What Have You Watched Recently?

[death tribble]

Kong Skull Island Second of the monsterverse films and we find an island hidden by an odd weather pattern which American soldiers leaving Vietnam travel to as a last mission > there they find King Kong. This was fun.

 

The Lego Batman Movie This is fun. Using Lego figures to represent various Batman villains and the Justice League.

 

Rock City Film footage of performances by various groups and singers between 1964 to 1973 in London. The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Cream, The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Ike and Tina Turner and Rod Stewart and The Faces also feature

 

Secret of the Sahara This is an Italian TV production with Michael York looking for a mountain in the Sahara desert which holds a mysterious secret. A desert sultan, the Foreign Legion and Arabs all make things more complicated. Ben Kingsley looks after an oasis which is on the route to the mountain. David Soul is a renegade Legionnaire while Andie McDowell is in charge of the people looking after the mountain. Some of this is quite overblown. To spoil the thing most people think the mountain holds treasure but it actually has a spaceship.

 

Tomorrowland  This is a George Clooney film with Hugh Laurie. This has androids and trying to make the world a better place. It even comes up with an unusual trick with the Eiffel Tower. I liked it.

 

The Wonderful Country This is a Robert Mitchum Western set i Mexico and on the Mexican-American border.

[DeleteThisAccount]

On 11/5/2020 at 6:33 PM, Spence said:

Horror as....

 

Scary?

Bad acting?

Badly made?

 

 

None of the above, to be honest, just "horror", as in the genre of fiction known as horror. Not really scary, but themed around the idea of being scary. Giant insects, lots of sudden natural disasters, animal attacks, plants that attack you *like* animals, a man with a huge gun and the face of your father commanding you to face death like a man, and even the unexplained disappearance of a young child from his parents' house while they were away for the night.

[death tribble]

Right two from today and four more that I had neglected adding previously.

 

Three Pointed Star This is a documentary about Mercedes Benz and its 75th anniversary in the 1950s. This misses and does not cover the Le Mans Disaster which ended their involvement in motor racing for years. It covers early racing years and Fangio and Stirling Moss. It also looks at the plants and how the cars are built.
 

Arsenal Stadium Mystery After an amateur footballer dies on the Highbury ground of Arsenal, the police become involved as it turns out to be murder. Although it is a 1930s film it holds up.

 

Corridor of Mirrors A man falls in love with a woman convinced he has loved her in a previous life and although they marry it ends badly. There is a corridor of mirrors in his home which is quite striking.

 

The Curse of the Wraydons After a duel a young man becomes suspected of killings in Epping Forest. This is a must watch for Pulp DMs as it has cliches and death traps that you can liberally borrow. Again this is an old film.

 

I Was A Fireman This is a propaganda piece about firemen tackling blazes in London during the Blitz. It was good.

 

Life in Emergency Ward 10 This is a film of the TV series that was on in the 1950s. A new doctor at a country hospital has to win over colleagues including the senior surgeon and a doctor who was thought to have gotten the appointment.

[death tribble]

Still with me ? No ? Good

 

Every Home Should Have One This is a Marty Feldman film satirising advertising. It is dated but worth a look.

 

Girl in Room 13 An American detective is summoned to Brazil and implicated in counterfeiting when the person carrying counterfeit plates slips them into his coat before the police try and arrest him  The courier is killed by the police in a shoot out. Brian Donlevy is the detective and is unusually in a colour film. The detective is looking for a woman who ran from the States but now the gang who were awaiting the plates also want him. Worth a look.

 

Gunn This is a film taken from the TV series of the same name. After a gangster is murdered a private eye who owed him a favour investigates despite the fact that he is warned off by the gangster's successor. This is an interesting film.

 

Hannibal Rising This film is a prequel showing how Hannibal Lector came to be the monster that he was in Silence of the Lambs. Worth a look even if you are no a fan of the character.

 

Lust for a Vampire This is a Hammer horror where a vampire ends up in a girl's finishing school. If you like Hammer films you should like this.

 

The Thief of Baghdad This 1940 film still has the charm to entertain today. See this as a child and you'll still love it as an adult. Some of the visuals are striking like the mechanical toys, the idol with the spider behind it and the flying carpet. Conrad Veidt is a wonderful villain.

