What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Killer Elite (2011)

This action thriller based on true events as documented by Ranulph Fiennes completely took me by surprise. I was expecting a slick Hollywood machine but instead we have a gritty, violent, British movie with a few big action set pieces in this enjoyable globetrotting adventure.

The film wasn't well received on its release and i'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps its the lack of big robots and men wearing their underwear on the outside. It has a top notch cast - Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro and Dominic Purcell. The plot involving assassinating former SAS operatives for war crimes in Oman and much more, from the outside it sounds quite complex but the narrative flows easily and is never difficult to follow.

A top notch action thriller. Boo, hiss to the naysayers.

[Dave Boy]

Sewage Baby (The Suckling) (1990)

All He Wanted Was A Cuddle !

[trebor8273]

Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead

Sick,sick, sick, but I enjoyed it even the singing parts. 9/10

Assault on dome 4

Basically a rip off of die hard set in space, the only highlight is Bruce Campbell as the bad guy, the hero has the personality of a wet sponge and acting skills to match. 4/10

Dark skies
Slow burning but very creepy and disturbing in places, with a family you end up caring for. 7/10

Prom night
Never seen this before, but a great slasher even though a lot doesn't happen till the last 20 minutes or so, great performance from the lovely Jamie lee, only downside disco! 7/10


Settling down to watch Mother's Day. Another classic I never got too see until now.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead

Sick,sick, sick, but I enjoyed it even the singing parts. 9/10

.

I love that film so much. The songs are excellent too.

[SShaw]

Portrait of a Zombie Low budget Irish pseudo-documentary about the beginnings of the Zombie Apocalypse. Allowing for its low budget a pretty effective film with probably the world's first use of a Lensbaby in a feature film.

The Master I missed the latest film from PTA on the big screen which having now seen it may have been a good thing. The film works very well on the small screen, and for those who like their cinema to address weighty issues, here religion and cultism, this is definitely recommended.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE BOOGEYMAN - I'm a big fan of this one. 'The Boogeyman' starts out like a nasty, pot-boiling rip-off of 'Halloween', then gets really weird. Weird in a non-overt but questionably competent, bizarre camera angles and splattery electronics kind of way... but the director, Ulli Lommel, was a Neue Deutsche Welt hotshot who worked with Fassbinder and made Richard Hell documentaries before settling into a z-movie groove he never really kicked - although I for one am grateful for this in that he bequeathed the world the demented SOV travesty 'The Raven', the strangest film anyone's likely to pick up on special offer in Sainsbury's and a solid constant rotation at Casa Teardrop no matter what anyone says. Back to the movie in question... yeah, watch it. You probably already have. It's like the ghost of early eighties vhs horror - never how it truly was, but an ever present strange replica... disjointed, hazy, off key and out of time... has anyone seen 'Kindness of Wolves'?

PSYCHIC EXPERIMENT - Fans of shit horror are advised to pick this one up. It ticks all the boxes I require of a festering lump of cine-sewerage - makes no sense at all, is randomly violent in both a CGI and slimy prosthetic sort of way, deploys grossly Cronenbergian tropes with absolutely no understanding of the icily detached vitality of same beyond vague aspiration towards lumpen Yuzna-ism, is basically full of inane wankers who almost self-reflexively spout lines like "what? Wah... what's happening", "has anybody got any idea what's happening here?", "That thing that just happened - did it really happen, or is it about to happen?", has horrible ex-molester stereotype bad but pathetic guy attacked by plastic dolls in a supermarket orgy of blood and tits, features sequences randomly filtered to no narrative end beyond "this might be weird", shows burning people attacking others for no reason apart from the town in which it's set once was razed to the ground (maybe? Details are hazy), etc etc... seriously, ETC. All available on-line reviews slate it for exactly the reasons I quite like it.

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE - I liked it, but it didn't grab me the way 'Pan's Labyrinth' did - either emotionally or in an 'in awe of the manifestation of the fantastic' kind of way. That said, it's elegant in all respects and beautifully realised, perhaps (rightly) subduing the fantastic elements for an exploration of its very specific milieu.

TWISTED SISTERS - Brought out some old W Buld I hadn't seen in ages and had an enjoyable time. Not as weird as 'Penetration Angst', but still really good. Horsey is a sister-sister double act, one half of which is castration-fixated and knife-wielding. Made me feel nostalgic for early noughties London, if only because my gf at the time knew a production assistant working on same. Grittily washed out and sprawling, but propped up by some really stiff acting.

