last movie you watched

[pmp]

Over the last few nights, I've seen The Legend of Hell House, Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster.

The legend of Hell House stars Clive Revill alongside Pamela Franklyn and Roddy McDowell in a haunted house thriller that has a similar set up to The Haunting. A small group of people visit a renowned haunted house in order to carry out some experiments, and Revill has a machine that he thinks can rid the house of supernatural activity. It's an interesting movie, partly because of its tone which is bleak and yet without any real attempt to frighten or shock the audience. The highlight is Roddy McDowall's wonderful performance. He was such an under-rated actor during his lifetime.

Also surprisingly serious is The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a 1953 sci-fi/horror in which an atomic bomb blast in the arctic awakens a pre-historic creature. Featuring stop-motion from Ray Harryhausen, the film is part of a cycle of movies concentrating on the possible horrific effects of the atomic age. Most of them, like this one, were surprisingly serious, and were helped by intelligent scripts. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a good example of this type of movie, and looks great on blu ray.

Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster is a 2004 straight to video feature length animation, made at a time when this series of feature-length films was fully in its stride, and still able to be original. Here the team face the Loch Ness Monster while visiting Daphne's Scottish cousin. Some of the series around this time did their best to scare the living daylights out of kids (Zombie Island, Witch's Curse, Pirates Ahoy), but this one is a gentler effort, helped along by being good humoured and keeping the story moving with an interesting set of characters. As with some of the other films, the voice cast throws up a surprising name, in this case Sheena Easton. Some of the other cast members could have done with some coaching on their Scottish accents, though!

[pmp]

Tonight's movie was the wonderfully subversive "Deep End" starring Jane Asher and John Moulder-Brown. It's a film that would never be made today, but it's an excellent time capsule from 1970. What starts off as a charming movie about a fifteen-year-old boy who has started work in a public baths and fallen for his older co-worker slowly but surely turns into a dark film about obsession, loss of innocence, and the place of women in society. The two leads are excellent - although it's hard to believe that a seventeen year old actor was allowed to play some of the scenes, and take part in on-screen nudity. But they were different times. And we see that also with the teacher groping his class of teenaged girls - anyone thinking that kind of behaviour was happening just behind closed doors back then really is kidding themselves.

Perhaps the highlight of the film is a ten-minute cameo by Diana Dors, playing a slightly deranged middle-aged woman who takes a liking to the teenaged boy and molests him while fantasising about George Best. Dors is brilliant here, more than happy to throw off her sex-symbol image - just as she did in The Amazing Mr Blunden a couple of years later, although that was much lighter fare. But it's a disturbing sequence, and the first indication that the viewer isn't in for an easy ride.

If Deep End sounds kinky and fetishistic, that's because it is, but it's never lurid for the sake of it. Once seen, never forgotten, the BFI blu ray contains an excellent booklet and various bonus features.

[LSP-4445]

I watched The Electric State (2025,netflix) yesterday… or at least part of it. I found it boring,
and in combination with tiredness, I turned it off. Not sure if I’ll pick it up and watch the rest.

[ForeverElvis]

I watched The Electric State (2025,netflix) yesterday… or at least part of it. I found it boring,
and in combination with tiredness, I turned it off. Not sure if I’ll pick it up and watch the rest.

Budget for this film was approximately $320m!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pmp]

Tonight I watched Cry for the Strangers, a 1982 TV movie based on the novel by John Saul. Sadly the copy a friend sent me looks pretty groggy, but is still watchable. John Saul is an interesting figure, with nearly all of his books centred in a small town where things aren't quite what they seem. Most revolve around a child or teenager. Some are excellent, others feel a bit of a rehash of earlier books, but sadly he has somewhat fallen out of favour, and has published a book since 2009. Cry for the Strangers isn't his best novel (although it's fine) and the film makes it look like a rip-off of The Fog. But 1970s and early 1980s TV horror movies were often good, and there's certainly nothing really wrong with this one considering the restrictions of PG horror movies. It has a decent atmosphere, and includes TV stalwarts Patrick Duffy and Brian Keith in its cast. There's some difficult representations of race here, though, and that might well be why it's unlikely to be rescued and issued on blu ray by a company like Kino.

