What's in/on Your DVD/VCR/PVR etc

[R6GYY]

We've been working our way through a series of thrillers set in Wales.

Finished all of Keeping Faith and Hinterland, and have now started on Hidden.

Oh, and we've found (not Wales!) Annika series 2 on the "U" channel, which is such a stupid name for a channel.

[Thenop]

Browsing (scrolling?) through the various streaming services I stumbled uppn Halo more than once. I never played games, but know this is a big one. I decided at long last to take the jump. I like it. Visuals are stunning, when it is over the top it is OVER THE TOP, which is fine by me.

Storywise (now in season 2) it could be a bit stronger, liked S1 a bit better. All in all a very enjoyable piece of escapism.

[Fishy]

The Crow Girl

[R6GYY]

I have finished all 4 seasons of Jack Irish now, and I would highly recommend it.

Cracking TV in my little universe.

[pxr5]

Started the latest season of The White Lotus last night. I'm liking this one much more than the second series.

[R6GYY]

Just watched the final 3 episodes of Prime's Secret Level, and the first episode of Reacher season 3.

[Nickslikk2112]

Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII

[Matt2112]

Flee

Mostly animated true story of a gay Afghan man's flight out of his country as the Taliban impose their brutal theocracy.

The animation is beautifully done and the tale gently told; this is sometimes simultaneously to its credit and detriment, as what should hit hard in places seems to be shied away from.

Overall though, worth seeing for insight into what some genuine refugees have to endure.

Rating: ***

[Matt2112]

Midnight Movie Club:

Terrifier

This old school, retro schlocker from 2016 caused such a stir with gorehounds that it has spawned two sequels (I'll be watching these soon).

It was more out of curiosity than expectations of merit that I watched new horror bogeyman Art The Clown slice and dice his way through some unfortunate victims, but it's not the low-rent stinker I vaguely feared.

While what little there is of a story is standard stuff, this is actually a slickly executed film by writer/director Damien Leone, with practical effects providing for some outrageous gore on occasion - don't see this if you're even the slightest bit squeamish.

Rating: ***

[pxr5]

We finished se03 of White Lotus last night. An unpopular opinion maybe but this was my favourite of the 3 seasons so far.

[pxr5]

Daredevil: Born Again  Daredevil was easily the best of the Marvel TV Shows from the recent past (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage) and this reboot is certainly welcome. It also carries a more adult theme and the fight scenes are some of the best and goriest I've seen. Great acting too from Charlie Cox (Daredevil/Matt Murdock) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk). The storyline is great too with lots of twists and turns and the whole thing just seems more grown up and the grimy NY setting is just perfect for this. 9.5/10

[Matt2112]

Midnight Movie Club:

The Substance

The feminist body horror which garnered several Oscar nominations, most notably for Demi Moore's lead performance.

The first 45 minutes or so is very good indeed as it sets out its stall as an excoriating satire of Hollywood beauty standards, with a distinctly Cronenbourgian feel and pretty blatant homages to David Lynch. But as the gloopy body transformations increase, the less effective and coherent the film becomes, and the 2 hours 20 minutes run time feels like overkill.

However, there's plenty to admire about writer/director Coralie Fargeat's creation, not least the striking production design and a revelation of a performance from Moore's younger co-star Margaret Qualley.

Rating: ***

[Matt2112]

Terrifier 2

This inevitable sequel is almost an hour longer than its 85-minute predecessor but turns out to be worse off for it.

Where the original wasted no time getting to the chorus and utilised retro horror tropes as entertaining homages along the way, this tries to flesh out its central characters and develop more of the through-story; this might be laudable in and of itself but this time the tropes are used lazily and the spectacularly graphic set-pieces seem to aim for elements of Vantablack comedy that don't quite land.

Sometimes less is more.

Rating: **

[Fishy]

About to start Four Seasons

[pxr5]

About to start Four Seasons

I'm going to watch this too after seeing parts of it on Gogglebox the other night.