What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by iank

I love A View to a Kill.

Rewatching them on Blu-ray for the first time and aside from From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, i've preferred the Moore films to the Connery ones.

Just had a greater feeling of satisfaction as the credits roll with them.

[Demoncrat]

Sympathy For The Devil (2023, Yuval Adler)

Set up and pay off are important landmarks on the landscape that we call film. Sit back and revel in a great modern example .... it does have the Cage in it ... in alpaca mode ... so you know what you're getting. It crumbles like dust if you focus too long, but at 90 min, it's a solid recommend. Just, you know ...

[Frankie Teardrop]

TAXI HUNTER – Keep back if you value your sanity, this is the product of Herman Yau and Anthony Wong – the pair were responsible for those hilariously bilious outbursts of exploitation ‘Ebola Syndrome’ and ‘The Untold Story’, so the odds are that you might be in for a treat if you lap up that kind of sick. On the other hand, not so fast. You don’t have to get that far into ‘Taxi Hunter’ to realise that it’s basically no more than a proficient HK thriller. No tears shed from these eyes, for although 'Taxi Hunter' might not be the half-expected shitstorm of gunk and misanthropy, these days sometimes I’d rather just be mildly entertained. 'Taxi Hunter' goes the distance on that score. Wong is a put-upon office guy who cringes his way through the nine-five, with only thoughts of pending new dadhood and his other half keeping him afloat. Those are snuffed when a cabbie inadvertently drags Wong’s pregnant wife down the street and kills her, leaving behind a shattered dream and a man with a homicidal grievance against taxi drivers. ‘Taxi Hunter’ proceeds in classic ‘self-righteous avenger’ movie fashion, with Wong sizing up and picking off errant cab drivers one by one whilst still insisting on his basic good character. There’s something hilarious about this taxi fixation that gets lost in the efficient run-through, but now and again you just want to pause and ask “Why? Not everyone likes cabbies, but why, as a producer, would you believe there was mileage in a movie about them being stalked like prey?” Maybe there was just a thing about it in Hong Kong back in the day, who knows. Anyway, ‘Taxi Hunter’ is basically an enjoyable worm turns “I aint gonna take this no more” revenge thriller with obvious shades of the likes of ‘Falling Down’ and other stuff from around the time, and it’s quite good. And I’m never not going to watch a movie called ‘Taxi Hunter’, am I?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010)

Veteran vampire hunter Edgar Frog is hired by a woman to rescue her brother from a sect of vampires who host illegal raves and turn them into killing sprees.

The returning Corey Feldman as Edgar Frog is a delight, he's basically doing his best Rambo impersonation throughout and i really can't decide if Feldman is great or utterly terrible but it worked for me as did the daft twist finale which turned everything on it's head regarding the vampires and their prisoner.

It was great to see the Goddess that is Tanit Phoenix in another genre role as the horror writer who hires Frog to do her dirty work, although she's not as sleazily sexy as she is in the Death Race sequels and she really shouldn't have gone with the faux Liz Hurley posh English accent.

Yet again the soundtrack rocked, albeit with bands i'd never heard of but sounded to have been dragged off Sunset Strip in 1990 as well as Goth rockers Aiden who reprised their version of Cry Little Sister as heard in Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008)

On the whole this slick South African shot film is a long, long way from the original eighties classic and feels like one of Frog's gory vampire comics come to life so if that was the desired effect then both Lost Boys sequels work superbly.

This definitely isn't the greatest vampire film you'll see but i sat there with what seemed a huge grin on my face from first minute to last.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I watched The Exorcist at the cinema last night, the first time I've seen it in quite a long time, probably several years, and my first viewing of the version with the new Atmos sound mix.

I hadn't forgotten that it was a great film, probably my all-time favourite, and the film I consider to be the greatest in the horror genre.

Watching it in the cinema (for the first time since 1999) and because of the unusually (for me) longer period of time since my last viewing made me remember how it's really a slow-burning, intelligent, and powerful drama that escalates into a paranormal thriller and then a horror film.

The film probably benefits if you watch it with a knowledge of the sociopolitical climate in which it was made as that's where the importance of 'Crash Course ', the film Chris MacNeil is making with Burke Dennings ("like the Walt Disney version of the Ho Chi Minh story" as she puts it), the invite to the White House for dinner whilst Nixon was being consumed by the Watergate scandal, and the progressive nature of a film led by a single working woman, separated from her husband, and effectively raising her young daughter alone.

