UKH

Mr Holmes, the famous detective, now retired in his coastal rural house, realises his famous memory is fading fast and decides to try to figure out why he stopped work after his last case.

A really fascinating spin on the Sherlock mythology with any sentimentality forgivable given the conclusions he comes to. Ian McKellen is spot-on in the starring role.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_holmes

Judge Dredd, Netflix. Presumably a pilot cum.mini-movie for a forthcoming series. True to the comics, so good for fans of hammy dystopia and gratuitous cartoon violence.

Carl Unger has the look but not the voice.

Liked it.

Pardon?

Do you mean the 2012 film "Dredd" starring Karl Urban, Lena Headey, Olivia Thirlby and Downhill Gleeson? Or is there something else? I know there have long been talks of some sort of continuation but as the film didn't do so well, it seemed to have all got stuck. Or has this somehow miraculously been produced? https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/scifi/2020-07-28/judge-dredd-tv-show-script-written/

Judge Dredd Mega City One apparently. I think the pilot for a forthcoming tv show is out but ive not had much luck finding it so far.

ps very apposite that 'Alan Moore' is the man to break this news

I keep reading that the pilot was written but had not gone into production (see my link, but that it is from July 2020). Because the post I replied to mention "Carl Unger" I wondered if they meant Karl Urban and were just having a massive spelling/confusion failure moment (maybe he's been watching something with Deborah Kara Unger in!). If it was Karl Urban then it must surely have been the 2012 film because his participation in Mega City One is not confirmed. 
Also given the demographic of UKC, I am sure we would have seen Mega City One more widely trumpeted by now  

BUT alan "not THAT one" moore does also say "mini movie". I don't know! 

Sorry. Just me talking garbage again, ably assisted by spellchecker. I was struggling to find the film I watched on IMDb and Bones Urban is not in it...Warrick somebody ( with a similar chin) somebody plays Dredd .

Anyway, I'll get my coat and go and write another cult graphic novel.

On Netflix this week.

Dredd. Fantastic film...hugely underrated when it was released afew weeks ago.

On the subject of underrated Sci-Fi; i stumbled on Sunshine (Danny Boyle). A real classic, and well worth your time, especially in lock down.

More like "Sunshite"  

Again, as I asked Alan Moore, is this a different Dredd to the one from 2012? 

Quo Vadis (1951). 

The missing link between Gladiator and Carry on Cleopatra  

Best designed space suit of any film.

Erm, no. Found it on IMDb. They would appear to be one and the same! Very confusing...

2012 with Karl Urban. It's available on Netflix at the moment.

Feels just like the comic used to feel.

sorry I somehow missed your 11:22 reply yesterday ! Thanks 

I remain confused

Interesting, at least to me , pair of films on BBC IP at the moment. 'Closer to the Edge' about the I.O.M. TT races and 'Crash Reel' about an American Half Pipe Snowboarder. I saw the TT film when it first came out on the big screen but the snowboarding film was new to me.

The attitudes to risk and it's consequences are stark. It does help if one is aware of the years following the making of these films. Personally I have followed the careers of the motorcycle racers featured but have no knowledge of the snowboard scene.

John

I'm not sure about fantastic, but watchable and enjoyable, I thought. I liked the fact that Dredd never takes off his helmet, so everything was conveyed via Karl Urban's grimace (a nice companion to Tom Hardy's eyebrow work as Bane).

Also that he had to face the combined menace of the Lannisters and Barksdales

What was nice was that you get no introduction to Dredd, not only is it not an origin story but there’s very little info given about him even in expository dialogue. It’s basically a “day in the life” kind of story, mixed in with a sort of “Training Day”/origin story for Judge Anderson (a neat device allowing Olivia Thirlby to be the expressive “face” of the film)

My only little niggle was with the opening chase scene, it was made to look far too difficult for a police superbike to keep pace with an absolutely knackered camper van 😃

The Detective, and Tony Rome. 

Two Frank Sinatra vehicles made a year apart from each other (1968 and 1967), both directed by Gordon Douglas, both featuring Lloyd Bochner in a support role, both (like nearly all Sinatra films) featuring Sinatra almost playing a version of himself. 

Yet they were very different films. 

The Detective seems like it was very bold for its time, dealing with with a world of homosexuality (even if it does seem to relish painting that world as a deviant underbelly of society) and in a way it's like an extremely downbeat companion to the same year's Bullitt. But it's also a bit of a tedious mess. After an opening establishing Sinatra's role, it lurches cack-handedly into a massively long flashback about how his relationship with Lee Remick began, and you are left wondering what the film is going to actually be ABOUT, for around 40 minutes. And it never really redeems this. 

The previous year's Tony Rome is a very different prospect, and arguably a perfect example of balancing tongue-in-cheek and a bit of campy fun, with an actually interesting plot with a proper MacGuffin etc. Definitely suited Sinatra better, he stays just the right side of winking at the camera, yet the film is no comedy or pastiche. The point of Jill St John's character is questionable but hey I am not complaining. Good support from Gena Rowlands and Sue Lyon in what was probably Lyon's last good role in a good film. There may have been some men in the film too, not sure  
Bit weird having Nancy Sinatra sing the title song with all its allusions to Frank putting it about a bit! 

Inside Out. Another one of those 'kids' movies.

Did you cry though?!  

I thought it was superb but didn't cry.

Watched passport to pimlico, lovely stuff 

Coincidentally a friend brought that up in conversation last night (and it's been at the back of my mind since seeing Stanley Holloway pop up in a couple of small support roles in some other films I've recently watched) so it is on my shortlist. I have it on VHS, taped off the telly, sharing a tape with the 1992 "The Last of the Mohicans"  

Within the first minutes.

same here. I think some people were a bit upset at the demise of the imaginary friend (the pink elephant). 

