Last movie watched...

[qtwerk]

As for dwarfs in jobs, I watched The Train Agent about a really pissed off dwarf who lives in a train depot. quite nice for a film where nothing out the ordinary is happening but chasing trains and overcoming the crowd as an individual. Trains and dwarfs man! What's not to like?

Best film with the under statured ever is Time Bandits.

Not really a huge genre is it? i mean, you could point to memorable dwarf roles in films (Nik-Nak! The racist coke-head from In Bruges! Mini-Me! Tyrion! Ewoks! Willow!) but there aren't many starring roles for dwarves in which their dwarfism isn't the reason they were cast.

The Time Bandits would work as a film even if they weren't dwarves. Although them being dwarves does make it funnier, I'll admit that.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

*stage whisper*: "nowhere"

Yes. Thanks. It's probably nowhere.

[JamesC]

Someone should make Time-Bandits vs BMX Bandits.
Then we'd see who was better out of dwarves or kids on bikes.

[qtwerk]

Someone should make Time-Bandits vs BMX Bandits.
Then we'd see who was better out of dwarves or kids on bikes.

Never seen BMX Bandits. I think it was released at the point where I was old enough to realise going to the cinema was not enough of a treat to not actually care what film was showing

[Professor Bear]

Pure coincidence, but the last film I watched was yesterday's Lord of the Elves, in which the main characters were dwarfes/pygmies/midgets - I'm afraid I don't know the correct term - on a Willow/Caravan of Courage-type quest along with Christopher "I'll watch him in anything" Judge and Bai "drawing a complete blank here but I recognise that name from somewhere" Ling.  Oddly for an Asylum film, it aims to be a sort of Tarzan romp of the Johnny Weismuller school rather than super-schlocky and nasty as is their usual milieu, and they even go so far as to clumsily chop out some of the gore that looks to be getting too nasty for younger watchers in an effort to keep the age rating down.
Not the best-made thing you'll ever see, but the ambition to go so deliberately retro in a marketplace with a glut of similar films stuffed with sex and gore is commendable, and I reckon one of these days the Asylum will make a really good film rather than just mockbusters or SyFy Channel shovelware.

[I, Cosh]

I was always mildly aggrieved that Bandidas never made it to the big screen over here. What kind of idiot doesn't want to see a light hearted Western from the Luc Besson production line starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek as a pair of mismatched but equally feisty young women out to revenge the murders of their fathers and strike a blow for the Mexican people against Yankee financial imperialism? Probably the same kind of idiot who would complain about the anachronistic forensic methods used by the New York detective who ends up in their corner, that's who.

Anyway, many billowy peasant dresses are worn; banks are robbed; there's a cathouse and a catfight; mutual respect is earned and Sam Shepherd's training regime for our heroines involves doing press-ups in a nearby stream!  While it's silly, it's not really silly enough to be that memorable but the two leads are genial screen presences which helps make it an enjoyable watch.

...The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser...

I'm guessing this isn't the Herzog version!  Sounds intriguing, been fascinated with the character since Suzanne Vega sent me on a difficult pre-google search many years ago, but this had completely passed me by.  Is it available on that video-thing yet?

I'm an idiot. It's actually called The Legend of Kaspar Hauser.

[JamesC]

Paranormal Activity 4

I almost shat my pants!

[Hawkmumbler]

Paranormal Activity 4

I almost shat my pants!

Because of how piss poor it is surely? It was dire on every level.

[JamesC]

Paranormal Activity 4

I almost shat my pants!

Because of how piss poor it is surely? It was dire on every level.

I can see how, objectively, it isn't a very good film but I really enjoyed it.

There's something about this series of films that just grips me and even the most simple thing like a moving door or a swinging chandelier is enough to make me start cacking it! 

[Hawkmumbler]

Paranormal Activity 4

I almost shat my pants!

Because of how piss poor it is surely? It was dire on every level.

I can see how, objectively, it isn't a very good film but I really enjoyed it.

There's something about this series of films that just grips me and even the most simple thing like a moving door or a swinging chandelier is enough to make me start cacking it!

