What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2024 Edition)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Previous year's thread: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=100339.0

Flora and Max (2023) - Flora's separated from her husband and sharing custody of their moody son, so when five minutes in she calls him a cunt it only endeared her to me, and I thought I was in for a decent watch. And it is, but not in the way I was expecting, as I thought it might be a bit grittier than it eventually is, and that it'd be more realistic than most mainstream rom-coms, which it flirts with being. But in the final third it highlights

Spoiler alert

what's most important to Flora and the relationship a mother has with her son, and how they finally find something to bond over, and I thought the ending was genuinely lovely

[close]

. It's certainly a very breezy, easy watch, with plenty of charm, I wouldn't say I loved it but I'd definitely consider a second date. 7.6/10

[Sebastian Cobb]

Watched Pink Flamingos last night. Impressively trashy as someone else said. The small cock with a giant sausage tied to it, lol.

[SteveDave]

After being cultured and going to see "The Motive And The Cue" on Saturday night, last night we watched "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead" I probably wasn't in the right mood for it but that mood wasn't helped by my thinking that it was a two-hander and that Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall had performed it. That was "Waiting For Godot"

I did end up thinking that Gary Oldman should've done more comedy though.

[greencalx]

Found Airplane II on catch-up yesterday so whiled away the afternoon by watching it with the child. Not seen it before and had very, very low expectations but was pleasantly entertained. I am assuming that the fact it is an almost scene-for-scene retread of the original with an absurd trumping up of the basic premise (substitute airliner for space shuttle) is the joke, a pastiche of ambulance-chasing sequels. If so, I think it succeeds on that front.

[greencalx]

... and this should probably be in the CONFESS! thread, but today we took advantage of Alien being on the iPlayer. Apparently my wife had been banned by her late father from watching it (he was alive at the time, just to be clear) but I'm not sure I'd have found it unusually freaky as a pre-teen, and neither did my child. Surprising that it started out as an X-rated movie; apparently due to all the sexual imagery, which entirely passed me by. Not sure if that says more about me, or connoisseurs of the genre. I'm not really into either sci-fi or horror, so don't really have any reference points; but I did appreciate the majesty of the production, and being all show, no tell.

The moral of the story, presumably, is not to stop off to pick up your cat in the event of mounting an emergency space craft evacuation.

[Sebastian Cobb]

... and this should probably be in the CONFESS! thread, but today we took advantage of Alien being on the iPlayer. Apparently my wife had been banned by her late father from watching it (he was alive at the time, just to be clear) but I'm not sure I'd have found it unusually freaky as a pre-teen, and neither did my child. Surprising that it started out as an X-rated movie; apparently due to all the sexual imagery, which entirely passed me by. Not sure if that says more about me, or connoisseurs of the genre. I'm not really into either sci-fi or horror, so don't really have any reference points; but I did appreciate the majesty of the production, and being all show, no tell.

The moral of the story, presumably, is not to stop off to pick up your cat in the event of mounting an emergency space craft evacuation.

My Dad Alien story is that when we first got a computer with one of those swanky new DVD player things I got him to rent Alien Resurrection from Blockbuster so me and a pal could watch it in the study.

What I didn't know is he'd silently crept into the room, nodded to my pal to not to draw attention to him, and waited until a jump scare to rattle the fuck out of the reclining office chair I was sat in.

[greencalx]

 Nice one. Are the sequels any good?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Aliens is definitely good, but in a more actiony way (a bit like T1/T2).
Alien3 is less good and wasn't well regarded, there's a bit of disagreement as to whether that constitutes it being 'unfairly maligned', but I think it is.
Resurrection is considered plops but you might as well watch it.

[Dex Sawash]

Alien3 > Aliens by a lot. Aliens is just a Chuck Norris film.

[Inspector Norse]

Toy Story 1 through 4 with the kids over the holidays. Well actually Toy Story 1, 3 and 4, I was out on Friday night when they watched Toy Story 2 but I've seen that one before.
1 and 3 still hold up as great films, though I've seen 1 about a dozen times now, and 4 which I hadn't seen yet was enjoyable though didn't feel like it was on the same level either creatively or emotionally. Spot-on with both the gags and the sentimental beats - the ending of 3 really got to me again.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Aliens is definitely good, but in a more actiony way (a bit like T1/T2).
Alien3 is less good and wasn't well regarded, there's a bit of disagreement as to whether that constitutes it being 'unfairly maligned', but I think it is.
Resurrection is considered plops but you might as well watch it.

I used to defend Resurrection because I liked Jean-Pierre Jeunet's visual style, but when I rewatched it a couple of years ago I struggled. There's still some nice moments but it's a very predictable "base under seige" kind of movie with way too many scenes of dull characters running around, and the alien looks a bit silly on occasion.

[Famous Mortimer]

Guess What Happened to Count Dracula? (1971)

"Fuck all", is the simple answer. Probably just rumour, but it was apparently shot as hardcore porn, or had hardcore scenes "inserted" afterwards, to get that all-important perv dollar. What it didn't have inserted was anything remotely entertaining. Probably only worth watching if you have some important doomscrolling to do and need something on in the background that defies any attempt to pay attention to it.

[SteveDave]

Aporia

Low budget high concept drama about the morality of killing someone using a machine that can fire an atom into the past to change the present. The ending lands too.

Judy Greer does some trademark ugly crying.

[Dex Sawash]

Equalizer 3 garbage. Denzel Washington can denzel his way through a bad film and make it watchable but not this time. May need to watch 1 and 2 to see if they are shit.

