What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

Sisters

Really enjoyed this De Palma tale, very unsettling and disturbing in places with nods to Hitchcock classics such as rear window and psycho. At the point when the character of Phillip was killed I nearly crapped myself. de Palma's usual stylish direction and a great score. 9/10

Now watching bloodstorm which has truly awful acting and even worse CGI .

Edit

Switched it off and put on lord of illusions instead

[InDogWeTrust]

HER:
I'm a big fan of both Spike Jonze and Joaquin Phoenix, So was looking forward to this. It was a little slow at parts but for the most it was pretty interesting. I enjoyed it. To be honest, Can't see it being one I could watch very often. I especially enjoyed Spike's part in the film (as the voice of an animated video game character). As for movies about falling in love with inanimate things, I have to say Lars And The Real Girl conquers all. The two are very different but they just share the general idea of loving something that can't really love back. I kind of just kept thinking, Ehh I like Lars... better. Over all it was really nicely shot, pretty well written, some very enjoyable parts (Eg. Joaquin and his video game).

FLIGHT:
Don't have too much to say about this one. It definitely had me sitting on the edge of my seat for the first 15 minutes or so during the whole plane sequence...The rest of the movie though, Ehh! It was kind of boring at parts, with Denzel's character kind of just going back and forth doing the same thing over and over *SPOILER ALERT* It's pretty much just this character denying his alcoholism and saying he'll quit drinking then gets plastered, over and over again. It's not really even done in an exciting way, Maybe apart from the final alcohol fused minibar rager in the hotel room. *End of spoiler* The best thing about the film apart from the actual "Flight" was definitely John Goodman. I'm a big fan of course and his role was great! He played it so well. I'm disappointed with how little screen time Goodman gets though. We only see him for 2 or 3 short scenes in the whole film. Although when he does show up, He steals the show! ...Must be 'cause he's on the list. Over all, Another one I don't see myself watching again for quite a while. Not much re-watch value.

BLUE JASMINE:
This was great! I actually feel like, while I was watching this one I was a little bored at parts. However after finishing and looking back, I really enjoyed this. It was a fun movie. Once again, It's one that I don't see myself watching TOO often. Definitely will be giving it some future viewings though. It's definitely not as grand or as good as some of Woody Allen's older films, However still a great flick. The story is a little long and drawn out but it's well written and absolutely brilliantly acted! Cate Blanchette especially perfected her role as Jasmine. Alec Baldwin's role also fit him super well, Even though I feel like the character wasn't too different from what he's played in the past. I'm also a big fan of Louie CK so it was awesome to see him in a Woody Allen film. I really hope there's some behind the scenes footage and what not out there because I feel those two would've had some laughs together on set. If you're a Woody Allen fan, I recommend this one!

[anythinggoes78]

Watched Wolf Creek 2 last night, found it to be both entertaining and gruesome, probably a bit too over the top to be realistic now, Mick Taylor seems more of a one liner cracking guy now, bit funnier then the first film maybe too funny to be menacing but when he does turn it around i know i wouldnt like to be around the guy, wasnt to keen with the ending but i wont spoil anything (not much to spoil). For me a good 6/10 film.

[Gold6082]

Psycho II

one of my all time favourite sequels. I watched this film to death on VHS when I was a teen,never had it on DVD but now have after all these years aqquired the Scream Factory Blu,the film looks as stunning as I've ever seen it with many dark scenes on the old VHS lit gloriously here. I have now closed the scream factory gap in my collection to just 3 missing titles.


Joy Ride 3

Or as known in the Uk Roadkill 3. Just like Wolf creek 2 the violence and shocks are upped here compared to the predecessors. I enjoyed this third installment much more than 1 & 2. Some clever Ideas and some nice gore in this latest Horror on The Road Release.

Lisa & The Devil/House Of Exorcism.

Finally got round to buying this fine Arrow Release. This was my first time viewing of both versions of the film. I enjoyed Lisa and the devil immensely I thought Bava had some fantastic unique ideas, I found the film Haunting & Beautiful. Elke Sommer continously Bumping into Lollipop sucking Telly Savalas at every turn amused me greatly.


I then immediately after viewed the House of Exorcism cut. I however after watching Lisa and the devil found this extremely amusing rather than scary. I definately prefer the original cut than this Exorcist rip off version.

[applecore]

Went to see Edge of Tomorrow today. Decent fun sci-fi actioner. Standard Tom Cruise fare, but enjoyable.

[Dave Boy]

Atmospheric chiller in which a spectre of a wrongly hanged man returns to the swamp village he cursed. Good spooky fun.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Dave Boy

Atmospheric chiller in which a spectre of a wrongly hanged man returns to the swamp village he cursed. Good spooky fun.

One line.

You are slacking back to your old ways.

If you want to write one line reviews then watch less interesting films.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

One line.

You are slacking back to your old ways.

If you want to write one line reviews then watch less interesting films.

Same as, never heard of it, tell me more.
Don't leave me in suspenders. At least not on a Thursday. What kind of a fiend are you.

[Frankie Teardrop]

DEATH BY INVITATION – Another of those strange, woozy seventies grindhouse flicks you often hear me rattle on about. Whether you find ‘Death By Invitation’ fascinating or boring depends on which side your bread’s buttered on when it comes to these kind of films (like ‘Warlock Moon’ or the way superior ‘Let’s Scare Jennifer To Death’) in which nothing much happens, but there’s just a real sense of strangeness. In this one, the descendent of a 16th cent witch takes revenge on the lineage of her persecutors. Maybe the director was trying to make a feminist statement, but it’s hard to say as things get pretty confusing very quickly, and it’s another one of those which blurs the line between experimental and incompetent, particularly with respect to some of the camera work and editing. If you like shoestring weirdness, you’ll dig this though.

