What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

FORT APACHE THE BRONX.

Paul newman stars in this gritty slice of life cop drama set in the bronx in the late seventies/early eighties. Theres no real big central plot, it looks like pam grier as the cop killing hooker might be it but its more generally about policing a neighbourhood blighted by unemployment and social decay. It got some stick at the time apparently for only showing the negative aspects of living in the bronx and none of the people struggling to turn things around but in all fairness it is a cop drama first and foremost. Perhaps a film our current government might want to watch before making more people unemployed.

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH.

Racist slice of red-baiting as the army discovers chinese communists attempting to tunnel into america. Actually crosses over into the so-daft-its good category it also serves as a painful reminder of how incredibly dumb film portrayals of asians could be, parts of the film are as cringeworthy as breakfast at tiffanys.

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR.

Yul brinner in a post apocalypse survival movie..count me in! Really enjoyable if somewhat flawed in places movie where yul ends up getting hired to protect a bunch of survivors from the savages. Some great sets and depictions of the apocalypse and plenty of violence!

[Frankie Teardrop]

BRAIN DAMAGE - Frank H's follow up to 'Basket Case' is a victory for low budget slime. Actually, it's made with verve, passion and wit, so I question my own use of the term 'low budget slime', but, like all of Henenlotter's films, its heart is clearly in the gutter. My love for this film has grown over the years. I actually remember feeling disappointed when I first saw it at age fourteen or whatever. I was expecting something really transgressive and bleakly disturbing, and ended up with what I thought was yet another comedy horror. Time has unveilled 'Brain Damage's hallucinatory twistedness, and, watching it now, it seems very far removed from standard genre fare of its era. It may throw a few gags at the audience, but it's a trip into NYC's heart of darkness, with Henenlotter serving up a side order of sleazy vignettes and warped characters to complement the main course, the tale of a young guy being driven mad by a wise-cracking, brain-eating psychedelic parasite. There's no flab on this killer baby - it just rattles along with relentless intensity. Maybe one of the eighties' best and recommended for sure (dunno whether I'd say the same for 'The Swimming Pool Qs').

THE GRAPES OF DEATH - Super but in some ways atypical Rollin flick from the late seventies. Gorier and less sentimental than most of his others - what it lacks in romantically doomed female vampire double acts swooning for each other on windswept beaches it makes up for in pseudo-zombie action. It still has the unmistakable vibe of a Rollin film - hard to define, I can only resort to cliches such as 'dreamy', 'desolate', 'languid but menacing' etc etc, but you'll all know what I mean. I like the weirdly political thrust of it all, and the ham fisted left vs right debates of the protag's rescuers struck me as being hilarious the first time I saw it, and, horror stuff aside, scenes like Bridget Lahai looking imperious in a room full of animal skins with a stuffed owl in the corner are somehow the essence of Rollin.

[keirarts]

Finished up the evening with a dose of

AMITYVILLE 4: The evil escapes.

It's a shoddy film for sure but god help me I have a real soft spot for this one. I caught it on telly many years ago (when I would tape pretty much any half interesting sounding film off the telly) and enjoyed it a great deal more than I probably should have done. After a bunch of priests perform an exorcism on the amityville house and finally seem to rid the place of the evil that infests it the landlord decides to flog off all the furniture in a yard sale. Deciding a creepy looking anthropomorphic lamp from one of americas most cursed properties would make a great 'ironic' gift, a dotty spinster sends her sister the lamp as a gift. Unfortunately the sister has her daughter and grandkids staying and the lamp begins to terrorise the household!

I think this was made for tv, it certainly feels it, but its cheap and nasty enough to be enjoyable in the same way films like ghosthouse, house of lost souls and the witchery are enjoyable, you know their trash but its part of the charm. I think the main thing with this film is its not dull, the ending is laugh out loud (amityville the cat anyone?)

[Beyond72]

L'uomo senza memoria/Puzzle (1974)

Not a typical multi-murder giallo, but an enjoyable low key mystery thriller. One of the rare times when I actually cared about the female lead, which made the finale even better.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave

While I enjoyed it a little more second time round, (Still prefer the camper but way more entertaining Red Queen) it's still hard to give a damn about a guy who's murdered someone in the first 10 mins!?

[Nemesis]

Plague of the Zombies

Loved the hell out of this - Andre Morell is the man. Fantastic presentation - easily one of my best BD buys in a long time. Much to my regret, I left this on the "to watch later" pile much longer than I should have done.

The Dark Knight Rises

Lousy effort, particularly after The Dark Knight. It does not help when your main lead disappears for nearly half the film, and most of the dependable supporting characters - Alfred, Jim Gordon and Lucius - are barely cameos. Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were good additions though. The Bat might be a cool gimmick, but it does not bail out the lack of gravitas in this.

But the film revolved around Bane, and it just did not work for me. It's not so much Tom Hardy's performance - he is limited somewhat by his mask. But the voice - the voice! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The voice was critical in this and it was a complete disaster - it just did not marry with Bane's actions. This was a kind, elderly grandpa voice, the sort that would say "could you please pass me my werthers originals?" The gravelly, broken voice from the trailer seemed more apt. And the first fight between Bane and Batman was not a fight - it was a wretched rehearsal. There was no energy at all from anyone.

The occupation just seemed a plot point for the sake of it - I just did not buy this whole "for there to be despair, there must be hope". It was sketchy, ill-defined and there was no real sense of menace - nothing like Heath's Joker. And the ending - don't get me started. To accept an ending like that, there must be a reasonable chance of escape. Very poor.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I thought the ending was a little like the one for Inception, which can be interpreted different ways. You can either surmise he survived the explosion and the scene in Italy was real, or it was wishful thinking on Alfred's part, seeing what he wanted to see.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I thought the ending was a little like the one for Inception, which can be interpreted different ways. You can either surmise he survived the explosion and the scene in Italy was real, or it was wishful thinking on Alfred's part, seeing what he wanted to see.

I had wondered that as well - the open ending. But what undermines that for me is the scene immediately before Italy - where Lucius is talking to the techs and asking about software upgrades, which is strongly suggestive of a certain outcome.

The happy ending was a sop to the fans - if Nolan wanted to give it, then fine, but it needed to be more plausible than it was.

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I thought the ending was a little like the one for Inception, which can be interpreted different ways.

If only they hadn't actually shown what Alfred was looking at . . .

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

If only they hadn't actually shown what Alfred was looking at . . .

Yes - that could have worked too. If they had just shown Alfred with a smile, and not shown what he was looking that, that would have been the perfect open to interpretation ending. His grief may have distorted his vision. But by showing what he did, Nolan allows the possibility to exist - very bad indeed.

Edit- by the way, which icon is for spoiler tags; I cannot find it.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Slippery Jack

If only they hadn't actually shown what Alfred was looking at . . .

Yes!