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John Wick 4

Four films in, its original kinda-ish-plausible nonsense mostly abandoned? The series remains, somehow, shy of Jumping The Shark. And I love it. Though I think I’ve on;y seen this entry once before.

I think that part of the appeal to me is the world of the High Table is close to the Masquerade of the Camarilla, of the titular Vampire [s]Shh We’re Not Real[/i] the Masquerade, and can serve as an accessible entry point - Spesh as with Mr Wick being crazy, but not quite super human in skill, is a handy point of reference for the more thin blooded Vampire.


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Ahhh! I completely forgot about its homage to The Warriors!

While thoroughly enjoying the first two, I got bored in The 4th. Definitely a case of less is more.

Just finished Hot Fuz for the eleventy billionth time. It's so stupid it's awesome

So much scenery is chewed I'm surprised they didn't leave teeth marks in actual Wells

Of all 3 films they did - Hot Fuzz remains the absolute best. Shawn of the Dead was decent, but I was never blown away by it. Solid fun but not outstanding like Hot Fuzz. The last one I can't even remember the name of but kind of fell flat for me - I think in part because it was all about a pub-crawl that felt like a one-line-joke that got spun out into a whole film.

And then in the last 5mins there's this post apoc mad scene and in those few moments THAT was the film I wish they'd started and made instead!

 Overread wrote:
Of all 3 films they did - Hot Fuzz remains the absolute best. Shawn of the Dead was decent, but I was never blown away by it. Solid fun but not outstanding like Hot Fuzz. The last one I can't even remember the name of but kind of fell flat for me - I think in part because it was all about a pub-crawl that felt like a one-line-joke that got spun out into a whole film.

And then in the last 5mins there's this post apoc mad scene and in those few moments THAT was the film I wish they'd started and made instead!

Didn't they do Paul? The one about the displaced Alien?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
John Wick 4

Four films in, its original kinda-ish-plausible nonsense mostly abandoned? The series remains, somehow, shy of Jumping The Shark. And I love it. Though I think I’ve on;y seen this entry once before.

I think it did jump the shark a little, as they went just a bit too far with how embedded the High Table is into everything, and an implausible number of people are involved in it.

Although I did make the mistake, due to coming to the franchise late in the piece, of watching all four back to back... The first couple were fun, but by number 3, it was all just getting a little samey. Number 4 was probably just as good as the previous offerings but didn't really offer anything new, so was all a bit tedious by then.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Of all 3 films they did - Hot Fuzz remains the absolute best. Shawn of the Dead was decent, but I was never blown away by it. Solid fun but not outstanding like Hot Fuzz. The last one I can't even remember the name of but kind of fell flat for me - I think in part because it was all about a pub-crawl that felt like a one-line-joke that got spun out into a whole film.

And then in the last 5mins there's this post apoc mad scene and in those few moments THAT was the film I wish they'd started and made instead!

Didn't they do Paul? The one about the displaced Alien?

Paul was good fun though if I recall right it wasn't part of the Cornetto Trio


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 insaniak wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
John Wick 4

Four films in, its original kinda-ish-plausible nonsense mostly abandoned? The series remains, somehow, shy of Jumping The Shark. And I love it. Though I think I’ve on;y seen this entry once before.

I think it did jump the shark a little, as they went just a bit too far with how embedded the High Table is into everything, and an implausible number of people are involved in it.

Although I did make the mistake, due to coming to the franchise late in the piece, of watching all four back to back... The first couple were fun, but by number 3, it was all just getting a little samey. Number 4 was probably just as good as the previous offerings but didn't really offer anything new, so was all a bit tedious by then.

I think the whole High Table thing kind of spoilt it a bit and took a bit of the magic away from John Wick. He went from a very singular driven character who was an exceptional extreme into something that was part of a cult of exceptional extremes.

