I haven't seen Trespass, but it sounds like it would be worth my time. House of Bamboo is, as you say, a brilliant film.

I've only seen Trespass once, ages ago but i recall enjoying it a lot.

Zootropolis - really solid Disney animation. A good few laughs, some good characters and just general family fun.

Inside Out - Incredible. One of Pixar's best. I laughed, cried and was enthralled from the first frame to last. Just utterly joyful (pun not intended)

Surveillance - a rewatch as I hadn't seen it for a good few years. Still stands up as an enjoyable thriller, putting Jennifer Lynch back on the map after Boxing Helena. Bill Pullman puts in a cracking performance

I never noticed them. I was sort of expecting a brief performance or them to have cameo's but no. I didn't spot them.

As for the film itself. I thought it had the same flaw as Fuest's Dr Phibes films. - It was shit!

You don't like the Dr.Phibes films Dem? I'm surprised.

I don't rate Fuest as a director at all. The only one of his i like is And Soon the Darkness which is a masterpiece.

Even The Devil's Rain is PG rated rubbish.

He only directed a handful of films in the early 70's before being relegated to tv.

I really rate his And Soon the Darkness and the Phibes films.

I also enjoy The Devil's Rain and actually watched his TV movie Revenge of the Stepford Wives last night and found it to be pretty enjoyable too.

I understand i'm very much on my own in not liking the Phibes films and that's fine. The Final Programme was more interesting than them in every way but was very much a case of (creaky) style over substance. Until the Inspector emerged.

Even that revelation was spoiled by the artwork on the inner sleeve. see attachment below. (That poster is far more exciting than anything seen onscreen.)

It was nice to see this sequence though that i recall an image from in Alan Frank's classic book SCI-FI NOW.

http://www.cca.org/blog/images/the-f...ogramme-02.jpg

:eek:

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/ima...9&type=profile

Have you seen it, B_E?

Nope.

I think you'll like it to be honest.

The more i'm thinking about it the more i'm thinking better towards it. It was a film with some very memorable set pieces and imagery.

It's one i'll definitely return to so i'll review it next time. :nod:

That's Hawkwind on the stage...I think or it could be Deep Fix.

Batman vs superman dawn of justice

Not hard to see why it's getting so much criticism , as others have said very poorly paced with little character development, the dream sequences just seemed completely out of place . henry cavill still looks the part of superman but I still found no connection with his portrayal of superman unlike Reeves version in which you cared deeply for the character, but Affleck was great as a more brutal and world weary Batman and I really liked jesse eisenberg crazy and unhinged lex Luthor. The last 20 minutes or so are fantastic, the whole. Batman vs superman fight while good was a little bit of a disappointment and like mr harker I just don't understand why Wonder Woman was in the film, the reason we are given is flimsy at best but I suppose it's too set up the other movies, but with any luck the directors cut will give her more development and fix some of the other problems with the movie. 7.5/10

Next up
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I haven't watched Dr. Cyclops out of that set, Trebor.

Look forward to reading what you think. :nod:

Cult of the Cobra is the only one i've watched so far and found it dull. I bought the set for The Leech Woman, so i'm saving that until last.

Yeah i neglected to mention that Ben Affleck made for a good Batman, although he did seem exceptionally brutal compared to previous incarnations. No real issues with killing and far more open to conventional weapons than we've seen in the past. And Eisenberg does crazy well. But like i said for me character motivation was the overwhelming problem.

How about Theatre of Blood Dem?

Theatre isn't a Fuest film. It was directed by Douglas Hickox.

However if you were just randomly asking about it. Yes i like that, very much.

Nothing to do with Fuest. Its a Vincent Price film that i tend to think as having a similar style to the Phibes films. So not entirely random. In fact not really random at all, I've even heard of Theatre being described as a spiritual sequel to the Phibes films. Although I'm buggered if i can remember where.

Theatre's a bit of a weird one. Yes it is a little like the Phibes films but it also has a really nasty streak to it that the Phibes ones don't. Thus setting it apart in my opinion.

Mm furry muff. Did you get The Hallow after?

