Movie Tab II

There's a horrible scene involving a razor blade that's been cut out with substitution (34 seconds which doesn't sound like alot of screen time, but is if you count it). I can tell you it's a sickening scene.

Plus, when you consider shocking films like Audition, Irreversible, and Eden Lake are all uncut here, then I think it puts it into perspective.

I'm actually not a fan of The New York Ripper. I think it's a pretty average giallo, and the killer's ''Donald Duck'' voice is just embarrassing.

That said, from your comments I do wonder if you're getting anything out of these old italo horror films. They are an acquired taste for sure. I'm a huge fan and love harping on about them, but lets face it, most of them are complete crap. From the sounds of it the pleasure I get from them is very different to what you are looking for in a horror film.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

I figured they were kept cut because they were obscure relics no-one worried too much about re-submitting or it helped maintain an element of infamy.

When you ask what i'm getting out of them, wasn't sure what you were basing that on? Loved Sleepless but that's not really an old one and House by the Cemetery wasn't really a proper watch in the slightest. I like the style of what i've seen a whole lot and the scores (especially Goblin)

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You've got a point there, The New York Ripper was last submitted back in 2007 by Shameless. Who knows the BBFC might consider passing it uncut now; especially with the likes of The Last House on the Left, and The House by the Cemetery recently having all previous cuts waived.

I disagree here. There's nothing in it for anyone by doing that. The BBFC certainly don't stand to gain anything, and any respectable dvd distributer is going to want their release uncut so they can boast about it on the cover to boost sales. The filmmakers certainly don't want their work cut either; infamy or not.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)


This movie was just a lot of fun! An exciting adventure with plenty of humor thrown in. Morgan Freeman was delightful as his character and Kevin Costner pulls off the lead again nicely. Alan Rickman's performance impressed me. He was fabulously insane and evil. Don't worry about the plot and story line because it's been done over and over again, but I think this is my favorite version of it.

Overall:

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Bonnie and Clyde, (1967, Penn)- A-



Nicely constructed film that works in a lot of departments. A lot of interesting characters and good acting makes this film fun to watch, and to see where Bonnie and Clyde end up is entertaining. I probably don't like it as much as most people, as for now I give it an "A-", but, still, enjoyed this one.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, (2005, Newell)- C-



Eh, it's probably my least favorite of the Potter films, as well as the worst acting of these movies. Some characters seemed out of character which made things seem off, such as Dumbledore, Ron and Hermoine at times. With most of the Potter films, every scene usually has it's purpose, but this seemed to have so much filler in it. Still, there were some visually pleasing scenes, mostly involving the tournament. Especially, in the Black Lake. Overall, below-average Potter movie that loses a bit of it's charm, but has some good visual effects and a Voldemort appearance to save it.

Halloween II




The film picks up right where the last one left us. Laurie is walking down the street covered in blood with a gun still in her hand. She is hospitalized, along with her friend Annie. Michael survive the gunshot to the head and comes back to reunite with his sister. Killing everyone in his way.

Not much of a plot, not much of a film. This sequel punishes those who had any interest in the first and almost immediately kills this re-invented series. The remake of the original is not bad and Zombie did a decent job of bringing Michael Myers to the new century of horror, but with the sequel he seems to have steered too far into House of 1,00 corpses territory.

Why is Michael so terrifying? Well, he use to be that is, because he never had a reason to kill. He just did it. In the words of Dr. Loomis, he was pure evil. Freddy had the revenge thing, Jason has the mommy issues, Michael was just evil. Zombie, on the other hand, seems to have missed this point and deemed it necessary to have Michel do things because of visions he has of his mother and a white horse. Enough with the mommy issues, leave that crap for Jason. Michael got his background story given to us in the remake. He is a sick and disturbing boy, now we see that he has a method behind his madness?

The film's script consists of dream sequence, wake up and scream obscenities. Then we cut to Michael making a trip to Mount Doom, killing people along the way. Repeat this for about an hour. Then have a lame, not thrilling, not scary pathetic excuse for a climax at the end, that takes place in a shed. A shed in which Myers stands still while our main character battles herself and imaginary people. This is the same main character whom people seem to have liked in the first film, here she becomes an annoying crying little emo baby. The film brings back a few character whom we thought were dead from the first film, only to see them die here. Waste? I think so. Purpose? Nothing what so ever. Dr. Loomis has a separate story alongside Myers and Strode. One that makes him look like a total douche bag and seems to have been thrown in to make the film run longer and seem more fleshed out. The problem is that it's paper thin and out of character.