[TCB-FAN]

George Orwell's "1984" (1956) Drama/Sci-Fi................... Starring Edmond O'Brien, Michael Redgrave


In a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.

[pmp]

George Orwell's "1984" (1956) Drama/Sci-Fi................... Starring Edmond O'Brien, Michael Redgrave


In a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.

Oddly, I've still never seen it!!

Tonight I watched AfrAId, a Blumhouse horror/sci-fi about a family trialling a new AI Alexa-type thingy that is more than it seems. Frankly, it's pretty banal stuff that borrows heavily from both M3gan and Margaux, both of which were better than this. There are some interesting ideas here, but they are simply not expanded upon, and the last twenty minutes is a chaotic mess without any real answers to what is going on. The world still awaits for a really good horror movie about AI, and this isn't it.

[TCB-FAN]

Oddly, I've still never seen it!!

Tonight I watched AfrAId, a Blumhouse horror/sci-fi about a family trialling a new AI Alexa-type thingy that is more than it seems. Frankly, it's pretty banal stuff that borrows heavily from both M3gan and Margaux, both of which were better than this. There are some interesting ideas here, but they are simply not expanded upon, and the last twenty minutes is a chaotic mess without any real answers to what is going on. The world still awaits for a really good horror movie about AI, and this isn't it.

Oddly enough, "1984" was distributed in 1956 on a double feature with another British science fiction film, "The Gamma People" (directed by John Gilling) over in the U.S.

[pmp]

Tonight I saw The Bloody Ship, a rarely seen Columbia silent seafaring movie from 1927. And it's excellent. Richard Arlen stars as a sailor on a boat run by a tyrannical captain, and prepares the other men for mutiny. To be honest, it's a tale often told, but it's really well done, and was part of a cycle of seafaring movies in the late silent era, including The Black Pirate, Old Ironsides, and The Sea Beast. The photography really is quite beautiful, and Arlen gets as many soft focus shots as Jacqueline Logan! Hobart Bosworth is also excellent as the captain. The movie was remade in a sound version in 1931, but that is, alas, lost.

[rjm]

I watched Midnight Cowboy again. There's something about every part of it that moves me. Some is a nostalgic look at the locations. It's like a trip back in time. And then there are the journeys of the two protagonists. Watching Ratso's struggle to maintain his dignity while dying is difficult but inspiring in a non-typical way.

And then there's the complex struggle of The Cowboy. I think he finally both made peace with his past and achieved self-exceptance. You feel he'll have a good future. No matter what the world thinks.

So, I enjoyed the film once again. Highly recommended!

rjm

[Greystoke]

I watched Midnight Cowboy again. There's something about every part of it that moves me. Some is a nostalgic look at the locations. It's like a trip back in time. And then there are the journeys of the two protagonists. Watching Ratso's struggle to maintain his dignity while dying is difficult but inspiring in a non-typical way.

And then there's the complex struggle of The Cowboy. I think he finally both made peace with his past and achieved self-exceptance. You feel he'll have a good future. No matter what the world thinks.

So, I enjoyed the film once again. Highly recommended!

rjm

It's a marvellous film, and it was a pivotal film in many respects. The last time I saw it was at a cinema screening in 2019, as part of a 1969 retrospective, that also featured Easy Rider, The Wild Bunch, Medium Cool, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Sweet Charity, and Alice's Restaurant. I think it's about time I watched it again myself. 1969 was certainly a great year for cinema.

