What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

It makes you wonder how much companies pay to associate themselves with Bond and other huge films doesn't it.

The figures are huge, apparently $45 million for Heineken with SPECTRE, but definitely worth it. This is from Darryl Collis, from a leading product placement agency:

“It’s a cliché that Bond is someone who every man wants to be, and every woman wants to be with, but it’s true that in marketing terms, James Bond’s suit means more than Daniel Craig’s suit,” says Collis. “The appetite to drive what he’s driving, to drink what he’s drinking and to wear what he’s wearing is incredible. And I’ve experienced the Bond effect first-hand. At the very end of Skyfall, he picks up an old Barbour jacket in Skyfall House – and that jacket immediately sold out. They were retailing for £400, and soon people were selling them on Ebay for £2,000. I remember it because I bought one myself.”

This is a good article about it: BBC - Culture - Does Bond’s product placement go too far?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Interesting article.

Thanks Nos.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Cannibal Terror (1980)

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Bizarre_Eye as i suggested his low score of 12/100 was ridiculous and i actually compared this favourably to Burial Ground.

I have no idea what i was thinking when i defended the film. Having watched it again for the first time in about five years i can only agree that it's ****in' rubbish. Even for a Eurocine production, a company i normally like it has to be said, this borders on terrible.

I just can't imagine what i used to find appealing the previous times i've watched it. Could i have been so drunk not to notice the reuse of scenes throughout the movie, the godawful cannibals who actually look like what they are - extras taken from the streets to populate a background, some look like they went to the barbers before shooting. I can't laugh and say the cannibals wore watches or earrings or any of the other errors which pop up in films like Ben Hur, because the film is so damn cheap i doubt anyone involved owned a watch...then there's the cannibal chiefs. Four guys who stand around looking so bored, seriously it's like they were filmed waiting for a bus running forty minutes late.

The acting is piss poor, the dialogue even worse, the plot tedious to the extreme and oh, so slow. Then there's the gore! I mean really, how many livers did the first victim have? I think i counted five being pulled out of the torso at various stages. Then just when you think things can't get any worse along comes the climactic cannibal ceremony...with cars going past in the background.

Cannibal Terror. So bad it's good? No, it's just rubbish.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Bizarre_Eye as i suggested his low score of 12/100 was ridiculous and i actually compared this favourably to Burial Ground.

Apology accepted.

Glad to see you've come around to my way of thinking... well, at least partially anyway!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Beauty and the Beast (Panna a netvor) (1978)



A superbly dark gothic take on the oft told tale. Highly recommended.



86/100

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Beauty and the Beast (Panna a netvor) (1978)


86/100

Is this available on dvd B_E?

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Is this available on dvd B_E?

There's a Czech DVD but I've no idea if it's English language friendly.



The version I watched was on ye olde 'Tube and was most likely fan-subbed.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

There's a Czech DVD but I've no idea if it's English language friendly.

The version I watched was on ye olde 'Tube and was most likely fan-subbed.

Okay, thanks.

[Frankie Teardrop]

BLOOD RAGE – I remember seeing a black market version of this a few years ago and not thinking all that much of it. Whether it's the fullness of time or Arrow's refurbishment skills I don't know, but watching the re-release left me feeling I'd uncovered a minor masterpiece of low budget freakiness. 'Blood Rage', a second wave slasher flick with a pulsating synth soundtrack and a terminal case of the eighties, follows a killer twin who dupes his 'other half' into picking up the tab for a vicious axe murder at a seventies drive-in. When latter escapes from a psyche ward, ruthless killer twin goes on a murderous rampage resulting in some pleasing gore and period slasher madness. Although not an outstandingly competent horror film by any means (quite the reverse, in fact), 'Blood Rage' marks out its own territory just by being bit strange. It's hard to say how exactly, but there's a plastic, unreal tinge to much of it which is wrought by the bad performances and brow furrowing scenes like the one which shows the mother character (played by Louise Lasser, a credible actor) slumped on her kitchen floor, unaccountably guzzling stuff from the fridge as loads of murder is happening around her... I guess to ask “why?” is to miss the point. It's also interesting to me how structural and editing flaws can create a sense of unintentional weirdness – there aren't many establishing shots, and often the bits where we go from one indoor scene to another lack context, giving the impression of a hazy, uncertain dream-like setting where you never know where you really are. That ending's pretty crazy, too. Maybe all this oddness isn't accidental after all – the director had a hand in 'The House That Cried Murder', a weird little flick from the seventies. Whatever, 'Blood Rage' will probably float your boat whether you're into eighties slashers or just general strangeness.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE PART 3 – Pretty enjoyable second sequel to the remake. It seemed to me to play more like a conventional thriller than the other entries in the series, for reasons I'm not really sure of. It's less erm 'rapey' than those first two – by which I mean, the emphasis is less on relatively explicit voyeurism and more on just thematics – and as such, comes across as maybe less leeringly sadistic, whether this is a good thing or not for a horror film. That said, there is a fairly satisfying moment of agonising penis ripping, not to mention a scene where a metal pipe is brutally shunted in the most anal of manners. So, a little bit leeringly sadistic, then. Anyway, the plot follows Sarah Butler from the first one, now undercover as a wage slave in the city. She joins a rape survivors group and gets embroiled in the extra curricular maneuvers of one the others there ie she aids and abets some brutal payback. This all gathers its own momentum, and pretty soon we witness the not entirely realistic transformation of office temp into killing machine. It's been criticised as being a bit anaemic and slow, whereas I found it absorbing, quite fast paced and entertainingly ridiculous. Putting aside any caution about the representation of whatever issues are at stake here, 'I Spit On Your Grave 3' is a slick bit of exploitation which lacks the alluring sickliness of its predecessors but still packs a punch.

