What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Operation Condor (Armour of God II). 1991.

Jackie is hired to find gold hidden by the Nazi's in the Sahara Desert accompanied by two women who seem connected to it and then by a third woman to add to his troubles.

This one was better than than the previous film, Jackie (Asian Hawk) is hired to find missing gold that a German Commander hid in a vault while being persued by other members of a different party, it does have his usual comedy mixed with fight scenes, in a wind tunnel shouting Superman and humor from a hotel manager and fight scenes. Along side a stunt which Jackie dislocating his sternum, but still managed to recover and do the same scene and bring us entertainment.

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[bleakshaun]

This month's viewings so far:
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[nicholasrope]

The Last House On The Left (1972)

Wes Craven's Video Nasty in which 2 Teenage Girls are abducted by 4 escaped convicts and are sexually abused and murdered. The convicts car breaks down and end up staying at the house of one of the girls they murdered. When the parents find out, they get their bloody revenge.

Definitely one of the more famous Video Nasties out there and it is a good film with David Hess showing why he is fantastic at playing a sadistic psychopath. It's a shame, he didn't get more prominent rolls. He also believed he had something to do with the soundtrack also. There is also a small role for Martin Kove as a Sherriff's Deputy. As The law enforcement were made to look like bumbling fools, I wonder if that was to add some levity to what is a very nasty film?

Monty Python's: Life Of Brian

The famous British Comedy group's take on Religion and the Roman Empire. This is the 1st time, I've seen a Monty Python product and whilst it has some funny bits in it, some of it wasn't. I found Bryan's Mother to be unfunny.

The Last King Of Scotland

Forest Whitiker was awesome as Idi Amin, the self declared President of Uganda. His portrayal of someone who can be polite and charming to suddenly becoming increasingly un-rational should be studied by Acting Students. James McAvoy also plays his role well too.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Amistad (1997)

For all it's historical inaccuracies Steven Spielberg's Amistad is an excellent historical courtroom drama with superb performances all round, especially Djimon Hounsou in his debut and a mesmerizing turn from Anthony Hopkins as former president John Quincy Adams.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Malevolence (2004)

A slasher film that began with a decent premise as far away from the usual dumb kids talking shit routine we usually get. Malevolence takes place in the aftermath of a bank heist gone wrong where the gang get split up on their way to their woodland hideaway. One of the thieves comes across a mother and daughter who he kidnaps as collateral.

So far so good, the opening half of Malevolence is basically a reasonable low budget crime movie and perfectly enjoyable. It's during the second half where it all crashes down as the hideaway is also the hang out for a sack cloth masked killer who proceeds to hunt them all down.

BUT and it's a BIG BUT. This is a slasher film with no gore, no on screen kills and barely any blood splatter and this killed the movie stone dead for me. Sure there's a grimy atmosphere in the build up, and atmosphere's great but the final half hour is simply a disappointing damp squib.

[MrBarlow]

On Her Majesty's Secret Service. 1969.

James Bond has been trying to track down Blofeld, on nearing his search he is assigned from the case and agrees to go undercover for a Mob Boss to the Swiss Alps and falls for the Mob Boss's daughter.

First saw this film in the mid 90s and didn't really care for it as it wasn't Sean Connery or Roger Moore that we grew up with and it wasn't on television much and seemed to be all over the place. Second viewing of this and seemed better and more understanding the film and the way it goes, George Lazenby could have been a decent James Bond and it seemed there was a opening for him to continue with the role with his past gadgets and opening title sequence.

Telly Savalas takes on the role as Ernst Stavro Blofeld and makes it his own as the director of a institute for women and cures them of their food hates and also uses a brainwashing device so they can leave and create a pandemic in their own countries with a Foot and Mouth Disease. Diana Rigg plays the leading lady as somewhat spoil rich little girl who we seems to hate then we start to like and warm up to as well as Bond who thinks he has met his future wife. There is some good action fights and chase scenes from the start with the beach fight and a bodyguard who doesn't like to be taken down and the ski fight down the Alps and then to a bobsled chase between Bond and Blofeld.

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[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Malevolence (2004)

A slasher film that began with a decent premise as far away from the usual dumb kids talking shit routine we usually get. Malevolence takes place in the aftermath of a bank heist gone wrong where the gang get split up on their way to their woodland hideaway. One of the thieves comes across a mother and daughter who he kidnaps as collateral.

