What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demoncrat]

Retribution (1987, Guy Magar)

Always remembered the VHS sleeve. Never took it out though .... probably for the best as I think twould have been cut back in the day ahem.
A nebbish tries to take the easy way out but falls foul of .... hmmm, how to word this correctly without spoilers .... something and so finds himself on the rocky road to recovery, aided by a concerned medic and a genuine tart with a heart. An odd beast. Takes certain tropes and just runs with them. Some wild kills and an overarching "feel" of something not quite right pulled this one out of standard schlock fare imho. Plus Rand Peltzer turns up as a cop!

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Retribution (1987, Guy Magar)

Always remembered the VHS sleeve. Never took it out though .... probably for the best as I think twould have been cut back in the day ahem.
A nebbish tries to take the easy way out but falls foul of .... hmmm, how to word this correctly without spoilers .... something and so finds himself on the rocky road to recovery, aided by a concerned medic and a genuine tart with a heart. An odd beast. Takes certain tropes and just runs with them. Some wild kills and an overarching "feel" of something not quite right pulled this one out of standard schlock fare imho. Plus Rand Peltzer turns up as a cop!

Has this had a U.K. Blu-ray release?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Copshop (2021)

Frank Grillo plays a con artist who gets himself arrested and thrown in a police cell to escape assassin Gerrard Butler who also gets himself locked up as a means of getting to Grillo, with only Alexis Louder's rookie cop between the two of them.

Despite being set in a swish modern American police station this is very much an old school thriller with nods to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13. The three leads are all excellent as is Toby Huss as another hitman who enters the police station hellbent on killing pretty much everyone.

It has that pulpy, tense, violent seventies style that made it feel like a great follow on from Highway Racer, even the soundtrack was Lalo Schifrin styled in fact with the menu music and opening credits had you not been in the room you'd have presumed it was the poliziottesco that was still playing.

To sum up. Copshop is a fun and thoroughly entertaining throwback to seventies cop thrillers, loud, violent and bloody. Just the way i like 'em.

It made for a terrific double bill with Highway Racer.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Has this had a U.K. Blu-ray release?

I don't think so. It came from ... somewhere ... cough.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Has this had a U.K. Blu-ray release?

I’m surprised it hasn’t, Vinegar Syndrome in the US I think. It was one I always saw in the video shop when I was younger, I’ll always remember that poster art.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I’m surprised it hasn’t, Vinegar Syndrome in the US I think. It was one I always saw in the video shop when I was younger, I’ll always remember that poster art.

The old VHS front cover.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Years of Lead box set of Italian poliziottesco films is an outstanding release. All five films are excellent. Highly recommended.

Agreed. All the films are very good and I'm very glad I bought the box set.

I watched them all once over about a week and, because I don't think was paying complete attention to the TV for a couple, have left the box set out near my Blu-ray player to watch them again and write reviews similar to yours.

[gag]

Malignant,

Watched last night I enjoyed it, the police station scene was action-packed and entertaining, what I did find is imagine two people have been given the same project but they have to make it completely different but same concept, well I found IMO this was exactly that in a modern version of basket case with a twist.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Jungle Cruise (2021)

For the first hour i was really enjoying this what could be called a modern update of The African Queen. There was a certain chemistry between Dwayne Johnson's grizzled river boat captain, Emily Blunt's adventurer and Jack Whitehall's turn as her comedy brother, not to mention Johnson's pet CGI jaguar and the film was a lively, occasionally laugh out loud romp along the river.

However the second half got so bogged down in dead conquistadors, ancient trees, ridiculous plot points and OTT effects that it became really boring really quickly. It was as if the usually dependable director Jaume Collet-Serra and the writers decided that human drama and fun had to end in case the audience got attention deficit disorder so we'd better chuck as much CGI shit at the screen and turn it into a sub par Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.

Hopefully a one off miss fire from Collet-Serra.

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

The old VHS front cover.

Exactly. Recommended tbh.