Went to see The Crazies tonight and really really enjoyed it. Whilst there were quite a few terrible cliches overall the film was brilliant and kept the pace up all the way through (kicking off VERY early on). A superb remake with many many memorable moments! I'd highly recommend this.

nope
The long delayed movie from 2008 I think. No wonder they were not in a hurry to release it. :lol:

I also went to watch The Crazies tonight and thought it was superb, the best modern remake I have seen so far of any Horror film. Bits and pieces of it were a bit ridiculous but it was just a wholy enjoyable experience, it wasn't too gory to be honest but it didn't need it, it had a lot of suspense and tension and was well directed with some nice shots.

Well worth a watch, both if your a fan of the original or even if you haven't seen it.

9/10

last film seen at the cinema was 'Avatar'. Visually stunning with a heavy handed predictable story and shallow characters (as i would expect from James Cameron).. To be honest I was just interested in checking out the 3D. Although funnily enough the most 3D part of the experience was the trailer for 'Shrek' haha...

Zulawski's Possession is one of my favourites of the video nasties. Brilliant stuff.

What films have you seen recently
 

I disagree
TOKYO GORE POLICE is a great film and rightly timed as well as being better than MACHINE GIRL. TGP is brilliant
THE STENDAHL SYNDROME is an underrated horror from the best horror director, yes he's directed a few not-so-good horrors in the past, but TSS is excellent

Just finished Altered. Surprisingly entertaining independent picture with good special effects/gore being the highlights.

Also watched Red Sands a couple of nights ago, which was okay but expected something better.

Now I like Smith's other films and fancied this, but I'm not sure it's going to make sense.

You can **** with my head as much as you like...knock yourself out...for 88 minutes. But you better explain yourself during the final 2 minutes. I'm simple like that.
Which is why I LOVE "Wild at Heart" but hate "Lost Highway".

So will I be enlightened at the end...or left scratching my scalp in confusion and annoyance?

"Danto 01"

It's French. It's Sci-Fi, it's a French Sci-Fi film...and that's just not a good thing for all the obvious cliche's that are actually true.
Barely coherent nonsense that shoe-horns Hell, God, Jesus, Biblical terminology and religious iconography into a basic 'prison in space' set-up.

Mysterious experiments carried out on the inmates are given much flashy visual time...and are then completely ignored as we never learn what they are for, what they do, or what happens after.
Oh well.
'Weird new arrival guy with alien stuff in him who eats all our octopus monsters' turns into Jesus Christ and puts out the universe's biggest fire, people get bashed and stabbed and nothing makes any real sense and makes no sense by using wildly over the top CGI visual effects that seem like the makers were all tripping at the time.

Looks good, has a couple of nice violence moments...nothing else worthwhile at all and at the end of the day it's a right load of up its own arse French poncy nonsense! Yes!
Avoid.



"Iron Angels"

AHHHH...........Great stuff.
Still holds up and quite frankly, truthfully, sadly...Hong Kong cinema simply doesn't make films like this any more, instead even action films nowadays are not really 'fun' and all seemed aimed at festival awards ceremonies and broadsheet newspaper reviews. BAH!

This is from another time, when the most outrageous, over the top, wild, violent, bloody, masses of extras dying all over the place set-pieces were the norm and at least one sequence in "Iron Angels" (aka "Angel") pushes all these essential buttons.
An attack by the Angels (including the ever lovely Moon Lee) on a house is a thing to behold!

Tons of extras and stuntmen get machine-gunned down with blood spattered abandon, good looking men and women leap through windows, hang off helicopters, slide down stairs and dive through the air with guns-a-blazing, everyone fires millions of bullets, legs and fists slam into body parts with delightfully gymtastic skill, explosions blow whole groups of stuntmen through windows at the same time (with the explosion blasting over their bodies as they fly out) and all the walls get a crimson paint job.

But we have lots of other set-pieces too;
We open with an extra, explosion filled attack by the army on poppy fields, then go into some nicely bloody and violent assassination scenes, then a few martal arts smackdowns, before we get to the babe on babe finale where Elaine Lui and Moon Lee take on the amazingly nasty and sadistic Yukari Ôshima with explosive earrings, explosive buttons, planks of wood, fuel hoses and pointy poles.
Moon Lee shines here next to the amazing legs goddess Oshima.

We will forget the awful 'comedy freeze frame' ending and the fact that the (otherwise great) R3 DVD is missing The Osh's stunt breast scene, and instead simply concentrate on the sheer good times offered with its wildly over the top violence, crazy and dangerous looking stunts, blazing guns, blood spatters, utterly unique HK action staging and energy and sexy looking fighting femmes...and relish the days when 'critics awards' were the last thing on a Hong Kong action movie's mind.

