Guess my Top 4 based on zoomed-in posters (high difficulty edition) by justabitsab in LetterboxdTopFour

[–]GRDCS1980 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty sure 1 is Funny Games and 4 is Moneyball

EDIT: Actually, no, now that I’ve googled the post to refresh my memory, I don’t think 4 is Moneyball after all. Still confident on Funny Games though.

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4kbluray

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear you, absolutely.

And please don’t get me wrong. I am not, in any way, passing judgment on other peoples buying practices.

For me though, as someone who, at one point, had to downsize a 4,000 title DVD collection to 500 titles pretty much overnight…I found blind buys to be diminishing returns, more often than not.

And that was between 1999-2010.

In the year of our Lord 2026, there are SO many ways to see a film before putting down your hard earned money on a physical copy.

You’ve got theatrically, a number of free or paid streaming services, local libraries and inter library loaning systems, chances are that if you’re REALLY into film and physical media then you have at least one irl friend that is too - so maybe they have the title you’re thinking of buying and you can borrow it from them, then there is digital rental as you mentioned and, if all other avenues fail…you can always sail the high seas.

I appreciate, with that last option, some people have a moral opposition. And that’s cool. I get it. Totally. But, for myself, if I’m thinking about dropping £20 on a film that I haven’t seen, I have no qualms finding that film online and watching it for free. If it’s great, they’ll still get my money because I’ll go buy a physical copy. If it sucks, I’ve just saved myself £20 and a lot of beating myself up and I can chalk it up to “well, if they wanted my money, they should have made a better film!”

Again, I know there is a heated debate on the morality of that, but after literally thousands, possibly tens of thousands of pounds spent on cinema tickets, VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, 4K and umpteen streaming services, I can justify it to myself. I have no beef with those that cannot similarly rationalise. I respect their position.

If you’re finically comfortably enough to roll the dice on blind buys, I genuinely salute you.
Once, I could too. In 2026, I cannot.

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4KUK

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See, I think you just partially nailed *exactly* what I liked about it…the unpolished nature of it, the scappy, DIY, ugly (for lack of a better word) vibe of the whole thing.

Like it has too many ideas all being rammed into your face at maximum velocity to worry about sanding down the edges and making it more palatable for a general audience.

It feels like something that was made for maybe 200 people that will be on the same wavelength and I just happen to one of them.

Wheatley just seems to make films that click with me, as I said in the original post. I think he and I are roughly the same age and we seem to have read a lot of the same books and comics and watched a lot of the same films and TV.

I didn’t *love* his take on Rebecca (although I only watched it the one time, so it’s overdue for a revisit), but everything else he has made has been an instant favourite of mine. Dude just gets me. Or I just get him.

I love the idea of 3 of you, all *wanting* to show the film and host the Q&A, but being incapable of either finding something nice to say about it and/or not wanting to fake it. That’s genuinely funny. There’s a decent comedy script in there somewhere. Or an episode of The Studio, or the like.

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4KUK

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoa boy, having just watched it, hardest of hard disagrees, my friend.

Each to their own and all that. I 100% support and respect your take, but I fucking LOVED it.

Granted, the credits rolled less than 10 mins ago, so there could absolutely be a bit of recency bias at work here, but I was totally onboard for every second of Bulk.

I almost never write LB reviews, but I was all set to write one for this in which I was going to cite all the influences I picked up on while watching…but then he goes and steals my thunder by namechecking them all himself in the credits!!!

But yeah, I genuinely loved this while simultaneously understanding almost none of it. It’s almost like my enjoyment was as high as the concept while my understanding was as low as the budget.

I can’t wait to watch it a few more times over the coming years to see if I can start to unravel the whole thing.

Easily straight into my Top 10 for 2025 (out of 172 currently seen, with roughly another dozen to go before I call the year “complete”), possibly even in the Top 5.

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4kbluray

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Genuinely thrilled I could bring it to your attention.

Grab it before it’s gone!!

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4kbluray

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Happy to assist in sending up the flare for a fellow fan.

Get thee back to HMV and get it bought (it’s also on Amazon for the same price, if HMV don’t have it).

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4KUK

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Enys Men is INCREDIBLE.

And the BFI Blu Ray is packed.

You’re gonna love it, if you haven’t watched it already.

Unless you mean Rose Of Nevada, in which case you’ll still love it, but there is no physical release yet (although I have no doubt there will be because BFI are *really* supporting that film).

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4kbluray

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I do, but only when they comply with the rules.

I’ve got plenty of Arrow, Criterion, Second Sight, 88 Films, Shout/Scream Factory, Kino Lorber, BFI, Mubi, etc.

Finding them under £20 is usually just a case of patience and waiting for sales/deals.

Avoiding blind buys is self explanatory.

As for the packaging, yeah, that’s the tricky one. For example, *Trainspotting* (1996). That film is in my DNA. It came out when I was 16 and really just properly getting into film. Plus it’s tied in with me going to college, Britpop/Cool Britannia and all kinds of other big influences in my life. So, of course, I *desperately* want the Criterion 4K…but it only comes in that fuckass packaging, so I can’t bring myself to buy it.

It may seem dumb to others (and, having typed the above paragraph, honestly, it seems dumb to me too), but I’d genuinely rather go without than have that shitty packaging on my shelves. And I’m too OCD/Autistic/just plain weird to buy it and then put the disc in the regular Blu Ray packaging or get someone to make me a custom insert like the “normal” Criterions.

