What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

The Godfather Part II. 1974.

Michael Corleone is still the head of one of the powerful families, trying to broker a deal with another family, unaware that some one is betraying him.

We have two stories in one movie, Robert DeNiro plays the Young Vito who establishes himself as a small business man with new friend Clemenzza played by Bruno Kirby working and living in area controlled by a greedy Don and Vito executing a kill and taking over the streets.

Second story Michael is trying to establish a venture in Nevada with the Casino business while surviving a assassination at his house. While trying to do a deal with a man Hyman Roth played by Lee Strasberg and also looking into who wants him dead.

Sequels can only match up to the original if the write and director put effort into it and Coppola certainly put a lot of effort into this along with write Mario Puzo. At the start, we see a young Vito escaping to New York and slowly building his empire, De Niro is excellent as the older Vito and able to keep the Italian dialect going and trying to be a simple family man that is pushed too far.

Al Pacino is great as Michael under the guidance of Robert Duvall who helps Michael to achieve his goals as he did with assisting Vito in the first film. The other actors contributes greatly to the success of the film, Lee Strasberg, a fascinating mixture of lust and ruthlessness, G. D. Spradlin, absolutely right as the sinister and corrupt Nevada Senator, Michael V. Gazzo, unforgettable as the troubled gray-haired informer, Gastone Moschin, excellent as the blackmailer, John Cazale, marvelously timid as the vague, confused, and hesitant Fredo who gets a bigger on screen time presence than the first film. Diane Keaton plays the wife who is caught in the middle.of raising a family and Michael's goal while juggling with other problems. Talia Shire is the sister again with a new husband and seems to want to use her brother's wealth and power to get things her way.

The film does flip flop back and forth between the two stories, just when you think one bit is going to be long and boring it switches again and able to hold your attention more. 3 and half hours certainly worth every minute.

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[Frankie Teardrop]

SHE CAME FROM THE WOODS – Another film seemingly besotted with the eighties, SCFTW is set in archetypal slasher territory, a woodland summer camp by a lake. To its credit, it leaves the hocky masks alone and pitches a backstory about an undead witch, now poised to possess and wreak the usual havoc. I wasn’t that invested at first – the pacing / atmosphere felt just a little bit jarring and I didn’t like the humour, but after a while they put the wisecracks away and ramped it up with the sudden appearance of a gore-crazed gaggle of possessed scouts. Not perfect, and I’ve certainly seen more creative riffs on the old stuff, but enjoyable enough in the end.

THE CLEANING LADY – Alice (Alexis Kendra) is a well-to-do thirty something with a plush pad and a problem relationship. She fumbles her affair but rallies by befriending the new cleaner, vulnerable-seeming Shelly. There’s a slight Pygmalion-flavour to the way they relate, with patronising and oblivious Alice at one point even offering to show burns-victim Shelley how to apply make-up (!), but as this is a horror film I guess we all know that it won’t be long before the tables are turned and the power dynamic viciously redrawn. ‘The Cleaning Lady’ is a pretty effective psychological horror thriller that stays within the confines of a certain kind of template but plays it well. It makes for surprisingly uncomfortable viewing when it delves into Shelly’s dark past, with tropes and imagery straight out of a more exploitative kind of flick, although its latter half and conclusion are a bit more typical. It works best when it’s brewing unease during its first hour, and most of this is down to Rachel Alig, who for my money gives an absolutely riveting performance as mousy but menacing Shelly. Well worth checking out. From Jon Knautz, director of ‘The Shrine’ and ‘Goddess Of Love’.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Definitely interested in The Cleaning lady. You won me over with director Jon Knautz as i think The Shrine is brilliant. However another of his i've seen Girlhouse is not so good.

[MrBarlow]

The Godfather Part III. 1990.

Michael Corleone tries to free himself from the life of crime, while his nephew Vincent seeks to take over the empire.

We can't blame Coppola for this let down of a film after Paramount wanted a third film made and put a rush job on him to come up with a script, and not so bigger budget than the previous films.

Al Pacino returns as Michael who now old and looking to come out of the underworld business and seeking redemption for his past crimes. Andy Garcia plays Vincent who is the son of Sonny and seems to be more head strong and ill tempered which is a decent touch in writing to make Vincent like father like son.

Talia Shire returns as Connie and seemed to have come out of her shell as the quiet bullied sister to be a stronger person encouraging her nephew to seek revenge, but also having a loving side to her family. George Hamilton plays the new family lawyer and council to the family and seems a bit more in control than Tom Hagen.

