Lake Placid 2 (2007)

Semi-decent Sci-Fi Channel sequel to the excellent first film. Starring John Schneider and Cloris Leachman.

Pretty much identical in plot to the 1999 original, minus the all star cast and witty dialogue, Lake Placid 2 is let down by terrible CGI work. Adding an extra three crocodiles to the mix might have seemed a great idea in pre-production but the execution was really quite amateurish in places.

When you don't have a big special effects budget, more isn't always the best way to go about things. A pity as there are plenty of exploitative elements on show in an otherwise fun film.

I watched
Fear Is The Key (1972, Micheal Tuchner).

Another revelation. Petrocelli and 'er from Torso restage Vanishing Point in order to please the dad from My Left Foot? A scream from beginning to end, I'm rewatching Torso, as I'm convinced that the outfit Kendall is wearing for most of FITK is the same one from said film haha.


My Science Project (1985, Robert Betuel)
Along with Best Shot and Rivers Edge, this was obviously part of Dennis Hopper's rehabilitation period....can you play a whacked out science teacher baby? Ahem. Film itself tripe, and not as much fun as the slightly similarily themed Solarbabies


Did I mention I watched that Cobra btw?? :lol::lol::lol: am still laughing.


The Killers (1947, Robert Siodmak)
Ooooh noir heaven. The dialogue rattles along like a Thompson machine gun etc. Told in a flashback stylee, the story of The Swede, The Bint & the missing $$$ is archetypal in extremis, the naked greed of nearly all the characters barely hidden beneath the surface. You can see why the French wet themselves as it is an existential minefield of raw human emotions. Or maybe I sit too close to the screen sometimes.

Adventures In Babysitting (2016, John Schulz)
Disney rap alert!!!:computerfix: When your lead resembles a defaced picture of Hayden Panettiere, it's not off to a great start. Like, it's a disney channel movie y'know...which I can only surmise are of the same QC as say, Syfy Channel movies etc. Blandly inoffensive to all except misanthropes. She was in Horns as well:hide:. And wasn't AIB the UK title any how?? Funny that......:rolleyes:

London Has Fallen (2016, Babak Najafi)
GERARD BUTLER needs to save Two Face because the Oscar winner has bled out. GERARD BUTLER stabs a lot of folk, suggests an inner turmoil concerning his sexuality. Morgaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan Freemaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan stretches out a paragraph of dialogue for his moneys worth. Not nearly as much fun as Four Lions

And to end I watched Point Blank (1967, John Boorman)
Where JB takes hollywood by the scruff of the neck and drags it into the out there. Lee Marvin looms....John Vernon oozes insincerity, Sharon Acker gives me the horn again.
Something about money.
Sometimes all I see are the shattered illusions of Capitalism gone to plan, if naked aqcuisition is the only aim. that and a lot of battered women. Hmm to that.

Did you nod off after the initial car chase? I'm still trying to recall oil refinery's and submersibles in Vanishing Point. ;)

Okay, it becomes VP for a good bit though haha. Vrooom vroooom etc. Odd film. Never really warmed towards Newman etc. Fun seeing him play a bastard though haha.

Also watched that Dawned On Them To Make A Justice League Film finally. Liked it.
Affleck notwithstanding. Greying temples doth not import stature.

Doesn't know when to stop...Or paced more like a comic book than most would care to admit??? Nolan on hand with the bleach, Snyder reigns in his slomo fetish at last!! Cavell not as annoying as predicted.
Now if someone with balls would film The Boys......

Sequel though haha

TAM LIN

AKA THE DEVIL'S WIDOW, this rarely seen late 60's flick is real who's who of late 60's / early 70's tv and film ( Ian McShane, Stephanie Beacham, Joanna Lumley, Madeleine Smith ) as a group of groovy people staying at the grand house of Ava Gardener.

After a fairly restrained first half hour, it takes a turn for the sinister when the object of Ava's affections ( McShane ) is hunted down like an animal through the forest after being administered hallucinogenic drugs.

Apparently this was director Roddie McDowall's only helmed movie, which is a real shame as it is beautifully directed, with some really stylish touches.

A good candidate for BFI Flipside, this is currently only available via Olive Films lovely looking Region A blu ray. Recommended.

