What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

You won't regret watching it if you like weird, dream-like films. I was seriously impressed, but on the other hand perhaps I shouldn't build it up too much.

Nah, I'm sure I'll love it - weird and dreamlike is right up my street! - my favourites include Fear X, Lemming, Red Lights, The Tenant, The Cremator, The Shout . . .

[VicDakin]

Just watched RED State,and really liked it,great performances from Michael Parks and John Goodman,not a Kevin Smith fan normally but this stood out for me,only complaint was it was too short.

[Slippery Jack]

Calvaire

It's funny, I had the trademark Benoit Debie overhead shot confused in my mind - I'm sure I remembered it crossing from one barn to another, over the snowy yard in between. It's actually much shorter than that - I reckon I was confusing it with the fantastic overhead shot in Tom Shankland's The Children. Overall I was a little let down by this second viewing. Think it dips from the silly piano dance scene onwards, and I grew tired of the endless run n' chase. I've reversed my opinion: Du Weltz's follow-up, Vinyan, is the much better work . . .

[Handyman Joe]

Can I nominate my all time favourite midnight, stoner/drunk trash movie? It's 1977 Spanish effort Satan's Blood. It ticks every box - copious nudity, hilarious dialogue ('now we're stuck here all morning with nothing to do, thats because there's nothing we can do'), crazy plot and, despite it all, a genuine creepy atmosphere. It's hot too, despite the 2 actresses looking like Pauline Calf and Gail out Coronation Street. Drinking game suggestion - every time the word 'Blackie' is spoken, large swig of lager, every topless scene, a small short. You will be drunk, believe me.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Saw Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Thought it was incredibly well done. Amuses me that it keeps getting referred to as 'the Hollywood remake' when there's nothing very Hollywood about it; after the Oscar attention of Benjamin Button and The Social Network I'm glad he went for something a lot less compromising and more hard-going. Reminds you what a versatile director he is. A great adaptation of the source material and I really hope he does the other 2 in the series


Also watched Kubrick's The Killing last night. One of those films I've wanted to see for ages and it did not disappoint. Excellent noir-y tone, wonderful plot and storyline and some fantastic camerawork (especially the shot where you see Johnny enter the Chess and Checkers building not realising you're watching him reflected in the mirror until the camera pulls back. Incredible stuff). Criterion did a hell of a job with the transfer too, although you wouldn't expect anything less really. Highly recommended.

I agree with you about girl... in some ways better than the swedish one (heresy?) tragically though it was not a big runaway success at the box office.

I suspect it was way too soon to bring it out, the swedish ones were hardly obsucre (one of the few foreign langauage films to rent consistantly well where I work) so I suspect a lot of people had the same complaint as I had when watching it IM SURE I SAW THIS ALL BEFORE AND NOT SO LONG AGO EITHER!

given another few years it would have worked a little better.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Just watched THE VIRGIN WITCH. Slightly better than I anticipated, though admittedly talk of its general dullness hadn't raised my expecatations. Actually though there's a nice seam of oddness running through the Brit smut and naughtiness, a kind of pop/psychedelia-lite present in some of the edits, lighting and shots. There's some ceremonial ecstatic dancing which looks groovy enough, some gratuitous nudity and some stiff acting and bad dialogue but not enough horror. Think this one was actually refused a certificate back in the early seventies? It's good though that labels like Odeon are releasing a lot of hitherto pretty obscure early 70s stuff from Britain - see also 'The Fiend' etc. Getting to grips with this sort of thing has been a bit of an eye opener for me, 'cos I used to think those times pretty much boiled down to the fag end of Hammer giving way to Pete Walker.

[Gojirosan]

Yesterday I indulged in my belovéd world of made-for-TV horror films with a trio of gems.

Dark Night Of The Scarecrow - what can be said? A masterpiece, pure and simple. One of the best made-for-telly films ever.

Frankenfish - another rewatch. I love this film. Sure, it's formulaic but I think it works on every level. Some of the comments about this film on IMDb both mystify and sadden me. This is a very good film and tremendous fun.

Man-Thing - Now this one I have never seen before. I ordered the DVD of this the moment I found out the film existed last week. When I was a kid, horror comics were a delightful lifeline for me. Back then (late 70s early 80s), pre-Forbidden Planet etc, getting American comics regularly was difficult, you bought what you could find. SO I never had more than a few issues of Man-Thing, but I loved it! So I had to see the film.

Well, it deviates so much from the comic (even though it is a Marvel production) that you end up having to view it as it's own entity. In a way this is a relief. I still remember the depressing and angering experience of watching Constantine which followed some storylines from Hellblazer very closely but then changed incidentals and details massively and was a bad film to top it all! Dreadful. Well, Man-Thing is not dreadful. The worst aspect is the acting, which is perfunctory rather than bad. Everythign else though, is quite delicious.

Certainly one of the best Marvel productions I have seen, it is sad it ended up a SyFy/straight-to-DVD release. It oozes with atmosphere - really gets under your skin. The swamp sets and locations are magnificent and the cinematography is glorious. The lighting in the swamp scenes is all vivid green, shots often looking like panels from the comic. I can usually put up with FX perfectly well, good or bad. To me FX are representations, and I am lucky enough to be able to "suspend disbelief" to a large extent. CGI tends not to upset me as it does others, but even so, the CGI here is, for the most part, very good. Man-Thing itself is a formidable looking creature, even if it's back story is now totally different from the comic.

I would recommend Man-Thing for anyone who likes the comic, likes swamp monsters, or admirers of clever lighting and editing. Well worth a viewing and the DVD is cheap as hell!

Edit: Also, I was frequently taken aback by how much gore and violence a 15 certificate allows these days! Man-Thing is surprisingly gory!

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by keirarts

I agree with you about girl... in some ways better than the swedish one (heresy?)

Yes.

Good though Fincher's effort was, it was, to me, a rather average and cardboard attempt compared to the Swedish one. The lack of human warmth (a common Fincher problem) and bad lighting (a perennial Fincher problem!) scupper it.

Very decent for a remake though.

[mercury]

Pirates of the Caribbean 4...Enjoyable but it is my least favourite in the series.
Twins of Evil....Quite liked this one, but found myself taking a dislike to Cushing(how dare he burn hot young women)
Ironclad... nice medieval film with lots of gore

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Handyman Joe

Deliverance . It's not all banjoes and buggery

Why wasn't that used as the official tagline?!