What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Rambo (2008)

If you want blood... you've got it!

Rambo and a team of mercenaries travel up the Burmese river to rescue a party of missionaries from a crazed military unit.

Seriously, this would have been butchered by the BBFC in the eighties. It's possibly the most violent mainstream film out there not in the horror genre. Had this been directed by Lamberto Lenzi it would be seen now as an exploitation classic.

[MrBarlow]

The Phantom Express. 1932.

A railway line has caused trains to derail, is it a ghost train or something else.

A decent fast paced mystery movie that starts off with a train derailment and a engineer who is fired for causing the derailment after seeing another train light in a tunnel coming towards him and people looking into the cause of it. About 20 minutes in we see what's going on but the reason is played out well right up to the end with decent acting and the use of model railways for the exterior shots which is a bit of a laugh. Enjoyable.

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[Demoncrat]

The Ultimate Ninja (1986, Godfrey Ho)

A tale as old as time. When your dad is killed by the local scuzzball, what are his children to do? Kick the feck out of everyone naturally. Featuring that mature measured dialogue that we've grown to expect from the Ho.
To be fair, this could easily be the ultimate Ho flick, as it is blatantly 2 films shoved together (3??), the only bum not being that the Harrison is replaced by ...someone else with a moustache
Yet again the horribly cropped 4:3 print just added to it.
Recommended AF.

[MrBarlow]

High-Rise. 2015.

Dr. Laing, tries to settle in at a new tower block, soon the residents lives begin to go out of control.

After reading the book (which took me 2 and half hours to get through) I was eager to see how the film was in comparison to the source novel. The novel itself is dark, grim, dramatic and violent which is written down to a T, the film has toned down a lot of the violence, added in some more drama and intentionally (or Unintentionally) added in a bit of comedy, where would you see Jeremy Irons saying "Et Tu" to a dog?

Right at the start we see the dystopian carnage with Laing describing what has happened, then goes back three months earlier where everything is more peaceful and settled before all hell breaks loose. The acting is brilliant from everyone involved. The cinematography is done greatly except when a riot breaks out in the supermarket that makes it feel like a P.O.V. film. This was enjoyable and like the novel there is some violence towards animals, it is not shown graphic but we do see the end results.

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[MrBarlow]

Breaking The Waves. 1996.

Bess from a small community in Northern Scotland marries Danish oil rig worker Jan, both are happily in love til Jan is paralyzed in a freak accident and encourages his wife to find men to have sex with which she slowly becomes despised by the community.

A strange tale of happiness, joy, heartbreak, deceit and loyalty, Emily Blunt and Stellan Skarsgard play the happy couple who hard hit with tragedy and to keep his wife from being celibate encourages her to find pleasure with other men which goes against her religious beliefs. Bess who believes when she is praying and thinks god is answering her back plays on the mind that she is borderline Schizophrenic.

Lars Von Trier manages to capture some interesting cinematography and can seem amateurish at times with the back ground of Northern Scotland and does his masterful film making by making the film into chapters even with the journey from start to finish making the audience feel the emotions for the characters portrayed in the film.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

THE KINDRED – Late eighties tentacle fun about a genetics experiment in an abandoned house, complete with slight shades of “The Dunwich Horror” (sort of, seeing how I’ve developed a tendency to slip in Lovecraft references everywhere these days). A solid B pic, although its workmanlike finish fails to conceal a few dodgy effects along with a tone that sometimes doesn’t hold up. Someone who looks like Paul McGann is a very standard male scientist hero; Rod Steiger lurks on the threshold before raving like a cry baby when everything explodes at the end. During the build-up, tendrils burst out of a watermelon. ‘The Kindred’ features a few effective scenes (in one, a screaming woman is transformed by gills that tear her flesh open), but, back to that wavering tone; the film is undermined by a melodramatic screechiness and an insistence on heading down a very standard route. It’s enjoyable, but convention snuffs the moments of intensity, making the dollop of goo at the end a bit less of a treat. The film has its fans. They’ll be happy to shell out big time for the newish Synapse blu ray, I guess (I watched an old knackered VHS version). It’s not overly stylised, but maybe it’ll play better in a superior format, considering all the stuff I’ve dismissed when I’ve seen it via cruddy analogue video / DVD, only for it to spring to life in HD. I tend not to be cynical about that, I think it’s simply that film is a visual medium and a better presentation usually enhances.

GIRLS NITE OUT – A rewatch, to find out whether the upcoming blu ray might be worth getting. Seeing it again, I’m not surprised I’d wiped it from memory. We’re in familiar slasher territory on a campus full of rowdy studes, where a sinister back story unfolds when a now-crazed alumnus escapes from the local psyche ward and etc etc etc – sounds OK? Part of the problem is that, for a solid half hour, ‘rowdy studes’ is all we get. Then someone is stabbed and a bear costume is stolen. And then… more students hanging out, but then also an unforgivable swerve into plodding police procedural during the home run. It’s enlivened by a few quirks, a dab of blood and not much else besides the weird ending. Hal Holbrook tries his best to look dignified through it all. A disappointment really, because who doesn’t want to get behind a film in which a maniac dressed as the college football team’s mascot bear (!) goes around whispering cryptic proclamations to a radio DJ, or prefaces a fatal encounter by hissing “bitch! Bitch! You whore!” But GNO is from the same place as ‘Killer Party’, all tease. The effective moments never reach beyond their moment. I would say it’s worth sticking around for that weird ending, but I’m not sure it is. Apart from that, the slim pickings of eighties nostalgia and a few bits of oddity might not be enough to warm even my cockles. “Be mellow. Be Happy. Get High,” says college DJ Harry Kaiser at one point. Yeah, you’d be better off just doing that.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Breaking The Waves. 1996.

That’s a bit arty for you lol, are you feeling ok or have you literally run out of films to watch

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE KINDRED

So is The Kindred on blu now, Frankie? Not seen it for donkeys years.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

So is The Kindred on blu now, Frankie? Not seen it for donkeys years.

It came out through Synapse as one of those posh limited editions at the start of the year. Not sure how available it is, you can certainly still score through Diabolik if it's one of your all time faves (doesn't sound like it is if you haven't seen it for donks - me neither). Has to be more than just a serviceable monster flick to bag my money at those prices these days.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Ha ha, just looked on ebay and some clowns have it up for over £100. "Cost of living, mate". Martin Lewis, bring it on.