What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic

Watching lots of discs from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, still very funny, the best cartoons I have ever seen . & they explain my sense of humour, lol! Stuff like Duck Amuck which has Daffy Duck talking to the audience & his animator are beyond what a cartoon should have been at the time, pure gold! Watching with my 3 year old son, who can now do a great Road Runner impression!

These things are like nostalgia comfort food, remind me of my childhood, along with Hammer and Universal movies.
Anyone else a big Looney Tunes fan.....and as a side note, can anyone confirm if the region1 Animaniacs dvds are in fact region free as many claim?

Have you done 'What's Opera, Doc?' yet?

Absolute classic

[Heisenberg]

Drunken Master - Came across this while looking for the film 'Chocolate' to watch. It's an old dvd i picked up years ago, not sure of the label but it says 'Front Row Features' on the cover. It's a poor transfer, very grainy, no subtitles and only english dubbed.
As for the film itself, its a classic Jackie Chan from the 70's. Chan plays a young troublemaker who gets in a bit of trouble while trying to impress his friends. As punishment he is sent to train under a master who has a reputation for breaking/crippling students by pushing them too hard. I won't say any more in case not everyone has seen it. If you are a fan of 70's martial arts films this is definitely worth a watch, it moves along at a decent pace and the fighting scenes (especially the drunken style the film gets its name from) are amazing. Sadly the dvd i have is pants so i am definitely going to pick up a remastered version with the original audio and english subtitles (if anyone could suggest a version to get thats available in the UK, it would be greatly appreciated).
Would give it an 8/10.

[Nostalgic]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

Have you done 'What's Opera, Doc?' yet?

Absolute classic

Yep, seriously classic stuff, along with Robin Hood Daffy, and Duck Dodgers in the 24th and 1/2 Century, they were so ahead of their time no wonder they still hold up!

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Village of the Damned (1960)

As a first time viewing i thought Village of the Damned was superb. It's only 74 minutes in length and wastes not a second as sci-fi turns into a dark unrelenting portrait of evil with townsfolk set on fire for example as they attempt to confront the hell spawn.

Superb, i highly recommend this if you haven't seen it.

Glad you enjoyed this Dem, it's been a favourite of mine since i saw it as a kid.

The book it's based on by John Wyndham, "The Midwich Cuckoos" is short and worth a read too.

It has a part that reveals there have been other similar happenings across the world.

This idea is played upon in the films sequel "Children of the damned" where kids from different cultures are gathered together, the sequel is not bad either, it's not as good as 'Village" but still very well done and worth a watch.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

Glad you enjoyed this Dem, it's been a favourite of mine since i saw it as a kid.

The book it's based on by John Wyndham, "The Midwich Cuckoos" is short and worth a read too.

It has a part that reveals there have been other similar happenings across the world.

This idea is played upon in the films sequel "Children of the damned" where kids from different cultures are gathered together, the sequel is not bad either, it's not as good as 'Village" but still very well done and worth a watch.

Thanks, nos.

The film says it's happening throughout the world even though we don't see it so that aspect of the book is featured.

I have the second film, it was a box set of the two i bought.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

Drunken Master - Came across this while looking for the film 'Chocolate' to watch. It's an old dvd i picked up years ago, not sure of the label but it says 'Front Row Features' on the cover. It's a poor transfer, very grainy, no subtitles and only english dubbed.
As for the film itself, its a classic Jackie Chan from the 70's. Chan plays a young troublemaker who gets in a bit of trouble while trying to impress his friends. As punishment he is sent to train under a master who has a reputation for breaking/crippling students by pushing them too hard. I won't say any more in case not everyone has seen it. If you are a fan of 70's martial arts films this is definitely worth a watch, it moves along at a decent pace and the fighting scenes (especially the drunken style the film gets its name from) are amazing. Sadly the dvd i have is pants so i am definitely going to pick up a remastered version with the original audio and english subtitles (if anyone could suggest a version to get thats available in the UK, it would be greatly appreciated).
Would give it an 8/10.

Eureaka have a great blu ray release of the film out.

Drunken Master (1978) [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WVBRJ..._ql5DAbJVNH1YV

[gag]

Remake of

Murder on the orient express , sam just did not like it all, she a huge Agatha Christie fan and read all her books and loves poirot , and she said everything about the character was wrong especially his phasic, mannerism , appearance and was blantly nothing like the character potraid in the novels , and felt like a lot of the story was missing, she preferred the original version and even felt that was pants compared to the book .

