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Re: movies

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:50 pm
by Soze
I loved The Shape of Water and was delighted to see a fantasy film win best picture at the Oscars, even if I did think 3 Billboards was ultimately more deserving. There seems to have been a bit of a backlash against Shape because of this, so many people wanted Billboards to win that they've started lashing out at the Del Toro flick as not worthy. They're both great films, I'm happy either way. Lady Bird was my other favourite from the nominations.

Re: movies

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:19 pm
by gavdann
houston4044 wrote:Spent most of the film trying to remember where else I had seen the actors/actress' though.

My missus and I do that all the time! We're definitely getting old as I remember my parents doing it when I was a kid and it annoying the hell out of me. :dibbley:

Re: movies

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:43 pm
by Ghost
Watching class of 1984. It's as good as when I first saw it thirty years ago. Might watch class of 1999 again soon too.

Re: movies

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 7:53 am
by Haldamir319
Deadpool 2 and Solo reviews are dropping now - both getting general positive scores (mostly 4/5s from credible sources).

Seeing Deadpool 2 tonight, so will be able to report back.

Re: movies

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 8:51 am
by Haldamir319
Deadpool 2 is ace! If you enjoyed the first one, you'll like this. I actually think this one flows better (probably better overall too).

Re: movies

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 8:57 pm
by Ghost
Watching Terrifer. What a great horror character that clown is. I hope they make a franchise out of him. About time we had a new horror character franchise.

Re: movies

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 8:23 am
by gavdann
Agree that Deadpool 2 is ace. Just as good as the first one IMO.

It's odd about Solo. Reviews have generally been great and Rogue One was awesome but I've just had no urge to watch this one.

Re: movies

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:33 pm
by Ghost
So the new Halloween is also called Halloween and it's a direct sequel to the original Halloween. Confusing :lol:

Re: movies

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 12:47 pm
by Metalgal
Went to see Heritdary yesterday, such as weird film! You have to really analyse to get it, sleeping in the loft last night after it, meant I left the lights on :lol: :/

Re: movies

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:31 pm
by Darkweasel
Let's see if I can keep this up for the whole month.
One horror/horror related film each day for October.

DAY 1.

THE NIGHT STALKER
(1972)

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As I was already showing signs of interest in horror based movies and TV shows around the age of ten, my mother reacted by (briefly) trying to stop me from watching anything and everything of that nature. And so, because of this annoying reactionary stance, Kolchak - The Night Stalker was one of the films/TV series I never got to see. I remember adverts for it on television making it look tremendously scary (shut up, I was ten), so obviously the answer was a resounding and sulk-inducing “no!”. What made this decision so utterly intolerable was the fact that when the time came for it to be shown, I was put very firmly to bed but could hear both of my parents watching it themselves.

Starring Darren McGavin as intrepid investigative journalist/photographer Carl Kolchak, the movie which spawned a short-lived TV series (more on that soon) is about a vampire stalking his victims under the bright neon lights of Las Vegas. A fairly silly prospect anyway, but the daft story is handled very well under all its obvious constraints. McGavin is excellent as the overenthusiastic reporter, and his terminally stressed boss, Tony Vincenzo, is played to great comic effect by Simon Oakland (Psycho, West Side Story).

With McGavin narrating the story at every turn, the film doesn't have to work very hard at presenting its plot or its intentions. The daytime shots – regardless of what they are - are all pretty much standard 1970s cop procedural stuff, but the night scenes are occasionally quite creepy and atmospheric. The bickering and arguing between Kolchak, his boss, the chief of police, his girlfriend, and well, everybody else in the whole film, can get a little grating, but as the whole thing only lasts for seventy-five minutes then it's all fairly forgivable. Being a TV film, there's virtually no blood or gore, but there are some nice shots of ladies dancing in seedy little nightclubs, wearing very little in the way of clothing.
7/10

Re: movies

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:06 pm
by Ghost
You can do it! Keep going.

