Apocalypse Z - The Beginning Of The End which is on Amazon Prime.  Nice little Zombie flick about a guy who survives with his cat.  Its fairly generic as far as survival stories go, bur perfectly watchable.  It's a spanish production with some nice spanish locations used.  English dub is watchable but spainish language with subs would be my recommendation.  Watch it if you like the genre.

Been on my list since it came out, and last night I finally had those spare 3 hours ... and it didn't disappoint!

Big budget bromance with larger than life melodrama and some excellent set pieces. 🐯 If you don't mind a predictable plot and some cheesey over-acting, the fight choregraphy and decent CGI makes this a fun popcorn flic! Oh, and the first proper song doesn't start till the 1hr mark, so don't let the 'Bollywood musical' tag put you off.

Delivers in spades, a solid 8/10. Warning: scenes of torture will make you made me wince.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8178634/

I recommended RRR a while back and I'm glad someone else has watched it! It's an absolute blast and I'd buy the disc in a heartbeat, but as far as I can tell Bollywoods don't get disc releases. I keep meaning to check out more of this sort of stuff (there seems to be quite a lot of it on Netflix and Prime) but the only other one I've seen is Pathaan, a contemporary 007-style outing which, while as over-the-top bonkers as RRR, if not more so, isn't as good (but still very entertaining, and on Prime).

I should try to watch more but my watch list never gets shorter and the average length of these isn't far off 3 hours. But if you get tuned in (as with spaghetti westerns, you have to get on the right wavelength) I reckon there's an immense amount of fun to be had. From the limited amount I've seen they don't seem to care about being set in the real world, they exist purely to be over the top entertainment, and at a fraction of what the same thing would cost in America. For example there's a fight scene in Pathaan with the lead wading through a mob on a moving train, and suddenly another guy drops in from nowhere, nothing to do with the film in progress, but he's a star from another franchise who's just dropped in to give his mate a hand. Imagine Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in the middle of a huge barney, in drops Daniel Craig to break a few heads, they clean up, Daniel tips Tom a wink then buggers off. Go on, it's at the 73-min mark on Prime. I wish that happened more in American films.

ANORA (2024) - Over-rated and over-lauded, of course, but still well worth a watch.

I'm a big Mikey fan - I've enjoyed her work since the excellent show Better Things (2016), and later felt physically sick at how Tarantino treated her character in that Manson thing.

In this, she's distractingly beautiful 💓 and incredibly sexy - there's a surprising amount of her on show here, in ways that I thought were inappropriate these days. I had no idea of plot, other than a sex worker (lapdancer) has a relationship with a client. It's a dark comedy with some genuine LOLs, taking a tone turn, that reminded me of the excellent show Barry (2018) of all things (no spoilers, but you'll easily see why).

The ending is controversial, but I liked it - some thought-provoking psychology that you will likely discuss. A solid 8/10 from me.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28607951/

I was ready to turn this off after about half an hour, as it seemed nothing but shagging, drinking and drugging by two unappealing and unattractive, verging on skanky, individuals. It improved massively when the parents and their remote helpers got involved.

Captain America Brave New World. Short version - a steaming turd. I'd set the bar low because of the state of the MCU these days, but expected far better than this. It's not as embarrassing as The Marvels, and doesn't shift Quantumania from the very bottom of the Marvel barrel, but it's not floating very far above. It's hard to believe the last few MCU entries are from the same outfit that made the Avengers series not so many years ago. It's as though everybody good got fired.

It's simply mediocre to bad in every department. With a dreadful script to start building on (co-written by a director with no experience in the genre, and 4 other people) it could only turn out bad. At any time during this if you'd asked me what it was about I'd have been at a loss to answer - not because it's complex but because it's so terminally dull. I can't recall a MCU product that had me fighting so hard to keep my eyes open. I'm still not sure what the plot was and I watched it yesterday. It really was that bad. A cast can only do so much, and this one was barely adequate. One big problem of course - but not a problem that would have prevented an entirely different crew from making a decent film - is that Sam Wilson is NOT Captain America. He's an ordinary human, unenhanced in any way, performing stunts that would kill him. His first scene has him flying vertically at the ground, landing into that tired superhero pose, decelerating from about 100mph in an instant. The best armour in the world wouldn't have stopped him being liquefied, and even in a superhero world this is dumb. He's not Captain America, end of story. I've already forgotten most of it. I had hopes, but it really is bad, bad, bad. I can't think of any positives.

Calling it 'The Falcon Brave New World' wouldn't have made it watchable, but it would have made more sense. More millions down the Disney drain.

Havoc. Absolute mess of a film. I think there was a plot, but I could easily be wrong and frankly didn't care. Lots of shooting with guns with infinite ammo. A strange grain filter applied, I suppose to make it look gritty but it just made it look like it was filmed on cheap old 90s film stock. All the cars seemed to be CGI and were overly shiny. I was happy when it was all over.

I nearly watched that yesterday. I've heard that it looks very cgi-y, which always puts me off, and I think the director's Raid films are overrated. I'll be giving it a look though, with low expectations.

This month, I've been mostly watching ... a wide variety of films ! (My ratings are the blue star in imdb).

One common theme is that I enjoyed the first half to three quarters, then the film took a dive ... that's the case with all these.

RAW - very fresh, dynamic and unpredictable ... before it turned daft.

The Brutalist - first half flies by, captivating, then after the intermission (really!) it drags somewhat. Very well made, though - a 'proper' film.

When Evil Lurks - starts off excellent, very unpredictable and completely WTF did I just watch !!?? 🪓🐶👶🏽 But then it turns very silly and unrealistic, even within the world it built.

... the theme continues ...

The Substance - I had heard that it pushed boundaries, and I'd seen a behind the scenes photo that was a massive spoiler, but it goes too far and loses all realism (again, in the world it created). Some amazing sfx, and the first half is excellent - very stylish and creative, with a great soundtrack. I wish it had ended my way ...

Deadpool & Wolverine - I really liked the first 2, funny but with a surprising heart. This has its moments, but goes on too long.

Mickey 17 - the tone is all over the place - I just don't 'get' Korean (directed) films. Plenty to enjoy for scifi fans, creative, big budget, but that final third ... 🤦🏽 

Hereditary - I think I was generous giving a 6, as I remember wishing it would end ... no idea why this is rated so highly by the critics (87% !!) so I expected a lot more. I found it unintentionally funny in parts, boring in others, terrrible ending. Very atmospheric though, throughout, with a good score/soundtrack.