films we just saw

Chat here about anything horror related. Be it movies, news, remakes or events.
42nd Street Freak
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"Raising Jeffrey Dahmer" -

Started off okay. This was actually a pretty interesting look at the effect Dahmer's crimes and arrests had on his family...far more "Living with what Jeffrey Dahmer Did" as much as "Raising Jeffery Dahmer".

Acting varies, the film is low budget and there is actually very little of Dahmer's crimes or actions on show here at all, but it managed to hold the interest as we saw the stress and hardship (and lies) the parents faced from the media.

But then the film throws Bo Svenson in 2 scenes as a fictional Detective and promptly has him do absolutely nothing at all plotwise...until a completely farcical, totally made-up, action that seems like it comes from a completely separate film.

From here on the film seems to have run out of things to say or show and frustratingly (despite the film's title) jumps over too many interesting events in the older Dahmer's life with his Dad (like his Dad's realisation about Dahmer's first killing...which amazingly gets mentioned in the film and then ignored by the film in the same scene).

As such it all plods to a weak finale that's a real shame because it started out well and had potential but ultimately fails by simply giving up on its own story after an hour.


"Death Sentence"?? Worst vigilante film ever made. The anti-vigilante vigilante film.
Any film that makes life twice as bad for the vigilante than if he had just taken the injustice and done nothing...is a shit vigilante film.

Here's a good one...


"Harry Brown"

Sir Michael Caine puts in a great performance as the ex-Marine pensioner Harry Brown who has seen too much death enter his life.

And when his last friend and confidant on earth is killed by a murderous, sadistic, drug dealing gang of teenagers who have been terrorising the run down estate Harry lives on...he takes justice into his own hands.

Brutal, harsh, explicit in violence and language this may be a slightly overblown picture of modern Britain but it's simply a concentrate made of everyday facts and figures from various inner city/large town areas that anyone with a eyes and ears can see is the way of things.

The gang are a truly vile slice of life and the film pulls no punches in showing how they operate and interact with other people.
The lowest of the low is an understatement and as such, seeing as the Police do nothing until it's too late (either by indifference, or by years of having their hands tied behind their backs) the movie utterly makes a case for Harry doing what he does.

And Harry, and Caine, do what needs doing in fine form.
Caine is absolutely wonderful as the scared, sad, frustrated old man and just as superb as the angry, vengeful, hate filled vigilante who goes right into the cesspit to hunt his prey.

Bloody, violent (some over use of CGI is noticeable but does not distract from the bloodshed too much), nasty, crude well paced, well acted, well directed and edited with some great cinematography "Harry Brown" delivers some tense scenes, some exciting scenes, some moving scenes and plenty of satisfaction as repugnant germs in human form get wiped out.

A nice final shot sums it all up in a simplistic but wonderfully effective way and this is one modern vigilante film (unlike the liberal's wet dream garbage "Death Sentence") that does not hypocritically disapprove or punish its vigilante or have any bleeding heart, bastardised so called liberal bleating on behalf of sadistic villains who barely register as sentient life forms.

And anyone whose watched any gang videos on YouTube will know just how accurate this portrayal of the bad guys is in the movie...thugs too moronic to even notice Ali G was taking the piss and was not meant to be a role model.

A vigilante flick for people who actually like vigilante flicks and recognise the whole cathartic release for the audience point of their existence.
"Harry Brown" is the kind of vigilante film Paul Kersey would happily watch in the cinema after a hard days street cleaning....and that's a damn high recommendation.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by rawshark »

Raising JD is probably one of the weakest films Revolver have released - I'm actually quite impressed you saw it all the way through..

Saw Shutter Island at the weekend - very good. A solid 4 stars from me and the best film Scorsese has done in the last few years (apart from The Departed and ££)..

Don't worry too much about 'guessing' the twist - this film is much more about the journey than the destination, and as one other forum member said, it has a kicker of a final last scene..
It's horrible... I love it... What is it?
42nd Street Freak
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

rawshark wrote:Raising JD is probably one of the weakest films Revolver have released - I'm actually quite impressed you saw it all the way through..
.
:mrgreen: It was only £1 from 'Poundland'.


"Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror"

On the eve of a large Gay and Lesbian party weekend five groups of guests arrive at the ‘Sahara Salvation Bed and Breakfast Inn’ as it’s renowned for being Homosexual friendly.

But the B&B is run by a fanatic Christian fundamentalist named Helen and her daughter Luella, who Helen wants to find a husband for , by converting a ‘confused’ Homosexual man back to the spiritual path of Heterosexuality, to move Luelle away from her sinful Lesbian desires.

And if all that wasn’t enough it turns out Luelle has a mysterious brother named Manfred who is meant to be kept locked up....


Opening with a groovy title sequence that sees a blonde go-go dancer belt out a fine tune called ‘Watch Out For The Straights’ "Gay B&B of Terror" starts out okay.
The Gay/Lesbian characters are all walking cliches of course and with such a title and such a set-up it will come as no surprise that director/star Jaymes Thompson’s film is camped up to the max and he keeps things moving at a steady lick (ho ho).

The film is far too long though and should have been tightened up in the editing phase.
And although the multiple flashbacks, that reveal various twists in the tale, are mostly entertaining enough (indeed the Mother‘s flashback, about the conception of Manfred, is a glorious work of warped genius and also a great anti-Republican take on the origins of Freddy Krueger no less), they are generally too long and appear too late in the narrative and thus slow down the escalating chaos as we move towards the climax (ho ho).

Dialogue is not anywhere near the greatness of a John Waters film or is the deliver of it but there are still a few gems to be dug up and admired here:
Highlight has to be the deranged Helen’s utterly mad rant to a tied up Alex;
“You will no longer yearn for the engorged penis of a well-muscled man in uniform! From this point on you will embrace the light of God and dream of the sugar sweet holy vaginal walls of your soon to be wife, and my lovely daughter, forever”!

Indeed Helen, in the most flashy and Watersesque role, has all the best speeches.
Enjoy such gems as “I must pray very hard…There’s too many fvcking assholes around”

What’s really surprising here though is the relative lack of strong sex or (really surprising) full-on nudity.
As a low-fi, SOV, Gay themed horror film it was surely not aimed at, or was ever going to catch, a mainstream audience or market, so why be so tame with the sexuality?
Plenty of opportunities for full frontal nudity are here, but instead we have underwear left on and towels wrapped around waists.
Indeed the only penis on display (can you believe, in a film called “Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror”, have to write that!?) is attached to a blood covered dead body.

And talking of blood covered bodies…Where the film pretty much fails to deliver on the sex/nudity front it at least delivers on the horror front.
The murders are very bloody and pretty violent and whether it’s Helen or Luelle and their crucifix-handled dagger or Manfred and his foul fangs much blood is shed with lots of passionate shrieking to back it up.

The finale is wildly OTT and utterly chaotic and if it all seems a trifle forced and over-plotted at least the twist at the end is pretty amusing in concept, if strangely serious in much of its execution.
All of which results in a film that is sadly not as good as it should have been with such a set-up and a film that lacks much of the sex and nudity it should surely have had by default.

But despite all this “The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror” still manages to be fun, camp, passionate and ultimately entertaining thanks to the plentiful blood, some fun dialogue, the performances (especially Mari Marks as Helen and Georgia Jean as Luelle) and the general energy it gives off.

Next time though Mr Jaymes ‘assless leather chaps’ Thompson, pile in more damn sex and nudity please!
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"The Mummy" (1959)

A huge improvement over the original 'Universal' snooze-fest (remove the first - and only- Mummy scene and Karloff in general and you have empty air) 'Hammers' version of the tale actually owes more to Universal's sequels in the fact that you actually have a Mummy rampaging around, that he's called Kharis (not Im-ho-tep) and we have the inclusion of Princess Ananka.

But as the 3rd in the big 'classic monster' trilogy that got 'Hammer' truly off and running as Horror film makers, it's been doomed to stand in the shadows of the other two films.
"Curse of Frankenstein" got the spotlight for being the first, "Dracula" got to be the most iconic and so "The Mummy" was fated to be the one bringing up the rear, while the ball was now already rolling anyway.

