I agree with you w.r.t. to Sin City (I think the comic book visuals perhaps help) but he almost ruined Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for me. I just don"t find him believable in that kind of role.

No love for "Green Street"?

Or Maniac....

No* and no.

*Odd really as i like most other football violence films even though i find it totally abhorrent. Must be due to the lack of a certain pub landlord.

Green Street is bloody awful and Frodo woefully miscast...however The Football Factory is great.;)

That's because there's a proper hardman in it.

I can't stand either of them and find the whole 'football hooliganism' subgenre to be thoroughly distasteful. That said, I quite enjoyed Cass.

Why do you think they are distasteful, aren't the majority of films we discuss on here distasteful to the masses. I personally love "The Football Factory" especially as Dyer has no character arch, he starts out an arse, learns nothing and remains an arse to the end! I find that really refreshing in a film.

Blue velvet

Just as good as eraserhead.Jeffrey Beaumont, ( Kyle MacLachlan )returns home after his father collapses and ends up finding a human ear this leads him on a investigation that shows a dark underbelly of sex and violence, of Middle America, along the way he meets Dorothy who is a sex slave of drug dealer, obscenity-shouting psycho Frank( a fantastic performance from Denis hopper). Fantastic haunting score and great use of sound in very chilling and disturbing film. With some great support from the likes of Laura dern and dean stockwell. 9.5/10

Hellraiser 2 hellbound

A fantastic sequel that is better than the first, taking place after the first movie finishes. Kirsty wakes up at the Channard institute a psychiatric hospital run by the sinister dr channard who has a interest in the puzzel box, it's not long before he brings Julia back from hell and they use a young girl to open the entrance to hell, were channard becomes a cenobite which leads to a confrontation between pinheads cenobites, and channard. For me the real highlight is the the wickedly evil character of Julia and of course pinhead. 9.5/10

Terminator

The original and still the best. A classic. 10/10

As previously mentioned I.D is the best footie violence film, Elijah just wasn't convincing as a fighter to me

It's because they seem to depict football hooliganism as some kind of life affirming event. In Green Street, for example, the Elijah Wood character says (and I paraphrase) that he learned more as a football hooligan than he would have studying at Harvard. The violence seems to be something attractive rather than an appalling criminal offence.

I think for some people violence is a life affirming event, it is about power and control...I am not saying it is a good thing but an understandable thing. Have you read the book "The Football Factory" is based on, very different to the film, it is a howl of white working class rage.

I understand that, but I hope it isn't a message some people – however few – take away from watching the films. I haven't read the book, but I'll see about renting it from the library during the summer.

It isn't, i can assure you. I can't remember the last time i saw any trouble at or around a Premier League match.

Like the protagonists in films such as The Football Factory, these "events" are organized, if that's the right word, and don't tend to be something the normal fan experiences anymore.

That's good to know.

THIRSTY FOR LOVE, SEX AND MURDER – This is a Turkish remake of ‘The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh’! Well, it beats doing ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Exorcist’ again and again. It’s odd and a bit messed up, and I really can’t work out whether this is due to knackered materials ham-fistedly assembled by cheapo distributors on the fly, or whether it’s going for a certain ‘aesthetic’… because there are obviously deliberate nods to giallo pop-surrealism in occasional skewed compositions, use of wonky lenses etc etc, but there are also crazy edits and random bits of audio collage which just don’t make sense. Usually I’d really dig this kind of thing, but ‘Thirsty for Love, Sex and Murder’ just left me thirsty for, well, a bit more sex and murder for a start, plus perhaps a bit more on the weirdo film dementia meltdown front as well (but then I’m always a bit ‘meh’ with gialli, so I guess the same applies to Turkish remakes, too). But, when I heard about it, I simply had to see it, and now I have, and I would still recommend it to fans of that particular strain of trash Turkish remix, or Giallo die hards, or fans of strange curios that really never would’ve seen the light of day were it not for the magic of home entertainment systems (still impressed that people are bothering to put stuff like this out).

ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN – From the depths of Dietrich-era Franco bubbles up this tatty shred of video scum. Even with the presence of D Thorn, it’s an Ilsa sequel in name only. Thorn plays the head of a psychiatric institute dedicated to curing the nymphomania of its denizens (who all wander around in a state of semi-undress, obviously). There are various bits of torture and bad taste, although it tips more towards straight sleaze than the curdled camp of the first two Ilsa movies. But, even if it’s essentially just another WIP flick dashed off to pay the rent, it’s still a Franco movie through and through. Not that it’s as weirded out as he gets when he’s fully juiced… the zooms aren’t going crazy and there’s not too much free association or strange reflective surfaces at work, but you can sense something frothing away behind the camera. And there are plenty of strange highlights – Dyanne getting her cannibalistic come-uppance at the end, for example, which is juxtaposed with a tiger ripping up a carcass. Besides this, there’s a cool, super-scuzzy atmosphere, but you probably know that already.

