What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

I got my ticket booked for Dune Part 2 for tonight

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Animals (2008)

Marc Blucas plays a down and out former football player fired from his job on a building site when he comes into contact with the gorgeous Nicki Aycox in a local dive bar (much to the annoyance of waitress Eva Amurri), a young woman with shape shifting abilities on the run from a former lover (Naveen Andrews) who is out for blood.

A direct to dvd take on well, i'm not sure actually. Shape shifters generally means wolves in the horror sense but they were more vampires here until the CGI finale where they became strange blurry creatures scrapping in a woefully edited way.

The bulk of the film is made up of Blucas and Aycox building their relationship. When i say that i mean f*cking. Almost none stop. You can barely go a scene in the middle third of the movie without seeing her breasts bouncing or his arse thrusting away.

That said they don't really make films like this anymore and it was quite refreshing seeing tv stars (Blucas, Aycox, Amurri and Andrews are all better known for their tv work than films*) shedding their inhibitions in this sexy, gory and fun creature f*ck fest.

One of those films that i've seen a couple of times now over the years and left long enough between viewings is a decent time waster.

*Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Californication, Lost

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Knight and Day (2010)

Tom Cruise plays a rogue agent on the run from the CIA who meets Cameron Diaz on a routine flight and the pair end up on a globetrotting cat and mouse chase.

Basically this is Ethan Hunt on his holidays with Diaz in tow on a North By Northwest style adventure and it's so much fun. Although the plot is in a way superfluous to the wild action packed ride and gloriously juicy dialogue, director James Mangold somehow keeps everything in check and just the right side of madcap.

Think the Cary Grant / Audrey Hepburn movie Charade with relentless action, a breezy tone and Cruise and Diaz both charming to a tee.

Hugely enjoyable once again this third time round.

Marc Blucas has a small role as Diaz's fireman boyfriend but unlike Animals (above) he's not naked half the time.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Naked Lunch. 1991.

A 1950s bug exterminator begins t drug abuse on his own cheicals and begins to see bugs, accidentally shoots his wife and uncovers a mysterious plot.

ave never read the book but be interesting to see how the book and movie are different from each other.

Attachment 250206

I read Naked Lunch around the time the film came out, it's completely different, a random collection of vignettes, loosely following William Lee who is a version of Burroughs. It features characters that appear in the film like Dr Benway and involves Interzone and the black market, but is more of a stream of consciousness than a narrative novel.
I've also read Cities of the Red night by Burroughs which is fairly similar, he's a fascinating writer but you really have to just take in the style and imagery he throws on to the page, as some of his ideas and thoughts are pretty outrageous,violent,darkly sexual and scatalogical. As such the novel could never be filmed as it reads.

I'm pretty sure Cronenberg has cited Burroughs as a major influence on him, with parasitical organs and psychic organisations featuring in Burroughs work, so the film is like a hybrid crossbreeding of their styles.

The film is kind of Cronenberg taking the essence and ideas in the novel and combining it with Burroughs own life. The "William Tell routine" is directly based on an incident where he killed his wife in a drunken party game.
Burroughs was addicted to heroin most of his adult life, so the bug powder directly reflects this, he also experimented with the cut up technique of writing, where he would cut up words and sentences and reassemble them as a way to open up abstract thought and a kind of automatic writing.

I'm pretty sure i read he said he couldn't recollect writing the novel.

[nosferatu42]

Internet was twatting about so accidentally posted same thing twice.

[MrBarlow]

Dune Part Two.

Denis Villeneuve managed to prove himself as one of the most promising filmmakers when he took the helm to make Dune. A book that was tough to make for David Lynch, yet Denis managed to go with it. In this chapter he goes deep within the story of fighting and survival and leading a army for revenge. The visual effects are stunning, the pace of the film is a bit slow but you still get immersed in the story line. Austin Butler takes on the role that was previously played by Sting in the original and makes him more menacing and psychotic. Certainly worth watching.

dune-part-two.jpg

[Frankie Teardrop]

TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD - A woman wanders in the shadows of a derelict abbey. The camera prowls or is still, feeding us crumbling arches and licheny buttresses - this feels like ruin porn. Then the wind moans as that bell tolls in slow motion - Tombs Of The Blind Dead', I'm under your spell. Wow, I'd completely forgotten how much I dig this one. I'm stating the obvious, but it's such a Eurohorror highlight, pure mouldering atmosphere incarnate. Beyond a creaky plot about moderns ignorant of the curse of the past, TOTBD feels like a dreamwards descent into dark mist. The nuts and bolts are all in place; De Ossorio really knows what makes a weird tale weird. He's careful to cultivate an air of mystery by way of the forgotten town no-one talks about, the locals who are all a bit furtive about why that train won't stop, the feeling of conspiracy that lingers in the shade beside the swimming pool. But so much of this is about imagery, for TOTBD makes such indelible impressions. If everyone remembers the living dead on horseback, riding through the twilight in slow motion, there's also the leering morgue assistant beneath his swinging lampshade, the toad in a pool of blood, the mannequin factory bathed in pulsing red neon. When The Blind Dead drink the blood of their victims, it's like they're suckling - ugh! This is backed by a woozy soundtrack made up of chanting, organ, bells and musique concrete. Glancing weaknesses mostly involve bits of investigation and 'procedural' that ring a bit perfunctory. Even these are full of sly inversions - De Ossorio sets up an encounter that looks like it'll send things off in a blaze of heroics, but all thoughts of tough guys saving the day are upended when one of them turns out to be foul rapist and the other spends ages trying to get through a door only to have his arm lopped off! There's a nihilistic wit at work alongside the sepulchral vibes. But what vibes. And what a horrible ending!

THE PRICE WE PAY - The price we pay is that in our world of A24, there can be no real torture porn. "Nah", said Ryuhei Kitamura as he spat in the eyes of the tastemakers. He went on to make 'The Price We Pay', an instant hit of nostalgia for anyone whose warm memories include 99p Cex pick-ups of mid noughts sub-'Hostel' slush. Kitamura has made a few interesting films. I quite like 'Midnight Meat Train' even if it does butcher the Barker, but my fave has to be the semi-delirious 'No One Lives', a film brimming with thunderous gore and OTT neo-noirism. 'The Price We Pay' is a bit weak. The things that signpost a possible good time - brisk, no nonsense set up, brute violence in a cellar, a female Leatherface who keeps making coo-ing sounds - fade out into bland theatrics and a cult leader who seems a bit like Richard Branson. It's alright - but is THAT alright?

[Rob4]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Dune Part Two.

Denis Villeneuve managed to prove himself as one of the most promising filmmakers when he took the helm to make Dune. A book that was tough to make for David Lynch, yet Denis managed to go with it. In this chapter he goes deep within the story of fighting and survival and leading a army for revenge. The visual effects are stunning, the pace of the film is a bit slow but you still get immersed in the story line. Austin Butler takes on the role that was previously played by Sting in the original and makes him more menacing and psychotic. Certainly worth watching.

Attachment 250220

Going to watch it next week... hopefully at the IMAX

Read the book when I was a teenager, and loved it. The first part, despite not presenting the two juvenile leads quite how I imagined them, really captured the essence of the book.

[gag]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I read Naked Lunch around the time the film came out, it's completely different, a random collection of vignettes, loosely following William Lee who is a version of Burroughs. It features characters that appear in the film like Dr Benway and involves Interzone and the black market, but is more of a stream of consciousness than a narrative novel.
I've also read Cities of the Red night by Burroughs which is fairly similar, he's a fascinating writer but you really have to just take in the style and imagery he throws on to the page, as some of his ideas and thoughts are pretty outrageous,violent,darkly sexual and scatalogical. As such the novel could never be filmed as it reads.

I'm pretty sure Cronenberg has cited Burroughs as a major influence on him, with parasitical organs and psychic organisations featuring in Burroughs work, so the film is like a hybrid crossbreeding of their styles.

The film is kind of Cronenberg taking the essence and ideas in the novel and combining it with Burroughs own life. The "William Tell routine" is directly based on an incident where he killed his wife in a drunken party game.
Burroughs was addicted to heroin most of his adult life, so the bug powder directly reflects this, he also experimented with the cut up technique of writing, where he would cut up words and sentences and reassemble them as a way to open up abstract thought and a kind of automatic writing.

I'm pretty sure i read he said he couldn't recollect writing the novel.

Yes I'm sure I heard that as well and when he went to read it he had no idea wtf it was all about and struggle to understand it. Or something along those lines, cos like stated he wrote when on drugs.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Black Room (1935)

A pair of identical twins are plagued by a curse that foretells that," just as the family began with the elder twin killing the younger, so it shall end".

Boris Karloff shows his acting class in this film where he has a dual role as two identical brothers, one good and one evil as sin. Naturally we root for the decent and sympathetic brother but Karloff plays Gregor, a proper Mr. nasty, with glee.

The Black Room is a delightful macabre Gothic romp featuring murder and secret torture chambers. The black room in question is a deep pit with spikes at the bottom where the evil Gregor dumps the bodies of local girls once he has had his way with them.

It must be noted that the special effects in this film are excellent. Karloff is frequently on screen in both roles and the picture is seamless. Although the film was made by Columbia rather than Universal, the films sets are just as pleasing to the eye, lovely east European villages, stunning mansions and beautiful set design all add up to produce a finely crafted seventy minutes of entertainment