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A mad scientist sends for some help in a new discovery he has made, once the help arrives and he gets what he needs the scientist turns his back on them and becomes very secretive, so they decide to find out what he's upto, which they do first hand as we find out he has found a way to shrink things including people, so the group have to battle local wildlife etc and the mad scientist who is determined to kill them all. A superior mad scientist movie. The best way to describe it is if Rick Moranis character from honey I shrink the kids was a crazy psychotic mad man. 7.9/10

Next up

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AMONG THE LIVING – Ever since 'Inside', Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have been flying in the face of their fans' unrealistic expectations – good for them. I liked 'Livide' even though everyone else said it was a muddled mess, and I have to say that I enjoyed 'Among The Living', which quite a few reviewers have written off as half baked. For some, the attempt here to marry pre-adolescent drama with horror has come off badly. I might be wrong, but just because a film references 'The Goonies' a couple of times doesn't mean that it has to justify itself by ripping a foetus out of someone's stomach every five minutes. Ironically and somewhat teasingly there IS a bit of foetus ripping in the first five minutes of 'Among The Living' when a haggard Beatrice Dalle flips out and tries to kill her young ones, but again, those looking for an 'Inside' style gore bonanza will be disappointed to learn that the film is more about the struggles of a gang of three alienated kids. That's not to say there isn't plenty of creepiness on offer. It just needs time to build. After the brutal opening, the tone is subdued, for a while at least – we get to know the kids and their messed up lives a bit. We follow them as they bum about setting fire to barns and trespassing in abandoned film studios (which appear to be a staple on the outskirts of every small French town). The kids antagonise a fugitive father-son duo (basically, Dalle's ex-family) who've been using the studios as their murder grotto, and from then the film gathers momentum as the disturbing looking son, a bald guy who walks around naked, tracks each of the kids down in turn. The last half hour is pretty fraught and tense, and manages to pack in a bit of the ultraviolence the filmmakers have been accused of forsaking. But, in a film which is nodding more to the otherly and the macabre, what sticks in the mind are images such as bald creep forcing his foot into the mouth of a prone, dying father, or treading 'meaningfully' on a squeaky toy. It may play on standard genre themes like 'the family as the source of horror' and does the whole thing of showing a brutal family as the mirror / equivalent of a 'realistic' one but it does so with a more evolved sense of what that might mean, and to their credit Maury and Bustillo inject pathos into the ostensible bad guys in a way which avoids cheese and seems to evoke real fragility. I think it's a good film, and I recommend it.

No i decided not to bother. I seemed to pick up quite a haul last week so thought i'd wait.

Plus i've ordered a couple of new releases today from HMV .

Didn't bother with the Jim Beam either as i doubt it will taste much different to ordinary Beam.

That's another off the list i posted a few weeks ago that i need to pick up. :nod:

You seem to be hitting the same list...or perhaps we just have similar ideas of what sounds good in today's dtv market. :lol:

Oh yeah, i thought Livide was excellent by the way.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Lex Luthor gets Batman and Superman to fight.




Yep.



In all honesty I've seen superheroes fight for some really, really dumb reasons so its not that which bothered me. Nope, it was that it took two and a half hours to get there with some really shitty dialogue and a mid section as bloated as mine (office work takes its toil ;) )
I do think some of the critics have been unduly harsh. Ben Affleck is probably the best Batman so far and the character straddles the comic book bats and the deathly serious nolan bats quite well. Jeremy Irons is also fantastic as Alfred. Gal Godot is great as wonder woman (at least with what she's given) and I'm really glad were getting a WW film directed by Patty Jenkins. Caville gets some stick but I really rate him as superman. He actually does a great job here, especially since the view of him here is from the human perspective making him seem more alien and distant.
The real issue is David S Goyer who cannot write for shit, and Snyder who really needed to reign in Jesse Eisenberg whose potrayal of Luthor veers from seething psychopath to jittery nut-job without any clear explanation. His entire distaste for superman is underwritten. If your a comic fan you should get it, but then the film-makers really should at least consider the people who aren't. Apparently Gotham and Metropolis are right next door to each other, at least I hope so as the whole final act loses track of where it is in a raging light-show. This is the main problem, it spends so much time and effort trying to make a basic premise seem grand, sinister and Machiavellian it essentially bogs the film down to an unhealthy degree.
Overall not terrible and nothing a change of writer and director couldn't fix. I really hope the cast don't land any of the blame.

The Beam is worth a whirl while its on offer. In fact i can see me getting another bottle tomorrow. Does have a deeper somewhat woodier taste than regular Jim which is quite light i think. That said i don't think its worth full price which i think is about £23.

Agree none of the actors are at fault here all give good performances(with what they are given) and it's a good point about superman. The fault as you say lies both with Goyer and Snyder neither who I rate very highly at what they do. I have a feeling wonder woman is going to fantastic and a lot more action packed and better directed and written than this

I don't mind Snyder. I really liked 300 and Watchmen, and thought Dawn of the Dead was a very good remake of an average film. ;)

I also enjoyed Sucker Punch but i know i'm alone in that. :lol:

Yes yes and yes.

Dawn of the Dead is a superior remake of a good film. Suckerpunch is proper toss.

Similar idea perhaps, but that's partly because the more obviously essential DTV pickups are pretty scant of number and well publicised- I've had 'Among The Living' on my radar since last year. The rest make up the barren, oceanic waste that you and I (and a few other prominent labbers) are used to trawling.

