What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

do you have the 2 disc with the B/W version, because i have the single disc region 1 disc and just turned the color down for the B/W, apparently Darabont has said that's the way to do it if you didn't get the 2 disc.

Yeah I had the 2 disc region 1 pre-orderd before it was released in the US
It has more extras on disc 2 too, not sure if the 1 disc version contains all the extras. The slipcase is nice too.

[DeadAlive]

SS Experiment Love Camp - I'm still finding the odd film from the video nasty list that I haven't got around to see yet. This one I can't help feeling like I wish I hadn't bothered. Maybe it was because the transfer was crap. Obviously taken from a worn pan and scan video right down to the wear and tear lines running down the screen from time to time. (There is a better one aparantly.... but not for rental.) Or maybe it was because the film itself is just not that good. A few interesting moments, but really poor on the whole.


A World Without Thieves - Entertaining Chinese thriller about various groups of thieves on a train after the same haul of cash. It's complicated by the fact that undercover cops are also on board. Andy Lau and Rene Liu are excellent as a couple who find a change of heart on the long journey across China. On the whole this is not too realistic very much playing in the realms of escapism, but it does pull you in and even gets quite emotional at the end.

[mazon2709]

Tales of Terror on MGM HD, not the best of the poe films, good to see such a great print of the movie.

Designated Victim...interesting little movie, very Stranger's on a Train.

Sleepless...I used to own a cut version, first time I'd seen it uncut. Not the best of Argento, but the nasty kills are worth watching it for....

[Ken]

Im off to the Odeon Metrocentre today to see Avatar 3D in Imax then afterwards thinking about going to see The Crazies.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by DeadAlive

SS Experiment Love Camp - I'm still finding the odd film from the video nasty list that I haven't got around to see yet. This one I can't help feeling like I wish I hadn't bothered. Maybe it was because the transfer was crap. Obviously taken from a worn pan and scan video right down to the wear and tear lines running down the screen from time to time. (There is a better one aparantly.... but not for rental.) Or maybe it was because the film itself is just not that good. A few interesting moments, but really poor on the whole.

The UK DVD is an atrocious port of the US Jef/Substance release (and devoid of anything resembling artwork). The US Media Blasters DVD is far better, though it's still an abysmal film.

"Hey, how ya doin' with my balls?"

[42ndStreetFreak]

"I Start Counting"

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvcounting.php

Wynne (Jenny Agutter), an adopted schoolgirl has a growing crush on her elder foster brother George (Bryan Marshall).

At the same time a series of local sex attacks on young women is haunting the town.....



Welcome to the world of dusty, long forgotten, stuck at the back of the highest shelf, British flicks that pushed new boundaries in content and subject but got lost in the shuffle between ‘Hammer’, ‘Amicus’, ‘Tigon’ and ‘Carry On’ films.

“I Start Counting” is a weird hybrid of kitchen sick drama, risqué coming of age flick and sex predator exploitation.

Don’t go expecting an explicit sex killer on the loose exploitation ride like the same year’s “Night, After Night, After Night”, as here the main focus is on Wynne’s growing realisation of her own sexuality and dispossession from her adopted family.

The other main point of the film is the changing times that Wynne’s generation are maturing into. This is the tail end of the swinging sixties and loud music you parents don’t like is the norm, skirts as short as can be without getting a clip round the ear are the fashion and more open and frank attitudes to sex are creeping into daily life.
And it is here that the film’s positive attributes shine forth.

These aspects of life in England during this time are a fascinating part of the film and anyone with an interest in such explosive times of social upheaval will find much to enjoy here.

Religious connection to sex is carried on throughout the film with many a pure white wall, or shining bright light dominating the scene where sometimes that purity becomes stained…like a fine scene where Wynne imagines what seems to be her Mother lying dead at the bottom of some cellar stairs, as the young version of herself touches the blood pooling under her Mum's head only to quickly wipe crimson trails upon her pretty white dress as blood that meant death to the young Wynne mirrors the menstrual blood of life that is about to enter the older Wynne’s life as her body catches up with her mind concerning her feelings for George.

The biggest metaphor though comes in the form of the sex murders.
The unseen killer is the danger that comes from her newly found desire.
The simplistic meaning is sex at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong man can be literally deadly, but they also stand for the fact that there are consequences when you become sexually active, more serious aspects to desire than just the girlish thrill of a touch or a look.
Really, I think purposely but I don’t think in a preaching way, the killer becomes the great big Catholic bogeyman of sinful sexual encounters and their repercussions.

So we have many interesting things happening within the story and the rough, gritty, look of the film also adds to the whole vibe of the time.

If the exploitation aspect of the story is tame indeed as far as the killings go, it has a bigger influence during the day to day scenes of Wynne’s life.
And it is here we just have to mention the young Jenny Agutter.
Looking as cute as the cutest thing in the house of cute in the land of much cuteness she shows that shyness has never meant much too her (as her subsequent film career would delightfully prove) as the opening credit sequence includes the 16 year old Agutter putting on and walking around in her underwear as she gets dressed into her school uniform.
I feel like a dirty old man just typing such things!

But this is not just a bit of cheeky exploitation as the carefree scene of her getting dressed shows us not only the budding young woman but that this budding young woman is still in the guise of a schoolgirl.
That contradictory time between dressing as you did when you were 12 but having the growing body and feelings of a young woman is effectively set out for us before the narrative even begins.

