What was the last film you watched?

[James from London]

I'm still woefully behind on my Kermode and Mayo's Film Review podcasts, but I listened to this rave review for Eighth Grade from 2019 recently:

and then almost immediately it turned up on the iPlayer so I watched it, and it's really great. Gucci!

BBC Two - Eighth Grade

Wallflower Kayla’s last days of middle school are a minefield of awkwardness.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Often I prefer chatting with others who see movies/TV different from me.

Same here. I view many of my favourites very differently since being here. I like to think it's opened my mind at least a little.

I can easily watch slasher movies, but put a medical drama and n front of me and I have to turn away.

Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger could rip people apart? But a doctor inserting a needle and I’m out of here.

Ha ha. I hear you, Ome.

Well. I’d hate to say yes because you could forever ignore any of my future recommendations.

Oh never. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I know you have enjoyed many shows from 60s through to the 80s and I think you did Prisoner Cell Block H with it wobbling walls and static acting, so there is some potential for you to enjoy them.

You know me far too well.

It’s been a long time since I watched them so I’m going by my fond memories at that time.

if I saw them on any of the sites I use, I would definitely watch them again.

And I've seen that while it's unavailable, Stage Fright is showing on Prime so I've added it to my watch list in case it becomes available at some point.

I listened to this rave review for Eighth Grade from 2019 recently:


and then almost immediately it turned up on the iPlayer so I watched it, and it's really great.

Well in that case, how could I not. I'll give it a go in the next few days - perhaps even tonight.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I watched it, and it's really great. Gucci!

I'll give it a go in the next few days - perhaps even tonight.

As it began I had my doubts, but it quickly swept me up and carried me along and helped me get in touch with teenage me.

I loved it! What a terrific film.

I was reminded at times of Muriel's Wedding, at others of Fame (the film). Neither of which is a bad thing.


I also watched the Mark Kermode review, and he sums it up perfectly:

Like all great coming of age movies, it's a movie that makes you think it's about you. It's a movie that makes you think "I grew up in a completely different world in a different country in a different culture in a different gender, a different nationality, whatever it is. But I understand what that character is feeling."

 

[James from London]

I loved it! What a terrific film.

I'm so pleased!

I was reminded at times of Muriel's Wedding

Yes, I can see that. I think it could have easily been as "big" or as comedic as Muriel and still worked, but instead it stays small and understated, and is all the more powerful for it.

I also watched the Mark Kermode review

The bit of the review that stayed with me is when he quotes the director as saying "this is a film about a generation ... that have been raised in a culture they did not create, but which demands that they hold themselves up for judgement online." I'd never really considered that before.

 

[Willie Oleson]

A rewatch of this brutal and beautifully depressing movie. The seventies atmosphere is quite convincing, mostly because they didn't overdo it.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I think it could have easily been as "big" or as comedic as Muriel and still worked, but instead it stays small and understated, and is all the more powerful for it.

Absolutely. Kayla's social awkwardness was treated so realistically that one could easily read it that the differences between Kayla and the cooler classmates she bumbles around are all only her perception rather than the way they see her. It's all very internal and very relatable.

The bit of the review that stayed with me is when he quotes the director as saying "this is a film about a generation ... that have been raised in a culture they did not create, but which demands that they hold themselves up for judgement online." I'd never really considered that before.

Neither had I, come to that.

A rewatch of this brutal and beautifully depressing movie. The seventies atmosphere is quite convincing, mostly because they didn't overdo it.

This has been on my viewing bucket list for ages. I was thinking about it again recently after watching Andrew Garfield's first Amazing Spider-Man film and thinking he's actually quite a decent actor.

 

[9unfold]

Flight Of The Navigator (1986).

This is still a jolly good romp through make believe, 35 years and several viewings later.

What else is there to say other than it's not a great work of cinema,but it is a nice, fun movie.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Unfriended (2014)

If the Blair Witch was into Zoombombing, this is what we'd get. It's a nice idea for a film... told entirely in real time through the screen of the film's Final Girl.

