Last Film You Watched

[Ian]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. A mysterious energy wave devastates everything in its path and is headed on a collision course with Earth, with the newly refurbished (and untested) Enterprise the only thing standing in its way. The very first Star Trek film from 1979 has long been regarded as the black sheep of the franchise, being judged at the time to be far too slow and ponderous and lacking in action, though there has been some re-evaluation in recent years. I have vague childhood memories of finding it boring too, which is why despite having it on Blu ray for several years I only just got around to watching it last night, and had no idea what to expect.... and, to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. No, it's not an action movie, but it is a slice of real cinematic SF with an interesting and compelling story, some stunning special effects (there's some dated/ropey stuff early on but all the stuff inside the energy wave looks bloody amazing even 40 years on), the cast, particularly good old William Shatner, are all on point, and with a running time of 2 hrs 15 my attention never wavered. Unexpectedly terrific.

[Ian]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. An ageing movie star whose career is in decline and his best mate/stunt double/gopher careen blindly around the fairytale land of Hollywood in 1969, blissfully unaware of the danger that may soon be coming their - and their Hollywood next door neighbours, director Roman Polanski and his starlet wife Sharon Tate - way. Brad Pitt and Leonard DiCaprio star in the latest magnum opus from Quentin Tarantino, which I have to say, despite not being overly enthused by the trailer of, I thoroughly enjoyed and have to rank as the best film I've seen at the cinema so far this year. Hugely indulgent but enormously fun, and - despite what you might think/expect given some of the subject matter, and some tense scenes - probably the closest thing to an all-out comedy he's done. Whether it will stand up to repeat viewings I don't know - to be honest, pretty much none of his do for me bar Pulp Fiction - but this was enormous fun. Last month I saw Crawl, which was like 87 minutes and felt like three hours. This is nearly 3 hours but felt much shorter. Great stuff.

[Owen]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture...

Do you like Star Trek, Ian? I recently bought the Original Series on Blu-Ray and began to watch, but it's a little boring and very far from any "hard" SF. I'm not sure it all qualifies as "soft" SF either; it resembles more some science-fantasy. But I do enjoy the aesthetics: bright and unified colors, minimalistic and square design of the sets, the matte paintings, some of the acting (which makes me laugh).

As for the first Star Trek film, I liked it better than the other ones I saw (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations, and the three recent ones), it is more serious.
I liked Star Trek Beyond too, for the visuals and the humor mostly.

[Ian]

I wouldn't say I'm a "fan" like I am with Who, but I like chunks of it. The original series is too dated for me, though I enjoy most of the movies with the original cast. The Next Generation is kind of 50/50 with me, the "character" episodes are usually as exciting as watching paint dry but there's some good episodes. Deep Space 9 is probably my favourite of the various series, though Enterprise was okay. I couldn't stand Voyager though, and my interest in the reboot movies is pretty much zero.

[Owen]

Aren't the first Doctor Who series as outdated as The Original Series?
I never have seen the Next Generation, but from what I heard, it's kind of a soap. I know next to nothing about the other series. I don't think that I will explore them, there's just too much (and Doctor Who is very long too).

[Ian]

They're not as... cheesy/campy. I think it's an American vs British thing. American 60s TV is really cheesy/campy to me, whereas most 60s British TV isn't. But that's just my opinion.

[Ian]

Lifeforce. Astronauts carrying out a scientific study of Hailey's Comet are more than a little surprised to find what appears to be an alien spacecraft within it - and within that, along with hundreds of corpses of strange bat-like creatures, three perfect human specimens - two men and a woman - in suspended animation. When the three reach Earth, they soon awake and begin sucking the life from their victims, spreading a plague that soon overwhelms London and threatens to destroy the world! Most remembered today for the hot young alien chick wandering around completely starkers for a large portion of the film, this completely bonkers British sci-fi horror flick starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay and Patrick Stewart could only have been made in the 80s. Having never seen Firth in anything but Spooks before, I was particularly amused by his presence here. So that's what Harry got up to in the 80s! No wonder he was made head of MI-5 and so coolly dealt with all those spies and terrorists - he'd already seen off fricking SPACE VAMPIRES!
I'm not sure if this movie is brilliant or terrible, but it's certainly entertaining.

[fish]

...I'm not sure if this movie is brilliant or terrible...

A little from column A, and a little from column B, but it sounds like fun.

[Ian]

The New Kids. The teenage son and daughter of an army Colonel are forced to go live with relatives in a small town in Florida when their parents are killed in a car crash. As if the culture shock of their new lives isn't enough, things get even worse when the girl attracts the unwanted attention of several members of a notorious local teen gang - and they don't take kindly to being rebuffed, beginning a campaign of harassment and intimidation. The brother decides he's had enough and retaliates and puts them in their place - but standing up to these bullies only enrages them further, and the teen siblings soon find themselves fighting for their very lives... I've never seen this mid 80s flick before, or even heard of it till recently, but it;s a thoroughly enjoyable thriller with a decent cast including Lori Loughlin, Eric Stoltz and cult fave Tom Atkins (albeit for about five minutes!) but stealing the show is undoubtedly a young James Spader as the main villain, already leaving teeth marks in the scenery as the drug-snorting, leering, unbelievably narcissistic and just plain deranged leader of the gang. He and his cohorts are so thoroughly, irredeemably loathsome that the last act, in which their attempts to murder the siblings in cold blood backfires and each of them gets taken out in true grisly 80s movie fashion, is enormously satisfying. This movie is AWESOME.
And I must spare a moment to mention the Blu ray slipcover, designed to look like a videotape is coming out of the - suitably battered - clearly original 80s VHS rental cover art design. Glorious.

[Santi]

The Girl in the Spider's Web, Follow Millenium....
The action is in Stockholm

[fish]

The Girl in the Spider's Web...

Still reading the book as part of the "after" Stieg Larsson series.
No doubt I'll see the movie in due course but I'm having difficulty reconciling anyone but Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth.

[Ian]

Samantha. Martha Plimpton is Samantha, an eccentric young woman who is thrown into emotional disarray when, on her 21st birthday, her parents finally admit she was adopted (or rather, left on their doorstep in a wicker basket!). Feeling like an impostor in her own life, Samantha goes on a quest to find her birth parents, but her obsession threatens to derail her musical education and her relationship with her parents and her best friend (Dermot Mulroney). I saw this early 90s comedy drama in the mid 90s but haven't seen it for donkeys years, not least because you can't even get it on DVD. It seems rather unfair that it's so obscure, as it's a funny and touching piece with a good cast that also includes Hector Elizondo and Ione Skye, and is an all round very enjoyable film.

[Ian]

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. A NY Transit cop must match wits with a dangerous sociopath when he and his men hijack a subway train and demand $1 million within the hour - or they begin executing the passengers. Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw star in this gritty and thoroughly enjoyable mid 70s thriller that also features Hector Elizondo and Mr Costanza himself, Jerry Stiller.

[Santi]

I found many movies on YouTube called "Sci-Fi Short Film"(Science Fiction Short Film). I like it very much.
"DUST" is one of these.

[Ian]

Con Air. Sent to prison after killing a drunken thug in a fight, former US Ranger Nicolas Cage is finally being released, but the US Marshal flight that's meant to be his flight to freedom is hijacked by a highly dangerous group of other prisoners and he finds himself caught between them and the authorities in this ludicrously overblown but thoroughly enjoyable late 90s action flick that has a fantastic cast including John Cusack, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney, Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi. Wonderful 90s dumb fun action.