What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Captain America Winter soldier.

RE-visit from the cinema and glad to say it still holds up on the small screen. Basically it takes cap and puts him in a clancy-esque conspiracy thriller with plenty of outstanding action sequemces and a great script. Really tries to make a comment on surveillence society, military drones and expedieincy inbetween the explosions.

I've just finished the audio commentary and recommend it, very engaging.

[Frankie Teardrop]

A BELL FROM HELL - First viewing. I liked it very much. It tells the tale of a seemingly quite disturbed young fellow who, after being released from an asylum into the care of his shrewish Aunt, sets about disrupting the lives of the locals of the desolate township he finds himself stranded in. The victims of his mind games are revealed as being more twisted than he is. 'A Bell From Hell' tolls from early seventies Spain, and unfolds in a dreamy, fractured manner. It feels more 'art house' than genre, but gothic references (particularly to E A Poe) abound. Highly recommended - might make a pleasing companion for 'The Cannibal Man', another elusive and ambiguous early seventies Spanish art-horror gem. A word of warning, though - it features some truly upsetting scenes of abattoir slaughter.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)

Acclaimed author Norman Mailer wrote and directed this modern noir about a troubled writer (Ryan O'Neal) who becomes embroiled in a tale of murder and intrigue. Co-starring Isabella Rossellini, Lawrence Tierney, Frances Fisher and Wings Hauser.

Done in voice over Chandler style, it immediately becomes apparent that O'Neal is no Bogart or Mitchum and Tough Guys Don't Dance is no Big Sleep. (Well it is, but not in the same respect.) Nothing about the film convinces. Rossellini is both miscast and underused at the same time and O'Neal is frankly abysmal in his role. The only person who comes across with anything like a memorable performance is Frances Fisher who vamps it up a little as a former porn actress, but as with Rossellini she too is underused. Then there is Hauser who is so hammy as the local sheriff you'd think he'd been on a diet of bacon for ten years.

The tone of the film is all over the place, it's supposedly a modern noir, but it comes across camp at times, laced with a humour that failed to raise a smile, but rendering the films' serious points to a comatose state. Even when Mailer turns up the raunch factor it just comes across as folly.

None of it is helped by Mailer's truly risible dialogue. Following a scrap with a couple of villains, the best O'Neal has to work with after his dog is killed is "Your knife is in my dog!" If Frankie Teardrop drifts away on alternate temporal planes during his film watching, then gobbsmackingly awful lines like this would have him crash landing his plane and desperately reaching for a parachute.

Recommended only to those who like the truly awful things in life. To anyone who wants to watch a good example of modern noir go with Body Heat and leave this well alone.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

A BELL FROM HELL - First viewing. I liked it very much. It tells the tale of a seemingly quite disturbed young fellow who, after being released from an asylum into the care of his shrewish Aunt, sets about disrupting the lives of the locals of the desolate township he finds himself stranded in. The victims of his mind games are revealed as being more twisted than he is. 'A Bell From Hell' tolls from early seventies Spain, and unfolds in a dreamy, fractured manner. It feels more 'art house' than genre, but gothic references (particularly to E A Poe) abound. Highly recommended - might make a pleasing companion for 'The Cannibal Man', another elusive and ambiguous early seventies Spanish art-horror gem. A word of warning, though - it features some truly upsetting scenes of abattoir slaughter.

Great movie

Reminds me, i've not hounded shameless or Arrow for a restoration for a while. Time to get my stalking hat back on

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Stephen King's Storm of the Century (1999)

A tiny Maine island community comes under siege from an icy super storm and an accompanying all knowing being with unyielding demand of "Give me what i want and i'll go away". Who or what is the mysterious man who brings terror to the community? They can shelter from the storm but they can't escape him.

A truly excellent original Stephen King story, for once not an adaptation of a novel or story but exclusively for this tv mini series. Even though it clocks in at a bum numbing four and a quarter hours Storm of the Century is compulsive viewing and seemingly without much in the way of padding. The story is tight and delightfully acted by all concerned especially the wonderful Colm Feore as the mysterious stranger Andre Linoge, with the striking walking cane. He exudes an air of malevolent power and strength throughout and grips the viewer whenever he is on screen in a brilliantly chilling performance.

The 255 minute length allows the story to breath and gives all the characters well rounded personalities. It's in these sections where you'd expect the padding and the pacing to flag but both King and director Craig R. Baxley do a terrific job of keeping you involved in proceedings, never letting the story slide, whilst always edging the tension up a notch.

With an ending you won't expect or see coming, Storm of the Century is brilliant stuff and for me ranks among the best of King's work.

Highly recommended.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Stephen King's Storm of the Century (1999)

Sounds good; I've reserved it at Lovefilm.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Sounds good; I've reserved it at Lovefilm.

For full effect it needs to be watched at night.

[nosferatu42]

Oh jesus Frankie, you've actually reviewed something that not only have i seen, but i possess. Like the Link to cannibal man as well, have that too. Think i may have to lie in a darkened room to recover.
Normally you're the messiah of unknown films to me.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

COI Collection vol 4 - Stop! Look! Listen!

This is a great collection of short public safety films put out by the Central Office of Information - some real gems here:

Too Close for Comfort - Reg Varney plays a very clumsy driver, who learns the errors of his ways. Fun, but also delivers the point well.

Drive Carefully, Darling - Colin Baker plays the brain of a driver (as a controller in a control room). The ending is pretty effective.

Apaches - Directed by the Long Good Friday's John Mackenzie, half an hour long, but very chilling. Kids playing Apaches vs farm machinery and dangerous materials. Terrible American accents though, but to be fair they are young and they are impersonating

Game of Chance - another short, 10 minutes long dealing with the dangers of farm machinery.

Searching - 45 second advert zooming through a burnt out house, illustrating the dangers of playing with matches. 45 seconds is all you need.

They showed Apaches to us at our school when i was very young and ever since it's always held a place in my heart as one of the first 'films' to ever freak me out.
I have this collection too, mainly for Apaches and the other disturbing kids ed films, once seen at the optimum age they're never forgotten.
like so many films, once they've wormed their way into your memories you've gotta get 'em all. Bit like Pokemon and all that shite.

[Frankie Teardrop]

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD - Once in a while I like to check out the oldies. I do this with Fulci a lot, actually. 'City Of The Living Dead' is one of his more highly respected works. I don't deviate from that view, necessarily. What you often get with Lucio is a mixed bag of the banal and the amazing which somehow transcends itself to become a truly odd viewing experience. Here, we have a meandering, slightly muddled narrative backed up by wooden acting and stilted dialogue, all of which justifies itself by carrying some really warped set pieces and scenes. I'm not just talking about the gore - I prefer Fulci when he's at his most cryptic. Some of this has to do with the way he films things, the language he uses - there are a lot of inexplicable shots. He likes to linger on things, on bodies, objects. Sometimes it's more in the concrete imagery - blood dripping into a glass of milk from a horrendous gory stain on a white ceiling... things like that will stay in my mind forever. And the weird, exaggerated sounds he uses - that's another story. I won't go on about it because I'm sure everyone here has seen it at least ten times, but I enjoyed watching COTLD this morning and I have to say that, the more I revisit his movies, the more mysterious they seem to me.