I did get something in my eye during Finding Dory though. 

One issue I always had with Inside Out, is that the ending strongly implies that the girl happily cuts all ties with, or even plain forgets, the old best friend in her old town. But then the credit sequence shows "inside a cat's head" and it's funny so we forget that little niggle 

No tears for that either (not quite as outstanding but still excellent in my view). Kids are lucky ..... so few shit cartoon movies.... albeit kids live action films are sometimes lemons (but not as often as the film output for grown-ups).

Yes that's a point. I think this is a movie for kids who have moved so that's a significant detail, I know my kid related to that.

I liked to bit where inside the Mum's head they threw away the memory of the Brazilian Heli pilot - almost....

What moves me (I've seen it twice) is simply the first sequence of the baby in that state of post-natal bliss. Gets me just thinking about it, fatherhood memories and all that.

I've only seen it once so far but I now own it on DVD (thanks charity shops!) and plan to watch again soon

Divines

Very well made film about two young girls from the rougher outskirts of Paris who want to make it big in the world of drug dealing. 

Bitter Victory (1957). 
Rather well made and interesting "battle of wills" Second World War story. A little bit bold for the time, maybe? Superb performances from the co-leads and also the entire supporting cast. 

One MASSIVE problem though. 
As fine as his performance is, Curt/Curd Jurgens must be the one of the most miscast actors in a role EVER. He is supposed to be a cowardly pen-pushing Major in charge of a British platoon on a desert mission, but the thing about Jurgens is that he is Bavarian and has a VERY strong and unmistakable accent. The screenplay tries to deal with this in a single throwaway line about him maybe having grown up in South Africa, but it's not convincing at all. At times you might be forgiven for getting confused and thinking it's some undercover story or he's a Nazi who's captured and hypnotised the platoon. Not helped by the fact that he is that he is the "bad guy" in this, in combination with the ensuing decades of Jurgens mostly playing properly Teutonic bad guys. 

You have a remarkably broad appreciation for cinema. Commendable.

Oh I should mention Lewis Black as Anger sold me from the start. I love that guy, he puts me at ease with how I feel about the world.

I've watched Cool As Ice starring Vanilla Ice, two times voluntarily. And The Star Wars Holiday Special three times voluntarily. And even "Love, Actually" (just once and under duress). 

Yeah but did you watch Cool As Ice as a deluded teenager like so many also did, usually to impress a girl? Still though, twice.....the cinematic equivalent to waterboarding.

Star Wars Holiday Special is one of my favourites too. I still think it's a secretly a John Waters film.

I can't remember if it was a recommendation on here or over on the other channel, but thanks to whoever mentioned it. I watched The King Of Staten Island tonight. Judd Appatow directs. It's excellent. Coming of age story of Scott (Pete Davidson - who also Co wrote and produced it,) a mid twenties stoner wannabe tattoo artist, still living with his mom on Staten Island. A great characterisation by the lead with what feels like realist ad-lib dialogue at times, but not at all done in a jarring way, alongside gentle introduction of back story as to how  the protagonist has come to remain where he is still.

A fantastic supporting cast (including Steve Buscemi who always adds value.) Some laugh out loud funny moments and a few to cause a moistening of the eye. But most of all brilliant, believable, likeable, fully-rounded characters amongst the obvious tropes and types that populate the film. Ultimately you actually care for and about the characters. Not action packed nor a blockbuster, but enough story stuff happens to keep the viewer engaged throughout. Nicely shot. 

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a film as much. Watch it should you get the chance. I watched it on bluray via Cinema Paradiso (films by post,) but sure it'll be on one of the streaming platforms soon. 

I'm going to watch Cool As Ice now, will report back (unless I don't you may be held responsible...). I do recall his brief popularity, it was so brazen it took a while for the masses to catch on how awful it was. I was a Beastie Boys fan, so VI for a moment felt like a threat - a very short moment.

Contraband films are the stuff of legend. That's a good bit of history to be involved with. From what I hear stars like Ford were vocal in not having it released after the TV show was aired.

I thought the strange lurid PAL system quality of it was slightly disturbing, like where the Fraggles live, no inside or outside definition. The Wookie patriarch jerking off is so John Waters it could be true.

I really really enjoyed Mr Holmes. A shining beacon in this part of McKellen's career where he is mostly phoning it in (I have not seen The Good Liar yet though, and that looks good)

I'll check into it. Anything that relates to JW directly or as a parallel works, I find him a brave and astute guy in a lineage that includes Wilde and Coward who make you aware you are watching art disguised as something else.

Mother of God, I just watched the trailer......

I've just been reminded how glorious Alicia Witt looked in Cecil B Demented. Might have to watch it again myself soon!

Actually I was referring to Cool As Ice...

I watched the trailer for CBD too and it just looks awesome, can't wait. I like the allusion to the Patty Hearst.

Ah right. Somehow I think I’ve escaped the Cool As Ice trailer. It’s a kind of arty film really, you can play the game of seeing if there is cryptic message on his jacket, and iirc there is this bizarrely shot random breakdance scene featuring minor sidekick characters, using very wide angle lens with a salt and pepper shaker static and very much in the foreground . And weren’t they trying to sell Vanilla as a new James Dean?! 

It actually reminds me a lot of Golden Harvest kung fu flicks, shallow story to just showcase some cult stars profile, lots of cheap in-situ scenes etc.

And weren’t they trying to sell Vanilla as a new James Dean?! 

In cool perhaps. Reminds me more of a rat pack member, bad boy who can swing type stuff.

The Wife was much more impressive than I expected even though Glenn Close always seem to shine in her work. It goes well beyond the male dominance in mid century US literature that produced the central fault line in the marriage.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_wife_2018