What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Noted D!


The Cassandra Crossing (1978, George Pan Cosmatos)
Sweaty Swede spoils several stars sojourn?
A disaster and a half movie this. Not only are the protagonists trapped on a speeding train with an incurable disease on board ... the Lancaster has a fiendish solution to their problems ....
I love this film. The sheer weight of the implausability nearly buckles it at points but tis all part and parcel of this genre. 9/10 ... because George Kennedy's not in it!

[troggi]

I recently re-watched Murnau's Nosferatu and got stung by the itch to re-watch Shadow of the Vampire. I dug around in the attic for half an hour and managed to find it.
I was pleased as Punch to find that I still love the film as much as I used to, even at my jaded age. I know that most of you worthy people have seen this strange and wonderful film so I won't bore you with details but I will comment on some of the features which struck me on this refreshment of my experience.
I will often let a film "wash over me", a lazy term for a lazy occupation, but last night I paid some attention. Hats off to Eddie Izzard and Alan Rickman for "nailing" their respective roles especially Rickman as the drained photographer he always seemed to portray tired characters rather well.
Dafoe's scheming Count Orlock was a masterpiece and, I would argue, perfectly under-played for such an over-the-top role. But the crowning glory of the piece is John Malkovich's Murnau. He throws out an aura of self-importance like only Malkovich can, except in the last third when he starts to realise his folly.
Ah! I think that I am sated until the next time I get "one-of-those-itches." As I already knew that Shadow of the Vampire was a 28/10 film I can't complain about wanting to watch it again, can I?

[Demoncrat]

It's good to see you back T!!

[Prince_Vajda]

Alien: Resurrection (1997). Theatrical cut.
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After Ripley's untimely death (one could really debate whether it was indeed untimely... at the end of Alien³, she must have been around 90 years or something... alright, I forgot hypersleep...don't you get any older during hypersleep...questions upon questions...) in Alien³, scientists don't allow her to stay dead. They use blood samples to clone her – and the cosy little alien queen inside her. It's easy to understand why they do that – I'd be interested in an outer skin that can withstand acid as a replacement for blood, too. Honestly, in 2379, researchers should be able to clone human beings – no objections. Unfortunately, it appears that they have lost the ability to read reports and/or to listen to voice recordings, as they still need pavlovian conditioning to find out that the alien species is quite intelligent. Or they suffer from dementia – they simply have forgotten that the crews of both the Nostromo and the Sulaco and almost the whole penal colony Fiorina "Fury" 161 were wiped out by alien creatures in the previous instalments. Luckily, they have kept Ripley's clone alive as well. She still is the power and the glory (Weaver seems to be one of the few female creatures whose sex appeal keeps growing...and growing... and growing), and with a little help from her friends (amongst them an incredibly bad-ass Perlman - and the sexiest android ever, played by Winona Ryder, although Fassbender comes in a very close second in Prometheus), she still kicks alien ass. Seriously now - this is one of the trashiest films I've ever seen – and I've watched BloodRayne and The Corpse Grinders. The story is something between non-existent and incredibly silly, there's more than one scene with a(n) (un)healthy dose of unintentional overacting, and the “child” of the alien and Ripley looks so silly you have to weep. Still, it is the last film with the Ripley character, and it has its moments. Half a star for Weaver, another one for Perlman... only one star, you ask? Alright, one more for this short dialogue between the two:
Ripley: Who do I have to **** to get off this boat?
Johner: I can get you off. Maybe not the boat.

Prometheus (2012).
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See post #44142 of this thread.
Addendum: The basic idea (a prequel to the Alien franchise) is brilliant. Most of us want to know where the buggers originally come from. The film itself is one of the better films of this decade, and a great effort by original Alien director Scott. Slowly paced, Prometheus succeeds in recreating the threatening mood of the 1979 film and still uses all the advantages of modern film-making – without currying favour with the modern trend of fast cuts and fountains of blood. This is one of the few films that would have benefited from a few more minutes of character development and an extended opening scene. Still definitely recommended.

Alien: Covenant (2017).
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After a stellar burst, the crew of the Covenant is in trouble. Despite a damaged ship,conflicts amongst the crew, and a dead captain, they immediately react to a signal from a nearby planet, hoping to avoid another round of boring hypersleep. Don't ask me how the aliens appear this time and once more succeed in killing many crew members – I guess it has to do with biology, pollen, hysterical women, and ignorance. A fellow researcher who has arrived at the new planet together with you suddenly pukes blood all over you? No problem, just take him on the spaceship! An android who wants to create his own species? Why not! A director who neglects his past and bows down to modern viewing patterns? Sure!
To keep this short and sweet: this is one of the major disappointments of 2017. Bold, unimaginative, ordinary – three words that aptly describe Scott's most recent (and mabye last) major film. Dialogue, style, cast, suspense – all the merits of Prometheus (and the original Alien) gone astray. Lots of CGI of varying quality, a huge amount of fake blood, and way too many close ups of the creature. Seriously, Mr Scott – how about those people who have been waiting for a compelling prequel trilogy to complement the original franchise? Now I already know what the alien looks like. Darn!

