What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

Creepshow

Classic 80s horror anthology my favourite story has to be the one with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen. Easy viewing and always fun to watch. 8.5/10

Well back to watching doctor who with the seeds of death, that's the second doctor nearly finished.

[SShaw]

On Blu-ray I watched 100 Bloody Acres which I really enjoyed, Kiss of the Damned which eve on a second viewing I still find disappointing, Haunter a brilliant haunted house film and Hardware which although it has dated a little remains a from favourite of mine.

Also took a trip to the cinema to see the new instalment of the X-Men franchise. A great disappointment. Nothing particularly bad - every thing is handled competently enough - but nothing to really inspire either .

[keirarts]

The counselor.

Michael Fassbender is the counselor, a lawyer looking to make quick cash getting into bed with the mexican drug cartels and when things go south it all gets bloody very quickly.

I had such high hopes for this film. I really like Cormac McCarthy's books and i'm a real big fan of No country for old men and The Road. Here McCarthy is writing the screenplay himself and the films directed by Ridley Scott. What could go wrong?

Quite a bit actually. McCarthy really isn't much of a screenwriter and some of the dialogue seems really unnatural, the film is poorly paced and structured and we know very little and care even less about any of the main characters.

It makes me appreciate the art of screenwriting a lot more when you look at what both the Coen brothers did with No country and Joe penhall did with the Road to make McCarthy's books work as films.

The film does make a decent point about rich Americans distance from the realities of life in Mexico with the cartels, there is a great scene where Fassbender wanders beleaguered through mexico city into a group of family's holding a vigil for young girls kidnapped and murdered by the cartels. There is also one death in the film that ranks as one of the best death scenes i've seen this year so far. Just a shame its in a dull, labored and poorly executed film that really fails to engage at any level.


The redeemer.

So, the oddest slasher film i've ever seen makes its way to blu-ray. (Did NOT see that coming) A group of high school friends make their way to their old school for a reunion only to find they have been lured there by the redeemer in order that they be redeemed for their sins.

The film starts with some odd, vaguely pretentious scenes that I imagine are supposed to be religious symbolism. The conclusion of these scenes end the film. This bookend seems to be showing that there are strange mystic forces aligning and that the redeemers rampage is more than just the work of a madman. Trouble is, while the film suggests it has something to say, what its saying is vague and contradictory at best and its still difficult to decide whether the fim is a Christian fundamentalist horror attacking the sins of its victims or an attempt at critiquing these attitudes and beliefs.

I really like the Redeemer in spite of its flaws. It's poverty row budget and terrible acting, (especially from the Redeemer himself who I suspect is a stage actor not used to film,) and it's nasty tone give the film a weird unsettling tone that works for me. The print still looks knackered but the transfer to blu-ray still looks decent.


Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary.

Not seen this one before, but wow. Really decent little mexican set Vampire film. It plays with the whole is she a vampire or just mad idea a year before George A Romero made the better known Martin. I really enjoy Martin but i suspect people may find this film a little more enjoyably trashy.

Mary is an artist living in mexico. She seems normal at first but it soon turns out she enjoys seducing people then killing them so she can drink their blood. She meets a handsome young man and falls in love and tries to fight her urges but the police are on her tail! Also tracking her down is her Dad, played by John Carradine looking very much like pulp adventure hero THE SHADOW, and has the same predalictions as mary. Question is who will get to her first!

Mary is great fun, a real hidden gem of a movie that is well worth seeking out. The acting from at least half the cast isn't bad, the kills are great and there is plenty of nudity to seal the deal.


The Visitor.

The film that has the enviable status of being producer Ovidio Ovidio G. Assonitis most crazed film (this is the guy who produced beyond the door and Amok train as well as Pirahna 2) it nicks the god as an astronaut idea from Eric von Daniken and tries to imagine what the omen would be like from that perspective. With added hawks.

