She-Devils on Wheels (1968)

Over the years i've seen some truly terrible films, often from US fifty movie box sets from the likes of Pendulum Pictures. Films such as Las Vegas Bloodbath and Prehistoric Bimbos in Armageddon City, films so wretched they are barely watchable. However none of the films i'm thinking about boast acting as poor and amateurish as Herschell Gordon Lewis's She Devils on Wheels.

It's only plus points were a couple of riding down the open road scenes.

I ended up turning it off. I hate turning films off but i was just wasting my time when i could have been watching something better.

A thing of beauty. Kudos!!! :loveeyes:

Cracking review Mac.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

Yummy. 2019.

In a health clinic a young couple release a woman from her binds unaware that she is a experiment procedure gone haywire by the physician who runs the hospital.

This was a blind watch on Shudder and to be honest this was actually a decent flick from Belgium. It has a mix of native language with subtitles and English non dubbed audio, thankfully everyone speaks without being dubbed and out of
sync.

Like every other horror there is normally a element of laughter, a group of boys on a bus looking at the passenger in the car next to them who is big breasted and encouraging her to flash but obviously her mother is jealous as she is going to get a reduction. People getting shown about the hospital and then come across patient zero and all hell breaks loose.

The acting in this is decent and everyone puts a good amount of effort to make it great and yes there is always one prick in a horror and we all want him to meet karma. Certainly not one for the squeamish as the gore factor is top notch and great make-up effects used. For what seems to be a independent flick director Lars Damoiseaux knew what he was doing with the direction and getting decent cinematography at the right moments.

Attachment 241720

Sold methinks


Hot Seat

MEH.


Clay Pigeons (1998, David Dobkin)

If I start by saying that I think this is the best I've seen Vince Vaughn do, please don't all run for the hills.
Also if you really crave seeing people smoke on screen again, then this is the one for you all.
Wannabe quirky thriller featuring characters you just don't see anymore on screen ahem. Data also pops up, which was nice.

Black Roses, 1988.

Demons disguised as a high school punk band hypnotises their audience to kill.

Another Shudder movie that I fell asleep to and woke up to a woman having her throat slit and decided to watch this from the start. Released by Troma so no one will ever achieve best acting performance. Mullets must have been the thing as nearly every guy has one, so throw back to the 80s for you oldies :lol::behindsofa:

The costume for the demons definitely looked rubbery and the actors seem to have very little movement and may have caused a bad case of the sweats and claustrophobia, but i'm sure they do anything for a paycheck. This probably sounded good on paper and not great for the screen but can't complain about the few boobies shots in this.

Attachment 241728

The Wizard of Gore (1970)

The Gore Gore Girls (1972

Probably Herschell Gordon Lewis' most accomplished films. Both up the gore substantially thankfully the acting as well as both films are highly watchable.

The Gore Gore Girls for me was the better of the two, the gore is at times quite unsettling in it's nature in very prolonged scenes of explicit violence. However it also seems to have things to say in a social sense as well, bit now a day after rewatching these two (First time on Blu-ray) it's the sheer sleazy sadism of The Gore Gore Girls that lingers long in the memory. The Wizard of Gore reminds me very much of Mardi Gras Massacre as the murders all play out in similar fashion to one another.

On the whole these two films actually being any good, along with 1964's Two Thousand Maniacs, are the exception and the other eleven films in the Arrow Lewis collection are for the most part dreadful. Meaning this box set will be leaving my collection in the next day or so. I'll probably buy the stand alone Blu of The Gore Gore Girls in the next Arrow sale.

A Ghost Waits. 2020.

A man called Jack is hired to clean out a house for new occupants and is tasked with why people keep fleeing from the house before their lease ends.

Ok let sum this one up, Total Film magazine named this the "Best Film" at the 2020 Frightfest film festival in September 2020, that year was rough for everyone and thankfully we are still here, and I watched some major shitty films during that time, this one should have been added to that list. This was obviously someone's weekend project of splicing Juno from Beetlejuice, mixed with a really bad Amityville..spin off story mixed with Jack Torrance speaking to a bar man.

