Cult Labs

Go Back   Cult Labs > Film Discussions > General Film Discussions

Like Tree179030Likes

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #47311  
Old 22nd July 2018, 01:06 PM
Buboven's Avatar
Cultist on the Rampage
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Cardiff
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by keirarts View Post
I really like it. When we did Fulci films on the top ten tuesdays thread it was on my list. I remember Dem hating it though!
I like how Thomas Milians character is almost a force of nature and how the film becomes almost an origin story for Fabio Testi's character who gradually becomes the brutal gunfighter seen in most spaghetti westerns. There's a lot going on with it.
Definitely, Milian's character certainly makes an impact and I agree about the character arc of Testi.

I think one of my favourite sequences has to be in the abandoned mining town.

Definitely has a lot of depth to it if you look close enough, even with Bud's character, if you look at his words about seeing imaginary people in the town and how they treat him well despite him being black and an outcast.
Reply With Quote
  #47312  
Old 22nd July 2018, 01:06 PM
nosferatu42's Avatar
Cult Addict
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Castle Fronkensteen
Default

I really liked "4 of the Apocalypse" when i watched it last year too, also another unusual Fulci film worth watching is Beatrice Cenci.
__________________

MIKE: I've got it! Peter Cushing! We've got to drive a stake through his heart!
VYVYAN: Great! I'll get the car!
NEIL: I'll get a cushion.
Reply With Quote
  #47313  
Old 22nd July 2018, 01:19 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Molly's Game (2017)

The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target due to dealings with the Russian mob.

As with all Aaron Sorkin written pieces, Molly's Game is a very wordy film, Sorkin's skill however is making those words so compelling you feel like you're in the middle of an adrenaline fueled action film. Even the Poker scenes, a game of which i know nothing, drew me in immediately thanks to the clever almost frantic voice over, gripping me even though i knew nothing of what was going on in the high stakes games. This is also down to Sorkin the director. Molly's Game was his first job behind the clapperboard and he handles it like a seasoned pro with edgy camera work ala Fincher and a furious pacing sustained throughout the 135 minute run time.

Jessica Chastain is superb as Molly and she gives a powerful performance in every scene, be it on screen or as a narrator. She's ably backed up by Idris Elba who really shines in his role as Molly's lawyer. The same goes for Kevin Costner as Molly's demanding father.

Although i don't consider myself a fan of flashback films, here they are handled with consummate ease as Molly recounts her life to Elba, rather than the sheer clunkiness of how other films use them.

I really enjoyed Molly's Game. They say talk is cheap, but in Sorkin's case talk is richly rewarding.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg hou_art_20171229_mollysgame_header.jpg (74.0 KB, 3 views)

Last edited by Demdike@Cult Labs; 22nd July 2018 at 01:31 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #47314  
Old 22nd July 2018, 01:32 PM
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: summerisle
Blog Entries: 21
Default

I lked MG. It's always nice to be able to recommend something to civilians
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

[B]
"... the days ahead will be filled with struggle ... and coated in marzipan ... "[/B]
Reply With Quote
  #47315  
Old 22nd July 2018, 01:35 PM
Paul Zombie's Avatar
Seasoned Cultist
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Southport
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by nosferatu42 View Post
I really liked "4 of the Apocalypse" when i watched it last year too, also another unusual Fulci film worth watching is Beatrice Cenci.
i have never seen either of these films but would love to seeing as they are by Fulci and should be very good.
keirarts, Buboven and troggi like this.
__________________
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/full/public/image/beyond-the-1981-001-cinzia-monreale-and-dickie.jpg?itok=GxC4psdz
Reply With Quote
  #47316  
Old 22nd July 2018, 02:01 PM
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: summerisle
Blog Entries: 21
Default

Mr Nanny (1993, Michael Gottlieb)

I likes to mix it up now and then. From the unbearable Bollness of Uwe to the Zen violence of Kitano. But this .... strangest villian since Return To Oz ... mawkishness squared ... still I am laughing so it's a movie I suppose

Honest ... uncut raw grim underground fake snuff bestiality next as I revisits The Life & Death Of A Porno Gang. It's what Sundays were for when I were a bairn
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

