Just finished watched Sweeny Todd - not the Burton film, but the Broadway recording it's based on. Honestly, I enjoyed it much more than Burton's film - the acting was brilliant and George Hearn's Todd seems much more...manly and threatning.

If you like the film definetly check out this - it's on amazon for a couple of pounds! EXCELLENT!

Oh and it stars Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett! :woot:

Ah that would be brilliant mate! I'll swap you it for Jerry Springer: The Opera (also from the £land :laugh:)

"The Offence" -

Bleak, tough and unforgiving crime drama from Sidney Lumet.

Overly melodramatic at times and a good turn by Trevor Howard is far too short, but it is saved by the top acting on display (especially by Connery and Ian Bannen) and the (still today) harrowing content on display as Connery's character rips himself apart.

The montage of horror he has seen throughout his career as he drives home and the later aborted telling of it all to his Wife is the finest part of the film (followed by the finale confrontation) and it's tough, heartbreaking, utterly unforgiving stuff that cares not one bit about entertaining its audience in any conventional way.

It's the cinematic equivalent of having your face rubbed into a blood caked broken bottle at a filthy murder scene...and you can see why it failed at the box office but yet still survives today.

And Lumet captures that flawed 'Brave 'New Town' World' look of 70's Britain as good as any native.



"House of Dracula" -

Not very good.
The level of a bit of late night TV fun is the most such lesser 'Universal' films can ever hope to achieve today if we are being truly honest.

Some great use of shadows and Onslow Stevens effortlessly steals the show as the doomed Doctor and has great fun as the mr Hyde/vampire creature.
There is an interesting 'Igorrette' character in the form of a hunchbacked nurse.
And it finally has a good send off for the much troubled Larry 'Wolfman' Talbot.

But this features one of the worst and most boring Dracula's ever (Carradine) looking like a children's party magician doing very little vampyric other than cowering from crosses and turning into a floppy bat before being blandly turned into a novelty shop plastic skeleton.
Carradine is more slightly sinister hypnotist than any Lord of the Undead!

It also features one of the worst Frankenstein Monsters (in the hulking form of Glenn Strange once again) who does nothing whatsoever at all in the film except waddle around lin the last 5 minutes looking lost.

Good old Larry Talbot (Chaney of course) has 2 changes into the Wolfman and is allowed to do nothing at all with either of them before spending most of the rest of the film in human form where all he does is look sad while sitting in a bathchair.

Lionel Atwell pops up in a glorified cameo role as yet another identikit local police chief but this was near the end of his career and he looks and sounds very tired.
Half the cast is snuffed out at the end but the credits pop up so fast no emotional aftermath is allowed.

Ho hum.

Transferred some more old TV broadcasts into the digital realm:

Sir Henry At Rawlinson End

I love Viv Stanshall's Rawlinson audio stuff and though the transition to film is not entirely succesful, it is nonetheless a wonderful experience if all things Rawlinson float your boat. Drawing material from the legendary first Sir Henry At Rawlinson End album and from the many Rawlinson Peel Sessions, this film is astonishingly packed for such a short running time (just under 70 minutes PAL) never letting up as it bombards you with the insanity of life at Rawlinson End. Trevor Howard is just exceptional as Sir Henry and there's a great turn from Patrick Magee as Rev Slodden the corrupt clergyman, but the cast all seem to get the thing and give their all. I find this sruff hiolarious and inspiring, but I could imagine someone else being utterly unmoved and bewildered by it - Marmite comedy. I wish I had bought the Laserdisc release of this.

Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell

From an old ITV screening: this was always one of my favourites from Hammer's Frankenstein films and a fine Grand Guignol ending to the series. The insane asylum setting works brilliantly and it is superbly filmed with wonderful sets and - of course - an exquisite Peter Cushing performance. This seems a fairly complete print, with only one obviously cut scene, though there may have been more that escaped my notice. It will do until I manage to track down a copy of the Anolis release!

Funny you should say that but I already bought it, I'm a bit of a Poundland fiend you see. I know last time I looked there were several copies of Bird With The Crystal Plumage left too, would you like that one as well if it's there? It's a great transfer.
You don't have to return the favour, if I can get it then I'll just send it to you mate :biggrin:

You seen both cuts yet Reaps and if so what one do you prefer? I always remember seeing the trailer and all the scenes that weren't in the theatrical cut and wishing I could see Brian Helgeland's original version.I actually prefer the Director's Cut.It's a much darker film and Mel Gibson's Porter is a nastier piece of work in the than he was in the TC.The only thing I miss in DC is the TC's music score,which is very reminiscent of David Shire's score for one of my favourite films of the 70's,The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three.

