Indeed. Though having quite a similarily fraught relationship with a friend for years, I felt quite at home watching these cough cough;)

More Rollin for me last night - Fascination. Well, this was really just soft porn n'est pas? It's interesting how awful Rollin was at shooting hetero sex scenes yet what a devilish old master he was at the sapphic stuff - blindingly obvious where his interests lay. This movie just about passes muster but not one of his top efforts for me.

Make Mine Mink (1960) British comedy starring Terry-Thomas, Hattie Jacques and Billie Whitelaw. A group of lodgers decide to steal mink coats in order to sell them on and pass the money to charity. A nice film that I hadn't actually heard of before, very entertaining in an afternoon film on channel 4 kind of way.

Illegal Aliens (2007) touted as last film with Anna-Nicole Smith in, a bit pointless as she really didn't do much acting and certainly didn't in this, bless her. It was actually watchable but I think they were playing too hard on the schlock aspect of it, it would have been an okay bad film if they hadn't played it as knowingly bad.

Diary Of A Lost Girl (1929) I don't know what to say about this, it's such a wonderful, stylish film. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Groundhog Day (1993) I watch this every year just before Christmas (I find anything with snow in Christmassy), I hated it when it first came out but grew to love it. Streamed it through Lovefilm this morning, twice but slept through it the second time.

Couple of Italian Zombie films for me last night inspired by yesterdays watch of ZFE. First up was Zombie Holocaust, a film I really need to upgrade, haven't watched it in ages and still really enjoy it. Followed it with the Vipco disc of Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 AKA Zombi 3, still as much of a pile of shite as when I last watched it years ago, don't know why I was expecting any different!

It was the jarring effect that saved the film for me. The early bulk of it was annoying me - yet another tedious Brit ultra-realist gangster/domestic effort that would never live up to Dead Man's Shoes - but then just as I was wearying ultimately, BOOM! it became interesting.

The end saved it from being consigned to the "Ken Loach bin" of my mind, and I ended up liking the whole.

To me Fascination is a great jumping on point for non Rollin fans as it covers everything from the Gothic to sex and fairly strong violence. It was my first Rollin film so i have a bit of a soft spot for it.

Illegal Aliens was really bad but for whatever reason i found it really good fun. I think maybe it was because Smith seemed so ditzy in it. Seen it twice now. There may be something wrong with me.

Except the remake is boring as hell, just like with the ring remake the cinematograpy was lovely but that was it. Not scary in the slightest and missing the lift scene was an idiotic decision. Thought the remake of dark water was plain old-fashioned bad filmmaking.

December 4th

The Gathering (2001)

An intriguing supernatural thriller starring the ever watchable Christina Ricci as an American back packer whose life suddenly turns mysterious after she is hit by a car in rural England. Once fully recovered she has horrific visions of the locals and their impending deaths.

I really liked this British film, the bulk of its story deals with a newly discovered ruined church and its depictions of the gathering crowds at the crucifixion of Christ. The plot had me engrossed immediately and i found its story refreshing. The ending was never going to fulfill the rest of the story with any great satisfaction unfortunately, but to me it really didn't matter as i liked the overall mystery so much.

With a very strong supporting cast - Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane and Kerry Fox and marvellous tranquil village locations, The Gathering is a film i will definitely revisit in the future.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

One of those films i really should have seen by now, along with its mates Thor, Captain America, Avengers Assemble and the unrelated X-Men First Class which have all been on my shelf unwatched for months and in this case years. Iron Man 2 was a hugely enjoyable two hours viewing, perhaps not as good as the first but still very entertaining.

This time Robert Downey Jr returns as Tony Stark / Iron Man to combat Mickey Rourke's entertaining Whiplash villain. And set the cogs in motion for the upcoming Avengers Assemble. The opening clash between Whiplash and Stark at a Formula 1 race was superb fun, cars being ripped in two by the flailing whips of Rourke's character made for a fine action set piece.

Somehow superhero films now get themselves fantastic casts, unheard of since the classic epics of the fifties and sixties. As well as the two already mentioned we have Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and in a more developed role this time Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. Director Jon Favreau gives them all substantial roles and together with a fine soundtrack - AC/DC, The Clash etc and enjoyable storyline, Iron Man 2 is a welcome addition to the superhero canon. Stick around after the end credits for a fine cameo from... well that would be telling.

