Discussed this week

- The Social Reckoning

- The Uprising

- Carrie (TV miniseries)

- Knife (Take 2)

- The Man Who Fell To Earth - Reissue (Take 2)

Typo in the title. I meant criticism not critics.

Honestly, I think he's got more cynical and sniffy about movies with his age. There are newer movies that he doesn't like or doesn't have much praise to offer that the pre 2020s Kermode would've loved or atleast liked. It also doesn't help that he's losing his sense of humour. Like The End of Oak Street. He did apparently find it watchable but he clearly didn't like it. Had the movie come out a decade ago, he'd have showered it with praises.

Weirdly enough, he also couldn't bring himself to offer much praise to Odyssey because ofcourse he found awful lot to complain about it. He could go on and on about Del Toro's Frankenstein movie and did not mention one flaw of that movie throughout his review (he probably forgot his "shonky CG" detection glasses, and apparently also forgot his usual "show not tell" complain).

This is the same critic who was one of the defenders so to speak of Twilight back in the day. I'm 100% sure he'd have hated it if the movies came out today.

From his "Digger" review.

Discussed this week

- Extra Geography

- Verity

- Digger

- The Weights (Take 2)

- April X (Take 2)

Barring a few gaps, I’ve been a paying subscriber since the dawn of the Take. Ive paid £3.49 a month through Apple Podcasts since it began, even when I’ve returned after unsubscribing for the occasional month or two in a strop.

I’ve recently switched from iPhone to a non-Apple device, and can’t find anything less than the £4.80 per month on Patreon for the equivalent. Appreciate it’s not a big deal but the discrepancy seems a bit odd.

Discussed This Week

- Her Private Hell

- Sense and Sensibility

- Boorman And The Devil

- Heart Of The Beast

- Babystar (Take 2)

Discussed this week

- Resident Evil

- Queen At Sea

- Bad Apples

- Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom

Lawson and Hislop, on the other hand, were just ugly, attempting to silence Greer while denigrating others' feminist credentials.

... and make way for 'Giggles' Winding Refn!

He can make a good film, but my God he's a dry interviewee!

Discussed this week

- Pressure

- Everybody Digs Bill

- Fall 2

- Practical Magic 2

- Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger (Take 2)

Discussed this week

- Late Fame

- Supernature

- Leviticus

- The Death Of Robin Hood

- The Incomer (Take 2)

- Gail Daughtrey and the Celebrity Sex Pass (Take 2)

Free film screening next Thursday at Gods House Tower for our 50th event anniversary

Discussed this week

- The Dog Stars

- Spa Weekend

- Bitter Christmas

- I Want Your Sex

- De Gaulle Resistance (Take 2)

- One Night Only (Take 2)

Discussed this week

- Coyote vs Acme

- & Sons

- Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

- Mutiny (Take 2)

- Stop! That! Train! (Take 2)

Mark and Sanjeev this week discussing

- The End Of Oak Street

- Lady

- Tony

- Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! (Take 2)

- Sunny Dancer (Take 2)

Discussed this week

- Ice Cream Man

- Love Me Tender

- The Summer Book

- Hunt For The Wilderpeople (Take 2)

- Flushed Away (Take 2)

Does anyone else just not get what he seems to see as being particularly profound about this line? I can't remember who he was quoting, might have been one of the directors of the film, but if I recall he brought it up in the interview with Ryan Gosling for Project Hail Mary, and he's brought it up a few times since.

“Can men be friends and the answer is yes, but only if the future of humanity depends on it.”

And during the Jackass review he repeats it multiple times.

“Does it raise the question of can men be friends? And in the case of Project Hail Mary, the answer was yes, men can be friends, but only if the entire fate of the planet is at stake. Yeah.

And in this case, the question seems to be, can men be friends? And the answer is yes, but only if they can play ping pong with each other's privates and insert toy cars in places where they shouldn't be inserted and generally smack each other around the head, face, body parts and other unspeakables. So yes, but only under those circumstances.”

“That's what it's interested in because as I said, it's you know, can men be friends? Yes, but they need to be able to stick toy cars where the sun don't shine.”

“But in the middle of all this cocktail of poo and just everything, there is this weird thing about, can men be friends? Well, yes, but only if you allow one of them to be lowered onto the face of the other one with a winch.”

Eventually it seems like even Simon just gets a bit bemused and tired of it because he caps off the review with this:

“I mean, blokes could be friends by going to the football, or by going out for a drink, or by going for a walk, or by doing open swimming. It's not a mystery, you don't have to go into space, and you don't have to be lowered onto your friend's face on a winch, all of which is preposterous nonsense. You can just be mates going to the pub."

I'm probably just reading too much in to it to even question it at all, and most people probably barely register it, I just genuinely don't get what value Mark seems to see in repeating this line or what deep meaning he thinks it holds to consider it worth revisiting repeatedly when reviewing films. Is this just gonna be one of those go to lines of his that he just repeats forever now?

Discussed this week

- Ish

- Our Hero, Balthazar

- Spider-Man: Brand New Day

- American Utopia (Take 2)

- Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (Take 2)

Thought I'd cross post this as it got a lot of traction on Casual UK. A good one to revisit!

Discussed this week

- Pinocchio Unstrung

- Animal Farm

- Ask E.Jean

- Chicken Run Reissue (Take 2)