What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Inspector Abberline]

Street Trash [1987]
With its over the top violence and gross out gore,Street Trash was just another in a long line of gore movies,but what Trash had bubbling under the gore and grue is a social conscience,taking the underbelly of society and not so much holding a magnifying glass to it more like a toilet bowl,what is even more interesting is the parallel world that is inhabited by all the drunks and down and outs,a crazy and extreme existence,where the goal of each day is to get there hands on some alcohol .So when Fred (Mike Lackey) manages to steal a bottle of Viper from Ed's liquor store "Fred: **** you. Gimme a bottle of booze, here's my dollar, suck my dick!",this is just the start of his troubles,not to mention Bronson ( Vic Noto ) the local vagrant kingpin. Jim Muro directorial début is a master class of insanity and offensiveness,from gang raping tramps to playing catch with a hobo's penis nothing is beyond the pale.Even the cops are pretty gross,when Bill Chepil beats a hit-man to a pulp,he then drags him into the toilets,throws him into the urinal and pukes on the hit-man's head,so much for friendly neighbourhood policing.Although Bill the cop get his when Bronson kills him in the junk-yard and shows his contempt of the policeman by pissing on his corpse,I suppose what comes around goes around. Even the Mafia are not immune from Muro's viper filled gaze as James Lorinz (Frankenhooker) falls foul of his mob boss Tony Darrow as Nick Duran,until the Viper gets him. While the gore scenes are pretty effective and certainly colourful and bubbly,its nothing we have not seen before,certainly at the time Troma movies were churning out these sort of films by the dozen,but Muro manages to out Troma,Troma and give us some colourful characters and plenty of characterisation.

[Demoncrat]

Lovely review!!


Ahem.
Watched Baby Love again. Sort of the anti The Family Way
really.

Beneath (2013, Ben Ketai)
A movie I cannot stress enough to avoid, squandering as it does it's reasonably odd premise with a slew of CGI at the end.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)

Typical isn't it? I don't watch a new 70's cop thriller in months then it's two brilliant ones on consecutive evenings. Following the excellent The Seven-Ups (1973) comes the high octane Live Like a Cop Die Like a Man.

Starring Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock as two Rome policemen who do the jobs others would faint at and thrive on their dangerous way of life. In a way the concept isn't much different to any of the other wayward cop films of the 70's, be it Dirty Harry or even tv shows like Starsky and Hutch. Never going by the book, Porel and Lovelock get in as much trouble with their superiors as they do with Rome's notorious crime syndicates. The two actors gel brilliantly and again Starsky and Hutch springs to mind with the way they trade off each other with the lines and the women. However it's the fuel injected way director Ruggero Deodato takes on the subject that really made this a hell of a lot of fun.

The film catches fire from the opening seconds and we have car chases and bullet strewn violence galore not to mention lashings of nudity all hitting the screen with a frenetic energy that to my mind Deodato loses with the exception of 85's Cut and Run

Interestingly the songs on the soundtrack are all sung by Lovelock and sound like Americana, putting many scenes into an odd place in my head as they seem more fitting to say Easy Rider (1969) or any other open road movie rather than a cynical crime production.

One rather tasteless sequence aside that involved the death of a blind man's guide dog in the street that again fuels the Deodato hatred of animals debate, Live Like a Cop.... is a terrific action film / Poliziotteschi and in my opinion ranks up with Rome, Armed to the Teeth and Violent Naples (both 1976) as the best i've seen of the genre.

Upscaled 88's dvd looks delightful. It's hard to imagine the blu-ray looking much better.

[Justin101]

Ivan's Childhood (1962)



So yesterday I popped my Andrei Tarkovsky cherry with his first feature film, about a young boy who is a scout in the Russian army during WWII. I had no idea what to expect apart from the fact that Tarkovsky and his work is highly revered by fans and critics alike. Now I'm well aware that this is his most conventional film so I'm curious to see what happens when I watch his more 'out-there' works later on.

The opening few minutes, a boy chasing birds and butterflies on a secluded beach and openly laughing to himself, then speaking with his mother. The tone then shifts completely and film is darker and grittier and we realise that Ivan has awoken from a dream and he's hiding out in a broken down cottage in the middle of a war zone with the 'Jerrys' on one side and Russians on the other.

We as a viewer don't really know what's going on when this snotty nosed kid gets brought into the barracks and the Russian soldiers don't either, over the next 15 minutes we get to find who this kid is. Every now and again we get to visit the dream world of Ivan, and each time a little more of his past is revealed, but inevitably he wakes up again and we're plunged back into the war.