I randomly remembered I film I saw when I was a kid today. 10 to midnight with Charles Bronson. I'll have to check it out. I forgot all about it until something on youtube reminded me of it. The fact the killer was naked probably meant my mind had to forget it ha ha.

P.S. When I saw you had posted I thought you'd seen Venom and was posting a review now the embargo has been lifted. :lol:

Re: movies

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:30 am
by Darkweasel
10 To Midnight is great. One of Bronson's better films he did during the latter part of his career. Also check out The Evil that Men Do.



DAY 2

THE NIGHT STRANGLER
(1973)

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With The Night Stalker becoming a surprise hit, ABC immediately launched into writing a sequel. Changing the writer, but not wanting to change anything else that would lose them viewers, the producers basically retold the exact same story, but in a different city and with a slightly different villain. The bad guy this time is a man who awakens every twenty-one years to concoct an elixir from the blood of some really bad actresses, enabling him to live forever.

Relocating to Seattle, Kolchak is given a new girlfriend to shout at while his former editor, Tony Vincenzo, conveniently turns up in the Emerald City to cause more shouty comical friction. This time, however, and largely due to the film's extended running time, the arguments between Kolchak and everybody with a speaking part just seem to go on forever.

Another run-in with another Police Chief, another argument with his sassy girlfriend, and just like the first film - another cover-up. Flopping along like a disabled frog, the film struggles to do anything of any consequence right until the final act when Kolchak comes up against his seemingly immortal nemesis (played by Richard Anderson – soon to be better known as Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man).

Crackling and fizzing in a way than almost none of the previous seventy-five managed, those last fifteen minutes are very well executed, and with special appearances by Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster from The Munsters), Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz), and John Carradine (The Howling, an absolute shitload of stuff from the '60s and '70s) those fun moments make the otherwise disappointing Richard (I Am Legend, The Twilight Zone) Matheson penned sequel just about worthwhile.
5/10

Re: movies

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:54 pm
by Darkweasel
DAY 3

Not a film today, but an entire horror TV series.
So, carrying on from the two Kolchak TV films, I give you...

KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER - THE SERIES

Due to the success of the first film and the relative success of its follow-up, it didn't take ABC long to commission a full series. A decision which worked at first, but due to constant clashes between star, Darren McGavin and his producers – plus a lawsuit from the show's creator - ultimately caused the whole thing to implode and leave the air after just twenty episodes.

Acting as a “monster of the week” format, first story The Ripper plays exactly like a third, much shorter, pilot movie but seems to go on forever until the more enjoyable last fifteen minutes. However, watching second episode The Zombie is like watching another show entirely. All of a sudden, there are jokes and one-liners being thrown around, and the actual story (a zombie being used by a voodoo priestess to kill off members of a mob syndicate) takes almost a complete back seat to the show's new found comical side.

X-Files creator, Chris Carter, has always cited Kolchak as a huge influence, and with They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be..., a story about aliens and government conspiracies, it's easy to see why. Also, the story about an invisible killer alien which can only be tracked by its heat signature because it uses a different spectrum of light, isn't exactly a million miles away from Predator.

With William Daniels (the voice of KITT from Knight Rider) playing the latest in a revolving door of authority figures written purely to butt heads with Kolchak, The Vampire is a dark, but pretty sluggish episode about a sexy female bloodsucker who could possibly be linked to the original movie. But we never really find out. Set on a cruise ship, The Werewolf could be the horror prequel to The Love Boat as Kolchak comes up against even more authority figures (the ship's captain and crew this time), and a man in a grey suit and a furry rubber mask. Wittily scripted and fast paced, this one is definitely one of the show's better entries. Another episode to influence at least two separate X-Files episodes, Firefall is about the ghost of a gangster trying to take over the body of a famous orchestra conductor, while Kolchak's fear of going to sleep in case a supernatural force kills him is more than reminiscent of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

