Last Film You Watched

[Ian]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Rocket's past comes back to haunt him and when he's severely wounded in an attack the Guardians plan a dangerous mission to gain critical info on his design - only to come up against a a genocidal mad scientist hell bent on creating his idea of the perfect species. The final of the Guardians trilogy was a lot of fun, better than I was expecting tbh, particularly with its butt-numbing running time (why does everything have to be 2 and a half hours plus these days?).But it kept me engaged and interested in throughout, though like MI7 I might have flagged if I'd seen it at the cinema rather than at home. Still, probably the best new film I've seen this year. Granted I've only seen about four but there you go...

[Santi]

second and third versions of movies are usually no better than the first.
How is this third version?

The second version of Top Gun is one of the few times that a second version (remake) is better than the previous one.

[Ian]

Better than the second one. First is probably still the best but it was nonetheless very entertaining.

[Ian]

Saw Legal Eagles last night. A young woman's attempt to steal a painting plunges a lawyer and an Assistant DA into a complex criminal conspiracy. Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah star in this mid 80s legal romantic comedy thriller from Ivan Reitman, with support from Terrance Stamp and Brian Dennehy. Been aware of this for a long time - I think it was on one Xmas in the late 80s - but I don't think I've ever seen it before. Found it thoroughly enjoyable, quite oldfashioned by 80s standards, but charming and with that lovely 80s look to it. And like so many films from this period, almost every single role is played by an actor you recognise - one-scene bit parts played by the likes of Marshall Bell, Seinfeld's mom and Buffy's mom! - which is in stark contrast to so many movies today, where I don't even know the leads let alone the side or bit actors! Very entertaining.

[Ian]

Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers. 10 years after the events of Halloween and Halloween 2 (sorry modern hack movie makers), Michael Myers awakens from his "coma" upon hearing of the existence of a niece (Danielle Harris) and set off to Haddonfield to kill her and anyone who gets in his way. Fortunately Dr Loomis (the great Donald Pleasance) is soon in hot pursuit. Always loved this one, still do and it looks FAB on 4k blu ray. Sooooo atmospheric.

[Ian]

Kicked off my festive movie season last night by watching It's a Wonderful Knife on Shudder. A teenage girl, Winnie, and her brother are attacked on Xmas Eve by the masked killer stalking her small town who has already murdered her best friend. In the ensuing fight Winnie manages to kill the killer, who turns out to be a sleazy local real estate mogul (Justin Long), who's been trying to buy up half the town. But a year later Winnie's life seems to be going downhill - she's still not over the loss of her best friend, has failed to get into her dream college and her boyfriend has cheated on her and dumped her for another of her friends - and in a moment of self-pity she wishes she were never born... only to find herself instantly flung into a nightmare parallel reality where no one knows her, her brother is dead and her family fracturing, the killer is still killing and Long now owns almost the entire town and is even Mayor.

This fun 2023 festive slasher flick does for It's a Wonderful Life what Happy Death Day did for Groundhog Day. This has got mixed reviews but I had fun with it. It even has the same trope as Happy Death Day of a virtual stranger being the only one to believe the lead girl and becoming her main ally/confidante/potential romantic interest, only here it's a girl, Bernie, a lonely and isolated girl who's been outcast and declared a weirdo by her school for no particular reason. The relationship between the two girls gives the movie a bit more heart than I was expecting, even when I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't reading too much into it (I do see lesbians everywhere ) but, as it turned out, I wasn't. (There was just something about Winnie's utterly blase physical affection and Bernie's awkwardly nervous reaction to it that gave me a bit of a Sky and Lana vibe lol) and this carries the movie through some of its flaws (like the weird bit in the climax that out-of-nowhere implies Long has supernatural powers over the townsfolk). It's a feel good festive slasher lol and I enjoyed it for that. If it gets a Blu I will probably buy it.

[Ian]

Anna and the Apocalypse. A teenage girl and her friends battle for survival in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. This very weird 2017 British flick is a comedy horror zombie... musical. No, really. It's better than it sounds, but it's not just the musical aspects that make it odd, it's also a very strange fish tonally. I've heard it called a "feelgood Christmas classic" except that, take away the songs, and it's ultimately as bleak and depressing as most other zombie flicks, even lacking the hopeful "everything's back to normal, more or less" coda to Shaun of the Dead. The lead girl is very likeable and very beautiful, and it's watchable - I didn't turn it off, which is a major win for modern cinema - but it's just... odd.

[Ian]

Went to the cinema to see The First Omen this afternoon. Thought this was a bad idea from the start, but a bunch of critics practically orgasming over it persuaded me to give it a try. Big mistake. What a load of BS. Boring, trite, predictable, utterly lifeless, indistinguishable from every other supernatural demon movie we've had non-stop for the last 10-15 years, and can't even keep the continuity right with the movie it's supposed to be a prequel to. There was only one YT critic I follow who said it bored him to tears, with the rest apparently having had religious experiences. Utter garbage.
This is why I hate modern movies.

[Santi]

These movies make for a good nap on a Saturday afternoon.

for nothing more.

[Santi]

I have seen Dune, part one and part two and it is full of USA topics.
What a mess.

[Ian]

Abigail. A group of criminals kidnap a 12 year old girl for random, only to find the tables turned when she turns out to be a bloodthirsty vampire. Saw this at the cinema today - I am a glutton for punishment - and it was... okay. Nowhere near as bad as The First Omen, but has still been rather overrated by everyone going. It had me engaged at some points, but takes too long to get going (esp when they've made no effort to keep Abigail's true nature a surprise) and then goes on way too long with a rather odd switcheroo in the last act. Watchable but nothing to write home about and certainly not the second coming of vampires some have been touting it as.

[Santi]

Vampire children, something different from vampires, I like it.
Like the Swedish movie "Let me in."



I'll watch it. Tak.

[Ian]

LTROI is much better.

[Santi]

I'm going to make a "spoiler" for LTROI.
The end of the movie on the train seems wonderful to me because she repeats history, her previous friendboy was very old and now she gets a new one and that's how she lives throughout the centuries.

[Ian]

Not so wonderful for the friend, mind.