What Film have you just watched?

[Dan Steel]

Watched this excellent play on BBC4 last night, brought back memories of Thatchers unemployed struggling Britain. Great play written by Alan Bleasdale, with Bernard Hill standing out as Yosser Hughes. Hope they show the series Boys From The Black Stuff.

Me too Dan with my daughters compelling viewing and I've got the series boxset in the cupboard.
So I can do that.
Painful to remember a shift for a fiver.

Yes it was a compelling watch and the series really brings it home how unemployed affects family life. Unfortunately it’s coming around again and will get worse once Brexit kicks in. No doubt the government will blame it all on the pandemic.

[Scooter]

Bleasdale wrote some brilliant stuff but there was Jimmy McGoven as well. Both wrote some brilliant plays. I was lucky enough to get to see some of the plays in Liverpool usually before they headed south. Bleasdale also had a radio programme, Scully, that was on local commercial radio. Which was later commissioned into a TV series.
On a side note for one of his plays, the Muscle Market (I think it was called). My uncle was MD of a big British Leyland and Jaguar dealerships. He had a Jaguar sports car XJS that was used in one scene where Peter Postletwaite smashed up the dashboard with a crook lock. When he was approached he agreed but on the condition the new dashboard was ready to go in straight after the scene. He was also worried that it would need a couple of takes but again he was assured it would be done in one and if it needed more they would do it again but not show the actual dash and work on his face. I still cringed when I watched it even though I knew it was a company car.

[Dan Steel]

Bleasdale wrote some brilliant stuff but there was Jimmy McGoven as well. Both wrote some brilliant plays. I was lucky enough to get to see some of the plays in Liverpool usually before they headed south. Bleasdale also had a radio programme, Scully, that was on local commercial radio. Which was later commissioned into a TV series.
On a side note for one of his plays, the Muscle Market (I think it was called). My uncle was MD of a big British Leyland and Jaguar dealerships. He had a Jaguar sports car XJS that was used in one scene where Peter Postletwaite smashed up the dashboard with a crook lock. When he was approached he agreed but on the condition the new dashboard was ready to go in straight after the scene. He was also worried that it would need a couple of takes but again he was assured it would be done in one and if it needed more they would do it again but not show the actual dash and work on his face. I still cringed when I watched it even though I knew it was a company car.

The Muscle Market is a brilliant play and Pete Postlewaite is superb.

[Wenge1]

The Muscle Market is a brilliant play and Pete Postlewaite is superb.

Pete Postlewaite is always superb whatever he does - Usual Suspects being another great example ...........

[MHmusic]

A couple more we have seen:

Shaun of the Dead - Not sure why but we had never got around to watching this despite everyone telling us to watch it. We have seen Hot Fuzz and World's End which followed it and they are obviously of a 'type' and definitely in the (extreme) marmite category I am sure. We found them OK for a night when you didn't want to think too much but snigger at the intentionally daft stuff. But TBH this one was a bit disappointing.

Man Up - this reminded me of this movie - again Simon Pegg but in a really enjoyable and amusing romcom centred around a mix up re a blind date. Nobody gets killed, shot, battered - maybe other than their egos. Not that mad on Romcoms but we did enjoy this one. While I am at it one of the few others of this genre we both like is Mickey Blue Eyes which is definitely the best of Hugh Grant's earlier years for us. Still crease when his character attempts to be a tough mafia dude.

A Call to Spy - This is a WWII story centring on the women spies in what later became the OSS. It's an easy watch. Not so realistic that it's difficult to watch but still gets across the difficult pressures/conditions they were under with minimal training or effective support. It's an OK watch.

[MHmusic]

One to avoid is Hard Kill. It’s got Bruce Willis (cameo tbh), action and billed as putting together a team for tough mission against all odds and we thought it would be a lazy Sat evening watch. TBH halfway through I almost opted to open up a can of emulsion for us to watch dry instead. Got the impression that none of them wanted to be in it and my guess is they all agreed to stop it and wrap it up early because the end was even flatter. The script was awful and the delivery worse. Not sure if it’s obvious or not but we didn’t like it. it was Apple’s 99p rental movie of the week. We were robbed

[Coyote Jim]

Had this on DVD for years but was flicking through the channels before popping of to bed and found this just starting.
My daughters watched with me and can honestly say I haven't had such a chortle in ages.
All the little nuances of irritation sent us laughing out loud on many occasions.
Fantastic chemistry between the main actors and the contrast of cold hard city life aiming for the comforts of home were very feelgood indeed.
Highly recommended.

[Wenge1]

Had this on DVD for years but was flicking through the channels before popping of to bed and found this just starting.
My daughters watched with me and can honestly say I haven't had such a chortle in ages.
All the little nuances of irritation sent us laughing out loud on many occasions.
Fantastic chemistry between the main actors and the contrast of cold hard city life aiming for the comforts of home were very feelgood indeed.
Highly recommended.

Those aren't pillows ..................

[Dan Steel]

Watched this early on this morning, and it’s brilliant.
A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson's young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. A must watch. x8)

[Scooter]

Watched this early on this morning, and it’s brilliant.
A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson's young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. A must watch. x8)

Is it on prime? We’ve been watching the Queens Gambit on Netflix, I would recommend it.

