Last Film You Watched

[Ian]

More nightmares I'm afraid, fishy!

Rented a couple of films.

Howl. A night train derails and the skeleton staff and passengers soon find themselves facing something far worse than endless delays - a rampaging werewolf on the track! This was a surprisingly decent and effective "base under siege" British horror for the most part, though I didn't like the ending.

Bone Tomahawk. When a criminal, a Sheriff's Deputy and the local female doctor are abducted from the town jail, seemingly by Indians, the town Sheriff conjures up a small posse, including the doctor's injured husband, to go after them - but is unaware of just how utterly savage and ferocious his enemy really is... Kurt Russell stars in this very effective Western thriller that turns into a horror flick. The mid-section is a little on the slow side, but it pays off in a shockingly brutal final act as the Sheriff and company find themselves outnumbered by a clan of brutal cannibalistic savages who might as well be alien monsters for all the humanity they possess. I really liked this!

[bruno]

, though I didn't like the ending.

How does it end ?

[fish]

...How does it end ?

I think Ian watches these films on purpose, just to give me bad dreams.

[Ian]

, though I didn't like the ending.

How does it end ?

That's a bit of a spoiler, isn't it?

[bruno]

[Ian]

Every Which Way But Loose. Clint Eastwood is a bare-knuckle fighter with an orangutan for a best friend. In between romancing a singer (Sondra Locke) who may not be everything she appears, he manages to antagonise both an obnoxious local cop and perhaps the most hopeless bikie gang ever committed to film... Although (along with its sequel Any Which Way You Can) something of a childhood favourite I haven't seen this late 70s knockabout action comedy for decades, so I was rather pleased to find it holds up as a very entertaining and funny film. Clyde the Orangutan probably steals the film, of course, though he gets strong competition from Ruth Gordon as Clint's cantankerous, foul-mouthed old Ma, who knows how to deal with bikers! Great fun.

[Ian]

Silence of the Lambs. Absolute classic.

[snaps]

En kärlekshistoria - A Swedish Love Story 1970: Romantic comedy. Seriously, if you are a fan of FA/SML (or indeed "Water Lilies") you HAVE to watch this. Like Lukas Moodysson, this is the first feature length outing by Roy Andersson who attended the same Film School. If you are familiar with his later work then you will know his reputation for social satire. He broke many film and story-telling conventions.

Hilarious observation of Swedish society. Key linking theme? Adults behaving like immature children while the young people behave more sensibly and grounded. Yup, 1970. "Two teenagers fall in love over the summer, in spite of cynical and disapproving adults who dismiss their relationship as being nothing but young love." OK it's a hetero-relationship but that is less important than the study of intense passion and trying to make sense of why the adult clowns in their lives fail so miserably to provide a role model. Truly ground-breaking. A Swedish self-congratulatory post-war society 'on the make' Money and social democracy as substitute for love. Challenged by young people 'post-war' following instincts trying to make sense of it all. It's all there. You become a 'real man' when you can ride a moped at 15. If you are a girl you allow a boy to suck your ear-lobe while you suck on the straw of your Cola drink. Like many of Anderssons real-life observations, painful and funny at the same time.

I have never seen a direct acknowledgement of Andersson by Moodysson. Lukas himself would have been an awkward teenager when this film was first released. I would go so far as to say that he would not have had the audacity to make SML/FA without this film as a foundation stone. See this film and you will enhance your understanding of SML/FA. You can see it on Youtube through this link .... picture quality is obviously downgraded as it contains English sub-titles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUxXA3-6-kA

[fish]

En kärlekshistoria...

I'll get to it, I promise.

[Ian]

Evolution. Two community college scientists stumble on a meteorite that carries with it an extraterrestrial microbe, which soon begins to evolve at an exponential rate into something that could destroy all other life on Earth! David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones and Seann William Scott star in this entertaining early 2000s sci-fi comedy from the director of Ghostbusters. I haven't seen this flick for about 13 years and couldn't remember anything about it, but I really enjoyed it! It was cool to have Dan Aykroyd as the Governor of Arizona too.

[Ian]

Now You See Me 2. Mildly entertaining sequel that see the trickster magicians on the back foot against an old nemesis who's out for revenge. It's passable enough fare, though the fact that neither of the female leads from the first movie are back rather sucks. They do at least account for Isla Fisher's absence, and Lizzy Caplan is an affable enough replacement, but I was decidedly cheesed not just by the complete absence of Melanie Laurent, but a complete lack of any reference to her either (given she and Ruffalo's characters seemed to be a couple by the end of the first movie and indeed their burgeoning relationship was one of the most affecting things about the film). The final retcon pretty much renders almost all the first film completely pointless too. Average.

[Ian]

Lethal Weapon 2. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are back as Riggs and Murtaugh stumble onto a South African group smuggling drugs and hiding behind a senior diplomat's political protections. But said group are making a very big mistake if they think they'll be able to hide behind the law when they start killing police officers and go after Riggs and Martaugh... because now the gloves are off, baby! This 1989 sequel is almost every bit as good as the classic 87 original, upping the comedy quotient but without sacrificing the darker, more bloodsoaked thriller aspects (which does happen a little in the subsequent sequels), especially in the absolutely brutal extended climax as Riggs and Murtaugh decide enough's enough and go on the warpath. I haven't seen this in about 14 years for some reason, and I've no idea why. Absolute classic!

[Ian]

More nightmare fuel for fishy...

The Conjuring 2. The Warren's are called in by the church to investigate an apparent haunting which is ruining the lives of a previously ordinary family in an ordinary house in the British suburban town of Enfield in the late 70s. This sequel to the original Conjuring, again allegedly based on real events, is perhaps not quite as good as the original - there's a couple of silly bits, to be honest - but is still a cut above most horror flicks these days and a very effective little chiller for the most part. The little girl who plays the girl at the centre of the apparent haunting is excellent, and the whole 70s vibe - in this case a British 70s vibe - is delightful and authentic and adds much to the atmosphere, just as it did in the first one. Generally still very good and creepy, and I shall certainly be adding the Blu-ray to my collection.

[fish]

More nightmare fuel for fishy...

You fiend you.

[Ian]

And more...

Absentia. A young woman goes to give emotional support to her older sister, who is about to finally have her husband declared legally dead "in absentia" after he mysteriously disappeared seven years earlier. The woman is having vivid nightmares/hallucinations of her missing husband, which her therapist tells her are the result of grief and guilt, while the younger sister has a couple of strange experiences in a local tunnel, which has a disturbing history of people vanishing near it... This creepy 2010 horror flick was the feature debut of writer-director Mike Flanagan, who has since gone on to helm Oculus (with Karen Gillan) and this year's critically acclaimed Hush (which I haven't seen yet but want to!). Absentia is clearly a low budget flick (it was part-funded by Kickstarter!) with a no-name cast, some of whom are a bit rough round the edges occasionally, but it is instantly clear why Flanagan has gone onto bigger things, as he generates a great atmosphere of unease and handles the suspense, tension and a couple of big shocks (one involving a shower curtain) like a maestro. Absentia is an eerie and surprisingly effective little horror flick. I liked it.