Rate the Last Film You Watched

Mickey 17
Interstellar travel. Colonising another world. Aliens. Cloning. How is it possible for a movie containing all these things within the first half hour to be so boring? It doesn't help that the characters range from annoying to despicable. I can't say I had any remaining faith in humanity going into this movie, but by the end I was kind of disappointed that the outcome wasn't human extinction; that's how little I wanted to keep watching this misery-fest.

M3gan 2.0
Given the mixed reviews and that the first trailer was awful, I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this. It's a major pivot from the slasher/thriller structure of the original to a pure action movie. It almost feels too on-the-nose to compare it to the shift from The Terminator to Terminator 2, because this pretty much is Terminator 2. The main element that carries over from the original is the dark humour, which still lends it a distinctive flavour. I hope that the movie's poor performance at the box office doesn't kill off the franchise, because I would definitely like to see the all-singing, all-dancing killbot return again.
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day VII: From Beyond (1986, Stuart Gordon)

IMG_1154.jpeg
The late Stuart Gordon, who also directed cult classics like Re-Animator, Dolls, and Castle Freak, and producer Brian Yuzna bring a film based (loosely) on the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft - it was a good romp, not dissimilar from other Empire Pictures features, with Jeffrey Combs providing typically good value as the lead (it was nice seeing Ken Foree too) and sporting some gnarly SFX. 3.5/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day VIII: Night of the Living Dead (1990, Tom Savini)

IMG_1155.jpeg
Special effects maestro Tom Savini takes to the directors chair for the first time to remake George A. Romero’s seminal and groundbreaking horror feature, with very solid results. The late Tony Todd, as always, does a great job here, and as remakes go this was a worthwhile one to watch - and it finally allowed Romero to actually make some profits from his original feature as well. 4/5
 
It can’t quite match the eerie, oppressive atmosphere of the original, but in many ways, I think Night ‘90 is the better film. The script really fleshes out Barbara as a character (it almost feels like an apology for not giving her anything to do first time round) and, as you say, it’s a great cast - Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman and Tom Towles are all doing good work.
 
31 Days of Horror

Day 9 The Movie I picked to watch was Demons 2 (1986)
I watched the first film a few years ago and I thought I watched it around the the same time but no I didn’t so this was a First time watch. It’s a good film
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day IX: Last Night in Soho (2021, Edgar Wright)

IMG_1156.jpeg
A more recent film entry for this marathon, this was an at times fascinating and dark take on the perils of nostalgia, tied with a murder mystery plot set in Soho. Though there were some fine performances throughout, especially from the late Diana Rigg in her final role, the story itself had its flaws which held the film back from being amongst EW’ best works. 3.5/5
 
Tron: Ares
To be a life-long Tron fan is to suffer. This is known. The original was a story too far ahead of its time to find an audience. Legacy was a good sequel that came decades too late, and spent a little too much time setting up a threequel that ended up being cancelled when Disney bought the licence to print money that was Star Wars. Uprising was a solid show that was unceremoniously axed when Disney remade it as Star Wars: Rebels (seriously, compare the plot of the first season of each and tell me they're not the same show). Over a decade later we come to Ares. So how did it go this time?

Tron: Ares had problems. Thinking back, I'm not certain those problems were proportional to how much I disliked it, but it definitely had problems. The first red flag was the runtime. A movie clocking in at exactly two hours usually means a studio mandate not to exceed that. If that was the case here then the edit is at least fairly coherent, but there are casualties. For starters, the movie can't seem to decide who is the protagonist: grieving tech billionaire Eve or rugged badboy program Ares. It seems like it should be Eve at first, but Ares is played by Jared Leto, this movie was long rumoured to have been envisioned as a vehicle for Jared Leto, and so it should come as no surprise that much of the limelight (or red light, in this case) is tilted towards Jared Leto. Meanwhile there is an exceedingly limp corporate villain (with Gillian Anderson wasted as his overbearing mother), a more imposing but rather one-dimensional program villain, and a bunch of Eve's tech bro associates who are just...there. The story is at least trying to say something about the value of time and the transience of life, but it's delivered in a rather perfunctory fashion that doesn't hit the emotional notes it needs.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Ares is how it positions itself within the wider Tron mythos. In this regard it tries to not only have its cake and eat it, but also put that cake on a pedestal while simultaneously sweeping it under the rug. This is neither a direct sequel to Tron Legacy nor a clean break. Instead it makes awkward and unconvincing attempts to explain why the leads from Tron Legacy haven't returned, while simply ignoring other characters and unresolved plot threads from that movie. For example, this is a movie with Tron in the title, but Tron not only doesn't appear, he isn't even mentioned. Instead the callbacks we get to the earlier movies take the form of Disney's stock "I understood that reference" style of nostalgia-bait, tossing around familiar names, dialogue, and designs from the first movie, but in distracting ways that feel more like winks to the audience rather than integral parts of the new story.