Right at the start approx 30 seconds in should have been the warning of switching this off but roughed it out like the man I am and saw it right to the end, filmed in Black& White, nice homage to the original horrors we love dearly with a twist ending but still lost 75 minutes of my life.

Even though this was a Shudder exclusive, it can be easily bypassed.

Attachment 241731

Almost Human (Umberto Lenzi, 1974)

A work of genius. Milan embodies amorality in this fun little romp :lol:
Brushing off a recent setback, our Tomas puts together his own squad with mayhem in mind.
Henry Silva plays the cop tasked with bringing this particular cur to heel.
Need I go on?
Recofrickingmended. :nod:

Executive Decision

When Terrorists hijack a Plane, a Commando Unit are able to board to stop them. Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry and David Sucet star in a still entertaining romp.

This was the 2nd 15 rated Film I saw at a Cinema (Barb Wire was the 1st, this came out a week later) and couldn't believe it when I saw the poster as these type of Films were normally 18 rated and Seagal Films were a big deal to me back then.

Bulletproof

Damon Waynes is a Undercover Cop who is shot by Adam Sandler who in turn becomes a State Witness after his boss, played by James Caan puts a Hit on him. Waynes is then tasked with bringing Sandler back to New York, whilst avoiding Hitmen. Nice and short and quite fun.

Gladiator Cop

This sounds bizarre but Lorenzo Lamas has psychic visions of Swordfights that has association with Alexander The Great, 2000 years earlier.

Apparently this contains cut scenes from another Film and as this is a type of Film I quite enjoy and seeing as I got this cheap, I have a higher tolerance and considering I wasn't expecting the greatest Film ever, I found it entertaining.

So, despite my last sentence quoted above i watched this on Blu-ray last night after buying the limited edition Luciano Ercoli box set a while ago.

Great film, so twisty turny from the mid point on. The kind of Giallo where you can watch it a few months apart and still find new things to entertain or in this case bamboozle you.

Bohemian Rhapsody. 2018.

I'm not one for biography movies but finally got round to watching this and feel kinda bad for leaving it till now to watch this epic film. Rami Malek plays a excellent role of our beloved Freddie, even with the other band mates the actors portraying them is brilliant and even Mike Myers never over done anything he shouldn't. Even hearing their music being played you can't help but sing along.

Attachment 241737

Dick Tracy. 1990.

Detective Tracy takes on gangster Big Boy Caprice who is trying to unite with other gangsters to take over and run the city.

Haven't seen this since the early 90s on VHS and almost forgot it had existed, with Warren Beatty taking on the role of the comic book character and director who seemed to be a fan and knew how to create the comic characters and and bright and low colours in the background for "The City".

Al Pacino plays the public enemy number one of Tracy and tries his best to pin him with the crimes but can't seem to get him off the streets, Paul Sorvino and James Caan who passed away recently have small roles and even under heavy make-up aren't really recognizable until they start talking as well as many other good actors, but we can all recognise Dustin Hoffman. Never been a fan of Madonna as a actress but in this she is actually decent and do a couple of songs and able to bring some laughs with her character.

Attachment 241738

Submerged. 2005.

Mercenary Chris Cody is released from prison and aided by his old team to stop terrorists taking over a nuclear submarine.

I'm gonna do a drinking game called Never have I ever...here we go never have I ever been confused by a Seagal movie, what I thought that this film would be like is a team chasing after the bad guys, stopping them being crazy and save the day. You get about 20 minutes on a submarine and that's it, the rest of film is the good guys on land trying to find one bad guy.

