What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[pedromonkey]

weekends viewing...

30 MINUTES OF LESS: Mildly entertaining comedy from the director of Zombieland. Good comic performance from Jesse Eisenberg who proves that he's a more versatile actor than Michael Sera. Stand out's were Danny McBride as a rich man's kid doing what McBride does best and Michael Pena as a hitman with a strange lisp. Not great but not rubbish.

THE DEBT: Interesting and well made revenge drama about a mossad agent who must finish a job that was botched 30 years previously. Helen Mirren is great as the older agent and support comes from Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain and Sam Worthington. Defo worth a look.

MATINEE: Spot on homage to creature features of the 50s and schlock meister William Castle set against the back drop of the Cuban Missile crisis. Brilliant film from Joe Dante with a great performance from John Goodman.

SUDDENLY: Frank Sinatra is a ruthless assassin who turns up in the town of Suddenly to assassinate the U.S president as his train is scheduled to stop there. Really tense crime thriller co-starring Sterling Hayden as the town sheriff. Really good stuff from 1954.

THE BIG HEAT: Police procedural come revenge thriller from Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford as a homicide detective trying to unravel the reasons why a cop would commit suicide and uncovers a blackmail and gangster plot involving high up officials in the police department. Lee Marvin co-stars as Vince the henchman to gangster Mike Lagana. Great performances all round especially Gloria Grahame as the gangsters moll who turns to Ford after she's attacked by Lee Marvin. Brilliant stuff.

DREAMSCAPE: Fast paced sci-fi fantasy with a political conspiracy plot too. Really fun film with Dennis Quaid as a psychic tasked with entering peoples dreams to find out why they're having nightmares. Great cast including Max Von Sydow, Eddie Albert, Kate Capshaw and Christopher Plummer. Really enjoyed this one.

COMA: Michael Chrichton's medical sci-fi thriller stars Genevieve Bujold as a doctor who uncovers a plot to harvest organs. Really Really enjoyed this one. Well worth a watch if you've not seen it.

[Gojirosan]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

he's a more versatile actor than Michael Sera.

I believe that is known as "damning with faint praise"!

[Gojirosan]

Shark Hunter - actually a pretty watchable made-for-TV hi-tech submarine vs killer megalodon film. Solidly cheesy, but whisks you along. The miscasting of the gloriously bad Antonio Sabato Jr is just the most obvious highlight of this film. Fun.

Vampires Vs Zombies/Carmilla, The Lesbian Vampire - a film so inept on every level that is doesn't even qualify as "fun bad". A total mess and certainly one of the worst 15 or so films I have ever seen.

[Handyman Joe]

Harold and Maude - Every time I see this it seems a little more dated but it matters not a jot as the performances of Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort ensure its immortality - they are simply perfect. I was struck on this viewing just how much Wes Anderson owes to this film - the soundtrack, the quirky support characters, the bittersweet melancholy - his whole career is in here. I see Criterion are blu raying this in September, be amazing to see a scrubbed up version, hopefully with commentary. Eureka are you listening?

[PaulD]

Watched Drive earlier. Incredible; 'nuff said. Probably will watch it again this week I think. So annoyed I didn't see it at the cinema.


Found the image stuttered a few times on my Toshiba BDX1200 player though - anyone else experience this? Tried it in my crappy Technika player and it worked fine. Worrying.

[DaveJ.W]

The Loved Ones (2009)

*** out of ****

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

a more versatile actor than Michael Sera

Not exactly the greatest of cinematic achievements and a quote Eisenberg is likely to put on his résumé!

[Daemonia]

Auto Focus (2002) - Thought I'd give this another watch to see if it was as good as I remembered - and it is. Greg Kinnear shines as Bob Crane, the star of Hogan's Heroes who finds himslef on a slippery slope of partying and sex addiction. You really get the sense that he's a torn man, but his partner in crime, John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), keeps encouraging him on the road to self destruction. It's potent stuff and director Paul Schrader handles the material exceptionally well. Brilliant film, if terribly tragic. Based on true events.

Kill List (2011) - Director Ben Wheatley delivers a searing tale of a man who at first appears like a normal famnily man, then shows us he's a contract killer and then...well, I'm not going to spoil it. Just see it. It's brilliant. You'll never be able to predict quite where this film is going to take you.

Trust (2010) - Blu-ray rental. A cautionary tale of a young teenage girl who befriends a boy of the same age online. But when she agrees to meet him, discovers he's considerably older than he made himself out to be, and things take a nasty turn. An engrossing tale with superb performances all round and tackles the subject of internet predators extremel;y well. Disturbing viewing at times, but compelling. Well worth a look.

Unstoppable (2010) - When a train gets into runaway mode, after the incompetence of a railroad worker, it's up to Denzel Washington and his sidekick to catch up with the train and slow it down to a standstill. Tony Scott is a capable director and brings in a decent film, but it seemed to lack bite. The suspense and tension that should have been present just weren't there. Still, it's not too bad, I've seen worse.

Robot Monster (1953) - Could this be the worst film ever made? To my shame, though, I have seen worse. A family of a professor is hiding out from Ro-Man who has killed everyone on earth except for this family. Apparently, the professor had created an antibiotic that somehow makes them immune from the death-ray of Ro-Man. It's all laughably bad and you'll have figured out the twist ending from the first couple of minutes. Oh, and Ro-Man himself is just a man in a gorilla suit with a helmet on. Look, see for yourself...



But anyway....I must shamefully admit that I really enjoyed it.

[keirarts]

One 7's THE REAL CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Canniba...8527128&sr=1-1

Fairly naff little oddity, a mondo film made around new guinea purporting to show cannibalistic tribal rituals, yada yada...

Not the greatsest example of its kind, even collectors of this kind of thing will probably find the whole endeavour more than a little tedious.

Two lane black-top. Genius, great disc another fine job from eureaka.


Rented tyranosuar from work. Tragically not a killer dinosaur on the loose corman movie but the directorial debut of national treasure paddy considine. Featuring some of the best performances in a british movie this year its a great piece of filmmaking and highly reccomended.

[Handyman Joe]

For shame, instead of studying for the accountancy block of my OU module I watched Trog. What the hell was everyone thinking here? Freddie Francis, Joan Crawford, Michael Gough have been involved in some pretty impressive movies but I'm afraid Trog isn't one of them. For a start this Trog is supposed to be a missing link, a caveman, a TROGladyte if you will but he appears to have shaved legs, neatly cut nails and a waxed torso. Poor Joan (her final role) gives it her all but no-one could pull this dialogue off ('officer let me fetch my hypo gun, I'II capture Trog'). Michael Gough appears totally soused throughout (the pub sessions after shooting must have been epic). The interminable opening 'discovery of Trog' scene wins my award for the worst acting/script ever committed to film - a bunch of ponces in a paper mache cave, seemingly improvising some utter twaddle. The 5 minute stop motion dinosaur 'flashback' scene - man that was crap.
A moustachioed man says at one point -' it (Trog) looks like something out a student rag week' - never a truer word spoken. The scene where the lunk bonds with a mechanical doll may well move you to horrible tears. I found this movie strangely fascinating......