Recent viewings:


Movie 43 - I knew it would be bad but the negative reviews instilled an overwhelming curiosity in me. I should have known better. Cinematic cancer.

Seven Bloodstained Orchids - really solid Umberto Lenzi giallo. Nice visual flourishes and interesting enough plot as far as these things go. I think I prefer the likes of Spasmo and Knife of Ice but this is still really great.

New York Ripper - The violence still makes me wince (especially the broken bottle scene) and the twists and turns and red herrings are as entertaining as ever. The ending is horribly nihilistic and bleak and doesn't get any less horrid on a rewatch

Resident Evil: Extinction/Afterlife - these 2 blurred together into one vaguely entertaining brainless popcorn actioner for me. A result of watching them after each other I suppose although the severe lack of directorial nous in both installments is also to blame. They're enjoyable enough as throwaway fodder and it was kinda fun spotting the characters and monsters from the game but there's nothing more to them than that.

Resident Evil: Retribution - utter garbage. It feels like a video game with characters going from one level to the next and the appearance of older, dead characters from previous films has no impact whatsoever. There's far too many scenes of people shooting at each other and although thinness of plot was always an issue with this franchise this film doesn't even attempt to have a story.

Maniac - I was certain I'd seen this before but it transpired I hadn't. This is one of those films whose reputation precedes it somewhat and I have to admit to hardly being enthralled by it. The tone was suitably sleazy and murky and of course the Savini effects were second-to-none but it just doesn't have the psychological depth I was expecting. I also didn't care much for Joe Spinell who comes off as a seedier version of Ron Jeremy and struggles to carry the weight of the film. It's not a bad film as such, just by no means the best example of this sort of thing

Vixen! - Really interesting Russ Meyer film which has 60 minutes of bawdy sexual satire then a thoroughly odd last 10 minutes of political commentary. The usual top-notch camerawork and excellent editing are there and Erica Gavin is fantastic in the titular (teehee) role.

I have watched Fantastic Mr Fox which was totally enjoyable, the voice acting is brilliant and the stop motion animation is genius - had a grin on my face for the whole film, so good, I'd recommend to everyone.

Then I watched Room 237... I was expecting to like this, but my god, the people interviewed for this documentary about the hidden codes in The Shining are deluded, some of the things they were coming out with was making me cringe - you could think up any madcap scenario and look for evidence in The Shining and pass it off as gospel truth because no-one can dispute it. Kubrick is laughing somewhere...

Earlier watched
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Extinction

I went through the 5 films in the franchise over the last week or so. They're...er..of varying quality, to put it nicely.

I know they have divided fans but I love them all well accept for Retribution because I haven't seen it yet:pound:

That was the one I really disliked and was just utterly bored by.

B:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

The Church

Really liked this. I was surprised how restrained it was, largely favouring atmosphere building over monster shocks (though it delivered a decent share of those too!). Think the second half was a little messy – looked like it was struggling not to repeat Bava’s Demons with the folk trapped in the building, and seemed to flounder around in search of an ending. Also thought it was odd how Thomas Arana just vanished from the film. It looked like he was being set up to be the chief baddie, then, nothing? But on the whole I liked it: great energetic direction, good score, superb location, some imaginative demonic imagery. Yup, this one’s a keeper.

Giallo

Definitely NOT a keeper! I only watched this in the hope of some ‘so bad it’s good’ entertainment, but I just found it so very dull. Even as a generic TV movie cop drama I would’ve switched off less than halfway in. I’d heard very bad things about Brody, but I actually didn’t think he was that bad, even as the killer! It was just the total lack of imagination and ambition that killed it. Terrible anti-climactic non-ending too . . .

Still not seen Giallo, and I can't say I'm in any great rush to either. As for The Church, I've loved this ever since its debut on VHS all those years ago, don't think my mum was too impressed renting it for me because of the cover!

Attachment 103393

I loved the VHS cover of The Church and was always intrigued by it - i did buy an ex-rental in the original big box but have long since lost all of my VHS, I have the BU version of it now with a rather boring cover in comparison.