Movie Tab II [Archive] - Page 47

meatwadsprite

09-15-09, 10:43 AM

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:DXqEGqvkK5AIFM:http://www.chrlc.vic.gov.au/cb_pages/images/Grave%2520fireflies%2520dvd.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:U474OLuyoHixfM:http://aquanoir.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/grave_of_the_fireflies.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:18BU2bYJeRBNAM:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_inOwbcGTxKw/SXDbL4Y5KhI/AAAAAAAAAIM/PMwRmXlD7gI/s400/grave_of_fireflies_xl_01.jpg

Grave of the Fireflies 1988

Isao Takahata , known for directing the more understated - more simplistically animated Ghibli films (Yamadas , Only Yesterday) tries to bring a story with real hardship and grit with the excellent animators behind him - but ultimately wastes the gift of animation and feels like it was done on a tight schedule / budget.

2

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Grizzly Man 2005

A potentially great documentary with a tight restrictive grip not allowing it the room or freedom it needs. Herzog's narration and choice to not show Treadwell's final moments are both in poor taste , what's really great is Treadwell's footage and it should take center stage - but it's almost always sucked dry by Herzog's choices.

2.5

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Aladdin 1992

Probably Disney's most animated , energetic of their final hand-drawn efforts. The story is rushed and completely inorganic , but the voice performances and fun songs make up for the absurd pace. Since the beginning of time Disney has always neglected scenery and background animation , but Aladdin entirely concentrates on what they do best - characters. It often has a very fluid , fun feeling.

3

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:X6ubyjllVIKohM:http://images.themoviedb.org/posters/25862/A_Fistful_of_Dollars.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:pQFSOv8aYT9oHM:http://ardfilmjournal.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/fistful.jpg

A Fistful of Dollars 1964

The first film I've seen from Leone that isn't intentionally blown out of proportion and actually reserved - although that's probably because it's a remake of one my favorite samurai flicks , Yojimbo.

3

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:MgLe3uq1SiRNTM:http://images.booksamillion.com/covers/music/0/93/624/983/093624983422_1041161.jpg http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:8NdFXtM9mEb_8M:http://thatotherpaper.com/files/frankcaliendo_02.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:b_YILoVcUY2yCM:http://www.thegarden.com/events/media/events/frank-caliendo328.jpg

Frank Caliendo All Over the Place 2007

A master impressionist performs his standard routine , if you've seen his act before he doesn't add a whole lot to this DVD release - but for those who've never seen it and are looking for a laugh I highly recommend watching a guy who does Al Pacino talking to George Bush.

3

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Kiki's Delivery Service 1989

Another great Miyazaki film , although much different than his usual all out epic-ness. Kiki is a more confined film of a young girl taking on the responsibilities of working and self-realization in a world without air-pirates and mystical gods.

4

Fenwick

09-15-09, 06:46 PM

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:P7ziFyR_9oMOVM:http://chasness.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/grizzly_man_ver2.jpg http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:7QzBWvCJX6iCdM:http://www.cinematicreflections.com/grizzlyman1.jpg http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:5b1TENrPFgx7bM:http://karmaloop.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/grizzly

Grizzly Man 2005

Herzog's narration and choice to not show Treadwell's final moments are both in poor taste.

I don't see how Herzog choosing 'not to show Treadwell's final moments' were 'in poor taste'. It may be just me but my pallet has never really catered for real-life Bear mauling. When Herzog listened to the recording provided by Treadwell's ex, Jewel Palovak, it was distressing enough. To actually use the tape would not only have been incredibly disrespectful to those close to Treadwell and his 'girlfriend', but it would also have lessened the film to a documentary of quasi-snuffiness, which it is much better than.

I hope i'm getting the right end of the stick here and am not misreading your post. Apologies if I am, dude!

mark f

09-15-09, 07:02 PM

I have a tougher time understanding where meaty's coming from concerning Grave of the Fireflies, but I look at films in a totally different way I guess.

Classicqueen13

09-15-09, 07:55 PM

Foul Play (1978)

http://www.videodetective.com/photos/036/001529_42.jpg

A goofy crime flick that's a lot of fun. Of course, this is the type of movie people will complain is dated because of all the groovy seventies stuff throughout. That never really bothers me though. More so provides a laugh. Anyway, Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase are pretty good but it's not academy award material. The plot is quite wild as well, but it seems believeable enough. Almost a spoof of Hitchcock films.

Overall: 3.5

Traitor (2008)
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2009/3/26/1238083029712/Don-Cheadle-in-Traitor-20-001.jpg

I can't make up my mind about this movie. In some ways I was intrigued and kept guessing about what would happen next. On the other hand, I felt pretty lost throughout the complex plot and felt like I didn't really have anyone to cheer on. Cheadle gives a very good performance, but I found myself not caring a lot about his character. The dialouge isn't anything special, but it doesn't get in the way either. I suppose it was just OK with me.

3

MovieMan8877445

09-15-09, 09:49 PM

Sorority Row - 3

It was just about as good as I had originally expected. It wasn't too bad, and the deaths were extremely great. I got everything I came for when I went to see this: hot chicks, mediocre plot, and some cool deaths. It's one that doesn't really have to be seen at the movie theater, though. I don't think I could find enough things to say about it for a full review.

http://www.daemonsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/sorority_row-500x333.jpg

The Hangover - 4

Yeah I watched it online, but it was the only place I could watch it on and I had a sudden urge to watch it. It lost a bit of it's laughs the second time around, but the flare is still there. I doubt I'll ever find it hilarious again, but it's still an incredibly enjoyable movie to watch. It's right at my second favorite of the year so far, right behind Inglourious Basterds.

http://www.moviegab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/the-hangover-header.jpg

meatwadsprite

09-16-09, 12:21 AM

To actually use the tape would not only have been incredibly disrespectful to those close to Treadwell and his 'girlfriend', but it would also have lessened the film to a documentary of quasi-snuffiness, which it is much better than.

I think it would have been extraordinary to see his last moments and of course if the bears eating him alive - that you really don't need to see , but I think to capture even a fraction of his last emotions would have made the film much , much better.

I don't think I could find enough things to say about it for a full review.

I like the part of the movie where that one girl isn't wearing pants , which is conveniently right in your review - making the movie obsolete.

mark f

09-16-09, 10:13 PM

Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997) 2.5

http://www.1worldfilms.com/images/tasteofcherry.gif http://www.brokenprojector.com/images/taste-of-cherry5.jpg

Simple, quietly-powerful film about a depressed Iranian man (Homayoun Ershadi) who seeks a fellow soul who will help him in his plan to commit suicide. The man has a bottle of sleeping pills and a place to take them, but he needs someone to throw some dirt on him in a hole next to a tree he's picked out to be his final resting place. The three men he asks to do this for him show a cross section of Iranian men and it all leads up to a poignant segment where the attempted suicide takes place. Then the director decides to come up with some kind of alternate ending which leaves everybody either talking about how brilliant it is or leaves them scratching their heads. I've watched the ending numerous times, and I'm not really happy with it no matter whether it was made for cinematic, intellectual or censorship reasons. Even so, this won the Palm d'or at Cannes and is worth watching for the occasional profound and beautiful moments.

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (Yoshiyuki Kuroda, 1974) 3

http://img.listal.com/image/productsus/200/B0001Z934S/movies/-kozure-kami-jigoku-e-ikuzo-daigoro.jpg http://analogmedium.com/blog/2007/06/lonewolfandcub/07.jpg

The sixth and final chapter of The Lone Wolf and Cub series goes out with a bang and includes about 25 minutes of impressive scenes involving the snow. In fact, these scenes utilizing a hundred skiers attempting to kill Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama), set to something resembling soul rock, reminds me of a James Bond intro where 007 tries to escape on skis. Before this awesome finale, Itto has to defeat the expert assassin daughter of his archrival, but once that happens, his nemesis sends his entire clan to follow Itto to the snow-packed mountains where Itto thinks he and his son can even the odds against them. I definitely recommend this series and since all six films are so short, it only takes a little over eight hours to watch the entire thing.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (John Ford, 1962) 3.5-

http://img.listal.com/image/68455/600full-the-man-who-shot-liberty-valance-poster.jpg http://uashome.alaska.edu/%7Edfgriffin/website/libertyvalance.gif

The last film to be considered a classic to be directed by John Ford is this complex western which has grown in reputation since it was made in 1962. John Wayne gives one of his better performances as Tom and calls James Stewart's Ransom "Pilgrim" throughout, and for his part, Stewart is stalwart and stubbornly-persistent as the lawyer who wants to get even with the dastardly Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin) who robbed and whipped him just outside of the town of Shinbone when Ransom came in on the stage. This is all depicted in a flashback where one of the characters relates the story of how the three men interacted, which one was the man who shot Liberty Valence and which one wins the hand of the fair Hallie (Vera Miles). To be honest, I find the beginning of the film which sets up the flashback, to be a weak start which the film has to overcome, but it successfully does so, and the actual ending of the film, after the flashback ends and everyone, except for perhaps one significant character, knows the truth of the story to be quite moving. One thing's for sure is that this is certainly superior to the Wayne westerns (Rio Bravo, El Dorado) which Howard Hawks was making at about the same time.

Dan in Real Life (Peter Hedges, 2007) 3

http://www.crankycritic.com/archive08/posters/dan_in_real_life_v3.jpg

This lowkey romantic/family comedy sneaks up on you because at first it seems a bit predictable and underplayed, but eventually, the cast, characters and story win you over just enough to feel good about liking it. Dan (Steve Carell) is a middle-aged widower with three beautiful daughters ranging from about eight-to-18-years-of-age. Every year, his family gets together at his parents' New England home, but this year, Dan seems to be having more problems with his two older daughters concerning driving and dating. Dan is extremely lonely in his romantic life, but in his parents' town, he finds lovely, intelligent Marie (Juliette Binoche) and they immediately hit it off at the local bookstore. Little does Dan realize that this wonderful woman is actually the girlfriend of his brother (Dane Cook) on the way to his parent's home. Needless to say, the remainder of the holiday is very awkward for both Dan and Marie. What makes the film honest, touching and amusing is that the actors are all very good at finding the offbeat humor in such a situation. Now, I'll admit that this plot has been used before, but this one includes things which make it work in a simple manner. Among those scenes would include the dancing scene with Dan's other date during the holiday, "Ruthie With the Pig Face" (Emily Blunt), the scene where Dan and Marie are trapped in the turned-on shower while Dan's eldest daughter is having a heart-to-heart with Marie, and especially the Talent Show scene where Dan helps his Bro try to win his lady love by singing Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open the Door".

Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968)

http://www.soledadmiranda.net/t3pics/dangerdiabolik.jpg

Well, CRAP! I meant to watch this one today and post it but I hope somebody didn't steal my DVD in the mailbox. Even so, I took enough time to post these images that I thought I'd list this as some kind of Sneak Preview. :cool: I'm sure you like these photos, don't you?

Iroquois

09-16-09, 11:07 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Road_House.jpg

Road House (Rowdy Herrington, 1989) - 2.5

This was played on cable in honour of Patrick Swayze's death and I figured I owed it to myself to watch it. The film is essentially a low-rent action film revolving around Swayze as Dalton, a notorious fighter who is brought to a rowdy country town in order to deal with the titular bar's unruly patronage, only to end up embroiled in a bigger fight with Ben Gazzara's scheming millionaire, who aims to control the town by any means necessary.

Despite the rather low rating I gave the film, I have to admit that I did enjoy it quite a bit. Sure, when it comes to trashy but fun 1980s action fare, it's not exactly as entertaining as the average Schwarzenegger movie, but it's certainly got enough to keep you hooked for most of the movie. Swayze's performance is interesting and his character's philosophy (which reminded me heavily of something Bruce Lee might say) was a welcome touch, to say nothing of the amusing supporting performances from Gazzara and Sam Elliott. The quality of the action was a little uneven, although consistently amusing. As far as objective quality goes, Road House is definitely undercooked, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/How_to_Get_Ahead_in_Advertising.jpg/200px-How_to_Get_Ahead_in_Advertising.jpg

How To Get Ahead In Advertising (Bruce Robinson, 1989) - 3

Bruce Robinson's follow-up to his wine-soaked debut Withnail and I takes a more subversive route, starring Richard E. Grant as Dennis, a callous advertising executive who suffers a crisis of conscience that eventually leads to full-blown insanity and a malevolent talking boil growing out of his shoulder. I liked it enough - Grant was rather funny, even if he was recycling some of the overblown theatrics he used in Withnail, plus Robinson's script had some interesting ideas and lines, even if their execution was a bit underdone.

MovieMan8877445

09-17-09, 12:10 AM

Twilight - 3

Wow, it actually isn't all that bad. It really is kind of hard to watch, though, because the movie is kind of depressing in a way. Also the relationship between Bella and Edward is extremely forced, and there are way too many similarities between this and True Blood. The acting sucked, too, but that was kind of expected. I liked that indian dude, Jacob, though. He was actually kind of barable to watch.

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2008/05/twilight-movie-3.jpg

Sex Drive - 2.5+

This turned out a lot better than I had expected, too. The beginning really sucked, but it actually gets better as the movie goes on. I loved the ending, but other than that, there isn't that many laughs. Amanda Crew was totally hot, though. It was worth watching it just for her. It's on Netflix instant watch, so I'd say give it a chance if you have some free time on your hands.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/17/movies/17drive.xlarge1.jpg

Iroquois

09-17-09, 12:13 AM

Twilight is probably the best unintentional comedy of 2008.

Used Future

09-17-09, 06:27 AM

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (Yoshiyuki Kuroda, 1974) 3

This is my least favourite of the series. I just think it gets confusing and doesn't make a lot of sense. It felt a bit slap dash compared to previous entries; plus the ending is a bit of an anti-climax after such an epic saga.

I assume you've seen Danger: Diabolik before right? Regardless looking forward to your thoughts on that one Mark; I think it's great campy fun.

linespalsy

09-17-09, 10:25 PM

just watched the mystery of chess boxing, aka, ninja checkmate, and, takes a while to get going but it's a-ok, with some pretty classic choreography, especially the collaborative final-fight (which rivals the similar scene in the previous year's [1978's] 'warriors two').

you can see the whole thing on youtube, but here's the climactic scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbklXO5yjFk

get's real good at 8:09

there was also a really good pole fight, but i can't find it on youtube. (i borrowed the dvd from someone at work).

meatwadsprite

09-18-09, 11:01 AM

Wow, it actually isn't all that bad.

the relationship between Bella and Edward is extremely forced

The acting sucked

indian dude actually kind of barable to watch.

3

I don't think anyone here loves movies like you do :nope:

Yoda

09-18-09, 11:09 AM

Caught Death Becomes Her the other day. Saw it when I was a kid and always thought it was fun and interesting, so I thought I'd check it out again. Not quite as good as I remembered (that's always how it is, huh?), but still fun. I'd completely forgotten it was a Zemeckis.

3

WBadger

09-18-09, 04:26 PM

Whiteout, (2009, Sena)- C-

http://cinemafique.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/whiteout.jpg

Not a good movie, and I really wasn't expecting it to be. Yet another movie in 2009 that has logic or plot issues. Kate Beckinsale's acting really didn't work either. Ridiculous movie. So, I do not reccomend it if anyone was considering it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Big Lebowski, (1998, Coen)- B+/A-

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/shawnlevy/The_Big_Lebowski___Jeff_Bridges.jpg

My favorite parts included the ferret in the bathtub and Walter thinking Lebowski wasn't crippled.

tramp

09-18-09, 05:32 PM

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (John Ford, 1962) 3.5-

http://img.listal.com/image/68455/600full-the-man-who-shot-liberty-valance-poster.jpg

The last film to be considered a classic to be directed by John Ford is this complex western which has grown in reputation since it was made in 1962. John Wayne gives one of his better performances as Tom and calls James Stewart's Ransom "Pilgrim" throughout, and for his part, Stewart is stalwart and stubbornly-persistent as the lawyer who wants to get even with the dastardly Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin) who robbed and whipped him just outside of the town of Shinbone when Ransom came in on the stage. This is all depicted in a flashback where one of the characters relates the story of how the three men interacted, which one was the man who shot Liberty Valence and which one wins the hand of the fair Hallie (Vera Miles). To be honest, I find the beginning of the film which sets up the flashback, to be a weak start which the film has to overcome, but it successfully does so, and the actual ending of the film, after the flashback ends and everyone, except for perhaps one significant character, knows the truth of the story to be quite moving. One thing's for sure is that this is certainly superior to the Wayne westerns (Rio Bravo, El Dorado) which Howard Hawks was making at about the same time.

I think everyone should see this film; such a great thematic work about the west in all it's glory. The famous line about "printing the legend" is brilliant stuff. I remember the first time watching this, I was pretty blown away with the "reveal" scene. (I was also just a kid, but Ford really got me.)

I love Wayne in this film. I also think anyone who really doesn't think Wayne was much of an actor should see this. I think he was. And I so agree that this film is better than the Hawks' films of the time. But, yea, I loved John Wayne so I enjoyed those films anyway. :)

P.S. I love that scene where Stewart is cooking the steaks. I always get hungry whenever I watch it. That food looks so good!

adidasss

09-18-09, 09:13 PM

Just some quick tabbing:

State and Main - David Mamet - 2.5
The man who would be king - John Huston - 4
Getaway - Sam Peckinpah - 4
Soldier of Orange - Paul Verhoeven - 3.5
Bliss - Ray Lawrence - 1.5

Classicqueen13

09-19-09, 11:10 AM

The Affairs of Martha (1942)

Caught this one on TCM the other night. It's a classic romantic comedy of the period. There aren't any big name stars in the cast really, but you'll probably see some familar faces. Plenty of laughs throughout this rather short flick. The plot is pretty original and the script keeps you entertained. It's the sort of movie that isn't talked much about, so you naturally have forgotten until one day years later you remember a scene from it. So, you Google it to find the title. I liked it pretty well, though.

Overall: 3.5

Along Came a Spider (2001)
http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2001_Along_Came_a_Spider/craig_march_kim_hawthorne_morgan_freeman_charles_anderson_dylan_baker_monica_potter_001.jpg

Lots of suspense and all-around nice performances in this one. Very different from the film I watched about five minutes before it ^. The whole plot about a famous detective/cop being involved in some criminal's game is pretty over-used but it works out well with this one. The most memorable thing about this movie was the amazing plot-twist. I'm sure some one out there saw it coming, but never-the-less a great surprise.

4

42ndStreetFreak

09-19-09, 06:02 PM

A question.

What is the diffence between this thread and the 'What DVD's have you been watching' thread?

Thanks.

Harry Lime

09-19-09, 06:06 PM

What is the diffence between this thread and the 'What DVD's have you been watching' thread?

People use this one a lot more.

MovieMan8877445

09-20-09, 12:44 AM

The Fifth Element - 3.5

Surprisingly a lot better than I had expected, I pretty much loved every minute of it. I really loved the kind of feel it had to it, and I feel that they did the futuristic tone perfectly. Gary Oldman, the greatest living actor, was pretty great, too, even if he could've gotten some more screen-time. My only complaint was that it took me so long to finally watching it.

http://www.johntedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/fifthelement15_1.jpg

Clueless - 3

It was pretty good, but it's wore off a lot. I don't find it that enjoyable or funny as I used to, but I still really like it. Alicia Silverstone is still as hot as ever in it, and Paul Rudd is great as usual. I still love the music selection as much as I used to, though.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm98/Geoker76/Movies%20etc/Clueless.jpg

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - 3

After how much I loved The Wrath of Khan, I had expected a lot more than this. I mean it wasn't bad or anything, but it was kind of uneventful compared to the second. The villians, the Klingons, were severely underplayed and the movie just generally went by really fast. I have The Voyage Home in from Netflix, so hopefully I'll be able to get to that tomorrow.

http://www.resourceslog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/062727xmm.jpg

TheUsualSuspect

09-20-09, 12:47 AM

Love The Fifth Element.

It's a film in which I can actually stand Chris Tucker.

Iroquois

09-20-09, 01:19 AM

http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/royaltenenbaums.jpg

The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) - 3

Films like this always interest me. I haven't seen a Wes Anderson film since watching Rushmore a few years back and not thinking too much of it. The Royal Tenenbaums felt like more of the same, although this time I thought it was quite alright. The film is full of a lot of things that have for better or worse become worn-out clichés in "off-beat comedies" - dysfunctional characters with various random idiosyncrasies that almost seem shoehorned into the film in order to drive home just how weird the film is, extremely mellow soundtrack choices, etc. Such contrived attempts at quirkiness can be and have been the death sentence for movies to me in the past (Juno, anyone?) but fortunately, the film actually was reasonably solid. Whatever problems I had with the whole "quirky" presentation took a back seat to a decent storyline, helped along by some surprisingly decent performances. It probably deserves a slightly higher rating than I've decided to give it, but I reckon it seems fair to me. It may be the wrong kind of idiosyncratic for me, but nonetheless an enjoyable film.

mark f

09-20-09, 01:45 AM

Harry Lime

09-20-09, 03:51 AM

Juno better than The Royal Tenenbaums? Pshaw!

mark f

09-20-09, 03:57 AM

If that wasn't so sad, I'd laugh my ass off, but I already know my ass is way too large for that to be able to happen, so just ignore me, and everybody else too!

P.S. - I don't superappreciate people who are obviously lurking in the shadows. I underrstand the concept when your MAIN job is Moderation, but not at all when you're trying to mix it up with the members en masse. Even so, I'm an idiot, so what does it matter what I say? Right? Idiot=Idiot.

Harry Lime

09-20-09, 04:46 AM

P.S. - I don't superappreciate people who are obviously lurking in the shadows.

Well, I guess it's a good thing I'm not here to be superappreciated.

nebbit

09-20-09, 05:15 AM

I kinda Like the Royals much better than Juno :blush: sorry Marky :kiss:

Iroquois

09-20-09, 08:50 AM

No, your rating is dead-on, or maybe slightly generous, but Juno is better. (I'm only saying that right now because I know you don't care and don't believe me, but maybe some time in the future, who knows?)

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/58/58_images/58searchershead.jpg

"That'll be the day."

meatwadsprite

09-20-09, 10:56 AM

I'd rather watch Gene Hackman brush his teeth for 2 hours than Juno.

Malky

09-20-09, 11:08 AM

I finished watching Jesus Camp (2007) a documentary about Christian bible summer camps in America. It is so scary. there is a ten year old kid who likes dancing and she was talking about why she was had to be careful and dance for Jesus and not dance for the flesh. Personally I think that is too much pressure to put on a kid.

I'm not anti religion, if that is what helps you get through the day then so be it. However some of these people were praying for everything like power point and bowling. Like Jesus is not busy enough.

One thing amused me was a Pastor was cleansing children with bottled Nestle water saying it will purify you. I'm sure she blessed it but Nestle were killing African kids for years with poorly labeled milk formulae I just found that ironic

tramp

09-20-09, 11:53 AM

meatwadsprite

09-20-09, 11:58 AM

a documentary about Christian bible summer camps in America.

I believe the camp is called Kids on Fire :laugh: , located at Devils Lake.

Malky

09-20-09, 02:28 PM

I believe the camp is called Kids on Fire :laugh: , located at Devils Lake.

That is the one;), honestly that film scared me more than any other.

Used Future

09-20-09, 06:38 PM

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__nIRPGbbZNI/Sfu7-wPFr5I/AAAAAAAAAWU/NHisEmIit6c/s400/Bohachi_bushido1.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3124/3157312548_9811cbbfbf_o.jpg

Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (Teruo Ishii, 1972) 3.5+
Another Pinky classic from Ishii who was also responsible for Horrors of Malformed Men (1969), the Sex and Fury follow up Female Yakuza Tale (1973) and cult Sonny Chiba karate vehicle The Executioner (1974) - the latter two of which I tabbed recently. Here Tesubo Tanba plays Shino, a near indestructible ronin who falls foul with the local law enforcement, and ends up in league with the Bohachi; an odd religious cult that have forgotten god, servitude, loyalty, trust, propriety, justice, conscience, and shame, hence the Code of the Forgotten Eight. The Bohachi run a lucrative brothel and soon their boss is employing Shino as an assassin to wipe out the local business competition. Things become complicated when a deadly group of ninja are hired to stop him, and the police determined to kill him despite his new protected status as a Bohachi man....

Shot with Ishii's trademark flair for fantastically colourful lighting and sumptuous framing, Bohachi Bushido is every bit a comic book come to life. The film sucks you into it's opium fuelled delirium complete with sweaty tangerine lit orgies, and strikingly original fight scenes (including one in which Shino and eight naked Bohachi women fight the leader of the ninja in a reed bed). The basic plot is nothing really new, but the concept of the Bohachi alone was enough to keep me glued and fully involved in Shino's journey. Plus Bohachi Bushido has a wonderfully weird, alien atmosphere that you so often find with the most memorable cult films. The performances are what you'd come to expect from the genre in that Shino is suitably introspective, fatalistic and tough, with the rest of the cast delivering a variety of amusing histrionics. I'd probably recommend this along with Sex and Fury as essential pinky violence films to check out for the curious out there. Just be sure to expect lots of nudity and severed limbs flying around.

http://www.mymovies.it/filmclub/2006/01/024/imm.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VJm5pJCZxs8/SZ16LrtSsII/AAAAAAAABUE/xyaoWI7i6Gk/s400/vlcsnap-20128.png

The House With Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976) 3.5+
Avati's celebrated rural giallo follows Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) a young restorer who travels to a remote Italian village to work on a fresco painting depicting the death of St. Sebastiano. The final work of a mentally disturbed local artist who revelled in capturing death; the relevance of, and story behind the painting soon draws Stefano into a bizarre nightmare of repressed village here'say, punctuated by the suspected murder of a friend. With the secretive (and downright sinister) inhabitants of the village all displaying passive aggressive eccentricities, Stefano finds an ally and lover in Francesca (Francesca Marciano), but his restoration of the painting leads them both into danger...