[MrBarlow]

Red Heat 1988

Tough Russian police captain Ivan Danko travels to Chicago to apprehend drug Lord Victoria Rosta. He is teamed up with streetwise detective Art Ridzik who wants Victor as he killed his partner.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi have a good chemistry in this as a good copy and unpredictable cop cliche. The movie is very good, decent action especially playing chicken with two buses and two cops out for revenge scenario.

There was a few scenes deleted but that director Walter Hill felt they were irrelevant to the story but were they best kept in, this is a film that was met with mixed reviews either like or hate it. 8 out of 10.


Full Metal Jacket 1987

U.S Marine Private Joker observes the trials of boot camp of Parris Island, led by tough trainer gunnery Sergeant Hartman and the murder/suicide on the camp to the horror of Vietnam.

From director the late Stanley Kubrick comes a classic Vietnam War movie.

The film is made in two parts, the first part we see the training of normal civilians becoming soldiers learning their war face, bullying and being dehumanised. The second part is being placed in Vietnam.

Matthew Modine plays Private Joker and narrator who is like a reporter/soldier for the paper stars and stripes with photographer rafter man who get first hand view of war . Aside from Platoon this is a decent War movie, there is excellent cinema photography, realistic area (was filmed in England at a abandoned dock area) great star cast from R.Lee Ermey, Adam Baldwin and Vincent D'Onofrio as the heavy recruit who is bullied.

The film is riveting, intense, and with sense of intending blackness that hovers over everyone with attacks that happen at any time. 10+.

[keirarts]

Winchester.

I was interested in seeing this as I was aware of the true story its based upon. I first came across the story in Alan Moore's Swamp thing. It was one of the creepier issues and I was surprised at the time to discover it was based on fact. Sadly the Spierig brothers take on the story takes the story and delivers a haunted house film that falls flat on its arse.
I'm not opposed to jump scares per se so long as they come on top of a film that crafts a palpable sense of dread and suspense. Unfortunately there is neither dread nor suspense. Not even particularly well crafted characters. The period detail is great and Helen Mirren does her best with what she was given but sadly the end result is fairly naff. I guarantee this one will end up in poundland.

House with laughing windows.

Speaking of films that generate a sense of dread, House with Laughing windows has this in spades. Down on his luck Stefano heads into rural Italy after being hired to restore a Fresco of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in a local church. The Fresco is incredibly violent and disturbing and Stefano begins to investigate the story behind the artist. A local madman involved in an incestuous relationship with his two sisters. The trio had been kidnapping, torturing and murdering people to provide the artist with inspiration for his work. Stefano's obsession grows deeper when his friend is murdered and his investigation leads him to a run down villa with laughing windows.
While Classed as a Giallo, with some of the Hallmarks of the genre including a central character who thinks he might have seen something important. Like Martino's All the colours of the dark, this one crosses over into outright horror. It has a slow burning plot that skillfully cranks up the tension and the atmosphere of utter dread even in scenes that are sunny and picturesque. The final act moves into the realm of nightmare pushing logic to one side to create a sense that what is coming is impossible to avoid no matter how much the character struggles. Highly recommended

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

House with laughing windows.

Speaking of films that generate a sense of dread, House with Laughing windows has this in spades. Down on his luck Stefano heads into rural Italy after being hired to restore a Fresco of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in a local church. The Fresco is incredibly violent and disturbing and Stefano begins to investigate the story behind the artist. A local madman involved in an incestuous relationship with his two sisters. The trio had been kidnapping, torturing and murdering people to provide the artist with inspiration for his work. Stefano's obsession grows deeper when his friend is murdered and his investigation leads him to a run down villa with laughing windows.
While Classed as a Giallo, with some of the Hallmarks of the genre including a central character who thinks he might have seen something important. Like Martino's All the colours of the dark, this one crosses over into outright horror. It has a slow burning plot that skillfully cranks up the tension and the atmosphere of utter dread even in scenes that are sunny and picturesque. The final act moves into the realm of nightmare pushing logic to one side to create a sense that what is coming is impossible to avoid no matter how much the character struggles. Highly recommended

This is the second glowing review of The House With Laughing Windows i've read in two days.

Time for a revisit i think as i really didn't rate it when i watched the Shameless dvd.