Then there's the music. How can I describe this Nine Inch Nails score? Imagine the sound of a Sinclair Spectrum loading, but pitch shift it down a few octaves, crank the volume up to the level of a jet engine, and loop it for two hours.

I've spent a few paragraphs complaining, but I suspect my opinion would soften a little if I watched it again at some point. This just wasn't what I wanted a new Tron movie to be. Maybe now I know what it is, I can accept it on its own terms. But the lingering problem is likely to be that it can't decide what those terms are. It's trapped in the gears of a franchise that keeps stalling and being mothballed for far too long to build momentum. While it ends with hints at what an Ares sequel could be (because of course it does), I hope this iteration doesn't return, and instead another new creative team blow the dust off the franchise at some point to take it in a different direction.
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day X: The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa), The Snow Woman (1968, Tokuzō Tanaka), The Bride From Hades (1968, Satsuo Yamamoto)

IMG_1157.jpeg
IMG_1159.jpeg
IMG_1160.jpeg
As part of this marathon I’ve finally gotten around to watching through the first Daiei Gothic boxset from Radiance - these three features were solid watches with TGoY being a slow burner, TSW a tale of tragedy, and TBfH focuses on themes of longing and greed. All three were rather good and I’m looking forward to delving into the next DG boxset further down the line. 3.5/5, 3.5/5, 3.5/5
 
Dragonball Evolution 2009

The live action film.
5/10

It passed the time on a quiet Saturday lunchtime.
I think that I probably finished because of Jamie Chung and Eriko Tamura. The latter was particularly hot with her straight fringe.
It's a shame they couldn't have done better with the cast they assembled.
James Marsters, Chow Yun Fat and Ernie Hudson.
They missed a trick by not getting Sammo Hung as Goku's Grandfather!
 
31 Days of Horror

Sorry forgot to post what I watched yesterday

Day 10 watched Spawn (1997) picked the new arrow 4K that was released this week. Do really like this film

As for today

Day 11 thought I’d watch Night of the living Dead (1968) not watch it a longtime. Fun film
 
Last edited:
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day XI: Tigon Marathon: The Sorcerers (1967, Michael Reeves), The Blood Beast Terror (1968, Vernon Sewell), Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968, Vernon Sewell)


IMG_1169.jpeg
IMG_1189.jpeg
IMG_1171.jpeg
Another mini-marathon, this time for some more horror features from Tigon, courtesy of 88Films’ range.

TS was an odd film focusing on mind control murdering but it did have Boris Karloff so that’s always a plus, TBBT was a quieter and middling affair with Peter Cushing as the lead, and finally CotCA felt very similar storyline-wise to the likes of Black Sunday or City of the Dead and had solid performances from Christopher Lee and Boris Karloff again, plus appearances from Mark Eden, Michael Gough, and Kevin Stoney. 3/5, 3/5, 3/5
 
31 Days of Horror

Day 12 Today it was The Cat (1992) I’ve been hearing a lot of fun things about this film over the last few years and when i saw that 88film was giving a nice release. I thought now is the time and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day XII: Tigon Marathon II: The Haunted House of Horror (1969, Michael Armstrong), The Beast in the Cellar (1970, James Kelley), Neither the Sea Nor the Sand (1972, Fred Burnley)

