What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Dave Boy]

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MOTHER RILEY MEETS THE VAMPIRE (1952)

Mother Riley has a radio controlled robot delivered to her by mistake. The robot should have been delivered to a man known as 'The Vampire'.
When the robot is whisked back off to The Vampire, Mother Riley heads off with it..

Loud and screeching screwball comedy. Notable for being one of only three films made by Bela Lugosi in England. The others being DARK EYES OF LONDON (1939) and MYSTERY OF THE MARIE CELESTE (1935).
Bela and a host of well known British actors make this watchable although the antics of Mother Riley and her screeching voice become grating. For me anyway.
This was the last in the Old Mother Riley series of films.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD

A restoration and colourisation of World War I footage as part of Peter Jackson's labour of love for many things connected with that particular conflict is formed into a loose narrative spanning the five years of the war. With forensic lip readers able to provide a 'script' of what was being said by the men in the film stock and other information from interviews and letters, it gives a vivid insight into World War I by the British people who did most of the fighting and dying, rather than military tacticians, the 'top brass', politicians or social historians.

It spans from people joining up to the Armistice and afterwards, with voice contributions from real soldiers, sound effects, and edited with photographs and posters from the time to create an astonishingly powerful and emotional experience. Because some of the footage was originally either 10 or 18 frames per second and has been 'smoothed' to a more natural look with computers creating composite frames so it is now 24fps there is occasionally a slightly surreal, ghostly look to the faces which makes it all the more affecting. Additionally, the footage includes real dead bodies (human, horse and rat), injuries, and is all the better for this 'warts and all' approach to the industrial scale war.

The film is an incredible technical achievement and one to be admired rather than enjoyed. It has apparently been bought by Warner Bros and will be distributed in more cinemas prior to the BBC showing it on Armistice Day. I'm very glad I saw it at a cinema because although I think it will work on TV, I don't think that would be quite the same as seeing it on a very big screen with an audience. If it is showing somewhere near you and there are some tickets available, take the chance to witness something very special.

[iank]

Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers. A year after supposedly being blown to bits down a mineshaft, Michael Myers returns, again targeting his young niece Jamie (Danielle Harris), and again an increasingly frazzled Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is the only one really standing in his way... This 1989 sequel, a direct follow up to the previous year's Halloween 4, often comes in for a lot of stick, and it's certainly flawed - the decision to kill off Rachel (one of the previous film's two female leads) so early is a bummer, the character of Tina is annoying as hell, and the unexplained "Man in Black" subplot (that leads to a cliffhanger ending) is somewhat dubious at best. And yet, for all that, which is why I haven't seen this for so long, I really enjoyed it! Pleasance and Harris are as good as ever, there's some very stylish and atmospheric direction, and the last half hour in particular has some killer scenes (Michael chasing Jamie in the fields in the car, the laundry chute sequence, Loomis going absolutely ape**** on a trapped Michael). I had a better time with this than Halloween 2018!

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers. A year after supposedly being blown to bits down a mineshaft, Michael Myers returns, again targeting his young niece Jamie (Danielle Harris), and again an increasingly frazzled Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is the only one really standing in his way... This 1989 sequel, a direct follow up to the previous year's Halloween 4, often comes in for a lot of stick, and it's certainly flawed - the decision to kill off Rachel (one of the previous film's two female leads) so early is a bummer, the character of Tina is annoying as hell, and the unexplained "Man in Black" subplot (that leads to a cliffhanger ending) is somewhat dubious at best. And yet, for all that, which is why I haven't seen this for so long, I really enjoyed it! Pleasance and Harris are as good as ever, there's some very stylish and atmospheric direction, and the last half hour in particular has some killer scenes (Michael chasing Jamie in the fields in the car, the laundry chute sequence, Loomis going absolutely ape**** on a trapped Michael). I had a better time with this than Halloween 2018!

Part 5 sucks big time. Mute Jamie just makes me laugh. Her silent screams are hilarious (and not in a good way). And who the hell thought it would be a good idea to put silly comedy noises on the soundtrack whenever the 2 inept cops (who wouldn’t even qualify for a Police Academy film) appear? Plus, one of the worst masks in the series all adds up to a stinker.

