Films You Have Watched

[Nu-Eclipse]

Took a few goes, but I watched F/X (Prime), where a special effects artists is hired by the feds to fake a death on a mob boss who is testifying against them, so the mob stop trying to kill him. However, the plans go wrong and he ends up on the run, using his knowledge of movie effects to outwit his pursuers.

Bryan Brown is the likeably Aussie effects guy, being pursued by Brian Dennehy as the grizzled cop who suspects there's more going on, but those pencil-pushing desk jockey bosses are reigning him in.

This is one of those films we must've taped off the telly and watched a load of times when we were kids.
Probably the TV edit as I don't remember all the swearing as a kid!
It's actually a decent thriller with nice twist as he's trying to MacGuyver his way out of his situation before MacGuyver was a thing.

MacGyver was definitely already a thing before F/X - season 1 debuted in 1985, a year before.

I was considering re-watching F/X on Prime too - it'll be taken off there after this week.

A somewhat underrated 1980s movie, that spawned a 90s sequel (soon to be on Prime) and a short-lived mid-90s TV series adaptation.

[Finsbury Girl]

Loved F/X , big fan of Bryan Brown - saw him around a few times when I lived in Surry Hills in Sydney (yes I know the spelling is wrong)

And holy moly - I never knew about the series, even more wow to see Cameron Daddo was in it. He was pretty huge here in Oz around that time. Were a few of them on telly at the time

[QualityChimp]

Interesting! I always thought MacGuyver came later.
I suspect the overlap was so small that they didn't influence each other and I was only using that as a trope benchmark when in reality, he was using the practical effects at his disposal, rather than using the things around him.

Apparently a later MacGuyver uses the mirror trick from F/X.

Thanks for the heads-up on F/X2 as I'll watch that when it drops on Prime. I can only remember the clown animatronic.

I use the "leaving Prime soon" section on their browser as a guide as what to watch. I keep eyeing up The Octagon starring Chuck Norris Vs. ninjas!

Loving the Aus News, Finsbury!

[Nu-Eclipse]

I use the "leaving Prime soon" section on their browser as a guide as what to watch. I keep eyeing up The Octagon starring Chuck Norris Vs. ninjas!

This is my problem with Prime Video in general - there is a point where the quality of what is available to watch takes a serious nosedive. I get that rights licensing are a thing (doesn't seem to stop Amazon inventing more and more subscriptions for access though) but c'mon!

[wakka]

From my perspective that's also kind of the beauty of it though. I can imagine a lot of people do scroll through Prime movies thinking 'What is all this old crap', but I love the oddball 80s and 90s stuff you can find on there!

Netflix probably has a selection that most people probably like more but it's aggressively normcore. I always feel like I've seen a lot of the pre-2010 movies they have.

The ads before and mid-movie on Prime are kind of annoying though. I think I might pay the £2.99 a month to get rid of them.

[Nu-Eclipse]

From my perspective that's also kind of the beauty of it though. I can imagine a lot of people do scroll through Prime movies thinking 'What is all this old crap', but I love the oddball 80s and 90s stuff you can find on there!

That's being kind IMO.

I'd argue that it's even worse than that once you scroll to a certain point. There is lot of sub-par stuff on Prime Video, and I mean worse-than-made-for-TV stuff.

[wakka]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I still like it, though. It's the ****ty grimecore video rental shop of the streamers, where Netflix is kind of clean cut normalo nazi stuff, Disney is for franchise fanboys/gals, and Apple is for people who would've been on an exclusive diet of HBO in the 2000s (and made sure you knew it).

Tubi is good for weird stuff, too.

[QualityChimp]

Was literally going to say the same as Wakka - it feels like a VHS rental place where as a kid you'd gaze at those video nasty covers and wondered what horrors lay within.

Stuff like Evil Dead, Alligator, Frankenhooker, Wishmaster and Maniac Cop, at a glance.

They've got new releases too like Don't Blink, Long Legs and Civil War.

I think it's the best streaming service, with only the BBC iPlayer with better value (and NO adverts).
I just hate all those billionaire rocket-loving assholes who own everything.

[Neon Ignition]

The missus has been putting films on from ITVX but I can't stand it, even if you find something that tugs at your nostalgia strings its usually cut to high heavens like its still airing on ITV terrestrial back in the 80's

[Atticus]

I started watching Hammer House of Horror on itvx but the sheer amount of adverts makes it pretty much unwatchable (I accept that's what funds it, but there's simply too much of it).

[wakka]

Yeah I find Channel 4 and ITVX pretty unwatchable for films personally.

Last night I watched Communion (1989). In a true life story tale, Christopher Walken plays Whitley Streiber, a novelist who begins experiencing close encounters of the third kind.

I previously tried to read the book Communion, that Strieber wrote about his experiences, but I kept falling asleep. Now I've tried to watch the film on which the book is based, and I fell asleep. I think at this point I just have to accept that Whitley Strieber's tales of being abducted from his bed by aliens are just not all that interesting.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Teen Wolf (Rod Daniel, 1985)

Another one off the "Watch before it leaves Amazon Prime Video" list!

Obviously aged in places and comes across as a lot more cheesy/corny four decades on, but arguably still the most 1980s high-school allegory for coming-of-age/puberty/being true to yourself instead of being who you think others want you to be that there is, powered by prime Michael J. Fox energy!
Also, the song played during the climactic high-school basketball game still bangs as far as I'm concerned!

Ultimately both better and worse than I remember it being. No real desire to follow this up with watching the 1987 sequel or the 2011 reboot TV series/2023 feature-length.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I remembered Teenwolf being amazing when I saw it - "Buy me a keg of beeeer" and the clawed top in the cupboard and surfing the van and his dad's revelation etc.
When I rewatched it a few years back, there's very little too it beyond those moments.

Have you seen the random extra on the basketball court seats that has their trousers open and have to zip back up?

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I remembered Teenwolf being amazing when I saw it - "Buy me a keg of beeeer" and the clawed top in the cupboard and surfing the van and his dad's revelation etc.
When I rewatched it a few years back, there's very little too it beyond those moments.

Have you seen the random extra on the basketball court seats that has their trousers open and have to zip back up?

The thing that struck me about Teenwolf when I rewatched it was the sound. There are so many places that needed score that doesn't have it and then places where it just sounded weird. Made it feel like a lesser film.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yeah, I remembered Teenwolf being amazing when I saw it - "Buy me a keg of beeeer" and the clawed top in the cupboard and surfing the van and his dad's revelation etc.
When I rewatched it a few years back, there's very little too it beyond those moments.

Yeah, I feel like it used to be on TV all the time when I was very young and would pretty much always stop to watch it.

With hindsight, it was clearly touted as being a better film than it actually was (despite the success it had at the box-office: $4m budget to $80m profit), obviously due to Fox's popularity at the time with Family Ties and Back To The Future. In reality, it's a very basic teen coming-of-age story. The funny thing for me is that the "Wolf" character could've been a way more intelligent plot device to convey the trials/tribulations of growing up than what it ultimately was.

Have you seen the random extra on the basketball court seats that has their trousers open and have to zip back up?

Erm....no??