Another thing I noticed,having already bought the U.S. disc of the 'Straight Up' Director's Cut is that the special features on the UK/European disc haven't been transferred properly for some reason.Whenever the camera pans across the screen,it's quite jerky.(I checked the disc on my region A and B players so it's nothing i have set incorrectly) :suspicious:

I saw it a few days ago, yeah it was very bleak and quite depressing.
Not a movie to watch when your having a bad day :lol:

Was very good though, at first I doubted that Viggo Mortensen could pull it off but I was surprised as he done a very good job of playing the father. The kid was pretty good too, felt so sorry for him at the end. He is in the Let The Right One In remake.

as far as I know (although TV screenings even then sometimes used a badly cut version) it's the UK cinema version. With just a small cut to the monsters destruction and the glass jar death.

Even though, it's far more complete than the crappy American version on our DVD.
If the full artery scene is in there (where you see the Baron hold the arm artery in his teeth while the hand is sewn on) it's the UK version...which is still the longest print.

That would be awesome Ant! My poundland has the odd goodie but mostly fishing dvds!

Yes from what I remember the TV showings often used the UK video version, which was the same as the cut cinema print. The second UK DVD release restores the 'artery clamp' shot but is still missing the monster's eyeball being popped back and some shots of the climactic 'tear up'. I replaced mine with the German Anolis release which is as uncut as we're ever likely to get. :ohwell:

Fully agree with you on The Offence. Brilliant film and one of Connery's best.

finally sat down and watched Kelly's Heroes, a film ive been meaning to see for years. what a fun WW2 caper film. Eastwood and Telly Savalas were great, but the stand out was Donald Sutherland as Oddball, the second world war's only hippy. Brian G Hutton also directed Where Eagles Dare whicj has now become a favourite of mine. Verry cool film with a great sort of battle/heist at the end.

Great fun film. Lalo Schifrin's score includes Burning Bridges which is one of my favourite film songs.

The only cut I could obviously see was the removal of the Director's throat slashing at the end - you only see the Monster lunge and blood spurt back onto him, you don't see the Director being killed. The monster's destruction had the "guts stomping" and the "artery teeth clamp" was there too.

Definitely sounds like the cinema/video print. The only cuts requested by the BBFC were the throat slashing and a reduction to the monster's demise at the end (though the cuts to the latter were either tiny or not made at all).

I recently compared the UK video of Curse Of The Werewolf (the heavily cut cinema print) to the uncut restored US DVD, and the cuts to the former were horrendous. The BBFC wanted even more but thankfully they were rescinded on appeal.

I watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus and The Dollman vs. Demonic Toys recently. In spite of the titles of the movies, I felt the biggest battle was between me and the stop button, although I managed to persevere to the end of both movies, somehow. :crutch:

Yeah, I can clearly remember the first time I saw an uncut Curse Of The Werewolf, I couldn't believe how much stuff was in there!

Yeah MEGASHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS was done by the asshats at THE ASYLUM,You have to stay clear of them and their cinematic diarrhea that theyre slinging these days.

Is anyone gonna check out the Final after reading my lil review :lol:

At one stage the BBFC considered rejecting it.

Mine too.Also,Where Do I Go From Here,from Thunderbolt & Lightfoot.



Dollman Vs Demonic Toys was pretty much a waste of time,barely 70mins long and mostly made up of recycled footage from Dollman and Demonic Toys.The only thing that saves it is Tim Thomerson,who's watchable as always.

Oh yes! Loved that song as a kid. Used to play with my Action Men and sing that as they trundles along in their tanks!

Loved "Kelly's" for years...and it still hold sup 100% now.
Even if Oddball ("WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!) is everything to do with hippie/drugged out Vietnam and not WW2!

Damn fine entertainment...with perhaps the best performance in a film I've seen from Savalas too. His interaction with the other men is classic.

Eastwood is pretty much background material in his own star vehicle with this kind of co-star cast (few films have this many utterly wonderful support characters) in full flow.
But he was in "Where Eagle's Dare" too...Basically a support player to Burton.
as far as acting and presence goes...Eastwood seems to cope badly in war films.

oh yeah...How GREAT was it to suddenly hear the 'Tiger Tank' theme in "Inglorious"?!

I was surprised to see "Deborah Gibson" in the opening titles as the main actor ... could this have been Debbie Gibson ... the 80s Britney Spears? Heck it was! But the film was still as cack as hell! I mean, a shark jumping outta the water and bringing a jumbo jet outta the clouds! Who on earth thought that would be a good idea to add to the film ... a 6 year old? And the constant re-hashing of the same CGI effects shown over and over again throughout the film ... (holds finger firmly on video search!):ack:

And coming soon from the makers of MegaShark Vs Giant Octpuss is Mega Piranha,starring the other pop princess of the eighties,Tiffany. (yum yum)

I think we're alone now....:dance:

You would be if you tried to screen these to an audience....:biggrin:

Saw 6 was up there with Saw 3 and made up for the shocking lack of care given to parts 4 and 5.

