What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[troggi]

Yep! Mel is MAGIC!

Guess what I watched... No?

Time's up!

I bin ZOMBOT watchin' Them whacky Nazis an' their "we can win this one" schemes... Oh, such fun!

Whad'ya mean it was ultra-shite, I loved it, it's way more fun than "The Sound of Music" and nobody spontaneously bursts into song!

It gets a big achtzehn von zehn from me just for those great Zombot ideas and the zany female orderly in the lab!

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by Pete

Recent viewings:

Oh I absolutely love Dont Be A Menace to whatever the rest is.

Very very funny parody of growing up in the hood movies, much better than the Wayan's other works I reckon. Well, except I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

[keirarts]

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL.


Basically a kids-rated version of ARMY OF DARKNESS set in Frank Baums world. For me not a bad thing. I really got on with the film. Raimi's style still shines through...


For those interested both this and WRECK IT RALPH are in ASDA at 2 for 18 on blu at the minute. They also have AMERICAN MARY and DEATH RACE 3 on Blu at five quid each.

[keirarts]

dead ball.jpg

Some years ago I was collecting the releases of a company called subversive, one of the titles I bought was BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL. It starred Tak Sakaguchi from VERSUS and in spite of appearing to be about sports I decided to give it a try.

(I should add here that sports, as a spectator at least, bores the piss out of me. Football especially, as watching overpaid prima-donna's kicking a leather ball about for 90 minutes is about as far removed from fun as I can imagine....but I digress)

It turned out the film was great fun. Very low budget, but it poked fun at a lot of the tropes of Japanese cinema and pop culture, never took itself seriously for a minute and head plenty of gore.

I was in CEX when I saw deadball on the shelf, I couldn't believe there was a sequel out. Especially since the original never got any sort of UK release. I grabbed it of the shelf and used some store credit to buy it.. glad I did.


Once again Sakaguchi returns as Jubeh Yakyu (a pun on Jebei Yagyu? given the fun it pokes at Japanese culture it sounds plausible) this time sent to a Juvenile delinquent prison run by the Grand daughter of a ww2 Nazi collaborator and her assistant illsa (yep, its a reference to THOSE films!) who still insist on wearing full nazi regalia. Jubeh is offered the chance of release if he agrees to play ball (literally) on the prison team against the dreaded St. Black Dahlia highschool. Pretty soon it appears that the team is merely there to be brutally murdered for the pleasure of the sadistic warden.


To sum up DEADBALL is difficult. It's FAR more surreal than its predecessor. It's also WAY more politically incorrect with jokes about Nazi's, Rape, North Korea, Vomit-eating and ultra violence all the way through. It avoids becoming reprehensible firstly by refusing to take itself seriously at any point. One major fight has Jubeh phoning his opponent up midway through a fight and then punching them through the telephone repeatedly like out of some looney tunes cartoon. Jubehs habit of reaching off screen and constantly producing a cigarette and is occasional winks at camera let the audience know exactly where this film is coming from.

Like the origional, Baseball doesn't really play a major part, Japan is the only country outside of America to really adopt the sport so its more a way of poking fun at the westernization of Japanese culture as much as the film pokes fun at Japanese culture itself.

There's not only references to Nazi explotation films, its possibly the only film I've seen that makes a reference to the film RATMAN!

The best comparison I can think of is the films of Troma. Some IMDB reviewers have completely missed the point and compare it to Shaolin soccer. It's absolutely nothing like that. It's a gory, trashy exploitation picture with its tongue in its cheek.

Also, you don't need to have seen Battlefield Baseball even though its a sequel!

[mlock76]

My October horror film-a-day (or more marathon continues:

October 3rd: Carrie (1976) am "cautiously optimistic" about the re-make
4th: Carpenter double feature of The Fog (1979) and Christine
5th: Cabin in the Woods and Evil Dead (2013)
6th: Dark Night of the Scarecrow
7th: Terror in the Aisles (I know it's a documentary, but at least it's about horror films )
8th: Halloween III: The Season of the Witch (every time I watch it, it grows on me a little more)
9th: The Prowler
10th: Friday the 13th Part 2 (first time in high def as I never bought the individual Paramount release)

[darthelvis]

Also doing a horrorthon for Halloween but watching horror flicks I've never seen before. Trying to get at least 31 - here is my list to date

American Mary 4.5/5
The Collector 4/5
The Collection 4/5
Squirm 3/5
Q The Winged Serpent 4/5
The Ward 1/5
Maniac Remake 4/5
Fall of the House of Usher 3/5
Insidious Chapter 2 1/5
Hostel Part 3 2/5
Human Centipede 2 1/5 (Awful)

[ArgentoFan1987]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Attachment 121957

Some years ago I was collecting the releases of a company called subversive, one of the titles I bought was BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL. It starred Tak Sakaguchi from VERSUS and in spite of appearing to be about sports I decided to give it a try.

(I should add here that sports, as a spectator at least, bores the piss out of me. Football especially, as watching overpaid prima-donna's kicking a leather ball about for 90 minutes is about as far removed from fun as I can imagine....but I digress)

It turned out the film was great fun. Very low budget, but it poked fun at a lot of the tropes of Japanese cinema and pop culture, never took itself seriously for a minute and head plenty of gore.

