What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Wes

Sounds good Josh, I love vintage sci-fi movies, and the tinting you mentioned reminded me of The Day the Earth Caught Fire, from 1961, which cleverly depicts the Earth's rapidly rising temperature by way of some sepia tinting.

Been meaning to watch that for years since I saw it featured on the Stuart Maconie narrated Cinema Show (I think it was called?) for BBC4 - a great run of themed episodes in that series. A shame they never made more . . .

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

Hey - if it's OK for Price Philip, it's OK for me!

OK, but just so you know I don't come on here to see childish and nasty xenophobic remarks, just as others don't want pictures of naked women confronting them in the picture thread.

[mercury]

Rock of Ages...Not bad but I didn't realise it was an actual musical and not just a film about rock Tom Cruise played his part well I thought.

Choose

The Dark Knight Rises....Great film. Not sure if I liked the ending or not yet.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Mojo

Christmas Evil

Wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I must admit I was pleasantly surprised how enjoyable it was. In no way your usual slasher pic, this is something a little different. And what a truly fab ending! Make this one part of your Christmas viewing.

The House With Laughing Windows

Another original take on the Giallo, this has a great creepy atmosphere throughout and loads of characters who may not be all they seem... Nice print from Shameless and a great movie too. Now, Shameless, how about Zeder?

I agree! I love ZEDER!

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) The end of the world is nigh! You'll recognise some of the extreme weather patterns in this movie to those of today! Rain, fog, drought and so on. In this movie they are less natural events and more man made. A number of simultaneous atomic, (again!), explosions knock the Earth off its axis and sends it spiralling towards the sun. A jaded journalist begins to piece together the story with the aid of a Met office secretary as the authourities begin to ration the water and the worlds governments come up with a plan to save us all. Like Rocketship XM eleven years earlier, the clever use of a red tint is used in an otherwise B&W movie but this time to give the impression of extreme heat. An intelligent sci-fi movie which dosen't rely on special effects but rather on characterization and some great dialogue scenes.

Earthcaughtfire2.jpg

[pedromonkey]

Originally Posted by JoshuaKaitlyn

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) The end of the world is nigh! You'll recognise some of the extreme weather patterns in this movie to those of today! Rain, fog, drought and so on. In this movie they are less natural events and more man made. A number of simultaneous atomic, (again!), explosions knock the Earth off its axis and sends it spiralling towards the sun. A jaded journalist begins to piece together the story the story with the aid of a Met office secretary as the authourities begin to ration the water and the worlds governments come up with a plan to save us all. Like Rocketship XM eleven years earlier, the clever use of a red tint is used in an otherwise B&W movie but this time to give the impression of extreme heat. An intelligent sci-fi movie which dosen't rely on special effects but rather on characterization and some great dialogue scenes.

Attachment 93068

The Dialogue scenes are incredible, the back and fourth between Edward Judd and Janet Munro is so well written.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by JoshuaKaitlyn

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) The end of the world is nigh! You'll recognise some of the extreme weather patterns in this movie to those of today! Rain, fog, drought and so on. In this movie they are less natural events and more man made. A number of simultaneous atomic, (again!), explosions knock the Earth off its axis and sends it spiralling towards the sun. A jaded journalist begins to piece together the story with the aid of a Met office secretary as the authourities begin to ration the water and the worlds governments come up with a plan to save us all. Like Rocketship XM eleven years earlier, the clever use of a red tint is used in an otherwise B&W movie but this time to give the impression of extreme heat. An intelligent sci-fi movie which dosen't rely on special effects but rather on characterization and some great dialogue scenes.

Attachment 93068

Really want to watch this after looking it up a bit.

[Gojirosan]

Dark Water - 2002 Japan d: Hideo Nakata

After my bad run of crappy films lately I thought it was best I revisit one I knew was good rather than take another risk! And as I found the remake of this in a charity shop the other week I thought I would remind myself of the original.

It's a fine film, a modern ghost story that reminds me of the classics in tone and execution. This sits more comfortably with The Haunting and The Innocents than does Ring, say. Indeed, great as Hideo Nakata's now iconic Ring is, this for me is his better film.

The story is wonderful, imagery enveloping and, key, the acting sublime. Hitomi Kuroki and Rio Kanno are vital to the success of this film and come up with the goods in spades. Rio Kanno especially delivers one of the best child performances I have seen in any film. Add to this the great sets and locations and you have a creepy yet beautiful experience that lingers in the memory and pays rewatching.

Flaws? Well only one strikes me with this film - the dreadful music. Sensibly, music isn't allowed to interfere with the proceedings much, but when it does it is a lush, sentimental orchestral affair at odds with the visual storytelling and it rather jars, sadly.

A film at the pinnacle of that lauded phase of Japanese genre film, I fear for the remake's ability to move me when I get around to checking it!

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

Dark Water - 2002 Japan d: Hideo Nakata

After my bad run of crappy films lately I thought it was best I revisit one I knew was good rather than take another risk! And as I found the remake of this in a charity shop the other week I thought I would remind myself of the original.

It's a fine film, a modern ghost story that reminds me of the classics in tone and execution. This sits more comfortably with The Haunting and The Innocents than does Ring, say. Indeed, great as Hideo Nakata's now iconic Ring is, this for me is his better film.

The story is wonderful, imagery enveloping and, key, the acting sublime. Hitomi Kuroki and Rio Kanno are vital to the success of this film and come up with the goods in spades. Rio Kanno especially delivers one of the best child performances I have seen in any film. Add to this the great sets and locations and you have a creepy yet beautiful experience that lingers in the memory and pays rewatching.

Flaws? Well only one strikes me with this film - the dreadful music. Sensibly, music isn't allowed to interfere with the proceedings much, but when it does it is a lush, sentimental orchestral affair at odds with the visual storytelling and it rather jars, sadly.

A film at the pinnacle of that lauded phase of Japanese genre film, I fear for the remake's ability to move me when I get around to checking it!

Don't get your hopes up, the remake is definately inferior. It misses out one key sequence from the origional entirely and simply isn't scary. Its not as bad as the ring remake which mangled everything good about the origional, (Sadako's emergence from the tv being the key example) but its definately a lesser film.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Don't get your hopes up, the remake is definately inferior. It misses out one key sequence from the origional entirely and simply isn't scary. Its not as bad as the ring remake which mangled everything good about the origional, (Sadako's emergence from the tv being the key example) but its definately a lesser film.

The whole mind reader thing with the original ring just didn't sit well with me, plus the cinematography and better atmosphere made the remake a lot better in my opinion. I list it as one of the rare cases where the remake is better than the original.