What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[trebor8273]

6.5/10




Now watching Akira.

[Graveyard]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Alien 3 (Assembly Cut) (1992)

A film with such a troubled production it's a story all by itself. Despite being disowned by then first time director David Fincher, Alien 3 , or at least this version, is nowhere near as bad as some suggest. Indeed, what has become known as the Assembly Cut which added 30+ minutes of restored footage to the original film by incorporating previously edited footage, lengthening scenes and changing one or two key elements from the original cut improve the film so much that it's become perhaps my favourite of the original Alien quardrilogy.

Now running at a whopping 2hrs and 25 minutes, Alien 3 turns out to be one hell of a film. If Alien was the Old Dark House in space and Aliens was a glorified action move then Alien 3 is a good old slasher movie with the Xenomorph dispatching the inhabitants of a run down penal colony prison one by one. The Assembly Cut brings the character to life, in fact in the case of Paul McGann's disturbed inmate, Golic, gives them a whole new dimension which in turn makes the film itself a more involving viewing experience. It's not just secondary characters either, even Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is improved upon by making her character more well rounded with added guilt from being the only survivor from the previous film and of course from bringing a whole new level of threat to the prison colony.

So with characters you care about, suddenly the whole slasher movie aspect takes on a dare i say it, more thrilling aspect. The surprises surprise and the shocks definitely shock, Brian Glover's demise, which i'd forgotten from previous viewings, really caught me unaware in a gloriously satisfying jump scare that worked beautifully.

If you've still only seen Alien 3 in it's theatrical cut, then yeah, it's a pretty abysmal entry in the series, but this Assembly Cut elevates it to a whole new level that i think rivals the best in the series.

Now I need to track down that Assembly cut!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Coming nearly twenty years after the third film in the series, the film makers were always going to have their work cut out delivering another epic film for Indiana Jones. Let's not beat around the bush; This isn't a patch on the other three films but it's a worthy and welcome effort never the less.

Last night was my third viewing of the film and it does hold up to repeated viewings, in fact i'd go as far as saying Shia LaBeouf as Jones junior was less irritating this time round. Having an ensemble cast including a welcome return for Karen Allen takes some of the pressure off a now aging Harrison Ford even though it's still Ford's movie all the way.

For long term fans there are some nice Easter Eggs throughout the film and screenwriter George Lucas sets the film in 1957 a mere five years away from his classic American Graffiti (in which Ford also starred) and the early parts of this film echo Graffiti with it's rock n' roll high school coffee bar ambiance.

I do feel Crystal Skull loses marks in it's action sequences, especially the chase through the jungle which just screams green screen CGI throughout, in fact it's almost embarrassing when compared to the desert chase sequences from earlier films especially Raiders of the Lost Ark. I know the actors are much older now and need all the help they can but at times it looked like a bloomin' cartoon.

Without being too critical, i do like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and i think i always will, it just ain't as good as the others, that's all.

[iank]

Terror Train. A group of med students head off on a train for an end of year party, unaware that an unbalanced former classmate is also on board - and intent on bloody revenge. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson and Hart Bochner star in this early 80s slasher horror that's somewhat classier than many from this period, well made and well acted. The train setting is unusual for this sort of film and works well with its claustrophobic environment, as does the snowy winter atmosphere and an emphasis on suspense over blood and gore. This is an underrated and effective little chiller, with a very neat twist toward the end. I like it. 

[MrBarlow]

One-eyed Jack's 1961.

Two men rob a Mexican bank, one takes the loot and betrays his partner who is imprisoned, he later escapes and seeks revenge.

Marlon Brando stars, and directs this western as Rio, along with his partner Dad played by Karl Malden who takes the loot and becomes a Sheriff waiting on Rio to show. After having a lot of problems behind the scenes, Stanley Kubrick quit the film, Brando wanting the right moments and being too drunk for a certain scene where his character was to be drunk, his directing skills are not the best but very amateurish. The pace does go slow and can drag on to the point of boredom but can be enjoyable, only one thing is I'm sure this was released in B&W and not in colour. 6 out of 10.

[MrBarlow]

The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne 1981.

19th Century London, Dr Henry Jekyll and Miss Fanny Osbourne are having a engagement party when a uninvited guest turns up and a night of terror starts.

