Films You Have Watched

[QualityChimp]

My daughter and I heard "Little Bit Naughty" on the radio a couple of months back and she's asked Alexa to play it a few times.
It's from Matilda the Musical, and we meant to get it for Christmas as it's only on Netflix (it's a Netflix production), however the BBC iPlayer came to the rescue!
The music is by Tim Minchin and is really good, especially "Naughty".

I think my main issue is that it's quite a depressing story with awful things happening to all the nice people. Yeah, it's resolved at the end, but it's quite tough going at times, so I'd recommend it, but be aware that it's pretty downbeat for 90% of the runtime!

Then we watched Wonka (NowTV) whilst my son had a movie marathon watching the Iron Man trilogy with some mates.
Another film where lots of bad things happen to the protagonist and their friends, but it felt a little bit more positive than Matilda, with Willy's endless positivity.
Lyrics for this were by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and it also had some great songs.
He's got a slightly easier deal than Minchin as he gets to weave a bit of "Pure Imagination" into the songs, but they're still unique to this.
Talking of which, being a prequel, it's a lot more unique than the Tim Burton remake, which just had me frustrated with how much it deviates from the book/OG film and why they made Depp's Wonka such a needy whiner. Burton shoehorned his trademark gothic style into it, but it felt unnecessary to me.

My biggest issue with Wonka is with how many faces I recognised and every 5 minutes having to wonder what show someone was off.
The answer was Takeshi's Castle, Little Britain, Ghosts x4, Key & Peele, Blackadder, Peepshow, Taskmaster, Paddington, Sex Education, Four Weddings, Horrible Histories Downton, Mighty Boosh, Call the Midwife and several others!


So, both are worth seeing, especially with kids, but I felt Wonka pipped Matilda to the post.

[wakka]

I can imagine that, with the new Matilda film. I think Matilda is quite typical of Roald Dahl's stories in that it is actually very dark. I can't really think of another beloved children's author who features child abuse and sadism so readily.

I haven't seen the new musical or the film of it but I saw the original Matilda film when it released in '96 - aged 6 - and it gave me nightmares afterwards! Probably more than any of his other children's stories it's one that's really brimming with nasty people doing horrible things, with only Matilda herself and Miss Honey providing some respite.

With that said though, I've always loved Dahl's work (even as a kid, even though the Matilda movie terrified me) because of its subversiveness.

[Golgo]

Watched The Plague Dogs, Michael Rosen's 1982 adaptation of the Richard Adams book that isn't Watership Down. Haven't seen it in nearly 40 years, and I'd forgotten how unremittingly bleak and brutal and sad it is. This was the extended cut with some extra nasty bits they removed from the theatrical release. Wonderful film that seems to be patched together through a series of short vignettes with briefest snippets of dialogue. Great performances from James Bolam, John Hurt and Nigel Hawthorne in particular. Some incredible talent of the period for a cartoon.

[Baseley09]

Top class, the lad getting shotgun in the face is harrowing to say the least.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 1957)

Watched this on BBC iPlayer last night. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

- Prime Elvis displaying absolute "BRAT" energy long before Charli XCX had anything to say about it. Controversial at the time but hilariously stroppy and petulant by today's standards, and quite brave of him to go against personality type given his already huge star status at the time.

- That scene with the titular song still slaps nearly 70 years later!

- RIP Judy Tyler. She died soon after the film was completed (Elvis was reportedly so devastated by this that he pretty much disavowed the film). 24 is no age to go - she'd be 91 were she still alive today...is anybody involved with this (on either side of the camera) still alive in 2025??

[Neon Ignition]

Juror #2
Finally got to see it and... it was a fair bit disappointing. The idea remains great but the execution hugely lets the film down with it making the wrong moves from fairly early on in its runtime and continuing throughout

[Yakumo]

Alien Romulus

The 4K BluRay came out today so I had to get it.
I missed this on the cinema but I'm so glad I did see it. From the outset it just screamed 80s and practical effects. The movie looked so right, just as if it was made back in the day but somehow they excelled in special effects.

