What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

I actually liked baby, just hope he didn't drop anything next too Spacey! It has some of the best chase scenes I've seen in years

I grew to like him. It was the first scenes of him prancing down the street hiding behind lamp posts that sort of thing.

[Demoncrat]

Champagne And Bullets (1993, John De Hart)

It lived up to its reputation this one did.

AKA Geteven, some will be familiar already ahem.
The director also stars in the lead role, a rootin', tootin', shootin', singin', shaggin', son of a gun
William Smith and Wings Hauser prop up the bar in the background.
Cried with laughter at the sex scenes, which leave Wiseau in the dust for sheer spectacle.
REWATCH.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Really glad that C&B lived up to expectations, Demoncrat - I have my copy ready for when the 'right mood' hits me, sounds like a special 'un. Meanwhile, this is what I watched -

I START COUNTING – The most bittersweet serial killer flick I’ve ever seen, ISC is essentially the tale of Jennifer Agutter’s coming of age, in which she uncovers the truth about her adored stepbrother and realises that adulthood isn’t one massive chocolate box romance. Looming over the narrative are the hidden forces of the twentieth century itself. ISC sees the UK at a crossroads, caught between a sad past and the shock of the new. It’s full of Newtown paranoia, where the bulldozers tear down yer childhood home and record shops blare a bewildering sound collage that probably makes passing grannies wonder whether they’re shopping or tripping. Oh yeah, and there’s a killer in the park… but ISC isn’t anything like a slasher, or even a thriller really, it’s more about the minutiae of daily life at a time when the UK was adapting itself to the truth of post war reality. It’s about school and crushes and staying out and sneaking back in, and although I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s particularly New Wave or anything, there is an element of stylisation that occasionally pitches it somewhere between Euro art film and public information broadcast. Wistful, then dark, ISC captures the disorientation of adolescence and the giddy uncertainty of its decade. A real find, surprised it’s not better known, although it seems obvious that the recent BFI release will change that.

NOSFERATU IN VENICE – Klaus Kinski is Nosferatu, and he’s in Venice. Here, he sports a swept-back Stringfellowesque mane that looks like it’s dying to transform into a mullet. I kind of wish it had, but NIV is wacky enough for my liking as it is. Rather than the more typical late-eighties Italian horror vibe I was expecting, NIV plays more like a badly made art film, and perhaps had visions of Herzog’s triumph in its headlights. Scenes hang loosely with each other, strung together by a mesmerising electronic score, whilst sundry characters look moody against some great architecture. The overall effect is very trancey, and the parade of 'ambient' visuals is incessant. I don’t know whether to add or deduct points for flagrant misuse of Donald Pleasance – here he is, playing a priest, relegated for the most part to a presence on the side-lines whose signature seems to be nibbling biscuits and tea… before he loses it big time in the hilarious bit at the end when he harangues Christopher Plummer (and what he was doing in this, no-one knows). Very highly recommended if you like weird films of a certain ilk.

DEEP BLOOD – Joe D’Amato hits the big blue yonder with this anodyne ‘Jaws’ rip-off (or more likely a ‘Jaws part whatever’ rip-off, it does hail from the later eighties / early nineties). You wouldn’t think it was by the same guy who rubbed the raw gunk of ‘Beyond The Darkness’ in our faces, not with all the Floridan tans and toothpaste-ad style synth tunes (some of which sound pretty groovy in combination with the lame death scenes)… yes, the tried and tested Filmirage aesthetic is out in force, and ‘Deep Blood’ proves that there’s so much more to that than endlessly recycled musical cues. Oh OK, maybe not then. I had better point out that, aside from the whiff of madness wafting from the plot thread concerning blood oaths and Native American shamanism, it’s nowhere near as soul-grindingly mental as the Bruno Mattei Jaws flick (show me the film that is). Truth be told, Deep Blood’ is kinda like watching something from daytime TV twenty odd years ago, except it’s by Joe D’Amato and there’s a shark. You will already know whether you’re a prisoner of the forlorn little niche where such things are lapped up… see you there if you are.