Some of the actors must have thought this would be great but were dead wrong, no wonder this went straight to DVD, and may have hurt their careers slightly. Gary Daniels has said his fight scene with the big man was longer and decently choreographed but Seagal edited it and cut it down so it looked like he got his ass handed to him quickly. Anthony Hickox who has directed a fair bit before this film was probably over ruled in decision making and had to follow certain procedures to make someone look good. This film can be easily avoidable IMHO.

Attachment 241739

Teen Wolf. 1985.

Average teen Scott Howard finds out that his family is a descendant of half human-half wolf hybrid that helps him gain popularity but also has it's problems.

Michael J. Fox stars as the teen Scott who seems shy and quiet until the beast in him comes out that seems to take over his life. James Hampton plays the father figure Harold who tries to be the sympathetic single parent who hoped the wolf transformation would skip the generation that leads to a comical moment in the bathroom/hallway.

Yeah it's full of 80s cheesiness but that's what we love about these old childhood films, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off the role the way Fox did. Filmed before Back To The Future and released after the film, there is some noticeable similarities with the set pieces with the same houses used in both films. Still entertaining and a lot better than the sequel.

Attachment 241746

Bullitt. 1968

Tough cop Frank Bullitt goes after a kingpin who killed a witness in police protection.

Steve McQueen in one of his better roles (aside from The Magnificent Seven), the film may be outdated by today's standard but still has a impressive car chase round San Francisco with Steve doing most of his own driving stunts and no big car pile up or cars flipping over. Director Peter Yates definitely took the time to build up the characters in this with and nobody seems to over act anyone from start right up to the end with a good foot chase.

Attachment 241748

Deep Star Six. 1989.

A team of Navy personnel stationed at the bottom of the sea, uncover a cavern below and release a prehistoric creature.

Released the same year as Leviathan and James Cameron's more popular underwater feature The Abyss, this is often pushed aside and left on the back burner. This one has assortment of actors that most of us will recognise from the late 80s-early 90s films and T.V. and produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham, even Kane Hodder is able to pop up as the stunt co-ordinator. Mark Shostrom was given the creature design by Chris Walas and changed a few bits and done a decent job given it was probably a bit of a budget to work with. For a Friday Night horror/sci-fi flick this was decent.

Attachment 241749

Killer Image. 1992.

After his brother's death, Max comes across a photograph that may have been the cause of his death and a political cover up of a Senator.

Another movie not seen since the VHS era and certainly not fast paced as I remembered it, M. Emmet Walsh plays the State Senator who was caught in a compromised situation and gets assassin little brother Michael Ironside to do the "silence The witness and get the evidence destroyed" deal. Unfortunately the witness has a brother John Pyper-Ferguson who finds the photo and starts a cat and mouse game.

This is one of those low grade B movies that has it's moments of slow pace to being almost dull but with Michael Ironside mind games this is what made it watchable and just see what the outcome would be.

Attachment 241750

Ricochet. 1991.

A young rookie cop Nick Styles stops Earl Blake during a botched drug deal and he is sent away to prison. Years later Styles is now a Assistant D.A. while Blake plans to escape and seek revenge on Styles.

A young Denzel Washington plays the rookie cop who basically strips down to his "Tidy Whidies" at a carnival to reassure the bad guy he has no weapons and seems to be hailed a hero for his recklessness. John Lithgow plays the psychotic Blake who tries his best to turn Styles life upside down and make him suffer.

What starts as a good opening to a film that has it's moments of being slow then goes back on track with a cat mouse game then the tables are turned the mouse starts chasing the cat that was decently executed even with the slow revenge plan. Kevin Pollack plays the loyal cop partner who believes Styles innocence along the way as nobody else will. This was a decent action thriller by Russell Mulcahy.

Attachment 241751

Have a great weekend all

I love this trashy film. Absurdly sleazy and demented (you can smell the old sweat), and filmed with bravado by Russell Mulcahy.

The Last Stand. 2013.

A drug kingpin escapes custody and heads towards Mexico with the F.B.I following him, in his path is a small town of Sommerton run by a Sheriff who was a member of the LAPD and a small band of deputies to stop the kingpin from crossing the border.