Christopher Lee makes for perhaps the best looking and physically effective Mummy ever put on screen ('Hammers' underrated "The Mummy's Shroud" is a better film, but the Mummy is pretty goofy and tubby looking, and a lot of the 'Universal' sequel Mummy's were too bulky/short and had silly looking slicked down hair) and he is given a lot of rampaging to do...the way Lee's Karis smashes through doors and windows is groovy in the extreme.

Cushing has a bland role but adds his own charm to it as the lame son of the archeologist that caused the trouble in the first place by opening the tomb (a nice, initially wonderfully arrogant, turn by Felix Alymer) and he has a couple of impressive action/stunt scenes while fighting Lee, resulting in one of 'Hammers' most famous stills, that of Cushing ramming a metal arrow through the Mummy.

Talking of action in fact it was nice to actually see more (unlike Universal's films) than just a blank firing gun when people shot at the Mummy, as here we also had the bullet hits as big, dusty, holes were blown in Kharis as he powered on regardless towards his prey.

But the film is padded out with a too long flashback (nice vocal work though by pre-banged Lee) that films almost every step taken by every extra as they plod along to the tomb and that, when added to Cushing's overly dray narration, seems like a university lecture than anything else.
The ancient Egyptian props look pretty awful as well, in fact the entire flashback looks like a ridiculously well-funded school play.

The whole 'my wife just happens to look like the Princess' sub-plot was badly handled too.
It's an old Mummy plot device, but here it was shoe-horned into the plot purely to stop Kharis throttling Cushing's character (which is tediously repeated, as the exact same thing, in the exact same circumstances, in the exact same room happens twice) and the sheer, farcical, coincidence that the completely random person involved in opening the tomb just so happens to have randomly married a woman who looks like the Princess of whose tomb they found beggars belief.

Luckily we have some choice support characters though (a nice drunken poacher performance by good old Michael Ripper and a fun turn by Eddie "Island of Terror" Byrne as a Police Inspector for example) and the effective looking Mummy, the good solid action plus the nice cinematography and visuals (Kharis rising from the swamp is superb...the only reason he was dropped in the swamp in fact was so they could do this scene) help to compensate for the less than interesting (and sometimes sloppy) screenplay and the padding.
So overall we have a rather good Mummy film, but only an average Hammer film overall.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by Reanimator »

Grotesque - not bad, certainly better than Murder Set Pieces - still banned in the UK I think but worth checking out.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by Melvin Junko »

Last 2 weeks or so:

Raging Phoenix - Thai martial arts stuff, some stunning fightscenes, hardly any story. In the first half of the movie the fights seem to be a mix of breakdancing and martial arts. Some great moves and it all looked very nice. Later on in the movie the fightscenes became a bit more normal and less interesting. All in all a good effort, although I think Thai is quite an annoying language, especially when spoken by women.

The Things - This was reccomended to be as being extra crappy, and it sure was. Some hilarious bad acting and soundtrack, though it was so bad it sucked the life right out of me. When the disc started jamming up near the end and kept freezing every 5 seconds I didn't really mind just turning it off without finishing it.

The Stabiliser - AMAZING Indonesian action movie, Peter O'Brian is my new hero. Some great and insane fightscenes, horrible dialogue and huge continuity errors made this one a real treat for any fan of B action movies. Highly reccomended!

The Wayward Cloud - weird Taiwanese stuff about a drought in Taipei and a lot of watermelons. It all looked very pretty and the musical numbers were all right but I can't really say I'm sure of what was going on most of the time.

Maid-droid - Nice little piece of Japanese trash here, with robot maids, and a dog/man android raping hot Japanese girls. Only an hour long but great entertainment if you like it weird and twisted.

Pulgasari - some farmers create an iron eating godzilla like creature in this Korean monster movie. Great shitty looking monster and some epic fights. Good fun!