Alright, so I was at Frightfest here in Glasgow last weekend so I've seen quite a few horror films of late! I won't go into too much detail but here's a quick rundown of what I thought of what I saw (no spoilers)...

Frozen

I really enjoyed this. The fact that you never get bored even though you're watching people stuck on a ski lift is a pretty big feat. Would certainly recommend giving it a view.

2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams

Terrible. Woefully bad. I just don't have the tolerance for zero budget, shot on video stuff anymore. It's dull, nowhere near as gory as a lot of people would have you believe and nowhere near as outrageously un-PC as it would like to think. It's just too badly shot and acted to have any impact on any level. I'm sure I'll get shot down for saying all that but I'll stand my ground. It's a shame because Tim Sullivan, the director, came on first to introduce the film and he was a riot. After his introduction I was looking forward to the film so it came as a massive disappointment to see the final product. He said after the film that it cost $400,000 to shoot over 10 days. Well, it's obvious that it only took 10 days but I've no idea where the hell the money went cos it looks like it was shot for a fraction of that.

Stag Night

Certainly better than the film that preceded it, this was merely ok. Didn't do anything unexpected, had one interesting death (which received a cheer from the crowd) and was well enough made. Even though the film is set in the underground (and this will sound weird) the image was too dark for me and I kept losing interest because I couldn't really tell exactly what was going on. There are a few great little sequences in it, especially towards the end, but none of the characters are likeable so ultimately I didn't care what happened. Didn't really go for the ending either.

It's also worth noting that a fist fight broke out in the cinema during this screening - not sure the exact story but it seems like a couple of drunken neds were niggling a couple sat next to them and it ended up in a few punches being thrown and the police getting called. Certainly livened up the start of the movie.

Lizard In A Woman's Skin

Loved it. This was only the second time I'd seen the film but it was a completely different experience this time round. First time was at Dead By Dawn and the print was worn out and the subtitles were being typed live by a translator. It was a great, and rare, opportunity to see it back then but this screening blew that one away. We were informed before the screening that all the restored elements hadn't been completed in time for the event so we watched a print made up from all the different source elements being used in the upcoming dvd release - which meant that the picture quality fluctuated at points. I think that the film looked, and sounded, amazing. Can't wait for the dvd to come out - just a shame they aren't doing a blu-ray transfer (I don't think they are anyway).

Amer

Can't really comment, fell asleep after about 10 minutes and didn't wake up until about 10 minutes from the end. Sorry. Didn't particularly enjoy what I did see - I started to bore of the lack of dialogue though.

REC 2

Not as good as the first movie but still enjoyed it. The only problem really is that once you've seen the first film you know what to expect so you can see the scares coming a mile off. Really liked the way they got round not having the tv camera in there this time and managed to have a couple of different camera choices to follow the action around. Def worth a watch.

Splice

I had no idea what this was about, had seen no promotional material at all, and thoroughly enjoyed what I saw. Great, simple little movie. Not really a horror film as such but definitely fits in the category. The digital effects are amazing and I had no problem in completely believing what I was watching. Quite surprisingly disturbing in points (one scene in particular had the audience in disbelief) I'd be interested in seeing this one with a normal cinema going crowd to see what some of their reactions are. Will definitely be going to check this out again.

Harpoon: Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre

Was pretty smashed by this point, and wasn't expecting much, but this was fun too. Def one to watch with a stack of booze and your mates round. Only quite hazy recollections so I won't try and recount the film.

So that was that. A pretty good weekend all in.

Im looking forward to Frozen and 2001 Manaics sequel, I quite enjoyed the remake of the first movie he done. That was a low budget movie too but was very fun and had some good gore. Not sure if the sequel cost less or more though. Am stoked for [rec] 2 although may cinema release date is way too far away, it sucks :mad:. And splice is another movie im lookin forward too, looked amazing from the pix I seen.

Sullivan said that the previous 2001 Maniacs had a budget of $2,500,000 so the new one was done for less than a fifth of that... I haven't seen 2001 Maniacs but I bet the drop in budget shows big time.

Somewhere between the two, really! It's definitely a "make of this what you will" flick, but I think there is a key incident which can be seen as the start of the shennanigans.

But, the thing is, I like vague films that don't explain matters, so maybe I am not the person to ask!

:dizzy::happy:

Ah right.
That dont sound too good. They are meant to release a directors cut of the first one on the dvd of the new movie. Am interested to see how that version is.

re: What films have you seen recently?
 

