What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Hawkmonger

Your wrong on both accounts.

No I'm not.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by VicDakin

Fancied some zombies so went for the Argento cut of Dawn of the Dead,go's without saying I watched the Arrow blu ray of course

I have yet to watch this i have never seen this version.

[Nordicdusk]

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[re.form]

6 films to keep you awake was great. I watched it on BBC4.

I watched Bullet for the General over the weekend.

[Nordicdusk]

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Love it always cheers me up

[Invid Ninja]

Dived into US Netflix and my hard drive again, on another horror kick.

Hatchet - Fairly well made blackly comic horror, suffers from an awful ending and a lot of 'generic modern slasher' problems. The pace was oddly for me too fast aswell, certainly no Burning or Hell Night in terms of quality.

Murder Set Pieces - Been meaning to watch this one for awhile, I'm a sucker for opening the pandora's box that is 'extreme' horror. Essentially a hyper-stylized 'Henry Portrait.....' with the odd dose of fragrantly excessive gore and hilariously bad acting, particularly from the lead. Scraps of potential remain in the film with competent editing, decent pacing and a solid final act though. It was ok.

[pedromonkey]

What have i watched lately?....

Star Trek: The Motion Picture(1979):
Slighty confusing but still alot of fun. Very 70s in it's production design as everything has a brown and grey look compared to the very colourful 60s TV show but it's masterfully handled by legendary director Robert Wise.

Batman (1989):
Still a lot of fun after 23 years but compared to Nolan's vision of batman, Tim Burton's is a little hard to take seriously. Great performances all round especially Jack Nicholson as the Joker and what a way to introduce Kim Basinger by closing in on her legs..

Double Indemnity (1944):
First time viewing the classic film noir and was blown away by the incredible performances from Fred McMurray, Edward G Robinson and especially Barbara Stanwyk as the scheming femme fatale. The interplay between McMurray and Stanwyk is pure cinematic gold thanks to some brilliant dialogue from a script by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder and some magnificent direction from Wilder, very very tempted to purchase the Blu-ray now. Highly Recommended.

Get The Gringo aka How I Spent My Summer Vacation (2012):
Deliriously violent and exploitative modern action thriller from Mel Gibson that plays like an unofficial sequel to Payback. Some plot holes don't detract from the sheer fun of watching Mad Mel back on top form. Recommended.

Penitentiary (1979):
Brutal prison/blaxploitation movie shot on a low budget but also very entertaining. Some of the camera angles are reminiscent of modern hip hop videos and this is apparently quite an influential film. I enjoyed it.

Dead Presidents (1995):
Hugely underrated crime drama from the Hughes Brothers that should be held in the same esteem as Goodfellas, Casino, Donnie Brasco and Carlito's Way. Some fine performances from Lorenze Tate, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez and Keith David punctuated with a great soundtrack of 60s and 70s soul. Highly recommended.

After.Life (2009):
a very sinister first half leads in to a clichéd second half but it's still an entertaining horror thriller with good performances from Christina Ricci and Justin Long and very Creepy Liam Neeson. Best thing about the film though is that miss Ricci is starkers for almost 80% of the film. Predictable ending but definitely worth a watch.

Ted (2012):
Laugh out loud comedy from Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Some genuinely hysterical moments with a spot on comic performance from Mark Wahlberg and a great voice role for McFarlane. If you watch this movie for one scene watch it for Giovani Ribisi's dance to Tiffany's I Think We're alone now. Highly recommended for Family guy fans but also recommended for comedy fans in general.

Batman Begins (2005):
Christopher Nolan's first entry into his financially successful trilogy takes Bruce wayne back to his origins in the dark but action packed comic book movie. Tone shifts in the Dark Knight as that film loses it's comic book aesthetics, but this is still top end studio film making and a bloody good film too.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by nordicdusk

Attachment 74845

Was it the US region 1 anchor bay version or the UK version?

I only ask because the US version is the only release I know of with the origional soundtrack.

[James Morton]

saw INTRUDER last night
one of the best 80's slashers, nice and gory

[Daemonia]

Mortuary (1982)

A young Bill Paxton is a bit unhinged and his father, Mr Andrews (Christopher George) is a mortician and holds secret seances. People are winding up dead, could either of this odd pair be responsible? After the initial weirdness things quickly descend into familiar slasher territory with an ending that borrows heavily from other films of the genre. But it's all good fun.

It's not a top tier 80's slasher, but it's entertaining enough and throws a few unusual things into the mix. And I just happen to share my birthday with actress Lynda Day George, not that that's of any relevance really, just thought I'd throw it out there.

Fight Club (1999)

David Fincher's darkly comic tale revolves around an unnamed man (Edward Norton), an addict of self-help groups, as they seem to be the only cure for his insomnia. When he meets the enigmatic and charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) his life spins into a completely different sphere of existence. Together they establish Fight Club, a place where men can be men and free themselves from the constraints of civilised society. But things start spiralling out of control and it soon becomes evident that Tyler is hatching a plot to bring down society. But is Tyler all that he seems to be..?

It's very nihilistic and, knowing the ending beforehand, as this isn't my first viewing, the impact is lessened. Nevertheless, there's much here to appreciate in Fincher's film. It's interesting that it's considered a man's movie, because it is in fact an anti-man's movie. Norton's character is, in actual fact, not man enough to be the person he wants to be, and so relies on Tyler to be that man for him. The real problem is that most people just didn't get it, I don't think. It's been accused (by critic Roger Ebert) of being anti-capitalism and anti-society, as if that's a bad thing. I quite like the bleak view of the world that the film has and it's quite unlike most Hollywood fare.

