What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I liked Knock Knock as well.

I thought it was a real throw back to the 80's. It attempted to do something a bit different with it's kills and somehow they seemed both inventive and derivative. Love the shower scene - very grim. In the end it did lose a little momentum but its one of the more memorable slashers of the decade.

Did you know there's a sequel?

I knew there was a sequel - haven't seen it though. What's it like?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I knew there was a sequel - haven't seen it though. What's it like?

I haven't seen it either.

I'm a bit apprehensive with 21st century slasher sequels. I liked Hatchet but not its inferior sequel, i loved Laid to Rest but was very disgruntled by its follow on film.

[ArgentoFan1987]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I had a copy of 'I bury the living" released by them and 10 minutes before the end the sound cut out. To say i was p*ssed off is an understatement.

I bought the Elstree Hill Douglas Fairbanks boxset. Five minutes into Theif of Bahgdad, I had to switch it off. The quality was worse than VHS. Completely unwatchable.

The same goes for their release of Lon Chaney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Unwatchable quality, plus an hour short on it's running time!!!

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by gasteropod

You're Next (2011) - 2/10

People being killed and copious amounts of shaky-cam, nothing to see here...

Would disagree. Thought this was a much cleverer film than a lot of people gave it credit for and certainly a better film than the purge. It carefully subverts every cliche of the home invasion/slasher genre without a single wink to the camera. The killers show their faces, the lead 'victim' ends up being way more dangerous than the killers. There's plenty to see here.

[trebor8273]

The nest

A revenge of nature film, which I really enjoyed. Some great effects and a decent story with interesting characters and a lot of gore. Enjoyed this a lot more than squirm. 7.5/10

Police academy 1&2

I actually really enjoy these films as they are easy watching with great characters and mindless fun. Ok they went down hill in quality after the third, but the ones with Steve guttenburg aren't half bad and have a certain 80s charm 9/10

Last star fighter

Love this film it's just so much fun, like police academy movies it's one of those you can watch and forget the troubles of the day. Ok the effects haven't aged well as it was the first movie to use mostly cgi, but it gives it a certain charm all of its own. 9/10

Tower of evil.

Fantastic creepy little film which was my first viewing, with a some good acting and a interesting story and for its time it's very bloody, with a lot of sex and nudity. Looks amazing on blu ray, a film that shall be getting many more viewings 9/10

Body bags

Ok but none of the story's stood out for me, really highlight was all the cameos. 6.5/10

Cat people remake

Excellent movie with some great acting and interesting imagery and effects. Will be interesting to see how much different the original is. 9/10

Next up my first code red film and my first viewing of it. Just before dawn.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

I really like Bob Clark's early work so was intrigued to watch this family orientated film, BABY GENIUSES, which has been universally panned, and I can see why...all the reviews are written by adults! They should have got kids to review it, mine thought it was pretty good but not as good as the other film we have watched today THE MEDALLION. This is a Jackie Chan lite, a dumb arse action/fantasy/comedy that passes the time pleasantly enough but for mine and the little Make Them Die Slowlys money, we never felt anyone was going to suffer serious injury during the stunt work. We, as a family, demand our action stars to bleed for us or possibly die for our amusement.

[troggi]

During my absence from this lovely forum I have watched quite a few fillums, as you would expect. Here are a couple of outstanding examples...

Metropolis (1927)


The Haunting (1963)


My wonderful wife bought the Masters of Cinema bd of Metropolis for my birthday and I love it almost as much as her! This is a film that I never get tired of, I even enjoyed the Giorgio Moroder abomination! The newly recovered footage is fantastic and the booklet in the box is excellent too!

The MoC Metropolis gets a well deserved 87.9/10 from me.

The Haunting scared the wee-wee out of me when I first saw it in the late sixties or early seventies, I'm a big boy now but it still has an eerie quality that the later remake, with Catherine Zeta Jones in, doesn't. I still like both films but the '63 vintage wins in a heads up, in my opinion. I'll give it a reasonable 17/10

I'll do some more when I can remember what I've watched and can be arsed to.

[SShaw]

Been working to reduce my backlog of blu-rays in the past week. Two recent purchases Dyatlov Pass Incident and I Declare War, El Bosc and Inferno all now ticked off. I also managed a trip to the Kino this evening to see American Hustle.

I saw the first two at Fantasy Film Fest last summer. I quite like Dyatlov, even if it has nothing to add to the found footage genre. Having given it a second chance I still don't like I declare war. A shame as there are some interesting ideas but the lead completely lacks any on screen charisma and its not entirely clear why anybody would follow him, let alone want to be his friend. El bosc had good notes from Sitges in 2012, but I can't help but feel that this reflects the fact that it is a Spanish film. Set during the Spanish civil war it contains some largely superfluous supernatural elements that are somehow allegorical. I think it could have been a perfectly good drama without these elements which somehow detract. Inferno is of course great.

So how about American Hustle. I can"t think of anything bad to say about it, apart to comment on Bales accent which he seems to slip out of often enough for it to become a distraction. I also can't find much positive to say. It's an interesting piece which somehow doesn't really live up to the source material and is ultimately boring.

[keirarts]

House of Whipcord.

A young french model heads off for a weekend away with a bloke she's just met. He seems nice and the name Mark E. Desade is just a coincidence surely!?

Nope.

He's working for his mum, a messed up moralist who has set up her own prison to deal with 'fallen women' who have been through the justice system and not properly punished in her eyes. She's working with her ex-judge husband, a blind ineffectual figure there to add some level of legitimacy to proceedings. Also she has two female wardens there to keep the girls in check, including an incredibly butch looking Shelia Keith who would go on to work with Director Pete Walker again on FRIGHTMARE.

This is essentially a women in prison movie. Unlike the gritty urban sexploitation of the AIP films or the softcore efforts of the Euro-crowd (in some cases a lot more hardcore) whipcord does not seem to be set up to titillate. Walker delivers a stark, bleak, cold and brutal film that is uncomfortable to watch and leaves you feeling rather grotty. Its a very well crafted swipe at puritanical 'victorian values' moralists like Mary Whitehouse that for me stands as one of the very best women in prison movies i've seen.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Captain Phillips (2013)

A terrific true life thriller about piracy off the coast of Somalia from British director Paul Greengrass which treats it's audience as adults and gives us some almost unbearable tension.

Tom Hanks is excellent as Phillips and Barkhad Abdi gives a stunning performance as the lead pirate Muse.

I'm sure Greengrass must have been having a private joke with his audience about the inadequacy of the British authorities in their response to possible situations. The UK navy suggested Phillips use water pumps to repel pirate vessels whereas the US response was a war ship, an aircraft carrier and two SEAL teams..... Guess which got the job done.

Highly recommended.