House of the Devil - This seems to have gotten some fairly good buzz, but I just don't get it. Extremely slow moving, climaxing in some fairly good imagery but a dissappointing pay off.

When the credits rolled, I was just so underwhelmed the only thought in my head was: Is that it?

I'm not so sure: SPOILER ALERT!!!

I presumed that she was being punished with a Sisyphean (hence the name of the ship and the mini lecture on Sisyphus) task as a punishment for her abuse of and resentment towards her son.

Just rewatched The Mist but this time in Black and White.
God how I love that movie, such a awesome movie, keeps you entertained till the end and then hits ya with that OMFG ending. Of course the ending looses its impact after 2 viewings but still a awesome movie.

Just shows you, what independent horror cinema can really do these days. Hope Darabont makes a another horror soon.

do you have the 2 disc with the B/W version, because i have the single disc region 1 disc and just turned the color down for the B/W, apparently Darabont has said that's the way to do it if you didn't get the 2 disc.

Yeah I had the 2 disc region 1 pre-orderd before it was released in the US :thumb:
It has more extras on disc 2 too, not sure if the 1 disc version contains all the extras. The slipcase is nice too.

Tales of Terror on MGM HD, not the best of the poe films, good to see such a great print of the movie.

Designated Victim...interesting little movie, very Stranger's on a Train.

Sleepless...I used to own a cut version, first time I'd seen it uncut. Not the best of Argento, but the nasty kills are worth watching it for....:chainsaw:

Im off to the Odeon Metrocentre today to see Avatar 3D in Imax then afterwards thinking about going to see The Crazies. :thumb:

The UK DVD is an atrocious port of the US Jef/Substance release (and devoid of anything resembling artwork). The US Media Blasters DVD is far better, though it's still an abysmal film.

"Hey, how ya doin' with my balls?" :lol:

"I Start Counting"

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvcounting.php

Wynne (Jenny Agutter), an adopted schoolgirl has a growing crush on her elder foster brother George (Bryan Marshall).

At the same time a series of local sex attacks on young women is haunting the town.....



Welcome to the world of dusty, long forgotten, stuck at the back of the highest shelf, British flicks that pushed new boundaries in content and subject but got lost in the shuffle between ‘Hammer’, ‘Amicus’, ‘Tigon’ and ‘Carry On’ films.

“I Start Counting” is a weird hybrid of kitchen sick drama, risqué coming of age flick and sex predator exploitation.

Don’t go expecting an explicit sex killer on the loose exploitation ride like the same year’s “Night, After Night, After Night”, as here the main focus is on Wynne’s growing realisation of her own sexuality and dispossession from her adopted family.

The other main point of the film is the changing times that Wynne’s generation are maturing into. This is the tail end of the swinging sixties and loud music you parents don’t like is the norm, skirts as short as can be without getting a clip round the ear are the fashion and more open and frank attitudes to sex are creeping into daily life.
And it is here that the film’s positive attributes shine forth.

These aspects of life in England during this time are a fascinating part of the film and anyone with an interest in such explosive times of social upheaval will find much to enjoy here.

Religious connection to sex is carried on throughout the film with many a pure white wall, or shining bright light dominating the scene where sometimes that purity becomes stained…like a fine scene where Wynne imagines what seems to be her Mother lying dead at the bottom of some cellar stairs, as the young version of herself touches the blood pooling under her Mum's head only to quickly wipe crimson trails upon her pretty white dress as blood that meant death to the young Wynne mirrors the menstrual blood of life that is about to enter the older Wynne’s life as her body catches up with her mind concerning her feelings for George.

The biggest metaphor though comes in the form of the sex murders.
The unseen killer is the danger that comes from her newly found desire.
The simplistic meaning is sex at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong man can be literally deadly, but they also stand for the fact that there are consequences when you become sexually active, more serious aspects to desire than just the girlish thrill of a touch or a look.
Really, I think purposely but I don’t think in a preaching way, the killer becomes the great big Catholic bogeyman of sinful sexual encounters and their repercussions.

So we have many interesting things happening within the story and the rough, gritty, look of the film also adds to the whole vibe of the time.

If the exploitation aspect of the story is tame indeed as far as the killings go, it has a bigger influence during the day to day scenes of Wynne’s life.
And it is here we just have to mention the young Jenny Agutter.
Looking as cute as the cutest thing in the house of cute in the land of much cuteness she shows that shyness has never meant much too her (as her subsequent film career would delightfully prove) as the opening credit sequence includes the 16 year old Agutter putting on and walking around in her underwear as she gets dressed into her school uniform.
I feel like a dirty old man just typing such things!

