What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Undisputed. 2002.

Walter Hill comes up with a decent prison flick with a difference, we have had hard action flicks with prisoners set up to fight each other, this one is more focussed on boxing. Wesley Snipes is the prison undisputed champion of the cage, Ving Rhames is the heavyweight champion sent down for rape and seems to run his mouth off.

Wes Studi is the cellmate who doesn't disclose a lot but seems to keep Rhames in somewhat in order as much as he can. Peter Falk is the old time gangster who arranges what goes on inside and create matches and almost manages to keep himself clean. Both main leads do a great job creating their characters both aggressively and sympathetically. As you can guess the finale fight is decently choreographed and nothing is one sided both guys aren't scared to take a beaten.

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[MrBarlow]

Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing. 2006.

George 'Ice Man' Chambers is in Russia promoting a new energy drink and framed on drug trafficking charges and sent to jail, while trying to clear his name he is giving a option by a business man, win a fight against prison champ Bokya, win and go free.

Michael Jai White steps in the role previously played by Ving Rhames as the boxer who is trained by a cripple on how to actually be a kickboxer and learn to use his legs and body instead of relying on only his arms. Scott Adkins plays the tough Russian inmate and matches White with physique, fighting skill and toughness. Aside with some good fight scenes, there is a decent bit of drama mixed in with the help from Ben Cross as the cell mate and Eli Danker as the trainer who's character is given a decent back story on how he is in prison.

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[Demoncrat]

MurderLust (1985, Donald Jones)

Went round to mates after he said he had acquired a new Intervision release. This was it.
Meet Steve. He's a god fearing sort, with a fondness for tire irons and blacked out vans. A hoot. The lead resembles the chap from Champagne & Bullets, so we just started singing "Starting Over" every time he acosted a lady ahem.
The madness was continued when we decided to stick on the bonus feature, a deranged SF caper from the same director.
Drink may have been involved.

[MrBarlow]

Undisputed 3: Redemption. 2010.

Bokya now a shadow of his former self with a bad injury and still in prison, takes part in a international prison tournament with other fighters, if he wins he is guaranteed his freedom.

Scott Adkins returns as fighter Bokya who has a bigger on screen part and gone from being the villain to someone we are actually cheering and knows he means business. There is different styles of fights especially from Marko Zaror who is now the entitled prick in the film that likes to tease and torment his opponents and is the prison favourite. This has more fight scenes and better stages and choreographed and a ending that can make you smile and give out a little laugh or two.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) fights for justice against the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) as corrupt King John (Claude Rains) sits on the English throne with King Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter) believed missing in the Crusades, while striving to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian (Olivier de Havilland).

A classic swashbuckler and possibly still the best of it's kind. Flynn was made for this role, even if it was originally intended for James Cagney, and his lengthy sword fight with Gisbourne at the finale remains the stuff of legend. Basil Rathbone meanwhile is a brilliant sneering bad guy.

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a brilliant film and it's Technicolor print is mind blowing. High definition was made for cinema such as this.

The Premium Collection Blu-ray sells itself short on the back cover. Listing only a commentary and WB Night at the Movies (Cartoons, a news reel etc) as the sole extras. There's actually an hour long doc on Tecnicolor, another hour long making of doc, Basil Rathbone's home movies from the set, a visit to Flynn's home, a music only track, a concert of the films music, a twelve minute bloopers reel* of WB movies from 1938 - Bette Davis "You God damn son of a bitch", twelve trailers for other Errol Flynn movies and much more. A fantastic package, so a big thanks to Mr.Barlow for grabbing this for me in HMV's recent promotion before it goes out of print for good.

*The film itself is a U certificate. The disc is a 12 cert due to all the bleeped swearing on the bloopers extra.

[MrBarlow]

Gasoline Alley. 1951.

A family try and turn a run down diner into a money making profit.

