What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[troggi]

Had a few days of Kaiju bliss:

[gag]

Originally Posted by troggi

Had a few days of Kaiju bliss:

Nice where you get that from and how much ?

[Demoncrat]

All Hallows' Eve (Damien Leone)

Finally get to see this. A bored babysitter gets more than she bargained for with this cute little slaughterhouse. Basically a portmanteau but trading on the current trends for "retro" e.g. Beyond The Gates. Featuring Art the clown in his debut spree, this is a lot of fun. Grim but fun
Recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Legend of Tarzan (2016)

A second watch of this CGI spectacular of apes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, wildebeast and of course Tarzan himself swinging through the trees in a bid to rescue wife Jane from the evil and now typecast Christoph Waltz. Closer to films like Greystoke than anything Johnny Weismuller was in, i found the Legend of Tarzan to be rip roaring fun.

As far as big budget CGI popcorn movies go, The Legend of Tarzan did the business for me.

[MrBarlow]

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse. 2015.

Three scouts one the eve of a camping trip band together to survive a night of a zombie outbreak and team up with a cocktail waitress.

This is one of those films that's clear from the start its going to be a laugh from a janitor singing with a mop bucket to reviving a dead person and a doctor battling to get a snack from a vending machine with a good comedy tense moment and blood splatter. If you like Cockney's Vs Zombies and Doghouse with a dash of Braindead then this will be your sense of humour.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Giallo (2009)

I honestly don't have the dislike for this film that others have. Yes, it's nowhere near as good as Dario Argento's directorial canon up as far as 1987's Opera but on the whole it isn't a bad little horror thriller.

At times the film is deliriously seedy and borders on torture porn, but performances are fine and one or two of the set pieces quite gripping.

Argento is nowhere near as creative as he used to be with his directorial flourishes and roaming camera work, but is this criticism necessary or would the film also be panned if he'd used well worn tracking shots from the past? Yet having said that, Giallo is still a nicely photographed film with impressive Rome location work and features some suitably grisly, graphic gory sequences.

I can accept the film isn't inspired in comparison to Dario's past movies, nor does it have a memorable score, in fact i can't even remember it the day after, but viewed in the cold light of day as a Rome set horror thriller, a modern take on the seventies Giallo film, i'd watch this over copycats like Amer or The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears any day of the week.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Pets ★★★½

"You can't possess me. I'm a woman, not an animal!"



This is an interesting film, probably one more intelligent that it may first appear. It could be a sleazy sexploitation flick, but it's clear that Raphael Nussbaum, the director and co-writer who is working from a play by Richard Reich, has something to say about sexual politics and power dynamics in relationships and society.

It's amazing to watch this film and think that it was a play – I've no idea how it would work on this stage, but it definitely does as a film, and as a thoughtful and very watchable movie in which I am very pleased 88 Films have released and I'll make sure to watch it again in the future.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The Girl in the Spider’s Web ★★

Completely eschewing the mystery aspects that made the Millennium Trilogy so engrossing, this has more in common with a James Bond-style spy thriller than any of the films adapted from Stieg Larsson's celebrated novels.

Sadly, different is not better, as Claire Foy is ill suited as Lisbeth Salander, a character which is now more action hero than misanthropic genius. Also, the film is visually drab, predominantly monochrome and there isn't much in the way of tension from a sense of danger for the principal subjects – it's almost a given that Salander will survive and Mikael Blomkvist, also miscast with a forgettable performance by Sverrir Gudnason, is unlikely to come to much harm either.

If this was hoping to reboot the series for another trilogy, the box office would suggest the studios shouldn't get their hopes up. If this was it for the Salander/Blomkvist films, that would be perfectly fine with me.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Seven Days in May 1964 ★★★★

As you'd expect, from a film written by Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) and directed by the great John Frankenheimer, this is a fascinating and enthralling thriller/drama.

It is expertly plotted, with a fairly simple central premise of a suspected military coup d'état in the US, and demands your attention so the central performances from Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas really shine, with support from actors such as Ava Gardner and Martin Balsam.

This was a blind buy and a first viewing – I think it's a film that will improve the more I watch it and intend to begin the process with John Frankenheimer's commentary.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Big Wednesday (1978) ★★★★

This was a blind buy by me, a film I wouldn't have purchased if it wasn't part of the Premium Collection, and the packaging (artwork and description) gave me the impression it was a movie about surfing. Having watched it, there is a good argument that there is a case for false advertising because this isn't really about surfing, but it's really a film about friendship, growing up, being part of the community, and trying to find your way in life.

Of course, there is surfing and when it comes – in the final act – it's spectacularly filmed and incredibly intense. There is a palpable sense of danger because of the size of the waves and common sense dictates that all of the characters are at risk because of the amount of time left before the end credits will roll.

I love the relationship between the three main characters: Matt, Jack, and Leroy (Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, and Gary Busey, respectively) and there were a few moments where I was reminded of American Graffiti in terms of its setting, the music in the first act, and the relationships between the main characters. This is a very good film which I highly recommend, whatever your feelings about surfing.