What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Justin101]

I might pick Bone Tomahawk up tomorrow after reading some of the personal reviews by people on here, I missed it at the cinema and it sounds really good.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I might pick Bone Tomahawk up tomorrow after reading some of the personal reviews by people on here, I missed it at the cinema and it sounds really good.

It is really good!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I've just come across a list of all the films i saw at the cinema when i used to go each and every Sunday with a group of friends in the 90's over several years.

1996 started off extremely strong with these films one week after the other starting on January 7th with...

Seven
Showgirls
Leaving Las Vegas
Mute Witness
Fair Game
Heat
Withnail and I (10th anniversary re-release)
Desperado
Casino
Trainspotting

Now maybe i'm talking rubbish but it seems a far superior selection of films compared to 2016.

[trebor8273]

Alligator (1980)

surprisingly good creature feature that was one of many that sprang up after Jaws. police detective is sent to investigate when dismembered bodies are found, the detective soon finds out its the work of 40 foot gator living in the sewers, he is not taking seriously until more bodies turn up and its got on film, but not long after this he is fired as the gator is linked to a corporation whos owner has the mayor in his pocket, a big game hunter is then hired to kill the beast but its not long before he becomes a snack and ouR heroic ex cop and a female scientist set out to track it down and kill it. while not as good as jaws its a lot better than most of the jaws rip offs the followed in its wake, likable and interesting characters and its a lot more gory than jaws was even going so far as a small child is eaten . 8/10

K-9

the usual cop buddy story with the difference of one of them being a dog called jerry lee. Cop Michael Dooley ( (James Belushi) is hunting rich businessman who is also a drug overlord. getting a tip that drugs are in the businessman's warehouse he gets himself a police dog to check out the warehouse. from here on Dooley and Jerry Lee team up to take down him down. the comedy comes mostly from the developing relationship between dog and man. 7.2/10

now watching on of my favorite films of 2016 Deadpool

[JamesN]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Highly recommended, but definitely not for the squeamish.

I still need to buy a copy of this on Blu. I rented it a while back, and it impressed the hell out of me. BONE TOMAHAWK is a verrrry slow burn, but the last 20 minutes or so are downright *terrifying*.

[Frankie Teardrop]

SPLINTER – Flab free indie monster movie delivers action, splatter and a siege-with-a-Thing. 'Splinter' features a conceptually interesting creature made up of random body parts and malevolent iron filings, although it revs itself up as a hostage drama before any of the weird shit goes down. A very good example of kind of latter day B movie you wish they all were – taut, chiselled and hard boiled. Don't waste my time with your lame exposition, just put some terrified people in a room, get 'em horny, then kill 'em all. Groovy.

THE PSYCHIC KILLER – Twisted momma's boy takes psychic revenge on the quivering no-marks who fitted him up for murder. Macho detective and sensitive psych-doc look desperately for meaning amidst the madness, but find only Kirlian photographs and Neville Brand's hand in a mincer. Meanwhile, a sleazy nurse teases a dying man then gets burned up in a shower whilst a medic goes oedipal . Highly reliable drive-in era relic which always makes for an enjoyable revisit. My old Vipco disc looked weirdly OK.

CHASING SLEEP – Jeff Daniels is a man with problems – his wife's gone missing, he hasn't slept in days and everything just seems a bit weird. Weird in a kind of 'The D Lynch guide to imagery' sense, which means we get slowly evolving close ups of ominous looking holes and glimpses of groaning, sweating pips which seem to sign “plumbing, but still nightmarish, and dead, dead meaningful”. All the while he's scrambling around, necking handfuls of pills as he tries to figure out the mystery of it all. 'Chasing Sleep' is a fairly diverting thriller, although I liked it less than when I first saw it a few years ago. It can't quite reconcile its surrealistic leanings with a meat and potatoes plot, and it undercuts itself atmospherically by involving too many characters – most of its power comes from the claustrophobia of Daniels being stuck home alone. Still good though, and deserves a wider audience – so see it.

THE FOURTH MAN – Another thriller with loads of overstylised imagery, 'The Fourth Man' comes from Paul Verhoeven and was made before he went to Hollywood. It's about a misanthropic writer who does a kind of 'Trojan seduction' on a book club secretary when he realises that a guy he was glancingly infatuated with on a train is in fact her boyfriend. He later learns that book clubber might be a twisted 'black widow' type. Verhoeven has said that he made 'The Fourth Man' to take the piss out of 'art house' critics in Holland who rejected the realism of his earlier films – certainly, the imagery seems laid on with a trowel, deliberately cryptic rather than dream like, and again this grates a litte alongside the Hitchcockian narrative. But it's an alluring and intoxicating film, occasionally a bit irritating when you pause to consider Verhoeven's inherent smugness, but hey, that's the way it is with that guy, the anti-Haneke.