LEGACY OF SATAN – This is on the Brentwood ‘Blood Bath 2’ collection, along with a couple of other interesting obscurities. Don’t think there are many other legit versions available, which is a shame because this is obviously cut, mostly for violence going by where the jarring edits flare up (although it’s rumoured to have originally been a hardcore XXX porno, perhaps due to its director being Gerard Damianio of ‘The Devil in Miss Jones’ fame). I’ll take what I can get in this case, because ‘Legacy of Satan’ is prime seventies horror cinema and just oozes freakiness. A young woman is summoned to appear at a remote castle, where a satanic mass will feature her ritual transformation into the bride of a devil worshipping dude whose face will ultimately melt. It’s got everything I look for in this kind of thing – distorted electronic score, a kind of stand-offish disjointedness, hallucinogenic lightning, that all important sense of “what’s going on?”, creeps with messed up faces, bad décor, satanic sleaze, post-hippie malaise, bad claustrophobia and a feeling that nothing can end well. Sure, there are elements of period creakiness and very occasional slumps and sags – but nothing to spoil the overall tone. Some bits filled me with a feeling of real dread – a scene where a door opens slowly and the camera pans up the stairs next to some awful wallpaper, filling the room with vile presence as the soundtrack crawls towards an electronic scream… maybe it’s just me, but you don’t get that every day. ‘Legacy of Satan’ isn’t all that well known, and it would be great for a definitive version to surface one day, but for now I totally recommend this version, despite the presence of those edits.

BLOODY REUNION – Really good Korean slasher movie about a school reunion that goes bloodily wrong. I say ‘slasher movie’, but it isn’t, really – maybe for a bit in the middle when the rabbit mask comes out and the blood starts flying. Either side of that are enough twists and shifts in tone to project it into another zone. I knew I was in interesting territory with this one when I caught myself enjoying the build-up. Normally with ostensible slashers I’m going “shut up, just throw a load of gore at the screen already”. But with ‘Bloody Reunion’, I was quite into the characters and what was going on. The former students of a dying school teacher gather at her coastal retreat to reminisce about the good times. During their stay, it becomes apparent that the good times were actually pretty bad, and that the teacher was essentially a bit of a shitbag who left her mark on the group in various development-stunting ways. Flashbacks reveal that the teacher kept a deformed child down in her basement. The arrival of a silent, detached character who the gang humiliated back in the day telegraphs the start of a sequence of gory murders perpetrated by a figure in a rabbit mask. And then it all changes again… the hook here for me was trying to figure out what had happened in the past, which wasn’t obvious even with the final ‘reveal’. Actually, the graphic horror seemed misplaced somehow, and what really worked beyond the intrigue was the gradually evolving sense of despair and anguish which came to a head in the final scene. Quite a few Korean horror flicks I’ve seen have that really moving, sad vibe to them ie the brilliant ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’. Definitely a full on recommendation, despite the dull, muted transfer from Tartan.

THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE – Seventies Italian horror in which a busload of tourists stay over at a castle owned by a family with a dark past, which in this case involves alchemy and a succubus. Some stuff to do with the seven deadly sins goes down. I watched this years ago, and couldn’t remember anything about it apart from the WW2-set baby stabbing prologue… I’m surprised it didn’t make more of an impact on me, because it’s got a really pungent atmosphere, or at least it did when I saw it last night. In fact, it’s a good example of a certain characteristic of Euro horror of its time, a kind of plodding, clunky quality which is transcended by a really haunting, strange vibe. This makes it immersive and trance inducing rather than boring, although I could see how viewers could go either way with it, depending on taste, tolerance and expectation. But I could watch ‘The Devil’s Nightmare’ endlessly, even the bits where nothing happens… it’s all about the knowing stares that go on for too long, the awkward silences, the echoey la-la-la soundtrack, the shots of a fat man fondling a sausage which segue into dissociated lesbian erotica… it all piles up into something hypnotic and unhinged way before the more overt horror starts. And the star of this show is, as has been pointed about by other reviewers many times, Erica Blanc’s deeply unsettling face. Even when she’s in straight, non-succubus mode, there’s something about the way she looks that gives me the creeps. Sometimes films of this type and era get it wrong. They lack that haywire mystery quality and just end up seeming flat or dull. ‘The Devil’s Nightmare’ has this weird X factor to burn, and remains a fascinating excursion into the backwaters of European gothic.

