What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Terminator Genesis

Pretty much the epitome of middle of the road, admittedly a better film than the last two it's entertaining enough and throws in some nice ideas, however I can't help feeling Sarah Connor Chronicles did it all better.

[Frankie Teardrop]

MARTYRS – Riding the crest of that mid-noughties wave of French splatter, 'Martyrs' split audiences and worried horror fans with its incessant brutality and life-sucking bleakness when it landed back in 2008. That's how I remember it, anyway. Watching it again the other day, I was reminded that 'Martyrs' explores much more interesting material than the 'torture porn' it seems to play on. It starts with a girl who escapes the cloistral chamber of some unknown assailants, then, years later, aided by a pal from her orphanage, goes on to track down her tormentors. Things get heavy at the middle class household they invade, and soon she's being pursued and slashed at by a 'demon' / hallucination(?) from her past. The narrative shifts when all this ends in carnage and her accomplice is left to deal with a religious cult which is bent on divining the afterlife through extreme physical deprivation, and we get to witness some intense scenes. The violence is pretty full-on throughout 'Martyrs', the tone is harsh and the mood is hopeless, but the film, in keeping with the gradual dawning of its central theme, is in a constant state of transformation. The last, metaphysical section of 'Martyrs' has a slightly Clive Barkeresque feel to it, and feels a long way from the buddy crime-splatter home invasion from the first half hour. It's to Pascal Laugier's credit that these shifts and switches in the narrative don't feel jarring or grating. Though I suppose 'grating' pretty much summed up 'Martyrs' for a lot of people at the time. It still has a reputation in some places for being one of those films which are gruelling beyond any sensible measure, a movie that will ravage the emotions of anyone with a shred of humanity. And of course, it's neither of these things. Films which chart extremity will inevitably fall victim to hyperbole (or dismissal), and that's what happened to 'Martyrs', a fairly brutal, exacting film which asks some interesting questions. But it remains too tied to genre giveaways (particularly in the first half) to truly wrong foot the audience and rear up like the beast it maybe wants to be. Still, 'Martyrs' is definitely recommended and remains one of the highlights of French New Extremity, if not of noughties horror as a whole.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Buboven

Ted (2012)

3/10

How this film has 67% on RT and the Guardian voted it as the 2nd best film of it's year is mindboggling to me. All I can say is that a lot of people can't see shit when it's staring them in the face.

Death Machine (1994)

6/10

I'd probably knock another point of for Terd and add a point on for Death Machine.
Ted was crass, stupid trash. Awful film.

[Boo Radley]

I've got Martyrs and watched it once years ago....and thought it was shite. Over time I have heard people saying how gruelling, violent and how it pushed the envelope way out.

I just don't get or see that at all. It was mediocre at best, boring and contrived at its worst. Inside is another one that people rave about and I thought was tosh as well, Switchblade Romance was far a better film than those two put together, even with that "twist" ending that was bollox!

Frankie has made me want to watch it again and perhaps with a different mind set this time, not expecting too much, I might have a different opinion of it. Cheers Frankie, good review!

[Vampix]

The Warriors (1979)
I watched the original theatrical cut on Netflix. I haven't seen the newer director's cut with the comic book-style inserts and don't particularly want to either. The film has dated with some of the gangs looking totally ridiculous but I still enjoy it.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Boo Radley

I've got Martyrs and watched it once years ago....and thought it was shite. Over time I have heard people saying how gruelling, violent and how it pushed the envelope way out.

I just don't get or see that at all. It was mediocre at best, boring and contrived at its worst. Inside is another one that people rave about and I thought was tosh as well, Switchblade Romance was far a better film than those two put together, even with that "twist" ending that was bollox!

Frankie has made me want to watch it again and perhaps with a different mind set this time, not expecting too much, I might have a different opinion of it. Cheers Frankie, good review!

I think 'Martyrs' is pretty good but overrated. I like it more for the side-turn into spirituality at the end than for the violence, which is never that explicit. Although the final torture sequence before all the skin flaying is depressing and grating in its repetition... the director wasn't out to entertain, that's for sure. Definitely a victim of the extravagant claims made on its behalf.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

I think 'Martyrs' is pretty good but overrated. I like it more for the side-turn into spirituality at the end than for the violence, which is never that explicit. Although the final torture sequence before all the skin flaying is depressing and grating in its repetition... the director wasn't out to entertain, that's for sure. Definitely a victim of the extravagant claims made on its behalf.

For me it is the sidestep into the spirituality that makes the film. There is a noble quest on various religious paths that feature pain as a gateway to the soul. It is a brave and bold move to make in a genre film or any film for that matter in the western world as faith dies.

[Buboven]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

For me it is the sidestep into the spirituality that makes the film. There is a noble quest on various religious paths that feature pain as a gateway to the soul. It is a brave and bold move to make in a genre film or any film for that matter in the western world as faith dies.

I watched Martrys a few year back and didn't think much of it but watched it again and was blown away by it the second time round, though I really can't say why that was the case. In fact Martyrs is about the only film of the new French Wave that impressed me. Same thing with the original Evil Dead, didn't think much of it, then loved it!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Pain & Gain (2013)

Michael Bay's diversion from the Transformers series is a true story crime caper full of unfunny black comedy about a gang of criminals affiliated with Miami's Sun Gym.

Starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson i was expecting fun on a Bad Boys scale, but i detected no chemistry between the cast and despite the violence and daft antics the film soon became really boring and a chore to get through.

Bay comes in for a lot of stick, (Personally i think the Bad Boys films, The Rock and even Pearl Harbor are all decent to excellent) but Pain & Gain is as overblown, irritating and vacuous as the woeful Transformers movies.

[iank]

Saw Intruder last night. I've seen this before, but it must be 20 years or more! This campy late 80s slasher sees the night shift at a closing-down supermarket come under attack from a mysterious lunatic. I vaguely remember this, but I didn't remember it being as totally tongue-in-cheek as it was. By the last 20 minutes I was laughing my head off at it. Spectacularly gory but so deeply dippy I found it impossible not to love. I found the music equally hilarious (presumably unintentionally, unless it was some sort of incredibly obscure metatextual joke) as the great majority of it was exactly the same as the "dramatic/exciting/spooky" music they used to use in 80s Aussie soap Sons and Daughters. I found this at first incredibly distracting and then eventually hugely amusing in its own right.
This was a really silly movie but I had a great time with it. I love the bit where the killer pauses in pursuit of his final victim to pick up a couple of items on the floor in the supermarket in order to put them back on the shelf!