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We watched Training Day (Antoine Fuqua, 2001) in which Denzel strides like a colossus through Fuqua’s gritty cartoon landscape. LA bakes in the sun, Ethan Hawke squirms effectively as the rookie caught up in a maelstrom and it builds to a suitably overheated melodramatic climax.

Watching Andrew McCarthy’s ‘Brats’ documentary is an intensely awkward experience

We watched Amy (Asif Kampala, 2015) an intimate, devastating portrait of mercurial talent. It rightly makes us fall in love with a fresh, funny and riotously talented musician and then crushes us as she is destroyed by the machinery of fame and neglect. A powerful paen to an icon

Time travel worked! Everything got worse.

Teaser

Always forget about this bit in Terminator.

RIP the god-king of B-movies

What’s a still from a movie or TV show that will completely devastate anyone who has seen it, but seem completely unremarkable to anyone who hasn’t?

We watched Late Night With The Devil (Cameron Caine’s 2023) which takes a dynamite concept and fluffs it with needless complexity and too much mustard. A couple of decent scares aside and mildly successful attempts at period detail aside, it’s ultimately silly rather than scary.

We watched Funny Pages (Owen Kline, 2022) which takes a scalpel and sledgehammer to the indie comics scene, in a sometimes blackly comic and occasionally just downright unpleasant manner. It’s assured, and clearly knows its target well but perhaps turns the cruelty dial too far.

We watched Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Lam Nai-Choi, 1991) a brash and explosively violent midnight movie with the simplistic morality of a Saturday morning cartoon. It instantly earns its place in the splattercore pantheon and is a joyously unhinged hymn to creative carnage.

I feel that when people talk about gateway horror, ‘Arachnophobia’ (Frank Marshall, 1990) is somewhat forgotten. Which is a shame as it’s a banger: tense, funny and atmospheric with a killer cast

We watched Master & Commander (Peter Weir, 2003) an astonishing immersive piece of historical action. Weir delivers a film that is grittily accurate, patiently streamlined and utterly thrilling. A salt-encrusted pursuit film that speaks artfully on systems of service and honour.

We watched The Rock (Michael Bay, 1996) where you can see the golden age of action movies pivot into the pumped turbo dreck of a Bay shaped world. Despite the noise, gloss and smash cut violence, it’s strangely unthrilling. Connery and Cage add to an irritating cartoon tone. Bad.

We watched Copland (James Mangold, 1998) a monolith of 90s character actor masculinity, that is ridiculous but stuffed to the gills with great chewy performances and an assured sense of gravitas. Sly is mannered but effective; Liotta is transcendent and walks off with the film.

We watched Blackberry (Matt Johnson, 2023) which skilfully tweaks a piece of recent history into a darkly funny and haunting portrait of capitalist boom and bust. Crafted deftly, with a moody soundtrack and a standout performance from Glenn Howderton, it a gripping, ripping yarn.

oh look a sequel to beetlejuice

We watched Last Action Hero (John McTiernan 1993) a strange meta-action movie that arrived too early for the post-modern 90s boom. In truth it’s a hot mess, and largely clunks. Arnie is trying something but the film’s weird synthesis of schmaltz, smirk and semtex is odd. A curio.

If you look in the dictionary under ‘character actor’ you’ll find M Emmet Walsh. RIP King.