I think the other thing is that it suffers in the same way that novels published one by one can suffer from which is that the World of John Wick 1 is VERY different to the world of John Wick 4. There are loads of elements of 4 that just don't appear nor are even hinted at in 1. There's no foreshadowing; no buildup no sense that they are the same involved and interconnected worlds. They feel like they are entirely separate and even though you can follow the logic of evolution 1 through to 4, the fact that you don't see any hallmarks of major power players and elements presented as normal in 4; appearing in 1 kind of makes it feel like they are inventing and adding new world concepts as they go.

I just watched all the Fear Street movies, the first was good and set everything up, the second was the best and had a great story all the way through, the third one was the worst and just tried to make a crazy twist, I mean I didn't expect the twist, but

I keep trying the Fear Street series, but have never really got into it, I’ll give it another bash this weekend, I think.

 Overread wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Of all 3 films they did - Hot Fuzz remains the absolute best. Shawn of the Dead was decent, but I was never blown away by it. Solid fun but not outstanding like Hot Fuzz. The last one I can't even remember the name of but kind of fell flat for me - I think in part because it was all about a pub-crawl that felt like a one-line-joke that got spun out into a whole film.

And then in the last 5mins there's this post apoc mad scene and in those few moments THAT was the film I wish they'd started and made instead!

Didn't they do Paul? The one about the displaced Alien?

Paul was good fun though if I recall right it wasn't part of the Cornetto Trio

Paul was entirely Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, rather than an Edgar Wright movie. So the same leads but different staff under the bonnet.

Tempted to go back to Spaced now

If only for the scene where Mike has his hearing with the TA explaining why he invaded Disneyland in a tank

 Flinty wrote:

 Overread wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Of all 3 films they did - Hot Fuzz remains the absolute best. Shawn of the Dead was decent, but I was never blown away by it. Solid fun but not outstanding like Hot Fuzz. The last one I can't even remember the name of but kind of fell flat for me - I think in part because it was all about a pub-crawl that felt like a one-line-joke that got spun out into a whole film.

And then in the last 5mins there's this post apoc mad scene and in those few moments THAT was the film I wish they'd started and made instead!

Didn't they do Paul? The one about the displaced Alien?

Paul was good fun though if I recall right it wasn't part of the Cornetto Trio

Paul was entirely Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, rather than an Edgar Wright movie. So the same leads but different staff under the bonnet.

Tempted to go back to Spaced now

If only for the scene where Mike has his hearing with the TA explaining why he invaded Disneyland in a tank

I think I watched about 50% of Paul, but didn't enjoy it. Granted, I watched it on TV with German dub, and German dubbing went down-hill over the past 20 years and of course especially with Pegg/Frost films you need the actual voices.

Love the Cornetto trilogy to bits. Many people seem to love Hot Fuzz the most. I watched it a bunch of times, it's great, but it's not my favourite out of the three. Maybe knowing these surroundings and characters from real life and so on helps to appreciate it more. My favourite's still gotta be Shaun of the Dead; it's such a masterful genre persiflage that works on every single level. As a zombie film, as a comedy, as a great film about friendship. My second favourite is The World's End, because it's melancholic and grown-up. It was released 2013, but still has a ton to say about adulthood, the delaying or accepting thereof, of past youth and how we look at it, about missed opportunities, etc. I also like the fight scenes, the depiction of the small town and how alien it seems to most of the group. Did not appreciate Freeman's little catchphrase, even though they do the ONE clever thing with it pretty early on. And it's got that apocalyptic action thing in the end which goes on for too long and is just a bit by the numbers. The post-apoc stuff is good again.


About two years ago I watched Spaced a LOT; a bunch of times back to back. It rocks. Plain and simple.


Right, Netflix decided to put interesting things on for a change.