With a disturbing monochromatic opening credit sequence depicting an unknown man being repeatedly stabbed whilst a raspy voice recites poetry about the colours running through his veins; you'd be forgiven for expecting a twisted gorefest. In truth Avati's understated film opts for a languid pace, subtly building tension, and gradually ratcheting up the intrigue and suspense before exploding into violence at the end of the final act. On the surface a well photographed rural picture postcard; The House With Laughing Windows plays on small village stereo-types, with practically every character represented in sinister fashion as either retarded (Lidio the perverted village idiot), freakish (Solmi the secretive dwarf mayor), alcoholic (Coppola the ostracised taxi driver), and bedridden (the old lady in Lidio's house who never sees daylight). Avati seems less concerned with logic (Stefano forgets about his friend's murder all too quickly), and even forgoes revealing much in the way of clues as to the true nature of the mystery (save for Stefano receiving intimidating phone calls warning him not to restore the painting). Instead he creates an effective atmosphere of impending tragedy and horror, content to let the viewer stew in paranoia, and anticipation. Whether it works is up for debate. Personally I was completely sucked in by the bleak atmosphere, oddball characters, and secluded locales, offset by the terror promised in the opening credits.

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Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974) 2.5+
Li Koryu (Etsuko Shohomi who was only seventeen at the time of filming) is recruited by the Hong Kong police to locate and free her brother Mansei after he's captured by a drug cartel whilst working undercover. Off she goes to Japan where she's aided by Mansei's Karate school and it's champion Hibiki (Sonny Chiba) to infiltrate the gang which comprises of martial arts masters from different disciplines...

The plot for this one could have been written on the back of a postage stamp by an eight year old with learning difficulties. It's ridiculously contrived and childish, with second rate acting, and some questionable editing (including one scene in which Koryu and one of the lead henchmen are magically transported atop a seaside cliff for no apparent reason). Sister Street Fighter is also non stop fun, with consistently excellent fight sequences to rival the Sonny Chiba Street Fighter films, and a whole host of outlandishly bizarre villains. Take for example the kickboxing Amazon women who dress like Fred Flintstone; the mohawk wearing, poison dart blowing assassin who carries an African shield; the karate men who wear black cone shaped baskets on their heads, or the priest with the harpoon gun; they're all in there. It's clear Sister Street Fighter was trying to up the anti and outdo it's contemporaries in terms of graphic violence. This is most apparent when Koryu dispatches an opponent by twisting his head around 180 degrees leaving us to watch him slowly stumble forward spewing blood before falling down a flight of stairs. Overall I can't honestly give this a decent score, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it immensely.

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww335/GialloFunk/img_243932_lrg.jpg?t=1253476803 http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/pix/d/de/designatdvctm1.jpg

The Designated Victim (Maurizio Lucidi, 1971) 3.5
Set in misty Venice, Lucidi's re-imagining (some would say rip off) of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train has wealthy ad exec Argenti (Tomas Milian) befriend eccentric Count Matteo Tiepolo (Pierre Clementi) after a series of supposedly chance encounters. Soon the count is shadowing Argenti and trying to persuade him they should each murder the other's annoying relatives; Tiepolo's brother, and Argenti's (who wants to marry his young mistress) wife respectively. Argenti refuses to take him seriously shrugging it off as mere fantasy, until his wife shows up dead and the police finger him for the murder...

I've not seen Strangers on a Train so I'm not in a position to offer a fully informed critique of this film. All I can say is that the story captivated me (the interplay between Argenti and the Count reminded me of Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth a little bit, especially after the murder). I thought Tomas Milian was excellent as the disillusioned Argenti struggling to come to terms with his predicament, and I really enjoyed Clementi's performance as the effeminate genius Tiepolo (even if he did remind me of Russell Brand). Luicidi does a great job of capturing the Venice architecture with elegant location photography, and the story is suitably tense and involving with an appropriately downbeat final twist. Makes me want to check out Strangers on a Train now.

I should also note that this is the Shameless rebuild edit of the film, and as such the picture quality varies considerably. This includes some short scenes that switch from the 2.35 aspect ratio to full frame, and some print damage. Overall though the picture quality is good.

other stuff I watched...

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The Other (Robert Mulligan, 1972) 2.5+
Extremely well acted horror about young boy haunted by his evil twin who was taught astral projection (which he calls the great game) by their Russian grandmother (brilliantly played by Uta Hagen). Atmospheric mood piece has superb 1930's period detail, but fails in the scares department, and feels overlong.

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b6/Mechanic.jpg/200px-Mechanic.jpg

The Mechanic (Michael Winner, 1972) 3
Enjoyable time filler with Charles Bronson's hitman taking Jan-Michael Vincent's arrogant protege on with disastrous results. Bronson is his usual good self, and the film has a delightful (if predictable) twist ending. Just a shame the action is in short supply and the characters a little cliched.

jrs

09-20-09, 09:27 PM

Stan Helsing 3_5

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Brother Blue

09-20-09, 09:35 PM

Army of Shadows (1969)
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Brilliant. 4.5

Nothing else really needs to be said. If you haven't seen it, do so. ;)

Iroquois

09-20-09, 10:39 PM

Why do mark f's posts confuse me so much?

Senility?

Miss Vicky

09-21-09, 05:25 AM

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Escort West (1958)

A very unremarkable black and white Western starring Victor Mature. Wasn't good. Wasn't bad. Probably won't ever watch it again.

2.5

mark f

09-21-09, 06:08 AM

First off, I want to assure a couple of members who may actually care that I will write up Danger: Diabolik, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Casque d'or ASAP. For now, I have to choose those films which I'm comfy describing and don't want to (perhaps) disappoint so many people just yet. (Yeah right, like that'd ever happen... )

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948) 4

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/3787493941_ffaeac9231.jpg

Here (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=568503#post568503) it is.

Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, 2006) 2-

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2006/01/20/will_oldham_stars_in_old_joy_405x270.jpg

This film was universally praised a few years ago, and I'd like to comment now about why I think it was. First off, it does have a background (vis-a-vis the Liberal station on the car radio) which might attract "film critics". It's also almost devoid of any plot, character development or plot twists. Basically, what it does have and is good about, is that it shows two longtime friends who have drifted apart and shows them on a brief camping vacation. I can understand the praise for the visuals because the best thing to me was the way the Oregon forest looks like things I've been in, and of course, I've spent several months in the Oregon and California forests. The problem seems to be that the film should be a coffee table book and not a movie. Even at about 75 minutes, this film seems about two or three times as long as the content merits. Sure, I laughed when the Stoner got them lost in the middle of nowhere but that was about it for signs of recognition other than the way I love the wilderness. Some people will groove to the utter stillness of the thing but most will get antsy before 10 minutes.

It's a Free World... (Ken Loach, 2007) 2.5+

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This is the follow-up film to what I consider Loach's greatest achievement, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and it returns him right into the homes of the English-speaking Englanders who sometimes need subtitles to translate their own English dialogue. That was always a cute gimmick I enjoyed from Loach, even though I could understand the dialogue, Loach and/or his distributor went ahead and subtitled their dialogue because they thought most non-British viewers couldn't understand it. This one starts out in a similar vein (but without the subtitles) and I was wondering if I was going to be able to relate to the characters when the attractive lead actress (Kierston Wairing) started to seem like a real person and all her problems trying to make ends meet and support her troubled young son started to kick in. Then the flick turned really quite suspenseful, involving the working habits of many non-Englanders she's trying to help out, so at this point I'm left wondering how much I may have underrated this thing.

Somewhere in the Night (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946) 2

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This is Mankiewicz's third feature film direction, and although his script may be worth about one-tenth more than his direction, it's still overlong and underdeveloped. It's one of the film noirs where the lead (John Hodiak) is best left alone because he really doesn't have much to stir up his friends or family into helping him with his plight. The bad guys all seem to have the best cards and the one "good guy" seems to be in way over his own head. Mankiewicz obviously improved later in his career, but Nancy Guild makes a striking film debut.

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 06:39 AM

"Crank" - 3.5

Still as good as the first time. Violent, twisted, exciting, funny, comic strip un-pc funstuffs, with the ever welcome Jason Statham in top form backed by a lovely and astute turn by Amy Smart who knows how things are going down and plays what could have been the one weak link in the film to perfection.
Mad, bad and surely one of a kind?.....

"Crank 2" 3 or... 5. I don't know!

Holy Hell!
"Crank" was so far off the map and damn bonkers that surely the human mind could not take a parody of it?
By definition something that would have to be an even more absurdist take on what was the most enjoyably absurd action flick ever anyway.
Well...they did it anyway!

Absolutely psychotic and surrealist to the max, wickedly offensive as possibly to absolutely everyone it should be offensive to, just as violent and( astonishingly) sexually even more crazy than the first film.
How anyone let these guys go mad in a sandpit with millions of dollars is anyone's guess.

Mind shredding things happen just because it's fun for them to do so with no real world logic (or even plot progression), characters have completely way out and wild physical and mental afflictions just so a couple of groovy joke scenes can be harvested from them (and why not!), absolutely everyone is fantastically racist, sexist and generally vile to everyone else in a very loud way, grotesque physical trauma, death and mutilation is dished out with relish, and just as we think our brain can't surely take any more of this screaming insanity.....Gigantic human Godzilla's are suddenly thrown into the mix along with a completely bonkers return of a character form the first film done in such a way that the entire shrieking mass of the movie is catapulted into a whole other dimension of freakiness.

And quite frankly we should all wallow in this gloriously putrid pit of anti-movie insanity, as the makers won't get away with creating such a monster again!

Harry Lime

09-21-09, 07:13 AM

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Pigs and Battleships (1961, Shohei Imamura) 3.5
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Il Posto (1961, Ermanno Olmi) 3
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Mouchette (1967, Robert Bresson) 3.5
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I Was Born, But... (1932, Yasujiro Ozu) 2.5
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Mamma Roma (1962, Pier Paolo Pasolini) 3.5
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The White Sheik (1952, Federico Fellini) 2
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Winter Light (1962, Ingmar Bergman) 4
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I Live in Fear (1955, Akira Kurosawa) 3
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Naked Island (1960, Kaneto Shindo) 3.5
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The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Martin Scorsese) 2.5
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The King of Kong (2007, Seth Gordon) 3.5
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The Killer (1989, John Woo) 2.5
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La Commare Secca (1962, Bernardo Bertolucci) 3
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A Woman Is a Woman (1961, Jean-Luc Godard) 2.5
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The Cotton Club (1984, Francis Ford Coppola) 1.5

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 07:34 AM

A lousy 2.5....for "The Killer"!?? What...What....:eek: :nope:
A stunning action film in every way.

I'd rate the vastly under-appreciated "The Cotton Club" a nice little 3. As a gangster nut it pushed all the right buttons and mixes fact and fiction very well.

"The Trollenberg Terror" 2.5

A right weird little film.
One of my many childhood initiations into the movie world (thus will always have a soft spot in my heart) this has some memorable and grizzly moments (heads torn off that end up in all the wrong places) and a solid atmosphere and cast.

The plot takes in everything from mind reading, murderous chilly zombie sorts and of course huge wobbly brains with tentacles and one big eye!

The non-eye creatures first 2/3rds is the better and more effective film, but the creatures are at least fun and look great...even if the film now goes off into silly land.

Malky

09-21-09, 08:26 AM

The Hot Spot- 3.5
http://contentcafe.btol.com/Jacket/Jacket.aspx?SysID=Jacket&CustID=Image&Return=0&Type=L&Key=027616817020

Weird film but compelling, honestly I had no idea what was going on throughout this film, but the performances kept it going. I definitely enjoyed it but I'm still confused by what happened. It is worth a watch however, maybe one day I will figure it out.

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 08:28 AM

"The Hot Spot" has a great original John Lee Hooker featuring soundtrack as well. And JC's Breasts as well of course!;)

Tacitus

09-21-09, 09:52 AM

Haven't seen The Hot Spot since it came out. Not even Ms Connelly's thrups (and I've long had a thing for Virginia Madsen) made me want to return. Maybe it's because John Dahl was doing far better Noirs around that time, I dunno.

If you liked the vibe of The Hot Spot, Malky, check out Dahl's early work - Red Rock West, Kill Me Again and The Last Seduction.

If you haven't already, that is. :)

Malky

09-21-09, 10:09 AM

honeykid

09-21-09, 11:06 AM

A lousy 2.5....for "The Killer"!?? What...What....:eek: :nope:
A stunning action film in every way.

Pretty much everything I was going to say. Except to add that you gave King Of Kong a whole popcorn more?!?! :eek:

If you liked the vibe of The Hot Spot, Malky, check out Dahl's early work - Red Rock West, Kill Me Again and The Last Seduction.

If you haven't already, that is. :)

I second The Last Seduction. Kill Me Again was pretty damn good too. Red Rock West has, a young, Nic Cage in it though, making it unwatchable.

Used Future

09-21-09, 11:12 AM

Tacitus

09-21-09, 11:46 AM

Red Rock West has, a young, Nic Cage in it though, making it unwatchable.

Oh, I dunno. Old almond-head Nick was a lot more watchable in his hellraiser days. :D

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 11:59 AM

The Killer has some great action scenes, but come on; it gets very sentimental and silly towards the end. Especially the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck thing they had going on. I'd probably give it a 3.

Nothing wrong with a bit of man-bonding and good old sentimentality.
Hell, it ***** on the vapid, annoying as fleas on your dick, macho bonding sentimentality seen in the awful (RIP) "Point Break".

It's the Brotherly bonding of 'The Shaw Brothers' films, with a dash of "Wild Bunch" mixed with flowery Hong Kong Chinese sentiment.

linespalsy

09-21-09, 12:05 PM

i really don't see that it has much over point break or other american action movies, actually. why is it less vapid than pt. break? cos it's in cantonese so you can relate it back to the shaw bros.?

adidasss

09-21-09, 12:33 PM

A lousy 2.5....for "The Killer"!?? What...What....:eek: :nope:
A stunning action film in every way.

From wiki:
The story follows Ah Jong (Chow-Yun Fat), the killer who accidentally hurts the eyes of the pop singer Jennie (Sally Yeh). Later, he meets Jennie and finds that she needs an expensive operation due to the accident or she will go blind. To get the money for the surgery, Ah Jong decides to perform one last hit. Inspector Li Ying (Danny Lee), who has been chasing Ah Jong for a long time, is determined to catch him.

Did you mean "it's so bad it's good"?

linespalsy

09-21-09, 12:45 PM

ha! that description actually makes it sound pretty fun to me, but i just don't remember the movie itself having any sense of humor so it just seemed like another bad 80s buddy movie.

adidasss

09-21-09, 12:50 PM

That's because it is. I'm pretty sure its humor is entirely unintentional...;)

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 01:04 PM

"The Killer" (and to a lesser extent "A Better Tomorrow")was a breath of fresh air actually.
Too many (though not all) American action films had become slow, tired and badly made (for example check out the truly dire action set-ups, stunts, pacing and action direction in "Invasion USA" during the mall shootout. It's appallingly amateur and flat).

Woo married up the sadly too often forgotten brutal action choreography and editing of Peckinpah, with 'Shaw Brothers' flamboyant bloodletting, exceptional Hong Kong stunt/action choreography, well crafted gun chic, charismatic and physically skilled actors and yes, Asian sentimental bonding....and created something that became a sensation for a reason.
It was at the time a unique combination of the majestic and blood drenched brutality done with a technical skill and understanding most American action film makers could only stare at.

Being in Cantonese has nothing to do with it either by the way. Look for film snobs someplace else.

"Point Break" stinks for many,many reasons, but the sentimentalty there is of the hypcritical Jock kind. The manly bonding that hides behind macho posturing because its ashamed of it.
And although both Cops in these films lose partners...In "The Killer" it's very much indirectly linked to anything Chow Yun Fat does.
And Chow certainly is not involved.

In "Point Break" not only are these surfers brutal bank robbers that purposey target 'civilians' (unlike the Chow's hitman, and who anyway tries to help -and pays dearly for it- his one civilian casualty) but they killed Reeves' cop partner!

So the vomit enducing finale where Reeves (who yet again is a ****ing plank, Chow Yun Fat has more charisma and acting chops in his little finger) allows Swayze's cop killing armed robber to choose his own surftastic fate (because he obviously loves him so!...But don't let the 'dudes' hear you say that) is nothing but an insult to all the innocent victims of Swayze's crime spree and especially to Reeves' own murdered partner!
God awful rubbish that somehow gets lauded while Bigelow's vastly superior "Strange Days" gets forgotten.

That's because it is. I'm pretty sure its humor is entirely unintentional...;)Oh...LOL Oh...LOL. Oh......
Your loss.
But why did you need to consult Wiki to explain the plot to make your rather weak jibes? Surely if you have such a keen judgment on the movie you must know what it's about?

But well, each to his own I guess.

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 01:19 PM

Any old way.....

"ZOMBI 2" (again) 4

Fulci's Zombie icon.
The highly effective mysterious opening kicks into the excellent Fabio Frizzi score played over those ominous white on black titles and you just know that something special is happening here.
This rushes into first attack and it's looks and sounds unlike anything else in any Zombie film seen before.
Add the bizarre Shark/Zombie fight (certainly unlike anything else ever seen) and you have a film that may only exist because of another movie...but went on to break its own ground and to develop its own style.

Nice turns by all the cast ,with Richard Johnson especially using his great voice to perfection, a bit of nudity, some great sets, truly superb looking zombie make-up, some amazingly executed gore effects (sadly marred by the later overly bright DVD transfers) with the oft forgotten throat bite easily being the jaw droppingly bloody highlight and the slow and sadistic splinter scene is as undying in it's appeal as the zombies themselves.
And of course add that stunning Cinematography and all is in place to deliver a memorable, if sometimes lethargic, movie.

And this is also a film drenched in apocalyptic atmosphere.
As the corpses mount up in the mass burial pits and as the cast is munched down, a real sense of bleakness sets in.
Fulci expertly milks this atmosphere for all it's worth in the majestically designed Zombie shots where the rotted dead shamble into view, and these wonderful creations walk in the definitive 'Zombie way', in that head down, dragging monstrosity of human movement.

One of the finest visuals has to be the lone zombie stumbling through the deserted wind swept village. And in a magical mixture of fine make-up FX, camera movement, Cinematography and music Fulci delivers one of the great horror shots as the camera sweeps around to reveal the Zombie's half destroyed face.

And lets us not forget the best damn chowing down sequence ever as the half eaten body lies on the table, like an all you can eat buffet, as a group of shadowed ghouls consume it...and the shot of the zombie with it's head down who eats by shoving his face into the bloodied trough of his hand is perhaps the most horrific example of a living corpse eating human flesh ever put on screen.

Plods a bit in the middle, but otherwise this is essential Horror viewing and always will be.

adidasss

09-21-09, 01:37 PM

But why did you need to consult Wiki to explain the plot to make your rather weak jibes? Surely if you have such a keen judgment on the movie you must know what it's about?

But well, each to his own I guess.

I have the memory of a goldfish. All I remember from the film is that I was shocked at how hilariously bad the story was. I guess I tend to block out such traumatic memories. :(

And I don't think ANYONE could sell that story line as anything but hilariously bad. You can argue the films technical feats till you're blue in the face, it won't change that simple fact. Sorry if that seems like a weak jibe, I guess I pay too much attention to such trifling matters as a storyline...:|

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 01:54 PM

But your last post is a real view...and not simply a jibe like the other posts. There is a difference.

Bad? No, it's romanticised and sentimental for sure, but that does not mean bad.
It plays like an old fashioned redemption tale.

This is no more bad than many a Western story, golden era gangster film or indeed classic Martial Arts plotline.
It's no more 'bad' than the equally sentimental tale of attempted redemption that makes up, the hailed as a classic to this day, "High Sierra" for example.
Or the finale to "The Roaring Twenties".

Nothing wrong with that though, cynicism is not always a welcome thing.

"The Killer" had an old school (classic Hollywood even) sentimentality but mixed with very modern, technically superb, high octane violence. I rather fine combination.

That's how I saw it anyway...Because I did pay attention to that trifling detail but came to a very different conclusion because I embraced it and went along with it.

Thursday Next

09-21-09, 05:43 PM

In the Loop - 3/5

I did like the satirical tv show The Thick of It, about the machinations of politicians and their aides and spin doctors (like a modern Yes Minister with more swearing). And this film is the big screen spin off. (Or small screen, if, like me, you're watching on dvd.) It was alright. Some bits are hilarious. Mainly the bits involving vitriolic Scottish spin doctors swearing and threatening colleagues and associates in a variety of creative ways. But overall it's not as funny as the tv show, stretched to three times the length with attempts to appeal to the international market (I assume) with the inclusion of American politicians (some of whom are well observed and funny and some simply dull). It's not really about plot, which doesn't matter so much in a tv comedy but does become a problem in a film, when there just isn't quite enough funny dialogue to sustain it.

Caitlyn

09-21-09, 05:54 PM

Thanks to my cousin...

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) ... McConaughey and Douglas have both sunk to all time lows...

0

meatwadsprite

09-21-09, 05:59 PM

I remember how awesome the action scenes in The Killer were and that's about it. I also remember how long the ending dragged on and on and on and on.

mark f

09-21-09, 06:04 PM

What? Too many doves?

Malky

09-21-09, 06:14 PM

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 07:11 PM

Just watched night of The Living Dead for the first time, I did enjoy it but it took a while to get into it. I think I have been spoilt by seeing what came since then but ti was good to see the original for the first time.

It has issues (I still hate the lame as hell first Zombie who pulls stupid faces...Something the whiny Hinzman has made an entire life out of) and some of the acting is...er....not good.

But overall I think this still holds up amazingly well and the 'trowel' scene is still one of the most violent and disturbing things in horror...the editing and sound FX during it are astonishing.
It remains forever more an absolutely essential watch and better than the re-make for sure.

adidasss

09-21-09, 08:43 PM

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Gomez/Che-movie-poster2.jpg

Che - Steven Soderbergh - Watched both parts in one evening. Very different films. I think it's important to note that the first part can stand on its own so you don't really "need" to see the second part which is slightly inferior and, as Holden says, repetitive, although I think my overall lesser enjoyment of the second part was mostly due to its bleak tone. For anyone who knows at least a little bit of history they'll know this story does not have a happy ending. The second part is the polar opposite of the first part which buzzes with romantic revolutionary sentiment and excitement. In that respect I think both parts were equally successful in depicting the general mood of the two periods in Che's life. The Cuban mission was a resounding success, the Bolivian one an utter failure. I think the second part was a little better in expounding on the motivation for the fight than the first one which focuses mostly on the road to victory. On the whole, a very interesting film (it kept me in front of the TV for 5 hours, that's saying something). So, I don't really have any objections to either of them, it's a masterful and very professional achievement. 4

mark f

09-21-09, 09:00 PM

"You're a better man than I, Gunga Din."

adidasss

09-21-09, 09:13 PM

How do you mean, marky?

Pyro Tramp

09-21-09, 09:22 PM

Eagle vs Shark - 3

Basically a New Zealand Napolean Dynamite, ok for a few laughs and decent performance from one half of Flight of the Conchords.

Hamlet 2 - 2_5

Lot of stuff seen in other films, thought better of Steve Coogan. Not really many jokes or a particularly well structured film

Aventureland - 2

Nothing inherently bad with it, just pretty dull and uninspired love story. Hoped for more from the Superbad director

Saw IV - 1_5

Not regretting that i stopped investing in the franchise after last instalment. Extremely pointless attempt to flog a dead horse

Saw V - 1

Doesn't even try to be new. Takes the detective element from first and people in trap from second but just ****

Far Cry - 3_5

Yeah, i didn't quite believe it either. Was in the mood for a trashy action film and got one. It didn't have the budget but i thought it was fairly competent action fare but does only just miss dipping into being plain bad at points

Gamer - 4

Man, i love those Crank guys. They basically ejaculate pure testosterone and adrenaline into their films. Basically plot of Death Race but more balls out, some action sequences hit the VG inspiration perfectly and has some great ridiculous moments

Twilight - n/a

Laughed at the atrocious bits of this so much it got turned off. Vampires should be bad ass or David Bowie, i don't want one who burst into tears every time someone speaks to them

Awake - 1_5

Interesting concept, which turns out is pretty irrelevant to the overall plot. Hayden Christensen further proves his inability to act

Mr Majestyk - 3

Decent bit of Bronson action. Though one of the bigger stretches of belief is he's a MELON FARMER! Miss films with big ugly blokes in, instead pretty boy types

Sharky's Machine - 2

LOVED the book of this and thought it would make amazing film before knew one existed. Doesn't really follow the engrossing detective tale or make a particularly intriguing noir.

The Conformist - 3_5

I liked it but didn't really think it was as good as perhaps would have been led to believe.

Watched some old favourites as well

Flash Gordon - 5
The Business - 5
Hot Fuzz - 5
The Transporter - 4
Crank - 5
Eden Lake - 4
License to Kill - 4

TheUsualSuspect

09-21-09, 09:23 PM

Route 666

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/layden/route_666_poster.jpg

My second time catching this and loving it even more. Not in the ways one is suppose to I'm sure. The film is a B-Movie to the core, with cheesy acting, special effects and the whole lot.

Lou Diamond Phillips, or as the cool kids call him, LDP, has to find and escort a witness back to court. The only problem is the witness is hiding out in the middle of the desert. The film opens with LDP finding him and the Russian gangsters he is testifying against tracking him down to kill him. A shootout occurs, one that is so horribly done that it feels like a low grade action film from the 80's.

