What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[gag]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

Just watched Death Note (adam wingard/netflix) and holy crap was that inept! Loved the manga/anime, not so keen on the previous live action films but this was just tonally odd! Lol! Felt like it was a parody at times!

After that, did 40 mins of the suspiria remake.....going to bed now, will resume tomorrow.

Note to self: stop watching remakes!

Now and again get the odd remake that hits the spot and worthy , went cinema tonight to watch Pet sematary remake quite decent and enjoyed it , partner didn't go because she said she wouldn't be able to look at her cats the same again .

[Paul Zombie]

Angst(1983)

An insane maniac(Erwin Leder) enjoys torturing and killing. and goes to the house of an elderly woman and shoots her dead for fun. after serving 10 years in jail for the crime, he is released and can't wait to find new victims to kill.

this is a obscure Austrian film in a similar style to Henry Portrait of a Serial killer, but even grimmer.
actor Erwin Leder is incredibly chilling as the nerdy looking lunatic and gives a very realistic performance indeed.

And with some very nasty scenes of violence as well, especially when he murders a family, including the disabled son and mother. and brutally stabbing the daughter to death and raping her corpse.

Not exactly a film that you can call entertaining. but it is strangely compelling and very well made, with superb camera work, and music in a giallo type score. and from a killer's POV. So will still give it 72 for that reason alone.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Untamed (2016)

Angsty Mexican drama that's 90% grim social realism and 10% Lovecratian shagfest.

Had it been the other way round then we're talking minor classic but as it is it's just a pissed off Mexican Mike Leigh offering with a bit of weirdness to alleviate the misery.

[Dave Boy]

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THE SPIDERS WEB (1938)
15 Part Columbia Serial.

The Spider, masked vigilante sets out to stop The Octopus and his plans for crippling industry with his reign of terror..

Based on the pulp magazine character. This is great fun as Richard Wentworth is The Spider and also goes undercover as criminal Blinky McQuade.
Action packed, gun fights and car chases.
The cliffhangers are spoilt as the narrator ends with "Will he survive"? and then shows clips from the next episode showing our heroes fighting again. Ha ha.

SpWeb1b.JPG sr65_octopus.jpg

[SymbioticFunction]

Really enjoyed rewatching Solomon Kane. Hadn't seen it in years. If memory serves correctly it didn't get an American theatrical release which is quite unfair. Another Robert E. Howard adaption that was released around the same time, got a wide release and that was incredibly disappointing imo (a modern day Conan). There's a few 'hero shots' but you feel that the film actually earnt it. The lead character is likeable and the authentic regional accent was a brave choice, also good actors throughout. Lots of fun, would easily award a 8/10 film score (and my wife feels the same way).

[MrBarlow]

Forbidden Planet 1956.

A small crew investigate a planet's colony and discover two survivors, a robot and a secret.

A young Leslie Nielsen before he became a comedy actor takes on a serious role of Commander Adams in this Sci-fi flick that's a bit like a damsel in distress played by Anne Francis who seems to enjoy wearing something small. Walter Pidgeon plays Dr Morbius who has discovered something on the planet but wants it for himself. Being a 50s B movie the special effects were decent at the time but more laughable now aswell as the wooden acting but still a pleasure to watch this classic piece of movie art. 8 out of 10.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

After that, did 40 mins of the suspiria remake.....going to bed now, will resume tomorrow.

Tried watching the Suspiria remake. I stopped it around 65 minutes in. Wasn't enjoying it at all, it genuinely felt like a chore to watch. It took 30 minutes before anything remotely interesting began to happen and the cinematography was extremely bland and boring. Round about the time some witches were laughing at a man's exposed penis may have been when I lost any remaining patience for it. Worth noting that I find it difficult to get excited about dance sequences, if I did, I'd probably be a fan of Fame. btw I realise that this will be a contraversial post as everyone else seems to love Suspiria 2018.

[Paul Zombie]

I Spit on your Grave(2010)

A young woman Jennifer hills(Sarah butler) has rented a cabin in the remote wilderness so that she can work on her book. and comes to the attention of a bunch of hillbillies who work at a petrol station. and later they break in and rape her. thinking that she's dead when she later jumps off a bridge into the river, they find themselves victims of her brutal revenge.

