What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) ★★★★

After watching this with the English language track, I decided to rewatch it with the original Japanese track. Both are very good and it feels slightly different depending on whether it's a Japanese or English, with the latter giving it a more European feel, perhaps fitting the geographical setting little better than with the Japanese dialogue.

Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut is visually and tonally very different to the films he would go on to make with Studio Ghibli such as My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, or Spirited Away with no environmental or sociopolitical commentary; the use of slapstick humour is very different to any films Miyazaki has made since.

I haven't seen the manga on which this is based and it's been many years since I saw it for the first and, before this week, only time. Despite this, there is so much of the film which seems very familiar, blending elements of James Bond, Indiana Jones, and the Marx Brothers so 110 minutes just flies by; it's a joy to watch.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm 2020 ★★★½

Whilst not as fresh, outrageous, or energetic as the first Borat film, Sasha Baron Cohen's Kazak journalist returns to the United States and again uncovers disturbing instances of bigotry, hatred, and division.

Compared to the first film, it's a noticeable drop in quality with the laughs more sparse and intermittent, and the film isn't as cleverly structured or unpredictable as the first.

All that said, it's an incredible way to find prejudice, whether overt or tolerated, and the standout sequence, with Borat singing songs in front of a right wing audience happy to espouse QAnon conspiracy theories and incite violence against previous presidents and journalists.

Watching it last week when counting is underway in the US presidential election and threats from Trump supporters seemed very real made me realise this film is as timely now as the first one was 14 years ago.

[MrBarlow]

Road House. 1989.

A tough bouncer is hired to fix a bar in a Kansas town but local rich man wants things to stay the same.

This has some tongue in cheek 80s humour, where would you see a blind man saying "It's good to see you". This does have some good bar brawls, decent fight scenes, okish country music, Sam Elliot and Kelly Lynch. Patrick Swayze plays the tough City bouncer hired by Kevin Tighe to fix up his bar. Ben Gazzara plays the local entreprenuer who seems to enjoy getting rich from the locals. Kickboxer Benny Urquidez was brought in to be Patrick Swayze's fight coach and technical advisor On it's release it was a box office flop yet still another guilty pleasure to watch every so often.

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[MrBarlow]

The Simpsons Movie. 2007.

After Homer Pollutes Lake Springfield, the EPA closes the town in a dome, the family manage to escape and declared fugitives.

The Simpsons movie is witty,fast paced, hugely entertaining and most importantly laugh out loud funny. And if your a Simpsons fan who's loved every episode, that's all you'll need from it.

I watched The Simpsons up to 2004-2005 then I felt it was looking boring and stupid, when the film was announced, was a bit excited and a bit hesitant to view it and the over hype of "Spidey-Pig" which everyone seemed to laugh at but sorry I didn't laugh. The original cast returned with some more additional voices from other episodes. from start to finish it was a laugh.

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[trebor8273]

A Val Kilmer double.



American rock roll star is sent to East Germany which seems to be stuck in the second world war with Nazis in control ,along the way Nick gets involved the resistance and a young woman who's scientist farther is in prison . From the same team as the naked gun and airplane films,so you know the type of wackiness too expected , it parodys Elvis movies, war and spy movies as well as others such as the blue lagoon. Silly an enjoyable . 7/10



This time Val is Chris Knight is super genius at a Caltech type university for genius , a new student arrives and becomes his roommate , the film is kinda like animal house with really smart people and less smut but also has a serious side involving a secret project for the government. 7/10


Next up tonight a Steven Guttenberg double.

[nicholasrope]

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Heather Lagenkamp plays herself in the Elm Street Universe along with other members of The Cast And Crew, where her son is being terrorized by the spirit of Freddy because Wes Craven is dreaming up a new movie. Not a bad idea, it had a good start but it lost it's way at the end. Instead of being supernatural based, maybe it should've been an obsessed fan dressed up as Freddy killing off The Cast And Crew.

Saw IV

Set along the same time frame as number III, a S.W.A.T. Commander is tested as he tries to save his friend also you find out why John Kramer became Jigsaw. Very gory and bloody, it's been a while since I've seen The Saw movies since number II therefore it's like seeing them for the 1st time. I love these films even I get why people were getting bored of the.

Never Surrender

A MMA Champion gets sucked into Underground Fighting. It has famous MMA Fighters like (A dubbed) Georges St. Pierre, Quintin Jackson and BJ Penn. Patrick Kilpatrick stars has the Bad Guy as a modern Fight Movie, it doesn't reach the heights of these types of films from the 80's and early 90's

Saw V

More of the same only this time, we get the backstory of Detective Hoffman, Must admit, the final trap in which the final 2 people have to go through, got me.

Anger Management

Adam Sandler is a timid designer who is forced to undergo Anger Management Therapy under the watch of a comically maniacal Jack Nicholson. I remembered this film after seeing The DVD in my collection and this is funny.

[Demoncrat]

Grave Encounters 2 (John Poliquin)

Was never a fan of the original tbh.
Sequel posits that the first was " a film", so when a young blogger and his friends decide to revisit a certain hospital in search of "the truth", guess what happens? Slightly interesting to fans of the last level of the original Silent Hill GAME. Some cheek involved. But it is going back to the shop hahaha.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Grave Encounters 2 (John Poliquin)

Was never a fan of the original tbh.
Sequel posits that the first was " a film", so when a young blogger and his friends decide to revisit a certain hospital in search of "the truth", guess what happens? Slightly interesting to fans of the last level of the original Silent Hill GAME. Some cheek involved. But it is going back to the shop hahaha.

I did enjoy the first film, the second one went off course and how come Lance....heads up people spoiler coming up seemed to be labotomized in the first but seems ok in the second part

[Nostalgic]

Originally Posted by Linbro

'Carnival of Souls', Criterion bluray.
What an odd, wonderful film. A real joy, amazed that I haven't seen it up until tonight.
4.5/5

I bought the Criterion blu when it was released, it was the first time I'd seen it.
Difficult to describe, but dream-like and strange, an amazing film!

[MrBarlow]

Polar. 2019.

A retired assassin hoping for a peaceful life is threatened when his boss decides to put a target on him before he can cash in on his retirement fund,

This is a bit of a strange movie. Part of it feels like a pretty good, dark and gritty thriller, part of it feels like a wannabe Tarantino movie and part of it feels like a comedy. I kind of watched this movie on a whim. It popped up on my Netflix home screen and I kind of liked the blurb. A type of story that does seem good then I saw that Mads Mikkelsen played the lead which I was hesitant, He was great as Bond villain till I watched Valhalla Rising and did go off him a bit.

Matt Lucas does go a bit OTT as the Mr Blut who wants to retire his former employee permanently, this is where part of the comedy comes into it as I couldn't take him seriously. Yeah there is over the top killings, plenty blood splatter, good way to spend two hours.

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