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What I Watched This Week #168 (Mar 17-23) Sisu dir. Jalmari Helander/2022/1h31m Sisu is a Finnish action film set during the latter stages of WWII in the Finnish countryside where a grizzled old gold-miner, Aatami (Jorma Tommila), has just struck the motherlode. Unfortunately he runs into a group of n*zis led by SS officer Bruno (Askel Hennie) who are retreating out of the country and they steal his stash. What they don't know is that he is a legendary badass soldier who then proceeds to go on a bloody rampage to get his gold back. There are few things more satisfying to see in a movie than n*zis getting absolutely brutalised (Hitler getting his face machine-gunned into Swiss cheese in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a personal fav) and this delivers that by the blood and guts full bucket load. If you want to see a n*zi get exploded by having a landmine f*cking thrown directly at his face then this is the film for you. Tommila gives a great performance in the lead, even though his character doesn't have a single word of dialogue. This is a man who speaks with his actions. Plus he just looks like a badass, I can totally believe that he could take on an entire troop of n*zis and win. Hennie is also good, but his character is very one dimensional, but his presence is more symbolic here of how evil the n*zis were as a whole. If you want a straight forward and thrilling action film then you should check this out. 8/10 Breaking dir. Abi Damaris Corbin/2022/1h43m Based on a true story, Breaking stars John Boyega as Brian Brown-Easley, a former Marine suffering from severe PTSD who has had his VA benefits taken away, straight out of his bank account. Desperate and seeing no other option he holds up the bank with a bomb, taking two hostages. What follows is a tense standoff involving the police, the media and Brian, with Boyega's performance really carrying what is a pretty generic film. The way the public and media sympathy is on Brian's side as he's able to explain his situation put me in mind of Dog Day Afternoon - also based on a true story of another bank robbery gone wrong - but that just makes this film feel even blander. Now this isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, it does its job well, but apart from Boyega's performance there isn't anything that really stands out. It did make me sympathise with the real Brian Brown-Easley as this is a tragic story from every angle, and it does a good job of showing who he was as a person with flashbacks showing him spending time with his young daughter and not just focusing on that day. 6.5/10 Furious 7 dir. James Wan/2015/2h17m Jason Statham enters the Fast and Furious series - after a post-credit teaser in the last film - as the brother of the baddie from the last film and he wants revenge (it's about family). Djimon Hounsou is also here as a totally underwritten bad guy who is totally forgettable and unnecessary and I don't know why he was there because Statham is already the bad guy. I can't even remember what relevance he had to the plot, if he had any at all. But I like Djimon Hounsou so it was nice just to see him I guess. I did have fun with this one, the less grounded the plots the more enjoyable they're becoming, especially since everyone is acting so seriously, particularly Vin Diesel. One aspect where this actually works is where they keep going on about family, their sincerity really makes me believe they care about each other, and that made the tribute to Paul Walker at the end of the film genuinely touching. 6/10 Le Corbeau dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot/1943/1h32m In this French mystery/thriller Pierre Fresnay plays Remy Germain, a doctor in a small village who is the victim of poison pen letters accusing him of having an affair with the wife of another doctor and performing illegal abortions. Soon other villagers start getting letters, all of them signed Le Corbeau - The Raven. As everyone's secrets start getting exposed, desperation to find The Raven grows. This is a very dark film made during a dark time in France's history, and the way the film shows how easily people can be turned against one another speaks to what was going on at the time. The actual mystery is well written, with the audience left guessing right up to the shocking finale, and it's all shot in a film-noir style that really sets the tone perfectly. It's a little slow at the start, but the third act really ramps up the pace as we start eliminating possible suspects, leading to what I think is a satisfying reveal. The performances are all good, especially that of the person eventually revealed as The Raven, but this is more about the atmosphere. 