What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[mercury]

Taxi Driver.......If I wasn't bald I would be sporting a mohawk today

[Beyond72]

Originally Posted by mercury

Taxi Driver.......If I wasn't bald I would be sporting a mohawk today

You could still change your cereal

[James Morton]

THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT
very good thriller from Renny Harlin
this and DIE HARD 2 are his best films

[Daemonia]

The Funhouse (1981)

Four teens decide to hide out in the Funhouse at the local carnival and spend the night there together. But when they witness a murder by a deformed man they become the prey to this beast. It's not a great film but I don't mind it. The Blu-ray from Arrow does look terrific though. Glad to have it as I do rather like it.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)

Remake of the 70's TV movie which ain't too bad, surprisingly. A young couple, Alex and Kim (Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes), move into an old house with Alex's daughter Sally (Bailee Madison). But Sally quickly realises they are not alone in the house and these tiny visitors are not friendly - and they want her for themselves.

It's not bad overall, but I guess that's to be expected with Guillermo Del Toro being involved - it was at least going to be fairly respectable with him involved. I found myself really enjoying this and it doesn't take away from the original. Even though the two share many similarities, the remake adds enough inventive juice to keep it interesting and allows it to stand on its own two feet. Well worth a look.

Puppet Master (1989)

I've always liked this first film in Charlie band's long running series and decided to pick up the new Blu to see how it fares in HD. Well, it does look head-and-shoulders above every previous DVD release and, for the first time, is presented in its originally intended theatrical widescreen ratio. I quite enjoyed seeing this again and this presentation did give me a new appreciation of this killer-dolls-on-the-rampage romp. It's very silly, but I like it all the same. The same can't be said of the sequels, save for Part 3, which did at least try and deliver some kind of interesting backstory to Toulon. Glad to have it in the BD collection though.

The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre (1975)

Roger Corman directs this retelling of the events leading up to and including the massacre itself. He gets a good cast to work with, including George Segal and Jason Robards. It tells of how Capone's gang want to control all of Chicago but the Northside Gang won't relinquish control of their territory. When threats are made on Capone's life he determines that the Northside Gang must be put out of business - permanently.

Corman handles the material extremely well, but I did feel that Segal was a little miscast and didn't come over as menacingly as he could have. That aside, it's well done, well acted and looks more expensive than it probably was, thanks to Corman's brilliance at producing great films at low cost. Worth a look.

Green Lantern (2011)

The Green Lanterns are an elite superforce that guard the universe from harm. But when their mortal enemy, Parallalax, is released from the prison the Lanterns confined him in, it's all systems go. However, one of their number dies and it's up to his Lantern ring to choose a successor and that fate befalls the hapless Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). Hal soon proves he's worthy though and ends up defeating Parallalax in order to save Earth. It's all CGI nonsense and comic book adventure, but I really enjoyed it.

In the Electric Mist (2009)

Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) is the Louisiana cop trying to solve the murders of local prostitutes. He also harbours the knowledge of a lynching many years ago that still haunts him. As he investigates the case he begins having odd encounters with long dead Confederate soldiers - but that's probably because of the LSD he was spiked with. It's all very strange and the film has an almost intangible quality to it but keeps you interested. Worth a look.

Haywire (2011)

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a special ops operative who is set up by the company she works for, who are trying to take her out. She's having none of it and decides to hit back and sets out for revenge. Not a bad action thriller and Carano is certainly more than capable as the action heroine. The fight sequences are superbly choreographed and rather more rough than in usual Hollywood fare, so that caught my attention. Overall it's not bad at all.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

Jake Gyllenhaal is Prince Dastan, the adopted street orphan who became a Prince. However, he soon uncovers a plot by his uncle to kill the King and take control by using a special dagger that can reverse time. It's big on CGI and low on intelligence, but sometimes I like something a bit mindless. It's enoyable enough on its own terms, but it's not a film I'd ever watch again in all probablity. Ideal popcorn fodder and if you don't expect anything too taxing on the brain it's an entertaining ride.

