What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

EARTH TO ECHO. Saw this earlier today with the little MTDSs. Fantastic riff on E.T. with a whiff of GOONIES chucked in for good measure but still very much it's own film. The little MTDSs loved it...and so did I. Highly recommended.

Sounds horrible.

[monkeyscreams]

Originally Posted by anythinggoes78

Watched Children of Men last night, i think thats my 4th time watching it, just decided my daughter should give it a go as she always moaning about the stuff her mum makes her watch, good news she really enjoyed it, even though i did have to explain some of the more complex themes to her. Having read the original book i can say there is very little surviving from that, just basic ideas and names other than that not a lot.

I love the dirty grimy feel to the film, its a perfect worn out london but with obvious technological advantages, but not thrown in your face. My main gripe is the cars used in the film which are obviously current to the time the film was made but with bits added to make them futuristic.

The "one take" action scenes for me are stunning i love the Car attack scence and the final battle too, really puts you in there with the charactors, Clive Owen is good in the fim, as is the actress who plays Kee and Micheal Cain as the Asphex Twin Loving pot head, for me the film could of been a bit longer but i generally find that with films i enjoy.

Anyhow for me this is a good film and ill enjoy watching it a few more times still.

And it features on of the best songs ever (for me) : The Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. I had goosebumps allover when I saw this scene.

[monkeyscreams]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yKNmdaANLM

and of course the Pink Floyd references (Animals, Flying Pig)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCQG-4n9kqo

[anythinggoes78]

Originally Posted by monkeyscreams

And it features on of the best songs ever (for me) : The Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. I had goosebumps allover when I saw this scene.

Shows what i know i though it was a Pink Floyd song

[SShaw]

The Infinite Man

Fantasia 2014 seems to be the year of the time-travel film (the previous night had already seen the screening of Predestination). Australia's The Infinite Man follows the efforts of Dean a control-freak who tries to create the perfect anniversary for his girlfriend by recreating their perfect holiday of the year before. Unfortunately everything goes pear-shaped from the get-go as the hotel where they plan to stay has closed down. Things go from bad to worse when his girlfriends ex, Terry, turns up and attempts to win her back. Fortunately Dean is a physicist and cobbles together a time travel machine that ail allow him to travel back in time and iron out the bugs in his plan.

The Infinite Man manages to do something quite different with its Groundhog Day setup. Rather than becoming a lightweight rom-com it takes a sharp right turn onto a much bleaker darker side road. By retelling each scene repeatedly from the perspective of each character (and this being a time travel film from the point of view of each character multiple times) the film fully explores the possibilities of time travel paradoxes to do something that is wholly original. Predestination will probably go on to be the more successful film at the box-office but it is The Infinite Man that is the more deserving film. Now if I could just find a limbic helmet perhaps I could do something about that.

A Knife With Legs

Micro-budget feature A knife with legs is a film that defies classification. Bennet Jones, who seems to have had a hand in every production department, plays European popstar Bene. The film opens with Bene awaiting an assassin (whose faux French pronunciation S-S-N leads to much confusion later in the story) in a Los Angeles apartment. His life has come to a crashing stop after his girlfriend, and backing singer, Baguette is killed by a suicide bomber and to compound his troubles he has become the subject of a Fatwa.

Told with crude animation and video footage A knife with legs, is an energetic surreal stream-of-consciousness that transcends its technical limitations to find considerable humour in its limited plot. It is a film that will divide its audience into a majority who will switch off after a few minutes and a (very small) minority who will give themselves fully to the absurdity of the film and its songs. Whether this minority will be large enough to justify a cult tag and a home video release remains to be seen. I hope so, because I for one need to see this film again.

Goal of the Dead

Alban Lenoir is a seasoned football player who after nearly 20 years returns to Caplongue, his small provincial hometown, with his Olympique de Paris teammates for a cup game. But in a doping scandal that is likely to make quite different headlines, his former childhood friend and the oppositions star player has been given a chemical enhancement that has transformed him into a vomiting zombie. Patient zero, or should that be Player Zero, infects his fellow teammates and the hostile home supporters leading to the zombie apocalypse. In a series of sub-plots Sam assembles his own team (the young star forward of Olympique Paris and his unscrupulous manager, the teams coach, his estranged father, a reporter with whom he shared a moment at a previous game, three old friends and a 17 year old girl) who must work together to survive the Zombieapocalypse.

