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Needed more Anna Kendrick or any for that matter.

Watched on Monday June 9, 2025.

Compelling blaxploitation film that centers on what we would now call toxic masculinity. And with a great soundtrack by James Brown.

Watched on Sunday June 8, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 8, 2025.

Watched on Friday June 6, 2025.

Watched on Sunday June 8, 2025.

"What's wrong with him? He'd rather talk to a woman than have a drink?"

A searing indictment of the Australian ethos. This film is one of the great Australian films, an Australian nightmare. Its almost a crime it went so long in obscurity. The Umbrella restoration is a wonder, the films looks incredible.

Action is good but the seams of the troubled production show.

I loved 'Beat' Takeshi early movies but never saw this due to its middling reviews. Well that was a mistake. The story may be kind of thin but the direction is full of his typical flourishes and his normal stone face is in full force. Glad I got the imprint release.

Watched on Saturday June 7, 2025.

Holy shit! I've heard about Wings Ha in this but nothing can prepare you for Ramrod.

Watched on Saturday June 7, 2025.

Best girl Olivia

Mission Impossible: The Final Exposition

Profound, stomach churning meditation on grief and parenthood. This is the follow up to Talk to Me and despite being in the same genre it’s completely different in tone with none of the crowd pleasing aspects of Talk to Me.

This is going for a slasher/romcom combined vibe but it just doesn't work.

Pretty average biopic elevated by the music.

Surprisingly horror tinged but mainly a lot of wasted potential.

Rewatch of the Force Awakens with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as live accompaniment playing the score. A great experience.

Watched on Thursday May 15, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

Cheesy but somewhat effective action thriller

Quite poor

A more human MCU film about the destructive nature of guilt and regret and overcoming them with togetherness. Bob's arc was a little undercooked and the climax could have been written a bit better but its heart was in the right place. Mostly well acted.

Watched on Friday April 25, 2025.

This review may contain spoilers.

Andy Lau in a muscle suit............

Movies…….<3

Watched on Sunday March 23, 2025.

“When you can lie about everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?”

Sharp script from Koepp, typically excellent direction by Soderbergh and outstanding acting from the whole cast. Film of the year so far.

Watched on Monday March 10, 2025.

Fixing one of my cinematic blind spots and watching some Tarkovsky. Right from the first frame of this film you know you're in the hands of a master. Exquisite framing, blocking and lighting throughout this film. Its a genuine anti war film, not showing any action but instead the consequences and the effects.

Stylishly directed but with an awful script. The worst thing I've watched on Apple TV+, on par with Citadel on Prime.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

"I can't decide if you're a detective or a pervert.
"That's for me to know and you to find out"

Screened with Blue Velvet Revisited, the meditation/documentary on the film.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Tribute to David Lynch at the Astor and amazingly it screened to a full house. Looks great on a reasonable 35mm print. Screened with the shorts What Jack Did, Industrial Symphonie  No. 1 and a short of Lynch cooking quinoa.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

Not the worst MCU film but certainly in the bottom half. It looks like mush as is the case for a lot of marvel films but the action is well done and the actors do their jobs.

Directors cut

An interesting experiment from Soderbergh that doesn’t quite cohere.

I'm now a Brutal boy. Its the most ambitious modern film I’ve seen in quite a while. Visually beautiful having been filmed in the long out of use vista vision format and well acted by the entire cast. The 3.5 hours just flew by.

Watched on Thursday January 9, 2025.

Well made, well acted and very entertaining but I'm not sure there's much below the surface.

Great old school wuxia film from Joseph Kuo that examines the hollowness and futility of revenge and violence with some great action scenes.

Masterful slow cinema meditation on the breakdown of society. Hypnotic and powerful. made in Bela Tarr's trademark high contrast black and white with a great soundtrack.

Gorgeously romantic late 80s HK film. as noted by Elric Kane on the prue cinema podcast this is like a cross between Wong Kar-Wai and John Woo.

3rd of the Shinobi films and last in the excellent Radiance box set. This one is less action based than the first 2 which adds variety to the series. Its more about psychological warfare and sabotage. Its still very good.

Just as good as the first Shinobi film but more focused thematically around power and violence.

Ninja film with great action, interesting characters and a complex interweaving web of character interactions. And it features Wakayama in a great turn as the villain well before the Lone Wolf and Cub films.

1. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Hateful Eight
4. Jackie Brown
5. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. Django Unchained
8. Reservoir Dogs
9. Death Proof

• Only Angels Have Wings
• Casablanca
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Rio Bravo
• Mean Streets
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• The Killer
• Bullet in the Head
• GoodFellas
• Miller's Crossing

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Handshake films that define my taste and speak to me personally.