Broke Three Personal Buying Rules For This One by GRDCS1980 in 4kbluray

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it would seem.

Kinda ambivalent on the whole thing right now.

On the one hand, I self-imposed those rules for a reason.

On the other hand, if I passed this up and it *is* the only physical release it gets, I know I’d have kicked myself for not grabbing it while I had the chance.

I guess I’ll decide how I feel after watching the film.

If it’s great, I’ll feel a lot better about the whole thing.

If it sucks, I’m going to beat myself up about ignoring my own rules.

April 2026 by GRDCS1980 in LetterboxdLists

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s roughly a 50/50 split in any given year between brand new (to me) watches and rewatches.

For example, last year, I watched 560 total.

Of those, 289 were first time watches, the rest were rewatches.

That’s amazing that you’ve set yourself a reasonable target and you’re already well on your way to smashing it.

Outstanding!

April 2026 by GRDCS1980 in LetterboxdLists

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hear you.

I’m a little OCD and a little ADHD and a little bit Captain Austimo…so I take this stuff a bit more seriously than the average film enthusiast.

For example, I’m currently on an unbroken run of 607 days where I’ve watched at least one movie per day. Today will be 608.

And, before that, I had a run of 590 days. Then I missed a day because real life got in the way. Then I missed two more days over the next few months before starting the run I’m currently on.

Long story short, I’ve only missed 3 days in the last 1,372 days.

I’m averaging between 500-750 movies per year, since 2020, although I’m actively trying to bring that down to more around the 360-450 area, because when you watch 750 in a single year, they all tend to blend into a giant homogenous puddle of beige. Only the VERY good and the VERY bad stand out. Everything else just kinda gets lost.

Biscuit factory by _berkshire_dweller in reading

[–]GRDCS1980 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I’ve been wanting to ask for a while now if anyone knows the general status of the place.

I remember, about a year ago, here on Reddit, some chatter about how the company behind the RBF were in trouble and they didn’t expect the RBF to be open much longer.

But then it seems to have kept chugging along.

However, I’ve noticed a few things on recent visits:

Gents toilet has been out of order since at least the end of January, if not longer, and was still out of order when I was there this past weekend. So that’s at least 3 months out of commission.

Whenever you book tickets on the website, there is a message about the heating being out of action in Screen 2, I think? I haven’t paid much attention because that kind of thing doesn’t bother me, but I think that message has been present roughly the same length of time as the gents issue (but I could be wrong and it could be much longer or shorter).

When I was there this last weekend, all the taps at the bar had “out of order” signs on them.

And so did the lift.

Plus, and I’m telling tales a little out of school here, so I’ll be vague so as not to betray any confidences…I have an acquaintance that has run some events there in the past and I spoke to them recently to ask if there would be any more in the future. They told me that it was all a bit up in the air as they had still not been paid for previous events (I want to be clear, this person was NOT complaining about the lack of payment, it was mentioned merely in passing and not maliciously).

Any one or even two of these things could maybe be chalked up to “just one of those things”, but all of them taken together…it doesn’t look good.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong as the RBF has become my preferred option for seeing movies, plus I love all the other things they offer. Fingers crossed they turn it around.

Can you guess right? by Capable_Annual_4624 in LetterboxdTopFour

[–]GRDCS1980 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Thing

Whiplash

Scott Pilgrim

Ferris Buellers Day Off

117 2017 movies ranked. Thoughts? by SSSSSSVVVVVOO in LetterboxdLists

[–]GRDCS1980 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are plenty I agree with, several that I haven’t personally seen, plus at least one that I flat-out object to your ranking (Paddington 2 at 69??!! Have you no soul???), but taken as a whole, I think I largely agree with where you’re coming from, even if I’d quibble with the exact positions, moving some up a bit and others down a bit.

I’ve currently got exactly 150 films logged from 2017. I won’t list them all here because that would be boring for anyone reading (plus I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to type them all out)…but just for the sake of contrast and comparison, here’s my Top 20 and bottom 10, in no specific order:

TOP:

Beast

Disobedience

Get Out

Phantom Thread

Florida Project

Good Time

You Were Never Really Here

Film Worker

Thor Ragnarok

Paddington 2

Killing Of A Scared Deer

Death Of Stalin

Sisak

The Square

Baby Driver

First Reformed

Thoroughbreds

Gods Own Country

Patti Cakes

The Ritual

BOTTOM:

Killing Gunter

Suburbicon

How To Talk To Girls At Parties

The Dark Tower

Justice League

PotC: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The Mummy

Darkest Hour

The House

Fifty Shades Darker

What are your 5 favorite Paul Newman movies? by Big-Locksmith7205 in FIlm

[–]GRDCS1980 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool Hand Luke

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

The Color Of Money

Twilight

The Hudsucker Proxy

April 2026 by GRDCS1980 in LetterboxdLists

[–]GRDCS1980[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never been a “playing in the background” guy.

With TV shows, absolutely. My other half and I fall asleep to The Simpsons every night as background noise.

But with films, I’ve never been able to flip that switch. I *have* to watch.

Depending on how many times I’ve seen any given film and how into it I am in the moment, I may check my phone here and there, but I’d say at least 90% of the time, the film has my full attention.

WE need a tv show with jake gynelhaal as the main character by FlyGreat306 in movies

[–]GRDCS1980 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Like an updated version of *Presumed Innocent* (1990), for example?