What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Watched this for the first time in years and holy hell. It does not disappoint.

I still love this bonkers er shoot 'em up. The action starts with a woman giving birth during a gun fight, Clive Owen coming across said baby then protecting it for the rest of the film, although god knows how when he spends half the movie flying through the air in bullet strewn mayhem.

The action never lets up from first to last. Owen is excellent as the carrot munching hero and Paul Giamatti preens as the sneering villain whilst sexy Monica Bellucci and Stephen McHattie provide memorable support.

Shoot 'em Up is a barrage of violence throughout with adolescent humour and killer tracks from Nirvana, Wolfmother, Motley Crue, Strapping Young Lad (Soothes the baby to sleep. I can totally relate to that) Iggy Pop and Motorhead peppering the soundtrack.

In 2007 Clive Owen made this, Spike Lee's Inside Man and Children of Men. Most actors would kill for that resume in their career never mind one single year.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Watched this for the first time in years and holy hell. It does not disappoint.

I still love this bonkers er shoot 'em up. The action starts with a woman giving birth during a gun fight, Clive Owen coming across said baby then protecting it for the rest of the film, although god knows how when he spends half the movie flying through the air in bullet strewn mayhem.

The action never lets up from first to last. Owen is excellent as the carrot munching hero and Paul Giamatti preens as the sneering villain whilst sexy Monica Bellucci and Stephen McHattie provide memorable support.

Shoot 'em Up is a barrage of violence throughout with adolescent humour and killer tracks from Nirvana, Wolfmother, Motley Crue, Strapping Young Lad (Soothes the baby to sleep. I can totally relate to that) Iggy Pop and Motorhead peppering the soundtrack.

In 2007 Clive Owen made this, Spike Lee's Inside Man and Children of Men. Most actors would kill for that resume in their career never mind one single year.

It's a lot of fun, yes. I can't think of a single film in which Paul Giamatti hasn't been very good or the best actor in the film. (That includes the abysmal Lady in the Water.)

Regarding Clive Owen's memorable 2007, there are few actors who will have had a better decade than Leonardo DiCaprio enjoyed in the 10 year span between 2010-2019:

• Shutter Island (2010)
• Inception (2010)
• J. Edgar (2011)
• Django Unchained (2012)
• The Great Gatsby (2013)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
• The Revenant (2015)
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

[Demoncrat]

The Dark & The Wicked (Brian Bertino)

Rural carry on from the man who brought you The Strangers.
Down at heel goat farmers find that economic worries aren't their only problem ...
Falters halfway through with the jump scares and that.
The Curse (1987) was more effective tbh.

[Demoncrat]

Disgusting Spaceworms Eat Everyone!!! (1988, George Keller)

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. GENIUS.
SOV.
Unintentionally psychedelic SF caper. Just the thing for a rainy afternoon.

A scumbag is affected by the alien invaders in his cocaine. I'd like to see Arid Aster come up with that plotline
Utterly entertaining, if a tad hard on the old peepers at points.
Beat that!!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood (2004)

A classy piece of erotic vampire cinema which stars the iconic Paul Naschy in his first American movie and boasts impressive special effects by John Carl Buechler of Friday the 13th Part IV: The New Blood.

The great Naschy performs little more than a cameo during the first twenty minutes in a flashback scene where he speaks in his native Spanish whilst co-star Mark Bedell speaks English - it makes for quite an odd piece of movie making if i'm honest. Naschy does have a great line in which he sends himself up by declaring "I don't believe in Werewolves".

As far as horror films go it's nothing more than a silicon enhanced soft-core romp with lengthy sequences of girl on girl action, many featuring the voluptuous Glori-Anne Gilbert - think Andy Sidaris goes horror with a blonde Julie Strain and you'll be on the right track. Special mention goes out to Renfield (Del Howison), he's an absolute hoot nibbling on flies from a silver snuff box whilst looking more like he should be selling out arena's with Foreigner or Journey with his white flowing locks and silk shirt.

Set design is good, the acting reasonable and there's plenty of blood sucking (most often off boobs), all in all Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood ups the stakes when it comes to erotic horror cinema.

[Demoncrat]

Sold!

...and we'll call it a draw

[Dave Boy]

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THE ABOMINATION (1986)

A woman coughs up a what she thinks is a tumor. It gets inside her son and makes him kill. The beast then grows and lives in the kitchen cupboards and toilet now a monster with huge teeth...

Bloody hell! Low budget barrel scraping splatter movie. Z grade effects midway through the movie and the blood splats freely around. Knives,chainsaws, monsters, oh my! One for when you are drunk.

[Demoncrat]

It's a master piece. SOV AF

REWATCH!!!

[Demoncrat]

The Panther Squad (1984, Pierre Chevalier)

Woooooooooooooh etc. Sybil Danning? Jack Taylor?? Donald O'Brien???
SOLD.
International SF actioner. A hoot. RLM fans will know this one already, but for those uninitiated .... a third tier delight indeed. The dialogue is .... Brechtian in it's simplicity The ST is a joy .... and Jack is revelatory ....


REWATCH!!!



The Psychotronic Man (1979, Jack M. Sell)

..... and where's this been all my life already ??? A passion project which predates a certain Cronenberg flick by a year cough, it's professionalism belieing its somewhat skewed nature.
The film that RLM should review cough.
Might be revisiting ths one in February ahem.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Duel in the Jungle (1954)

Decent if not terribly memorable adventure film starring Dana (Curse of the Demon) Andrews.

For whatever reasons i preferred the opening half hour set in England and the voyage on the ship to the actual jungle hi-jinks. Possibly because the dialogue allowed the characters to grow on me rather than simply have them running round the jungle amid stock footage animals.

Admittedly the Technicolor photography shot on location in Rhodesia is impressive as well as being quite beautiful and there are genuinely tense scenes, whilst David Farrar is a good villain.

Watched via the Network dvd.