On their way to bring the witness back, LDP begins having these bizarre visions of a graveyard and prison workers dying. Is there a connection? Well, out of nowhere he claims his father is buried out here. Coincidence? I think not, some clever writers came up with some genius ideas in this script.

At some point in the film, it becomes some sort of horror flick. With these zombies coming back from the dead to kill those who are on route 666. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they take an abandoned road to get to their destination quicker. Isn't that always the case? These zombies get their 'power' from the road. That is a quote from the film. They are attracted from blood spilled.

The acting is well done from LDP and Steven Williams, the witness. The rest are pretty bad. The effects, are cheesy. The film has some kind of weird choppy slow motion style when the zombies appear. The make-up on them is low rent. They look like gravel...like the road. Find any of this funny yet? I sure did.

The film is one of those, so bad it's good. I find it hilariously good. If you can't find the humour in bad cheesy horror films, then this will not be for you. The climax involves LDP connecting to his dead father and giving him his blood to save everyone. Weird? Sure is. The dead zombie father becomes good and saves his son. This film even falls under the good old 'drinking game' category. Give it a whirl if you find bad horror films hilarious.

2

42ndStreetFreak

09-21-09, 09:32 PM

Mr Majestyk - 3

Decent bit of Bronson action. Though one of the bigger stretches of belief is he's a MELON FARMER! Miss films with big ugly blokes in, instead pretty boy types

Freakin well love "Mr Majestyk".
Bronson the kick ass Melon Farmer is simply a great idea, the bad guy support cast is groovy (you just have to love good old weasely Paul Koslo and macho bull Al Lettieri), it has some good set pieces and a top notch shotgun ending.
Yet another 70's Bronson gem.
Don't mess with my melons you 'melon farmers'!

linespalsy

09-21-09, 10:28 PM

Dolemite 0
Fanny & Alexander 3.5

Harry Lime

09-21-09, 10:42 PM

In regards to The Killer, I might have given it a 3/5 if it weren't for that ridiculous ending. You can only "embrace" so much before you finally crack.

As for The Cotton Club, all the top-notch production design, choreography and talent in the world can't save your film if it has a lacklustre script and some weak acting that distracts the viewer from the good.

Also, both films had me laughing at them, and not in a good way.

mark f

09-21-09, 11:14 PM

"You're a better man than I, Gunga Din."

How do you mean, marky?

I don't really know what I'm doing because I have 30 seconds to do five minutes worth of crap. I meant that if I'd known that the second film was going to be told the way it was, I probably would have never bothered watching it. I think maybe if Soderbergh had waited until he had a better script and put out Part II when it was more-prepared, then your take on the film would have been more accurate.

Miss Vicky

09-21-09, 11:33 PM

http://www.angelfire.com/music6/walteregan/MoFoPics/chinadoll.jpg

China Doll (1958)

A surprisingly entertaining war movie/love story starring Victor Mature (Miss Vicky watched a Victor Mature movie? Shocking, I know). What was most surprising about this film was that Mature turned in a good performance. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he should've received any kind of accolades for it and for most other actors it would be only mediocre. But for a Victor Mature performance it was very good.

3.5-

Holden Pike

09-21-09, 11:38 PM

Dolemite 0
Fanny & Alexander 3.5

Now THAT is a double feature!

What's up next? I Spit on Your Grave and La Notte?

mark f

09-21-09, 11:58 PM

It worked for me, but I watched them in reverse order. There's no way you can handle it the other way.

meatwadsprite

09-22-09, 02:10 AM

Far Cry - 3_5

I think you just gave Uwe Boll the highest praise he has ever received ever.

TheUsualSuspect

09-22-09, 02:28 AM

Fanboys 3

Mildly entertaining, works better on fans of Star Wars and even Star Trek. Cameos and references made the film, along with Kristen Bell, whom I have a soft spot for, and Jay Baruchel. It's got some serious tones in the film, but nothing to shed a tear over. The comedy is first and foremost.

Used Future

09-22-09, 07:21 AM

Dolemite 0

Ha ha, completely agree on this one Lines. Easily the worst blaxploitation flick I've seen (even worse than The Black Gestapo and TNT Jackson). It's completely inept; the fight scenes are just pathetic, and I lost count of the number of times the mic was visible in shot. What baffles me is why it always pops up on 'best-of' lists, and the number of sequels it spawned. :|

Iroquois

09-22-09, 07:25 AM

Ha ha, completely agree on this one Lines. Easily the worst blaxploitation flick I've seen (even worse than The Black Gestapo and TNT Jackson). It's completely inept; the fight scenes are just pathetic, and I lost count of the number of times the mic was visible in shot. What baffles me is why it always pops up on 'best-of' lists, and the number of sequels it spawned. :|

I would've thought it's because it was so bad it's good. I don't argue with the points you make, but it's those exact flaws (among many others) that make it enjoyable, if not necessarily an objectively good film.

42ndStreetFreak

09-22-09, 11:51 AM

"King of Comedy" 4.5

Easily the most unjust flop in Martin Scorsese's career and easily one of his finest works, as well as one of De Niro's most brilliant performances that hits every note perfectly.

Not a single member of the cast puts a foot wrong in fact. Sandra Bernhard is utterly bonkers in all the right ways and Jerry Lewis is magnificent in what was a very brave role to take.
Black as pitch, sad, tragic... funny, clever, astute. A rare mix, mixed perfectly.

While 3rd rate efforts like "Cape Fear" become hits, and flops like the very overrated "Raging Bull" gain massive critical plaudits later...the superb "King of Comedy" hovers around in semi-obscurity.
All hail Scorsese and De Niro! This joins "Taxi Driver" as the pinnacle of their collaborations, followed by "Goodfellas" and "Casino".
Simply magnificent cinema on every level.

"Crossroads" - 3

A tale of the Blues and the Delta using the famous old legend that Bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to The Devil at a crossroads to become King of the Blues.

A nice slide guitar score by the always welcome Ry Cooder, some great location shooting in the Deep South and overall a good, solid, if slightly overlong, bit of 80's entertainment from good old Walter Hill.

Nice turn by Joe Seneca (nasty Government guy in "The Blob") as the old Blues man, Blind Willy.
Steve Vai is The Devil's guitar gladiator of choice for the wonderful 'guitar duel' finale.
Smug Ralph Macchio? Currently residing in the 'where are they now' file.

One for Blues fans...and if you ain't no Blues fan? Kiss my pick!

ash_is_the_gal

09-22-09, 04:45 PM

Pineapple Express (2008)
sorry, i couldn't get more than 20 minutes into this one.
http://thepasswordisswordfish.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/pineapple-express-2.jpg
0

Doubt (2008)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/12/12/movies/12doubt.xlarge1.jpg
4

The Glass Menagerie (1973)
i had to read the Tennessee Williams play for a class over the summer, and when i found out Hepburn starred in the movie, i just had to see it.
http://sfs.scnu.edu.cn/tanwh/tina3/s/spic/3.jpg
4.5

Ferngully: the Last Rainforest (1992)
http://www.impawards.com/1992/posters/ferngully_the_last_rainforest_ver2.jpg
3

Roman Holiday (1953)
i adored this.
http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/19/1919/MJM9D00Z/augusto-di-giovanni-roman-holiday.jpg
4

Waking Ned Devine (1998)
i liked it, but i sort of wished it had ended sooner.
http://www.undergroundhumor.com/videos/images/waking_ned_devine_dvd_large.jpg
3

The Hangover (2009)
somebody please explain to me what the **** is so funny about this movie. seriously.
http://annehelenpetersen.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-hangover-01.jpg
0

[Rec] (2007)
possibly in like, my top 3 favorite zombie movies of all time?
http://www.moviesonline.ca/movie-gallery/albums/REC/RECstill02.jpg
5

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
a cute anime about a girl who discovers she has the ability to travel back through time. at first she uses her power to re-live good moments, like a karaoke marathon. it was really cute, and the ending was sweet.
http://sgnewwave.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/girl-who-leapt-through-time.jpg
4

The Children's Hour (1961)
this one is way ahead of it's time.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/audrey/images/bfi-00m-v9a.jpg
4

Angel: Season 1 (1999)
i did like this, but not as much as Buffy 1-3. i've switched back to Buffy season 4 presently. we'll see.
http://flowtv.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/angel1.jpg
3.5

To Live (1994)
it was well-done, i thought, but much too depressing. normally i don't mind that, but i felt like slashing my wrists about half-way through. hm.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/To_Live_Poster.jpg
3

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
what a disappointment. one would think these actors would have improved over time, but no.
http://lazyhabits.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/the_chronicles_of_n_399388a.jpg
2

Best in Show (2000)
oodles of fun! "we met at Starbucks... but not the same Starbucks..."
http://www.impawards.com/2000/posters/best_in_show.jpg
4.5

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
what a strange, strange, strange movie. i need to see it again because i feel like i missed stuff.
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/98/90698-004-49567146.jpg
4.5

Daria: Is It Fall Yet? (2001)
oh, a walk down teenager lane. <3 daria
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B8XGT96WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
5

Camelot (1967)
i saw this one in high school. i remember it being better than it actually was. but still, it was a fun musical.
http://a.getbackimages.com/uri/w514_h800_cfalse_K0430234341/richard-harris-in-camelot-/image/4/0/4/5/4045057.jpg
3

Teeth (2006)
a girl who discovers she has teeth in her vag uses them to sever the genitals of crude, unsuspecting men. where can you go wrong? the acting was rubbish, but entertaining at least.
http://matterful.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/teeth_movie_poster_comedy.jpg
3

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
ooh, i really liked this one. but you can't go wrong with Phillip. <3
http://fataculture.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/before-the-devil-knows-youre-dead.jpg
4.5

Daria: Is It College Yet? (2002)
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000068TPO.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
4.5

The Devil's Backbone (2001)
a lot of people told me this was better than Pans Labyrinth. i disagree. though it is poignant, and lovely.
http://www.movieforum.com/features/festivals/tiff01/images/devilsbackbone/devilsbackbone1.jpg
3.5

The Blue Bird (1940)
ha. this has always been my favorite Shirley Temple movie. it's so overlooked.
http://www.lovefilm.com/lovefilm/images/products/6/50816-large.jpg
5

WBadger

09-22-09, 04:58 PM

Ikiru, (1952, Kurosawa)- B+/A-

http://www.cinematrix.hu/fajlok/hirek/kepek/ikiru.gif

First of all, this is my first Akira Kurosawa directed film and overall a decent, powerful film that can mean so many more deeper meanings depending on how you yourself can accept and think about it.

Takashi Shimura really brought a lot to this film and did an outstanding job acting in this movie. His facial expressions were perfect and fit well with how this guy must’ve been feeling about his unquestionable death. Especially the disappointment in his eyes after finding out about the stomach cancer, and then later his passion-filled eyes when singing the song.

The slow pacing was a factor for me. It seemed to get really slow towards the last fourty minutes or so. I usually don’t like using the term “slow” as an excuse or reason for putting down a film becuase it seems like a cop-out or having a short attention span. But, I honestly felt, I was starting to lose interest towars the end of the movie. And a few scenes dragged on a little longer than they should’ve.

I’ve seen a comedic approach to this plot idea in a Season 2 episode of “The Simpsons”. And, now I’ve seen a more realistic, moving story that makes you sympathize for this guy, especially with the immense amount of dissapointment on his face. There are messages abound that were hopefully picked up and understood by everyone when watching this film. Like I said, the acting and portrayal of Watanbe was just great. One of the most powerful moments in the film for me was when Watanbe originally motioned his stomach as the problem and then eventually moved his hands closest to his heart. Really great visual that went a long way with me.

Overall, slow at times but still extraordinarily convincing and powerful.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Psycho, (1960, Hitchcock)- A+

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_27xZRVcQIsU/Rh95mxfhycI/AAAAAAAAA08/71XWerNfzHI/s400/NormanBates.gif

Wow, what an excellent movie. Norman Bates was a great character to watch, and this movie does a lot for the horror genre.

TheUsualSuspect

09-22-09, 06:46 PM

Here's a question, if you only watch 20 minutes of a movie, can you justifiably give it a rating of zero?

TheUsualSuspect

09-22-09, 06:56 PM

Bruno 2
Thin on story, making Borat seem like a mutli layered character piece. The jokes are redundant and either gets you or doesn't. I laughed at two scenes, but it's not worth the admission. The film is there to push the envelope of bad taste and censorship. In a pile of other films like Jackass, this one is near the top in bad taste. Props again for staying in character in sticky situations, but it's all been there done that. Nothing different from Borat, just meaner.

linespalsy

09-22-09, 07:31 PM

Now THAT is a double feature!

What's up next? I Spit on Your Grave and La Notte?

next up is visitor q and the girl can't help it.

honeykid

09-22-09, 07:53 PM

Here's a question, if you only watch 20 minutes of a movie, can you justifiably give it a rating of zero?

Because it was Pineapple Express. Did you miss that bit? Personally I'd give it 1.5 but that's only because I managed to make it through the whole thing

linespalsy

09-22-09, 08:11 PM

Ha ha, completely agree on this one Lines. Easily the worst blaxploitation flick I've seen (even worse than The Black Gestapo and TNT Jackson). It's completely inept; the fight scenes are just pathetic, and I lost count of the number of times the mic was visible in shot. What baffles me is why it always pops up on 'best-of' lists, and the number of sequels it spawned. :|

We actually thought we were watching Disco Godfather (same star), which my friend picked up from a thrift store while she was visiting. It seems Dolemite got into the wrong case.

"Weelll if it isn't the Hamburger Pimp."

ash_is_the_gal

09-22-09, 08:35 PM

Here's a question, if you only watch 20 minutes of a movie, can you justifiably give it a rating of zero?

exactly what honeykid said. it's Pineapple Express, dude, not Ghandi.

Harry Lime

09-22-09, 08:38 PM

exactly what honeykid said. it's Pineapple Express, dude, not Ghandi.

Still...

Iroquois

09-22-09, 11:31 PM

We actually thought we were watching Disco Godfather (same star), which my friend picked up from a thrift store while she was visiting. It seems Dolemite got into the wrong case.

"Weelll if it isn't the Hamburger Pimp."

Heh, interesting that you wanted to see Disco Godfather yet it's got a far lower IMDb rating than Dolemite. Not like IMDb ratings are the end-all and be-all, but I doubt you would've noticed any difference in quality.

"Breathing down yo neck!"

linespalsy

09-22-09, 11:50 PM

Actually it wasn't my choice to watch either, I was pushing for Dirty Ho but my two friends were set on Disco Godfather. Funny that we didn't get to see either of our choices though, heh.

On a sort of related note I just watched Black Belt Jones, starring Jim Kelly (Enter the Dragon) which is actually an okay movie. Intentionally funny, better made, and more entertaining than Dolemite which came out a year later. Also kind of cheesy in a lot of similar ways (but much nicer and more palatable at the same time) so you might find it entertaining, the whole thing is available on Youtube: Here's the intro to whet your appetite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APTdjG6Xo9A

Start HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o954Q-EIlIQ).

I give it 3.

You may want to take whatever I say with a grain of salt though because I also watched Glen or Glenda tonight and I give that a 3 too.

Iroquois

09-22-09, 11:59 PM

Fair enough.

Used Future

09-23-09, 06:28 AM

Hey thanks Lines I'm gonna check that out:cool:

Malky

09-23-09, 07:22 AM

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Brad/trans2.jpg

3.5

It is everything the Michael Bay movies should be, because you know it is about two factions of robots that fight each other and not about a kid trying to lose his virginity. It is a 80's rock odyssey although it does lull in the middle. I would still recommend this to all.

Used Future

09-23-09, 09:43 AM

http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/cache/2285__x400_black_belt_jones_poster_01.jpg http://www.teleport-city.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bbj.jpg

Black Belt Jones (Robert Clouse, 1974) 2.5
Ok so I just took a look at this one and it wasn't bad. Jones (Jim Kelly) steps in when some mobsters try and acquire his Karate teacher's (Scatman Crothers) dojo through intimidation. The fight scenes are only so so; Kelly spends most of his time imitating Bruce Lee's moves to the obligatory generic funk soundtrack. But as Lines said there's a knowing sense of humour in there that keeps this watchable. Particularly funny is the way everyone calls Kelly's character Black Belt like that's his name; also the funeral scene with the karate students performing kata is hilarious. Gloria Hendry from Live and Let Die, Black Caesar, and Hell Up in Harlem (the latter two of which are among my favourite blaxploitation flicks) lends some sexy support, and Malik Carter as crime boss Pinky is funny too.

Pyro Tramp

09-23-09, 10:26 AM

Just don't watch Black Samurai. Or do. THAT is an awful film.

Silas

09-23-09, 10:36 AM

http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/damned_united_poster.jpg

The Damned United

It was last Sunday night, i was working on completing my Masters thesis and was in a serious need to seek distractions. Then i noticed my friend had left his a few of his dvds at my place, so i thought i would indulge myself. Picked one out of random and landed on The Damned United.

I had wanted to see this movie in the cinema but never got around to it. As an average soccer fan i had heard of Brian Clough, the greatest english manager never to manage an England team. However my knoweldge of him only focused on his exploits with Nottingham Forest, turning them into European Champions.

This movie however takes a good look at Brian Clough (played by Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) in his early managerial days, taking a lowly division 2 Derby side to top of the English footballing elite. What i liked about this movie was its focus on Clough's obsessive compulsion with beating top English manager Don Revie (played by Colm Meaney). This fascination with usurping Revie on the football pitch controls his early managerial career.

The movie pays more attention to Clough's frailities as a person and a manager rather than trying to push the managerial success's to the fore of the film. His relationship with his long time coaching side kick, Peter Taylor (played brilliantly by Timothy Spall) is portrayed well throughout the movie. Peter Taylor is the workhorse of Clough's managerial success. Their personalities are polar opposites, Taylor, being the down to earth realist, while Clough, is the dreamer, believing himself (not necessarily false) to be greater than most.

For all the footy fans, (and movie fans) it is worth watching.

Used Future

09-23-09, 10:37 AM

Just whilst we're on the subject of blaxploitation/martial arts movies; everyone should check this hilarious spoof trailer out, It's comedy gold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmLt9X38bwY

TheUsualSuspect

09-23-09, 12:22 PM

exactly what honeykid said. it's Pineapple Express, dude, not Ghandi.

That's besides the point. I understand if you can decide that you'll like a film or not within the first 20 minutes, but the give it a zero? Doesn't make sense to me.

That's like someone giving Amelie a zero for watching the opening sequence and turning it off because it's in another language.

Yoda

09-23-09, 12:47 PM

Yeah, not sure I understand 0 for The Hangover, either. Seriously, that bad? I think those ratings are influenced by things like a desire to offset other people's enthusiasm, or something of the sort.

Anyway...

Ghost in the Shell

Meh, whatever. Clearly very influential, but a bit too ponderous. Seeing it now, as opposed to nearly 15 years ago when it was released, has a lot to do with my ho-hummedness, I'm sure, but so it goes.

2.5

Pyro Tramp

09-23-09, 01:22 PM

The Firm (2009)

Nick Love is basically the filmic equivalent of lads mags, not that that's a bad thing- i loved Football Factory and The Business even more so. They're just fun, unpretentious films with swearing and cockney rhyming slang. Outlaw was less so, however. And now The Firm could be seen as a return if it wasn't a complete mesh of football hooligans and the 80s, two things Love already nailed in his former films. Not to mention it's a remake, beginning to think Mr Love has ran out of ideas- have to see what he does with The Sweeney. Anyway, as the film goes, despite lacking Danny Dyer this time, it's sufficient for what it is. Dyer's younger replacement doesn't quite carry it off but the rest of the cast are suitably intimidating and shout the right things when needed, it's a bit hollow without ever really making any of itself especially poignant despite plenty of openings. The commitment to the temporal setting seems to extend to Fila trackies, the soundtrack is there but isn't as catchy as The Business but i love the 80s so points up. Basically, it's all been done and seen before better. That said, gonna watch the original now and i doubt Oldman's performances will have been surpassed.

2

TheUsualSuspect

09-23-09, 01:53 PM

Gangs of New York 4

This film was a marvel to watch, in terms of set design and art direction. DDL is on fire as usual in his 'return' to cinema role. Scorsese's dream picture is a tad long and could use some trimming here and there. Also not too big a fan of the build up to...nothing. As a period piece it's one of a select view that I enjoy.

ash_is_the_gal

09-23-09, 02:00 PM

That's besides the point. I understand if you can decide that you'll like a film or not within the first 20 minutes, but the give it a zero? Doesn't make sense to me.

That's like someone giving Amelie a zero for watching the opening sequence and turning it off because it's in another language.

sorry, but i disagree. Pineapple Express is more of the same throughout the film. that much was obvious before i even started it. is it really that weird that i am so certain? i dunno, but i don't think so. if you can understand me knowing i'd definitely not like something so soon, then why is it so senseless to rate it so harsh?

Yoda, i gave The Hangover a zero because i didn't laugh or crack a smile once. there was nothing about the film i enjoyed. i don't care what other people think of it, and it has nothing to do with affecting their opinions. i'm sure somewhere deep down, a more empathetic person could find something good about it, but i sure as hell have no use for it. and that one i did watch all the way through.

TheUsualSuspect

09-23-09, 02:17 PM

sorry, but i disagree. Pineapple Express is more of the same throughout the film.

That is your assumption, you can't say that without actually watching the film. Also what do you mean the same throughout? Because it becomes an action film near the end, something not in the first 20 minutes.

that much was obvious before i even started it. is it really that weird that i am so certain?

Again, you can assume, but can't be certain unless you watch the film.

i dunno, but i don't think so. if you can understand me knowing i'd definitely not like something so soon, then why is it so senseless to rate it so harsh?

Because you're rating the first 20 minutes, not the whole film. How many movies have an amazing first act, then fail horribly? If I were to just watch the first 20 minutes of 28 Days Later, I rave about how great it is, yet the entire third act is a horrible mess, so I don't.

In MY opinion, it would be more appropriate to give it an N/A rating, stating that you couldn't finish it because it's unfair to those involved in making the film. Not giving them a 'proper' viewing of a film. Telling someone to not watch a movie because it's horrible, after only watching 20 minutes of it is misleading and unfair.

In my opinion of course.

ash_is_the_gal

09-23-09, 02:35 PM

oh, gooooooooood, you just picked apart my post like this is the debate on Homosexuals thread. i don't care. i just don't. fine, it's misleading and unfair. is this why i barely post anymore? i don't have the will to debate over something so pointless. i just wanted to post my movies, dude.

ash_is_the_gal

09-23-09, 02:37 PM

i'm sorry. i'm just in a really bad mood today.

Yoda

09-23-09, 02:43 PM

It happens.

Re: The Hangover. I'm pretty surprised. Do you have similar disdain for semi-similar films, like Old School, Wedding Crashers, etc? You really didn't even crack a smile during the little speech on the roof? :D Verily, I cannot fathom this, but that's comedy for ya'.

ash_is_the_gal

09-23-09, 02:52 PM

i know that i'm in the minority on The Hangover. i s'pose i do have a shared scorn for certain kinds of films, but i wouldn't say all. Old School was kind of funny [i'd maybe give it a 3], and The Wedding Crashers, while i didn't understand the hype, i'll admit some parts were amusing. i liked Dodgeball quite a lot, though.

i don't know, there isn't a whole lot of reason going on here. maybe it all depends on my present state of mind, too.

like right now, very little is funny.

sorry again for being a moody bitch.

TheUsualSuspect

09-23-09, 03:13 PM

I'm sorry for debating about movies on a movie message board.

Golgot

09-23-09, 03:24 PM

I'm sorry for debating about movies on a movie message board.

Oo, you moody bitch (;))

TheUsualSuspect

09-23-09, 07:04 PM

I'm also stressed, but it's because I'm producing a film right now and a sh*tload of paper work is heading my way.

We are missing 6 positions on our crew and the script is in it's 10th draft.

42ndStreetFreak

09-23-09, 08:15 PM

"DEAD SNOW" - 3.5

Ahhhhh….The Nazi zombie film. An utterly wonderful basic idea that’s surely bulletproof?
Sadly not, as not a single Nazi zombie film produced so far can actually be called good.
Some people laud the cheap and tedious “Shock Waves” but that even forced Peter Cushing to do the unthinkable…give a bad performance (with a comedy German accent no less).
“Zombie Lake” at least gave us a little bit of blood and lots of pubic hair…but had nothing else to offer of any worth at all and featured God-awful looking green-painted zombies.
“Oasis of the Zombies” bored the brain so much it gave up having a reason to exist and proceeded to leak out of the ears of the unfortunate (though thankfully tiny) audience it had managed to attract.
All of these flicks also failed to have any remotely groovy and authentic looking Nazis, or even regular German soldiers, as they were always dressed in dull, cheaply dyed, non-descript uniforms that often made them look more like plumbers with silly hats on.

Recent tries have given us better uniforms (though you hardly ever got to see them due to ‘artistically’ dark cinematography) but nothing else.
We’ve had the plotting chaos, plodding pace and generally wasted undead Nazis of “The Outpost”.
“The Bunker” gave us head scratching pretentiousness and only a few ghostly Nazis to sustain interest.
Only "Hellboy" gave us a groovy looking Nazi zombie type thingy, but he was only a lone support figure.

Dear me…How could an idea so great turn out so much disappointment?
So should we have given up hope? NO!
Because in the end patience will be rewarded to some extent, and sure enough in 2009 we were finally given a damn good Nazi Zombie flick! From Norway of all places!

Director and co-writer (along with Stig Frode Henriksen) Tommy Wirkola has crafted a well played, well scripted movie with a Horror fan’s love for the genre and with an astute knowledge of what his fellow fans want from a movie with such a premise.
We want blood, gore, lots of zombies, solid characters, varied and exciting set-pieces and groovy looking uniforms that we can actually see for once!
And amazingly we get it all.

