What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

Zack Snyder's Justice League.

After Superman's sacrifice, Bruce Wayne tries to recruit those with special abilities with Diana Prince when a new threat looms over them.

When this got released in 2017 I watched it and it looked all over the place and a few plot holes, when this was version was released I was hesitant to buy it, this was 4 hours of my life well spent, this was the version that should have been released in the first place, the acting is top notch from everyone, CGI effects do not disappoint, only bug bearing I had was the ending that was left open with Martian Hunter, dam you Ben Affleck for the leaving the role, maybe Robert Pattinson can do a decent job in the up and coming film. This is one you can watch with the lights out and absorb everything that Zack put into it.

zack-snyder-justice-league-snyder-cut-mini-footballs-on-sale-1255922.jpg

[nicholasrope]

Dream Horse

Residents from a rural Welsh town form a syndicate to own a Racehorse. This is a decent effort, worth a watch if you have the time.

Nobody

A retired Government Assassin who has laid dormant returns to normal when he encounters The Russian Mob. A brisk film with some decent action. Give it a try if you're into these type of films.

Moonwalker

A very weird Michael Jackson vehicle which is part Concert/Video footage mixed with some random vignettes. Definitely one of those films where too much creative freedom was allowed. Surely a proper Film with a script throughout would have been more successful. Can only imagine what people who saw this at the Cinema and rented it out thought.

Falling Down

Michael Douglas is a man who snaps and takes his frustrations on anyone or any business that annoys him. Robert Duvall is the Detective who is on his last day before retirement chasing him. A forgotten gem, shows that all you need is a good story not fancy F/X or camera work.

In the early 90's, Warner Bros were a very hot company with this, The Fugitive, The Bodyguard, Under Siege and Showdown In Little Tokyo.

Hitman's Bodyguard

Ryan Reynolds is the down on his luck Bodyguard who must transport assassin (And enemy) Samuel L. Jackson to The Hague to testify against a War Criminal. Better when you first see this but seems to decrease in enjoyment with every viewing.

[iank]

Madman. A campfire legend comes true when a bunch of camp counsellors are attacked by an axe-wielding lunatic out of local legend, "Mad Man Mars". This 1981 slasher horror is as familiar as it gets, but is pretty well made and atmospheric. The only cast member I recognise is Gaylen Ross, who was the heroine in the original Dawn of the Dead, and the ending is a tad abrupt but this was pretty entertaining for all its familiarity, helped by a cracking Blu ray restoration.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Moonwalker

A very weird Michael Jackson vehicle which is part Concert/Video footage mixed with some random vignettes. Definitely one of those films where too much creative freedom was allowed. Surely a proper Film with a script throughout would have been more successful. Can only imagine what people who saw this at the Cinema and rented it out thought.

That's one of the films that we had at the cinema when I was working there!

The target audience [pre-teens] loved it, and every time Michael Jackson appeared on the screen they would scream their little heads off. For the adults in the audience, however, it didn't really have the same effect, and when the screening had finished, numerous people were queuing at the box office, trying to get their money back, and more than one came up to me and said: "what time does the actual film start?"

[Frankie Teardrop]

VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST – Very seventies, very Euro, very trashy, very… a single word or phrase wouldn’t do it justice; VBE is not entirely unique, but its pungent wackiness does make it stand out. Passengers aboard a cruise liner are collateral in a mummy’s forlorn search for the reincarnation of his murdered bride. Along the way are numerous flashbacks to a psychedelic ritual, a couple of severed heads, and a bit where the frustrated mummy gets mad, trashes a room and headbutts a mirror! VBE flips between moments of silliness and genuine atmosphere, and this unsteadiness of tone is destabilised further by ponderous stretches where passengers sit around chatting or otherwise have a whale of a time asea. If not for this slight yawn factor, which is not in the end all that galling, VBE might have been some kind of gonzoid semi-classic a la ‘Werewolf Woman’ or numerous others. As it stands, it’s an acquired taste that will probably appeal to devotees of obscure seventies continental horror.

NIGHTWING – Based on the paperback original by Martin Cruz Smith, ‘Nightwing’ is about a sheriff on a Native American reservation who investigates an inexplicable surge in local cattle mutilation; it all turns out to be the work of a cauldron of vampire bats, invoked by an embittered shaman. ‘Nightwing’ has the bearing of one of those well-financed late seventies studio horror flicks – big themes (Native American spirituality and politics), some names, lots of heavy talk, and a leisurely manner accompanied by a lush orchestral score. The elegantly captured New Mexican desert vistas seem more haunting than the bats. Elsewhere, Carlos Rambaldi is responsible for some effects that look like they belong in a film much further down the budgetary scale, which is a shame because the attack scene they’re part of is really quite harrowing. But ‘Nightwing’ is concerned less with monster onslaughts than with non-schlocky dramatic elements, which is either plus or a minus, depending on your taste. David Warner gives good crank value as a Van Helsing type who really hates bats.

SHADOW OF THE HAWK – Partnered with ‘Nightwing’ on the newish blu-ray from Eureka is ‘Shadow of the Hawk’, the less consistent but more interesting half of this double bill. The first section of the movie is beguiling, dreamy and disconnected – an apparition with a disturbing carven face appears to haunt the descendent of a Native American village elder. Then it all turns into a bit of a cross-country quest to reach the place responsible for this weirdness, and we’re faced with an epic road trip through an endless forest, with some spooky cars and a slightly unconvincing bear attack thrown in. The makers get good mileage out of creepy mask-face, but in the end ‘Shadow Of The Hawk’ does flag a bit. Shame the disorientating vibe of the first half hour couldn’t be sustained, but it’s still intermittently eerie and well worth watching on the whole.

