films we just saw

chief brody · Post by **chief brody** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:03 am

53RD LONDON FILM FESTIVAL.
THE BOYS ARE BACK, clive owen performance is five star in this moving confessional drama about modern family life, one to watch out for came academy awards time.
SUNDAY,
TOYS STORY 2 [ IN DISNEY DIGITAL 3D] GALA SCREENING
Just to wet your appetite for next years third instalment, thanks to DISNEY FOR SOME GREAT GIVEAWAYS BLU- RAY DVDS ANYBODY.
And on the way out met THE LOVELY EVA GREEN AND SIR RIDLEY SCOTT,in town for his daughters debut film CRACKS.
The LONDON FILM FESTIVAL gets bigger and better every year.
GOOD TIME.

Mr Bill · Post by **Mr Bill** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:48 am

lupogirl wrote:Saw IV. Dear oh dear. Flashbacks which made this a bit confusing. At times I was chuckling how ridiculous it was getting. Some good deaths but very much a dumb fun film. Wonder next be Saw in 3D or Saw in space.

Saw the Musical?

The first Saw was brilliant, and the sequel impressed me by managing an equally unforseen twist at the end that i didn't see comeing, despite expecting it from the outset. Three started out with a point, but seemed to lose it before the end. since then it's been solidly disappointing stuff. dumb fun indeed.

AdeBrown · Post by **AdeBrown** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:35 am

MaxRenn wrote: Valhalla Rising

VR is as Alan Jones says in his Stiges roundup, a hardcore art film mixing moments of extreme brutality, with striking and often symbolic visuals, and the sparsest of narratives told very, very, slowly. It's closer to Aguirre that The Vikings.

Mad Mikkleson plays mute barbarian One-Eye who starts the film as a slave before falling in with a group of Christian vikings on their way to the Holy land. Needless to say things don't go to plan.

This is not going to be everyone's cup of entrails by a long shot, some will find it insufferably slow and obtuse.

Mikkleson is great in a really tricky part. One-Eye is a symbol, not a character, he doesn't have a single line of dialogue, and maintains an almost completely blank expression at all times whilst half his face is caked in Fulci-esque makeup. And yet, he is completely mesmerising. He also gets to disembowel someone with his bare hands at one point... which is cool.

Refyn tapped Tarkosky's Stalker, Snake Plisken and ace spaghetti western The Big Silence as influences. I also felt strong echoes of Herzog and Jodorowski.

I loved it, although I don't know what that says about me.

Me too!
not what I was expecting (notably because it's set in Scotland 1101).

Starting with a caged berzerker captive of a local tribe being fed soup by a boy before being released to win a fight with some warriors on account of ripping out their internal organs, then having similar scenes linked with moody elongated shots of people starving on boats in the mist, and the Highlands. He calms down a bit when offered unconditional positive regard by the Christian tribe off to reclaim the "Holy Land".

Interestingly, this website has completely the wrong end of the stick on that story. (probably some spoilers in there too)

There are moments when this is like one of Julian Cope's Rite instrumentals given visual form.
If you have not heard this imagine a Led Zeppelin instrumental section extended to 15 mins and slowed down to 2/3 speed.

If you can stand being bored by long moody moments in between disembowelments like I can*, then this might well be worth it. It's a beautifully shot film of one of the UGLIEST parts of the world (or is it the other way round?). There's a sudden hallucinatory scene that goes on a bit, but the landscape scenes remind me of those videos that Channel 4 used to show instead of a test card.

(*actually I was not bored, just agape.)

Yeah, it was like Excalibur, but with better acting and gore instead of magic.

Also, from Raindance earlier in the month:
Cry of The Owl - the film I was looking forward to and the best one of the lot. Paddy Considine plays an awkward engineer - with a bitch of an ex-wife and a bad sense of humour - who turns out to be a stalker (in the first part, so no giving away) but things become strangely better for him and then go horribly wrong. A friend and I were talking about comedies where things go horribly wrong (About Last Night, After Hours) and this is like that but more of a drama. I like it.

