What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Hawkmonger

What's Alien Shock like, Bizzare?

You may know it under the more widely known title of 'Without Warning'.

It's nothing special, but the creature design and effects are pretty good, there's a decent performance from Jack Palance, and it resonates a nice b-movie vibe. I don't know whether this is true, but I've also heard that it helped inspire Predator.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

21 JUMP STREET. Knob jokes make me laugh, what else can I say.

DER FAN. Early 80s erotomania a go go from German. This film follows a teenage girl's obsession with R, an electro pop star with a fascist clothing fetish and sharp cheek bones. Mostly told in voice over, the early stages of the film are wonderfully flat as the girl vocalises her love of R and attacks postmen for not delivering letters from him. There is something incredibly banal about these scenes that conflict with the girls inner life and increasing detachment from the world. The scenes don't feel as if they have been created to reflect the girl's detachment but are rather filmed this way to counter balance the full on erotic horror of the films lovingly shot necro ending. These are truly great scenes, silent, long and finally showing the girl's inner and outer worlds melded together.

The downside to the film is that the UK release is dubbed which isn't too bad as most of the film is told by the girl's voice over but frustrating as the viewer, unless they speak German, has no idea as to the lyrics of R's songs which play an important part in the girl's delusional world. Worth renting or buying if you see it cheap.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Knob jokes make me laugh, what else can I say.

I could tell that from your earlier review of The Beyond.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

21 JUMP STREET. Knob jokes make me laugh, what else can I say.

DER FAN. Early 80s erotomania a go go from German. This film follows a teenage girl's obsession with R, an electro pop star with a fascist clothing fetish and sharp cheek bones. Mostly told in voice over, the early stages of the film are wonderfully flat as the girl vocalises her love of R and attacks postmen for not delivering letters from him. There is something incredibly banal about these scenes that conflict with the girls inner life and increasing detachment from the world. The scenes don't feel as if they have been created to reflect the girl's detachment but are rather filmed this way to counter balance the full on erotic horror of the films lovingly shot necro ending. These are truly great scenes, silent, long and finally showing the girl's inner and outer worlds melded together.

The downside to the film is that the UK release is dubbed which isn't too bad as most of the film is told by the girl's voice over but frustrating as the viewer, unless they speak German, has no idea as to the lyrics of R's songs which play an important part in the girl's delusional world. Worth renting or buying if you see it cheap.

I really like 'Der Fan', although it could've done with an even harsher, more icily alienated approach (maybe a dubious 'warmth' was the after-effect of the dubbing, which always banalises and in this case totally subtracts... actually, having said this, the faux-neu wave of electropop romeo is pretty grating in itself... maybe we should settle for Blixa Bargeld's dodgy sex tapes (in monochrome, with a really sinister metal chimney))

[Delirium]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

Yet to see it, but I highly doubt it will best Leos Carax's man-going-across-the-city-in-a-limo epic Holy Motors still firmly at number 1 in my faves of the year thus far . . .

It doesn't. Oh no, no, no it doesn't. Thing is, there's obvious parallels between the two films. But Carax's Holy Motors is vibrant and enthralling, while Cosmopolis is sluggish and insipid. And although I haven't read the source, I get it - DeLillo's White Noise remains a favourite of mine, so I'm familiar with the author's style. But I do feel Cronenberg dropped the ball on what I'm sure is a tricky text to translate, but then I feel his work has become more stagnate over the years. If he'd had a stab at it 15 years ago, I'm sure it might have been a different beast - but of course the novel was only written in 2003. It needed a fresher director. Eric Packer is a boring character, but it doesn't mean the film needed to be directed in a boring way. After all, Mary Harron succeeded in putting the charisma vacumn Patrick Bateman on the screen.

Put simply, Holy Motors is one of my films of the year. While Cosmopolis shamefully joins the ranks of John Carter etc as one of the very worst (for very different reasons of course). Boy, it was a slog.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

DER FAN. Early 80s erotomania a go go from Germany...

Der Fan and Taxi zum Klo were two of the more transgessive German films I was always intruiged about. There's a very good UK DVD of Taxi zum Klo but so far I haven't taken the plunge (bad choice of phrase there)...

[Beyond72]

Haute Tension

Sleepless

[Baseball Fury]

Saw Argo last night and thought it was great.

Saw the Final Cut version of Blade Runner today, which was also great.

Then watched Dark Days: The Making of Blade Runner, which (ironically) probably needed an edit or two itself.

[ArgentoFan1987]

Just watched Bug by William Freidkin.

I have never been so pissed off and annoyed at a film in my life! Everything about this film annoyed the hell out of me. The acting is so over the top and irritating that I felt like screaming and throwing my TV through the window.

[Wes]

Originally Posted by ArgentoFan1987

Just watched Bug by William Freidkin.

I have never been so pissed off and annoyed at a film in my life! Everything about this film annoyed the hell out of me. The acting is so over the top and irritating that I felt like screaming and throwing my TV through the window.

I remember when this came out it got pretty good notices. I remember hating Bronson when I saw it but in the weeks that followed I found myself thinking more and more about the film and wanting to see it again. As for Lord of the

well, nevermind....