What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER - Late period Ray Dennis Steckler. Basically one scenario, shot silently with a voice-over added, repeats endlessly with minor variations - a photographer with a misogynistic chip on his shoulder strangles barebreasted ladies in down at heel LA. Over and over and over... It's sleazy. Gender symmetry is restored when a female tramp-murderer stabs photographer guy. Could be the lonely and slightly disturbed companion of 'Don't Answer The Phone'.
PICK-UP - Will slide way past your frontal lobes. Kind of a hippy road-trip with a delectable dream-like shimmer and some shagging in a swamp. There's also "evil clown - as - metaphor... but for what?" type imagery, trippy edits and a priest's inappropriate organ recital. How did it all get so ungroovy? (I mean life, not the movie).
SKULLDUGGERY - I would try to describe what happens in this superweird flick but just thinking about it makes me want to lie down. Thankfully, I can only remember a little of what happened when I watched it, and can decipher even less... dungeons & dragons references... silent magician-boy... strange music... a labyrinth of cracked symbols... evil Mr Puch recurring endlessly, eyes glinting... no, take it away, it's all coming back! Like Lewis Carroll decided to make a bastard of an early 80s direct-to-video thing - an abomination well worth seeking out.

[pedromonkey]

just finished watching COLOMBIANA, another globe trotting action film from the Luc Besson/Robert Mark Kaman writing Duo, nothing new as this has been done a million times before, Zoe Saldana is very very hot and gets almost naked in every other scene, not the best action sequences but serviceable. Seen worse but worth a rental. Lennie James does however make this a more watchable film.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

Unexpected discovery of a wonderful low budget gem!

I have recently reorganised my Living room AV equipment and uncovered a forgotten pile of Poundland purchases, Film 2000 "home movies" and old Vipcos I had separated away from the main lot of disks for some reason long forgotten. I thought I might as well watch a couple I had not as yet seen. Firsst I watched Lich which was a fairly typical Film 2000 shot-on-video job, possibly a little better than the bulk of that company's releases.

But the other was a film from 2003 by Bilge Ebiri called New Guy. What a fantastic film! A dark and surreal Kafka-esque horror comedy, intriguing and intense with a superb central performance. I loved this and can't believe I let it vanish into a dusty corner for so long!

Find and watch this film!

I also thought Lich was a decent purchase for £1. One of the few Poundland films that i actually kept from 2009.

Although its shot on video the actors do a decent job of it.

[Demoncrat]

well mates night went with a swing....
Streetcar Named Desire (restored)
Mardi Gras Massacre
and a very silly Star Trek spoof using elements of Journey to Babel...

he started the night with the pearl & dean sting, some trailers and drinks later on went ASND, now im not as keen on this as i am about Cat on a hot tin Roof, but enjoyed seeing it nonetheless, and th parts they cut out made censors look like silly sexuallly repressed twits really!

he then showed some great old "refreshments" ads...Lyons Maid Frankies anyone?? all of which were a hoot.
after some more booze and that, we finished the night with MGM, which i could only describe as Blood Feast without the laughs at least i can say ive seen it now, ahem.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by thehamish

which i could only describe as Blood Feast without the laughs at least i can say ive seen it now, ahem.

A very apt description really.

[James Morton]

BLACK SWAN
a very good psychological thriller and the only film I've seen from Aronofsky

[Phurious]

Originally Posted by James Morton

BLACK SWAN
a very good psychological thriller and the only film I've seen from Aronofsky

Wow! All I can say is you must see his other films. They're are uniformly interesting and brilliantly made.
I hated The Fountain when I first saw it, but I think it's probably my fave of his now, or at least joint fave with Black Swan

[Handyman Joe]

Just watched an Xmas present blu ray - Quatermass and the Pit. What can I say, Optimum hit this one out the park - on a par with Odeons Witchfinder General. Who knew this movie was so colourful? It's always been blessed with a genius screenplay from Nigel Kneale now it looks fantastic too. The SFX will never age gracefully but who cares when the ideas are this disturbing and original.
Just a thought - how about someone resurrecting this franchise? - written by Mark Gattis and directed by Duncan Jones please.

[pedromonkey]

Originally Posted by Handyman Joe

Just watched an Xmas present blu ray - Quatermass and the Pit. What can I say, Optimum hit this one out the park - on a par with Odeons Witchfinder General. Who knew this movie was so colourful? It's always been blessed with a genius screenplay from Nigel Kneale now it looks fantastic too. The SFX will never age gracefully but who cares when the ideas are this disturbing and original.
Just a thought - how about someone resurrecting this franchise? - written by Mark Gattis and directed by Duncan Jones please.

Totally agree with you there, Gattis and Jones, an awesome mix, and the Blu is a beauty...

[Phurious]

Recently watched Branagh's Dead Again.

I wasn't overly keen on this. It felt exactly like what it was. Branagh making a rather obvious thriller for an American market, which in itself is no bad thing, but I was hoping for a bit of his manic and theatrical OTT style to come through, but the directing felt a bit flat and the characters were very one dimensional, leaving little for the excellent cast to work with.
I guess it probably comes down to the faults of the script more than anything, but what I hoped would be a noirish and stylish effort just turned out to be something run of the mill.

On the other side of the spectrum I watched Andrzej Zulawski's Szamanka.

Flip me over and bugger me senseless, because that's pretty much what this does. Manic? OTT? Certifiable? You're not even close.

If you thought his extraordinary Possession was a lesson in nutty performances and plotting, then this is the next (il)logical step in Zulawski's film making.
The central performance from Iwona Petry, is a volatile cocktail of two parts Isabelle Adjani in Possession, two parts Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue and a dash of Famke Janssen in Goldeneye.
From the offset she's going ten to the dozen and doesn't let up... ever... not once in the whole two hours.
She bangs her metaphorical drum quicker, harder and longer than the Duracell bunny could ever wish and struggling to keep up with her in an interesting but overshadowed role is Poland's equivalent to Tom Cruise/Bruce Willis; Boguslaw Linda - he's in the Sam Neill role, but has to perform some truly eye-opening scenes that I'm sure even Mr Neill would have balked at.

I'm not even 100% sure what the film is about but it features a lot of sex, a 25,000 yr old mummified male shaman with vaginal sperm up its arse, cannibalism, rats being used in a meat canning factory, nuclear apocalypse and a spot of suicide.

Highly recommended