8/10 The Electric State dir. Joe Russo, Anthony Russo/2025/2h5m The Electric State is the latest film from the Russo brothers, directors of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, and apparently cost Netflix 320 million dollars to make. It looks alright, and by that I mean the effects look alright, the actual art and production design is bland and derivative nostalgia bait, but it doesn't look like 320 million dollars. The actual plot, adapted from a graphic novel, sees Millie Bobby Brown play an orphaned teenager living in an alternate history 90's after some war with robots or something. She has to find her brother, who she thought was dead, but has been kidnapped by an evil tech guy played by Stanley Tucci and is now in a coma with his consciousness in a robot based on an old cartoon character and is the power source for his new VR tech I think. Also Chris Pratt is there doing the same character he's been doing for the last decade. There are some things I liked about this. Stanley Tucci is always good and is almost able to give his character some depth. Brian Cox voices a baseball robot, that was fun. I'm struggling now. Millie Bobby Brown's American accent is passable. I guess it's not the worst film I've seen this year, that would be Borderlands. This is slightly less obnoxious. 3/10 Cars 2 dir. John Lasseter/2011/1h46m The first non Toy Story sequel for Pixar kicked off an era of sequels where out of their next ten films only four were original. But at least the plot here is very different from the original, which was all about slowing down and enjoying the smaller pleasures of life. Cars 2 is a spy thriller where Mater the Tow Truck (Larry the Cable Guy) is mistaken for a secret agent by superspy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine). He is caught up in a plot involving eco-friendly oil invented by billionaire Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), who is also hosting a worldwide grand prix in which Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is competing. There's a lot going on, but I do like how they've decided to go in such a mad direction after the relatively grounded first film. My biggest problem with this film is the same one I had with the first, and that's how much I f*cking hate Larry the Cable Guy and his stupid f*cking voice. And now he's basically the lead character, with more time given to his plot than McQueen's. 5/10 Across 110th Street dir. Barry Shear/1972/1h42m This film opens with two nobody crooks stealing a few hundred grand from a Mafia deal in Harlem, killing them and a couple of cops in the process. This threatens to incite a race riot if the two detectives assigned to the case can't find who did it. They are the gruff, no nonsense, racist Italian Captain Mattelli (Anthony Quinn), and the Black liberal Lt. Pope (Yaphet Kotto). A gritty crime film that's a perfect time capsule of the era, this is both very real feeling and stylised at the same time. There's a brilliant use of location shooting and handheld camera that give it a raw, almost documentary like feel. Quinn and Kotto are excellent as the diametrically opposed duo, butting heads while still trying to pull in the right direction. Their relationship is symbolic of the film as a whole, a powder keg just waiting to go up, and that level of tension is sustained throughout the film. The cherry on top is the brilliant soundtrack, which includes the legendary title song by Bobby Womack. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

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What I Watched This Week #167 (Mar 10-16) Toy Story 3 dir. Lee Unkrich/2010/1h43m Over a decade since the last entry in the series, we have aged in real time with these films so that Andy (John Morris) is now heading off to college, having to leave his childhood toys behind. A misunderstanding leads to them being sent as donations to a day-care centre where a huggable stuffed bear who smells like strawberries, Lotso (Ned Beatty), rules the roost. It's remarkable how watching this film feels like going home, back to your own childhood (if you were a child when the first two came out, as I was, this feeling is even stronger), with Pixar not forgetting how to write these characters over ten years later. Catching up with Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the gang feels like meeting up with an old friend and picking up right where you left off, the intervening years melting away with ease. There are also some memorable new characters alongside Lotso, with my favourite being the Ken doll, played perfectly by Michael Keaton. Then there is the pitch perfect ending where Andy hands his toys over to the new generation where new stories can be told. Because that's what toys are, tools for children to create stories and try to make some sense of a strange world. And when it comes to Toy Stories, nobody does it like Pixar. 