Last Movie You Watched.

Escape Room - six seemingly disparate individuals receive an invite to the titular attraction, where it quickly becomes clear to them that they'd better work together as failing to escape will actually prove fatal. Decent enough horror-thriller.

A Quiet Place : Day One - the latest in the sci-fi horror franchise moves out the action out of the sticks and into NYC to depict the day that the hunt-by-sound carnivorous alien creatures landed on Earth. Tension and jump scares aplenty.

9
Incredibly well made and original animation with an esoteric message, about a bunch of rag dolls in a post-acopalyptic world. Fittingly, it came out in 2009.

The King's Man - the third in the 'Bondfluenced' franchise takes the prequel route to show the origins of the independent intelligence network. It posits that the events leading to WW1 were due to the machinations of a shadowy SPECTRE-style organisation. Having Bond alumni Ralph Fiennes and Gemma Arterton on board undoubtedly helps, and Rhys Ifans clearly has mucho fun as Rasputin.

ASTEROID CITY

Typical Wes Anderson. Bizarre and fun, with vibrant colours and a great cast.

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

How come I have not seen this before? A real classic, and the only movie directed by Charles Laughton. Frank Frazetta´s favourite movie, by the way.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The Mummy - local Cineworld is running a '99 season, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to see this action-adventure take on the classic horror tale on the big screen again. Still a fine slice of Indy-esque escapist fun with Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo.    

Insane that it's 25 years old.

Whatever happened to these pulp-y family movies? We really didn't know how good we had it.

Indeed. On a slightly less family-friendly front, part of the season is the South Park movie. Think I'll pop along to that too.

TOUCH OF EVIL

Another noir classic I had not seen before. The opening is great, and I really love the final act. In between there is unfortunately a lot of clumsy and weird dialogue that drags it down. Photo is outstanding and Mancini´s score quite good. A mixed bag, but approved on the whole.

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK

The best of the Riddick movies.

Twisters - 28 years on from the Jan De Bont original and with no discernible character 'links' to that movie, this is apparently a 'standalone sequel'. Hmm.

That aside, this is an entertaining summer blockbuster detailing the exploits of a new generation of 'stormchasers'. The effects are well up to scratch in depicting one of Mother Nature's most terrifying phenonema, and Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell make for appealing leads.

ABIGAIL

The first half of this was pretty bad, but then things start happening and it becomes highly amusing. It would have been an improvement if not every other sentence contained the words "fuck", "fuckin" or "shit". Or "fuckin shit".

THE OTHERS

Great script, smashing performances.

Hot Shots! - Airplane!-esque comedy. Top Gun is the main 'target' but the likes of 9 And A Half Weeks, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Dances with Wolves get spoofed too. 85 minutes of good unpretentious fun.

City Slickers - Three friends (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, who are all going through various midlife crises) head off to New Mexico for an old-fashioned cattle drive. This comedy veers into sentimentality a little too much, but there are still plenty of solid laughs. Jack Palance won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as trail boss Curly.

Deadpool and Wolverine - there's some self/over-indulgence here for sure but there's enough meta-jokes, splattery action and cameos to see it through. Not sure if it'll 'save' Marvel, but it's certainly better than anything the studio's had to offer for a few years now.

PETER PAN
The live action from 2003. Good casting, but I much prefer the animated Disney version from 50 years earlier.

PINOCCHIO
I love the Disney version from 1940, and I thought the del Toro version from a couple years back was very good as well. This is an Italian live action from 2019, and is yet another variant that I liked quite a bit.

U-Turn - late 90s Oliver Stone neo-noir thriller with Sean Penn as a drifter (on his way to repay a debt to Russian gangsters) whose car breaks down in a small Arizona town. In desperation after losing the money, when a local woman to who he becomes attracted (Jennifer Lopez) suggests killing her despised husband (Nick Nolte) so that they can flee town with Nolte's money he agrees. But of course in these kinds of movies, things are rarely that simple.

With a 'stacked' supporting cast (Billy Bob Thornton, Powers Boothe, Jon Voight, Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix) and Ennio Morricone on scoring duties, this maybe adds up to a bit less than the sum of its parts but is still a decent enough watch.

PLATOON

One of the better Vietnam war movies.

THE MARK OF ZORRO
70s tv movie. Pretty good, but cannot measure up to the 1940 movie.

NATURAL BORN KILLERS


Top three Oliver Stone for me. Very fancy photo, editing and special effects and great soundtrack. It is also very violent, chaotic and over the top. You may want to skip it if you suffer from high blood pressure, even though it is very clearly a satire about US fascination for violence.

PRISONERS


Villeneuve´s Hollywood debut is a very clever drama thriller, unpleasant at times, but with fantastic performances.

THE LAST WAGON

Real classic 50s western. I love it.

CORONER CREEK

Classic 40s western. I am seeking out some old westerns, maybe a bit inspired by Perilagu´s revival of the Western Thread. Not bad.

I'm doing the same. But just Westerns, in general. Not limited to any decade.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

I'm doing the same. But just Westerns, in general. Not limited to any decade.

I am checking out some of the old ones because there are so many of those I still haven´t seen.

Phantom Commander wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

I'm doing the same. But just Westerns, in general. Not limited to any decade.

I am checking out some of the old ones because there are so many of those I still haven´t seen.

I haven't seen all that many, period. Hell, I had no use for Westerns until a few years ago. Dismissed them as sheriffs riding around on horses shooting at banditos, outlaws and Injuns. Figured they were boring and one-dimensional. I was wrong. I'm now fascinated by the genre.