[Greystoke]

Tonight I watched the blu-ray release of The Stone Tape, a 1972 BBC TV play written by Nigel Kneale, who wrote the Quatermass stories and also adapted the infamous 1989 TV version of The Woman in Black. The Stone Tape tells the story of a group of engineers looking for a new recording medium who realise that a haunting might be simply the playback of something recorded in the foundations of the house. Rather unusually, the title caught on, and this idea of repeated residual hauntings is now referred to as "The Stone Tape theory." It's a TV play that's gone down in history here in the UK, although I'm not sure if that's the case oversees. As usual, Kneale wrote a script that was both entertaining and intelligent, and mixing horror with science fiction. There's an element of folk horror here, too, just as there is in Quatermass and the Pit. Sadly, it was filmed on video tape, and so the upscaling to HD is a bit hit and miss, but it's better than the DVD was.

As for the play, despite its undoubted influence, it's a bit "shouty" for much of the time, with people talking over each other constantly, or seemingly shouting for no apparent reason. Other elements - the misogyny and racial references - have also worn less well, it's fair to say.

I feel much the same way about The Stone Tape, Shane, although I do like it a great deal and find it quite fascinating in many respects. Was this the new 101 Films release you picked up? It's a superb release. I got it just before Christmas.

[pmp]

Tonight I watched the blu-ray release of The Stone Tape, a 1972 BBC TV play written by Nigel Kneale, who wrote the Quatermass stories and also adapted the infamous 1989 TV version of The Woman in Black. The Stone Tape tells the story of a group of engineers looking for a new recording medium who realise that a haunting might be simply the playback of something recorded in the foundations of the house. Rather unusually, the title caught on, and this idea of repeated residual hauntings is now referred to as "The Stone Tape theory." It's a TV play that's gone down in history here in the UK, although I'm not sure if that's the case oversees. As usual, Kneale wrote a script that was both entertaining and intelligent, and mixing horror with science fiction. There's an element of folk horror here, too, just as there is in Quatermass and the Pit. Sadly, it was filmed on video tape, and so the upscaling to HD is a bit hit and miss, but it's better than the DVD was.

As for the play, despite its undoubted influence, it's a bit "shouty" for much of the time, with people talking over each other constantly, or seemingly shouting for no apparent reason. Other elements - the misogyny and racial references - have also worn less well, it's fair to say.

I feel much the same way about The Stone Tape, Shane, although I do like it a great deal and find it quite fascinating in many respects. Was this the new 101 Films release you picked up? It's a superb release. I got it just before Christmas.

Yeah, I got the standard release, but the print etc is the same.

Good to see you back.

[Greystoke]

Tonight I watched the blu-ray release of The Stone Tape, a 1972 BBC TV play written by Nigel Kneale, who wrote the Quatermass stories and also adapted the infamous 1989 TV version of The Woman in Black. The Stone Tape tells the story of a group of engineers looking for a new recording medium who realise that a haunting might be simply the playback of something recorded in the foundations of the house. Rather unusually, the title caught on, and this idea of repeated residual hauntings is now referred to as "The Stone Tape theory." It's a TV play that's gone down in history here in the UK, although I'm not sure if that's the case oversees. As usual, Kneale wrote a script that was both entertaining and intelligent, and mixing horror with science fiction. There's an element of folk horror here, too, just as there is in Quatermass and the Pit. Sadly, it was filmed on video tape, and so the upscaling to HD is a bit hit and miss, but it's better than the DVD was.

As for the play, despite its undoubted influence, it's a bit "shouty" for much of the time, with people talking over each other constantly, or seemingly shouting for no apparent reason. Other elements - the misogyny and racial references - have also worn less well, it's fair to say.

I feel much the same way about The Stone Tape, Shane, although I do like it a great deal and find it quite fascinating in many respects. Was this the new 101 Films release you picked up? It's a superb release. I got it just before Christmas.

Yeah, I got the standard release, but the print etc is the same.

Good to see you back.

Thanks, Shane.

[Mister Mike]

[Greystoke]

Some fine films there, Mike. I'm sure we discussed Targets quite recently on here. I also watched Point Blank earlier in the year. It's a splendid film. And still impactful.