Whale Rider - New Zealand flick about a bunch of Maori's and whales and stuff. Was told it was extremely sad but it wasn't all that bad.

The Hurt Locker - Not bad at all, lots of tense moments, bit too American for me though.

Millenium 2 - Couldn't really get into it. Nowhere near as good as the book, a lot of stuff was left out. The first movie was a lot better I thought.

Vampire Buster - Descent modern Hong Kong Vampire/ghost comedy. Some good magic battles and general weirdness.

The Boneyard - Creepy zombie children in a mortuary, Nurse Poopenplatz transforming into some monster and a 7 ft mutated zombie Poodle! How can you go wrong with that!

Poltergay - French ghost comedy about some gay 70's disco ghosts tormenting the new owners of a big house by dancing to Ra ra rasputin every night. Some really funny bits, great Nonsence.

Spookies - Loved it, nice bit of cheap n cheesy 80's horror.

It's Alive - Some really unconvincing blood and acting made this a fun watch. Roll on part 2 and 3.

The Ice Pirates - Messy sci fi schlock, had me laughing quite a few times.
You can't do nothing right, Cooper! You stupid sonofabitch! You should have been destroyed at birth! That's what I get for teaming up with a hippie!
42nd Street Freak
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"Ice Pirates" used to be an old VHS fave. Loved the bit when they all age suddenly.



"Brooklyn Rules"

One of the many "Sopranos" writers penned this rather enjoyable little Mob drama starring Alec Baldwin, Scott Caan and a surprisingly good Freddie Prinze jr.

Nothing remotely new here, full of cliche and sign posted events but it's well made, well acted has some engaging characters (blimey, Scott Caan in 'Mob mode' standing there in a white vest is the absolute spit of his dad), a good soundtrack and is overall a solid piece of work for those into Jersey/NY Mob dramas (and what fucking douche isn't!?).



"When the Last Sword is Drawn"

Stunning, epic, superbly acted, majestically crafted, deeply moving Samurai drama that, through flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks, tells the moving and tragic tale of Kanichiro Yoshimura a low grade Samurai who, during the turmoil of the collapsing Shogunate and the opening up of Japan (as also seen in "The Last Samurai") gives up his standing, friends and reputation to make as much money as possible to feed his family.

The action and violence are sparse for the most part (the third quarter of the film piles on quite a lot though) but when used it is powerful and effective and the large cast and period detail make for grand spectacle.
An ambush in a town is a superbly edited, directed, choreographed and played set-piece that delivers some exciting action while also pushing all the right emotional buttons.

The drama is sometimes melodramatic but it always works in the context of the piece and is often also just as sublime and always beautifully handled by the cast, Kiichi Nakai as Yoshimura is simply amazing but literally everyone here gives their all.

The wonderful cinematography and set design compliments the tragic drama, the romance, the bloodshed and the sacrifice of the story and some scenes will pull at your heart with a genuine power...for example a night scene, on a snow covered little bridge, as Yoshimura and his 5 year old daughter say their tearful farewells is an avalanche of emotions that completely overwhelms the viewer.

The extended last quarter of the film does perhaps go on for too long and can get quite tiring as what seems like numerous places to end the film successfully continue to play out.
But in the end the patience of the viewer is rewarded with some highly emotional revelations and a deeply moving ending.

"When the Last Sword is Drawn" is a sometimes funny, sometimes violent and exciting, sometimes tragic and deeply moving and always superbly acted and crafted Samurai drama that is truly essential viewing.



"Beach of the War Gods"

The most epic and famous of the great Wang Yu's directorial efforts is basically a semi-remake of "The Seven Samurai" with the Samurai being exchanged for Chinese warriors and their number cut to five and the extended, character essaying, build-up to the big fight removed.

Wang Yu also stars as the driven warrior who chooses a town on the 'Beach of the War Gods' to defend China from the rampaging Japanese invaders by recruiting four mighty warriors to aid him and the townsfolk.

