Oh, bugger! I really like Moore's films. Most of them anyway, I can just about tolerate Moonraker, Octopussy and A view to A kill, so yes, a couple of the 80's films are dire.

None of those are as deadly dull as Thunderball though. :lol:

Really? Not even Moonraker or Octopussy?

Never in a million years is Moonraker dull. Flawed? possibly, but not dull. ;)

Over time i've grown to enjoy Octopussy. I never used to like it much, but these last ten years.

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Another birthday prezzie that also came with a lovely studio canal blu-ray of mulholland drive (with booklet and everything) decided however to give this a whirl and was not at all dissapointed. A group of friends give a strange woman a lift home after she claims to have been robbed. Invited to stay for dinner the friends kindness is repaid by total horror as the twisted family set about killing them all off in a variety of graphic ways. This film packs a bloody intensity i've not seen in a film since INSIDE and is definately not for the squemish with imaplements, decapatations and chainsaw murders abound. The film cracks along at a breakneck pace and makes it abundantly clear everyone is fair game, so no characters where your fairly certain they will get through ok. I've not seen many horror movies from indonesia (in fact the only one that springs to mind was an islamic exorcist knock off from the advantage eastern horror collection) but this is a genuinely bloody and rewarding slice of survival horror!

The Merry Frolics of Satan (1905)

http://www.cult-labs.com/forums/memb...tml#post313311

Hugo (2011)
Although not quite historically correct I quite liked it. Involving an elderly George Méliès the movie includes a nice montage of his films at the end.

La notte dei diavoli/The Night Of The Devils - 1972 Italy/Spain d: Giorgio Ferroni

Second Italian film version of Aleksey Tolstoy's "The Family of the Vourdalak" and I think this one surpasses Mario Bava's take for sheer tension and nightmarish effect. This is a very well made film and ought surely be regarded right up at the top of the pantheon of great Italian horror films.

This is deliciously atmospheric, sexual tension simmering beneath the family's fear, and the fear and anger are palpable. Fine acting and wonderful camerawork with a superb score. By the end, this leaves behind the Italian horror blueprint and veers off towards the hallucinatory "otherness" of the likes of Lemora or Let's Scare Jessica To Death.

All hail Raro for releasing this forgotten gem. Their Blu-Ray is exceptional and, to be frank, "exceptional" is the least that this brilliant film deserves.

Kill Bill Vol 1 - I love this film, sue me. Sure it's self-indulgent but I don't care. QT shows he can direct action along with the best of them and the film boasts some spectacular set-pieces. As much as I love Death Proof I do think that Kill Bill is actually his best love letter to grindhouse and exploitation, wearing on its sleeve its influences to samurai films, kung fu, spaghetti westerns and even gialli.

Kill Bill Vol 2 - downplays the frantic action of the first volume in favour of a more relaxed and dialogue-heavy approach but is no more worse off for it. The Elle Driver fight is suitably manic and I love how anti-climactic the final confrontation with Bill is. The stuff with the Bride and her daughter is genuinely touching too in a way QT frequently isn't. In the past I've said it seems hard to care about his characters except in Jackie Brown, a statement I'm retracting upon revisiting Kill Bill. My only gripe with the second volume is that it seems a bit uneven in tone at times due to the soundtrack and really does come off like a mishmash of homages struggling to create a consistent feel. You could probably argue most of his films are like this but this is the only time I felt it jarring.


Inglourious Basterds - there's a real level of wit in this film which I hadn't fully picked up on before. It's one of those films without a main character and the Basterds of the title are oddly side-lined at times in favour of the Jewish revenge story. I still love it and think it's an interesting take on a WWII film although I don't think it's as much a 'men on a mission' film as QT clearly does. The opening scene is one of my all-time favourite scenes directed by Tarantino and the scene in the basement bar stretches tension to breaking point at time. Superb stuff.

I like both Kill Bill films, part 1 more than 2. How did you get on at the Tarantino quiz?