With each passing episode yet another influence rears its head, and this time we have The Devil's Platform, a neat little story about a politician (Tom Skerritt from Alien) and his meteoric rise to power. As his enemies are killed in mysterious "accidents" while he remains safely guarded by a demonic rottweiler, this episode has The Omen, and Omen III: The Final Conflict written all over it. 'Bad Medicine' stars Richard Kiel (Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker) as a native American ghost coyote, and is a painfully dull episode which trots out every single one of the show's usual chestnuts simply to fill out time. Sounding more like an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The Spanish Moss Murders is a story about a creature (played by Richard Kiel again) created by dream deprivation, and could possibly have helped inspire Wes Craven to write both A Nightmare on Elm Street and Swamp Thing. A reasonable episode lifted by appearances from Elisabeth Brooks (The Howling), and Keenan Wynn (Piranha, Herbie Rides Again).

Off-screen arguments between McGavin and his producers leak painfully into show as the next few episodes fall into tedious formula territory. From the beginning, the formula has always been there, but with these stories, all the good ideas seem to have dried up. The best of these is probably Mr R.I.N.G., a reasonable attempt at an AI robot story, but the only memorable things about raging ape episode Primal Scream are the appearances from Jamie Farr (Klinger from MASH), the guy from The Godfather who wakes up next to a horse's head, and some quite terrible monkey-man make up. The Energy Eater is mostly terrible, and not even Phil Silvers (Sgt. Bilko) can save Horror in the Heights from the fast forward button.

The quality improves a little with the mostly good, but occasionally supremely stupid The Trevi Collection, an episode about witches in the fashion industry. Featuring a writing team of a young Robert Zemeckis (director of the Back to the Future trilogy) and Bob Gale (writer of the Back to the Future trilogy), Chopper is a story about a headless biker who cuts the heads off his old motorcycle club members. What might have been a scary hour of TV for the 1970s doesn't really have the same effect these days, especially when the headless avenger is clearly a stunt biker covered in an oversized leather jacket, his body at least twice the size it should be. Still, one of the funniest scripts in the whole series, and an amusing turn from Art Metrano (the hapless Lt. Mauser from Police Academy 2 & 3) lifts this one above many of the others.

Demon in Lace is a fairly humdrum affair about a succubus inhabiting the body of recently dead teenage girls. A decent episode, but for some reason, Kolchak adopts a very old fashioned attitude to women and feels totally out of character. There's an early appearance from Andrew Prine (V, Grizzly, The Lords of Salem), and a welcome return for authority figure of the week, Keenan Wynn (now with his more familiar, and hugely impressive moustache). Stand-up comedian Jackie Vernon stumbles horifically over his lines, but there's a fun appearance from a virtually unrecognisable Carolyn Jones (Morticia from The Addams Family) to help get over that.

Legacy of Terror is about Aztec sacrifice, stars Erik Estrada (Ponch from CHIPS), and Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard) sporting a ridiculously posh English accent, and features a truly terrible ending which involves Kolchak falling very slowly down a flight of steps and rubbing his knee. Going full Scooby-Doo, the pun-tastic The Knightly Murders is about a haunted suit of armour, and for the second episode in a row, Kolchak escapes by falling slowly down a flight of stairs. The Youth Killer is an enjoyable story about a woman who runs a matchmaking agency, remaining young by sacrificing her clients to Greek gods, but series finale The Sentry is apocalyptically awful in every way imaginable. Featuring Tom Bosley (Mr Cunningham from Happy Days), the monster of the week is a man in a really poor, almost panto-like rubber crocodile suit. Remember Croc from Rod Hull kids show Emu's World? Like that, but less realistic. Too rubbish to be even camp or kitsch, just a terrible and painfully unworthy way for the show to go out.