A few minor fights in the first half of the film lead up to the grand battle that literally makes up the entire second half of the film, and what a stunning, truly, truly stunning set-piece it is.......
Wang Yu and his team of choreographers and actors pull out all the stops here as one of the finest, biggest, longest fight sequences ever filmed gives the audience all the superb weapons fighting, OTT stunts, bloodshed, epic battles and stunningly executed one on one skirmishes they could ever hope for.

Often the sequences are filmed in one long take (best shown by two jaw-dropping separate scenes where first Wang Yu (a force of friggin nature in this film) and then the Japanese Commander literally cut, hack and slash their way down a dusty street taking on dozens of other fighters as the camera follows them along their bloody swathe in a continuous tracking shot.
The level of screen fighting skill on show here is simply beyond compare.

And despite the Japanese being the sketched in, out and out, bad guys here (which is fair enough as it's a Chinese film) Wang Yu still ensures that during the fights they (and their iconic swords) are given plenty of chances to shine alongside the Chinese fighters.

The faults with the film are either transfer cosmetic ones (a very distorted soundtrack makes the already rather grating Mandarin dialogue tiring on the ears) or in the fact that having to fit in such a huge battle sequence (split into various components)into the 95 minutes running time means you have very one-dimensional heroes and there is no real emotional connection to the characters for the audience (or indeed between the characters themselves) that you would get in the "Seven Samurai" or even "The Magnificent Seven".

But as a piece of breast beating, epic in scale, mesmerising, violent, stunningly crafted action cinema it's a total must see, a must own in fact, and is worthy of its reputation.

It's also one of the movies that shows that Wang Yu should be remembered with far more respect for the skilled fighter and serious director he was in the industry...instead of being rather discarded as an enjoyable trash movie star thanks to the unfortunate fact that (although it is damn enjoyable of course) the overly cartoonish, delightfully silly and rather trashy "Master of the Flying Guillotine" is the film that seems to define his career in the eyes of too many general movie fans.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by Grindhouse »

With some time off this week i had a catch up on some movies old and new.

kicking off with an old favourite from Wes Craven The People Under The Stairs,looking back with hindsight,this could be seen as Wes Cravens Do The Right Thing,and a mix of the old haunted house tale with Hansel & Gretel as well as 3 stooges comedy sneakily stolen from Home Alone,but it really has little to say about child abduction or abuse in a suburban environment and if it did would it be as entertaining? or downright nasty as Steven Sheils Mum & Dad which is good but succeeds in giving the shock value so much that further viewings of mum and dad are not really neccessary as the story and images stay in the mind long after the viewing.
but entertaining it is and the people under the stairs really serves as the title alone as we dont know much about the trapped and lost children as they are secondary to the story of fool and his accomplices breaking into the house to find out if the stories of gold are true as there is no money in the hood its all in the white oppressive landlords home,who just happen to live off the hood in more ways than one.
Everett Mcgill & Wendy Robie play the deranged parents/incestous siblings with gusto and over the top performances that push the film along at such a fun pace its hard not to love this film, Everett Mcgill running round the home in a gimpsuit brandishing a shotgun,laugh out loud lines of dialogue too,makes the people under the stairs an entertaining and fun film of suburban horror.
From Hell
the film inspired by Allan Moores graphic novel & the real life events of jack the ripper,marked the hughes brothers 3rd film,it didnt go down to well,even though it plays a fine film,the character of heather graham is extraneous and even when she dissapears one wouldnt notice or care,Inspector Abieline played by johnny depp holds down his part well,but robbie coltrane out acts him in this film,the set design is stunning and is on a par with the recent period pieces of Dorian Gray and Sherlock Holmes,a film worth revisiting and will have found its own audience at home rather than the cinema.
Johnny Handsome
fate and irony are fickle mistresses to Mickey Rourke whos carreer has had ups down and some outs,but this walter hill movie is neither walters best or mickeys who could have played both characters at different times without the use of extensive prosthetic make up,based on the novel the 3 lives of johnny handsome by john godey writer of the taking of pelham 123,the standouts are the sleazy crininals played by ellen barkin and lance henrikson worth watching if your a walter hill fan.
Chaw
i have to say when i heard there was a new horror pig movie i was excited,would it be able to top Razorback,could it leave Pighunt in its sty?
and the short answer is no its not better than Razorback but its better than Pighunt.
The ingriedients are all here but the mix is all wrong? what they have done is copy jaws and not followed that premise, instead there is humour which takes away any sense of dread or threat posed,the hunters,the mayor, the police,the sam quint character are all here and a bunch of other characters which are there for weird humour reasons,and at nearly 2 hours its just too long,this should have been speeding along at the running pace of a wildboar,instead its plodding leaves it without any sense of dread or danger to any of the characters,as for the pig efx,they arent bad and i have seen a lot worse,still its worth adding to any creature feature collection as for me its sitting nicely next to The Host in mine.
Kick Ass
knocked me for a loop,a fun movie with loads of violence and laughs,and great to see british actors,from the days of lockstock in this,matthew vaughns 3rd movie as director and has become a better film maker than his director buddy guy ritchie,cant wait to see this again,it deserves great success but with its content and the way cinema screens are busting with 3d films and their 2d variants this may have to fight its way to stay in the cinemas.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by sherbetbizarre »

