What is the criteria for you to stop watching a movie and never seeing the end?

Do you have a list or memory of movies you have walked out of a cinema of?

I've never walked out a movie at the cinema.

These days if I don't really feel the movie will entertain or interest me after a bit of a watch, I will stop after 20 minutes or so. Recent ones I've stopped are Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and French Connection 2.

159 Captain America: The First Avenger

3/5



This film is actually not bad, but I find it quite unmemorable. It's got some good ideas such as Captain America being a war-bond entertainer/moviemaker, but all this gets in the way of the main story. And while the action is decent, the whole film seems a little low-key, darkly shot and flat. I still enjoyed it, though.

160 Captain America: Winter Soldier

4/5



You have to give it to Marvel for not travelling the well-worn paths for superhero movies of light and jokey (a la Iron Man), or dark and meaningful (a la Nolan's Batman), and picking something that's more like a superhero version of a 70s conspiracy movie.

The one is actually a real game-changer for the Marvel universe for reasons I won't go into, but it's good to see not just Captain America front and centre, but Nick Fury too for sections (and not in the shove-in way that was present in Iron Man 2).

The action sequences are exciting, engaging, and you feel the stakes, but the Captain himself has a great character arc, going from uncertain in this world, and coming around to getting renewed faith in his own ideals, and seeing them through to the end.

Really enjoyable, and a good turn from Robert Redford too.

161 Demons

3.5/5



Rather fun, trashy Italian horror that has terrible character development and indeed characters we care zero about, but makes up for it with some great early 80s metal and synth scoring, great costumer design, and rather good and gruesome practical effects.

Enjoyable old tosh that looks really good, but is as hollow as a washed out tin can.

162 Demons 2

3/5



Whilst it opens with a better premise than the first one by being set in an apartment block rather than a barn-like cinema, it's not quite as much fun. It's decent enough, and I like the twist of a pregnant woman being in peril, but again, it's almost totally characters we don't care about as the con, and good practical effects (in the main) as the pros.

There was also a great attack by a kid-demon that reminded me of the voodoo doll story in Trilogy of Terror, that then went horribly wrong when the kid split open to reveal a terrible-looking rubber gremlin that made the models in Ghoulies look like masterpieces. I laughed but felt a bit embarrassed for the actress who had to work with it. She did give it a good go, though.

Also, there was quite a touching scene involving a mother and daughter where the mother realised she was changing, and begged for a guy with a shotgun to 'help' her. It was better than you'd expect in this kind of movie.

So, not so good as the original, but it had its moments.

163 Cloverfield

3/5



I'm sure glad I didn't see this at the cinema, the shakeycam would have been unbearable, I'd have vomited.

Watching at home, you can at least avert your eyes and look at something else, which I ended up doing for a lot of the running time. I found the first 25 minutes or so really hard going, setting up this twentysomething angsty love affair issues, which was quite tiresome (and didn't need to be there - a fully formed couple would have worked just as well dramatically, and stopped all the annoying angst-drama), but the film did improve dramatically once they got on to the streets.

There were some nice tense parts and it was effective for the last hour, and quite enjoyable (as long as you looked away from the irritating shaking frequently), and it was nice to see a big monster movie played out with dramatic tension and fear.

164 Freaks

5/5



Freaks, made over 80 years ago, is still a mind blowing movie. Large sections of it have not aged well, it has to be said, with large sections of dated and not-very-funny comedy, melodrama, and very stilted acting from almost everyone in it except for one or two actors.

On the plus side, i like the fact that much of the writing treats the 'freaks' with decency and humanity, and we see a lot of the normal circus folk being kind to the mentally-disadvantaged freaks, and treated the physically-different freaks with respect, and as equals. Add to this, when it hits the mark, it becomes a titan of horror movies. The scene of the wedding feast (“one of us, one of us!”) is remarkable and still retains the power to make us understand Cleopatra's horror, while hating her for her indecent and hurtful shouting and disgustingly crass behaviour towards her new husband, but even more shocking is the attack of the freaks in the pouring rain. This really goes against type as has been presented to us so far, but this is righteous justice, and it's easy to overlook this inconsistency because of this.

A brilliant, powerful movie, despite its significant flaws.

165 Alien

5/5

A superbly crafted movie, with superb attention to details and possible the first wholly convincing monster. The only really beautiful monster costume I can remember before this is The Creature from The Black Lagoon.

Scott builds the tension nice and slow, but in a way that doesn't bore. I'm always shocked when I check how much time has passed, and it's always much more time than I think, so enthralled by the movie am I.

The level of detail in the movie is just amazing, the sets look like a real working space ship/freighter, and the beautiful work by Scott and H R Giger present a great backdrop to a solid, fast script, which is acted by a very solid cast. John Hurt and Sigourney Weaver are standouts, but only just, backed up by Ian Holm and the rest.

Love this movie, such a great, scary, immersive movie.

Alien clearly 5 star rated.

Freaks... clearly 5 star rated.

