What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Urban Explorers (2011)

A group of young tourists hire a local guide for an unofficial tour of underground tunnels and fortifications and other relics from the Cold War under the streets of Berlin.

Featuring an unnerving historical back story, the tunnels featured (The film was actually fully shot in Berlin) were, after all, just dark sewer style passageways and abandoned factory style rooms thus making the first half of the film a little samey. I mean. You can only shine a flash light at a rat so many times can't you before it becomes wearisome.

It's during the second half where the ante is upped when the group receive help from a seemingly kindly man inhabiting the tunnels but is in fact a deranged psycho in the guise of a former Berlin border guard. The guard is a genuinely nasty piece of work and proves a terrifying foe with his striking resemblance to a gnarled Lee Marvin.

Whilst not as good as the similarly themed Death Line or Chris Smith's Creep, Urban Explorers with it's shock ending is superior to the majority of slashers in this genre. Chernobyl Diaries, Catacombs - looking at you here. However as a film that gives you a peak into the history of a notorious city it was also pretty interesting with it.

[nicholasrope]

Juror #2

Nicholas Hoult is selected for Jury Duty on a Murder Case but he may have accidentally killed the victim himself. Therefore he investigates whilst trying to get the accused off. This was a tense, intelligent Thriller with some excellent performances from Hoult and Toni Collette.

Red One

Santa Claus has been kidnapped and it's up to Bodyguard (Dwayne Johnson) and Thief (Chris Evans) to rescue him. What should have been a fun enjoyable Xmas Movie is instead a somewhat heavy/clunky story.

Such a waste

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Juror #2

Nicholas Hoult is selected for Jury Duty on a Murder Case but he may have accidentally killed the victim himself. Therefore he investigates whilst trying to get the accused off. This was a tense, intelligent Thriller with some excellent performances from Hoult and Toni Collette.

That's the new Clint Eastwood film isn't it. Look forward to seeing that when it hits Blu.

[Justin101]

You're supposed to tell the court if you have a conflict of interest with the case would have been a much shorter film though lol...

[Dave Boy]

s-l400.jpg
MEN OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1954)

Robin Hood and his men, along with the Lady Alys, try to find the hidden secret plans which tell of the arrival of King Richard back from his captivity in Germany..

Hammer's first colour film is a lively and light hearted romp. Colourful and a good fun movie for a lazy afternoon. Don Taylor is a likable Robin and Reginald Beckwith's Friar Tuck supplies the jovial tricks.
No Maid Marion here but we have Eileen Moore as Lady Alys who helps the heroes from the castle.
Exteriors of the castle and entrance ways were filmed at Bodium Castle in East Sussex. A fantastic looking castle that I have been to many times. Visit if you are around the area.. it's the ultimate looking moated castle!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

BBFC Rated 15.

Contains violence, language and Joe Pesci.

[Frankie Teardrop]

LONGLEGS - One of this year's many high-profile horror releases, Osgood Perkins' 'Longlegs' demonstrates again his knack for gloomy but impressively manicured visual style. It's what's striking about this tribute to nineties psycho-thrillers (Perkins has acknowledged a debt to 'Silence Of The Lambs' and 'Se7en'), and 'Longlegs' picks up whenever the camera closes in on dreary rural backwaters full of isolated barns and semi collapsed houses, or prowls grot-strewn rooms where sinister dolls await. Would you expect anything less than full-tilt mood from the director of 'The Blackcoat's Daughter'? 'Longlegs' does not quite sustain the grim magic of that film; it's not so much the introduction of Nicolas Cage, whose loud performance as a powder puffed semi-demonic seventies rock aficionado is widely held as a misfire, more a conventional climax that seems tone deaf to the preceding atmosphere. But overall, another interesting film from the director, and Maika Monroe is excellent as the ethereal lead character.

