Last Movie You Watched.

I recorded Black Sunday from Talking Pictures TV ... if it's amongst your channels Hilly, it's worth keeping an eye on their listings as they often show things again.

Sadly I've not got Talking Pictures. Wish I had though the amount they've had on there. See if I can find an app for it. I'm reliant on Amazon Firestick for TV nowadays.

Stan and Ollie

I've never really watched Laurel and Hardy which might have helped with the film, giving me nothing to base against. It's not a bad film, I like John C. Reilly in most things and he was sunk into the role in more ways than one and did it well. Coogan was good but my focus kept shifting to Reilly.

Isle of Dogs

Not seen it since the cinema and a fantastic film in its way. Well made and typical Anderson. Trouble with the films as they go on, is the cast gets bigger and broader. Gone are the sort of neat simple cast of Rushmore or even Tenenbaums. Not necessarily a bad thing but the mind goes, oh that's McDormand, that's Murray, Goldblum, Cranston, Johannsson whatever.

I do recall when I heard this being made, I thought quite why Anderson would make a film about the Isle of Dogs in London (Canary Wharf et al) was beyond me but I'm game. Never mind.

Going Clear - fascinating, disconcerting and anger-making docu about the batshit clusterfuck that is the Church Of Scientology.

Upgrade - sci-fi set in the near future where tech implants, self-driving cars etc are widespread. Left quadriplegic and bereaved after a car crash/mugging, mechanic Logan Marshall-Green accepts an experimental 'STEM' implant that gives him the power of movement back and enhances him in several other ways. Suitably emboldened, he then sets about tracking down his wife's killers. Some good action and nicely dark humour in this, and it certainly looks like it cost more that its $3 million budget would suggest.

The Endless - two brothers who escaped a 'UFO death cult' in their teens are drawn back to it, only to discover that the remaining members may not be kidding themselves and that something genuinely 'otherwordly' might be going on there after all. An enjoyably weird sci-fi horror.

Hilly wrote:

Stan and Ollie

I've never really watched Laurel and Hardy which might have helped with the film, giving me nothing to base against. It's not a bad film, I like John C. Reilly in most things and he was sunk into the role in more ways than one and did it well. Coogan was good but my focus kept shifting to Reilly.

Can't quite remember it myself but I was impressed with both of their performances. But the script relies too heavily on Coogan and Reilly, from memory.

I watched Children of a Lesser God last night. William Hurt has such an impressive early resume, from this to Broadcast News, The Accidental Tourist, The Big Chill and Gorky Park. Anyway, a fascinating insight into the psyche of a deaf person (Matlin) and how she navigates a relationship with someone who isn't-- that being Hurt's character. Gems like this won't ever be made again.

Night of the Big Heat

Saw this was on my5 and thought, why not? I last saw this probably twenty years ago or so with my parents. Kind of film not to watch during a heatwave. My abiding memory was Jane Merrow.

Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and the late voice over supremo Patrick Allen (who started off that X-Factor voiceover stuff on E4), a small island off England is experiencing supreme heat whilst it's midwinter. Aliens dontchaknow? It is incredibly funny unintentionally nowadays but Jane Merrow as I say is etched in my mind and for good reason. No sooner has she arrived at the town she's in a bikini. Then there's the scene where Kenny Cope tries forcing himself on her which is preceded by her sweaty swelling cleavage...Seriously all I remember from twenty years ago. I should say she had that effect when I saw UFO. An episode where she is seducing Ed Straker, he walks into the bedroom and she's stood there in her underwear. As an eleven year-old she was an incredible sight, ha.

The ending is a touch abrupt. The rain starts, Allen shouts: "They're dying", camera pans out and THE END appears. Perhaps OHMSS should've done that.

"It's Blofeld!" looks at Tracy...

THE END.

Apparently there was previously a 1960 ITV adaptation of it, and it was renamed 'Island Of The Burning Damned' for the US market.

There was, it had to be massively rewritten for the film I think. Funny how films in the day had different titles for markets. Some of the war films got curious names for the American market. Ice Cold in Alex was Desert Victory, I Was Monty's Double became Hell or Hoboken, Yangtze Incident was Battle Hell, etc

Few American titles seemed to actually match what the film was about.

I'm reminded of LTK previously being titled 'Licence Revoked' and the change being made because US market research revealed that few knew what 'revoked' meant.

Taken - lean 'n' mean actioner that sparked a unexpected 'middle-aged ass-kicker' career direction for Liam Neeson. The shoddiness of the second one left me with no desire to see the third, from what I gather things don't improve in it.

Under Siege - Die Hard On A Boat, with Seagal in his pre-dickhead days. Nicely deranged villain turn from Tommy Lee Jones, and Gary Busey and Colm Meaney are also amongst the supporting cast. Oh, and Baywatch's Erika Eleniak sportingly gets her tits out.

