Movie Tab II

Idi i smotri [ 'Come and See' ] - 1985.

This was the final film that Elem Klimov ever directed. Having experienced World War II with his own eyes as a child, he felt that it was a film that he needed to make, and, after doing so, he was no longer compelled to continue directing. The director comments, once again on the DVD preface: "I don't regret that I made that film. It had a difficult pre-history and history. But one has to make it a difference once in a while, to commit something worthy. Herein lies the sense of creative work, when you can offer to people something real serious, real meaningful…" Simply put, this is the masterpiece that he was born to make, and a single viewing will ultimately change the way that you view war.

"Come and See" is pretty unforgettable.
The 'barn sequence is utterly grueling when the Nazi’s come with belching smoke and deafening noise and animal lust for murder and pillage.
And it's truly an unforgettable sight, as this huge, frenzied, Nazi carnival of death carries out it’s sickening work, to see the young boy literally age before our very eyes.
We see every single piece of him vanish until there is nothing left but barely restrained madness, as the foul sights and smells of total war etch their deep, permanent mark onto his once young face.

Aleksei Kravchenko as the young boy has to be said gives one of the most outstanding and harrowing performances from any child actor for decades.
Where are the Oscar Nominations?
You will never forget the close-ups of his startlingly aged face and his haunted, till the day he dies, eyes as he brings home to the audience all the horror that his character is experiencing.

The Nazi/German uniforms and equipment look wonderfully authentic as well, it's a brilliantly made and acted film but hard to class as any kind of entertainment.

A week of more recent movies for me.

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009, Rob Letterman)

Seven Pounds (2008, Gabriele Muccino)

Year One (2009, Harold Ramis)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009, Michael Bay)

Land of the Lost (2009, Brad Silberling)

Star Trek (2009, JJ Abrams)

Moon (2009, Duncan Jones)

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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."

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The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus-Actually rather dull and boring in places

Halloween (Rob Zombie, 2007) -

Kept putting this movie off for ages, after seeing it on Halloween (obviously) I came to the fairly obvious conclusion that I wasn't missing anything special. Given that the only other Zombie film I've seen, House of 1000 Corpses, was very tough to like, I had somewhat low expectations, and they were "met", I guess. While Zombie didn't totally ruin the film, he didn't exactly make the most of it, losing a lot of the original film's suspense by taking up a large chunk of the film with providing an admittedly unnecessary backstory, leaving no time to develop characters to care about (maybe trading off the fact that they're characters we were supposed to care about in the original, so why not now?).

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Don't even bother with the sequel Iro, it's ten times worse.

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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

Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973)
Hugely enjoyable thriller from De Palma (in full on Hitchcock mode) with Margot Kidder terrific as the saner half of recently separated conjoined twins, Danielle and Dominique. Unfortunately her sister is a homicidal maniac, and after a particularly grisly murder in her flat, an inquisitive journalist neighbour Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) comes-a-knockin' having witnessed the slaying from her window (ala Rear Window). Before the police can get there however, Danielle's ex husband Emil (William Finley who looks the spit of John Waters in this) turns up and cleans up the mess. Naturally the police are inept, leaving Grace to team up with private dick Joseph Larch (Charles Durning in a small but highly amusing role) as things get weirder by the minute. Compelling stuff that loses it's way towards the end slightly, becoming muddled, but complimented by wonderful performances from the entire cast (who look like they're having a lot of fun), and sporting some highly suspenseful sequences. Film also features (if a little too much) early usage of the split screen technique De Palma would later use to such great effect in Carrie. Recommended.



Android (Aaron Lipstadt, 1982)
This is an old favourite I like to put on every couple of years, and it just keeps getting better with each viewing (so much in fact that I've finally upgraded it to dvd). Don Opper (who also co scripted and is probably best known as Charlie from the Critters films) is pitch perfect as Max; a sensitive, eccentric android, curious about women, sex and love. Unfortunately he's stuck in deep space aboard mad scientist Klaus Kinski's research station as humanoid robots are illegal on Earth. Things are further complicated by a volatile trio of escaped convicts he allows aboard; one of whom turns out to be a woman who falls for his odd ball charms. Naturally she has no idea he's a bucket of bolts, and to cap it all off, Kinski's planning to deactivate him once he's perfected his new female super-android. Another New World Pictures quickie that also reuses sets from Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (along with Galaxy of Terror, Space Raiders and Forbidden World/Mutant - all of which I also love) Android is engrossing stuff with an intelligent offbeat script, and a truly wonderful performance from Opper. Sadly Kinski only has a couple of scenes, but is as intense as ever, and Brie Howard is eminently tough and tender in equal measure as love interest Maggie. This won't appeal to everyone due to the low rent production values (though I happen to love that late 70's early 80's low budget retro look) but anyone looking for quirky sci-fi with a soul could do worse than to check this overlooked gem out.

other stuff I watched...



Terror (Norman J. Warren, 1978) +
Enjoyable cheapie from Warren who was clearly trying to emulate Dario Argento's Suspiria with this tale of a house cursed by a three hundred year old witch, and the low budget film crew who meet a grisly end after partying there. Lots of psychedelic lighting and some surprisingly gory deaths (including an awesome semi-beheading by a rogue window pane) punctuate this stylish, but otherwise routine time filler.



