Rate the Last Film You Watched

The only exposure to Spinal Tap I ever had was them showing up on The Simpsons. For years I thought they were a normal band.

Seconds (1966) directed by John Frankenheimer - This felt like watching Hitchcock's Psycho without the protection of pop culture parody and decades of spoilers to soften the blow. A bank worker is handed a note by a total stranger on a train. Leading him into a world he didn't think possible. It's consistently uneasy and critical of the world around it. One of those films that'll either leave you in stunned silence or pacing the room trying to figure out how they got away with it. Not a perfectly constructed thriller but makes the intended and devastating impact. If there's any ray of light to the ending it's the idea that whatever you think your are missing cannot be provided or sold by anyone else. If you are ever unhappy or dissatisfied then the reason and therefore the solution is inside you. You can find it and you can change. Unlike these poor devils. I'm going to have to watch another John Frankenheimer film sometime. 8/10.

"You just can't help each other anymore."
 
My mother has been a long term fan of Rock Hudson.
Only one of his films she doesn't like.
Seconds!

Seven Days in May is good and I like Dead Bang which is a cop movie with Don Johnson.
 
28 Years Later

Appreciably different from the previous films, this second sequel to Danny Boyle’s influential zombie olympics plays out more as a gory coming-of-age story that just happens to take place after the (as it turns out, very localised) apocalypse. Strong performances (notably from both Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes) give the film an often powerful emotional core, but, much as I was engrossed while it was going on, I don’t think it ever quite brings a lot of very good ideas together in a really satisfying fashion. Knowing that there is at least one other film coming, it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re getting a lot more set up than payoff. It also felt a bit mis-sold, with the trailer making this one look a lot more action oriented than it is, to the point where I can’t help wondering if certain scenes are only included to punch up the promo campaign. I am extremely curious to see how they’ll continue it though, and that’s saying something - when they announced this, I was apathetic, now I’m actually looking forward to the next one.

And without wanting to spoil anything, the ending is A Choice.
 
Megan 2.0
8/10

I haven't watched Megan but liked the trailer when it was shown at a previous cinema visit. It had a plot device that I like.
Some good laughs, fighting and shooting. The plot was suitably daft. The film rattled along at a nice pace.

Without giving too much away.
If you're fighting Jaws and Even Bigger Jaws turns up, what do you do?
Team up with Jaws!
 
Fantastic Four: First Steps
Fourth time's the charm. After two underwhelming attempts and a flat-out box office disaster, these characters finally have a movie that's worth watching. I've never been much of an F4 fan, so I was mostly seeing this in the hope that Galactus would go on a Godzilla-style city stomping rampage, but the whole movie won me over. The retro-futuristic style makes it feel like a golden age comic fused with modern cinematography. Pedro Pascal is as wonderfully Pedro Pascal as ever. The tone sheds the tedious ironic winking and constant self-referencing that has hobbled the MCU for years. It embraces the over-the-top comicbookness of a superpowered family fighting a planet-eating giant, and focuses on a standalone story. The result of all this is a well-paced, sincere, and memorable adventure. If the MCU is to have a hope of clawing its way out of the bloated, incoherent mess it's become during the multiverse saga, this movie needs to become the new template.
 
I've always avoided marvel super hero movies like the plague with the exception of the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy which James Gunn created so is it any wonder that I liked the new Superman movie?
 
The Naked Gun (2025)

Facing pushback from his superiors after foiling a bank robbery, grizzled detective Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) tangles with a shifty tech billionaire who may be connected to the mysterious death of one of his employees, in this soft reboot of the much loved spoof classic.

Leslie Nielsen remains incomparable, but this is a surprisingly solid effort that stays true to the original's style of comedy without slavishly repeating any of the gags (especially the ones that didn't age well). It plays things a little too safe for my liking and it would have been nice if Pamela Anderson had been given more to do (there was definitely more mileage in her character), but I laughed pretty consistently throughout.
 
