list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

The Apprentice

Ugly, dirty, and transfixing account of Donald Trump's younger days as a fledgling real estate mogul in Manhattan and his relationship with infamous attorney Roy Cohn played brilliantly by Jeremy Strong (Succession).   The film depicts Trump as a relatively normal 30-ish businessman during the 1970s/'80s who gradually adopts Cohn's lie-cheat-steal approach and begins to profit from a purposefully immoral, illegal, and racist methodology.   It's no wonder Trump tried to ban the movie from release, describing it as "A defamatory, politically disgusting hatchet job".   That it is, and well worth seeing.

In anticipation of 28 Years Later we watched 28 Days Later again last night. It looks and feels a bit dated now and is rough around the edges but it's still a cracking horror movie. It's certainly better than 28 Weeks Later, which we'll be watching soon. The music is great too.

^ Yes, The Thing was brilliant and I must watch again as it's been a while. I quite liked the prequel from 2011 too with Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Well we watched 28 Weeks Later last night and it's actually a lot better than I remember and a pretty decent horror. What messed it for me was the stretch that the 2 kids get out to find their old home. I suppose I can just about forgive that as they had just got back from Spain and likely didn't realise how bad things were in the UK. I had forgotten Jeremy Renner was in it too - he didn't look much different than he does now lol. 28 Weeks has the best opening of any horror movie I've seen. As soon as that music starts building it just explodes - brilliant.

I was comparing both these movies to the more recent The Walking Dead and the the tension and horror in TWD is certainly not on a par as those. I mean there was never any nude zombies* in TWD which is ridiculous when you think about it. Dead bodies in the 28 movies where also a lot more realistic.

*Not zombies in the 28 movies of course.

Atavachron wrote: Carpenter had a knack for making quality films on a small budget. He also composed most of the music himself on synth, and inspired many young filmmakers to make the kind of movies they wanted to.   Escape from New York comes to mind.

Interesting that the soundtrack for JC's The Thing starts out as an Ennio Morricone's Orchestral score and then gradually gives way to the electronic score (JC?). I like this a lot and had intended to mention it with my other comments. Thanks for the reminder

The Abyss (1989)
I've seen this many times although it's the first time for the 'American Edit' which includes the scene with a rat which the BBFC would not grant a certificate with that scene included (so no DVD release in the UK). However Disney+ still put that version up on its UK accessible website until they were told to remove it!
This is something of an end of an era ushering in CGI and with it eventually a much 'safer' low risk (both financially and physically) approach to sci-fi. Good for TV but not so good for Movies imo.
Ed Harris gives a career peak performance (that Oscar must have got lost in the post) and features (as was common for Sci-fi films back then) a top notch supporting cast, the chemistry between him and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantanio the best I've ever seen on celluloid. This is when films like this were made with hard graft and no attitude of letting the special effects dept pick up the slack. Ed Harris even had a much publicized near fatal accident on set while filming one of the many dangerous underwater scenes and wouldn't talk about it for many years later it so traumatised him.
The film was considered a flop when it came out yet with an overunning budget of 70 million+ and subsequent mixed reviews. I can imagine the amount of cheese sprinkled on it by director James Cameron could have been offputting for many, but not for me. I can happily blubber like a child whenever I watch the resurrection scene. I would only put 2 films ahead of it in sci-fi, well maybe 3, (Alien, Blade Runner and possibly Close Encounters of The Third Kind) but for me nothing coming after 1989 beats it with only The Martian coming close.

Deep Cover
I watched this last Friday with a few beers, the basic set up being a group of actors are recruited by the police to infiltrate a London based criminal gang using their improvisational skills. It stars Sean Bean and Paddy Considine and has a genuinely hilarious turn from Orlando Bloom as that annoying actor who has to find his 'motivation'. I laughed a lot. This is exactly what a 'Friday Night Movie' should be!

The Beekeeper

Fun and straightforward if simplistic action-revenge flick with Jason Statham as a retired secret operator who used to do the jobs no one else could and now tends beehives.   When his favorite customer kills herself after being cyber-scammed out of her life's savings, he takes it to the top of the online fraudsters, one of whom happens to be the president's son. (On a sidenote, Statham is severely allergic to bees and carries an EpiPen.)





Edited by Atavachron - July 13 2025 at 23:44

M3gan 2.0 - The first movie was decent, this new one isn't. All the charm and substance has gone to leave us with a run-of-the-mill action/sci-fi movie. 2 hours was way, way too long and I'd lost the will near the end. Shame really 3/10

Novocaine - Now this was a better movie after the disappointing M3gan.2.0. A mild-mannered assistant bank manager turns to extreme lengths to get back his girlfriend who is taken hostage during a bank robbery. Thing is our hero has a genetic disorder and he can't feel pain (which is a real thing - I looked it up). I imagine the writers must have had a field day coming up with ways for our man to get hurt and abused. I was expecting this to be a bit lighter and more a comedy. Sure there are some funny moments but it does deserve its R rating for the amount of blood and gore. I had to look away a couple of times such was the the violence at times. But it never became gratuitous, as he's dealing with some really nasty guys. The whole thing is a hoot and my wife and I loved it. 8.5/10

Thunderbolts* - I don't know why I put myself through these Marvel movies anymore. The juice has well and truly dried up and this is yet another formulaic offering from a studio that was once revered. It's just dull and a movie by-numbers. It has no charm at all (though I do think some for was made in this regard, but it doesn't work). I don't care about any of the characters and the story is so strained it almost hurts. Even the effects are yawn-inducing - tick, tick, tick - it's all been seen before.

I'm really hoping that the new Fantastic Four movie brings us something different and anything except this regurgitated Marvel crap. For Thunderbolts* - 3/10 Oh yeah and the asterisk in the name of the movie is for Thunderbolts - *The New Avengers - which alas means more to come.