Cult Labs - What Films Have You Seen Recently?

Due to overwhelming support of my usually most super duper movie reviews, here's an updated review thingy of a film that sparked some interest. I fank you...:happy:

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Strangler Of The Swamp (1946)

A ferryman out in a swamp village is wrongly hanged and now various villagers are being found strangled to death. The deaths are passed off as accidents but the superstitious among the villagers quote a curse of the hanged man and his spectre is seen in the swamps.

Very atmospheric chiller. The film rarely moves from the swamp set which is a mass of twisted trees and mist laying in the air. The creepy atmosphere would not look out of place in a Val Lewton film or the Universal horrors and the villagers constant talk of curses and death keep the film running along at a good pace. Included in this film is a good looking gal as the heroine and although the film may be a cheap poverty row horror, this is one of the best.

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Dave Boy

7th June 2014 12:12 PM

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The Longest Day (1962)

I managed to fit a showing of this film in yesterday when there was a break in the 70th Anniversary D-Day coverage.
This is an epic reconstruction of the events of Operation Overlord featuring an all star cast. In recent years films like 'Saving Private Ryan' and the series 'Band Of Brothers' have had scenes of the landings at Normandy and 'Saving Private Ryan' in particular is noted for it's graphic realism of the Omaha Beach landings. 'The Longest Day' is not just the beach landings but covers many aspects of the lead up to the invasion. This film also covers the various Allied forces and resistance involved. Of note is the brilliant British glider assault on the Orne river bridges on the night before the invasion.
Fact based and featuring scenes like this are not seen in any other screen adaptation so this movie remains the definitive version of the events of June 6th 1944.

Demdike@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 01:28 PM

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Boy (Post 406306)

Strangler Of The Swamp (1946)

Nice reviews Dave.

Is Strangler of the Swamp available for a reasonable price anywhere? I really want a copy.

I too am a fan of The Longest Day, but didn't watch it this year as i went with Saving Private Ryan. (1998).

The opening half hour is rightly lauded but i also like the final battle in the town. Again lasting around half an hour it's a superb bit of film making. However it's the sequence prior to the action i really rate.

Hanks, Damon and co are sat around, basically killing time before the Germans move in.

Suddenly there's a low rumble and metallic grind in a rear speaker, then nothing, the same happens in the other speaker, all this happens minutes before we see anything, getting louder all the time, amid the reactions of the suddenly panicking Allied soldiers. The sound of two Tiger tanks rumbling into battle together with a Panzer division.

Tanks are featured in a lot of war films, but none do it as well as this, the sound sparking a real sense of fear and horror, long before the enemy is in range. Terrific stuff.

Nosferatu@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 01:37 PM

My major problem with Saving Private Ryan is the lull between the first and final battles when, and this is possibly intentional to reflect the monotony of war, it becomes very dull. Of the two Second World War films released that year, The Thin Red Line is superior in just about every respect.

Rik	7th June 2014 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs (Post 406329)

That'll be the genius sound design work of Gary Rydstrom then :nod:

Demdike@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 406332)

It's the most boring war film i've ever seen, battle scenes apart. When you compare the two in the way you have The Thin Red Line is by far the slowest. Critics may have been bowled over by Malick's film twenty years after his last, but that's how long it seemed to take watching it in an Orlando cinema.

Nosferatu@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs (Post 406337)

I think it's a brilliant film, but I'm a big Terrence Malick fan. It's a film which has grown on me over the years as, when I first saw it in the cinema, I thought it was interminably long and would never finish, whereas now it sucks me in and told my attention from first minute to last.

Rik	7th June 2014 02:12 PM

I've never liked the Thin Red Line either, but I have only seen it a couple of times, unlike Saving Private Ryan, that I've seen many times since it's 1998 cinema release

Demdike@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs (Post 406337)

Quoting myself here. :lol:

When you compare the series The Pacific to Band of Brothers, then The Pacific comes across as very dull.

Must be the difference between the two conflicts.

Demdike@Cult Labs

7th June 2014 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs (Post 406339)

I must admit i enjoyed it more on dvd, but have never gone back to it since.

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