What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Wes]

Just fresh from a screening of The Getaway and this must surely rank as Peckinpah's most infernal film - no one gets out of this film in any great shape, and the long getaway to Mexico is littered with ten-gallon hat mobsters, psychotic hoods, whoreish women, and a sprawling rubbish dump. Even Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw's love affair quickly turns sour. I wonder does Nicolas Winding Refn count this as a favourite movie ? This one reminded me of Drive...

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Wes

Just fresh from a screening of The Getaway and this must surely rank as Peckinpah's most infernal film - no one gets out of this film in any great shape, and the long getaway to Mexico is littered with ten-gallon hat mobsters, psychotic hoods, whoreish women, and a sprawling rubbish dump. Even Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw's love affair quickly turns sour. I wonder does Nicolas Winding Refn count this as a favourite movie ? This one reminded me of Drive...

Have you read the book?

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Have you read the book?

Never did. Should I track it down ? I always meant to check out Jim Thompson..

[Beyond72]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. I've not seen this since it was first released on sell thru video and was worried that it would have aged badly or my feelings to it would have changed over the years. I'm glad to report I really enjoyed it and found an inner bleakness to the film I'd previously missed amongst the effects, screaming and general running around.

Stand out performance is by Linnea Quigley's body which moves through the latter part of the film with an almost supernatural grace and sense of self, combining sex and death in a very seductive way.

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I had a similar experience with ROTLD recently after not having seen it since the early nineties. There's a verve and a snappy kind of cynicism to it that carry it through to 'now' whilst it still feels as 'eighties' as it should. The soundrack's really good and obviously there's LQ's graveyard fetish.

I love Clu Gulager's turn as Burt!

Anyone else pick up on what Ernie wants from Burt for helping him out:

"Yea you're gonna owe me a big one..."

"Burt about that favour, watch your ass out there!"

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Wes

Never did. Should I track it down ? I always meant to check out Jim Thompson..

Thompson is amazing, sleazy, raw, cynical and very experimental in the way he writes at times. "A Hell of A Woman" opens with two narratives of the same scene running on alternate lines, one in normal print, one in italics, so that you have to read the page twice to understand it! "Pop 1289" has each chapter written from a different first person point of view. He's one of the most interesting of the old pulp crime writers and ranks for me with David Goodis' bleak existential crime novels which remind me of Albert Camus on the skids.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Thompson is amazing, sleazy, raw, cynical and very experimental in the way he writes at times...

Thanks, I had no idea...must head over to Amazon for a look. I haven't picked up any crime since Ellroy's LA Noir collection which I hated. I couldn't the believe the same man wrote American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand...

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Wes

Thanks, I had no idea...must head over to Amazon for a look. I haven't picked up any crime since Ellroy's LA Noir collection which I hated. I couldn't the believe the same man wrote American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand...

Is the LA Noir collection the Lloyd Hopkins novels? Andrew Vachss is worth a punt too. His series of Burke novels are as bleak as you can get when at their best but also slightly ludicrous at the same time. Vachss himself is a very interesting man.Andrew Vachss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Is the LA Noir collection the Lloyd Hopkins novels?

Yes.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Demdike

Yes.

I liked them. I also enjoyed the film "Cop" which is based on one of them, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Is the LA Noir collection the Lloyd Hopkins novels? Andrew Vachss is worth a punt too. His series of Burke novels are as bleak as you can get when at their best but also slightly ludicrous at the same time. Vachss himself is a very interesting man.Andrew Vachss - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep, Lloyd Hopkins... very disappointing I must say. Thanks for these recommendations because I do like a good crime novel. My wife is going thru a big Jo Nesbø but I'd prefer something with a bit more bite... For what it's worth, I think Richard Price's Clockers is an incredible read. I pick it up every few years...