What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[James Morton]

Originally Posted by gag

Just fin watching untold story
Would have enjoyed it better if the actor was a tadge better, i mean the police what was that all about they made them act like simpltons at times and made keystone cops looks good, the transfer of the dialouge could have been better...accosionaly i barely read 1st word and it went of and sometimes mistakes like y did u kill his family .. why dud u kill his hemily or bastard become bustard very bad and clumsy

The director of THE UNTOLD STORY, Herman Yau, says in the commentary he injected some humour into the film, because he thought it was too depressing!

[cinematheque]

Many Hong Kong film scrips are written as they're filmed. Sometimes results in inconsistency of style or story. Often makes for entertaining viewing though. THats my excuse for the untold story. I hear there's a sequel too. If you like that then try The Ebola Syndrome. My bag was searched on the way back from China and the customs guy found the lurid and horrible video box of this movie!

[oaxaca]

Just watching Q: the winged serpent! This is some awesome film! Moriarty scatting to jazz then robbing a jewellery shop called "Neil Diamonds", a window cleaner had his head lopped off, a bloke was skinned alive and a nude woman sunbathing was grabbed by a winged serpent, killed and everyone got a blood shower. Not to mention Carradine & Roundtree are in it!!

And its only been on for 15 mins!!

[42ndStreetFreak]

Yeah..."Q" is good old school fun. Larry Cohen was on a roll.



A couple of stinkers....

"The Strange World of Planet X" -

1950's British sci-fi flick with that stars Forrest 'I love England' Tucker as a scientist.

Magnetic experimental shenanigans have let in those naughty cosmic rays and thus some people have been turned mad and the insects have all become giant!

Now that sounds like a right winner does it not!?
Sadly though it takes about an hour for anything to happen aside from scientific babble and workplace romance (with a woman dubbed over with an 'Allo Allo' French accent) until we eventually have some truly dire insect attack scenes that are simply footage real bugs blown up and superimposed next to the actors ("Empire of the Ants" would still be using this crap method decades later).

But actually such mind-blowing FX sequences are a rarity here. Most of the 'action' is a handful of soldiers in a field shooting their guns off to the left or right of the frame before we cut to a completely separate 'National Geographic' scene of a real insect scuttling about.
And that's your lot!

This print was sadly missing the one moment that sounded slightly interesting (a soldier's face pulled off - a mask pulled off a joke store plastic skull supposedly!) so I was left with nothing but truly dire acting, plodding acing, go nowhere screenplay, crap FX and a shoe-horned in Alien saviour sub-plot that gives us the floppy nothing of an ending.
Bah!


"The Indestructible Man" -

Lon Chaney Jr slums his way through a film that had potential as far as the idea went (a ruthless crook comes back from the dead, finds out he is indestructible, and goes out for revenge) but is let down by the cheap-ass production values, crap support cast, invisible directing and a screenplay that stupidly makes Chaney mute so we have to put up with a droning 'Noir' narration by a boring puddle of nothingness Cop who's on the case.

Despite the fast start in getting him revived the film then has Chaney take an awfully long time bumping off two of the three men he's after (the third he never even gets!) and then has him do it in very boring ways.

In-between a mute Chaney stumbling around, while his eyebrows and face wildly overact (in close-up, the same close-up reused no less then three times in three different scenes), we have to put up with 'Noir Cop' romancing the leading lady and endlessly repeated scenes of people in offices having the same 'in can't be true' conversation about Chaney coming back to life.

Only the end entertains, where Chaney is in the sewers and gets repeatedly shot at and roasted by flamethrowers.
This results in a strikingly burnt-up face for Chaney as he stumbles around some more to reach the rather 'did that go wrong or was it intentional' finale for himself, before we go out on the 'Noir Cop' smooching with his new love. Yuk.

So we have 5 minutes of entertainment in a 70 minute film.
Ho hum.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I've just finished watching Blood Diner. A completely intentional rip-off of HGL's Blood Feast, but it's non-stop gore-soaked capering from start to finish makes it a real blast. I lost count of the times I laughed out loud! - can't recommend it enough.

Unfortunately it's only available on DVD in Germany; this needs a UK release baaaaadly. One for Arrow to consider, perhaps?

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Watched Wiederhorn's RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART II again last night.
Not a patch on the first,but still a lot of fun with some cool zoms.

[bdc]

Glad you enjoyed Blood Diner BE!

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by reaper72

Watched Wiederhorn's RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART II again last night. Not a patch on the first,but still a lot of fun with some cool zoms.

Including Michael Jackson.

Not a fan pf Part II though it has its pluses. Namely Suzanne Snyder.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Yeah it is a bit 'Thrillerish'.

I watched THE DESCENT PART II tonight and as far as sequels go,I was pleasantly surprised.

[re.form]

Interesting opinion on Descent II, reaper. I haven't seen it yet but am looking foward to it. The reviews haven't been forgiving about it...but its a sequel. Most sequels to a relatively mainstream horror film of this type are usually much maligned but for some reason I always end up really enjoying them. Feast II is a recent example, as is Wrong Turn 2.

I watched Ninja Assassin tonight. I really enjoyed the sillyness.