Last movie watched...

[Dandontdare]

Excalibur

I hadn't seen this in years.
It doesn't feel as epic as it did when I was 10 and it all looks a bit cheap.
There's still lots to like about it though. Merlin in particular is great.
I reckon this would really benefit from a remaster as the dvd version I watched was very spotty and the sound was all over the place.

I love that film. Nicol Williamson is indeed fabulous. Not to mention Helen Mirren and Cherie Lunghi! *sigh*

[Rately]

That intro to The Fog is definitely up there with the all-time great movie openings. So much atmosphere in that campfire ghost story, and sets you up perfectly for what the film is. I've always loved In The Mouth of Madness too, it has some of my favourite Carpenter moments. The scene where [spoiler]Sam Neill is looking through the torn page into the void while the book is being read is incredible, a fantastic example of letting the viewer's imagination do the the bulk of the work and one of the most atmospheric horror movie scenes out there[/spoiler].

I watched it with my wife a few months ago, she'd never seen it and it's always a bit hit and miss how well these things hold up, but it went down brilliantly and is one of her favourite Carpenter movies (and her very favourite Carpenter theme - I love the story behind that where he had temp scored it with Enter Sandman by Metallica and then couldn't use that so he basically wrote his own version of it. Once you know that it's pretty obvious that was the inspiration, definitely one of his most rocking themes!)

Ha! I didn't know that, Keef! I'll have to dig out my copy for a Friday night rewatch!

Always loved this movie, which, seems to be considered a lesser Carpenter offering by a lot of people.

Mans a genius. Just a shame he now seems to be completely retired.

[von Boom]

Rambo: Last Blood. Awful. Just awful.

[Hawkmumbler]

Rambo: Last Blood. Awful. Just awful.

Whats funny, is I remember initially enjoying it for a pulpy slice of exploitation nonsense.

But upon my second viewing, I was struck by what a hateful, nasty bit of film making it is.

[TordelBack]

 MIB International. It was okay, but unfortunately put all its hopes in no-show chemistry between C. Hemsworth and T. Thompson that clearly requires T. Waititi as a catalyst. Frustratingly drops plot threads all over the place too. Not a patch on the underrated MIB 3, but not awful either.

[von Boom]

Rambo: Last Blood. Awful. Just awful.

a hateful, nasty bit of film making it is.

An excellent summary.

[Apestrife]

Had another double of Carpenter last night. Christine and Ghosts of Mars. Christine became another nice surprise for me (As with The fog), how good it was. In no way did I find it scary, but it was very very entertaining. A slasher movie about a possessed, jealous and murderous car and a easily led geek who wants reveange on the world. Carpenter really pulled it off! As for Ghosts of Mars. I was hoping for a movie like Escape from LA. Loud, fun and often so cheesy it hurts. But sadly it didn't deliver. Mostly boring. Which was made worse by a fairly imaginiative set up of heavy metal ghosts attacking a colony on Mars. Damn shame.

This morning I've finally managed to watch American Graffiti. Another movie I was happy to be wrong about. Thought it'd be a comedy with some hot rod nostalgia at most, but it was so much more than just that. A true gem about friendship and how it can be to grow up. Couldn't help it but thinking about back when I was young, with adulthood just around the corner. Felt good

[Keef Monkey]

We watched the first Maze Runner a while back and quite enjoyed it as a bit of Hunger Games style YA entertainment, spotted the second film The Scorch Trials was on Netflix so gave it a watch. Really impressed! I found myself looking up the director afterwards to see if he's ever made a straight-up horror film, because there are some creepy scenes in this that I thought were handled really well. Turns out he hasn't, but he definitely knows his stuff. The action was decent too, and it's got some good additions to the cast. Surprised to be enjoying this franchise as much as I am but looking forward to seeing the third now.

