What Films Have You Seen Recently? - Page 3146

keirarts · #**31451** 15th February 2015, 07:19 AM

Zombie hunters.

Utterly dreadful film that manages to be one of the worst zombie films I can remember seeing. I'm including all the Bruno Mattei ones here. Its 'european' and everyone lives in cities communicating via virtual reality. A bunch of people decide to head outside (why? Well TBH I'm not sure, at this point I ceased caring) and they find some zombies. The main problem with the film is the film-makers ambitions outstrip both ability and budget. The dystopian city looks rubbish, as does the CGI effects and acting. The whole film seems to be attempting to make some profound take on the destruction of inter-personal relationships by modern technology, however it just ends up being f&*%^&g boring. EVENTUALLY the zombies turned up which was enough for me to drop the pills and booze but it was too little to late. I did contemplate taking this to CEX to get at least some of my money back but I don't want to be responsible for anyone else seeing this catastrophic turd of a movie so I kept the amray, tore up the sleeeve and snapped the disc in two. DON'T EVER WATCH THIS! It's hatefully, awfully terrible in a way that makes me so angry I think I'd pefer to watch Hellgate.

keirarts · #**31452** 15th February 2015, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crimson Blade

Watched Vicente Aranda's Blood Spattered Bride again last night. Another excellent adaption of the Carmilla story.

Alexandra Bastedo is the lesbian vampire who sets out to steal the gorgeous newly wed Susan (Bell From Hell's Maribel Martin), from her domineering husband Simon Andreu (Death Walks in High Heels).

This is an absolute classic Spanish cult horror film which is rich with atmosphere and a gothic feel.
One of my favourite scenes is were Susan's husband finds Bastedo nude under the sand with just a snorkel sticking out. Very unique.

The old Anchor Bay dvd still looks pretty good, but i'd upgrade it to bluray in a heart beat.

Blood spattered bride comes as a bonus feature on the daughters of darkness blu from blue underground. Its still SD however

Rik · #**31453** 15th February 2015, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankenhooker

I watched 50 Shades Of Grey last night, in my defence it was a Valentines Day treat for the missus. Never has a film about sex bored me so much. I wouldn't say it was bad, just incredibly 'meh'.

I think I'm taking one for the team and going to watch this tonight, payback for dragging her to Grimmfest to watch Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead last October, knew that would come back and spank me on the arse!

keirarts · #**31454** 15th February 2015, 10:55 AM

Texas Roadside massacre.

Now this is more like it. Unlike the dreary wank that is Zombie hunters, Texas roadside massacre is a film made by people aware of their limitations and are cutting their cloth accordingly and setting out to entertain rather than bog the film down with ideas that work better in 2AM daydreams after copious amounts of weed.
The film is very generic, a bunch of kids head of to find one of the groups sister, somewhere in the heart of Texas. Once there they run afoul of the cannibalistic nut-jobs that run a local BBQ shack with the slave labour from some of their lobotomised victims and the meat supplied by the ones who are killed outright. It's fairly predictable for anyone who has ever seen Texas chainsaw massacre or any of the 1000+ knock off's of its formula so this film will never be considered any kind of classic. However it's well paced, reasonably well shot and edited and sticks to keeping the trash hungry cult film audience satisfied enough to not want to switch it off.

keirarts · #**31455** 15th February 2015, 11:10 AM

Maps to the stars.

Following in the footsteps of films about Hollywood such as Sunset Boulevard, The Player, Mullholland drive and the also quite recent Starry eyes, David Croneberg's latest opus tears apart the image of Tintsletown with even more well aimed savagery than any of those films. Julianne Moore plays a haunted Diva whose better days are behind her, who may or may not have been sexually abused by her mother, a Hollywood icon. she's campaigning to star in a remake of the film that won her mother an Oscar and in preparation has been seeing a new age guru played by John Cusack. Cusak and his wife played by olivia williams have a 13 year old son already out of rehab and a star of an asinine mega-hit bad babysitter. He's a shallow warped little sod who plays like a junior version of a character from one of Brett Easton Ellis's novels. Mia Wasikowska in full 'no makeup dowdy' mode plays Cusak and Williams older daughter, scarred from an attempt to burn down their home and now working for Moore as her assistant. As the film progresses some very dark secrets emerge and things get quite nasty indeed.

Maps is a fantastic, if somewhat bleak and unpleasant film that spares the audience nothing in uncovering the dark recesses of the Hollywood dream. Its not perhaps as directly savage as Starry eyes, a film that came out around the same time but its equally as nasty in a more internalised and tragic sense. It's often uncomfortable viewing but ultimately rewarding and is up there in the best films of 2014 for me along side nightcrawler.

Nosferatu@Cult Labs · #**31456** 15th February 2015, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keirarts

Maps to the stars.

I also watched that this week, and again with the commentary, and completely agree with your summation. Maps to the Stars is tremendous, probably one of the 10 best films David Cronenberg has made.

J Harker · #**31457** 15th February 2015, 04:22 PM

Last nighy i watched Carl Theodore Drydens Vampyr courtesy of the MoC disc.
Not sure, it starts out wonderfully then gets a bit jumbled. Probably one that requires multiple viewings but i found the story a bit hard to follow.
This afternoon i just watched Friedkins The French Connection. I tried this a few weeks back and found it dull as dishwater and really wasn't impressed, i actually fell asleep about halfway through. Whether it was late or i just wasn't in the right frame of mind i don't know but i really really enjoyed it this time. A brilliant police thriller that uses its New York settings to the max making the city almost as much of a character as Popeye himself, a fantastic Gene Hackman in the best performance I've ever seen of the guy. Love the sudden ambiguous ending too. Pity the blu transfer is a bit all over the shop but it doesn't stop the film being excellent. Hopefully I'll get to watch the sequel tomorrow.

Nosferatu@Cult Labs · #**31458** 15th February 2015, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J Harker

Last nighy i watched Carl Theodore Drydens Vampyr courtesy of the MoC disc.
Not sure, it starts out wonderfully then gets a bit jumbled. Probably one that requires multiple viewings but i found the story a bit hard to follow.

I would either listen to the commentaries and then watch it again or read the short story Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu from the book In a Glass Darkly before giving it another go – doing both might prove even more eye opening – as you will probably understand the basic story easier and then notice the brilliance of Dreyer's direction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J Harker

This afternoon i just watched Friedkins The French Connection. I tried this a few weeks back and found it dull as dishwater and really wasn't impressed, i actually fell asleep about halfway through. Whether it was late or i just wasn't in the right frame of mind i don't know but i really really enjoyed it this time. A brilliant police thriller that uses its New York settings to the max making the city almost as much of a character as Popeye himself, a fantastic Gene Hackman in the best performance I've ever seen of the guy. Love the sudden ambiguous ending too. Pity the blu transfer is a bit all over the shop but it doesn't stop the film being excellent. Hopefully I'll get to watch the sequel tomorrow.

I'm glad you gave it another go, because I think The French Connection is one of the greatest crime thrillers of the 1970s, if not the entire 20th century, with the '70s as a particularly strong decade for that genre. Gene Hackman hates his performance, simply because 'Popeye' Doyle is such an unlikeable character and he had real trouble with the part, threatening to quit on several occasions.

The colours on the British release are all over the place so, if you really like the film, you should buy the 'Filmmakers Signature Collection' release, where the colour timing has been corrected and it looks as good as it should.