rate the last film you watched

Don't let me put you off Mandy, most people seemed to love it.

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
This was totally forgettable. Fun cast but didn't do enough with them. Fed up of hollywood doing action films atm, it just feels so predictable & uninventive. I will forget about this completely within a few months I'd imagine 5/10

Cries and Whispers (1972)
Been slowly working my way through Bergman's filmography over the past couple of years. This was bleak as fuck Interesting seeing Bergman move into colour, tons of reds whether it be set design or the constant use of fade-out of scenes. Excellent film, wouldn't personally have it at the very top tier of his work but it's bloody good. Harriet Andersson's performance is disturbingly great. 8/10

The Scent of the Night (1998)
I've seen tons of Italian crime flicks, but mostly from the 70s & not from this era. Not much in the way of character development, but it delivered a tight little crime thriller. Will have to look about for some more from around this time period. 7/10

The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020)
This was just OK. I had high hopes going in, the trailer made it look a much more disturbing film than in turned out to be. Raises some good questions about art & exploitation but didn't go far enough with it + the lead guy just annoyed me. 6/10

Ride the Eagle (2021)
indie drama/comedy with Jake Johnson, Susan Sarandon &J.K. Simmons. This was fucking useless
4/10

Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer (2021)
National Geographic doc on the Tulsa race massacre. Had heard of it in name in the past but didn't know sod all about it so this was pretty interesting. 7/10

Also re-watched Free Fire (2016). Loved this 1st time around, I remember laughing my arse off at the cinema. Second time around it didn't quite hold up as well. Still, that first half is fucking great, pretty much every line of dialogue Sharlto Copley delivers cracks me up. Second half when the shit hits the fan perhaps isn't as good but still I really enjoy this film. 8/10

Clear History (2013)



A bullshit premise that I think was just thrown together as a Larry David vehicle. The whole thing is a super-dumb long episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". I love that stuff, though. And I lol'd quite a bit. A great supporting cast helps this not be worse.

5/10

The Suicide Squad (2021)



Watched this on HBO Max. Last week, para watched the some of the first half with me and she didn't care for it. I watched to a bit after the halfway mark. Quit cos it wasn't keeping my interest. Decided to finish it yesterday. I just couldn't care a bit. Gunn's needle drops are ok. Cena was rather prominent and was ok! The ending was dumb, I guess?

I have seen the Suicide Squad film from a couple/few years ago. That was worse than this by a fair amount. But this is still not good.

3.5/10

I thought this was decent enough fun. Same tone to the Guardians films which is expected with James Gunn, but lacking the chemistry of the cast. The use of that fucking Fratellis song was unforgivable though.

Haha aye it was a strange moment. Agree with both of you, better than whatever the previous one was but worse than Gunn's similar ones. I'll say it's a light 6

Also saw Stardust, which is either mediocre or really bad, depending on whether they made up most of it or just half of it.

The Whaler Boy was interesting but not sure about the last 30 minutes or so, 7.

Was excited for Mark Harmon nostalgia. Perfect 80s American cheese.

Thanks for the giant pics.

Summer of Soul

Decent. Almost beyond belief that this footage had sat unseen for 50 years.

Obvious parallels with Wattstax (3 years later on the West Coast) because of the music and political undertones but completely different set of musicians.

It took place on the same day as the moon landing and the brief interviews with members of the crowd asking what they thought of that were interesting, if not surprising.

As far as the music goes the footage of Stevie, Nina, Sly, Hugh Masakela and the Staples Singers (as far as I can see the only artist that played Wattstax too) was predictably great, but it was the Ray Barretto, Max Roach and Mahalia Jackson footage that made it for me.

The footage is fucking incredible. However, I was a little disappointed at how much it relied on retrospective talking heads. I get that the politics of the time are part of the story, but the politics of the late 60s + black history has been covered in much more depth by many other documentaries in recent years. There was surely a way to have naturally incorporate those feelings without relying on peoples opinions all these years later where we could have been given more footage of these badass performances whilst understanding the times & circumstances they took place in.  I definitely think the Senna/Amy/Maradona style doc route would have been much better suited.

I just hope after pointing out the importance of this festival they find a way of releasing as many of the full sets they can because I'd be down for watching the lot.

Yeah, I agree. When we weren't watching the music or the onsite interviews it didn't hold the interest as much.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)



Oh my goodness it is beautifully shot. Clint directs himself which is fine. The things he does when isn't on camera really pop, but he is on camera a lot. I like the bit where he shows up to a saloon, asks for a drink, only to find they are dry, leaves, comes back in with arms full of booze, gets everyone fucked up, and makes friends, who end up helping him in a bit humor later on.

I like a badass who is quick on the draw and can't miss a shot matter what.

Some great horse acting here as well. HORSE CAST SPOT ON.

8.5 / 10

Incredible film that Bakester. Not seen it for a good 10 years.

A great scene.

Watched Annette the musical written by sparks and it was total shit. 3/10 no idea why anyone would cast Adam driver in anything.

The new Candyman.

It's a mess of a film and I don't know why they bothered with it.

There's a lot they could've done in 2021 with the setting and the premise, but whatever the fuck it was that they were trying to do, they completely missed the mark.

Heat - 8.2/10



I've tried to watch this film a half dozen times and could never get past the 20 minute mark, I don't know why I was just never gripped by it before. It came onto Netflix recently and I decided to give it another go.

I have just read up on it and found out it was a remake of a TV movie from the late 80's that Michael Mann was hoping to make into a series but didn't do well enough to get commissioned. That makes total sense to me now, it's such a slow burn that takes a while to get going. I have always gone into it expecting big action scenes (hence why I always end up giving up on it) and although it does deliver those scenes eventually, it's more a character study of Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna. The scene when they come face to face in the diner is brilliant.

It kind of reminds me of Leon in a way, that it's not the kind of film you expect. When I watched Leon when I was younger I came away thinking about the violence and the action, then when I re-watched it in my 30's I was left thinking more about the complex relationship between Leon and Mathilda, and viewed it as a completely different film to when I was younger, which led me to enjoying it 10 times more than when I was watching it for the action.

Anyway I'm glad I gave it another go, now that I know what to expect I suspect it'll get another watch soon.

Dune - HBO MAX (2021)



Having never read or known much at all about Dune, I read a couple primers that kinda laid a bit out for me and introduced some of the fictional terminology it brings before I watched, and that was really helpful. I've tried watching D. Lynch's '84 effort and found it not worth my time to really dig into all of it.

So yeah, went into this more prepared and I really enjoyed it. It was beautiful. It was well acted. Chamelet was the standout. And I felt invested in the conflicts. This is a Part 1, and it feels like that. It is long and it does a lot of set up, which I think a lot of folks might be turned off by. Buuuuttt, it is good.

para & I enjoy these films being released for @ home @ the same time as theatrical release...

8/10

I fucking hated it. Chamelet I thought was fucking useless too, Fuck you Bakester. Prick!

I gave it a 6/10, for what it's worth, which is a 6. lol