For me the gold standard in supernatural thrillers has been set by Insidius and Sinnister, the entire PA franchise is just a load of over saturated found footage bollocks IMHO.

Watched the first two Dr. Mabuse movies over the last few days, amongst Langs best works.

[qtwerk]

For me the gold standard in supernatural thrillers has been set by Insidius and Sinnister

You mean the "gold standard" in the year that they were actually released. Or month, maybe.
I hope you mean that, anyway.

[Hawkmumbler]

For me the gold standard in supernatural thrillers has been set by Insidius and Sinnister

You mean the "gold standard" in the year that they were actually released. Or month, maybe.
I hope you mean that, anyway.

Naturaly. I view 'horror' as having distinct era's and the current run of rather poor 'supernatural thrillers' naturaly don't match up to The Haunting (original), The Wicker Man, Dont Look Now, the works of Bava, Fulci and Argento and so on and so forth. Insidius and Sinnister do stand out as being genuinly good movies in a sea of piss poor horror flicks I might add though.

[qtwerk]

For me the gold standard in supernatural thrillers has been set by Insidius and Sinnister

You mean the "gold standard" in the year that they were actually released. Or month, maybe.
I hope you mean that, anyway.

Naturaly. I view 'horror' as having distinct era's and the current run of rather poor 'supernatural thrillers' naturaly don't match up to The Haunting (original), The Wicker Man, Dont Look Now, the works of Bava, Fulci and Argento and so on and so forth. Insidius and Sinnister do stand out as being genuinly good movies in a sea of piss poor horror flicks I might add though.

I don't really associate Bava, Fulci and Argento with supernatural thrillers.
Sinister was OK, decent ending, Insidious went very bonkers in the last 30 minutes and stopped being scary at all.

I've more love for the likes of Haute Tension, Inside, Eden Lake, Mum and Dad and Martyrs in recent years. Properly scary and disturbing.

[Hawkmumbler]

For me the gold standard in supernatural thrillers has been set by Insidius and Sinnister

You mean the "gold standard" in the year that they were actually released. Or month, maybe.
I hope you mean that, anyway.

Naturaly. I view 'horror' as having distinct era's and the current run of rather poor 'supernatural thrillers' naturaly don't match up to The Haunting (original), The Wicker Man, Dont Look Now, the works of Bava, Fulci and Argento and so on and so forth. Insidius and Sinnister do stand out as being genuinly good movies in a sea of piss poor horror flicks I might add though.

I don't really associate Bava, Fulci and Argento with supernatural thrillers.
Sinister was OK, decent ending, Insidious went very bonkers in the last 30 minutes and stopped being scary at all.

I've more love for the likes of Haute Tension, Inside, Eden Lake, Mum and Dad and Martyrs in recent years. Properly scary and disturbing.

I'd never say Insidius or Sinister were scary, there thrillers. But there jolly good fun. Have yet to see the new martyrs so thanks for the heads up.
Oh, and I would accosiate Bava, Fulci and Argento with S-thrillers for a number of titles:
Bava- Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Lisa and the Devil
Fulci- Gates of Hell trilogy, The Black Cat, Manhatton Baby
Argento- Inferno, Suspiria

[Frank]

Winter's Bone, which was like Cathy Come Home and Farewell My Lovely, starring the cast of Deliverance. It obeys all the conventions of detective fiction - including the hero getting beaten up - but unlike a shallow bastard like Marlowe, Ree's a genuinely sympathetic character who you really want to see succeed. That and the film's naturalistic, almost documentary tone mean you're never sure how individual scenes are going to turn out, and you're genuinely afraid for the character in some of the situations she finds herself in.

Just watching Ree get into a car with someone whose motives you're unsure of is enough to have your palms sweating, and the film does a great job of building a sinister mood and air of menace without straying into melodrama. All the social realist material showing just how vulnerable and powerless the family's poverty makes them (something as simple as organising transport into town is a major ordeal) intensifies your sympathy for them and your concern for Ree as their lifeline - and means that when the film takes a turn into genuinely gothic horror the whole thing still feels grounded in reality. Squirrels were hurt during the making of this film.

[Buttonman]

A poor to piss poor double bill of The Veteran and War of the Dead.