The actual movie was very enjoyable. The young cast maybe a little off putting for some but they kind of grew on me.
The 4K BluRay comes with the standard BluRay which contains some pretty nice extras such as alternative scenes, extended scenes, making of and a nice chart with Sir Ridley Scott.
Recommended to fans of Alien or even just those in to horror.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)

Apologies, Miyazaki-san...I wasn't that familiar with your game...

Not my all-time favourite Studio Ghibli flick (Laputa takes that honour!) or even my all-time favourite anime (Akira, here's looking at you!), but I'll be goddamned if I'm anything less than totally comfortable with putting this in the GOAT conversations on either score.

Simply the type of animation so rich and vivid in scope, depth and sheer imagination that you genuinely struggle to comprehend, never mind question, just how something like this can be created.

Basically the modern version of Alice In Wonderland, and I'm not even sure that Lewis Carroll could paint this type of picture.

Magical.

[QualityChimp]

I saw Nosferatu at the cinema last night.

It's directed by Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The VVitch) and it's bloody gorgeous.
Almost every frame could be from a book of gothic artwork.
There's a mix of CGI and practical effects, but it feels like it's mainly practical with atmospheric locations and amazing prosthetics.
Some brilliant turns from the cast, especially Bill Skarsgård, (Count Orlok), Lily-Rose Depp (Ellen Hutter), Willem Dafoe (Pr Albin Eberhart Von Franz), Nicholas Hoult (Thomas Hutter), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Friedrich Harding) and... FINCHY!

Loads of creepy, near-monoschrome shots to drink in.



My biggest issue is that I don't really like the Dracula/Nosferatu story where women willingly give themselves and men happily subjugate to him, I'd knee him in the balls at the first opportunity.

By the second hour, I was well ready for some staking to start happening, rather than everyone talking about how "He is cooomiiiing" in dramatically Victorian ways.

Less insane that The Lighthouse and less unsettling than The VVitch (IMHO), it's slightly more mainstream and focused. It's up to you if you think that's a good idea, but this was great to see on the big screen, if a little long.

[wakka]

Finchy is in so many movies. I watched the Pope's Exorcist the other day and when there's a woman properly possessed by a demon, it's Finchy doing the demon voice VO.

To be fair though he is a bloody good rep. And he does read a book a week.

[QualityChimp]

Finchy is in so many movies. I watched the Pope's Exorcist the other day and when there's a woman properly possessed by a demon, it's Finchy doing the demon voice VO.

To be fair though he is a bloody good rep. And he does read a book a week.

Yeah, after we spoke about it the other week, I had to resist shouting FINCHY! in the cinema.

[wakka]

One of the cleverest blokes I know. Definitely the cleverest bloke Gareth knows.

->Open Spoiler<-

Off topic but it's recently been brought to my attention that Elon Musk appears to be transforming into Gareth

[Neon Ignition]

I'm undecided on seeing it. The Lighthouse was interesting without being riviting whilst The Witch was (IMO) incredibly vanilla, forgettable stuff.

[QualityChimp]

I suspect it'll be one of the most visually arresting films I'll see this year. Looked great on the cinema screen.
I gave it 3 1/2 * on Letterboxd, if that helps.

I'd probably describe it as a gorgeously shot and more earnestly acted version of Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987)

Pretty much what you'd get if you imagined Twilight for Tiger Beat/Smash Hits readers from Gen-X, but even more ridiculous and silly from start to finish (without mentioning the gaping plotholes, clichéd storyline and and implicitly camp turn from Sutherland as the lead villain) and pretty much a foreshadowing of the nonsense that was to come from the The Two Coreys era.

Nowhere near deserving of the cult classic status that it has garnered in the nearly four decades that have passed since it was released - the two straight-to-DVD sequels that followed this will tell you that.