films we just saw

Chat here about anything horror related. Be it movies, news, remakes or events.
Grindhouse
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Post by Grindhouse »

La Chiesa
this was quite entertaining at times,some of the scenes were stolen from the keep,but not a bad film,and giovanni lombardo radish doing nothing really and english actor from holby city or something and an american actor just for the international market,much prefered it when it was set in medieval times to the modern day setting.
Terror at the Opera
i caught this years ago on VHS around 92-93 and i liked it then,only time isnt doing it any favours,the casting is bad and the acting too,still the rooks or ravens had their act and lines down to a T,peck out the eye,peck out the eye! why does dario ruin his films with rock music at the point of the killer coming,just ruins it,still theres something biographical in this film from dario.
The best scene in the whole film is the bullet through the spyhole through the woman and into the telephone, thats it a muddled mess of a film.
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streetrw
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Post by streetrw »

Grindhouse wrote:Terror at the Opera
i caught this years ago on VHS around 92-93 and i liked it then,only time isnt doing it any favours,the casting is bad and the acting too,still the rooks or ravens had their act and lines down to a T,peck out the eye,peck out the eye! why does dario ruin his films with rock music at the point of the killer coming,just ruins it,still theres something biographical in this film from dario.
The best scene in the whole film is the bullet through the spyhole through the woman and into the telephone, thats it a muddled mess of a film.
Terror At The Opera is terrific, and I've never felt that the use of rock/metal music harmed the movie or any of Argento's other movies. His use of music is usually pretty good - the lush strings sound of Pino Donaggio when it calls for it (Trauma, Do You Like Hitchcock), the unhinged rock of Simonetti/Goblin when it calls for it (most of the rest, especially the madness of Suspiria), or the shrieky jazz and drones of Ennio Morricone (Four Flies, Crystal Plumage and - presumably as I haven't seen it in 20 years - Cat o'Nine Tails). And even if it isn't very good, I still want to see Mother Of Tears for (among all the other reasons) another Simonetti-Argento pairing.

(Haven't watched anything since my last bulletin....)
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Post by Grindhouse »

Team Banzai wrote:i am legend

semi spoilers (very mild)

cgi "the mummy" style vampires are not frightening! they spent a lot on this one but the script (what there is of it dialogue wise) is terrible, with a particularly cringe worthy speech about 3/4 of the way in.

if you want more indigestion on boxing day (it opens on the 26th) go and see this.
just to let you know
The last man on earth starring vincent price is on google video in the public domain

The Last Man on Earth (Public Domain)


happy viewing :D
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Team Banzai
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Post by Team Banzai »

amongst doing the christmas shopping (wow the queues!) and attending weddings and parties i sat down and caught up with a couple more films

resident evil : extinction. not great but a brisk watch at just over 90 mins, very very forgettable but milla is always easy on the eye - although often when in close-up she looked oddly cgi air- brushed.

war. or as it used to be known, rogue. those 2 titans of acting brilliance messrs statham and lee serve up another helping of action violence. had REALLY low expectations for this but was very pleasantly surprised, i thought the direction was well handled and the script had some nice surprises, an under-rated little gem.
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Post by Satans Puppy »

Team Banzai wrote:resident evil : extinction. not great but a brisk watch at just over 90 mins, very very forgettable but milla is always easy on the eye - although often when in close-up she looked oddly cgi air- brushed.
The RE series is a guilty pleasure of mine... The first one I thought "Too many Guns" then seeing the second one, they totally fixed that with the graveyard scene... SNAPTASTIC!!!! :)

Extinction I thought was alright for an action movie... the crows were a nice little touch... or Ravens.... My Copy was dodgy, it ain't out on HD-DVD till Feb and I can't wait to complete the series.

Don't forget that Capcom are doing an CGI animated feature of Biohazard (RE) due for release next year :D
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Post by streetrw »

Two nights ago I sat down with the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And it's not bad. It's nowhere near as unremittingly evil as Hooper's original but as a visually overstylised young-people slasher movie it's slick and entertaining. Admittedly it's not a Christmassy movie but what the hey.

