films we just saw

Chat here about anything horror related. Be it movies, news, remakes or events.
ghouldrool
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Post by ghouldrool »

the presence of significant owls

Its just me im sure but i think that there would make a great title for a novel!

Warlock 3. Now i have vague recollections of seeing the first Warlock movie and not rating it much. Upon learning part 3 was a stand alone title starring top ham Bruce Payne i decided i has to see it.
Also along for the ride is Kirsty from Hellraiser.

Nowt fresh storywise here. Girl inherits house, Warlock wants girl for sacrifice and friends all get bumped off in various ways all tied into their personality.

Still theres a faint echo of late 70s brit horror here.

Cabin by the Lake
If like me you lie awake at night covered in a glisten of cold sweat, shiverous with anxiety over what ever happened to Judd Nelson then you can now relax. He appears on TV movie dross like this.
Thankfully he has ditched that awful diamond ear stud ally sheedy gave him.
Less good is that now he is drowning girls so he can research a movie he is writing where the main character... drowns girls.
The story itself is pretty pony and the end is a confused muddle prompting several re-winds. But the tongue is rightly in cheek here and when it concentrates on the comedy the film is actually quite enjoyable.
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dangerous_jamie
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Post by dangerous_jamie »

ghouldrool wrote:The story itself is pretty pony
:D
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ghouldrool
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Post by ghouldrool »

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This seriously had to have been filmed entirely in a studio ala Sin City. The film is bathed in that horrid digital haze that seems to surround actors with a white aura.

Not having high hopes for this i cannot say it was a disappointment, however it didnt exactly struggle to exceed my lowered expectations.

I dont feel Harrison is too old for the role, but theres things he goes through in this that NO human being could survive.. not even the Indy from the previous ones. Theres improbable and then theres impossible and often this goes way beyond suspension of disbelief. For some scenes u actually have to bury your disbelief alive. But then theres the pretty solid car/bike chase scene which is probably just as unlikely but is quite convincing.

Ray Winstone is accutley annoying and the usually dull Cate Blanchett is here even more subdued and her character is a lame Bond cast off only fit enough for first class Henchman status. Theres not a solid enough villain of the Belloq. Mola Ram or even Donovan variety. This harms the film a little

The made in a computer feel to the set pieces robs them of any suspense but some do have a "cool" factor. But again theres nothing to compare to the ones from yesteryear. If they were done "live" with practical stuntwork and effects they would be a lot more pleasing though.

The music is pointless and you dont even notice it tbh. Remember the truck fight from Raiders? Theres echoes of that in one action set piece but theres no cool tune to accompany it.

The icky creatures are back in one of the better scenes in the film.. too bad its pretty much a rip from The Mummy (which should have been rescripted to be Indy 4 imho). Though that rubber snake... puhlease

Shia LeBouf doesnt show us anything he didnt show us already in Disturbia and Transformers but this is ok coz what he showed there was good. John Hurt is wasted but Jim Broadbent gets one scene too many. Poor Karen Allen seems like shes most certainly on some kind of prescription but gets just as involved in the action as ever.. more so. It was good seeing Indy and Marion together again

The Main Henchman of the film is pretty limp and has you pining for the bulk and presence of Pat Roach. Again i feel the weakness of the villainy let the film down a little. its a shame Andrew Divoff was only on screen for a second.

Denholm is missed but again theres one reference to his character too many. Although the placement of a captial B in the word suBtle precedent is set within the first 10 mins. We can tell where we are and whats there by a) that theme tune and B) the location.. we didnt need THAT shot to ram it home. Then again at other times the references to the past are welcome and fitting. It seems imbalanced between whats good and whats not so good and whats just poor.

There are no iconic moments - well maybe one where Indy stands facing down a nuclear mushroom cloud :!: But the film lacks that special Cinematic quality.
Shia and Harrison work well together. The macguffin is pretty far fetched and recalls the writings of Von Daniken and Zacariah Sitchin etc etc but theyve tried to at least put an extra spin on it.

is it worth seeing? Well yes as flaws aside its still a harmless bit of fun -but its Indiana Jones Lite.
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Post by streetrw »

