What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Justin101]

I watched La La Land yesterday, I'm not totally bowled over by it. I didn't dislike it at all, but I also didn't love it either. It's entertaining in its major set pieces but the part where the story unfolds is a bit too flat when help up against the dizzying heights of say, the planetarium scene where they are dancing on the stars.
I'm glad I watched it, it was a fun film, but it doesn't live up to all the hype and a record breaking number of nominations.

[nosferatu42]

Hope you get the double you're after Harker, i got Christine in the 2 for £25 with Ken Russells Crimes of Passion.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I watched La La Land yesterday, I'm not totally bowled over by it. I didn't dislike it at all, but I also didn't love it either. It's entertaining in its major set pieces but the part where the story unfolds is a bit too flat when help up against the dizzying heights of say, the planetarium scene where they are dancing on the stars.
I'm glad I watched it, it was a fun film, but it doesn't live up to all the hype and a record breaking number of nominations.

I've heard similar sentiments from a couple of people and wonder if, in one respect, it is a victim of its own hype. If you went without any knowledge of the critical reception or industry awards and nominations do you think you would have a different opinion?

I sometimes watch films expecting too much and am disappointed, enjoying them much more when time has passed and my memory has faded a little. (The same applies when I watch something which has been critically mauled and am pleasantly surprised.)

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I've heard similar sentiments from a couple of people and wonder if, in one respect, it is a victim of its own hype. If you went without any knowledge of the critical reception or industry awards and nominations do you think you would have a different opinion?

I sometimes watch films expecting too much and am disappointed, enjoying them much more when time has passed and my memory has faded a little. (The same applies when I watch something which has been critically mauled and am pleasantly surprised.)

I agree, and a lot of people are rightly comparing it Whiplash, and I have to say that Whiplash is the superior film in every way but didn't get near as much praise on it.

However, I'm looking forward to revisiting it (La La Land) 3-4 months down the line when it comes out on bluray and after the hype has died down a little. I may have enjoyed it a whole lot more if every media channel on the planet wasn't telling me how amazing it is. If anything thing though, it's legitimately got people who don't support cinema going to the movies and having a positive experience from it, so that's a good thing I guess! When I went to see Manchester By The Sea, a much better film in my opinion, the cinema was probably a quarter full, while La La Land was full.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Gods of Egypt (2016)

Having been to Egypt and having a little knowledge about the Gods and it's rich history i really thought i'd enjoy The Crow/Dark City director Alex Proyas' film. More than that, i wanted to enjoy it.

In fact at first i did enjoy it, however as the film, and more and more head in hands moments played out, i realised i was thinking how i could possibly get to the end of the two hour running time. Quite simply Gods of Egypt is a good idea - having the Gods live on Earth amid battles for the throne - but it's final product verges on the awful.

The main problem is everything is acted against a green screen. This works well with films such as 300 (2006) and Sin City (2005), two films that are of a much smaller scale than Gods of Egypt. This film attempts the near impossible with it's CGI and looks clunky and at times no better than 70's Doctor Who in it's realism. Certainly the Gods in animal form look impressive but cityscapes and crowd sequences are shoddy. It had a budget of $140m but it doesn't show.

Secondly the script and characterization are borderline embarrassing. Not once does Proyas let his characters sit down in a normal building (ie- not CGI) and interact, it's all so hectic, everything is so vital in pushing the film forward to the point that none of it is. The acting is unfortunately brought down to the level of everything else with everyone from Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush and Rufus Sewell unable to bring anything positive to the table. It was said at the time of release, the film should have used minority actors rather than white stars and a case can certainly be made for this, but even the likes of Idris Elba, Denzel Washington and Will Smith (Three of Hollywood's biggest draws) couldn't have done anything with this film, so abysmal it is.

If Gods of Egypt were a superhero film then it ranks alongside Green Lantern rather than Batman Returns.