The Crow (1994) - Lovely, lovely, lovely. And again, oh so efficient. It's a very simple film with basic characterization, theatrics and an amazing look. The Crow himself is a weird character. Some might say uneven (or "a bit random"), I'd say he's interesting. And it's got cool fight scenes. I'd also forgotten how much fun the bad guy is. Not a perfect film by a long shot, but it's memorable. And I'll take "intersting and memorable" over "it's okay" any day.

Top Secret! (1984) - I think I never watched that one in full, because there were so many bits I couldn't remember. Zucker/Abrahams/yaddayadda film starring young Val Kilmer as a US 50s/60s rock star being invited into East Germany as a cover-up for something dastardly. What they pulled with East Germany is genius. It's basically Nazi Germany, but with a few tiny things changed. It's so blatant that it's impossibly to misconstrue it. I think I might have been a bit annoyed by the historical inaccuracy when I first watched the beginning many, many years ago, but now I fully appreciate what they did there. It allows for making a really silly WW2 resistance comedy (it takes place in East Germany in a 60s/80s amalgam, there's a resistance movement called the Underground, all of whom are extremely French. This is the amazing stunt they pull with that film.) with rock&roll music and it instantly lets you know that this is just a basis for a ton of silly gags. They don't come as rapid-fire as in later films and are very much visual rather than based on the dialogue than their later films as well.

Some of these visual gags are just amazing. I must have been really ignorant so far not having run across the Swedish book store scene a ton of times by now, because it's just mind-bogging work. With some of the visual gags I just don't even know how they did it.Others are just extremely silly things, but most of then landed with me, always contrasted with the dialogue being played very straight or dramatic. That ballroom dance scene killed me. Val Kilmer and the lady get to know each other, she explains the situation, as they perfectly execute that dance which gets increasingly ridiculous. (btw, very good choreography and dancers in that film).

Overall the film seems a bit rougher than say the Naked Gun films, this one's less of a bombardment of jokes, but they hit you out of nowhere with it. Watching this as it's not intended (on my bloody phone) very much made me aware once more how films are made now vs. how they used to be made. Just the other day I heard of that thing that Netflix (with their own throw-away trash productions) order filmmakers to have characters state what they are doing constantly and explain the currecnt situation over and over, because these films/tv shows aren't made to have people watch them, but for people to have them on in the background as they do their housework. Just a sad state of affairs. Top Secret works exactly the other way around. Gags very often aren't pointed out (which is one of the huge problems with film and tv comedies now); if you pick up on them good, if you don't you miss it.

Anyway, Top Secret! is far from perfect of course. It's extremely silly, there are no characters, the story just kinda stops, the musical numbers might go on for a bit too long for some, a few of the gags don't work that well (but that's entirely subjective). Very glad I watched it though. Watch It.


Netflix also put Parasite back on, Punisher:Warzone (which I keep going on and on about. My favourite Marvel film.) and Shaolin Soccer. The latter I haven't watched in a good while, but it's also very silly, very funny, better than Kung Fu Hustle, if you ask me.

I just watched The Crow (2024 version). The kindest thing I can say about it is that of all the films of 2024, this was definitely one of them.

My first gripe is minor: Where is this movie set? All we know for sure is that it is a major city on the coast. With about a dozen different accents, steering wheels on BOTH sides of the car, and totally not telling us it could be anywhere on the east coast of North America, or west coast of Europe, and there's really no way to tell.

Second gripe: The protagonist and his girlfriend did just about EVERYTHING in their power to get themselves killed. They were runaways from some kind of confinement center, wanted by police, their friend has been murdered by the mob, the mob is actively looking for them. They have no close family, no careers, don't own homes, or have any major possessions. What do they decide to do? Just stay in the same old neighborhood, be very visible, hang out in the same old clubs, and get high. How on earth could the mob ever find them there? FFS, with that little tying you down move to a different city at least

Overall if gives a very "Independent Film" vibe that should have been a Netflix special or direct to DVD release.

I love Top Secret. I’d put it on equal footing with Airplane! comedically. It is a more sophisticated film, technically, with the bookstore scene, the underwater brawl, and so on, so even people who don’t find it funny can find something to respect about it.


Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

“The computer is the only thing talking.”

Not a bad Star Trek movie, but not a great one. It’s a pretty good Star Trek sandwiched between two great Star Treks. The central conflicts of the movie are less compelling and many of the big climactic moments fall a bit flat, but the things that work are memorable. Unfortunately the best scene in the movie happens about halfway through. Still, it’s got a great score.


Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

“Double dumbass on you!”

A smash hit crowd pleaser. Everything works. It doesn’t even need a “Khan” to create conflict. More like this, please.
And it’s got a great score.


Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

“What does God need with a starship?”

I love ambitious failures, and this movie is no exception. It gives us some of the best Kirk-Spock-McCoy scenes in the franchise, some of the best Kirk Kirking scenes, a handful of amazingly quotable lines, and Sybok the Vulcan David Koresh, who deserved to be in a better movie.

It’s also full of “choices” so questionable I had to use quotation marks. The crap hole planet of wasted David Warner, the marsh melons, the screaming space probe, three-breasted cat lady strippers, Uhura fan Dance, Scohura (Uhurotty?), Spock’s secret brother, the Scrappy Doo Klingons, the whole ending. Such a weird movie, bad but never boring. At least it has a great score.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I love Top Secret. I’d put it on equal footing with Airplane! comedically. It is a more sophisticated film, technically, with the bookstore scene, the underwater brawl, and so on, so even people who don’t find it funny can find something to respect about it.

Indeed, love me some Top Secret.

The scene where they are plotting their infiltration of a castle, using sticks and stones and it transitions inexplicably into a highly detailed diorama with functioning train set is amazing.

I have to re-watch it now.

I grew up with the Naked Gun and Hot Shots movies, but this and Airplane were the OGs.

 Flinty wrote:
While thoroughly enjoying the first two, I got bored in The 4th. Definitely a case of less is more.

I definitely had a moment in the film of being so overloaded with action I got bored with it. Still, I think the 4th is the best in the franchise since the original. The third was the low point for me personally.

 nels1031 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I love Top Secret. I’d put it on equal footing with Airplane! comedically. It is a more sophisticated film, technically, with the bookstore scene, the underwater brawl, and so on, so even people who don’t find it funny can find something to respect about it.

Indeed, love me some Top Secret.

The scene where they are plotting their infiltration of a castle, using sticks and stones and it transitions inexplicably into a highly detailed diorama with functioning train set is amazing.

I have to re-watch it now.

I grew up with the Naked Gun and Hot Shots movies, but this and Airplane were the OGs.

It's been a while, is Top Secret the movie that opens with a Beach Boys parody song about trap shooting while surfing?

That's the one!

I believe sung by Val Kilmer.

The Gorge Anna Taylor-Joy and Milles Teller star as snipers recruited to watch a fog ridden gorge for anything, and kill anything that tries to escape.

Remember the creepiness from Silent Hill or when the Colonial Marines first get to LV-246?

The movie has great backgrounds and sets. I just feel more was put into those backgrounds than what was put into the foreground.

It wasn't a bad film, just on the cusp of being good, and it isn't the leads' fault.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I love Top Secret. I’d put it on equal footing with Airplane! comedically. It is a more sophisticated film, technically, with the bookstore scene, the underwater brawl, and so on, so even people who don’t find it funny can find something to respect about it.
....

Very good point, and I instantly forgot about the underwater fight scene, even though it also had me just flabergasted, thinking how they made that.

@nels1031: Oh yes, the models in that were also lovely. What Top Secret does different to the later Z/A/Z films especially I think is that they play out what would often be a throwaway gag and just keep adding and adding to it. Yup, exactly the same here. Naked Gun and Hot Shots were staples; it took a good while until I first saw Airplane and Top Secret!. Love both of them, and I also really like Airplane 2.