Zulu (2013)
 

Can the rehabilitation of LOTR actors continue with my last film of the weekend ?

Fortunately this is not an unneeded remake of the 1964 classic Zulu, but a rather pedestrian South African set police thriller starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom. Bloom plays a hardbitten washed up cop and while this is perhaps the best acting of his career he brings nothing new to the craft.

The script suffers a little from too many ideas and too much backstory and as a consequence never manages to build the tension needed to succeed. A shame as there is probably a good film somewhere in the material. Instead we are left with this distinctly average effort.

The Swimmer.

Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) appears out of nowhere at a friends house wearing nothing but his swimming trunks. He seems to be a well liked bloke and his upper middle class friends welcome him. While they sit around the pool moaning about getting old Ned looks out across the valley and decides its possible to cross the county going from garden to garden and stopping off along the way to swim in each pool he comes across. Most of his mates think he's kidding until he ups and leaves. The film follows Ned in his journey as he encounters people along the way and as he does we learn a little more about him. The closer he gets to home the darker things become, leading to a genuinely devastating conclusion.

The Swimmer is a great example of how to deal with exposition in screenwriting. At no point does anyone sit and explain things for the audience. Instead we learn more about Ned as he travels from pool to pool through his encounters with other people. I don't want to get too into the plot however as I'm trying real hard here to give nothing away as the film works most effectively if you go into it blind.

Nonetheless The Swimmer is a clever film that is surprisingly bleak and pessimistic about human nature for a typical studio picture. It still feels like an odd selection for Grindhouse but it's a film that's well worth seeking out.

Needless to say being a grindhouse disc its jam-packed with extras including over 2 hours of documentary detailing the production of the film. As with all previous Grindhouse blu-rays it's also totally region free. The transfer is excellent and once again Grindhouse give the film first class treatment.

!?

I really liked 'Candyman' when I first saw it, but then I read 'The Forbidden', which is probably one of the five best stories in 'The Books of Blood'. The short story is amazing, and a straight adaptation would have been so much better. Not sure why they added the mirror thing? The original story has a real sense of mystery, that is sadly missing from the film.
After reading your thoughts, I'm keen to give it a rewatch.
Your reviews are excellent, Keirarts, I always enjoy reading them.

The mirror thing is cribbed from the bloody mary urban Legend. The film makers seem to be making a broader point about urban legends in general and I suspect wanted something American audiences would get, even on a subconscious level.

Oh wow, I NEED to see this! How did you come across it?

Erwin!! :laugh:

Snowpiercer (2013, Bong Joon-ho)

Whilst not without it's flaws, this is the best anti capitalist propaganda I've seen in ages. Swinton is just on the right side of parody etc. Whilst the director reserves his right to confuse you right till the end, who said I wanted to be spoonfed anyhow? Not me. I may even give Amer another go now.....;)

Yes, but Marlene was funnier. ;)

PaulD - re 'Thirsty for Love, Sex and Murder' - I bought it on ebay. I'm not sure whether it's still available. Actually, I first came across it on Youtube (still there), but I really got it for the other film on the disc, a messed up gothic if ever there was one.

hellraiser bloodline

was pleasantly surprised as this was a lot better than i was expecting, we have a story that spans three time periods and is about the puzzle box and the family that created it. Doug bradley is fantastic as always as pinhead and in this film he must have the most screen time compared to the previous movies. only thing i didn't get was demon princess character how could her and pinhead know each other as it was many years later when the pinhead character was created. 7.5/10

coming to america

classic murphy, really is sad when you watch a film like this and see the dross he is making now. highlights are the staggering amount of characters that Murphy plays in this film and goes to show what a good actor he is. love the scene with Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy reprising there roles as the Duke brothers from trading places. 9.5/10

candyman

can't do better than keirarts fantastic review that sums this film up perfectly. a film that still creeps me out. till this day i cant look in the mirror and say his name and last night was scared to go to the toilet because of a mirror being there and the chance that bees might be in the toilet!! 9/10

Wasting Away (Matthew Kohnen, 2009) Kaliedoscope UK dvd.
Easily the stupidest film I've seen since Pearl Harbour:laugh:. Thankfully this was slightly more entertaining.
As the "from-the-zombies-POV" genre isn't overloaded, I'd recommend this to people who like a laugh.

Carnosaur (Adam Simon, 1993) New Horizons US dvd.
1st in the trilogy of Jurassic Park knockoffs from the inimitable R Corman, this is a tad sluggish for my tastes. Maybe the other two will pick up the pace.....