Big Arnie trying to be a Sheriff of a small Western town, sounds like he was trying to be like Clint Eastwood without a hat but does get to fire a six-shooter at a piece of meat. Johnny Knoxville plays the owner of the barn gun museum proprietor who is later deputized as a law man. Peter Stormare plays the henchman helping his boss to get over the border into Mexico and Forest Whitaker as the F.B.I agent trying to catch his prisoner.

Arnie's first lead role in ten years and still seems he can pack a punch and getting his ass handed to him a few times, the film does have one or two flaws, blood splatter and a few good shoot outs, still a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch, even though it kept the Mrs quiet.

Attachment 241759

The China Syndrome. 1979.

Reporter Kimberly Wells and cameraman Richard Adams doing a story on energy saving. While visiting Ventera Power Plant a incident happens that appears to be something small but find out a cover up of something big may have happened.

Filmed in 1978 and not released until March 1979, the film was criticized by the Nuclear Power Energy committee for being a work of fiction then the incident at Three Mile Island happened that was almost the same incident...bet their faces were red.

Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas play the reporter and cameraman who try to find was exactly happened and are stonewalled by their boss and become more of a investigation duo and meet with a specialist who gives the best line in this film " Your Lucky To Be Alive".

Jack Lemmon gives a decent portrayal as shift plant supervisor Jack Godell who is told what happens and takes it but soon uncovers more than just a small incident and tries to become the whistle blower that may have repercussions than just simple threats.

Director James Bridges seemed to know how to capture the audience's attention with this very nicely styled pace thriller that can have plenty of tense moments and with very little to no background score throughout the film makes it more realistic.

Attachment 241765

Ricochet .... think we watched that and Raising Cain tripping :laugh::behindsofa:


Ahem.

VR Fighter (2021, Tang Quiojia)

aka One More Shot. Chinese madness unfolds when a man finds a new path in order to right that wrong.
These new second tier FX are laughable sometimes. The shots are wincingly reminiscent of PS1 graphics cough.
Regardless this is a knock off of various developments in the action genre and it accquits itself reasonably.

The rather emotional finale reminded me more of the Korean things I've seen that aren't as spoken about as some others from that region.

Raw Deal (1986)

A pretty run of the mill but efficiently entertaining action vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger in which he infiltrates the Chicago mob in a bid to bring it to it's knees.

There's some good action set pieces courtesy of director John Irvin and the likes of Sam Wanamaker, Darren McGavin and Robert Davi give the supporting cast a bit of gravitas.

Whilst watching it felt like this could easily have been a Poliziotteschi from the seventies starring the likes of Franco Nero or Maurizio Merli. The fact it's Italian produced (De Laurentiis) and written by Sergio Leone's screenwriters Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati adds credence to this thought.

One I intend to grab when the forthcoming StudioCanal restoration drops in price. Obviously a little way off.

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

I didn't know it was being reissued and restored. The Blu i have is the earlier SC title (It was a freebie along with Red Heat). The copy i have looks fine for how i rate the film.

I'm sure a new restoration will be pretty awesome though.

Just had a look at the new extras.

There aren't any. One of the docs seems to be on every Arnie SC disc. It's definitely on the new Red Sonja as i've watched it.

"What does the P stand for?"

RUBBER – A murderous tyre can explode people’s heads through the power of telekinesis. If that sounds like a recipe for some kind of Charles Band-produced horror comedy knock-off, a swift glance at director Quentin Dupieux‘s resume should be enough to convince you that an arch exercise in cinematic deconstruction is more likely on the cards. That’s entirely the case. ‘Rubber’ doesn’t just dally with the fourth wall, it practically pisses against it – a good portion of the film is about its ‘audience’, who look on at all the tyre horror-action through binoculars from their desert vantage point (until most of them are stiffed by a poisoned chicken). The potential for cringe-inducing posturing is circumvented by the eeriness of the location, some genuine laughs / gore and an overall atmosphere of weirdness. I hadn’t seen it since it came out in 2011, and it was a relief to find that I still really liked it.