[iank]

If you say so. As I say, I found it more compelling on every level than the bad fan-fiction I watched at the cinema last week.

[Paul Zombie]

Four flies on Grey Velvet.

A rock drummer Roberto(Michael brandon) is getting followed by a mysterious chap and ends up accidently stabbing him to death when he confronts him. but ends up getting blackmailed by someone wearing a bizarre mask who takes photos of the murder.

I have to say that i didn't like this film at all when i first watched it. but i must admit that i found it a lot more enjoyable this time around. yes, i still think that Michael brandon is a boring lead and Mimsy Farmer who plays his wife in the film is still as exciting as a lamp post , but apart from that i did find the plot quite interesting and Dario's style is still there in the camera work and the key murder scenes in the park and the woman going down the stairs, plus the idea behind the 4 flies clue is quite intriging as well.

The comedy is still a bit overdone though, and while i don't mind his attempts at humour like in Cat and Bird, i still think it was a bit too much in this film, with the tramp God, and the Hallelujah, the other tramp who was a cross between Groucho Marks and Woody Allen, the porno mailman, and the camp private eye chap who was useless at solving cases, oh and not forgetting the
strange coffin convention.

not too bad at all though, and a film that seems to improve on repeated viewings 72 out of 100.

[troggi]

This afternoon, to stop myself from falling into that fugue state known as "JUST STOP SNORING, WILL YOU?" to Mrs troggi, I watched the entertaining "Fear Itself" (2015) which I had recorded on BBC4 last night. I loved it, Mrs troggi - not so much. It was an effective attempt at answering the question "do horror films know us better than we know ourselves?" using clips from a plethora of films and a singularly monotone voice-over. It was the use of the monotone voice-over that seperated Mrs troggi and I, she calling it "an annoying drone" and I just realising that I quite like typing the word "monotone"! Monotone (see it works just as well with a capital "M")!

Well worth a rewatch (maybe not whilst drowsy)! MMM, MONOTONE!

[Paul Zombie]

The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh.

Julie Wardh(Edwige fenech) has married a diplomat who she doesnt love so that she could escape from her former partner Jean(Ivan Rassamov) a kinky chap who has bats as pets and likes rough sex.
and fears for her life from a black gloved maniac who is terrorising the town and hacking up young girls.

top notch giallo action from director Sergio Martino who makes films as almost good as Argento. This one in particulor is very good indeed, mixing twists and turns with great suspense and sex and violence, and with great flash back sequences were Mrs Wardh has fun with broken glass and in the rain.

Edwige as usual is gorgeous in her sexy outfits and without them, and is definately the giallo queen. Ivan Rassimov is also superb as the creepy Jean who may or not be the razor killer. and giallo regular George Hilton is very good too as the playboy who is out to seduce the sexy Edwige.

Yes i like this one a lot with the haunting giallo music and it gets top scoring of 92 out of 100.

[MrBarlow]

The First Purge. 2018

The new founding fathers of a political stance introduced The Purge as an experiment on Staten Island in order to reduce the crime rate.

This seems a bit mild compared to the other Purge movies (anarchy and election year) I was expecting full blown mayhem, more kills etc. This is more different it seems to centre on the people of Harlem. Not going say anymore as there doesn't seem to be much comments about it. 4-5 out of 10.

[gag]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The First Purge. 2018

The new founding fathers of a political stance introduced The Purge as an experiment on Staten Island in order to reduce the crime rate.

This seems a bit mild compared to the other Purge movies (anarchy and election year) I was expecting full blown mayhem, more kills etc. This is more different it seems to centre on the people of Harlem. Not going say anymore as there doesn't seem to be much comments about it. 4-5 out of 10.

Reason why there wasn't more kills etc is because the storyline is about how the purge started . I wasn't keen on this one at all and thought it could have been so much better, the next purge film is going to be the last which in a way is good because their going to quit while there ahead, I didn't mind the rest and the series , while the films are no classic they are decent and like stated before reason why I think their OK is because the film industry needs something fresh and different for a change and the purge is exactly that .