Kick-Ass - best of 2010 so far :)

Clash of the Titans - After a messy and unfocused first 30 minutes, it settles down into an entertaining romp.

A quick word on the 3D:

As we know this was filmed in 2D then "upgraded" into 3D, and while the first couple of reels had some decent 3D effects, by the middle of the movie I forgot I was watching it in three-dimensions.

In other words, I felt they simply did not have enough time to do the job properly!

I fully expected they'd at least go all-out on the final reel, but no, just the odd-shot looked full 3D. Most of the time the 3D was "light", certainly compared to other "Real-D" movies.

Be interesting to see what other people thought over the weekend.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by Grindhouse »

The Sinking Of Japan
its no coincidence that TSOJ is released the same week as 2012 sitting in the back of some bargain dvd shelves,looking like an asylum pictures release,can be found a blockbusting disaster epic from japan all for the price of £3-£3.99,drama and dialogue laden it is but there are some impressive special effects sequences that work well,for its time of 2006,not bad and certainly not the worst of its type,all that was missing was Godzilla as the story line would have worked far better if it had involved godzilla or one of his enemys causing the disaster to happen,a missed opportunity for a godzilla storyline.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"Daddy's Girl" (2006) - aka "Cravings"

British (indeed a rare Welsh one) 'Horror' film about a troubled psychiatrist looking into the case of a teenage girl who has cut herself and drank her own blood.

Very slow burning and more like a drama/thriller for the first hour this is well acted and well made but the script is unsure on what kind of movie it's meant to be.
Why the (plot wise utterly pointless with no payoff) possible supernatural elements were thrown, for a basically separate sub-plot, into what is otherwise a grounded, serious, real world narrative is a mystery but in general this is an interesting little film that packs in some very bloody moments and some violence in the last half hour...leading to a nicely dark, if motivationally forced at the last minute, ending.


"Jack Says" / "Jack Said" - (2008) - (2009)

Low budget British noir/thriller/gangster films that are confusingly plotted thanks to most of the (produced later) "Jack Said" being a prequel to the earlier "Jack Says"...except for the last part of "Jack Said" which is in fact a sequel to "Jack Says"!

As such no matter which order you watch the film's in...you lose out somehow as far as plot/spoilers go.

Acting is pretty bad, but "Jack Says" is the only one really hurt by it...where some wooden or hammy all to hell performances make viewing the film (already densely, confusingly plotted and presented) a bit of a chore.

"Jack Said" (with Danny Dyer in a support role) is better made and (mostly) better acted and has a more coherent plotline and can at a stretch be, sort of, enjoyed without "Jack Says".
Sadly though you do need "Jack Says" to fully appreciate the story, even though "Jack Says" brings the entire enterprise down.

