What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Blind Rage (1976, Effren C Pinon)

Bint is tasked with assembling a team to pull a heist, proviso being all combatants have to be sightless. For some reason. Quite sane in structure and general appearance, but still quite crazed in reality. Leo Fong had a hand in the script cough cough . The Hammer literally turns up at the end.
AN ODDITY

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Colossal (2016)

Colossal is one of those films with an interesting premise - that of controlling a giant monster rampaging through Seoul, from New England, without the knowledge of doing so - but the way the movie plays out it's not really about Toho style destruction and mayhem it's actually about issues a lot closer to reality, mainly abuse, both alcohol and control akin to bullying.

Anne Hathaway shines in an intriguing role but the longer the film plays the more it's Godzilla type novelty wavers until it's not that interesting anymore and distracts from the human drama playing out at home.

There are plot holes the size of craters by the finale as to the hows and whys but i didn't care as it wasn't the metaphors at play that were central to proceedings for me but the real life manipulation of Hathaway's character by those around her she at first considered loved ones.

I don't think Colossal will be for all. It was marketed as a breezy monster movie akin to Pacific Rim but the reality is far different, so those hoping for 'fighting robot' bollocks are going to be sorely disappointed.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Cool Runnings (1993) ★★★★

Inspired by true events at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, Cool Runnings takes a quartet of Jamaicans, teams them up with a disgraced American coach and follows them on their journey to the finals of the four-man bobsled competition.

Although some of the characters are composites or entirely fictitious and some liberties have been taken with relationships and chronology, this has an air of authenticity which makes it compelling viewing on the first watch. Repeated viewings don't quite have the same tension, but the characters and the journey is funny and engaging, making the film one which stands up to repeated viewings

It's not necessarily an all-time great sports movie, but it's an uplifting, endearing, and inspirational film. It's also the last John Candy film to be released during his lifetime, and a great swansong from the wonderful actor.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

She’s the Man (2006) ★★★½

Taking Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and setting it in a high school to tell the story of a passionate soccer player who disguises herself as her twin brother in order to play the game she loves was ambitious, but it works very well.

A lot of credit goes to Amanda Bynes, whose performance as Viola and Sebastian is incredibly good, the screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith is pretty funny and interesting. It takes the light-hearted nature of the source material so you have the predictable outcomes of a girl pretending to be a boy in a high school then attending social functions (along with the performers school) where she has to keep up the pretence of being Viola with one group of people and Sebastian with others, trying to ensure those parts of her life never meet.

It's a film I'd heard about and had seen it advertised, dismissing it as a 'chick flick', not something I'd enjoy. I'm happy to be proved wrong! Although it's not as good a modern day adaptation of a Shakespeare play as 10 Things I Hate about You, Gil Junger's excellent 1999 reworking of The Taming of the Shrew or Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, it's a fun and enjoyable film and I'm surprised it hasn't been remastered in high definition and released on Blu-ray anywhere in the world yet.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011) ★★★★

This is a very good documentary about the Foo Fighters, a intimate portrayal of what it takes to form and maintain a band with a heavy touring schedule, the mental and physical demands of recording an album and trying to keep a healthy work-life balance when you can be away from home for six months.

I don't think I quite appreciated how difficult being a successful musician is – you need to sacrifice a lot of family time to go into a recording studio and try not to fall out with your bandmates while making an album that could see you embarking on lengthy worldwide tour, again being away from your home and loved ones for a long period of time. The likelihood of burnout or turning to alcohol or drugs for some happiness is extremely high.

With candid interviews from Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, and Chris Shilett and incredible access to Grohl's family home, Foo Fighters: Back and Forth is a revealing and fascinating look at one of the world's biggest rock bands.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) ★★

It has been so long since I've seen this that there was a lot of the film which seemed new and surprising, with other parts familiar to me. It's a movie with a hell of a cast: Angelina Jolie, John Voight, Daniel Craig, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor, Chris Barrie, Richard Johnson, and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Jolie is perfect as Lara Croft – she has an uncanny physical resemblance to the videogame character but that doesn't give the film a coherent and interesting storyline, action sequences which are both interesting and emotionally engaging, or any sense of fun.

It should be possible to take the character and make something similar to the Indiana Jones films, action-adventures which are genuinely interesting, funny, and exciting, so it is bewildering that Patrick Massett and John Zinman's screenplay is so unimaginative and Simon West's direction creates a film which is surprisingly flat and dull.

It's a film I could put on if I wanted something unchallenging and easy to watch, but when the Indiana Jones and Hunger Games films are available, it's going to struggle to become one I watch regularly.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) ★★½

There were several times when watching this that I thought I'd seen it before but I've no idea how that could be because I didn't see it in the cinema, don't remember watching it on TV, or renting it from Blockbuster or Lovefilm.