The screens and notification alerts will be very familiar to Mac users or those who use certain applications and actual branding for the biggest tech apps is prominently displayed, which I found really surprising for what looks like a low-budget film. This creates a very subjective - almost disorientating - effect. When characters type, it feels strange because that screen has been embedded in our brain and feels like ours. When notifications pop up on screen, one is drawn to them, almost expecting them to be for the viewer. It's effectively done, and the young characters' interactions feel authentic.

The strengths of the film are also where it falls down for me. After being online for a good part of the day, I don't care to spend an hour and a half reading text being typed on a white screen and picking up noisy notifications. The (mostly unlikeable) characters - as many young people seem to do - not only have a Skype chat, but at the same time ping private messages back and forth to discuss and control the conversation taking place. Our main character does online searches, watches videos, plays music, picks up notifications. There's a lot going on and it demands attention. But as someone who generally does one thing at a time I found it particularly fatiguing to be forced into doing this kind of extreme multitasking.

While the twists aren't as clever and surprising and the formula nowhere near as original as the film promo would suggest, there is an interesting message about cyberbullying, and it also ties in incredibly well with Eighth Grade when I think about the following:
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The bit of the review that stayed with me is when he quotes the director as saying "this is a film about a generation ... that have been raised in a culture they did not create, but which demands that they hold themselves up for judgement online." I'd never really considered that before.​

 

[Sarah]

It's good and based on a true story. Luke Kirby who plays Bundy is eerily accurate in his portrayal, especially his gestures and facial expressions.

 

[Sarah]

Flight Of The Navigator (1986).

This is still a jolly good romp through make believe, 35 years and several viewings later.

What else is there to say other than it's not a great work of cinema,but it is a nice, fun movie.

Jolly good

 

[Willie Oleson]

I was thinking about it again recently after watching Andrew Garfield's first Amazing Spider-Man film and thinking he's actually quite a decent actor.

I didn't know they were the same Andrew Garfield.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Holy Water (2009)
A.K.A. Hard Times

Basically The Italian Job meets Cocoon by way of Father Ted. Starring The Terminator's Sarah Connor and Imelda Quirke from The Commitments'

I'm a little surprised that Pfizer allowed their logo to be displayed all over the hijacked van and their little blue pills to be clearly shown. But then, publicity's publicity. And they covered themselves with an abundance of "we respectfully discourage people from tainting water supplies with our medication" type messages at the end.

I didn't know they were the same Andrew Garfield.

Yes indeed. A lot can happen in three short years.

 

[LEEJ88]

Spider Man 2002 is so cheesy and it drags took me 3 viewings to finish it lol.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

When A Stranger Calls (2006)

This era put out an absolute shedload of terrible remakes of horror films: Black Xmas, Prom Night, April Fool's Day, Halloween, etc. Some were based on good films and almost all were absolutely pointless.

All the same, I'm really quite fond of this particular remake and have enjoyed watching it many times over the years. Compared with the 1979 version it wisely takes a very different approach.

Gone is the charming Seventies low budget grit, glossed over with sumptuous Noughties production values. It should go against the film, but the sets and cinematography are gorgeous and make it visually very interesting. Shadows loom round every corner, blending with rich colours to give the viewer that feeling of being in a strange house, alone at night.

Gone, too is the mid-film character study of Curt Duncan. "The Stranger" of this film stays very much in the shadows with next to no dialogue other than a few short memorable lines and much heavy breathing. This is very much Jill Johnson's film, and once she arrives at the Mandrakis house, we barely leave. It stretches out the first short act of the original to feature length. It shouldn't work, but it does because its less is more approach creates a brooding atmosphere. It's not about stuff happening (very little does) and more about the fear that something could be about to happen.

The biggest strike against the film is that it gets squeamish when it comes to the original's most significant shock, with Curt's most horrific act. The more I watch, the more I feel this is a mistake. I enjoy that this is a psychological thriller (albeit a very lightweight one) rather than a slasher, or even a horror film. All the same, because of the pulled punch, there's no real sense of consequence for anyone, really.

