Rate the last film you watched out of 5

[Vimster]

1 hour ago, ZOK said:

Oh, I don’t know what that is...likely to appear on Amazon / Netflix etc?

I should imagine so.

[Mike S]

1 hour ago, ZOK said:

Oh, I don’t know what that is..

 

 

Annual London horror film festival that has had to go online for this year's edition.

[Vimster]

Playhouse (2020)

This had bags of gothic atmosphere, the setting in and around a remote Scottish castle was generally well used, lush cinematography, especially near the beginning. It's a shame then this fell apart slowly mainly down to poorly-realised characters and a script full of holes. Callum's character in particular was bafflingly uneven. By the mid point I had lost all interest in the people involved. Great setting, good atmosphere, not much else, sadly.

 

2/5

[Mike S]

42 minutes ago, Vimster said:

Playhouse (2020)

This had bags of gothic atmosphere, the setting in and around a remote Scottish castle was generally well used, lush cinematography, especially near the beginning. It's a shame then this fell apart slowly mainly down to poorly-realised characters and a script full of holes. Callum's character in particular was bafflingly uneven. By the mid point I had lost all interest in the people involved. Great setting, good atmosphere, not much else, sadly.

 

2/5

 

 

Yeah, after the set up with the amazing location, decent acting, and effective camera work it was disappointing that the actual story was a bit of a mess. The Watts Brothers seem half way there - they just need a better story to make a truly great film.

 

 

[Vimster]

7 minutes ago, Mike S said:

 

 

Yeah, after the set up with the amazing location, decent acting, and effective camera work it was disappointing that the actual story was a bit of a mess. The Watts Brothers seem half way they - they just need a better story to make a truly great film.

 

 

Totally, for a first feature it really shows promise. Would like to see what they do next.

[strider]

Tenet

Good cast, but it disappears up its own rancid asshole. Lots of spectacle, lots of cool idea, but the execution was lacking for me. If this is cinema’s triumphant return cinema is fucked and that makes me sad.

3/5

[Vimster]

They're Outside (2020)

Compelling found footage film involving a Youtube psychologist Max Spencer's attempts to cure an agoraphobic woman, Sarah, who hasn't set foot outside in five years. The situation and characters are set up brilliantly, filling in Sarah's back story and her belief in folklore legend Green Eyes, the relationship between Max and his camera-person/girlfriend Nicole, and Sarah's friend Penny and what brought them together. The pacing is just right, revealing just enough as it goes along, getting more and more creepy and suspenseful. The English folklore was woven in well and worked. A solid first feature and definitely one of the best found-footage films I've seen.

 

3.5/5

[Silent Runner]

Western 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5157326/

 

I’m not sure how this one ended up on my watch list. It's a German/Bulgarian film about a group of German construction workers building a power-plant in a remote Bulgarian town. Almost as soon as they arrive conflict stats with the locals.

 

This was very impressive. The cast are all non-professional actors but all put in great turns and there's some great 'face-acting' on display. I guess the name is a reference to Hollywood westerns where men would set of for parts unknown and make their mark on the land. But this is much more subtle than a cowboy film. There's themes of masculinity, immigration, culture-shock and imperialism. Although it's a little on the nose at times, one of the construction crew befriends and tames a local wild horse. 

 

I really liked how this was shot, lots of soft sunlight and wide shots of the country side. It's quite slow but really draws you in and by the end I was properly invested in the work crew and the locals in the town and the tensions between them. 

 

4/5

[Vimster]

Last film for today:

 

Don't Click (2020)

Just awful. Something to do with a nasty porn site and some college lads but honest I lost track pretty rapidly. Apparently this was a short film originally, it's so obvious this was dragged out to a feature-length, the pacing was glacial, it repeated itself, it lingered on the nastiness for an eternity. I'd lost interest in anything this film had to offer way before the end. A shame because there was a lot of potential in the premise.

 

1/5

 

After some ruminating on this film I thought I'd re-review it. I still feel this failed as a feature, it definitely felt like a short that had been stretched out. I get the idea this was a commentary on torture porn but this was hampered by its glacial pace and overly long torture sequences, they sapped any interest and energy. As far as I can see the one guy initially got pulled in simply for finding his flatmatee's laptop open. After that my capacity for caring diminished.

 

1/5

[Stig]

The Mortal Storm (1940)

 

Jimmy Stewart vs Nazis, what's not to enjoy?...other than the misery. 

The film is brilliantly acted and directed and whilst other films may have done Nazi portrayals better, for the time this was released it's still very well told and does an excellent job of depicting the totalitarian ideas of the Nazi party. It shows how cold hearted and callous they were, chosing duty over love, family and friendship,  but in a less brutal way than you'd find in other more "modern" films.

 

It will have been a wonderful exposé for American audiences at the time and a must see I imagine.
 