SILENT MADNESS – A late-ish slasher (from ’84, I think), which proves enjoyable by dint of its vague but omnipresent incompetence. It could be the acting, the general stiltedness, the blatant steals from similar fodder, the incongruence of slightly wacky scenes like the flashback sorority massacre with the dart-pistol gun thing or whatever it was, but ‘Silent Madness’ did rouse my affection for cinematic lop-sidedness. You couldn’t say outright it was full-on bad, but, with snippets like the bit where a minor character laughs crazily at length for no other reason than to signpost he’s weird (this is supposedly a non-comedy btw), well you could get away with whispering it under your breath. Part of the strangeness stems from the fact that it was set up and filmed as a 3d flick, so watching it ‘straight’ in 2d like I did, we get all these scenes that are contrived to look a certain way that don’t quite flow with the expectations of uh ‘narrative naturalism’… I didn’t check out the stereoscopic version myself for fear that it’d all fall into place like a lost Fellini or something. Even if it ever did that, it’d still be a nice little potboiler to cosy up to once in a while.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Champagne And Bullets (1993, John De Hart)

It lived up to its reputation this one did.

AKA Geteven, some will be familiar already ahem.
The director also stars in the lead role, a rootin', tootin', shootin', singin', shaggin', son of a gun
William Smith and Wings Hauser prop up the bar in the background.
Cried with laughter at the sex scenes, which leave Wiseau in the dust for sheer spectacle.
REWATCH.

Even more excited for the blu ray to arrive now.

[Demoncrat]

I'll say this to both of you (and anyone else that is on the edge of their seat ) that it might yet be my film of the year , as it entertained me far more than any bloody Marvel flick ETC ahem.


As always FT, salutations
Silent Madness needs an upgrade methinks then!!

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

I'll say this to both of you (and anyone else that is on the edge of their seat ) that it might yet be my film of the year , as it entertained me far more than any bloody Marvel flick ETC ahem.


As always FT, salutations
Silent Madness needs an upgrade methinks then!!

Maybe a double bill with Miami Connection.

[Demoncrat]

Indeed.
Night sorted! ENJOY!!!!

[Frankie Teardrop]

UNCLE PECKERHEAD – A struggling indie band goes on tour with a cannibalistic ghoul in this warm-hearted horror comedy. I should revise that assessment perhaps; ‘warm hearted’ isn’t a great descriptor, considering Uncle Peckerhead’s often fairly graphic flesh-ripping escapades. But for me they’re not the main draw, and anyone with fuzzy memories of trying to get people to listen to your demo tape, being stiffed by venue owners and bad gigs with awful egomaniacs will no doubt get a little rush of nostalgia or recognition here. Although the punk toilet circuit stuff is quite sanitised in a way (did any struggling indie band ever have such an anal lead singer? Loads, actually), it works quite well without coming across too forced or quirky, and the humour is mostly dry and laconic and thankfully doesn’t tend towards Tromaville, which I did worry might happen. The horror is kind of secondary to the camaraderie, the tensions and the fall-outs, which somehow felt for the best.

HOWL OF THE DEVIL – Paul Naschy indulges his love for classic movie monsters in ‘Howl Of The Devil’, one of his later and IMO stronger efforts. Along with the fond homages to thirties Universal horror tropes comes an abundance of nudity and slashing, as Naschy’s other hobby in this case is picking up hookers and offing them. The convoluted backstory features the brother of a deceased horror movie star (both played by Naschy) doing all the nasty stuff whilst his bother’s son daydreams about dad visiting him in the guise of Wolfman, Mr Hyde etc etc. Caroline Munro is also around, being pursued by a dodgy priest. Either I was a bit too intoxicated, or it all got very cloudy and complicated towards the end, with a possible visitation from a demonic entity (who gave great maggot-face). Sporadic kinkiness and bits of gore make it all fairly pleasant and vivid throughout. I rarely watch a Naschy movie and think “Hurray! This is amazing!”, but I thought this was at least good, and of course Mondo Macabro have done us all proud once more.

PSYCHOS IN LOVE – Director Gorman Bechard made ‘Disconnected’, a truly weird, disjointed and dreamlike flick that I will forever hold dear. Some of that film’s arch tone is present in ‘Psychos In Love’, only it’s amped up to the point of frank comedy. This nature of said comedy is quite strange, being a mixture of goofiness and the kind of strained cleverness beloved of cultural studies postgrads in the eighties. Yes, ‘Psychos In Love’ is as self-reflexive as they come, never wasting an opportunity to breach the fourth wall and signpost its understanding of film theory – this reaches a high point when the camera pulls back to reveal the special makeup effects crew, who start up a conversation with the characters as stage blood pumps over a scene of kitchen sink cannibalism. If that doesn’t strike you as too galling, try the hilarious romance-between-two-prolific-murderers angle, some of which actually works when it focuses on how jaded and bored of killing they both are – scenes of them settling down to the vicarious thrills of VHS horror raised a bit of a smile, and the final shot of them walking off into the distance, just another bickering couple with their cattiness and little in-jokes, was uh… moving, almost? Some of this sounds a bit like something Woody Allan might’ve knocked together once upon a time, but running through it is a constant stream of sleaze and icky gore just to remind you it’s basically a shot on 16mm splatter flick. I liked the female lead, who has a kind of purring, early Melanie Griffith vibe about her. Apart from that, although I didn’t really ‘connect’ to this one, there’s some indisputable uniqueness and imagination to it, and it gave me the feeling that some day I’ll watch it again.