[death tribble]

Bombay Waterfront aka Paul Temple Returns. This is the last of the Paul Temple films where he and wife Steve solve murders. This time there is a hunt for a papyrus which could hold a universal antidote to narcotics and would thus ruin the drugs trade.

 

Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard This 1939 set film has Scotland Yard having to send a woman inspector to investigate a pair of murders tied to a psychic. She has to put up with unhelpful colleagues and a dimwitted assistant.

 

Mystery and Imagination: Frankenstein Ian Holm plays the Frankenstein which is quite different to the Hammer series of films which had already appeared in the cinema.

 

Mystery and Imagination: Sweeney Todd One of the well known horrors presented in the same vein as Dracula and Frankenstein. The shop is seen where the action takes place and how the bodies are disposed of. Worth a look.

 

Paul Temple's Triumph This is the third of the Paul Temple films. After a woman friend of the Temple's is murdered they and the police discover that her father a famous scientist is missing and they set out to find him.

 

Salute the Toff Richard Bentley who had also played Paul Temple plays the detective The Toff who is asked by a secretary to find her employer. In his apartment he finds a dead body but not that of the employer but of someone else. The trail leads to Manchester and then back to the South of England

[death tribble]

Caeser and Cleopatra This is a British film made released in 1945 with Claude Rains a Caeser and Vivian Leigh as Cleopatra. Stewart Granger also appeared and it helped his career in the States. Caeser meets Cleopatra in Egypt and is stranded there by the Egyptian army under Ptolemy. Lavish but there are better films about both the subjects.

 

The Court Jester This is the Danny Kaye film with the famous 'pellet with the poison' routine. This has Angela Lansbury as a femme fatale role and Basil Rathbone as the villain. Fun and can be watched again and again.

 

The Immortal Orson Welles This is a documentary looking at welles career particularly though the experiences of one of his personal assistants and actor Norman Eshley who worked for him.

 

Murderer's Row This is a Matt Helm film with Dean Martin as Helm. Karl Malden plays the villain who wants to use a weapon to harness the power of the sun. Enjoyable.

 

Rose of Cimarron After her adoptive Indian parents are murdered by three cowboys Rose tries to track the killers by the horses they stole.

 

Scars of Dracula Christopher Lee returns as the Count and Patrick Troughton plays his servant. Dennis Waterman is a bit underwhelming as the protagonist. But this is Hammer and is fun

[mattingly]

I watch The Court Jester a few times each year. Always a treat.

 

[Pariah]

Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. I like Captain Pike a lot, although he does tend to play it fast and loose with General Order #1 (Commander Saru's planet, specifically).

 

Season 2 of Elena of Avelor. It's a fun Disney Channel animated series that would make a fantastic Fantasy Hero setting.

 

[csyphrett]

Salute the Toff Richard Bentley who had also played Paul Temple plays the detective The Toff who is asked by a secretary to find her employer. In his apartment he finds a dead body but not that of the employer but of someone else. The trail leads to Manchester and then back to the South of England

 

The Toff was one of the numerous detectives created by John Creasy. It's been years since I have read one of his books.

CES 

[death tribble]

Mum had one of the Toff books, A Knife for The Toff and I managed to get her some more ones.

 

Beyond the Curtain An East German woman who is living in the West is taken off a plane when it is forced to divert and she is repatriated as the STASI want her brother. Her boyfriend goes over the wall to find her and get her back.

 

Blueprint for Robbery A group forms to commit a robbery of an armoured car headquarters. The film is based on a 1950s Boston robbery. The group perform the robbery successfully but then people get greedy and the gang turn on each other.

 

Decision Before Dawn This film made soon after the war details American attempts to use German POWs to infiltrate German lines and report back on German positions. Oskar Werner is the main German recruit and Richard Basehart is the American officer who goes with him. Very good.

 

Home of the Brave 1949 A psychiatrist tries to help a paralysed soldier walk again. The soldier had to leave a friend behind on an island that he and two others were surveying before amphibious assault in WW2 Pacific. The soldier is black. Originally a play, the film version changed the soldier from being Jewish to being African American. Works quite well although there is period racism.

 

Lady From Lisbon This is a film made during the war. In Lisbon, Portugal's capital, people try to obtain the Mona Lisa which has been taken from The Louvre. Fakes are made and murders committed as people struggle for the painting.