[B]
"... the days ahead will be filled with struggle ... and coated in marzipan ... "[/B]
Reply With Quote
  #47317  
Old 22nd July 2018, 03:49 PM
Nosferatu@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult Don
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Good Trader
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: The Land of the Prince Bishops
Blog Entries: 4
Default

FRIDAY THE 13TH
I have had an unwatched Blu-ray collection of the Friday the 13th films in Marilyn since last year so decided to watch this on (surprise, surprise) Friday the 13th for the first time in a couple of years. I don't think it's one of the top drawer slasher films, Halloween is better, but it is certainly one of the most influential because of the setting, innovative and bloody death scenes, and with Harry Manfredini re-working Bernard Herrmann's classic score for Psycho to great effect, a score which helps to ratchet up the tension and deliver some good jump scares.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2
Five years after the events in the first film, the legend of 'the boy in the lake' proves to be an attraction rather than a deterrent to aspiring camp counsellors at a secluded location on the banks of Crystal Lake. Again, the brutal death scenes and the score work very well, but my favourite aspects of this is Ginny who is a very likeable person and the way Amy Steel makes her such an easy person to root for is admirable. It may not be a great film, but it's entertaining and, even on a sunny summer evening, works, as a fun stalk and slash movie.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3
As I don't have a pair of lenticular 3-D glasses, I was unable to watch this in all of its gimmickry, so some of the shots designed to show off the stereoscopic technology proved distracting and a little annoying. This is certainly more gratuitously violent than the previous two instalments in the franchise, perhaps because Jason is now a fully grown adult and, in a sign of things to come, certainly more of a superhuman force of nature than five years ago. This is far from my favourite of the Friday the 13th films, but it is one with enough interesting locations and characters who you either want to survive to the final credits or die as quickly as possible to hold the attention.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER
Because the second sequel finished with Jason seemingly dead, the only logical beginning for this film is to basically make him indispensable as he escapes from cold storage in the mortuary and kill his way out of the hospital and to Crystal Lake where, for reasons unknown, he proceeds to try and kill everyone in its vicinity. This instalment is probably most notable for introducing the Tommy Jarvis character, played by a young and pre-Lost Boys Corey Feldman who, with his sister Trish (Kimberly Beck), becomes the main person you want to see survive the lakeside massacre. Despite the title, the ending shot in which Tommy, possibly possessed by Jason, stares straight to the camera.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING
The beginning section of this film is one of the most interesting and surprising in the entire series, taking place at a facility for teenagers with mental issues. Tommy may not have an eating disorder, anger management or esteem problems, but he does bear the mental scars of everything he witnessed and experienced a few years previously, scars which are not helped when one of the other residents brutally kills the annoying over eater with an axe. Although the perpetrators arrested, murders continue and Tommy becomes the prime suspect when some of the bodies are found in his bedroom. This tries to do something different by only having Jason appear in hallucination or dream sequences and have the principal maniacal killer as someone wreaking revenge for their son's murder. This one I enjoy more than I really should considering how formulaic and unsurprising most of the narrative, characters and situations are, and it's probably only because of the absence of Jason and the mystery aspect about the killer's identity.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES
Tommy Jarvis, now grown up and still suffering from his encounters with Jason, including killing him. Convinced that the only way he can overcome his hallucinations is by seeing Jason's body, he goes to his grave with a friend and (to no one's surprise) the corpse is bizarrely reanimated when the metal fence post which Tommy thrust through Jason's corpse is hit by lightning. Deciding to warn the authorities, Tommy is instead arrested by the most cartoonishly unsympathetic and obnoxious sheriff since Killer Klowns from Outer Space. With events now moving to Camp Forest Green (the new name for Crystal Lake) where Jason does what he does best, and murders his way through a group of camp counsellors preparing to open it for business. Determined to correct the mistake he made by inadvertently resurrected Jason, Tommy sets about trying to kill the indestructible fiend with the help of a boulder, chain, and the depths of Crystal Lake. As Friday the 13th films go, this is a slick, fairly self-aware and fun one, with the final showdown between Tommy and Jason surprisingly engrossing and with some great imagery.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD
If resurrecting Jason with a fence post and lightning wasn't complicated enough, having a telekinetic teenage girl (who has mentally buried her past encounter with Jason) bring him back with her misdirected mental powers. Although this is the first to feature Kane Hodder as Jason, a portrayal most would identify as the most iconic, it's also surprisingly boring simply because, aside from the telekinetic teen, there is nothing in this film which isn't in one of the previous six, with the skull crushing seeming particularly nasty and gratuitous.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN
If 'The New Blood' was approaching barrel scraping levels of tedium and unoriginality, this goes straight through the wood and into the floor beneath. Every franchise runs out of steam at some point and barely makes the title relevant by having most of the events take place on a boat with Jason only arriving in NYC with very little running time (and obvious victims) remaining.

