What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Inspector Abberline]

Vigilante 1983

William Lustig out vigilante's Michael Winner in this 1983 thriller about a normal average guy Eddie Marino (Robert Forster) whose wife and son our attacked by a gang of denim jacket wearing street toughs.Where as Death Wish Paul Kersey worked alone,Vigilante starts with a speech from Fred The Hammer Williamson,as he gives a Donald Trump like recruiting message about taking back the city

"Hey, I don't know about you guys, but me... I've had it up to here. There are some 40-odd homicides a day on our streets."

of course this is the type of speech you might expect from say Magnum Force,and it taps right into that rhetoric from those previous Vigilante movie's from the 1970's. But because it comes from mighty frame of Fred Williamson and not some white middle class middle aged business man,Fred Williamson character Nick seemingly takes the morale high ground,although the reality is that his gang are just as violent and unsympathetic as the crooks they go after. Luckily for the film we have Robert Forster as Eddie Marino,not only does Forster have the indignity of seeing his sons killer get sent free from a prison sentence,but he himself then gets 30 days in prison for attacking the sentencing Judge Sinclair (Vincent Beck). Oh dear,as we all now know from prison movies,being a new white man in prison usually means one thing,yes you guessed it sodomy.Luckily good old Woody Strode as Rake saves Forster from a fate worse than death,as he manages to fight off his attackers in the shower. With his son now dead,and his wife no longer wanting to see him,it doesn't take long for Eddie Marino to join up with the vigilantes and seek his revenge.Lustig's Vigilante pulls no punches in the violence stakes,and offers no more solutions to what society is supposed to do about the threat of inner city violence,apart from buy some guns and get yourself a van.We are shown that the police are ineffective,mainly due to cost cuts and redundancy,the courts and judges are either corrupt or stupid and that lawyers are even more corrupt,as shown by the magnificent sleazy Joe Spinell as Eisenberg.Vigilante is one of Lustigs finest films,my only real complaint was that it seemed over to quickly as Forster only just seems to be getting started on his bloody road of vengeance.Also the main theme music by Jay Chattaway is awesome,its very reminiscent of a spaghetti western theme.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Penda's Fen (1974)

Centering around the adolescence of a boy named Stephen as he approaches his 18th birthday, Penda's Fen is a wonderful exploration of growing up, English tradition, art, sexuality, and loads of other things all to the magnificence of England's greatest composer, Sir Edward Elgar.

Directed by Alan Clarke and written by David Rudkin, this is a quite enthralling television film full of weirdness, quite a bit of which i didn't fully understand on first viewing. It's subject matter is controversial and i can appreciate why it is largely unknown but loved by those who have seen it.

Penda's Fen appears at first glance to be a host of unrelated vignettes as a boy turns into an adult and as such could almost be dipped in and out of, but it's the merging of pagan tradition and old England which grabbed me with it's stunning imagery such as the angel and King Penda on the hill, however none are as visually stimulating as the winged gargoyle perched on Stephen's bed one night. Admittedly, it's a sequence poached directly from Fuseli's The Nightmare painting but it's memorable and so highly effective as to be the highlight of this drama.

Penda's Fen isn't all po-faced metaphysical ambiguity. Some scenes are laugh out loud funny. Witness Stephen discovering a man erecting a road closure sign with a miss spelling of Pinvin. (Penda's Fen was the place name originally but the name morphed over the centuries into Pinvin).

Odd, obscure, occasionally unfathomable, yet riveting throughout. Penda's Fen is one i'll be coming back to make no mistake.

Sold!!