@cuda1179: Yus, pretty sure all of the songs were sung by Val Kilmer, weren't they?

The Wraith

1986 action thriller with a supernatural twist. Charlie Sheen! Sherilyn Fenn! Clint Howard! Randy Quaid!

Something of a low key 80’s cult classic, with a decent slice of originality. It’s not exactly unknown, but I’m genuinely surprised it’s not as well known or praised as say, Lost Boys.

The beats are all there, and whilst of course a bit silly is genuinely enjoyable. Kinda The Crow meets Fast and Furious.

If you’ve never seen it, or it’s been a while, do give this one a watch.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The Wraith

1986 action thriller with a supernatural twist. Charlie Sheen! Sherilyn Fenn! Clint Howard! Randy Quaid!

Something of a low key 80’s cult classic, with a decent slice of originality. It’s not exactly unknown, but I’m genuinely surprised it’s not as well known or praised as say, Lost Boys.

The beats are all there, and whilst of course a bit silly is genuinely enjoyable. Kinda The Crow meets Fast and Furious.

If you’ve never seen it, or it’s been a while, do give this one a watch.

Oooh, that's the one with the motorcycle helmet on the cover! For some reason the German title is "Interceptor", which isn't German either, but certainly easier to pronounce than a word that consists only of silent Ws and a th. I started watching that one on Plex last year, but never finished it.

Personally, I’d have called it REVenant.

Because ghosty revs its engine a fair amount.

Finally watched the 2011 film War of the Arrows.

It was essentially a sniper/gunfighter film with archers.

I enjoyed it, and the director was not one to pull any punches.

Well. Here we go. It’s Friday night, and the weekend lies ahead. Other than treating my friends to dinner tomorrow night, I’ve nowt planned but hobby and Slasher Films. And boy do I have Slasher Films!

Graduation Day! Mother’s Day! Don’t Go Into The Woods Alone! Splatter University! Slaughterhouse! Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers! Dead of Winter! X-Ray! The Bogey Man! Nightmares in a Damaged Brain! Children of the Corn 1-3! Scarecrows! Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3*! Scalps! The First Power! Alice, Sweet Alice! Frightmare! Popcorn! Student Bodies! Schizoid! Moon in Scorpio! New Year’s Evil! Grandmother’s House! Darkroom! Blind Date**

So, basically? If Mary Whitehouse was buried, and near you? Might be worth wrapping her coffin in copper, placing a magnet either end, and booking her up to the National Grid, because the old dear is gonna be spinning all weekend long!

*First one isn’t the collection I’m, erm, collecting. But I have seen it.

**Presumably not involving Cilla Black. That’d be much too horrifying. Spesh is she sang.

Let’s get the horror show on the road.

Graduation Day

High School set slasher. Opening scene is a track meet. Tragedy strikes when a young athlete, having won her race, collapses and dies on the track.

Sometime later, and it’s the buildup to Graduation Day. And someone is offing the students!

Props for mostly casting age appropriate for the students. Though there is one that’s either really fond of crack, or is in his 30’s. It also doesn’t muck around with an overly lengthy setup, with the first killing maybe 10 minutes in. Though the killer’s motivations aren’t set out right away, giving it a nicely mysterious feel.

Overall, I’d say this is pretty good, more of a murder mystery than your traditional Slasher though. It’s not exactly original, but it plays out well, and the kills don’t get particularly silly. Well, not for the most part. Punji trap on the pole vault I would define as fairly silly.


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Mother’s Day

Pre-Troma Lloyd Kaufman revenge slasher.

It’s…alright? There’s one scene which is particularly unpleasant, which upsets the otherwise satirical tone, as it’s meant to be a send up of I Spit On Your Grave, and Last House On The Left. But that scene isn’t played for laughs and is pretty vile.




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Don’t Go In The Woods Alone

The first of this run that’s a bona fide Video Nasty, having been previously banned in the UK.

