films we just saw

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:45 pm

Loadsavidz in the last few days:

Starting off with I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, which is IKWYDLS 3 and nowhere near as good as those two movies (which weren't all that great to start with; efficient and unpretentious throwback slashers but without the knowingness of the then current Scream films). This one is pretty pathetic and doesn't even have much in the way of healthy gore to commend it.

I rather liked The Return, a quite, subtle, occasionally creepy little horror pic in which Sarah Michelle Gellar confronts demons from her past. Nothing special but I was pleasantly surprised.

Moderately impressed with Boo, which dropped from the FF schedule a couple of years ago. Teens spend Halloween in the spooky old abandoned hospital; all hell breaks loose. It is creepy, and the location is great, but one of the main characters is such a boneheaded imbecile he can't die quickly or bloodily enough.

Jean-Claude Van Damme may no longer hold any sway in cinema, but along with the similarly DTV-based Steven Seagal he's cluttering up the Blockbuster racks like nobody's business. Until Death has JCVD playing Bad Cop - addicted to heroin, getting rough with prostitutes over a pool table, beating people up and snarling abuse at all and sundry, until ludicrous bad guy Stephen Rea shoots him in the head and puts him in a coma. He wakes up some months later a reformed innocent, and sets about putting his life back together. Not enough punching and kicking, no trademark nude splits; all very perfunctory and, frankly, dull.

I sort of half-liked HeadSpace, a cheapie horror flick in which a disaffected young genius seems to bring death to all around him in the form of scary monsters. There is more to it, and a good cast (Olivia Hussey, William Atherton, Dee Wallace Stone), but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Effective moments, though.

Renny Harlin's Mindhunters is slick, glossy, nicely shot psycho slasher bunkum in which a team of trainee FBI profilers realise that one of their number may be a serial killer when they start being bumped off in ingenious ways. It's plainly nonsensical, but the tortuously contrived death sequences are worth a few laughs.

The mighty Lucio Fulci has been responsible for a great many "WTF" moments over the years, but Cat In The Brain is an entire WTF movie, which I've waited 17 years to see (it was originally rejected by the BBFC). Fulci directs Fulci as Fulci, a horror director suddenly prone to visions of extreme violence and misogynistic abuse; not helped by the bloke next door with the chainsaw and the tart across the road flashing her boobs at him. He enlists the help of the psychiatrist next door, but said psychiatrist happens to be a homicidal maniac. There's a Nazi orgy, cannibalism, chainsaw murders, severed heads, and a priceless scene in which Fulci, having beaten up a documentary crew and ripped the blouse off the interviewer, simply apologises and is told by the interviewer "that's alright, I quite enjoyed it". It makes The Beyond look comprehensible. Much of the movie seems to be taken up with clips from other, lesser Fulci movies (no City of the Living Dead or Zombie Flesh Eaters) and not one single frame from start to finish makes the slightest whisper of sense. I did enjoy it, but it's absolutely mental.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:35 am

The fountain well it was nothing like i expected,from what i had read, i had seen Darren Aronofsky's previous films Pi and requiem for a dream,but in this case i had listened to the soundtrack lots before seeing the film,the fountain left me in quite an emotional state,to the point that i couldnt watch anything after it,and i didnt want to spoil the experience of just watching that film,so i went to sleep after.

so the next day Black Christmas the remake,well this is suprisingly good and pushes that 15 certificate as far as it can go,murder, eye gouging,cannibalism,seems very much in the vein of the old school horror but with a modern twists a few jumps but entertaining nonsense.