The cast are all good in their roles and despite the fact that we have to follow seven characters in the chaos they all manage to stay sharply defined.
Vegar Hoel as the initially prickish Martin does a fantastic job during the extended blood drenched finale, as does Stig Frode Henriksen himself as his companion in splatter Roy.
Lasse Valdal as, the most heroic of the bunch, Vegard, handles the action well and is very likeable and even the (so easy to make hateful) film geek Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) succeeds as a genuine character in the time we have to spend with them all.
In fact there are no bad performances to be seen here. And the female characters are thankfully pretty strong and independent too.

The witty screenplay (not an actual comedy, but very comedic in places while still retaining some serious drama) may snow shovel a few cliché verbal genre nods into place (the horror film title dropping, tubby, film geek with “Evil Dead“ and "Braindead" t-shirts) and dump a couple of ‘film lore’ visual/plot jokes upon us, but thanks to the way it’s handled by the cast and the disgustingly great black humour it drapes it self in “Dead Snow” manages to avoid the boredom that’s often a symptom of such fan homage content when it impedes the progress of the actual film it’s in.

Wirkola and Henrikson in fact manage to take some of these ‘but it happens that way in the movies’ moments and turn them into wonderfully sick and entertaining sequences of their own. The highlight being the ‘do we turn into zombies if we get bitten’ question that is used to deliver a wickedly grotesque, cruelly comic ‘he’s surely not going to do that’ gore scene that Sam Raimi would be proud of .
Of the non-filmic humour a joke about Martin being half Jewish is a little gem and who can resist the line “**** Nokia!” when a mobile phone fails in their time of need.

Talking of the gore, I can safely say no one will be disappointed with the outrageously bloody, stringy, chunky, sloppy grue on display here as zombies bite and tear and as would be victims crush, hack and chainsaw their way through the undead ranks.
Highlights are many, including a gloriously messy torn in half head, death by multiple ripped off limbs, flying zombie heads and a lovely scene of twisted comedic mayhem of a zombie’s intestines being used as a rope as their, impaled on a tree, undead owner spurts blood into our faces from a ruptured eye socket.
It’s all good stuff and mostly real, onset, FX with only a few needless (there is enough actual red stuff around anyway) CGI blood spray moments. And all that crimson stuff sure does look good on that huge blanket of bright, white snow!
And of course the scenery is stunning and beautifully photographed.

Zombie Uniforms are nicely presented, generally authentic looking and thankfully emblazoned with decorative details. Details which we can actually see as the last half of the film takes place in bright, crisp sunlight.
Of course the highlights are the full on Nazi ’SS’ uniforms which is an ingredient I for one have waited a long to see in a Nazi Zombie film.
Herzog (who also sports the best make-up job…more later) looks great in his black leather coat with crimson Swastika armband (you have to admit, The Nazis knew a thing about fashion) and he even has a few elite SS guards for company.

The less successful part of the FX work though is sadly a rather prominent one as the actual zombie face make-up (or is it the people they cast?) gives too many of the undead a rather fat and goofy look. All pudgy cheeks and big wide noses.
That aside though (and even saying that, some of the zombies do look very effective) the FX work is excellent.

Not too sure about the film's fast moving zombies though. Their speed is used to good effect in a couple of jump-scare slayings early on and they make for a more formidable foe, but it’s hard enough to run in deep snow anyway, no one looks good trying to do it (let alone frightening), and you can’t help but wonder if, from a purely aesthetic point of view, that dragging, crawling, shambling zombies would have looked for more creepy and unsettling (damn, we miss you Fulci) than the sometimes unintentionally comedic looking stumbling and snow stampeding, we see here.

And don’t let the briefly glimpsed zombies, taking it’s time to build up the threat, night time portion of the movie (though a couple of deaths keep things moving) fool you, because when that sun comes up “Dead Snow” kicks into full gear and then some for the rest of its running time.
Wirkola packs in gore scene after gore scene, fresh set-up after fresh set-up and utilises his small budget to deliver some wonderful mass rising up scenes and generally large scale undead mayhem and zombie smashdowns with everything from hammers, knives, chainsaws to machine guns.

So it’s not perfect and as you can see the film has a few issues as far as I’m concerned. But damn it, this is the best Nazi Zombie film so far, by a long way, and that’s made me pleasantly surprised and very happy. Can't really ask for more than that.
Next up? How about an actually good completely serious Nazi Zombie film?
That would really make my millennium.

zedlen

09-24-09, 06:27 AM

While at a lodge on a snowboarding trip I ended up watching a few bad movies.

Blood and Bone
Ben Ramsey 2009

http://wearemoviegeeks.com/wp-content/michaeljaiwhite.jpg

I don't know if movies like Blood Sport and Kickboxer are really any good, but when I was a kid I thought they were great, my dad watched martial arts films a lot, so I saw a fair few. So I wonder is Blood and Bone the same for today's younger generation ? I hope not. This was by far one of the worst films I've seen this year. Low budget, lousy acting, boring narrative and even the fight scenes aren't very good. The only fun I had was laughing at it.

http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/0box.gif

The Hitcher
Dave Meyers 2007

http://www.deep-focus.com/dfweblog/images/480_hitcher.jpg

I've seen this before and both times I got bored. This is just another teenage slasher flick, the premise is that the killer pretends to be a hitch hiker, once you've picked him up he kills you or stalks you. You won't see anything new here. The only thing that kept the group of people I was with watching was the above, Sophia Bush and a few old American muscle cars.

http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/0_5box.gif

Holden Pike

09-24-09, 08:19 AM

The Hitcher
Dave Meyers 2007

I've seen this before and both times I got bored. This is just another teenage slasher flick, the premise is that the killer pretends to be a hitch hiker, once you've picked him up he kills you or stalks you. You won't see anything new here. The only thing that kept the group of people I was with watching was the above, Sophia Bush and a few old American muscle cars.

Check out the 1986 original, which is a damn fun B-movie with a bit of Spaghetti Western style and an awesome Rutger Hauer.

http://www.johntedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/hitcher_banner.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:xlBu0UsVEmjw_M:http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/posters-h/hitcher_poster_01.jpg

zedlen

09-24-09, 08:22 AM

Check out the 1986 original, which is a damn fun B-movie with a bit of Spaghetti Western style and an awesome Rutger Hauer.

Ill definitely look that up, thanks Holden.

42ndStreetFreak

09-24-09, 10:23 AM

Ill definitely look that up, thanks Holden.

Do do do! Excellent film, with one of the most complex psychos, and above all victim/psycho relationships, in horror.

Golgot

09-24-09, 10:53 AM

http://anecdocious.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/4watchmen460.jpg

Finally got me some Watchman viewing in. Review over here (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=569339)

42ndStreetFreak

09-24-09, 01:02 PM

http://anecdocious.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/4watchmen460.jpg

Finally got me some Watchman viewing in. Review over here (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=569339)

Do you think the half hour or so footage for 'Tales of the Black Freighter' being edited INTO the film for the 'Ultimate Cut' will hurt the film or not?

Not sure if I want to just get the 'Directors's Cut' or wait for the 'Ultimate'.

Golgot

09-24-09, 01:08 PM

Do you think the half hour or so footage for 'Tales of the Black Freighter' being edited INTO the film for the 'Ultimate Cut' will hurt the film or not?

Not sure if I want to just get the 'Directors's Cut' or wait for the 'Ultimate'.

I'd like to see it as a stand-alone, but can't help but think it'll hurt the feature film. The flick drags a bit as it is (& off the top of my head i can't think of another film with such a clearly flagged-up sub-story with no overt ties to the narrative at hand, let alone links to the same world {and indeed medium}. It's not like it's some Svankmajer claymation complement or whatever.)

It works in the 'novel' - mirroring the themes of good men turned bad by circumstance and/or all being capable of bestial acts etc. Just think while it adds in tone in that medium, it'll probably break up the tone cinematically - unless it's very cunningly done.

meatwadsprite

09-24-09, 01:36 PM

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:SZhUrkfJSesSFM:http://www.impawards.com/2007/posters/there_will_be_blood_ver2.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:TDuwuUCll-8qyM:http://justforthekicks.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/there_will_be_blood1.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:BqUKMRHeSsVWjM:http://catesmusings.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/09count600.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:tapK74ygDHl-nM:http://blog.afi.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/full_movieimage_12526.jpg

There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men 2007

They both take place in similarly barren , sandy locations. Both feature outstanding acting performances and mature story telling. One of them won Best Picture over the other , although it's hard to say which one's really better.

Blood is an epic story of an oilman with an endless obsession for competition and proving his own worth. He admits plainly that he hates people and his character is about as far and distanced from humanity as possible - and somehow there is a person buried underneath which once you seen the film a couple times you can just spot out moments , where Plainview is actually hurt.

60 years later a young 'nam veteran (Moss) stumbles upon a failed drug deal and a satchel of money for the taking (2.4 million dollars to be exact). But the money doesn't come without trouble , a seemingly unstoppable killer (Anton Chigurh) tracks him down and a patient battle between the two rolls out. Picking up the pieces of the mystery and always behind Chigurh , is a sheriff on the closing end of his career in justice - who feels "over-matched".

Both pack a lot of impressive set pieces : the giant oil fire , Moss' escape from the Mexicans , the bowling alley scene , the hotel fight between Moss and Chigurh ...

Blood has a wonderfully abstract score by Jonny Greenwood , which is one the great orchestrated scores of this decade - something that I always cherish in a film , although No Country for Old Men rarely uses music and for good reason. The looming theme in No Country is uncertainty , of death , of reason , everything , and it ends on that note. Blood has a lot of ups and downs , twists and even the end is victorious while deprived - all coming from the musical score , which almost takes a life of it's own.

5

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:JuwRRaivm_gF_M:http://www.geocities.com/sldawgs/images/coverart/nausicaa.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:0bkgbXSAYbTl4M:http://www.hellagems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nausicaa.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Q1oEo5jfFV3LeM:http://gigazine.jp/img/2009/05/14/dating_ghibli/nausicaa.jpg

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 1984

Miyazaki in transition , the movie has an ambitious story and giant scenes but the production values that would be seen in all of his later films are only in a premature state here. From the story itself to the animation , it's the clear middle-ground between Cagliostro and Laputa (Castle in the Sky).

3

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Fct90VCbAFc51M:http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/6756/2003911590109765288_rs.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:7Gs-RsjTUr5JQM:http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/arthouse/images/digital/mia/africanqueen.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:cpDQLYQilnyx4M:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-nmpEaAYNWA/SKxhol50lFI/AAAAAAAAAfI/7Vt54MsOVjU/s400/African_Queen.jpg

The African Queen 1951

The visuals are hilariously dated , the story has a lot of by the books certainty to it , but the leading performances are spot-on and well worth their own praise.

3

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6QwiAuzJpNeCEM:http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/criterion/images/sevensamurai.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:-YI4jPROEDokeM:http://goralckj.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/seven_samurai01_b.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ShQEB0ZfmtKTnM:http://www.thedorkreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/seven-samurai2.jpg

Seven Samurai 1954

5

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:KsIke-wp7f4ObM:http://evilmonito.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/toyko_one_sheet-410x610.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:MCaMF4aW3BHntM:http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/merdecarax1.jpg http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:dnRUD5aL4oxXfM:http://www.interviewmagazine.com/files/2009/03/06/img-tokyo-scene-1_135339759420.jpg

Tokyo 2009

A triple feature collaboration between Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine) , , Leos Carax (?) , and Bong Joon-h (The Host). All three parts are equally strange , the middle film drags on much longer than what it has to provide - but has some really hilarious moments. It's an interesting combination of work , but not nearly one of the best of the collab sub-genre.

3

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:XncW7LgxdKaFDM:http://pacejmiller.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/watchmen-poster.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:miDyryhltRr08M:http://weeklyrot.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/haleyrorschach.jpg http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:RGH-qaKdtDytaM:http://static.arstechnica.com/assets/2009/03/watchmenfilm-thumb-640xauto-2929.jpg

Watchmen 2009

A hatred has been growing in me every time I see this movie , the cheap emphasis on the Cold War aside everything is coming along brilliantly - right up to the part where Akerman comes in. The second she opens her mouth my heart just wrenches up , her terrible acting is like a wrecking ball crashing into the film. Matthew Goode doesn't have the presence and the power of his illustrated predecessor , but even if he did have the acting chops - good luck sputtering that laughable dialogue you're assigned.

The parts of the screenplay that work are the moments lifted directly from the novel , almost everything else (with the exception of Rosarch's backstory) is god awful. The over emphasis and combination of the subplots to "save time" really has a bad effect on the realism of the novel , the ending severely lacks the punch it should have , none of it really flows together as it should have.

Look at the team that made it , it's like the anti-team , it's the last group of people I'd ever choose to make it. Violence nut Zack Snyder , newcomer Alex Tse and David Hayter the voice actor for Solid Snake ?

2.5

42ndStreetFreak

09-24-09, 04:21 PM

I'd like to see it as a stand-alone, but can't help but think it'll hurt the feature film. The flick drags a bit as it is (& off the top of my head i can't think of another film with such a clearly flagged-up sub-story with no overt ties to the narrative at hand, let alone links to the same world {and indeed medium}. It's not like it's some Svankmajer claymation complement or whatever.)

It works in the 'novel' - mirroring the themes of good men turned bad by circumstance and/or all being capable of bestial acts etc. Just think while it adds in tone in that medium, it'll probably break up the tone cinematically - unless it's very cunningly done.

Yeah, that was my worry. The jump to it would take you out of not only the main plot, but also the film as a whole. And if you don;t like the 'Black Freighter' stuff it will really hurt as I think you would end up just resenting it's existence.

Like you said it works in the graphic novel because you take in that medium in a different way and relate to it in a very different way also.
Books can go off on tangents...Movies have to be very careful though.

I think I'll go the Unrated 'Director's Cut' route. But i just know that if I do then I'll be pondering if the 'Ultimate Cut' does work better and now I've missed it as I won't be buying it twice. *SIGH*

'The myriad choices that do now stretch before my eager and hungry gaze are truly a blessing...from hell.'

Used Future

09-24-09, 04:43 PM

I'm going the I'm not buying it at all route. :yup:

42ndStreetFreak

09-24-09, 04:56 PM

I'm going the I'm not buying it at all route. :yup:

HO HO! Well that would be one easy way to go. But I really fancy seeing this.

linespalsy

09-24-09, 06:13 PM

This is England 3

ash_is_the_gal

09-24-09, 07:33 PM

This is England 3

only 3? :(

linespalsy

09-24-09, 08:38 PM

Hey, don't get me wrong, it's a very engaging and affecting melodrama. One of the better humanistic movies centering on children and a need for family-like connections.

The thing is, I can't really think of anything to recommend it other than that (strong, emotional performances, sympathetic characters...) at the moment, hence the "good, not great" rating.

mark f

09-24-09, 08:51 PM

Hey, I give it 3 too, but everybody says I'm mean or something. Of course, lines rates Glen or Glenda?, This is England and Elmer Gantry the same rating, and they're all lower than The Forbidden Kingdom. The above info does not connote any value judgments on my part; it's only an attempt at factual reporting. :cool:

linespalsy

09-24-09, 09:07 PM

You are right, Glen or Glenda probably deserves at least a 3.5.

jrs

09-24-09, 09:51 PM

Mum and Dad 4

http://i38.tinypic.com/2q1zz20.jpg

honeykid

09-24-09, 09:54 PM

I'm going the I'm not buying it at all route. :yup:

HO HO! Well that would be one easy way to go. But I really fancy seeing this.

Could you just rent them, 42nd? Then, if you still wanted one, buy the one you like most.

Malky

09-25-09, 04:59 AM

Syriana 4

Really good, engaging plot lines and some great performances, especially by George Clooney's beard.

42ndStreetFreak

09-25-09, 05:46 AM

Could you just rent them, 42nd? Then, if you still wanted one, buy the one you like most.

I don't actually rent. I should really.
But the question is MOOT in this case as sadly the uncut 'Director's Cut' of the film is only on R1.
The UK has just had the theatrical version, which I don't want to watch, so that's the only one available to rent.

Used Future

09-25-09, 09:37 AM

I didn't like Watchmen at all. The opening credit sequence 'explaining everything', and Snyder's cringeworthy accompanying soundtrack (the times they are a changing, eurrgghh) were a real turn off. I didn't like any of the characters, and thought the story was a load of souless, overblown guff with a deeply unsatisfying conclusion. The fact I hate CGI and thought the fight scenes were rubbish didn't help matters either. But hey, who cares right? It's just my opinion. I mean I don't generally like modern action/sci-fi/horror films anyway, so Watchmen was never going to do it for me. Makes me wonder why I bothered to see it in the first place really.

Changing the subject. I meant to ask Mark F. Where did you see Messiah of Evil? That's a classic I'd love to get under my belt (I want to buy it) but I've heard the dvd's available are very poor quality. Did you see it on dvd Mark? If so, what was the picture transfer like? what label was it on? etc etc.

42ndStreetFreak

09-25-09, 10:27 AM

Did you read the graphic novel 'Used'?

Any old monkeys....

"RED DAWN" 3

Lots of well done, big budget, action is the order of the day here in this iconic slice of 80's action movie making.
It'a also far less silly and gung ho, and far bleaker and serious, than often given credit for.

Nice suppport cast of adults to back up the then up and coming 'Brat Pack' youngsters as well (RIP Swayze) including Ben Johnson, Powers Boothe, Harry Dean Stanton and William Smith speaking fluent Russian!).
It holds up.
Watch it!

**** the damn re-make!!!!! **** IT!!!!

"TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE" 4.5

Not only one of the finest Hollywood 70's movies, but perhaps THE finest example of a thriller and comedy mix ever.
A stunning cast does marvels all round, from the superb comic (yet serious enough when needed) turn by the great Walter Matthau, stoic support from prime era Robert Shaw and nice turns, as the "Reservoir Dogs" birthing criminal gang, by Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo.

But away from these, we have some astutely performed support (often scene stealing) characters like Tom Pedi's Bronx bulldozer of a Supervisor and Dick O'Neil's train controller.
Lee Wallace as the flu-ridden, hysterically unpopular, Mayor and old Woody Allen regular Tony Roberts as the Deputy-Mayor are also a joy.

Add some taught suspense, bursts of action and violence, a wonderfully crafted (and directed) plot and the superbly funky (and catchy) David Shire score and you have a totally wonderful slice of 70's cinematic greatness!
And the final shot, of Matthau's delightful Hound Dog face, caps it all off perfectly.

And just this morning;

"DEADLY WEAPONS" 2.5

Chesty Morgan is a legend in the skuzzy World of Drive-In/Grindhouse cinema for one, er…two, reasons. Those breasts!!
Those gigantic, hanging down to her stomach, blue veined, creased, multi hued… BREASTS!
And here they are the deadly weapons of vengeance!

Legendary director Doris Wishman, in an attempt to deliver the boob groceries to her hungry audience, has Chesty disrobe whenever possible. And in some cases these sequences almost stop the film dead.
Her bath scene in particular is only there to get Chesty's breasts all soapy.
All well and good I hear you cry, but sadly poor Chesty is amazingly clumsy (she looks at one point, as she fumbles around under the soap suds, like she has a hair stuck up her arse and is having difficulty grabbing hold of it).

Nothing in this film is in any hurry to get anywhere.
Especially not the plot.

Harry Reems, who is the second best reason to watch this flick after Chesty's outrageous melons, is on top cheesy form though.
He makes a welcome, trashy, impact as his bushy handlebar porn mustache bristles away to itself, almost like he has another actor stuck to his top lip.
Add the Groucho Marx style eyebrows and dreadful hair that keeps changing colour from gray to brown and every scene where Reems appears is a joy.

As with all Wishman films very few scenes actually show lips moving and dialogue being heard at the same time.
She added the speech after shooting had finished, but to save money and time 'syncing' the dialogue with lip movements she instead shoots people's backs, inanimate objects and (many) close ups of red carpets.
Add characters suddenly 'slipping' half out of shot and a few out of focus zooms and you have a textbook Wishman flick.

So far from a good film, or a well-made film.
But the enjoyment it delivers is spot on.
Be it Chesty Morgan's truly eye popping, if rather unsettling, gargantuan breasts, Reems and his intelligent mustache, the funky soundtrack, the highly amusing fashions, the twist ending, or the delightfully outrageous scenes of Chesty's breasts as lethal weapons, this film is a trashy treat that delivers what it promises and does it in such a wonderfully cheesy way that any Grindhouse movie fan will find something to enjoy here.

Used Future

09-25-09, 04:09 PM

Yeah I read Watchmen years ago (I've still got it somewhere) and although I recognise it as a seminal work; It just didn't grab me all that much. I figured the film would be interesting, but ended up thinking it was a glossy looking mess.

Good call on The Taking of Pelham One Two Three; love that movie. 'Fat' Caz Dolowicz is a legend, and the scenes with the mayor and Tony Roberts are a hoot. Whatever happened to him? He was in some great movies back in the 70's. Play it Again Sam, Annie Hall, Serpico. Funny I don't recall seeing him in anything else since. Must check IMDB.

I take it you're also a fan of that other great Walther Matthau flick Charley Varrick right?

Anyways, I'm off to watch Torso now. It arrived today and I'm all excited woo hoo!!!

42ndStreetFreak

09-25-09, 05:12 PM

Funny I don't recall seeing him in anything else since. Must check IMDB.

I take it you're also a fan of that other great Walther Matthau flick Charley Varrick right?

Yeah...Can't beat a threesome of Paul Koslo, Joe Don Baker and Walter Matthau!

I know Robinson was in "Amityville 3" in the 80's, but after that I can't think

Malky

09-25-09, 05:27 PM

http://www.lovefilm.com/lovefilm/images/products/1/88191-large.jpg

2.5

Starts off and is for the majority of the film a really good cheap budget zombie film shot in a documentary style. I was loving it, its really well done decent acting with a lot of suspense it is actually quite scary. Then it descends into without rhyme or reason a snuff film. totally undoing an hours worth of good work. It is a shame because it could have been great.

beelzebubbles

09-25-09, 06:17 PM

Syriana 4

Really good, engaging plot lines and some great performances, especially by George Clooney's beard.

This is, by far, my favorite film review to date. Kudos Malky.

Malky

09-25-09, 06:59 PM

This is, by far, my favorite film review to date. Kudos Malky.

why than you, there is a more detailed review/tribute :) in my new blog http://bit.ly/15uWjb

i had more time to formulate my thoughts at that point

42ndStreetFreak

09-25-09, 08:43 PM

"7 Men from Now" 3

It starts off with a truly awful song (in fact it seems both screenwriter Burt Kennedy and Director Budd Boetticher also hated it) but this moves into a very good opening sequence as Randolph Scott kills the first of the seven men who shot his Wife.
In fact the sequence is so good it should have been a PRE-credit sequence as it would have led into the film very well. Just as that wonderful opening scene of "Cahill".

Randolph Scott is rigid, uptight, driven and pretty emotionless as the revenge seeking ex-Sheriff. It kind of works for the role, but i still say he's a rather unexciting and non-descript actor.

Luckily though the mighty Lee Marvin is in support and he does a superb job.
His character is ruthless, scheming and dangerous...but thanks to Kennedy's script and Marvin's ever watchable style his character is also a likeble, charming rogue.

Kennedy's, otherwise sharp, script messes up in one place for me though...Exactly why did a character not wait a paltry 60 seconds to let the bad guys ride out of town before walking over to the Sheriff's Office!? It was utterly non-sensical.

The rest of the score is also non-event, being filled with cookie cutter strings and horns. It is at it's worse during the 'romance' angle of the film, supplied by Gail Russell, as it drones out sickly sweet swelling violins.
The romance has an edge to it (as Russell is married) and is never actually sealed and the tragic Russell does a good job.
But I just don't like 'classic' Western love stories as they bog the stroy down, are generally cloying and saccharine and (as here) are visually crafted like a Hallmark Valentine's Day card.

But there is much to enjoy here, the action is pretty good, Marvin is a gem, Scott is rugged enough, there's a good plot twist later on (that is beautifully ironic as far as Marvin's character goes) and some of the dialogue exchanges are wonderful.

It's not going to ever knock off any of my Top 10 Westerns, or make me love 'clean and classic' Westerns and their (it seems even here, inescapeble) dated style over later American Westerns from the late 60's-70's and many Spaghetti Westerns...
But it was a good, lean, solid film with many plus points and worth a watch for the great Lee Marvin alone.

mark f

09-25-09, 08:43 PM

First off, for Used Future regarding Messiah of Evil, I watched my brother's DVD and it was not one of those double features. I wanted to say it was the 35th anniversary DVD, but that doesn't even get released until next month. The box for the upcoming release is this one:
http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/1487274.jpg
I have to ask my brother what company released his and what the box actually was. This new release is supposed to be much improved and have a lot more special features. As far as my bro's DVD's picture quality, it wasn't the greatest perhaps, but it sure reminded me of the way it looked at the drive-in. Unfortunately, it wasn't actually widescreen. I don't actually know what the budget was, but it was very low. I'm guessing that you may want to get the one coming out on Code Red on October 27 which will be 2.35:1 and might make me think more of it since I failed to mention in my write-up that the lighting effects are good and there are some weird sets and murals in the film which will undoubtedly be enhanced by a crisper image.

I am really on the burnt-out side of writing up films, even using capsule comments. I'm watching plenty of movies and they're worth commenting on, but when you can't do it well enough to share thoughts and feelings, I'm not sure what the point is. I'm going to try to write up a few now, but if the list ends up being short, it's because I deleted most of them for now. Oh, and for UF again, I'm still going to watch Danger: Diabolik again before I write it up. Sorry. I probably won't say anything interesting anyway so don't hold your breath. I also wanted to write up Russ Meyer's insane Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, but I wanted to rewatch it first, and then I learned it's not on DVD. (I watched it on cable the first time.) I'm leaning toward 2.5 for both films if anybody cares.