[Dan Steel]

Watched this early on this morning, and it’s brilliant.
A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson's young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. A must watch. x8)

Is it on prime? We’ve been watching the Queens Gambit on Netflix, I would recommend it.

Keith,
I watched the dvd version which Faye got me, but I think it’s now on prime. I’ll watch Queens Gambit.

[Scooter]

Watched this early on this morning, and it’s brilliant.
A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson's young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. A must watch. x8)

Is it on prime? We’ve been watching the Queens Gambit on Netflix, I would recommend it.

Keith,
I watched the dvd version which Faye got me, but I think it’s now on prime. I’ll watch Queens Gambit.

Cheers Jim. Found it on Apple TV, I can put the sound to the stereo.

[Dan Steel]

Enjoyed this one...
The plot centers around Joe Gardner, a passionate middle school music teacher in New York City who dreams of performing jazz music on stage, getting a chance to make his dreams come true after impressing other musicians during an opening act. However, after Gardner suffers a fall on the way home, his soul ends up separated from his body. While being transported to something called the Great Beyond, he panics and falls into the Great Before, an ethereal plane of existence where souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Gardner must work with souls in training, such as 22, a soul with a dim view on life after being trapped for years at the Great Before, in order to return to Earth and get back to his body before it's too late.
The jazz segments were coordinated by Herbie Hancock and Terri Lynne Carrington but there a great score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. x8)

[Dan Steel]

In the aftermath of a global catastrophe, a lone scientist in the Arctic races to contact a crew of astronauts with a warning not to return to Earth. Clooney has delivered a sobering and thoughtful film. Just released on Netflix x8)

[MHmusic]

Last Christmas, Die Hard 1 and 2, Unlocked, Motherless Brooklyn

Last Christmas is a recent ish release with Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke as lead, It's a 'nice movie' absolitely crammed full of George Michael/Wham songs. The guy could write a song. Easy watching, gently amusing and with the dose of sugary sweetness a xmas movie deserves. easily beats another one that we watched the other day that was so bad I can't remember the title or the names of the actors.

Die Hard movies for us are Xmas movies and so we have watched two of them so far and I suspect will squeeze in a third before we are done.

Unlocked isn't Xmasy at all and ten minutes in I realised that I had definitely seen it before. Basically tough gal has to sort out the truth from the lies while 'kicking butt' of anyone in her way to avert a terrorist biological threat. It's OK and Noomi Rapace is the tough agent doing the unravelling (from 'The Girl with..' movies. It' was Ok and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Last night we watched Motherless Brooklyn - Ed Norton stars having written and directed it (it's free if you have Sky cinema, otherwise amazon etc.). Got a little lost with some of the character's names at one point because I got distracted by an ipad alert but TBF that was my fault and I still enjoyed it. No one else was confused.

One set to record tomorrow morning is a lifelong favourite - On The Town with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller etc. - just a classic romp around NY city by some navy crew on leave.

Happy New year everyone.

[Dan Steel]

Just watched this 6 part series and i enjoyed it.
COYOTE is the story of Ben Clemens (Michael Chiklis), who after 32 years as a border patrol agent, is forced to work for the very people he spent his career trying to keep out of America. Now exposed to life on the other side of the wall, Ben will starts to question his black and white views of the world, challenging his ideology and his loyalties.
One for Keith the theme music is done by Calexico.

[Dan Steel]

Released 2021 - The plot follows two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who try to catch a serial killer in 1990 Los Angeles, when they find a strange man (Jared Leto) who becomes their top suspect.

[Wenge1]

Released 2021 - The plot follows two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who try to catch a serial killer in 1990 Los Angeles, when they find a strange man (Jared Leto) who becomes their top suspect.

What did you watch it on Jim?

[Dan Steel]

Released 2021 - The plot follows two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who try to catch a serial killer in 1990 Los Angeles, when they find a strange man (Jared Leto) who becomes their top suspect.

What did you watch it on Jim?

On the TV through my sat box.

[Wenge1]

Released 2021 - The plot follows two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who try to catch a serial killer in 1990 Los Angeles, when they find a strange man (Jared Leto) who becomes their top suspect.

What did you watch it on Jim?

On the TV through my sat box.

Sorry I meant which channel?

[Scooter]

Not so much films but TV. I'm not a big watcher of TV but the past week we've had a week of binge watching stuff on various platforms. So here is a list of those that I've enjoyed.
If you can handle subtitles my favourite cop show came to its final series, Spiral. If you haven't watched it all 8 series are available on BBC iplayer. If you take a look start at the beginning because there are recurring characters and storylines across the whole 8 series.
Over on Netflix another French series but dubbed is Lupin, pure escapism.
From Sweden there are two series of Rebecka Martinson on all4, based on the books by Åsa Larsson. They have transferred to tv really good.The actress who plays the lead changed from the first series and it didn't really distract. Again subtitled.
On prime, SWMBO found one series that she really enjoyed called Spirited. It is about a dead English punk rock star who finds himself stuck in an apartment block in Sydney. The main lead is played by Matt King who played Super Hans in Peep show. For me it started well but drifted, the boss loved it though. Apparently the end of the second series was left open for a third but they couldn't schedule the actors for it.
One worth watching but I have reservations about is the Dig on Netflix. Based on a true story which is good but there are elements in it that are superfluous to the story.
Finally Roger Waters the Wall on Netflix. I streamed this through Apple TV which means I can put the sound to the stereo. When I played it another time I played it on the MacBook streamed to the stereo to find the sound was so so much better. I've tried a few things like that now and again the sound is so much better when streamed from the MacBook compared to Apple TV. So I tried streaming the MacBook to Apple TV but the sync, sound to vision, was well out but sound was good. Strange and don't really understand why the sound should be so different.

