Last movie watched...

[SmallBlueThing]

Womaneater (1957, Columbia Pictures)

No one knows about this film. It may as well not exist. And indeed, I'm sure some would rather it didn't, such are the attitudes on display: "Now, be warned, Professor Moran has a native servant. Don't let him scare you, he's harmless.", "Margaret, when are you going to stop this middle-aged jealousy? You should know I see you as a thing of the past. Like all women, you've let yourself go." "Oh I've loved you from the moment we met. I know I'm decades older than you, but that doesn't matter. It's happened many times before.", "Where does that come from- some savage country I'll wager?"... From our self-important modern perspective the gaffes just keep on coming, far more so than in any fifties film I can remember seeing recently. Mind you, I still have Abbot and Costello in Africa Screams to go, and am hopeful that may be worth its weight in gold in that department.

Womaneater is the story of Professor James Moran (played by George Coulouris, from Citizen Kane)- a "scientific fellow" who hears that "up the Amazon" is a tribe with the secret of bringing the dead back to life. Off he goes with his doomed expedition, who are murdered by savages after they try to stop some offense-to-god ceremony involving a witch doctor, some snakes, Tanga the gay Bangladeshi drummer, various men of different ethnic backgrounds who were "exotic" enough to fool the audience of the time into believing they came from the same place, and... a beautiful woman being sacrificed to a flesheating plant. Turns out that you have to feed the plant with beautiful women for it to pump out the juice that brings the dead back. Oh, and the plant has fleshy penises that wrap around the women's heads as it "absorbs them". Moran somehow singlehandedly conquers the tribe, probably because he's British, and brings the plant and Tanga back to the Home Counties and his stately pile. He shuns his wife (allowing her to remain his housekeeper only) and continues his experiments with the aim of becoming "the most famous man in the world!".

His experiments naturally involve the sacrifice of beautiful young girls to the plant- which Tanga the "native servant" clearly relishes, hoping I expect to get them out of the way so he can have a pop at the prof. Sadly for oiled-up, bulging pants-wearing Tanga and his bongos, this particular rural village is absolutely swimming in quim, and I don't know about the plant but Professor Moran certainly fancies a bit of "womaneating". At one point the police show him a "recent photograph" of one of the girls who have gone missing locally- and it's a topless glamourshot. He replies that he's "more interested in things with six legs than two", but I think the police are the only ones who believe him, the randy old goat.

In amongst all this appalling behaviour and unintentionally hilarious performance (watch Jimmy Vaughn as Tanga, he's magnificent), something really odd happens- and suddenly the film becomes something else. There's a sequence in which Moran stalks a potential victim through London, off Picadilly Circus after dark, that is truly something special- and recalls those fabulous 60s shockumentaries about the underbelly of sleazy swinging London, like 'London in the Raw' and 'Primitive London'- only this was shot in 1957. It's a stunning sequence, and we watched it three times here just to soak it up. He follows the woman he selects (after ignoring two prostitutes) through the neon-lit streets and we see it all from the camera car- headlights providing the only "film lighting" and illuminating her arse- as real life passers-by turn and gawp. Without getting all pretentious and film studiesy, there's a different filmstock used, a sharper distinction between the blacks and whites and a whole other kind of feel is created, a million miles away from the staged "horror" of Moran's clunky set- all test tubes and hollow-sounding "stone" staircase (thunk-thunk-thunk). For the five minutes Womaneater hits the backstreets of Soho, it's an entirely different and better film. Then we're in a drinking club, Moran's captured his prey, the Chinese barman has done the "He no pay! You Pay now, or call porice!" routine and we're back to normality.

There's a romantic subplot running through it, involving a hula dancer from the circus and her mechanic boyfriend- but it's dull, and of course she's going to end up as the Womaneater's last victim. Many people die at the firey climax and Tanga gets his come-uppance. Late in the game we discover he's just been having a laugh at the professor's expense and the whole "life after death" juice thing is a bit of a lie. None of that is anywhere near as interesting as those five minutes on the streets of Soho though, and that's what you remember afterwards. In that respect, Womaneater is much like real life.

For more, go to http://www.bmoviecentral.com/bmc/reviews/79-the-woman-eater-1957-71-minutes.html

SBT

[Dark Jimbo]

That must be the longest you've ever gone without a cont.

[Professor Bear]

Steady on, Jimbo!