[Inspector Abberline]

The Evil – Gus Trikonis (1977)

Wonderfully ludicrous rip off of Legend of Hell House via The Haunting,from Producer extraordinaire Roger Corman.Richard Crenna and his wife Joanna Pettet are trying to refurbish an old mansion to be used as a rehab centre.So when Crenna assembles a team of people to help him re-build the mansion the chances of nothing UN-toward happening to this motley bunch of polyester wearing bunch of 1970's actors are fairly low.Its a pretty well worn premise,throw a load of people into a big house and have something strangely supernatural happening to them one at a time,until they are all dead or the audience have left the building. Well a supernatural force is stopping the films protagonists from leaving the building,they try throwing tables at the windows,but to no avail,even exploitation veteran Andrew Prine comes to no good even when he tries to saw his way out of the building the fool manages to saw straight into his hand DOH what a do-fuss.Even when one of the groups dog,gets possessed,and start running amuck,although when the Alsatian runs down the corridor I swear thy use the sound effect of a Tie-fighter as the dog chases someone down.AS the staff dwindle in numbers and Pettet keeps seeing a ghostly figure who looks remarkably like the ghosts you see in an episode in Scooby Doo,Crenna finally comes to the conclusion that all is not well,especially when he finds a crypt in the basement (always a big giveaway if your house has a bloody great entrance to hell in its basement that something has gone astray),and if having a dirty great big hole under your house was going to diminish its value,then im pretty sure that having a Victor Buono in your basement is not going to add any value what so ever.If ever you needed a reason to sit through a film till the very end ( Howard the Duck being a prime example,very cool monster at the end) then seeing Mr Buono dressed all in white and developing horns is priceless. It does kind of remind me of the ending of Legend of Hell House where Roddy McDowall,confronts Michael Gough,and luckily before Buono can talk any more nonsense he gets a crucifix stabbed into him.I really enjoyed The Evil,its nonsensical and to talky at times but there's a couple of interesting demises and the whole film is still a fun watch.

[keirarts]

The Barn

Another attempt at replicating 80's VHS era trashy fun. Here a local legend of a Barn that if knocked on at All hallows eve releases flesh eating demons who seek out the people who knocked. Naturally some idiots (teenagers) kick things off one Halloween and must find a way of saving themselves.
This is one that'll probably be one to dig out at Halloween and for the most part it does its thing well. The acting is lousy in places and its not as good as beyond the gates which I felt really captured the style of something like an empire pictures feature. Its got some issues perhaps but I'd still say give it a chance if you get the opportunity.

Trainspotting

With T2 (no not the Arnie robot one) about to hit the cinema I'd thought I'd give this another go. Seeing as the book, a collection of Edinburgh set stories set around the late 70's and 80's is almost unadaptable, its admirable that the film manages to work as well as it does. Its nothing profound and being honest its actually pretty disposable in some respects but its so kinetic, witty and fun while actually addressing the grim realities of Heroin addiction that its still holds up today. Sitting here typing this in the grim future of 2017 it sort of makes me miss the 90's, and this is about as 90's as it gets and is probably as relevant to that point in time as the book is to the previous two decades.

Steve Jobs

More Danny Boyle. This one working as a companion piece of sorts to David Fincher's SOCIAL NETWORK, they share the same screenwriter in Aaorn Sorkin who manages to find inroads into potentially difficult material.
Here the action Focuses on several Apple presentations that punctuate the releases of products that are relevant to the companies history and uses this to track the Fortunes of Steve Jobs. Credit to Michael Fassbender who really manages to make Jobs somehow relateable given how horrid he is to the people in his life. Its not as good as Social network but much better than the Garbage fire that was the Ashton Kutcher take on Jobs. It Helps that the scripts great and Boyle is a decent director, hes just not Fincher.

[Cinematic Shocks]

Justice League Dark (2017)

*** out of *****

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

The Evil – Gus Trikonis (1977)

Nice review, Inspector.

I also enjoyed this one when I watched it as part of my trawl through Nightmare USA.

[trebor8273]

Hairy men, Raquel Welch in that bikini, Ray harryhausen effects and cave people comically leaping to their deaths, what's not too like! Its surprising how much emotion is gotting just from a few grunts and eye movement. 7.7/10




One of the best sequels to the original horror of dracula , Dracula is resurrected this time when the local priest of the village he used to terrorise and a Monsignor of a nearby city goto exorcise the Draculas castle. Once resurrected Dracula takes offence to this and seeks revenge on the monsignor by going after his niece he is help by the cowardly priest. Its up to the Monsignor and her boyfriend to try to save her. 8/10

Now watching black magic.