One of the reasons I utterly loathed Four Weddings And A Funeral (above and beyond it being horribly not funny, having Hugh Grant in it and having that ghastly song all over it) was that none of the characters had jobs. They were all hideously idle and hideously rich and none of them had to worry about paying the rent and the gas bill; they just spent all their time swearing and marrying each other. The Ewings might have been hateful as well, but they at least ran a company which provided pay-packets for hundreds, maybe thousands of other people. So, one of the reasons I started out by detesting the remake of April Fool's Day is that it features the idle super-ultra-mega-rich, the oh-so-beautiful people, the "trust fund babies" who get a Mercedes SE550 from Daddy when they're fourteen (while us mere wage-slaves might, over several years, just be able to save up for a Nissan Micra) and who never have to worry about anything at all, ever. Politically confused ramble over. :)

Oddly, this ISN'T a remake of the "teen slasher" April Fool's Day, which had a completely different plot - but it DOES have a few similarities to the other April Fool's Day (released on UK video as Slaughter High), wherein a prank goes badly wrong and a mysterious killer is subsequently out for revenge. If the new April Fool's Day gets marginally, very slightly, better as it goes on, it isn't saying much at all as it's still generally uninteresting and dull; a lot of it is guessable and the kill scenes aren't very well handled (although, to be fair, there are reasons for that).

Better, way better, is Tears Of Kali, an unusual and pretty creepy little German number in which three stories are linked by a cult of New Age spiritual-enlightenment guru weirdness and figures from Indian religion. I liked this a lot, and it's easily the best of the few films released under the FrightFest name.
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Post by Grindhouse »

streetrw wrote:One of the reasons I utterly loathed Four Weddings And A Funeral (above and beyond it being horribly not funny, having Hugh Grant in it and having that ghastly song all over it) was that none of the characters had jobs. They were all hideously idle and hideously rich and none of them had to worry about paying the rent and the gas bill; they just spent all their time swearing and marrying each other. The Ewings might have been hateful as well, but they at least ran a company which provided pay-packets for hundreds, maybe thousands of other people. So, one of the reasons I started out by detesting the remake of April Fool's Day is that it features the idle super-ultra-mega-rich, the oh-so-beautiful people, the "trust fund babies" who get a Mercedes SE550 from Daddy when they're fourteen (while us mere wage-slaves might, over several years, just be able to save up for a Nissan Micra) and who never have to worry about anything at all, ever. Politically confused ramble over. :)

Oddly, this ISN'T a remake of the "teen slasher" April Fool's Day, which had a completely different plot - but it DOES have a few similarities to the other April Fool's Day (released on UK video as Slaughter High), wherein a prank goes badly wrong and a mysterious killer is subsequently out for revenge. If the new April Fool's Day gets marginally, very slightly, better as it goes on, it isn't saying much at all as it's still generally uninteresting and dull; a lot of it is guessable and the kill scenes aren't very well handled (although, to be fair, there are reasons for that).

Better, way better, is Tears Of Kali, an unusual and pretty creepy little German number in which three stories are linked by a cult of New Age spiritual-enlightenment guru weirdness and figures from Indian religion. I liked this a lot, and it's easily the best of the few films released under the FrightFest name.
must say i thought Eyes of crystal was the best out of the FF dvd releases imho
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Post by Grindhouse »

a double dose of late night horror kicking off with frankenstein must be destroyed,a superb hammer film,with peter cushing being the villain.and a great villain at that,blackmailing ravishing women and up to no good with dead bodies,interesting that a brain transplant is a simple as changing a cars engine :D still it all ends badly for dr frankenstein.great stuff.
the 2nd is a film i got wrong at the FF quiz martha & arthur what the hell was that about,well now i know its Lucio Fulci madness time & theres always time for that in my home,with The Beyond.the last time i saw this it was on vhs elephant label in the early 90s badly cut & made little sense but memorable.
Out of all the fulci films i have seen this is easily the best i reckon, with some stunning shots & is most likely to be Fulcis take on The Shining with that ending.
Spiders & Dogs all take a piece of the action,and that exploding childs face.well she had it coming being ginger & possesed!
The dvd was a vipco 1st issue uncut & a great looking transfer,but one question remains.....what was Arthur really doing in her bedroom?
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Post by streetrw »

This time last year, Primeval Kill was the 69th worst movie on the IMDb. It isn't any more (that honour is currently held by Carry On Columbus) but it's still pretty terrible. A giant monster crocodile is on the loose in Burundi; an American news team and a grizzled Jurgen Prochnow try and capture (or kill) it. Now I'm usually up for any movie set in Africa and on that level it looks great. Trouble is, there's nowhere near enough croc munching and way too much tribal warlord stuff; you forget at points that it's supposed to be a monster movie (because THEY forgot that it was supposed to be a monster movie).