Edward Bernds who created tv and films with The Three Stooges and The Bowery Boys brings a early comic strip to the screen with Scotty Beckett as the 20 year old adoptive son of Don Beddoe and has plans for him until he takes a job as a dishwasher and over hears of a run down diner and thinks he can make a investment. This may not be a laugh a minute or people stumbling over each other constantly, a little B movie that does entertain.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

TONIGHT SHE COMES – Rewatch. An indie with attitude that embraces the absurd and would probably quite like you to embrace IT. I’m OK with that, but by the sounds of things not all that many reviewers from around the time felt the same way. TSC is basically a backwoods satanic horror parody populated by irritating gen Yers, occult hicks and a naked woman covered in blood. It goes for excess in more ways than one; from the outset there are scenes that play too long, jokes that just die, interactions that baffle, all very deliberate attempts, I think, to channel badfilm vibes. It’s sometimes amusing but more often a little arch. If you’re more into other kinds of excess, there’s also lots of blood, some mashed heads and bits of groovy ickiness such as ritual used tampon swallowing. Beyond the self-conscious posturing and the splat are some nice aesthetics and a few genuinely eerie images – a wide shot of the distant, blood-doused ‘she’ poised at the edge of a lake felt a little Rollinesque for example, and in other places there’s a sort of shadowy, doomy early eighties look that kind of cuts through some of the tongue-in-cheek. The minimal electro score was nice too, despite being an obvious choice for anyone wishing to signpost the eighties. I liked it. Not everyone’s cuppa but at least there’s a vision.

SATAN’S CHILDREN – You’ve got something to say and you’re not afraid of taking on the hefty perennials of religion, sexuality and the evolution of the self – in another time and place you might’ve been Carl Jung, but in seventies Florida, with a poundland budget and a shit camera, you were ‘Satan’s Children’. Many have pointed out, not least AGFA, that it has the feeling of a public information film about the dangers of Charles Manson, which I’m into, I always like stuff about how dark and ungroovy the sixties and seventies actually were. Any ‘information’ ‘Satan’s Children’ has to impart is stifled by its oddness and incomprehensibility, which is also fine and exactly what I expected. Basically, a teenage waif suffers abuse from his awful family, molestation when he hits the streets, and finally abduction by a satanic cult with some very shaky internal dynamics. It’s equal parts boredom, bewilderment and grubbiness in that perfectly calibrated seventies fleapit kind of way. There’s a satan shrine with echoey whispering sound effects and a filmic style that shifts between static and expressionistic (pretty lights and long, lingering close-ups of still faces, but don’t expect Carl Dreyer to burst in and save the day). The way the music plays for a full minute over the freeze frame at the end after the credits have rolled seems very authentically grindhouse.

[MrBarlow]

Hellfighters. 1968.

Admittedly John Wayne from a western can be a hit and a miss for me but this one was entertaining as a Texas oil firefighter who is injured and learns his daughter greatly played by Katherine Ross is to marry cocky young firefighter and co-worker Jim Hutton and trying to deal with his ex wife Vera Miles. Loosely based on The life of Paul 'Red' Adair who was also the technical advisor on the pyrotechnics of the firefighting and John Wayne taking the modern day role seriously actually made this worth watching and enjoyable. One I'd certainly return to.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Hellfighters. 1968.

Admittedly John Wayne from a western can be a hit and a miss for me but this one was entertaining as a Texas oil firefighter who is injured and learns his daughter greatly played by Katherine Ross is to marry cocky young firefighter and co-worker Jim Hutton and trying to deal with his ex wife Vera Miles. Loosely based on The life of Paul 'Red' Adair who was also the technical advisor on the pyrotechnics of the firefighting and John Wayne taking the modern day role seriously actually made this worth watching and enjoyable. One I'd certainly return to.

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Did you watch the Indicator Blu? Does it look spectacular?

It's ages since i last saw this on dvd and thought it merely okay to very dull with great firefighting sequences.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Did you watch the Indicator Blu? Does it look spectacular?

It's ages since i last saw this on dvd and thought it merely okay with great firefighting sequences.

This was the first time seeing this I can't compare it to any other release, for me personally it was a great viewing on a Blu-ray release.