A remake of the notorious original directed by meir Zarchi. this version directed by Steven monroe sticks pretty much to the original story but adds a few extras, including more elaborate deaths and a bent cop.
it's actually pretty well made and acted, but i found it rather unremarkable like most remakes are. It seemed to lack the raw grittiness of the original and the rapists all seem a bit one dimensional.
But the most ridiculous aspect of it is the revenge parts. it is all so unbelievable and more like torture porn out of Hostel. and i found it rather hilarious that a frail girl like Sarah butler could recover that quickly after being brutally gangraped and was able to set up all these Saw style ingeniuous methods of death.

But overall it was still watchable, just nothing outstanding. like the pointless Last house on the left remake 68 out of 100.

[Frankie Teardrop]

CLIMAX – Gasper Noe’s bad trip version of ‘Fame’, wherein a dance troupe imbibes spiked booze following a lengthy workout. The claustrophobic awfulness of having a shite time on drugs surrounded by shrill narcissists is convincingly handled through pulsating atmospherics, camera work and lighting rather than yawnsome ‘acid’ type fx; an imposingly downer ambiance reigns throughout. In keeping with a lot of his other stuff, it all seems to take place within a single, ever-throbbing ‘now’ and is quite impressive formally, especially with that dance routine out front. Just say Noe, kids!

SEASON OF THE WITCH – Maybe Romero’s finest, after ‘Martin’? It’s definitely one of his most accomplished flicks, just not as iconic as spotlight-stealers such as ‘Dawn’ etc etc. It’s a sympathetic portrait of suburban alienation that follows a depressed housewife as she struggles to free herself from her socially imposed role, part of which involves her embracing the occult. Interestingly, not only is straight society under scrutiny here – some of that ‘free love’ sold by the hippies was just misogynistic, rapey bullshit, as manifested by the movie’s cynical playboy character. A nuanced, haunting film.

POSSUM – A real stunner from none other than Garth Merenghi. Don’t expect a whimsical cocktail of lovable horror clichés – this is searing, disturbing stuff. The always slightly ghoulish looking Sean Harris plays an isolated figure in a tormented relationship with his puppet, a really creepy human-headed spider. Harris’s psyche unravels against a bleak backdrop of suburban decay; a grim backstory of abuse evolves. Everything about this, from Harris’s stunted but enigmatic portrayal to the evocation of a claustrophobic seventies / eighties Englishness, is great. A serious horror film, for once. The year isn’t out yet by any means, but I don’t expect to see a better genre movie for some time.

HER NAME WAS TORMENT – A nameless, apparently faceless detainee recounts the torture of some dude in this flick from the director of ‘Skinless’. A very torture-porn type set up (guy strapped to chair, slow evolution from nail-ripping to eye extraction etc etc), but we do get to see some gratuitous necrophilia and some intriguingly surreal asides that seem to involve extra-terrestrial communication of some sort. It’s short in length but long on unanswered questions - as some reviews have noted, it feels like a teaser before the main course, presumably a not-too-distant sequel. Good though, it’s always nice to see some unabashedly nasty shit

[John Matrix]

Once Upon A Time In China - 7/10

Classic Jet Li and Tsui Hark film. Jet still needing a set of wires to get out of bed but it's beautifully shot with a good story. Yuen Biao also has a supporting role in it where he some how reigns in his genius so as not to embarrass Jet.


Who Am I? - 5/10

Half decent late 90s Jackie Chan film, with the familiar plot line where Jackie
gets mixed up in something and where the bad guys think Jackie has something on him that they want.


Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - 8/10

Think this is the first film where Bette Davis plays a mental old zoomer. Her and Joan Crawford are superb in it with them sparring in every scene.


Butterfly and Sword - 3/10

As much I don't mind Donnie Yen, he's a bit overrated. Wee Jet was at least able to do proper kung fu action in the early Shaolin Temple films.
This is just the most generic shit 90s wirework kung fu film where every shot is filmed with the camera tilted about 30 degrees to the left or apparently sitting on the floor, with lots of shots of things flying through the air.


Game of Death - Undeserving of a score.

The most disgusting pile of shite ever made. Cu*ts should have got the jail for thinking it was ok to release this. Not even the fact Fung Hak On is the original person in the iconic yellow costume can earn it a point. May he rest in peace.


Challenge of the Masters - 8/10

Classic Lau Kar Leung with his brother and Gordon Lui in it. Donnie Yen doesn't even come close to these legends. Wee Gordy plays a version of Wong Fei Hung and ends up getting trained by Chen Kwan Tai to take on Lau Kar Wing. The main sort of plot regards some mad game where teams try and capture firecrackers like some sort of primitive chinese version of rugby.