Monster From Green Hell, which is a wee bit gash, though it ends with a volcanic eruption that destroys the evil space wasps' nest, so the characters' whole trek to darkest Africa could have been skipped entirely.  Then the big white guy looks on at the stock footage of lava and says "nature has a way of correcting its mistakes" even though I'm pretty sure this flick starts with him and his mates sending those wasps into space to be irradiated by Fantastic Four-type space rays.  NATURE DID NOT INVENT SPACE ROCKETS.

Ondine, the second film I've seen in the last week that turned out to be about Selkies (seals that are also humans), which Colin Farrel's character has to be told about by virtually everyone else in the village (including Eastern European immigrants) despite his being a blimmin' fisherman.  It's a grungy modern-day take on a typical fairytale story and quite well done.  It's devoid of anything too horrible or any real surprises, so I think it was meant to be an all-ages film or something.  Worth a watch, I guess.

[SmallBlueThing]

The sheer luxury of having access to the laptop in the evening, jimbo. The wife was rehearsing, so it was all mine! I did think about peppering my post with vague and blatant allusions to cunnilingus- with a title like 'womaneater' of course i did- but felt that was too obvious a route to go down.

Tonight, we're doing the third 'black lagoon' film (which im quite looking forward to, despite the prof's disdain). However, already my oh-so-amusing phone is asking me if i meant to type 'the creature wanks a monkey' for the title. I have a feeling that later tonight i will wish it had been so.

SBT

Note: in case you think im lying about my phone's capacity for 'hilarious' predictive/suggested text errors, let me assure you im not. Unless i turn the functions off, it even replaces 'SBT' with 'pathetic'. Apt, i think.

[Bolt-01]

Micro-bolt and I watched Cowboys and Aliens. Which I very deliberately lowered my thrill receptors for so that I could enjoy it. And I did. It is ridiculous nonsense of the highest order, though. If a twelve year old can point out that the film doesn't really have a plot, then beleieve me when I say that you should only approach this carefully.

[judgeblake]

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars:
I'm a big fan of John Carpenter's back catalogue, but for some reason I have never managed to watch Ghosts of Mars - maybe because I always thought it looked naff lol But having watched Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China and The Ward in recent weeks I was optimistic going in.
However, after watching the film, Ghosts of Mars falls in to the category of Carpenter's back catalogue entitled 'misfires' alongside Escape from Los Angeles.

For me Carpenter's formula for making b-movies on a budget and thrusting them into the A-movie realm with high-concepts and originailty comes unstuck in Ghosts of Mars as it did with Escape from L.A. Whereas you can watch Carpenter's 80's b-movie cult classics like They Live, Big Trouble...and even Prince of Darkness in geeky glee - when Carpenter hits the 90s his movies start to look cheap and there is little novelty of aura around the films. Vampires is actually an exception to Carpenter's latter misfires in my opinion mainly due to a stronger script, and a good cast. But Ghost of Mars' cast, clad in outfits that are a blend of gestapo, blaxploitation and special ops gear, are miscast and do not gel together. GOM also seems to follow that token b-movie trait of adding the token rapper-turned-actor to the cast.

Carpenter's budget seems to have been too low and his ambition too high – the FX are dire, and even though made in 2001 they are more akin to the mid-90s spate of sci-fi efforts (Judge Dredd, Batman & Robin) on the cusp of new technology and the future use of CGI that would grow to be essential in the 00s.

The movie can be fun at times with a tongue-in-cheek approach (also watching it in 'chapters' as I felt I needed to lol) with a strangely short-lived cameo from Pam Grier. The action is confined to working the mediocre plot around the same 'set' (due to budget?). Awful acting supplied readily from Ice Cube and Jason Statham. Though a notable role for the Blade Runner star Joanna cassidy - as well as Natasha Henstridge who has to date been an underated actress as she has slowly faded into obscurity after her fame rose in the Species franchise and then waned through a few b-movies as she stopped acting in movies (and married Pop Idol wannabe Darius!) If GOM had not have been such a messy flop perhaps Henstridge could have been Carpenter's female Plisskin/Kurt Russell and acted in a number of collaborations with Carpenter?