ASCENSION - Three woman walk up the stairs in a chemical plant tower block, occasionally pausing to off-load pithy aphorisms or launch testy rejoinders at one another's sarky observations re the end of civilisation. At the top, maybe they'll meet god. Who knows? This is ambient cinema, film making with no need for plot, character or destination. Interestingly, it still clings to genre tropes a little - bad taste dead baby stuff etc - but this is almost dissolved by the reliance on static portrayals of industrial decay and a an all-pervading sense of ommmmmm... For my money, it should've gone the whole hog and binned the dialogue, gone silent but for the drone and whirr of background machinery. Then maybe the bit where they play some Ladytron wouldn't seem so questionable. But, I have to say I really liked it, it's certainly an endurance test and a brave move, light years away from 'Subconscious Cruelty' in many ways and I hope K Hussain has some celluloid (or at least video) up his sleeve for the benefit of the future.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by SShaw

The Master I missed the latest film from PTA on the big screen which having now seen it may have been a good thing. The film works very well on the small screen, and for those who like their cinema to address weighty issues, here religion and cultism, this is definitely recommended.

I saw this on 70mm at a crowded theatre, and strangely for this cinema, there was no applause at the end, only a mumbling of "what the ****" and "that was shit".

I found it a very interesting watch, but I can't say id watch it again. Only other time no one applauded was the new Great Gatsby, mostly because everyone was shattered by the end, or crying.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Great write-ups as ever Frankie.

I also really enjoyed Ascension.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

THE BOOGEYMAN - I'm a big fan of this one. 'The Boogeyman' starts out like a nasty, pot-boiling rip-off of 'Halloween', then gets really weird. Weird in a non-overt but questionably competent, bizarre camera angles and splattery electronics kind of way... but the director, Ulli Lommel, was a Neue Deutsche Welt hotshot who worked with Fassbinder and made Richard Hell documentaries before settling into a z-movie groove he never really kicked - although I for one am grateful for this in that he bequeathed the world the demented SOV travesty 'The Raven', the strangest film anyone's likely to pick up on special offer in Sainsbury's and a solid constant rotation at Casa Teardrop no matter what anyone says. Back to the movie in question... yeah, watch it. You probably already have. It's like the ghost of early eighties vhs horror - never how it truly was, but an ever present strange replica... disjointed, hazy, off key and out of time... has anyone seen 'Kindness of Wolves.

I like 'The Boogeyman' too,it has an interesting atmosphere to it and quite a warped storyline.
Never seen the original sequel,but wanted too. (saw a crappy director's cut version that had parts of the first and second films all mixed up with new footage that was total shite.)
I own 'The Tenderness of wolves' (dvd title) and it's a very different type of film entirely. Very artily shot and well made but quite bleak and serious, it's based on the real life murderer Fritz Haarman who killed young boys in germany and is reminiscent of Fritz Lang's 'M' in some ways. It's not a particularly easy watch but is interesting and worthwhile (if you like that sort of thing).
Its on Amazon for stupid money now (about £45),mine was about £8 when i got it ages ago, i don't think it's worth it at that price honestly.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I like 'The Boogeyman' too,it has an interesting atmosphere to it and quite a warped storyline.
Never seen the original sequel,but wanted too. (saw a crappy director's cut version that had parts of the first and second films all mixed up with new footage that was total shite.)
I own 'The Tenderness of wolves' (dvd title) and it's a very different type of film entirely. Very artily shot and well made but quite bleak and serious, it's based on the real life murderer Fritz Haarman who killed young boys in germany and is reminiscent of Fritz Lang's 'M' in some ways. It's not a particularly easy watch but is interesting and worthwhile (if you like that sort of thing).
Its on Amazon for stupid money now (about £45),mine was about £8 when i got it ages ago, i don't think it's worth it at that price honestly.

Oops. I meant "Tenderness..." rather than "Kindness..." of wolves, a disturbing-sounding film I've always wanted to check out, but remain unlikely to due to the current market value, which is as you point out - "silly". Weird how Lommel went from being Fassbinder protégé to scraping the bottom of the barrel of vid-cam horror, but in a strange kind of way I guess that's commitment to movie-making.