Saltburn. Emerald Fennell's follow-up to the promising 'Promising Young Woman' stars Barry Keoghan as a uni scholarship student with embarrassing family, taken under the wing of an entitled posh boy. The fun really starts when posh boy invites him to stay at the family mansion over summer. And fun it is - beyond the outline above I knew nothing about it. It skewers the idle rich mercilessly, is often very funny, and the cast (especially Rosamund Pike) are spot-on. Fennell does rather lay it on with a trowel at the end, though; showing a bit less there would have improved it a bit. Not bad at all though. It's on Prime Video.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)

Directed by Guy Richie and funded by Amazon for $50 milion.
Light hearted spy romp. Jason Statham doing comedy is always good. Aubrey Plaza great as usual, Josh Hartnett was channeling Tom Cruise and Hugh Grant speaks like Michael Caine. What's not to like.

Silent Night (2023). John Woo actioner about a Father (Joel Kinnaman) seeking revenge on the gang that killed his son with a  stray bullet the previous Christmas. Not bad, but tries to lay on the emotion a bit too hard at the end. Enjoyable enough but we preferred Violent Night (2022) and Fatman (2020).

May December (2023) - I've not been this disappointed for a long time, and my missus even bailed half way through. Given the exceptional critical reviews (85%!) and even the decent viewer ratings (7/10), I think it must be me!
The acting is of course decent enough, but we just found it boring, and not half as clever as it thinks it is. Despite the time spent, we felt very little for the characters, despite it being based on a true story. I just didn't see all the apparent 'layers' of 'complexity' in these broken people. A genuine struggle, 4/10

Of Todd Haynes' back catalogue, I have only seen Dark Waters (2019) which was an OK but a not very involving 7/10, so I guess I'm just not a fan of his style.

I, Daniel Blake (2016) - apparently Ken Loach's finest, and to be honest I struggled at first - it's drawn out and a bit wooden, and doesn't quite seem real. But by the half-way point I was gripped, and this should be made compulsory viewing for all elected MPs. Stick with it, 7/10

Oppenheimer (2023) - such an event movie, and their PR team did a fantastic job at selling this dry history lesson. It looks and sounds great of course, but not the sweeping panoramic epic I expected, given the IMAX release. The flashy visuals in the first hour were a bit over-used, but the bass will really give your sub a workout. (Several famous cameos - apparently deliberate, so we could recognise the characters later.)
We stopped for a planned meal-break half way through, which is probably recommended! Plenty to chat about afterwards, and not quite what I expected to see of the story. I'm a big Nolan fan, and this is a well-crafted if bum-numbing 8/10

My idea of a fun New Year's Eve double-bill didn't quite go as planned! Spoiled mainly by Daniel Craig's terrible impression of Kevin Spacey doing Hercule Poirot.

Knives Out (2019) - Not what I expected, with plenty of twisty turny Agatha Christie-style shennanigans. Most of the characters are well-acted but a bit one-note and underdeveloped, and there's a stilted theatrical feel to some scenes. (But what was that car chase?!) Once you get into the vibe, it's a fun whodunit 7/10

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) - Oh dear ... I've not been this disappointed with a sequel since Jaws 2! An amazing (and beautiful) cast, but completely unbelievable characters that just don't relate to each other, with too much obvious exposition. Craig hams it up even more this time ... you can see him acting. An encouraging start, but soon descends into nonsense, with a very unsatisfying ending (it looked OK on paper?!). I can't believe the critics rated this equal to the first outing. A generous 5/10 for the first-half

Fight Club (1999) - hardly needs any introduction: Mischief - Mayhem - Soap.

My third watch, and my first for what must be 20 years. I was pleased that it still delivers after all these years - looks and sounds great (although the onscreen IKEA text at the start is no longer impressive). Really enjoyed the special effects and camera work, especially Helena's Matrix-style sex scene.

Had forgotten about the 'spoiler' at the start (all films would be better without this) and suprised it was so unflinchingly violent for mainstream Hollywood, with occasional glimpses of gore. Aging like a fine wine, and still packs punches, 10/10. 🥇 

Elvis (2022) - Directed by Baz Luhrmann, it of course has a sumptuously large period budget, with lots of gorgeous camera work and FX. Both leads are excellent; the first half is vibrant, fast-moving and very entertaining. The second half slows down, and is more for the fans - we don't really need to see so many live performances, no matter how well done.
You know what you're in for, but it's still worth a watch, 7/10

The Exorcist - Believer. I had no interest in this until Mark Kermode (predictably) named it worst film of 2023. I went in blind - The Exorcist is great, no dispute, but if I sat through Exorcist 2: The Heretic (I did, twice) then I thought I really should complete the set. I'm almost in agreement with Marky, only reluctant to fully commit since he's probably seen more of the year's output than I have.

But it is truly woeful, from a writer/director with a history of bad comedy and another horror franchise resurrection. There may be one or two decent performers in the cast but you wouldn't know it from the script and direction here. The climactic exorcism scene is about as scary as a blancmange and shockingly put together. Absolutely the only plus is that you'll forget it almost instantly.

Re Elvis - I enjoyed that, mostly, but thought that Hanks' comedy turn was dreadful and almost killed it.