DECODER – An anomaly, and an interesting one, in that it hails the Berlin post punk / industrial scene of the late seventies / early eighties – not your typical cinematic underground, although I guess a close parallel would be the American No Wave stuff (Beth B, Nick Zed etc) that was happening around the time. Some slacker / music dude (played by Einsturzende Neubauten’s F M Einheit) discovers that a local fast-food joint is feeding its customers piped music full of subliminal messages; meanwhile, his gf hangs out with some toads and goes to work in a peepshow. ‘Decoder’ plays with a lot of the ideas that were in the air back then – the power of covert media conditioning to induce social control etc – and in fact the film is honoured by a cameo from the godfather of all that stuff, William Burroughs, whilst none other than Genesis P Orridge pops up as a sort-of guerrilla priest. Visually it’s very nice, with hazy drifts of gelled lighting versus the hard angles of the post-war greyscape. ‘Decoder’ really works on the level of this kind of ambience alone, but I wish it had stayed there because it flounders a bit when it retreats from abstraction and tries to tie its themes and images to a conventional plotline about urban insurrection. Still, interesting. Worth checking out if you like gritty zero budget 16mm arthouse dystopian sci-fi satire, or if you still wear a black trench coat, listen to TG and carry around a battered copy of ‘Nova Express’ even though you’re in your forties, Frankie (ulp).

VOICES FROM BEYOND – Another one of Fulci’s final few, VFB is a twisted whodunnit narrated by the (ghost? Corpse?) of a murder victim who has reached out from beyond the grave to enlist his daughter as a detective. It’s full of typical Fulci signatures – an overload of diffusion and a camera that always makes its presence felt, not to mention a bit of gore, mean-spirited nudity and maggoty action (we’re treated to lingering close-ups of the main character as he putrefies in his grave.) For me, watching it for the first time yesterday whilst on my fourth can of Stella, it had a little bit of a drag factor maybe and the plot seemed quite labyrinthine at points, but these are only quibbles; the essentially quite weird atmosphere of a bona fide Fulci flick was there in every frame (an example that stuck in my mind – naked woman screaming as she crouches beside a big cartoon hen toy. There, you’re just not going to get that in many other places). I really liked it. Again, not one from his glory years, but die-hards and fans of odd Euro horror will easily get something from this.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
 

:hail::hail::hail::hail::hail:


Rubber is the gift that keeps on giving I've found.

The Golden Child. 1986.

A private investigator who searches for missing children is tasked with finding a special child that evil wants to destroy.

The premise of the movie may not be good but even Eddie Murphy character doesn't seem to take it seriously and thinks it may be a joke and travels to Tibet at one point. Charles Dance plays the somewhat satanic devil worshiper who tries to do his master's bidding and kill the child to let the powers of darkness rule the world. I still laughed at Murphy's antics and few comments and jokes.

Attachment 241775

After Death (1989)

Clyde Anderson aka Claudio Fragasso directs this zombie yarn in which a voodoo curse enables the dead to rise from their graves, borrow make up effects from Bava's Demons and become what look like zombies in Ninja gear as they hunt a group of island explorers. Oh and there's something about an amulet around a woman's neck that does something or other.

Daft, ever so slightly incompetent but ludicrously fun, After Death really is one of those films where you just sit back and go with the flow as any sort of critical analysis goes out the window in the first two minutes. Anderson shows a modicum of flare when directing the lengthy action sequences but this lacks a truly memorable 'water cooler' moment in the killing department.

Still for all it's flaws and yes, there are one or two, this is a minor masterpiece when compared to Fragasso's Troll 2.

:behindsofa:

Until Death. 2007.

Anthony Stowe a New Orleans detective and a heroine user trying to bring down a crime lord who was once a friend. When Stowe is put into a coma, he wakes to amend his past and put things right.

