What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

Rise of the planet of the apes


Unlike most modern sequels or prequel in this case, this is very good and has to be my second favourite ape movie behind the first. Good story and acting. But the real highlight are the special effects of Caesar and andy serkis fantastic and emotional performance which makes you feel for Caesar and his ape friends more than any of the human charcaters. 9.5/10


The last horror film

First viewing which will be one of many, very surprised how good this is with a interesting story and twist endings . Not spoiling the story for those who have not seen it before. 9/10

Next up

Vengeance of the zombies

[Make Them Die Slowly]

THE SACRAMENT. Ti West shifts focus from the supernatural in his latest film into real world horror with this, his fictionalised take on the Jonestown Massacre. I am a big fan of West's last two films "House of the Devil" and "The Innkeepers". I like the slowness of his work and how he manages to wring suspense and tension out of seemingly nothingness. For West, this new film is fairly fast paced with a gentle build up before a switch at mid point into the horror at the centre of the story...mass suicide and murder. These scenes are long and protracted with a calm madness to them bringing forth emotions of horror, revulsion but mainly sadness in the viewer. Due to it's pacing it may not be to everyone's taste but I personally like the slowness of the film. My only gripe with the film is that on occasion West forgets that he is making a "found footage" style film and has several two camera set ups when the viewer knows there should only be one camera present. That said, I highly recommend the film and look forward to West's next film which is apparently going to be a period western.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

THE SACRAMENT. Ti West

Did you ever see his debut The Roost?

I liked it but at times a little extra lighting would have come in handy.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Did you ever see his debut The Roost?

I liked it but at times a little extra lighting would have come in handy.

I've not, I've only seen his last 3 films but highly rate him as a director, so I'll look out for it.

[SShaw]

More from Fantasia:

Dancing Karate Kid - fun but forgettable karate film

Once Upon A Time in Shanghai - some of the best kung-fu action for a long, long time. Excellent.

Puzzle - mean spirited, unlikeable Japanese film.

Let Us Prey - Disappointing British horror. I really wanted to like this more.

Premature - another take on groundhog day. Teen comedy in which the lead starts each day with a wet dream.

Bloody Knuckles - Very funny Canadian horror comedy in which a controversial comic artists right hand returns to reek havoc after it is cut off by the boss of a triad he has offended with his comic book.

Midnight Swim, The - Advertised as reinventing the found footage genre. It doesn't. Instead we get art house found footage. I liked it. Many won't.

Man in the Orange Jacket/Seventh Chord - two short feature films from Kurosawa. Man in the Orange Jacket is a home invasion film of sorts, seventh chord is a spy thriller of sorts. Both are excellent.

Creeping Garden - fascinating British documentary film about slime mould. Worth investigating if you have the opportunity.

Hana-Dama: The Origin - a gruelling film about bullying in a Japanese high-school. The only film with walkouts so far.

Aux yeux des vivants (Among the Living) - this seems to be playing every genre film festival this summer. Its good, but not as good as the buzz.

Creep - very, very funny take on the found footage genre in which a cameraman is hired to film a video diary for a man suffering from terminal cancer to leave for his unborn son. Brilliant.

[keirarts]

Screamers. (aka island of the fishmen)

After buying the rights to Sergio Martino's actually pretty decent adventure film Island of the Fishmen, it was decided to spice things up for the US release, adding a lengthy prologue with Mel Ferrer that has little to do with anything else in the film. This footage was incorporated into the film and then the whole affair was cut down by Joe Dante. What results is still entertaining. The plot remains intact, a group of prisoners washed up on a remote island run into Richard Johnson and Barbara Bach who are running the island for Babs scientist father played by Joseph cotten. Joe is a scientist out of the Dr Moreau school of nutters and is creating the fishmen in his lab. There's some plot about sunken treasure, the remains of Atlantis and an active volcano. While the original Martino cut was straight up adventure film with elements of horror, so much so I kept expecting Doug Mclure to show up, screamers tries to make the film more straight up horror. It doesn't quite work and the whole affair comes across as more of a noble failure. The scorpion blu is region free, looks marvelous and has some interesting interviews on the disc so worth picking up. Also worth seeking out is the MYA dvd release which is still affordable and presents Martino's original cut, something this release is missing.