Even 50 years after its release, the possession and exorcism sequences are extremely intense and powerful – the special effects make-up by Marcel Vercoutere and Dick Smith have stood the test of time and the 44-year-old Max von Sydow still looks like an elderly septuagenarian.

For me, the most disturbing parts of the film are the documentary-style scenes of Regan's medical treatment, particularly the angiography, which is very disturbing because of its realism. At this point, Regan is more a victim of Western medicine than a supernatural entity. It's this verité aesthetic that makes The Exorcist so powerful and engrossing as it doesn't look or sound like a fantasy film, but one deeply rooted in reality.

I only noticed a couple of differences between this and the Version You Never Seen/Extended Director's Cut, a reprise of the blacksmith hammering when Father Merrin receives the telegram from Washington, and the call of "Allahu Akbar" that opens the Iraqi sequence plays again right at the end, possibly indicating that Pazuzu isn't vanquished but is still a real and malevolent force. Visually, some of the colours and lights seem a little oversaturated and overblown – most notably in the subway scene – but this looks like a product of maximising the detail in the film stock.

Anyhow, this is a long and perhaps rambling account of my takeaways from last night's cinema trip so I'll just end with this: if The Exorcist is playing in a cinema near you, do yourself a favour and go to watch it.

[nicholasrope]

Saw X

Set inbetween Saw and Saw II, this sees John Kramer go to Mexico in order to get experimental treatment for his Cancer. However after finding out it was a big con.

SPOILER:

This was done differently, other a trap (That was fantasied) it focuses on the story beforehand, then you get the traps, which are gory but maybe not as some of the previous installments.

Also a difference is the fact that the people could see who was doing it instead of being anonymous and there is the fact that the last remaining survivor knows who he is and considering she is a villain herself, maybe any future installments could see her try to get revenge.

And I did like the line that he was helping people make life choices.

All in all, it's a decent watch with interesting story possibly going forward.

[Demoncrat]

Insidious: The Red Door (2023, Patrick Wilson)

Annnnnd I thought the last one was pants.
Our favourite family have fractured. Trying to reconnect with his oldest child, our director botches this, leading to all sorts of feelings and stuff. PTSD is a recognised thing, so of course just shove it in there ahem. The only scary thing about this was the horrible fear that it might lead to more of this nonsense.
AVOID.

[Nordicdusk]

Mission-_Impossible_–_Dead_Reckoning_Part_One_poster.jpg

The IMF are in a race against time to stop a new threat that will change the world forever if this new weapon falls into the wrong hands but with the power of this weapon there are no good hands for it to fall into.

I love the Mission Impossible series and I love everything Tom Cruise does he never leaves me down well that was the case until now that is.

First the good

The settings are amazing as always and there is some fantastic action scenes and crazy stunts all done by Tom himself which is always a highlight of his films. The story it's great with the new enemy definitely the scariest one they have faced it's hard to see a way of stopping it with so much on the line it gives a different feel of importance where any action no matter how small can have devastating results.

The bad

Only half the people put in a good performance some of it feels very low budget and almost fake with some of the characters feeling like they are trying to be funny and I'm left wondering are they the comic relief but I can't figure it out which leaves me thinking I must be wrong. There are a few scenes that could of been cut in half maybe even more they just felt bloated and overly long for no reason bringing very little to the film which made me thing they could of but the two parts into one film or even two shorter films. Without spoiling anything the Grace character really got on my tits I just couldn't handle her stupidity and constant ridiculous antics I can't say anymore.

Overall I couldn't help but feel let down after how excited the rest of the films made me feel. For me this one is the weakest in the series sadly I hope part two makes up for it next summer.

The biggest threat for me from this film was when my die hard Tom Cruise fan girlfriend threatened to send me to bed when I pointed out some flaws with the film

[Justin101]

I didn’t feel that way personally I was gripped all of the way through and thought everyone was really good! However what I do agree on is my distaste recently of ending film series on a two parter film.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I didn’t feel that way personally I was gripped all of the way through and thought everyone was really good! However what I do agree on is my distaste recently of ending film series on a two parter film.

I wish I could talk about my main gripe with the film but I can't

One more thing I hate in general in any film is the bad guy or girl looking up under there eyes trying to look evil and bad ass doesn't work