What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Callan (1974, Don Sharp)
The 70s TV adaptation that everyone forgets ahem. Seedier than Palmer, our boy returns to the fold for one last job. Anthony Valentine excels as a nemesis/fellow agent and Russell Hunter is an apology in human form as timid informant Lonely. Brisk if uneven pacing.

Anthony Valentine is always worth a watch. Did you ever see him as Major Mohn in Colditz? Terrific stuff.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Anthony Valentine is always worth a watch. Did you ever see him as Major Mohn in Colditz? Terrific stuff.

The only thing I remember about Colditz is the episode where one of the prisoners drives himself into a breakdown in order to 'escape'. Noted.

[iank]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Callan (1974, Don Sharp)
The 70s TV adaptation that everyone forgets ahem. Seedier than Palmer, our boy returns to the fold for one last job. Anthony Valentine excels as a nemesis/fellow agent and Russell Hunter is an apology in human form as timid informant Lonely. Brisk if uneven pacing.

Do you mean the movie version? I didn't think Valentine was in that.

[keirarts]

Christine

John Carpenter's adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name has built up something of a fanbase over the years. It's poor reception on release somewhat redeemed. Watching it again after a good few years I can still see the problems with the film. However seeing it in HD in it's correct ratio its also possible to recognise the moments of genius in it as well.
Christine has sequences that stand out as Carpenter at the top of his game. The attack on the gas station and Christine's pursuit of one of the bully's down the highway while on fire is genuinely breathtaking. Keith Gordon is Great as Arnie and the score is excellent. The problems all seem to stem from turning a somewhat weighty and detailed novel into a feature length movie. Arnies corruption by Christine feels a little rushed. His Romance with Leigh seems to just happen and doesn't develop. This might have worked if the film had opted to keep things from his Buddy Dennis perspective but we get a whole lot of scenes with Arnie on his own so it feels a little muddles.
So from a storytelling perspective its a little muddled which lets it down but its still a nice little film and worth checking out.

Starman

Feeling a lot like Carpenter looked at the Scmaltzy crap people were flocking to in the 80's in a bid to feel good about themselves, Starman is probably one of Carpenters most commercial pictures. If your after a good romance plot its still decent, and Carpenter delivers something very watchable and probably better than a lot of the films it was inspired by. However I still could not shrug off the feeling of diabetic coma after watching it.

Big trouble in little China.

After scoring his first commercial success in a while and not alienating 80's critics in the process, Carpenter was given Carte blanche once again to deliver a film that was more in keeping with his sensibilities. He teams up again with Kurt Russell to deliver an action comedy inspired by his love of kung fu pictures. Russell plays Greenhorn Jack Burton, a trucker who spends his down times gambling down the docks. After his buddy Wang chi owes him $2000 Jack is keen not to let Wang out of his sight and sticks with him. Heading to the airport to collect Wang's new bride they are attacked by the lords of death, an chinese street gang. Jack then finds himself unwittingly lured into the plot of a mystical martial arts Odyssey which he navigates through bravado and sheer luck.
Big Trouble is possibly Carpenters most intentionally funny picture. Its still the one that makes me chuckle the most. Especially Jack Burton whose cocky overconfidence is hysterical. "we may be trapped" is one of the funniest moments in the film for me. It got pretty much buried by the studio at the time who were worried about the 'white saviour' narrative and perceived racial insensitivity. I genuinely feel that this was more a case of the people watching it not really getting it as Jack Burton is clearly a buffoon and is essentially a sidekick who thinks he's the hero.

[keirarts]

Prince of Darkness

After Big Trouble essentially got buried by its studio, Carpenter returned to lower budgeted pictures. Here he draws inspirations from John Wyndham and Nigel Kneale to create an apocalyptic Horror about ancient superstitions filtered through 20th century rationalism. Quatermass and the Pit is one definite inspiration as like in that film an ancient alien artefact is unearthed that has links to early Judeo christian myth. Here its a strange green vial of antimatter that has been kept secret by the church for thousands of years. A group of physicists are brought in to study the vial and discover that it has intelligence and appears to be waking up.
One central complaint about Prince is that it essentially becomes a 'zombie movie' in its final act. Honestly I think that's ok as Carpenter is clearly working within a budget and it mostly works for the picture. The single location keeps things contained and he uses it well. The score as usual is great, here genuinely eerie and suspenseful and Carpenter brings back some old hands including the always brilliant Donald Pleasance.

They Live

Carpenter delivers an old school science fiction picture with clear B-movie aesthetic and then infuses it with radical political theory to create a satire on eighties capitalism that feels even more relevant today as it was back then.
Rowdy Roddy Piper plays John Nada (nothing, nobody...geddit!) a construction worker who heads to the big city to find work after small town and rural America's industry has been decimated by hyper capitalism and Globalism. While the shanty town he's living in is being raided, Nada discovers sunglasses that when worn reveal the world as it truly is. He discovers aliens have weaponised Capitalism and exploited human greed to covertly enslave the human race and asset strip the planet. After getting into a brutal fight with his friend Frank he gets him to put the glasses on as well and the pair of them end up joining the human resistance.
Released in 1988, a year after Oliver Stone launched a blistering attack on Reganomics with Wall Street, They live is a smart and witty satire that makes its points without becoming preachy or too self important. Even if you don't subscribe to its politics its still a highly entertaining picture. The near ten minute street fight between Nada and Frank that pushes itslef into absurdity is a good example. At face value its a comic scene but beneath the surface it could also be viewed as exposing the futility of racial conflict under an economic system that screws over both sides.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Monster Club (1981)

A final throw of the dice from Amicus kingpin Milton Subotsky. Although not an Amicus production, that company's and Subotsky's finger prints are all over it, sadly this anthology is a mere imitation of what came before.

The fact the whole thing seems played for laughs rather than scares doesn't help although it is nice to see Vincent Price and John Carradine bantering in the wrap around story - pity about the godawful Monster Club setting. It only needed Christopher Lee in his horrendous Howling II shades and the nightmare would be complete... and not in a good way.

Of the three tales on offer The Shadmock, The Vampires and The Ghouls, only the latter shows any promise as movie director Stuart Whitman scouts locations and comes across a small isolated village, reminiscent of City of the Dead's Whitewood. This is the only story told with any horrific verve and the only one worth revisiting, although it has to be said the bureaucratic vampire killers - Donald Pleasence, Anthony Valentine and Neil McCarthy - are a delightful comedy team throughout the middle story. First offering The Shadmock is instantly forgettable.

[nosferatu42]

I really like 'The Monster club', i think the jokey tone gives it it's own vibe and separates it from other anthology's of the time.

Only the 2nd story is actually lighthearted itself.

The Shadmock story i always remembered the most as a kid, (used to watch it every time it showed up on T.V so it's a nostalgia thing too) think it was the fried cat that stuck in my head.

I even like the songs, so i must be a no hoper really.

Being an arty type kid i always liked the monster hierarchy illustration too.

Monsters-genealogy-chart.jpg

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

I really like 'The Monster club', i think the jokey tone gives it it's own vibe and separates it from other anthology's of the time.



Being an arty type kid i always liked the monster hierarchy illustration too.

Attachment 199087

That part had me with my head in my hands.

Werevamps and Vamgoos ...

[nosferatu42]

Yeah but Vincent Price says it with such relish.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Yeah but Vincent Price says it with such relish.

And an awful lot of ham to go with the relish.