That's the one. Loosely based on the Patty Hearst case. Gregory Rozakis (who decorated Charles Bronson's apartment in Death Wish) was one of the kidnappers.

Good cast but it was all talk and little action.

Ratman

Words very nearly fail me. I am familiar with some of Guiliano Carnimeo's adorably inept Spaghetti Westerns, but not even they could prepare me the exoperoence of Ratman! A totally preposterous idea, some appalling acting, the most clumsy dubbing this side of a Bruno Mattei flick, a bored David Warbeck looking like he's carrying some "holiday pounds", and a story that jumps around in defiance of linear logic...it's bloody marvellous! :happy:

Just seen Horseman.

Pretty gritty movie but for some reason I didnt love it, found something missing.
Story was alright but then the whole thing with the run away pregnant gal was a bit random I thought. Kinda spolled it for me.

i think the whole pregnant runaway subplot was to balance out the animal and human instincts of christian, the girl is his calming effect and is meant to be a sort of replacement daughter.

Yeah I did think that but IMO I think it would have been better without.
Not a bad movie at all but just kinda felt disappointed in the end.

'What films have you seen recently?'‏
 

Do you have the Polish dvd with non-removable subs?
I'm buying this dvd (I have every Argento film) when released on a sp. ed.

Il Terzio Occhio/The Third Eye

This superb psycho-thriller is what Joe D'Amato would later remake/rework as Beyond The Darkness/Buio Omega. Released in 1966, this Giallo is very much influenced by Psycho with a very young and clean-cut looking Frank (sic) Nero in the lead. I liked the performances - especially Olga Solbelli (rather literally translated as Olga Sunbeauty in the credits!) as the domineering mother - but could understand if they seemed a bit stagey or even wooden to modern audiences. It's surprisingly nasty for the time, a scene towards the end involving someone trying to answer the telephone made me cringe slightly, and there is a definitely and appropriately morbid air to the proceedings. What really stasnds out though is the photography; it is beautifully shot in gorgeous black and white in excellent locations and sets. The film looks amazing and director Mino Guerrini displays a sure hand.

An utter triumph so far as I am concerned. I don't suppose it will ever be released on DVD in the UK, but it would make for a great double disk special edition with D'Amato's Beyond The Darkness.

I watched Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland last night in 3D.
I may have a biased answer as I'm a big fan of Tim's work but I thought it was great. Wacky, over the top characters. Johnny, Anne and Helena clearly being the highlights. Loved them all equally. Beautifully dark yet colourful (if you know what I mean) scenery. It was signature Burton but with everything popping right out in front of your face so it got a 2 thumbs up from me.

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE:happy:
COP OUT:happy:
THE WOLFMAN:ohwell:

Oh yeah and of course Alan Rickman as the caterpillar and Stephen Fry as Cheshire Cat. Perfectly cast voices! All Tim needed was Patrick Stewart to complete the set!

The Stepfather, the original and best, a very hokey sounding synth score. I was amazed that it is still so effective at what it does. It is certainly better than the remake.....

There's a remake of The Stepfather? :(

Nooooooooooo!!!!

Yup lol

I not seen original but seen the remake.
Its ok I spose, but I know original was much more violent and this seemed quite tame.

A few recent viewings:

Turkey Shoot: A fun little Ozsploitation movie with the gorgeous Olivia Hussey - recommended! :thumb:

Avere Vent'anni (To Be Twenty): Erotic drama with dollops of hippy love courtesy of the stunning Lilli Carati and Gloria Guida. :eyebrows: - (cheers reaps! :biggrin:)

5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas: Joseph F. Parda's homage to the giallo. A terrible quality DVD from Cinema Image Productions, but a fairly interesting story, an odd ensemble of characters, and some pretty good (even if low-budget) set pieces make up for it. Nothing mind-blowing, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

Aenigma: Considered one of Fulci's lesser films, I actually really enjoy this. I re-watched the Italian Raro DVD which has a superb transfer - definitely the one to have. :nod:

Door to Silence: Another underrated Fulci flick, but again one I really enjoy. None of his classic, trademark gore, but instead this is a very chilling almost noir-like film. Worth seeking out imo. :nod:

Human Experiments

Former nasty that has yet to receive a UK home release. Wouldn't matter much if it didn't really. :ack:

OOOOOOOOOOOOH! Sorry mate, I have to say I dislike both those Fulci films.
"Door" could not even keep a cinema full of Fulci fans interested when it played at the Euro fest...even with Fulci there too!