I can't admit that I understand the symbolism which I'm sure that the film is soaked in, but it's one which I'm keen to learn about. All in all it was a very successful film night for me and one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a long time. Quite 'Arty Farty' but I think is fairly accessible for those who are comfortable watching a subtitled film!

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)

Typical isn't it? I don't watch a new 70's cop thriller in months then it's two brilliant ones on consecutive evenings. Following the excellent The Seven-Ups (1973) comes the high octane Live Like a Cop Die Like a Man.

Starring Marc Porel and Ray Lovelock as two Rome policemen who do the jobs others would faint at and thrive on their dangerous way of life. In a way the concept isn't much different to any of the other wayward cop films of the 70's, be it Dirty Harry or even tv shows like Starsky and Hutch. Never going by the book, Porel and Lovelock get in as much trouble with their superiors as they do with Rome's notorious crime syndicates. The two actors gel brilliantly and again Starsky and Hutch springs to mind with the way they trade off each other with the lines and the women. However it's the fuel injected way director Ruggero Deodato takes on the subject that really made this a hell of a lot of fun.

The film catches fire from the opening seconds and we have car chases and bullet strewn violence galore not to mention lashings of nudity all hitting the screen with a frenetic energy that to my mind Deodato loses with the exception of 85's Cut and Run

Interestingly the songs on the soundtrack are all sung by Lovelock and sound like Americana, putting many scenes into an odd place in my head as they seem more fitting to say Easy Rider (1969) or any other open road movie rather than a cynical crime production.

One rather tasteless sequence aside that involved the death of a blind man's guide dog in the street that again fuels the Deodato hatred of animals debate, Live Like a Cop.... is a terrific action film / Poliziotteschi and in my opinion ranks up with Rome, Armed to the Teeth and Violent Naples (both 1976) as the best i've seen of the genre.

Upscaled 88's dvd looks delightful. It's hard to imagine the blu-ray looking much better.

SOLD...... I believe thats the phrase the hipster use on da mean streets init.

[J Harker]

Currently watching the Fantastic Four reboot. Geez its bad.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Popcorn (1991)

A killer stalks the movie goers at a horror and sci-fi all nighter.

As far as a slasher film goes Popcorn isn't terribly successful. However as a love letter to the gimmicky theatrics of William Castle and a homage to the flea pit cinema experiences of the 60's, 70's and 80's it achieves far better results.

Incorporating a killer into the movie going experience isn't a new idea. Lamberto Bava's Demons (1985) and the underrated 2008 film Midnight Movie are far better examples than Popcorn which barely registers scares in among it's all round cheesiness. Popcorn is camper affair altogether thanks to Alan Ormsby's script which does for slasher movies what his Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972) did for zombie films - absolutely nothing. Yet as a movie experience in it's own right Popcorn is a lot of fun, but i'm not convinced i'll ever return to it.

Contrary to some reports on the film, picture and sound quality were good on the disc i watched.

[keirarts]

Keanu

Decided to take a risk on this and i'm glad I did. Keanu is a kitten beloved by gangsters who escapes after his last owner is murdered and is taken in by a middle class suburbanite who uses him for cute kitty pictures. Unfortunately Keanu is kidnapped and his new owner and his new owners cousin must head out to find him.

The real charm of Keanu is how utterly mental it is. It has a lot of the hallmarks of the 'urban' thriller and spends most of its running time subverting this genre. The two leads are african american but as far removed from the almost stereotypical thugs hollywood seems to love as you can imagine. Their attempts to blend in to the gang who has Keanu forms a large part of the humour however there is far more to it than that. We get a samurai sword weilding Anna Farris in full drug fiend mode and probably one of the best things she's been in in ages, we get a soundtrack that ditches hip-hop for George michael and wham! and even features a bloody shoot out to one of his tracks as well as a bizarre drug trip scene that morphs into one of his videos. Also it seems taking violent and bloody action scenes and sticking a kitten in the middle of it adds a genuinely surreal touch to the film.

Keanu is hugely enjoyable nonsense and worth checking out.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Big Bad Wolves (2013)

When school girls start to go missing, three men wind up in a cellar of an isolated house - The father of the latest victim, a police man gone vigilante and the man they suspect of the murders.

This Israeli film is a genuinely gripping experience. Twisty and turny yet thoroughly thought provoking at the same time. Superbly acted and quite grim in both tone and subject matter, with a few look away moments of torture. Although it puts the viewer in a 'what would you do?' scenario as the characters play out their end game, it's also morally conflicted proving that doing right can always turn out wrong.

The final moments are just 'Wow!'.

Highly recommended.

[mr 420]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

SOLD...... I believe thats the phrase the hipster use on da mean streets init.

You won't be disappointed, Inspector.