Count Dracula (1977 BBC adaptation)

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

The Asphyx (1972)

The Blood Beast Terror (1967)

Came second by one point. Annoyingly, one of their answers was wrong and we pulled them up on it (nerd alert!) which they checked and realised their error and said they'd give us an extra point for it but we're not sure they did (they don't give running scores so we kept track of our own score). So we think we might have come joint first but nevermind. It was good fun though and we got 2 bottles of wine out of it.

That's like the Higher Education Challenge I took part in before Xmas, we came joint second and lost out to a bunch of trainee teachers who were overly familiar with their iPhones and Google, complaining about it did nothing but we beat everyone when it came to the amount of free wine and beer drank!

Delicatessen I hilarious!!!

THE DRIVER - A re-watch of a film I reviewed a while back, so I won't go on about it again, but it still really is one of my fave movies. For me, it's more about isolation, paranoia and obsession than it is about car chases. Genuinely gripping and icily enigmatic, although some choose to read it as a straightforward actioner. I really must see 'Le Samourai', purported blueprint for this flick.

COP - With James Woods, who plays a homicide detective on the tail of a serial killer. He may be on the 'right' side of the law, but he thinks nothing of telling his young daughter bedtime stories based on his harrowing exploits as a hero cop (in a shrill but mesmerising scene he rants some polemic about how 'innocence kills' to his alienated wife). He rails against psychopaths, but is completely self absorbed and violently imposes his world view on anyone in his way. I say all this because to watch 'Cop' as a straight serial killer horror / thriller flick might be the wrong thing, as it never rises above B-movie functionality in this department. But I think its more truly intended as a character portrait, and in this way the film is fascinating as we're forced to stick with Woods despite him being such a total shit. There are some grating scenes and a clunky reveal, but again, everything seems based more around Woods than plot and resolution. In fact, everything seems to lead up to Woods' last line. I haven't read the Ellroy original, which might complicate my take on things, but either way 'Cop' is well worth seeing.

couldn't sleep last night so ended up watching the dead will walk documentary on the dawn of the dead arrow blu ray, found it very interesting and informative.

I remember you talking about that while ago. My brother worked in the Eskdale youth hostel (in the Lake District) last year and it's an area where there is practically no cellular reception and TV reception, broadband and other things we take for granted in towns are a premium.

When the local pub has a quiz, they turn the Wi-Fi off and, because there isn't any mobile reception, there isn't any way of using mobile Internet so there's no way of cheating by using electronic devices!

Here's the last film's I've seen recently.

Slightly less horror than usual... :p

Thak god! I'm not the only poor sod who's watched Tom and Ierry meet Sherlcok Homes and survived! :lol:

Oi! What's wrong with that film?! :p

Nout' just thankful i'm not the only one who enjoys a bit of T&J! :lol:

It was lost a bit in the Xmas rush but a truly essential purchase is the Third Windows blu of the 2 Tetsuo films. I watched them last night for the first time in about 20 years (sob, I'II be dead soon) and if anything they're even freakier than I remember them. The first, Iron Man, is beyond my powers to describe, just a blast of sheer insanity - they sure don't make em like that anymore. That last image of the cyber things hurtling down the street refuses to leave my brain - its essentially meaningless, even silly, but its so full of power and evil intent you think, there must be something here, some meaning, surely...
Body Hammer feels a bit more locatable in the universe - there's bits of The Terminator, Robocop, The Incredible Hulk, the end of Cronenbergs Fly, but its still utterly batshit - again this last image of a human tank rumbling down the street. These films capture the late 80s/early 90s like no others and still seem futuristic. Here's a great freakout triple bill to scare auntie - Begotten (the far past), Eraserhead (alternate present) and Iron Man (some screwed up future) - try getting out of that lot with sanity intact! (you could even throw in Singapore Sling for good measure)

:laugh: I got a massive Tom and Jerry box set for Christmas! :pound: It's not a bad movie - plus Droppy Dog is in it. Hell yeaaaah! I was surprised it stared Michael York and Malcolm McDowell though.

