films we just saw

kimblebee · Post by **kimblebee** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:17 am

Yep fraid so.. s*x and the city!! I know I will regret it, but anything for a quiet life

)

zappa fan · Post by **zappa fan** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:22 am

That's strange! S*X comes out as I? Bit harsh when you can type minge!

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:28 am

thankfully theres more choice at the Showcase so a double bill of Indy 4 & Timber Falls tomorrow for an orange wednesday.

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:11 pm

I'm afraid there isn't a big enough gun in the world to persuade me to see Socks On The Settee: The Motion Picture. I vaguely remember watching the first episode (I don't remember what spurred me in that direction) and not being impressed, but then I guess it's not aimed at me.

I had a lovely day out in the West End, cold and drenched - but it's the nearest place to watch Timber Falls, which is very average despite a few nasty moments. Hikers in the Virginia mountains go off-trail and meet up with deranged locals. Hilarity ensues. The basic probelm is that really we've seen it all before dozens of times already and Timber Falls doesn't add anything that new to the mix.

Non-genre movie alert: Cassandra's Dream is a miserable, hideous, horrible, complete mess of a movie. Ewan McGregor (rubbish as usual) and Colin Farrell play London brothers with family loyalties getting involved with criminal endeavours; it actually looks like Woody Allen conjured it up after watching too many episodes of Only Fools And Horses: McGregor is the older, ambitious one with the actress girlfriend while Farrell is the dimwit who moves out with the upmarket blonde. But it's just plain dull, not funny, not interesting, not believable. In truth the only thing that positively identifies it as a Woody Allen movie is the font in which the credits are printed.

And Speed Racer.... a movie about sports corruption aimed at exciteable 9-year-olds on a sugar high. The colour scheme makes Suspiria look like Bicycle Thieves. It's brash, cartoonish, noisy, doesn't let up, has an annoying kid in it and probably only makes sense if you've seen the TV show. Fun, but not to be watched with a migraine.

Boogeyman 2, viewed in the dryness of one's own living room, has the occasional moments of yukko but is generally pretty ordinary and much of it feels like Nightmare On Elm Street 3; it's better than the first one, for what that's worth. I narrowed the suspects down to two possibilities very quickly, and to one very shortly afterwards - a full hour before the Big Shocking Reveal as to who and what the Boogeyman is. Jigsaw himself, Tobin Bell, plays the head psychiatrist and uses the apparently genuine medical term "boogeyphobia" in his case notes.

Jim Fear · Post by **Jim Fear** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:17 pm

Indiana Jones 4 (can't be arsed to write the full name out) - nowhere near as bad as some of the initial reviews would have you believe. If you enjoyed the other films then you should be more than happy with this. Cracking start to the film, but the ending was a little so-so. Still, well worth a watch.

MaxRenn · Post by **MaxRenn** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:50 pm

Saw Speed Racer in IMAX at the weekend, never seen so much pink in one movie. It's total fluff, too long, full of anti-corporate stuff that will be of no interest to kids BUT it made Iron Man seem like a very dull and conservative movie to me.

If you're going to do the whole greenscreen for everything approach then this (and Sin City) are the way to go for my money, through out any pretence of reality and go insane.

On the other hand my better half proclaimed it the worst movie she had ever seen in her entire life.

Also saw Reeker, which was absolute pants!

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:22 pm

A clear sign that my mind is going wonky might be that I completely forgot about the other DVD of the weekend: an extremely cheap exploitationer going by the snappy title of Black Magic Rites And The Secret Orgies Of The 14th Century. A cartload of nubile Euro-dollies at an engagement party get caught up in an evil sect's plans to sacrifice them in order to resurrect a witch; a few of them stay behind for a threesome but most of them end up tied to stepladders in the cellar. Or something. Really, I've not much idea what was going on; there are a few laughs to be had from the awful performances and the rubbish creepy basement, but that's about it. The ending doesn't make any sense, but most of the rest of the movie doesn't make much sense either.

dangerous_jamie · Post by **dangerous_jamie** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:08 pm

I just got finished with David Cronenberg's adap of Naked Lunch, and I will be honest... It wasn't anywhere near as difficult a film I had anticipated. Shot in Cronenberg's inimitable style and with SFX that harken back to Cronenberg's adap of The Thing (which I consider as the director's "magnum opus"). It was filmed in the period where, I feel, Cronenberg lost his way a little bit but this is a brilliant film gleaming followed by M Butterfly and Existenz.

But you know all this, I suppose. Naked Lunch is a trip into another world, literally. As visceral as it is ambiguous. Operating on almost every level, sections of the book intertwine with Cronenberg's vision of Burrough's life and his own ambiguous views on drugs and sexuality. Its a deeply affecting film, brilliantly comic in places, darker than death in others.

Peter Weller is simply fantastic as William Burrough's alter ego, Bill Lee. His performance is career making, although it never did make his career. If I am honest, I don't know an awful lot of his work as an actor beyond Robocop but he deadpans his way through the events of the film like Steven Wright on downers. The rest of the cast shine also, in their respective roles. It was especially nice to see the late Roy Scheider, in a small but pivotal role gurning, grinning and having a whale of a time as Dr. Benway.

I would be lying if I told you all that I understood it all, but despite its lack of necessary cohesion is still an incredible feat of film-making. I would recommend it to anyone. I haven't mentioned the decision to use Saul Bass inspired titles and the amount discipline required to follow the film to its (lack of) conclusion, nor have I mentioned how Cronenberg held back on the gore and splatter in an effort to make this more deeply affecting than any of his other work (in my opinion...)

4.5/5

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:04 pm

Naked Lunch gave me a headache. I saw it on my birthday in whatever year it came out and felt ill afterwards. Maybe it was the honking freeform jazz soundtrack that did it.

I dug out the "classic" sleaze slasher Pieces from the DVD shelf last night (while I'm waiting for my next LoveFilm batch) and it's as absurdly dumb and spectacularly bloody as ever it was - even if it has been cut (it's the UK 18 version). Horrible dialogue, overacting all round, completely unbelievable; it's too stupid to take seriously.

ghouldrool · Post by **ghouldrool** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:20 pm

Naked Lunch, one to add to my own lovefilm queue i think, never got round to seeing the whole thing.

The Phantom of the Opera via Argento. I dont think this was meant to be a comedy but there are parts where it is hilarious. This phantom def' defies both the laws of gravity and traction in his ability to pop up or down from places.
Asia is pretty bad in this with some of the worst miming outside of Top of the Pops. And the scene where her plank of a suitor imagines her being all licentious is pretty clumsy and has the opposite effect intended.
It looks nice, very colourful and crisp, except for the blue screen scenes and the good for 1945 CGI.
Of course the film is blown out of the water in the first few mins where it tries to do a Batman Returns on the mythos as this Phantom is raised by rats. Who he then grows up to have a very special relationship with :!:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
A romantic comedy for guys. As light as anything but pretty fun. The set up is well known by now and Russell Brand is very much still playing himself but the script does take a sneeky swipe at his nature.
A similar swipe is taken at the career of Kirsten Bell with a wicked stance on her Pulse remake. Subtle too.
The supporting characters may pad the film out but provide some great moments, i really could have stayed another half hour with these people.
Laughs feel natural and i would certainly be interested in seeing that Dracula Puppet Musical.

Pathfinder
The poster to this film is far more exciting than the film. Native Americans Vs Vikings is an interesting tale and it starts well enough. The first half is saturated with some great imagery and nasty gore. Except the gore is let down by the cgi blood being so obvious.
Clancy Brown proves he could still play the Kurgan but isnt given enough screen time.
The film plods along to its finale after the mid movie action scene helping it feel twice as long as it is.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Thu May 29, 2008 2:49 am

if a tree falls down in a forest and no-ones around to hear it, does it make a sound? & if nobody goes to see Timber Falls would it make a difference?
the answer to that question is no! like Streetw's post on the matter this film does absolutely nothing new infact, you have see it all before many times in different movies about mountain folks & abduction,wrongturn is far superior to this at least that was scary,there bits of nastiness a few gore tricks,and the most absurd looking mentalist,with an uncanny resemblence to Nick Cave,well the good half any way the rest was all cropsy.
so if you fancy seeing timber falls,you dont need to save your £7 or more at your local cinema & wait for the dvd & if your really that insistent on seeing it,i will send you my ticket stub,just so you can trick yourself into believing you have seen it,because you have, you really have!

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Fri May 30, 2008 6:36 am

I am Legend on dvd this still looks fab sounds great and with the 2 disc i dont have to watch the flag waving christian ending some nice extras on the disc,animated comics and a doc on viruses.
ramped up to 1080p on an upscaling player hard to tell the difference if this wasnt a HD dvd,inspite of the cgi darkseekers i really like it.

ghouldrool · Post by **ghouldrool** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:01 am

Diary of a Serial Killer
For the longest time it was an ambition to see Gary Busey in drag and thank the gnome king i finally got to see it happen.
Gary Busey plays a journo' desperatley searching for his next big article, while researching the world of TV's he encounters a cheesy sleazo played by the ever dependable Arnold Vosloo.
Loony Vosloo decides it might be a good idea if Busey writes an account of his life as an unimaginative serial killer.
Visuals are tv movie flat and perfomances are a tad better than youd expect, over all the movie was quite a good straight forward affair with at least some attempt to milk the concept.

Earth Alien
When he isnt soundly thrasing skinny singers in board games while wearing a smoking jacket Eric Roberts likes to wear his jumper and shoot aliens.
John Rhys Davies finally swears in a movie and Arnold Vosloo once more turns up only this time he is bald.
The opening contains some dictionary definition gratutious nudeyness.
Plot? mix a little The Hidden with The Terminator and allude to Gorillas in the Mist.
Vosloo represses his ability to manipulate sand and annoy brendan fraser to play the universe's most dull game warden, heck his name even IS Warden, from another world who is here to protect humans from other aliens who hunt them for their skins. The skins are then made into the most fabulous looking fashion items.
The story really is only good enough for a 40 min episode of Outer Limits and the middle of the film really drags. The only saving grace comes from it having Vosloo, Roberts and Rhys Davies and from some snappy dialogue in the first few scenes.

McReadys Beard · Post by **McReadys Beard** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:20 am

Recently went to see Indy 4 and I must admit I sort of enjoyed the first 3/4 of the film (about as much as I enjoyed the first Mummy film in all honesty) but the last quarter was some of the laziest cinema I have had the misfortune to sit through. It is a huge road crash of an ending. I wont give anything away but I was left open mouthed and stunned at the whole shitness of it! The cast was universally wasted, the action scenes(particulalry the jungle chase) were hugely over-rated and dont get me started on Shia Lebeouf doing his tarzan thang! The friends that I went with are used to me ranting about crap films but what surprised me is that one of my more mild mannered mates came out of the screening grumbling, f'ing and blinding and just generally cursing Lucas' name. I wonder how much input Lucas had into the ending considering that he, and he alone, vetoed the original script by Frank Darabont that, allegedly, both Spielberg & Ford loved. A real shame!

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:39 pm

I had no real problem with the ending, it was the other bit like the fridge and...

dont get me started on Shia Lebeouf doing his tarzan thang!

T-Shirt, sir?

http://www.cafepress.com/wtftarzan