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  #4341  
Old 4th April 2010, 04:37 PM
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Watched the story of ricky last night..1st time i ever seen it
I know it ott and a no brainer film and the gore and violence to be taken with humour and a pinch salt and its deffo ott but even then sometimes these type of films can still get a bit silly ...i was doing exactly as the above and well sort of enjoying it but when the governer changed into a resemblance of the hulk totaly ruined it for me
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  #4342  
Old 4th April 2010, 04:57 PM
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Pit and the Pendulum(Vincent Price and Barbara Steele) Great version of this, some fantastic sets and the usual creepy acting from Price.
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  #4343  
Old 4th April 2010, 06:49 PM
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This afternoon we watched The War Of The Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused, which was an absolutely fantastic fan edit of Star Wars, complete with deleted scenes, alternate takes, behind the scene footage, new music, and new special effects to make up a completely re-imagined version of Star Wars.

Highly recommended!


Now we're watching my Easter present...



Half way through and loving it!
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  #4344  
Old 4th April 2010, 07:47 PM
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"Strange Days"

Sits with "The Hurt Locker" as Bigelow's best film.
As it's not hampered by a dreadfully weak and generally crap ending like "Near Dark" or hampered by just being total crap full stop like "Point Break".

Seriously undervalued and underrated at the time "Strange Days" may have flaws, the simplistically liberal and often one-sided politics of the piece that never bothered me before now seems dated to these 9/11 hardened eyes (Bigelow is often the most male of women directors, here she wants to be the most black male of women directors) and it is perhaps a bit too baggy in places.

But overall this is a wonderful piece of well made alternative reality/futuristic sci-fi drama/thriller making with a great cast all in top form.
The action is sparse but well staged but the highlight here are the characters and the performances.
Fiennes, Sizemore and Bassett (where she'd go) are the best of a fine bunch and the story is clever and interesting.

Mind you, seeing as the move into 2000 was in the end perhaps the world's biggest anti-climax it's very strange to see such a HUGE deal made of that New Year's eve here.
And Bigelow was surely living in a lovely fantasy world if she thought the world's biggest new year's eve celebrations would be blessed with a soundtrack of Hard House, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal!



"Natural Born Killers" - Director's Cut

Oliver Stone's vastly superior adaptation of Tarantino's rather lacklustre and bland screenplay (the same happened with the superior adaptation of his "True Romance" too) still holds up as one of the most outrageous, nasty, cynical, bruising, sadistic, twisted, nightmarish, stylish movies ever produced.
And certainly a highlight of that glorious 90's decade of balls-out actions films and extreme thrillers.

Superb soundtrack superbly used, a stunning cast all doing exactly the right thing in exactly the way it needed doing, wonderful set-pieces, jarring violence and sexual brutality and Stone makes great use of Tarantino's basic screenplay and ideas while adding so much extra greatness in the transition from page to screen.

Still unlike anything made before or since..."NBK" is an undervalued masterwork of cinematic extremes.
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  #4345  
Old 4th April 2010, 09:11 PM
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The first person POV scene in Strange Days is one of the best technical achievements in wacky camerwork I've ever seen. It's awesome.

I really like all of Bigelow's stuff. Near Dark is my fave but she does macho stuff better than the boys as well.
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  #4346  
Old 4th April 2010, 11:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak View Post
Still unlike anything made before or since..."NBK" is an undervalued masterwork of cinematic extremes.
Must admit to liking the incredibly eccentric soundtrack too. Nine Inch Nails, Leonard Cohen, Patsy Cline, and Bob Dylan warbling what appears to be an underwater rendition of You Belong To Me.
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  #4347  
Old 5th April 2010, 12:16 AM
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"The Wild Man of the Navidad"


This was going to be the subject of a proper, screen caps and all, review. Now I've seen this junk though it ain't worth it.

Here be spoilers....as quite frankly (despite what some review sites who should know better may try to tell you after watching their freebie screeners) no one else needs waste their ****ing hard earned money on this.

Yes, the makers got the look right (cheap white-out contrast problems aside) to give this the style of a 70's Drive-In/Grindhouse flick and the compositions and framing are genuinely astute at carrying this off.
As were the great retro looking titles.

But that's as much as this lifeless, dull, badly written, just frustratingly weak and generally naff movie gets to the real thing.

I don't know of any 70's 'creature' flick that would let over half the running time go past without barely a glimpse, or one single attack (let alone death) from the creature.
At the very least these films gave us pre-credit/opening sequence establishing the creature's presence and threat the essential hook to thrill and pull in the audience while (YES) the often long build-up occurs to the next attack...here though we literally have nothing at all offered up to us.

At about 55 minutes (of an 83 minute film) in we finally have an attack, on characters we have spent a good five minute of constant screen time following.
And what are we given after this agonising wait?
A single shot of the creature, in the dark, bloodlessly attacking a tiny tent (the two characters are nowhere to be seen) with just dubbed on over screams to represent people being present.