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:23 am

I really do want to see Valhalla Rising when it comes out - hopefully to cinemas.

Meanwhile, I got lumbered with yet another Jess Franco movie (there's never a postal strike when you need one): Killer Barbys, or Vampire Killer Barbys if you believe the title on the DVD cover. It's as incoherent and fifth-rate as most of his films and a long, long way from She Killed In Ecstasy and Vampyros Lesbos. I guess he'll never reach those levels again. This one has a rock group called the Killer Barbies travelling to their next gig and having sex in the back of the van. The van breaks down, they get invited to a spooky castle owned by a 100-year old woman: there's blood, nudity, decapitation, rubbish effects, and dubbing so shoddy the sound frequently cuts out completely. Terrible, even by Franco's alleged standards. Contains dwarves.

goregoregirl · Post by **goregoregirl** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:26 pm

Recently I watched Up which was brilliant, I absolutely loved it. Paranormal Activity, which I think is way overrated. I got a bit bored. Finally Capitalism: A Love Story which was the surprise film at the London film festival, it was interesting, but it's merely preaching to the converted. I doubt it will change any minds.

goregoregirl · Post by **goregoregirl** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:28 pm

AdeBrown wrote: Also, from Raindance earlier in the month:
Cry of The Owl - the film I was looking forward to and the best one of the lot. Paddy Considine plays an awkward engineer - with a bitch of an ex-wife and a bad sense of humour - who turns out to be a stalker (in the first part, so no giving away) but things become strangely better for him and then go horribly wrong. A friend and I were talking about comedies where things go horribly wrong (About Last Night, After Hours) and this is like that but more of a drama. I like it.

Really? I thought it was dreadful.

Mr Bill · Post by **Mr Bill** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:06 pm

I've just watched Brian Yuzna's Rott Weiler.
A long way from Re-animator and Society it's a little disappointing, but still has some entertaining moments and comes to a satisfying enough climax.

Wolfshade · Post by **Wolfshade** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:33 pm

streetrw wrote:I really do want to see Valhalla Rising when it comes out - hopefully to cinemas.

Meanwhile, I got lumbered with yet another Jess Franco movie (there's never a postal strike when you need one): Killer Barbys, or Vampire Killer Barbys if you believe the title on the DVD cover. It's as incoherent and fifth-rate as most of his films and a long, long way from She Killed In Ecstasy and Vampyros Lesbos. I guess he'll never reach those levels again. This one has a rock group called the Killer Barbies travelling to their next gig and having sex in the back of the van. The van breaks down, they get invited to a spooky castle owned by a 100-year old woman: there's blood, nudity, decapitation, rubbish effects, and dubbing so shoddy the sound frequently cuts out completely. Terrible, even by Franco's alleged standards. Contains dwarves.

ah Killer Barbys how I love that film.....actually I don't, it's fucking terrible, but it never fails to amuse me! I don't think I've ever seen worse dubbing in the history of the universe - they could have at least tried to use words that fit the mouth movements, lol!

I gave it to my friend on DVD for Christmas last year....I doubt he classes me as a friend anymore!

yay Jess Franco - I can't believe he still makes these, I really can't imagine a decrepid 70 year old scuttling around in his wheelchair working up evil midgets and rock bands!!! There's a sequel you know - Killer Barbys Vs Dracula.

Just watched Saw 6 yesterday, it was shit, not as shit as 4 and 5, but still shit all the same. Went with a load of girls, not only did they scream throughout, they hadn't seen any of the others, so I had to spend the next hour after the film explaining what all the completely unexplained flashbacks in the film were about and what happened in all the other 5, not fun.

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:52 pm

My last film at the LFF... Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers. - zero-budget & shot on VHS - follows a group of delinquents dressed in old people make-up as they hump trash cans, break shit and hang around crazy old people. Like watching the Jackass crew ass-around between proper takes. It's also the best disfuntional onscreen family since the original TCM, as they stagger around town like Leatherfaces' kids...