There you go Cult Labs! Tom and Jerry Meets Sherlock Holmes is Michael York's return to the giallo.

You know what?

I'm the hero!

Mind you, that is what DROOPY Dog used to say

Maybe DROPPY Dog had a different catchphrase!!

About to watch waxwork with all the talk about cartoon animals and Sherlock Holmes to keep in spirt of things might watch Sherlock hound some of the episodes directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

Starting to watch deep red but don't know as I have never seen it if I should of watched the international cut instead of the directors cut which is the one I'm watching

The Dalton Bonds are great, in some respects the darker more brutal tone was ahead of its time (cf. Casino Royale, Quantumn of Solace and Skyfall) and perhaps ahead of its audience.

Tonights film was The Spy Who Loved Me (which I like).

Ben Hur (1907)

http://www.cult-labs.com/forums/memb...tml#post313527

We watched 'The Awakening' (2011) last night. Really, really wanted to like it, but it just wouldn't let me! Have 'The Woman in Black' on its way to me, so maybe that will be more satisfying.

I've only seen the Ben-Hur from the 20's.

The 1907 version isn't a very good copy and it isn't clear what's going on. A lot of the story is missing and it has nowhere near the spectacle of the 1925/1959 versions. It lasts for about 11 minutes in it's current form.

The Mist (2007)
I enjoyed this Stephen King adaptation quite a bit, but, man, what a bleak ending! I saw it via Netflix but I'd probably buy it on Blu, if I saw it cheap enough. :)

THIEF - James Caan is a safe breaker who wants to go straight, but he's walking a tightrope with corrupt cops and the mob on one side and his own inner desperation on the other. This glides like an 80s Michael Mann film should, big city at night dripping through a neon haze, amplified in this case by the excellent Tangerine Dream soundtrack... beyond its synthetic textures, 'Thief's humanity lies with Caan's tortured portrayal of a man who has effectively had to kill himself in order to survive his own existence.

SHADOW OF A DOUBT - White picket fences give way to vistas of endless unknowing when Uncle Charlie hits town... perhaps instructively, beyond its initial tweeness lies a real darkness. Its imagery still seems luminous after repeated viewings - the 'loss of innocence' moment when Girl Charlie seems about to disappear into her own looming shadow in the library after she realizes her uncle is a killer has never left my mind. A great film.

BLOOD SIMPLE - This is the first time I've watched it. I was surprised. I've never thought that highly of the Coens beyond thinking them really, really good but somehow not special. Maybe this has all changed tonight. 'Blood Simple', besides solidifying whatever 'neo-noir' means / meant, is a really weird film. Maybe I'm being naive, but it seems well ahead of its time for 1983. In fact, it kind of feels a bit like the sort of film a hip young filmmaker maxed out on an imagined eighties would make now. I can see reverberations throughout the thirty years that followed, through Tarantino certainly but also David Lynch. He must've seen this before he made 'Blue Velvet'. It's not just the updated noirishness, but the whole creepy animistic thing... close ups of objects glow with sinister life, signs become portents. Really quite taken with it.

Its worth picking up for the black and white version alone.

Blood Diner
Phantasm
The Gate
Popcorn
Night Warning

Absolutely right. Frank Darabont says the black and white version should be considered the 'directors cut' as it's the one he prefers and I completely agree with him as it feels very different to the colour film – almost like a film from a different era – and is probably more claustrophobic and chilling than the theatrically released version.

Definitely. It also softens the blow of some of the ropier CGI too.

Attachment 97181

Found it to be mediocre...

It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (1956)
The Curse Of The Crimson Altar (1968)
The Pit And The Pendulum (1961)

Phantasm's excellent!!! I've always wanted to see Night Warning, but can't seem to find it on DVD.

Yes it was. Everyone in my house thought it was a rubbish ending too. But if you knew you were going to die, would you put up a fight or just let death take you? That's the choice he was faced with and I thought it was great:rockon:

I really liked the ending (and the whole film) as it tied into his dad's poem and it's much better than any alternatives.