What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Rob4]

Well I can't say that I saw it but I just tuned in to TalkingPicturesTV and caught the last 10 minutes of the Hammer film The Steel Bayonet.

I've never seen it before so I'll have to try and catch it the next time they show it.

It's a pretty ropey print but I'd like to tick it off. This is a 'heads up' for anyone one else in the same boat...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Slayground (1983)

Impressive British crime thriller bordering on slasher movie in which a car full of thieves crashes into a second car killing the daughter of a wealthy businessman who hires a hitman to get revenge on the robbers (Led by Peter Coyote).

When Coyote realises he's the target of the final hit he flees to north west England and holes up with former accomplice Mel Smith but the hitman who enjoys taunting his victims follows him.

How many crime films begin in New York and end up in Blackpool and Southport? Not too many i'd guess but that's one of the many impressive things about this fast paced thriller. Each time the hitman appears, hidden in the shadows wearing his wide brimmed hat it feels like a slasher movie as the killer cackles and mocks the men as he stalks them round various giallo-esq settings culminating in a showdown with Coyote at a dilapidated Southport show ground.

There's a genuine grimness to the second half of the film, it isn't the sunny seaside Britain you'd see in picture postcards, it's a decaying, forgotten by subsequent governments view of the north west, grey in look, even more so in atmosphere. Although none of the kills happen on camera we always see the aftermath and it's pretty brutal stuff at times and also suggest the FX budget may have been as underfunded as the coastal towns Coyote and the film retreats to.

Slayground is a really enjoyable genre straddling thriller. Although the Network dvd is now out of print it's a film owned by StudioCanal so it would be rather nice if they could give it some HD love and affection even though this dvd looked good anyway.

[MrBarlow]

Baby Driver. 2017.

Ansel Elgort plays partially deaf Baby, a fast getaway driver for crime boss Kevin Spacey who organises big pay off hits. When a gun collection goes.awry with hot head Jamie Foxx and couple Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez, everything is thrown into turmoil.

This was a blind watch and seeing Edgar Wright as the director certainly drew my attention to it a bit more and is able to add in some mild humour. The driving sequences are decent, some are better than what the makers of The Transporter tried to achieve but couldn't get to work. The music used seemed to be picked from every decade and entertaining throughout the film. This is one of certainly come back to re-watch.

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[Rob4]

Shiver of the Vampires (Indicator)

Even as a fan of Rollin I sometimes get bored as his films progress (or don't as some would say ).

However, Indicator's restoration of this movie is so stunning, with all the candy coloured lighting popping off the screen, that it totally immersed me, and I was able to completely ignore the slow plotting and stilted dialogue.

Recommended

[MrBarlow]

Machete Kills. 2013.


Machete is hired by the U.S. Government to track and kill a arms dealer.

Despite being a near parody of a action film with some over the top acting from Amber Heard who really should have been killed off earlier in the film yet we do see her getting pussy punched by Michelle Rodriguez and some daft kills, this was a hoot. Charlie Sheen plays the president who has managed to legalised cannabis...every stoner's dream come true hires Machete to go after arms dealer Mel Gibson who gives out a decent James Bond type villain role. Robert Rodriguez does make the plot look daft but still manages to keep it entertaining.

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[MrBarlow]

Bad Boys. 1983.

What Scum did for British cinema, this American film kicks it up a notch, this is gritty, suspenseful film dealing with drugs, rape, death and young delinquents in a unstable hostile surroundings. Sean Penn plays Mick who is sentenced after killing the younger brother of a rival gang in a drug steal gone wrong. There is plenty of recognisable faces and the actors certainly pushed their acting abilities to make it believable and hardship of 'Juvie' in America. This I have bypassed for a while but my neighbour insisted I watch it and glad I did, from the start the film gets better and better with great built up tense moments.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Silent Enemy (1958)

Based on the real life exploits of Lionel "Buster" Crabb, a bomb disposal expert who leads a team of divers who defuse bombs placed on the hulls of British ships off the coast of Gibraltar by Italian frogmen using 'underwater chariots'.

Crabb is someone i was unaware of until watching this film. Laurence Harvey is very good in the role depicting an officer who commands both the respect of his men and also his superiors in Naval High Command.