MANIAC COP 2 – The newish release from Blue Underground looks very nice. ‘Maniac Cop 2’ picks up where the first one left off, and refigures Cordell as an undead avenger. It has that slick late eighties / early nineties vibe, and I really like the constant ‘city at night’ feel, New York streets decked out in neon etc. Briskly paced and violent, it moves like a well oiled exploitation engine and definitely manages to entertain. It doesn’t capture the sleazy darkness of ‘Maniac’, but why should it? It’s a very different kind of film. Good.

IN FEAR – I was intrigued by this slightly strange Brit-horror, in which a couple sets out for a music festival only to find themselves lost in the countryside. They’re stalked by a masked figure, and eventually run into (literally) an odd hitchhiker. ‘In Fear’ does quite a lot with very little, and manages to build a really ominous atmosphere on the basis of what is essentially forty minutes of faffing about. It rolls along in a subtly dream-like manner, and I guess it’ll split viewers a bit depending on how keen they are on having everything resolved, because ‘In Fear’ does kind of raise more questions than it answers. I like that, though, and I think it adds to the whole ‘low-key nightmare’ aspect of the film. I’d definitely recommend this to fans of the Ben Wheately stable of horror, it’s maybe not as accomplished, but it has that kind of vibe.

THE BROOD – I’ve seen this countless times before, but I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed it. It’s one of David Cronenberg’s most affecting films, because the focus is as much personal as conceptual (it’s well known that Cronenberg was going through a messy divorce at the time this was made, and here he’s pretty much ventilating). It’s slow moving and talky, but it packs more of an emotional punch than a lot of his other stuff, and in places it remains deeply sad – the most disturbing and forlorn character in ‘The Brood’ is the little girl Candice, a withdrawn waif who shivers in the wasteland wrought by her estranged parent’s mind games and the avant-garde but not very humane psychiatry of Dr Raglan. Even though the horror aspects seem a bit muted these days, the ideas at play have the characteristic chilly edge of the director’s vision and will always be unique – controversial fetus licking aside, in what other movie from 1979 or any other year would we find characters like the transference addict who asks everyone he meets to be his daddy? Samantha Egger is utterly chilling as the mother with the external womb – I find her face and the way she uses expression really disturbing to this day. Totally recommended, as if you didn’t know.

BAD DREAMS – Eighties horror romp set in a psych clinic, where the survivor of a seventies mind-wash cult wakes from a coma after a Jonestownesque mass suicide bid. She has visions of the hideously burned cult leader who has returned to bring her over to his side of things, but who at least doesn’t wisecrack as much as Freddy K. One of those video staples I never caught first time around, I found ‘Bad Dreams’ moderately diverting and ultimately pretty so-so. There’s a bit of gore, not much originality and the period charm isn’t in massive evidence. Kudos to Scream Factory for continuing to put this kind of detritus out, though.

DEEP END – This is brilliant. It’s a tale of youthful obsession from the fag-end of swinging London, where a school kid starts a new job at a derelict municipal baths only to find himself spellbound by the aloof charm of a young Jane Asher. His fixation builds to a soundtrack laid on by Can and winds its way to a dark conclusion in an empty swimming pool which could’ve been scripted by J G Ballard doing ‘Play For Today’. I really like ‘Deep End’. There’s a flighty nouvelle vague insouciance in the telling and the camera, but it’s caked in seediness and filth – everything about the bathhouse seems sullied and stained, up to and including Diana Dors as a creepy sexual predator. Truer to the craven corners of the psyche than the lame forced linearity of today, ‘Deep End’ resonates way beyond period anomaly – see it NOW.

OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN – Thanks to Dem for inspiring me to get hold of this man vs rat movie, which I really enjoyed. It’s very quirky and blackly comic, and does what it can with a pretty thin premise. Peter Weller stars as the financial hotshot whose life unravels at the mercy of the rodent in his house. The film starts out looking like a corporate satire, and on one level ‘Of Unknown Origin’ is a kind of twisted take on the popular eighties theme of big business psychopathy, but its latter half is more content just to follow Weller as he cracks up and trashes his apartment. It has a nice, cool look and its refrigerator environs seem a bit Cronenbergian (or maybe it’s a Canadian thing). The horror aspect of it doesn’t really work, and to be honest it would probably take real genius to make us feel fear at the prospect of a single rat gnawing a bit of skirting board, but ‘Of Unknown Origin’, which is really about obsession, won me over just by daring to run with its main plot idea in the first place, and by being off kilter and eccentric

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

It Came From Outer Space (1953)

A film which deals with small town paranoia following ridicule and disbelief of those, in this case one man, who claims to have seen an alien space craft in the desert not to mention first contact with it's bug eyed alien occupants.

The desert plays a big part in the film, acting as an environment just as alien and eerie as what is claimed to have landed. The creatures themselves are barely seen but come across as single eyed stout beings (Quite possibly used as a blue print for the Vorlons in Babylon 5). We get plenty of their point of view shots as we see the Earth as they do through a fishy eyed lens.

The films real surprise comes as the aliens are found to be benevolent beings rather than seen as an excuse for a Communist style witch hunt, coming as it does in the period the Cold War was really starting to take hold and change lives forever. In effect it's an allegory for better understanding between races.

Highly recommended. One of the great sci-fi films of the fifties, if not all time.