Watching TV from the '70s now compared to the way modern programmes are presented is actually quite confusing. These days, even the most episodic of shows feature at least some type of character development or continuing story threads, but there's nothing like that at all in Kolchak. Every episode is essentially the same story with a slightly different spin. Bypassing every opportunity to refer back to a previous story, even for just a brief one-liner, the same thing happens in the same way - to varying degrees of competence - each week, and with the exception of the last three or four episodes where Kolchak speaks his regular closing monologue into the camera, breaking the fourth wall (something which really doesn't feel right), the show is basically identical from the first episode to the last. A good show, but thankfully The X-Files eventually came along and did it properly.

Re: movies

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 11:22 am
by Darkweasel
Day 4

MANDY
(2018)

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“Do you like The Carpenters?”

This, by far and away is the single most terrifying question posed in trippy horror nightmare 'Mandy'. The film actually raises many, many other questions but this is the one that stands above all others.
The first hour of Mandy will either have you admiring the director's artistic flair and unique sense of style or will have you reaching for the remote control to see what time the football starts. Patience is necessary during the first half of the film. Lots of patience. The story is simple. It's 1983 for some reason and Nicolas Cage lives with his wife, the titular Mandy - the love of his life - in a nice big cabin in the woods. They spend their time gazing at the sky while doused in slowly pulsing flashes of bright blue, green, and pink light filters and generally loving each other in a slow moving hippy trippy way.

A satanic cult rolls into the area and their mad-as-a-badger leader, Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache, son of Coronation Street's Ken Barlow himself, William Roache) takes a shine to the lovely-ish Mandy (Andrea Riseborough from Waco, Birdman, and The Death of Stalin). Taking Mandy prisoner while keeping hubby Nicolas Cage strung up with barbed wire, Sand tries using mind-altering drugs to make her compliant before trying to seduce her with his sexual wiles*. Laughing at his less than impressive old fella doesn't sit well with Sand and he kills her in a sleeping bag.
Now, bearing in mind it's taken a whole hour to get this far – lovey couple get attacked by satanists – there's only one thing left for the film to do.

UNLEASH THE MIGHTY CAGE.

From the moment Nicolas Cage frees himself from his barbed wire prison, showering his wounds in whisky and screaming like only Nicolas Cage can do, the film is relentless. From slow moving hippy arthouse to complete mayhem, this film goes 0-Cage in 60 minutes and simply doesn't stop. Collecting a sexy looking crossbow from Bill (Predator) Duke, and forging a sexy axe, Cage hunts down the demonic creatures responsible for his wife's death, despatching them as brutally and violently as possible.

Two words: chainsaw fight.

Fuck yeah.

Forget plot. There is none. Just revel in the madness of Nicolas Cage as he shrieks, screams, roars, gibbers and howls at the screen for an hour. You know that Youtube montage video “Nicolas Cage Losing His shit”? They're going to have to re-edit it. The moment he turns his blood-soaked face to the camera and grins like an idiot, I guarantee - whether you're laughing with him or laughing at him; whether you're laughing at how brilliant that moment is or how utterly fucking stupid it is - you will laugh.

Don't expect it to make any sense. It doesn't. It's like Nicolas Winding Refn and Rob Zombie made John Wick Goes To Hell** while taking downers and LSD until the coke kicked in. It's all about art design and appearance. And yes, that 100% means style over substance, but when Nicolas Cage gets his mental on, who really gives a fuck? The scene where Roache stares unblinkingly, almost hypnotically, into the camera for over two minutes, his face merging with Riseborough's is fantastic. In fact, it's eyes that dominate the entire film. No matter who is on the screen, you are always, and sometimes quite cleverly, drawn towards their eyes. Apart from Cage. He's just fucking bonkers all over.

Director Panos Cosmatos (son of George P Cosmatos – director of Stallone action classics Rambo: First Blood Part 2, and Cobra), while clearly out of his fragile little mind, also shows a level of creativity that promises much for the future with arguably the Marmite release of the year.
8.5/10

*He flashes his willy at her.
**Not an actual film, but wouldn't that be fucking great?

Re: movies

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:46 pm
by Ghost
Mandy is getting so many popular reviews but I fear it maybe a bit art house for me.