Thanks for your support, Nos!

love ghosthouse, hell's gate, sodamas ghost, touch of death... the list is long.

:pound: Whatever you're on Frankie, does it come in tablet or liquid form?

The abominable dr Phibes 8.5/10

Fall of the house of usher 9/10

Blind woman's curse 8.5/10

Now watching the seasoning house and if enough time tonight vamp and theatre of blood.

ESCAPE INTO NIGHT
Eerie childrens' tv series from 1972, with a bit of a PAPERHOUSE theme, concerning a young girl whose drawings come to life in her dreams, where she encounters an ill young boy who lives in a permanently dark house surrounded by standing stones with huge blinking eyes and extremely scary voices! So what is real and what isn't and how does it all relate to her real life?
I'd never heard of this series, but being a fan of 70s tv horror, this simply told tale came as a pleasant surprise. I can imagine this scaring the young viewers back in the day!
It was originally broadcast in colour, but Network's dvd release is the only existing black and white copy, which somehow adds to the overall creepiness.

I just saw Baron Blood on Netflix. Beautiful movie but you don't expect any less from Bava! A little slow at times but that's really nothing that bothers me. Simply a good movie everybody should and should've seen. :)

Two quite different films and audiences at the Kino this weekend.

On Saturday I went to see The Fault in Our Stars a film I went into knowing absolutely nothing about (I am making a point to try and go to see all of the English language films shown at my local Cinemaxx which has led to some interesting discoveries and some pretty enjoyable evenings). I guess I should have guessed what was coming by the fact that I seemed to be sharing the theatre with around a hundred teenage (I would guess 14-16 years old) girls. The film was a pretty predictable romance about a young girl and boy who find love when they meet at a support group for children with cancer. William Dafoe pops up as an embittered author hiding away in Amsterdam and has some brilliant but nasty lines. Overall not a bad film, but one I would find difficult to recommend to anyone not in the target audience. I won't be running out to buy the book upon which the film is based.

Tonight was my second visit (unusual as Cinemaxx normally only screen one film in OV) this time to see the latest Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow. Based upon this and his other recent output (Jack Reacher, MI:4) he seems to be back to some sort of form in his choices of films. Alongside the original Resident evil film, Edge of Tomorrow is one of the very few films that somehow manages to capture something of the feel of playing video games, here that ability to replay the 'game' once you have died using the new knowledge gained to allow you to progress further. Doug Liman manages to make use of this device in an interesting and fun way delivering an above average (if not brilliant) sic-fi action film of a kind that wouldn't have looked out of place in the 1980's. The audience for this film comprised mostly early-mid 20's males.

Currently going through a bit of an asian cinema martial arts phase after watching ong bak the other night and just finish watching Azumi.
Holy sh*t! This film had me drawn in within the first 10 minutes and didn't let go until the end. Apparently its over 2 hours long but as the saying goes time flies when you are having funas dd not seem that long to me. I thought the action sequences were immense. In a nutshell (from what i could figure) Ten orphans are trained from a young age to become assassins and eliminate 3 warlords to keep their nation from plunging into a war and destroying itself.
Plenty of violence and blood during the many swordfights as well as a pretty high body count and would give this film an 8.5/10 any day. One I can see me watching again in the next week.
Personally I have not even scratched the surface when it comes to asian cimema (battle royale, ong bak, kung fu hustle, sex & fury and this are literally all I've seen) so if you are thinking of dipping your toes into asian action/martial arts type cinema, even with what little I have seen imo this is a great introduction to the genre.Chances are there is better out there but I'm sure there is plenty worse too.

If you like AZUMI then I urge you to check out the directors debut VERSUS.


I watched SLEEPAWAY CAMP.

Scream factory's blu is decent quality and has some fine extras. The film itself is one of the more entertainingly perverse slasher movies with material that would not make it into any modern film. The leering pedophile chef who openly talks about wanting his pick of the campers, who are actually played by kids of the same age as their characters is disturbing watched today.

The film itself still works however, even in spit of sheriff's with dodgy mustaches and Angela's aunt who is a truly awful actress, playing a character one would expect to find haunting nilbog. And THAT ending... Lets not forget THAT ending.

Still a minor classic of the slasher genre its a shame SF couldn't get the cheap as f*** sequels and make a proper box set.

Nontheless still enjoyable after all these years.

From 1955 (part 1)

Marty - The Oscar winner that year for best picture isnt your usual Hollywood smaltz and was billed as a human story, its interesting in as far as it shows the attitudes of the ordinary 'joe' on the street where ugly men are called 'ugly' and the none too pretty women are called 'dogs'.

