The last movie I saw was...

[LeMarchand]

RRR (Netflix)

 

 

In 1920s India, evil British Governor Scott (Ray Stevenson) and his even more evil wife (Alison Doody playing a character so evil that she takes a spare spiked whip to a public flogging just in case there's not enough blood on show) take a young girl from her village and find that the village protector, who will stop at nothing, is coming after them. Supercop RAM steps up to the plate to track down the protector, but the two become friends when they save a young child from a train disaster. What will happen when they discover the truth about each other, and why is Ram's sole purpose in life seemingly to achieve the rank of Special Constable? A kind of "What If?" two historical figures from the Indian Revolution had met as young men. RRR has been retconned (it was a working title of the director and stars' initials) as Rise Roar Revolt.

 

If you've watched and enjoyed Indian movies before and want an action flick so OTT that it makes the "Fast" films seem like cinema verité, or like a large dose of homoeroticism in your movies (I'm surprised Indian cinema is quite so open unless they just think they're showing manly men being manly with their tops off, sometimes just in their pants, sometimes oiled up), I'd heartily recommend this one.

 

If you haven't seen an Indian movie and/or are put off by the idea of the dance numbers, there are only 2 dance numbers: One is a dance battle between the stuck up Brits and our heroes (really!) and the other is the epilogue. There are songs, but mostly over montages. I'd say give it a try and if you aren't into it by the second prologue (Ram's introduction) you probably won't get into the rest.

 

Be warned! This is a 3 hour+ epic so plan ahead. There is an obvious intermission break around the 1/2 way mark (a logo card comes up!) but, if you've made it that far, you'll want to know what will happen.

 

Edit: Just found that the "Honest Trailer" folk cover many of the points above. Worth a look if you remain unconvinced (though spoilery if you're planning on watching) as they loved it.

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by LeMarchand

[Ditto]

Interstellar - kids enjoyed in spite of sedate start and the length of it - impressive in it's own way!

[siuko]

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

Really really enjoyed this - went into it knowing very little about it but what an amazing quirky funny and in the end positive film it was

 

Highly recommend it

[LeMarchand]

Toscana (Netflix)

 

Danish chef Theo (think Gordon Ramsey levels of shouting and swearing) inherits his estranged father's Tuscan property. He initially wants nothing to do with it, but his temper drives away an investor so he heads there to see if he can quickly sell it. There is, of course, a beautiful local lady who he initially butts heads with but slowly begins to warm to...

 

Although this follows a path similar to a rom-com it's more of a rom-glum. Tuscany looks lovely but the relationship between the leads never convinces - especially as The Rival is nicer, much more personable and demonstrative and way better looking. Plus it feels like they didn't get time (Covid?) to shoot scenes that would have made the film make more sense. Non-spoilery example: Why does Theo give Sophia a lift to town on a handy moped rather than his rented car? (Apart from it seeming to be the mandatory mode of transport in films set in Italy).

[LeMarchand]

Fisherman's Friends: One and All (Cinema)

 

 

Cornwall's Buoy Band is back. This time around Jim is struggling to cope with the death of his father, but his turn to alcohol is causing problems for the band and the new boss at the label is looking to ditch them. Can our shanty-singing heroes overcome all these obstacles?

 

If you liked the first one, you'll enjoy this. If you haven't seen the first one but the trailer appeals, this is almost a photocopy of it so you don't need to have seen it (but it is also worth a look). I'm wondering if some of the plot tweaks were with an eye on the US market where they seem to love Daddy Issues and alcoholism, but both are handled in a much more (dare I say it about Cornish folk?) British way. I really enjoyed it and it did seem to have more of an emotional heft than the first. I may also have to have a listen to the band on Spotify.

 

For those wondering how true to life this is:

 

1. Their second album for Universal was called "One and All"
   
2. The song "Mary Jane" does have an emotional connection for the band (a similar, but not identical, one to in the film)
   
3. They have done a seafood ad (but not dressed as fish fingers)
   
4. They did play the Pyramid Stage on the same day as Beyoncé
   
5. Someone did want to make a film about them
   
6. Erm...
   

Edited September 25, 2022 by LeMarchand

[mavhc]

Bodies Bodies Bodies. I'm sure we were laughing way more than the rest of the audience.

 

Plot: Annoying rich idiots die

[LeMarchand]

Turning Red Disney +)

 

Meilin is a straight A student who takes all sorts of after school classes and is a dutiful daughter, helping her parents run a temple in Toronto. One day, she wakes up to find that she has hit puberty and... turned into a giant, fluffy, Red Panda. There is a cure, but it won't be able to take place before 4 Town, the greatest boy band in the world play her city.How will she and her BFFs get to the gig?