War of the Worlds (2025)

Stuck in a remote bunker, Homeland Security surveillance expert Ice Cube tries desperately to guide his family to safety during an alien attack, by tracking their progress on CCTV and electronic gadgets, in this… reimagining of HG Wells’s classic story.

Already an infamous stinker, there is the germ of a good idea here, but there really is no beginning to this film’s achievements. It’s like a slackly paced attempt to stitch together a bunch of corporate ads for all your ‘favourite’ social media products and office messenger apps, with added footage of a twitch stream where Ice Cube is alternately confused and mildly annoyed at things for a remarkably long 90 minutes. There is entertainment to be had, not least of all from witnessing how bafflingly much this feels like a terrible 1990s FMV game, but you’d never accuse this of being a good film.
 
Weapons (2025)

Following the mysterious disappearance of all but one of the children from an elementary school classroom, tensions flare among the local community as they scramble to find some kind of explanation for what has happened.

A difficult film to talk about without spoiling anything, I went into this not all that keen to see it, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It does lose something once the central conceit is explained, but the main characters are remarkably well drawn for a genre piece like this and I think that richness really invested me in how their rapidly converging stories would play out. It is a bit gory in a couple of places, but if you’re not put off by that, it’s well worth seeking out.
 
Split (2016) - I enjoyed this a lot. Split was the second volley of M Night Night Shyamalan's 2010s resurgence that brought him back to prominence and you can see a lot of Split's elements in Trap (2024). Through Trap is a thriller and a comedy that remains mostly light-hearted about its grizzly subject matter, while Split is a thriller that just keeps building and building as it exposes a much darker side than I expected. Looking forward to seeing more M Night movies. So far I think Trap is still my favourite followed by Unbreakable and now Split. 7/10

Mulholland Drive ( 2001) - Watching this over two days was a huge mistake because I very clearly just didn't get this. Mulholland Drive can be very funny or very scary. As a mystery set in Hollywood has an almost Brian De Palma approach to everything in the film being artificial. Most of these characters are creatives in the film industry and the artificial reality of the film starts to bleed into their lives. While also featuring David Lynch's trademark of the most terrifying place in the world being your own home. But I am comfortable saying 'I didn't get it' for the moment.
 
Spark_Heal said:
Split (2016) - I enjoyed this a lot. Split was the second volley of M Night Night Shyamalan's 2010s resurgence that brought him back to prominence and you can see a lot of Split's elements in Trap (2024). Through Trap is a thriller and a comedy that remains mostly light-hearted about its grizzly subject matter, while Split is a thriller that just keeps building and building as it exposes a much darker side than I expected. Looking forward to seeing more M Night movies. So far I think Trap is still my favourite followed by Unbreakable and now Split. 7/10
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It's hard to think of another director who has such a massive gulf in quality between their best and worst work. Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are great. Split and The Visit are solid. But Glass and The Happening are among the worst movies I've ever seen.
 
Dai said:
It's hard to think of another director who has such a massive gulf in quality between their best and worst work. Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are great. Split and The Visit are solid. But Glass and The Happening are among the worst movies I've ever seen.
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Ridley Scott has to be a contender. Scott has made some of the most influential genre films ever made that have shaped decades of art and also some really bad films. He also has the best logo in Hollywood. If M Night and Scott have anything in common it's that they are always working on something new for better or worse.

 
I’m already gearing up for this year’s 31 Days of Halloween marathon - just have to hope certain entries arrive in time for the occasion.
 
Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
6/10 maybe 7
John Wick 4 meets Cube.

I went into this pretending it was a stand alone movie. Good guys trapped in castle fighting bad guys. Who needs to know their motivation. They did more fighting in the first 15 minutes than some shows do in 12 episodes.

I started season 1 and after 2 episodes, decided that this is going to take forever, so dropped it. Bought Mugen Train, it was great. Now with no effort, I'm nearly at the end!

Deducted points as it was too long and loud.

Glad I went, though.
Nobody can see your tears in the dark.
 
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