What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

the hobbit battle of the five armies

pretty poor. with its over use of some terrible CGI, rushed ending and under used characters and lack of character development. really does prove for me the hobbit should of been two movies and not three. on the plus the acting was fantastic especially considering the poor script they had to work with and it was only 144 minutes and not the 3 hour mark like the other movies. hope this is a one off for jackson, if not all hail the new George lucas. 4.5/10

[Demoncrat]

Hands Of The Ripper (1971, Peter Sasdy).
Birthday present etc. Woooh mama, this, not a great favourite from memory cough, is easily going right into the top 10 Hammers for me, even if Eric Portman gave off a vibe of "slumming it" during his performance.

As Above As Below.
Recommended to Silent Hill 2 fans....NOT THE FILM cough. In fact, this has to be the best "first time playing a game" movie ever. It has to have something going for it, as I was left genuinely feeling cheated by the end ahem. Up there with Episode 50 for worst FF film ever imo.

Moscow Zero (Luna, 2008). Sony dvd.
More wandering around in crypts. Stylised somewhat, this at least had a proper ending for a horror film.

[R-T-C Tim]

Wow this was bad. I mean from the subtitle Tsunami vs. Earthquake I knew it was going to be bad, I wanted a fun SyFy Channel style bad movie, but this was something else.

Now I admire low budget film makers and hate to criticise a film that tries hard despite a small budget, but when you only have a tiny budget, don't try and make large scale effects scenes, they just look stupid. The budget was so small apparently they could only afford enough paper to write two pages of script because the rest just seems to be crudely padded out with nothing.

Two separate sets of scientists sitting in offices trying to 'solve' the tsunami threat make up 80% of the film, while two of their partners try and drive out of LA and keep breaking down or getting held-up by ethnic minorities in a desperate attempt to add some 'threat'. As for the disaster, the film keeps counting down with a clock, but there is never any 'threat' or tension built up and the finalé is just stupid as they decide to kick start the San Andreas fault with a messy stock footage finalé that needs a TV news report to explain it.

Aside from a couple of familiar faces (including Reggie Bannister of 'Phantasm' fame) the rest of the cast look to have been hired from a local porno agency and the acting is certainly at the level of a low budget adult film.

Want to know what a disaster movie would look like if made by Seduction Cinema or Fred Olen Ray and after all the sex scenes were filtered out, then this is for you. Otherwise skip this. Or in fact in the spirit of Christmas, buy every copy you see in a store and burn it to avoid someone else having to watch this unconscionable drek.

Read more insults in my full Disaster Wars review.

[Nordicdusk]

I just watched The Exorcist 2 for the first time. Was there really a point to this film or am i missing something. I have The Exorcist 3 lined up next but im not sure if i should watch it now after what i have just seen.

[Paul]

Exorcist 3 is excellent.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nordicdusk

I just watched The Exorcist 2 for the first time. Was there really a point to this film or am i missing something. I have The Exorcist 3 lined up next but im not sure if i should watch it now after what i have just seen.

Exorcist 2 is a woeful film, but The Exorcist III is really good and completely ignores John Boorman's travesty.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Spanish Fly (1976)

Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips star in this UK/Spanish sex comedy.

Thomas's ex-pat has had a bad day. Purchasing 100,000 gallons of local wine he discovers it actually tastes foul and no one is interested in buying it at the inflated prices he intends to sell it for. His chauffeur improves the wine with a certain local ingredient which turns the beverage into a potent aphrodisiac. Things take a turn for the sexy when old chum Phillips turns up with a bevy of beauties for a lingerie photo shoot.

Old school sex comedies are a bit of an acquired taste, especially this one as it's not really that funny and the plot is a little on the slim side.

What it does have going for it are it's two caddish leads in Thomas and Phillips, two actors who only have to smile at the camera to make me smile with them. On top of that we have a couple of gorgeous girls in Andrea Allan (Best known for the series UFO) and Nadiuska, all too willing to take their tops off in the name of bounderism.

Sunny, breezy and guaranteed to keep the British end up. Spanish Fly is an agreeable time waster.

For those interested, the Network dvd has a beautifully restored print.

[Nordicdusk]

Cheers Paul and Nos ill watch Exorcist III now.

[Rik]

Yeah, Exorcist III is an excellent film, shame Blatty wasn't allowed to adapt his novel in the way he wanted!

[R-T-C Tim]

This was a treat. Now I enjoy SyFy Channel Original Movies but a lot of them do prove disappointing. In this case it is a highly enjoyable and well paced film.

I am always surprised that a lot of online reviewers can never get past the plots of these sorts of films - yes this is a daft Ancient Aliens story with Stonehenge setting off volcanic eruptions around the world - but no more implausible than a movie about an alien superhero or time travelling cyborg. Most importantly the story is pretty consistent and feels well explained.

The whole film has a Dr. Who vibe to it, particularly since Peter Wingfield plays the lead scientist in charge of the operation and it could pass for a Peter Capaldi series story.

If you fancy exploring the crazy world of SyFy original movies or are a genre fan already, this is worth checking out.

Stonehenge Apocalypse review.