But this is not just a bit of cheeky exploitation as the carefree scene of her getting dressed shows us not only the budding young woman but that this budding young woman is still in the guise of a schoolgirl.
That contradictory time between dressing as you did when you were 12 but having the growing body and feelings of a young woman is effectively set out for us before the narrative even begins.

Agutter, away from her obvious physical presence, also delivers a genuinely satisfying acting performance as the confused, torn, Wynne.
She really comes into her own during the numerous daydream/fantasy/flashback moments and shows some real fire during the finale as the film turns into a more conventional ‘damsel in distress’ fright flick.

Away from Jenny the marvelous Bryan Marshall shows why it’s a crying shame he did not have a bigger career (his undoubted triumph is his great turn as the scheming Counselor Harris in the classic “The Long Good Friday”) as he skilfully essays George as a character we truly have no idea about as far as him being the killer is concerned.
The only other person who sticks out is the young Simon Ward (just on the cusp of a mini-breakthrough in “Frankenstein must be Destroyed”) as a rather leery Bus Conductor.

So what we have with “I Start Counting” is a real mish-mash of ideas (even genres) that sometimes works sublimely well as far as linking metaphors from one plot strand to another goes, but at times also seems to not focus enough on one aspect (the killings) while rather treading water on some of the more kitchen sink drama stuff goes.

And if the screen time is too truncated and the exploitation aspects too diluted as far as the sex killings go (away from the genuinely affective finale inside an abandoned house that delivers a couple of good, dark, shocks), the sight of a young Jenny Agutter is always going to be a big plus, as is the clever look at such a vital era in the history of Great Britain and the influence it had on those who had to crawl their way to adulthood within it.

Cinema outings:
- Shutter Island (excellent stuff)
- Amer (load of artistic nonsense, avoid!)
- An Education (excellent BBC production, best film so far this year)

DVD
- Violent Rome (German DVD, brilliant early Merli!)
- Designated Victim (Shameless, Milian doing serious!!)

going to see from paris with love tonight ill let you know what its like later on.

"Inglorious Basterds"

Second viewing (after the cinema viewing) of QT's WW2 epic.
And once the false expectations were taken care of after the first viewing...I have to say I liked this even more than I did the first time.

Let us face it my friends. Let us face it....I can safely say the vast majority of people who went to see "IB" without any other feedback other than the pre-release hype and trailers were not expecting the film they got.

Yes indeed we thought it was going to be an OTT 'Guys on a Mission' war film, full of artistic craziness, hyper violence, spectacle and fluid dialogue we would all like to say at the time but never would because we would only think of it the next day....Basically, indeed, a QT style remake of the original "Inglorious Bastards".

Instead though we got a very unusual, down right eccentric , WW2 thriller with more drama than armour and with 'Guys on a Mission' who basically played second fiddle to a young woman when they weren't making a complete hash of their (duplicated no less) plan to wipe out Hitler and his boys.

Basically the film is a selection of individual scenes that only play as a whole at the end of them when that slender thread of a shared plotline snakes its way in and lasso's the end of each scene to pull it back into the herd.
But it works because QT is a master at time and plot manipulation and stunningly brave plot devices.
And who the hell expected the amount of subtitled dialogue we had! A brave thing to do. But not a pretentious one as this authentic dialogue set-up actually becomes essential as far as at least 2 sequences play out, where English would have made it all pointless.

The aforementioned 'montage' set-up also makes the extended running time flit along at a fair old lick and in no way does the film (especially after the first viewing, where we were all a bit thrown about what we were watching) feel like how long it is.
It also means that something new is being unveiled for us every 20 minutes or so, which keeps the interest up and the expectations high.

Everyone gives their all, no bad performance is to be seen (if Roth had not been Roth none of you moaning ****ers would have said a word...admit it. And if you thought Bad Pitt was bad you failed to grasp the basic make-up of the movie, in fact he gives a mini genius performance and you only have to look at his face and body language during the meet and greet at the movie premier to see that) with Mélanie Laurent (shockingly ignored by poncy critics) and Christoph Waltz truly shining.

The alternate history thing is still really weird even after you know about it...but in a way it cleverly ensures that (despite the dickwads, ****tards and general inbred pond dwellers that hang out in IMDB message boards may think) any insult to the real WW2 is avoided from the go.
It also opens up a rare thing indeed...An historical event covered like no other by previous films that is suddenly unexpected and intriguing.