[Greystoke]

As for me, I been able to squeeze "Some Came Running" in over the weekend whilst watching plently of tennis (Australian open 2025 is full on right now).
Anyone here seen this highly enjoyable (but also long) movie before ?

I have the Warner Archive edition, but have yet to unwrap it. It's been a very long time since I've seen it.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray is quite splendid. I'm sure you'll be impressed by this one. It's a significant improvement on the DVD.

[Greystoke]

This afternoon I had the pleasure of rewatching My Beautiful Laundrette - which I hadn't seen for a very long time. My loss. Stephen Frears's film is still relevant today, commenting as it does on tribalism in the UK, and the effects of racism. Thrown into the mix, of course, is the gay relationship between a young British Asian man and a former schoolfriend who had turned to the far right. Despite the heavy subject matter (particularly in Thatcher's Britain, when the film came out) it reads almost like a fairy tale, both dark and charming at the same time. Sadly the BFI's blu ray doesn't do the film justice, with some of the night scenes so grainy that it looks like the telly needs tuning in as in the old days of terrestrial TVs and aerials in the loft. This is an excellent film, though, and hopefully it won't be another ten or twenty years before I think of watching it again.

Yesterday, I revisited Juggernaut, 1970s nearly-disaster movie set on board an ocean liner which is carrying 6 bombs. It's pure entertainment, and it holds together just fine, and there are some intriguing sequences such as the party for passengers as they wait to find out if they're going to be blown up. Richard Harris, Omar Sharif and David Hemmings star, but in many ways it is Roy Kinnear's turn as the hapless head of entertainment that you remember when the credits roll.

On Friday I saw the 1963 version of The Old Dark House, which doesn't have much to do with the 1932 film it's supposedly a remake of, and is so Godawful that it's almost painful that it has that title. Comedy horrors are fine if they're funny or horrific (preferably both), but this is neither, and it's a good 20 minutes too long as well. The cast flounders with the dead-duck script, despite being made up of Mervyn Johns, Robert Morley, Fenella Fielding and Janette Scott. Not something I'm likely to endure again.

My Beautiful Laundrette has stood up incredibly well over the years. With regards to Juggernaut, it's quite good fun, and there's some well-crafred sequences, as you've said. It's one I've been meaning to watch again recently. It's on Prime, but I might get hold of Eureka's new Blu-ray release.

[pmp]

Very little watching of any kind this week so far, as I've been spending most evenings working on a new project. But I did get to see The Innocents a couple of days ago, which is always nice to return to. It must have been some time since I've seen it as the blu ray was still sealed, and it's been out of print for quite a while now. Based on Henry James's novella Turn of the Screw, it remains for me quite possibly the best ghost story ever filmed, although it has competition from The Haunting and The Changeling, especially the latter. The 1985 Spanish version of the tale, Otra vuelta de tuerca, by Eloy de la Iglesia is also very well worth seeking out, transferring the tale to a manor near the coast, and switching the female governess for a male teacher. Apparently it was so badly received that Iglesia stopped making films for 15 years, but I think it's a fine film, and the gender switch is interesting.

[Greystoke]

Very little watching of any kind this week so far, as I've been spending most evenings working on a new project. But I did get to see The Innocents a couple of days ago, which is always nice to return to. It must have been some time since I've seen it as the blu ray was still sealed, and it's been out of print for quite a while now. Based on Henry James's novella Turn of the Screw, it remains for me quite possibly the best ghost story ever filmed, although it has competition from The Haunting and The Changeling, especially the latter. The 1985 Spanish version of the tale, Otra vuelta de tuerca, by Eloy de la Iglesia is also very well worth seeking out, transferring the tale to a manor near the coast, and switching the female governess for a male teacher. Apparently it was so badly received that Iglesia stopped making films for 15 years, but I think it's a fine film, and the gender switch is interesting.