I'm the same, me and my boys still need to check out Iron Man 2, before part 3 is released and we still haven't seen any of the others apart from Avengers Assemble, I'm toying with the idea of buying the boxset with all the films in despite it getting poor reviews online

Purana Mandir (on Mondo Macabro's Bollywood Horror vol. 1) - seriously good stuff. Fabulous 2 disc set with a solid documentary on Indian and Pakistani cinema.

The Dark Crystal:
Having pioneered the art of puppeteering through his groundbreaking TV show ‘The Muppets’, Jim Henson would continue to hone his skills until his untimely death at the age of 53. His many allies in this endeavour included the likes of the talented Frank Oz (Miss Piggy) who helped Henson create a number of iconic characters, the most famous being the enigmatic Jedi Master, Yoda. Having achieved critical and commercial success with 'The Muppets', Henson decided to explore a darker, stranger side to his storytelling. Crafting a pair of noticeably maturer fantasy epics, 'The Dark Crystal' and 'Labyrinth', which showed an altogether more serious, melancholic side to Henson, previously unseen in his work.

A joint British and American production, ‘The Dark Crystal’ was a groundbreaking animatronic endeavour. Which involved a heavily collaborative process between directors Henson and Oz, as well as producer Gary Kurtz (‘Star Wars Episode IV') and 'Muppet Show' alumnus David Odell, who was given the arduous task of shaping the complicated mythology into a workable screenplay. That he based primarily on fantasy illustrator Brian Froud's wonderfully distinctive fairy and dwarf designs, these imaginative creations helped shape the world of Thra, along with its strange assortment of inhabitants.

The story begins “In another world, another time... in the age of wonder” in a great land once protected by the guardians of The Crystal of Truth, The UrSkeks. They were the protectors of a Crystal so powerful, it could harness the strength of three suns; The Greater Sun, The Rose Sun, and The Dying Sun. Unfortunately, a thousand years ago during the great conjunction, when the three suns aligned, The Crystal cracked, scattering across the land and transforming into The Dark Crystal. This event changed The UrSkeks into two very different races, the gentle beings known as The Mystics and the vulture-like tyrants, The Skeksis, who took control over the sacred castle, banishing The Mystics away. There they harnessed The Crystal for their own villainous endeavours, reigning over the land for nearly a thousand years, ravishing it of all its beauty, and enslaving the timid race known as The Podling.

Now, as the thousand years comes to an end, another conjunction of the suns is set to occur. Fearing a prophesied end to their power, through the restoration of The Crystal by an elf like race known as The Gelfling, they arrange for their slaughter, using the crustacean-like Garthim as their army. Escaping this massacre is a small infant known as Jen, who is raised by The Mystics in the hope of fulfilling their long believed prophesy, and restoring the land and its people to what they once were.

Shot mainly at the famous Elstree Studios in England, the process of completing 'Crystal' became a mammoth undertaking for all involved. Unlike the later 'labyrinth' or 'Muppet' Movies, 'Crystal' was solely comprised of elaborate puppets, with no humans appearing on screen. Every hand or facial movement had to be primitively done by human operators using rods and cables. For more subtle expressions like eyebrows or smiles, a radio control system was implemented. The larger puppets such as Garthim were the most arduous to capture. An operator had to be inside these heavy, dangerous costumes to complete the gruelling task, which quickly tired the occupant. This resulted in the individual having to be hung on a rack every few minutes to rest, while still inside.

Too complex for children at the time, the movie has better than a lot of ‘80s fantasy fare, and even outshines its later cousin, 'Labyrinth' as the stronger of the two films. Making slightly over $40 million on release, with an estimated budget of $15 million, its limited success was partly due to the massively popular 'E.T.', released in the same year. It did however win a number of minor awards, including that year's Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, along with the grand prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects. In Japan, 'The Dark Crystal' was the highest-grossing box office release for the year - out grossing even E.T. - and held onto that position until 'Titanic' was released 14 years later.
'The Dark Crystal' is a special movie, full of inventive touches and wondrous animated landscapes teeming with life and spectacle. Along with a fantastic array of supporting characters, in-particular the movie stealing fluffball known as The Fizzgig, a friendly monster that will warm anyone's heart.

