What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[PaulD]

Spasmo - strange, dreamlike but oddly compelling giallo. Can't say more than that really. Hard to believe its
made by the same person who directed the incredibly clunky Cannibal Ferox.

[keirarts]

YEAR OF THE DRAGON.

Michael Cimino got a lot of stick for heavens gate (not all of it deserved, it may have been massively expensive but it's a damnned fine piece of cinema.) but proves here that he's still a real talent. Shooting from a script co-written with Oliver stone, the films follows Mickey Rourke's vientam vet turned copper assigned to chinatown and decides to go head to head against the triads, his pursuit of up and coming triad leader Joey Thi (John Lone) becomes obsessive to the point it begins destroying the lives of the people around him.

A supurb cop thriller, that also serves to highlight how unfairly the chinese community has been treated in america (probably stones scriptwriting coming to the surface) the films is well acted and supurbly shot making great use of new york as a backdrop for the action.

Best of all the scanbox dvd only cost me 50p from cash generator, so a total bargain all round, was planning to finish up the night with either puppet master 2 and 3 or some hammer on blu-ray but for some reason I find myself in the mood for some malcom x instead... go figure!

[Wes]

Cool Hand Luke (Warners, Blu)... One of the finest studio pictures of the 60's, Paul Newman plays the irrespressible world-shaker Lucas Jackson, sent down for 2 years hard labour at a Southern prison farm... Directed with considerable flair by Stuart Rosenberg, and featuring reams of quotable Southern dialogue, the film is one of the great ensemble dramas - among the mulletheaded cons look out Dennis Hopper, Luke Askew (Easy Rider), Clifton James (Man With the Golden Gun), Anthony Zerbe (Omega Man), Warren Finnerty (The Connection) and Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall), and there's particularly fine work from Strother Martin as the Captain who bags one of the most famous lines in Cinema, an early appearance from Harry Dean Stanton who sings the blues, and career best performances from Paul Newman and George Kennedy who won a well deserved Oscar. Much has been made of the film's religious undertones, but Newman's existentialist hero is closer in spirit to Robert Duvall's THX-1138 and Jack Nicholson's Randle P. McMurphy, another loner rallying against the conformity of a soulless repressive soceity. Essential viewing.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Spasmo - strange, dreamlike but oddly compelling giallo. Can't say more than that really. Hard to believe its
made by the same person who directed the incredibly clunky Cannibal Ferox.

Why not?

The first time i saw it i don't think i had a clue what was going on.

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Demdike

Why not?

The first time i saw it i don't think i had a clue what was going on.

Haha, I know; it's totally barmy. It starts off in one direction then goes completely in another. There was a point where I nearly gave up and thought I had no idea what was going on but it then made some attempt at exposition and seemed to explain everything, as illogical as it was


Also just watched:

The Killer Must Kill Again - George Hilton hires Bez from the Happy Mondays to kill his wife. Hilarity ensues when two horny teems steal the car with the corpse in the boot! Luigi Cozzi directs this competent and worthy giallo which features a really disturbing sequence intercutting scenes of rape and consensual sex. Although it would have been nice to have focused more on Hilton's character under suspicion for his wife's disappearance it's still a great giallo.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Isn't that Schweik from The Beyond?

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Rik

Isn't that Schweik from The Beyond?

Aye, that it is.

He totally looks like Bez though

[Rik]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Aye, that it is.

He totally looks like Bez though

Yeah, he does so now every time I watch The Beyond, I'm gonna have Kinky Afro in my head

[Frankie Teardrop]

TYRANNOSAUR - Disturbing expose of the bleak side of Leeds (if another side exists, let me know). Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman give acute performances as two lost souls reaching out to one another amidst the wreckage of their lives. The abuse Colman endures at the hands of her husband (played by the brilliant Eddie Marsan) is really upsetting to behold. 'Tyrannosaur' conjures a grey vista of charity shops, dead end pubs, harsh estates and the homes of the dying that is powerful and real, but the pain (past and present) of its central characters is what registers most intensely. When I first saw it, I thought the events of the final reel were a little de trop, but on rewatching Olivia's 'secret' didn't seem too excessive, as dramatic as it is / was. 'Tyrannosaur' is an excellent film. It documents the ravages of cyclical abuse and the agony wrought whilst offering a glimpse of something less easy than redemption. Like a yorkshire Abel Ferrara doing Mike Leigh. Totally recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

TYRANNOSAUR - Disturbing expose of the bleak side of Leeds (if another side exists, let me know). Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman give acute performances as two lost souls reaching out to one another amidst the wreckage of their lives. The abuse Colman endures at the hands of her husband (played by the brilliant Eddie Marsan) is really upsetting to behold. 'Tyrannosaur' conjures a grey vista of charity shops, dead end pubs, harsh estates and the homes of the dying that is powerful and real, but the pain (past and present) of its central characters is what registers most intensely. When I first saw it, I thought the events of the final reel were a little de trop, but on rewatching Olivia's 'secret' didn't seem too excessive, as dramatic as it is / was. 'Tyrannosaur' is an excellent film. It documents the ravages of cyclical abuse and the agony wrought whilst offering a glimpse of something less easy than redemption. Like a yorkshire Abel Ferrara doing Mike Leigh. Totally recommended.

Very nice review Frankie. I don't fancy it though from your words. It sounds way too gloomy.