What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Mechanic: Resurrection. 2016.

Arthur Bishop is living a peaceful life on a island when his foe kidnaps his girlfriend and tasks him to assassinate three people and make them look like accidents.

Jason Statham returns as the man who can kill people and make heir deaths look like accidents and here this film makes the deaths look good. Jessica Alba stars as the love interest Gina and Sam Hazeldine as the old friend and enemy who wants Bishop for a job that comes with a twist that is slowly found out. Aside from the good cinematography and explosive kills and a small appearance by Tommy Lee Jones, this is not the best sequel for Statham but passes the time though.

MV5BMjYwODExNzUwMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTgwNjUyOTE@._V1_.jpg

[MrBarlow]

The Grudge. 2004.

An American nurse living in Tpokyo, goes to care for a dementia patient at her home and is exposed to a supernatural curse.

American's seem to have a thing for remaking horror films, Sam Raimi had the good idea of hiring the director of the original film and allowed him to run loose with this remake and is able to make it work. The original was a bit darker and that's why Ju-On The Grudge and Ringu are enjoyable to watch due to the Japanese believing in superstitions and bringing them to the screen.

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the young nurse Karen, who is sent in to a house to care for Grace Zabriskie and see's what is tormenting her, which some parts are told in flash backs. Takashi Shimizu is able to hold your attention from start to finish with some memorable moments with Takako Fuji with her role as Kayako and her groan.

234590_grudge_the_2004_1400x2100_3.jpg

[MacBlayne]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The Grudge. 2004.

An American nurse living in Tpokyo, goes to care for a dementia patient at her home and is exposed to a supernatural curse.

American's seem to have a thing for remaking horror films, Sam Raimi had the good idea of hiring the director of the original film and allowed him to run loose with this remake and is able to make it work. The original was a bit darker and that's why Ju-On The Grudge and Ringu are enjoyable to watch due to the Japanese believing in superstitions and bringing them to the screen.

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the young nurse Karen, who is sent in to a house to care for Grace Zabriskie and see's what is tormenting her, which some parts are told in flash backs. Takashi Shimizu is able to hold your attention from start to finish with some memorable moments with Takako Fuji with her role as Kayako and her groan.

Attachment 241651

Since living in Japan, I can confirm that there is definitely a difference between how Japan and the West view the supernatural.

It's hard for me to explain this properly, but Japan seems to view ghosts less of spirits lost on this world, but as an energy imbalance. It's often why those unfortunate people usually kill themselves in an isolated environment, so that the bad luck doesn't linger at home. A suicide at a large house (or even a vicious murder) can bring the price crashing down because many believe the bad energy is here.

Should enough people fall victim to this bad energy, it becomes sttonger and can manifest itself into a demonic entity. Japan already has demons called oni, but they are mostly harmless, preferring to avoid humans, and are mostly mischievous. But this other thing craves suffering, torment, torture, and death as it feeds off the fear.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

Vincent Price returns as the grizzled Dr. Phibes in what is essentially a rerun of the first film except the majority of the action swaps London for a steam steam going ocean liner followed by a trip into the Egyptian Valley of the Kings.

The film keeps the campy fun values as well as one or two ingenious murders but on the whole isn't just as good as The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Terry Thomas (in a different role) returns in a blink and you'll miss it cameo as does Peter Cushing and i was wishing wooden co-star Robert Quarry did like wise. Thankfully Vincent Price is 'er priceless in hammy roles like this and always entertains whilst the production values are a step up all round.

[MrBarlow]

The Grudge 2. 2006.

This picks up where the second film ended, Amber Tamblyn taking the lead is sent to Japan to bring her sister Karen home and finding out what happened, teaming up with journalist Edison Chen and uncover the origins of kayako.

Three school friends visit the famous haunted house that does not go well and fell they are being followed by the spirit of Kayako and Toshio. Trish played by Jennifer beals moves in with her boyfriend and his children and soon things begin to wrong with the neighbours and their daughter before it affects the family next door.

Some sequels never really live up to the hype or frenzy of it's predecessor but this one had me entertained from start to finish, ok the jump scares are a bit predictable at times but director Takashi Shimzu is able to create a bit more of a darker tone with this and paces things up to the last 15-20 minutes of the film.

518jPiGThhL._SY445_.jpg

[MrBarlow]

The Grudge 3. 2009.