The violence is rare, brief but amazingly brutal, the use of music is once again genius (how happy was I to hear Lalo's superlative "Kelly's Heroes" music? And Bowie has never been used to better effect) and the lack of that PC, limp wristed attitude to taking out your enemy in any way you can too, often seen in today's society in real life (and at its most self-destructive), is also tramped into the mud as 'all out war' is turned about straight into the faces of the Nazis.

Faults?
Hell, where I had them on first viewing I seem to not have them anymore!
The dual/unknown to each other assassination plots still seems a bit strange and still seems a bit clunky as far as drama goes, and how I wish the ending (Why QT!? WHY did you not do this!?) had involved an extra special full face Brad Pitt artwork instead of just the forehead thing we got.

Otherwise the mixture of cult fanboy masturbatory indulgence (Hugo mutha****in Stiglitz??!) is as glorious and lovely, lovely as ever, the serious drama is well done and effective, the violence is suitably nasty and the 'extended montage' set-up and use of other soundtrack music is wonderful and creative.

Damn it! After first viewing I thought Qt had come back to form but not to his full form. After a second viewing I think he has indeed come back to full form and it makes me damn near sexually stimulated to finally realise that!

Amer
An Education
Shutter Island

Alice Sweet Alice

Having always been put off by the continued cut status of this film in the UK I never got around to watching it, but I thought it was time, so I tracked down an uncut copy and finally sat through it after many curious years!

Well, it was worth the wait: a well crafted low budget thriller which makes the most of a slight story. There are some striking shots and the photography in general belies the humble origins of this film. It maintains a nicely unsettling tone throughout with the strict Catholic world of New Jersey surburbia rendered effectively as an insular and slightly mysterious community.

The reason the film is cut in the UK is an odd one. Sure, we know the BBFC are harsh on animal cruelty, but I think they may have been too extreme here and have fallen for perceived animal cruelty depicted by skilled film-making. A kitten is grabbed by the scruff and swung then apparently throttled. However, this is accentuated by sound effects and clever editing. Anyone who has ever owned a kitten would see that nothing untoward actually occurs and the "throttling" is suggested by a rapid cut to a kitten clearly (on re-examination) being held lightly and supported (the main bulk of the kitten is not in shot but the way the cat's skin sits with the visible hand shows it is supported by other means). I can only assume that the BBFC did not remove this for depicting cruelty, but for convincingly faking cruelty that could be emulated. Well, that is the only reason I can think of for censoring an innocuous film that - I would have thought - is otherwise safe 15 certificate material. With the kitten sequence removed, I have absolutely no idea why the film is an 18 in this country.

Just seen Summer's Blood aka Summer's Moon.
Its a low budget 2009 film. sorta like your typical torture porn set ups but without the actual torture. :lol:
Plot is basic, a gal is lookin for a farther and she meets a guy who she sleeps with and then he keeps her locked up in his basement for his garden. Werid yes but then in the last part there is a twist and it goes downhill. It was alright up till the twist but then when the twist came I ddint really care much, its like "oh really....ok" ha ha.
Acting was good but there was not much gore, add a bit of incest (one or two scenes) in the mix and there you have it.

The BBFC wouldn't have removed the scene if they had evidence from the director or producer that the scene was simulated or faked. As it is the scene has now been cut twice from both video and DVD releases (bar the dubious 23rd Century release), so any assurance or proof hasn't been offered. Personally I find the scene hideous and completely unnecessary to the movie.

There's a similar debate about the cruelty in this scene on the IMDB.

It's certainly a jolt when it happens, but makes sense in terms of Alice's character and what was happening to her at the time.

The film could definitely have survived without it with a bit of re-writing.

It really didn't look excessive in any way to me, though. It's interesting, however, that the film-makers have not spoken out about it.

Last movie at cinema for me was Avatar in 3D also. Was a good experience.

Next movie will be Shutter Island. Cant wait!!

As bad as it is the raccoon scene in Prophecy is a million times worse. :mad:

I've never seen Prophecy. I did try once, but fell asleep almost as soon as it started!

However, I do remember someone telling me about a horrible raccoon incident therein.

I not seen many animal cruelty in movies thankfully.
Cannibal Holocaust was enough for me :lol: plus dont help that I am a animal lover ha ha

It was the casual use of a flamethrower on live rats in Rats: Night Of Terror that got my back up. Very unpleasant.

Franco Prosperi's Wild Beasts has some of that.

The tripping of horses annoys me the most:mad:

Just watched Bruno Mattei's The True Story of the Nun of Monza and was impressed. It had good narrative, decent acting, looked very nice and Zora Kerova dressed as a nun:biggrin: More proof that Mattei can make a good film.