"Street Trash"

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


Lets get some things out of the way first dear readers…Yes ”Street Trash” is lots of fun and has some genuine 'wow' moments, but it's also sadly not the film it could have been.

Running at least 10 minutes too long it suffers from a pretty tiring first 40 minutes as the screenplay tries to keep track of so many characters and subplots while the dialogue tries to keep track of your ears due to the lousy sound recording.

Proceedings are not helped by the sad conclusion we have to face that despite what he may think…Roy Frumkes is not John Waters.
Where Frumkes' actual dialogue is used (sometimes the actors would improvise heavily) the film is obviously trying to redo much of that superlative work done by Waters in the likes of “Desperate Living“ but he lacks that astute ear for the grotesque, the absurd and even the sublime that Waters has (or at least had, today even John Waters can’t do John Waters) and he most certainly does not have the sheer joyous, wondrous, scale of unique thespian talent to work with (for the most part) that Waters had to make many of these scenes welcome and fascinating even if the plot stands still while they play out.

Thankfully though things magically improve just before the half way mark as the sound recording improves, the sleaze gets upped, the action and grue get upped and with endless introductions now out of the way the plot can settle down to incident after incident that sees much of the promise of the film’s set-up finally come to fruition.

The melting effects improve a great deal too later on and there are some real classic gore and splat moments here that still hold up today and are just as much sickening fun as they ever were.

Comedy and drama sometimes mix badly here though and the ‘serious social issue’ part of the plot does not hang well at all with out and out carnivale grotesque scenes like that of a bum (otherwise with no ill-effects) trying to catch his (rather impressive in size) severed penis as it gets tossed around the junkyard by the other homeless guys like a frisbee.

Another controversial moment of that sudden shift away from cartoon goofiness and grossness to out and out serious nastiness is during a murder/gang rape (actual assault off-screen) where suddenly those silly, silly, oh so silly bums become (and are filmed as) slavering night creatures who drag off a woman screaming into the darkness to her fate.
That she is then later violated even in death is the putrid cherry on the top of the turd cake.
It’s a genuinely unsettling and uncomfortable sequence (though superbly crafted and shot, as indeed is much of the night time cinematography) that works very well as full-on exploitation, but again sits a bit strangely with the penis frisbee shenanigans and the otherwise goofy 'n' gormless portrait of the bums.

As the nutty ‘Nam man Bronson, Vic Noto is bags of fun. His out of control rants are a marvel and his facial contortions mix perfectly with his line delivery.
This is one scary guy!

As his long suffering squeeze, Minette, Nicole Potter is a revelation. Caring not one bit about how she looks she gives a genuinely barnstorming, and unflattering as hell, performance as her character (dressed in the world’s least sexy, utterly filthy, underwear and caked in dust and grime) screeches her defiance at Bronson and cackles at other’s misfortunes.
She essays one of trash cinema's most memorable characters ever in fact

Also of note is ex-Cop (now a born again Christian no freakin’ less) Bill Chepil as the Detective.
With the angriest face in movies he thuds his way through the plot and the bums with great vigour.
His coup de grace after he beats a would-be hitman to a pulp is unlike anything you’ve seen a Cop do in a film either (or in real life one hopes) and we can only give praise he found Jesus after he shot this scene.

But the real highlight, among these highlights, are two sub-plot characters and actors that really have no baring on the main plot at all.
They are Tony Darrow’s Mr Duran and the vastly underrated James Lorinz’ restaurant doorman who butt heads throughout the film.
Improvising much of their dialogue and exchanges they make what could be two annoying guys (because they take us out of the main plot and away from the main characters) instead turn out to be the greatest bits of non-melting entertainment in the movie.

