What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I've not seen it but I was quite disappointed by the Tarkovsky version after all of the praise it has. It's not a bad film by any stretch but it's not even Tarkovsky's best film.

Imagine the Tarkovsky film with all the pretension removed and reduced to a 90 minute run time while retaining the essential core of the original film. Neither were especially great adaptations of the Lem novel but the Clooney version wastes less time making the same points.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Not listening!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

The clooney Solaris is a better film imo!

Originally Posted by Justin101

I've not seen it but I was quite disappointed by the Tarkovsky version after all of the praise it has. It's not a bad film by any stretch but it's not even Tarkovsky's best film.

To quote Radiohead:

"When I am king, you will be first against the wall
with your opinion which is of no consequence at all"

[Frankenhooker]

I prefer the Tarkovsky film (then again I'm often called pretentious) but I kind of agree with Keirarts, the Soderbergh version is a much more concise and, I suppose, palatable adaption of the novel (Isn't the book only 200 pages roughly ?).

I really like both films, the Soderbergh film is vastly underrated though.

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[Rik]

1408

2007 film starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, loosely based on a short story by Stephen King.
Cusack stars as a writer who specialises in writing books about haunted places, with titles such as 10 nights in 10 haunted houses etc, and being a sceptic he makes a habit of debunking the myths surrounding these places. Upon receiving a postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in NYC, with the only writing being "Don't stay in room 1408", he decides to check it out for himself, despite the protests (almost begging) of the hotel manager, played by Jackson in a pretty shitty wig

What follows is a series of strange experiences as he attempts to stay the night in 1408, the sceptic in him slowly disappearing.

I read the story back in 2002, as part of Kings Everything's Eventual collection, and enjoyed it enough, and have had the film sat on my shelf for years without watching (cheap impulse buy from CEX), and for whatever reason it popped into my head yesterday, so I thought I'd give it a watch.
I'm glad I did because the film is excellent, despite barely resembling the source material (which, as you know pisses me off about The Shining), there are some genuinely terrifying moments throughout, I jumped several times (which is rare for me these days) and there was an overall sense of dread during the bulk of the film, which perfectly captured a Stephen King type of feel, hard to explain unless you're familiar with his work.
Cusack gives a great performance, I really felt for his character (a troubled past literally coming back to haunt him) and Jackson was convincing as the hotel manager, no muthaf***ers from him, but he did throw in a single F word

4/5 Highly recommended

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Imagine the Tarkovsky film with all the pretension removed and reduced to a 90 minute run time while retaining the essential core of the original film. Neither were especially great adaptations of the Lem novel but the Clooney version wastes less time making the same points.

Originally Posted by Frankenhooker

I prefer the Tarkovsky film (then again I'm often called pretentious) but I kind of agree with Keirarts, the Soderbergh version is a much more concise and, I suppose, palatable adaption of the novel (Isn't the book only 200 pages roughly ?).

I really like both films, the Soderbergh film is vastly underrated though.

I don't think I have seen the Soderbergh version since it was first released on DVD or was on Sky Movies, but didn't think the 'stripped down' approach to storytelling worked when compared to the overall 'experience' of Tarkovsky's movie. Perhaps I would feel different if I had read the story and seen the Soderbergh film first, but my point of reference will always be the Tarkovsky adaptation.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Rik

1408

2007 film starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, loosely based on a short story by Stephen King.
Cusack stars as a writer who specialises in writing books about haunted places, with titles such as 10 nights in 10 haunted houses etc, and being a sceptic he makes a habit of debunking the myths surrounding these places. Upon receiving a postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in NYC, with the only writing being "Don't stay in room 1408", he decides to check it out for himself, despite the protests (almost begging) of the hotel manager, played by Jackson in a pretty shitty wig

What follows is a series of strange experiences as he attempts to stay the night in 1408, the sceptic in him slowly disappearing.

I read the story back in 2002, as part of Kings Everything's Eventual collection, and enjoyed it enough, and have had the film sat on my shelf for years without watching (cheap impulse buy from CEX), and for whatever reason it popped into my head yesterday, so I thought I'd give it a watch.
I'm glad I did because the film is excellent, despite barely resembling the source material (which, as you know pisses me off about The Shining), there are some genuinely terrifying moments throughout, I jumped several times (which is rare for me these days) and there was an overall sense of dread during the bulk of the film, which perfectly captured a Stephen King type of feel, hard to explain unless you're familiar with his work.
Cusack gives a great performance, I really felt for his character (a troubled past literally coming back to haunt him) and Jackson was convincing as the hotel manager, no muthaf***ers from him, but he did throw in a single F word

4/5 Highly recommended

Cracking review Rik. I haven't seen this one since it came out but I remember quite liking. The sense of increasing hopelessness gets under the skin after a while. Personally I find Stephen Kings writing to be quite frustrating and I'm not convinced sticking to the source material is necessarily a good idea when it comes to film adaps of his work.