A young Japanese girl travels to America to the apartment block where Kayako was last seen and tries to stop her before she infects the people living in the building.

This is set...some time after the second film with Jake from the second film in a psychiatric hospital and new people moving into the Chicago building where the shit hit the fan at the end of the second film. Toby Wilkins takes the directors chair and Aiko Horiuchi replaces Takako Fuji as Kayako, but the budget must have been lower than the previous two films. The Japanese knew when to call it quits after two films, why did we have to have a third installment, this did start of...interesting then then went down hill to the point of no return.

The_Grudge_3_DVD_cover.jpg

[MrBarlow]

Tough Guys. 1986.

Tow old gangsters are released from prison who try to go straight end up causing more trouble than they realise.

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas play the ageing gangsters Harry and Archie who served 30 years for a train robbery and released into modern day 80s and things have changed. Dana Carvey plays their parole officer and tries to introduce them to modern day America while Charles Durning plays the arresting officer who wants them to screw up and take back to prison and Eli Wallach as a near sighted hitman.

Both main leads still had some miles in them while trying to smooth over two ladies but still able to bring a laugh and a smile to the screen with some of their good one liners that are well written and nicely directed at a good pace.

tough_guys.jpg

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Tough Guys. 1986.

Tow old gangsters are released from prison who try to go straight end up causing more trouble than they realise.

Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas play the ageing gangsters Harry and Archie who served 30 years for a train robbery and released into modern day 80s and things have changed. Dana Carvey plays their parole officer and tries to introduce them to modern day America while Charles Durning plays the arresting officer who wants them to screw up and take back to prison and Eli Wallach as a near sighted hitman.

Both main leads still had some miles in them while trying to smooth over two ladies but still able to bring a laugh and a smile to the screen with some of their good one liners that are well written and nicely directed at a good pace.

Attachment 241663

When i first saw this on dvd i was surprised at how smutty it was.

[Nordicdusk]

FS-KJTUUYAAIUvF.jpg

We get to see the rise of Elvis through the years from poor white boy living in an African American part of town to the larger than life start he became and up until his death through the perspective of his manager Colonel Tom Parker the man responsible for most of the bad decisions throughout Elvis's career.

After the rave reviews of this film i was excited going as an Elvis actual Elvis fan and even hearing his own daughter praising the film so highly but does it live up to the hype weeeeeellllllll not really.

The first stumbling block for me is the director Baz Luhrmann im not a big fan of his style i mean he uses colour very well but he makes a lot of films just look like a pop music video and that definitely didnt suit a film about Elvis. One scene stood out like a sore thumb bare in mind this is 1950s America Elvis is strolling down Bourbon Street and the music and there is rap music playing over the scene and this happens again a bit further in to the film absolutely ridiculous it actually mad me mad that i felt like not watching the rest of the film.

The on stage stuff is all great with so much attention to detail with outfits Elvis wore on stage and i was really impressed with how accurate Baz was with the different jumpsuits Elvis sported during his Vegas years even many of the lesser known suits mad and appearance which was great to see not just the usual white ones.

Running at 2 hours 40 minutes the film still feels very rushed and i would of preferred he had released this in two parts even just 6 months apart because he just glosses over so many big moments during Elvis's career the worst was the exclusion of the Aloha concert the biggest world wide viewing of any single artist and it was only given a brief mention which is an absolute joke the pinnacle of the mans career how is this missing HOW.

The problem with this films is they really do focus on the worst aspects of the persons life the film just shows Elvis as this miserable person all the time when the truth it that he was full of life and always playing practical jokes on his friends and the Memphis Mafia we don't get to see the fun side of him yes there is a tough times in the mans live but i hate seeing him defined by that and not seeing the true person.

I will watch the longer version if it's ever made available but apart from that i wouldn't watch this again sadly.

I wont lie i did shed a few tears at the end when they used real footage of Elvis starting with the very sad footage of him singing Unchained Melody extremely overweight and drenched in sweat but you can see he is giving it his all or as much of his all he could give.

One day will might get a film that shows why this man was called The King and is more than some fat man that people make joke about. I was hoping this was it but it wasn't. I haven't seen John Carpenters Elvis i must watch it again soon im pretty sure thats a better film from what i remember.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nice write up on Elvis, Nordy.