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Casque d'Or (Jacques Becker, 1952) 3

http://cinememorial.com/FILMS/AFFICHE/casque_d_or.jpg

I watched this film three times. The first time through, I found it to be very simple and felt that I'd missed something although the chemistry between Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani was palpable. The second time, I decided that it was a very powerful treatise on fate and how men are always battling over things without using their brains, The ending was more-powerful this time too, even though I already knew what to expect. The third time I watched it with my wife to get her reaction. She seemed to like it but found much of the plotting predictable. I decided that if it is "simple and predictable", then it's probably an archetypal plot, so the movie needs to be judged on its details. Much of it is ambiguous, but the central romance and the violent set-pieces are well-staged and probably why this film has grown in stature over the years. The scenes between Signoret and Reggiani are completely believable even though they are often silent. The scariest thing about the film to me is that it says that if you're going to be in an intense love affair then all your jealousies are also going to be intense too. (In this film, both sexes are often jealous.) Maybe I'm an old fart, but that usually doesn't seem to work for anything lasting, so I guess that means that if you get into an intense relationship, try to use your head before you violently react and destroy the possibility of lasting happiness. :cool:

The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1936) 3+

http://img.listal.com/image/657564/200full-story-louis-pasteur.jpg

Old-school movie biography starring and directed by two masters of the genre, this film is still hugely entertaining as it shows how Pasteur had to fight his fellow scientists and the doctors over his use of sterilization and his attempts to find cures for anthrax and rabies. The pacing is very fast as there are many subjects and subplots to cover in the film's 90-minute running time. Paul Muni won an Oscar for playing Pasteur, and he's very good even if not quite as powerful as he was in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, and he gets solid support from Fritz Leiber and Porter Hall as his two biggest rivals and Josephine Hutchison as his wife. If you like '30s Bio Pics, this is one of the best.

The Eel (Shohei Imamura, 1997) 3

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b2/The_Eel_1997.jpg/200px-The_Eel_1997.jpg

This is an unusual film in general but not so strange for the director (The Pornographers, Vengeance is Mine, Black Rain). It begins with a large amount of sex and violence, as Takuro (Kôji Yakusho) murders his wife when he catches her having sex with another man. He gets out of prison eight years later, with very few possessions and his pet eel and opens up a barber shop. It isn't long before he finds Keiko (Misa Shimizu) in a field, unconscious from taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She recovers and goes to work for him and what ensues is an allegory with a few weird tangents which actually end up in improving the overall film. The characters are easy to relate to and there are several, from Keiko's Mom and money-grubbing boyfriend to Takuro's parole officer, his fishing buddy and a kid who's attempting to attract UFOs. This won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and is very original and just as accomplished as you'd expect from Imamura. The lead couple appeared the year before in the popular Japanese romance, Shall We Dance?.

Marion Bridge (Wiebke von Carolsfeld, 2003) 2+

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PAwppxUKTcA/SRRkxqubC8I/AAAAAAAADJE/uD767LHg-jY/s320/Marion_Bridge.jpg

Low-key film about three sisters who take care of their dying mother (Marguerite McNeil), first at an old-age home and then at their own family home in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Recovering alcoholic Agnes (Molly Parker) comes from Toronto to help her sisters, judgmental Theresa (Rebecca Jenkins) and couch potato Louise (Stacey Smith), and she also seems to take an interest in a teenage girl (Ellen Page). The film is beautifully-shot and well-acted, but it's also a bit sluggish in developing any drama or original plot twists. Everyone who has a family can relate to the different problems siblings have, and then of course, there are some skeletons in the family closet. I don't mean to denigrate the seriousness of those skeletons in this case, but a little bit of dark humor or occasional brightness would have helped elevate the flick above the ordinary, at least for me.

Little Dorrit 1 - Nobody's Fault (Christine Edzard, 1988) 3

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/6301383877.jpg

My wife and I saw all six hours of this British feature film (in two parts with a dinner break in between) at the theatre in 1988, but I haven't watched it since. I couldn't watch Part 2 at the same time, but Part 1 seemed about how I remembered it before. It's painstakingly-detailed scriptwise, but it's actually a low budget film. The sets, costumes and extras are not what you'd call lavish, but the darkly-ironic plot and excellent cast smooth over some of those problems as well as a sound recording level which seems to fluctuate throughout the film. The centerpiece here is Derek Jacobi's turn as Arthur Clennam, a man who worked abroad with his father but returns home to run the family business after his dad's death. He almost immediately takes an interest in Amy Dorrit (Sarah Pickering), the seamstress of his mother (Joan Greenwood). He visits Amy and her family at a debtor's prison and takes a strong liking to "Little Dorrit"'s flamboyant father (Alec Guinness) and determines to find a way to get the old man out of prison. The emotions expressed in Little Dorrit are honest enough and it keeps your attention OK, but what gives it a little extra is the layer of black humor and almost madness which resides within some of the central characters. Part 2 seems less successful in my mind, partly because the first hour retells much of this film before going off to explain how the next part of the story transpires. If I get a chance, I will watch Part 2 and report back. Yes, that's a threat. :p

The Son's Room (Nanni Moretti, 2001) 3

http://www.utoronto.ca/stmikes/kelly/images/son%27sroom.jpg

This Italian film is another Cannes Palm d'Or winner concerning a family which has to struggle to try to go on after a tragedy occurs. The Dad (Nanni Moretti) is a psychoanalyst with an odd assortment of patients and a loving wife (Laura Morante), a happy daughter (Jasmine Trinca) and a seemingly well-adjusted son (Giuseppe Sanfelice), even if the teenage boy has been accused of stealing a rare fossil. However, after the boy dies in a scuba diving accident, the other family members' lives seem to begin to unravel. This film could have been extremely somber in the Ordinary People manner, but since Moretti began his career as a satirist, he keeps enough humor flowing in the first part of the film to help buoy the darker half which still contains some black humor. There are enough different elements and plot threads to keep the movie entertaining throughout as it draws to its quietly powerful and uplifting ending.

Used Future

09-25-09, 08:57 PM

Thanks Mark:)

beelzebubbles

09-26-09, 02:36 AM

why than you, there is a more detailed review/tribute :) in my new blog http://bit.ly/15uWjb

i had more time to formulate my thoughts at that point

Sorry you missed chippy night! :(

zedlen

09-26-09, 04:43 AM

Caught a few films the other night

http://monstergirl.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/rosemarys-babythumbnail.jpg

Rosemary's Baby http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/4_5box.gif

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hnf0osK09V4/RtZ4nrtm4tI/AAAAAAAABw8/MDOSozWj8UE/s400/french.jpg

The French Connection http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/4box.gif

Iroquois

09-26-09, 12:20 PM

http://z.hubpages.com/u/927112_f260.jpg

Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998) - 2

What a disappointment. I find myself wondering if Blade is the sort of movie I'd have enjoyed more if I was younger or if I'd still find myself disliking it. There's not really much here - between lame acting and poorly-done action, it was just a major let-down.

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Hiddenposter1987.jpg

The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987) - 3

An interesting little B-movie. It stayed reasonably interesting all the way through, even though it did feel like it dragged a lot in parts.

Used Future

09-26-09, 12:55 PM

Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998) - 2
between lame acting and poorly-done action, it was just a major let-down.

Poorly done action? Were you watching the same movie? Acting aside, I think Blade is a decent comic book adaptation with plenty of great action sequences.

You mean you weren't even slightly impressed by the opening sequence in the night club? Hmmm.

The first two Blade films are amongst the few recent action/horror films I like. Hell I even own the box set.

Iroquois

09-26-09, 12:56 PM

That opening sequence is probably one of the only reasons I didn't rate it lower.

Used Future

09-26-09, 01:10 PM

Funny, I'd have thought you'd really dig the Blade films. What did you think was lame about the characters and action? I'll admit it's not Shakespeare, but as an action movie I think it delivers.

What about the obese vampire hooked up to the computer? and the sequence in the subway? You didn't think those were cool?

Oh well, no matter. It just goes to show you can't always judge what people will like. :cool:

Iroquois

09-26-09, 01:13 PM

No, I just assumed there were Blade fans on the forum and felt like annoying them. It's perfectly obvious.

Nah, I guess it just didn't do anything for me.

42ndStreetFreak

09-26-09, 01:58 PM

Poorly done action? Were you watching the same movie? Acting aside, I think Blade is a decent comic book adaptation with plenty of great action sequences.

You mean you weren't even slightly impressed by the opening sequence in the night club? Hmmm.

The first two Blade films are amongst the few recent action/horror films I like. Hell I even own the box set.

"Blade II" is good....But I really like the first film.
The acting is fine I think, Snipes is good for the role, Stephen Dorff is great and it has to be said rather sexy and Donal Logue is good value too.
Big fan.

My only gripe is a huge logic one. Seeing as Blade turns up at the hospital and turns up prepared, he obviously must have known that the Vampire was not dead!!
So why let people get attacked in the hospital by letting a still alive Vamp get to Hospital in the first place? Why not just kill him outright??

Used Future

09-26-09, 02:20 PM

Yeah I know what you mean, there does seem to be an absence of logic there. I guess it's just more dramatic with him turning up at the hospital which is always a cool location for a horror movie set piece.

I prefer Blade II to the first. It's darker, more stylish, and the reapers are nasty as hell. I prefer the production design (especially those shiny black costumes), and Ron Pearlman's in it doing his tough guy thing. I really love the colorful lighting too, especially in the night club, and thermal imaging sewer sequences. My favourite part of that flick has to be the guy with the heavy duty machine gun in the night club who (despite the fact that reapers are invulnerable to bullets) just empties his magazine on one regardless. Awesome.

TheUsualSuspect

09-26-09, 09:32 PM

The third Blade film is total garbage.

Blade 3.5

Blade II 3.5

Blade III 2

Used Future

09-26-09, 10:08 PM

Yeah, I'd say you've got those ratings spot on.

42ndStreetFreak

09-26-09, 10:11 PM

Yeah, I'd say you've got those ratings spot on.
Except for "Blade III"....0.5

Used Future

09-26-09, 10:18 PM

Heh, yeah well it was a major disappointment for fans of the first two. In terms of trilogies Blade: Trinity is right up there with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Alien 3 in the crapness stakes.

beelzebubbles

09-26-09, 10:23 PM

Used Future

09-26-09, 10:28 PM

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww335/GialloFunk/ss.jpg?t=1253968419 http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww335/GialloFunk/IMG_0916.jpg?t=1253968789

Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974) 3.5
The lovely Etsuko Shihomi returns (minus Sonny Chiba) as Koryu in what is essentially a retread of the original film, all be it with slightly more focus on coherency. This time it's one of her friends who's been kidnapped (by diamond smugglers) forcing our heroine to swing into action against a similarly motley band of colourful martial arts experts.

Perhaps this just caught me in the right mood, but I found it to be a big improvement on the original, with much better editing, tighter narrative focus, and a heavier emphasis on the bloody violence (if that's possible). Indeed, when a film opens with a guy gouging his false eye out to reveal secret microfilm, then you know things are going to get very messy. Hanging by a Thread certainly delivers on the action front in every way imaginable. The super fast fight scenes are exhilarating, and this being a Toei production; there's the usual dose of comic book sleaze, cartoon gore, and torture thrown into the mix. Shihomi makes a sensational leading lady even if she does little more than pull a few sad and angry facial expressions before kicking everyone's arse - the bottom line is she puts most modern action stars to shame. This is sure to appeal to fans of The Street Fighter series, pinky violence films, and grindhouse cinema in general. In fact, it's essential. Just to give you an idea of the craziness on offer here; consider the fact the diamonds are smuggled inside the buttocks of beautiful women, and graphically retrieved without anesthetic.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q9z1OyJVgJ4/SNgjlsxqpEI/AAAAAAAAAIk/9Dr5smEHiF0/s400/Torso+One+Sheet.JPGhttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2829963506_57afd7a48b.jpg?v=0

Torso aka Carnal Violence (Sergio Martino, 1973) 2.5
After years of wanting to see Martino's oft praised giallo; Torso came as something of an underwhelming disappointment. There's really not much to tell. A killer is stalking the students of a Perugia university with the only clue to his identity being a red and black scarf he uses to strangle his victims. After two of their friends are murdered; Jane (Suzy Kendall) and three female friends (most notably Tina Aumont as Daniela who thinks she's seen the killer wearing the scarf) escape to a rural cliff top villa owned by a relative. Unfortunately, fearful he may be identified by Daniela; the killer follows them and the murders continue...

Unlike the best the genre has to offer Martino seems less concerned with creating an elaborate mystery; instead putting all his energy into the film's genuinely suspenseful set pieces. Particularly great is a P.O.V. sequence in muddy mist shrouded woodland in which one of the girls is stalked by the killer whilst high on drugs. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill scene is injected with real style and atmosphere by Martino, whose choice of disorientating photographic composition (all feet plunging into mud and splashing through stagnant pools before revealing the killer through the mist in the distance) makes the generic scenario eerily memorable. Equally effective is the film's nail biting penultimate sequence with a terrified Suzy Kendall hiding from the balaclava wearing murderer in an isolated villa (which no doubt bore a partial influence on John Carpenter's Halloween and a whole host of similar 80's American slashers). Where Torso falls down is with the dumb connect the dots plotting, and quite frankly rubbish ending in which the killer's identity is revealed to complete bafflement. By no means a bad giallo, just not as classic as many fans would have you believe.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4ebKDFxiia8/ScqOC8yD99I/AAAAAAAACYw/xmEcwp-eyck/s400/blacula1.jpg http://www.cinemademerde.com/Blacula-lady.jpg

Blacula (William Crain, 1972) 3.5
Surprisingly chilling blaxploitation take on the Dracula legend with William Marshall particularly good as the regal Mamuwalde; a cursed (by Count Dracula) African prince from the 1700's revived after his coffin is bought by a couple of camp yuppies and shipped to 1970's L.A. Soon he's wooing Tina (Vonetta McGee) the reincarnation of his long lost love, whilst leaving a trail of infected vampire subordinates in his wake. On hand to foil his romantic advances is Tina's inquisitive friend Dr. Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) whose suspicion is aroused after an intuitive friend proclaims Blacula to be one straaaaannge dude.

I'd always assumed Blacula to be a spoof and as such, wasn't too bothered about seeing it. In reality the film is a highly enjoyable romantic horror film played completely straight. Marshall is fantastic in the lead (his deep baritone delivery similar to that of James Earl Jones) managing to come off as both sympathetic and intimidating at the same time. Vonetta McGee is suitably vulnerable and beautiful as Luva, and the rest of the supporting cast all manage to inject their characters with a surprising amount of humanity. Crain creates a heady mixture of streetwise black culture, Hammer horror sensibility, subtle humour, and tragic romance, making for very satisfying (if somewhat lite) entertainment. Particularly frightening are the eerie shots of screaming vampires suddenly floating into the lense poised to feed. I also loved the simplistic makeup effects (shown above) which brought to mind Tom Savini's later work on Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Good Stuff.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/AFROdytee82/Gangstarrgirl/scream_blacula_scream.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LRZmCYjW1dM/SkzNmIqUIxI/AAAAAAAAAK8/YrU34jCfYsM/s320/6a00d83451cbb069e2010534d4699d970c-800wi%5B1%5D.jpg

Scream Blacula Scream (Bob Kelljan, 1973) 3.5-
I watched this back to back with Blacula and found it equally entertaining. This time our well spoken anti-hero is resurrected by a vengeful voodoo priest determined to succeed his mother as the leader of a cult. Instead he gets turned and enslaved by Mamuwalde who once again proceeds to wreak havoc whilst looking for love. Pam Grier adds support as a well meaning voodoo priestess, and Michael Dunlop is on hand as a meddling police officer with an interest in the occult.

This plays a lot like the original all be it lacking the same air of tragedy with the absence of Vonetta McGee's character. Once again Marshall is a delight as Blacula, and Kelljan does a good job of maintaining the same hip balance of scares, and subtle humour making this almost on a par with the original. I really did enjoy these.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/68/1213929332_2.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uAtOKJFcq2w/SgqoPKt9T8I/AAAAAAAAMKY/kiuWIiZxLrE/s320/Killing+Machine+photo+2.jpg

The Killing Machine aka Shorinji Kenpo (Norifumi Suzuki, 1975) 3.5
Sonny Chiba plays Doshin Sho (the founder of Shorinji Kenpo Karate - a style modelled on Kung Fu) who starts his own martial arts school after returning home from the second world war (in which he was a Japanese spy operating in China). With Japan in ruins, he has to contend with local gangsters selling food on the black market, and the American occupation seen by the Japanese as a threat to their culture. Along the way he tries to help a woman escape a life of prostitution, becomes a father figure to a group of street urchins, and generally beats down anyone who crosses him, before founding his own dojo.

Historical accuracies aside (I can imagine this film might offend some Americans) I found The Killing Machine to be a stirring and poignant martial arts film; a refreshing change of pace from the often lurid (but decidedly comic book) Toei output. Clearly a patriotic propaganda piece about the enduring Japanese spirit; there's no hint of any remorse for the war as instead the focus is solely on Sho's heroics in the face of adversity. As expected with Chiba films the fight scenes are rousing, complimented by that trademark furrowed brow, and bad ass attitude. What sets this one apart though is it's uplifting philosophical center, as Doshin Sho's new martial arts system captures the Japanese imagination elevating him to iconic status. Memorable scenes include Chiba inspiring a recent amputee to continue his training, and a crunching encounter with a couple of Judo masters from a rival school. This is probably my favourite Chiba film so far, and with familiar support from Etsuko Shihomi, and Makoto Sato (from Sister Street Fighter and The Executioner respectively) this delivers on every level. Recommended.

TheUsualSuspect

09-26-09, 11:58 PM

Gone Baby Gone 4

Bedtime Stories 2

Se7en 5

Interesting triple feature for tonight.

42ndStreetFreak

09-27-09, 07:39 AM

USED:

Liking the write ups!

I have to say I would give "Torso" just 2 max. I thought it was a letdown as well.
Far to slow and saggy. The thing only comes to life during the 'house' sequence, and quite frankly give me "Tenebre", "Deep Red", "Bird with the Crystal Plummage", "Blood and Black Lace" and "So Naked, So Dead" any day.

I keep meaning to pick up the "Sister Streetfighter" box set. I've only seen the first film on a cut VHS. Sounds like a winner.

Used Future

09-27-09, 08:29 AM

Yes I own all those except for So Naked So Dead which is a new one on me (shame the transfer on the VCI Blood and Black Lace disc is so poor eh). Deep Red and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage remain the benchmarks in my opinion, but I think The House With Laughing Windows and What Have You Done to Solange? come pretty close. Tenebre is good too, but I wouldn't have it in my top five. I also really love Paolo Cavara's The Black Belly of the Tarantula.

42ndStreetFreak

09-27-09, 08:51 AM

"So Naked So Dead" is "The Slasher is a Sex Maniac" and "So Sweet, So Dead".

It was released in America in one version that added hardcore inserts and renamed "Penetration".

Very sleazy indeed, but has Farley Granger, tons of nudity, groovy razor deaths and that Euro Trash essential; the scuzzy, twitching, morgue attendant who just loves those dead naked chicks.

Wonderfully trashy, not remotely classy...but never boring and with a good whodunnit plot.

Golgot

09-27-09, 12:30 PM

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5557/michaelclayton1777296.jpg

"I am Shiva, the god of death."

"Let's get out of Milwaukee and we'll talk about it."

Michael Clayton

Clooney plays a miracle worker, a behind-the-scenes fixer for a law firm, whose police background has slipped him behind many a door, and who now finds himself wondering whether he should have walked through them all.

A wintery sheen of discontent colours the various careers colliding on the screen. Wilkinson's florid breakdown as a demon lawyer, tipped into his own personal hell by 6 years on a pesticide gig, is wonderfully layered into the slight time-dances of the script. But overall the subdued action-adventure and paper-trail ventures that follow feel more Hollywood truth than exposed verite filth. Still, slickly done.

3_5

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5092/tstildaswintonmichaelcl.png

Malky

09-27-09, 02:40 PM

500 Days of Summer 4

It is quite refreshing to see a romantic comedy from the guys perspective about two normal people instead on the contrieved ******** like street hooker and multi millionaire, illegal immigrant boss or that movie with Cusasck and the book. It is rather funny and close to the bone of my personal experience and I'm sure I'm not the only one who says that.

Surrogates 2

It is pretty poor to be honest. It had potential but it is just a cheesy action movie.

Fenwick

09-27-09, 04:36 PM

After a bit of PM liasing with pinku junkie Used Future, I decided to check out some 70's grindhouse from East Asia...

Hanzo the Razor

Sword of Justice (Kenji Misumi, 1972)
The Snare (Yasuzo Masumura, 1973)
Who's Got the Gold? (Yoshio Inoue, 1974)

http://eurekavideo.co.uk/images/films/featured/hanzo-the-razor-the-trilogy.jpg

During the 60's, when the TV formed a part of the staple diet of many a suburban family, cinema attendance declined. France's answer was the Nouvelle Vague, Hollywood's answer was a reassessment of Hays Code regulations (and an influx of young, talented directors; the movie brat generation), the Brits were doing the kitchen-sink, social-realism thing and Italy were doing the giallo, spaghetti-western thing. So likewise, Japan revamped the studios, shipped out the old stock and started their own revolution, with the Nuberu Bagu (pioneered by Neo-Godardian film-makers like Nagisa Oshima).

Now while Hanzo the Razor is not exactly a New Wave trilogy, it's parody of chanbara/jidaigeki, as well as it's excessive violence and scenes of sexual torture and humiliation, were designed to bring Japanese labourers, disillusioned with late capitalism and the non-progressive political climate, to the late-night grindhouses. Indeed, the idea must have appealed - a well-endowed anti-hero on a vigilante mission to disect the corrupt government officials Japanese workers had grown resentful of.

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/edit/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dvd-hanzotherazor.jpg

This is all very nice for a history lesson but is it any good? In short, not really. The first film overdoes the plot and neglects the claret. The only upside being Hanzo's pre-interrogation workout, which includes pounding his dick with a stick and inventfully ****ing a small orephice in a bag of rice. The Snare was far more enjoyable, for me the strongest in the series. Blood-drenched swordplay, intense sexual interrogations and a cool, electro-funk score are brought together by Zatoichi-famed lead Shintaro Katsu at his glacial best. It gets very tired come the third instalment however; the film plays out with been-there-done-that routine. The set-pieces, once gruelling, now feel samey and uninspired as Inoue (the least experienced film-maker of the three directors) struggles to keep the action fresh and absorbing.

Female Prisoner Scorpion

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

Shunya Ito

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1019/3164097197_15c732ba8c.jpg?v=0

The second trilogy Matt pointed me towards was Shunya Ito's Female Prisoner Scorpion. Word is that Prisoner is to the Women-in-Prison sub-genre what 2001 is to science fiction. That's not to say that you should expect monkeys, monoliths, evil face-less computers and floating babies - but you get my point. And as you guys have already had to trudge through my assorted film history boning, i'll get straight into it.

First off, it seems unfair to have written a paragraph on the trilogy without mentioning femme fatale extaordinaire Meiko Kaji, whose wordless turn as wired misantrope Matsu sets the tone for random intervals of lesbian orgies, ultra-violence, nymphomania and mock crucifixions. The series was a major influence behind Tarantino's Kill Bill, with movie-nut Quentin using Kaji's (slightly awful) theme song in Vol 1. And I must say as well, that the series is an entirely different creature to Hanzo - poor big-dicked Hanzo has a picnic in the Sunday sunshine compared to sex-kitten Matsu.

The first film is set almost entirely in prison, save the final bout of blood-letting mastery. Betrayed by the man she fell in love with, Matsu's mute objection does not save her from relentless persecution, not only from guards but from other female inmates. This trilogy does about as much for men as Midnight Express did for Turks; they're foul-mouthed rapists, whom the women attempt to rebel against. Feminist subtext alert. One great thing, if you're boring like me and can take something from this, the series is probably the only grind-arthouse, feminist exploitation trilogy around.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ogCVFEf9L1c/SlRXzsiS42I/AAAAAAAAABk/u2zez_QabDA/s400/Kaji+Meiko+in+Female+Prisoner+%23701+Scorpion.jpg

The first film, probably my favourite of the series, features a shower chase, ending with a squibby eye stabbing that should stroke gorehounds the right way. Another particular highlight was the digging scene, where a tireless Matsu digs unfatigued until the other prisoners around her retire from hand blisters.

The second and third film take place, predominantly outdoors. Although, I prefer the previous film, both Jailhouse 41 and Beast Stable intertwine surrealism and sexploitation. Eureka!'s dodgy picture transfers didn't do justice to Ito's often-gorgeous cinematography - one particularly distressing scene sees a prisoner raped and murdered on a river/lake bank; the next shot being the indelible image of claret gushing from the background waterfall. Beast Stable drifts along in some sort of dream-like netherworld, a vision of modern Japan, yet the incestual sub-plot grated me.

It would be too simple to say the whole idea had become repetetive by Beast Stable but I couldn't help but be let down, not by a lack of new ideas but more or less by my craving for a different cinema. Even with all the gore and sexual violence, I still find myself thinking of Ozu. I'll be returning to his good grace tonight.

Used Future

09-27-09, 05:37 PM

42ndStreetFreak

09-27-09, 07:06 PM

Not seen "Hanzo 3" yet...But have to say the first two did little for me. Once the cock novelty wore off there was little there.
#2 was better but still felt tired.