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

Vigilante 1983

William Lustig out vigilante's Michael Winner in this 1983 thriller about a normal average guy Eddie Marino (Robert Forster) whose wife and son our attacked by a gang of denim jacket wearing street toughs.Where as Death Wish Paul Kersey worked alone,Vigilante starts with a speech from Fred The Hammer Williamson,as he gives a Donald Trump like recruiting message about taking back the city of course this is the type of speech you might expect from say Magnum Force,and it taps right into that rhetoric from those previous Vigilante movie's from the 1970's. But because it comes from mighty frame of Fred Williamson and not some white middle class middle aged business man,Fred Williamson character Nick seemingly takes the morale high ground,although the reality is that his gang are just as violent and unsympathetic as the crooks they go after. Luckily for the film we have Robert Forster as Eddie Marino,not only does Forster have the indignity of seeing his sons killer get sent free from a prison sentence,but he himself then gets 30 days in prison for attacking the sentencing Judge Sinclair (Vincent Beck). Oh dear,as we all now know from prison movies,being a new white man in prison usually means one thing,yes you guessed it sodomy.Luckily good old Woody Strode as Rake saves Forster from a fate worse than death,as he manages to fight off his attackers in the shower. With his son now dead,and his wife no longer wanting to see him,it doesn't take long for Eddie Marino to join up with the vigilantes and seek his revenge.Lustig's Vigilante pulls no punches in the violence stakes,and offers no more solutions to what society is supposed to do about the threat of inner city violence,apart from buy some guns and get yourself a van.We are shown that the police are ineffective,mainly due to cost cuts and redundancy,the courts and judges are either corrupt or stupid and that lawyers are even more corrupt,as shown by the magnificent sleazy Joe Spinell as Eisenberg.Vigilante is one of Lustigs finest films,my only real complaint was that it seemed over to quickly as Forster only just seems to be getting started on his bloody road of vengeance.Also the main theme music by Jay Chattaway is awesome,its very reminiscent of a spaghetti western theme.

A film that I haven't seen in long enough. And I call myself a Hammer fan
Rectify!!

[J Harker]

I'll try and write a review later but last night i watched Where Eagles Dare. Burton, Eastwood. What an awesome film.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

PARTS – THE CLONUS HORROR – Some all American teens haven't clocked that they're actually clones sequestered away on a sports-oriented body parts farm. Will one of them go 'Logan's Run' and bring home the truth? 'Parts' feels creakily late seventies, but actually does a good job of being rather bleak and claustrophobic for at least half its run time. This all changes when the hero guy breaks out and hits the wider world, whereupon 'Parts' just becomes another seventies sci-fi chase thriller, with some pretty preposterous characterisations and turns of event at that. It really does run out of steam, and that's disappointing given its initial promise, but 'Parts' is still definitely worth catching for that US conspiracy age downer vibe.

Michael Bay had a huge budget and A-list cast when remaking this as The Island, yet Parts: The Clonus Horror is still the better film.

[gag]

13 cameras

Reasonable well made film about a landlord who a weirdo and creep and spies on his tenants, and locks a female in the basement.
I reasonable enjoyed but a few minor things that kinds irritated,
They been living there a few week or so and his partner wanted something fixing and he presumed tools where in a cupboard he never been in and forced it open to realise its a cellar the landlord said he didnt have, now dont know about anyone else but id have searched every door, cupboard, nook and cranny when i move into a new house.
Anyway he was surprised there was a cellar but he never went in again and the landlord come round and fixed it while they where out, now if i had forced a door open and someone fixed it i be pretty dam sure would have noticed if i didnt ask anyone to.
And a few other daft minor gripes, anyhow apart from my gripes aside the film is worth a watch if you come across it but dont go hunting it down.