Perfume the story of a murderer,from the moment this was on it grabbed me and didnt let go just like the fountain,superbly made, with a great cast and the score is just wonderful to the ears,im not big on period films and the trailer didnt really explain or do this film the justice it so well deserves,if you havent seen this then do so.
i now have a 3 month free dvd rental period courtesy of those nice folks at tesco dvd rental,much movie watching in the next few months

Satans Puppy · Post by **Satans Puppy** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:11 am

Grindhouse wrote:
Perfume the story of a murderer,from the moment this was on it grabbed me and didnt let go just like the fountain,superbly made, with a great cast and the score is just wonderful to the ears,im not big on period films and the trailer didnt really explain or do this film the justice it so well deserves,if you havent seen this then do so.
i now have a 3 month free dvd rental period courtesy of those nice folks at tesco dvd rental,much movie watching in the next few months

The ending was a bit

hock:

scrobble · Post by **scrobble** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:16 pm

streetrw wrote:The mighty Lucio Fulci has been responsible for a great many "WTF" moments over the years, but Cat In The Brain is an entire WTF movie, which I've waited 17 years to see (it was originally rejected by the BBFC). Fulci directs Fulci as Fulci, a horror director suddenly prone to visions of extreme violence and misogynistic abuse; not helped by the bloke next door with the chainsaw and the tart across the road flashing her boobs at him. He enlists the help of the psychiatrist next door, but said psychiatrist happens to be a homicidal maniac. There's a Nazi orgy, cannibalism, chainsaw murders, severed heads, and a priceless scene in which Fulci, having beaten up a documentary crew and ripped the blouse off the interviewer, simply apologises and is told by the interviewer "that's alright, I quite enjoyed it". It makes The Beyond look comprehensible. Much of the movie seems to be taken up with clips from other, lesser Fulci movies (no City of the Living Dead or Zombie Flesh Eaters) and not one single frame from start to finish makes the slightest whisper of sense. I did enjoy it, but it's absolutely mental.

Oh good, just picked it up for £5 in HMV's sale and am looking forward to it more now! Mental Fulci is always good!

lupogirl · Post by **lupogirl** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:21 pm

Ending a rather interesting 2007 with Paranoid Park. Very much like Donnie Darko with skateboards. A murder involving sullen teenagers. With acting from certain characters which is varied. Some great ambient music but the film does have a rather abrupt ending. Quite short a film of 85ish mins running time.

Happy New Year Folks!

ghouldrool · Post by **ghouldrool** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:28 pm

polished off 2007 in true seasonal indulgence by seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks

Dont laugh! its by far one of the best out and out childrens films for quite a few years. None of the chin stroking of bloated fantasy epics or knowing irony in the glut of 100% CGI fuzz fests.

Sure theres some satire on the state of (american) pop music and its not exactly fresh. But its a well worn formula done well. Jason Lee could hve put a little more effort into Dave but the Chipmunks themselves are well updated et true to the incarnations we know from that 80s cartoon. The story revolves around them becoming a success due to the original song from the '58 Chipmunks. So its really touching on several generations here for its fanbase, and also bringing in a new one.

on some level its a tad more successful than Transformers as a revival as it doesnt disregard so blatantly the original set up.

is it anything more than a cream puff of kiddy sentiment? no, but Theodore is sweet and theres a jaw dropping gag involving a "raisin". so there :P

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:25 am

Azumi a live action manga film based on the comic book lots of sword fights and some blood letting & quite tame compared to some manga interpretations but pretty good.
A bit overly long & it could have done with the pace being faster but enjoyable and worth watching.

jonbly · Post by **jonbly** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:36 am

Caught Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation before Crimbo. It's so bad, it's... well, still bad. The best thing that can be said about it is that Renee Zellwegger's involvement creates some good material for an alternate ending to Bridget Jones's Diary...

