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Quote:
It's ok, a guy I work with (who's 30 BTW) has never seen a single Star Wars or James Bond film!
__________________ If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the ****ing car! |
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Doctor Strange. Just got back from Marvel Studios latest. The story of a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon who loses the use of his hands in a car accident. After exhausting the possibilities of traditional medicine he heads to the far east in search of help through spiritual enlightenment. In the process Dr Stephen Strange learns that the reality he perceives is but the tip of the iceberg and that there are worlds beyond ours and threats to humanity that he could never imagine and thus finds his true calling. Of the Marvel films this is by far the silliest, I can't say I didn't enjoy it but it is a bit....well strange😊. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title character and given how much I love his turn as Sherlock I was rather underwhelmed with his performance. Not sure if it was him or what the film/script required of him but his accent definitely didn't help and he came across as nowhere near arrogant and big-headed enough in the first place for the transition to seem all that great. Marvel did an animated movie that is significantly shorter than this and yet somehow seemed to feel more accomplished in its plotting. Mentions have been made of the Matrix like effects with characters seemingly floating and flying about the place a bit too much, I'd say the problem was more the kaleidoscopic scenery effects. Imagine the city folding effect from Christopher Nolans Inception on speed. Rooms, walls, cityscapes just endlessly folding in on each other and turning inside and such until it's just impossible to work out what the devil is going on. Tilda Swinton was good as Dr.Strange's mentor known only as 'The Ancient One' and Chewitel Ejiofor provides able support as fellow sorceror Modor. So worth watching but certainly cheesier and sillier than the other Marvel movies. |
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Decemberdike # 1 Castle of Blood (1964) Following an evening spent interviewing author Edgar Allen Poe in an English tavern, journalist Alan Foster (Georges Rivière) accepts a bet to spend All Hallows Eve night in a supposedly haunted castle. Italian director Antonio Margheriti returns to Gothic horror following the previous years excellent Virgin of Nuremburg. A genre he would also visit with this same years The Long Hair of Death and with 1973's excellent Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye. Castle of Blood shows, and make no mistake here, that along with the other three mentioned films Margheriti was Italy's top Gothic horror director (Sorry Mario) and it's a crying shame he made only four films in the genre, preferring it seems science fiction, crime and fantasy. Castle of Blood is an absolute delight of Gothic cinema. Rather than going all out for shocks, Margheriti clearly has an understanding of the Gothic and allows an atmosphere of dread to slowly build from the moment Rivière begins to make his way to the castle. The journey on foot is slow, dark and incredibly eerie. Even as he enters the castle the gloomy corridors and rooms are lit only with a candelabra he carries. It really is truly atmospheric and quite wonderful and thankfully it never lets up throughout the films hour and a half run time. Once established in the castle Foster meets Elizabeth Blackwood who apparently resides there, but unbeknown to him she's actually one of the many ghostly apparitions that appear every Halloween when the fabric between reality and the spirit world is at it's most vulnerable. What the put upon writer soon comes to understand is that the ghostly residents need blood - in this case his blood - in order to return the following All Hallows Eve. The characters are well rounded, believable and nicely written, ghosts or otherwise, in fact Sergio Corbucci 's screen play i'd say is practically flawless. Even lesser characters such as the lovely Sylvia Sorrente when she shows up in the final reels are fully fleshed out. In fact Castle of Blood is everything you could want from Gothic horror from it's eerie atmosphere of dread and decay to startling visuals and impeccable performances. Highly recommended. |
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