You should give Tzameti a go – it's really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54jn0_ugqco

A similar film would be Kaiji: The Gambler (Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler Trailer (Kaiji) - IMDb), which I also highly recommend.

It's a remake of the 2006 Thai film 13: Game of Death, J.

13 game sayawng (2006) - IMDb

That too is very good.

I'm sure I've seen that, and think I liked it. I haven't seen the remake though.

I liked it. :nod:

I haven't seen the remake though.

Me neither.

So that makes three of us – maybe J Harker is the only one here who has!

I have the distinct feeling that The Labs promoted it at one time too. :o

EDIT: Yep.

Eep – that's embarrassing!

I remember reading a review here a few weeks back. Can't remember who by though. Good film.

The Moon Over the Alley (1976)

http://skyfall.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/...g?k=5ddde47889

Duffer's B-side, The Moon Over the Alley is an often surreal musical exploring the problems of the multicultural residents in a Notting Hill boarding house.

As many of you know musicals and me mix like oil and water so it was with great trepidation that I delved into this one head-first and within the first few minutes was 'treated' to some musical numbers and which saw myself toying with the idea of switching it off and putting something else on instead. However, luckily for silly little me my brain made me persevere. What I got was a strange but charming yet at times dark tale of struggle, turmoil, but ultimately community spirit through kinship of a cross-section of working class Londoners in the 1970s. All this is interspersed with the surreal - the musical numbers not withstanding - overall providing you with a mish-mash of emotional emittance ranging from comfort to despair once the credits roll. Just like life really.

This shouldn't work and I shouldn't like it but it does and I do... very much so in fact.

http://36.media.tumblr.com/2df6b9587...emvwo1_500.jpg

76/100

Christmas Horror Marathon #8
 

After (2012)

When two bus crash survivors awake to discover that they are the only people left in their town, they work together to unravel the truth behind the strange events.

Although well made and featuring some good fx including creatures that reminded me of Lickers from Resident Evil, After is so damn predictable.

The two survivors played by Karolina Wydra and Steven Strait didn't have any chemistry and i never found them likable or believable meaning i didn't care what or why things were playing out as they did. What had happened all became so painfully obvious when they walked into a restaurant populated with townsfolk and saw themselves in scenes from their own lives whilst no one in the restaurant could see or hear them as they wandered about bemused. This happened more than once and just became tedious.

Had this serious plot give away happened towards the end then it could be forgiven perhaps but not after a mere half an hour.

Come the conclusion i wondered exactly who the film was aimed at because any horror fan would have been able to work this out like myself so easily.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

*** out of ****

Just finished watching it myself, one of my favourite films from when I was a kid :)

BBC2 right. I love all the old Ray Harryhausen stuff.

Yeah, been meaning to pick up the blu ray for ages :nod:

Christmas Horror Marathon #9
 

The Mummy's Tomb (1942)

A high priest travels to America with the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) to kill all those who had desecrated the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka thirty years earlier.

The third Universal Mummy film and sequel to The Mummy's Hand. Why didn't i watch this first? It sits there on the same disc. :crazy: Especially as the Mummy in this film is returning to wipe out all the survivors from the previous film.

No matter. Lon Chaney Jr takes over the bandages from Tom Tyler but seeing as he's always covered and you never see his face it's a little irrelevant who plays the mummy. For me the acting awards go to George Zucco as the high priest Andoheb, whilst the exotic Turhan Bey controls the deadly mummy in the States.

Universal horror films always have a lovely Gothic atmosphere to them yet in a way these Mummy films are all so similar in style and story line (Karloff original aside) that if you enjoy one then chances are you'll like them all.

Prometheus (2012)

Despite liking all the Alien films (Not including the awful Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) i wouldn't call myself a huge fan of any of them so was in no rush to see Ridley Scott's return to his old stamping ground, the planet LV-223, first seen in his original Alien. I was happy to let the furore, gossip and spoilers lapse from my memory and taking it from there.

I must say i really enjoyed Prometheus. I found it intelligent, occassionally creepy and often quite compelling. Michael Fassbender's android was the star of the show but he had serious competition from Noomi Rapace. The sequence where she removes the alien parasite from her abdomen is an icky body horror treat.

