What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Calvin Candie]

[Frankie Teardrop]

The 'festive' shit ends here! It's back to brutality with...

HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK - A psychopathic rapist inveigles his way into yuppie home of a bunch of Italo-Manhattanite aristos and proceeds to slash (in both 'cut victim with razor' and 'piss on someone's head in a swimmming pool' senses) his way to some basic truths. This is quite an interesting film. It seems to want to be both a class critique and a vile exploitation flick at the same time. Something similar happens with CH, which obviously had a bit of media deconstruction vying with blood'n'guts cruelty in a bid to win some kind of massive hypocrisy award. I think Ruggero has a smile on his face when he makes these statements - whether it's a knowing smirk or a colder sneer I don't know, but surely his audience can tell the difference between some lathered pussy in a shower scene / close up slashed tits and an apparently heartfelt depiction of the kind of power relations which objectify and tear human beings to pieces in the context of their 'daily lives' anyway, an hilarious contradiction which Deadato seems to revel in. Maybe he's some kind of cosmic joker. Maybe he's a dickhead with a movie camera. HOTEOTP is by turns a bit feeble and overwhelmingly pungent. David Hess carries it. I'd love to have seen him in 'Abigail's Party', surely the ur-text for this bit of filth.

[Gojirosan]

Alone With Her - 2006 USA d: Eric Nicholas

Surprisingly splendid found footage thriller. Nothing too surprising happens but it's all very well done and nicely creepy. Very decent standard of performances from the small cast. A very nice surprise indeed.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

Alone With Her - 2006 USA d: Eric Nicholas

Surprisingly splendid found footage thriller. Nothing too surprising happens but it's all very well done and nicely creepy. Very decent standard of performances from the small cast. A very nice surprise indeed.

I love how different people can have wildly different opinions of films. I thought this was a absolute shocker, and the found footage aspect was only there to hide how poorly made it was. I couldn't find anything redeeming in it whatsoever.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

BATMAN:THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Weird, right wing madness as Batman and Cat Woman set out to save the power elite from the clutches of the likes of you and I. Hugely enjoyable for all that, but the least of the series for me.

St. GEORGE'S DAY: Every London actor to every show his soppy bollocks on screen gets to shoot someone or indulge in a spot of football hooliganism in this film from actor, turned director, Frank Turner. Mrs MTDS, being from up north, didn't have a clue as to what was being said half the time due to the speed of deliver of some of the dialogue, the slang and the general geezerness of the film. An enjoyable time waster if you like this sort of thing.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) A sequel to the 2008 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, this sees Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson team up with Luis Guzmán and Vanessa Hudgens to find the Mysterious Island written about by Jules Verne. Once they find and then crash land on the island they meet Michael Caine and discover that the island is sinking quickly back into the sea, so together they set off to find Captain Memo’s Nautilus. The problem with this movie is that it was obviously meant to be viewed in 3D, almost every scene had some sort of 3D element so much so that the movie was almost an excuse to showcase the technology. A good film for kids but instantly forgettable!

Surrogates (2009) In a future world where almost everyone lives their lives through robotic surrogates, everyone is beautiful, crime is down and murder a rarity, a conspiracy is uncovered that aims to destroy the surrogate population of the world. The idea is a good one, (reminiscent of the Matrix), but the movie is ultimately nothing special and in the end predictable.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by PaulD

It's not the directors being lazy, it's the studios being greedy. Joss Whedon clearly had no intention of The Avengers being in 3D but Disney realised how much extra they could make if they converted it. See also Del Toros upcoming Pacific Rim which is being post-converted against his request. 3D gets a bad name because of the light loss, the extra premium paid for the 'pleasure', the fact that it automatically excludes those with eye problems, the fact that its a distraction and takes you out of the film as you're more conscious of sitting in front of a screen. Post-converted or filmed in 3D, it doesn't change the fact that 3D just doesn't work. It's been and gone in the past and will do so again when more and more people get fed up with it. It's a f---king stupid way of fooling your eyes into accepting perspective on a flat surface plain, something film directors have been doing better for years with depth of field.

It is a fad as it always has been. And I cannot wait for it to die off again.

Exactly. 3D is all about the money, and charging you around 3 or 4 dollars extras for a ticket, and then they put it in all the family and kids movie, which the kids just HAVE to see in 3d, and you have a family paying an extra 12 dollars for a movie, even more if they don't have glasses, so I think it's purely the money.

[fuzzymctiger]

On the 3D topic, my friend has had a 3D TV for half a year now, and only just got his first blu ray player, albeit a 3D one.

His TV can convert anything you're watching on it into 3D, so I've seen TV shows, movies, and even VHS tapes converted into 3D, and depth wise it does an amazing job.

Only downside is it has the real motion thing, which is a tad wierd at first, but you get used to it.

Highlights of movies I've watched in 3D with real motion, that you would never think to watch, are an Arrow DVD of The Beyond (The nail in the eye and th headshot scene were glorious!), a VHS of Shallow Grave (worked suprise fly well, except that any lines or little tape gran and stuff was brought to the very front.) and the new Jaws blu ray yesterday (and it was bloody amazing!!)

[ThePopeofCOSDS]

The Loved Ones - far better than I had anticipated. I heard it referred to as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets John Hughes and that's not entirely inaccurate. I would recommend it.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE BROOD - This is an excellent film, one which, for me, hasn't diminished with repeated viewings. In fact quite the reverse - although, as I get older, the film's emotional core supersedes its more grotesque aspects. Croneneberg is often portrayed as a cold conceptualist, but this film feels painful and true in its depiction of the culmulative effect of generations of abuse. There are great Burroughsian (OK, maybe Cronenbergian) asides, such as the transference addict who just wants someone, anyone, to be his father for a minute or two. The killer kids are still creepy after all these these years, too, although, again, these aspects feel a little like the window dressing surrounding an even more harrowing drama. I actually got quite upset whilst watching it tonight, a testimony to 'The Brood's strength - a strange power which bypasses the film's woodeness and opens up the dark terrain of the director's biography and the general question of generational pain.