Neither is The Day Of The Triffids, serialised by the BBC and which I found on a Milton Keynes market stall yesterday for £4 (one of the season's easiest purchases, really) and which I had on while finishing off the wrapping. (This would explain why it took me four goes to wrap a DVD-shaped parcel.) It's always been a favourite book of mine (on an admittedly short list, I'm humbled to say) and I've always been a sucker for Empty World movies, which is why I'm looking forward to I Am Legend next week. Triffids does look a bit ropey in places after all these years but it's a damned good story.

As a family, we finished off the night with the decidedly non-genre (Carry On) Don't Lose Your Head, one of the team's finer historical outings with most of the greats (Hawtrey, Williams, James) and made long before the series degenerated into tiresome filth (Dick, Emanuelle). Two-time Hammer star and Blake's 7 villainess Jacqueline Pearce has two lines.
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Post by chief brody »

Just watch HATCHET on r1 dvd, nice thanks to the ff boys at the end.
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Post by Team Banzai »

eastern promises - a big disappointment, but still glad that i've now seen it. it felt after the genius of history of violence that this exercise was just a waste of cronenberg's undoubted talents.

doctor who xmas special - some shaky moments but it managed the trick of being a tasty christmas treat - some brilliant moments especially in the last 10-15 minutes.

the who special showed how christmas day tv should be - but holy f.. how bad was the catherine tate show? - words.fail. me - !!
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Post by Satans Puppy »

Bourne Identity and Supremecy... Super!! Great chases, great action scenes Better then Bond (Circa 2000)

Phantom Of The Opera, Decided to revisit this on in HD and it's purty and sounds good... So I like moosicals, sue me... Can't wait for Sweeney Todd next year :) Not long now!!!! :D

About to settle down to watch Transformers, Bourne Ultimatum and The Kingdom... :D
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Post by Grindhouse »

I Am Legend,i saw this boxing day teatime,i really enjoyed this a lot more than i thought i would,the perfect christmas get out of the house movie.
some great thrills and scares,Newyork empty is very breathtaking,a fitting end to the cinema year, i think theres a lot more to this film and was taken out,cgi effects were well done far better than i had feared.
i will see this again soon.
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rawshark
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Post by rawshark »

Have been catching up and getting a sneak preview of a few films recently;

I really enjoyed Eastern Promises, better than History of Violence for me in terms of the old 'Cronenbergian themes', although Vincent Cassell does provide the cartoonish element that's perhaps not needed. Naomi Watts is brilliant.

Next up, the 'Best Film of 2008' - No Country For Old Men. Believe the hype, the Coens are back on form. Visually fantastic, great dialogue and terrific performances from all (Kelly MacDonald, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones). Javier Bardem should have the Oscar sewn up with his jaw-dropping turn as the hitman-turned-sociopath - the scariest manistream killer seen since Hannibal himself.

Caught up on Into The Wild and loved it. Great direction from Sean Penn and an extremely heart-warming / saddening tale of one man's dream to live in the wild in Alaska, via travelling halfway across the US encountering adventure all the way. Very cool.

Be Kind Rewind is great fun from Michel Gondry, guaranteed to please all those in love with cinema. Jack Black and Mos Def accidentally wipe all the VHS tapes in their Video Rental Store, so set about recreating all the films (Ghostbusters, Robocop, Rush Hour 2 etc) on their own dodgy VHS camera in order to fool the renting public. Not quite classic Gondry, but definitely one to watch out for.

Juno is also terrific, with a stellar lead performance from Ellen Page (Hard Candy) as a pregnant 16 year old deciding to give her baby up for adoption rather than having to face an abortion. The 'grown-up' teen comedy of the year has a very cool soundtrack, and some of the best dialogue heard this side of Clueless and Napoleon Dynamite.

Other stuff includes 1408 after missing it at this year's FrightFest (s'alright, Cusack's pretty good), The Cellar Door (an above-average indie 'sorta torture porn' story but with solid dialogue and performances), End of the Line (a genuine jump-in-your-seat scare in the first 5 mins and a cool concept, but runs out of steam towards the end - of the line) and er... Special Dead.