Originally released as two separate movies in France, Goal of the Dead combines the directorial efforts of Benjamin Rocher and Thierry Poiraud into a buttock numbing single feature of 140 minutes. Borrowing heavily from Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead for both its narrative structure and much of its tone the film manages to crowbar almost every imaginable horror cliche into the plot, but it does so with a style and wit. It's a film not without problems, a lack of focus, too much plot and that near two and a half hour running time but it manages to do just enough to create a near perfect midnight festival horror film.

[trebor8273]

Need for speed

Really wasn't expecting much, but boy I was wrong I really enjoyed it had me gripped from beginning to end. Fantastic race scenes and the acting and story was a lot better than I was expecting, would of gladly paid full price. Glad to have it in my collection 9/10

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Edge of Terror (aka The Wind) 1986

An American thriller author leaves her husband at home in LA and goes to stay on a secluded Greek island whilst she finishes her latest novel. Once settled she's advised by her landlord not to go out at night due to the terrifying gale force winds that batter the practically deserted island. However it soon comes to light she may have a far more dangerous peril to face - The landlord's handyman.

Island of Death director Nico Mastorakis returns to the Greek islands for this excellent horror thriller. Assembling a fine cast - Meg Foster, Wings Hauser, Robert Morley and David McCallum, Mastorakis allows them all to shine especially Foster, a woman with striking beauty, who is superb as the tortured writer.

Edge of Terror, with it's excellent Hans Zimmer score, is an atmosphericly Gothic, (Mastorakis has a real eye for composing light and shadows), and enthrallingly suspenseful stalk and slash movie in a Giallo style. Set in a fantastic windswept location with enough buried corpses and jump out of your seat moments to satisfy most slasher fans, making this another worthy effort by Mastorakis.

Recommended.

Like my earlier reviewed Nightmare at Noon, this release from Boulevard (It's the same as the Hollywood DVD version) is presented in a splendid 16:9 widescreen picture with good sound quality.

[SShaw]

Some quick thoughts on the other films I saw so far:

Demon of the Lute - being shown for the first time in nearly 30 years a strange martial arts film.

Patch Town - quite brilliant kids musical which explores some of the darker secrets of the life of a Cabbage Patch doll.

Late Phases - really likeable unlikeable central character, a blind man with a caustic cynical wit, who battles werewolves in his gated retirement community.

Life after Beth - superb comic zombie romance. This should be on your must-see list for Fright Fest (and almost every other summer festival).

Suburban Gothic - another brilliant horror comedy. Recommended.

Zombie TV - the worst film of the festival so far this made-for-tv anthology is not as smart or funny as it thinks it is. Perhaps one for Japanese enthusiasts only, and even then I am not convinced.

Jellyfish Eyes - sweet Japanese kids film.

Red Family - a north koran sleeper family find their values challenged by the family next door.

White Bird in a Blizzard - super thriller.

Reconstruction of William Zero - a man tries to recover from the loss of his son and collapse of his marriage by cloning himself.

Cybernatural - a quite brilliant found footage film for the social media generation. I hope that the Firghtfest guys pick this up for their Halloween edition.

In Order of Disappearance - already shown in Edinburgh this Norwegian black comedy was wonderful.

No Tears for the Dead - South Korean action film which is reminiscent of classic John Woo. It seems that the South Koreans are the current masters of action film.

Fatal Encounter, The - overly complicated martial arts film.

Huntresses, The - Charlies Angels in medieval Korea? Enjoyable vapid fun.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter - a woman undergoes a mental breakdown as she searches for the buried loot from the Coen brothers movie Fargo.

Prom Night - classic 80's horror

Faults - a man sets out to deprogram a cult victim. Recommended.

Predestination - time travel movie based upon a Heinlein short story. Takes a good 45 minutes to get going. But once it gets going its worth the wait. Not the best time travel film of the fest.

Just over halfway through my visit with 9 days and 28 films down and 8 more days and 31 more films (perhaps 32 I still have one ticket to choose) remaining.

[trebor8273]

Anyone seen a film called the haunting of Julia with Mia farrow?

[trebor8273]

Some netflix viewings


Nightmares in red , white and blue 7/10

Chud

A enjoyable bit of 80s B movie horror. Daft and silly but very enjoyable 7/10

The man from Planet X 7/10


Insidious chapter 2

A creepy sequel to the first movie. In someways not as good as the first but a lot better than most of the so called paranormal horror movies of today. 8.5/10



Alan partridge alpha papa

Wasn't expecting much but this turned out to be one of the funniest movies I have seen in a very long time. 8/10

Scream

A long time since I've seen this and a lot better than I remember, many films followed it but none where as good. A film that was made for lovers of horror movies, especially slashers. A true classic 9.5/10