What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

7/10

Enjoyable and well acted but figured the twist very early on.

Tickets gotten for IT tonight.

[Demoncrat]

Agency (1980, George Kaczender)

Now the plight of an advertising executive may not be a high priority on most folks lists. But seeing as this one is played by old robot legs himself, Lee Majors a few more ears may prick up. One of a slew of post Watergate films .... in the same ball park as Looker(1981) if you squint a bit. Rather faded 4:3 print here from Boulevard even though it's blatantly a port with the FBI warning at the start Will look into a clearer one later, as it's a decent enough potboiler.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Jawbone

Excellent British boxing film that travels a well worn path but excels and outshines more recent Hollywood boxing flicks in its quietness and detailed performances. There is little detail or background to the story of a once promising fighter now a homeless alcoholic returning to the ring to possibly find redemption or perhaps to numb his mental pain in a more concrete , physical way. The film leads up to an unlicensed boxing match which is shown in a blitz of camera angles and close ups, delivering a genuine feel of the violence in the sport. Filmed in what seems to be a world of eternal night time in back streets of despair wrapped up in a great sound design with Paul Weller's excellent first film score snaking in and out of it, the film bleeds a world of pain that may or may not be possible to escape.

Highly recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Fiend Without a Face (1958)

An odd British production that's so Americanized in it's setting, styles and well, everything really, that you'd scarcely believe it was made entirely in England.

To be honest this alien invasion thriller isn't all that great as it plods along without much happening aside from an invisible force knocking over a bucket of water as it passes by. There's a standard plot about some sort of alien force using rocket experiments as a way to power up but basically sod all happens.

Then fifteen minutes from the end all hell breaks loose. We ditch the affable sci-fi nonsense and the film becomes an utterly macabre horror fest. The aliens are revealed as grotesque brain-spine creatures that suck away human brains in a thrilling siege reminiscent of zombie films to come, as a small band of people are trapped in a house during an onslaught of flying brains.

It sounds preposterous and it is, but it's also utterly thrilling and gruesomely gory for it's time as brains are splattered and blood runs re...er' black and white.

Recommended.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Fiend Without a Face (1958)

An odd British production that's so Americanized in it's setting, styles and well, everything really, that you'd scarcely believe it was made entirely in England.

To be honest this alien invasion thriller isn't all that great as it plods along without much happening aside from an invisible force knocking over a bucket of water as it passes by. There's a standard plot about some sort of alien force using rocket experiments as a way to power up but basically sod all happens.

Then fifteen minutes from the end all hell breaks loose. We ditch the affable sci-fi nonsense and the film becomes an utterly macabre horror fest. The aliens are revealed as grotesque brain-spine creatures that suck away human brains in a thrilling siege reminiscent of zombie films to come, as a small band of people are trapped in a house during an onslaught of flying brains.

It sounds preposterous and it is, but it's also utterly thrilling and gruesomely gory for it's time as brains are splattered and blood runs re...er' black and white.

Recommended.

I loved this film when I was a kid. The brain creatures seemed super creepy.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

I loved this film when I was a kid. The brain creatures seemed super creepy.

They are, i thought them very memorable. It's such a pity they only feature for a quarter of an hour.

[Demoncrat]

Always loved Fiend... Glad you dug it D.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Always loved Fiend... Glad you dug it D.

I certainly did.

The new Screenbound dvd looks decent. It's possibly not up to the standards of the Criterion release but it seemed a good quality print.

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I certainly did.

The new Screenbound dvd looks decent. It's possibly not up to the standards of the Criterion release but it seemed a good quality print.

Why do you say it plods along??? Surely its building tension to its final climatic battle of humans vs flying brains...

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

Why do you say it plods along??? Surely its building tension to its final climatic battle of humans vs flying brains...

I'd say that should be the denouement to every film, but it might get boring after a while.