What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY – There’s a title that could only hail from the back of a VHS rental place in 1987. Elizabeth Kaitan and Cindy Beal are on the run from a galactic prison. Their stolen space craft crash-lands on a planet where Don Scribner, who’s obviously a fan of “the most dangerous game”, lulls visitors into playing the quarry in his fatal manhunts. It’s all as throwaway as you imagine, but the script is nicely sardonic, there’s an attempt at a steamy, jungle flavoured sci-fi gothic atmosphere, there are mutants, robots and, briefly, zombies. Likeable, all the more so for being quite short.

Purely in terms of its title and tone, this is similar to David DeCoteau's craptacular Beach Babes From Beyond and its sequel, Beach Babes 2: Cave Girl Island.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Purely in terms of its title and tone, this is similar to David DeCoteau's craptacular Beach Babes From Beyond and its sequel, Beach Babes 2: Cave Girl Island.

Slave Girls has a lot more going for it in terms of sets and effects and it's creation of an alien world. The other two are just goofing around on a beach whereas Slave Girls at least tries to be inventive even if , as Frankie says, it's essentially a rip off of The Most Dangerous Game.

[MrBarlow]

Man On Fire. 1987.

Most people think Man on Fire is the Denzel Film, this is the original 80s film with Scott Glenn as Creasey, ex soldier now a body guard to 12 year old Sam in Italy. Same scenario, he isn't keen on being a baby sitter but forms a bond and then she is taken. Glenn does actually do a decent part as the washed up soldier and still battling his demons teaming up with old pal Joe Pesci who provides some bits of arsenal. The action pack sequences are good, the revenge part can be brutal and yet satisfying. If you ever come across this version I'd say go for it, it's not high octane as the 2004 version but it's entertaining.

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[MrBarlow]

Mother's Boys. 1993.

Jamie Lee Curtis plays a mother who abandons her family for 3 years only to come back, her hubby Peter Gallagher has moved on with a new lass and Jamie doesn't take things too well with that.

A deep dark psychological film that shows that Curtis can play a maniacal canaiving women who would do anything to get her family back together again and even play mind games with her own children. As much this was a decent thriller, it does try to add in a few shock moments that doesn't even work and should have kept it as a tense thriller rather and a shock horror movie that it wasn't intended to be. This isn't a original idea and has been done a few times but the start cast including Vanessa Redgrave does have a decent part.

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[nicholasrope]

Strays

Crude Comedy in which a Dog, voiced by Will Ferrell is dumped by his owner therefore, teams up with other strays, voiced by Jamie Foxx and Isla Fisher go back in order to get revenge. It's one of those Films that if you like the look of the Trailer, then you'd probably like the Film, if you didn't like the Trailer, then you'd probably wouldn't like this one.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Chris Pine leads a group of ragtag bunch of people in order to get revenge on Hugh Grant, who betrayed them. Don't pay attention to the fact that this Film flopped, I found it to be an entertaining as well as funny Film that is well worth a watch.

Blackball

Paul Kaye is a Bowls player who is doesn't conform to the usual standards therefore becomes great rivals with James Cromwell. Vince Vaughn and Johnny Vegas co-star in a rather entertaining Film which does take the mickey out of Bowls and it's players especially with storylines of Primetime Games, huge bidding wars...etc.

Oh yeah, this one is 20 years old.

Bruce Almighty

Jim Carrey is annoyed with how things are going therefore keeps on blaming God who's played by Morgan Freeman. Annoyed by this, God, takes a holiday and gives all his powers to Bruce, who at first uses it for himself but comes to realize that it isn't as easy as it looks. Jennifer Aniston plays his Girlfriend and Steve Carrell co-stars as well. This is certainly funny in places but it does get a little boring in places.

Arena (2012)

A man is kidnapped and forced to Fight by Samuel L. Jackson in a Virtual Reality Arena. This one is violent and quite decent for it's genre especially with the different settings the Fighters are in. Jackson is quite funny in his role, Kellen Lutz and James Remar co-star and for the viewers of The Boys, the Actress who plays Little Nina is also in this and we see her in all her glory

All The Creatures Were Stirring

An Anthology of shorts which blend into the setting of a weird Play watched by a couple on a date on Christmas Eve (New purchase therefore testing it out) All stories are Christmas Themed but only the 1st twos I enjoyed, the others were ok. Constance Wu is in one of the stories.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Slave Girls has a lot more going for it in terms of sets and effects and it's creation of an alien world. The other two are just goofing around on a beach whereas Slave Girls at least tries to be inventive even if , as Frankie says, it's essentially a rip off of The Most Dangerous Game.

