Films You Have Watched

[Dogg Thang]

I watched John Wick 4. The film looks incredible, beautifully shot and it has an amazing cast. And to its credit, not as much total nonsense as the third film. But it was about an hour too long and I just couldn’t care about most of it. John Wick isn’t even in it all that much. Any scene that delves into motivations or character stuff doesn’t actually feature Wick. He’s the MacGuffin. But I’ve long forgotten why anyone wants to kill him or why it matters. No idea. But I do remember it has been that way since the end of the first movie, which makes it all the funnier when we get a sequence late in this one of everyone setting out to kill him as if this is a new development.

I don’t know who John Wick is, why he matters, why anyone cares about anything. It just all seems so meaningless at this stage. The most interesting character was the guy with the dog who was in it for maybe 6 minutes. Even poor ol’ Donnie Yen for all his charisma couldn’t elevate it. And Scott Adkins was lost behind a fat suit. The movie had no business being as long as it was and now, as I write this, I’m wondering why I stuck with it at all.

[Neon Ignition]

I enjoyed it but I think it does carry some excess to it. I don't really get why they're finding it so hard to crack the story for Chapter Five either, Chapter Four does very little to advance or resolve the storyline and I think that's why those who are dogged about the ending being final are so set on that, because it would feel pointless without it - even though it's very clear he's still alive. The storyline for Ch5 just needs to be the one Ch4 was set up to be and didn't end up doing, bringing things to a head and refocus on John. They're over distracted by world building which can easily be done via the series, spin-off films etc. At this point the main films just need a through line to bring the story to an end as the ending of Chapter Four would be a naff conclusion

[Neon Ignition]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 26
Circle
Possibly the least qualifying film of the line up, not really a horror at all. 50 people wake up in a room and cannot move from the spot they are standing on, they quickly realise that every 60 seconds they are deciding on which of them will die next. The rest of the film being the group being whittled away as they debate, lie and contest to survive the next 60 seconds. It has interesting parts but there's not much more than that to it.

[Atticus]

I watched Halloween 2 yesterday, only for the second time ever, and all I remembered was it was hospitaly. For when it was made, in proximity of the original, the continuity is pretty great. But you can tell it was already trying to compete with other slasher/horrors and upping the gore was a priority. It’s a serviceable sequel but really, it just compounds what a masterpiece the first film is.

[Neon Ignition]

Friday the 13th
The 2009 and most recent entry, still just an all round solid and straight forward entry

Five Nights at Freddy's
2023 is definitely a year for hyperbolic stances on films being good or bad where there's little middle ground in between. This has been torn apart online and by critics but the film is actually in a fairly inoffensive and forgettable middle ground. I've seen many worse films this month alone. I don't have extensive knowledge of the games but they seem to have heavily expanded the security guard role but otherwise it seems uncommonly true to the games and Henson once again does gods work in bringing the animatronic creatures to life with a hats off commitment to not using CG.



31 Nights of Horror - Night 27
The Mean One
The Grinch is assaulted by Cindy-Loo's mother on Christmas night igniting a hatred for life as well as the season in him. Many years later she returns to the town to deal with her past trauma and finds herself facing off against the mean one once again. This borrows very liberally from the Jim Carrey representation of the character and in some ways is well done but in many others is terrible too.

31 Nights of Horror - Night 28
Christine
First time watching this which is definitely coloured by decades of other films and series nodding to it. It has a few good moments and a few slightly dumb ones but overall we enjoyed it. I await a Christine vs Herbie face off film - Spoilers, Herbs wins because you stand no chance when Herbie Goes Bananas


31 Nights of Horror - Night 29
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Coming from the same mindset as stuff like Mean One etc, Christopher Robin is friends with the magical animals until he has to go to college for a few years. In his absence a harsh winter creeps in and starving and abandoned by Robin the animals develop a hatred for him and all mankind. Having turned on and eaten Eeyore to stay alive, Robin and his wife come back to see his childhood friends. Morbind curiosity is the main draw here and first instincts prove true - it's utter ****

[prinnysquad]

Smokescreen (1964) - an insurance assessor is despatched to Brighton to assess the validity of a life insurance claim. His investigation uncovers foul play. Gently-paced little film which benefits from a very decent performance by Peter Vaughan (Harry Grout in Porridge). His constant penny pinching is amusing and acts as a thread throughout the whole film. It’s an enjoyable drama which clocks in at a pleasant 70 minutes. 7/10