It’s not a particularly good film. But I can see why it caused outrage back in the 80’s. But it’s overall rather pedestrian by today’s standards.

However, it was made by enthusiastic amateurs on a super tiny budget, so I can’t be overly critical. And it does work as a horror, even if it leans heavily on cheap jump scares and that.

About ten years ago we got a bit morbid at work and dared each other to sit through certain "interesting" films. Such gems included Cannibal Haulicaust, The Green Inferno, and A Serbian Film.

The last one is particularly unsettling. I recommend anyone considering watching them (all found free online with a Google search) to first pray for forgiveness, make sure the house is empty of other people, lock the doors, and draw the drapes.

Cannibal Holocaust is an interesting one, given the director was done in court, and had to wheel out the actors to prove they weren’t actually dead.

Green Inferno I didn’t enjoy at all.

A Serbian Film I’ve not seen, and don’t really want to!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Cannibal Holocaust is an interesting one, given the director was done in court, and had to wheel out the actors to prove they weren’t actually dead.

Green Inferno I didn’t enjoy at all.

A Serbian Film I’ve not seen, and don’t really want to!

Yeah, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to watch A Serbian Film voluntarily. We did it while recording ourselves back when "reaction videos" were all the rage. One of my employees that took up the challenge was still living in his parents home (he was about 24) and shared a bedroom with his 17 year-old brother. As he was watching it/recording himself his brother walked in during an "adult moment". "Yo, what you watching?" , then a long pause, "Man, you're messed up."

Yeah, I'm not keen on seeing it. Pretty sure there's no merit to it. Cannibal Holocaust - possibly, sure, why not. Cultural thing and stuff.

My brain hurts.

I just finished a 2010 horror movie called Rubber, in which a homicidal car tire, discovering it has destructive psionic power goes on a rampage in a small desert town.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
An anime story set in the world of Middle-Earth, it tells the story of the daughter of the legendary Helm Hammerhand. Basically, Helm kills a Dunlending warlord in a brawl, and the warlord's son Wulf (the main villain of the movie) swears to end Helm's family line. He mostly succeeds, but is ultimately thwarted by Hera, the aforementioned daughter, who was inspired by the story of the legendary Shield-Maidens of Rohan and has apparently been training in combat all her life because the life of a princess just doesn't appeal to her (kind of like Merida from Brave).

As stories go, this one was...alright. Not amazing, but not terrible either. The voice acting was decent enough, and the scenery/"set design" (such as it is in an animated movie) was okay, although anime as a style for a Lord of the Rings story was certainly...a choice. Personally I thought the weakest part of the movie was the villain, Wulf. He just came off like an angsty teenager. Kind of like Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and not in a good way. Also, the whole Hollywood obsession with having a "girlboss" hero is getting kind of old at this point. It used to be that strong female leads just happened naturally, like Ripley from Aliens or Sarah Connor from Terminator 1 and 2. Now it kind of feels forced, especially in the world of Middle-Earth. And it kind of undermines how special and unusual it was that Eowyn wanted to go out there and fight with the men in the main LotR stories. Now you have to wonder if she had somehow heard of Hera and took inspiration from her, although that can't be how Tolkien imagined it as Hera's story is a new concoction, based on some minor anecdote in one of the appendices that mentioned Helm Hammerhand having a daughter (it didn't say anything about her being a fighter).

I did like that the narrator was Miranda Otto (who played Eowyn in the LotR movies), and that they got the voice talents of Billy Boyd (Pippin Took) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) as the orc scavengers Shank and Wrot. There were a fair number of callbacks to the trilogy, some of which felt a bit stilted, but were still pretty neat. I'd give the movie a solid 7/10 overall. It certainly wasn't as laughably terrible as the Rings of Power show over on Amazon, but admittedly that's kind of a low bar. I'm not too sad that I didn't get to see it in the theaters, though. The choppy looking animation would not have looked very good on the big screen.