Just over an hour in we finally have a tiny bit of real gore. Which is simply a bit of blood and some endlessly recycled, dried up looking, offal strips resting on the actor.
And as in all these weak, badly shot, attacks there are no meaty sound effects at all to represent what we are constantly not shown. Something real 70's movie makers were adept at providing to cover up their visual limitations.

Nothing much happens again then until the very end with one more attack that is once again just a splash of blood and bits of sad offal strips resting on the actor before the 'creature' is despatched, after a thrill free hunt by some bored and confused looking guys in sweaty shirts, in a totally bloodless fashion, by one single bullet, by what sounds like a cap gun.
The End.
Thank ****!

As a creature on the loose flick it utterly fails to deliver the thrills, kills or chills and even the gory fun.
The creature is a worthless looking, threat free, guy in a bunch of old rags and skins...that is never in doubt...and yet the makers still try to make out this may be a creature.
As such we get neither a successful rendering of a monster OR a successful rendering of a mad man.
Real deals like "Don't go in the Woods...Alone" shows how to deliver a wild man killer in a satisfying way (and a damn huge, gore-filled, body count besides) and yet that gets slagged off while this junk gets praised.

And even as a 'backroads' hick flick it fails due to the schizo writing and dull characters.
Shadowed plot points about the 'creature' are brought up (the main characters even know about it and - in endlessly repeated scenes of boredom - leave food out for it) with even the Sheriff knowing something even before any killing starts and yet he does nothing at all to stop any of it happening.

And exactly what retro movie world do the makers think a cheap Drive-In creature flick would be half in Spanish with subtitles?!
Make your minds up!

This also brings up the awful character writing for a guy named Mario who seems to be the live in (?) help to the main guy and his invalid wife.
One minute Mario is a total sleaze who tortures and sexually assaults the wife (even that's done in a dull fashion)...the next minute he's a wise friend to the husband and...wait for it...the moral backbone of the story!
But hold on! Next scene he's molesting the helpless wife again!
Worse, his eventual demise (basically he's the joint lead as far as screen time goes) happens off screen!

"The Wild Man of Navidad" may have the look of a 70's exploitation film but it has NONE of the scuzzy energy, passion, wonderful characters, wonderful dialogue, cheap thrills, bloodlust, eccentricity or simple thudding violence of the real thing...and that's despite what the bogus quotes on the DVD may say to make you part with your cash.

Go watch the real deal. Don't be suckered like I was with this failed retro effort.
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  #4348  
Old 5th April 2010, 12:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak View Post


"Natural Born Killers" - Director's Cut

Oliver Stone's vastly superior adaptation of Tarantino's rather lacklustre and bland screenplay (the same happened with the superior adaptation of his "True Romance" too)
actually not much has changed in the True Romance script, as it was not adapted but tweeked by QT and tony Scott together. TR was originally the basis of NBK of which both films were constructed around the screenplay, well elements of Tarantino's My Best Friends Birthday, I liked NBK because Stone took what could have been a Great Single Narative lovers on the lamb kinda film and changed it to a critique on Media and the way the media's Coverage of certain events are shown. This was a good idea otherwise we would have had 2 True Romances, so if this is Stone's Take on TR, then congrats to stone. I think that NBK is a complete one of a kind and the kind of film maybe we may never see again. It's absolutely insane, the direction is nuts, the sound track is fantastic and everyone of the cast members is standout especially Woody Harrelson, who for me has never topped his performance and Tommy Lee Jones who need to make more films like this and the Fugative. If im gonna be completely honest i don't think Oliver stone has made a descent film since this though.
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  #4349  
Old 5th April 2010, 12:37 AM
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Yeah but the changed (improved) ending and the total removal of the non-linear time frame structure (in "Res" and "Pulp" it works superbly, here it did nothing at all) from the screenplay were pretty big changes.

Agreed though, QT was more involved in "TR" than he ever was in "NBK".
But quite frankly his screenplay was a dull retread of "Badlands". Stone took it and made it something all together greater.
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  #4350  
Old 5th April 2010, 12:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak View Post
But quite frankly his screenplay was a dull retread of "Badlands".
I totally agree with you there. The problem alot of people have is that although his films are usually great and fun to watch, he's not exactly the most original of writers. He seems to borrow, take, homage everything. You just have to listen to his comentaries.
Take kill bill for instance, there's not an original bone in that entire film, almost every scene if from something else, but he strings it together to make a completely new thing, although this didn't happen with death proof as that just sucked. Even pulp fiction, he's just refering back to seventies crime movies and bringing them in to the modern era, I am a QT enthusiast and i enjoy everything the man makes, but even i can see that he's not the most original film maker and im just waiting for the day he makes a completely straight movie. no chapters, no cuts to different days just one straight linier time line.
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