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I’d rated this as 2.5 stars previously from seeing it when it first came out. Completely over harsh as it’s actually a great thriller about a man retelling his story of making a film (amusingly Women on the Verge…) whilst falling in love with the lead actor, Cruz.

It’s got a lot of the standard Almodovar themes with pseudonyms, multiple timelines, obsessive love, drugs etc. It’s got a gripping storyline and  multi dimensional characters who are flawed but that you also deeply feel for.

Much better than I ed!

Better than I expected after reading some reviews. A pretty anarchic and fun first film from Almodovar. The storyline is fairly simple with Pepi wishing to avenge an assault, primarily by corrupting the already corrupted wife of her assailant! 

It feels more like a series of vignettes and the overall feel is more John Waters than Almodovar for me. But the usual themes are there even in this early film with mistaken identity, drug use, and strong women all running throughout.

Watched on Wednesday April 23, 2025.

A quite refreshing Black Mirror in that the ‘advances in technology become dystopian reality’ was minimal. To some extent that aspect really just illustrated the lives we currently lead with social media. Instead of foretelling some potential doomed future, it’s a great episode telling a very human story of grief. Andrew Scott and the cast hold the whole thing together to deliver a gripping and moving story.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 22, 2025.

This review may contain spoilers.

Excellent drama about two boys about to leave school who ‘escape’ to Wales for summer. It’s got the themes that Willy Russell often explores with working class people struggling to find a better way of life. The boys lives in Liverpool are pretty bleak. David Morrissey is excellent as Billy whilst Icky is a less sympathetic character in many ways and is a bit shouty at times. Overall, the acting is great and Kidder is sympathetic and strong character. 

Whilst it has a fair bit of Russell’s trademark humour, there is an edge to the story and it feels a tense watch throughout. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were waiting for it all to go wrong!

Loved it ans it deals with some serious theme including an unusually sympathetic approach to homosexuality for the times.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 20, 2025.

Very enjoyable. This didn’t go where I was expecting it to. Interesting concert to play around with VR and sexuality and it does it pretty successfully in the main. Not sure it adequately explains how the VR world triggers these guys into the actions they follow, but it’s still an interesting story and, for black mirror, not bleak.

Watched on Sunday April 6, 2025.

Good fun but pretty flabby in places. It’s got a Lost Boys vibe but isn’t as credible. Roddy McDowall is great fun and the comedy sort of makes up for the lack of any genuine scares. Would have benefitted from being a bit shorter. The soundtrack is epic 80s, especially the Sparks song in the nightclub scene. 
Liked it enough to wanna see the sequel

I came back to this review a week or so later. Not sure why I was so down on this. Yeah it’s a bit flabby and not that scary but it’s great fun, engaging and the effects are excellent for the time. Great make up/prosthetics! And yes Roddy McDowall is still brilliant on reflection!

Watched on Monday March 31, 2025.

Interesting concept which felt like it was going to consider human behaviour, the need to survive and capitalism v socialism. Whilst It’s engaging enough it feels like all this is played out in the first 39 minutes and it quickly falls apart, leaving the rest of the film feeling like a slightly dull action horror film.

It’s been said by everyone already, but this is a gripping and moving 4 hours of TV. The choice to go with single camera live filming for each episode adds to the tension as well as being quite an incredible feat of cinematography and acting/timing. 
Interesting that people I’ve spoken to take different things away from the story itself. Many people see it as a commentary on radicalisation, but that’s actually referred to very little. It’s as much about the impact of the events on a family. 
Brilliant TV whatever you take away from
It!

Watched on Sunday March 16, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 8, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 2, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 23, 2025.

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 8, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday February 4, 2025.

I this being a regular trailer on a film i was renting from the local video stores as a kid in the mid 80s. I was alway curious about it and finally got to see it. 

It’s a good film but part of me expected more. A fun surreal night in New York. There are lots of great scenes but not sure it’s a classic I need to see again and again. Still a good watch though

Excellent thriller/horror. It’s a simple story of a coma patient being cared for by a new nurse and you know Patrick is up to no good pretty early on. There isn’t a great deal of mystery about what is going on, but the film is brilliant because Patrick is genuinely creepy. Every time he is on screen, you’re expecting the worst to happen. 

Watched the longest Australian edit but I’m gonna watch the Italian version too just to see how the Goblin soundtrack measures up

Watched on Tuesday January 21, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday January 14, 2025.

Watched on Sunday January 19, 2025.

I knew this was fabled for being so impactful when shown in 1984, that it imprinted itself in the memory of anyone who saw it. My brother told me about how scarring it was seeing it as a child, but I was a bit too young and never saw it.
Having finally seen it, I didn’t expect it to have the same kind of impact 40 years on. I also assumed the impact had been on kids but it’s one of the bleakest and most intensely horrific things I’ve seen. 
Brilliantly made; it’s a relatively simple drama focusing on a handful of characters with an occasionally documentary-style voice-over and screen prompts detailing the impact of nuclear weapons. The tension builds in the first half as the world approaches a nuclear war and there is a sense of doom as you see the way people react to the possibility of a nuclear strike. 
Nothing prepares me for the horror of the second half though. There is no light as we watch the doom of nuclear fallout. It’s a brilliant and important film, but I’m not sure I’ll put myself through watching it again!

Watched on Saturday January 4, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday December 22, 2024.

Watched on Friday December 20, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday December 18, 2024.

Watched on Saturday December 14, 2024.

Watched on Thursday December 5, 2024.

Watched on Saturday November 23, 2024.

Watched on Saturday November 16, 2024.

Watched on Saturday November 16, 2024.

Watched on Friday November 22, 2024.

Watched on Saturday November 16, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday November 13, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday November 6, 2024.

Watched on Monday November 4, 2024.

Watched on Saturday November 2, 2024.

Watched on Thursday October 31, 2024.

Watched on Wednesday October 30, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday October 29, 2024.

Watched on Sunday October 13, 2024.

Plans for Halloween or horrorthons…

• Suspiria
• Inferno
• The Mother of Tears
• The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
• Scream 2
• Scream 3
• Scream 4
• The House That Dripped Blood
• Dark Glasses