Last week's viewings:



Paperhouse (1988)

https://67.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l...9rb0o1_500.jpg

66/100


Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6...600/Seance.jpg

79/100


The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie (1972)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DwegGtClk7...%2BRosalie.jpg

70/100


Streets (1990)

http://66.media.tumblr.com/0da0d162d...62b9o1_500.jpg

62/100


Last Shift (2014)

https://66.media.tumblr.com/13d6130a...0vkjo1_500.gif

65/100


Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

http://36.media.tumblr.com/cb1ac10f1...8qno10_500.jpg

71/100


The Wolf (Wilczyca) (1983)

https://41.media.tumblr.com/22a3bfea...hkv3o2_500.png

63/100


The Book of Stone (El libro de piedra) (1969)

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6796/011kx.png

74/100


We Are What We Are (2013)

https://36.media.tumblr.com/b330e9c9...uomfo3_500.jpg

65/100


The Gift (2015)

https://49.media.tumblr.com/f2682d60...ngfpo1_500.gif

69/100


Lake of the Dead (De Dødes Tjern) (1958)

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_prod...f-the-dead.jpg

70/100


Mandara (1971)

https://65.media.tumblr.com/77d87bb9...o7r8o1_500.png

83/100


The Clone Returns Home (Kurôn wa kokyô wo mezasu) (2008)

https://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m...zmy0o1_500.jpg

79/100

They have Shane Ryan's "Warning! Paedophile Released" which I was surprised to see.

My my, they have been casting their net a bit widely.

They have a heap of Cinema Epoch releases, of which Paedo is one, including the excellent Samurai Cop in all its wiggy glory.

'Samurai Cop' is for me just about the holy grail of psychotically bad action flicks. Was caught off guard by it a couple of years ago. Nice it's on Prime. I'll have to check out some of this other cinema epoch stuff in the hope of discovering similar insanity.

The Harvest (2013)

***1/2 out of *****

Sinister (2012)

Wow, this was one lame duck of a film!

What happens? Not a lot really. Ethan Hawke sits in the attic of his new house watching reels of film of murders and weird stuff. I was actually reminded of Chevy Chase sat in his attic in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) watching film reels of past family parties. They seemed far more alarming.The only difference was Chase was locked in the attic and couldn't get down, which was a similar feeling to how i felt watching Sinister. - Trapped and bored shitless.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was a far scarier prospect than anything Hawke had to deal with, i mean he only had a ghost in a Slipknot mask, Chase had Randy Quaid's cousin Eddie.

Dull, dull, dull. Makes The Quiet Ones (2104) look like The Innocents (1961).

I remember quite enjoying Sinister but, like other recent horror films (The Conjuring, Annabelle, Insidious and the Paranormal Activity series), there is a huge spectrum of opinion from people who love them to others who can't stand them.

While no classic i didn't mind Sinister. Makes me want to watch The Quiet Ones. Insidious which was a bonus disc that came with Sinister was far better.

[QUOTE=Demdike@Cult Labs;496159]Sinister (2012)

Wow, this was one lame duck of a film!





I quite liked 'Sinister'. I don't think it's a film I could ever love. But there's some creepy imagery here and there, something a bit oppressive going on with the music and sound. I'd happily watch it again, unlike 'The Quiet Ones', which I enjoyed about as much as you did.

Yeah the music was the best thing about Sinister. I thought about mentioning it but it didn't fit in with my National Lampoon spiel.

It was actually a very impressive score mainly composed by Andrea Haugen.

I have some of her work with Hagalaz Runedance and a book of hers about Paganism in Northern Europe.

Sinister is another film i hated the jump scares were so cheaply done just got on my nerves.

What jump scares? Were there any? I don't recall any scares whatsoever.

I thought Sinister was one of the better of these factory line ghost stories, but i thought the creature/ghost things design let the rest of the film down.:pop2:

Attachment 180142

This guy popping up for close ups from time to time.

When you've seen Slipknot live these masks are everywhere.

One of the reasons i found it hard to take serious.

To me these type of creatures are not creepy at all, they just seem like offshoots from the Buffy style of vampire and drag these films into comic book territory.
Give me pasty faced vampires in the style of Hammer and ghosts that actually look like dead people.:pop2:
The Insidious Darth Maul demon was shite aswell.:nod:

Insidious was shite full stop!