Agutter, away from her obvious physical presence, also delivers a genuinely satisfying acting performance as the confused, torn, Wynne.
She really comes into her own during the numerous daydream/fantasy/flashback moments and shows some real fire during the finale as the film turns into a more conventional ‘damsel in distress’ fright flick.

Away from Jenny the marvelous Bryan Marshall shows why it’s a crying shame he did not have a bigger career (his undoubted triumph is his great turn as the scheming Counselor Harris in the classic “The Long Good Friday”) as he skilfully essays George as a character we truly have no idea about as far as him being the killer is concerned.
The only other person who sticks out is the young Simon Ward (just on the cusp of a mini-breakthrough in “Frankenstein must be Destroyed”) as a rather leery Bus Conductor.

So what we have with “I Start Counting” is a real mish-mash of ideas (even genres) that sometimes works sublimely well as far as linking metaphors from one plot strand to another goes, but at times also seems to not focus enough on one aspect (the killings) while rather treading water on some of the more kitchen sink drama stuff goes.

And if the screen time is too truncated and the exploitation aspects too diluted as far as the sex killings go (away from the genuinely affective finale inside an abandoned house that delivers a couple of good, dark, shocks), the sight of a young Jenny Agutter is always going to be a big plus, as is the clever look at such a vital era in the history of Great Britain and the influence it had on those who had to crawl their way to adulthood within it.

[broonage]

Cinema outings:
- Shutter Island (excellent stuff)
- Amer (load of artistic nonsense, avoid!)
- An Education (excellent BBC production, best film so far this year)

DVD
- Violent Rome (German DVD, brilliant early Merli!)
- Designated Victim (Shameless, Milian doing serious!!)

[metaldud]

going to see from paris with love tonight ill let you know what its like later on.

[42ndStreetFreak]

"Inglorious Basterds"

Second viewing (after the cinema viewing) of QT's WW2 epic.
And once the false expectations were taken care of after the first viewing...I have to say I liked this even more than I did the first time.

Let us face it my friends. Let us face it....I can safely say the vast majority of people who went to see "IB" without any other feedback other than the pre-release hype and trailers were not expecting the film they got.

Yes indeed we thought it was going to be an OTT 'Guys on a Mission' war film, full of artistic craziness, hyper violence, spectacle and fluid dialogue we would all like to say at the time but never would because we would only think of it the next day....Basically, indeed, a QT style remake of the original "Inglorious Bastards".

Instead though we got a very unusual, down right eccentric , WW2 thriller with more drama than armour and with 'Guys on a Mission' who basically played second fiddle to a young woman when they weren't making a complete hash of their (duplicated no less) plan to wipe out Hitler and his boys.

Basically the film is a selection of individual scenes that only play as a whole at the end of them when that slender thread of a shared plotline snakes its way in and lasso's the end of each scene to pull it back into the herd.
But it works because QT is a master at time and plot manipulation and stunningly brave plot devices.
And who the hell expected the amount of subtitled dialogue we had! A brave thing to do. But not a pretentious one as this authentic dialogue set-up actually becomes essential as far as at least 2 sequences play out, where English would have made it all pointless.

The aforementioned 'montage' set-up also makes the extended running time flit along at a fair old lick and in no way does the film (especially after the first viewing, where we were all a bit thrown about what we were watching) feel like how long it is.
It also means that something new is being unveiled for us every 20 minutes or so, which keeps the interest up and the expectations high.

Everyone gives their all, no bad performance is to be seen (if Roth had not been Roth none of you moaning ****ers would have said a word...admit it. And if you thought Bad Pitt was bad you failed to grasp the basic make-up of the movie, in fact he gives a mini genius performance and you only have to look at his face and body language during the meet and greet at the movie premier to see that) with Mélanie Laurent (shockingly ignored by poncy critics) and Christoph Waltz truly shining.

The alternate history thing is still really weird even after you know about it...but in a way it cleverly ensures that (despite the dickwads, ****tards and general inbred pond dwellers that hang out in IMDB message boards may think) any insult to the real WW2 is avoided from the go.
It also opens up a rare thing indeed...An historical event covered like no other by previous films that is suddenly unexpected and intriguing.

The violence is rare, brief but amazingly brutal, the use of music is once again genius (how happy was I to hear Lalo's superlative "Kelly's Heroes" music? And Bowie has never been used to better effect) and the lack of that PC, limp wristed attitude to taking out your enemy in any way you can too, often seen in today's society in real life (and at its most self-destructive), is also tramped into the mud as 'all out war' is turned about straight into the faces of the Nazis.

Faults?
Hell, where I had them on first viewing I seem to not have them anymore!
The dual/unknown to each other assassination plots still seems a bit strange and still seems a bit clunky as far as drama goes, and how I wish the ending (Why QT!? WHY did you not do this!?) had involved an extra special full face Brad Pitt artwork instead of just the forehead thing we got.

Otherwise the mixture of cult fanboy masturbatory indulgence (Hugo mutha****in Stiglitz??!) is as glorious and lovely, lovely as ever, the serious drama is well done and effective, the violence is suitably nasty and the 'extended montage' set-up and use of other soundtrack music is wonderful and creative.

Damn it! After first viewing I thought Qt had come back to form but not to his full form. After a second viewing I think he has indeed come back to full form and it makes me damn near sexually stimulated to finally realise that!

[broonage]

Amer
An Education
Shutter Island