Because it wasn't in the boxset, I didn't watch Jason Goes to Hell, nor Freddy vs. Jason and Jason X, films I remember enjoying more than parts seven and eight in the series simply because it was as if the filmmakers decided to throw coherent and serious storytelling out of the window and just have fun, embracing the paranormal, dream worlds and outerspace!
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #47318  
Old 22nd July 2018, 08:34 PM
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: summerisle
Blog Entries: 21
Default

Ach twas too bloody hot to watch someone fellating a horse ....

So I stuck on ....
Return Of The Evil/Blind Dead instead.

Never celebrate anything it seems .
Destroying the reputation of the local tourist board, our mouldy monks turn up and s-l-o-w-l-y murder a heap of innocent (and not so pure) townsfolk after some fireworks disturb their slumber ... as you would tbh.
Why o why o why nae BD??
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

[B]
"... the days ahead will be filled with struggle ... and coated in marzipan ... "[/B]
Reply With Quote
  #47319  
Old 22nd July 2018, 10:17 PM
Demdike@Cult Labs's Avatar
Cult King
Cult Labs Radio Contributor
Senior Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Lancashire
Default

Meet John Doe (1941)

Gary Cooper plays a destitute man who is asked by a newspaper to impersonate a nonexistent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a political movement begins.

Frank Capra's film reminds of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946) with it's story of a man out of his depth politically whom the people look up to before it all goes badly wrong on Christmas Eve in the snow. The film has a lot to say on media exploitation but is let down by frankly dull sequences where nothing happens. A lengthy baseball sequence (without a ball) in a hotel is a case in point.

However unlike those two films this manages to be overlong and quite boring following a promising opening half hour. It's almost redeemed by it's George Bailey-esq ending but even that can't really save Capra's film from being a movie which doesn't know what direction it wants to take us in.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg 113e4f938e6bfa76da59f54c73fca3d1.jpg (99.7 KB, 4 views)
Reply With Quote
  #47320  
Old 22nd July 2018, 11:05 PM
MrBarlow's Avatar
Cult Veteran
Good Trader
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Dundee
Blog Entries: 2
Default

Backdraft 1991

Two firefighter brothers who don't get on well have to put their differences aside when a arsonist strikes around the city.

The plot to this might seem boring, slow but director Ron Howard keeps us entertained with this action thriller movie. Kurt Russell and William Baldwin star as the two brothers Stephen and Brian who seem to try and outshine each other. Robert De Niro stars as the fire investigation leader who seems a bit unbalanced and admires the arsonist way of creating the fires. Scott Glenn as part of the fire fighting team who doesn't like the way Stephen handles some ways of his work but may have other agendas. J.T. Walsh makes an appearance of the city official running for mayor but has a lot of secrets.

Donald Sutherland makes a small cameo as Ronald a prisoner who loved to burn things and becomes a guide to understanding the fires.

This is one of those memorable films that still seems to be enjoyable now than when it first came out, and does have its small flaws, the fire scenes are amazing and a good soundtrack score from Hans Zimmer. 8 out of 10
__________________
" I have seen trees that look like tortured souls"
Reply With Quote
Reply  

Like this? Share it using the links below!

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



Our goal is to keep Cult Labs friendly. If you feel discouraged from posting by certain members' behaviour then you can e-mail us in complete confidence.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
All forum posts are contributed by members of the site; Cult Labs cannot take responsibility for all content posted on the site. If you have an issue with content posted on the site please click the 'report post' button.
Copyright © 2014 Cult Laboratories Ltd. All rights reserved.