IN A VIOLENT NATURE - Love them or hate them, who expects that slasher films are nowadays capable of anything new? Ever since 'Scream', the presence or absence of self-reference has been taken as the measure of revisionism. 'In A Violent Nature', a genuinely strange and baffling experience, throws all that in the bin by simply adopting the slasher's point of view and running with it. It doesn't sound very revolutionary, and in a way it's one big spin on the kind of brief POV shots that cropped up from 'Halloween' onwards, but centralising the entire film around this device is utterly transformative. In 'In A Violent Nature', the camera follows an undead serial killer as he trudges around the woods. Bits of backstory filter through between kills. That's basically it. The effect is weirdly hypnotic and makes the whole thing play like a cross between a loose arthouse meditation and a cheap dvd from CEX. The gore is quite nasty and, in one or two instances, elaborately staged in a way that seems borderline humourous. In fact, you could say the whole thing was quasi-comedic, and there's something quite deadpan about its incessant repetition, like a joke stretched out until it loses all hope of a punchline. But the tone is consistent - one of eerie tranquillity. That's unusual. I really, really liked it 'In A Violent Nature'. It has the potential to irritate but shows how horror can still reach for the unthinkable.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

LONGLEGS - One of this year's many high-profile horror releases, Osgood Perkins' 'Longlegs' demonstrates again his knack for gloomy but impressively manicured visual style. It's what's striking about this tribute to nineties psycho-thrillers (Perkins has acknowledged a debt to 'Silence Of The Lambs' and 'Se7en'), and 'Longlegs' picks up whenever the camera closes in on dreary rural backwaters full of isolated barns and semi collapsed houses, or prowls grot-strewn rooms where sinister dolls await. Would you expect anything less than full-tilt mood from the director of 'The Blackcoat's Daughter'? 'Longlegs' does not quite sustain the grim magic of that film; it's not so much the introduction of Nicolas Cage, whose loud performance as a powder puffed semi-demonic seventies rock aficionado is widely held as a misfire, more a conventional climax that seems tone deaf to the preceding atmosphere. But overall, another interesting film from the director, and Maika Monroe is excellent as the ethereal lead character.

IN A VIOLENT NATURE - Love them or hate them, who expects that slasher films are nowadays capable of anything new? Ever since 'Scream', the presence or absence of self-reference has been taken as the measure of revisionism. 'In A Violent Nature', a genuinely strange and baffling experience, throws all that in the bin by simply adopting the slasher's point of view and running with it. It doesn't sound very revolutionary, and in a way it's one big spin on the kind of brief POV shots that cropped up from 'Halloween' onwards, but centralising the entire film around this device is utterly transformative. In 'In A Violent Nature', the camera follows an undead serial killer as he trudges around the woods. Bits of backstory filter through between kills. That's basically it. The effect is weirdly hypnotic and makes the whole thing play like a cross between a loose arthouse meditation and a cheap dvd from CEX. The gore is quite nasty and, in one or two instances, elaborately staged in a way that seems borderline humourous. In fact, you could say the whole thing was quasi-comedic, and there's something quite deadpan about its incessant repetition, like a joke stretched out until it loses all hope of a punchline. But the tone is consistent - one of eerie tranquillity. That's unusual. I really, really liked it 'In A Violent Nature'. It has the potential to irritate but shows how horror can still reach for the unthinkable.

Based on your reviews, Frankie, i think both of those will get added to my Blu-ray collection. It'll make a nice change from the dirge of constant upgrading.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)



BBFC Rated 15.



Contains violence, language and Joe Pesci.

Excellent review Dem

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Last night was the very first time i have ever seen this film. How can it be so different to the excellent first two Superman films starring Christopher Reeve.

Whereas Superman (1978) isn't merely a comic book film it's a cinematic landmark this third sequel feels like it's based on the dumbest comic book imaginable.

It had several financial issues and you can tell. The script feels like a collection of scenes with barely any connecting narrative - Lex Luthor escapes, Superman decides to rid the world of nuclear weapons, Lex then decides to create his own Superman fueled by the energy of the sun who obviously has to fight Superman (Best not to go there as there are plot holes so big they even hit me round the head).

The special effects range from decent to awful, often during the same sequence in what is a Poundland superhero film with Milton Keynes doubling for Metropolis (I kid you not). I was gutted for Reeve and especially Gene Hackman trying and failing to make something out of this rubbish. This is the great actor who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of cop Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971) and would go on to win another for Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) and he's reduced to voicing a super villain straight out of a cereal packet.

As far as fourth films go this makes Jaws: The Revenge seem like a masterpiece.