Myers is no longer scary, and neither is this series. The film is laughable and the predictable by the numbers set up and execution will make you fall asleep. After years and years of slasher films, you would think they would want the deaths to be unique and the very least creative. Seeing this horror legends slice and dice is what the fans of the original series want. Halloween II has none of this. All Myers does is stab people multiple times. Grunting while doing so, which also ruins the myth of this character. He is suppose to be this silent killer. With the exception of a face stomp, none of these kills are memorable.

Zombie here seems to have gone backwards in his film-making skills. The whole thing feels like a first time music video director takes a shot at a horror film. The sloppy editing and hand held camera make it almost impossible to see. The darkness of the film doesn't help either. I respect Zombie, more than Eli Roth, for trying to put a new stamp on the horror genre, but this is a horrible mess. Being a member of the Splat Pack, you can expect this film to be excessive in its violence. It is, but it's never really too much, specifically with how filsm are done these days.

This is probably one of the weakest slasher films to have come out in a while. Prom Night is the only thing I can think of that is lower on the scale. Things are left unexplained for god knows what reason. Apparently Myers and Strode share a psychic link to each other? Halloween was an interesting take from a fan of the horror genre on a classic. Halloween II is the same fan's dream, only in his own little weird world. A giant misstep, and this series is already done.

Skip it.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

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Blood Diamond (2006) (Rewatch)

I decided to continue my DiCaprio movie watching streak with this gem (no pun intended). The performances in this film are universally solid and DiCaprio in particular shows his chops as he skillfully portrays the bad man turned good Danny Archer. the storyline, too, is moving, engaging and enlightening. Truly a magnificent piece of work and probably deserving of a higher rating, but there are some scenes that go on a bit too long and its heavy subject matter makes it lose a bit of rewatchability.

+

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Hard Candy (2005)

a.k.a. To Catch A Predator: Psychological Torture Edition or, at least, that's how this movie views. And, like that show, this is movie is very unsettling and yet I couldn't stop watching.

+

Ever After

Watched this almost entirely as a result of the Drew Barrymore week on the movie theme week. And because I am sick and wanted something undemanding and this fitted the bill nicely, cheesy but without being too sickly. Richard O' Brien should have been in it more, Leonardo da Vinci as a kind of fairy godmother was just bizarre but what claims to realism can you expect from a fairytale?

So basically once it landed it hooked into you and there was no tearing you away ?

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1900 (1976, Bernardo Bertolucci)

Danton (1983, Andrzej Wajda)

Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov)

Le Boucher (1970, Claude Chabrol)

Street of Shame (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi)

La Chinoise (1967, Jean-Luc Godard)

October (1928, Sergei Eisenstein)

Onibaba (1964, Kaneto Shindo)

Un Flic (1972, Jean-Pierre Melville)

Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)

Nostalghia (1983, Andrei Tarkovsky)

The Pawnbroker (1964, Sidney Lumet)

Cruel Story of Youth (1960, Nagisa Oshima)

Hail the Conquering Hero (1944, Preston Sturges)

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Not a particularly impressive batch, aye?

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

Caught a few flicks over the last few days (all but the first of them this weekend). Here are some very sparse, scattered thoughts:

12




Didn't love it, but any take on 12 Angry Men is something I have to see. I like some of the symbolism and it took the same basic idea in new and interesting directions, but it lacked the simple, elegant logic of both the original and the 1997 remake, which is one of the things that has always attracted me to it in the first place.


Winter Sleepers




By the same fella' who made Run Lola Run. Loved that one, liked this one decently enough. Definitely feels similar in a few ways. Weird and intersecting, and patience without being especially boring. An odd film, but I enjoyed it.


Withnail & I




I can kinda-sorta see why some people love it, but I get the impression you have to appreciate being drunk on a higher level to really adore it, and I'm not a big drinker. That said, there are some genuinely hysterical moments (my favorites: the sitting chicken, and the "burglary" line). Perhaps it'll get a higher rating if I see it again, but at the moment I just found it to be fairly above-average, with sporadic moments of highly amusing greatness.


Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House




Loved it. It's always fascinating to see what kind of comedies hold up, and this one does a great job. Several of the gags are very, very predictable, but not as many as I'd expected, and it's all very well-executed. Favorite part: the pedantic color description from Muriel. The responses when she leaves the room brings the house down.