This is England

Only just got round to watching this now time to watch the tv series pretty soon
I think the film is as good as British film making going to get, it doesnt just potray life in Britain in early 80s during the hated thatchers reign and the falklands, it potrays it as it really was and as realistic as youre going to get, and showing all the different types of people, punks, mods, rockers, etc. But also showed the double edged side of racism where some wanted foreigners out while others what happy to let live, it didnt dumb life in Britian down but also didnt glamourise it either, and showed how two best friends can fall out and against each other without actualy hating each other because they both wanted different side of the fence of being racist, and the 12yr old was actually the most sensible one of them all but was drawn between both sides because he didnt want to fall out with anyone of them and was kind of piggy in the middle, but stuck up for himself if was pushed to far,
Personally i think its a masterpiece in its own rigbts

[iank]

Evolution. Two community college scientists stumble on a meteorite that carries with it an extraterrestrial microbe, which soon begins to evolve at an exponential rate into something that could destroy all other life on Earth! David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones and Seann William Scott star in this entertaining early 2000s sci-fi comedy from the director of Ghostbusters. I haven't seen this flick for about 13 years and couldn't remember anything about it, but I really enjoyed it! It was cool to have Dan Aykroyd as the Governor of Arizona too.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

From Here to Eternity (1953)

A first time viewing experience for me. From Here to Eternity is one of those films which always has a mention when it comes to the golden age of Hollywood. Mainly the Burt Lancaster / Deborah Kerr kiss scene on the beach as the surf rushes over them. For such a classic scene i found it odd that it comes only half an hour into this near two hour film. My brain always told me it must be the climax, the final act of love. However it isn't so that's that idea scotched.

The film itself is set in the weeks leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It follows the life of the newly transferred Montgomery Clift into Sergeant Burt Lancaster's platoon and the hard time he gets from the unit's captain for refusing to box in an army tournament.

More melodrama than war film, in fact the attack comes only during the final ten minutes, From Here to Eternity is really about the lives of Lancaster, who has an affair with the captain's wife, Clift and Frank Sinatra, whose story ends tragically following a beating from the thuggish Ernest Borgnine. Although Lancaster and Kerr steal the Hollywood reels the film belongs to Montgomery Clift. His portrayal of the put upon Robert E. Lee Prewitt is superb. How he didn't win the best actor Oscar that year i'll never know, especially when the film dominated the awards and Sinatra and Donna Reed walked off with Best Supporting Actor statues. (How Reed beat Thelma Ritter's turn in Pick up on South Street that year...What were they thinking?)

Come the end it's obvious why From Here to Eternity is a classic film - it has classic performances by stars on top of their game - it really is so much more than just a snog in the surf.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by gag

This is England

Only just got round to watching this now time to watch the tv series pretty soon
I think the film is as good as British film making going to get, it doesnt just potray life in Britain in early 80s during the hated thatchers reign and the falklands, it potrays it as it really was and as realistic as youre going to get, and showing all the different types of people, punks, mods, rockers, etc. But also showed the double edged side of racism where some wanted foreigners out while others what happy to let live, it didnt dumb life in Britian down but also didnt glamourise it either, and showed how two best friends can fall out and against each other without actualy hating each other because they both wanted different side of the fence of being racist, and the 12yr old was actually the most sensible one of them all but was drawn between both sides because he didnt want to fall out with anyone of them and was kind of piggy in the middle, but stuck up for himself if was pushed to far,
Personally i think its a masterpiece in its own rigbts

You're going to enjoy the series, it doesn't lose any of it's quality at all and has some of the best acting you're going to see on TV.

[Justin101]

I went to watch X-Men yesterday as it was a Bank Holiday. Unfortunately it IS as bad as everyone has been saying. I can't put my finger on it, but there is bad CG, the script is bad (eye rolling bad at points) and some of the 'Oh aren't we clever' bits just made me cringe, such as Jean Grey and gang coming out of Return of the Jedi and saying "The third one is always the worst" and when Apocalypse was on the hunt for his 4 Horseman they had the Metallica song of the same name on the soundtrack.

Nightcrawler was pretty good though to be honest and I thought that the guy who played Scott Summers was decent as well, he had zero chemistry with Sophie Turner though, who was doing this odd attempt at an American accent but you could clearly hear her posh British accent behind everything she said.

Otherwise it was instantly forgettable and really didn't feel like a Bryan Singer movie at all.