---

highest rating: four stars

[Deadite]

Train to Busan. Had this to watch for ages and finally felt like watching it. Pretty tense stuff that manages to mix horror, suspense, and tugging on the heart-strings that the Koreans are so good at. One or two cliche characters don't detract too much from a nail-biting ride. The bit where they crawl along the luggage racks above the zombies' heads in the darkness is one of the best scenes i've seen for a while.

Not too much grue on offer, but enough to let you know it isn't family viewing. If they'd upped the gore content, might have been looking at one of the best zombie flicks ever. As it is, the tone is more World War Z than Zombie Flesh Eaters. Well WWZ turned up a notch, anyway.

[nosferatu42]

Call girl of Cthulhu (2014)

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Heard of this awhile back but it never received a U.K release, which is a shame because although low budget it's a sleazy,bloody and endearingly silly film that i found really enjoyable.

Basically a girl shy young, virgin artist (Carter) wanting to get laid runs into a hooker who he develops a crush on, he hires her but instead of screwing he wants to paint her, they get talking and end up on a date. (for free!!)

Unfortunately she has a Cthulhu cult trying to find her, (due to her being the prophesied woman who would give birth to Cthulhu's baby and unleash the Old ones on the earth.) because she has a weird birthmark on her arse.

Carter is also asked by an old eye patched woman and her sidekick to draw illustrations from an old book (Necronomicon?) into a new copy (to confuse the cult), in doing so he finds information that could possibly save the world.

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In truth the effects aren't great but are at least practical and serviceable in a B-movie way and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film, which to me came off as a 80's style monster/gore/comedy along the lines of a Stuart Gordon film crossed with Frankenhooker with a pinch of Troma thrown in.

The lead artist guy,his housemate and the call girl all came off as better actors than you really would expect in this kind of film, but there are also a couple of hammy performances but these just added to the entertainment value for me.

The whole film is tongue in cheek with many cheeky references to Lovecraft stories such as 'Cool air' freshener,'Deep Ones' condoms and this housemate's music CD being called 'The Unnamable' because it defied description.

There is plenty of cheesy gore and a fair amount of tits too, so plus points for that too, I wasn't expecting much and because of it's throwaway tone i really enjoyed it, great title too.

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The U.S disc is going for a fair amount at the moment so i watched it on Youtube.
It's a shame this isn't released over here considering a lot of the unwatchable low budget shite that is.

Recommended 8/10

[nosferatu42]

Blood and Lace (1971)

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Not the Bava film, but an early 70's American chiller thriller B movie.

This ones about a young girl who ends up in an orphanage after someone took a hammer to her prostitute mum and a client, the girl arrives to find the place under strict rule by a stern woman and her drunk handyman.

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The small group of boys and girls are given tasks to do and small amounts of food, if they rebel they are punished by being tied up and are deprived of food and drink.
Understandably some want to escape only to be chased and killed,(obviously the deaths are kept hidden from them), the girl wants to escape to find her absent father and whilst attempting to unearths the places secrets.
Meanwhile a disfigured man wanders about the place with a hammer and also stalks the girl.

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This is pretty low budget film and has a kind of T.V feel to the way it is shot, also it seems to use some bizarre stock footage style music, but i found it entertaining.
The kills are not particularly gory but it makes up for it with a grubby vibe. (pretty much every adult character is unlikeable, being either sleazy and lecherous or totally nuts.)

Even though it feels grimy there is no nudity, but the performances of the girl and adult female leads are reasonable and these make the film work.
Also there are some strange plot points that are a bit bizarre,such as corpses being kept in the belief they will be brought back by science and a final twist that is pretty downbeat.

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Strangely i watched 'The house that screamed' last week, both films share many similar plot points and it is interesting to compare the styles, 'House..' is definitely the superior film though.

Still this film had enough good stuff going on to keep me interested.

I liked it. 7/10

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Strike of the Tortured Angels

Hong Kong WiP exploiter that offers nothing new to the genre but does have one of the actors in black face and an Afro wig as I presume there were no black actresses free to make the film. Exploitation gold for that alone.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Cul-De-Sac (1966)

More garbage from Roman Polanski (See also The Fearless Vampire Killers). Supposedly a black comedy i found it neither dark nor funny... just rubbish! Having said that it had some nice black and white photography that made Lindisfarne look interesting, other than that i was bored from the outset as the film's style was there for all to see.

I don't plan to get rid of the Odeon disc, it may well entice me to give it another go next year. Perhaps i just wasn't in the mood.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Cul-De-Sac (1966)

More garbage from Roman Polanski (See also The Fearless Vampire Killers). Supposedly a black comedy i found it neither dark nor funny... just rubbish! Having said that it had some nice black and white photography that made Lindisfarne look interesting, other than that i was bored from the outset as the film's style was there for all to see.

I don't plan to get rid of the Odeon disc, it may well entice me to give it another go next year. Perhaps i just wasn't in the mood.

Maybe it's a 'Marmite film', maybe you weren't in the right mood. I hope I didn't convince you to waste your money and you enjoy it on your next viewing, whenever that is.