[Blumf]

Equalizer 3 garbage. Denzel Washington can denzel his way through a bad film and make it watchable but not this time. May need to watch 1 and 2 to see if they are shit.

1 & 2 are enjoyable as the power fantasy actioners they are. Both have nice end set-pieces and a decent amount of fights in the middle. Fulfilling the basic brain-off action flick need, nothing more.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Alien3 > Aliens by a lot. Aliens is just a Chuck Norris film.

I watched The Octagon today.

It isn't very good.

[dissolute ocelot]

Speaking of arena-based sports, I watched the original Rollerball which impressed me a lot in the action sequences, which look much better than most sports movies, thanks to a combination of direction, cast, editing, stunt-work, etc. The scenes about the training and John Houseman as the evil boss are also good, but they're padded out by some rather obvious satire (James Caan tries to go to a library!) and a bit of misogyny. I also liked how the fact that it was set in the future was indicated by having weird blobby numerals on all the team strips; there are some nice modernist buildings but nothing else that's actually futuristic, and the hairstyles and clothes are very 70s (especially John Beck's mustache). Still, very entertaining. Amazon Prime has both the Norman Jewison original and John McTiernan's 2002 remake which is supposed to be awful but I may try.

[Dex Sawash]

Masquerade 1988 (yachting thriller) is neither.

Very bad with stupid twists. Rob Lowe's naked bottom Kim Cattrall's naked top front.

[Shaky]

Found Airplane II on catch-up yesterday so whiled away the afternoon by watching it with the child. Not seen it before and had very, very low expectations but was pleasantly entertained. I am assuming that the fact it is an almost scene-for-scene retread of the original with an absurd trumping up of the basic premise (substitute airliner for space shuttle) is the joke, a pastiche of ambulance-chasing sequels. If so, I think it succeeds on that front.

It's such a weird beast - the original ZAZ writers/directors gone and replaced by someone who pretty ably cadges all their gags and style while adding about enough decent new material for it to be *slightly* more than a total facsimile. Perfectly decent little companion to the original but you sort of feel a bit grubby for watching it (or I do, anyway).

[greencalx]

I know what you mean! I didn't realise it wasn't ZAZ (didn't pay attention to the credits) - the only thing that felt missing was Leslie Nielsen.

[Sebastian Cobb]

This was great.

[druss]

Alien3 > Aliens by a lot. Aliens is just a Chuck Norris film.

Aliens is one of the best action sci-fi films ever made but can be a bit jarring if you want more of what the first film offered (which Alien 3 gives you). Still a great film, just very different to 1 and 3.

Watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind yesterday, have only seen a handful of Ghibli films (Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Cat returns) but this was comfortably my favourite (even if technically created before the studio was founded I'm counting it), such an interesting world they created. My partner is obsessed with Ghibli and if any of them are as good as this then looking forward to watching a few more.

[Minami Minegishi]

Aporia

Low budget high concept drama about the morality of killing someone using a machine that can fire an atom into the past to change the present. The ending lands too.

Judy Greer does some trademark ugly crying.

I thought this was pretty good. It's no Primer but they mined the concept well and Greer was excellent, as usual.

[madhair60]

Alien3 > Aliens by a lot. Aliens is just a Chuck Norris film.

shut UP! fuck OFF!

[Blumf]

Watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind yesterday, have only seen a handful of Ghibli films (Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Cat returns) but this was comfortably my favourite (even if technically created before the studio was founded I'm counting it), such an interesting world they created

Not Ghibli, but have you seen The Masters of Time (1982)? Has a similar feel to Nausicaa, with it's alien world building.

I need to sit down and watch Scavengers Reign, which I suspect will be in the same area too.
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=106284.0

[druss]

Not Ghibli, but have you seen The Masters of Time (1982)? Has a similar feel to Nausicaa, with it's alien world building.

I haven't, thanks, I'll add it to the list.

[Artie Fufkin]

Watched a fair few films over Christmas, one of my faves was this :

Cast A Dark Shadow - 1955

Noir thriller with Dirk Bogarde as a kind of (ironically) lady killer. Very Hitchcock, I guess.

Edward "Teddy" Bare is a delusional psychotic with a lust for wealth, older women and murder. Having committed what he thinks is the perfect murder of his elderly wife; Teddy sets his sights on new targets when her fortune goes elsewhere.

[Bad Ambassador]

Guess What Happened to Count Dracula? (1971)

"Fuck all", is the simple answer. Probably just rumour, but it was apparently shot as hardcore porn, or had hardcore scenes "inserted" afterwards, to get that all-important perv dollar. What it didn't have inserted was anything remotely entertaining. Probably only worth watching if you have some important doomscrolling to do and need something on in the background that defies any attempt to pay attention to it.

I remember Channel 4 airing this years ago, and being highly amused by restaurateur Dracula smacking his head on the mantlepiece when he sits down by the fire.

"Would you care for some wine?"
"No, I drink only blood."
"..."
"I mean, er, Bloody Mary!"

[dissolute ocelot]

Fuck, Fast X is terrible, Jason Momoa a horribly caricatured heteroflexible villain in the sort of homophobic performance you'd expect in the 70s; big chunks copied from Fast V; shitty CG instead of practical effects; multiple plot strands each more pointless than the last; and no proper ending because you have to wait for Fast XI: Just Not Cricket to round it off (or there are rumours of another after that).

[madhair60]

nah it's great