Also watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man for the first time and it was pretty intense. Can see where the reputation comes from! More arthouse than I expected, I thought I'd be getting B movie splatter but it's more like if young David Lynch had a horror nightmare after watching a Cronenberg film. Mostly interesting to realize how much of what I was into in the early '90s was clearly influenced by it, Trent Reznor definitely saw it and had his life changed, because the influence of its visual language and the industrial soundtrack are all over his Broken/TDS era output. More disturbing than enjoyable, but one of those movies that's unlike anything else, which given it's 30 years old is pretty impressive.

[Hawkmumbler]

Also watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man for the first time and it was pretty intense. Can see where the reputation comes from! More arthouse than I expected, I thought I'd be getting B movie splatter but it's more like if young David Lynch had a horror nightmare after watching a Cronenberg film. Mostly interesting to realize how much of what I was into in the early '90s was clearly influenced by it, Trent Reznor definitely saw it and had his life changed, because the influence of its visual language and the industrial soundtrack are all over his Broken/TDS era output. More disturbing than enjoyable, but one of those movies that's unlike anything else, which given it's 30 years old is pretty impressive.

One of my all time favorites. Shinya Tsukamoto's entire catalog is worth a watch, especially Tetsuo II: Body Hammer and Tokyo Fist.

[TordelBack]

Disney Plus is proving a bit of a treasure trove: very enjoyable weekend double-bill of the the James Mason 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth.  The set design in both is simply spectacular, and the effects aren't that far behind - the extended Dimetrodon sequence in the latter film is the probably most successful use of the dubious stick-things-on-an-iguana-and-shout-'Action!' technique, but the endlessly inventive cavern designs really show up how unimaginative those ubiquitous cave sets in genre TV shows have been since.

I would have rated 20,000 Leagues as one of my favourite films as a kid, and I remembered every detail of whole sequences exactly - but conversely I also remembered major scenes which aren't in the movie at all!  Somehow I had conflated memories of episodes from the book, but quite explicitly starring Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre.  Prior to Sunday you could not have convinced me that Kirk Douglas didn't harpoon a giant dugong in the Red Sea, or that the climax of the film wasn't Douglas and Lorre rowing desperately against the pull of the maelstrom in the Nautilus' skiff.  I can even remember the specific model-work of the Nautilus going down the whirlpool!  What a bizarre thing the human brain is.

Great fun film though, my only real viewing problem was continually seeing Mason's Nemo as Stephen Toast ("Yes Professor Aronax, I can fucking hear you").

I enjoyed the various additions to Journey, a film I knew even less well.  The failure of the two supposedly brilliant academics to learn a single word of Icelandic in 9 months of being roped to inexplicably-loyal duck-hunter Hans is quite amusing, as is the wonderfully pervy obsession with the gorgeous Arlene Dahl's corset (a particularly wise addition to the expedition).  But I do wonder why they didn't include at least the giants (if not their technically-challenging mammoths) from the book - the subterranean world seemed quite barren without them, although having a rather fine baddie in David Theyer provides some alternative tension. Main issue: why bother transposing the framing scenes from Germany to to Scotland if you're going to utterly stuff up the accents and dialogue?

On to The Black Hole tonight!

[von Boom]

Disney Plus is proving a bit of a treasure trove: very enjoyable weekend double-bill of the the James Mason 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth.  The set design in both is simply spectacular, and the effects aren't that far behind - the extended Dimetrodon sequence in the latter film is the probably most successful use of the dubious stick-things-on-an-iguana-and-shout-'Action!' technique, but the endlessly inventive cavern designs really show up how unimaginative those ubiquitous cave sets in genre TV shows have been since.

I would have rated 20,000 Leagues as one of my favourite films as a kid, and I remembered every detail of whole sequences exactly - but conversely I also remembered major scenes which aren't in the movie at all!  Somehow I had conflated memories of episodes from the book, but quite explicitly starring Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre.  Prior to Sunday you could not have convinced me that Kirk Douglas didn't harpoon a giant dugong in the Red Sea, or that the climax of the film wasn't Douglas and Lorre rowing desperately against the pull of the maelstrom in the Nautilus' skiff.  I can even remember the specific model-work of the Nautilus going down the whirlpool!  What a bizarre thing the human brain is.