 

A fairly sweet animation, but the girls get kinda grating. I'm not exactly the target audience, though.

[LeMarchand]

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Most VoD)

 

Nicolas Cage plays "Nick Cage" (and "Nicky", a younger version of himself). Feeling creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, he accepts a $1m offer to attend a superfan's birthday. Unknown to Nick, the CIA have the fan flagged as a major arms dealer and need the star to act as their spy in the fan's camp...

 

Much funnier than the trailer (not linked as a bit spoilery) makes it look, I thoroughly enjoyed this and it had both Mme LeMarchand and myself laughing out loud. Well worth a look.

 

P.S. I bet back in the "Pulling" days Sharon Horgan never imagined she'd one day get to play Nicolas Cage's wife!

Edited October 6, 2022 by LeMarchand

[LeMarchand]

Bāhubali: The Beginning (Netflix)

 

 

 

A woman carrying a baby at the base of a huge waterfall manages to stay alive long enough for the child to be rescued. The tribe who live at the base of the falls bring the boy up, but he feels a calling to the falls, and as he grows he constantly attempts to reach the top. One day a mask is washed down which he becomes entranced by, and with a aid of a goddess/vision reaches the summit. There he finds the land of Mahishmati, ruled by an evil king who has been holding a woman captive for 25 years. The young man joins forces with a rebel warrior woman after a stalky/creepy seduction (with mandatory musical number) and sets out to rescue the captive. The journey will reveal who he is and his connection to Mahishmati. (Mainly in a long flashback that takes up most of the final 1/4 of the film).

 

This one is a 2015 effort from the director of "RRR" (which is brilliant - watch it). It's not as good, but you can clearly see the director's style developing. Worth a look if you don't mind Indian films; I'll certainly be watching "The Conclusion" at some stage. You will probably be left with questions, though. Amongst them:

 

 

1. Did someone in the director's family do the CG for the "toboggan"? (The rest of the CG being pretty good)
   
2. Why do the credits say "Bahubali" but the subtitles and most reference sources say "Baahubali"?
   
3. How do the laws of succession work in Mahishmati, as they don't seem to make sense?
   
4. OK, waterfall climbing might build strength, but how did the chap learn his fighting skills?
   

[6Foot2]

The Expatriate (2012, Fire TV) [AKA: Erased]

 

An ex-CIA agent and his estranged daughter are forced on the run when his employers erase all records of his existence, and mark them both for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy.

 

Aaron Eckhart is Ben Logan (the ex-CIA agent) who is an engineer developing security devices for his employer, having moved to Belgium with his daughter who knows nothing about his more adventurous past.

 

It follows the form of other films in the same genre, but it was watchable and passed 1 hour 44 minutes.

[Dos_Box]

Took my son to see Don't Worry Darling (he wanted to see it for...reasons) on Saturday.

I won't spend long trying to describe how bad it is, but, and SPOILER, it's The Stepford Wives, badly done and with VR.

Pitch Meetings sums it up well:

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Dos_Box

[LeMarchand]

Took my son to see Don't Worry Darling (he wanted to see it for...reasons) on Saturday.

I won't spend long trying to describe how bad it is, but and SPOILER it's The Stepford Wives, badly done and with VR.

 

That's kinda what the trailer made it look like, with added rumpy (which seems strange from a female director in this day and age). Anyway, I suspect your son's reasons are the same ones that mean I'll likely catch this when it's streaming.

[Dos_Box]

That's kinda what the trailer made it look like, with added rumpy (which seems strange from a female director in this day and age). Anyway, I suspect your son's reasons are the same ones that mean I'll likely catch this when it's streaming.

 

They probably showed all the rumpy in the trailer as there is little to none in the film and it's certainly not graphic.

it's like every scene is wasted and there is little to no 'mystery revelation'. It's also about half an hour too long (run time 2 hours). I could see the few other people in there with us looking at their phones from about the 1 hour point.

[LeMarchand]

Halloween came early at Château LeMarchand as the ladies of the house were out, so I caught up on a couple of movies and rewatched another.

 

Books of Blood (Disney+ - somewhat bizarrely)

 

This takes the framing device from the books and throws in a non-Barker story that is OK as a "horror anthology" segment, but doesn't really fit as a "Book of Blood". The adapted bit follows a debunker of the paranormal played by Anna Friel (pretending to be a Yank) who is drawn in by a psychic whose power appear real.