Although it's been a long time since I saw it, I know it's a much better film than those David DeCoteau ones.

I was just looking at my DVD of Slave Girls in the 88 Films Grindhouse Collection and remember thinking it had a similar vibe to a couple of other releases in that collection.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Memento (2000)

'Don't believe his lies' - That's the phrase Leonard writes on the Polaroid of Jimmy as played by Joe Pantoliano.

Now here's the issue with the ending of Christopher Nolan's complex and often bewildering neo-noir thriller. Jimmy explains exactly what has happened to Leonard (Guy Pearce) yet we've been programmed throughout this film not to trust Jimmy...I mean it's Joe Pantoliano...he's never the sort of guy you'd trust anyway, yet here we are expected to believe his summary of events of the last 100 minutes of our lives, never mind Leonard's.

I'd normally begin with a bit of a plot breakdown but Memento is too f*cked to sum up in a couple of sentences other than saying it's a film about a guy who suffers from short term memory loss and an inability to form new memories who suspects he's at the center of a murder investigation thanks to notes on Polaroids and tattoo's covering his body. Nolan then in the most convoluted way imaginable screws with our heads as events in colour run backwards and those in black and white play out chronologically.

I'm tempted to watch this in chronological order (It's an Easter egg on the Blu-ray) but also don't think there's actually enough story for it to play out as a normal movie. Most of the intrigue comes from trying to work out where Leonard has been not where it's taking us. At one point Leonard asks his wife (Jorja Fox) why she's re-reading a book again for the umpteenth time which annoys her, he says the point of a book is you don't know what comes next until you turn the page and that analogy sums up Memento beautifully as i'm sure Nolan meant it to.

I should add that unless you specifically want the steel book and ephemera from the 101 Films forthcoming Blu-ray then you should be perfectly happy with the current Blu-ray as it's loaded with extras including the chronological version with excellent image quality and a very good DTS surround sound mix.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Se7en (1995)

Speaking of great surround sound. The 7:1 surround track on David Fincher's classic neo-noir horror is something to behold. In particular it's ambient sounds. For example there's a sequence that takes place in an office in the police station and you hear a woman's shoes as she passes the door even though you never see her, then a minute or so later she passes in the opposite direction. It's the fine detail in both sound and image that has impressed me so much with Blu-ray.

I recall seeing it at the cinema and being wowed from the sinister, in fact downright unnerving, opening credits scored by Nine Inch Nails to the earth shattering climax and everything in between. Although truth be told i don't think the film really clicks into gear until Detective Mills ( a career best Brad Pitt for me) inadvertently invites at odds partner Somerset (Morgan Freeman) round for tea thanks to wife, Gwyneth Paltrow. The scenes of getting to know you are every bit as vital to the film hitting home with it's final gut punch as any of John Doe (Kevin Spacey's) ingenious ways of inflicting death and torture via the seven deadly sins.

Still as remarkable now as it was in 1995. If you haven't watched it for a while go and give yourself a treat. Films like this don't come around that often.

Of the film's many extras i particularly enjoyed the exploration of the opening title sequence with three differing angles and four different audio tracks comprising a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround, a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX near field mix, a DTS-ES 6.1 mix and an LPCM 24bit/96kHz stereo mix - all of which made full use of surround sound and Trent Reznor's chilling variations on his song Closer.

[iank]

The Spinning Man. Guy Pearce is a married father and college professor who comes under suspicion when a local high school cheerleader disappears. Pierce Brosnan and Minnier Driver co-star in this late 2010s mystery thriller that is entertaining enough for most of its run, only to - rather ironically - fall off a cliff with such an underwhelming denouement that you wonder what the hell the point of it all was.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Memento (2000)

Originally Posted by iank

The Spinning Man.

With these two as well as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, L.A. Confidential, Ravenous, The Rover, Brimstone...Guy Pearce has come a long way since 'Mike from Neighbours'.