What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[iank]

Saw Top Secret! again last night. Val Kilmer is a cheesy rock 'n' roll singer allowed into East Germany to perform, only to become embroiled with a resistance movement. This early 80s spoof comedy does for WWII spy movies what Airplane! and The Naked Gun did for disaster and cop films and is, indeed, from the same team behind those classics. Top Secret! isn't quite in their league, but is still very funny and entertaining and remains perennially rewatchable.
My favourite joke remains the East Germany Women's Athletic Team, all of whom are big burly blokes in drag!

[J Harker]

JFK. 1991. Oliver Stone.

Not sure what to say about this one really. Its long? I'm not really up on the subject matter and I'm not sure this film helps as far as i can tell a lot of it is Stones version of events. Basically following the assassination of 35th President of the United States John F.Kennedy, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison becomes convinced that there is more to the assassination than the official story is revealing. As a piece of entertainment its not half bad. I felt it would actually work extremely well had it been entirely fictional, as it is it feels like Stone has made a documentary based upon his ideas and beliefs, which while not necessarily untrue are hardly substantiated fact. Kevin Costner as Garrison is superb. Personally i think the sometimes great Tommy Lee Jones is woefully miscast as New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw and Joe Pesci apart from looking preposterous just seems to play Joe Pesci. A sweary shouty obnoxious little man. Works in Goodfellas, grates like hell here. So all in all worth a watch provided you have Peter Jackson worthy levels of free time spare.

[SymbioticFunction]

Watched Trainspotting 2. Is more than decent but I personally wouldn't award more than 7/10. My wife said that was a fair score. The film is a nice companion piece to the original, groundbreaking film but won't sway anyone who wasn't already a fan. Was nice to see that Robert Carlyle's Begbie could still be rather scary, even if he is suffering from erectile dysfunction. And Miller, McGregor and Bremner all give solid performances. There is another nauseating moment where someone vomits with their head inside a plastic bag which also made me feel a little poorly. But standout scene is easily when Renton and Begbie slowly realise that they are in adjacent toilet cubicles - is very amusing. I'll also make mention of some nice use of T1 footage and body doubles to show past character activities. In short, could happily watch again.

[Frankie Teardrop]

PET – Pretty good thriller about a lonely guy who imprisons his high school crush in the basement of a dog pound. 'Pet' keeps the graphic side reined in and tries to focus on the interplay between the two leads, an aspect catered for by good performances from Monaghan and Solo. Whereas it could've gone the John Fowles route, 'Pet' ends up drawing in B-movie elements which tend to undermine any serious attempts at psychology, the main awkward moment being a reveal midway through which had me thinking “come on, guys...”. That's OK as far as the simple enjoyment angle goes, but it turns it into a different kind of movie. Anyway, 'Pet' is worth seeing, a slightly cock-eyed but sometimes fairly intense exploration of the captor-captive dynamic which will keep you entertained.

PIECES – Well, I've seen 'Pieces' a good few times in the past, so I thought what better to do than check it out again with a friend and a big pile of booze? After all, that's what movies like 'Pieces' are made for, right? Pizza and beer? Should be a real laugh. Surprisingly, I thought it was a drag. Maybe it was the experience of watching it with someone else present (I'm not great with that kind of thing, I find it difficult to immerse myself if I'm constantly reminded of a second pair of eyes in the room), but what stood out more than the kills, the weirdness and the clunky lines were the long drawn out sequences of police procedural and flatly rendered passages of people not doing much. Even the infamous “Bastard bastard bastard” moment failed to rouse a titter. Ah well, maybe we were both in a mood.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

PET – Pretty good thriller about a lonely guy who imprisons his high school crush in the basement of a dog pound. 'Pet' keeps the graphic side reined in and tries to focus on the interplay between the two leads, an aspect catered for by good performances from Monaghan and Solo. Whereas it could've gone the John Fowles route, 'Pet' ends up drawing in B-movie elements which tend to undermine any serious attempts at psychology, the main awkward moment being a reveal midway through which had me thinking “come on, guys...”. That's OK as far as the simple enjoyment angle goes, but it turns it into a different kind of movie. Anyway, 'Pet' is worth seeing, a slightly cock-eyed but sometimes fairly intense exploration of the captor-captive dynamic which will keep you entertained.

PIECES – Well, I've seen 'Pieces' a good few times in the past, so I thought what better to do than check it out again with a friend and a big pile of booze? After all, that's what movies like 'Pieces' are made for, right? Pizza and beer? Should be a real laugh. Surprisingly, I thought it was a drag. Maybe it was the experience of watching it with someone else present (I'm not great with that kind of thing, I find it difficult to immerse myself if I'm constantly reminded of a second pair of eyes in the room), but what stood out more than the kills, the weirdness and the clunky lines were the long drawn out sequences of police procedural and flatly rendered passages of people not doing much. Even the infamous “Bastard bastard bastard” moment failed to rouse a titter. Ah well, maybe we were both in a mood.

That'll teach you to watch a movie with your high school crush. Put her back in the basement and move on.

Who is John Fowles and where's his route?

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

That'll teach you to watch a movie with your high school crush. Put her back in the basement and move on.

Who is John Fowles and where's his route?

He wrote The Collector.

[trebor8273]

A fine example of a horror that shows you don't need bags of gore and jump scares for a horror to be successful. Beautifully shot and directed with a fantastic chilling atmosphere, that ranks up there with the best hammers and Roger Corman, Poe movies. Only small downside is the acting of some of the younger actors, but this is made up for by Lee and the older actors and the direction and atmosphere. Also fantastic picture quality on the arrow blu. 9/10

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

Also fantastic picture quality on the arrow blu. 9/10

Thought you said this didn't look any different from other releases of the film treb? Or did i misunderstand?

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Thought you said this didn't look any different from other releases of the film treb? Or did i misunderstand?

That was the creepers cut of phenomena, this only seen on DVD.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

That was the creepers cut of phenomena, this only seen on DVD.

My apologies. My original query was let us know what City of the Dead looks like. I've only seen it as Horror Hotel via one of those old super cheapo dvd sets. So it looks the business then?