Watched Cabin in the Woods just a few hours ago.
Liked it, but will no doubt soon be forgoten.
I didn't spot many of the referances.
There was one to Hellraiser, for sure, and a vocal referance to Evil Dead and The Hill's Have Eye's, didn't spot any others. Sure there will be at least one Elm Street and Friday referance though.

Don't worry - you're not alone.

I spotted a few more but want to watch it again to see what I missed (there were also 'deadites' and 'angry molesting tree' on the white-board). I think people are over-looking the fact that it's a really original horror film that's incredibly well-made, directed and performed, at a time when a lot of modern horror seems to be lazy and falling on its face. I'm not saying people have to like it for those reasons but it's had a lot of buzz and a fairly big release, on what I'd consider a fairly modest budget ($30 million) which I do think is note-worthy.

I'd have to watch it again but I think I prefer it to Scream to be honest

Iron Lady last night.
Depressing shite.
Don't bother.

I've heard she's better as the love interest in The Avengers movie.

Each to their own re :nod: But you're wrong :p

Although that's exactly what I thought of the recent Scream movie.

*SPOILER*
The only disappointment about Cabin In The Woods for me was the lack of Sasquatch! Even though he's written on the board you never see him - I was gutted. Correct me if I'm wrong, I may have missed it.


Also, just finished watching House Of Bones. It's utter crap, but for some reason I couldn't stop watching.

I can imagine that sort of complaint being typical of this film though - it's so rich with horror film history there's only so much they could afford to put in

The real nice guys don't have to tell people about it. :p

From what i understand for a horror film Cabin just ain't scary.

No, it isn't. And I think that's because it lays its cards on the table in the first 5 minutes. You know more than the characters in a way which doesn't make it scary (excluding the 'making out with the wolf' scene which I found chilling and tense, the only point where I really felt that I wasn't sure where it was going) and so it's odd for me to say how great it is as a horror film even though it isn't scary. But it is great. And definitely worth seeing.

There's loads of fantastic horror films which just aren't scary though to be honest

Watched Braindead last night. Actually quite charming.
Very funny, especially anything involving the Priest, "I kick arse for the lord!!!", and the bits with the baby, especially the park bit.
Felt a bit slow and annoying at times, but paid off in the last 30 minutes, which you could almost call Tomato Paste: The Movie.
May get the blu ray eventually, but really want to see the 104 min theatrical cut.
Final opinion, great fun film, but I almost enjoyed Bad Taste more.

HAYWIRE
SHERLOCK HOLMES 2
THIS MEANS WAR

I love this alternate poster for the film:

http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/...heIronLady.jpg

I thought it had some genuinely effective moments but, overall, it's an extremely intelligent film by people who know and love horror addressing the audience with a smart commentary on viewership. It basically says 'When you watch a horror film you want to see good-looking people in their teens and 20s being horribly slaughtered and some naked female flesh' with a device making the film-within-a-film reflect the audience's desires.

I'll definitely buy when it's out and wouldn't be surprised if it forms the basis of a film studies MA dissertation or is prominently featured in part of a Ph.D. thesis in the near future.

Red Riding Hood

Feckin awful isn't it? :mmph:

Had another go at watching Murder Set Pieces last night and it was still as bigger pile of crap as i remembered from last time.
Truely awful. And a dreadful transfer as well. :(
Give me Fulci's New York Ripper any day! :)

CARNIVAL OF FEAR - Otherwise knwn as 'Closed for the Season'. Similar to my recent experience with 'The Vineyard' in that I felt stranded in someone else's dream, though less the sort of dream that impresses with its florid wierdness, more the common or garden kind which suffocates with a dull, rambling disconnectedness... I'm enough of a cine-masochist to actually be into this kind of hypnagogic lameness, and felt there were some OK bits of imagery scattered here and there, but the clown thing... guys, if you want to show us a sinister clown, then do something more than just show a clown being a bit sinister, if you know what I mean. For those misguided enough to potentially want to see this disjointed alternative to zolpidem, the plot concerns two twentysomethings searching for the roots of their childhood fairground-based trauma, and unfolds as a series of dream within a dream within a "Hey, did you just dream that?" type scenarios which quickly become annoying. A sinister clown guides them along to the baffling and not very interesting end. I'm dissing it, but something made me stick with it, and, although I didn't really enjoy it I guess I'm in a minority in saying I found it somehow likeable.

Wouldn't say awful.....but it wasn't great. I would have liked to have seen the film directed by Guillermo del Toro or Tim Burton:nod:

The movie was just to much like a cheap Twilight cash in for my licking.
And when you attempt to be the next Twilight, you dont asspire very high.
Your right though, Del Toro could have made it surprisingly refreshing, but alas.

Watched Rodriguez's Roadracers. Really enjoyed it, being a fan of both low-budget films and rockabilly.

I didn't think it was too Twilight, but then i've never seen Twilight. I enjoyed the film, thought it had very good cinematography.

It was what it was - a werewolf film aimed at all ages. Were you expecting The Howling or something like that, finally if you have seen Twilight and loathed it why, oh why would you watch the same directors follow up film?

I don't loathe Twilight for a start. Hell, I get a laugh from watching the shenanigans of Fairys and Teddy-Wolfs at the bottom of the garden, sparkling fairy dust and acting all emo. It's so bad it's laughable and I lap it up. Call me masochistic, so I must be.
As for Red Riding Hood, maybe I have blown my opinion way out of proprtion.
I first watched it with my current she-beast and she adored it, going on for week's as to why it was so glories. I just wanted to go into auto-pilot every time I heard the title.
I may give it a try again one day, in a year or two, but for now I'll stick to laughing at Christin Stuarts abysmal acting skills.