This one starts off a bit slow, maybe for the purpose of character build up with JCVD as the detective addicted to drugs and nobody seems to like him pretty much for the screw ups he creates in his path. Stephen Rea plays the former friend and crime boss who likes to play cat and mouse and does make a convincing bad guy. Selina Giles plays the wife who seems to be fed up of the excuses being made by Stowe and seeks solace from someone else.

This isn't really your typical Van Damme movie, yes there is plenty of action with the shoot outs, but also shows a bit of drama on righting the wrong things and how someone coming out of a coma can adjust to a new way of life.

Attachment 241778

The Secret Of The Loch. 1934.

A Scottish professor attempts to prove that there is a monster in Loch Ness while a reporter tries to get the story.

Released in the year of the first picture taken of "Oor Nessie" which was later revealed to be a hoax, producer Bray Wyndham teamed with director Milton Rosmer to create this film based on a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that probably marks the first movie to be made on the infamous Scottish legend of the loch.

Seymour Hicks plays the batty Professor who intends to prove that there is something in the water and prove to the locals while they all think he is mad. Back then the effects were dated and the underwater sequence looks like it was filmed in a somewhat glass tank and the monster...well I will leave that to you to figure out what it looks like. to be honest, this was enjoyable.

Attachment 241780

Rare cinema trip tonight to see Top Gun: - Maverick. I have to admit I loved it, but I was surprised it's being so universally praised given it at times felt very disjointed, with scenes just opening and closing without any real bridging, (sort of thing I'd expect the critics to bitch and moan something chronic about). It almost felt like bits had randomly been cut.
That said, it's a film that knows it's audience and takes absolutely no shame in being what it is. A true popcorn blockbuster, something that despite all the mega bucks making marvel/dc stuff or any of the other "planet chucking" franchises as a certain Mr Dike calls them, doesn't really exist these days.
As has been mentioned in some of the reviews, Cruise slips back into the role of Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell effortlessly, but I felt he did more to be honest. He portrayed the character 30 something years later. And he did it extremely well, still larger than life and cocky as hell. But with visible insecurities, this character is getting older, and he knows it, his uncertainty about life's more difficult realities now shows. Cruise gave the character an interesting transition to an older more vulnerable version of Mavericks former self. It felt very believable that this was the same guy 30 years later, looking at a future that quite honestly wouldn't really need him much longer. It would have been interesting to at least have heard what had happened to Kelly McGillis character but hey ho, Jennifer Connelly makes for an excellent replacement as the love interest here, and frankly I thought the chemistry worked much better.
The cast overall were great, would have been nice to see more of Ed Harris's Cain. But still, he basically plays this sequels version of James Tolkan's Stinger.
Special mention to Miles Teller as Rooster. The casting here is impeccable once you realise who the character actually is.
Anyway, forgive my late night rambling. Top Gun: Maverick was a joy. It was a flawed film that really felt like it was from another era, from when movies were events and not just time passers, and as such the flaws were irrelevant. To this viewer anyway.

I've always wanted to see this. Is it on YT?

@J Harker - Nice review. Great to read your thoughts on Top Gun:Maverick.

It certainly is on YT, if you do manage to watch it hope you enjoy it :pop2::pop2:

I adored this one, but I do suspect it's because I'm starved of spectacle cinema. Blockbusters were often criticised for a lack of story, but they excelled at producing visuals that swept the audience away with beautiful vistas, and extraordinary stunts.

Now, we have dreck drowning in plot (to set up the next 50 sequels), and boring, flat imagery with shoddy CGI. No stunt work. No elaborate set-pieces.

Then Top Gun: Maverick shows up and lets us see what we have been missing. And by God, I missed it.

If this came out 20 years ago, we'd probably be tepid towards it. But after a nightmarish decade plus of Marvel and Disney, it was like a cool glass if ice-water after trekking the desert.