films we just saw

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sherbetbizarre
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Post by sherbetbizarre »

Seven Days (South Korea, 2007)

Kim Yoon Jin takes a break from Lost (where she plays Sun) and returned to Korea for this thriller.

She plays a single-parent and hot-shot lawyer who's never lost a case. When her daughter is kidnapped, instead of ransom money, the kidnapper insists she takes a case to free an obviously guilty man on a murder charge.

So the film takes place over seven days (murder trials take about 2 or 3 in Korean movies!) and it moves at a frantic pace... though it's easy to follow until right near the end where charecters and plot strands become confused.

Overall it's pretty good, one of the better mainstream Korean thrillers in a while. Out on Korean DVD.
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Post by ghouldrool »

Chopping Mall
Barbara Crampton and Kelli Maroney in the same movie? and that movie is about killer robots in the most unnecessarily large mall? With mullets and cheese in abundance this is B movie heaven

Hatchet good but its a very good comedy nothing more. No return to the slasher glory here, Behind the Mask was the better horror.

Frontieres apart from the spot the steal this was a great movie. pretty full on gore, toughest woman on earth but the multiple climaxes were grating.

10,000 BC just about passes muster as saturday afternoon matinee stuff. It only picks up once we get to the pyramids.

The Salute of the Jugger, watching this is like going back to the early 90s glory days. Fantastic set design, great brutality, some strong performances from the ever reliable Rutger Huaer and Joan Chen. One of the best post apoc movies ive seen -and this was my first viewing proper.

Diary of the Dead, what? no way can this hold water against the original 3. it even pales compared to Land. But, it is fantastic at feeling like a first movie, not the umpteenth from a 68 yr old veteran. Some great gags as far as zombie killing but some are marred by CGI. Still we needed 2 Romero Zombie movies in the Noughties as we missed any in the 90s
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Post by Grindhouse »

10,000 BC

In 10,000 BC only the bad guys have subtitles
in 10,000 BC theres no cannibalism,
In 10,000 BC fights are bloodless
in 10,000 BC Cliff Curtis will regret he did this
in 10,000 BC there are woolly mammoths in the desert,and giant chickens in the jungle.

The problem with 10,000 BC is that it doesn't do anything,it wants to be entertaining,exciting and it just isnt any of those things.

when Roland Emmerich pitched this film it must have been think Apocalypto meets the Quest for fire,failing that lets throw in some Stargate clues as well and steal from every film we can including 300.
i really expected to see a Stargate portal in this film, the problem is there's nothing to care about in this film its empty film making at its worst,theres even a scene stolen from the warriors where all the tribes get together i expected to hear "can you dig it" or "can you count suckers",instead it was just talking but without subtitles, they have interpreters in 10,000 BC.

Questipn whats the difference between Roland Emmerich and Uwe Boll?
Answer,nothing apart from a few hundred million in budget and Mr Emmerich has the studios ears,as far as projects get the greenlit.
In his favour the CGI effects are done well and look good,not breathtaking but do look good,whether they will look good in 5 yrs time remains to be seen.
Theres some scenes which are quite beautiful and well done with the boats. So Mr Emmerich does have flashes of a director, and we know he can do better than this film,The Patriot was a great film,but still he pursues this style of unoriginal film making that hes been doing ever since universal soldier.
i have more respect for him as a film maker for Moon 44 than this rubbish,but i should be counting my blessings i could have been sat through a Stephen Sommers film.

tonights film has to be better? There Will Be Blood
and thursday its Never Back Down,which looks like a teenage fight club meets the karate kid and no retreat no surrender
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Post by xLeft For Deadx »

This year, my friends and I chose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ by watching a five film marathon of films starring wrestlers. We endured:

See No Evil starring Kane
Was a fairly predictable but gory slasher film. At this point the actors seemed fairly fresh, as it turns out WWE employs pretty much the same actors in most of their films. Kane was always better before he was de-masked anyway.

The Condmened starring Stone Cold Steve Austin
Basically Battle Royale meets The Running Man meets Fortress. Overstays its welcome with a running time of close to 2 hours, and Vinnie Jones steals the film away from the star - but overall I find it hard not to like 'fight to the death' films like this.

The Marine starring John Cena
Its Commando, but with John Cena. Perhaps my favourite of the day, as it really does unashamedly play as a full on tribute to 80s action films. Cena's wife is kidnapped by Robert Patrick, he wants her back, and no quantity of terminator references, gratuitious explosions and racial stereotypes is going to stop him. Still a bit weird that Cena just looks like Matt Damon on 'roids though.

Wrestlemaniac starring Ray Mysterio Sr.
The only non WWE production of the day. I enjoyed it well enough the first time I watched last year, but it didn't play too well following The Marine. Maybe its that as it takes a good 50 minutes to get going, or that people were more interested in their pizza which had just arrived.

The Rundown starring The Rock
It was a toss-up between this and Walking Tall for our final film, but less people had seen The Rundown, so we went with that. I'm not sure if its Christopher Walken over-acting, or everyone else not acting at all, but the film is completely hilarious everytime Walken is on screen, as he's just so out of place. Overall its an average Indiana Jones wannabe, and we probably should have gone with Walking Tall, if for no other reason that its only half the length of this.

We felt bad not including more films with old school wrestlers - we had originally planned to end the night with No Holds Barred, but everyone had given up by that point, and some had requested Suburban Commando but we felt it best to quit while we were ahead, and save them for another day.
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Post by streetrw »

Last night: the mighty Deep Red for the umpteenth. I originally saw it at the NFT under the title "The Hatchet Murders" and despite the ropey print, the sheer quality shone through. Subsequent viewings of the badly pan-and-scanned Redemption VHS release were not entirely satisfactory but the widescreen DVD is a glorious thing (for one thing, the correct ratio has ensured that the dialogue scenes in the square are no longer static shots of the statue in the middle with the occasional nose or hand appearing on the sides of the 4:3 frame). No matter how familiar it is, scenes still scare: the Righetti house (with the hanged doll) is still creepy, as is Hemmings wandering around the killer's house in the dark, discovering the secret room and so on. Okay, so some of the dialogue dates it, Daria Nicolodi's character can be annoying, and the occasional switches from English to subtitled Italian in the same scenes are a little disconcerting, but it's largely great. Next up, I think, will be the equally mighty but totally different Suspiria.

Soldier isn't great or mighty at all, not even a little bit, but does boast some amusing knockabout thuggery and big-ass explosions, with Kurt Russell as a strong-but-silent, bred-from-the-cradle soldier dumped on a garbage planet when rendered obsolete by even tougher, bred-from-the-test-tube soldiers. Big budget and good cast largely wasted.

I also caught Evil Aliens on DVD and largely enjoyed it. If I drank beer and ate curry on a Friday night it would probably be the ideal Friday night movie to watch with a curry and a beer, but rather boringly, I don't. It's still fun, way better than Razorblade Smile; very reminiscent of Bad Taste in its gleeful, anything-for-a-laugh, rough-edged sick humour.

Dracula II: Ascension apparently picks straight up from Dracula 2001, which I haven't seen since the cinema release. Students pick up the burning body of Dracula and bring him back to life. The fools. Annoyingly, it doesn't end properly, instead setting the scene for Dracula III (which I don't think is out in this country). Some nice moments and unfamiliar vampire lore which is possibly made up: I never heard Peter Cushing suggest that vampires could be defeated by knotted string.
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Post by ghouldrool »

interestingly Dracula 2 was a variation on the original script for Dracula 2000. Drac 3 isnt out on dvd here but only last week it was on the Sci Fi channel. Rutger Hauer now plays Drac
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Post by Grindhouse »

streetrw wrote:Last night: the mighty Deep Red for the umpteenth. I originally saw it at the NFT under the title "The Hatchet Murders" and despite the ropey print, the sheer quality shone through. Subsequent viewings of the badly pan-and-scanned Redemption VHS release were not entirely satisfactory but the widescreen DVD is a glorious thing (for one thing, the correct ratio has ensured that the dialogue scenes in the square are no longer static shots of the statue in the middle with the occasional nose or hand appearing on the sides of the 4:3 frame). No matter how familiar it is, scenes still scare: the Righetti house (with the hanged doll) is still creepy, as is Hemmings wandering around the killer's house in the dark, discovering the secret room and so on. Okay, so some of the dialogue dates it, Daria Nicolodi's character can be annoying, and the occasional switches from English to subtitled Italian in the same scenes are a little disconcerting, but it's largely great. Next up, I think, will be the equally mighty but totally different Suspiria.

Soldier isn't great or mighty at all, not even a little bit, but does boast some amusing knockabout thuggery and big-ass explosions, with Kurt Russell as a strong-but-silent, bred-from-the-cradle soldier dumped on a garbage planet when rendered obsolete by even tougher, bred-from-the-test-tube soldiers. Big budget and good cast largely wasted.

I also caught Evil Aliens on DVD and largely enjoyed it. If I drank beer and ate curry on a Friday night it would probably be the ideal Friday night movie to watch with a curry and a beer, but rather boringly, I don't. It's still fun, way better than Razorblade Smile; very reminiscent of Bad Taste in its gleeful, anything-for-a-laugh, rough-edged sick humour.

Dracula II: Ascension apparently picks straight up from Dracula 2001, which I haven't seen since the cinema release. Students pick up the burning body of Dracula and bring him back to life. The fools. Annoyingly, it doesn't end properly, instead setting the scene for Dracula III (which I don't think is out in this country). Some nice moments and unfamiliar vampire lore which is possibly made up: I never heard Peter Cushing suggest that vampires could be defeated by knotted string.
Soldier its a duff movie thats for sure,but there something fun in watching it.
Its gone down as the most expensive film ever released straight to video /dvd,it was all set for a cinema release,the Odeon had it plastered all over the flyers and local cinema with posters,then it was pulled pretty swiftish.
Jason Scott lee's on steroids,kurt russell acting like hes got hemorrhoids,and there they all are on a huge planet used as a dump.
funnily enough there was so much written about this as it makes a tiny
reference to a fictional battle called the tanhauser gate,as in Bladerunner and the replicants rebellion.
Sean Pertwee gets his leg blown off the lucky charms killer from Austin Powers is in it too,and kurt russell hardly says a word.
Cinemas not kind to Sean his leg gets blown off in soldier,disemboweled in wilderness,gutted in dog soldiers,acted in Botched,still he bunked up with Catherine zeta Jones in blue juice,not knocking Sean hes great we need more films with him in intact and off course Jason Isaacs" hello jason isaacs"
i love the huge tonka toy vehicles and the rambo style killing,if only we could have a soldier 2?

my Warners snapcase dvd has both fullscreen and widescreen versions.the us region 1 has a commentary track.

Soldier its not purdy, but its a guilty pleasure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(film)





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Post by streetrw »

The joys of another video nasty.... and I really enjoyed Death Trap, about which I knew very little and it's a minor gem of grindhouse insanity. Great cast as well; plus minimal sets, the most annoying country-and-western songs in the world looped permanently on the radio, a tone of sheer hysterics from start to finish. Okay, some of the rubber croc shots just look awful, but it's still a fine piece of black farce trash.

Blood Work - definitely a minor Clint Eastwood number; a few clues leapt out at thickie old me long before they leapt out at tough FBI profiler Eastwood. That's bad when even I'm way ahead of them.
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Post by Grindhouse »

Never Back Down as i had free tickets to an advance screening and..........?

Its not bad suprisingly :shock:

This is what you get when you cross the OC with UFC & Fightclub (but without the social commentary) for a wealthy group of miami teens.
A new kid in town with a reputation that preceeds him,thanks to the power of youtube,meets Amber Heard last seen in all the boys love mandy lane(and we know how twisted she was) lures the new kid brian tyler to a party only to be used for a fight,from then on its the usual formula of regaining his self respect and training to learn how to fight,to end all fights,with the help of fight gym teacher Djimon Honsou.

its a formula that works and we have seen it before,with the karate kid ,no retreat no surrender,and with Youngblood & maybe a bit of the jeff speakman film Perfect Weapon.

The bad guy has a resemblance to brad pitt from fight club,the good guys surname is tyler,throw in lots of the youtube zeitgeist for a generation of vidders & happy slapping.

In this climate of teen violence im not sure if this is the right sort of film thats needed,but its so remote to the lives of UK teens,(you dont see many of those driving hummers in this country) that its not going to attract
followers into the lifestyle of the OC wannabees.

but still if you want to see an 80s films values made in 2008 to a pumping soundtrack this is your thing,just beware for all the teen chavs going to watch it!

And The Orphanage again took a freind to see it,thats it i cant see this again i find the ending too emotional,yet again only 6 people in the screening,we was warned that it was spanish film with subtitles,which makes people walk away from it.How REC is going to fare if people wont see a film with subtitles,is a sad statement of cinema going,yet i feel if this had been included in the Oscar nominations it would be packing them in just like Pans Labryinth did.


The War this 1994 film from Jon Avnet starring Kevin Costner & young Elijah Wood is an underrated gem of a movie and well worth checking out if you havent seen it,it was on vhs im not sure if its available in the UK R2
but my HD turned up of this sadly no extras but superb picture quality.
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Post by streetrw »

One good, one bad. Thus balance in the Universe is maintained.

The good first: Race With The Devil, which I enjoyed to the extent that I'll probably buy a copy - two holidaying couples encounter murderous Satan worshippers. Great chase sequences, very creepy.

The bad: The Witch's Sabbath - a horrible mix of plastic breasts, ugly strippers, reading-out-loud acting and a climactic papier-mache demon that would have shamed Dr Who in the Sylvester McCoy years. Some allegedly "hot" witches pose as strippers to lure idiots to a house where they are sacrificed in the basement. The revolting-looking Ron Jeremy shows up as a bible salesman. (And the on-screen title indicates one witch, where in fact there are several so it should be The Witches' Sabbath.) :)
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Post by Sarah of the Dead »

Frontiere(s) - nowhere near as shocking as I was lead to believe, mostly because every scene, and most of the exact shots, seemed to have been lifted from other films. There wasn't a single original idea in this movie, and the hyperactive editing style made it even more difficult to watch than the Saw franchise.

Hitman - two Xavier Gens films in a row? That was a very, very bad idea. Hitman is trying to be a slick action movie, only no-one told Gens to knock it off with the James Wan impressions. Urghhhhhhhh.
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Post by Squiren »

I saw Stephen Kings The Mist the other night on Region 1 DVD and I loved it. I am a huge Stephen King fan (until he got a bit lazy!) and I have liked everything that Frank Darabont has done so I had high hopes for this. The acting is first class especially from Marcia Gay Harden, the monsters are good fun - very Harryhausen - and the effects (apart from the slightly dodgy tentacles) are top notch for a $20 million dollar movie. The mist actually looks very very creepy and the spiders are superb, and to top it all off it has one of the most, if not THE MOST, downbeat endings of any film I have seen (and that does include The Thing!) As if you didnt know this movie comes very very highly recommended.
I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS F***ing COUCH!
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Post by soulmining »

As I've just posted on the DVD thread, I'm on holiday in Thailand at the moment where - as luck would have it - The Mist happened to be finishing the end of its theatrical run when I arrived in Bangkok, so naturally I had to take the opportunity to see it on the big screen. To echo the previous poster's comments, it is a really good film. Such a simple set up (townsfolk stuck in a supermarket) so you really get to focus on the different characters, and with Frank Darabont directing his third Stephen King story you know you're in safe hands. Thomas Jane gives his best performance to date and it's good to see genre vets like William Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn in it too. Has a really bleak final reel that left me shaking and in need of a stiff drink afterwards! I really hope it secures a theatrical release for the UK as it will inevitably lose some of its impact on the small screen. Not to be mist. :wink:

So glad I was able to see that on the big screen... equally, in another example of good timing, Doomsday opened here yesterday so I went and saw that this afternoon. Without wanting to give much away I think it'll be a real crowdpleaser for the FF bunch, I thoroughly enjoyed it and doubt I'll see a better popcorn flick all year. Totally plays homage to all the classic 80s action/sci-fi/horror movies that I grew up with... first half is Escape From New York, second half Mad Max... and it's really gory too.

The Shutter remake is also screening this week so I will probably catch that in the next few days, although even the Thais have given it one star so I'm not expecting it to be much good!!
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Post by Satans Puppy »

Went to see The Orphanage last night with my Cineworld Buddies... one of them doesn't like horror so the pickings can be slim, I didn't let on that I'd seen it before but the scaredy buddy was getting really stressed out by it all... it was amusing, my arm was being grabbed and when she saw me tense up in preparation for one of the big scares all of a sudden I heard "You little fucker, you've seen this already.... you're trying to traumatise me"

And I did... she didn't wanna go home!!
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Post by Grindhouse »

well after all these years i finally got to see what all the fuss was about with SS Experiment love camp,and how anybody could have got worked up about this is beyond me,cheap exploitation nonsense,Salon Kitty seemed more tasteless than this nazi thrills cheapo rubbish,the dvd was by jef films and was so dark and with the tell tale lines of tape wear this has come straight from a very bad VHS copy,with lines like"what are you doing with my balls " its just nonsense,spring time for Hitler is in more bad taste than this rubbish and theres not enough sex for anyone to get their jollies of on,fake orchidectomy & transplants does not a nasty this make,anybody with sense would see that.
still its only badness is preceded by a trashy godawful porno horror called Cannibal something or other,you see im so impressed by it i cant even remember the title,but there was one stand out line in the trailer"shall we toast to his manhood,no i would rather like it raw" just bad trashy films.
Gone
more backpacking nightmare nonsense,not enough gore to be a horror nor enough chills to be a thriller,still good music and it looks good.
The serpent & the rainbow
classic Wes Craven voodoo horror,with Bill Pullman and Cathy Tyson,Zakes Mokae rules this film its creepy scary and hes nasty and horrible enough to give nightmares to anyone,this is a great film and could do with a special edition & commentary
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