What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[fuzzymctiger]

Over the long weekend I watched a couple of movies..

Heathers - Wow, what a hoot. Like an 80's Mean Girls, but with Suicide, Murder and Psychopaths. God the writing was great too, with some really bizarre lines.

Maximum Overdrive - I went into this thinking, "Wow how could this be bad! Stephen King getting sworn at by an ATM, a killer bridge, ACDC, Emilio Esteves, and a Little Leaguer getting run over by a steam roller!" 30 minutes in turned it off. Horrible acting, writing, annoying characters, plotholes everywhere. Later, I went back and tried again, and I'm glad i did, as it picked up from there, and became much more enjoyable (not going to say good, as I think the cheese finally overtook the annoying.)

The New York Ripper - Like most giallos, really grew on me, only after it finished. Only 4 really nasty kills, so quite suspirised about its notoriety, though those scenes are pretty bad. Got a bit annoying at the start with the sex addict woman, but once she was out of the picture, I really enjoyed it. Quite a sad twist though. After seeing it written all over a cinema in the movie, I kind of want to watch Final Exam now.

Slumber Party Massacre - Perfect. Why is it I enjoy the little nothing special slahser the most. Hilarious satirical script, typical slasher, quirky villain with a bizarre murder weapon, bewbs, and a pizza delivery man with his eyes drilled out. Some great moments including a guy describing provisions as "Doritos, No-Doz, Benny's, Crystal Meth...", and a totally not suspicious guy snail hunting with a meat cleaver. Great fun.

[Gojirosan]

Sector 7 - 2011, S Korea d:Kim Ji-hun

Absolutely woeful big budget, late entry into the Alien-on-an-oil-rig action/horror subset; presumably designed to catch some of The Host's popularity. This is totally scuppered by awkward sentimentality, dire pacing, dreary action scenes, stark predictability, a glacially slow start before the monster shows up and plain old bad film-making. The suspense is handled like a drunk with a wet jelly and the whole affair frequently lapses into deep incomprehensibility that no amount of rewinding & rewatching can fix (the clumsy English subtitling didn't help this one jot).

The female lead gives her best and one does develop a soft spot for the lumbering yet rapid giant monster (which seems like some kind of Lovecraftian sea lion) but you know everything that is going to happen - often hugely far in advance making the wait for the inevitable painful.

I am not even sure this has any kitsch value, it's just rubbish!



The Resurrected - 1992 USA d: Dan O'Bannon

Cruelly under-rated and little seen Lovecraft adaptation which suffered the indignity of a straight-to-video release that it did not deserve. In my view, the better of O'Bannon's two directorial efforts and one of the most successful attempts to translate Lovecraft to the screen.

This really captures the tone and spirit of "The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward" - despite the inevitable veering from the source - with the same kind of straight faced wit and glee that Lovecraft himself employed. The cast are ideal, the cinematography simple yet beautiful and the whole is atmospheric and slightly nasty.

Seeing O'Bannon do a "straight" Loveraft adaptation here really hammers home the influence of HPL upon the great Dead & Buried and the pair would make a fine double bill as complimentary companion pieces.

This is a film that NEEDS rediscovery and a better fate. The fullscreen presentation of its long deleted R1 DVD release is fine, but you can clearly see that shots were composed for a shallow widescreen - a release with both 4:3 and 16:9 versions would be ideal.

If you can track it down, I recommend this highly to HPL fans, O'Bannon admirers and lovers of 80's style horror.

[ArgentoFan1987]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Maximum Overdrive - I went into this thinking, "Wow how could this be bad! Stephen King getting sworn at by an ATM, a killer bridge, ACDC, Emilio Esteves, and a Little Leaguer getting run over by a steam roller!" 30 minutes in turned it off. Horrible acting, writing, annoying characters, plotholes everywhere. Later, I went back and tried again, and I'm glad i did, as it picked up from there, and became much more enjoyable (not going to say good, as I think the cheese finally overtook the annoying.)

. I had the same experience with The Dead Next Door. I went into it thinking 'this looks ****ing awesome!!!!'. It's really, really not. I turned it off after twenty minutes because the acting was unbearable. I was watching this film though my hands became it was so cringeworthy .

[Rik]

Exorcist II:The Heretic-I decided to give this film another chance based on what some members were saying on the Sequel Guilty Pleasures thread. I'd only ever seen it once before, despite owning it in the Exorcist Anthology boxset for a few years, so I went into it thinking that maybe last time I wasn't in the right frame of mind or maybe I was expecting a similar film to it's predecessor, or maybe I was being harsh on it. Well, here we are 2 hours later and I can honestly say with all my heart that it is without a doubt the biggest pile of shite I've watched in a very long time! Even the score from Morricone couldn't save this from being a complete waste of two hours of my life, the best thing about it was the 15 minute snooze it enforced on me during the midway mark! It's now back in it's place in between two classics, never to be taken out of the box again!

I can see why people threw things at the screen when this film opened because I was finding it extremely difficult not to rush over and kick the **** out of my TV

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Rik

I can see why people threw things at the screen when this film opened because I was finding it extremely difficult not to rush over and kick the **** out of my TV

The power of Christ compels you . . .

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

The power of Christ compels you . . .

I feel like I need an exorcism to rid me of the sight of this!

[g053584398]

Originally Posted by bdc

No I haven't seen it.
Is it this one?

That is the one!

[bdc]

It's part of the Joy Sales Legendary Collection so I'll pick it up soon.
Have you seen it?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

Exorcist II:The Heretic-

It really is a terrible film – muddled, unconvincing and unintentionally amusing. I also hated it – my review is here: Exorcist II: The Heretic DVD Review | Film 365.

[demonknight]

Death by stereo!
Yes the lost boys is a good one.