What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

The Wizard Of Gore. 1970.

A T.V. talk show host and her boyfriend investigate a mysterious magician who performs on stage to create illusions but his volunteers from the audience who participate end up dying in different locations after being on stage.

While it does have it's moments of being strange with added elements of suspense, this may not be a masterpiece it is certainly entertaining in the bizarre world of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Ray Sager plays Montag the Magnificent who is able to perform the magic and murder of his volunteers from the audience, mostly being women. I wouldn't call this a horror as it does have it's gory moments but more crime thriller, Judy Cler plays the journalist Sherry Carson and Wayne Ratay plays her boyfriend Jack, the acting may not be greatest as it does seem a bit wooden but certainly worth a gander at.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Resident Evil (2002)

Pretty average origin story kicks off the franchise based on the classic video game.

Milla Jovovich is excellent and shows her action hero cred in a movie which gave us our first proper kick ass female lead and has decent support from the likes of Michelle Rodriguez, James Purefoy and Eric Mabius but the movie on the whole seems to lack scares or creepiness of any kind, plus for a zombie shoot em' up it's also lacking in the gore department - Romero and Fulci this is not.

Writer / director Paul W.S. Anderson keeps the pace rattling along yet despite one or two beautifully crafted set pieces - the laser defence system is great fun - much of this first entry is fairly forgettable.

[Justin101]

I feel that the main thing that let's Res Evil down the most is the CGI, it was made in that period of time where it was getting widely used but it wasn't quite good enough to be seamless like it is today, so stuff like the demon dogs kind of takes you out of it. However, like you say, the scene with the laser security system is really good! I feel that a lot of films in 2000-2005 period suffer from the same issue.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I've always enjoyed the Resident Evil films because they are easy to watch. They aren't what you'd call 'narratively complex' and many of the characters are fairly disposable, but that's partly what makes them so watchable.

Like you've both said, the CGI is an issue because the first few were made at a time when it was a bit of a novelty and frequently overused, but I've never found it jarring or distracting – some of the effects aren't as convincing as they are in later films in the series.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Frozen (2013) ★★★★

It may not be the best film Disney has ever released, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable watch. It's fully and emotionally engaging, and with a couple of great songs – there's not much more you could want from a family film. I've seen it four or five times and always see or hear something new.

Frozen II (2019) ★★★★

Surprisingly, this is the equal of Frozen. It's a superbly animated and often exciting adventure story with lovable characters, a couple of great songs, and superb voice acting throughout.

By its very nature as a sequel, it can't feel as fresh or original as its predecessor, but it compensates by using the audience's familiarity with the characters and relationships to forge something which has some good laughs and is emotionally rewarding and satisfying.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The Dark Crystal (1982) ★★★½

A visually impressive fantasy film with groundbreaking puppetry work, though one where the narrative often feels muddled and underwritten, and the characters are underdeveloped.

Although it's a film where the world building is remarkable and the physical design of the puppets are fantastic, the storytelling would have been stronger and more coherent with a human actor to display a wider range of emotions and interact with the scenery and other characters in a way that wasn't possible with a puppet in 1982.

It's a film which suffers with comparisons to the vastly superior Labyrinth, which is so good because of the acting, stronger narrative, and David Bowie's songs, though certainly not a dud which I'll never watch again.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Hancock (2008) ★★★½

Hancock is a strange film to watch because it's so tonally uneven. It begins is a black comedy with much of the humour coming from farce, and is engaging because there is something about the self-loathing and alcoholic titular character which is somehow likeable.

When it shifts the genres in the second half becoming more tragedy than action comedy, it's no less engaging, but the sudden change is a little jarring. That said, it needed something different about point because the narrative which sustained the first half of the film had run its course.

Peter Berg, a director now probably best known for The Kingdom, Lone Survivor, Patriots Day, and Deepwater Horizon, brings a verisimilitude approach to the direction, using close-ups to great effect and maximise the acting talent at his disposal, bringing excellent performances from Will Smith and Charlize Theron.

This is a weird film to watch, but one I think I've seen three times now and have enjoyed on each occasion.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Southpaw (2015) ★★★½

As boxing movies go, Southpaw isn't in the same class as Raging Bull, Rocky, Creed or The Fighter. It's a better film than Cinderella Man, principally because Jake Gyllenhaal delivers such a superfluous central performances that he single-handedly raises the film above its contender status, using familiar tropes and clichés, and forms a brilliant partnership with Forest Whitaker that reminded me a little the bond between Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby, a film I admire on a technical level but dislike because of its ending.

This was a film which, with Antoine Fuqua directing, a screenplay by Kurt Sutter and the aforementioned excellent performances from Gyllenhaal and Whitaker, should have been so much better than one which treads a well worn path en route to a fairly predictable ending.

Despite the clichés and underdeveloped characters – the film would have benefited if the antagonist, Miguel Escobar, was a bit more than a pantomime villain, this is a film which I've enjoyed both times I've seen it and where the final fight always seems exciting and gripping.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) ★★★½

As far as I'm concerned, Denis Villeneuve's Sicario is one of the finest action thrillers of this century. Without Emily Blunt's Kate Macer, this sequel doesn't have the moral compass of the first film so you have to engage with the cynical worldview of CIA operative Matt Graver and Alejandro, a CIA assassin who frequently acts as if he is above the law.

The opening sequence, involving people trafficking across the US-Mexican border and Islamist suicide bombers is the sort of material which would play very well on Fox News; it's something which could be easily criticised as anti-Mexican propaganda with more than a hint of xenophobia.

Aside from the story, it may not be as masterfully directed as Villeneuve's film, but Italian director Stefano Sollima proves extremely adept at helming gripping action sequences. The relationship between Alejandro and Isabel offers the mysterious hitman some background and humanity, something emphasised in his interactions with a deaf Mexican farmer. In the main roles, both Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro again impress and I thought Isabela Moner, who plays Isabel, was an extremely accomplished actor for someone so young.

It's a very cynical film, perhaps necessarily so, and one which is very dark because there are no good guys here, just characters who are either amoral or the product of a murderous criminal enterprise. I struggle to empathise with anyone in the film and miss Kate Macer's well-meaning, justice-driven naïveté. It's not an easy film to watch, certainly not an easy film to like, though one with characters who should be allowed to continue their stories in another film. It's one that, pandemic permitting, I'd pay to watch at the cinema.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) ★★

19-year-old Billy Lynn is brought home for a victory tour after a harrowing Iraq battle. Through flashbacks the film shows what really happened to his squad – contrasting the realities of war with America’s perceptions.

A rare dud from Ang Lee. This was a worthy story about the commodification of warfare, though a story which is led down with superficial storytelling and underdeveloped characters. The subject material should be exciting, gripping, and moving, so the fact I was frequently bored and trying not to clock watch is telling.

Additionally, the film looks weird because of the high frame rate, artificially sharp and visually more similar to cut scenes in a video game than aesthetics you would typically associate with a feature film shown at cinemas.