JasonMyers · Post by **JasonMyers** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:19 pm

Anyone notice the billboard in I AM LEGEND advertising a SUPERMAN/BATMAN movie with the release date of 05-15-10? I excitedly thought it was Warner Bros sneakily revealing that a SUPERMAN VS BATMAN movie is scheduled for summer 2010. But it turns out it was just an in-joke by co-writer Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the awful BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN & ROBIN and had his SUPERMAN VS BATMAN script turned down by WB.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:36 am

watched a few films the past day or so The wind that shakes the barley ,i liked this a lot ,well made and superbly acted by all,induces anger from actions on both sides of the irish struggle,not an easy film nor an easy subject to tackle a film about.
The quest for fire
from jean jacques annaud this really is an interesting film cant believe its been over 20 yrs or so till i have seen this,a well made film with Ron perlmans 1st ever film acting job and a very young rae dawn chong and everett mcgill,always liked him in the people under the stairs.
a bit of cannibalism woolly mammoths and sabre tooth tigers and not to mention stone age sex

ops:

i was going through a pile of video tapes tonight and its hard to imagine that we used to watch those clunky plastic tapes in a vcr,so in order to decide what to keep and what to throw, i found myself being nostalgic and watching
a VHS 80s double bill 1st off was TAPS this one of my favourite films of the era with a young tom cruise & sean penn and timothy hutton with george c scott,a superb film of a military academy and how the cadets are taught and end up being seduced by war glory honour & dying for a cause is so different to the reality of that when it happens.
masterful performances from young actors,along with the Outsiders those are the 2 of my fave teen films of the 80s
next up on my VHS double bill Weird Science john hughes teen version of frankenstein take 2 nerds mix in kelly le brock and = results of much humour,its not bad for its age,though the costumes look very bad now and with robert downey jr & Bill Paxton being in this as well,i wonder how old they were when this was made,good soundtrack too,i wonder if its still the same music on the dvd, i 1st remember seeing this on video along with my science project way back in 86,still another twenty years or so and i might see it again

Team Banzai · Post by **Team Banzai** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:15 am

sweeney todd..

wow!! pure brilliance and probably a difficult sell for warners ( as the advance pretty much music-less trailers proved), but what a wonderful film. from approx 20 minutes in you are so overwhelmed by this pitch perfect genre piece that time and the outside world don't seem to matter.

this is burton's best film since edward scissorhands. i urge you to see this fantastic film that has been given an 18 certificate for it's splattery scenes.

i can't wait to see it again. 2008's first perfect film!

oh, and can you believe we are creeping towards 200,000 hits on this strand?

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:38 pm

Team Banzai wrote:sweeney todd..

this is burton's best film since edward scissorhands. i urge you to see this fantastic film that has been given an 18 certificate for it's splattery scenes.

Well... on the one hand it's Tim Burton; the only film of his I've really liked was Ed Wood. The rest of them that I've seen, I can't abide. Also it's a musical, which isn't a genre I care for at all (the last one I really really liked was probably Little Shop Of Horrors and that's 20 years ago).

But an 18 for splattery scenes.... that's tempting me.

oh, and can you believe we are creeping towards 200,000 hits on this strand?

I fear a lot of that's down to me. I need to get out more.

STun · Post by **STun** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:26 pm

I just saw 1408 again after seeing it at Frightfest last summer only to find the ending totally different and tacky. Has anyone else seen it again and know what I'm talking about?

SPOILERS below:

Aug FFest version was that he lived and heard his daugheters voice on dictaphone

DVD ending - He dies and Sam Jackson gets a 'last minute shock' seeing Mr Cusack in his rear view mirror.

I prefer the version seen at Ffest.

End of rant.

voor · Post by **voor** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:36 am

{REC} last night: In one word: Brilliant! This is how a genre film should be. After the abysmall The Zombie Diaries and the very disappointing and cliched Diary Of The Dead, {REC is a like a breath of fresh air, showing one and all how it should be done. It's by no means perfect, lapses of logic, plot holes, horror film cliches are all flwas that could have been avoided but when the end result is as terrifying as what I saw last night, all these complaints disapper into thin air.

A real treat for any horror fan!

Squiren · Post by **Squiren** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:27 pm

I actually just saw I Am Legend and thought it was half a good film. I enjoyed Big Willie's descent into madness and the tension during the first half but as soon as the "dark seekers" (whatever the f**k they are) came into the equation this movie descended into formulaic hollywood tosh! Read the book by Richard Matheson or rent Chucks "The Omega Man" instead