IMG_1191.jpeg
IMG_1174.jpeg
IMG_1175.jpeg
Part two of the mini-marathon, THHoH was another mixed bag as a group of young bored 20-somethings decide to muck about in an abandoned house and soon one of them is murdered - easily the weakest of all the Tigon films I watched. TBitC was another oddity, focusing on two elderly sisters and their unhealthy relationship with their younger brother spilling out into sinister happenings. Though focused on two strong performances this just fell a bit flat for me. Finally, NtSNtS was a doomed romance with horror elements that was the strongest of the trio. 2.5/5, 3/5, 3/5
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day XIII: Dogra Magra (1988, Toshio Matsumoto)

1760395161001.png
This was a surreal and abstract look into insanity and the effects it has on a man who kills his bride on their wedding day, only to find himself in an asylum with no memories at all. I think this will warrant another viewing but it’s another film I’d never have watched if not for Radiance Films. 3.5/5
 
Holy Knight: Demon Hunters

A South Korean film starring the amazing Ma Dong-seok or Don Lee as he is also known.

He heads up a group who investigate the supernatural.
I like watching him punch people but I didn't realise that it was a dream to see him punch a demon back to hell.

At times it did almost seem like a pilot for a TV show but I'll give it 7/10.
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day XIV: The Slumber Party Massacre (1982, Amy Holden Jones), Slumber Party Massacre II (1987, Deborah Brock), Slumber Party Massacre III (1990, Sally Mattison)

IMG_1194.jpeg
IMG_1196.jpeg
IMG_1197.jpeg
The SPM films are perhaps fairly typical to the slasher genre, but also feature a different vibe and approach, with all three movies being helmed by female directors, a rarity in the field of slashers, and all of whom lend these features with a tongue-in-cheek awareness that though not lending itself to a consistent trilogy does give these films a different vibe. As is though the series peaks with the first entry, and though II was entertaining enough, III missed the mark overall. 3.5/5, 3/5, 2/5
 
Octopussy (1983)

After an agent carrying an expertly faked Fabergé egg turns up dead at the British embassy in Berlin, 007 (Roger Moore) is sent to investigate a violent smuggling ring secretly fencing treasures from the Soviet Union, which may conceal a far more sinister agenda.

Following a (slightly) more serious outing in For Your Eyes Only, we’re back to the high camp of Moonraker here, for a film that is often little more than a series of gags tied loosely together. Who exactly is the bad guy? Why are we in India again? Doesn’t matter, just look at the dancing girls. To my pleasant surprise, the film is a lot funnier than I remember, playing well to Moore’s endless charisma with one-liners that only he could possibly get away with, and delivering some genuinely impressive action - most notably a chase along the top of a train towards the end.

Unfortunately, the film is never really more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps worried that Sean Connery was making a surprise return to the role in rival movie Never Say Never again, the producers seem to have opted for the safest, most formulaic Bond adventure possible, in which little seems to be at stake and any tension is hastily undermined for the sake of a quick laugh. Despite the series making gestures towards giving Bond’s female stars more agency, it really drops the ball on that one in particular. A strong turn from Maud Adams as the titular smuggling Czar with her own team of all-girl commandos is just lost in the crush here, as the film falls back on some often rather uncomfortable leering at the many scantily clad ladies.

It’s never less than watchable, in that Saturday-afternoon matinee kind of way, but for all the eye-watering gags and fine stunts, I don’t think there’s much here that you’d remember after the credits have rolled. Better off sticking with Moonraker.
 
31 Days of Halloween 2025! Day XV: Häxan (1922, Benjamin Christensen)

IMG_1198.jpeg
The oldest film in this marathon, Häxan comprises of a series of vignettes depicting sorcery, occultism, and the like through a horrific lens. This was a great watch and the presentation from Radiance Films offered four versions to choose from with different narration and scores, I opted for the 2006 Matti Bye option and thought it was a great listen to accompany the 100+ year-old haunting visuals. I’m so very glad a film like this exists still considering the sheer volume of early cinema we’ve sadly lost. 4.5/5
 
Back
Top