Ah, Erika Eleniak. Boy, I miss the 90s.

From the mists of afternoon Film4: Thunder Bay

In my head when I saw this in the paper I thought it was the Hayley Mills film (which turns out is, er, Tiger Bay) but it's of course Jimmy Stewart. In spite of the IMDB score (sometimes a barometer), it was not a bad movie. Not when you consider the plot is oil drilling in Louisiana. It bubbles along well enough.
One striking aspect was the actresses playing sisters- Joanne Dru and Marcia Henderson, could have been twins. Like to think Anthony Mann or the casting chap/chappette made sure they were that similar. Many films the siblings or family members have no resemblance in the slightest.

Hilly wrote:

the plot is oil drilling in Louisiana. It bubbles along well enough.

I see what you did there .

Nightbreed - Clive Barker writes and directs an adap of his novel 'Cabal'. Starts off horror-ish, before throwing in fantasy and then some Indy-esque shenanigans by the end (there's also some mostly misguided humour). It's OK ... main points of interest are probably David Cronenberg acting and Danny Elfman's choral-heavy score.

I didn't twig that at the time. Somewhat like on tour once and this Aussie said, "I liked the pun you did."
"What pun?"
"At Big Ben, the repair work. You said it's ticking along nicely."

I should stick to unintentional comedy, :)

Under Siege is surprisingly good due to the villains, Andrew Davis’s direction and great sound design for the time.

Thunder Bay is a great little gem being one of the non-Westerns Mann made with Stewart. It’s a little old fashioned sure but has a grittiness not to mention it’s special for being one of universal’s first widescreen titles so the ratio is questionable and it has a stereo three channel mix just like the other film Mann made with Stewart the also far better than you’d think Glenn Miller Story. But of course the five westerns they made are untouchable and films I rewatch every year. They’re some of the best in the genre period and I’d put Winchester ‘73, Naked Spur and Man From Laramie in my top 15 all time westerns alongside Mann’s masterpiece with Gary Cooper, Man of the West.
You can’t tell I think they were one of the all time best actor-director partnerships can you...

My Name Is Bruce and Bubba Ho-Tep - double-bill with Bruce 'Evil Dead' Campbell, the 'king of the Bs'. Ideally daftly escapist Saturday night fare.

Up Periscope

This bored me as a kid but then as a kid you seem to have short attention spans. However, there I go this afternoon. James Garner is the draw and as the credits roll, you see Edmond O'Brien and think, aye, aye here we go.
It's a thin film. According to zee net Garner was made to do it as part of his contract and going by this nugget, it seems O'Brien was likewise made to do it. He's good, as he always was, but he seems to be elsewhere doing his role.
Girl back in Hawaii who pines for Garner but he can't committ because it's war. Check.
Air attacks as the sub makes its way out. Check.
Sacrificial officer/crew on deck as Japanese attack and sub must submerge. Check.
Idiot Japanese running about. Check.
Explosions. Check.
Heroic homecoming with laughs. Check

Honourable mention to Alan McHale Jr.

David Brent: Life on the Road

Strangely entertaining in its way. Seems the Office special that finished the series was for naught as the woman he met is absent without mention but as usual I end up feeling for the poor bastard. Apparently this was a box office failure. So be it. I did not mind it.

Next: George Lazenby: Outback Adventures.

Brent is essentially insufferable, but Gervais manages to give him poignancy.

Exactly, it's a fine performance in that sense really. The film seemed to change it a little in that he had more people on side in the office like the idiot Nigel and the woman who fancied him.

Like Partridge, I think Brent's around a little while yet

The Quiller Memorandum - 60s spy thriller, with George Segal's agent sent by British Intelligence to Berlin (beating Harry Palmer to the city by a whole year) continuing an investigation into a neo-Nazi organisation which has led to the death of 2 previous agents.

Alec Guinness and Max Von Sydow add class, Senta Berger some glamour and it all trundles along reasonably enough but the trouble with these 'anti-Bond' type films is that in comparison they can be ... well, a bit dull really. And so it proves here.

Scored by John Barry ... the spy genre really kept him busy in the 60s.

High Plains Drifter - Western in which an enigmatic, nameless stranger pitches up in the small mining town of Lago and rallies the cowardly townsfolk into standing up to the wrong 'uns who are coming back to terrorise them after their release from prison.

A bit of classic Clint, who both stars and directs here.

The Trip

A very enjoyable comedy with some excellent James Bond references. Interesting to read this was a series recut as a feature film outside of Britain. Looking forward to the sequels.

Oh, the Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan thing? Didn't know they'd 'converted' it into a film, interesting.

Yes, the locations and food are enviable and it's often very funny. There's melancholy about being a man of a certain age in there, too.