What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[MrBarlow]

I Am Wrath. 2016.

Stanley Hill watches his wife die at the hands of a group of muggers, he is able to identify one of them. When the system lets the guy go, Stanley goes after those responsible and uncovers corruption.

John Travolta stars as the lead Stanley who seems like he is out of sorts for the vengeance type but manages to be convincing as a vigilante Paul Kersey persona decently. Chris Meloni plays the barber and ex comrade to Hill and always gives him three minutes. During the opening credits of violent shootouts, it shows what we could expect from the film and basically we are thrown into it, this had a good plot and directed well by Chuck Russell. Worth a watch.

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[MrBarlow]

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. 1983.

On a distant planet, two bounty hunters hunt down three females from a evil mutant warlord.

Peter Strauss makes a decent hunter who is in debt with a few things and able to get a job that would pay off everything, go to a planet been ravaged by a plague years before and rescue three Earth women. He teams up with Molly Ringwald who's whining can give anyone a headache. Ernie Hudson tags along for the bounty and tries to cut in with some deals to get out of the planet. Michael Ironside becomes unrecognizable with the make-up used for the evil warlord. This is a 80s cheese fest movie, ok some bits may be outdated yet it was still enjoyable to watch.

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nightmare at Noon (1988)

Island of Death director Nico Mastorakis clearly had a blast with this film. The script writing stage must have been a hoot for this sci-fi, horror, western, action movie. It really is everything you could wish for in a B-movie, Christ there's even a helicopter dogfight in Monument Valley.

Mastorakis got himself a fine 80's cast of the excellent Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy, Wings Hauser and Brion James for this tale about strange science types who poison a small desert town's water supply turning the residents into raving lunatics. Going into the stories finer details would spoil it for those who have never seen the film before. It's wonderful watching each plot development, even more jaw dropping than the last.

It's not entirely perfect, there seems to be some poor editing early doors, characters unexplained movements and so forth, however whilst being a niggle at the time they are soon forgotten about in this seriously fun escapade.

The budget dvd from Hollywood Entertainment has a very nice 16:9 widescreen picture with good sound quality. Could have sworn Arrow released this on Blu but can find no evidence of it.

Highly recommended.

[MrBarlow]

Ticks. 1993.

A group of problematic teens go on a trip to a camp led by social workers in attempt to adjust their behavior, end up battling it out with a infestation of mutated ticks.

No one will get a award for their outstanding acting in this even Alfonso Ribeiro or Seth Green but it is fun to watch them take on mutated Ticks that have eaten Marijuana that have a steroid in them. With Brian Yuzna in a executive producer role, does make you wonder if he had his hands on approach with the effects and how gory it should be with director Tony Randel who is no stranger to horror. This was entertaining.

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[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Nightmare at Noon (1988)

Island of Death director Nico Mastorakis clearly had a blast with this film. The script writing stage must have been a hoot for this sci-fi, horror, western, action movie. It really is everything you could wish for in a B-movie, Christ there's even a helicopter dogfight in Monument Valley.

Mastorakis got himself a fine 80's cast of the excellent Bo Hopkins, George Kennedy, Wings Hauser and Brion James for this tale about strange science types who poison a small desert town's water supply turning the residents into raving lunatics. Going into the stories finer details would spoil it for those who have never seen the film before. It's wonderful watching each plot development, even more jaw dropping than the last.

It's not entirely perfect, there seems to be some poor editing early doors, characters unexplained movements and so forth, however whilst being a niggle at the time they are soon forgotten about in this seriously fun escapade.

The budget dvd from Hollywood Entertainment has a very nice 16:9 widescreen picture with good sound quality. Could have sworn Arrow released this on Blu but can find no evidence of it.

Highly recommended.

I too was rather taken with this one during my Mastorakis binge. I've returned to it many a time, and it's about due methinks ....

[MrBarlow]

The Fast And The Furious. 2001.

After a series of electronic truck robberies, Dominic Toretto falls under suspicion. Brian O'Connor goes undercover to infiltrate Toretto's street racing crew but loyalty is tested.

The one that started the franchise with, high octane adrenaline rush with suped up flashy cars and the nights of Los Angeles, although it has the fast cars, it does have that trust to suspect relationship between the two main leads. We know what both are and what their goal is, but intrigued to see how it plays out to the end. One I haven't watched for a while but keep me entertained.

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[MrBarlow]

2 Fast 2 Furious. 2003.

Brian now living in Miami, is given a job by the U.S. Customs to take drown a drug cartel and redeem himself. Brian gets help from a childhood friend Roman who also wants to redeem himself.

Paul Walker returns as Brian who now does street racing that's run by Tej played by Ludacris on the streets of Miami with Suki played by Devon Aoki. Thom Barry returns as the F.B.I investigator with James Remar, their point of interest is Carter Verone who is doing drug smuggling. After Brian is let down by a Federal Agent, he turns to Roman played by Tyrese Gibson to be another driver. Eva Mendes plays Monica who has been placed in by Carter and working undercover to help get the bust.

This has some racing at the start with the fast cars and Tej running races with Jet Skis, but does have more cars involved with the last 20 minutes or so. John Singleton takes the directors chair for this and does a decent job with good background music, not as good as the first film but still enjoyable.

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[Demoncrat]

The Black Phone (2021, Scott Derrickson)

70s set thriller about child abduction. If I stand back and think about it, it falls apart, but it was effective enough at the time. Ahem.
Films based on short stories can go one way or the other ... just look at Eyes Wide Shut
Since I haven't had the pleasure of reading it though, I will not comment on this film's recreation of that. You can see it though on the page, it's hard without spoilers, so jump right in. It doesn't flinch from certain aspects of that period certainly. It's just that after a decent set up, it becomes slightly jumbled, or I wasn't paying enough attention
Enjoyed it more than X for all that.

[gag]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

The Black Phone (2021, Scott Derrickson)

70s set thriller about child abduction. If I stand back and think about it, it falls apart, but it was effective enough at the time. Ahem.
Films based on short stories can go one way or the other ... just look at Eyes Wide Shut
Since I haven't had the pleasure of reading it though, I will not comment on this film's recreation of that. You can see it though on the page, it's hard without spoilers, so jump right in. It doesn't flinch from certain aspects of that period certainly. It's just that after a decent set up, it becomes slightly jumbled, or I wasn't paying enough attention
Enjoyed it more than X for all that.

Slight spoilers,


I enjoyed it, lot better than a lot of stuff on offer these days,
And was slightly different as well,
Felt it was more about the dead helping out and getting justice, lots of ppl didn't pay attention saying why did one ghost say this that etc, or make him do that, certain ideas felt like they was pointless and useless, but in the end if was like a huge jigsaw puzzle once seen the bigger picture become clear every little bit fitted into place and help him escape

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

The Black Phone (2021, Scott Derrickson)

70s set thriller about child abduction. If I stand back and think about it, it falls apart, but it was effective enough at the time. Ahem.
Films based on short stories can go one way or the other ... just look at Eyes Wide Shut
Since I haven't had the pleasure of reading it though, I will not comment on this film's recreation of that. You can see it though on the page, it's hard without spoilers, so jump right in. It doesn't flinch from certain aspects of that period certainly. It's just that after a decent set up, it becomes slightly jumbled, or I wasn't paying enough attention
Enjoyed it more than X for all that.

HEY!
Eyes Wide Shut is a legitimate masterpiece you take that back lol

I should be watching this one tonight.