This is a different take on the famous Robert Louis Stevenson story that Polish director Walerian Borowczyk would pull off in a artistic horror involving murder, rape and sadism. Udo Kier takes the lead role as Henry Jekyll. Patrick Magee stars as a party guest who is forced to watch his daughter to do some...kinky stuff, he almost upstages Kier with his brilliant acting and fierce look in his eyes. Gérard Zalcberg stars as the maniac Edward Hyde, this may not be the be the best Hyde but he can make it more creepy. Anyone who knows how Borowczyk works with his style of colours, directions etc will know what to expect, others...may get a unexpected suprise but may not be for everyone.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

One-eyed Jack's 1961.

Two men rob a Mexican bank, one takes the loot and betrays his partner who is imprisoned, he later escapes and seeks revenge.

Marlon Brando stars, and directs this western as Rio, along with his partner Dad played by Karl Malden who takes the loot and becomes a Sheriff waiting on Rio to show. After having a lot of problems behind the scenes, Stanley Kubrick quit the film, Brando wanting the right moments and being too drunk for a certain scene where his character was to be drunk, his directing skills are not the best but very amateurish. The pace does go slow and can drag on to the point of boredom but can be enjoyable, only one thing is I'm sure this was released in B&W and not in colour. 6 out of 10.

I t got an Academy Award nomination for it's cinematography and use of colour. Perhaps it's because it was filmed in Vistavision. All the restoration film pics look fantastic on Google.

[Dave Boy]

Wax Museum.jpg
MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933)

Twelve years after his wax museum was burnt down for insurance money, Ivan Igor opens another museum. The wax figures look strangely like people who have disappeared or have gone missing from the morgue..

Shot in 2 strip Technicolor (The colour print was thought lost until 1978), there is always something pretty creepy in watching wax figures melt. Fay Wray struggling with Lionel Atwill at the films finale and finding out the truth is still awesome and was a big shocker for audiences of the day. Remade as HOUSE OF WAX in 1953 with Vincent Price.

[Demoncrat]

You all ready then? Right we shall begin .....


Weird Science

Wooooh mother dearest. Hollywood loves women. Loves to depersonalise them, for sure. If they aren't selling them for a night, they're creating them out of thin air. Two white middle class kids invent their own personal slave, because talking to actual real women is beyond reason it seems in this world. Featuring some of those beloved kindly black folks (this time, to make up for the Aryan fantasy of The Breakfast Club) including STEVE JAMES COUGH. Paxton working through some childhood trauma?? Killing Joke flittered past my ears in the party sequence, lifting me back to reality thank Cthulhu. Why speak like that, BOY?? I've never smoked helium, so have never experienced that kind of hit. I wish I had left this one alone tbh. Ghastly.


The Breakfast Club

A film that would not get made today. I hate Simple Minds. Or rather I hate what they became. Is Pretty In Pink worth putting through the grinder then? Mate whom was Molly daft swore by it, but it always looked like a squint turd to me.

[Inspector Abberline]

If your a baby sitter, and you end up in some gothic house that has seen better days, dark corners, dank wallpaper and endless banging water pipes, then you could not be blamed for feeling apprehensive, also if the the couple you are baby sitting for, in this case Honor Blackman and George Cole, are complete nervous wrecks from the first time you meet them, then you probably have good cause to feel slightly anxious...And if your Susan George, then I would check your calendar just to make sure your not baby sitting towards the end of October...Also be on the look out for any boy friends popping round for sex,in the shape of Dennis Waterman, but most of all make sure the family you are baby sitting for do not have any dark secrets from there past that might come back, like an ex husband in the form of Ian Bannen...And while it does not have the high body count of your modern slasher film,( I still think Dennis Waterman getting pummelled in the face, quite a nasty little scene ) it still posses all the traits you come to expect with the genre., just set in the leafy confines of middle class England in the 1970s.Its a great psychological thriller, only hampered by some rather wooden acting,(yes I'm looking at you Cole and Blackman, check out there groovy dancing in the restaurant ,also check out the wallpaper in said place) but Bannen is remarkable as the unstable ex husband, going gleefully maniacal with a shard of broken glass and Susan George who was probably filling in for Suzy Kendall while she was in Italy, is the proto type scream queen, long before the term was ever invented. Strangely the police seem to go all Rambo, cracking out the tear gas ,guns and ammunition even before they get to any hostage negotiations, any how the police manage to screw it all up,(no surprises there then)…This was a late night TV staple back in the day, and still entertaining...