I'm also very fond of The Innocents and I agree that it's one of the best ghost stories ever filmed. It's a really splendid film.

[Greystoke]

I watched Holland this afternoon, which stars Nicole Kidman in quite a familiar role as a perfect wife in a "perfect" town, with the "perfect" family, only to discover that everything isn't what it seems with regards to her husband.

Holland is the name of the pristine urban town where Kidman's Nancy Vandergroot resides, and as per the town's name, and her character's name, there's a flavour of the Dutch about the place. From the style of the houses and a penchant for bonnets and clogs, to a massive windmill. Whilst there's an artificiality to the residents that extends to a model village and railway that's painstakingly being worked on by Nancy's husband, played by Matthew Macfadyen, and their young son.

Kidman has been in similar territory numerous times, from The Stepford Wives to Big Little Lies, and she's watchable in spite of a meandering, half-baked script, that director, Mimi Cave, can't quite bring to life.

Gael García Bernal plays a co-worker and romantic interest for Kidman, who helps her get to the bottom of a mystery with her husband that's instigated by a missing earring that's blamed on the babysitter. Bernal is underused, however, and his role as the only non-white character in the town is largely superficial when racism and his own secrets are merely hinted at.

It does have some quirk, and I'm certainly a fan of both Kidman and Bernal, whilst I'm sure we discussed Mimi Cave's debut feature, Fresh, when it was first released. Holland, unfortunately, is incredibly shallow and not without its fair share of plot holes and contrivances. And whilst Cave does occasionally reach for some interesting visual motifs, especially as Nancy descends into a state of panic, this isn't nearly enough when so much of this film feels like heavily trodden ground.

[pmp]

Tonight I saw The Giant Behemoth, a 1959 monster movie, covering the familiar territory where atomic testing has created or awakened a monster that, in this case, is a threat to the UK. It's a decent example of the genre, even if the monster itself is pretty poorly done and, at times, doesn't even move. But the script is intelligent enough, the acting is good, and there is some nice location shooting, too.

Meanwhile, I have a large batch of Warner Archive titles heading my way, after a double dip in the blu ray sale:

Harum Scarum
Safe in Hell
The Walking Dead
War of the Buttons
The Pajama Game
Two on a Guillotine
Words and Music
Hans Christian Anderson
The Beast with Five Fingers
Scooby Doo: Witch's Curse/Alien Invasion
Act of Violence
You're a Big Boy Now
Scooby Door and the Ghoul School
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
Where the Boys Are
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf
The Prince and the Pauper
Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921, not in sale)

[Greystoke]

Tonight I saw The Giant Behemoth, a 1959 monster movie, covering the familiar territory where atomic testing has created or awakened a monster that, in this case, is a threat to the UK. It's a decent example of the genre, even if the monster itself is pretty poorly done and, at times, doesn't even move. But the script is intelligent enough, the acting is good, and there is some nice location shooting, too.

Meanwhile, I have a large batch of Warner Archive titles heading my way, after a double dip in the blu ray sale:

Harum Scarum
Safe in Hell
The Walking Dead
War of the Buttons
The Pajama Game
Two on a Guillotine
Words and Music
Hans Christian Anderson
The Beast with Five Fingers
Scooby Doo: Witch's Curse/Alien Invasion
Act of Violence
You're a Big Boy Now
Scooby Door and the Ghoul School
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
Where the Boys Are
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf
The Prince and the Pauper
Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921, not in sale)

That's a great haul. I'm really liking what Warner Archive are releasing just now, although their standards never drop. And there's always something to catch up on, given how deep their catalogue is.

Recently, I've bought the BFI's new 4K release of Sanjuro and Yojimbo, which they've packaged together. Arrow's 4K releases of Don't Torture a Ducking, Dressed to Kill, and The Exorcist 3. Stalag 17 on 4K from Kino Lorber. Hong, Kong and Centre Stage on Blu-ray from 88 Films. And Eureka's Blu-ray release of Black Tuesday.