I have to say I much prefer the classic 'Baby Cart' series, "Sex and Fury" and "Lady Snowblood" to these.

Fenwick

09-27-09, 07:25 PM

Harsh...very harsh. In retrospect what with you being a strict arthouse lover; I probably shouldn't have recommended these at all. I did begin to regret suggesting them when you told me exploitation 'gets your goat'. You didn't even like Urami Bushi? Oh well, I guess I've just got crap taste in movies. Toei forever!!!

[EDIT] It's only Jailhouse 41 that has a bad transfer. The other two films look pristine in my opinion, but no matter.

No, no mate, thank you for the recommendations. I'm glad I checked them out and reading my Prisoner review back, it does come off a bit harsh. I liked Prisoner a great deal more than Hanzo. I may have just been a bit pinku'd; I watched them in quick succession, and there is only so much feral sex my young mind can take!

On the subject of the transfers. I meant just Jailhouse 41 but that obviously got lost while I was quickly cracking out the post before dinner. Other than that film, I thought Eureka! did an excellent job - Tom Mes' Liner Notes on Hanzo were really interesting and a nice addition.

And I don't think you've got a crap taste in movies. You have a unique niche that not only you enjoy, but that you specialise in - you should be proud of that! It's whatever you enjoy that counts - different strokes 'n all that. I'll watch anything I really will but an Ozu family talkathon interests me more than ultra-violent exploitation. If it helps, I wanted to love 'em. Oh, and to stem the tide of discontent, let me just say that I love Cinema Paradiso (when I looked at your favourite movies, I wasn't expecting it to be that!). I prefer the Director's Cut though - is this normal?

jrs

09-27-09, 07:30 PM

I Love You Beth Cooper Workprint

http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/watch-i-love-you-beth-cooper.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/23wse94.jpg

http://i35.tinypic.com/2cmlvgw.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/2agj3ls.jpg

http://i34.tinypic.com/flc4k5.jpg

Used Future

09-27-09, 08:03 PM

No, no mate, thank you for the recommendations. I'm glad I checked them out and reading my Prisoner review back, it does come off a bit harsh. I liked Prisoner a great deal more than Hanzo. I may have just been a bit pinku'd; I watched them in quick succession, and there is only so much feral sex my young mind can take!

On the subject of the transfers. I meant just Jailhouse 41 but that obviously got lost while I was quickly cracking out the post before dinner. Other than that film, I thought Eureka! did an excellent job - Tom Mes' Liner Notes on Hanzo were really interesting and a nice addition.

And I don't think you've got a crap taste in movies. You have a unique niche that not only you enjoy, but that you specialise in - you should be proud of that! It's whatever you enjoy that counts - different strokes 'n all that. I'll watch anything I really will but an Ozu family talkathon interests me more than ultra-violent exploitation. If it helps, I wanted to love 'em. Oh, and to stem the tide of discontent, let me just say that I love Cinema Paradiso (when I looked at your favourite movies, I wasn't expecting it to be that!). I prefer the Director's Cut though - is this normal?

That's cool. I understand these aren't everyone's cup of tea. I was just feeling a little insecure about recommending them to someone used to watching films from the classier end of the artistic spectrum as it were. If truth be told I've been dreading you tabbing your thoughts for fear of a universal panning of the films. You were at least balanced and informative.

I was a little disappointed you didn't think the Hanzo films were very good though (I actually thought you'd prefer those to the Scorpion series purely because of the period setting). I think they're very well made and completely unique; not 'tired' at all as Mr. 42nd suggested. Sword of Justice is a little convoluted and on the talky side granted, but it's well acted and funny (at least I thought so). The Snare is excellent in my opinion. Good story, tension, great action, humour, gore, boobs! Everything a growing chanbara/pinky fan needs. Who's Got the Gold does begin to feel a bit samey, but I'd already grown to like the cast, and was enjoying Hanzo and his boss bounce off each other; not to mention the ongoing relationship with his down trodden man servants. But yeah, like you say, it's horses for courses really.

The Female Prisoner Scorpion films are on another level though. I'm glad you approved of Ito's stunning photography, and agree Jailhouse 41 (the most weirdly flamboyant of the series) is seriously undermined by Eureka's substandard picture transfer. It's a crying shame is what it is. Meiko Kaji though eh? Pretty cool huh;)

Oh and re me being a Pinky specialist; I'm really just a beginner, and haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre. Happy times because there are lots more hidden gems to be discovered.

Harry Lime

09-27-09, 11:16 PM

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/1ifidanzati.jpg
I Fidanzati (1962, Ermanno Olmi) 3
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/2thesilence.jpg
The Silence (1963, Ingmar Bergman) 3.5
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/3koyaanisqatsi.jpg
Koyaanisqatsi (1982, Godfrey Reggio) 3
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/4forallmankind.jpg
For All Mankind (1989, Al Reinert) 3
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/5thelastmetro.jpg
The Last Metro (1980, Francois Truffaut) 3
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/6faces.jpg
Faces (1968, John Cassavetes) 4
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/7shallowgrave.jpg
Shallow Grave (1994, Danny Boyle) 3
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/8portofshadows.jpg
Port of Shadows (1938, Marcel Carne) 3.5
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/harrylime49/9broadwaydannyrose.jpg
Broadway Danny Rose (1984, Woody Allen) 4

TheUsualSuspect

09-27-09, 11:19 PM

You still posting at Horrorspeak 42nd?

42ndStreetFreak

09-28-09, 02:53 PM

Broadway Danny Rose (1984, Woody Allen) 4Yes indeed. Hysterical film. Some of his acts are wonderful!

You still posting at Horrorspeak 42nd?Not for a few thousand years. Not since one of my many huge bust ups.

"Camp Blood" 0.5

Oh dear.
Something went wrong with the mix Grandma, this ain't chocolate...it's s**t.

Barely watchable amateur Slasher fare with a crap killer and lots of tedium.
Has a couple of okay deaths, but mainly it's just good old Tom Savini's 'machete with a half moon cut out of it' type FX as annoying people get hacked in the arm or head.

Acting varies from bad to okay, with top marks going to a spot on 'loony old fart who forewarns doom' performance from a guy who seems to have trouble standing up straight.

The film's real failing though is the Christ awful picture quality.
The video camera images are generally crisp and clear but the colour is shot to hell!
Red blood becomes either dull orange or a dirty gold colour resulting in seriously compromised FX and murders.
Skin-tones vary from green to yellow to yellowy-green and the rest of the colour spectrum seems to be missing.

So a weak home made Slasher flick (with a naff ending) slips even further down into the toilet and becomes almost unwatchable thanks to the dire colour quality.

"Man of the West" 4 (Mild event spoilers)

A big surprise!
The often excellent Director Anthony Mann's penultimate Western starts off like any old 'classic' Western, with an annoyingly cloying and jaunty score playing over shots of a town and it's population that all look like they fell off a 'pastel shades' colour chart.

Legend of the Western Gary Cooper appears at first to be doing a lightly comic turn as the initially dull, if likeable, Link Jones. Added to how the film opened, I was fearing the worst.
But it seems Mann was playing a naughty game with us.

Suddenly (after an enjoyably farcical train ride..those were the days) Mann lets rip with his twisted gang of robbers led by Dock Tobin (a brilliantly mad and scary Lee J. Cobb).
From here on in this goes from a jaunty pastel paradise to a bleak, unforgiving plummet into pitch blackness.

Cobb has played tough, strict, rock hard characters before, but i've never seen him essay a character so deranged and twisted as here. Plastered in a grey old beard and ragged clothes Tobin lurches through the film dishing out spittle sprayed venom and ruthless violence.

Cooper also has a chance now to reveal another side of Link Jones, and suddenly the comic air about him has vanished and been replaced by shame, desperation and unleashed violence.
He bounces off Cobb just fine, but really gets his teeth into his scenes with a young Jack Lord as Coaley, the most unstable member of the gang.
Some good verbal sparring leads into a devil of a fistfight as Cooper, Lord and their stunt doubles go through an unusually extended and bloody duel.
But it's not the fight itself that really shocks here, it's the sudden madness that overcomes Cooper's Link (we're a long way from "High Noon" here!) as he starts to literally (and very violently) rip the clothes off the bloodied, screaming Coaley until the man is reduced to a sobbing, blood caked wreck dressed now only in his long-johns!

Even today this brutal scene of frenzied retribution is strong stuff, especially coming from the likes of the normally clean cut and heroic Cooper.

This outstanding sequence's retribution happens because of an earlier sequence where Lord's leering gunman makes a terrified Julie London strip down to her corset, as he holds a knife to the helpless Link's throat.
So even before this clothes ripping fistfight shocker, Mann had started to walk us into a very dark place indeed. And not a place you would expect to be in during a 1950's Gary Cooper Western!
The entire sequence is an uncomfortable pre-cursor to the same sort of scenes (of a brutal, leering gang of psychopaths normally invading someone's home) that would make up many a Grindhouse Exploitation film of the 70's/80's. Though she would have been stripped naked by then.
In "Man of the West" the striking (and excellent) Ms London only gets down to her corset, but this scene is amazingly close to the infamous 'strip the blonde girl' sequence in Ruggero Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park", a full 22 years later.

When we add the generally dark plot of inescapable pasts and destinies, deceit, multiple deaths (one involving a wailing gut shot man really sticks out) and much twisted sadism (the reveal of an off-screen event during the finale...rather thrown away during the very end though sadly...is stunningly bleak, nasty and unexpected) you have one of the darkest, tough and (for the time especially) uncompromising Westerns you will ever see from Hollywood.

Some of the 'Classic Western' styling is still rather dated for my tastes and the very end scene (though any romance is explicitly ruled out, which is unusual) lacks the punch of what came before, something not helped by that annoyingly cheesy and jaunty score appearing again.

Overall though this is excellent, surprising and hard as nails film making done with a master's touch.

In fact "Man of the West" was heavily cut upon it's initial UK cinema release, and certainly earns it's uncut '12' DVD certificate today, and then some.

will.15

09-28-09, 03:20 PM

"Man of the West" 4

A big surprise!
The often excellent Director Anthony Mann's penultimate film starts off like any old 'classic' Western, with an annoyingly cloying and jaunty score playing over shots of a town and it's population that all look like they fell off a 'pastel shades' colour chart.

Legend of the Western Gary Cooper appears at first to be doing a lightly comic turn as the initially dull, if likeable, Link Jones. Added to how the film opened, I was fearing the worst.
But it seems Mann was playing a naughty game with us.

Suddenly (after an enjoyably farcical train ride..those were the days) Mann lets rip with his twisted gang of robbers led by Dock Tobin (a brilliantly mad and scary Lee J. Cobb).
From here on in this goes from a jaunty pastel paradise to a bleak, unforgiving plummet into pitch blackness.

Cobb has played tough, strict, rock hard characters before, but i've never seen him essay a character so deranged and twisted as here. Plastered in a grey old beard and ragged clothes Tobin lurches through the film dishing out spittle sprayed venom and ruthless violence.

Cooper also has a chance now to reveal another side of Link Jones, and suddenly the comic air about him has vanished and been replaced by shame, desperation and unleashed violence.
He bounces off Cobb just fine, but really gets his teeth into his scenes with a young Jack Lord as Coaley, the most unstable member of the gang.
Some good verbal sparring leads into a devil of a fistfight as Cooper, Lord and their stunt doubles go through an unusually extended and bloody duel.
But it's not the fight itself that really shocks here, it's the sudden madness that overcomes Cooper's Link (we're along way from "High Noon" here!) as he starts to literally (and very violently) rip the clothes off the bloodied, screaming Coaley until the man is reduced to a sobbing, blood caked wreck dressed now only in his long-johns!

Even today this brutal scene of frenzied retribution is strong stuff, especially coming from the likes of the normally clean cut and heroic Cooper.

This outstanding sequence's retribution happens because of an earlier sequence where Lord's leering gunman makes a terrified Julie London strip down to her corset, as he holds a knife to the helpless Link's throat.
So even before this clothes ripping fistfight shocker, Mann had started to walk us into a very dark place indeed. And not a place you would expect to be in during a 1950's Gary Cooper Western!
The entire sequence is an uncomfortable pre-cursor to the same sort of scenes (of a brutal, leering gang of psychopaths normally invading someone's home) that would make up many a Grindhouse Exploitation film of the 70's/80's. Though she would have been stripped naked by then.
In "Man of the West" the striking (and excellent) Ms London only gets down to her corset, but this scene is amazingly close to the infamous 'strip the blonde girl' sequence in Ruggero Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park", a full 22 years later.

When we add the generally dark plot of inescapable pasts and destinies, deceit, multiple deaths (a=one involving a wailing gut shot man really sticks out) and much twisted sadism (the reveal of an off-screen event during the finale...rather thrown away during the very end though sadly...is stunningly bleak, nasty and unexpected) you have one of the darkest, tough and (for the time especially) uncompromising Westerns you will ever see from Hollywood.

Some of the 'Classic Western' styling is still rather dated for my tastes and the very end scene (though any romance is explicitly ruled out, which is unusual) lacks the punch of what came before, something not helped by that annoyingly cheesy and jaunty score appearing again.

Overall though this is excellent, surprising and hard as nails film making done with a master's touch.

In fact "Man of the West" was heavily cut upon it's initial UK cinema release, and certainly earns it's uncut '12' DVD certificate today, and then some.
You might want to look at They Came to Cordura, a great premise, strong Cooper performance, but a screebplay that isn't completely satisfying. Still way above average. I liked Man of the West, too, but thought Cooper's age (he's cleary too old to have been raised by Cobb) was a distraction.

linespalsy

09-28-09, 10:12 PM

merry christmas mr. lawrence (oshima, 1983) 2.5
the girl can't help it (tashlin, 1956) 3
eastern promises (cronenberg, 2007) 2
visitor q (miike, 2001) 3

42ndStreetFreak

09-29-09, 07:33 AM

eastern promises (cronenberg, 2007) 2

I think I would have gone to 2.5, but I agree it's an overrated film. One or two excellent scenes in a 90 odd minute film does not an excellent film make.
A Cronenberg film that truly is average and above all anonymous. This could really have been directed by anyone.

I thought "History of Violence" was much better.

TheUsualSuspect

09-29-09, 02:53 PM

Yeah, the place has been dead for years.

American Psycho 4

undercoverlover

09-29-09, 05:34 PM

Pandorum
Invention Of Lying
The Soloist
Triangle

linespalsy

09-29-09, 05:59 PM

how was triangle?

42ndStreetFreak

09-29-09, 06:08 PM

"Pandorum" has been getting some good reviews. Looks like "The Descent" in space.
Good?

"Ils" ("Them") 2

A couple is terrorised at home by a gang of hoodies!

Hmm....got rave reviews when it came out, but quite frankly I've seen better French Horror films recently

The main problem is the fact the director seemed reluctant to shout "cut".
Scenes go on for too long, thus mutating the tension initially built up into something approaching tedium.

An effective opening for example loses steam when we spend a good minute with a girl calling out to her missing Mother. On and on she goes...
The same happens with an early driving sequence involving our main woman character.
We know nothing is going to happen to her yet! We all know! The director knows we know as well, surely.
And yet the car is filmed creeping along roads (with a sinister plinky plonky piano score for company) as we wait for her to actually get home and start the film!

The same extended into boredom, where initially we had suspense, problem happens in a sequence where the woman slowly creeps through a (rather bizarre) room hung with dirty plastic sheets. Again, it goes on and on and on.
The couple like to talk, walk and move in slow motion too, as they endlessly gaze into each other's eyes in that cloying and sickly way good looking French couples seem to manage so easily.

And would anyone else like to see a home invasion/avoiding the psychos plot where the house isn't a mansion!?
The terrorised couple have so many rooms, crawl spaces and corridors to creep around in it seems they could live in the same house as the killers and not even meet them!
How about seeing if you can keep the tension and suspense up by setting the film in an average home, made up of a sitting room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom! That would really be clever (and actually far scarier!).

And it goes beyond stupid to think that the couple would do what they do during the final chase as well. Idiots!
And talking of the final chase...where the hell did that gigantic, lit by a few hundred electric lights, underground labyrinth come from!?
It seems to be very close to their house and yet completely unknown to anyone, despite the obviously huge electric bill all those lighted corridors must chalk up.

But there are some effective moments here.
Some of the scare scenes are well done with a nice use of camera angles and sudden reveals.
And the thing that I noticed got the most criticism when the film came out (though the film did not get much and was certainly over-praised) I actually liked.

Many seem to dislike the eventual revealing of who the killers are, as if it makes it an anti-climax. To me though it gave the film it's only real powerful and disturbing aspect.

"Camp Blood II" 2

Blimey! A large improvement over the first film. Who would have thought?

Not only does the picture quality look much better, especially the colours (Yay! no more yellow people and orange/gold blood) but this time it seems the makers have also added some okay intentional humour (the scuzzy film guys are fun), more action, more nudity (a very nice pair of breasts during the opening of the first film I have to say...but a full frontal shower scene here tops it) and much better and more satisfying deaths and FX.

Though the film still stinks as far as plot and dialogue goes (though the lead actress is doing better here than in the first film, despite still looking shockingly ungainly when running) and you have to wonder how a suspected, judged insane, multiple murderess is allowed out alone, back to the place she supposedly killed, to help make a movie!
But the fact the film shoehorns in lots of verbal plot explanation and footage from the first film at least means you don't actually need to own the crappy first film to watch this. Hooray!

Whereas the deaths in "Camp Blood 1" were nothing but a bit of blood and a machete with a half moon cut out of the blade that was placed over arms and heads, in the sequel we actually have proper FX set-ups.
The deaths are all more violent and gory and even rather nasty.
Sure the effects work is primitive, but it still works, still delivers and it's nice to see some good, on-set, CGI free, old school FX anyway.
Highlights are a messy machete through the mouth/back of the head, a pulpy burnt face, a hacked off hand with spurting stump, a machete through the chest and much general blood spraying.

It's cheap, it's got some bad lines for even worse actors to say, it has a major plot holes, looks cheap (though better) and has many moments of badness that should never have seen the light of day.
And yet i still quite enjoyed it! Unlike the first film.

The sometimes nasty deaths, large body count (also helped by the kills from the first film appearing again), the fun gore FX and an incident packed screenplay were all the positives that the first film never had, and here they help to counteract the many negatives.
Shucks! Give it at least one go, just avoid the first one.

TheUsualSuspect

09-29-09, 06:12 PM

Rocky III 2.5

B-card

09-30-09, 09:21 AM

Since I dont have internet yet I've been watching a lot of movies lately

here are some

Messengers 2: The Scarecrow-1

State of Play-4.5

Ghost of Girlfriends Past-3

How High-4

Terminator Salvation-3.5

maybe there are more but I cant remember now :)

Iroquois

09-30-09, 09:40 AM

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p50ghs4sxbA/R-QHvu_-esI/AAAAAAAAARk/jpJRXycrwQw/s320/bottle-rocket-2.jpg

Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996) - 3

After seeing The Royal Tenenbaums, I decided to seek this out. It had Anderson’s distinct feel to it, felt kind of rough compared to his later films, but it was still reasonably entertaining all the way through. It’s safe to say that Owen Wilson steals the show, though.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B6J6nGs6VwA/ShK6fB4UTHI/AAAAAAAAVU4/airBVqyilPY/s400/whosafraid.jpg

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966) - 4

There’s something about films based on stage productions. This one is probably pitch-perfect and deserves to be rated higher – it’s got just about everything. Great acting, great writing, the cinematography looks excellent. The music felt somewhat redundant, though.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Y8vVpYyZu8o/SIRGFxNRdVI/AAAAAAAAB28/TZU2-1K_L0I/s400/o_The_Conversation.jpg

The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) - 4

A very solid character study. Makes me want to seek out more of Gene Hackman’s work (or maybe just re-watch The French Connection, haven’t seen that in about 6 or 7 years). Almost gets a little too confusing in parts, but rewards amply. Another film I should probably rate higher.

http://fabnob.com.au/userfiles/images/et-bmx-bicycle-scene-elliot.jpg

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) - 3

Yep, I finally got around to giving it a proper re-watching. Granted, there’s still some stuff that annoys me about it (Elliott has one painfully high-pitched voice) but I didn’t reckon it was a piece of crap. Not sure if I’m so fond of all the CGI tweaking that Spielberg’s done (so many walkie-talkies). Also, is it me or does E.T. look like a grown-up version of the baby from Eraserhead?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bpdWsOrotV0/SfBwztyuQNI/AAAAAAAAAJI/oPsxCoXT-l8/s400/sunrise+movie+poster+4.jpg

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927) - 3.5

Granted, the storyline’s very simplistic by today’s standards and it took a while to get going, but I thought it was quite well-done. Felt that the film was quite well-made by ‘20s standards (or maybe I just need to see more), and it was certainly quite interesting, if not exactly something I’d go back to a lot over the years.

42ndStreetFreak

09-30-09, 11:00 AM

"Nude for Satan" 1.5 - (for the pubes)

Give me a break!
There are few things worse on God's green Earth than freeform Jazz. But freeform Jazz in an achingly tedious, pretentious, plodding Euro Trash flick is indeed the very pit of hell.

A barmy plot about a man and a woman who, after a bizarre road accident, go to a strange castle and bump into evil versions of themselves all under the watchful eye of some man in a frock coat who waves a cane about.

Hysterically bad dialogue (spouted by enjoyably bad dubbing artists) annoying electronic chirps and cheeps, Jazz practice soundtrack, slow motion slow motion that moves so slow there is barely any motion at all and seemingly endless scenes of running around corridors and gardens all compete to try the viewers patience.

Laughable (but managing to become so bad they are good) highlight is the woman suffering a sudden plummet into blackness that ends with her crash landing onto a huge spider web, with her breast hanging out, before a spider (that looks like a horse dropping with twigs stuck in it) waddles up her body.

Take notice of that uncovered breast as well, as it will remain on display for the rest of the film.
In a gloriously awful bit of gratuitous Sexploitation goodness the actress now flees from haunting terrors, lies down and cries and sits around trying to work out what's going on with her wayward breast hanging out.
The man with her is no Gentlemen either! No attempting to cover her up, not even a mention of the fact she's popped out. Nothing.
He's not stupid!

We do have some very welcome full nudity of course (I should hope so with a title like this) and it's all very nice and hairy in that 70's Euro way. Lovely.
But sadly these odd moments of wonderment are nearly always played out via slow motion scenes that suck the life out of any erotic hopes the visuals may give us.

And of course inbetween this occasional nudity we have to put up with the worst kind of 'artistic' Euro stodge, non-sensical philosophical plot explanations, camp overload, deadening direction and pacing and sequences of such mind numbing tedium you slowly lose the will to live.
Want to see a man spend 5 minutes running in slow motion around a garden, trying to catch up with a top hat wearing figure who turns out to be himself, all backed by tweeting noises and that hateful freeform Jazz noodling?
Well you'll love this film then.

Everyone else should avoid it, or at worse simply wind through 70 minutes of arse water to get to the nude scenes. But quite frankly I wouldn't bother.
Who says the Devil has all the best tunes.

TheGirlWhoHadAllTheLuck_

09-30-09, 02:38 PM

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The Lost Weekend [rating/]5[\rating]

Oh, how I long for the days when films were well-made! This is a classic. Don is an alcoholic writer and the film is basically his descent over the space of about 5 days. Out of this simple story comes a really poignant tale about addiction. It was the first film to deal with alcoholism seriously and has a wonderfully surreal moment involving a bat (the animal).

TheGirlWhoHadAllTheLuck_

09-30-09, 02:40 PM

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The Lost Weekend 5

Oh, how I long for the days when films were well-made! This is a classic. Don is an alcoholic writer and the film is basically his descent over the space of about 5 days. Out of this simple story comes a really poignant tale about addiction. It was the first film to deal with alcoholism seriously and has a wonderfully surreal moment involving a bat (the animal).

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A Matter of Life and Death 5

This is a wonderfully crazy war film fantasy romance. Peter Carter, an English soldier is in a burning plane speaking what he thinks are his last words to June, an American phone operator. However he becomes stuck between Earth (shot in colour) and heaven (shot in monochrome). Marius Goring is especially good as Conductor 71, a camp Frenchman who is Peter's (or Pee-tare's) angel guide.

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Black Narcissus 5

If you are looking for a film about sexually repressed nuns, you can do no better than Black Narcissus. Initially it starts off as a nice film (or relatively nice) but then it goes super scary with crazed Sister Ruth. The scene with her putting on red lipstick in front of Sister Clodagh is fantastically symbolic.

ash_is_the_gal

09-30-09, 09:29 PM

Revolutionary Road (2008)

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was pretty good. not amaaazing or the best movie of the year or anything, but pretty good. interesting. enjoyable. i'd see it again. kate and leo are good together, honestly. i've never been the hugest fan of Dicaprio, but i like him a lot more than i ever used to, especially when he's coupled up with her. 4

Little Woman (1933)

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it was good, but i'll never love any version of that film more than the newer one. 3

will.15

10-01-09, 12:34 AM

#11378

Victor Jory got to play a romantic lead? I like Jory, the best actor ever to star in a serial, the best movie Shadow, and great in a guest appearance on The Rockford Files.

Caitlyn

10-01-09, 11:06 AM

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (2009) ... took my niece to see this and we had a ball... very original and funny. Did the Mayor resemble Bill Clinton to anyone else?

4

meatwadsprite

10-01-09, 02:10 PM

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Stray Dog 1949

A Kurosawa noir picture that never hooked me and never felt right. For the most part is looks great (aside from the massive amount of transitions) , the mono soundtrack can be very obnoxious at times however - instances where the music is much too loud and just sounds awful. A long grueling scene where Murakami (Mifune) is searching for a gun dealer , continues to fade out , fade in , fade out , fade in .... after awhile it concludes and felt like a complete waste of time.

