Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

THE BRIDE (2025) - Absolutely FANTASTIC reworking of Frankenstein's story!  Christian Bale is terrific as the Monster, and the story arc of The Bride is a delight to watch.  I don't give a lot of 5/5 scores, but this one really earned it.
SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Another one I'm surprised you like. I'm not quite 5/5 on it, but it's worth a watch for sure.

[indianasmith]

My tastes are a bit more eclectic than my love of SUCKER PUNCH and NINJA BACHELOR PARTY might lead one to believe. . .

[Jim H]

I just rewatched The Killer, the Woo original.  It's as moving as ever, and man do I appreciate the action creation and stunt work even more now. 

I also watched The Mandalorian and Grogu.  It's...  Fine.

My tastes are a bit more eclectic than my love of SUCKER PUNCH and NINJA BACHELOR PARTY might lead one to believe. . .

That's a beautiful quote Indy, I hope you know that.

[Rev. Powell]

MATADOR BOLERO (2026): An actress' murder may be linked to a super-intelligent quantum AI computer. The plot here isn't rigorous (to say the least) in this experimental film that recreates the look and feel of a late 1960s LSD-inspired Super-8 avant-garde film (a la Andy Warhol) with lots of pretentious voiceovers, superimposed images, kaleidoscopic abstractions, altered voices singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and other successful and semi-successful experiments heaped together without structure. 1.5/5.

[M.10rda]

THE SPY IN BLACK (1939):
Another attempt at getting on the Powell/Pressburger train - another ho hum result. (PEEPING TOM remains the only Powell flick I can altogether endorse.) It does provide a rare opportunity to see Conrad Veidt in a top-billed lead role in a post-silent/talkie - and often in English, even. He still looks good and gives a reasonably nuanced performance (as the bad guy), though this isn't nearly on-par w/ his best silent work.

In a similar plot to EYE OF THE NEEDLE, Veidt is a German officer who infiltrates a foggy English port-town in order to sabotage the Royal Navy. I should mention that SPY IN BLACK is set during WWI, not WWII - but the Brits were in WWII sometime in '39, so SPY IN BLACK still seems tonally inappropriate to me, somehow. At first Veidt is aided by two other lead characters - who appear at first to be Germans or English traitors working for Germany. SPOILER: They aren't - the're just setting up a trap to catch Veidt. This doesn't really make much sense and still puts the Royal Navy (and English civvies) in danger. It also makes the co-leads pervasively unsympathetic. Veidt's character does get some sympathetic shading - but he's a terrorist Gerry!!!

3/5 for Veidt and professional filmmaking. Very confused film, though,