What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Slippery Jack]

Killer Joe

Not quite as great as I was expecting. Thought the script was a little bland - felt like it needed a Coen Brothers type script to really bring the 'cast of fools' to life. That said, I thought Thomas Haden Church was brilliant as the supreme idiot. I love it when razor sharp actors play utter fools - like De Niro in Jackie Brown . Good to see Friedkin still directing uncompromised, confrontational fare though. Just didn't quite win me over with this one . . .

[Frankie Teardrop]

FRANKENSTEIN 80 - You'll have to be into real dross to get through this. About a decade ago I would've raved about the likes of 'Frankenstein 80', with its brash lack of concern for taste or sense. These days, I find my patience wears a little thin. Anyway, it's a contemporary (made in 1972) take on the Frankenstein thing, with a patchwork guy called 'Mosaic' who indulges in a bit of forced organ extraction. There's a police investigation, a journalist's search for truth and scientific feuds but none of the above hang together in any coherent fashion. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't so grating and dull, but unfortunately it has the specific feel of badly made early 70s Eurohorror ie manages to be both ploddingly linear and messily disjointed. It's really quite sleazy though, for better or worse, and there's a smattering of butchershop gore. In fact, despite the tedium, 'Mosaic' tends to be in rampage mode most of the time and can be quite diverting. Even though I'm kind of trashing it here, it's a film I keep coming back to for some godforsaken reason, and I just had to check out this recent, slightly better transfer (all previous DVD versions abysmal). Of course, for 70s psychedelic Frankensteinian sleaze the better options are 'Erotic Rites of Frankenstein' or 'Flesh for Frankenstein'.

[Beyond72]

Originally Posted by bdc

The film was cut before it's theatrical release either because the MPAA insisted on it for an R-rating or because distributor Paramount wanted it to be less violent...

And was still a (slasher) fan favourite on video.

Although it is great to finally have the uncut version - well worth the wait.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

FRANKENSTEIN 80 - You'll have to be into real dross to get through this. About a decade ago I would've raved about the likes of 'Frankenstein 80', with its brash lack of concern for taste or sense. These days, I find my patience wears a little thin...

Frankie I always look forward to your reviews !

I know what you mean about this kind of Trash Cinema... a few weeks ago I sat down to watch the 3rd Volume of Grindhouse Trailer Classics, and I had the disturbing realisation that most of these films were crap... and not in a good way. Creeping old age no doubt...

[Rik]

Watched yesterday's arrivals last night, first up was a good old slice of 80's cheese and Waxwork-first time I'd seen it in probably 20 years and still as much fun as I remembered, followed it with Hammer's sequel to the Curse of Frankenstein-The Revenge of Frankenstein, not as good as Curse, but still a fine film featuring another excellent & decidely creepy performance by Cushing as the evil Dr Stein and Francis Matthews as his sidekick. This time round the man-made-man was played by Michael Gwynn, with eye candy in the form of Eunice Gayson

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Wes

Frankie I always look forward to your reviews !

I know what you mean about this kind of Trash Cinema... a few weeks ago I sat down to watch the 3rd Volume of Grindhouse Trailer Classics, and I had the disturbing realisation that most of these films were crap... and not in a good way. Creeping old age no doubt...

Thanks for the kindness.
Yeah, there's nothing like that hollow feeling I get when I realise a movie I've been stuck on for years is, well, shite. You're right, many films I supported in my teens and twenties seem less alluring these days, although thankfully the reverse is also true - I would've seriously dissed something like 'The Shout' back when I as a kid, now I think it's brilliant.
Old trash is really hit and miss. Because of today's relative sophistication, a lot of that stuff seems vulnerable and exposed, and tends to have to fall back on extremity to work, although very often I find myself thinking "now this probably isn't very good, but there's just an atmosphere here that just wouldn't happen if this were made now". Stuff like 'The Headless Eyes' etc kind of gives me hope.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

...very often I find myself thinking "now this probably isn't very good, but there's just an atmosphere here that just wouldn't happen if this were made now". Stuff like 'The Headless Eyes' etc kind of gives me hope.

I completely agree and I've found that intangible quality (that beauty in the eye of the beholder) in the strangest of places, in the likes of Snuff and Don't Go Near the Park - that thing that no one can talk you down from. Thankfully I revisited Dolomite recently and I still think it's a masterpiece (or at least an anti-masterpiece)...

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Wes

Frankie I always look forward to your reviews !

I know what you mean about this kind of Trash Cinema... a few weeks ago I sat down to watch the 3rd Volume of Grindhouse Trailer Classics, and I had the disturbing realisation that most of these films were crap... and not in a good way. Creeping old age no doubt...

I also really like Frankie's reviews and, like you, watched Grindhouse Trailer Classics 3 recently, also realising how crap most of the films looked. Unlike those in the previous two volumes – particularly the first – there weren't any trailers which were laugh out loud funny and I own less films from #3 than the first two. It seemed as if they wer scraping the barrel to find trailers rather than ones which were popular, amusing and well-known.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

It seemed as if they were scraping the barrel to find trailers rather than ones which were popular, amusing and well-known.

Absolutely... Nucleus should have organised a commentary track for that disc (like the great Synapse trailer commentaries) just to give it a rewind factor. I doubt I'll revist that disc in the future...

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Wes

Absolutely... Nucleus should have organised a commentary track for that disc (like the great Synapse trailer commentaries) just to give it a rewind factor. I doubt I'll revist that disc in the future...

Unlike the other two, I've rented the third one and have decided against buying it simply because I doubt I'd watch it again and it would stay on a shelf collecting dust before I watched it because it was there, rather than because I really wanted to indulge in some horror and trash nostalgia.

Like you say, a commentary would have been really good if only to talk about trailers and the whole exploitation concept rather than specific trailers.