garden shed. Sounds stupid, but it actually works just fine. The vampire is of the monster variety rather than the handsome and charming variety. The boy's abusive grandfather soon succumbs to the beast, and the teenager managers to barracade the vampire into the shed - but his best friend has other ideas, and they involve using the monster to enact revenge on the bullies from school. It holds together in a way my synopsis doesn't really show, and the lead actor is good enough to hold the film together. There are some issues with the script - one or two characters sometimes do nonsensical things, and two of the three dream sequences in the early stages should have been chopped out in the editing room. But I found it likeable and entertaining, and there are some genuinely tense moments. I have seen a lot worse made for a lot more money - including a couple of those late Wes Craven films I had to rewatch last week. It appears the Legend channel in the UK is showing it semi-regularly, and it's also on Prime for 99p.

[Greystoke]

I saw Monkey Man at the cinema this morning, which is an impressive directorial debut from Dev Patel, who also stars. Patel plays a wrestler who saw his mother killed when he was a young boy, and now, in adulthood, the time becomes right for him to seek revenge.

Patel is terrific in the lead role, with the story and film taking cues from Korean and Hong Kong action cinema, whilst Dev's direction is inventive and kinetic, which is heightened by terrific camera work and a marvellous score. Impressive, intelligent, and a lot of fun, with genuine pathos at its core.

[Greystoke]

Last night while switching channels, I caught a few minutes of a horror movie from 2019 called "The Shed." A terrible name for a movie, but it seemed good enough for me to go on Prime tonight and watch it. It gets hammered on IMDB, but I found it to be not too shabby at all. Clearly made on a smallish budget, it tells the story of an abused and bullied teenager who finds out that there is a vicious vampire living in the garden shed. Sounds stupid, but it actually works just fine. The vampire is of the monster variety rather than the handsome and charming variety. The boy's abusive grandfather soon succumbs to the beast, and the teenager managers to barracade the vampire into the shed - but his best friend has other ideas, and they involve using the monster to enact revenge on the bullies from school. It holds together in a way my synopsis doesn't really show, and the lead actor is good enough to hold the film together. There are some issues with the script - one or two characters sometimes do nonsensical things, and two of the three dream sequences in the early stages should have been chopped out in the editing room. But I found it likeable and entertaining, and there are some genuinely tense moments. I have seen a lot worse made for a lot more money - including a couple of those late Wes Craven films I had to rewatch last week. It appears the Legend channel in the UK is showing it semi-regularly, and it's also on Prime for 99p.

I haven't seen The Shed but I'll make a point of watching it.

[pmp]

Tonight I got around to the blu ray of Spellbound. The German edition is good, but going by what Greystoke has mentioned before, it's probably not quite as good as the one he has. Quite how and why this, Rebecca and Notorious haven't made it to blu ray in the UK is a mystery. I think the DVD was one of the first I ever bought.

I hadn't seen Spellbound for a long time - at least a decade, maybe nearer two. It's entertaining, and easy to get swept along by the performances, the narrative, and that gorgeous soundtrack. But coming to it now I felt that it's hardly Hitchcock's most subtle film - all those doors opening when Peck and Bergman kiss etc. Those shenanigans feel dated and just too obvious, I think, as is the use of the soundtrack (beautiful though it is) at the more romantic moments. It feels just a bit over-egged as it swells each time. All it needs is images of waves crashing on rocks to complete the effect! Despite these issues, it's still an excellent film, and it's nice to be reacquainted with it again after such a long time.

[Rob]

[pmp]

My "classic movies to watch" and "others to watch" blu ray shelves are getting a bit full. I need to stop buying...

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[pmp]

Now that the moviezyng order of Warner Archive discs have arrived, I saw Athena tonight - an MGM musical starring Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, Vic Damone and Edmund Purdom...set against the backdrop of a Mr Universe contest, and dealing with a pair of sisters obsessed with astrology and numerology.

It really feels like MGM were getting desperate to keep the musical alive by this point, and other than fine performances by the leads, this doesn't have much going for it. The script is limp, and Richard Thorpe feels like too old a director to take this where it needs to go to make it work, which would be to make it as camp as Christmas. It lurches in that direction occasionally with the parades of shirtless men and body building sequences, but it seems unwilling to go for broke, which is a shame.

The only film I can think of to compare it with is Search for Beauty from 1934, which benefits from being from the pre-code era, and which throws caution to the wind with a storyline about a physique mag used to cover up publishing of porn. It was also happy to play up the homoerotic elements.

Athena does have some nice songs, but other than the regurgitation of The Boy Next Door, they're not particularly memorable, and I doubt any of this made it into the That's Entertainment films.

[pmp]

I watched the second and third films in the Children of the Corn series this week, thus completing the Arrow boxed set. Will I keep it or sell it? The answer to that is in the balance. I thought the second film wasn't particularly bad, but it was very dull, not helped by rather bland actors - both kids and adults.

Number 3 in the series was more interesting, as two "brothers" from Gatlin are adopted by a couple in Chicago. The brothers aren't related by blood, however, as one was adopted. The younger one attempts to carry on his misdeeds in Chicago, while the older one tries to stop him. On the whole, the film benefits from a rather surreal feel to it, that makes it something of a cross between Nightmare on Elm Street and The Omen - and the carbon copy Carmina Burana-type theme music helps that along. Daniel Cerny makes for a charistmatic and convincing "bad brother," and he really is excellent.

Sadly, however, everything falls to pieces in the last ten minutes by the appearance of a "monster" that appears to be put together with playdough, which, at one point eats one of the teenagers....but the shot of her being eaten shows she's quite clearly a doll of the Barbie variety and not a real child. The whole finale is full of moments like that, and it's rather a shame, for you're rooting for the film to keep its dignity and be a reasonable sequel, despite going straight to video and being on a modest budget. But it IS still a better film than #2, and never less than entertaining.

The rest of the sequels aren't in the Arrow box, although it's quite likely I'll stream them at some point in the future, not least because #4 features Naomi Watts and Karen Black, #5 has Eva Mendes, and #6 has Stacy Keach. They can't be that bad, right?