East of Eden - James Dean in an Elia Kazan movie. Wasn't to keen on this, I'm not a fan of either star or director.

Rebel Without a Cause - Another Dean picture that again I wasn't too keen on, theres just something about his performances that I don't like.

Tarantula - Giant arachnid and mutating humans, should be great...but for me it was lacking something. Clint Eastwood makes an early uncredited appearance.

Teaserama - Betty Page and Tempest Storm strut their stuff and pull 'funny' faces, but don't actually show anything!

Richard III - I have to say after seeing Olivier's Hamlet and being somewhat bored by it I was expecting something similar with this one, however I quite enjoyed it!

Revenge of the Creature - Classic sequel to 'The Creature From the Black Lagoon' and again Clint Eastwood makes another appearance.

Godzilla Raids Again - Hmmm! The original was a great movie but this 'American' version of the Japanese sequel left a lot to be desired.

Lola Montes - Max Ophuls last movie is considered one of his greatest but like all the others I've seen, (with the exception of 'La Ronde') I probably wont rewatch them.

The Night of the Hunter - Brilliant, an absolute great performance from Mitchum. Its a pity that Charles Laughton didn't direct more. It was also nice to see Lillian Gish again after last seeing her during the silent period of my movie project.

The Quatermass Xperiment - Classic early Hammer. Wordsworth performance is just fantastic.

Saw Creepshow 2 tonight, fun movie! I haven't seen the Creepshow movies and this one was on netflix so I thought why not. Time to check out the other ones!

Creepshow 2s good,:pop2:
Creepshow 1 is a classic in my opinion, check that one out.:)
Haven't seen 3 but it's pretty new and supposed to be really bad.

creepshow 3 is dreadful.

Well my Toshiba Multiregion BDX1200 player packed in friday after 4 years use,and to be fair for a cheap player at the time it sure took a hammering and served me well,so have had to fork out for a new All region player for Blu as well as DVD unfortunately.

However before it went tits up since my last post I watched..


Night of The Devils (1972)

I had never seen this before and I loved it. I found it genuinely creepy with some nice gore for it's era, the Raro Blu looks Beautiful.


Naked Lunch.


I love Cronenberg especially The Fly & Rabid,so I checked out this title on Criterion Blu as it's the only Cronenberg I haven't seen. As always the quality of the Disc is beautiful as Criterion never fails to be,But I can't say I thought a great deal about the film,It made little sense and seemed to be much longer than needed.


Big Bad Wolves.

Watched this one on Netflix USA. Iranian (I think) anyhoo it deals with a paedophile being kidnapped and tortured until he confesses to the location of a little girls Bonce,It seemed to me to drag out going in circles & the ending (to me) made no sense. I wouldn't say a bad film but a drawn out loop the loop.

Thou Shalt Not Kill Except..

Another excellent quality Synapse Blu. The film itself was fairly original and gory at times,I did however find some of the score and dialogue to be childish and not in the least amusing as I am sure was the aim.

Sorry to go slightly off topic but anyone know a release date for Synapse Blu of "Long weekend" It is in the 2014 catalogue leaflets enclosed in other releases and seems to have originally meant to have come out in 2013.

Agreed it is diabolical & an insult to it's predecessors.

The Happinet Blu release of Dawn of the Dead 1978 European cut. An okay transfer at best. A handful of trailers make up the only extras. One of which runs for over four minutes and is available in HD. Personally I'd rather the Arrow or the Anchorbay US release :)

Pressure Point (1962, Hubert Cornfield)

Sidney Poitier in a battle of wits with Bobby Darin. They really don't make 'em like this anymore. I was given this to look at from a friend, a Spanish release, even though tis available from MGM. Maybe tis a better transfer ahem.

Ah I see, i've not heard anything about the third one but I can imagine that what you said is accurate. At least I have the first one to look forward to!

Star Trek continues episode 3

Another amazing episode this one taking place in the mirror mirror universe just after the end of the mirror mirror TOS episode. For those who don't know this is a fan produced show(phase 2 is another) with is of outstanding quality in scripts ands effects it just like a forth season of TOS. Well worth seeking out for those who are fans of Star Trek, one of the only things I have ever backed on kickstarter. 9.5/10

Tonight I watched the Maniac re-make with Elijah Wood and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by it. It was much better than I thought it would be, and the soundtrack's really, really good. In fact, so good I had to order it. :nod:

I also saw Fright Night (85), it felt a little bit too long but otherwise it was a fun watch. :)

Watched The Grand Budapest Hotel last night.
Offbeat, quirky, charming. Really enjoyed it and can't wait to watch it again. 8/10

Behind The Candelabra (2013, Steven Soderbergh)
I liked this, and it's easily the best thing I've seen Matt Damon in. Haven't got long, so thatl have to do ahem!!

