What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Gerry]

I watched the restored version of Island of Terror (the film with the killer cow pats with attached vacuum nozzles hey look like that to me) the extra seconds restored was a hand is chopped off with an axe.

And

Haywire Starring Gina Carano.

Next up will be Norman J.Warren films and Pete Walker films......yep I am ready.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

To be honest i didn't think much of Abrams reboot. I've yet to see the second film. It just came across like any other sci-fi film. Big on effects and audience wow factor but very little to do with Star Trek.

Probably why i think they're better than the original films.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

Creaky black and white British sci-fi about a space craft from Mars that lands in the Scottish Highlands. It's inhabited by a woman, clad head to mini skirt in black leather / pvc who has arrived with the sole intention of taking human males back to Mars to help repopulate the planet.

The effects are quite primitive but charming to boot and the film sports a fine cast of scream queen actress types in the lovely Hazel Court and Adrienne Corri as well as Patricia Laffan as the 'not really a devil girl' from Mars. It's a shame the script doesn't give the cast more to do other than stand around a hotel bar talking. Proceedings liven up when the Martian woman brings out her robot - a dodgy relative of Robbie the Robot maybe, and it begins zapping all in it's path. There's also a tagged on subplot about an escaped convict, a former lover of Corri's who hides out at the hotel.

A film i constantly return to even though i acknowledge it probably isn't very good.

[Cinematic Shocks]

Burnt Offerings (1976)

***1/2 out of *****

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

**** out of *****

[Frankie Teardrop]

EVOLUTION – On a remote island inhabited only by male children and female adults, one young boy finds the body of another on the ocean floor and is drawn into a world of midnight experiments taking place in a derelict-looking hospital. 'Evolution' is Lucile Hadzihalilovic's follow up to 'Innocence', another surreal exploration of a cloistered community of children. This time, the director conjures up a more obviously nightmarish atmosphere – 'Evolution' might be the kind of movie that has critics of a higher brow than myself delving around for epithets like 'dark fairy tale', but the tone is uniquely oppressive and uncomfortable in places, enough to push it well into the horror bracket. There are echos too of familiar genre touchstones such as Cronenberg and Lynch, even Lovecraft with his 'Shadows Over Innesmouth', which should give you a notion of the fishy tone that prevails here, especially when we're talking about those creepy surgical procedures which seem to be about impregnating youngsters with starfish. As menacing as all this sounds, 'Evolution' tilts towards a more bitter-sweet undercurrent in the end, and is moving in its depiction of the central kids maternal yearnings (although these are certainly ambivalent, witness the resus scene). Despite its imagery and its oneiric tone, both of which are thickly laid on though with an art-house frostiness, 'Evolution' is I guess a film about the trials of life's awakenings. It's a beguiling and intoxicating film, one that I recommend strongly as probably one of the best I've seen this year, certainly the most interesting.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

EVOLUTION – On a remote island inhabited only by male children and female adults, one young boy finds the body of another on the ocean floor and is drawn into a world of midnight experiments taking place in a derelict-looking hospital. 'Evolution' is Lucile Hadzihalilovic's follow up to 'Innocence', another surreal exploration of a cloistered community of children. This time, the director conjures up a more obviously nightmarish atmosphere – 'Evolution' might be the kind of movie that has critics of a higher brow than myself delving around for epithets like 'dark fairy tale', but the tone is uniquely oppressive and uncomfortable in places, enough to push it well into the horror bracket. There are echos too of familiar genre touchstones such as Cronenberg and Lynch, even Lovecraft with his 'Shadows Over Innesmouth', which should give you a notion of the fishy tone that prevails here, especially when we're talking about those creepy surgical procedures which seem to be about impregnating youngsters with starfish. As menacing as all this sounds, 'Evolution' tilts towards a more bitter-sweet undercurrent in the end, and is moving in its depiction of the central kids maternal yearnings (although these are certainly ambivalent, witness the resus scene). Despite its imagery and its oneiric tone, both of which are thickly laid on though with an art-house frostiness, 'Evolution' is I guess a film about the trials of life's awakenings. It's a beguiling and intoxicating film, one that I recommend strongly as probably one of the best I've seen this year, certainly the most interesting.

Sorry, Frankie.

I'm going with Amazon reviewer Jackie Bloomfield's review. It's far more accomplished.

just rubbish!

[Cinematic Shocks]

Spy (2015)

***1/2 out of *****

[Deadite]

I didn't think too much of Spy. Too sweary at times - not to say that i care too much about swearing, but as a comedic device it is very limited. Yeah, we get you're pretending to be bad-ass, no need to over-do it. The Stath did reveal an unexpected talent for comedy though.

[Cinematic Shocks]

I agree the constant use of “****” was unnecessary. I don’t have a problem with swearing either but I thought it was excessive here and the material often didn’t require it. Other than that though, I thought it featured fine comic performances across the board and there were many laugh aloud moments. Simply put, it was a comedy that made me laugh a lot; it worked for me achieving what it set out to do. And yeah, Jason Statham is hilarious in it.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Deadite

I didn't think too much of Spy. Too sweary at times - not to say that i care too much about swearing, but as a comedic device it is very limited. Yeah, we get you're pretending to be bad-ass, no need to over-do it. The Stath did reveal an unexpected talent for comedy though.

I enjoyed Spy and can't say i noticed it to be that sweary, though i know what you mean, sometimes it feels like an excuse for a script. It was the cock scenes i didn't care for in Spy. Attempting to get laughs through crass attempts at shock.