“Street Trash” failed to really find its audience when first released and I think it’s because of the constant shift in style and attitude and the flabby, often dull as hell, first half that needed some major fixing.
But today it has a strong cult reputation and yes it does ultimately deserve that reputation thanks to the vastly superior last 50 minutes and for all the far-out, blood and gunk drenched, improvised dialogue, wonderment, the sometimes very strong performances and way out ideas that more often than not succeed.

So what the hell…go slumming with that “Street Trash”.

It seems to grow in size for some reason. Starts off like a courgette and ends up a cucumber.

(well that's my salad sandwich ruined) :madgrin:

Side effects of Viagra,sorry Viper.....:lol:

just watched Triangle, very cool film, very much like Time crimes. I love time travel movies and although this is flawed it's still a fantastic peice of sci-fi/horror cinema that is in an under appreciated sub genre. The central performance by Melissa George is nothing short of remarkable, this is basically a one woman show. Why is Director Christopher Smith not given the recognition he deserves, Creep was (no pun intended) Creepy and very atmospheric and Severence was a gore soaked riot. He needs more attention as he's one of the best Genre directors the U.K has at the moment.

To be honest, I don't think I could have watched Door in the cinema either. It's a very surreal, slow-paced film and is best viewed alone imo in able to absorb it all. Aenigma's pure Fulci gold though - death by snail suffocation?! - great stuff! :biggrin:

Superb Street Trash review btw 42nd. :thumb:

With all the great quality reviews on here lately, I might delve back into the dusty depths of my reviews thread... The last 'review' I did was for Halloween - and that was only a mini one as part of my Halloween marathon! :eek:

I watched Street Trash last night, as it happens. The first thing I noticed was the superb picture quality, although as 42ndStreetFreak mentioned, the sound quality in the first half leaves a lot to be desired.

Still, a classic little film and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Similarly, I can agree about Triangle. I caught it in the cinema when it came out and found it to be very good indeed. My appreciation of Melissa George certainly shot up afterwards - she was perfect in the role.

Fully agree. :cool:

Thank you very much.

Talking of which...I'm a happy man Carpenter's "Elvis" has finally got a DVD release!



"The Professor"

Before he wowed the dinner party brigade with "Cinema Paradiso" Giuseppe Tornatore made this troubled 5 hour TV mini series that never saw the light of day as a 5 hour TV mini series.

Instead it was cut down by half and released as a feature and the cutting really shows (especially later on) as far as the rather muddled plot goes.
And yet this severe editing was also probably a good thing in other ways.
It's a bit like being saved from drowning only to find the lifejacket chucked out to you has had a dog turd smeared around the collar.
Sometimes salvation can be a messy business.

The trimming works as far as having even remotely watchable pacing goes and certainly as far as keeping your brain from flowing out of your ears goes.
Something that surely would have happened in its 5 hour form as you would have tried to grasp the bewildering number of 'every other one looks alike' characters who all have 10 different, politically and culturally Italian specific, plots and double crosses to their incomprehensible name.

Never a real fan of Sicily and Naples set mafia tales me (give me those lovely Italian-American Mafia mongrels any day as far as groovy Mob drama goes....I love those big fat bastards) as they tend to be very country specific as far as political plots and deals go, lack any good Mob action, and it often leaves me cold when Guiseppe argues with Domenico about which Catholic politician to bribe this afternoon.
Hell no, give me a fat guy (in a bad short sleeved shirt) called Vinnie arguing with another fat guy (in a zip up top) named Carlo about the best meatball recipe while 'whacking' some mug in the woods any time.

Thankfully though the thing is saved (and even made pretty damn watchable) by the hammy as all hell turn by the always hammy as all hell Ben Gazzara as 'The Professor' who by virtue of not being as thick as all the other guys in prison creates a criminal empire based on MUCH...MUCHLY...MUCH death and destruction in the form of bloody shootings and nasty knifings.

Away from Gazzara that surprisingly amount of cold blooded violence keeps things energised (see a woman get holes blown in her as she walks along holding the hand of her little boy, see a guy get stabbed so many times the shower room turns crimson) and here we can thank the editing to ensure that the film does not slow to a dead mans' walk between these outbursts.
Hell the plot is so full of betrayals, shadowy schemes, double-dealings, betrayals, misunderstandings and international plotting that we have more than enough to be going on with any way.

