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I mean't what Kierarts said. Both 28 days and this had a cinema release and contained decent actors. Compared to say the average studio release in America it's a pittance, look at something like World War Z and you can see what i'm getting at. I've lost track of how much film making costs, all i'm used to hearing is this big budget film cost 200 million to make, even though it's still a big pile of shite. For what they created, i'd say both 28 days and this got a lot of mileage from their money.
__________________ MIKE: I've got it! Peter Cushing! We've got to drive a stake through his heart! VYVYAN: Great! I'll get the car! NEIL: I'll get a cushion. |
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Heart of Midnight. Heart_of_Midnight_VHS_cover (1).jpg MV5BNzI0ODY3NTYyMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDc4MjI0NA@@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg Well here's another film that i've been meaning to catch up with ever since i used to see the VHS when i rented films out with my mum as a kid, it always intrigued me but i thought it looked too sexy to watch with a parent. My UK dvd has the cover on the left, but this is misleading as Jennifer Jason Leigh never looks like this in the film, the cover on the right is much more apt. Anyways, on to the film. JJL plays a young woman who lives with her mum but wants to escape, she has a history of mental illness and seems fragile and ill at ease with the world. Her Uncle dies and leaves her a run down nightclub called the midnight, the mother tries to talk her into selling the place, but seeing her way to escape she takes on the club and moves in to renovate it. Once at the club she struggles with the new responsibility and discovers it contains many fetishistic rooms that seem to have been used for sexual activities. This disturbs her and after being raped by some of the workers she starts to question her sanity once again. To me this comes across as a mixture of Polanski's Repulsion, with elements of The Shining as she is seemingly taunted by ghostly activity while she roams the isolated building, but also contains elements of Blue Velvet with the seedy underworld setting. Jennifer Jason Leigh is an actress that i always like whenever i see her in a film, here she is very good and really holds the film together, seeming determined to succeed but also very fragile and vulnerable. Peter Coyote turns up as a detective who is helpful and sympathetic to her plight, but seems to be hiding something, he is also very good. 1948673,pHMv1gcHKLVl+xKKmvFD2nxfmQhXdQMZ8BFBk3Hj2Vx1Em+3vDb9zfon3uv_jNxJfz3ogxTr3jHE26akqhRXcA==.jpg This seems to be a film that has been overlooked, maybe it is because it is not really straightforward and is hard to read, seemingly heading in different directions, looking at others reviews it seems a marmite type film, I wouldn't class it as an out and out horror, but it definitely contains many elements of one. I enjoyed it because of that and was happy to go along with it, unsure of where the story was heading even as the end approached, this is always a plus point in my book. Also the film has a disturbing undercurrent that is very sordid and sleazy although nothing is really shown, even the rape scene is tastefully done. (Steve Buscemi pops up in this scene although not literally, thankfully.) I'm not gonna recommend it to someone who want's gore and titillation, it's a bit of a slow burn affair but for me it surpassed my expectations, if you're into weirdly plotted 80's obscure stuff then it's worth a go. a297a22edd6fe828e88b5185f4537423--jennifer-jason-leigh-jennifer-oneill.jpg 8/10.
__________________ MIKE: I've got it! Peter Cushing! We've got to drive a stake through his heart! VYVYAN: Great! I'll get the car! NEIL: I'll get a cushion. |
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Skyline A young couple visiting friends in LA are forced into a struggle for survival when blue lights fall from the sky and begin hoovering up people. Pretty soon alien craft are in the sky's and their troops are looking for anyone left behind. Skyline is a RELATIVELY low budget affair made independently by special effects team the brothers strauss. The brothers previously worked on the awful Aliens vs predator and this one managed to get a similar poor reaction from critics and audience. Watching it again I'm not entirely sure why. Its got problems. The cinematography is a little too dark. The script is clunky and the characters are difficult to relate to. However as a B picture alien invasion film its perfectly serviceable. It moves along at a brisk pace, has reasonably interesting creature design and manages to get a lot on screen at RELATIVELY low cost. Beyond skyline Given Skyline came out 2010 and got trashed by critics it was somewhat strange to discover a sequel was in the works. The Brothers Strauss take a sideline as producers and there's a new cast including some of the raid cast members and Frank Grillo whose building up a bit of a fanbase after being the best thing in Purge anarchy (seriously also check out netflix wheelman if you get a chance) Its set in LA on the same day as the first Skyline. The film even reuses some effects sequences, the main one being the nuclear attack on the spacecraft. However after Grillos character gets on one of the craft in order to save his son things get a bit mad as he and other survivors end up in Cambodia and team up with the cast of the Raid to fight the aliens, building up to a sequence where they are beating the tar out of the space bastards and carving them up with machetes. Its not so much jumping the shark as dragging it to shore and making love to it. The thing is it actually works. Beyond Skyline is a genuine blast to watch. I'm pretty certain it'll appear in poundland sooner or later if you opt to wait but this ones worth checking out. |
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The Time Travelers (1964) In 1964, a group of scientists create a portal that takes them to a barren, mutant inhabited, Earth in the year 2071. Enjoyable sci-fi adventure with creepy automatons and troublesome mutants is punctuated with rather too many light hearted time wasting moments to be a classic although it did apparently inspire the US series The Time Tunnel. Having said that the final half hour is excellent and the denouement original and well executed. The MGM US dvd (a four film set) looks great. |
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The Conjuring (2013) A well made and at times quietly creepy 70's set ghost story. Thankfully a film that uses minimal jump scare motifs or special effects (until the finale, that is, but i suppose that can be forgiven) and generates chills by atmospheric build up alone. Definitely enhanced by a strong cast in Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as a real life husband and wife investigator team and Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as the couple who along with their five children move into an old house that is seemingly possessed. From director James Wan (Saw, Furious 7, Death Sentence), he of many a crash-bang-wallop, The Conjuring is surprisingly a film of great subtlety. There's no blood or gore, no sex or swearing, we live or die with the performances, script and filming techniques, just like the good old days. Finally. I thought this was about a doll. How wrong was i? |
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The sequel is good too, all about the infamous Enfield Haunting from the 70’s
__________________ 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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I haven't bought any films this year so far. I'd have never guessed in a million years that The Conjuring 2 might be the first. |
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Still need to pick it up myself
__________________ 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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Watched The Incredible Melting Man (1977) This got a cert AA back then when I saw it (on a Double Bill with The Savage Bees eeeeeeeeeeeeek! ) (a true 'B' movie and then was upgraded to an '18' for video so I wondered if this got downgraded to a 15 now? Some parts of this film is unintentionall funny and and at some point in the film you feel for the poor sod. |
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