What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Watched Camp Blood 2 last night for the first time. Utter utter utter crap and completly retarded. Only in this film would a character, who is burning to death, decide to ignore the river two feet away, but instead jump inside a tent. Which bursts into flames. And she still survives.

So crap. So so very crap. My brother came in towards the end of the film, and he's not a big fan of film at all, but he luved how bad this film was!

[vincenzo]

Billion Dollar Brain

Regarded with contempt when first released, due to Harry Palmer becoming a 'swinging' spy, but after the utterly boring Funeral In Berlin it was a wise move. Not quite as atmospheric as The Ipcress File but still thoroughly entertaining stuff. Caine is excellent, the tragic Francoise Dorleac is gorgeous as ever, the Finnish locations are splendid, and Richard Rodney Bennett's score is superb. A toothy Susan George can be spotted chomping sweets on a train and sharp eyes will also notice a bespectacled Donald Sutherland ("What's going on?") at a computer terminal. Splendid stuff with a riveting finale.

All DVD releases are missing the scene where Caine enters the Latvian resistance hut to the sound of "A Hard Day's Night" (removed for copyright reasons), although it was intact on the old Warner video. It doesn't affect the scene in any way.

[BioZombie]

I have recently seen Man From Hong Kong and Stunt Rock. Twp great Brian Trenchard Smith action films.

MFHK stars Jimmy Wany Yu, George Lazenby and Sammo Hung (who is also on fight chorography duties). The opening scene is better than the climax of most action films with Sammo fighting on the top of Ayres Rock and a car being chased into a firery explosion by a helecopter. The action doesnt let up for the rest of the film. The bonus film Kung Fu Killers that comes on the Madman 2 disc release is also a really cool.

Stunt Rock is a bit of an oddity, Australian stunt man Grant Page goes to Los Angeles to do some work and meet up with his cousin who is in the rock band Sorcery. What follows is like an extended trailer involving crazy stunts and live music from Sorcery, who have a insane stage show that involves lots of pyrotechnics and magic.

Both these films are a must for action fans.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by BioZombie

I have recently seen Man From Hong Kong

"You've blown it all sky high, without a reason why".......

[BioZombie]

Originally Posted by vincenzo

"You've blown it all sky high, without a reason why".......

Got to be honest Vince I wasnt over impressed with the title song, I found it a bit overly cheesy.

[vincenzo]

Originally Posted by BioZombie

Got to be honest Vince I wasnt over impressed with the title song, I found it a bit overly cheesy.

It's 1975. It must be cheesy.

[42ndStreetFreak]

"The Road"

There was certainly enough stuff going on here, away from just the father/son relationship, to keep this moving drama interesting and even exciting and it had some great visuals and excellent acting all round.

The cannibal 'basement' scene was suitably creepy and grotesque, and the film did a good job at ramping up the tension while still being a genuinely moving, serious, movie.

So I 'enjoyed' it and will re-visit it.
But....it felt more lightweight than I was expecting somehow, and perhaps a bit too low key and even a bit short.
But still a good, well crafted, engaging, worth owning movie.



I had a problem though with what did not matter as a whole as far as the drama and emotion went (what happened to the world and how) but matter as far as some logic problems went that took me out of the film now and again.

Like...how fast an event was it and did it kill most people instantly?
Because you really needed to explain why a well stocked shelter, designed for such an event, was lying undiscovered and unused? It was by a house, so why did the people who owned it not use it!?

This shelter also gave me a problem, given as how much a paradise it was to them, in how they decided to leave it because the father heard a noise upstairs.
The fim needed to give far more than just that one noise to leave, there was not enough justification to leave such a well stocked, generally safe, place.
Seems to me the shelter was so good they could have spent the entire film there, so they had to be (badly) made to leave it!

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak

Because you really needed to explain why a well stocked shelter, designed for such an event, was lying undiscovered and unused? It was by a house, so why did the people who owned it not use it!?

I don't get this. It's cropped up in your (excellent, don't misunderstand me) reviews before.

Why do you need this explaining? It just is. So far as the narrative you are watching goes, it just is. You don't need to know why, and you do not need to think beyond the story that the film is unfolding for you. It just is.

I am honestly, not having a go. I think you have a fine reviewing style and I enjoy reading your stuff and you make me think and you make me want to check things out, but I just have trouble over this issue. It utterly puzzles me. Surely if you can accept a narrative with something as absurd as, say, zombies or a werewolf, than surely you can accept an eccentric turn in a depiction of fictional events? Why does anything else need explaining? Deus Ex Machina? Shit happens?

[42ndStreetFreak]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

I don't get this. It's cropped up in your (excellent, don't misunderstand me) reviews before.

Why do you need this explaining? It just is. So far as the narrative you are watching goes, it just is. You don't need to know why, and you do not need to think beyond the story that the film is unfolding for you. It just is.

I am honestly, not having a go. I think you have a fine reviewing style and I enjoy reading your stuff and you make me think and you make me want to check things out, but I just have trouble over this issue. It utterly puzzles me. Surely if you can accept a narrative with something as absurd as, say, zombies or a werewolf, than surely you can accept an eccentric turn in a depiction of fictional events? Why does anything else need explaining? Deus Ex Machina? Shit happens?

But that has nothing to do with it.
In fact I explicitly stated, just to avoid such a comeback in the first place...
...what did not matter as a whole as far as the drama and emotion went (what happened to the world and how)

I had NO need...AT ALL...to know what happened or how it happened as far as the film went as a whole.
I'm not thick. I know it was simply a stepping stone to the drama and what happened does not matter to the drama unfolding.
I said that. And I still don't care what happened as far as that goes.

But my problem had nothing to do with the drama of the film, or my needing hand holding, It had to do with basic, GLARING, logic in a key scene.
You build a shelter right by your house for an event LIKE THIS. So why did you not use it?
It opens up questions!! It's called taking an interest.
And that's nothing to do with drama, emotion, or deeper friggin meanings.

I don't give a damn what happened or how...until you have such an obvious question as that.
Going by the Viggo and his family, they stayed at their home after what happened for years!
Years!
So how come the owner of the shelter didn't go to it in all that time?
This opens up the question of were most people killed instantly...or not.
That's basic interest in the movie!

It's observation and thought on what is unspooling in front of you. Not watching the film like you're staring at a blank wall, noticing nothing.
'Shit happens' and a shrug seems to me very little interest is invested in the film.

[antmumford]

Now now guys!

You can't ask why the "film" didn't explain these things because it is an extremely close adaptation of the book. So to ask why these things don't or didn't get explained you actually have to question the clarity of the novel, not the film.
I agree though about why they didn't just stay there, but if that's what was in the book then that's what they had to portray on film. Maybe Cormac McCarthy didn't want to leave his characters there to live out the rest of their lives because then there'd be no more story left to tell.

Awesome review as always though, I've seen so many great films after your recommendations. Keep it up buddy