What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Rob4]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

This one sounds interesting Demon, you have peaked my interest.

I love The Satan Bug. A nostalgic guilty pleasure.

It seemed to turn up on a Sunday afternoon every year during the seventies. Back then I found the idea of a bug that could kill everyone quite a scary proposition. It's an Alistair McClean sixties glossy tech thriller, and a slightly more than borderline sci-fi, where everyone in authority seems to wear a fedora. It's starts as a closed room mystery and then expands to a race against time adventure. There's nothing taxing here; the twists are not very surprising; the villain not a surprise either. But it's perfect for a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon airing just like back in the day. Give it a spin...

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Rob4

I love The Satan Bug. A nostalgic guilty pleasure.

It seemed to turn up on a Sunday afternoon every year during the seventies. Back then I found the idea of a bug that could kill everyone quite a scary proposition. It's an Alistair McClean sixties glossy tech thriller, and a slightly more than borderline sci-fi, where everyone in authority seems to wear a fedora. It's starts as a closed room mystery and then expands to a race against time adventure. There's nothing taxing here; the twists are not very surprising; the villain not a surprise either. But it's perfect for a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon airing just like back in the day. Give it a spin...

Thanks Rob certainly be looking to find it for a watch.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Kill Baby... Kill! (1966)

Somehow a film Mario Bava made in eleven days for a bet ends up the director's masterpiece is a mystery but in my opinion it is. Understandably the film doesn't have much plot but it is compensated for by some exquisite atmospherics. Bava's innovative visuals have always been a strength of his films but here he produces his greatest work especially given the time constraints.

Bava gives us tombs with cobwebs so large they hang like curtains, wonderful fog shrouded streets, a brilliant spiral staircase sequence so disorientating that it could have come from Hitchcock himself. Then there's the heroic Giacomo Rossi Stuart pursuing an unidentified figure through identical rooms only to catch up with himself, and best and most iconic of all, the ghostly Melissa's ball bouncing through corridors and down streets sending all who see her to terrifying deaths.

Kill Baby... Kill is hard to better for subtle, malevolent, supernatural menacing atmosphere. Every shot has been lovingly orchestrated by Bava to achieve maximum impact from his lighting and colours to wonderful dramatic effect and endows the film with a majestic beauty.

Crap title, mind you.

[MrBarlow]

Dead & Buried. 1981.

After this was discussed last week...or the week before I gave this one a re-watch and still totally loved it. Set in the peaceful town where the locals really don't like visitors.

All of the actors are solid enough, but Jack Albertson steals the show as the eccentric, big band loving Mortician Dobbs. In one of his final performances, he delivers a character whose unsettling realism and reverence for the dead will make you completely forget his also classic turn as the kindly grandpa in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Rather than just play this character, he inhabits his psyche and becomes Dobbs the funeral director and coroner and it shows.

Everything from the low key bits of eerie score music to the often slow and dreamlike pacing of the plot, is dedicated to heightening the viewer sense of disconnection and dread, leading up to a well known sort of twist climax. The pacing can be a hit or a miss, right from the start it goes the way a decent horror should, good build up of how the locals are and then it goes a bit slow and then picks up again. Certainly a classic film.

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[Demoncrat]

Metamorphosis (1990, G. L. Eastman)

Yup, the 'phagus himself, who also wrote the thing.
A scientist is given a deadline, going the direct route with the old expermintation ... with the usual results plotwise. Maddening film. It's as crazed as they come, but the pacing is ... slack to say the least. Shame cubed. Harumph.

[nicholasrope]

8 Million Ways To Die

Jeff Bridges is an ex-cop who goes after the Killers of a Prostitute who he was helping to protect. Rosanna Arquette and Andy Garcia co-star in a Film that promised so much but doesn't deliver on the Action it promised.

It's similar to the Richard Gere Film No Mercy, both released in 1986 by CBS Fox Video and had VHS Covers that made it look like a Action Film but is more talk based.

Mad Foxes

A Biker Gang and a man feud with each other. Well this is certainly something. It's a Section 3 Video Nasty, it's very corny with it's script, the most least threatening Karate School, a Rape scene and revenge scene (Which may still cause problems for the BBFC therefore it's not had a release) and a womanizing man who is meant to be the hero (Getting a 18 year old drunk and is very keen shall we say) lots of filler scenes in a 77 minute Film and a ending which fits it well.

Worth a watch every now and then but with the boring bits forwarded on.

Terminator

A bone-a-fide classic, don't really need to go into any details about the plot. I think it's the best one in the series, the Police Station scene is awesome with good performances throughout.

The Blu-Ray is really good as well.

[Demoncrat]

The Bricklayer (2023, Renny Harlin)

There's a name you've nae seen in a while.
Aaron Eckhart in Taken tbh.
They need him for one last job, but saddle with him a rookie.
Thrilling premise or what?
Actually much like The Killer, there's fun here to be had.
There's one bit that will make you go "come on now", but that's the magic of movies cough. Lawdy. Yes, he uses a trowel

[MrBarlow]

Visiting Hours. 1982.

We got T.V. journalist Lee Grant giving a interview to a woman who was abused by her husband and killed him in self defence and seems to trigger something in deranged Michael Ironside who clerly has some "Mommy" issues and goes on the attack. When she survives, he goes to the hospital to finish her off.

First time checking out this slasher, even though I had the Blu-Ray in my collection for a while, early morning horror always cheers me up. I gotta say Michael Ironside has always been a good actor to watch and can go into the role menacing which he does in this. Lee Grant is a strange one to cast but manages to show you don't have to be a big boobed blondie to survive a total psycho.

For being filmed in 1981, the film has a surprisingly fresh and considerably modern look to it. Whereas many horror films of this era suffer from poor ageing, this is one of a rare few that seems to have retained a contemporary edge of your seat scenario where the floor will be best to sit on that way you ain't gonna hurt yourself or give yourself a sore ass. I don't know why I held off watching this for so long.

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[MrBarlow]

Superman II. 1980.

Just in case you need a refresh on the plot, General Zod, Ursa and Non have escaped the phantom zone, Lex Luthor has escaped prison and join forces with the three Kryptonians and take on Superman who has found love...aww sweet....with Lois Lane.

Another re-watch of this one this time in 4K, the 4K has the two versions, Richard Donner and theatrical version, I watched the original theatrical version. There is some comical moments with Clark's leg meeting a taxi cab, Lois trying to prove Clark is Superman and Lex throwing up a white cloth and believing he can rule Australia.

The visual effects have been touched up but still look unrealistic with the attack on Houston and i'm sure you can see the string attached to the RPG that is aimed at Non before he catches it and general Zod blowing the fire to the pub. Sound Quality is a bit touchy I kept having to turn it up and down in a few places but managed to still enjoy the film.

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[MrBarlow]

Superman III. 1983.

Yep it's the Richard Pryor one that has a good comical opening and Superman flying in saving the day while planting a pie in the face of someone. Robert Vaughn is the industrial tycoon wanting everything possible along with his sister Annie Ross and mistress Pamela Stephenson tagging along. Managing a way not to kill Superman but finding a darker side to him and control him seems to work, and a new love interest for Clark from a high school sweetheart that was replaced when Margot Kidder got sidelined to a cameo role.

Not so much everyone's favourite but it does have it's moments of being good, not every film you see Gavan O'Herlihy get drunk and fall off his seat backwards, or a man surviving a good drop off a building in ski's or Annie Ross having a make over done by computer. I know I slated the previous film with the effects but this one has been touched up nicely with picture and sound quality.

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