• Sherlock Jr.
• Shadow of a Doubt
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Notorious
• Out of the Past
• In a Lonely Place
• Sunset Boulevard
• Seven Samurai
• The Night of the Hunter
• The Seventh Seal

...plus 31 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Top 25 films of the 21st Century to 2025, 1 film per director. Inspired by The Big Picture project this year.

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2. Werckmeister Harmonies
3. Pulse
4. Mulholland Drive
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
6. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Collateral
9. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
10. Pan's Labyrinth

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

2024 Top 10 films released in Aust. in 2024.

1. The Zone of Interest
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
3. The Substance
4. The Beast
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Rebel Ridge
7. Love Lies Bleeding
8. I Saw the TV Glow
9. Chime
10. Dune: Part Two

• Satantango
• Seven Samurai
• The Godfather Part II
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Inland Empire
• Twin Peaks: The Return
• The Departed
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Out 1
• Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Battle Royale
• Seven Samurai
• Hero
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1
• The Warriors
• Drunken Master II
• Beach of the War Gods
• Master of the Flying Guillotine
• Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell

Inspired by and undoubtedly offering a counterpoint to the Screen Drafts list

1. Shadow of a Doubt
2. Vertigo
3. Rear Window
4. Notorious
5. Psycho
6. Strangers on a Train
7. North by Northwest
8. The Lady Vanishes
9. The 39 Steps
10. The Birds

...plus 43 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Spooktober 2024

• Deadly Blessing
• The Serpent and the Rainbow
• The People Under the Stairs
• Halloween II
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch
• Deep Red
• Tenebre
• Torso
• All the Colors of the Dark
• The Girl Who Knew Too Much

...plus 27 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Out of the Past
• In a Lonely Place
• Sunset Boulevard
• The Night of the Hunter
• The Third Man
• Sweet Smell of Success
• Double Indemnity
• Touch of Evil
• The Big Heat
• Laura

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Thrillers under 105 minutes

• The 39 Steps
• The Lady Vanishes
• Notorious
• Strangers on a Train
• Pickup on South Street
• The Night of the Hunter
• Bob le Flambeur
• The French Connection
• Duel
• The Parallax View

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My top 10 films of 2023

1. Oppenheimer
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Godzilla Minus One
4. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
5. May December
6. The Holdovers
7. Poor Things
8. The Killer
9. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
10. Talk to Me

action heroes

• Hero
• Die Hard
• Aliens
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Hardboiled
• Once Upon a Time in China
• The Last Boy Scout
• Yojimbo
• Shogun Assassin

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Top 2021 films watched

• The Green Knight
• Annette
• Midnight Mass
• The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• The Suicide Squad
• Last Night in Soho
• The Matrix Resurrections
• Licorice Pizza
• Candyman

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Rio Bravo
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• The Princess Bride
• Unforgiven
• No Country for Old Men
• The Godfather
• The Irishman
• 12 Angry Men

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Mulholland Drive
• Chinatown
• In a Lonely Place
• Inherent Vice
• Sunset Boulevard
• L.A. Confidential
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• Pulp Fiction
• Singin' in the Rain
• Sullivan's Travels

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• It's a Wonderful Life
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
• Rio Bravo
• The Big Lebowski
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• The General
• A Matter of Life and Death
• Bringing Up Baby
• Groundhog Day

A chance to better the Screen Draft episode list on this.

• Almost Famous
• Mean Streets
• Pulp Fiction
• Jackie Brown
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• GoodFellas
• Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
• Reservoir Dogs
• Batman
• Guardians of the Galaxy

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Maltese Falcon
• The Big Sleep
• Rear Window
• Touch of Evil
• Se7en
• Zodiac
• Blue Velvet
• Chinatown
• Kiss Me Deadly
• The Big Heat

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A bit late but I like this showdown. These are black and white films that I feel use the contrast the best

• The Night of the Hunter
• Nosferatu
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
• M
• In a Lonely Place
• Vampyr
• Seven Samurai
• The Maltese Falcon
• Sherlock Jr.
• To Have and Have Not

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Barry Lyndon
• The Favourite
• Gosford Park
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Magnificent Ambersons
• There Will Be Blood
• Andrei Rublev
• Battleship Potemkin
• Ivan the Terrible, Part I
• Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Fave HK based kung fu films

• Hero
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• House of Flying Daggers
• Once Upon a Time in China
• Tai-Chi Master
• Enter the Dragon
• Drunken Master II
• Once Upon a Time in China II
• Fist of Fury
• The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.