Bloated (despite being gutted, go figure), too complex and culturally specific to truly excite...but there are still enough scenes of carnage (including a great assassination/finding the bodies montage that must have been on Scorsese's mind when he crafted that great and similar sequence in "Goodfellas") and enough scenes of Gazzara going nutzoid in a series of bad wigs to keep any trash hound at least entertained.



"SAW 6".

If as far as plotting went you really had no chance following the 'Saw' films after "Saw 2" if you had never seen any of the others...here even those who have followed the series will find themselves needing very much the mass of flashback sequences to appreciate the full goings on in "Saw 6".

And even then, despite all that and despite that the plotlines left dangling are all tied up, "Saw 6" has a few new 'Er?' moments of its own creation thanks to some sadly murky plotting near the end.
As such the need to reprise so much of the plot from flashbacks throughout the film (not just at the end as usual) and the less than clear plotting at times make "Saw 6" not as satisfying as the last 2 sequels imho and the need to flashback means the film never really becomes it;s own film until a good 40 minutes in.

Some of the traps are nasty nasty (especially the opening, prepare to wince!) but by now the traps are getting stale in general. As such this is not as good as people have been saying it was.
Still a must for "Saw" fans though...and it has a finale moment that's just great and totally unexpected.
Although for the first time ever in the series, despite this really being an end as far as the past five "Saw"movie plotlines are concerned, the film ends on a genuine cliffhanger. As such it never, ever becomes a real whole.
But the cliffhanger could well pave the way for a (HOPEFULLY!!!!!) final movie that could really deliver and satisfy.

I saw this as well, Vince, when it played in London in a double bill with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I thought it was boring.

I saw Shutter Island. I waited a week so the kid crowd would thin out, went late at night with only a dozen people there, it was great.

Three Days Of The Condor and The Parallax View.

Watched back to back. Two of the best thrillers of the 70's.

All The Colours Of The Dark

The more I see of Sergio Martino's films, the more I rate him as a director. This is a splendid (and splendidly silly) mystery bloated with oneiric imagery and false reality. It looks spectacular with some amazing lighting and camerawork and the cast are excellently chosen to evoke the emotions tied to their characters.

A very decent film if this kind of thing is your bag.

The City Of The Dead

A wonderfully camp Gothic exercise from 1960 gamely handled by John (Llewellyn) Moxey on his cinematic début. He would later give us such classic American TV chillers as The Night Stalker, The House That Wouldn't Die and Nightmare In Badham County, amongst others. Here, though the setting is New England, the film is British and thus a very European style of Gothic sits over the proceedings. It's a familiar tale of diabolism and curses and sacrifice, but it is told so well and looks so amazing that it enthralls. Christopher Lee here essays a brave attempt at a New England accent which ends up sounding remarkably like the voice he was dubbed with in The Whip And The Body!

I hadn't seen this film in nearly 20 years and though I was transferring it from an old VHS to DVD-R, I liked it so much that I might buy the Redemption 2-disk special edition (presuming it looks better than the Public Domain releases I have sadly witnessed over the years!).

What sums it up, though, is that I was just putting it on to run into the DVD recorder whilst I did other things, but once it had started I ended up watching it to the end!

John is a regular poster over on the Britmovie forums and a genuinely nice chap. :nod:

i love Three Days of the Condor, such a great conspiracy thriller and a cracking performance from Redford. Because of this film i baught Brubaker, another great performance from him and an early role for Morgan Freeman.

Condor is definitely one of Redford's best films. Full of twists and turns and blessed with a brilliant Dave Grusin score too.

Check out Parallax View if you can. Possibly Warren Beatty's finest film.

i though Parallax was unavailable on DVD i may be wrong though.

Watched case 39 at the cinema the other night. One of the most laughable excuses for a horror film i've seen in a while. :laugh:

Wages of Fear (remake) - the 121m version not the cut down European version.

Have to say I preferred the 98m version - at 121m it was way too long. Nice Tangerine Dream score though.

Yeah it is pretty bad :lol:

I saw a str8 to dvd thriller last night called Nine Dead.
Its got Mellisa Joan Hart from Sabrina The Teenage Witch :ack:
so thought her acting will be kinda bad but I was surprised. She wasnt as bad as I thought she would be.