Hell is a City (1960) - Val Guest-helmed police-based thriller starring Stanley Baker and Donald Pleasance. It’s an excellent film. No scene is superfluous, and every line has a point. The actors act even when not speaking. I know that sounds like an obvious point, but it’s not always the case, and it creates a lifelike, busy film where every scene feels real. The pace is expertly handled, and the cinematography superb. There’s some quality contrasting shots with crisp, clear streets in the foreground and an industrial haze in the background. There’s numerous nice tracking shots and camera set ups that make each scene feel that little bit more immersive. A quality production. 8.5/10

[Baseley09]

Daughters of Darkness (1971) Atmospheric belgian lesbian vampires fare, similar in theme to the latter The Hunger and maybe even Interview with the Vampire. Not always engaging but some titillation and cool shooting to admire.

Body Double (1984) Rad Brian De Palma 80s thriller, voyeur turned stalker amid LA jobbing actors backdrop affair, quite odd but lots of fun, and the best kissing scene you will likely see.

[Neon Ignition]

Spiral: From the Book of Saw
The title's subtitle makes zero sense and this is without doubt the weakest of the ten films. For those who made it this far it's passable but barring having Samuel L Jackson in it, pretty much every other metric is a fail.



31 Nights of Horror - Night 30
No One Will Save You
A sci-fi horror in which a young woman lives alone, highly anxious and frowned on by the rest of the town. One night she is awoken by lights and finds an intruder in her home from another world. It's more of a sci-fi than a horror but it's main device is visuals. The film literally only contains five spoken words in its run time and so what you see is what tells the story, it's very good at it too - we were quite some way in before we clocked that nothing was being said as it stretches it in some places that she doesn't even speak to herself given what she experiences. The ending strains things but broadly it's a solid watch.

[Atticus]

Daughters of Darkness (1971) Atmospheric belgian lesbian vampires fare, similar in theme to the latter The Hunger and maybe even Interview with the Vampire. Not always engaging but some titillation and cool shooting to admire.

Body Double (1984) Rad Brian De Palma 80s thriller, voyeur turned stalker amid LA jobbing actors backdrop affair, quite odd but lots of fun, and the best kissing scene you will likely see.

Cool LD. Body Double is awesome.

[wakka]

Daughters of Darkness (1971) Atmospheric belgian lesbian vampires fare, similar in theme to the latter The Hunger and maybe even Interview with the Vampire. Not always engaging but some titillation and cool shooting to admire.

Body Double (1984) Rad Brian De Palma 80s thriller, voyeur turned stalker amid LA jobbing actors backdrop affair, quite odd but lots of fun, and the best kissing scene you will likely see.

Really cool LD to own. Love Body Double.

[prinnysquad]

Clash By Night (1964) - black and white B-movie with Terence Longden, Harry Fowler, Peter Sallis and Alan Wheatley. A bus full of cons is hijacked and taken to a barn. An entertaining little number with several likeable characters, and Sallis a world away from Norman Clegg. 7/10.

The Shakedown (1959) - Terence Morgan, Hazel Court, Robert Beatty, Donald Pleasance, Harry H Corbett, Bill Owen. A former con sets up a modelling agency with a photographer. He has a side hustle in blackmail. Superior British B-movie with an excellent cast. 8/10

The Last Page (1952) - A bookstore owner is blackmailed and implicated in murder. It was ok. 6/10.

[Neon Ignition]

31 Nights of Horror - Night 31
Halloween H20
The missus' choice fo film to end the season on, there's been worse entries but this is very thin and dated in many ways with the 2018 film being much better.

[Dogg Thang]

I saw Bottoms last night. The movie, not just bottoms. An incredibly unlikeable main character throughout so I struggled to get into the movie but I did eventually get into it and really enjoyed it. The structure is really basic but it’s very funny in places and the ending is superb. And aside from the main character and one other, the characters are mostly really endearing. Just such a weird choice to make the main character so awful. And it seemed deliberate - it’s acknowledged in the movie. It’s entertaining in spite of that.

[Neon Ignition]

Citizen Kane
.....

.....


So - I expect to be an outlier on this one. I can appreciate the filmmaking involved. From the very early shots there's some clever stuff going on at times before the film settles into its more typical fare. It was interesting afterward to read the history of the film and why it hit controversy at the time of its release. But - it was pretty boring too.

[Atticus]

The Killer. Beautifully made but ultimately a little empty. Enjoyable enough though.