What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[iank]

The New Kids. The teenage son and daughter of an army Colonel are forced to go live with relatives in a small town in Florida when their parents are killed in a car crash. As if the culture shock of their new lives isn't enough, things get even worse when the girl attracts the unwanted attention of several members of a notorious local teen gang - and they don't take kindly to being rebuffed, beginning a campaign of harassment and intimidation. The brother decides he's had enough and retaliates and puts them in their place - but standing up to these bullies only enrages them further, and the teen siblings soon find themselves fighting for their very lives... I've never seen this mid 80s flick before, or even heard of it till recently, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable thriller with a decent cast including Lori Loughlin, Eric Stoltz and cult fave Tom Atkins (albeit for about five minutes!) but stealing the show is undoubtedly a young James Spader as the main villain, already leaving teeth marks in the scenery as the drug-snorting, leering, unbelievably narcissistic and just plain deranged leader of the gang. He and his cohorts are so thoroughly, irredeemably loathsome that the last act, in which their attempts to murder the siblings in cold blood backfires and each of them gets taken out in true grisly 80s movie fashion, is enormously satisfying. This movie is AWESOME.

[Dave Boy]

hell_is_a_city_UKquad.jpg
HELL IS A CITY (1960)

Cracking crime drama from Hammer Films.
Stanley Baker is a detective in Manchester, on the trail of an escaped criminal who he thinks will return to claim hidden jewellery. As well as trying to find the convict and solve the murder of a girl, Baker struggles with home life and problems with his wife.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

A Quiet Place (2018)

As with all recent over hyped modern horrors (The Babadook, It Follows, Lights Out, Don't Breathe) A Quiet Place is a one trick pony that quickly becomes tiresome.

Having said that it's also by far the best of the one trick pony films by a long distance. Performances are great and questions i immediately came up with were answered as the film went along, although i still can't believe the couple were irresponsible enough to bring a baby into a world where it had to be silent.

Innovative yet a bit dull too and certainly gimmicky in a William Castle sense, although in Castle's day you'd have been given something when you entered the screening such as ear amplifiers or some such like to enable you to still get what was going on without the annoyance of tearing your eyes from your smart phone.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977)

Umberto Lenzi's sequel to Rome Armed to the Teeth is a cracking example of the Poliziotteschi genre.

Exciting and unpredictable with three superb leads in John Saxon, Tomas Milian and of course Maurizio Merli as the no nonsense Leonardo Tanzi, as well as a catchy score by Franco Micalizzi.

Full of shoot outs, car chases and sadistic violence, this is gritty and yet also enormous fun.

Recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Girl in the Headlines (1963)

Interesting Noir-like British crime thriller as chief inspector Ian Hendry (The Avenger nobody remembers) attempts to solve the murder of a Soho glamour model.

One of those films that heads in a completely different direction than you think it will take in that from it's opening half hour there's not a chance in hell i'd have guessed how it's final half hour would play out.

Hendry and Ronald Fraser lead a good cast of established British thesps in this unpredictable drama.

[Paul Zombie]

Scream and Scream Again(1970)

A chap is out jogging and collapses and wakes up in hospital and slowly has his body parts removed one by one. And meanwhile, a maniac with super human strength is on the rampage picking up women in clubs and draining their blood like a vampire. and in some unknown country, a bunch of Nazi type chaps are trying to take over the world, or something.

From Amicus, this is one of their lesser efforts, in my opinion. It is all over the place going from one thing to the other and doesn't really kind of make any sense until the end.

One of the most annoying things about it though is the top billing of Christopher Lee, Peter cushing, and Vincent Price. None of them are hardly in it at all. peter Cushing has a blink and you miss it part before he abruptly gets killed off and christopher lee is virtually non existant as well. only price has a bigger role as an insane scientist, but even he only really comes into it properly towards the end.

The film does have a weird type of charm. but overall, apart from a couple of decent scenes and a great car chase, i found it rather dull and a complete waste of the talents of the three horror heavy weights. And even the gorgeous Yutte Stensgaard is criminally underused as well.
60 out of 100.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Arrival (2016)

Pretentious sci-fi nonsense which pretends it has something profound to say whilst lecturing us about languages.

It felt like a piss take at times. Earth's foremost linguist attempting to communicate with an an alien species by writing the word 'human' on a piece of paper whilst shouting the word and thumping her chest with mad enthusiasm. That's how English football fans behave not top linguists.

I turned it off when one character said something on the lines of "The question we have to ask is what is the question?" and watched the remaining episodes of the BBC's Quatermass and the Pit serial from 1958.

[trebor8273]

The weakest of the prequel films but I would say not the weakest star wars film , that goes too Solo or Last Jedi. 6/10


Now watching The Terminator.

[trebor8273]

A classic. Just like alien i much preferred the sequel when I was younger, but being older if not any wiser , find the original movie too be the better movie. Plenty of classic moments and the first time the Austrian oak utters those immortal words " I'll be back". 9.6/10


Now watching the abominable snowman .

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Comanche (1956)

Decent if not spectacular indie western. Well made with good Durango, Old Mexico, location work captured in fine style by Cinemascope lenses and an appealing lead in Dana Andrews who heads seemingly a cast of thousands of extras.

The finale where a band of renegade Comanche's are surrounded in a canyon by the cavalry and the main Comanche forces is beautifully done and really quite eerie.

The film is let down somewhat by an appalling ballad which intermittently disrupts the action and poor vhs quality visuals on the 101 Films dvd i watched.