What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

The Crack Connection (1987, Hago Gies)

German actioner.
Schimanski is a man on the edge, oh, he's just jumped off ahem
Imagine if you will that you could put both Chuck Norris and Richard Harrison into the same blender .
What pours out is this ... hardbitten copper with a score to settle
Who is flooding the streets with a cheap but potent drug? One man is determined to find out, mainly by leaping everywhere it seems.
Apparently a tv stalwart who got the cinematic treatment?
So imagine maybe The Sweeney directed by Godfrey Ho?
Ahem.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE GAME – I was quite amused when they put out a Bill Rebane box-set, it’s not the most intuitive move in this day and age. But I’ve always had a real soft spot for ‘The Game’, which I never thought I’d get to watch in HD. Anyone familiar with Rebane will not be surprised to find that this regional production, in which a small group of dodgy millionaires get their sadistic shits and giggles from challenging some hard-up types to spend a night in a ‘haunted house’ without going mad or running away, looks very cheap and is moderately incomprehensible throughout. Rebane’s indisputable talent for curing insomnia is not in evidence, as the off-kilter vibe and steady accumulation of random incident manages to alleviate boredom. This is very much a personal opinion; I can only recommend 'The Game' to other masochists, but it’s one of his better films.

WINTERBEAST – Staying with regional horror done on a shoestring, here’s another one I never thought would make it over to the posh side of home-based media. We truly are living in a weird golden age of blu ray, even as its star slowly fades. Anyway, ‘Winterbeast’, it’s totally crackers. The stamp of rank amateurism is all over it, for good more than bad – just point the camera, focus and hit ‘record’, it’s bound to pick something up, that ‘something’ being in this case the best worst Harryhausan cast-offs this side of ‘Equinox’. The human characters (largely made up of incompetent park rangers) are only slightly less tangibly artificial than the stop-motion monsters ie the performances are very much ‘super-8’ compatible, but you probably already suspected as much. And I doubt you’ll care. ‘Winterbeast’ is peppered with odd moments and delicious bits of ‘stylisation’, and features such unassailable eccentricities as a character who looks like he’s wearing a slightly warped and ill-fitting Timothy Leary mask, then slips on an actual mask and does a mad little dance with some corpses to a scratchy old record. There’s also a random dildo bit, which… well, I didn’t get it. I could go on. A true indie labour of love, exactly the kind we’re all supposed to fawn over and get sentimental about, albeit this time for very good reasons. For god’s sake, make sure you see ‘Winterbeast’.

DAY OF THE ANIMALS – Animals attack, such was their wont back in the mid to late seventies. This time, some broadly middle-class Americans are off up into the hills on a nature trail, only to find a bunch of horrible focking brutes are going badass just cos the humes spilled some toxic radiation over the sun’s rays or something etc etc Lesley Nielson is around, and he’s an absolute cock. Everyone else is fifty shades of irritating. Well, usually I quite like this sort of thing, but I found my patience running a little dry. The build up seemed a bit too well behaved, although I always get a strange kick out of that flat kind of TV movie aesthetic you used to see in budget mainstream horror from around the time, the kind with parping easy listening on the soundtrack, and it’s worth sticking around to witness Nielson ‘going native’ when it all kicks off. A choice for that rainy day when you can’t find your copy of ‘Wild Beasts’.

FATAL EXAM – As much as I enjoy zero budget indie horror from the seventies, eighties, nineties (see ‘The Game’ and ‘Winterbeast’), ‘Fatal Exam’ was a bit of a hike. Many reviews have mentioned the slightly inordinate running time… yes, unfortunately it is a bit of a problem, as for a good amount of said running time jack all happens. Now, I am very easily sold on the charm of stiff acting, badly composed shots, weird incongruity and the lovely look of old cheap celluloid swimming in grain. But all these become incidentals in the absence of further novelty. ‘Fatal Exam’ has a heard-it-all-before storyline which follows the usual clean cut studes when they go to a house with a dark past and try to figure out whether there’s some psychic investigation they can do into a murder. It only really comes to life in a couple of scenes, one involving a stop-motion (again) demon right at the end. If only the rest of it hadn’t all been about kids in jeans swigging beer. Not sure what grade I’d give ‘Fatal Exam’, but it certainly isn’t graduating from my college.

As always F. Noted ala Winterbeast especially then

[trebor8273]

A group of cheerleaders are killed and are brought back by magic and seek revenge on the jocks that caused there deaths.