Visually the film is superb. Both the planet and the crashed space craft are brilliantly realized. It was good to delve into some of the hows and why's of Giger's imagery from the very first film and find out a little about them.

Despite having a central theme of creation i didn't feel the film got bogged down with it, nor did it irritate me. The film also asked a lot of questions it didn't bother to answer but again i was enjoying the ride and this also wasn't as irritating as it could be on a second viewing perhaps.

As for the very last scene - it's what we waited for all along.

I didn't think much of Prometheus myself, Dem.

I found it boring, overlong, poorly written and muddled. Each to their own though!

I was surprised by the amount of hate this received on its theatrical release, and has continued to attract since then, as I really enjoyed it when I saw it at the cinema and found it improving with each subsequent viewing at home.

Michael Fassbender is easily the best thing about the film with one of his best performances. However, as is usual for anything directed by Ridley Scott, it is painstakingly designed and beautiful to look at – he really is a gifted 'creator of worlds'.

That might come with a second viewing.

Having owned it for a good 18 months without watching it, it could also be a mood thing as well.

I do tend to agree with your views rather than Bizarre_Eyes after my initial watch.

I enjoyed it too, but it's yet to grace my shelves with it's presence :nod:

Even though it's a film which really didn't need to be made – I like the mystery around about the alien origins – I'm glad it didn't disappoint me and, even though Peter Weyland should have been played by an older actor and not Guy Pearce in lots of make-up, I really loved the design of the planet and philosophical debate about the relationship between science, religion, and humanity.

All that said, it's long overdue another watch.

Good review Dem. I actually think Prometheus is better than Ridleys original Alien.

Something that bugs me about Prometheus is that in the original Alien, the fossilized Engineer corpse is absolutely huge, but in Prometheus they're only a bit bigger than humans.

I highly recommend the 3-hour making of documentary by the way, loved it.

I did notice that.

I've always thought Alien is the weakest of the original quadrilogy. In fact i think i actually prefer the latter two to the first two.

I'd even rate Alien vs.Predator above Alien. Requiem's shit though.

AvP is a good sci-fi action film. I prefer it to Aliens if i'm honest. Aliens takes way too long to get going. I know i'm probably in a minority of one with that viewpoint. :snowman:

Yeah, I think you're on you're own there :lol:

I do like AvP though, and yes Requiem is utter shite!

I don't know if this makes a difference, but Prometheus is set on a different planet to the one visited in Alien.

I didn't realize that. Thought they were both LV something or other.

Perhaps both planets have signs saying crash here and get into the required positions.

I love Prometheus. I was rather iffy about it when Scott said he was going to answer what the Space Jockey was about as I felt that would only ruin the mystery behind the Xenomorph. Instead, Prometheus used that answer to raise a ton more questions - such as the creepy thought of humanity as being a plaything by a higher being (which ties in nicely with the film's title).

I do have issues with the film though - namely the infamous moment in which the geologist / mapmaker and biologist get lost; and how the film feels like it's caught between two ratings (I'm guessing that Ridders was pushing for a hard R while Fox were hoping for the PG-13). Also, the pacing is kind of off.

Still, Prometheus is something that is becoming rarer and rarer these days: a blockbuster that isn't afraid to bring up hard questions and move in a different direction from the established series.

Can't wait for Alien: Covenant. Judging by Scott's recent comments, it looks like Fox are going for the R rating. :sleighride:

I think Scott said the sequels will delve into LV-246 (EDIT: it's actually LV-426 - thanks Nosferatu!) and how the Space Jockey got there.

It can be a bit confusing. Prometheus is set on LV-223, with the crew from Nostromo in Alien landing on LV-426.

These are some of the main issues I had with it.

The pacing is weird. Scott is usually slow-paced (which I like as he uses his time to create mood and atmosphere, as well as letting the audience to get used to the film's environments) but it feels like there was a lot of stuff removed from the final film. I'm not talking deleted scenes here, but it feels like long shots may have been snipped to reduce the running time. Sometimes I wonder if Scott had to do this so that he could convince Fox to let him have the R rating.

You hate It's A Wonderful Life!

How can i believe anything you say? ;)

This true Mac??