 

Man from Tangier This is another counterfeit plates film set in London and Tangier. It passes the time

[death tribble]

Howl (2015) This is about werewolves attacking a late night train. As this is a horror film almost all the peoplen in the train die. And the werewolf design is not that good truth be told.

 

It's a Wonderful World Two composers struggle to get recognition and hit upon the idea of playing music backwards. They also try to work with the Ted Ray orchestra who feature in the film.

 

Jungle Book 1942 This is the Korda version with Sabu as Mowgli. It is a little different to other versions as Shere Khan dies just over half way through. Despite the gae the film still looks fabulous

 

The Killing Ground This is a recent film from Australia where a couple on a camping trip stumble upon a camp with no people. Because they have been killed. And the killers are still around. Nasty.

 

Midnight Fear (1991) A sherriff is hunting down a man who killed and skinned a woman. Meanwhile two brothers take a woman hostage in her pool house David Carradine is the policeman

 

Red Sparrow Jennifer Lawrence goes from ballerina to spy. This is very low level spycraft but still effective.

[death tribble]

And only three of the films in the last two posts were from the last two days. (Decision Before Dawn, Jungle Book and Red Sparrow)

 

Noose for a Lady A woman is due to be hanged and her cousin tries to find out who really did it with only days remaining.

 

The Secret Place A gang plan a robbery and get a kid to borrow his father's police uniform in order to carry out the raid. The gang hide the diamonds they have stolen in a record player which is mistakenly given to the kid. David McCallum is one of the people in the film

 

The Six Men This is an early 1950s British crime film about a mysterious figure who is getting the members of a gang arrested or killed by the police.

 

So Little Time This is about the occupation of Belgium by the Germans and shows the Germans in a sympathetic light while the Resistance fighters come across as gangsters. It is an interesting film. Marius Goring who was in a lot of 50s films stars as the German officer.

 

The Stranger This film has Orson Welles as a high ranking German fugitive hiding in America whilst Edward G Robinson is a war crimes investigator looking for him. Really good.

 

The Velvet Touch An actress wants to spread her wings and not do another frothy comedy which is what her producer and former lover wants her to do. Result ? murder.

[death tribble]

The Counterfeit Plan After a gang frees its leader in France they set up home in England in a country house to make counterfeit money. Said leader tries to rape the daughter of the plate maker and is forced to kill the housekeeper so that she does not talk. The plate maker then sends examples to Scotland Yard and they home in on the gang.

 

Crossroads to Crime  The police become suspicious of a transport cafe where they beleive robbers may be operating from. 

 

Double Confession A man finds his wife dead and has to find out who did it as well as the police. William Hartnell is in this as well.

 

Dry Rot Three dodgy bookmakers try to fix a horserace by kidnapping the jockey and fancied horse.

 

The Man Who Wouldn't Talk An oddity as the film has Zsa Zsa Gabor in the cast even though she is murdered partway through and the film becomes a court room drama.

 

Mystery of the Wentworth Castle a shipping magnate is killed in his office and Chinese detective James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff) is caled in to investigate.

[mattingly]

I thought that said Crosswords to Crime...

 

[TheNaga]

SpaceX Crew-1 Launch

[death tribble]

And now here is a surprise films that I have watched down in the last 48 odd hours that were recorded recently with one exception

 

Don't Blink This is a horror film where a group of friends arrive at a cabin hotel to find no-one around. Then they find no animal or insect life either. And then they start disappearing for no reason at all. This is a stunningly original idea. No blood, no warning just vanish. The how is b=never explained and it has a kick ending. See it. Mena Suravi who was in American Beauty is in the cast and is probably the one face or name that people will know.

 

Doctor at Sea This is the second of the British Doctor series of films and like the predecessor stars Dirk Bogarde and James Robertson Justice. The latter is this time playing the captain of the ship that Dr Sparrow (Bogarde) ends up on. And there are no women on board which is the reason Sparrow took the appointment. Only when the ship docks in South America they pick up two women. The aughter of the head of the shipping line and her companion. The companion is played by Brigitte Bardot. This is a highly unusual pairing but it works.

 

Bait How about tis for an Australian horror ? Sharks in a supermarket ! After a tidal wave hits the coast two small Great Whites menace the survivors which include a police officer and his teenage daughter, two estranged lovers and the guy who tried to rob the supermarket just before the wave hit. This is fun and was made for 3D. And yes it is a lot better than Jaws 3D was.

