What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[tele1962]

Lifeforce (Arrow) superb.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

The Nurse (1975) Ahh! Shameless, nice yellow cases! Wasn't too bad, wasn't great but a nice addition to my ever expanding collection of serious world cinema!

[Delirium]

Well, err, I laughed like a loon at Bad Grandpa.

Difficult to review it without spoiling some of the gags, but I suppose you know what you're going in for with this type of thing. The real-life element works, there's plenty of toilet humour, and a rather sweet central relationship between the kid and Grandpa (Johnny Knoxville) - a loose story that ties the skits together.

I guess from the trailer alone you'll know if this is your bag. I certainly needed it after a very depressing day.

[keirarts]

STOKER



Unlike some i'm actually quite a fan of the Vengence trilogy, thirst and i'm a cyborg. I was quite hesitant coming in to Stoker as a lot of top-drawer Asian directors seem to end up either working on something awful or simply have their style drained out and homogenized as soon as they hit Tinseltown. Hideo Nakata had no luck, John Woo's HARD TARGET was a hell of a lot of fun but got eviscerated by the MPAA. I was surprised then to see that STOKER is very much a Park Chan-wook film from beginning to end. I don't want to throw massive plot spoilers suffice to say Stoker is a very, deeply twisted family psychodrama that riffs of Shadow of a doubt among other things as it follows a mother and daughter dealing with the loss of the father/husband as sinister uncle charlie comes home to stay. I really enjoyed the film and it helps cement the director as an Auteur whose vision has carried over very well indeed into western cinema. It's certainly one of the best things i've seen Nicole Kidman in for a long while.


Spring Breakers

Three college girls rob a chicken shack restaurant in order to finance a trip to Florida for spring break. Taking their christian friend along with them the girls party hard until they end up in Jail. Bailed out by 'Alien' a seedy drug dealing wigger things get progressively darker and more surreal. Harmony Korine has always been one of those love him or hate him kind of directors. Here he does little to try and win over the mainstream as he delivers an acidic attack on shallow decadent American pop-culture where everything is merely surface deep. Unlike Korine's previous films this one looks f*****g beautiful thanks to Gasper Noe's DP Benoit Debie. The whole thing is probably Korin's most professional work to date. The editing and style of the film is great but sure to alienate some of its audience expecting a more cheezy straight ahead spring break movie. I enjoyed it though.

[Bringer Of Funerals]

Catch .44

Starring Bruce Willis (with hair) and Forest Whittiker

Three women, Tes, Dawn and Kara, work for Mel, a drug boss. Mel tells them to intercept a truck driver bringing rival drugs to a diner at night. The women wait for the driver at the diner, but when they fail to see the driver, they draw guns on the staff and customers of the diner and demand to know if anyone knows who the driver is.

Its straight to dvd and desperately wants to be a Pulp Fiction Tarantino film. It jumps back and fourth to the same scene over and over just seen from different angles. It then adds scratches trying to be like Grindhouse.

The film is 90 mins and Bruce shows up 55 mins into it. The script tries to sound like Quentin wrote it and I was looking at the counter on the dvd machine 20 mins into the film.

All in all i'd give it a miss

[Delirium]

Ender's Game

Having read the book, I was expecting little from this - after all, the book is a cerebral affair, chock full of internal politics, allegory and (intentional) repetition - but its translation to the screen isn't quite the washout I expected. Indeed it skims over events, dropping some altogether (particularly Ender's brother/sister's involvement in the political field, as well as their deep-rooted relationship with Ender, and many of the relationships in the battle school), but its heart - particularly the militarization and manipulation of children - remains somewhat intact. Ender himself is softened, as is the language and violence (no "buggers" here), but Butterfield is a decent lead (too old of course) and Harrison Ford a reliably gruff Colonel Graff, and there's a reasonable stab at keeping the novel's overarching themes in place.

If you want to get inside the character's skins (and indeed the author's, questionable morals and all) - read the novel. But as a likable, if flimsy, slab of cinematic sci-fi goes, it entertained. Even if the sharper edges have been filed down.

[trebor8273]

The fury

Another stunning restoration job by arrow. Fantastically shot with a great score. Love the escape scene which is beautifully shot and scored going from joy/hope too tradgedy/ despair in a few moments. One of the top three psychic/ telekinesis horrors. Still chills me to this day and has put me of fairground rides for life 9.5/10



Carry on screaming
One of my favourite carry ons, a great parody of hammer horrors, the best horror parody next too the amazing young Frankenstein. Restoration a lot better than I was expecting with it being a carry on who probably didn't have the best quality film. 8.5/10

Monster house
First viewing and real enjoyed it, actually very creepy in places and could find this disturbing very young children. 8/10

Aenigma

A lot better than I was expecting from reviews, but has been done a lot better before. Added to my distaste of slugs. 6.5/10

National lampoons vacation
Not much to say apart from I enjoyed it. 7/10

National lampoons European vacation

Enjoyed this as well but not as good as the first. 6.5/10

Next up the night of the hunter and the beyond.

[trebor8273]

The night of the hunter.

Absolutely amazing film, fantastic imagery and direction from Laughton. A truly stunning performance from Mitchum as chillingly evil Harry Powell and the young boy also gives a fantastic performance. Shame Laughton never directed again, just shows most critics wont know a good film if it bit them on the ass. 10/10

The beyond

Well nothing I can say about this classic, it looks fantastic and is my favourite Fulci film. 10/10

Next up the doorway which I'm not expecting much of, or maybe nightmare on a damaged brain

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doorway-DVD-...ds=The+doorway

[Sam]

Killer Clown - aka 'Killjoy Goes to Hell' - I enjoyed the 2 Killjoy films I've seen prior to this and this one is no exception. I think the reason I like the 'Killjoy' films is that they don't take themselves at all seriously and almost embrace their own crapness . The plot of this instalment is actually quite original, with the devil putting Killjoy on trial for not being evil enough. Whilst this idea is probably a little underdeveloped, this is still a lot of fun with a healthy quota of corny one-liners and gore. The 88 Films DVD is bare bones, which is a bit rich given their 'treating classic films with respect' strapline, although whether this one would fit the description of a classic is debatable. Overall, I'd recommend this one if you can pick it up relatively cheaply.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

The Thing (2011)
The Thing (1982)
Double bill tonight, I like both but Carpenters' is by far the better of the two!