But at least it more or less makes sense as far as some kind of basic story is concerned. Nightmares Come At Night was directed by Jess Franco in 1970, and I have not the foggiest idea what's going on. A second-rate stripper from Zagreb moves in with a mysterious woman; she is having strange dreams after possibly killing someone, and fears she's going mad. Meanwhile a man and another woman observe from the house next door, and have motives of their own. It drags like a wet winter week in less than 85 minutes, and it isn't just gibberish, it's cripplingly dull, despite them getting their kit off half the time. An inability to focus properly and an obsession with the zoom lens don't help (I gather these two techniques are hallmarks of Franco's movies).
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Nightmares Come at Night/Primeva Kill

Post by Notts Pete »

Jess Franco - the only chap who can make gratuitous nudity boring! (though I do still kind of like Fascination).

Sorry to hear Primeval Kill didn't live up to expectations :shock:
Would it cheer you up to know that according to a recent ad in Fangoria, there's a whole bunch of nature run amok flicks on the way. The 'Maneater Series' from genius entertainment (!) includes Croc, Maneater(killer Tiger), Grizzly Rage, Eye of the Beast (Giant Octopus vs. James Van Der Beek), Spider's Web and the classic-sounding Blood Monkey !! Quite a few candidates for those slow-rental days for you there ...
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Post by soulmining »

Have to agree with Grindhouse, I think Eyes Of Crystal was the best DVD on the FF label...

I haven't seen much at the cinema since Iron Man, either through lack of time or lack of choice... did see Doomsday again which I thoroughly enjoyed for a second time; totally derivitive but that's part of its charm for me, even down to its John Carpenter credits!

Outpost was okay, rather similar to the likes of The Bunker and Deathwatch... quite effective for its low budget and it's been good to see it's been getting some positive word of mouth.

One film I did enjoy recently which no-one seems to have mentioned is Speed Racer. Sure, the story is wafer thin but as a visual spectacle it's a stunning piece of cinema... it's an all out assault on the eyeballs! It really does look like a living cartoon... worth seeing on the biggest screen possible (IMAX if you're in London) just for the experience. I can see why it's under-performed at the box office, but it's certainly something different to the other Summer blockbusters...
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Re: Nightmares Come at Night/Primeva Kill

Post by sherbetbizarre »

Notts Pete wrote:Jess Franco - the only chap who can make gratuitous nudity boring! (though I do still kind of like Fascination)
...Maybe because that was directed by Jean Rollin :)
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Nightmares Come at Night/Primeval Kill

Post by Notts Pete »

D'oh, thanks sherbetbizarre.
Feel suitably embarrassed & humble :oops:

Going to force myself to re-watch Women in Cellblock 9 as penance :wink:
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Post by lupogirl »

Saw Indian Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull yesterday. Was not a sell out performance which I thought was surprising.

A rollicking ride with some humourous references to Indy's age. Like the other three installments some great stunt set pieces. With a few more side kicks thrown in made this a bit mis- matched in keeping the action flowing smoothly. Good to see Karen Allen in this one. Far more feisty then Kate Capshaw(who I found intensely irritating and one reason why I never enjoyed Temple of Doom).

Not fully convinced by the ending but it will grow on me.
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Post by Grindhouse »

a double dose of teenage angst kicking off with The faculty,this was the 1st time i had seen it fully since the cinema, & to be honest at the cinema i hated it,it looked cheap shoddily put together,buit on dvd at home it looks much better,as a modern day take on the body snatchers puppet masters,with the thing thrown in,a zilllion times better is Disturbing Behaviour,the stepford wives meets blackboard jungle,when a new kid in town finds out that theres some wierd shit going down with the kids.
a great score by mark snow & a superb indie rock soundtrack too,william sandler rocks.
& if you ever wondered where kimblebee's quote is from watch DB to find out
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Post by kimblebee »

Yay, I love disturbing behaviour (hence the quote :-) ) also where I discovered the band "Harvey Danger" - who sing the main song for the film, and the same song is used for the opening of "Peep Show".. The faculty is just pure class! Not seen it for ages, I wish I could have seen it at the cinema, but I wasnt old enough :-( haha, the first time I noticed the lovely Josh Hartnett!!

My friend has somehow talked me into seeing the Sex and the City movie tomorrow night.. totally not my thing, but Im willing to have a relatively open mind about it - a bit sick of hearing about it to be honest - I mean, what other film has had over 3 weeks of promotional TV plugging?? totally unnecessary!
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Post by zappa fan »

Sex and the city ?!?
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