 

OK, but none of the characters are likeable and there's some fairly awful acting. I seemed to remember that the earlier version was better and so thought I'd give it another go.

 

Book of Blood

 

The earlier version has Sophie Ward pretending to be a Yank and is set in Edinburgh, with a bit of a "Hell House" vibe. At least her version is a bit less gullible than Anna Friel's, though I'm surprised she agreed to the added "titillation" scenes - maybe it was out of sympathy for Jonas Armstrong who also has to disrobe a lot. If you want to watch one of these two, I'd go for this one as it feels more of apiece with the original "Hellraiser". Talking of which...

 

Hellraiser (2022)

 

A recovering addict comes into possession of The Lament Configuration and soon enough the Cenobites are after her.

 

The good: Mainly the design - the props are great (I'd love a set of the configurations), and the added lore (some of which has been shown in non-movie spin offs) works well, the Cenobite designs are interesting (though never look as "real" as the originals) and the house at the end is wonderful. Bonus points for not making the leading lady wear "sexy" clothes. The bad: Unlikeable characters and a lack of chills but worst of all it lacks the ickiness/allure of the original. Nowhere near as bad as any of the direct-to-video sequels, though.

[LeMarchand]

Made In Italy (Film 4)

 

When his soon-to-be ex-wife announces that her parents are selling the art gallery that is his life, the manager (Michael Richardson) convinces his estranged artist rather (real-life dad Liam Neeson) to head to Tuscany with him to renovate and sell the family home so that he can buy the gallery.

 

Written, directed and produced by James "Jarvis" D'Arcy, this seems like it will be one of those very lightweight Tuscan romps as it has the crumbling villa with near immaculate grounds that can swiftly be restored, a gorgeous but available local woman and the mandatory moped (at least not used as an excuse for physical closeness between the leads this time). Unfortunately it gets dragged down by scene after scene of Daddy Issues. Not awful, and it's nice to see Liam doing something different, but far from a must-see.

[LeMarchand]

The Boy (Recorded but on most streaming services if you want to pay - I wouldn't advise this)

 

Lauren Cohan stars as a young American woman who takes up the position of nanny in a British manor house like nothing you've ever seen in this country. But her charge turns out to be a doll that comes with a set of rules that she soon regrets ignoring.

 

A couple of good jump scares and at least it didn't go for the cop-out ending I thought it would, but nothing special.

 

(The Secret of) Marrowbone (Recorded but on most streaming services if you want to pay - again, I wouldn't advise this)

 

Running from something bad in their past, a mother takes her children to her home in America. When she dies, the eldest must look after his siblings until he reaches 21, while convincing the outside world that his mother is still alive until the house will legally fall to him. With just a few months to go, their deception starts to unravel.

 

From British Columbia failing to convince as the UK in "The Boy" to Spain failing to convince as the US in this. Slightly more interesting, though I'm not sure it actually would hold together under scrutiny. Another one that didn't make me feel "Why did I waste my time?" but wouldn't be one I'd recommend.

[LeMarchand]

The Midnight Meat Train (DVD - remember those? Can be rented most places or on FreeVee)

 

Bradley Cooper (before he woke up with a hangover) stars as a photographer who wants to make his name by capturing the grimy underbelly of New York. He becomes obsessed by a man (Vinnie Jones) who he believes to be butchering subway passengers.

 

Not bad, particularly if you like your horror bleak (and bloody), but the denouement doesn't make a lot of sense. Worth the £1 I paid for it, but not worth the shelf space it would take to keep.

[LeMarchand]

SELF/LESS (Recorded a long time ago, but available to rent most places)

 

Ben Kingsley (with a Noo Yoick accent) plays a dying billionaire who signs up to a new technique called "shedding" where his consciousness will be transferred into a "vat grown" body. Once he becomes Ryan Reynolds (surprisingly dialled down) he discovers that his "new" body may already have a few miles on the clock.

 

So-so action/thriller that was only recorded because, while they might not always be good, director Tarsem Singh's movies ("The Cell", "The Fall", "Mirror, Mirror") are always visually stunning. Alas, he was even more dialled down than Ryan Reynolds in this. Apparently this was his choice, but I'm wondering if he was trying to show that he could do "normal" to try and get more work (only five films and one TV show since 2000) though he does do ads and music videos ("Losing My Religion" is one of his). If that was the case, it didn't work as "SELF/LESS" didn't do well and was his last movie to date (and that was 2015). Admittedly, he did backslide with his TV show "Emerald City" in 2017 which saw a partial return to his normal style - and also didn't do well. It's worth a look if you can track it down, though. As for "SELF/LESS", it's a bit soulless.

