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ESCAPE INTO NIGHT Eerie childrens' tv series from 1972, with a bit of a PAPERHOUSE theme, concerning a young girl whose drawings come to life in her dreams, where she encounters an ill young boy who lives in a permanently dark house surrounded by standing stones with huge blinking eyes and extremely scary voices! So what is real and what isn't and how does it all relate to her real life? I'd never heard of this series, but being a fan of 70s tv horror, this simply told tale came as a pleasant surprise. I can imagine this scaring the young viewers back in the day! It was originally broadcast in colour, but Network's dvd release is the only existing black and white copy, which somehow adds to the overall creepiness. |
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Two quite different films and audiences at the Kino this weekend. On Saturday I went to see The Fault in Our Stars a film I went into knowing absolutely nothing about (I am making a point to try and go to see all of the English language films shown at my local Cinemaxx which has led to some interesting discoveries and some pretty enjoyable evenings). I guess I should have guessed what was coming by the fact that I seemed to be sharing the theatre with around a hundred teenage (I would guess 14-16 years old) girls. The film was a pretty predictable romance about a young girl and boy who find love when they meet at a support group for children with cancer. William Dafoe pops up as an embittered author hiding away in Amsterdam and has some brilliant but nasty lines. Overall not a bad film, but one I would find difficult to recommend to anyone not in the target audience. I won't be running out to buy the book upon which the film is based. Tonight was my second visit (unusual as Cinemaxx normally only screen one film in OV) this time to see the latest Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow. Based upon this and his other recent output (Jack Reacher, MI:4) he seems to be back to some sort of form in his choices of films. Alongside the original Resident evil film, Edge of Tomorrow is one of the very few films that somehow manages to capture something of the feel of playing video games, here that ability to replay the 'game' once you have died using the new knowledge gained to allow you to progress further. Doug Liman manages to make use of this device in an interesting and fun way delivering an above average (if not brilliant) sic-fi action film of a kind that wouldn't have looked out of place in the 1980's. The audience for this film comprised mostly early-mid 20's males. |
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Currently going through a bit of an asian cinema martial arts phase after watching ong bak the other night and just finish watching Azumi. Holy sh*t! This film had me drawn in within the first 10 minutes and didn't let go until the end. Apparently its over 2 hours long but as the saying goes time flies when you are having funas dd not seem that long to me. I thought the action sequences were immense. In a nutshell (from what i could figure) Ten orphans are trained from a young age to become assassins and eliminate 3 warlords to keep their nation from plunging into a war and destroying itself. Plenty of violence and blood during the many swordfights as well as a pretty high body count and would give this film an 8.5/10 any day. One I can see me watching again in the next week. Personally I have not even scratched the surface when it comes to asian cimema (battle royale, ong bak, kung fu hustle, sex & fury and this are literally all I've seen) so if you are thinking of dipping your toes into asian action/martial arts type cinema, even with what little I have seen imo this is a great introduction to the genre.Chances are there is better out there but I'm sure there is plenty worse too. |
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I watched SLEEPAWAY CAMP. Scream factory's blu is decent quality and has some fine extras. The film itself is one of the more entertainingly perverse slasher movies with material that would not make it into any modern film. The leering pedophile chef who openly talks about wanting his pick of the campers, who are actually played by kids of the same age as their characters is disturbing watched today. The film itself still works however, even in spit of sheriff's with dodgy mustaches and Angela's aunt who is a truly awful actress, playing a character one would expect to find haunting nilbog. And THAT ending... Lets not forget THAT ending. Still a minor classic of the slasher genre its a shame SF couldn't get the cheap as f*** sequels and make a proper box set. Nontheless still enjoyable after all these years. |
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From 1955 (part 1) Marty - The Oscar winner that year for best picture isnt your usual Hollywood smaltz and was billed as a human story, its interesting in as far as it shows the attitudes of the ordinary 'joe' on the street where ugly men are called 'ugly' and the none too pretty women are called 'dogs'. East of Eden - James Dean in an Elia Kazan movie. Wasn't to keen on this, I'm not a fan of either star or director. Rebel Without a Cause - Another Dean picture that again I wasn't too keen on, theres just something about his performances that I don't like. Tarantula - Giant arachnid and mutating humans, should be great...but for me it was lacking something. Clint Eastwood makes an early uncredited appearance. Teaserama - Betty Page and Tempest Storm strut their stuff and pull 'funny' faces, but don't actually show anything! Richard III - I have to say after seeing Olivier's Hamlet and being somewhat bored by it I was expecting something similar with this one, however I quite enjoyed it! Revenge of the Creature - Classic sequel to 'The Creature From the Black Lagoon' and again Clint Eastwood makes another appearance. Godzilla Raids Again - Hmmm! The original was a great movie but this 'American' version of the Japanese sequel left a lot to be desired. Lola Montes - Max Ophuls last movie is considered one of his greatest but like all the others I've seen, (with the exception of 'La Ronde') I probably wont rewatch them. The Night of the Hunter - Brilliant, an absolute great performance from Mitchum. Its a pity that Charles Laughton didn't direct more. It was also nice to see Lillian Gish again after last seeing her during the silent period of my movie project. The Quatermass Xperiment - Classic early Hammer. Wordsworth performance is just fantastic. |
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