What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Maximum Conviction (2012)

From IMDB - When former black ops operative Cross (Steven Seagal) and his partner Manning (Steve Austin) are assigned to decommission an old prison, they must oversee the arrival of two mysterious female prisoners. Before long, an elite force of mercenaries assault the prison in search of the new arrivals. As the true identities of the women are revealed, Cross realizes he's caught in the middle of something far bigger than he had imagined.

Yes Maximum Conviction is a team up of action superstar Steven Seagal and Wrestler / actor 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Not quite The Expendables but Keoni Waxman's film will entertain action fans.

As with many of these direct to dvd features Seagal stars in, the plot is or at least seems so convoluted, in fact for twenty minutes i really wasn't sure if i'd even get to the end of it. The good news is it soon becomes a game of hunters and hunted in an old fashioned action movie style as the two Steve's work side by side to rid the huge prison of what seems like a whole battalion of mercenaries, bullet by bullet, fist by fist. Thankfully this is one of the films where Seagal actually bothers to show up for more than five minutes and we don't have body doubles for anything but close ups nor do we have a dubbed Seagal. To the uninitiated these may seem odd features of a film but with Steven Seagal they are usually the difference between a good film and a dire one.

Thankfully Maximum Conviction turns out to be a lot of fun. Seagal has a couple of hand to hand fights (I love his style, he's never the aggressor, but uses the person's body weight and momentum to his own advantage), whilst Austin causes general mayhem in a likable way.

Maximum Conviction isn't a film that will win either star any new fans but it is a reminder that Seagal can still make decent action films which are just as entertaining as anything the studios put into cinemas.

[dis]

HI ALL,last night I watched "MARTYRS".
THE subtitled version by optimum releasing.
I enjoyed the film, but did find it hard to understand, and im still not sure I fully understand it!
the way I see it,is this;

girl escapes and leaves a 2nd behind.
15 years later she returns and kills the people who locked her up.
she then as visions of the girl she left behind.
escaped girl cuts herself,thinking she is being attacked by the girl she left.
the actual girl that was left is there but she is still underneath the house,chained up.
she gets freed,then shot by ??????
the other girl {lesbian partner?},then gets chained up,beaten and skinned.
think I got confused by now,so if anyone can explain it will be much appreciated.

think I may need to re view this film.

thanks

[Cinematic Shocks]

Suicide Squad (2016)

Extended cut.

*** out of *****

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Cinematic Shocks

Suicide Squad (2016)

Extended cut.

*** out of *****

Did you see the Theatrical version, and is that 3 out of 5 an improvement?

I scored it a 1.5 out of 5 after my initial viewing...

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

It's a film I very much enjoy as well. Part of that is down to it being 'lean and mean' and, by runtime, the shortest of all the Halloween films, which is odd because it doesn't skimp on character development or exposition.



Intentional or not, and perhaps not as it ignores Halloween 3-6, I also like that H20 is the chemical equation for water, which has a pH balance of 7.0; this is the seventh Halloween film.

You're probably already aware that Kevin Williamson's script included a scene where the students are doing an assignment on serial killers, and one gives a talk on Michael Myers, and mentions that Jamie Llloyd was murdered, on hearing that her daugter is dead, Laurie runs to the bathroom and throws up.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

You're probably already aware that Kevin Williamson's script included a scene where the students are doing an assignment on serial killers, and one gives a talk on Michael Myers, and mentions that Jamie Llloyd was murdered, on hearing that her daugter is dead, Laurie runs to the bathroom and throws up.

I heard something like that years ago and wished it had been filmed so was available either as a deleted scene or in an extended cut of the film.

Have you seen the 2003 TV version or read the comic book Halloween: Sam? I haven't seen either.

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Did you see the Theatrical version, and is that 3 out of 5 an improvement?

I scored it a 1.5 out of 5 after my initial viewing...

I'm just going to chime in here and tell you that I too rated the theatrical cut a 1.5/5, and the extended cut is still a 1.5/5. It's still a complete mess and they haven't given us the original director's cut.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Venom (1981)

Growing up in the early 80's was different to how it is now. One of the main reasons being just three, then four television channels. However those channels used to show what i consider to be almost mythical films and programmes. The kind you got a sneaky watch of that would then stay with you for the rest of your life. Piers Haggard's Venom was one of those films.

My main memory was of a dangerous Black Mamba snake slithering around inside a large London townhouse populated by crooks, then appearing occasionally to bite and poison some unfortunate soul to their death.

In truth i found out that was the basic premise to Venom as well, having just watched it last night courtesy of Blue Underground's dvd for the first time since those heady days of the eighties. The film is fairly basic in plot set up with the whole thing being a siege with kidnappers inside and police outside, plus of course, one deadly snake.

The film has a great cast from the time including Sterling Hayden, Oliver Reed, Klaus Kinski, Susan George, Sarah Miles and Nicol Williamson, plus the supporting cast are mainly all well known which proves a treat for those who like to star spot. However the film kind of lets this terrific ensemble down a little. Whilst it has suspense it's perhaps a little light on thrills as snake attacks aside not an awful lot happens following the first half hour ,with the middle third playing out as a shouting match between Reed and Kinski with the excitement of the siege not coming into play until the final third. When they come the snake attacks are still savage and indeed gruesome and i realize why they ingrained their selves on my mind as an impressionable kid.

Venom is a solid British thriller, competent, interesting and intermittently exciting rather than brilliant, but well worth having in any collection of British cinema.

Just watched this again and would definitely up my appraisal of it. I don't give scores but if i judged it as a six and a half first time round then it would be nearer eight now.

[Cinematic Shocks]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Did you see the Theatrical version, and is that 3 out of 5 an improvement?

I scored it a 1.5 out of 5 after my initial viewing...

I haven't seen the theatrical version. I know it isn't a good film, but there's enough good stuff in it to keep me entertained. It's a mixed bag, but I think the positives outweigh its negative aspects. The characters, the humour, and the strong performances on the whole are what made it work for me for an ultimately entertaining watch.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Didn't know that. Probably turned out like Twilight...not that i know what they are actually like.

Methinks the Dike protesteth too much tee hee

for Radcliffe fans, I urge you to see Swiss Army Man, as tis the funniest film I've seen this week....and I watched a documentary about National Lampoon as well haha.



AAANyway....I watched Ghoulies (1984, Luca Bercovici)
Somewhat more Lovecraftian than I remembered, the tale of a scion returning to the fold to discover an ancient prophecy...and beasties, certainly held my attention more than

Friend Request (2016, Simon Verhoeven)
Which to my mind wasn't as good as Unfriended. He has none of his father's touch as far as this goes, and the lead just reminded me of Jennifer Love Hewitt (so that's a minus??), who may have massive TITS but cannot act worth a flip ahem. Did make me jump a few times, so there was that.....