I'm still willing to give all of Kurosawa's films a chance , but compared to Seven Samurai , Yojimbo , Sanjuro - I haven't enjoyed the others (Ran , Rashomon , Dreams , Red Beard , The Hidden Fortress , Ikuru) nearly as much.

2

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Vanilla Sky 2001

A big let down , the opening of film promises a fast paced complex surreal mind bender and Vanilla Sky really turns out to be a slow , simple story with a couple twists - some which are nothing but plot-hole fillers. It's an incomplete story that turns to science-fiction to complete it , a hilariously cheap move.

It's not all bad though , Cruise , Cruz , Jason Lee , Kurt Russel , all give outstanding performances and there are a couple of very well done scenes (the empty Time Square scene).

2.5

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Open Your Eyes 1997

The lower budgeted Spanish film which Vanilla Sky is almost a complete replica of , is even worse than the remake. The few things that brought a bit of soul to the film are absent here and all of the production values are much lower.

1.5

42ndStreetFreak

10-01-09, 04:12 PM

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (2009) ... took my niece to see this and we had a ball... very original and funny. Did the Mayor resemble Bill Clinton to anyone else?

4

May take our Daughter to see this, in 3D.
It's been getting some very good reviews and sounds delightfully mad.

WBadger

10-01-09, 05:11 PM

Okay, here we go, short opinions for now:

12 Monkeys, (1995, Gilliam)- B

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I was a little confused a few times when Willis was going from the time periods. Pretty good film, but I need to re-watch this one soon so I can get a better understanding.

A Few Good Men, (1992, Reiner)- A

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The first time I've watched this movie in full, but a great one for sure. Nicholson was brilliant, and this movie is an impressive court room mystery.

Wall-E, (2008, Stanton)- A-/A

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Another Pixar film that is imaginative and creative that provides a lot of entertainment.

Rear Window, (1954, Hitchcock)- A+

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Incredible movie that masters the different film techniques. I got chills when Thorwald looked directly in the telescope. So far my favorite Hitchcock film, and now really high on my favorites list.

Vertigo, (1958, Hitchcock)- A+

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And this is also an excellent film. Great camera work, plot twists, and acting make this one brilliant.

Classicqueen13

10-01-09, 05:32 PM

Mr. Lucky (1943)

Quite different than Grant's usual work, I rather enjoyed Mr. Lucky. He's a pleasure to watch as always, and I really liked Lariane Day's performance. Fun dialouge and a pretty original story line. Surprisingly, this film even had something of a plot twist. I thought I was certainly going to hate the ending, but it surprised me.

4

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)

Excellent drama with a great cast. This may be Anthony Quinn's best performance and Jackie Gleason is terrific. The supporting actors and dialouge are both very good. A lot is suspense toward the end, and I liked the musical score as well. It went by very quickly.

4

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

This movie was just okay. I didn't quite like it from the start when the main character proved to be an idiot already. The rest of characters sort of followed suit. However, the one I liked met a sad ending. Can't say a whole lot more without giving things away. While it entertained me, I just thought there was a better way to spend the time. Like clipping my fingernails or something.

2

The War (1994)

This touching drama had me in tears. Kevin Costner gives a great performance, and I've probably never seen better child acting. Elijah Wood is terrific for his age. It has a compelling message and the plot really had me thinking about what I would do in the characters' positions. Highly recommended especially for drama fans.

4

TheUsualSuspect

10-01-09, 06:00 PM

Kung fu Hustle 4

linespalsy

10-01-09, 06:08 PM

Carnal Knowledge
and
9 Songs

Not sure about ratings, I liked both, really enjoyed parts of Carnal Knowledge a lot.

ash_is_the_gal

10-01-09, 11:51 PM

Shutter (2004)

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where did i first hear about this? i feel like someone must have recommended it to me, since i don't normally seek out movies like this on my own, only because i don't really trust that they'd be any good. anyway, this one i actually really enjoyed. yeah, when it comes to asian horror, it isn't original, creative, or really distinctly different. granted, you've got your typical straggly-haired, freaky faced asian girl skulking around at every corner, blipping in and out of your television set and in the corner of the screen, ala Ringu. this movie just works, though. it genuinely gets pretty darn creepy at times. i won't say i was pissing myself or anything, but there was a definite creeped out feeling going on here. and well, i found the ending to be especially satisfying. 4.5

B-card

10-02-09, 07:59 AM

Forbiden Planet-3

Team America: World Police-4

Hot Fuzz-5

25th Hour-5

mark f

10-02-09, 03:03 PM

Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968) 2.5

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Bava gleefully throws himself into an inverse superhero movie where the lead is a diabolical criminal (John Phillip Law) who goes out of his way to steal anything worth stealing. In between capers, he carries on an intense love affair with his lady assistant Eva (Marisa Mell). Eventually, a befuddled police inspector (Michel Piccoli) makes a deal with a sadistic crime boss (Adolfo Celi) to try to capture Diabolik and stop his criminal rampage. The sets, costumes, and autos all seem to belong to the Swingin' Sixties by way of the Italian comic book, and Ennio Morricone's score uses plenty of psychedic electric guitars to accentuate Bava's assured yet flamboyant direction. Although you cannot really take the film seriously, the love affair and some of the plotting makes it seem much less campy to me than how others may feel it is. The opening and a few other of the action set-pieces get the blood boiling, but I still found a few too many longueurs in the 100 minute flick to give it a wholehearted recommendation, but you'll know if you'll like it by reading this. The film cries out for it and producer Dino De Laurentiis did ask Bava to make a sequel, but the director declined.

Madame de... (Max Ophuls, 1953) 2.5

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Set at the turn-of-the-early 20th century, Madame de... tells of the flirtatious wife (Danielle Darrieux) of a demanding general (Charles Boyer) who falls in love with a diplomat (Vittorio De Sica) while paying for her flirtations by pawning the earrings her husband gave her as a wedding present. These earrings keep turning up repeatedly, having been sold and bought back several times, and they become a symbol of the couple's marriage and how much control the husband actually has over his wife. The film is somewhat stylistically similar to Casque d'or and both have a romance, plenty of dancing and lead to tragedy, but the chief difference is the passion found in the other film. Although Ophuls' beautiful use of the camera gives pleasure and Madame de certainly shows a tender side of herself to the diplomat, this film is just colder than Casque d'or, and the ending seems a tad too much a price to pay for what the characters dare to do.

Sheba Baby (William Girdler, 1975) 1.5

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This flick is a substandard Pam Grier actioner where she plays a private detective who returns home to Louisville when her father gets roughed up and his business gets trashed by some mobsters. It contains the requisite gunplay and cat fights of Grier's other flicks, but contains less sex and blood. Director Girdler, who died in a helicopter crash after making four more movies, was always basically a hack who ripped off whatever was popular at the time, so look at this as almost a Pam Grier ripoff movie starring Pam Grier. There really isn't that much to say about it, except that if you want to watch a Pam Grier film, watch any of the other ones before you watch this one.

Sugar (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2008) 2.5

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Being a baseball fan, I enjoyed much of this tale about Sugar (Algenis Perez Soto), a young pitcher from the baseball hotbed of the Dominican Republic, San Pedro de Macoris. He's signed by the major league club Kansas City Royals and goes to play for their A team in Iowa where he stays with a religious family who are also baseball fanatics. Being made by the team which also made Half Nelson, you can be sure that this isn't your standard baseball tale and there are plenty of curveballs presented in Sugar's story. Much of the baseball seems realistic since they used many real ballplayers but some of the details are a bit lacking in truth. Now, I realize that I had a major problem with critical darling Half Nelson which I found amateurish, boring and unbelievable, but this film is a definite step up for me, even if there's still something off in the way I see these filmmakers trying to mask their deficiencies in some faux naturalistic style. Even so, since I like this film as much as any on the tab so far, I'm going to shut up and just tell you that if you want to watch an offbeat baseball film that won't insult your intelligence, give Sugar a try.

Max Mon Amour (Nagisa Ôshima, 1986) 2

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A British diplomat (Anthony Higgins) learns that his wife (Charlotte Rampling) is having an affair with a chimpanzee named Max, and the diplomat decides it would be better if Max comes to live with the family. That's basically the entire film. Now, what could seem shocking, weird, or funny is mostly played straight and there was little for me to react to since I found that nothing terribly interesting occurred. Rick Baker's makeup effects are mostly impressive, except for a couple of times they used a real chimp which threw things off. The film looks good too, but I just don't understand why things weren't more "fleshed out", if you get my drift. Why make a film with a seemingly-outrageous premise if it isn't going to be fully explored?

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (Michel Hazanavicius, 2006) 3

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This is one of Holden's favorite recent comedies, and it hits the right spot between incompetent spying, lame-brained action and romance and intermingling of Nazis and Arabs in 1950s Cairo. It may seem to be a spoof a la The Naked Gun or Top Secret, but it actually belongs to an older tradition of French spy flicks dating back to about the time this film is set. Jean Dujardin is hilarious as OSS 117, and I especially like his scenes with the Muslims where he's utterly clueless of what Islam is and will become. Even when the jokes aren't as humorous as intended, the film is one which actually uses humor to critique politics and religion, from the sides of both the French and the Arabs, and if you look even only slightly, you can see that Dujardin does a mean impression of Sean Connery, so often you have to wonder if he's also satirizing just Connery or Bond and all "old-fashioned secret agents". There's already a sequel out, OSS - Lost in Rio.

To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar (Beeban Kidron, 1995) 3

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This is actually a low-key fairy tale about tolerance, being one's self, and always trying to help others in need. Brenda picked this one as a Swayze Tribute movie, and I found it more entertaining than I had previously. It's about two drag queens, Vida (Swayze) and Noxzeema (Wesley Snipes), who take under their wings a "drag princess", Chi-Chi (John Leguizamo) who has a few things to learn before she can become a queen. En route to Hollywood by car, the trio have a run-in with a bigoted sheriff (Chris Penn), and after their cadillac breaks down, they're forced to stay in the boondocks for the weekend. It's little wonder that the three "career girls" change the lives of the locals forever. Although there are some dramatic moments, To Wong Foo is basically a feel-good comedy. The key to the film's charms is that it always takes the characters seriously and rarely resorts to freakish caricatures for its humor (unless you want to count the one about abusive husbands, but I won't count that one). There is also a huge cast of actresses here: Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Melinda Dillon, Beth Grant, Alice Drummond, Marceline Hugot and Jennifer Milmore. People often call this a remake or a ripoff of the Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and there are plenty of similarities and just as many differences, so to me, it doesn't really matter unless you're trying to collect some money from Hollywood for plagiarism.

Used Future

10-02-09, 03:32 PM

Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968) 2.5

Yup, that sure is one ambiguous ending, but I'm glad Bava didn't do a sequel. It adds to the mystique of the character for me. Did you like the scene with the laughing gas?

mark f

10-02-09, 03:39 PM

Sure, I liked that, but that seemed a lot less campy to me than the "Batman" TV series, even though they did the same thing. I grew up with "Batman", but aside from Diabolik's maniacal laugh and the fact they could lift the train car with a few air balloons (and undoubtedly a few more scenes I'm blanking out on), it seemed less campy than I was expecting. One other thing to remember is that I watched it so many times that the "dead spots" grew larger unfortunately. Still, it's a fun movie, especially for lovers of that kind of genre.

ash_is_the_gal

10-02-09, 04:12 PM

i remember that Swayze drag. what a strange, corny movie, but i liked it.

will.15

10-02-09, 04:25 PM

Diabolik inspired a more kid friendly British comic paper serial imitation called The Spider. Most of the stories were written by Superman creator, Jerry Siegel, and drawn by Reg Bun, "the king of cross hatching," in an absolutely stunning style that evokes pulp illustration at its best. There was a book collection that came out a few years ago and there was promise of a volume 2, but it never came out.

42ndStreetFreak

10-02-09, 08:13 PM

Dying Breed 4

Before we start, a little preamble is needed methinks.
Once again the 21st century shows why it’s become on of the most vital and exciting times (ever growing and utterly pointless re-make trend aside) for Horror/Exploitation film production.

In the late 60’s and 70’s, when the perfect storm of more liberal censorship, with an exploding independent film production/distribution market to enjoy it, met the upheaval of Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination and the threat of nuclear destruction, it buffeted not only America but most of the World and this extreme climate ensured that we were offered up some of the most groundbreaking, radical, pessimistic, cruel, extreme and just plain brutal Horror (and Exploitation) cinema we had ever seen.

Psychologists often state that at times of great upheaval Horror cinema goes through a resurgence, and just as in the 60's/70's this is being proved correct once more.
Now that upheaval is in the form of an unprecedented terrorism threat from within and without, of brutal conflict worldwide, of Global political mistrust at an all time high, of religious dogma at its most unrelenting and extreme since The Crusades.

And once again censorship is at its most forgiving (The UK for example now routinely passes films uncut it would have once banned outright) and although the great indy Drive-In/Grindhouse circuits for film distribution have long since gone we now have the even more widespread and powerful distribution tools called DVD, Blu-ray and even the internet as home theatre systems becoming bigger and more sophisticated.

From around the globe we are being treated to some of the bleakest, nastiest, most exciting genre cinema. They may not all be masterworks, though some are, but all are deeply effective and make most of what came in the last decade (more underground/indy fare like "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" aside) look like the drab, weak, safe efforts they were.
Flawed some of these may be, but the likes of , "The Devil's Rejects", "Hostel", "The Descent", "Inside", "House of 1000 Corpses", "Cannibal", "Martyrs", "Mum and Dad", "Shuttle", "Frontiers", "Dead Girl", "Gutterballs", "August Underground" and "Saw" have all, from the multi-plex, to the DVD player, to the PC monitor given us something as close to those halcyon days of 70's extremity and grime as we will ever get again.

And with bigger budgets (even for indy productions), easier to use equipment and more sophisticated effects possibilities, than the rough 'n' tumble 60's/70's film makers could have imagined, Horror and Exploitation cinema has been able to achieve much more in terms of what we see and yet (thankfully) has often remained as gritty, uncompromising and unforgiving (as these dark times display their inescapable influence) as those rough, tough products of that other harsh era.

And "Dying Breed" is very much a creation of all these elements. Nothing particularly original here, but it's packed with the well loved elements we actually want from such a film and delivers them with razor sharp, sadistic, unforgiving precision.

Like its distant cousin "Wolf Creek" this excellent example of Australian terror cinema utilises the country's huge, mysterious, ancient wilderness to great effect.
This may be internationally exportable, but it retains its Australian roots.
The scenery here may not be the arid dead lands of the sweltering, colossal, outback so well used in "Wolf Creek", but the huge lakes dotted with drowned skeletal trees, overhung rivers, mighty peaks and ancient misty woodlands are just as otherworldly, lonely, treacherous and forbidding.
The excellent Cinematography not only captures the overwhelming scale of the landscape to wonderful effect but also captures the stifling intimacy of the deep forest with equal effectiveness.
The movie is a genuinely startling visual treat.

The film's opening third plays very much like that of "Deliverance" and although it may not have anything as iconic as the 'dueling banjos', "Dying Breed" perfectly captures that essential uneasiness of strangers entering a world they can have no understanding of or can truly realise, despite shows of bravado, how dangerous their situation is.

When the film moves into its middle section the pacing does start to sadly flag though. And although we are now deep inside the heart of this fascinating wilderness the film does offer us more scenes of the antagonism that exists between Jack and Nina than we really need, as this friction has already been introduced and exploited during the drive to Tasmania.
If the otherwise stunning "Wolf Creek" could have moved 10 minutes from it's first half to its second, "Dying Breed" could at least exchange 5 minutes of the time spent in the forest now to the betterment of the movie's last third.
But even then, what a last third it is! Chilling, exciting, brutal, grotesque and filled with tension and surprise set-ups you dearly wish that those extra 5 minutes were available to play with.

Director Jody Dwyer delivers all we could have hoped for during the generally effective build-up as the movie now crushes the audience's face into a bloody mire of hacked limbs, ripped open flesh, animal fury and the most chilling and twisted gene pool seen in the genre for a long time.
You can keep the weak, bland, mutants of that unnecessary "The Hills have Eyes" remake...this rather more realistic and, dare one say it, human psycho set-up delivers so much more and is able to utilise these strengths to deliver some unsettling twists and grim reveals as to the influence and power of this backwoods, inbred, community existence.
That is not to say that the essential 'mutated cannibal' character is not here though. With a generally excellent mix of make-up and CGI tweaking the main, hulking, deadly patriarch of this 17th century throwback existence makes for a wonderful visual treat with his grotesque face being the crowning achievement of perhaps all inbred cannibal killer movies.

Mention of the effects brings up the stunning corpse reveal in the film. Strung up, cruelly naked and exposed, half eaten and mutilated this shock scene moment would be at home in any of Deodato's classic Cannibal films and is uncompromising in how it visually wallows in the explicitness of the sight. There is a pure Exploitation sensibility being indulged here and we should welcome it.
Other effects are far more low key, short and sharp and pack a more violent punch rather than a gloating gore experience. Sadly the side is let down by an awful (why it was even allowed into the final film is a mystery, perhaps time was short to deliver something) CGI heavy death that sticks out like a sore thumb and takes you out of the grim, down and dirty feel the movie has carefully built up. Luckily the FX set-ups that follow this help us forget (though not totally) this folly.
Certainly, as the superbly twisted finale vomits out its putrid contents over the audience, any such simplistic shortcomings seem moot.

Performances are all good, with newcomer Mirrah Foulke doing a good job essaying the rather strung out and compulsive Nina, Leigh Whannell brings his likable personality and deliver that worked so well in "Saw" and truly gives it his all during the brilliant finale.
Nathan Phillips is far broader and initially plays the kind of arrogant, irritating Jock yahoo character seen in many American Horror films, but he certainly brings an energy to the film and handles the later action very well.
No one puts a foot wrong here.

Overall then "Dying Breed" may be a creature stitched together from many other Horror and Exploitation parts, but in the right hands, and in the right environment, such homage to past glories can be equally as effective and just as unforgiving as what gave it life. And, some pacing and one FX fault aside, "Dying Breed is thankfully part of a breed of movie that is far from dying out at the moment.
In fact such harsh, uncompromising, extreme and cruel Horror films are alive and well in these dangerous and uncertain times and "Dying Breed" can run with the best of the pack.

birdygyrl

10-02-09, 11:11 PM

I recently watched two recommended movies, both of them starring Charlie Chaplin. I absolutely now love Charlie Chaplin. He was a genius. Writer, composer, director, actor...he did it all.

The first one I viewed was Modern Times, 1936, dir. Charlie Chaplin.

http://drnorth.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/modern-times026.jpg

Chaplin stars as a factory worker, an "everyman", who is besieged by management to keep up with the work load as they constantly increase the speed of the assembly line. This leads to him having a nervous breakdown, for which he is institutionalized. Upon his release, he is now unemployed, and faces the dilemma of how to fend for himself. He innocently stumbles onto a Communist demonstration, ends up picking up a red flag that falls off a truck, and is arrested.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8kbwGHaBDWY/ScX_rgjP7uI/AAAAAAAABfo/IsxgK-dhfVk/s320/vlcsnap-406792.png

While in jail, he picks up a salt shaker that another inmate has filled with cocaine to avoid being caught with it. Chaplin sprinkles it liberally on his food, thinking its salt, and becomes delirious. He winds up foiling a jail break by subduing the inmates. He is now a hero and is released. Once again, he finds himself in dire circumstances. It is the Great Depression and there are no jobs. He decides that things weren't so bad in jail, and attempts to get arrested. He comes across a young girl, a "gamin", (played by Paulette Goddard) who is being chased by the police for stealing bread. He tries to take the rap, but a witness comes forward and he is released. He becomes more determined to go back to jail, goes to a cafe, eats his fill and has no money to pay the bill. He winds up being arrested, and on his way there in the police wagon, he meets up with the gamin. She persuades him to take it on the lam, and they escape. Dreaming of a better life, he gets a job at a department store as a night watchman. He lets the gamin in, and they make a night of it. (The skating scenes were totally priceless.) While there, the store is broken into. He confronts the burglars, and they end up eating and drinking their fill. He becomes intoxicated and falls asleep in a pile of clothes. Needless to say, he is arrested, again. After spending a little while in jail, the gamin takes him home to their little shack. He hears there are jobs available at the factory where he worked at before, and he manages to get hired. The factory workers decide to strike, and after a confrontation with the police he is arrested yet again. This time, after being released, he discovers that his lady love is now working at a restaurant, and somehow she convinces the owner to hire him as a singing waiter. (This was some of the most fun footwork in the film. Chaplin was grace personified.)

http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/images/2008/06/03/zte2.jpg

Being nervous about having to sing, the gamin helps him write down the lyrics to the song on his cuff. Well, the cuff is lost, but not his spirit. He begins to sing to the audience. It is absolutely unintelligible. (I replayed it a couple of times, to no avail.)
His act proves to be a big hit. However, his joy is shortlived as the police arrive to arrest the gamin for her past misdeeds. They manage to make an escape, and walk off into the sunset together.

http://www.filmsquish.com/guts/files/images/Charlie1.JPG

The film was seen as a commentary on the rampant unemployment, poverty and hunger of the Great Depression, as well as the effects the Industrial Age had on the human spirit. It was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It was considered a "quasi silent film" as there was some sound involved. One of the music themes used during the romatic scenes later became the song "Smile", which was made popular by Nat King Cole. I absolutely loved this film and it is very very highly recommended.

Take it away Charlie.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6ck1ejoAw

mack

10-03-09, 04:43 AM

The Band of the Hand - 4/5
Oddly enough, first time I believe I ever saw this film, unless I forgot about it. Seems as though it would have been a cult favorite though, so I can only imagine it escaped me back then. Great throwback film to the old days, kind of Warrior-esque, and reminiscent of the days when teenagers werent so mollycoddled and expected to be inside on computers. Great stuff.

The Box - 2/5
Odd little flick from Gabrielle Union that went straight to video. Good atmospheric movie, good premise, good acting, but when you watch the flick, you can see why it wasnt expected to make an impact mainstream. Nice to see Mia Maestro on the big screen, and here's hoping she doesnt get typecast. All in all, not a bad film, just odd in weird places.

Dawn of the Dead - remake 4/5
Now that I went on a marathon with the Old Dead films, I've been itching to rewatch the remakes to spot differences. Happened across Dawn of the Dead on Hulu, and gave it a go. They definitely change a lot of the film, but I'll give them that they kept the general premise (e.g. Mall, Parking lot, escape to an island). I guess the riffraff security guards inside doubled as the "motorcycle gang" riffraff from the original? Who knows. They added a lot of women, which I find interesting to note, because the original only had one girl, who was the focal point of the movie. In the remake, they have an eclectic assortment of people, and added enough girls to go 'round, I guess? :confused: I find I liked the original better, even though I think the remake is good. The original doesnt seem to dillydally with all the little extra drama - in fact, its as if the original feels that the little crew of humanity they show have enough drama to keep the attention of the audience. Almost makes you wonder if produces feel that these days were all saddled with ADD, and need them to add a ridiculous number of storylines to keep us interested. As nowadays zombie flicks go though - good stuff. ;)

Used Future

10-03-09, 05:24 PM

Sure, I liked that, but that seemed a lot less campy to me than the "Batman" TV series, even though they did the same thing. I grew up with "Batman", but aside from Diabolik's maniacal laugh and the fact they could lift the train car with a few air balloons (and undoubtedly a few more scenes I'm blanking out on), it seemed less campy than I was expecting.

This is what I said when I tabbed the movie a couple of months back...

think a markedly slicker version of the old Batman television series crossed with Sean Connery era James Bond, and you're on the right track.

I think that's a reasonably fair comparison. I wasn't suggesting it was exactly like Batman; just that it incorporated similar elements of high camp with James Bond style action. :)

TheUsualSuspect

10-04-09, 02:36 AM

Trick 'r Treat

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/layden/TRTSCREENING.jpg

Trick R Treat tells multiple stories that all occur on the same night, Halloween. One involves a principal and the skeletons in his closet, a virgin who is about it experience her first time, a man who loves the holiday and his wife who hates it, an old cranky man in his house and finally a bunch of kids and a school bus. I'm trying to be a vague as possible because going into this film knowing very little is what will make you enjoy it more.

I got a very "Creepshow" vibe from this one, the only difference is that the separate stories actually intertwine. Seeing bits in the beginning that you know will be explained at the end is always fun. It makes watching a film like this for a second time just as fun to try and spot more connections. The film has some comedic scenes, but don't be fooled. This film is not a comedy. The scenes a few and far between and mostly involve Brian Cox and Dylan Baker. Both of which are the highlights of the film.

Baker is deliciously evil as the principal, who in my opinion is tarnished later on in the film by his reappearance in another 'story'. Cox is the grumpy old man who must battle the 'spirit of Halloween'. His story has the most creepy moments, but the film never really reaches any moments of true fright. It's just so random and unexpected that you don't really have any time to be scared. There are a few moments in the film that will have you scratching your head, but for the sake of the film, I just went with it. In the end, it all jives together.

There is no central character or story, just a Halloween themed film that is meant to entertain the audience, and that it did. You can't really predict what happens in this film, aside from one of the stories. The other ones are just too far out there. You will feel more connected to some stories over others, the way the film plays out you can tell it is more interested in the ones it wants you to be interested in.

The atmosphere here is great and it truly felt like Halloween night. As far as horror anthologies go, I'd say this is one of the better ones. I will say this though, this film has one of the best transformation scenes in horror. Watch the film and you'll know what I mean. Can I recommend this one? Sure, it's nothing too memorable, but it is indeed fun.

