Films

Thief by Michael Mann is excellent if you've not seen that.

Great suggestions but i've seen them. Mann and Friedkin fan and also enjoyed Miami vice for what it was. Worth mentioning Manhunter and the Tokyo Vice series on the iplayer now are both Mann projects that are well worth watching if you haven't seen them.

Too close to Christmas, impossible not to think about Buddy the Elf

Manhunter is superb, even Black Hat has some signature Michael Mann touches (thinking the blue-grey light more than the shoot outs. But there are those too)

Not quite Heat-esque but I watched Killing Of A Chinese Bookie by John Cassavetes for the first time recently and really enjoyed. Quite similar stylistic, a very tense slow burn. It looks amazing as well, the cinematography is unbelievable.

Finally got round to watching Uncut Gems.

Gave up halfway though, when I realised it was going to be just more of the same hack.

Old ones? The Killing.

Infernal affairs?
Or the inferior remake, The Departed

Maybe some of the Peckinpah movies like The Getaway or The Wild Bunch?
The Town is pretty good too.

Kubrick/Noir, that looks right up my street thanks

@DethBeard @sohi great suggestions thanks, all seen but all deserve a rewatch.

Talking about movies that are a bit like other movies The Driver with Ryan O Neal and Bruce Dern has been doing the rounds on one of the freeview movie channels (Legend or Great). Not exactly a classic but a solid thriller with some good car chases and an obvious influence for Ryan Gosling's character.

Not exactly a classic

Wot?

Recent watches and rewatches

Shotgun Stories - still an absolute banger. Love the dialogue, love the space.

The Drop - entertaining if a bit silly, but easy to forgive its sins.

Fire of Love - amazing doc about a mad couple of volcanologists. The real star is obviously the original footage. Where it gets odd to me is that Herzog made The Fire Within about the same pair of volcanologists. This in itself isn’t weird, but when I watch the trailer for TFW, the quality of the archive footage seems terrible compared to Fire of Love. It’s badly coloured, too dark, loads of loss of detail - as if the digitisation of the original media was messed up somehow.
Has anyone seen both who can comment on this?
I’m keen to watch the Herzog when I get the chance. But it slightly blows my mind that he would have fumbled the bag so badly with the archive footage.

After recent Michael Mann chat, I rewatched Miami Vice this evening. I've not seen it since it was in the cinema in 2006. Obviously not close to top tier Mann but still good stuff. Some good performances and the shakey digital cinematography is pretty unique and works pretty well.
The awful 2006 soundtrack hasn't done it any favours though. Special mention to the nu-metal esque cover of In The Air Tonight.

Also - The Asphalt Jungle, shades The Killing IMO, both have Sterling Hayden starring.

Okay so that new Pinocchio film is a lot darker than I expected. Except for the singing. No one told me there would be singing.

Watched Control for the first time since it was released in 2007 last night as Mrs EB had never seen it.

Sam Riley is excellent as Ian Curtis, his mannerisms whilst performing are spot on, the eyebrow raises, the thousand yard stare that Curtis had.

Impressive too that the actors performed those JD tunes themselves and were mostly pretty good.

The Menu is entertaining!

Funny that, we watched it for the first time last week. Hadn't realised the actors performed the music, that is impressive.

The one offputting thing was that the guy playing Rob Gretton seemed to be channelling Reece Shearsmith.

Wrath of Man was enjoyable.

Ha yeah! Stephen Morris does an amazing mimicry of Rob Gretton on the audio book versions of his two biographies

Also watched the Menu, well crafted but thought the tension arc got disrupted near the end.

It's all building up to a grand finale, then something, the end. Made sense in the story btw but eh.

I'm very picky though lots of great moments in it and not predictable, a very good watch.

Wasn't expecting The Banshees of Inisherin to be quite as bleak as it was. Great film nonetheless...

Thanks for lowering my expectations. I hate it when I expect too much of a film.

I saw Worst Person in the World this weekend. Wel made Norwegian realism drama. Very confronting with the emptyness of my own privileged, western existence full of choice stress. Also a bit confronting to watch with your partner, but that's very personal. Recommend if you're fond of films that don't have a constant tension and working towards an obvious ending. But be aware, there were several people leaving the theatre prematurely. So definitely not for everyone.