What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Justin101]

I ended up watching Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters last night and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one, Mothra was amazing It was quite heavy on the Kaiju fights which is good. Going to re-watch Kong Skull Island next

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

A Christmas Gift from Bob (2020) ★★★

I really enjoyed the first 'Bob' film and the book on which it was based. I haven't read the follow-up books yet so was able to watch this with an open mind. I felt a little disappointed because it didn't have the same tension, emotional hook, and feelgood factor of the first film.

Although there were some sequences in which the realities of poverty are explored, there is no sense of danger or suspense – whatever happens, you know things are going to be okay because it's that kind of movie. Additionally, it felt like a film that was made for TV (it'll be perfect for the Christmas 2021 afternoon film) and it's not one I could imagine sitting in a cinema to watch.

None of this distracts from another fine performance from Luke Treadaway as James Bowen, the former heroin addict who turned his life around with the help of his ginger feline friend to make a living selling The Big Issue, busking, and is now a bestselling writer.

As Bob was sadly killed shortly after filming finished on this, watching the scenes with him recreating his previous actions, those presumably documented in A Gift from Bob and The Little Book of Bob, it has a bittersweet feeling because you're reminded of what he meant to James Bowen and others featured in the film, and how they must be grieving his death.

Ultimately, this is a very watchable film, though not one I'll be rushing to rewatch.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The Professor and the Madman (2019) ★½

Considering both the lead actor and director (Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, respectively) disowned the film, taking Voltage Pictures to court over aspects of production, it's nowhere near as bad as I expected.

I enjoyed some of the scenes between Gibson and Sean Penn, it's beautifully shot and scored, and some of the screenplay – particularly the scenes dominated by wordplay – has promise.

It's unfortunate that the film's pacing is horrible, it never finds a consistent tone, and is an unsatisfactory viewing experience. As the source material is interesting, I'd welcome either a director's cut or another adaptation to bring the fascinating story naming in the Oxford English Dictionary to the screen again.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Escape From Pretoria (2020) ★★★½

It doesn't have the patiently developed and well-rounded characters of the great prison escape movies, but it does have the tension-filled sequences to make it an engaging, and occasionally engrossing, experience.

As a Brit, Daniel Radcliffe is an unusual choice for the lead role – were there no South African actors who could have played Tim Jenkin? – but he is very good, delivering a committed performance with a passable South African accent, and his portrayal of Jenkin helps to underscore the danger and tension in the scenes in which he is testing his escape methods, risking decades in prison if he is caught.

It's not often that I watch a film and wish it was longer, but that's the case here. If there was an extra 20-30 minutes in which Jenkin's history and family, explaining how he knew Stephen Lee and begin involved in the anti-apartheid movement, I would have been more emotionally invested in his plight and the interactions between Jenkin, Lee, and Denis Goldberg would have been more impactful.

All that said, it's a film which had many moments of nailbiting tension and which I enjoyed watching – I'll probably revisit it more than once in future months and years.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I ended up watching Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters last night and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one, Mothra was amazing It was quite heavy on the Kaiju fights which is good. Going to re-watch Kong Skull Island next

The imagery is superb. I loved it.

Yes. Maybe. In the future. (To answer your possible next question )

I plan on watching Godzilla this weekend. I'm looking forward to it but from what i've read it's not as good (very talky) as G:KOM. However if it's Ken Watanabe who is talking then that's cool as he's an excellent actor.

[Rik]

I’ve enjoyed all the Monsterverse movies so far, never really been a fan of Godzilla movies, but the new take on them is great IMO, infinitely better than that shower of shite from the 90’s

[Dave Boy]

black-sunday-cinema-quad-movie-poster-(1).jpg
BLACK SUNDAY (1977)

Exciting movie in which The Black September terrorist gang plan to detonate the Good year airship over the Superbowl, sending thousands of steel darts into the crowd. The movie involves the build up, planning and execution of the terrorist plan. Robert Shaw is an Israeli commado leading the chase to foil the plan.
John Williams music takes a sinister tone throughout the planning stages of the strike before turning to the more action score as the chase to stop the airship begins.
Great!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Rik

I’ve enjoyed all the Monsterverse movies so far, never really been a fan of Godzilla movies, but the new take on them is great IMO, infinitely better than that shower of shite from the 90’s

I really like Godzilla 2000 too.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Sound of Metal (2019) ★★★★½

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is the drummer in a two-piece heavy metal band with his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke), as the guitarist and singer. The prolonged exposure to loud, percussive noises causes Ruben to have trouble with his hearing and, when his ears don't 'pop', he goes to a pharmacy and is referred to a doctor.

Tests determine that Ruben can only hear 20%-30% of the words spoken to him and that, rather than improve, his hearing will deteriorate over time. Ruben is presented with this stark reality and informed that he should stay away from loud noises to preserve what hearing he has because he will ultimately only be able to hear with a cochlear implant, something which isn't covered by his health insurance and is prohibitively expensive.