[MHmusic]

Finally got around to watching Shock and Awe, a 2017 movie about the pre-war reporting by US media. It's centred on the only syndicated news group (Knight Ridder) that got everything right while all of the others swallowed the official line and seemingly weren't interested in the facts emerging from lower down the food chain sources. Fascinating replay of what is recent history that you have lived through but told with the benefit of 'knowing what the outcomes were'. Nicely told story that I think stands up as in interesting story regardless and with decent actors in it too.

If having watched it you fancy another side of that story then the movie called Vice (I am sure the title puts a lot of people off - or maybe the opposite, I am not sure ) is a remarkable film about the same period but focused upon VP Cheney and his role in orchestrating the US position. Christian Bale plays the lead role and it's worth watching just to see his transformation (physical and acting) into Cheney.

They are very different movies albeit with the same topic at their fulcrum. If you only fancy one I would probably plump for Vice just because it is that good but they really are both worth watching. Shock and Awe is free on Prime.

We also watched Twist. This is a Sky original movie which purports to take the Dickens Oliver Twist into a contemporary setting. Stars Michael Caine (Not many....), Rita Ora (not singing) and Raff Law who is Jude Law's son and a smattering of cameos. The latter probably provided the best acting and maybe the roof running (parkour) stunt dudes gave the best performances. Thats not fair as Raff Law looks as if he will follow his Dad comfortably enough.

The movie was free on Sky Cinema. It just felt a bit lazy somehow. They took all of the characters and juggled their sex and occupation so on (Rita Ora was 'Dodge' for instance and Sykes was played by the actress that was Cersei in Game of Thrones) sprinkled with names (aforementioned plus David Walliams etc.) wrapped a weak plot through it to make it work today, added the parkour stuff and then didn't bother to turn it back into a real story. Instead adding lots of music and that sort of glib teen movie style. It wasn't the worst movie we have watched but I would set expectations low if you do watch it. Raff was probably the only positive.

Sure we have watched aload more lately but can't remember them which isn''t a good sign

[Scooter]

Finally got around to watching Shock and Awe, a 2017 movie about the pre-war reporting by US media. It's centred on the only syndicated news group (Knight Ridder) that got everything right while all of the others swallowed the official line and seemingly weren't interested in the facts emerging from lower down the food chain sources. Fascinating replay of what is recent history that you have lived through but told with the benefit of 'knowing what the outcomes were'. Nicely told story that I think stands up as in interesting story regardless and with decent actors in it too.

If having watched it you fancy another side of that story then the movie called Vice (I am sure the title puts a lot of people off - or maybe the opposite, I am not sure ) is a remarkable film about the same period but focused upon VP Cheney and his role in orchestrating the US position. Christian Bale plays the lead role and it's worth watching just to see his transformation (physical and acting) into Cheney.

They are very different movies albeit with the same topic at their fulcrum. If you only fancy one I would probably plump for Vice just because it is that good but they really are both worth watching. Shock and Awe is free on Prime.

We also watched Twist. This is a Sky original movie which purports to take the Dickens Oliver Twist into a contemporary setting. Stars Michael Caine (Not many....), Rita Ora (not singing) and Raff Law who is Jude Law's son and a smattering of cameos. The latter probably provided the best acting and maybe the roof running (parkour) stunt dudes gave the best performances. Thats not fair as Raff Law looks as if he will follow his Dad comfortably enough.

The movie was free on Sky Cinema. It just felt a bit lazy somehow. They took all of the characters and juggled their sex and occupation so on (Rita Ora was 'Dodge' for instance and Sykes was played by the actress that was Cersei in Game of Thrones) sprinkled with names (aforementioned plus David Walliams etc.) wrapped a weak plot through it to make it work today, added the parkour stuff and then didn't bother to turn it back into a real story. Instead adding lots of music and that sort of glib teen movie style. It wasn't the worst movie we have watched but I would set expectations low if you do watch it. Raff was probably the only positive.

Sure we have watched aload more lately but can't remember them which isn''t a good sign

A mate of mine recommended Vice and I forgot. So will check out.

[Wenge1]

.
Just caught up with The Serpent so to speak on the the I Player - Enjoyed it ...............

[Scooter]

.
Just caught up with The Serpent so to speak on the the I Player - Enjoyed it ...............

It’s is worth looking up Charles Sobhraj whom it is based on. They say fact I stranger than fiction and in this case it really is.