You had to be there, man!
I first came aware of this one from Danny Peary’s old Cult Films book. What he was most interested in was how adult the film was pre-code. Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weismuller were dressed very skimpily and constantly snuggling and touching one another as a beautiful young couple deeply in love would. Indeed quite aside from the nude swim, performed by Olympic medalist Josephine McKim (who could keep up with fellow medalist Weismuller), at one point the underwear-less O’Sullivan flashes the camera while shooting a lion.
The difference between that film and the Hays Code-compliant films later in the series was pretty significant.
Thirst (2009)
Highly recommended.
One of the better vampire movies out there, but not what you might expect going in. A Catholic priest, while trying to help treat people at the hospital, accidentally becomes a vampire. First thing he does is try to kill himself, but nope. He doesn’t seem to be able to die.
From there the movie goes in some directions you might expect and some you definitely won’t.
Great movie, surprised I hadn’t seen it. It’s from the director of Old Boy, Lady Vengeance, and The Handmaiden.
Check it out.
Holland (2025)
I really hated this movie but I’m not entirely sure why. Apparently, this project has been floating around for nearly 20 years and was originally intended to star Naomi Watts and Bryan Cranston. There is an attempt at a Fargo vibe despite casting an Australian, a Mexican, a Brit, and an Irish actor as the four leads. Nicole Kidman plays the role she always plays; the unfaithful wife wrapped up in a small town mystery. The attempted manipulation of the audience is so clumsy that expectations are steered directly toward the final reveal.
Recent movies:
Snow White I covered this one in the associated thread on, of all people, Peter Dinklage:
Locked A minimal cast, minimal sets movie on the classic “villain traps someone and forces them into a game of a cat and mouse”. Some cleverness in the twists and turns, but also several plot holes. It turns out exactly as you think it will, but the actors really commit, so it is a diverting use of an hour and a half.
Bob Trevino Likes It An indie on the theme of coming to terms with a (very) dysfunctional family. The cast was strong enough to overcome the stereotypes in their characters, especially Barbie Ferreira, a relative newcomer. The performances carry what is a pretty standard script. All in all, I would recommend giving it a chance.
A Working Man The latest Jason Statham offering. This says it all. If you enjoy the bonecrunching action of his films, this one delivers. If you don’t, by all means give it a pass. (I think I’ve seen every one of his movies in this genre, including all the Crank movies!).
Death of a Unicorn Sounds like an low budget indie about the trials and tribulations of a [fill in the blank], with a suitable down beat ending, doesn’t it? Nope. It’s a “do not disturb the monsters” movie where the monsters are unicorns, but the characters (except for our heroes) are so uniformly execrable that the enjoyment is seeing how each gets their comeuppance. Very enjoyable but predictable (and really bloody).
Zero Dark Thirty 2012 Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke
Dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
It depicts the exhausting and dangerous work of CIA teams interrogating detainees and following leads in hostile areas.
There is added pressure as Al-Qaeda continues to plan and excute various terror attacks.
Seven operatives are killed meeting with an informer with a concealed IED.
I found the story very interesting. There are no action heroes. Just dedicated people working tirelessly to find and target Bin Laden.
It took a mental toll on many of the CIA operatives. The work was high stress and exhausting. Especially because future terrorist attacks were already planned and there was very little information coming from the detainees.
Need to add this could be two movies.
The first 60% is the investigation and ultimately finding and tracking Bin Laden’s most trusted courier.
The rest of the film is convincing the government officials and the President that they found the right guy in Abbottabad and planning the special forces mission.
They are an Australian actress who spent the first three years of her life in Washington, D.C. (and briefly in Honolulu) and later was married to an American, a Mexican actor who’s spent some of his life in London and Buenos Ares, a British actor who spent some of his childhood in Jakarta (Indonesia), and a Northern Irish actor (who is thus a British citizen). Another of the actors is now living in the U.S. but grew up in Denmark. Many of the best actors know that they are going to be playing characters from around the world. They have to be able to do various accents.
Saw A Complete Unknown on Hulu last night, which follows Bob Dylan’s early career (and whatever historical inaccuracies someone might quibble with, we can attribute to what’s required to make a movie). Pretty good movie overall; it kept me engaged, although I’m not sure I gained any new insights about Dylan. I really liked Timothée Chalamet’s performance.
I watched this, it was more watchable than I expected. I’m not a fan of Bob Dylan (sacrilege, I know), and whether things were true, I liked that it didn’t try to make him likeable or heroic but focused on the music.
Well, I like his music just fine, but I’ve never had him in my ever-changing dirtball top-ten favorites list. So no crying “sacrilege” from me.
I haven’t seen it yet.
Did they depict Dylan playing harmonica on a Harry Belafonte track in April, 1961? Dylan got paid $50.
Belafonte needed a harp player and gave Dylan his first recording gig. Bob’s social skills were awkward even then. 
I’m waiting for the Prime rental and then I’ll watch.
Link Bob Dylan's Recording Debut Ended With Him Leaving After One Song
Yes, they did.
Awesoms. Thanks
This is sort of an odd one. A British tv-movie sort of thing. Men Up. The tale (sort of) of a group of Welsh men in one of the first trials for Viagra in 1994.
A diverse group of men are shown, with one in particular in focus.
It has comedic, romantic and dramatic elements. A RomComDram.
And it basically works. Not the top level big budget movie at all, but it’s a good enough watch. It seems to have gotten some lesser award attention.
Give it 3.5 pills.
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
As a Sci-Fi and Hammer Studios fan, I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve seen this. The acting is pretty sub-par (except for Richard Wordsworth as the infected astronaut) but the production values are quite good for a film on a Hammer budget. Not sure if I am more impressed with the rocket ship or the VW bus with a shortwave radio/telemetry set built into the engine compartment.
Just finished watching, for the second time in a very long time, A Night to Remember. I like it better than Titanic.
Right now, on TCM, I’m watching 12 Angry Men. It’s been decades since I’ve seen it. Great show.
This used to show up on New York’s Channel 11’s Chiller Theater back when I was a kid in the 1960s. It was under its American title, The Creeping Unknown, and it was clearly wayyyyy above the grade-Z films they usually showed (like The Cape Canaveral Monsters and Killers from Space). Nigel Kneale knew how to write a good SF serial for television. Years later I caught the first sequel, Enemy from Space (AKA Quatermass 2), which was also excellent. But Quatermass and the Pit (AKA Five Million Years to Earth) was the best.
1.) This started out, as did the other two, as BBC TV serials. Some pieces of the original shows still exist for The Quatermass Xperiment, but I think they have all of Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit.
2.) The scripts for these were published by Penguin Press, and are worth looking for. The plot of the TV serial is different from that of the movie. In particular – the ending is different
3.) In the movies made from the first two serials, they replaced the British actor portraying Quatermass with American actor Brian Donleavy, who suggests an American gangster rather than a British rocket scientist. When they got to the third (which was made in the 1960s, and in color, finally,) they actually gor a British actor to portray Quatermass, Andrew Keir.
4.) There was a fourth Quatermass movie, The Quatermass Conclusion, starring John Mills as Quatermass. Ignore this film.
Also ignore all the remakes they’ve made over the years.
In the spirit of the thread I’d like to mention The Commitments, which I just watched on PlutoTV the other day. Great Irish soul movie about lost ambitions and greatness just out of reach.
But what I really want to mention this series of videos on YouTube that I’ve been obsessed with lately - Adam Ray’s Dr. Phil Show. It’s comedian Adam Ray doing his Dr. Phil impression with other comedians as guests - lots of improv and crowd work. Filmed at the Comedy Store in LA. It’s hilarious.