NAKED VENGEANCE – ‘Naked Vengeance’ starts out almost like a TV movie of the week, with manicured interiors and a stiff soap-opera type couple. This feeling persists through the descent into melodrama, with the husband shot dead by a random perp, and the wife returning to her small town of origin… but when her retreat turns out to be full of misogynistic in-breds who subject her to a vicious rape, the film shifts gear and takes on a sort of Cannon-esque exploitation movie feel. ‘Naked Vengeance’ isn’t as grotty as ‘I Spit on Your Grave’, and nor does it possess anything like the exquisite concoction of grime, slick chic and artiness that made ‘Ms 45’ the standout of its sub-genre, but it does get progressively wilder as its main character lures her rapists to their doom and ends up scampering wild eyed across the town from one ridiculously contrived death scene to another. The latter tendency culminates with a wonky butcher’s shop bloodbath, but before then there’s a very silly scene with a baying mob of consisting of most of the town’s menfolk, all of whom appear to be rabid sexists, who basically chase our angel of vengeance into her old house, then blow it up! A trashy treatment of human misery, but never less than diverting considering its generous runtime, and how can you diss a movie with its own quintessentially eighties power ballad theme tune, sung by the lead?

[Demoncrat]

As always .....

PIL and NV are both wildly entertaining, and that's all I asks

[nicholasrope]

Space Jam: A New Legacy

The sequel that I was looking forward to since they announced it and even though I saw that the reviews that came out a few days beforehand weren't favorable, I was still looking forward too it but unfortunately, the reviews were right. This was a feature length advert for HBO Max but there was a great sequence involving scenes from some movies and it was good trying to see the characters in the crowd. But Lebron James isn't good as a lead man, he's definitely more suited to being the co-star and the game at the end wasn't as thrilling.

Such a shame, this was a wasted opportunity.

Death Wish V: Face Of Death

Charles Bronson is back in New York and his Girlfriend is being terrorized by her Gangster Ex-Boyfriend. After things escalate, he reverts back to his old ways. Before watching, I did think that this would be the awful one in the series but I was wrong. It was just as entertaining as the others with a couple of humorous moments when a couple of newspaper headlines.

Overall, I found the series was rather quite enjoyable.

Father Of The Bride

Steve Martin is the Father who has comedic difficulties in coping with his Daughters impending Marriage (As well as the cost) Diane Keaton and Martin Short co-star. This film shows that you can have an excellent film without Sex, Drugs, Violence and Swearing. Martin's facial expressions and sarcasm were amazing.

Death Wish

This is the Bruce Willis/Eli Roth remake and I believe that if this was not a remake or had anything to do with the original Death Wish, I believe it would have been much better received, it wasn't all that bad all things considering.

Father Of The Bride Part II

The original gang is back and this time Steve Martin's Wife and Daughter are Pregnant at the same time. Queue more funny hijinks with Martin's reactions in this very worthy sequel.

Fatal Attraction

Michael Douglas has an affair with Glenn Close but she goes crazy when he tries to call it off. A slow burner of a film which gets more and more tenser as Close escalates.

With a lack of Social Media, I'm sure that a certain scene would have caught many people off guard lol.

Undefeatable

Cynthia Rothrock fights in order to pay her Sister's College course but her Sister is murdered and goes for revenge. Well this has a reputation for being so bad it's good and it's a well earned reputation, the script and acting are terrible but it was just about tolerable for me as I do like this genre of film.

Drop Zone

Wesley Snipes goes for revenge when his Brother is killed by Gary Busey and his friends. In order to do this, he has to join a Skydiving group. A very enjoyable 90's Action/Thriller which is perfect if you don't want to think whilst watching on a hot day.