The Blu-ray looks terrific and really does the film justice - the UK release is fully uncut too. I did have it on DVD but never got round to watching it, so I thought that since I had the Blu I'd give it a rewatch. Last time I saw it was circa 1999, so it was ripe for reappraisal. Not as good as I remembered it, but it's still very relevant, probably more so now than it was back then. Norton and Pitt have never been better and director Fincher puts Chuck Palahniuk's vision up on screen very capably.

The Wicker Tree (2011)

Nearly 40 years on and Robin Hardy decides to finally deliver a sequel to the original classic. It wasn't really worth the wait, to be honest.

Successful gospel singer, Beth Boothby, travels to Scotland with her cowboy fiance to sing a few songs and convert the locals. She pretty much fails at both, as we all know the locals have their own agenda.

It's pretty much by the numbers and Hardy's story stalls several times and it's never quite engaging enough to get you involved. It fails where the original succeeded so well. The original was deviously clever in that Sgt. Howie was, to all intents and purposes, the good guy. And yet the story was woven in such a way that you actually found your sympathies lying with the Pagans, even though human sacrifice was on their minds. In this film everyone's just an incompetent idiot.

The story is, as I've said, wholly unengaging and the performances from the young American leads is wooden to say the least. The ending is rushed and nonsensical and the Wicker Tree barely makes an appearance. It's pretty much rubbish all the way through. Some nice ideas but badly executed and any intended humour simply falls flat. Chris Lee's useless cameo wasn't worth the trouble, either. He's better than this.

Not recommended, I'm afraid.

RoboCop (1987)

Managed to snag the Blu-ray trilogy for a tenner off Amazon and got stuck into the first film.

We all know the story, cop Murphy (Peter Weller) gets shot by some crooks and is rebuilt as RoboCop and goes after the bad guys.

The film is probably more reknowned for its ultra-violence (especially so in its uncut form on this disc) but there's plenty of other stuff to like. The wry observations on rampant consumerism are still as valid and there's plenty of dry humour that still makes me smile. I still think the sequel is the better film, but I rather like this initial entry.

It looks amzing on BD, even if they do use the rather antiquated MPEG2 codec to encode the film. It still looks head and shoulders above all previous DVD releases, so I'm happy enough. I couldn't tell you if there's DNR, edge enhancement, or crushed blacks. I just watched the film and enjoyed it.

Chronicle (2012)

Three high school friends discover a glowing object buried in a cave underground. Having been exposed to it, over the next few days they start developing super powers. At first it all seems like a big game, but one of the three is a bit unstable and soon the powers corrupt him and his anger and hatred at the world around him starts manifesting itself in some serious mayhem.

This was a pleasant surprise. I usually dislike shaky cam type films, but this one seemed to get the right balance and I was quickly drawn into the story. It's a nice twist on the normal Superhero stories and shows the dark side of that. Really liked this, highly recommended.

RoboCop 2 (1990)

Back into the Blu box for this offering and it's all good fun. Peter Weller returns as our friendly neighbourhood RoboCop and he's on the trail of Cain (Tom Noonan), a criminal mastermind who is flooding the streets with a drug called Nuke. When he's caught, barely alive, he's transformed into a RoboCop too and all hell breaks loose.

It's great fun and, for me, is slightly better than the original. The humour is more overt and the action is frequent. The Blu looks stunning too.

RoboCop 3 (1992)

This time Robert Burke steps into the role of RoboCop. OCP are driving people out of their homes so that the land can be redeveloped for profit. The residents are not happy and have banded together to create a people's army. RoboCop soon joins their ranks when he realises what's going on. It's mostly all noise and bluster and a pretty poor sequel all round. Not bad, but not great. This was my first viewing - and probably my last. Looks good on Blu though.

The Innkeepers (2011)

Two youngsters are left on desk duties at the Pedlar Inn which is shutting down and they're holding the fort over the weekend till it closes on Monday. But the house is reputedly haunted and it's not long before there's some ghostly happenings. Sounds better than it is and the two young leads just got on my nerves and Kelly McGillis hasn't aged well. Poor casting, badly scripted, useless FX, crap music score. It's all a bit of a dead loss and ultimately boring. Not recommended.

The Grey (2011)

Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a skilled marksman - his job is to kill wolves before they attack any of the workers at the arctic refinery where he is stationed. He has leave coming up so takes a plane with some co-workers also off on leave. But the plane hits bad weather and crashes leaving only a handful of them alive. Trapped in the middle of hostile terrain and hunted by wolves, they have to rely on Ottway to get them out alive. But the wolves are hunting them and the arctic weather is closing in on them.

Overall it's not too bad and the real star of the film is the arctic itself with some beautiful vistas on display. The wolves are a bit shoddily rendered via CG, but it kept me watching to the end, so it couldn't have been all that bad.

Carnage (2011)

After an incident involving two boys whereby one hit the other with a stick, the parents of the two respective boys meet up to discuss the incident. Things quickly turn sour and prejudices rise to the surface and before long there's vomit, shouting and drunkenness. I really enjoyed this micro-piece of cinema and the actors give it their all. John C. Reilly proves he's as adept with clever material as he is with dumb comedies and Jodie Foster as his wife looks like her head will pop with the stress. Also nice to see Christoph Waltz outside of a Tarantino film and Kate Winslet is capable as his wife, but probably the least of the acting talent on display here. Surprised to see Polanski as director - I thought they'd locked him up? Maybe he directed it from his prison cell?

Overall I really enjoyed this, well worth a look.