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MILIUS. Utterly fantastic documentary on cinema's very own Zen Anarchist, John Milius. This charts Milius' rise through the ranks of screenwriters to be the highest paid scriptwriter of his day to his career as director and how is own self created persona eventually became his undoing. Get yourself a big cigar,a gun or two and a few drinks and give this a spin. Highly recommended. |
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From 1964: part 2 A Fistful of Dollars - First in ' The man with no name' spaghetti westerns, a classic movie with a classic score. The Evil of Frankenstein - None too sure on this one. Should have stuck with the established storyline. Carry on Spying - Bab Winsors first carry on and a James Bond Spoof. "o o ooher" The Fall of the Roman Empire - Another Sam Bronston epic with an all star cast. Ghidorah - The Three-Headed Monster - More men in rubber monster suits trashing airfix kits! Carry on Cleo - A Better film than the last couple of entries, with some great lines and gags. A Hard Days Night - The Beatles first movie, better than most films of this sort. Goldfinger - As iconic as any Bond movie can be. From Basseys opening score, memorable villian and henchman to Q's lab and not forgetting the Aston Martin. Zulu - One of my all time favourite movies! The 'fire by rank' scene alone is worth the price of the movie. For this I cranked up the sound bar....if thousands of Zulus are coming at me I want to hear them....so did the neighbours probably. Oh and what a score! Kissin' Cousins - Presley plays a dual role here, just goes to prove that two Elvis' dont make a better movie even if it does have an unintention boob flash! Viva Las Vegas - Finishing of 1964 with another Elvis movie, this one also starring Ann Margaret who is very easy on the eye.
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Digging up the marrow Film-maker Adam Green plays Film-maker Adam Green who discovers a story amongst his fan mail from an apparent crank played by Ray Wise. The story tells of a race of monsters living beneath the ground in a place called the marrow and Wises character has dedicated his life to studying it. While Green dismisses it as first he decides to break out the camera crew and follow this apparrant nutter about only to get alarmed when he discovers that the story might be true. This could have been a terrible vanity piece on the part of Green with a 'found footage' take on nightbreed from the humans perspective. Thankfully he makes it work however thanks to some great creature effects, lots of cameos from numerous genre stars and of course Ray Wise who is always worth watching. The film actually even manages to creep me out in places and is certainly worth catching. Mondo cannibal Bruno mattei, Italy's biggest schlockmeister plagiarises the shit out of Cannibal Holocaust enough to make it repellent but not enough to actually steal any of the intelligence or careful structuring. Its fortunate he stole parts of the dialogue at least as his own stuff here is unintelligible at best and actually unintentionally comedic. Factor in one English voice actor who sounds suspiciously like Matt berry and its hard to take anything seriously. The film follows a film crew out in the middle of the jungle riling up the cannibals with some rape and murder and.... actually I'm not going to bother summing up the plot as if you've seen Cannibal Holocaust you will know how this piece of shit turns out. that said if you enjoy inept pieces of z-grade trash with lots of sex and violence intervisions release might still be worth checking out. Just don't expect anything tasteful or well made. To my shame I enjoyed it. In the land of the cannibal Shot back to back with mondo Cannibal, this one decides to thieve stuff from predator and has a crew of mercs out in the jungle to rescue a hostage and find themselves hunted by a tribe of cannibals. Like Mondo it's sleazy trash that steals it's best moments from other films and like mondo it's a lot of fun if this sort of trash is your bag. Once again all the dialogue is effing terrible, the gore is laid on with a trowel and you will have seen it all before. Sleaze hounds should check it out. Twin Peaks fire walk with me A film that will always be in my top five David Lynch films, Fire walk with me was poorly recieved by critics at the time but has undergone a reappraisal on home video where people have realised what a bloody good film it is after all. Watching it straight after a marathon of the show its easy to see why people got so upset. Essentially telling the story of the last 7 days of Laura Palmer Lynch tears out a lot of the comedic and whimsical element of the show and leaves us with just the dark heart of the show to deal with. It starts as a weird, off kilter detective story with Chris Issak and Keifer Sutherland investigating the murder of Theresa banks before morphing into a twisted as hell domestic drama about an all American family where beneath the surface lies a web of drug addiction, incest and murder. Sheryl lee is phenomenal as Laura Palmer and gives an insanely great performance as Laura Palmer that deserves way more recognition. Ray Wise is terrific as the disturbed Leland Palmer and Grace Zabriski is also excellent as Sarah Palmer, a mother in denial who chain smokes her way through life in a bid to avoid the terrible truth of what's happening under her own roof. Even if you hate the show you need to check this out, its pretty much an (until recently) unsung masterpiece that's been a favourite of mine for a long while. The ending is genuinely harrowing and beautiful and it lingers with you long after the film is done. |
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The Terror Within (1989), The Terror Within II (1991) Post apocalyptic world, experiments gone hay wire, mutants in the wastelands, last human survivors - you know the score. These films are what they are...a product of their time. Direct to video Roger Corman productions practically guaranteed to make money on the backs of successful studio films hogging cinema screens throughout the 80's. Video shop customers lapping them up due to their guaranteed quota of sex, violence and monsters. These two Terror Within films are typical Corman movies. Boasting a decent C-list cast - George Kennedy, Andrew Stevens, and R Lee Ermey to name but three, which probably got the films made as they were names to proudly boast about on your video cover, Kennedy in particular, and probably got them a decent sized budget to play with too. In today's ultra slick movie market films such as these are caught in a time loop and really don't stand up to much scrutiny except as a time capsule of a bygone age of direct to video heaven. Both films are entertaining, despite the obvious man in a suit monster and scenes practically half inched from Ridley Scott's Alien. There really isn't anything new here though and neither film would be worth paying a tenner for as a blu-ray, however if like me you fancy giving them a go on the double bill dvd which you can pick up and still get change from two quid - a method and format which seems more fitting for their DTV origins, then i certainly recommend them |
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The Equalizer (2014) Disappointing remake of the 80's tv series starring Denzel Washington. Although it sort of hits the mark it also feels disjointed and at times poorly edited. The climactic shoot out in the DIY store was a real let down as it was all shrouded in darkness and featured a black clad Washington fighting it out with other dudes dressed all in black. Parts of the film were dripping with cool and Denzel played the part of Robert McCall with a burning intensity at times. Oh and it definitely loses points for not having this as the theme. |
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