[iank]

The Conjuring 2. The Warren's are called in by the church to investigate an apparent haunting which is ruining the lives of a previously ordinary family in an ordinary house in the British suburban town of Enfield in the late 70s. This sequel to the original Conjuring, again allegedly based on real events, is perhaps not quite as good as the original - there's a couple of silly bits, to be honest - but is still a cut above most horror flicks these days and a very effective little chiller for the most part. The little girl who plays the girl at the centre of the apparent haunting is excellent, and the whole 70s vibe - in this case a British 70s vibe - is delightful and authentic and adds much to the atmosphere, just as it did in the first one. Generally still very good and creepy, and I shall certainly be adding the Blu-ray to my collection.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Kurt Russell plays the sheriff of a small western town who together with three other men form a posse to go after the Indians who raided the town the previous night and kidnapped three of the townsfolk.

What follows is an often slow burning western which should appeal to lovers of the genre. It's easy to forget in this age of building throwing superheroes and Empire battling space operas how thrilling it can be watching men on horseback galloping along the plains, but this first time venture from director S. Craig Zahler (surely a name to look out for in the future) proves the classic western is still not dead. Because that's what Bone Tomahawk is, it's a classic western albeit with a twist, but at it's heart this tale of love and revenge is a lot closer to True Grit and The Searchers than it is to Django Unchained.

As the four are eventually captured by their savage foes who turn out not to be Indians but something else entirely, the film gets extremely violent and graphic. Yet for some reason it's the beautifully choreographed and languid build up, the first 90 minutes that linger in my memory. The realization that four men - Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins - all excellent - telling camp fire tales and generally being tall in the saddle against the odds, when well scripted, is still as relevant today as it was in the fifties and the golden age of the Hollywood western.

Highly recommended, but definitely not for the squeamish.

Great review, makes me want to watch it again.


As to my Chuck comment.
Kinjite - Forbidden Subjects (1989, J Lee Thompson)

They really do not make 'em like this any more. Bronson looks tired and old, so the editing around his "fight" scenes is priceless. I remember the VHS cover well from the before time, but left CB to my dad, who was a mildly rabid fan. Literally gobsmacking to a modern audience, the shifts in morality are quite interesting to anyone who takes note of folk devils/moral panics imo. And what Uncle Jess would have done here is something that will keep me up at night til....I get Girls in The Night Traffic.
Recommended!! See if you spot an early appearance by a current second tier star also....

Onto the mixed bag.

Queer Duck (2006, Xeth Fineberg)
From one of the Simpsons writers. Camp as feck cartoon. Not as amusing as the shorts, but was worth the look my mate said it was.

Hardcore Henry (2016, Ilya Naishuller)
Ooooh. Movie of the year almost, pity about the homophobia.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016, Dan Trachtenberg)
Liked this, Goodman always worth watching etc. Some people have moaned, but see, I remember a lot of people hating the first film, so some small kudos to them for coming up with something different.

Hidden (2015, Duffer Bros)
A family take shelter in a fallout bunker after a virus outbreak. Worth a look. Did make a good double bill with 10CL imo.

The Bank Shot (1974, Gower Champion)
Crime caper based on a Richard Stark novel. Quite an undemanding little film really, which is just as well as the same night I had the "pleasure" to see....

The Brothers Grimsby (2016, Louis Leterrier)
Where SBC takes "gross out" to a whole new level. Sadly isn't as funny as he thinks it is, though the Liam gag was a personal highlight, as I've always hated Oasis. Am also sick to the back teeth of having the working class represented as nothing but scum. I am not scum, Jew boy.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by iank

The Conjuring 2. The Warren's are called in by the church to investigate an apparent haunting which is ruining the lives of a previously ordinary family in an ordinary house in the British suburban town of Enfield in the late 70s. This sequel to the original Conjuring, again allegedly based on real events, is perhaps not quite as good as the original - there's a couple of silly bits, to be honest - but is still a cut above most horror flicks these days and a very effective little chiller for the most part. The little girl who plays the girl at the centre of the apparent haunting is excellent, and the whole 70s vibe - in this case a British 70s vibe - is delightful and authentic and adds much to the atmosphere, just as it did in the first one. Generally still very good and creepy, and I shall certainly be adding the Blu-ray to my collection.

Ta, this will save me 100 minutes then. Btw Nosferatu please check out The Offering, as you may find the term deja vu useful whilst watching it haha.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Ta, this will save me 100 minutes then. Btw Nosferatu please check out The Offering, as you may find the term deja vu useful whilst watching it haha.

it's a 'ridiculous for a horror film' 135 mins in length