What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[nicholasrope]

The Critic

Set in 1934, a Theatre Critic played by Ian McKellen is fired after he is arrested for being Gay so in order to get revenge on his former boss (Played by Mark Strong) he gets an Actress (Played by Gemnma Arterton) who he gives mean reviews to seduce him in order to ruin his life. It's a fascinating and well acted Film but it also felt like it's a BBC Special over a Bank Holiday or Seasonal Holiday.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

28 Weeks Later (2007)

I was planning on getting rid of this today having found out that both it and the original 28 Days Later are long out of print on Blu-ray and going for silly money. Cex are offering twenty quid in credit or 14 in cash for the double disc version i have, but having decided to watch it one last time last night changed my mind and on my shelf it remains.

Of course there was the other issue too. There's a new film out next year 28 Years Later. Get rid of this disc now and just buy all three again in the inevitable box set. And then i realised it's from Fox or Disney as they are now called so there's every chance it won't ever get released again and it's just too darn good to get rid of with a genuinely gripping second half.

I was basically once again on the edge of my seat as Jeremy Renner's small party of humans tried to get out of London. Under attack from infected humans, military snipers and mass extermination by fire and gas, it's truly thrilling stuff and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's film plays out on a far greater scale than Danny Boyle's first film, which incidentally, looks bloody awful on Blu-ray.

[Mojo]

THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972)
Plenty of flesh but not a lot of blood in this tale of a group of amateur actors who are invited to rehearse for a stage play in an old abandoned theatre, in this early Pete Walker effort.
I first saw this many years ago on VHS and found it a bit dull, but I enjoy it a lot more these days as an example of early 70s UK horror, as well as a bit of a warm up for future Walker classics such as FRIGHTMARE.
Bonus points here for being able to watch the climactic scenes in 3d for the first time ever, thanks to a pair of 3d glasses included in 88 Films fantastic boxset.

WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972)
A child killer stalks the streets of Venice in this early 70s Giallo.
Not a top tier Giallo, but it?s an enjoyable one, with another great score from Ennio Morricone ( even though certain parts are maybe a tad overused ).
This Blu Ray from Shameless looks terrific ( they certainly have upped their game in recent times ) - certainly by far the best I?ve ever seen it.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Bought The Island the other day and just finished watching it.....

It was that awful that i'm thinking of asking Michael Caine for my money back!

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Bought The Island the other day and just finished watching it.....

It was that awful that i'm thinking of asking Michael Caine for my money back!

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It has all the ingredients. Michael Caine, Peter Benchley, an island, pirates..how did they make something so shit?

I did say when it was announced in the Treasured Films thread that it's probably the worst Caine film i've ever seen. I wouldn't buy it with your money. Haha.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It has all the ingredients. Michael Caine, Peter Benchley, an island, pirates..how did they make something so shit?

I did say when it was announced in the Treasured Films thread that it's probably the worst Caine film i've ever seen. I wouldn't buy it with your money. Haha.

I have no idea, but they managed it! Even the music from Ennio Morricone was totally out of place.

[Rob4]

Saw Blade Runner with a live score at the O2 Apollo last night with 3500 other fans of the movie. It was a Father's Day present.

To be honest I just got so immersed in watching it that after a few minutes I didn't notice any difference between the live score and the recorded score.

It was a great experience though to watch it on the big screen again with a large appreciative audience.

No review needed. Stonewall classic. Great night!

[Frankie Teardrop]

DEATH VALLEY - At first, 'Death Valley' looked disturbingly like it wanted to be a TV movie about a kid waving goodbye to the way things were and getting to know his new step-dad. Thankfully, it soon opened out into a desert suspenser complete with dusty roads, a mean looking car and a killer with a Johnny Cash pout. I love it when you can't quite tell whether a film's strange details add up to anything beyond a bit of garnishing - in this case, I was really trying to figure out those animal bracelets all the townsfolk wear. Some other slightly contrived scenes lend an interesting layer of ornament to a tense semi-slasher that seems a bit overlooked these days. Enjoyed.

THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND - Kiyoshi Kurosawa was behind noted horror landmarks 'Cure' and 'Pulse'. This earlier effort lacks the creeping menace of those films but still hooked me in with its shadowy brand of quirkiness. A woman starts a new job in the art acquisitions department of a Japanese corporation; she's stalked by a demented ex-sumo wrestler posing as a security guard. A kind of avant la lettre corporate horror whose odd characters and weird goings-on build up an atmosphere I'd call 'lightly Kafka-esque'. In the latter half, this gives way to a more typical slasher free-for-all, with lots of up and down corridors, in and out of rooms type action. The tall, gaunt killer, with his overstated cap and nihilistic philosophising, is very creepy though.

GHOULIES 2 - I always used to look on this kind of thing as the absolute nadir of horror, but times change, and I recently quite enjoyed 'Leprechaun', so... Anyway, 'Ghoulies 2' enters and exits exactly as expected, with a small gang of rubber monster puppets causing upset in a horror-amenable setting (a down-on-its-luck carnival in this instance). Unless I wasn't looking and missed a seam of miraculous cinematic richness, it's a film whose nostalgia value outstrips anything else about it. That said, watching bad special effect creatures spew green slime on phony eighties movie punks has its place.

NIGHT OF THE EXECUTIONER - Paul Naschy does a Paul Kersey in this late-in-the-day take on 'Death Wish'. Naschy is an all-round decent guy who survives an attack on his family by drug-addicted early nineties movie goths; they cut out his tongue, allowing Naschy to assume the spectral pose of a silent avenger. There's a sleazy, trashy, end-of-season Euro vibe that I liked, a bit of splatter here and there, but I can't say it doesn't lapse into longueurs when some of its principal characters get massively into a debate about the pros and cons of rehabilitation versus capital punishment. Worth seeing for Naschy in one of his final roles.

[iank]

Watched the 90s Village of the Damned on Tubi last night. It was... Arlrightish. I think my brother and I saw it back in the day and weren't overly impressed. It wasn't awful., I mean I watched it all, but I wouldn't say it was particularly great...

[Rob4]

Originally Posted by iank

Watched the 90s Village of the Damned on Tubi last night. It was... Arlrightish. I think my brother and I saw it back in the day and weren't overly impressed. It wasn't awful., I mean I watched it all, but I wouldn't say it was particularly great...

I watched it a couple of months ago for the first time and immediately put it at the very bottom of Carpenter titles. He doesn't seem invested in it at all and appears that, as a Director, he's just marking time. To be fair, it's hampered by a script that slavishly follows the original with no invention of it's own. But you would think Carpenter would have realised this and added more of his own stamp. Maybe he just loved the original too much? Missed opportunity imho...