Roll on Saw 8 - as no doubt number 7 will blow.

I'm not too sure matey, I know 7 will be in 3D but I've not heard it's the final installment. I'm guessing you're right, they'll see how the opening gross does! :nod:

I hope 7 is the last.
they get worse as they go along.

The Police Academy's of the horror genre? :lol:

there's nothing wrong with Police Academy, im looking forward to the new one with the return of the Gutte. Police Academy 4: citizens on Patrol is the best.

"Blind Woman's Curse" -

Meh...Not having a good time with many first time viewing films at the moment.

We start off in a very groovy fashion with a rain soaked Samurai sword fight that drips cool.
But a warning sign of the slump to come was shown here also, when a vital plot point of a woman being blinded by a sword stroke from Meiko Kaji is played out by the sword swipe very obviously not being anywhere near her at all!

From here on we enter a world of chaotic plotting, muddled all to hell ideas, dubious translations and redundant characters.
By the opening we are expecting Meiko Kaji ("Lady Snowblood") to be a tough woman with an agenda.
Instead the rest of the film, right up until the last 10 minutes, has her do absolutely nothing at all except cry a lot!

Bad comic relief? Oh yes. How about a guy in a bowler hat and a smelly red nappy? You got it.

What else stinks here?
Well the big Blind Woman's revenge sub-plot plays out with her actually doing nothing at all (despite her joining up with a group of bad guys) until the very end...and then she simply does nothing all over again!
The only person who does anything is her grotesque hunchback assistant...who then gets told off by her for doing something!

The plot is a jumbled mess of schemes, double-crosses and betrayals that are played as secrets one minute and then played out openly the next.
Despite a stew of sub-plots (clan rivalry, cat curses, blind woman revenge, hunchback murders, mysterious stranger pop ups) and the various groups of bad guys to choose from (who simply end up tripping over each other) nothing much happens in the film at all. Ever.
It's purely down to the horror tinges (an utterly deranged traveling 'spook show' carnival) and that loony hunchback that anything remotely interesting happens in the movie at all.

This real mess of a mass of nothing has the odd great moment of bloody violence (total screen time 5 minutes max) a smattering of sleaze and nudity (one hellish dope/prostitution den scene) and some theatrical horror visuals...but this is a case of a needle in a tedious haystack.

And worse of all is the end.
After a huge, muddled, sludge slow trek we have a wonderful few seconds of sword gore before we finally get to the big revenge pay-off as the blind woman actually does something for once as she squares off against Meiko Kaji (who has herself has also finally done something in the film).

But what happens now?
Once again nothing! And yes I am going to reveal the end of the film to save you my pain.
In the end...blind woman decides she can't take revenge after all against Meiko Kaji because Kaji has a good heart!!
She promptly walks off and leaves Kaji and the audience staring off into space in utter confusion!

Before she walks off blind woman just so happens to sum up my thoughts.
"Seems as though I have wasted my life on this meaningless goal"
Change "goal " for "movie" and you have my thoughts exactly!

:lol:
maybe :P

I saw that tonight, Unclefred! It certainly was great! I wasn't too sure with it to start with, but as soon as it got going it was slapping the audience round the face with twists non-stop! Brilliant film! Highly highly recommended.

Watched Beast of the Yellow Night earlier today. Thought it was Ok. Got a bit boring throughout though, but there were a few really nice moments.

I watched Bram Stoker's Dracula on BR tonight,it looked and sounded absolutely stupendous in Hi Def!
Although Coppola's take on Vlad came in for some critical bashing,I reckon it's a cracking take on the legend.:nod:
Anthony Hopkins made a cracking Van Helsing-obviously went to the Peter Cushing school of vampire hunters.
The only weak performances were Keanu the plank and Winona the shoplifter!:lol:

I saw Cop Out the other day, I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan but found I didn't really laugh that much. I think I need to see it again because for most of the film I was pissed off cause of the people in front with their mobile phones! It seemed to a quite generic buddy cop film.

:eek:

WHAT?! REALLY?!?!?!

I must see that! I had/have the biggest crush on Tiffany! And am a lover of all things piranha!

This could be the greatest film ever!

:lol::lol::lol:

I love PA really :D Be good to see a new one with the original cast.They went down hill after part 4 though. :(


And here's the poster for MegaPiranha.Apparently the Piranha's in the film are only 3ft long!

http://filmecho.com/files/2010/02/MegaPiranha.jpg

Haaaaaaaaaaahahaaahaha, I love that poster!! :thumb: