Recently Watched Films

Like Prometheus, this one has lots of interesting themes and literary references, but the cast and script are kind of a mess.  Both movies would benefit from a good Director's Cut.  Minor spoilers below (is there a way to hide them on this forum?):

The major driver and most important element in both movies is the motivations and behavior of David.  The crews of both movies are absolutely retarded but they are sort of background noise, which makes it easier to excuse (coincidentally Fassbender is by far the best actor in both movies).  The horror is also of a more Lovecraftian type than the first 4 Alien movies - "some things man wasn't meant to discover" - and between that & the types of questions which arise from the main plot elements, I get why many people didn't like these 2 movies.  A lot of reviewers, especially Redditors, clearly feel uncomfortable at the implications.  I do appreciate that Ridley Scott, who I didn't generally like as a director before watching Prometheus and Alien Covenant, leaves many things unexplained.

(the CGI is awful and almost ruins Covenant, though.  If you removed all the action/xenomorph sequences it would be a much better movie.)

Better than I remembered. The cold war espionage bit was a bit shit - nothing near as good as the book - but once the plane got off the ground, it was pure teenage boy bliss! Yes, it was silly and far-fetched, yes, some of the special effects were a bit shit by today's standards, and yes, the laws of physics were only given a cursory thought, but it was fast and noisy and spectacular, and the goodies won!

I wondered what all the fuss was about. Now I know. Wow. Not the sort of movie I'd want to see again, but well worth watching.

Most Argento from the 70s and 80s would count as essential in my book. 

Really good sci-fi action thriller. Roddy Piper should have got more decent action roles like this, and he would have been a much bigger star than he was. Being a trained pro wrestler really shows in the fight and action sequences, because he could throw and sell punches etc. so convincingly.

Excellent action movie. Has a good, solid plot, shaded characters, plenty of OTT violence, and a fucking classic car chase.

Solid enough, but far from one of the great giallo movies. 

Surprisingly decent and less 'Disney' feeling that expected. 

Been meaning to re-watch this one for ages. One of the movies that's been in my collection the longest. Pretty underrated IMO. 

Typical Netflix fare. Watchable but not really worth watching.