I Just Watched (Films)

[Raid]

"Aim for the bushes" is easily the best gag in it.

Burke and Hare

A vaguely comedic, light-hearted take on body snatching based on a true story. It's got a great cast but for the most part they're under-utilised. It's one of those films where they manage to cram two thirds of British actors in for basically cameos (you've got Tim Curry, Bill Bailey, Hugh Bonneville, Christopher Lee, Stephen Merchant, Paul Whitehouse among them). Giving the role of the main antagonist to Ronnie Corbett was inspired.

It's a little bland but inoffensive.

[Wrathbone]

Dragnet

I had reasonable hopes for an 80s comedy starring Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks that had somehow escaped me until now, but it's fair to say it's been mostly forgotten for the right reasons. It's pretty damn terrible. It has a couple of funny turns, which are unfortunately drowned amongst moments such as someone describing toxic gas and how repeated inhiliation will eventually lead to death, to which Hanks remarks to Akroyd, "So like your aftershave."

Even more disappointing was that they had Christopher Plummer as the baddy and completely wasted him. His entire motive is "do bad things", and he's never given room to do anything interesting. A total waste of talent across the board.

It does have a snake scene which rivals Conan for unintentional comedy, though.

4/10

[Sly Boots]

I remember quite liking it way back in the day, but it's schtick of po-faced police comedy was so utterly overshadowed by the Naked Gun that it doesn't hold up well.

[Wrathbone]

I remember quite liking it way back in the day

Was it the rap? I bet it was the rap.

[Achtung Englander]

Phenomena (1985)

I knew this was going to be crap before seeing it. It has an IMDB rating of 6.7, so I thought, it could be good, but I had my doubts. I was proved right, to myself that is. This is the second Dario Argento film I have seen and he seems to have a fetish for young girls starting life in a boarding house while other young girls get mystery slaughtered with lots of bad fake blood.

Where Suspiria was pretty decent, this one is plain daft. I am gald I did not see this as a teenager as I think I would have fallen in love with Jennifer Connelly (not so much now...meow meow). I love Donald Pleasence but I only wish he got meatier roles than this horror slock, but I guess its what paid the bills.

I will see other Argento films, but after a good start, this was a bum steer

3/10

[Alan]

Barbarian
That was great. Definite Sam raimi feel with a sprinkle of Rec. If you like over the top grungey horror I recommend!


Nosforatu
GFT we’re showing this with a live score and it wasn’t great! They got a woman to narrate the non-dialogue parts (newspapers, books etc..) which it was incredibly poorly mixed to the point it was twice as loud as the music and unnecessary. The live music part was ok, it didn’t all fit (the night time attack in the castle was the jaunty daytime music) but it was fine. At one point he accidentally fed his metronome into the mix a digital delay which just kept replicating until it was a wall of digital metronome noise which was quite something.

[Snowy]

Visited a mate down in Portsmouth last night and we sat and watched The Brothers Grimsby, a film from 2016 I was previously unaware existed.

Now I do have an very dark sense of humour and can also find very crass/silly things extremely funny - which you absolutely need if you are going to watch it. There is no low bar here, it has been completely removed, the lower and more twisted the humour the greater the likelihood it made it into the film. It is the story of two brothers from Grimsby (unsurprisingly) who get split up as children and live different lives - one is a chav, the other basically James Bond - and are reunited years later. The film is quite an action packed spy thriller one moment then dives headlong into abject filth the next.

Fans of Bottom will feel right at home here.

10/10 (even though it is utterly crass I don't care)

[Animalmother]

I watched most of that a few years ago and vaguely remember something about elephant jizz...did I dream that?

[Snowy]

No that absolutely happens…

[Alan]

Pearl
What if Saint Maud was presented in technicolor. It’s really good and Mia Goth has some great acting moments where the camera just dwells on her for ages. I recommend.

Man, two good films in one Halloween season. What’s going on?

[Raid]

John Wick 3

Not quite as good as the first two, maybe, but still very entertaining. The choreography is as goo as ever, but it's suffering from diminishing returns as they have to come up with new set pieces to justify it without feeling repetitive. The throwing knife fight was superb, but the dog fight felt a little far fetched even for this franchise. They're also relying on expanding the setting, making it more expansive, but it loses the secretive aspect as there seem to be members of this underground world in every alleyway in every country. At one point people are straight up murdered in a crowded public place and nobody around them seems to bat an eye, which is totally at odds to the excellent silenced pistol fight in a subway station that was one of my favourite parts of the first film.

[Wrathbone]

Big - extended edition

There’s an extended edition of Big! I had no idea until I played the second-hand blu-ray I picked up dirt cheap and was given the choice of that or the theatrical edition. It’s 25 minutes longer, and while it doesn’t drastically change the film, it does flesh out the characters more and give a little more insight into things. Considering it’s a film I’ve seen countless times, I didn’t find the changes and additions jarring, which was a pleasant surprise. The theatrical edition is certainly the tighter film but I think the extended edition is better overall.

It remains one of those films that I can watch at any time, in any mood and enjoy it just as much as the first time. I also think it’s Tom Hanks’s finest performance.

How could it be anything other than 10/10.

[Rusty]

Extended edition? Noice. I'm off to google the differences

[Can't think of one]

Is there a big difference?

Sorry ¬_¬

[Wrathbone]

It should have been called Bigger.