I remember watching Insidious with my Girlfriend and she said why is he wearing flares :lol:

Attachment 180144

I enjoyed Sinister as well, but I'm not bothered about the sequel mind you. I've not seen any of this new wave of horror though apart from Sinister so I can't really benchmark it against the others which may be better or worse. I believe that The Conjuring is supposed to be OK.

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/76...c2a070cef9.jpg
THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)

Col.Glenn Manning gets caught in an atomic blast that burns his entire body. Overnight, the burns and scars disappear and Glen is moved in secret to another hospital. The reason ? Glenn is now 16 foot tall and still growing! With his mind affected and pains from his heart, the now 50 foot Glenn heads out toward Las Vegas destroying property in his wake......

Classic and enjoyable 50's sci-fi with the giant effects being of the 'see-through' variety that we love from these films. A more noisy sequel was made a year later as WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST. :cool:

Loony film.

Slaughter In Sanfrancisco (1974, "William Lowe")

Another revelation. Ostensibly a Don Wong film, this rather Francoesque take on the "chop socky" genre is a riot, from the miscast dubbing to the sight of Chuck Norris as sexual predator (COUGH!!!!), this one's is a keeper. He's still a flabby poltroon in this one....playing on a bad guy image perhaps??


The Satan Bug (1965, John Sturges)

Always loved this rather paranoid little film. At the height of the cold war, a lethal virus goes a-missing from a "research" facility. Wooh mama!
TV stalwart George Maharis makes a reasonably convincing hero and tis always great to see Lou Grant as a husky voiced villain ahem.

Night of the Comet (1984)

Two college girls wake one morning, (not together i might add, that would have made a far better film) they discover everyone has been turned to orange dust by a passing comet. Everyone except them, the military and a couple of zombie types.

Following the disappointments of Sinister and Lake Placid 2, i rather hoped Night of the Comet might be a return to form, and it was kind of. Well the first forty minutes were. The two girls were likable enough and it was nice to see the addition of a young Robert (Chakotay) Beltran to the duo but not an awful lot happened. The film had some potential to be a fun school girls vs zombies romp, but events didn't really pan out this way as it became a game of cat and mouse with scientists in a bunker rather than what i hoped would be another Night of the Creeps (1986) The zombie traffic cops should have been a horror highlight and not just what was in effect a throw away dream sequence.

That's not to say the film was bad, it wasn't, i just think they could have done more with it. I loved the pinky/orange tinting of the sky, it made it really atmospheric and the glorious, numerous shots of downtown Los Angeles were very Omega Man in their stillness. How did they manage to film Wilshire Blvd and S Figueroa St with the magnificence of the Westin Bonaventure hotel in the background and have them so deserted. The film crew must have been up at all hours getting those shots.

In short Night of the Comet is, in my opinion, a missed opportunity.

I felt the same after Night of the Comet as well, on paper it has everything to make a good movie, however in reality it's only OK, not a failure but not as good as I had hoped so I was ultimately a bit disappointed. I think it might fare better on a re-watch, which I might do in the next few weeks.

Yes, i mean if you are going to film a deserted downtown LA then you may as well have a bunch of zombified extras on standby to lurch along the streets, at least i would.

I liked SINISTER a lot more than you did (at least that was the case when I saw it in the theater with my family), but we bought the Bluray when it was released and it's one of those films that I like less and less every time I watch it. I loved the music and thought the footage on those film reels was disturbing as hell, but I HATED that final "pop up" moment. So cheesy.

No desire whatsoever to see the sequel.

This film takes me back. I think it was about 1983 and i had just got a black & white portable telly in my room. Back in the day when there were 3 channels (channel 4 came in '84 i think) and any telly not hooked up to the roof ariel meant a world of snow and having to sit 2 feet from the screen to see anything.

Well, as i recall, The Satan Bug was the first thing i watched late at night in my own room on my own telly without my parents knowing about it. Illicit thrills! Ah, memories.

May have watched same broadcast haha.

Film 4 showed it a few times recently.

Saw this last night. Nothing great, but definitely worth a rental. Fine performances all around:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...jL._SX342_.jpg

I'm interested in this, but it's probably going to be a 'when it's on Netflix' movie :lol:

I rented it from Lovefilm and thought it was much better than I expected – it's probably something I'll buy from HMV in a 3 for £20 or 5 for £30 deal.