But really both are not as good as they have bravely strived to be (the hardboiled, graphic novel, noir styling and plotting is rare for a British film) thanks to dubious thespian skills, sometimes annoyingly cliche dialogue and messy plotting.
Nice try though.
A 3rd film is supposedly in production to explain exactly what happened at the end of "Jack Said"...which does end in a partially open-ended fashion.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"Strange Days"

Sits with "The Hurt Locker" as Bigelow's best film.
As it's not hampered by a dreadfully weak and generally crap ending like "Near Dark" or hampered by just being total crap full stop like "Point Break".

Seriously undervalued and underrated at the time "Strange Days" may have flaws, the simplistically liberal and often one-sided politics of the piece that never bothered me before now seems dated to these 9/11 hardened eyes (Bigelow is often the most male of women directors, here she wants to be the most black male of women directors) and it is perhaps a bit too baggy in places.

But overall this is a wonderful piece of well made alternative reality/futuristic sci-fi drama/thriller making with a great cast all in top form.
The action is sparse but well staged but the highlight here are the characters and the performances.
Fiennes, Sizemore and Bassett (where she'd go) are the best of a fine bunch and the story is clever and interesting.

Mind you, seeing as the move into 2000 was in the end perhaps the world's biggest anti-climax it's very strange to see such a HUGE deal made of that New Year's eve here.
And Bigelow was surely living in a lovely fantasy world if she thought the world's biggest new year's eve celebrations would be blessed with a soundtrack of Hard House, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal!


"Natural Born Killers" - Director's Cut

Oliver Stone's vastly superior adaptation of Tarantino's rather lacklustre and bland screenplay (the same happened with the superior adaptation of his "True Romance" too) still holds up as one of the most outrageous, nasty, cynical, bruising, sadistic, twisted, nightmarish, stylish movies ever produced.
And certainly a highlight of that glorious 90's decade of balls-out actions films and extreme thrillers.

Superb soundtrack superbly used, a stunning cast all doing exactly the right thing in exactly the way it needed doing, wonderful set-pieces, jarring violence and sexual brutality and Stone makes great use of Tarantino's basic screenplay and ideas while adding so much extra greatness in the transition from page to screen.

Still unlike anything made before or since..."NBK" is an undervalued masterwork of cinematic extremes.
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Re: films we just saw

Post by 42nd Street Freak »

"The Wild Man of Navidad"


This was going to be the subject of a proper, screen caps and all, review. Now I've seen this junk though it ain't worth it.

Here be spoilers....as quite frankly (despite what some review sites who should know better may try to tell you after watching their freebie screeners) no one else needs waste their fucking hard earned money on this.

Yes, the makers got the look right (cheap white-out contrast problems aside) to give this the style of a 70's Drive-In/Grindhouse flick and the compositions and framing are genuinely astute at carrying this off.
As were the great retro looking titles.

But that's as much as this lifeless, dull, badly written, just frustratingly weak and generally naff movie gets to the real thing.

I don't know of any 70's 'creature' flick that would let over half the running time go past without barely a glimpse, or one single attack (let alone death) from the creature.
At the very least these films gave us pre-credit/opening sequence establishing the creature's presence and threat the essential hook to thrill and pull in the audience while (YES) the often long build-up occurs to the next attack...here though we literally have nothing at all offered up to us.

At about 55 minutes (of an 83 minute film) in we finally have an attack, on characters we have spent a good five minute of constant screen time following.
And what are we given after this agonising wait?
A single shot of the creature, in the dark, bloodlessly attacking a tiny tent (the two characters are nowhere to be seen) with just dubbed on over screams to represent people being present.

Just over an hour in we finally have a tiny bit of real gore. Which is simply a bit of blood and some endlessly recycled, dried up looking, offal strips resting on the actor.
And as in all these weak, badly shot, attacks there are no meaty sound effects at all to represent what we are constantly not shown. Something real 70's movie makers were adept at providing to cover up their visual limitations.

Nothing much happens again then until the very end with one more attack that is once again just a splash of blood and bits of sad offal strips resting on the actor before the 'creature' is despatched, after a thrill free hunt by some bored and confused looking guys in sweaty shirts, in a totally bloodless fashion, by one single bullet, by what sounds like a cap gun.
The End.
Thank fuck!