Silas Marner by George Eliot

A beautifully written, moving story of a simple man's redemption from a lonely, miserly life.

Possibly the best novel in the English language.

10/10

166 Ask A Policeman

4/5



This is a lot of fun, I've liked Will Hay comedies since I first saw them as a boy, and this one is solid, with snappy, amusing dialogue from the shady, but good-hearted, boys. Also with the wonderful Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott.

This is a very British comedy, however, and I'm not sure it will travel well. It's like an early prototype of the St Trinians movies, if that paints a picture.

167 Aliens



uperlative action movie with great writing, characterisation and intense narrative drive, and is a pretty breathless movie once the colonial marines arrive at the movie, only pausing to allow the characters to develop in a hugely entertaining and engaging way. The second best action movie of all time in my opinion, only pipped by Die Hard.

If you had to pick 1, Alien or Aliens?

Alien. Aliens is terrific, but Alien is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Like choosing between children.

One of the best value movie experiences I ever had was a triple header back in the late eighties...Aliens, Predator and Die Hard for $10. Took the day off school, got a baggy spent the next six hours watching those back to back with 5 mates on the big screen.

What a day!

168 Alien 3

3.5/5



This is a review of the 2003 'Assembly Cut', rather than the theatrical version.

Having the unfortunate start of being the third movie in a really stellar franchise, this suffers from any sort of comparison with Alien and Aliens. However, the Assembly Cut version is actually a pretty damn good movie. It's almost 4/5. The recut adds coherency (and 30 minutes extra) to the original, and also some sense of scale of epicness (shots of driving cattle through the terrible planetary weather; miles of oil derricks on a shoreline), and it is a significantly better movie than the one I saw in the cinema in 1992.

Still, it has problems. It's hard to sympathise with a bunch of murderer/rapists. There are some great visuals and characters here though. I particularly liked Charles Dance, Charles S Dutton, Brian Glover, Paul McGann, and of course Sigourney Weaver, but the whole cast was very solid.

It also suffers from a bagginess that the extra 30 minutes brings. The story is definitely better for the inclusions, but I can't help feeling a little trimming here of there, removing 10 minutes or so via a set of judicious minor cuts, would make it better.

Enjoyable, but always leaves the nagging feeling...where did the 2 facehuggers needed to explain the plot actually come from?

169 Alien Resurrection

3.5/5



I watched the 'alternate version' from 2003, but they are not substantially different.

And, hello to the crazy train, destination crazytown. That's what we're on with this gloriously odd 4th instalment of the Alien franchise. There's no brooding menace or coherent plotline, but we get a nice mix of good, bad and odd throughout. It starts with a comedy base commander who keeps pulling stupid faces and acting tough, through a lizard-like Ripley smirking and hurting people with wild abandon. We get Brad Dourif being so weird it feels like Heath Ledger partly based his performance of Joker on this particular scientist guy, and we get a rag-tag crew of smuggler mercenaries that have to Poseidon Adventure through a spaceship while playing hide and seek with xenomorphs. And lots of inappropriate face-touching - sometimes Ripley touching Winona (who is super whiny) on the face, or the Hybrid licking Ripley's face... I think this director thought the xenomorphs were 'sexy' or something.

Didn't bore, and did actually have some great moments (Ripley 8 finding a lab marked '1-7', for example, or the aliens chasing through water).

Hallmark good, bad and odd movie.

Best day I ever spent at a cinema was when they showed Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back in a double bill, and this was back when you could sit in the cinema all day once you had a ticket. Me and my mates sat through them twice. Glorious.

TV is a footnote in the title, but what do you watch (currently)?

Ahh, currently going through every episode of Friends. Started about 2 months ago, midway through season 9 right now. Joey and Chandler bring the big laughs.


Also, Star Trek TOS (I'm running a thread on it in The Lounge), Miami Vice, Gogglebox, Agents of Shield, Walking Dead, Sleepy Hollow.

I'm not a big TV watcher though, when it's a drama series I tend to save them to bingewatch

170 Haywire

3.5/5



Rather good action-spy flick, owing more to 24 and Bourne than Bond, but also very, very reminiscent of late 60s and 70s downbeat spy dramas, like The Ipcress File. The music, filming style, and even the clothing evoked this spirit.

This was in essence an arthouse-action movie, with lots of stylistic sizzle, but some really great, painful-looking fight scenes. Gina Carano was pretty good, and while I spent much of the running time confused about what was going on, it resolved nicely by the end, and Mallory Kane made a good, tough lady-spy character.

in many ways, Alien cubed(3) is my favorite film. I feel like it's the most mature of the movies and a great as the original is, 3 is equally great in my mind albeit not as original as the original.

if alien 1 was 5 stars, alien 3 is 4.5 stars and alien 2 is 4 stars.

I think the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 is far, far superior to the theatrical cut, and is a fine movie - though it does have some flaws, as I think I pointed out. Have you seen the Assembly Cut?