What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Deadite

Didn't think this would be up your alley to be honest.

Saw it on telly a few months ago and thought it was great. An erotically charged film contained in 1 room and with 2 actors. Brilliant.

If it holds up to a couple of repeat viewings it could well be my favourite film by Polanski.

[bleakshaun]

so yesterday's watches were schlocky trash (always good to enjoy trash)
River of Death
So this films has Robert Vaughn and Donald Pleasence in a schlocky cannon action premise. it has everything you want, nazis, pirates amazonian tribes. the plot focuses on a discounted indiana jones type who loses a friend (who i presume is a love interest) to a tribe after finding a lost city. he sets to seek out this city again and takes a rag tag group of people to find the girl and the city. the action is good, but the moments between the action is a stretch.

Dollman
B movie goodness. the story a cop from another world chases a floating head, they go through an energy storm and land on earth - a sixth their size, dollman saves a woman from a drug gang and fights dealers. the plot is simple, the action great, good stupid fun.

Dollman vs Demonic Toys
again like Dollman this is schlocky action and horror. enjoyabe enough to watch if only for the crappy effects, set a year after the original Demonic Toys, they are back trying to bring their demonic lord back in the flesh. the cop from the original asks Dollman and his bird for help. they agree and they fight the toys, hilarity ensues overall. not as good as Demonic Toys or Dollman separately, but there is much hilarity and stupidity to keep you entertained enough.

[Justin101]

So, as promised yesterday I watched;

1408
Well things got off to a fine start, I was genuinely intrigued. However, just as most Stephen King adaptation can attest to, things went down hill and fast. Cusack held things together the best he could as most of the time he was acting against himself alone in the room. Samuel L Jackson as the manager of the hotel was great and probably deserved a bit more screen time even if the lines he had to deliver were a bit hokey. Once the timer in the hotel room started ticking down it got a little tedious, just trial after trial for Cusack to overcome, some more successful than others.
Not great, but not terrible either, I'd suggest to watch it if you have never seen it but it's not one to watch again.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
This one also suffers from the Stephen King effect! For the first hour of the film I was thinking, what was everyone talking about, this is actually a pretty good film, then the titular battle commenced... Too much CGI, it's what has ruined these Hobbit films, nothing looks real. The Elvish Army, all the wide shots are just completely faked and you can tell, Billy Connolly as a dwarf, except it's not, it's just his voice and a CGI character and it looks fake... As somebody else pointed out the difference between LOTR and The Hobbit films is that old practical effects vs CGI thing. Just because the technology is at that level now doesn't mean you should (ab)use it.
The battle was too much, I got battle fatigue, it worked much better when it honed in to specific characters such as Bard and his family.
I probably will watch this one again and it's not the worst in the trilogy!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

So, as promised yesterday I watched;

1408
Well things got off to a fine start, I was genuinely intrigued. However, just as most Stephen King adaptation can attest to, things went down hill and fast. Cusack held things together the best he could as most of the time he was acting against himself alone in the room. Samuel L Jackson as the manager of the hotel was great and probably deserved a bit more screen time even if the lines he had to deliver were a bit hokey. Once the timer in the hotel room started ticking down it got a little tedious, just trial after trial for Cusack to overcome, some more successful than others.
Not great, but not terrible either, I'd suggest to watch it if you have never seen it but it's not one to watch again.

Glad i didn't bother with this again in the end!

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Glad i didn't bother with this again in the end!

I really quite rate 1408. Rik's review and the subsequent discussions about it over the past few days has me wanting to check it out again.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

I really quite rate 1408. Rik's review and the subsequent discussions about it over the past few days has me wanting to check it out again.

I watched the director's cut as that's the one which is in my box set, I'm wondering if the theatrical version plays a bit better. I read some discussions about the ending being changed etc.

[Susan Foreman]

Roadie (1980)

Meat Loaf stars as Travis W. Redfish, an electrical wizard who can fix anything. Noticing a broken down RV, he helps to fix it, and falls instantly in lust with Lola (Kaki Hunter), an aspiring groupie whose ambition is to lose her virginity to Alice Cooper. After repairing the RV, Travis is talked into traveling with Lola, 'Ace', a road manager, and his assistant George, to Austin for a show to be played by Hank Williams Jr. This leads to him signing up with a traveling rock band and soon finding himself celebrated as the greatest roadie of all time! Finally, they get to meet Alice...

I'm really not sure who this film is aimed at. It has some great rock 'n' roll cameos, but they are thrown away. Meat Loaf doesn't sing any songs; Roy Orbison crops up in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, performing a single song duet with Hank Williams Jr; Blondie have a single scene cover of the Johnny Cash song 'Ring Of Fire; and Alice performs 'Only Women Bleed' and 'Pain'

The comedy is painful, and there are a number of car chases and crashes. All in all, it comes over as a poor man's 'Blues Brothers'

Roadie could have been a classic rock and roll comedy (ala 'The Blues Brothers' or 'American Graffiti'), but the guitars are out of tune and key at every single opportunity!

Best thing about it is the DVD cover!!

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

Roadie (1980)

Best thing about it is the DVD cover!!

The sadist in me is intrigued

[bleakshaun]

Today I watched
Don't Torture a Duckling
I watched this without really knowing a lot about it. Decent storyline, a whodunnit mystery, great soundtrack and gore effects and some rather morbid ideas throughout.

Five Element Ninjas
Martial arts schlock. story centres around a school getting massacred by ninjas by a rival school, one survives and goes for vengeance by training in the way of ninja. very enjoyable and the action is great. also recommend you watch it in english dub - the way it should be played :P

just about to put on Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

[bleakshaun]

well boy that was quick.
just tried to watch Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. the formatting of the film is utter garbage, the film is at the top of the screen and the subtitles are in the black U which is not easy, if there was an english db it would have been fine or if it was in letterbox.
i'll try again at some other point