Cat O' Nine Tails:pop2:

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I enjoyed this film. I really liked the setting and the Nazi paintings added to how creepy it was.

FAUSTO 5.0 - Whilst I was a little disappointed to find this wasn't the orgy of surreal depravity I thought it might be, it's a good film and is well worth a viewing. Essentially it's another updating of Faust, this time set in the context of terminal medicine, where a jaded medic finds his desires brought to life by El Diablo. An engageing arthouse rendering, but could've exploited its depressing backdrop and featured some more of the bizarre video effects sequences that crop up a couple of times.
THE DRIVER - This is a really great film, existential noir shaved right down to the bone. Ryan O'Neil and Bruce Dern are terrific as rivals locked in a deadly game. Elegant onlooker Isabelle Adjani conceals her own agenda. There are car chases, but even the action sequences feel like cold, detached meditations, silent apart from the wail of sirens. But this film isn't about action, it's an evocation of a chilly, psychopathic world where everyone's playing or being played. Surely a must see.
MADAME O - Another world with all the good squeezed out. A surgeon stalks men by night in order to spread the disease inflicted on her by rapists... until she falls in love with another medic at her practice. The bad stuff stops there, right? No of course it doesn't, not until the nihilistic conclusion when everybody dies screaming. Noirish and erotic, and very haunting, this quasi pinku is suggestive rather than explicit in laying down its twistedness and comes highly recommended - DVD from Synapse looks great, shame it's dubbed but this in no way detracts.

My first Argento. And my first AV Blu-ray.
Horrificaly under-rated movie I consider on Par with Four Flies and Inferno.

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Chuck Norris Lee Marvin motorcycle with mounted rockets whats not to love :). I just wish big George Kennedy had more of a role in it.

Woo! Glad to hear you enjoyed this film, Nordic. It's a brilliant survival-slasher :nod:

Went to see The Avengers last night with a friend. There's been so much hype about this film, I was expecting to be blown away. Whilst it was cool to see all the superheroes together and how each of their previous plots tie into this, I was slightly disappointed. The first 45 minutes of so is rather slow and boring, and the film is very Hollywoody and formulaic. But it's still a lot of fun with some hillarious comedy relief dotted throughout and some jaw-droppingly awesome effects. Here's hoping for more!

In fact, here's hoping they turn Marvel Zombies into a film! :rockon:

i'm totally with you on that Kyle, i wasn't blown away either, it just seemed like we'd seen it all before. It was very Hollywoody and the alien invasion lasted about 45 minutes....

A Marvel Zombie's cinematic adaptaion?.......Only if they addapt Army of Darkness vs. Marvel Zombies into the plot. :popcorn:

:rockon:

C'mon Hollywood...

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2...kgheo2_500.jpg

rewatched INCEPTION last night, prefered it the second time around even though i did enjoy it the first. Had the sound cranked on my speaker system and it sounded awesome, only gripe with the Blu-ray is the lack of any sort of Making of documentary, i would have loved to find out how they filmed certain scenes, instead there's a documentary about dreams.

Drive

An excellent film which i held off watching as i disliked director Winding-Refn's Valhalla Rising so much.

It wasn't quite as the blurb on the box suggested it being an action packed car chase type film, but hugely enjoyable and worthy of the hype. Well acted by Gosling, Mulligan, Perlman etc with some gorgeous night time driving scenes around LA, and suitably gory violence in places.

Hanna

Another terrific piece of cinema that at no time could i predict what was going to happen next. Some fine action set pieces and again very good performances with some fine comedic moments thrown in courtesy of the British family Hanna meets up with.

Both films highly recommended for someone who wants their action films to be a little different.

Drive is really good: have you seen Refn's Pusher films, Dem? Highly recommended, if you haven't :nod:

I haven't seen Hanna yet, but it is in my rental queue.

I've got the Pusher trilogy still to watch. Anyone seen the "Pusher" remake set in the British Asian community? I could be wrong but I believe there is another remake of it on the way.

@Dem, what was it about "Valhalla Rising" that you didn't like?

The Pusher Trilogy sounds interesting but maybe a bit heavy going without much lightness.

There is a making-of, of sorts. It's the "Extraction Mode" which you can enter during the relevant scenes in the film to view their making of, or you can watch all the segments seperately.

I did this mini review back in January.-

I gave a rewatch to Valhalla Rising last night.

What a pretentious arty bit of celluloid nonsense it is.

It can easily be summed up as a bunch of hairy blokes sat about staring meaningfully at the horizon for ninety minutes. Things pick up as they set off in a boat, however normality is soon resumed and we then have twenty five minutes of hairy blokes sat in a boat gazing meaningfully out to sea. When the boat arrives in the New World our hardy souls obviously decide the best thing to do is stare meaningfully at the mountains which look pretty simillar to the ones they just left, except in this place you can clearly notice a tarmaced road, they fail to spot this as they are gazing in the other direction.

Mads Mikkelson who you may remember as one of the worst Bond villains ever in Casino Royale plays the hero of the piece, cunningly named One Eye as he has, yes, one eye, this obviously makes him cooler than the other hairy blokes as he only stares at the horizon with one eye.

Fortunately for the viewer the film is broken up into segments.

Act one - mildly interested due to sporadic acts of violence

Act two - mind starts to wander

Act three - off to make a brew

Act four - begin channel surfing / reading teletext

Act five - zzzzzzzzzz

Unfortunately for the viewer director Nicholas Winding Refn throws in occasional shouty acts of violence which prevents you falling into a deep slumber, whilst the bulk of the film is largely dialogue free.

Ha! Ha! Have you tried it with the commentary? It's actually a sci-fi film set in outer space disguised as a Viking flick according to the director. :crazy:

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A great great film.