Deadly eyes.

Actually an attempt by Enter the dragon director Robert clouse to bring James Herberts THE RATS to the big screen, the film takes more than a few liberties with its source material and shifts the action to Toronto. Corn contaminated by steroids causes rats to grow (conveniently enough) to the size of small dogs. Pretty soon their on the rampage!
Its still an entertaining film to watch, thanks mainly to Clouses direction. Also the dogs in fur coats playing the rats are almost hypnotically daft. The Blu-ray is region locked sadly but boasts decent PQ and some interesting interviews.


The great hip hop hoax.

Back in the early noughties two Scottish lads decided they wanted to be hip hop stars. They began pretending to be American and managed to fool a lot of people up until their dreams of glory came crashing down. The documentary is actually quite fascinating, especially since it wasn't their impersonations that brought them down, rather the changing nature of the music industry and their own hedonism. Highly recommended.


The Purge 2.

Widely derided by mainstream critics I liked the original Purge. It was a deeply flawed yet entertaining B movie that made a whole bunch of money by virtue of being cheap to make and crowd pleasing.

With the sequel, bigger is better as it follows a disparate group of LA residents caught up on the streets on Purge night and their efforts to stay alive. Frank Grillo who was great in Captain America winter soldier is a seemingly anonymous man on a mission who comes across as something akin to the punisher in his ability to kill purgers and does his best to keep the cast alive against overwhelming odds.
The film looks fantastic and his highly entertaining and comes across as a fairly angry polemic against the state of modern america. Very entertaining!

[MrRange]

I also went to see The Purge: Anarchy last night. I wasn't a big fan of the original, it was alright for what it was but it kind of annoyed me that they came up with such an elaborate plot only to use it to make a pretty standard home invasion movie. This sequel makes up for it though and it really is the film we probably all expected the first time around.

The whole atmosphere was great, it seemed very John Carpenter to me, often reminding me of Escape From New York. Also I was quite surprised with the amount of violence. It's not gory, but it is very violent, there is always some kind of carnage going on.

I'd really like to see this turn into a long running series. As I can't stand the Paranormal Activity movies I have been missing a yearly horror series since Saw ended, hopefully The Purge can take it's place.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I saw The Purge: Anarchy yesterday morning and my heart sank when I saw the Platinum Dunes logo appear at the beginning, because there are very few films produced by Platinum Dunes which I can tolerate, let alone like.

Overall, this was what I wanted the first Purge film to be: a violent, occasionally suspenseful and involving movie which also contains some social and political commentary. Some of it feels like The Warriors, with a group of people trying to get across town, from one piece of hostile territory to another, trying to survive the night.

It's far from perfect, but those who were really disappointed by The Purge and wanted to see what was going on on the streets in the city rather than watch a home invasion film should be satisfied by the content of this sequel.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I saw The Purge: Anarchy yesterday morning and my heart sank when I saw the Platinum Dunes logo appear at the beginning, because there are very few films produced by Platinum Dunes which I can tolerate, let alone like.

Asylum movies do that for me. The moment I see their name at the beginning of a movie I know I'm in for a crapfest!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Visitors (1972)

A former soldier in Vietnam, now happily living out in the country with his girlfriend and their young son find their lives in turmoil when two acquaintances from his platoon show up unannounced.

Directed by Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront), The Visitors is a languidly paced drama showing us how traumatic events in young soldiers lives can overspill into their home life once they are discharged. As soon as the two visitors show up the film takes a sharp turn and an atmosphere of slow burning dread takes over. It's dark hearted influence can be felt in Last House on the Left or The House on the Edge of the Park rather than the typical Vietnam fayre. A fear that inevitably something bad is going to happen.

James Woods in his film debut is excellent as farmer with a conscience Bill, as is fellow debutant Steve Railsback, portraying brooding, simmering menace perfectly.

Kazan's film is a low budget, grimy looking film that suits the bleak, suspenseful content on show. Due to unflinching depictions of rape and the slaughter of a dog, The Visitors may not be for all, but for those who give it a try their patience will surely be rewarded come the matter of fact final denouement .