Great fun film though, my only real viewing problem was continually seeing Mason's Nemo as Stephen Toast ("Yes Professor Aronax, I can fucking hear you").

I enjoyed the various additions to Journey, a film I knew even less well.  The failure of the two supposedly brilliant academics to learn a single word of Icelandic in 9 months of being roped to inexplicably-loyal duck-hunter Hans is quite amusing, as is the wonderfully pervy obsession with the gorgeous Arlene Dahl's corset (a particularly wise addition to the expedition).  But I do wonder why they didn't include at least the giants (if not their technically-challenging mammoths) from the book - the subterranean world seemed quite barren without them, although having a rather fine baddie in David Theyer provides some alternative tension. Main issue: why bother transposing the framing scenes from Germany to to Scotland if you're going to utterly stuff up the accents and dialogue?

On to The Black Hole tonight!

You see, it's reviews like this that weaken my resolve against subscribing to Disney+. Thankfully, I have both 20,000 Leagues and The Black Hole on disc.

[Colin YNWA]

So the girl child has been reading Veronica Roth's Divergent series of books (well I'm reading them too her, which is cool) as a what to read after you read Hunger Games type thing and we're watching the films after each book. Divergent was okay, not to bad BUT by heck is Insurgent the very definition of why movies of book aren't a particularly good idea... well not if you love the book(s).

The books are fine for teen fiction, not quite as interesting as Hunger Games and very meladramatic as all good teen fiction should be. There's some pretty big themes, some nicely drawn characters, with decently realised things to learn and the story keeps driving and keeping things interesting... the film... well...

... we know that films will alway make compromise on the book to fit the medium and 'space' available and the trick is how you do that and don't lose sight of the themes and ideas of the book. Or do and be bold enough to take the idea into a complete new direction. Insurgent fails utterly in all options. They do change elements of the story but every alternation seems to similify  things enough to just about to keep things going along the line of the story but remove all real exploration of the books ideas. We get a mcguffin that purpose seems to be to hold and trap all the interesting ideas and character arcs in the book and never let them escape. BUT when the thing happens to the thingie cos of some thing (by the end I was surfing as my daughter watched and only half watching - but even not paying too much attention it was driving me nuts - and the girl child was pulling it apart by the end.)  still allowed the whole thing to wrap up in a way that wasn't as good, while being exactly the same.

Oh even typing about it feels like a waste of time.

Rubbish.

[Colin YNWA]

Oh and there another one of these bloody thing to go and even thought the girl child didn't like this one - she still wants to see it... which is very disappoiinting cos she'll make me watch it with her!

[repoman]

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge - very violent anime that retells the original Mortal Kombat story.  I hate anime generally and animated films for the most part but I've got a soft spot for MK's story and so I enjoyed this.

Time Trap - likable time mangling sci-fi thing currently doing well on Netflix.  Way better than I expected.

Zoo - felt like an episode of Black Mirror but was a rom-com zombie thing.  Very dark humour.  Enjoyable enough but clearly had a budget of 10p so don't expect any good zombie moments.  Similar to some French zombie thing I watched recently (The Night Eats The World or something like that).

Alien - still one of the best films ever made.  How is it that 40 years ago they could make an amazing Alien film and now with all our tech they can't even make a good one?

Saw 6 - I've been watching all of them and 6 is definitely the best after the original for me.

The Death and Resurrection Show - a documentary about the band Killing Joke.  Should be brilliant.  Just show their music and tell their story.  Unfortunately it descends into a load of bollocks about magic and everyone in it comes across as pretentious.

Eat Brains Love - likable zombie rom-com.

Automation - dreadful sci-fi film about a robot going mad in an office.  Toilet.

[Hawkmumbler]

If you where looking for something to wash the taste of LAST BLOOD out of your mouth, Jackie Chan vs. The IRA might tickle your fancy, THE FOREIGNER on Netflix right now.

Does for Chan's POLICE STORY what GRAN TORINO was for DIRTY HARRY.