Well, actually I still haven't got around to seeing Special Dead yet, but I have a copy of the DVD. Looks, er... interesting... :D

http://www.specialdeadmovie.com/about.html
It's horrible... I love it... What is it?
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Post by lupogirl »

Went to see I am Legend last night. Thought it was entertaining and no wise cracks from Will Smith(hooray). Nicely paced,shot and only one instance of the feeling of isolation. The film was let down by CGI infected inhabitants. Not really convincing or scary. :cry: Though the film does have minimal use of music which maximises the tension. :D

Though still think The Omega Man is a better film.
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Post by soulmining »

Agree with Lupogirl on that one, the CGI in I Am Legend really spoilt it for me. The look and movement of the infected really looked fake and took me out of the film - another case for real people and good make up! That aside, it wasn't a bad film... some good scenes and the deserted vistas of NYC looked great. Sam the dog was also worthy of a mention!

St. Trinians was fun if you're prepared to switch off for 90 minutes - better than the majority of lame British comedies this year, although that's not exactly difficult (I Want Candy, Magicians...) Our screening was hampered by a loud humming sound coming from one of the speakers until I complained to the management... don't know how everyone else was prepared to just sit there ignoring it... (sigh)

Sunshine was my Christmas movie (on DVD), one of my faves of the year, and I've also had chance to catch up with Disturbia again...

Got The Backwoods (R4 DVD) for Christmas which I watched last night; Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine in a Spanish thriller set in the seventies. They find a young kid locked up in a barn and try to help her... the locals don't like it, cue lots of posturing with rifles... Nicely directed and features understated performances from the two leads, but never quite hits top gear. Watchable, but no classic.

As for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, I'll be tackling that in the first of my telly blogs in the New Year...
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voor
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Post by voor »

I am LEgend felt for the first 90 minutes as if it could get away with being an acceptable remake but then somebody obviously decided to rip the script and just totally let go and the result is so offensive, so unbelivably inexcusable that it made my eyes bleed.

Gone Baby Gone is Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his brother Casey Affleck: and in one word it is incredible. Although it is truly a mainstream thriller, it's also one of the darkest, most intense characters studies to come out in recent years: I don't know what Mr. Affleck has been watching but he certailny seems to have a lot of questions about morals and ethics.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is Sidney Lumet's new pic starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke and it's a dark, noir-tinted crime story. Watching it back to back with Gone Baby Gone it is hard to shake the feeling off that all human beings are essentialy shits and will do anything to screw each other over.

The Bucket List is a schmaltz-fest from Rob Reiner starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. If it wasn't for these two legendary actors, the film would be no better than a Hallmark True Story or an HBO film of the week. It's hagged, syrupy, American and full of cliches - however it is still a joy to see Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Freeman on screen - though I have to admit Morgan Freeman is far better in Gone Baby Gone (though watch out for Ed Harris- he totally steals the film)

Finally - going through some of the Oscar nominations for Foreign Feature Film this year to see the competition The Orphanage is going to have. There are some very strong entries such as The Band's Visit from Egypt or Caramel from Lebanon though my favourite at the moment remains Fatih Akin even though there is very little chance he'll get it considering 'Auf Der Anderen Seite' will probably be lost on American audience with its ' European and Middle Eastern; sensibilities. Thought as usual you can never tell.

Sincerely yours
Voor
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Post by ghouldrool »

I am Legend spoilers, just like the script writer

I was going to label this a really good movie. Even the really really really bad looking CGI muppets couldnt kill it. Seriously guys just stick some guys in latex, under light them and you can get a decent performance and a sense of actual threat from something thats actually there.

But the film seriously dies a loong lingering death once the female and kid appear. Ive not read the book but can pretty much tell the ending of this film is not the ending of the book.

Smith carries the film very well. Again until the final third where they decide they need to shoehorn in him doing some squeeky voices for "comic" relief.

The first hour plays much like how a sequel to 28 Days later or how Resident Evil 2 really should have been. Tension, survival horror etc etc.

i think someone somewhere decided to shoehorn in a religious finale with Neville becoming almost Christ like in his sacrifice or killing himself to atone for his "sins". The wall of human test subjects turning up minutes before the end hinting that he has something to answer for.

first hour great... so go in.. then leave after the second scene in the dvd rental store
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