As he loves what he does and it is the only form of income they have, Ruben continues drumming with Lou until she is so worried for him and his sobriety – Ruben is a recovering drug addict who has been clean for four years – she insists that he contact his sponsor. This leads Ruben to a centre for people with impaired hearing and, despite a rocky start, Ruben settles in and begins learning American Sign Language. Joe, who runs the facility and who lost his hearing in the Vietnam War, is also a recovering addict and convinces Ruben to put his energy into writing about his experiences and accept the silence in this new part of his life.

Although this arrangement works out well for everyone, with Ruben learning ASL and teaching drumming to some of the children there, he hasn't given up on the dream of recovering his hearing by acquiring enough money for the cochlear implant operation. Joe thinks this desire is coming from Ruben's addictive personality so strongly dissuades him from pursuing the surgery and to stick to his writing.

Sound of Metal is a powerful and moving film with a superb performance from Riz Ahmed, easily the best of his career and one of the finest pieces of acting I've seen in the last year. The other standout is supervising sound editor Nicholas Becker and his team of sound editors because their work is exceptional, creating a mesmerising and occasionally disorientating insight into hearing loss. The film is a compelling watch, a stunning debut from writer-director Darius Marder, and I loved its exploration of how people adapt to dramatic changes in life.

[Frankie Teardrop]

OK, I'm fed up of streaming, now - give me back my DVDs!

DIGGING UP THE MARROW – ‘Hatchet’ guy Adam Green tracks a real-life monster hunter and gets hooked into the latter’s bizarre fantasies – wait on, doesn’t that creepily intense guy look a bit like Ray Wise? Green has a bit of fun here and maybe you will, too. DUTM is quite a good laugh and even manages to satisfy that monster-craving in parts.

LUCKY – A writer is understandably freaked out when a masked slasher-type starts to visit her in the night, blade in hand; WTF is going on, really? ‘Lucky’ is less a straight horror flick and more a dreamy deconstruction of patriarchy. All the guys in it are a bit “yeah, so what really” when she mentions this killer phantasm; even the ghoul has an overly casual sense of their own inevitability. Interesting if not entirely captivating.

CARNAGE PARK – Seventies homage set in the wilds, where crim / hostage duo fleeing a heist-gone-wrong fall prey to a sniper. Indie stalwart Pat Healy is the crazy guy with the gun. What’s fairly riveting for the first half hour becomes a little sludgy mid-section, until a trip into an underground lair hikes up the shadowy vibes a little. Pretty good, but something of a missed opportunity. Great soundtrack. From the director of the nearly excellent ‘Darling’.

MIRROR MIRROR – Incredibly dated but no less enjoyable for that, ‘Mirror Mirror’ follows the struggles of a nineties goth as she tries not to sulk too hard at her new high school – same old story maybe, especially when a haunted mirror paves the way for an eruption of ‘Carrie’-style supernatural vengeance. Has the slick, plasticky feel of its decade in spades whilst seeming very cheap. Karen Black hovers about between the horror moments.

YUMMY – Norwegian zombie flick set in a frosty plastic surgery clinic. That’s about it, really. They didn’t exactly let their imaginations fly with this one, but that’s not the point – it’s an exercise in high-end splatter, and after a while the screen is piping an endless stream of latex blood ‘n’ guts. It’s a slick rendition of a well-known trope, and the black humour in it works, but it’s just not warped or weird enough to be what I’m after. There’s only so much you can do with a tower block besieged by undead and the military these days.

THE WIND – An atmospheric slow-burn set in rural America of the nineteenth century, ‘The Wind’ shares the gritty, desolate ambience of a lot of other latter-day takes on The Western. It’s about demonic possession… maybe, you’ll have to make up your own mind whether the supernatural element is objective or ‘psychological’. The non-linear timeline is disorienting but interesting. Good, sombre, atmospheric, well-made.

NIGHTMARE CINEMA - Ending my plunder of ‘Shudder’ on a high note, ‘Nightmare Cinema’ is a portmanteau effort set in a supernatural movie house with bits by the likes of Joe Dante and Mick Garris. If that sounds vaguely typical, well I thought so too until my jaw dropped in the face of ‘Mashit’, a delirious checklist of Italo-horror motifs with added gore and weirdness, then fell off entirely when confronted by the bleakly putrescent monochrome creep-fest of ‘This Way To Egress’. I’m exaggerating, but only a bit. All the other segments are strong, and if that’s not enough then Mickey Rourke is at hand as a supposedly sinister projectionist, although realistically he just seems like a guy in a leather trenchcoat who’s smoked too many fags. Doesn’t matter, it’s Mickey Rourke. Long at two hours but well worth it.