THE HOUSE OF USHER – This version is by Alan Birkinshaw, the director of ‘Killer’s Moon’. Possibly the best thing about its first hour is the interior of the House of Usher, which looks like it was set-designed in twenty minutes by someone who spent half their three hundred quid budget on a bit of crack. It’s a headache-inducing clusterf*ck of Victorian bric-a-brac thrown together with plywood and papier mache and is quite mesmerising to behold. The also-quite-mesmerising Oliver Reed glowers in the background, ready to get loud at a moment’s notice, but things never quite pick up until the last half hour or so, when the film finally explodes into madness. The torchbearer of this insanity is Donald Pleasance, an attic dwelling recluse who boasts a drill-mounted armpiece. Yep. I wish they’d gone the whole hog and turned him into some kind of cyborg. Anyway, aforementioned drill is not particularly menacing, as attested to be the scene wherein DP tries to nab the heroine and ends up doing some very ineffectual DIY on a (plywood and papier mache) wall. So, a tale of two halves, no doubt the director’s subtle allusion to Poe’s original story.

THE THEATRE BIZARRE – Udo Kier is the disconcerting on-stage mannequin who presents a handful of short tales of outré horror, most with quite a bloody accent. Dick Stanley is in the mix with a Clark Ashton Smith adaption, the sexed-up fairy tale ‘Mother Of Toads’, but the contributions of Tom Savini and Karim Hussain fare better, being full of cackling mean spiritedness and bleakly rendered weirdness respectively. Anthologies tend to be mixed bags, and ‘Theatre Bizarre’ dips a little in places, although I think I like Buddy Giovinazzo’s messy break-up drama more in retrospect (it all seems like a weird contrivance designed to get to a big gushy throat slashing). Another Severin-produced film, I do wish they’d do more.

HITCHER IN THE DARK – Late period Umberto Lenzi set in a camper van. Starts out like a slasher, but then switches to a kidnap-based set-up a la ‘The Collector’. Its dizzying aesthetic, full of jaunty late eighties pop, Floridan sun, and quick zooms, is pure Filmirage. Despite this wonkiness of tone and other factors such as the impromptu appearance of a wet T-shirt competition, a certain grimness pushes through, mainly because of the faint sleaze and the innate claustrophobia of camper vans. The two leads are also OK in it, although the rest of the acting is what you might expect. If you like films from the painful last gasp of the Italian horror and exploitation boom, then you’ll certainly find something worthwhile about ‘Hitcher in the Dark’.

[Demoncrat]

As always F ...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

NIGHTWING – Based on the paperback original by Martin Cruz Smith, ‘Nightwing’ is about a sheriff on a Native American reservation who investigates an inexplicable surge in local cattle mutilation; it all turns out to be the work of a cauldron of vampire bats, invoked by an embittered shaman. ‘Nightwing’ has the bearing of one of those well-financed late seventies studio horror flicks – big themes (Native American spirituality and politics), some names, lots of heavy talk, and a leisurely manner accompanied by a lush orchestral score. The elegantly captured New Mexican desert vistas seem more haunting than the bats. Elsewhere, Carlos Rambaldi is responsible for some effects that look like they belong in a film much further down the budgetary scale, which is a shame because the attack scene they’re part of is really quite harrowing. But ‘Nightwing’ is concerned less with monster onslaughts than with non-schlocky dramatic elements, which is either plus or a minus, depending on your taste. David Warner gives good crank value as a Van Helsing type who really hates bats.

SHADOW OF THE HAWK – Partnered with ‘Nightwing’ on the newish blu-ray from Eureka is ‘Shadow of the Hawk’, the less consistent but more interesting half of this double bill. The first section of the movie is beguiling, dreamy and disconnected – an apparition with a disturbing carven face appears to haunt the descendent of a Native American village elder. Then it all turns into a bit of a cross-country quest to reach the place responsible for this weirdness, and we’re faced with an epic road trip through an endless forest, with some spooky cars and a slightly unconvincing bear attack thrown in. The makers get good mileage out of creepy mask-face, but in the end ‘Shadow Of The Hawk’ does flag a bit. Shame the disorientating vibe of the first half hour couldn’t be sustained, but it’s still intermittently eerie and well worth watching on the whole.

I'd seen this Eureka release and thought it looked interesting. Although it would appear both films are flawed they do sound pretty good. Glad i've finally read some thoughts on them.

[Justin101]

^^^ Same, I've been interested in picking that set up myself, they seem interesting and a little bit different to the usual stuff.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Fifth Element (1997)

Luc Besson's French science fiction spectacular starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman, although a good film, is really an outrageous triumph of style over substance.

Although sophisticated theres a constant superficial aesthetic to it all thanks to the brilliantly inventive production and effects work and Jean-Paul Gaultier's wild costumes making it all seem like sci-fi camp rather than a thrilling extravaganza ala The Matrix. When it comes down to it the best parts are all seemingly 'borrowed' from other movies such as Blade Runner (1982) and Stargate (1994)

Visually it's stunning and the recent StudioCanal 4K remaster is jaw droppingly good.

[Demoncrat]

VooDoo (2017, Tom Costabile)

FF. One of the more hilarious efforts that I've seen. A New Orleans lass escapes to LA when her private life takes a weird turn. Containing one genuinely eerie image, the moral being "you can run, but you can't hide" it seems.
Opens with a rather horrible sequence which promised much, but it descends into imagery that seemed superficially "scary" but was quite risible tbh. Daft wee flick.



Heaven Is Only In Hell (1994, Wim Vink)

SOV. A mechanic buys a house and a young woman is plagued by ethereal voices. How these events eventually entwine is a tad lacklustre tbh. There is some fun with the fact that this voice is rather British ahem considering this is a Dutch production. Not as grotty as some of these things. A shame really.