THE GIFT – From actor turned director Joel Edgerton comes this highly praised thriller about a man's dark past and a couple's need for secrets and lies (no, it's not a Mike Leigh rip off). Jason Bateman is approached by a guy from his high school days (played by Edgerton himself), who seems to want to reacquaint himself with his old buddy and get to know his wife (soz about the grammar in that last sentence, but I frankly can't be arsed to re-type it). Anyway, rich, slightly narcissistic Bateman is a bit put off by gauche loser Edgerton and wants to distance himself and his other half from his former friend's overtures, but things get tangled when Bateman's wife, played by the lovely Rebecca Hall , starts looking into what might really lie between the two men. 'The Gift' is a slow burn, and, as a thriller, sometimes doesn't come across as all that thrilling, especially early on. If at first it plays more like a relationships drama, it's an ever darkening one, and boils up to a nightmarish and pulse bothering conclusion. I got really into it, and was quite compelled. It's certainly a manipulative film, in the tradition of most 'revenge' type cinema, and plays on the theme of humiliation, from the kind of brute trauma which changes destiny to the subtle social snags which can govern a person's lot in life. Definitely recommend it.

FINAL GIRL – Abigail Breslin has been trained to be really hard from a young age by this dude (Wes Bentley) who seems to want her to play a role in some mission or other. 'Some mission or other' is revealed to be an assassination binge targeting a bunch of young guys who are into 'the most dangerous game' (young blond female variant). So, she goes after them. And she gets 'em. End. It does have its flaws, but I actually really liked 'Final Girl'. There an off-handedness to its set up which seems designed to baffle – who is the girl? Who is her boss? Is it all to do with some kind of secret government agency? Or is this maybe a freelance but equally psychopathic enterprise? Lots of questions, no answers – good, that's how I like it, I hate exposition which makes a thing less mysterious. And mysterious 'Final Girl' certainly is, for going beyond its cryptic scenario lies an equally stylised aesthetic – part hip fifties, part fairy tale, part breeze-block noir, part David Lynch. It's contrived, but it's mesmerising. It's a good job 'Final Girl' is so gorgeous to look at, because dramatically it really fumbles. When we get to the whole 'hunted becomes the hunter' bit, there's no tension, just a fairly sedate, matter of fact meander. Ditto for the pay-off – it all feels like a foregone conclusion. Maybe there's a clue in all this, because the logical thing to do for an ostensible thriller telling the same story would be to introduce the nasty psycho hunter boy's club thing first, then gradually drop in the 'girl-trained-to-be-assassin backstory bit by bit, after a few pivotal plot transitions. But 'Final Girl' opts for exactly the opposite of this approach, and seems so deliberately adrenalin-free it actually feels more like an attempt to recast action tropes in the form of an art-house movie. I'm not sure 'Final Girl' is entirely successful in this respect either, but, aside from a few slightly cringeworthy bits like the falsely rendered DMT hallucinations, I found it pretty intoxicating. Recommended, but might be a bit of a head scratch for anyone expecting another 'Columbiana'.

[keirarts]

John Wick


Keanu reeves plays the titular character left grieving after his wifes death. Delivered to his home he receives a final gift from her, a puppy to help cope with the grief. However this not being some boring Oscar grab the film then kicks in when a group of vicious thugs break in, beat him badly then kill his dog and steal his car. Unfortunately for them it turns out John Wick is a killing machine who retired from a career killing lots of folk for the mob. He digs up some supplies buried in the basement and decides to go back into business leading to a bloody war with the thugs powerful gangster father.
I wasn't entirely keen on Knock knock as I'd thought Keanu had been miscast. Here however he's much more in his element as the sociopathic killer. His inability to emote actually helps things along, you realise as the film progresses that he's someone who is only really ever good at killing and his marriage was almost a failed attempt at becoming 'normal'. The action scenes are terrific and this may be odd praise but it has some of the best subtitling I have ever seen. Overall I'm happy to recommend this one, its my second time round and the films still entertaining as hell.