What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Beach Babes From Beyond (1993)

An alien girl and her two friends borrow her fathers planet hopper type space craft and crash down on a Californian beach.

Beach Babes From Beyond is probably the only film that teams up legendary movie names Stallone, Swayze, Travolta and Estevez. Sadly for director David DeCoteau it's Jackie, Don, Joey and Joe rather than the action heroes of the 80's and 90's. However that really doesn't matter as Beach Babes is a rather enjoyable little film.

Running at a mere 74 mins it still feels padded with music video style montages of girls n' guys dancing on the beach and a rather lengthy bikini contest but the sheer likability of the cast, including the three alien beach babes - Sarah Bellomo, Tamara Landry and Nicole Posey, make this a fun if dated by big hair styles, trip into bikini exploitation.

The 88 Films disc looks okay but can't escape the cheap look that so many of these Full Moon productions had. Extras include lengthy stronger additional sex scenes which whilst okay to have as a bonus feature are wisely omitted from the film itself.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Gun Fury (1953)

Originally shot in 3D, this revenge western stars Rock Hudson as a man left for dead as Phil Carey's murderous gang kidnap his wife.

Shot beautifully on location in Sedona, Arizona. (I've been twice to the area, Bell Rock as features in this film is a stunning western location of natural rocky beauty). Director Raoul Walsh's film is fairly typical western fodder but still involving and entertaining none the less.

Hudson, very much in his macho sex symbol days is fine and a Walsh regular, but doesn't really stand up when compared to the Wayne's, Stewart's, and Randolph Scott's of the era. In fact he could almost be accused of over acting in this one so bullish is his bravado.

Perhaps he felt the need to do so when pitted against the likes of Carey, Leo Gordon and Lee Marvin as he is here. Or maybe it's because he's desperate to save the lovely Donna Reed from these villains of the west.

There's a fair amount of gun play and range galloping, meaning that even the most jaded western watcher will still enjoy this routine but fun actioner.

[Buboven]

Haven't posted in a while so thought I would just briefly share some recent viewings.


Me and my flatmate watched Sucker Punch Friday night, really wish we hadn't, have always heard bad things about but she wanted to watch it.

3/10.

Watched Star Trek: Beyond Saturday night, probably the most fun I have had of all the new Trek films, some amazing visuals.

8/10

Also watched the Frankenstein Must be Destroyed and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed, definitely one of the more interesting of Hammer's Frankenstein films, especially the aspect relating to his creation. Also really enjoyed a first time watch of Flesh and The Fiends, great performances in this one.

Both get a 8/10

One of my most disappointing watched recently was Burnt Offerings, never been a huge fan of haunted house type films but found this to be a tedious and felt effort which was not in the least bit scary.

2/10 I am afraid.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Witch (2016)

No plot points or spoilers of any kind.

I truly cannot rate this film highly enough. Superbly performed with brilliant and authentic use of olde-English language and terrific sound design and an often lingering camera technique all come together to create the most unnerving bordering on frightening horror film i can remember seeing.

Absolutely outstanding.

[keirarts]

Ghostbusters

Ok, jumping ahead a little and really need to catch up with reviews here. Thought I'd skip to this however....

Given the amount of grown men behaving like toddlers on youtube and the way this film has been appropriated by part of some kind of Toxic culture war with its own baffling terminoligy (SJW, Privlidge, trigger warnings ect..) it wouldn't be unreasonable to think this was some kind of polemic about gender identity politicizing a culture war between men and women for the masses...

Nah, its just a middling summer comedy where half the jokes are amusing as hell, the other half fall flat. Is it as good as the original Ghostbusters? No. Is it some horrible travesty? no. Honestly its sort of fun and worth a watch but its not going to set the world on fire.

I dont usually rate things on here but 6/10 probably sums it up best.

[Frankenhooker]

High-Rise - The fantastic set design and brilliant performances aside, I found Wheatley's adaptation of Ballard's book something of a mixed bag. It starts off well, really capturing the essence of the source material and Hiddlestone's ambiguous performance fits in perfectly, however in my opinion it kind of loses its way. I haven't read the source material for maybe ten years but it was far more successful in putting its themes across. The book was often considered 'unfilmable' but Wheatley's film is a good effort, there's much to enjoy, it's just a bit, well, messy. Cronenberg's 'Crash' is still the best onscreen adaptation of Ballard's work in my opinion.

6/10 (although it's definitely a film I'll revisit)

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Witch (2016)

No plot points or spoilers of any kind.

I truly cannot rate this film highly enough. Superbly performed with brilliant and authentic use of olde-English language and terrific sound design and an often lingering camera technique all come together to create the most unnerving bordering on frightening horror film i can remember seeing.

Absolutely outstanding.

Thats it, definitely getting this tomorrow. What happened to Decemberdike though??

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Thats it, definitely getting this tomorrow. What happened to Decemberdike though??

It's the one film of this year i really wanted to see.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It's the one film of this year i really wanted to see.

I'm still looking forward to your review of Crimson Peak when you finally watch it.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

I'm still looking forward to your review of Crimson Peak when you finally watch it.

That wasn't really a review for The Witch. I will do one but not for a while. give people chance to watch it themselves before mentioning any plot points.