What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Watched Looking for Eric tonight,and I msut say,I thoroughly enjoyed it.
They don't make players like Cantona anymore.

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by Angel

I thought the Hills Have Eyes 2 remake was every bit as bad as the original sequel. If not worse.

I thought it was all right! Perfectly watchable and efficiently made if a big step down from Aja's remake. Craven's original Hills Have Eyes 2 is a massive turkey with no redeeming features other than the occasional unintentional laugh at its ineptitude. The modern HHE2 may not be a classic but it's vastly better made than Craven's lazy effort.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by Angel

I thought the Hills Have Eyes 2 remake was every bit as bad as the original sequel. If not worse.

Did nothing for me either.

Craven's original Hills still towers over the sequels and cash-ins.

[pedromonkey]

i really enjoyed the remake of hills but not so much the sequal, although i still own it.

[42ndStreetFreak]

This reminded me of another reason British Horror has to struggle...there are no longer any studios that make a huge series of horror films.
Today they are all really one off, indy, productions.



"The Mummy" (1959)

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvmummy.php


A huge improvement over the original 'Universal' snooze-fest (remove the first - and only- Mummy scene and Karloff in general and you have empty air) 'Hammers' version of the tale actually owes more to Universal's sequels in the fact that you actually have a Mummy rampaging around, that he's called Kharis (not Im-ho-tep) and we have the inclusion of Princess Ananka.

But as the 3rd in the big 'classic monster' trilogy that got 'Hammer' truly off and running as Horror film makers, it's been doomed to stand in the shadows of the other two films.
"Curse of Frankenstein" got the spotlight for being the first, "Dracula" got to be the most iconic and so "The Mummy" was fated to be the one bringing up the rear, while the ball was now already rolling anyway.

Christopher Lee makes for perhaps the best looking and physically effective Mummy ever put on screen ('Hammers' underrated "The Mummy's Shroud" is a better film, but the Mummy is pretty goofy and tubby looking, and a lot of the 'Universal' sequel Mummy's were too bulky/short and had silly looking slicked down hair) and he is given a lot of rampaging to do...the way Lee's Karis smashes through doors and windows is groovy in the extreme.

Cushing has a bland role but adds his own charm to it as the lame son of the archeologist that caused the trouble in the first place by opening the tomb (a nice, initially wonderfully arrogant, turn by Felix Alymer) and he has a couple of impressive action/stunt scenes while fighting Lee, resulting in one of 'Hammers' most famous stills, that of Cushing ramming a metal arrow through the Mummy.

Talking of action in fact it was nice to actually see more (unlike Universal's films) than just a blank firing gun when people shot at the Mummy, as here we also had the bullet hits as big, dusty, holes were blown in Kharis as he powered on regardless towards his prey.

But the film is padded out with a too long flashback (nice vocal work though by pre-banged Lee) that films almost every step taken by every extra as they plod along to the tomb and that, when added to Cushing's overly dray narration, seems like a university lecture than anything else.
The ancient Egyptian props look pretty awful as well, in fact the entire flashback looks like a ridiculously well-funded school play.

The whole 'my wife just happens to look like the Princess' sub-plot was badly handled too.
It's an old Mummy plot device, but here it was shoe-horned into the plot purely to stop Kharis throttling Cushing's character (which is tediously repeated, as the exact same thing, in the exact same circumstances, in the exact same room happens twice) and the sheer, farcical, coincidence that the completely random person involved in opening the tomb just so happens to have randomly married a woman who looks like the Princess of whose tomb they found beggars belief.

Luckily we have some choice support characters though (a nice drunken poacher performance by good old Michael Ripper and a fun turn by Eddie "Island of Terror" Byrne as a Police Inspector for example) and the effective looking Mummy, the good solid action plus the nice cinematography and visuals (Kharis rising from the swamp is superb...the only reason he was dropped in the swamp in fact was so they could do this scene) help to compensate for the less than interesting (and sometimes sloppy) screenplay and the padding.
So overall we have a rather good Mummy film, but only an average Hammer film overall.

[Richcrue]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak

"Shutter Island"

You can see what's coming though (though where you pick it up I know varies) and only the VERY end was a real surprise.
And this little bit (listen to the final sentence said in the film) saved the film from just being ho hum. As it was a nice little idea and added a real poignancy to the final moments.

Agreed,saw it Friday and liked it,just back from the flicks an hour ago,took my son to see Kick Ass,wasnt expecting much but was surprised by the amount of language and violence,5 out of 10.

[DeadAlive]

Fireball
Some extremely violent action but very little else in this Thai film that combines basketball and underground fighting. If only the characters and story had half as much going for it as the action...........

The Big Hit
I just can't take Mark Wahlberg seriously as an action star. He makes me laugh, especially when he's trying to be serious or tough. Kirk Wong delivers some cracking action and that helps lift this just above average. Enjoyable but very forgettable fluff with Lou Diamond Phillips overacting his socks off.


Black Samurai
Jim Kelly Blaxploitation directed by Al Adamson that is more unintentional laughs than actual thrills. Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad fight scenes. They just don't make them like this anymore. I understand Al Adamson was quite the exploitation merchant in the late sixties through to the seventies. From some of his other films titles I must try and watch some more of his films.

[pedromonkey]

Watched Night Of The Comet last night, cheesy as hell but great fun. Very Very 80s indeed, then watched Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow on E4 this afternoon, great retro sci-fier.

[re.form]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak
"Dog Soldiers"
"The Descent"
"Shaun of the Dead"
"Doghouse"
"Deathwatch"
"Tony"
"28 Days Later"
"28 Weeks Later"
"Last Horror Fim"
"Mum and Dad"
"The Children"
"The Cottage"
"Colin"
"Small Town Folk"
"Hush"
"Creep"
"Wilderness"
"Severance"
"Triangle"

I liked most of these. I haven't seen Triangle yet but looking forward to it. I will pick at "The Cottage" though. It felt like a really cynical attempt at a horror film. I nearly walked out of the cinema after listening to that lass out of Brookside for the first 30 mins.

I recently watched 'Mutant' aka Night Shadows. Starring a man called Wings Hauser.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by re.form

I recently watched 'Mutant' aka Night Shadows. Starring a man called Wings Hauser.

I can't remember the last time I saw Wings Hauser in a film.His son,Cole Hauser played Johns in Pitch Black and the villain in 2 Fast 2 Furious.