Excellent post I enjoyed reading it, and has left me wanting to see the film again (on a double-bill with Legend preferably!)

Thanks man, hoping to do Labyrinth tomorrow. Love Legend, must get around to seeing the directors cut at some stage.

Great blog by the way, just flicking thru it there. Highly recommended !

As to you good sir, love your Video Nasties coverage, use it as a referance all the time:clap:

Finished Spartacus: Vangance (amazing, took a few episodes to get used to the new actor in the lead, but overall, it was as good as season 1).

And watched The Dark Knight Rises again. This has become my favourite screen interpretation of Batman, and although I was initially unimpressed with Nolan's first two offerings, seeing them again in the light of the third installment has made me appreciate them anew.
When viewed as an epic story (akin to a tv miniseries), Nolan's Dark Knight films are truly amazing, they must have knocked me for six the first time I saw them as I was a fan of Burton's fast-paced, action-oriented Batman Returns.

Two legends together:

Alice Cooper and Miss Piggy - YouTube

Yeah, unlike the Ring remake, the Dark Water remake looks terrible. If they've taken the lift scene out, theyve probably removed it, as it might have been "too scary" for English audiences.

That scene scared the crap out of me.

Now, I might be breaking a rule here. But i've just finished watching a TV series. I should post this in the TV series thread, but people visit here more often so i'll post this warning here. Don't, for any reason, watch Elfen Lied. The most unpleasent, degrading, vulger, spiteful and bad taste anime I have ever seen, and i've watched Legend of the Overfiend! Avoid!

Wrong Turn 5.

If the wrong turn franchise was a person, it just pissed itself in burger king and now a gang of teenagers are throwing rubbish at it as it sits there crying reeking of booze and urine its mouth full of the 99p burger it could barely afford. Thats right it just hit rock bottom. Some rural locations near the start aside, the majority seems to be filmed in the same backlot they use for tv series like smallville and supernatural, and the plot involves three of the mountain men turning up in town and laying siege to the sherriffs office after the sherriff arrests their leader (played by Doug bradley the only interesting thing in the film) Apparently the mutant hillbillys can get away with wandering the incredibly fake looking town because the town is holding a mountain man festival (i'm not even joking) not that that matters because as soon as night falls the town rapidly empties and noone seems to notice the ruckus as the hillbillys roam the town killing teenagers in various sadistic ways that lack any sort of suspense. It's trash, but it's not fun trash,its just mean and unpleasant in the crudest sense of the word and makes even parts 3 + 4 look like the citizen kane of horror.


Silent night.

More trash, except this one is worth watching, mainly because its FUN. In fact its worth watching straight after wrong turn 4 just to illustrate the difference between 'good' bad movies and plain old bad ones. It's not as much fun as the origional silent night, deadly night (but very few things are) and I weep for a generation that thinks the title is too long and must be cut in half. But the murders are actually fun, the film dosent feel as mean spirited as wrong turn 4 and as an added bonus we have malcom macdowell as the sherriff chewing through scenery like a silver haired pac-man. worth watching.

Never seen any anime and can't imagine getting into it! It just seems like.....Pokemon for adults!

Liked the first one, found the second just unpleasant! Thought the third one was rubbish and totally disliked the fourth! Think I'll avoid the fifth! Thanks for the warning!!:clap:

There are plenty of good anime out there, and as anime is a median it is not squared at children only. Some, like Hellsing Ultimate, Black lagoon and Afro Samurai are excelent place's to look for adult anime with great (or, in HU case, freakin masterful) story telling and with art that blow's the Pokemon shite outa the water. But Elfin Lied is just vulger, putrid, rancid trash with no rhym or reason.
It's also my prime example where the BBFC **** up. So Dellamorte Dellamore get's and 18 for one, rather un-sensualised sex scene, yet Elfin Lied get's an 15, even though one episode features the graphic rape of an 8 year old girl BY HER OWN FATHER! :censored:

I used to watch Anime when I was about 12, stuff like Akira, Fist of the North Star, Urotsukidoji etc, saw some recently and just thought it was plain weird and over the top just for the sake of it, guess its just not my cup of tea anymore

Urotsukidoji not over the top? Bloody hell! Do you even remember that piece of crap for what it is? :pound:
It has a kid lop off his dick and replace it with a demon dildo! :pound:
But yeah, cheack up on the 3 afformentioned titles, there very much going against the grain in term's of quality.