I'll likely watch most of these over the weekend.

[pmp]

Tonight I saw The Giant Behemoth, a 1959 monster movie, covering the familiar territory where atomic testing has created or awakened a monster that, in this case, is a threat to the UK. It's a decent example of the genre, even if the monster itself is pretty poorly done and, at times, doesn't even move. But the script is intelligent enough, the acting is good, and there is some nice location shooting, too.

Meanwhile, I have a large batch of Warner Archive titles heading my way, after a double dip in the blu ray sale:

Harum Scarum
Safe in Hell
The Walking Dead
War of the Buttons
The Pajama Game
Two on a Guillotine
Words and Music
Hans Christian Anderson
The Beast with Five Fingers
Scooby Doo: Witch's Curse/Alien Invasion
Act of Violence
You're a Big Boy Now
Scooby Door and the Ghoul School
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
Where the Boys Are
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf
The Prince and the Pauper
Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921, not in sale)

That's a great haul. I'm really liking what Warner Archive are releasing just now, although their standards never drop. And there's always something to catch up on, given how deep their catalogue is.

Recently, I've bought the BFI's new 4K release of Sanjuro and Yojimbo, which they've packaged together. Arrow's 4K releases of Don't Torture a Ducking, Dressed to Kill, and The Exorcist 3. Stalag 17 on 4K from Kino Lorber. Hong, Kong and Centre Stage on Blu-ray from 88 Films. And Eureka's Blu-ray release of Black Tuesday.

I'll likely watch most of these over the weekend.

Also a very nice haul! I haven't bought many other new releases of late, although I did pick up the new restoration of Amadeus and the UK Warner Archive edition of Fury.

[Greystoke]

Tonight I saw The Giant Behemoth, a 1959 monster movie, covering the familiar territory where atomic testing has created or awakened a monster that, in this case, is a threat to the UK. It's a decent example of the genre, even if the monster itself is pretty poorly done and, at times, doesn't even move. But the script is intelligent enough, the acting is good, and there is some nice location shooting, too.

Meanwhile, I have a large batch of Warner Archive titles heading my way, after a double dip in the blu ray sale:

Harum Scarum
Safe in Hell
The Walking Dead
War of the Buttons
The Pajama Game
Two on a Guillotine
Words and Music
Hans Christian Anderson
The Beast with Five Fingers
Scooby Doo: Witch's Curse/Alien Invasion
Act of Violence
You're a Big Boy Now
Scooby Door and the Ghoul School
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
Where the Boys Are
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf
The Prince and the Pauper
Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921, not in sale)

That's a great haul. I'm really liking what Warner Archive are releasing just now, although their standards never drop. And there's always something to catch up on, given how deep their catalogue is.

Recently, I've bought the BFI's new 4K release of Sanjuro and Yojimbo, which they've packaged together. Arrow's 4K releases of Don't Torture a Ducking, Dressed to Kill, and The Exorcist 3. Stalag 17 on 4K from Kino Lorber. Hong, Kong and Centre Stage on Blu-ray from 88 Films. And Eureka's Blu-ray release of Black Tuesday.

I'll likely watch most of these over the weekend.

Also a very nice haul! I haven't bought many other new releases of late, although I did pick up the new restoration of Amadeus and the UK Warner Archive edition of Fury.

I'll certainly be picking up Amadeus soon enough. I've got quite a lot of pre-orders at the moment, but I'm looking forward to seeing it again. It's been a while, and I'm hoping for a good 4K remaster with this one.

Talking of Warner Archive, going by what was said when the 4K release of The Searchers was announced, their next 4K announcement might not be too far away, and I'm eager to see what's next from them on 4K. I was also really impressed by Hammer's move into releasing their own titles. Their Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter 4K box set is quite outstanding -- especially a marvellous restoration of the film itself. Their next release is The Four Sided Triangle, and I'm also eager to see what's forthcoming from them.