4/5

[Thwomp]

Logan - 4/5. Really good performances from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. I felt it could've done without the child soldier aspect - a simple Xavier and Wolverine road trip/ pilgrimage would've made for a tighter film.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

I watched Blood Diamond (2006 ) again last night

 

 

I do think it gets a bit lost  in the final half. And David Harewood is still terrible   
 But its still rather good as i remembered   4/5

 

[Triple A]

50/50

 

Better than Tenet.

Touching, different, funny and brilliantly cast.
Put the sour taste of a pricey, disappointing 70mm IMAX experience from earlier in the day, further into perspective.

 

4

[Mike S]

Skull: The Mask

 

Very entertaining Brazilian horror.

 

A mask found on a dig in the Amazon turns out to be the cursed mask of Anhanga the Executioner, who's previous gig was working for a pre-Columbian god. After transportation to the city the mask, of course, takes possession of a crime scene cleaner upperer who proceeds to go on a very gory rampage through Sao Paulo as Anhanga seeks to take enough hearts and blood to summon its master. There is a bit of cosmic horror, a dash of giallo, a good dose of wrestling moves, and lot of violent slasher movie excess as the story becomes a conflict between Old gods/cultures and New World gods/culture. 

 

It'll not change the world but it's a wild and fun little movie that has the makings of a future cult classic.

 

3.5/5

[Vimster]

Skull: The Mask (2020)

Superbly put-together Brazilian gorefest/mystery involving a cursed mask a possessed crime scene cleaner, and more besides. The gore in this is sublime, just the right amount and very well done. Pacing of the investigation may be a little slow in places but it wove an engaging, if not entirely Earth-shattering story as the various elements came together. Stand-out parts were the slaughter in a nightclub and the fight with the priest - the latter came out of nowhere and was a pleasant surprise, even if it didn't quite fit. A heady mixture of Brazilian-style wrestling, giallo, mild intrigue, and gore that hit the mark, all shot well with decent performances. Nothing surprising here but it is a quality item and worth the time.

 

3.5/5

[Vimster]

Two Heads Creek (2020)

Pretty damn funny Aussie horror comedy about siblings trying to find their mother in the remote town of Two Heads Creek where things, clearly, aren't what they seem. It kept the gags coming, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and quoteable dialogue - "it's only a flesh wound, I've had shits hurt more than this". Lots of creative gore and gallons of blood, especially towards the finale. Comedy is subjective, and horror comedy in particular is a difficult genre when the bar has been set so high with films like Shaun Of The Dead, but this was thoroughly entertaining with its heart in the right place.

 

4/5

[Vimster]

A Ghost Waits (2020)

A ghost story with an intriguing premise: a guy doing an inventory of a rental home encounters a ghost who has been scaring previous tenants away. Their relationship develops over the course of the film. Honestly this hit me hard emotionally, so much more than I was expecting. Whilst it was slow to get the two main protagonists together once they start interacting things really spark, the romance blossoms, and by the end I was really rooting for them. The relationship at the heart of this is really strong, Jack is a guy who doesn't matter enough to people in his life, the ghost Muriel is having her own issues with her job as a "spectral agent". It just gets better as it progresses, the ending was genuinely touching. A fantastic film.

 

5/5

[Thor]

Kiss kiss, bang bang.

 

I love this movie. You wouldn't get away with some of the gay jokes in this nowadays, but Kilmer is fucking great. Gay Perry is easily the best character in the movie.

 

5/5

[Stig]

4 minutes ago, Thor said:

Kiss kiss, bang bang.

 

I love this movie. You wouldn't get away with some of the gay jokes in this nowadays, but Kilmer is fucking great. Gay Perry is easily the best character in the movie.

 

5/5

 

I must have quoted the Idiot line so many times, but it never gets old

[Mike S]

1 hour ago, Vimster said:

A Ghost Waits (2020)

A ghost story with an intriguing premise: a guy doing an inventory of a rental home encounters a ghost who has been scaring previous tenants away. Their relationship develops over the course of the film. Honestly this hit me hard emotionally, so much more than I was expecting. Whilst it was slow to get the two main protagonists together once they start interacting things really spark, the romance blossoms, and by the end I was really rooting for them. The relationship at the heart of this is really strong, Jack is a guy who doesn't matter enough to people in his life, the ghost Muriel is having her own issues with her job as a "spectral agent". It just gets better as it progresses, the ending was genuinely touching. A fantastic film.

 

5/5

 

Yep.

 

A brilliant, original, film.  Best in show so far by quite a  margin although some fucker starting chopping onions in the kitchen towards the end which made my eyes water a bit.

 

Did you watch the interview afterwards? Good,  incredibly humble folk who I hope are able to make more films as, for a debut, this is incredibly promising and they seem to care a lot about their craft. Early inspiration was Kojima's P.T.!