With exteriors shot around Atlanta georgia with interiors at Rome the film manages to look a great deal more expensive than it probably was. It has some genuinely trippy visuals in places as well. I like the film but it is a mess. Pretentious to the point its actually funny, the film is genuinely silly. It's also odd enough to want to watch again. In that respect it feels a lot like the redeemer.

John Huston plays god. Django himself Franco nero plays a hippy jesus sat in a room full of bald kids. Mel Ferrer Glen Ford, Shelly Winters and Sam Peckinpah all turn up as well. Lance Henriksen is the evil cult member responsible for giving the antichrist a brother and i'm not sure if the hawk turned up in anything else. It probably was famous for something.

[Heisenberg]

Unintentionally watched Jason X again last night. Missus found an old dvd player when having a clear out and just wanted to see if it was multi-regional.
An ok-ish film and there are a lot worse slasher type films out there. I preferred it to the remake from a few years ago and Freddy v Jason (unless there is an unrated version out there which contains more violence which i'd watch but thought to theatrical release was pants) but pales in comparison and doesn't deserve to be a part of the Friday the 13th series as to me those 8 or 9 films (cant remember how many now, lol) will never tire, need to pick up a box set of those to watch again soon.

Originally Posted by SShaw

Hardware which although it has dated a little remains a from favourite of mine.
.

You sir, have just cost me at least £10! (lol) Can remember seeing this all those years ago when i was an impressionable teenager and loving it. Just watched the trailer on youtube and indeed it is THAT film i have been looking for all these years so now i just HAVE to find a blu-ray to have another blast from the past of this amazing film.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

Unintentionally watched Jason X again last night. Missus found an old dvd player when having a clear out and just wanted to see if it was multi-regional.
An ok-ish film and there are a lot worse slasher type films out there. I preferred it to the remake from a few years ago and Freddy v Jason (unless there is an unrated version out there which contains more violence which i'd watch but thought to theatrical release was pants) but pales in comparison and doesn't deserve to be a part of the Friday the 13th series as to me those 8 or 9 films (cant remember how many now, lol) will never tire, need to pick up a box set of those to watch again soon.




You sir, have just cost me at least £10! (lol) Can remember seeing this all those years ago when i was an impressionable teenager and loving it. Just watched the trailer on youtube and indeed it is THAT film i have been looking for all these years so now i just HAVE to find a blu-ray to have another blast from the past of this amazing film.

And it's a darn good blu too.

[Demoncrat]

In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Uwe Boll, 2007)

Uwe does LOTR, and many other things are chucked in. Featuring the corniest "reveal" in living memory, this rockets to no2 fave Stafam film. Also features his alltime worst emoting.

Well worth the £2 that I paid for it ahem.

[J Harker]

Just come back from Godzilla. God that was frustrating.
Not enough Bryan Cranston but more annoyingly not enough Godzilla. It was like watching a Superman film without Superman. When the big guy's finally revealed proper he's fab and it was good to see him as a sort of hero rather than the mindless lizard from Roland Emmeroid version. The human story running through started so well with Walter White's obsessive pursuit of the truth but falls apart pretty quick. Leaving a huge lag in the middle of the film where the humans are hard to care about but the monsters are still being restricted to glimpses. Not a bad film not really a good one either, frustrating.

[Rik]

Just finished watching Zombie Flesh Eaters for the umpteenth time, never get tired of watching this and it does look great on the Arrow BD.

...and just in case anyone hasn't checked this out yet, here's my take on the theme #shamelessplug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KGtgsK2tHo

[Make Them Die Slowly]

IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL DIE IF I WANT TO. More low budget, regional film making from America...I quite liked this one, for a start a child has her face smashed in with a steak hammer in the first five minutes and it ends with a woman dressed as Elvira, drenched in blood, hacking the shit out of a demon with a couple of knives and a sword.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL DIE IF I WANT TO. More low budget, regional film making from America...I quite liked this one, for a start a child has her face smashed in with a steak hammer in the first five minutes and it ends with a woman dressed as Elvira, drenched in blood, hacking the shit out of a demon with a couple of knives and a sword.

Sold! It's on Amazon Instant Video – excellent!