[Demoncrat]

Giallo A Venezia (1979, Mario Landi)

Since I watched this after TGGG, I was fairly acclimatised to nastiness, but this takes some beating (literally)! I can think of at least 2 sequences that would still be trimmed (going by bbfc "standards" so far), a pity that it's not more easily available as it features a great turn from american actor Jeff Blynn as Inspector De Paul, one of cinema's more "relaxed" detectives, imo, tries to solve a bizarre double murder in the floating city......

Reco-fr*cking-mmended!!!!

[Justin101]

I watched Inglourious Basterds last night for the first time ever! Really enjoyed it a lot, some amazing set-pieces and scenes, but the stand out for me was the bloody shoot-out in the projection room to the music of Morricone.
I'll be revisiting the disc later on this evening to watch 'Nation's Pride' on the extras list.

Has nothing to do with the original version

[Eurosleaze]

Il Figlioccio del Padrino (English: The Godson of the Godfather) | 1973 | Italy

A mostly very unfunny parody take on Francis Ford Coppola's seminal The Godfather that was quickly put together and released in order to capitalise on the former film's worldwide success. This 'comedy' basically centres around a grotesquely clownish, irritating, apparently irresistible Mafia womaniser (played by Franco Franchi) who flees America and returns to Sicily due to upsetting all the Mafia bosses back home in New York. His Mafia don godfather is there to take him under his wing. He eventually falls in love with one of the daughters of the boss who has had a succession of grooms murdered at the church on wedding day. There's lots of speeded-up film, lots of silly hijnks, lots of wooden chemistry between the romantic interest and our 'hero' and not a lot else. The film's musical score is quite monstrously grating - for me, as soon as I heard it I developed an intense dislike of it, and it pops up throughout the movie. I wouldn't recommend this film at all - I chuckled slightly twice all the way through and I couldn't wait for oit to finish.

As for Raro's Italian DVD - well, it's OK I guess. The film is mostly progressive (it's in anamorphic widescreen at the correct aspect ratio) and the picture quality is mostly quite good, although there are a fair few short sequences which do show poorer quality interlaced footage as well. The subtitles are dreadful and are actually nonsensical in parts and impossible to follow, so littered are they with spelling errors and grammatical errors as they are (English is clearly not the first language of the subtitler!). Extras? There aren't any. No extras here.

Quite honestly I'd give this one a miss. There's a lot better films out there from Raro.

[Rik]

After I'd finished my 2 day The Walking Dead marathon I decided to continue with the zombie theme and watch [REC] Genesis, which arrived on Blu Ray yesterday. Fans of the first two films in the series may be a little disappointed in the direction this entry has taken, because after the first 20 minutes of handheld, shaky cam filming is over, the film switches to standard 35mm film(with the odd sequence of CCTV footage mixed in) and plays out like a typical film. Saying that though, the film is still highly enjoyable, with plenty of cracking gore effects, some great shots and some likeable characters. Another thing that separates this from the previous instalments is the use of comedic elements, which make it feel more like Shaun than Dawn of the Dead, not a bad thing really, but I feel it may annoy hardcore [REC] fans. It doesn't contain any of the scare elements that made the first two so successful(especially the Kate Moss lookalike from the end of part 1!), but it does provide enough entertainment to last it's "over before you know it" 80 minute running time.
Extras on the disc are a selection of outtakes and deleted scenes, plus a 2 hour making of documentary(which, I ended up turning off after 10 minutes because I was tired).
Overall, it's a highly enjoyable film with plenty to keep gorehounds happy and well worth picking up, just don't expect it to follow the same pattern as parts 1 & 2. 4/5

[Beyond72]

Inferno

[Rik]

Carrie-I haven't watched this in years and today was the first time I'd watched it upscaled using my blu ray player, with exceptional results I might add. This is easily Brian De Palma's greatest film and one of the best Stephen King adaptions, of which there are far more bad than good(The Shining anybody...). The end scene right from the start of the slow-mo action is one of the finest scenes ever in a horror film and the performances from Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were definitely worthy of their Oscar nominations.
I've never seen the sequel, is it at least worth a rental?