America 3000 (1986)

In a post nuclear United States a band of Amazon women rule the wasteland and enslave the male population in labour and breeding camps.

America 3000 is probably the worst example of a post nuclear holocaust movie i've seen. The acting and script is abysmal and the experience is made worse by the language the women made up - a whole new lingo which makes the majority of conversations inpregnable to most human ears. It borders on the absurdly entertaining but this PG effort just ends up absurd as there's no sex or violence to break up the monotonous chit chat.

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/5...3762c02159.jpg

Toxic waste washes up on the shoreline of some land that Joan Collins hope to sell to some potential buyers. It's not long before the party are attacked by giant ants. On the run from the ants and many of the party being killed, they find that they are being herded in the direction the ants want them to go. The survivors manage to make their way to civilization but the townsfolk are acting strange and things are not as they seem......
Enjoyable monster movie from 1977. Animatronic, magnification and rear projection techniques bring the giant ants to the screen. The result is not always good but the film rattles along at a nice pace and there is always someone in the group that you can't wait to be killed. Fans of giant bug movies should check this out. It gets a bad rap but if you like your movies B, then this is for you.

The thing (1982)

One of the few remakes that is actually better than the original, the special effects are still amazing after all these years and just shows how effects like this are superior to cgi. Nothing else I can say that has not already been said about this classic. 10/10

Next up Hellraiser inferno wonder how good or bad this one will be.

I feel old, I saw this at the pictures on it's original release.

Hellraiser inferno

Really enjoyed this, we have Craig Sheffer ( night breed ) as a corrupt cop investigating a murder. We have a interesting story that relies more on psychology horror than gore. Sheffer gives a good performance and the film reminds me of films like angel heart. The only big downside is it shouldn't of been a Hellraiser film at all.

a 7/10 but easily could of been a 8 or 8.5 if it had nothing to do with Hellraiser and had just been it's own film.

I do think adding pinhead and the box did more harm than good, as people expected a film more inline with the previous films and unfairly didn't give the film a chance to stand on its own merits.

Wrestling Women vs The Aztec Mummy (1964)

The last survivor of an archeological expedition to Mexico calls upon a troupe of female wrestlers to protect him from ruthless villain the Red Dragon, who is also after the Aztec treasure. After mucho wrestling everyone ends up at the Aztec temple and the wrestlers fight the Aztec mummy.

This film from famous Mexican director Rene Cardona is as loopy as it sounds. The mummy is seemingly more vampire than mummy as it can turn into bats and other creatures, whilst also being quite a nifty wrestler too. The story is a lot of fun, which is slowed only by the wrestling scenes in the first third which seem to go on forever, yet surprisingly the film has decent rewatch value to it. However if the title turns you away then it's probably not for you.

Watched thirty three mins of Zombie Nightmare and then I switched off...literally. It was just awful. Even the supplementary material could not make up for the shite that went before it :doh:

idle hands

enjoyable horror comedy about a teenage stoner whose hand gets possessed by a demon and goes on a gorey and darkly funny killing spree. only downside is i found the main character a little annoying, but thankfully this is made up by his two friends (one played by seth green) who are by far the best thing in the movie. we also have a young jessica alba as the love interest 9/10

now watching taking of beverly hills which have not seen before but really enjoying.

Watched Forbidden Planet, well what I can say is that it was fantastic. Probably one of my favourite sci fi films, the sheer thought put into it. The design of Robby the robot was sweet.

Nightbreed

A flawed but very enjoyable film, do think it was made at a time when the technology wasn't there for Clive's vision if had been made today I think we would of had a whole different movie (also less studio interference would help). Can't wait to see the cabal cut later this year. 7.5/10

Galaxy quest

Fantastic spoof of Star Trek and probably the best Star Trek film ever made. We have the a group of aliens that actually believe that transmissions of a short lived sci fi show is real and have built the ship from the show and recruit the crew from the show who the aliens believe to be as brave and heroic as on the show. How wrong they are they can't stand each other especially the captain( Tim Allen who's character is definitely based of William shatner) Great comedy and special effects and nods to Star Trek . And sigourney weaver super hot in this. 10/10

Edit

Next up lost highway , is this as confusing and as weird as the reviews on amazon make it about to be?

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An outstanding film really loved it. James McAvoy was fantastic his constant switching between emotions amazed me one moment he was the model detective the next a crazed coke addict then in the blink of an eye a weeping tormented mess from start to finish a really intense performance.

Id rather not go into detail about the film its better to go in blind it just needs to be experienced.

Yes, and it's terrifying so make sure you watch it at night.