FROZEN GROUND.

A sedated Nic Cage goes up against John Cusack's serial killer in this pretty good film based on true events. However the real star of the film is Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical" fame as a jailbait hooker who manages to balance vulnerable, tough and sexy with conviction. As ex HSM stars go I still favour Zac Efron getting pissed upon by Nicole Kidman in "The Paperboy", which oddly enough also had Cusack as a killer.

I really enjoyed frozen ground. Best performance from nic cage in a while. Certainly a million miles away from....

Not the Bees - YouTube

I watched it based on your review on here. Yeah, Cage is very good, he manages to do these type of semi paternal roles very well.

Its easy to forget that Cage CAN be a good actor. Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Wild at heart, Frozen ground, Rumble fish.

He just seems to pad these roles out with turns playing bug eyed weirdos and panto acting.

Not that that's always a bad thing. I still really dig vampires kiss.

Don't forget Adaptation!

Good call! :clap:

Or Kick-Ass.

Or Con Air.

Now we're starting the scrape the bottom of the barrel a bit... :tongue1:

That's one of his run-of-the-mill performances – nothing great.

Watched the Jason Statham flick, Homefront. The screenplay was by Sly Stallone, he also has production credits. I thought it was pretty good.

Gold 6082

Naked Lunch.

I love Cronenberg especially The Fly & Rabid,so I checked out this title on Criterion Blu as it's the only Cronenberg I haven't seen. As always the quality of the Disc is beautiful as Criterion never fails to be,But I can't say I thought a great deal about the film,It made little sense and seemed to be much longer than needed.



Well its hardly surprising when William s Burroughs who wrote it was high on drugs,
Become clean and had a problem understanding the book himself. so just played by ear what they did understand and even toned it down

...

Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative that is difficult to describe in terms of plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant.
The book then becomes increasingly disjointed and impressionistic, and finally simply stops.
scenes jump around that its easy to get lost
n 1991, Canadian director David Cronenberg took up the challenge. Rather than attempting a straight adaptation, Cronenberg took a few elements from the book and combined them with elements of Burroughs' life, creating a hybrid film about the writing of the book rather than the book itself. Peter Weller starred as William Lee, the pseudonym Burroughs used when he wrote Junkie.

...

And if the did make the film according to the book and all its perversion and sexual context it would be the most censored film or most banned film ever made

I just watched Forbidden World for the first time. An allright movie i'd say. But then again I'm kinda drunk so I really didn't follow it too well. :(

American Mary - Here's a frustrating experience for the horror fan - an original concept, one tailor made for the younger Cronenberg - is somewhat squandered in a glossy, entertaining but ultimately superficial fashion. A horror body modification movie is a great idea, the tired torture porn tropes can be revisited in a cerebral way - instead of butchering people, how about changing them? At what point does the body become so altered that the person no longer exists? how about swapping body parts, a contemporary Frankenstein myth? This movie skims over these ideas but sadly settles for a straightforward rape revenge narrative. Katherine Isabelle is OK but she can't do much with a script that takes her from A (stressed, ambitious medical student) to B (raving dominatrix style nutcase) in one jump. The owner of the night club which specialises in back room torture and the policeman on the trail are dreadfully written and acted characters that go nowhere. The Betty boo lookalike is better - genuinely creepy looking. Overall a better than average horror which nowadays is damning with faint praise I'm afraid.

RAZE. 48 women are kidnapped and forced to fight to the death against each other or their loved ones will be killed. Utterly fantastic slice of exploitation hokum that doesn't have a slice of post "Grindhouse" irony or cleverness in it's body. Recommended.

Thats pretty much what i thought.:nod:
Really wanted to like it.:pop2:

Just returned from seeing Midsummers Night Tango which is a documentary film that follows three Tango musicians from Argentina's capital city as they go on a road trip to explore the truth behind Aki Kaurismaki's assertion that Tango was invented by the Finnish.

The film is a light hearted exploration of Tango and is recommended.

REPO MAN. I've not seen this for over twenty years and was surprised how well it still stands up, in fact it seems fresher and more contemporary than when it was originally released.