Movie & TV Show Recommendations

A China/Hong Kong production, The Comeback, starring veteran Simon Yam and current man of the moment Andy On. A bit of a convoluted story, but it's still good to see HK action films being made that have some of the style the industry used to have before the Mainland started mucking things up. Simon Yam plays "Uncle Hua", akindly antiques shop owner who has no memory of his past before three years ago, when he took a nail to the head. In his neighborhood, he's become seen as the respected local benefactor and giver of advice and is close to local characters like Xiao Ye, an orphan he's taken under his wing, Ah Zhen, a nun who runs the nearby orphanage, a local patrol cop (who has some 'tension' going on with the nun) and Old Cao, a hobo who lives in an old bus, played by HK veteran Yuen Wah (who has been in what seems like thousands of films, you may remember him as the Landlord in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle), who at times seems to know more about Yam's character than he lets on.

He doesn't remember that he was targeted by and took out a team of operatives three years before, also saving the life of Ah Zhen, who was then a pickpocket. Now, some local punks have been trying to take over the neighborhood and during the conflict, some bodies are discovered in the walls of Hua's shop. The investigation leads Andy On and his team of ruthless killers, employees for a shadowy organization to the "old man", fearing he might still have a USB stick hidden away with some information On doesn't want the authorities to get a hold of, realizing that Hua still retains his skills if not his memories though at least one member of the team gets to say "Pffft, be careful? He's an old man!" before finding out he shouldn't scoff. True, it's obvious Yam and Wah are in their twilight years and require stunt doubles, yet both still get stuck in and do a lot of stuff themselves, whilst Andy On and the younger crew do a lot of the heavy lifting on the action, which is plentiful but strung out so that there's enough space between set-pieces.
 
Death's Game, Korean series

Really funny and interesting, probably the best anti suicide PSA ever made
A second vote for this. I tend to tune out of stories with this kind of elaborate plotting, but in this case it actually builds to something meaningful.
 
Shattered Glass by Billy Ray (who also directed the excellent film Breach)
It is about the real story of the journalist Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christensen) being caught with faking almost all of his stories for the magazine "The new Republic" in the 90s and the fallout from it.
It is a great character piece and a damn good movie overall.
All the actors are great in it and I highly recommend it.
 
Nightbreed, directors cut, is a movie I absolutely adore but is a very messy film. The moster world is incredible and the main draw along side david cronenberg being a fantastic evil bastard. The biggest downside is the main character is just so fucking bland and never feels connected to the monster society at all really bringing the movie down, that and the fact the human cast are just so ridiculously over the top evil that it's hard to take seriously. I still love it because the nightbreed are so well done and cool it keeps me coming back but your pulled away from it so much it a recommendation with a few *s.
Also note the studio completely fucked this movie into the ground, famously the studio was confused why the movie made the monsters look like the good guys. Watch the director's cut, there's also a 3 hour fan "cabal cut" but I haven't seen it and I've heard it uses some very rough unfinished footage at parts.
If anything you at least get to see what a realistic sonic hedgehog lady would look like.
Shuna_Sassi.webp
would
 
Nightbreed, directors cut, is a movie I absolutely adore but is a very messy film. The moster world is incredible and the main draw along side david cronenberg being a fantastic evil bastard. The biggest downside is the main character is just so fucking bland and never feels connected to the monster society at all really bringing the movie down, that and the fact the human cast are just so ridiculously over the top evil that it's hard to take seriously. I still love it because the nightbreed are so well done and cool it keeps me coming back but your pulled away from it so much it a recommendation with a few *s.
Also note the studio completely fucked this movie into the ground, famously the studio was confused why the movie made the monsters look like the good guys. Watch the director's cut, there's also a 3 hour fan "cabal cut" but I haven't seen it and I've heard it uses some very rough unfinished footage at parts.
If anything you at least get to see what a realistic sonic hedgehog lady would look like.
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would
This is one of those movies that really could have done with being a mini-series. There's so much to explore that the run time just couldn't really cover it. I've never read the original book but I should one of these days.

also would, may the Lord forgive me
 
I rewatched Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the nth time.
It's fucking funny.
The whole thing is on YouTube, go watch it if you are a fan of a well crafted shitpost in television form.
Be aware though, it's radical, graphic and ahead of its time, even 20 years after its official first airing (minus the run in Peru).
 
Matthew Holness has in recent times written, as by Marenghi, a series of novellas that, similar in a way to Darkplace, are stories written for a previously shelved project finally brought to light.

Dare you crack open the TerrorTome? (Mind the spine)

When horror writer Nick Steen gets sucked into a cursed typewriter by the terrifying Type-Face, Dark Lord of the Prolix, the hellish visions inside his head are unleashed for real. Forced to fight his escaping imagination - now leaking out of his own brain - Nick must defend the town of Stalkford from his own fictional horrors, including avascular-necrosis-obsessed serial killer Nelson Strain and Nick's dreaded throppleganger, the Dark Third.

Can he and Roz, his frequently incorrect female editor, hunt down these incarnate denizens of Nick's rampaging imaginata before they destroy Stalkford, outer Stalkford and possibly slightly further?

From the twisted genius of horror master Garth Marenghi - Frighternerman, Darkscribe, Doomsage (plus Man-Shee) - come three dark tales from his long-lost multi-volume epic: TerrorTome.

Can a brain leak?
(Yes, it can)
 
Chris Stuckmann's Shelby Oaks (2025) is an interesting movie to say the least. The pseudo documentary Blair Witch esc opening last long enough that you at first think the whole movie is going to be like it but it abruptly cuts to the real movie when A Guy shoots himself in the head and gives the main character a tape.. The movie loves to abruptly jolt itself in tone. The plot is not here to explain the whys but it's here to keep you off guard. I wont spoil the ending but it's a major WTF moment. Shelby Oaks may not necessarily be a good movie but it is here to keep it memorable and worth talking about and make you be on your toes. Isn't that what makes certain movies special in our hearts to begin with?
 
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