I was in CEX when I saw deadball on the shelf, I couldn't believe there was a sequel out. Especially since the original never got any sort of UK release. I grabbed it of the shelf and used some store credit to buy it.. glad I did.


Once again Sakaguchi returns as Jubeh Yakyu (a pun on Jebei Yagyu? given the fun it pokes at Japanese culture it sounds plausible) this time sent to a Juvenile delinquent prison run by the Grand daughter of a ww2 Nazi collaborator and her assistant illsa (yep, its a reference to THOSE films!) who still insist on wearing full nazi regalia. Jubeh is offered the chance of release if he agrees to play ball (literally) on the prison team against the dreaded St. Black Dahlia highschool. Pretty soon it appears that the team is merely there to be brutally murdered for the pleasure of the sadistic warden.


To sum up DEADBALL is difficult. It's FAR more surreal than its predecessor. It's also WAY more politically incorrect with jokes about Nazi's, Rape, North Korea, Vomit-eating and ultra violence all the way through. It avoids becoming reprehensible firstly by refusing to take itself seriously at any point. One major fight has Jubeh phoning his opponent up midway through a fight and then punching them through the telephone repeatedly like out of some looney tunes cartoon. Jubehs habit of reaching off screen and constantly producing a cigarette and is occasional winks at camera let the audience know exactly where this film is coming from.

Like the origional, Baseball doesn't really play a major part, Japan is the only country outside of America to really adopt the sport so its more a way of poking fun at the westernization of Japanese culture as much as the film pokes fun at Japanese culture itself.

There's not only references to Nazi explotation films, its possibly the only film I've seen that makes a reference to the film RATMAN!

The best comparison I can think of is the films of Troma. Some IMDB reviewers have completely missed the point and compare it to Shaolin soccer. It's absolutely nothing like that. It's a gory, trashy exploitation picture with its tongue in its cheek.

Also, you don't need to have seen Battlefield Baseball even though its a sequel!

I'm with you on the sports thing. Completely sleep-inducing. These films sound awesome, though. I'll have to check them out.

The only sport films I liked were Field if Dreams, Rocky and BASEketball (which is stupid beyond words!)

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by ArgentoFan1987

I'm with you on the sports thing. Completely sleep-inducing. These films sound awesome, though. I'll have to check them out.

The only sport films I liked were Field if Dreams, Rocky and BASEketball (which is stupid beyond words!)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefield-...field+baseball

The German version above is 49p. No idea if it's english friendly though. The US release is somewhat dearer but has lots of bonus features. I have the gift set (limited to 5000 pieces) but is getting hyper expensive.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefield-...field+baseball


Deadball (2011) [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Tak Sakaguchi, Mari Hoshino, Yudai Yamaguchi: Film & TV

The UK release of deadball is a 2-disc set and getting cheaper by the day.

[Wes]

Prometheus... My second viewing of Ridley Scott's belated return to the Alien series, and I was particularly keen to revisit the film considering as my first time seeing it was at 40,000 ft somewhere over the Atlantic ocean... Overall, a mixed bag, the film suffers from clichéd, underwritten characters, the science is woefully inadequate, the story intellectually hollow, but for all my complaints, I'm far more forgiving of the film on this second pass - it moves along at a fine pace, the visuals are often stunning, it's beautifully shot and lit and the art direction and set design are incredible. Yep, I enjoyed it, and against all odds this one is a keeper...

[troggi]

Originally Posted by Wes

Prometheus... My second viewing of Ridley Scott's belated return to the Alien series, and I was particularly keen to revisit the film considering as my first time seeing it was at 40,000 ft somewhere over the Atlantic ocean... Overall, a mixed bag, the film suffers from clichéd, underwritten characters, the science is woefully inadequate, the story intellectually hollow, but for all my complaints, I'm far more forgiving of the film on this second pass - it moves along at a fine pace, the visuals are often stunning, it's beautifully shot and lit and the art direction and set design are incredible. Yep, I enjoyed it, and against all odds this one is a keeper...

I re-watched this a couple of nights ago too! Despite it's obvious faults (all outlined by my good friend, Wes) it has also grown on me. I quite enjoyed my initial viewing, I suspend disbelief like shrugging off a cardigan, but was left not caring for any of the characters. This time around was no better for this but I was left in awe of the sets and some of the digital effects. "Prometheus" is no classic "Alien" but it is a watchable movie that can build towards a great series with a little thought and care!

Last night I couldn't sleep so I watched Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr experimenting with people and their attitudes to cash in "The Magic Christian" (1969). I still don't know what conclusions they came up with, except that everyone has a "price", and I don't care! Apart from being a who's who of late 1960s to early 1970s British comedy it is a genuinely funny and barking mad tour de farce! Among the British actors a couple of non-Brits stand-out; Raquel Welch in bikini-and-whip mode and Yul Brynner in an uncreditted role as a transvestite bar-singer! In it's way "The Magic Christian" is as bonkers as my main visual feast last week, "Hausu", and just as unfathomable. It would have worked just as well as a series of running gags in a comedy television show and would possibly have been more understandable in such a setting but the money was obviously in film.

Well worth watching for anyone who needs a laugh or is studying some aspects of historical social attitudes to race, sex, class and wealth in Britain. 17/10 for the sight of Yul Brynner serenading Roman Polanski (play this if curious: )!