[Radbacker]

They've been playing the Die Hard nmovies the last couple of weeks, love Die Hard 2 - as a teen after watching and being blown away by the first me and my mates joked that the second one should eb called Die Harder which it was, we were all apropriatly smug when it came out and I have a bit of a soft spot for it and its my favorite in the series.  Some wonderfully violent fights (icicle in eye springs to mind) and arsom squib work (bad dudes just dont get appropriatly shredded in current action movies which Dredd looks likely to remedy) and wickedly final fight on the wing of the Jumbo including man through engine just tops it off.  Appropriatly bigger than the first.
Die Hard with a Vengence was on last night and aside from the stupid title (although appropriate I guess with the main bady being a Gruber) I enjoyed it more than i had on other occasions, once again some wonderfully bloody confrontations that you just dont see in action movies anymore (guy cut in half by the cable a nice nasty one).  Mclain takes a step further towards Super Heroness in this one i swear he's lost several litres of blood by the end and he goes from limping all fucked up tio super shot a bit too much.
Watching these recently even though i didn't mind it on release i realise how water down and fornmula the last one was.

Watched a new Starship Troopers CG movie today, seems to be a directish sequal to the original movie with the humour removed.  NOt too bad to look at for a CG feature and a nice bit of Mech porn towards the end to keep fans of the book happy.  CGI boobies are not that nmuch of a turn on though.  Worth a watch to anyone who enjoyed the original and have managed to sit through the sequals (wiching for better).

CU Radbacker

[I, Cosh]

Finally got round to seeing Kill List last night. The worst film I've seen in ages and I watched Ultraviolet last Tuesday.

I have no problem with ambiguity, lack of explanations, weirdness or allusive pretension but I do have an issue with a film having all that and still being boring. Ultimately, this wasn't interested in working as a straight, narrative-led film but it was also wholly unsuccessful in capturing the implied disorentiation of the main character or of sustaining sufficiently interesting or unusual imagery to make it worthwhile as a mood or tone piece.

The one part of the film I enjoyed was the initial sequence of the boys back on the job. The dreary, everyday troubles of life as a Midlands hitman would've made for a good Jam sketch. Other than that, this was portentous guff with the most laughable ending this side of Don't Look Now. I suppose I should just be thankful they didn't have one of those "this is how we did it" scenes replaying all the missed clues sprinkled throughout. If they were.

[Buttonman]

'Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story' - great fun retread of 'Walk the Line' with cracking songs and great cameos - check out the Beatles!

[I, Cosh]

'Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story' - great fun retread of 'Walk the Line' with cracking songs and great cameos - check out the Beatles!

This film originally scored 20/23 Ws. How does it hold up to repeated viewing?

[Buttonman]

Good call Cosh!

Pulled from the 'W' archives when I remembered Jenna Fischer talking dirty in 'Let's Duet'and really enjoyed it second (probably third or fourth) time around.Especially like the drummer who keeps repeating 'you never paid for drugs', the casual nudity and the father who asks the Doc to ' Speak English, we're not scientists'when Dewy's brother is diagnosed with a bad case of being cut in half.

Still great and certainly better than 'Kill List' which I thought was OK but a bit too keen to be a bit culty from the off. Tyres out of 'Spaced' got it pass marks from me!

[judgeblake]

The Rite (2011);
Starring Anthony Hopkins who has always been an actor I've loved - with his definitive performance being in Silence of the Lambs, afterwhich Hopkins duely got the Oscar, and since is less picky about his performances and roles he chooses and only on occasion shows the true genius of acting class he's capable of. Hopkins is such a good actor - that he can provide a brooding and reverential presence, even when he is in supporting or bit roles in a film (much as Brando could do in his career) as he does in films like Thor. In The Rite Hopkins is at his best adding depth and eccentricities to his character that were clearly above and beyond the script.

Any movies based on the concept of good vs evil and exorcism are compared to Friedkin's The Exorcist - as that is such a seminal movie. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the only other movie about exorcism that holds it's own that comes to mind. The Rite also rises to the challenge set by The Exorcist to provide credibility and character exposition to the good vs evil narrative that The Exorcist set such a high standard in creating. Indeed, the same priesthood archetypal relationship between old-man mentor and young doubtful student is replicated well but not so obviously, with Michael Kovak (played very well by Colin O'Donoghue) being also the archetypal repraisal of the Father Karras character - Donoghue an underused actor in my opinion considering his talents, starring recently in Storage 24. Alice Braga is another underated actress who has a number of standout performances under her belt to date (Predators, I Am Legend, Repo Men).