[LeMarchand]

Nightbreed - The Director's Cut (Blu-ray but theatrical release widely available to rent)

 

Aaron Boone has recurring dreams about Midian, a place where the monsters go and sins are forgiven. Which is just as well, as he also has dreams of killing people, and a serial killer is on the loose. But Midian and the monsters are only too real.

 

Saw this on release and enjoyed it. The theatrical release didn't set the box office alight and was badly mishandled (one of the posters clears up the mystery of whether Boone is the killer or not). A few years ago the "Cabal Cut" started to do the rounds. This was fairly rough, as some of the sources weren't of great quality, but made for a much better film. I was lucky enough to catch this when it was touring - especially as by the time I found it had been released on disk, prices had sky-rocketed. Allegedly the disk version is fairly well restored, but the Director's Cut definitely is well restored and looks pristine.

 

But what of the film? It's still worth a look, though the two leads are very 80s (the film was released in 1990). The prosthetics mainly still impress (the stop motion less so) but the acting isn't the best. This was director David Cronenberg's first big acting role; let's just say he's improved a lot since then. The main plot still fascinates, though events seem very compressed. One character seems to have spent a couple of days in Midian and completely knows the ropes. A cautious recommendation if an under-budgeted horror version of the X-Men idea floats your boat.

 

There was talk a few years back of a TV show sequel, though I would have thought Season 1 covering the events of the film at a more fitting pace and enabling us to learn more about the different Nightbreed, then Season 2 as a sequel with what happens to the inhabitants of Midian after the climax of the film. This is one of those times where you think that the show would have the potential to be an improvement on the original - though SyFy were in charge, so maybe not.

[LeMarchand]

Black Adam (Cinema)

 

Imprisoned for thousands of years, Black Adam - the hero who will save Kahndaq - is released. But he might not be the hero they were expecting.

 

One of the better DC offerings, this retains the Snyder style but not the grimness (though it's fairly violent). There's plenty to like, including Sarah Shari doing action scenes (who says women over 30 are washed up in Hollywood?), Aldis Hodge's new arms impressed Mme LeMarchand and some digs at US foreign policy that may go over the heads of the sort of people who assumed Homelander was the hero in "The Boys". Not a must see at the cinema, but worth a look when it's available elsewhere or if you were unsure.

[LeMarchand]

Hunter Killer (Prime Video)

 

 

After an incident sees both a Russian and an American submarine sunk, a newly promoted and unorthodox commander is given command of another sub to investigate. Meanwhile a SEAL team is sent to monitor events at a nearby Russian base. When a coup takes place the only way to avert WW3 is for the SEALs to rescue the deposed Russian president and the sub to get them to safety.

 

Ah! The innocent days of 2018 when people may have wanted to save the Russian president! The film is pretty clichéd and predictable, but still quite an enjoyable watch. Mind you, the Yanks probably only succeeded due to the large number of Brits in their hierarchy: President Caroline Goodall, Admiral Gary Oldman (who was generally in the wrong but realised the error of his ways by the end), SEAL leader Toby Stephens and Gerard Butler and David Gyasi on the rescue sub.

[Ditto]

Watched "The Good Nurse" on Netflix. For me truly excellent. Also shocking. There are some numbers at the end of the film which are disturbing if you are not familiar with the true story it is based on. There's an interview in a police cell where the intensity of the scene approaches some of what the Silence of the Lambs offered.

[JATSO]

All Quiet On The Western Front (Netflix) 2022

[LeMarchand]

Forgot my Halloween watchews (both on Disney+).

 

Hocus Pocus 2

 

Never seen the original, and this distinctly average kiddie-friendly romp didn't make me want to seek it out. Both the ladies of the house (who wanted to watch it) fell asleep.

 

Werewolf by Night

 

A curious blend of (mainly) black and white "early horror" styling with some modern sensibilities, this was much more fun. Not a "must see", but if you have Disney...

[LeMarchand]

Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)

 

Enola's detective agency seems unable to attract any customers and she is about to give up when a case involving a missing match factory worker comes her way. As the investigation continues, it seems as if her older brother's current case and her own may be entwined.

 

If you enjoyed the first film in the series, you'll enjoy this one too. There's a mid-credits scene that sets things up for part 3 and you'll probably also end up searching to see how true to life the historical event portrayed at the end was.