Here's a clip -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPl-O0Z5hys

If you want 78 minutes of that in your life - then this is the film for you!

It was awesome.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:10 pm

9
Amongst the sea of animated movies,comes this steampunk orwellian vision of a world where machines have taken over and destroyed the world as seen through 9,this leans more toward bektematov's imagination as we have seen in Nightwatch & Daywatch,than from tim burtons visions.
its a 12A and with scary machines pursuing the characters in a world where no humans are left its not ideal for young children.
Excellent animation with out any cute sidekicks and action galore with an ending thats sad and inspiring,you couldnt go too far wrong with 9.
Destined to be a future cult hit like the iron giant but may be too different when batting against the likes of mr fox and ice age 3 and up or meatballs.

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:18 am

With what may well be an unparalleled work of genius (or not) coming up in the shape of Wrong Turn 3, I thought I'd better watch Wrong Turn and Wrong Turn 2 again this evening. While WT2 is still a fine, thoroughly entertaining and enjoyably excessive splatterama, I'd forgotten just how nasty and grim the original movie was. Even though it's basically The Texas Chainsaw Massacre again - dim city people venture into the woods and briefly regret it - I was pleasantly surprised by how dark it was. And in both movies the gore is very much up front (particularly the second one....).

krispyg · Post by **krispyg** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:40 am

Marley & Me and yes I did cry like a baby

Should it have been a PG though? My thoughts are that it does show the realism of being a pet owner from start to finish so it is realistic in that aspect. Is it too upsetting? I thought the end went on for too long, you know what's coming but I felt that it was just a little too drawn out.

Other than that I loved it

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:27 am

VW have been doing a promotion and there were free screenings of films you could vote for,only you werent supposed to know till you turned up,so it was Mamma Mia,havent seen it before,but had an open mind to any movie,but its totally enjoyable fun,the music of abba sweeps you along,and its one of those movies that will always be a crowd pleaser and a feelgood entertaining movie it is.
ps Pierce Brosnans singing wasnt as bad as i had expected.

Mr Bill · Post by **Mr Bill** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:36 pm

just saw Blood the Last Vampire. Even though it's pretty short I still found this film a little boring. The fightscenes were all very good but strung together with very little plot, and although set in the seventies it hardly felt or looked like it. It was quite visually impressive- but not as much as the anime version.

finally caught up on Teeth, this did actually manage to stretch a decent story out of a one line idea, and the uncomfortable black humour worked well.

watched Wrong Turn 2: Dead End in preparation for the third installment at the ICA. Rollins is the best thing in it. The splatterific gore was pretty decent, but too well lit and immediate to carry any real fear or menace, and the inbreds seem to have become full on cartoon characters. Still, it was entertaining enough with plenty of stylish moments- hope part 3 is ok, actors from Hollyoaks... fingers crossed.

Brotherhood of Blood pretty dull, and clearly made without any money. Best thing in it is Sid Haig's awesome sideburns.

Did a Wingnut double bill with a friend Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles, I'll never get bored of those films. Genre defining classics both.

Straying from the horror vibe, District 13: Ultimatum is really pretty excellent. The first film had incredible stunts and bags of style but the very thin plot became downright nonsensical about half way through. D13-U has equally slender and silly story and even more style and breathtaking action than the first, and this time it doesn't deteriorate toward the end, so i actually thought it was better than the original. I never say that!

Drag Me To Hell great slapstick horror choreography and effects, but Evil Dead it isn't. A good film that didn't match up to the hype for me, but maybe i just can't really get into demonic nightmares and gypsy curses. I was cursed by Gypsies about a year ago (no seriously, i was) two women, one of whom was a full on elderly stereotype like Mrs Ganesh, tried a short con on me and i stuffed it up for them and spoilt their chances for trying it on others, so they cursed me! I'm not supersticious and i don't really believe anything will ever happ

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 5:32 pm

A note on Drag Me To Hell... if you want the "unrated" version in the UK, you have to buy the Blu-ray! (it's still rated 15 though)