[Demoncrat]

Mars Attacks! (1996, Tim Burton)
Had forgotten how sneakily nasty this actually is. Easily a higher body count than Braddock and The Burning combined Ahem. Burton's tribute to 50s SF is still a goer imo. And absolutely NO whimsy.

Humanoids From The Deep (1980, Barbara Peeters*)
Would that it be possible to see the original film before Corman "sexed" it up* cough .... but then I've always hankered after the original Fog for the same reason.
Regardless ... half eco warning/half monster movie aint too bad ... the bad guys are bad (headed by Vic Morrow at his most bull headed) and Doug McClure captains the good guys.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nina Forever (2015)

Nina Forever is a highly unusual British film. A young man, Rob, a year after losing his girlfriend, Nina, in a horrific road accident meets Holly and they strike up a relationship. Rob is still partly in shock and has 'Nina Forever' tattooed on his back. As his relationship with Holly develops and becomes physical, Nina, in a moment of Clive Barker type sickness, comes back into their lives, still blood soaked and sliced up from the accident. Holly who is a trainee paramedic isn't as strung out by this as she should be and slowly develops a sexual relationship with Nina as well as with Rob. What follows is a pitch black comedy about getting through tragedy and a sexual relationship where one of the lovers is dead.

I thought Nina Forever was brilliant. A far cry from a typical Hollywood ghost story. The couple don't try and drive Nina out of their lives with the usual exorcisms, in fact in time they embrace her, especially Holly, and it all becomes very 'Grittish' as bed clothes are changed following every sexual encounter due to the amount of blood involved and Rob has to come to terms with Nina actually seemingly being forever, as well as having to approach the subject of his new found love for Holly with Nina's still grief stricken parents. These scenes which involve Nina's parents (David Troughton and Elizabeth Elvin) are very poignant as well as being awkward in the extreme.

Making their first feature, the writing/directing team of Ben and Chris Blaine create believable yet far out scenarios that are written and acted especially beautifully. Abigail Hardingham as Holly is a real standout as is the wild eyed Fiona O’Shaughnessy as Nina. In a way Cian Barry as Rob is understated but he has to be in order for this to work so wonderfully well.

Nina Forever is a hauntingly beautiful piece of film making. It's strong sex and gore aspects verge on the extreme but it has to be that way for the whole thing to work as well as it does in this unpredictable and unforgettable British horror movie.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Nina Forever (2015)

Nina Forever is a highly unusual British film. A young man, Rob, a year after losing his girlfriend, Nina, in a horrific road accident meets Holly and they strike up a relationship. Rob is still partly in shock and has 'Nina Forever' tattooed on his back. As his relationship with Holly develops and becomes physical, Nina, in a moment of Clive Barker type sickness, comes back into their lives, still blood soaked and sliced up from the accident. Holly who is a trainee paramedic isn't as strung out by this as she should be and slowly develops a sexual relationship with Nina as well as with Rob. What follows is a pitch black comedy about getting through tragedy and a sexual relationship where one of the lovers is dead.

I thought Nina Forever was brilliant. A far cry from a typical Hollywood ghost story. The couple don't try and drive Nina out of their lives with the usual exorcisms, in fact in time they embrace her, especially Holly, and it all becomes very 'Grittish' as bed clothes are changed following every sexual encounter due to the amount of blood involved and Rob has to come to terms with Nina actually seemingly being forever, as well as having to approach the subject of his new found love for Holly with Nina's still grief stricken parents. These scenes which involve Nina's parents (David Troughton and Elizabeth Elvin) are very poignant as well as being awkward in the extreme.

Making their first feature, the writing/directing team of Ben and Chris Blaine create believable yet far out scenarios that are written and acted especially beautifully. Abigail Hardingham as Holly is a real standout as is the wild eyed Fiona O’Shaughnessy as Nina. In a way Cian Barry as Rob is understated but he has to be in order for this to work so wonderfully well.

Nina Forever is a hauntingly beautiful piece of film making. It's strong sex and gore aspects verge on the extreme but it has to be that way for the whole thing to work as well as it does in this unpredictable and unforgettable British horror movie.

Duly noted.