This film really doesn't have a clue what it is, first it seems it's a typical high school revenge film then it's could be Heathers , then it's the craft and finally it's a Slasher. It was enjoyable enough but nothing I will rush too watch again.


Up tonight.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It's desperate for a blu ray release but i doubt it will ever see light of day.

I've still got it on vhs along with the crappy Legend of the Werewolf.

Who can we bribe, ass kiss or pay for a good time girl for the night for a company exec get this released on Blu-Ray, If it were to be released would it be under Studio Canal as they have released a few Hammer Horror or Second sight?

[Demoncrat]

Silk 2 (1989, Cirio H Santiago)

A sequel you cry? Or start to cry, depending on whether you've actually seen the parent flick. Great bits, but torpid pacing kills it stone dead ahem.

But this is more like it, and we set out our stall early doors with the old hostage situation.
This time it's Monique Gabrielle (Hard To Die) taking up the (wo) mantle ahem.
Naughty types want some priceless artifact or other, but this is merely a framework for CHS' trademark madness. Sadly the ADR seems a tad flat in places, leading to unintentional comedy for the demon.

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The first hour of this two hour twenty minute film is a load of guff that would have been widely and rightly mocked had it come from the pen of L. Ron Hubbard for example but because the Wachowski's were big business thanks to the original Matrix film it was all taken in people's strides, but in reality in 2021 it's a load of old bollocks.

However things take a step in the right direction after that and we go from Oracles and Zion and architects to classic sci-fi action in particular a freeway chase that lasts a full sixteen minutes and is wonderfully executed.

Except that on Blu-Ray the effects look faker than ever before at times, in particular when Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) fights atop a moving truck.

On the whole The Matrix Reloaded is poorly paced but largely saved by that freeway action set piece.

Believe me, Matrix Reloaded was huge at the Cinema when it first came out, the demand was incredible. However I believe that the points you made rang true with those goers because the demand for Matrix Revolutions was lower than anticipated even for opening day.

[nicholasrope]

Freaky

Latest Blumhouse release which sees a Serial Killer played by Vince Vaughn switch bodies with his then intended victim. This off course sees Vaughn playing (quite well admittingly) a High School Girl whilst a High School Girl was playing a psychotic Serial Killer. I was really looking forward to this one (and other for a unnecessary final scene) it was really enjoyable with some really nice kills.

Shogun Assassin

A Samurai's Wife is murdered so he takes his Son with him when out for revenge. Never actually seen this before and it's not bad. Kind of surprised there hasn't a release by 88 or Arrow for this one. Think the last one was done by Eureka in 2010.

The Rock

When a rogue Military Unit takes over Alcatraz Prison and threaten to release a deadly Nerve Gas it's up to former escapee Sean Connery and Chemical Weapon Expert Nicholas Cage to stop them. It's good but not as good as previously remembered. I felt it was a little too long.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Who can we bribe, ass kiss or pay for a good time girl for the night for a company exec get this released on Blu-Ray, If it were to be released would it be under Studio Canal as they have released a few Hammer Horror or Second sight?

Kevin Francis, son of Freddie Francis. It's his company Tyburn who made The Ghoul, Legend of the Werewolf, Persecution and Masks of Death and none of them have had disc releases.

He simply doesn't want to know which is unfortunate.

[J Harker]

The Man They Could Not Hang. 1939.

The second film in the recent Karloff at Colombia collection from Eureka. Personally I enjoyed this way more than the somewhat stodgy period histrionics of The Black Room.
Karloff plays a mad scientist type who is on the verge of finding a way to prolong life after death. Sound familiar?
The film sort of feels like a precursor to the Vincent Price movies, Theatre of Blood or the Dr Phibes films, with Karloff reeking vengeance from beyond the grave. I really liked it and after the frankly disappointing first movie in this new collection I'm pleased to say I'm looking forward to the rest.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[Justin101]

Titanic (1997)

I pulled out my bluray of Titanic, as I mentioned a few days ago, been meaning to rewatch it for years, also pretty sure I've never actually watched the disc that I've owned for a long time now

Why is it so long? Why does it spend so much time making you get to know all of the characters when all anyone wants to see is when the ship breaks in half, but also that bit when the man jumps off the back of the ship and hits the propeller blade, that's all anyone wants from this.

All of that back story from Rose, she talked for 3 hours, and she had the bloody necklace in her pocket the entire time!!