 

 

[Vimster]

1 minute ago, Mike S said:

 

Yep.

 

A brilliant, original, film.  Best in show so far by quite a  margin although some fucker starting chopping onions in the kitchen towards the end which made my eyes water a bit.

 

Did you watch the interview afterwards? Good,  incredibly humble folk who I hope are able to make more films as for a debut this is incredibly promising and they care a lot about their craft. Early inspiration was Kojima's P.T.!

 

 

The interview afterwards just made me love the film even more. I think someone was chopping onions here too, actually.

[Mike S]

1 minute ago, Vimster said:

The interview afterwards just made me love the film even more. I think someone was chopping onions here too, actually.

 

Same here. It's hard not to be impressed by the guy's enthusiasm, given how long it took him to finally make his first film, and his genuine joy that people are not only watching, but really liking, his film.

 

I was 50/50 choosing between this and Aquaslash too! That, in hindsight, would surely have been quite an error..

 

 

 

 

[Vimster]

4 minutes ago, Mike S said:

 

Same here. It's hard not to be impressed by the guy's enthusiasm, given how long it took him to finally make his first film, and his genuine joy that people are not only watching, but really liking, his film.

 

I was 50/50 choosing between this and Aquaslash too! That, in hindsight, would surely have been quite an error..

 

The thing is I was initially going to pick Aquaslash because I fancied some schlocky slasher nonsense, and A Ghost Waits was probably some boring romanic drama, and yet the former, by all accounts, is a pretty underwhelming film that doesn't live up to its killer concept, and the latter was frankly amazing. Just goes to show sometimes you have to take a risk.

[Mike S]

1 minute ago, Vimster said:

The thing is I was initially going to pick Aquaslash because I fancied some schlocky slasher nonsense, and A Ghost Waits was probably some boring romanic drama, and yet the former, by all accounts, is a pretty underwhelming film that doesn't live up to its killer concept, and the latter was frankly amazing. Just goes to show sometimes you have to take a risk.

 

 

Sounds like near identical thought process to my own. An 80's style, dumb, slasher did sound tempting to finish a long day viewing whereas A Ghost Waits had the potential to be a tad dull. Very, very pleased with the one I chose.  

[Steve McQueef]

32 minutes ago, Thor said:

Kiss kiss, bang bang.

 

I love this movie. You wouldn't get away with some of the gay jokes in this nowadays, but Kilmer is fucking great. Gay Perry is easily the best character in the movie.

 

5/5

Triggered the fuck out of this guy:

https://www.gaycitynews.com/that-joke-isnt-funny-anymore/

[Vimster]

2 minutes ago, Mike S said:

 

 

Sounds like near identical thought process to my own. An 80's style, dumb, slasher did sound tempting to finish a long day viewing whereas A Ghost Waits had the potential to be a tad dull. Very, very pleased with the one I chose.  

This probably helped

 

[Mike S]

8 minutes ago, Vimster said:

This probably helped

 

 

 

Will have a look at that tomorrow, ta.

 

Right now I am deep into Thou's latest covers album which is finishing off the evening very nicely indeed.

[Thor]

3 minutes ago, Steve McQueef said:

Triggered the fuck out of this guy:

https://www.gaycitynews.com/that-joke-isnt-funny-anymore/

Wow, and that was back in 2005 too. He's way off. Gay Perry is always the smartest guy in the room, and he's not overly camp which is the usual gay stereotype. His joke about being knee-deep in pussy is fucking hilarious. The issues with the homophobic side are mostly from the other characters, like Downey Jr's disgusted reaction to kissing him, and the movie producer talking to Gay Perry about his sexuality early in the movie, the latter is just so unnecessary.

[Sabreman]

Yeah, Perry owns every scene and situation he's in, and he's clearly armoured himself in a profession that's most certainly dominated by hetero alpha males. I even think those jokes are timeless because they're about the other characters and their relationships to him, rather than simply jokes about 'being gay'.

[DeciderVT]

I See You (2019)

 

It pulled the Heavy Rain trick of intentionally omitting large, important sections of the narrative during the initial telling of the story, cheaply manipulating and misdirecting the audience. It's not creative and it's not particularly clever. Lazy, shallow and fatally undermines the rest of the film- which is a shame, as I liked it up until the "reveal".

 

For this alone, 0/5.

 

 

Official Secrets (2019)

 

Keira Knightley plays Keira Knightley again, except this time she wears the costume of a government whistleblower that breaks the Official Secrets Act (as we're reminded in every other scene) and exposes Tony Blair's compliance with an illegal war. This ends up being of zero consequence as the war happens anyway (spoilers) but hey, we got a nice, watchable film out of it.

 

3/5.