Notorious




This isn't as good as I'd remembered. I recall the hore racing system being incredibly tense, but it wasn't this time around. Might actually be a . It moves along a little quickly, the relationship between the two leads just sort of happens and isn't terribly believable, and it ends abruptly. I like the idea and several of the individual scenes a lot more than I like the whole.


Harold and Maude




Ugh. I'm sure some people will be positively aghast that I'm rating this one so low, but I didn't really care for it. Perhaps certain aspects of it have been done to death since its release, making it seem less creative than it once was. Still, I found the characters stunningly unsympathetic. Harold is kind of interesting, and seems nice enough, but Maude is a bad person masquerading as a free spirit. I didn't find her car-stealing, police-defying antics to be cute or charming, just horrendously inconsiderate, and I found her advice on how to live life reductionist and trite. And for all the implication that Harold is surrounded by bad or shallow people, most of them seemed pretty reasonable. His mother is a little vapid, but the whole thing would've worked a lot better if the supporting characters didn't seem like fairly reasonable people most of the time.

The soundtrack stands out, to be sure, and the suicide sequences are certainly amusing, if nothing else. But I didn't dig it. And while I wouldn't question any one person's love of this film, I have to think that it's one of those films some people like just because it's offbeat, and therefore says something about them if they like it. I guess thinking that It Happened One Night is a better love story is just too stale and boring, even if it's true.

All in my opinion, of course. No offense meant to anyone who enjoys it.

Come and See is the best film out of that bunch I reckon, Haz. The Pawnbroker must be one of the most underrated Lumet flicks as well - the symbiotic fusion of art and genre makes it really interesting.

Oh and as for Novecento, at 320 mins long it kind of dragged . Its not like it's split up like say Dekalogue or Alexanderplatz. It's just very long. I knew what I was letting myself in for and although the film was massively flawed, I enjoyed it for what it was.

Good haul again Mr Lime.

For me a 3/5 is equivalent to a B/B-, so I basically recommend anything over a 3/5. 3.5/5 is a B+ and is usually reserved for good/great films that didn't have that extra something to make it into "A" territory.


Fenwick: Come and See was great and I agree with you in regards to 1900 as well. As for the best of the batch, something about Tarkovsky's films always draws me in, both visually and philosophically. Unfortunately, after watching this film I've now seen everything he's done since Ivan's Childhood. And Onibaba was enough for me to start searching for other Shindo films as soon as it was over. And when I say searching, I mean on the internet.

Yes, I know the whole moral discussion usually associated with such actions, especially on a movie forum, but I can't find some of these films anywhere else. If it's a choice between not watching the film or downloading it, it's not a choice to me at all, I love the art form.

deleted my full-er write up , oh well



The consequences of retarded decision making.



What if slashers were good ?



An ambitious idea , but the animation is terribly dated.



Not what I expected , nice warm up for Midnight Cowboy - although Anne Bancroft steals this show.



One of my favorite Miyazaki films , stunning animation and an awesome unusual Hisaishi score (which would inspire countless RPG's such as Final Fantasy).

... and if it's too good for you , switch it to english dub

I understand your pain Harry. At the moment i'm just getting through everything I can find on Region 2. When thats said and done, i'll have to resort to the internet as well. It's a sad way to go but hey it's Artifical Eye's/Eureka's/ICA's (Criterion for you I expect) fault for not transferring these films on to DVD.

I haven't downloaded a film thus far and I don't want to start soon as not only does piracy get my goat but it also means i'll have to cramp myself by a computer screen to watch a film. And that ain't no good (granted you can probably move it to your TV with the know-how but I have no know-how you see, my cat is better on the PC than me). As you say though, when you love something as much as I love film, principle's have to take a back seat. I'll have no pride but hey, at least i'll have my films

Just caught another one:

After the Thin Man




Loved The Thin Man, and I love this one almost as much (though not quite). Like the last one, a little overly complicated at points (this film more than the first), but always charming and the characters are impossible to dislike, and the chemistry between the leads (William Powell and Myrna Loy) is often noted. Fun, interesting, eclectic cast including a young Jimmy Stewart, who was 28 at the time and had all of his most iconic roles in front of him.

I've got the last four films in the series all queued up on Netflix and I hope to catch all of them over the next few weeks.