Jeeze! Sound like real fun...not! :/

TBH it was 20 years ago, so I can't remember a great deal about Urotsukidoji, I seem to remember it being one of the only 18 rated Manga's that my mate had. He also lent me one about a vampire hunter, forget it's name now but I do remember enjoying it, could've been Vampire Hunter D or something like that, like I said it was 20 years ago

Cowboy Bebop is a fine anime, really fantastic with great action, writing an music.

I would call it the perfect anime and a great place to start. Also the Ghost In The Shell movies and shows are also amazing.

As harsh as its contents were, I thought ELFEN LIED was actually pretty decent. As the main character has the capability of making the human race extinct, the various atrocity's in the show where there to make one wonder if the human race was actually worth saving given it's cruelty and violence towards itself. Part of the problem is that it only represents a small portion of the manga so like the equally nasty gantz, it didn't contain the entire plot.

As for anime, well its like cult films in that its not for everyone. Stick zombie flesh-eaters on in front of the average cinema goer they would probably deried it as sick crap and ask to watch reident evil instead. It's all about individual taste at the end of the day.

Also if you like afro samurai then watch SAMURAI CHAMPLOO, its the show that afro samurai wishes it was!

Good starting point for newbies I would suggest would be that, or cowboy beebop, beserk or black lagoon.

I always describe Samurai Champloo as Cowboy Bebop back in the Samurai era, with Hip Hop instead of jazz :rockon:

There's also a studio Ghibli...

Recently watched DVDs:
Dead Heat (1988)
Slugs (1988)
Castle Freak (1995)

All reasonably entertaining flicks. :)

Possible Spoilers
 

Swamp Shark (2011) A mutant armoured shark is accidentally let loose into a swamp where it quickly begins to chomp its way through the local population. A group of people led by a federal agent who is investigating the local sheriff for trafficking in exotic animals and the owner of a local restuarant set off to hunt for the aquatic beast. Along the way they also search for the restuarant owners sister who has sneaked out to party. After rescuing the sister the hunters then pursue the shark as it heads for the local Gator Fest festival! A cheap Jaws knock off which also rips off several similar scenes in that movie the best of which results in a fairly funny injoke regarding the end of that classic. All in all a typical SyFy creature feature!

Lifeforce (1985) Vampires, Zombies, spaceships flashy lights and a naked Mathilda May and what have you got? Great fun in the form of Lifeforce! Ok the acting is crap, the film itself isnt the best and yet 1h 51m just fly by! The movie certainly isnt without its faults and seems to have had a troubled production, just read the trivia notes on imdb. The story: A Shuttle discovers an alien spacecraft inside a comet and go to investigate. (Always a bad move!). They find three survivors onboard in suspended animation and bring them to Earth, (Yet another bad move!). Once on Earth the survivors re-animate and soon its realized that the three are vampires that survive by taking the lifeforce from their victims! The female vampire escapes and the chase begins while the two male vampires begin the process of havesting the lifeforce of London's population. All I can say is if Mathilda May were to start collecting lifeforces I'd be first in line! :nod:

Each to their own then. Nothing will live up to DMS imo anyhow.;)

Fair enough. I recommended Afro samurai as I felt it was aimed at an older audience than Samurai Champloo.

And you actualy like Elfin Lied? I can't think of anything that made me more angry in an anime tha, THAT scene. I litteraly wretched when I saw it.
Salo is one thing, but those people where 16-18 at least. It's alot easier to view people of that age in awkward situations. But a lolicon 8 year old? **** that shit.

Cough Satoshi Kon cough. Never say never ahem.;)

Isn't it a cartoon though? :confused:

No actual people involved. Drawings.

Anime. Completely different median to Cartoons.

And yes, what is being depicted is unpleasent. It's ectremely graphic as well, so it make's the 15 rating even more ludicrous.

The Night of the Hunter: superlative stuff. That is all.