Anyway the movie is about 9 random strangers are kidnapped and are locked in a room by a masked man who tells them they have 10 mins to figure out why they are all there and connected, if they dont then one person dies every 10 mins.

So not a new stroy but I thought it was pretty good movie for a direct to dvd release. Kept me entertained and them finding out slowly was pretty entertaining. It all went sour at the end though, the ending was quite bad and left alot to be desired. It felt like they rushed the ending as they ran out of story. Shame though as rest of the movie was pretty good.

Just finished watching Gran Torino. Decent film, though I was expecting a little more. Clint Eastwood did a great job, and considering that he's now 79, I'd say he managed ok!

Sydow is wonderful in "Condor".
Nearly always shown at a stupid time on TV, normally the afternoon (just like the '15' rated "Eye of the Needle"), and so that entire opening assassination sequence gets cut to buggery.



"Nosferatu" (Herzog)

Although not as good a film overall as the silent classic, Herzog's film does perhaps feature an even more creepy and dangerous Dracula than even our Max. Our Klaus!

Kinski's make-up is basically the same but wisely loses those rather bushy eyebrows, and when mixed with the really intense performance he gives (just check out the scene where he pours Harker a drink of wine but never, not even for a second, takes his feral, hungry, eyes off him) creates a Dracula who is perhaps the only really, truly, dangerous Dracula on screen.

Although such a creature fails to work as Stoker's 'Count' persona part of Dracula, who has to interact with the everyday world to plot his plans, because he looks just far too inhuman (Harker would have run a mile as soon as he saw this creature!).
But as a scary Vampyric creature?
Well quite frankly this version (in both original and re-make, but especially here) of Dracula is the scariest most unnerving Vampire seen in anything...Be it a Dracula film or any other Vampire movie.

Herzog does pad things out a bit too much and does tend to briefly pop his head up his own arse on the odd occasion...But the extended running time means he can do all the classic "Nosferatu" moments as well as adding in a few (pretty faithful, at least in spirit) Stoker moments into the mix.

The haunting music, great make-up, and highly effective Cinematography and framing (just check out the superb scene where Lucy is sitting in front of her mirror and watches the door open behind her to reveal only a creeping shadow that moves towards her until the physical Dracula finally appears on the far right of the frame as she turns away from the mirror to face him!) mean we have a really classy slice of arthouse horror.

And I forgot just how truly gorgeous and radiant Isabelle Adjani is. A voluminous Gothic beauty.

You have to love the fact as well that we have a version of Van Helsing here who refuses to believe in such silly things as vampires!
The plague aspect of the story is played up far more here than in the original, and this means Herzog can create some classic Gothic vistas of death as dozens of coffins are carried through the town square at the exact same time by an army of pall bearers.
Silly as hell really (and it seems to avoid the plague simply become an undertaker, given the mass of them seen here!) but an effective visual for sure.
And this aspect of Dracula as a plague, or later to our modern eyes as a cancer, is something picked up on brilliantly by both the original and this re-make..and yet never seems to be picked up by any other adaptation.
Instead you get rubbish like we see in the Crapola version were this cancer becomes a romantic anti-hero! Dear me.....

The 'never saw the real plot point of him anyway' Renfield is sadly essayed here as an annoying little dwarfy person who hams it up to distraction...and just goes to show what a truly outstanding, and I mean truly, truly outstanding, job Dwight Faye did in the Lugosi film.

The ironic, black comedy ending sort of sits badly with the rest of the very serious film, but the final image is a good one and overall this was much better than I remembered it and Kinski's Dracula is a great Vampire for sure.
Check it out if you have not done so...But watch the German language version.

you reference Eye Of The Needle, i actually got this a couple of weeks ago after viewing it on TCM on a sunday afternoon. Donald Sutherland is utterly chilling in this. Fantastic WW2 spy thriller.

Three Days of the Condor was on the othernight on TCM at around 1.30am, who's gonna watch it then. silly time to put such a great film on.

'What films have you seen recently?'‏
 

The name of the rose
murder-set-pieces
bruiser
ilsa she wolf of the ss
sexy killer
accio mutante
xtro