9/10 Total Balalaika Show dir. Aki Kaurismaki/1994/57m Total Balalaika Show is a concert film shot in Helsinki featuring the cult band Leningrad Cowboys performing with the Alexandrov Red Army Choir a mixture of American songs and traditional Russian numbers. Like The Monkees and Spinal Tap, the Leningrad Cowboys started life as a fictional band created by the director Aki Kaurismaki for his 1989 film Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Like those other bands, they soon became bigger than the film, especially in their home country of Finland, and actually became a real band, performing concerts in their trademark oversized pompadour hairstyles and long, pointy shoes (it reminds me of something Vic Reeves would have dressed up like in the early 90's). The real kicker is that, also like those other bands, they're actually really f*cking good. They have a real punk energy to them, the lead singer growling out the lyrics to classic rock songs like the surreal offspring of Johnny Rotten while the band plays at max tempo. This works really well in juxtaposition with the very formal Choir, all kitted out in military uniform. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a fan of Kaurismaki, so I'd like to get the opinion of someone unfamiliar with his work, but I think this is a blast. I just wish it were a bit longer. 8.5/10 The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep dir. Kang Hei Chul/2025/1h32m Sirens of the Deep is the second Netflix anime film set in the world of The Witcher, this time focusing on the lead character of the books and game series, Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle, who also voices him in the games), a monster hunter for hire in a dark and gritty magical medieval world. This more familiar character makes it easier to step into this world over the previous film, which focused on a character who has only a supporting role in the games. This is also a simpler storyline than that film, though there is still plenty of political intrigue. That comes in the fact that a prince has fallen in love with a mermaid when his father wants him to marry a human and continue the royal bloodline. But The Little Mermaid this is not. This is a bloody and brutal film with some excellent fight scenes, particularly the climactic battle against a giant kraken (is there any other kind?). Geralt is a brilliant character, both in the games and here (I can't speak on the books), morally grey, he says he only cares about coin, but you know he'll always do the right thing and then complain about it. Cockle's voice is the perfect match for this character, gravelly and rough but with a warmth to it. The animation is a bit too clean, and it does feel cheap at times with very little movement at times, but it does capture the atmosphere of the world well enough. 7/10 His Musical Career dir. Charlie Chaplin/1914/13m This early Keystone film from Charlie Chaplin sees him play an inept removal man who, along with his partner Mack Swain - also a big star at the time - is tasked with repossessing a piano from a poor man and delivering one to a rich man. You can probably see where this is going. Every conceivable gag you can think of involving a piano is pulled off here with Chaplin's perfect sense of comedic timing and physicality. There are a few scenes with a donkey that pulls his delivery cart that you couldn't get away with now, and I didn't find them particularly funny, but apart from that this is a strong early film for Chaplin, though we'd have to wait a few more years to see him develop his character into something more enduring and three dimensional like in The Immigrant from 1917. 6/10 Moana 2 dir. David D. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller/2024/1h39m The latest Disney Animation Studios film returns to ancient Polynesia where Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) gets a vision that tells her to go on a quest to find the legendary island of Motufetu, which was sunk by storm god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea'i), and connect all the people scattered around the islands. Meanwhile, demi god Maui (The Rock) is searching for Motufetu for his own reasons. This started life as a now cancelled TV series, and that is obvious in the underwritten side characters like Moana's crew when she goes out sailing. They're just there in the film, where I'm sure that in the series they would have been introduced properly. I did enjoy the grumpy farmer Kele (David Fane), bought along to handle the food supplies, but he's literally the only supporting character that I remember. I'm pretty over The Rock as an actor at this point, but here he's actually having some fun and not trying to be a cool badass all the time, which is nice because he's actually really good at comedy and more light-hearted roles. The music is as forgettable as the side characters, with them sounding like a cheap copy of Lin-Manuel Miranda's style, who did the songs for the first film but was busy working on a different film so couldn't return here. Visually it's gorgeous, with some beautiful oceanic seascapes, but that's to be expected at this point. 