So far so good, the opening half of Malevolence is basically a reasonable low budget crime movie and perfectly enjoyable. It's during the second half where it all crashes down as the hideaway is also the hang out for a sack cloth masked killer who proceeds to hunt them all down.

BUT and it's a BIG BUT. This is a slasher film with no gore, no on screen kills and barely any blood splatter and this killed the movie stone dead for me. Sure there's a grimy atmosphere in the build up, and atmosphere's great but the final half hour is simply a disappointing damp squib.

I thought that it was only me that felt this film was a disappointment i tried to watch it twice as i thought i missed something and still second time was worse than the first

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE – Russian black comedy about someone’s boyfriend taking on the murderously bent copper dad of his duplicitous other half. Who do you root for? No-one, unless you’re convinced of the inherent goodness of a roomful of total arseholes. Good job I’m just in it for the gore sometimes. WDYJD certainly throws in a bit of the old ultraviolence here and there as per such gag-baiting delights as a drill to the knee and a boudoir-cum-abattoir scene. In the end, though, it’s not that full-on. Much touted along the lines of ‘the first Western set in someone’s living room’ by critics who all say the same thing, it’s more like (a mostly) one-set play dragged through layers of nineties-type cine-stylisation. WDYJD’s more interesting aspect is the cross-genre shoehorning of ‘meet the in-laws’ comedy tropes into the realms of splat-stick, but as for the whole – I came away thinking that WDYJD has been kind of overrated given that lots of people ‘with an opinion’ seem to have collectively wet themselves over it, but it’s enjoyable enough for that.

PROZZIE – From the Cocaine Cowboy himself, ‘Prozzie’ wears its Hitchcock on its sleeve only to come across a little bit like a shoestring DePalma ie sexed up and stylized, but basically owing similar cinematic debts. But I can’t really say that as Ulli Lommel was a genuine original, I think. ‘Prozzie’ is, well, I guess you could say it’s closer to the ‘Devonsville Terror’ end of Lommel’s particular spectrum rather than anything like ‘Tenderness of the Wolves’, and is at its best during its minimalist first half, which features a few greasy, down-at-heel sets, a rigid atmosphere of English claustrophobia, and a pervasive twilit ambience carried by the constant drones of distant trawlers and Big Ben chimes on the soundtrack.

THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW – This used to always be on TV when I was a kid back in the eighties… or maybe my folks taped it and I just used to watch it all the time, can’t remember, but TBOSC remains a favourite to this day. What marks it out is difficult to pinpoint, but there’s just a sort of grim undercurrent to it all, coupled with jolts of gore that seem a bit unexpected. The satanic hair thing might be borrowed from more folkloric sources, but I was always quite taken with the way that it spreads like an infection; reverse echoes of the modernity that was around the corner in horror cinema. It has a touch of curdled sleaziness that is more apparent to me now, and that demon face always really bugged me and to an extent still does, despite it being a bit shit. Of a time and a place; with the likes of Michelle Dotrice cavorting in the woods, you couldn’t really get more 1970s UK.

SEVEN DEATHS IN A CAT’S EYE – From Margheriti, who seems here to want to fuse two strands of the Italian tradition in horror cinema, the gothic and the giallo. Stylistically, it couldn’t be more lush, and has a look that’s big on cobwebby passageways and flickering candles (or at least their spiritual equivalents). There are a few other plus points, including an incredibly fake gorilla who’s kind of ‘just there’ and doesn’t really do much (bit of a wasted opportunity, but I was kept entertained by the fact that I genuinely couldn’t tell for a good portion of the run-time whether I was supposed to be seeing a guy in a bad gorilla suit). Jane Birkin is in a starring role and so of course Serge Gainsbourg isn’t far behind (though in the unlikely guise of a Scottish detective!). On the downside, it never really ignites, but it’s good to look at.

As always sir, a pleasure to read

[Demoncrat]

The Collector (1965, William Wyler)

Awwwwww, it's too rushed. Whilst most of it's there (even the ending!!), it skips over the slightly more seedy aspects and fudges some others. He's just a bit repressed this one, not the sociopath of the book. For all that, lovely sets and Eggar is sweetly pretty etc etc. Mona Washbourne pops up (literally!) briefly as the only other female character.
Still overall, a film I should have seen before this. Bad Demon.

[nosferatu42]

The Collectors '65 innit, i quite liked this when i saw it a few years back, i haven't read the book though so couldn't compare, i've got the dvd since and need to rewatch it at some point.

Have you seen the japanese film Blind Beast (1969)?, if you want another female abducted by a nutjob film i highly recommend it.