The underwater scenes are shot brilliantly with the location work on the coast of Gibraltar excellent giving the film a genuinely realistic look.

The Silent Enemy i found really entertaining and also enlightening as it builds up towards an almost Bond like race against time to destroy the Italian frogmen's underwater base before they decimate the incoming British Naval fleet on it's way to North Africa.

As a final thing it's probably the only film that Sid James, brilliant as the divers drill instructor, is cast alongside Italian Gothic horror star Giacomo Rossi-Stuart

[MrBarlow]

Vendetta. 2022.

William Duncan watches his daughter die in a gang initiation, when the justice system fails he seeks a personnel war against a mob family.

Bruce Willis in his last film role plays the mob boss who's boys run the street, Theo Rossi who plays the older son does tend to over act on every scene. Thomas Jane is the new friend and pipe smoking gun dealer who has a "The South Shall Rise Again" accent. Mike Tyson is the back door factory car dealer who doesn't have a big screen time. Clive Standen plays the heartbroken man who goes on a one man war and isn't afraid to take a bullet. This wasn't a spectacular as it was made out to be, good for Bruce Willis to do one last role and making the movie a bit more entertaining for his screen presence.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

WINNIE THE POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY – Is it as bad as everyone says? Yep, in a way, but as if you haven’t seen a shite horror film before. I don’t know what they were all up in arms about. Winnie The Pooh and Piglet as lumbering serial killers, I think that’s genius; I mean, I always thought AA Milne was a load of toss anyway so it’s not like the makers of this lovely construction were shitting on any treasured memories or anything as far as I was concerned. As always, the little things amuse; the fact that some people who look like they belong in Hollyoakes have been shoehorned into the slasher template; the presence of a Hillbilly gang in the UK countryside; the bit when someone suddenly remembers they have a gun upstairs; that most of the insipid 'humour' falls away to reveal quite a grubby, meanspirited core; etc. Not much tension so it does get a little boring after a while, but there’s some nice visuals and even a bit of atmosphere. Mild / medium bloodshed and sleaze, which they might’ve considered upping slightly, but the obnoxiousness and the silliness of the set-up carry it through. You could say it was a missed opportunity – in the right hands, it could’ve been a beast. But yeah, I quite liked it, I had a good time with it, making it a guarded recommend for people who like shit movies ie most users of this forum.

THE DENTIST 2 – From Brian Yuzna. I quite liked ‘The Dentist’, but I was getting restless with this. Corbin Bernsen gives another good turn as whacko Dr Feinstone, this time washed up in hicksville. He’s a murderer on the run, but folks need their teeth sorting out so I guess they just leave him to it. A kind of ‘noirish small-town murder with intrigue and double crossing’ feeling evolves, but ‘The Dentist 2’, despite basically being an OKish watch, could have done with a few more of the kind of flourishes Yuzna gets into when he starts thinking he’s authentically weird like a Cronenberg or a Lynch – he treats us to a couple of insects-in-mouth hallucinations and some jagged toothy maws, but we really needed more of them. And just more horror stuff generally. Well, passable I suppose. Apparently the BBFC felt obliged “to remove sadistic details” from it back when it came out; you’d be forgiven for wondering which ones, though.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE DENTIST 2 – From Brian Yuzna. I quite liked ‘The Dentist’, but I was getting restless with this. Corbin Bernsen gives another good turn as whacko Dr Feinstone, this time washed up in hicksville. He’s a murderer on the run, but folks need their teeth sorting out so I guess they just leave him to it. A kind of ‘noirish small-town murder with intrigue and double crossing’ feeling evolves, but ‘The Dentist 2’, despite basically being an OKish watch, could have done with a few more of the kind of flourishes Yuzna gets into when he starts thinking he’s authentically weird like a Cronenberg or a Lynch – he treats us to a couple of insects-in-mouth hallucinations and some jagged toothy maws, but we really needed more of them. And just more horror stuff generally. Well, passable I suppose. Apparently the BBFC felt obliged “to remove sadistic details” from it back when it came out; you’d be forgiven for wondering which ones, though.

I had this on VHS in the late 90s, watched it...or attempted to watch it and only got half a hour into it and turned it off. It seemed to follow the near same path as The Stepfather 2 but failed badly.