Joe Mantegna plays the vengeful Joey Zasa who is shunned out and makes Michael his enemy along with the other head of the families including Eli Wallach who has the respect of Michael unaware that the problems may occur for the Corleone's.

Like the previous films the cinematography is decent especially with the Italian countryside scenery that is accompanied by a excellent background score. This may not be everyone's favourite and certainly not mine but I'm slowly warming up to it.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Having not seen this in years with the overall feeling that it was rather poor i decided to re-evaluate it the other night.

I rather enjoyed it.

Linda Blair returns four years later as 16-year-old Regan MacNeil who is undergoing psychiatric monitoring following her ordeal in D.C. Claiming not to remember any of it, her doctor, as played by Louise Fletcher, feels she's repressing her memories.

Enter Richard Burton as Father Lamont who wants to get inside Regan's head and get to the bottom of the notion that she still may be under the influence of the Assyrian demon Pazuzu and exorcising it once and for all.

There's too much tribal mysticism which constantly took me out of pivotal scenes as the film reached it's heart stopping climax but on the whole it's less of a mess than i remembered. Linda Blair is pretty good and Richard Burton teeters on the edge of OTT-ness with a performance that is never less than watchable. Director John Boorman almost ruins the films structure with his obsession with tribal dancing but also provides a few memorable roof top moments that teeter on the edge in a different way.

Although not a patch on the first film, nor as good as the third, Exorcist II: The Heretic isn't anywhere near as terrible as the critics say nor as bad as i thought. So much so as i'd now class it as flawed but interesting.

[Demoncrat]

Guardians Of The Galaxy 3

Enjoyed this romp. The baddie was very OTT, but was used sparingly so it didn't begin to grate.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Having not seen this in years with the overall feeling that it was rather poor i decided to re-evaluate it the other night.

I rather enjoyed it.

Linda Blair returns four years later as 16-year-old Regan MacNeil who is undergoing psychiatric monitoring following her ordeal in D.C. Claiming not to remember any of it, her doctor, as played by Louise Fletcher, feels she's repressing her memories.

Enter Richard Burton as Father Lamont who wants to get inside Regan's head and get to the bottom of the notion that she still may be under the influence of the Assyrian demon Pazuzu and exorcising it once and for all.

There's too much tribal mysticism which constantly took me out of pivotal scenes as the film reached it's heart stopping climax but on the whole it's less of a mess than i remembered. Linda Blair is pretty good and Richard Burton teeters on the edge of OTT-ness with a performance that is never less than watchable. Director John Boorman almost ruins the films structure with his obsession with tribal dancing but also provides a few memorable roof top moments that teeter on the edge in a different way.

Although not a patch on the first film, nor as good as the third, Exorcist II: The Heretic isn't anywhere near as terrible as the critics say nor as bad as i thought. So much so as i'd now class it as flawed but interesting.

It's still one of my favourite comedy films.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Having not seen this in years with the overall feeling that it was rather poor i decided to re-evaluate it the other night.

I rather enjoyed it.

Linda Blair returns four years later as 16-year-old Regan MacNeil who is undergoing psychiatric monitoring following her ordeal in D.C. Claiming not to remember any of it, her doctor, as played by Louise Fletcher, feels she's repressing her memories.

Enter Richard Burton as Father Lamont who wants to get inside Regan's head and get to the bottom of the notion that she still may be under the influence of the Assyrian demon Pazuzu and exorcising it once and for all.

There's too much tribal mysticism which constantly took me out of pivotal scenes as the film reached it's heart stopping climax but on the whole it's less of a mess than i remembered. Linda Blair is pretty good and Richard Burton teeters on the edge of OTT-ness with a performance that is never less than watchable. Director John Boorman almost ruins the films structure with his obsession with tribal dancing but also provides a few memorable roof top moments that teeter on the edge in a different way.

Although not a patch on the first film, nor as good as the third, Exorcist II: The Heretic isn't anywhere near as terrible as the critics say nor as bad as i thought. So much so as i'd now class it as flawed but interesting.

As much as this is been up for discussion plenty of times I never really appreciated it , I re-watched this last year and some how enjoyed it, only thing that still puzzles me is, why did Sharon kill herself?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

It's still one of my favourite comedy films.

I never found it funny in a bad way.

Must admit all the psychosis scenes made me think it was quite influential, particularly on films like The Entity

[Demoncrat]

It's just me I suppose, I cannot take some of the dialogue seriously. I've tried