As a creature on the loose flick it utterly fails to deliver the thrills, kills or chills and even the gory fun.
The creature is a worthless looking, threat free, guy in a bunch of old rags and skins...that is never in doubt...and yet the makers still try to make out this may be a creature.
As such we get neither a successful rendering of a monster OR a successful rendering of a mad man.
Real deals like "Don't go in the Woods...Alone" shows how to deliver a wild man killer in a satisfying way (and a damn huge, gore-filled, body count besides) and yet that gets slagged off while this junk gets praised.

And even as a 'backroads' hick flick it fails due to the schizo writing and dull characters.
Shadowed plot points about the 'creature' are brought up (the main characters even know about it and - in endlessly repeated scenes of boredom - leave food out for it) with even the Sheriff knowing something even before any killing starts and yet he does nothing at all to stop any of it happening.

And exactly what retro movie world do the makers think a cheap Drive-In creature flick would be half in Spanish with subtitles?!
Make your minds up!

This also brings up the awful character writing for a guy named Mario who seems to be the live in (?) help to the main guy and his invalid wife.
One minute Mario is a total sleaze who tortures and sexually assaults the wife (even that's done in a dull fashion)...the next minute he's a wise friend to the husband and...wait for it...the moral backbone of the story!
But hold on! Next scene he's molesting the helpless wife again!
Worse, his eventual demise (basically he's the joint lead as far as screen time goes) happens off screen!

"The Wild Man of Navidad" may have the look of a 70's exploitation film but it has NONE of the scuzzy energy, passion, wonderful characters, wonderful dialogue, cheap thrills, bloodlust, eccentricity or simple thudding violence of the real thing...and that's despite what the bogus quotes on the DVD may say to make you part with your cash.

Go watch the real deal. Don't be suckered like I was with this failed retro effort.
django
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Re: films we just saw

Post by django »

sherbetbizarre wrote:Kick-Ass - best of 2010 so far :)

Clash of the Titans - After a messy and unfocused first 30 minutes, it settles down into an entertaining romp.

A quick word on the 3D:

As we know this was filmed in 2D then "upgraded" into 3D, and while the first couple of reels had some decent 3D effects, by the middle of the movie I forgot I was watching it in three-dimensions.

In other words, I felt they simply did not have enough time to do the job properly!

I fully expected they'd at least go all-out on the final reel, but no, just the odd-shot looked full 3D. Most of the time the 3D was "light", certainly compared to other "Real-D" movies.

Be interesting to see what other people thought over the weekend.
Couldn't agree more, I thought it was an enjoyable little adventure romp (especially loved those Scorpions!) but the 3D was rubbish, for most of the time it looked distinctly 2D to me, as we all knew anyway, this 3D malarky is just a cynical ploy just to get another few quid out of cinema goers, I would definately advise anyone who has the choice to see it in 2D. Another point I'd like to make is a lot of people are saying how much they loved the original but is it just me or was the original the least of all the Harryhausen movies, to me at least, Jason and the Argonauts or any of the Sinbad movies beat it hands down!.
lupogirl
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Re: films we just saw

Post by lupogirl »

Had a double of film day a few days ago.

First up saw Clash of the Titans in 3D. Admittedly after seeing the trailer. I was expecting a car crash of a godawful film. Was really surprised how entertaining it was. Very much retelling a story their way and thankfully not a shot for shot remake.

There were times had that 80's scfi fi glittery look which I quite liked. Also like the nod to the original film with the clockwork owl.

The 3D i thought was pretty pointless in this film. The first 10mins or so felt you were on a rollercaster but did not feel it was effective throughout the film. This did not distract how entertaning it was.

Next up Kick- Arse. I know it's Ass but I like Arse more! :D

This film was just that. All in the title. Thought it was a corker. So un pc, i enjoyed. The little girl was great. Some great fight sequences and shame there was not more of Nicolas Cage.

With people being despatched in various blood drenched ways was a bit surprised it was 15 rated.
"We Who Walk Here Walk Alone"
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