Films

Hell or Highwater. For some reason it didn't grab me the first time round but on second viewing i was all in and really enjoyed it. Starred up by the same director is also really good and deserves a re-watch.

Has reminded me to ask my annual cops and robbers movie recommendations but i'll also throw in modern westerns to widen the net. Michael Mann stuff already on constant repeat, so far i only have Lone Star on the list.

I watched Cop Land last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit. A fairly pessimistic, downbeat cop film with a great cast, including most of the cast of The Sopranos (including Paulie Walnuts who appears only in photos).

To Live And Die In LA is great if you haven't seen that. A seemingly lesser known Friedkin film with a young Willem Defoe.

Both crackers worth a rewatch. From memory Stallone laid off the weights for 6 months before filming to be more convincing as a 'downbeat cop'. I thought he was great in it.

Alien: Romulus - Felt two of the lads were demonstrating some Hollyoaks level acting which was hard to watch but the atmosphere of the film was cool and overall enjoyable. Not as good as Prometheus IMO.

Saw Kneecap this afternoon - it’s an adrenaline boosted rollercoaster. I haven’t enjoyed a film as much since Calm With Horses.

Suas na hÉireann.

There is a b&w version, same as the colour?

Leave the world behind, or something like that, the new Julia Roberts flick on Netflix. Frea.ky. Recommend watching at night somewhere spooky for maximum effect.

Totally agree! Some cracking practical effects, good space horror vibes and a couple of awesome not seen before Alien stuff. Just really let down by some questionable acting, dodgy CGI and doing Ian Holm so dirty!

It's a slightly different cut I think, but I don't remember it being much different (other than the style of course), it has been a while though.

I watched The Hunted last night. Directed by William Friedkin. From 2003 starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro.
Obviously not one of Friedkin's best films but that's his own fault for setting the bar too high. I enjoyed it a lot though, it's wild that Friedkin was still knocking out bangers so late in life. A really relentless, tense thriller. It might tick your cops and robbers box if you've not seen it already @jono84

Spoiler alert 🚨 (not blatant but in the interest of fairness…)

Disappointed by Alien: Romulus. I’d hoped for more, given I was surprised that I thought Covenant was actually pretty good when I recently watched it on streaming during a late night dead end, having originally decided I’d given up after watching Prometheus when it came out. I think Romulus might even be worse, but I don’t want to rewatch Prometheus to find out.

This review, lifted from Wikipedia, sums up my feelings better than I can:

"The first 45 minutes are boring beyond description. [...] The script has the aliens waking up and falling asleep at the convenience of the screenwriters, not in a way that makes consistent sense. [...] The foundational mistake came when someone said, 'Hey, let's make another Alien movie.' News flash: The alien concept is dead. Leave it alone, and leave poor Ian Holm out of it."

The ‘falling asleep’ part especially - there was one part where they were facing off against a bunch of aliens in a corridor, then seemed to be able to easily run away into a lift with seemingly no aliens in pursuit.

There never seemed to be any real tension and it relied on one too many cheap jump scares. Acting was generally poor and the characters unlikeable and forgettable. The zero-g acid dodging was hilariously bad.

Went to see Tatami today. Iranian judoka vs the regime as she's forced to withdraw to prevent her from facing an Israeli opponent. It was especially a tough watch as I was with an Iranian refugee who has been treated very similar by the regime. I may be biased but the film seemed very well made and tells an important story.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is fucking class. Don’t understand the lukewarm critical reception.

Longlegs is utter shite, and not the good kind.

Aye, weak as fuck

Very much enjoyed El Conde. As usual though the dubbing was shit, so subtitles way to go.

Rebel Ridge however was absolute dog shit. Turned off before end. The constant tension music, when there is no tension. The hilarious reveal of his talents. Abysmal.

El Conde is on the to do list, thanks for the suggestion. I agree Rebel Ridge was dire.

The original Beetlejuice is on Netflix too, we watched it again last night, so good.

Dinner in America This was a slow burner, it has some bizarre moments but I really enjoyed it. Really well made, well acted, good music.

Started watching the crow last night, what a load of shite the new one is with a baddy that’s working for the devil

Was the original about that as I can’t mind that spin on it

Sleep is brilliant.

I saw it at The Garden Cinema a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it quite a bit! Lovely cinema as well (in a boujie way). My first time there.

Also, I finally watched Longlegs. The dolls didn't scare me, the whole film was a bit meh, 3/10.

For any Threads fans, radio doc next weekend: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00236xg

A quiet place was good, should've watched it ages ago, straight onto part 2.

2 was also decent. I'll have a bash at the prequel tomorrow. Maybe it'll explain why sound based weapons and moats weren't tried pretty early on by certain militaries, especially navy and air force types, especially those on islands.