3

zedlen

10-04-09, 10:54 AM

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/zedlen/2082321020A.jpg?t=1254664518
The Dirty Dozen
Robert Aldrich 1967

Better than Inglourious Basterds.

http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/4.5box.gif

ash_is_the_gal

10-04-09, 11:51 AM

Hellboy (2004)

http://www.lonelyreviewer.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/film_hellboy6_pistole.jpg

twas fun. 3.5

mark f

10-04-09, 01:49 PM

Diary of a Chambermaid (Luis Buñuel, 1964) 3.5

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/cover_art/diarychambermaid.jpg http://auteurs_production.s3.amazonaws.com/stills/9337/Diaryw.jpg

Buñuel returned from his Mexican exile to France to make this gorgeous and incredibly on-target flick which has barely any surrealism in it whatsoever. The film starts out as a sex comedy, but as it moves along, it does seem to get more into politics. The thing which unites the flick seems to be that every man in the film, whether horny or impotent, has the hots for chambermaid Céléstine (Jeanne Moreau), but she sees herself as worthy of more than the BS which her job has surrounded herself, especially considering that she hasn't done anything but let an old man fondle her calf or allow an old soldier to stick it in once or twice. The flick is full of people hating each other for no good reason, but it at least does end up on a positive note where the people who actually go out of their way to get something in this life have a chance to triumph over the others. As I've said before, Buñuel is a genius, but maybe this isn't the place to discuss it.

The Wild Man of the Navidad (Duane Graves & Justin Meeks, 2008) 1.5

http://z.about.com/d/horror/1/0/c/2/0/-/WildManofNavidad.jpg http://mimg.ugo.com/200907/10474/wildman-of-the-navidad.jpg

The writer/producer of the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Kim Henkel) returns to Texas and a 1970s cinematic sensibility for this low-budget flick which has a few interesting ideas but is basically undone by its repetitiveness and poor acting. Allegedly based on Dale S. Rogers' diary, it tells of a young welder named Dale (Justin Meeks) who loses his job and then earns money by opening up his ranch to hunters. The problem is that there is some kind of humanoid creature on his property which craves blood, but Dale has to take care of his invalid wife, so that doesn't stop him from endangering the lives of said hunters. Bathed in sepia tone, the film comes across as a loving recreation of films such as The Legend of Boggy Creek and The Town That Dreaded Sundown, complete with props and homages to the original Chainsaw flick, but after a while, the film begins to spin its wheels, going nowhere, and the monster is less than scary-looking. Even at 86 minutes, the movie seems to go on forever, but some '70s horror fans still might want to take a peek.

TheGirlWhoHadAllTheLuck_

10-04-09, 02:40 PM

Kiss of The Spider Woman 4

A very touching film about the relationship between two prisoners with very different lifestyles; one who escapes with fantasies, one who is a political activist.

Really sad ending but a very well made film and some powerful acting.

undercoverlover

10-04-09, 03:14 PM

Jennifer's Body

She may be on all the posters, but make no mistake, this is Amanda Seyfried's movie and not Megan Fox's.

Fox is still used mostly as decoration as a vapid teenager while Seyfried plays the real scream queen. Scares are few and far between but the comedy isn't bad but you can do better for horror comedy.

i will say it has an ultra sexy scene which is almost watching the whole film just for it.

Diablo Cody's difficult second movie.

mark f

10-05-09, 02:56 AM

Cartouche (Phillippe de Broca, 1962) 3.5

http://www.kinokunst.de/Poster_d/Title_C/CartoucheDerBandit_G1_ED01.jpg

De Broca's swashbuckler is a perfect reflecton of The Three Musketeers. This flick takes place in the 18th centuery and is full of derring-do, swordplay and romance. In fact, this is one of the few French swashbucklers which actually keeps all the tragedy of something along the lines of The Three Musketeers. Jean-Paul Belmondo is excellent as the guy who just can't let others dictate his life for him, and of course, Claudia Cardinale is perfection as the French woman who doesn't totally understand how true his love is. This is a funny adventure which also adds on details of politics, but when it reaches its conclusion, it becomes dazzlingly romantic with an overriding tinge of pathos and an almost depressing sense of fate hanging in the balance.

My Father's Glory (Yves Robert, 1990) 4

http://haal9000.com/dvd2002-3/coming/my_fathers_glory.jpg

This is one of my wife's fave films; in fact, she calls this her favorite film and one the most romantic films ever made. The way it paints a picture of family as beautiful, whether it seems idealistic or even better still, realistic, is almost unmatched. It also details a world where nature and mankind seem to get along pretty well. Overall, the thing which makes me think this is obviously one of the greatest films ever made is the way that all the characters let you in on their secrets up front so that you can later on relate to their utterly-perfect interpretations of an unfortunately lost world of simple pleasures. As I said, this may well be the most-romantic film ever, so you don't just need some idiot like me to explain it to you, you just need an overriding heart and brain to tell you that you may actually be closer to reality while watching this luxurious and hilarious concoction than maybe you realize.

spudracer

10-05-09, 11:13 AM

Malky

10-05-09, 11:14 AM

Pandorum 1 this was a decent and entertaining sci-fi horror but the last 20 minutes ruined the whole film with a really poor twist and a terrible terrible ending. This is the first time in a while I have left the cinema filled with rage.

Species 3It is a bit dated now but it was the first time I watched this perfectly decent example of sci fi horror. It is not great but there is nothing really wrong with it either.

ash_is_the_gal

10-05-09, 11:46 AM

The Dark Crystal (1982)

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Health/Images/aughra-the-dark-crystal.jpg

3
could have used some David Bowie. ;)

42ndStreetFreak

10-05-09, 01:33 PM

Zombieland - 4

Had Zombieland, been a tad bit longer, I would've given it a stronger rating. True, you can only go so far with zombie killing, and the director was smart to not drag the story out, but I was having a good time and didn't want it to end.

Trailers for this look good. Not sure if I'll see it at the cinema (at these prices!?) but it looks like a certain DVD purchase.

spudracer

10-05-09, 01:36 PM

Trailers for this look good. Not sure if I'll see it at the cinema (at these prices!?) but it looks like a certain DVD purchase.

I can't say enough how good the movie is. Sure, it's no Oscar contender, but it's a side-splitter. I went to a matinee to see it, so it wasn't the $12-13 you would normally pay, but it was worth the $6.50 I paid.

42ndStreetFreak

10-05-09, 02:01 PM

I can't say enough how good the movie is. Sure, it's no Oscar contender, but it's a side-splitter. I went to a matinee to see it, so it wasn't the $12-13 you would normally pay, but it was worth the $6.50 I paid.

For me and my Wife to go to see a film, with travel (no car, so bus) and snacks, can cost up to (and these are much lower than London prices) £27, about $42. :mad:
I can buy the DVD from America for half that.

We shall see...Thanks for the heads-up anyway. I like a bit of Woody Harrelson in yahoo mode.

spudracer

10-05-09, 02:06 PM

42ndStreetFreak

10-05-09, 02:54 PM

Can you not sneak your own snacks in? When my wife would go watch a movie with me, I'd make sure she took her big purse. :D

Yeah, we do sneak (have to!). But we still have to buy them from other places.

Any old winkle...

"Insanitarium" 3

Okay, we have a plot hole filled script that at times annoys with how silly it all is, but also some finely crafted chaos.

Guy wants to see suicidal Sister in Psychiatric Hospital.
Guy pretend to go nuts in the local park, gets sent to Psychiatric Hospital.
While there he finds out the the loony head of it, Peter Stormare, is experimenting on the patients by removing the higher brain functions (!) so he can get to the lower brain functions (those pesky primordial suckers like to hide) and cure madness.
On top of this he's also been injecting himself with the experimental serum for some reason never really made clear.

Despite the fact a load of the patients now have seriously weird eyes, act like wild animals around blood and rip the heads of cats, no one thinks anything is wrong until it's too late.
Too late means lots of primordial nutters escaping their very chic glass cells and eating everyone...or themselves!

Extremely bloody, well made, violent, gory with a splash of exploitative goodies (2nd best blood covered bared breasts in cinema after the mighty "Alucarda") this moves at a good pace as it builds the (very silly and unlikely) 'lunatics running the asylum' plot towards its manic, blood caked conclusion.

Some moist deaths and munching scenes are here for our delight (plus a groovy cleaver to the face demise that is something we see too little of in Horror cinema these days) but very little actual flesh biting is seen. Thus showing just how cutting edge, and stunningly extreme, Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" was and still is in this department.

The film's problems though are the aforementioned plot silliness and glaring stupidity (for example a Nurse gets bitten, in a hospital no less, but simply wraps an increasingly blood dripping bandage around the wound and carries on without a care), some very bad dialogue and needless, 90's style Horror, one-liners.
But the real drop in quality comes from a truly annoying turn by the ever barking Peter Stormare.
Hell fire and cobble stones! This makes his turn in "Armageddon" look like the height of subtlety.
He's an eye-rolling, word slurring pain in the ass! And that's before his character really starts to turn psychotic!

A pretty good twist ending caps off what is a very retro feeling Horror movie (has that 80's Euro trash/gore film feel) which delivers a no-nonsense, if rather silly, viewing experience but utilises lots of modern and well executed gore FX to really drive the crimson covered carnage forward during the balls-out last half.
We needed more mayhem though, and less Peter Stormare, who needs to see The Cohen's again for a lesson in the difference between an annoying, hammy, silliness packed performance and an effective, off the wall, exciting and scary performance.
Otherwise though..We have another good, graphic, 21st century Horror flick.
Check this out for cannibal carnage galore.

"Tenebre" 4.5

Still an absolute gem.
Simply one of his best, this is top 3 Argento.

It's also the first Argento I watched, like 22 odd years ago, and it was unlike anything I had seen.
The, utterly pointless as far as plot goes, camera pan around and over the house, as this great music blared out, had me goggle eyed and riveted to the TV.
What the hell was this?
No plot, no dialogue, no story progression...just a cacophony of sound and vision that built up a dam of expectation and excitement that Argento then skilfully blew apart to completely swamp the viewer as the majestically composed slaughter reached it's conclusion.

Seriously underrated at the time, this is perhaps good as Argento gets for me.
Great finale as well!

Golgot

10-06-09, 09:23 AM

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/4933/flip01.jpg

Children of Men

Let's get it out of the way - Cuaron's immense takes are awesome. You spend acres of time with the characters, whether they're shooting the breeze or getting shot at from all sides. Otherwise very British in its dyspeptic futurism, the 'hollywood flair' nicely counterpoints the downtrodden theme of a world collapsing in the absence of childbirth. Hope isn't springing eternal, the well of humanity runs dry.

There are some clunky aspects that hurt the flick (some of the exposition is downright awful, saved only by a natty joke from Caine early on), but the elan of the presentation and a set of strong leads mean it's pretty much a visual and narrative feast all the way. I can forgive any number of mashed violence motifs (from rescued Guernicas to jihadists sprouting fully-AK47'd from the ground) in the face of such enjoyable, twisty storytelling, that's almost as involving when it's pausing for breath as when charging towards its climactic final scenes.

Part of me was a little disappointed with the vibrant emergence of the boat at the end. It was a refreshing bit of hope incarnate after all the bleakness - and not without ambiguity (we still don't know if they're nailed on good guys etc) - but the beauty of the fog-laden scene, and the potential of an equally ambiguous ship horn to sound as the weather smothered the final shot, seemed a more fitting way to go out.

4

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7826/childrenofmen.jpg

ash_is_the_gal

10-06-09, 10:14 AM

For me and my Wife to go to see a film, with travel (no car, so bus) and snacks, can cost up to (and these are much lower than London prices) £27, about $42. :mad:
I can buy the DVD from America for half that.

oh man! when the boyfriend and i were in London last year, it cost us and a couple friends over $80 to see a film. i was shocked.

what's weird though, is when we went to the iMax in London, it was only about $20.

TheUsualSuspect

10-06-09, 10:17 AM

Evolution 3

Used Future

10-06-09, 01:35 PM

"Tenebre" 4.5
this is top 3 Argento.

I much prefer The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno and even Phenomena to Tenebre. Great soundtrack though.

42ndStreetFreak

10-06-09, 02:23 PM

Hmmm....
I would have to go (those I have seen):
"Tenebre"
"Suspiria"
"Bird"
"Deep Red"
"Inferno"
"Opera"
"Phenomena"
"Cat O' Nine Tails"
"Stendahl"
"Sleepless"
"Trauma"
"Four Flies"
"Mother of Tears"
"Two Evil Eyes"

"Reckoning Day" 2.5

The first feature film from Julian Gilbey who would go on to make the equally violent and bloody, but far better made in every other way, "Rollin' with the Nine's" and the more famous "Rise of the Footsoldier".

Shot over 3 half years from 1998-2001, it's basically a souped up, micro-budget (not much over £7000), student action film.
The budget, the inexperience and the technical limitations do sadly hit the film hard, especially in the dialogue scenes and general plot mechanics, but there is still much to enjoy here.

The various action scenes are spectacularly visceral and violent (these are superbly created, bloody as hell, squibs that would look at home in a Hollywood blockbuster) and generally very well directed, shot and edited with some wonderful stunt work.
And unlike every other zero budget film I have seen with gunfights (where the scenes are truly awful and never work) the gun battles are brilliantly handled in every way, from how they look, sound and feel.

Add some full on car violence, a chainsaw fight and a brutal axe/electric saw execution to the splattertastic gunfights and you have a film that delivers as far as brutal thrills go.
But sadly we have all the bits in-between.

It was a huge mistake to have a guy spend the last half of the film, parts of which were shot a year apart, in a blood soaked white t-shirt. Continuity problems anyone??
See the shirt switch from total crimson, to simply blood spattered but still very white, and then back again in the space of one scene.

Sadly the lack of live sound recording also means that, a near crippling blow as far as the non-action scenes go, all dialogue is dubbed on after.
This would be bad and distracting enough anyway even with good actors, but here we have some very bad actors, reading often bad dialogue.
It's extremely hard going, not helped by a very messy, overly complicated plot (that needs some deadeningly long exposition scenes).

Anyone who knows the UK comedy/homage show to badly made TV called "Garth Marenghi's Dark Place" will cringe whenever these cheesy/bad actors read cliche hard man and/or melodramatic dialogue, that does not quite fit the lip movements and sounds like it was all recorded in the same studio.

So "Reckoning Day" is too long, has too many dialogue heavy plot exposition scenes, features bad acting, bad sound recording, technical black holes and a dodgy script.
And yet...The numerous well crafted action scenes, the full on gore and violence, the ambitious ideas and the sheer enthusiasm that runs through the entire thing do make for an ultimately rewarding viewing experience.

And with the better budgets, better actors, more experienced writing, professional crews and technical improvements that would thankfully arrive for his next two films (cliche though they may often be) Gilbey certainly came good with the promise he showed here.

To know just how hard these guys worked and the hurdles they overcame to make some of these brilliant action scenes, just look at this;
A single fight sequence on a cliff top utilises the following;
Footage shot in two completely different locations, featuring shots filmed a year apart and with a total of three actors/stunt guys playing one character.
That takes commitment. We salute you.

Used Future

10-06-09, 02:51 PM

My order:p

15. The Phantom of the Opera
14. Mother of Tears
13. Opera
12. Sleepless
11. Trauma
10. Cat O' Nine Tails
9. Four Flies On Grey Velvet
8. Two Evil Eyes (The Black Cat)
7. The Stendahl Syndrome
6. Tenebre
5. Phenomena
4. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
3. Inferno
2. Deep Red
1. Suspiria

42ndStreetFreak

10-06-09, 03:00 PM

Blimey! I'm surprised by how many films you put before "Opera'!
"Four Flies", "Two Evil Eyes", "Sleepless" "Trauma"? Really!?

Oh well. Move "Tenebre" up one though, and we pretty much agree on the Top 5.
Go on...Move it up. You know it's better than "Phenomena".
Go on...Go on.....I'll give you a smiley if you do. ;)

Used Future

10-06-09, 03:28 PM

I really hate Opera. It's the horrible inappropriate heavy metal music (which granted Argento uses in other movies) and that stupid ending in the alps. Plus, come on, those pins under the eyes look ridiculous.

Critics and fans may rate Tenebre higher, but I think Phenomena is a lot more interesting, both visually, and in terms of narrative (I rate The Stendahl Syndrome higher than most for similar reasons - and Asia Argento *drools*). For me that movie blends giallo and horror perfectly, and features some of Argento's finest visuals. Shame about Iron Maiden being on the soundtrack, but hey, at least we get Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence, not to mention a cracking finale. So no, I won't move it up one, not even for ten smilies.

42ndStreetFreak

10-06-09, 03:53 PM

I really hate Opera. It's the horrible inappropriate heavy metal music (which granted Aregento uses in other movies) and that stupid ending in the alps. Plus, come on, those pins under the eyes look ridiculous.

Critics and fans may rate Tenebre higher, but I think Phenomena is a lot more interesting, both visually, and in terms of narrative (I rate The Stendahl Syndrome higher than most for similar reasons - and Asia Argento *drools*). For me that movie blends giallo and horror perfectly, and features some of Argento's finest visuals. Shame about Iron Maiden being on the soundtrack, but hey, at least we get Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence, not to mention a cracking finale. So no, I won't move it up one, not even for ten smilies.

:p

You don't like the needles? I love that idea and image!
I don't mind the metal music either (I like it in "Phenomena" too).
The ending? Yeah...we agree here.
But I think only partly.
I agree the villain part of the ending is weak and anti-climactic and the 'fire trick' used before it was absurd!
But I do like the 'back to nature' speech at the end. For me it shows a total submission into the madness so long and hard fought against.

But I agree on your praise for "Phenomena".
It was a very close thing indeed between it and "Opera" (another point against "Opera" is that it has the 2nd worst, non-English speaking parts, dub job after the travesty dubbed over "Sleepless").
But "Opera" won out because of the stunning set-pieces, that trump "Phenomena"...And in fact one of my favourite set-pieces in "Phenomena" is scored with "Flash of the Blade".

TheUsualSuspect

10-06-09, 05:43 PM

Suspiria is highly overrated.

Welcome To The Dollhouse 3

Used Future

10-06-09, 06:50 PM

Suspiria is highly overrated.

Hey it's not like we said it's the best movie ever made...

...I mean everyone knows that's Death Wish 3, right?

Malky

10-06-09, 06:51 PM

For me and my Wife to go to see a film, with travel (no car, so bus) and snacks, can cost up to (and these are much lower than London prices) £27, about $42. :mad:
I can buy the DVD from America for half that.

We shall see...Thanks for the heads-up anyway. I like a bit of Woody Harrelson in yahoo mode.

Is there a cineworld near you?

Anyway Monster House 4 fun animated film about a haunted house I love it really good and quite tense in parts.

Amytiville Horror 2.5 I'm probably going to get flamed but I found it quite dull and anticlimatic. There was geniune scary moments and some suspense but i felt it was poorly paced and dragged on.

linespalsy

10-06-09, 07:33 PM

[I]Max Mon Amour (Nagisa Ôshima, 1986) 2

Hewhew, well I hear that In the Realm of Senses is "more fleshed out", if that's what you mean.

Irma Vep 1.5
Old Boy 3
Monsters vs Aliens 2.5

42ndStreetFreak

10-06-09, 07:45 PM

Is there a cineworld near you?

Amytiville Horror 2.5 I'm probably going to get flamed but I found it quite dull and anticlimatic. There was geniune scary moments and some suspense but i felt it was poorly paced and dragged on.

No. Is that an American thing though?

I agree on "The Amytiville Horror" (I gather you mean the original) never did a thing for me at all. Dull indeed.
The sequel/Prequel was more interesting and #3 was quite a lot of fun too.

ash_is_the_gal

10-06-09, 09:13 PM

i liked Amityville: the possession a lot more. incest!

the remake is terrible, but i do have to say that the day after i watched it i woke up in the middle of the night, looked at the clock, and it was exactly 3:15am, which is like a major plot point in the story. that freaked me out a lot.

beelzebubbles

10-06-09, 09:33 PM

mark f

10-06-09, 09:37 PM

Various random thoughts here. First off, yes, In the Realm of the Senses is fleshed out, but only in one way. It seems to serve only one purpose, and sure, even if it's "almost a documentary", I don't like that purpose. Now, the real reason I don't like it is that it's deadly boring and one-note. I liked Max much more, but I couldn't understand why it was made, other than the fact that Ôshima made it in a different country, so he decided to lighten up and have a vacation. I think he deserves a vacation, but this is what I'm calling him on this particular instance. I realize he's one of your all-time faves, but I apparently missed all those obscure films you have at your fingertips, unless you want to PM me or something.

The original The Amityville Horror ("Get out!") is worth a 1.5 if you really like to watch something totally camp w/o any camp value.

Now, I believe that anyone who has the guts to make a list of Argento films on the spur of the moment deserves some credit, so I'll try too, but this is borderline pointless because so many of his flicks are so close to each other quality-wise, and it also depends on how many times you've watched them, but even so, until I come back and change my list to prove how ridiculous I am, here's what I come up with.

Deep Red
Inferno
Suspiria (this is obviously his attempt at a magnum opus)
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
Opera
Tenebrae
Two Evil Eyes
Sleepless (this may even be better because von Sydow is so good)
4 Flies on Gray Velvet
Cat o' Nine Tails
Mother of Tears
Trauma
Phenomena (I saw Creepers first and it really sucked, but I'll admit that this is much better, so I'm probably underrating it at this point)
Phantom of the Opera
The Card Player

Later, Gators.

zedlen

10-07-09, 02:40 AM

Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola 1979

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/zedlen/Apocalypse_Now-1.jpg?t=1254893856

"The horror... the horror..."

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

This was my first viewing and I have to say just how impressed I am, I don't know how I missed this all these years. A war-time equivalent of Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas in my opinion, an insane journey into the heart and mind of men. I loved it.

http://www.movieforums.com/community/../images/popcorn/5box.gif

42ndStreetFreak

10-07-09, 04:26 AM

First viewing of "Apoclypse Now"?! Lucky man!
Glad you liked it. Just a masterwork. I adore "The Godfather films...but this has the stronger replay value, so I think may just beat them to the top spot.

Seems these Argento lists are all over the place! He's one of the few Horror film makers where you can't say for definate exactly what would be in anyone's Top 5, or any kind of order in a Top 10.
Interesting stuff.

Malky

10-07-09, 05:10 AM

No. Is that an American thing though?

I agree on "The Amytiville Horror" (I gather you mean the original) never did a thing for me at all. Dull indeed.
The sequel/Prequel was more interesting and #3 was quite a lot of fun too.
No Cineworld formerly UGC a British cinema chain

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/

you can see which one is nearest you. They offer an unlimited pass for £13.50 a month, which is what I have.

Yeah it was the original probably should of specified.

42ndStreetFreak

10-07-09, 05:36 AM

Oh right. Thanks.
er......Nope. No near me, we have a crappy 'Odeon' and a better 'Vue'.

Golgot

10-08-09, 09:31 AM

http://i38.tinypic.com/o8zypw.jpg

Event Horizon

What a daft flick. The SFX have dated a fair bit since i last saw it, but it's still the weird composite of blockbuster trappings, horror heart and sci-fi setting that i remember. Maybe a dab of arthouse in there too with the apparent Solaris inspiration. It's wildly uneven, but that mainly adds to the fun. The sets are pretty good in places, but later 'supplemented' by desperate strobe-effects in an attempt to create a sense of panic. Some of the gore-craft & digital devilry seemed pretty cool, but other times fairly rustic. In the end the sci-fi side was seeming increasingly redundant as the horror end took over (& then some producer got in on the script writing... why do emergency ship-separation explosives all need to be set off individually?). Fishburne, Neill et al do their best to lend some tension to the build, but frankly there are too many dropped balls on the production-side to make it all work. It's kinda fun watching them skid about in the resulting mess and gore tho.

2_5+

http://i34.tinypic.com/mli8ee.jpg

42ndStreetFreak

10-08-09, 02:59 PM

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION 3

Billy Wilder's almost masterly adaptation of the famous Agatha Christie play sees the great Charles Laughton (with delightful, Oscar nominated, support by his Wife Elsa Lanchester as his fussy Nurse) as a cigar and whiskey consuming English Barrister hired to defend an American man (Tyrone Power) accused of bumping off an elderly spinster for her money.
The man's wife (Marlene Dietrich, in uber-firey form) is summoned by Laughton to support her Husband but he is surprised to find out she's actually hostile to him. And the case gets more and more complicated from then on...

A fine cast indeed and Laughton (in a role that was one of my most memorable filmic moments as a youngster) is an absolute joy.
All the players work well off each other and Laughton's comedic jousting with Lanchester's Nurse are as effective as his rather more serious jousting with Dietrich's hostile witness, as the well scripted case unfolds.

The failings then come mostly from Power's turn as the accused.
But I'm not sure if it even is a failing!
If you know the outcome then you will know what I mean, but Power seems so theatrical and overwrought in all that he does you can't help but come to the conclusion the guy's as guilty as sin and have to wonder why Laughton does not think the same.
But I'm truly not sure if this entire performance is meant to be like that to make the plot twist mechanics work.
Either way Power becomes an air grasping, lip quivering, ranting annoyance.

Dietrich is wonderfully memorable as the wife with a scheme and truly radiates sexual power while at the same time coming across as vulnerable.
Una O'Connor (sadly in her last role) is also a complete joy as the bad tempered, un-trusting old Scottish housekeeper to the murdered woman, and is representative of the perfect mix of comedy and murderous drama that Wilder does so well.

The outcome is fun if rather melodramatic (as well as having to rely on a less than convincing bit of dated movie audio trickery and make-up) but sums up the twist upon twist convolutions of the case perfectly as, even as the film ends, the plot carries on in the same 'all is not how you imagined it to be' fashion.