7/10 Mustang dir. Deniz Gamze Erguven/2015/1h37m This Turkish coming of age drama focuses on five orphaned sisters living with their grandmother and uncle. When they play an innocent game with some boys from their school it is misinterpreted as something s*xual and they are then removed from school and basically put under house arrest, their uncle barring up all the doors and windows while their grandmother prepares them for marriage. Told from the perspective of the youngest sister Lale (Gunes Nezihe Sensoy) this is a beautiful story of defiance against a harsh patriarchy that they don't even understand, because they are never even told what they're supposed to have done wrong. This is an understated yet powerful film that doesn't need to resort to melodramatics or shock tactics to show us how repressive and abusive this world is for these young girls, with most of the adults being hypocrites or worse. The performances of the five sisters are naturalistic and feel so real that I could believe they are actually sisters. Their bond is what gives them strength and it's in full force in scenes like the one where they sneak out to a football game, only women being allowed to attend after men were banned for rioting (something that actually happened in Turky). This gives them a glimpse of what life could be like under different circumstances, making the harsh light of reality even more stark. Thankfully, this film ends on a note of hope for our young protagonist which, like the rest of the film, is understated but powerful. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Rebel Ridge dir. Jeremy Saulnier/2024/2h12m From the director of brilliantly taut thrillers Blue Ruin and Green Room, Rebel Ridge stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who is in a small town to post bail for his cousin. However, he soon runs into the local police force, led by Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), which is riddled with corruption and institutional racism. But Chief Burnne soon finds out that Terry is a man you can push only so far. This is my first time seeing Pierre and he is incredible. There's a real quiet intensity to him that builds up as he faces injustice after injustice. At first he's compliant, just wanting to make things easy, but his frustration is palpable, as is the feeling that this is a man capable of real damage. In many ways this is a modern version of First Blood, with Pierre in the Stallone role of a vet who just wants a quiet life coming up against a police force full of *ssholes. Johnson is also great as a real sh*theel of a police chief. The initial encounters between him and Pierre are some of the best in the film, the two playing off each other perfectly. Where this film falls short for me is that it's somewhat bloated and overlong. Saulnier's other films are much tighter, giving the situations more intensity. Not that this film isn't intense, but at times it's left to stew for a beat too long. That said, this is a great film that's worth watching for the lead performance alone. 8.5/10

Maybe a simple treasure hunt instead. Place AA-trailers and Ron-gas-tank-trailers on the map as capture objects. And spawn everyone in a fast helicopter och unarmed Jet. Have everyone fly around looking for NPC-vehicles that can tow the capture trailers. Might include a occational kamikaze move as well. …funny how this now feels like the greatest idea ever. 😂

Alien Romulus (2024) dir Fede Alvarez Another film in the Alien franchise. More of the same reasonably high quality sci-fi horror, quite gory at times with dark, atmospheric, industrial looking sets. A cast of relatively unknown actors do a good job playing a group of young off-worlders, including an android, who see a way to escape their dreary mining colony planet by boarding an abandoned space craft to use it's resources to get their ship to another planet. But this craft is research station, with all human crew dead, because, of course, it had an alien on board. It then becomes the familiar last-woman-standing as one by one they meet the usual face-hugging / chest-bursting or other death by xenomorph. There is a lot that refers to one of more of the original films, including an appearance by an Android “played” by an AI version of Ian Holm (Ash in the Aliens). It is essentially a sequel to Alien that could be happening before, after or even about the same time as Aliens. So it fits into the original films rather than the newer ones from the 2010s. Although I like some of the references to the original films the problem with this for me is it has very little that we have not already seen in those originals. It does not bring much that is new to the franchise, unlike Prometheus and Covenant. Whilst I would have seen it as quite a good film if it was the 2nd or 3rd film in the franchise, I really don't see it adds anything more to the story. So it's fine if you just want more of the same, but for me if you are going to keep adding to a franchise the films needs to bring something original, some aspect of the overall plot not explored before, and this does not do that. I was actually getting slightly bored towards the end and would have been quite happy with it finishing maybe 20 minutes earlier. 6 / 10

Changed this to even teams after playing it last night. I also added some jumps that will make it easier to land on your roof. I found that rather hard *n the loop-jumps.