The script is a by the numbers example of inner struggle and doubting personal faith, as well as exorcism and the fight between good and evil - but it is the flourishes that make the film standout coming from the casting and calibre of acting, as well as certain standout scenes e.g. [spoiler]Father Trevants' (Hopkins) possession, Rutger Hauer's eerie voice from beyond the grave, and the demonic horse. [/spoiler]

[judgeblake]

Justice (2011);
Despite the popular opinion that Nicolas Cage is a god awful actor, synonymous with overacting, I am however a fan of Cage and believe he's 'interesting' even when he's awful and misfires every so often (like Brad Pitt). Cage is at his best when conveying anger - but at his worst when conveying distraught behaviour or rather he is at his most vulnerable to overacting and open to critique. However, Cage seems to me to be maturing as an actor although he is still inconsistent - as Big Daddy Cage puts in some brilliant character acting mimicking Adam West's batman for the role, Cage was also great in the wired cop in Bad Lieutenant.... however in Ghostrider 2 Cage misfired with his acting and poorly conveys certain emotions.

In Justice Cage plays a great role as a guy seeking justice after he is pressured by an organization that seeks vigilantism above the law and has lost control of it's sect and morality, and Cage displays an interestingly vulnerable side he rarely displays in his films....mainly due to his poor performances every now and then. But I was impressed when Cage actually cried in a scene rather than just getting hysterical and overacting to convey that he was distraught. Cage is also backed up by a great little supporting cast; i.e. January Jones (who Cage should play alongside more), Guy Pearce, and Lost's Harold Perrineau.

Basically this is worth a watch as it does what it says on the tin - akin to b-movie-ish A-list efforts at revenge movies e.g. Taken, Death Wish etc
 

[SmallBlueThing]

BATMAN: YEAR ONE

Aside from this suffering from that anime thing where characters dont move a hell of a lot, other than their mouths opening and eyes narrowing, i thought this was aces and probably the best batman thing ive ever seen on screen. Mind you, im a big admirer of the original comic, so i was always half-sold. It's just a shame it hasnt been done as a proper bigger budget cartoon movie with better animation, but this will do until they get round to it.

The catwoman short film on the same disc though, is just horrible. And has a bit too much pole dancing, tit-revealing and gangsta-stylee misogeny to justify its '12' cert, and im forced to wonder if the bbfc actually watched it, or just passed it quickly to get an afternoon off.

The other extras, some DC epg puff pieces for upcoming cartoons, make them look terrible, though moore and gibbons get mentioned, and frank quitely's art is splashed around a lot.

SBT

[Keef Monkey]

Finally got round to seeing Kill List last night. The worst film I've seen in ages and I watched Ultraviolet last Tuesday.

Only caught Kill List myself quite recently, and while I didn't dislike it as strongly as you I was definitely disappointed. It seemed to have stolen most of its more interesting ideas from other, more memorable films. To say what they are is pretty much a spoiler, but the fact that I came away from it reflecting on [spoiler]A Serbian Film[/spoiler] and [spoiler]The Wicker Man[/spoiler] and not Kill List is a bad thing.

We just saw The Bourne Legacy yesterday, both being huge fans of the Damon trilogy. We enjoyed it, but it's not a patch on the others. It's nice that it pulls out and gives you the wider picture of what's going on with Treadstone, and I thought Renner was really engaging and did a great job in a tough position, but the action/suspense scenes fall really flat in comparison to the other films.

The main problem is the direction, particularly during the main chase/set-piece. During it a lot of really pretty arsom stuff happens, but the camera seems determined to stop us from seeing it, shaking constantly and jerking away from the action and with so many cuts per second it's almost hilarious. At points it's unintelligible, and while I know Greengrass got a bit of stick for a similar approach with his Bourne films I thought it worked really well for him.

New director Gilroy was saying in Total Film this month that there was a definite aim to cut really fast because people's attention spans are such these days that they can take in information more quickly, so for a scene to be exciting you have to keep updating that information constantly. Maybe he's right, and I'm just slow and stoopid, but more likely I think he's just done a bad job and it's a poor approach.

I certainly didn't dislike the film, and would like them to continue with more Renner Bournes, but I'd like to see another director next time around, or for Gilroy to learn some lessons from this one.