Compared to the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film, this seems to have a much lower IQ because it takes preposterous to a whole new level. Our heroine is underwater and needs to get to the surface quickly, so what to do? The solution: cut her arm to attract an unconvincing CGI shark, punch it in the nose and then grab its dorsal fin to ride it to safety.

Considering this was directed by Jan de Bont, the man who helmed the here very accomplished and entertaining Speed (1994) and Twister (1996), but was also responsible for the craptacular Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) and the abysmal 1999 remake of The Haunting, the potential for triumph and disaster are both present.

In a film where you get to the end credits aware that a lot has happened, from shootouts to cod mythology, encounters with 'Shadow Guardians' and a pool of corrosive liquid yet the actual story remains hard to explain.

I again had the impression that Jolie was doing her best with the material and, again, seemed to be a very plausible and likeable version of the Core Design videogame character. When it comes to Gerard Butler's Terry, I can see why Lara Croft broke up with in the first place and have no idea why she would have any lingering feelings for him. It's also a film where Ciarán Hinds and Djimon Hounsou's talents were wasted.

I found it slightly more entertaining than the first film, and completely understand why Angelina Jolie had no desire to make more.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Foo Fighters: Hyde Park (2006) ★★★★

It's probably not an overstatement to say that Foo Fighters are one of the biggest and most popular rock bands on the planet, and this concert in Hyde Park with over 80,000 people in attendance shows exactly why.

It's a concert with a great set list, a lineup that seems happy and settled – if there were any tensions between band members, they don't show it – and many members of the audience singing every word of every song. It also shows why Dave Grohl is regarded as such a great entertainer: his rapport with his bandmates, the crowd, and guest performers Lemmy and Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor are particular highlights.

This is a great concert and I envy everyone who was there.


Foo Fighters: Skin and Bones (2006) ★★★★½

David Beckett’s review published on Letterboxd:
I've had the CD of this concert for a long time and have listened to it many times, so watching the footage was both familiar and new. It was familiar because I knew the music and how the songs sound in this mostly acoustic format, but it was new because the CD doesn't contain all the interactions between Dave Grohl and the audience.

It's a wonderful performance by the band, one which allows you to engage with the lyrics and music – it's completely different to watching the Hyde Park concert – and highlights how talented they are songwriters and musicians.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) ★★★★★

A documentary about one of the greatest living musicians by one of the greatest living directors should be special and, in this case, it is. Martin Scorsese is not generally regarded as a documentary filmmaker, more famous for films like Goodfellas, Casino, and Taxi Driver than The Last Waltz or Shine a Light.

With contemporary interviews with Bob Dylan as well as archive footage of his early career, this is a documentary which is enlightening, revealing, and deep, but still leaves the (now Nobel Prize winning) singer-songwriter something of a mysterious enigma, exactly as he should be.

Considering how much time has passed between this documentary being made and now, a second film focusing on the past two decades in Dylan's life would be well worth watching.

[MrBarlow]

Spooks Run Wild. 1941.

The East Side Kids are sent to a mountain camp where they hear on the news a killer is roaming the area, The boys decide to sneak our and PeeWee is shot and they take refuge in a house now occupied the sinister Nardo.

The first pairing movie with the Kids and Bela Lugosi in the comedy horror thriller that is still entertaining and has it's laughs, Lugosi manages to capture the dark tone and mystery of his character very well that will keep you guessing as to who he really is. The kids (who later became The Bowery Boys) provide the laughs and entertainment in the creepy old dark atmospheric house and cemetery.

spooks run wild.jpg

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011) ★★★★

This is a very good documentary about the Foo Fighters, a intimate portrayal of what it takes to form and maintain a band with a heavy touring schedule, the mental and physical demands of recording an album and trying to keep a healthy work-life balance when you can be away from home for six months.

I don't think I quite appreciated how difficult being a successful musician is – you need to sacrifice a lot of family time to go into a recording studio and try not to fall out with your bandmates while making an album that could see you embarking on lengthy worldwide tour, again being away from your home and loved ones for a long period of time. The likelihood of burnout or turning to alcohol or drugs for some happiness is extremely high.

With candid interviews from Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, and Chris Shilett and incredible access to Grohl's family home, Foo Fighters: Back and Forth is a revealing and fascinating look at one of the world's biggest rock bands.

While not about Foo Fighters, I would highly recommend the 'Sound City' documentary about the famous music recording studio, directed and presented by Dave Grohl.

I also highly recommend their 'Sonic Highways' TV series doc.