The lighting will make a huge difference - I wouldn't put too much stock in that picture.

32. X
This was fun. Was good to see it with an audience as I think that was the intended environment. Maybe a bit too slow to get to the money shots but it had a lot of fun with all the things it was doing.
[7]

Webbins should like it

Yeah he's made some great stuff. I'd say this is going less for scary than his other stuff and more for slasher fun times.

I stand by The Sacrament being his best.

Scratch that. Just watched the trailer. I have seen it. It was okay.

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

32. X
This was fun. Was good to see it with an audience as I think that was the intended environment. Maybe a bit too slow to get to the money shots but it had a lot of fun with all the things it was doing.
[7]

Webbins should like it

Aye Shabs, I've bookmarked a cinema visit for it. Got some time to kill next week so might go then.

All My Friends Hate Me (2022)

What an absolute banger, total surprise. Lad from up North goes back down South for a reunion/birthday with his old posho mates. Really loved that.

I turned it off after half an hour.

Flicking about on Fire Stick last night and came across a selection of early Hammer films, including a couple of Quatermass b&w films.

The Quatermass Xperiment is a yarn about a rocket mission that returns with 2 of the 3 crew missing with one in shock who gradually turns into some sort of creature that can absorb any living thing and take on its characteristics. 

Ludicrous hokum that just about hangs together because the script doesn't rely on hokey old standard tales. In ways it's a bit ahead of its time , it being a very early albeit primitive take on the idea in The Thing

The lead - classic US "that guy" Brian Dunlevy - playing an ascerbic, brusque Quatermass grates with me when put against other versions of the character I've seen. There's fun support from the effortless Jack Warner playing the no nonsense cop.  

It's always fun spotting other British actors like Lionel Jeffries, Gordon Jackson and even a cameo from a young Thora Hird playing a homeless drunk.

It's well made and I enjoyed it enough to have a look at the sequel, but this isn't a patch on the late 60s version of Quatermass and the Pit.

Didn't hear about that. Would have been up for it.

Studio 666

As rock band vanity projects go this was quite entertaining.
It wasn't a good movie but it was plenty of fun.

Nightmare Alley
Del Toro’s remake of a ’40s noir. It’s a stylish but tired fable that could have used some semblance of interior lives for its supporting characters. At least it’s pretty, I guess.

West Side Story.
The Spielberg version. This is possibly the most technically accomplished film I've ever seen and yet...  It felt oddly hollow.  Like when your favourite song is covered by a band with a better singer, a better producer, and a whole symphony orchestra, but you can't help but feel its lost its soul somewhere along the line.

The changes are generally all very smart, the performances range from excellent (Ariana DeBose) to fine (Ansel Elgort), and the music will forever be astonishing.  But it's maybe too perfect, too manufactured, to ever really carry the emotional sting that it should. 

I still maintain that one day, what I really want to see, is the whole thing from Anita's point of view - though I fear that would be too devastating a film to bear. (Forget Tony and Maria, hers is the truly tragic story.)


Nightmare Alley

What Pop said really - dripping with style, but no real substance. I leant over to my wife and predicted the ending 5 minutes into the film, because yes, I'm that sort of arsehole, but also the tale is that familiar.  I think I expected Del Toro to have done more with the assembled freaks and geeks of the circus than he did.

Pain & Glory

An unusually subdued, controlled Almodovar movie. You can't help but assume that it is at least partly autobiographical - a film about a director looking back on his childhood and career. There's little plot to speak of, it's more a character study and a love letter to film and filmmaking.  If you're now expecting "Almodovar's 8 1/2" - it's not quite that either.

It's not a classic (I think I prefer it when Almodovar's showing off) but it's tender, and beautiful, and Banderas is absolutely incredible.

23. Split - 6

An average M.Night movie, saved by a stellar performance from McAvoy. There is an amazing close-up scene where McAvoy doesn’t say a word but is responding to a character off screen, but the camera never leaves his face as he transforms from one character to another. Should absolutely be taught in acting classes. And the spoiler? 

24. Murder on The Orient Express - 7

Great cast, with Branagh being on top form and clearly having fun. But it just doesn’t feel enough of a movie. For me it was the lack of scale of the train, it seemed too small. It could be historically accurate but there appeared to be nowhere for the staff to live and the drama came to standstill as the train did.

25. The Martian - 9

With a weekend of showing my sister films she’d never watch I started with this new classic. Still great, but I was starting to fade at the end. Think I’ve seen it too many times in too short a space of time. Will be several years before I watch it again.

26. Dr. Strange - 9

Just below GoTG and Infinity War for me. And it’s all due to Cumberbatch. If you don’t like his shtick then nothing here will change your mind, but I find his films eminently watchable. And we had to watch to setup the next film.

27. Spider-Man: No Way Home - 7

After hoping this would come to Disney+, and realising it wouldn’t due to Sony, I forked out full RRP for it. Slightly regretting that now as we are definitely in diminishing returns with these films. Taken on it’s own it was ok, but compared to it’s own predecessors and the broader MCU and it falls flat. Great post-credits scene though.

Perhaps I've just missed it but McAvoy deserves serious credit for Split. Incredible performance.