I think Snyder is good with a decent script. Dawn was written by james gunn, 300 from a frank miller graphic novel before frank miller dissappeared up his own racist ass. Watchmen basically used the graphic novel as storyboards. I suppose sucker punch at least tries to deal with agency and the male gaze but fails to really gel. Probably my favourite thing in bvs was the symbolism of the spear, tying the film into classical mythology of man vs god.

Sitting Target. Oliver Reed is a violent criminal who breaks out of jail when his wife tells him that not only is she divorcing him, but she's also already pregnant with another man's child, and he's only got one thing on his mind - bloody revenge. Ian McShane and Edward Woodward co-star in this early 70s British thriller that started well but began to meander and ultimately made me rather lose interest. Disappointing.

Red, White & Blue - Really enjoyed this. Tells the tale of 3 individuals at the fringes of society and who are all fighting their own personal battles ... Erica is sleeping around to forget/avenge a terrible secret in her past, Nate is a veteran of the Iraq war with a violent and obsessive streak and Franki is an ambitious rocker who is nursing his sick mother. During the course of the film, the worlds of these 3 characters are set on a collision course with tragic and violent consequences.

What I liked about this is that, whilst the characters weren't particularly likeable, they were entirely believable and although the violence was visceral and extreme, it was in keeping with the makeup if the characters and the plot. This is also helped by strong performances from the central cast and a slow, brooding build-up to the unforgettable climax. A difficult watch but a rewarding one!

Hansel and Gretel get Baked (2013)

'Don't touch my gingerbread house'

A couple of stoner youths, the unfortunately named Hansel and Gretel, finally discover who produces the almost mythical Black Forest cake. An harmless old woman who lives down the road and grows weed in her basement. Determined to score some, they pay the old woman a visit.

Grimm Tales as the film is titled in the UK is an oddball tale that doesn't take itself seriously. It's well made and reasonably well acted by the younger stars as well as Yancy Butler and Cary Elwes in a cameo. However it's Lara Flynn Boyle's film. I like Lara, she's bonkers, she was in the series Las Vegas (check out her demise) and she is in this. She plays the old woman who might well be a witch. Well, no, she is a witch who eats her victims cooked or raw, it doesn't really matter. Why? Well she's getting on a bit and her looks have gone, discovering human flesh is a way of replenishing herself she kidnaps and eats all the dopers who call round looking for that glorious Black Forest high.

The film is a bit of fun but i suspect you have to be in the mood for it. It's very gory in places as Boyle has no problem sticking forks in eye sockets and removing the eyeball for a tasty treat. At 85 mins it doesn't stick around too long and in truth it isn't as funny as it wants to be and plays better as a straight up horror.

Not for all, but fans of Evil Bong, Gingerdead Man and Charlie Band's general schlocky output should enjoy it.

The Witch Who Came In From The Sea.

Finally got to grips with this last night and boy I am pleased I did.......but mind you I will admit was ready to give up after half an hour, stuck with it though and was rewarded with what I thought was a great film.

The world of Kanako

The central plot of the film is about a washed up ex-cop with mental health issues searching for his estranged daughter. He discovers a web of drugs and teenage prostitution, worst of all he discovers his daughter is not the angel he imagined and may in fact be a monster.
World of Kanako is going to be a difficult prospect for a large portion of its audience. Essentially what starts out as a revenge thriller gradually becomes a descent into hell. There are few remotely likeable characters, pretty much everyone in it is badly screwed up in one way or another. Our main protagonist Akikazu, the worn down detective is a complete bastard and a rapist. The gradual revelations about his daughters life are genuinely messed up and factor in some of the most messed up plot-lines in the film as Kanako's thing seems to be the total corruption and destruction of innocence. The film itself feels deliberately fractured from the get-go with a frenetic cut-up style that switches gears from brutal stark reality, grind-house exploitation through to Japanese bubblegum J-pop. Throughout the film is a scabrous view of humanity as inherently corrupt and doomed and left me feeling somewhat shattered and bewildered by the end.
I have to say I think Kanako is one of the best films I've seen for a while and would certainly hit any of my ten best lists however I'm sure some will end up disagreeing with me.

Monster dog

After Kanako I felt a strong desire to watch something entertainingly naff. Given this one's directed by Claudio Fragrasso then it was a safe bet.
Alice cooper and his scooby gang head to his family home to make a music video for...reasons. They are pretty sure they are heading in the right direction as everything becomes fog shrouded and packs of stray dogs haunt the countryside killing locals. Worse still the family werewolf is loose and set to pass the curse to cooper.
Its a mess, however I knew what I was getting into and its an enjoyable mess. The new blu-ray looks awesome.

Both sound worthy of my time and attention – I'll see if they are available on Lovefilm to rent or stream.