 

The Silencers This film would not be made now due to 'whitewashing' and its treatment of women,. Dean Martin plays 'retired' agent Matt Helm. But the lifestyle maybe what some would want with the bed taking you straight to the bath. Stella Stevens plays the love interest. Daliah Lavi who was in the 60s Casino Royale is a fellow agent of Helm. And four of the villains are played by faces that people should recognise like Victor Buono, Roger C Carmel (Harry Mudd from Star Trek), Arthur O'Connell and Robert Webber. Cyd Charisse plays a dancer and sings the opening song. Like the Bond series this has gadgets. It maybe the best of the series because Dean is not on autopilot.

 

IT This is the cinema version of Stephen King's book. I think Tim Curry did it better. But it is still excellent I think they could have lengthened it and it would not have suffered.

 

The Iceman This is the only film that I had had for a while and not watched. It is about the real life contract killer Robert Kuklinski and the casual way he killed while keeping his work life away from his family. Michael Shannon is good in this with Christopher 'Captain America' Evans, Winona Ryder, Robert Davi, David Schwimmer and Ray Liotta in support. If you like true crime stuff then you should like this.

[Pariah]

The semifinals of Dancing With the Stars. 

 

Tyra Banks is no Tom Bergeron (nor even Erin Andrews).

[csyphrett]

7 hours ago, death tribble said:

The Iceman This is the only film that I had had for a while and not watched. It is about the real life contract killer Robert Kuklinski and the casual way he killed while keeping his work life away from his family. Michael Shannon is good in this with Christopher 'Captain America' Evans, Winona Ryder, Robert Davi, David Schwimmer and Ray Liotta in support. If you like true crime stuff then you should like this.

They had a show about Kuklinski with interviews and things. He casually mentioned one guy threatening his family, and getting rid of him afterwards

CES 

[mattingly]

I finally got around to watching Nicolas Cage & Michael Caine in The Weatherman. Entertaining, but probably not something I'll watch again.

 

 

[mattingly]

It's been years since I've last seen Crimewave. I'm glad I decided to watch once more.

 

Pre-Evil Dead 2 Sam Raimi and the pre-Raising Arizona Coen brothers collaborate on this action comedy with Reed Birney (Blacklist's Tim), Sheree Wilson (Walker Texas Ranger's Alex), Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead's Ash), Louise Lasser (Mary Hartman Mary Hartman's eponynm), Brion James (Bladerunner's Leon), and Paul Smith (Popeye's Bluto).

 

[TheNaga]

Lost Relics of the Knights Templar

[slikmar]

CW has been running the Swamp Thing series. Not bad so far, third episode. Apparently was cancelled due to "creative differences" between show runners and Warner, or budget or something equally not mentionable. too bad, would have been interesting to see them develop a JL:Dark type set (magic based - Swamp Thing, Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, etc.

[Spence]

50 minutes ago, slikmar said:

CW has been running the Swamp Thing series. Not bad so far, third episode. Apparently was cancelled due to "creative differences" between show runners and Warner, or budget or something equally not mentionable. too bad, would have been interesting to see them develop a JL:Dark type set (magic based - Swamp Thing, Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, etc.

I've been recording it and am a couple episodes behind.  I was impressed that it was trying to avoid the CW teen angst trap, an then realized it wasn't a CW show. 

 

I should have realized it was canceled, after all I was enjoying it....

[slikmar]

Also caught, what I guess was the last episode of The Last Ride, basically history of Mark Callaway (Undertaker) as he prepared for 2020 Wrestlemania and after. I always liked his dedication to the character and had heard good things, but given the number of people on there who said how much he was loved and how respectful he was, I was even more impressed. He basically worked out and came back because of feeling terrible about the match he put Roman Reigns over on WM in 2018 (to the extent that he didnt talk to Roman for a year because he figured Roman felt let down by it), and I was impressed for the 2019 one that Cena not only put him over, but allowed it to basically be almost a squash match (but then I have always thought Cena had class). And, at 55, stepped in for the graveyard match against AJ Styles and they had an amazing match, which most of was shown in the episode I saw, allowing Mark to ride of on his harley at end. Wasn't shown in this episode, but his match against Michaels in 2010 was still one of my favorite matches I have seen.

 

[tkdguy]

I've been watching more YouTube videos than TV shows lately, but I make it a point to catch Midsomer Murders and Inspector Morse reruns on PBS.