The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)
There was me thinking I hadn't seen this, but it all came flooding back once that narrow sandstone pass came into view. This is a film my dad sat down and watched with me when I was a kid. I remember him saying something along the lines of 'come on, we're going to watch an excellent western adventure film now, you'll love it'. He wasn't wrong, but somehow the memory has faded over the last twenty five years. Imagine my delight when I realised this was that very film, and I could finally put a name to it. My favourite scene has to be Burt Lancaster holding up Jack Palance's men single handedly, the ensuing cat and mouse shootout, and wonderful exchange of dialogue from their respective cover positions. But that's just one of many in this classic.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

Duly noted. It still hasn't been released over here anyway - guess there's not much demand for it.

Up Charming wee tale of adventure and self discovery i thoroughly enjoyed it

All About Eve

Bette Davis is indeed 'a mass of music and fire', and shreds scenery with joyous aplomb. Anne Baxter gets knocked into the wings a bit, for me. Her character requires the breathy (slightly annoying) ingenue that she delivers at first, and she fills the towering cookie-cutter shape of 'Eve' with a suitably doughy glow. Later, when she gets a chance to showboat, she doesn't crackle with anything like the same intensity of Ms D though (and isn't helped by her 'stagey' tendency to emote off to the side of all concerned).

That's just one gripe really, and if I were to throw in my few others, they'd be the odd technical simplicity (the frame 'hold' at the start seems 'strained', and one back projection scene involved pedestrians outpacing our protagonists, without overtaking), plus an 'archetypal' feel to some of the characters at times (the caustic critic who cries "laugh at anyone but me" seemed a stereotype too far).

But hell, even the stereotypes are fun ultimately, and the stormy relationships that toss them about, and get tossed in turn, take centre stage very nicely indeed

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The Darkness

Lots of potential, but bottom line is it doesn't frighten. Bean does what he's given to do competently, but it's Bello's show, and she's lumped with an unsympathetic character who's ultimately sent to a 'hellish' house depicted via gloopy paint and a heavy-handed tint.

I'm being too harsh - the later transition into Celtic myths is a good idea and works at first, but like many in the flick it seems to sabotage itself as time goes on. One particular (kinda obvious) twist is made comical by a sudden cut in the music as a protagonist runs into a door with a puzzled look on their face. Yet a subtle reveal involving a kid's favourite box makes you wish the whole thing had been handled that adroitly. Still at least the cliff settings, mythologies, and a grizzled Maurice Roeves are all good.

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

April Fool's Day (1986, Walton)





Don't let my rating fool you, this is a bad movie. It just happens to be a guilty pleasure of mine from the 80s, and I have seen it 60 billion times. However, I had not seen this on DVD; I was stuck watching a full screen VCR tape. This was like seeing it for the first time again. I mean, all my friends were there...Chaz, Muffy, Kit, Arch, that weird guy that hangs out in the woods. It was like hitting a family reunion at which Uncle Bill was finally sober. A whole new experience. God I love AFD; you probably won't though, so don't bother!

[REC] (Balagueró, 2007)





Great stuff. And yes, Pyro, much better than Quarantine. I still liked Quarantine, though...

Haunting in Connecticut (Cornwell, 2009)





Not very good. The kid that played the lead annoyed me in Veronica Mars, and he continues to do so here. He just has that one "disturbed look" trick in his limited acting bag of tricks. Very little actual suspense, and the film started falling back on lame Saw-style editing pretty quickly, which drives me up the wall. The film was lensed poorly and played even worse. Not to mention it rips of numerous other films pretty blatantly. Skip it.

The Strangers (Bertino, 2008)





Another weak film. This had some decent sequences, but I felt like the potential was squandered. More seriously questionable actions by characters, just to keep them in danger. Steals a ton from the original Last House on the Left, as well. I just couldn't buy into some of the ridiculous situations and oversights this film seemed to thrive on.

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Gamer (2009) Workprint

Black Dynamite (2009) DVD Screener

Glad you liked it, even after seeing the remake which would have inevitably spoiled many of the scares.

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Only 3? Not that good then?

It wasnt that noteworthy of a picture (to me at least). Sure Michael Jai White is a good actor but his character gets kind of drawn out and stale. All in all the film , plotwise is just too thin. I rather have watched Gamer twice.

haha is Gamer that worse all of my friends who like trashy pointless action movies say that they hate it


Zombieland(2009)-what a good movie I loved it,obviously the director had never seen a zombie flick before which makes it better,getting out of the stereotype and Jessy Eisenberg whom I know only from Advetureland is kind of acting the same but still I kind of like it,plus the Idea of the rules is awesome it cracked me up


Jenifer's Body(2009)-Ahh what to talk about that movie except that I am dissapointed about the fact that you expect a lot of T&A and you get nothing well a little bit but still this movie was really decieving however I was really happy to see it I mean it's a movie about Megan Fox and how hot she is and nothing more don't argue about it you know I am right It had the best girl on girl scene ever and
that is movie rating that is Megan fox rating

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I'm in movie heaven

Quite amused by the fact that you watched a DVD Screener - this is like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a lot of the fun comes from watching it in a packed theatre, not on DVD at home or whatever. Unless of course you have mates over, of course.

But as for complaints about plot and character - do you have any real familiarity with the types of films that Black Dynamite was parodying/paying homage to? Compared to some of the films it bases itself on (e.g. Dolemite) it's actually got some decent acting and plot.

I already saw Black Dynamite at an advance screening at a film festival three months ago, and on the basis of that viewing I'd give it a . It's currently my favourite comedy of 2009. But yeah, to each their own.

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut

AGH! More info man.

So the film worked better in this 'Ultimate Cut' than the 'Director's Cut' with the "Black Freighter" actually IN the movie?
Or should I go with the 'DC'?

I neeeeeds to know!