Still, the lead actress is watchable, I really like James Dooley's oppressively atmospheric score. And it looks gorgeous.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Midnight Man (2018)

I was expecting something of a slasher, but it turned out to be a supernatural type thing that evoked a number of other films for me: the childhood boogeyman from Stephen King's It; the "he can only get you at night" business from A Nightmare On Elm Street; the "I dare you to summon him" urban legend stuff from Candyman; and the obsessive-compulsive rules from Gremlins. And familiar horror faces Robert Englund and Lin Shaye.

It's really nicely shot. Rich and dark, classy and spooky. There's also some genuinely creepy imagery, particularly early on in the film when the evil is mostly unknown and unseen, with just a flash here or there. And there's that creepy mannequin (or is it a manikin) in the attic that made me pull my dressing gown hood over my eyes.

It became less frightening as it progressed. Once the boogeyman was out in the open and interacting with the cast he was far less frightening than my mind had imagined and most of the tension evaporated. Plus there were more SFX as the film went on. Less is always more in this kind of film, but most can't seem to help themselves with this no exception. The two young actors carrying most of the film were decent enough, but once their blonde, creaky voiced friend showed up I started rooting for the Midnight Man.

 

[Angela Channing]

The Harder They Fall (2021)

A western film that highlights black characters who have mostly been erased from Hollywood films of this genre. Rufus Buck, played by Idris Elba, is sprung from jail by his gang prompting another gang, lead by Nat Love, to seek revenge because Love's parents were killed by Buck when the former was a child. The film has a Tarantino-esque feel about it with lots of violence and gruesome killings interspersed with some dark humour. However, but seemed to be done at the expense of having more depth to the plot and the development of the characters. It's still a very stylish film and a fine piece of entertainment.

 

[darkshadows38]

a real bad one called Heat Wave (1954) also known in the UK as The House across the Lake which is a far better title and more fitting than the US title which is Heat Wave and it had nothing to do with the film at all

 

[Biggie]

Westworld.

Gotta say that I rather enjoyed it. Yul Brinner as the robot gone murderously wrong stole the movie.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Ripper Untold (2021)

^This cover has bog all to do with the film, but hey ho.


A so-so film that feels a bit like those reconstructions that you see in documentaries to stop it from being entirely talking heads, all strung together to feature length. While it looks OK, the low budget does add to the charm. The boom mic bobbed into shot more than once.

Some of the performances were really good while others left something to be desired. Contemporary expressions are always a concern of mine in these period dramas. Thankfully nobody said "OK". One expression that jumped out at me was the expression "bang on" (though I'm not 100% sure it wasn't used then). Speech patterns felt very contemporary at times though.

They erred on the side of taste when it came to showing Jack's handiwork, which was all to the good. However, they balanced it out with lots of titties (weirdly, one shot of a sex worker bouncing on top of a main character in the trailer below appears to have CGI'd a black dress on her).

Plenty of liberties taken with the facts, I suspect. But it was watchable enough. I especially enjoyed the whole Gary Ewing subplot with the alcoholic character becoming convinced he must have killed these women he knew in blackout. Naturally, this comes with a big 21st Century twist.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Stalker (2021)

The advantage of "blind watching", avoiding trailers and reviews, is that I form my own opinions and I'm often very pleasantly surprised by a great film. The disadvantage, however, can be summed up in two words: The Stalker.

It's one of the longer 61 minutes of my life, with the thin plot supported by writing, acting and production values unworthy of a Verisure Alarms advert. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the plot was the bevvy of creepy men who fell at the feet of the leading lady simply by laying eyes on her like an Impulse commercial. By the third time it happened I began to wonder if the entire film was actually a brilliantly subtle satire, with the actors in on the joke, and I was supposed to be laughing.

You'll never guess who the stalker is!!!*

Feast your eyes and ears on a taste of last night's entertainment:

​

* By which I mean you'll guess but you won't care. Which is almost the same thing.