Last movie watched...

[Emperor]

OK another batch:

• Baise-moi - from the earlier wave of New French Extremity and while it still transgressive and has the power to shock, even with all the violence and unsimulated sex it doesn't seem as strong as the more recent wave.
• Dead or Alive 2 - viewing this wasn't helped by my thinking I was watching Evil Dead Trap 2 until quite a way in!!! Not quite as strange as the original film but more consistently odd, even the little play they did in the end, and it had much stronger characters.
• Saint - Dutch horror that had much better effects, locations and acting than I was expecting, which helped power it on over some plotholes, around some dodgy acting and through to a slightly disappointing ending. Not one to let your kids watch in a double bill with Rare Exports.
• Deadgirl - pretty much what you'd expect from a film about some losers finding a zombie girl and deciding to make her their sex slave, a premise they took as far as they could (e.g. [spoiler]the scene where they suggest the way to get around her being dry is either lube or using one of the suppurating bullet wounds in her torso[/spoiler]). The ending was [spoiler]obvious from at least half way into the film, although that was partly the point - you end up really hoping that the main character finds a way to avoid it.[/spoiler] It also makes you wonder which of your friends might have thought this was a great idea if it'd happened to them in real life - I can think of a couple. 
• Naked Weapon - granted it is exploitationy ([spoiler]they are told to kill the men after having sex with them[/spoiler]) but it is s decent story with some reasonable gun-fu and wire-fu (although some of it sneaks over the border into silliness territory - [spoiler]like when she ends up standing on his head during the final fight[/spoiler]), so I suspect it is best watched with friends, after quite a few beers.
• Carriers - a passable pandemic apocalypse movie, slightly let down by the very punchable lead male characters, I kept hoping Chris Meloni would be allowed to start cracking heads together [spoiler]but he never does[/spoiler]. What I did like was [spoiler]the way everything went wrong because of stupidity, kindness and bad luck - which made it feel a lot more realistic than some similar films.[/spoiler]
• Haze - from the director of Tetsuo and it managed to capture some of the intensity of that film, which the Tetsuo sequel didn't. It is only 49 minutes long but that is probably a good thing as it got in, told the story well and got out without boring anyone. The length was also a good thing as some of the scenes were difficult to watch, even though I don't have claustrophobia (I came awfully closer to viewing parts of it by peeking between my fingers than I have since watching Dr Who when I was a nipper), and stretching it to an hour and a half might have either been too much of an ordeal or it could have made it seem a little dull. The ending was good too - nicely ambiguous.
• Mothman - slightly better than the usual Syfy Channel productions, which means it was just pretty bad. Only worth watching if you are curious about their treatment of the Mothman or you want to see Jewel Staite in a pretty sundress, neither of which are really worth putting yourself through it.
• The Mysterians - after all the murder and mayhem (and necrophilia) I felt like a change of pace and this is certainly it. Granted it is a silly plot but the miniature work and set design in the Mysterian base are all top-notch and help make it one of the best alien invasion/War of the Worlds-style films (OK you can throw millions of dollars of CGI work at this kind of film these days, but it can feel a little... soulless).

[I, Cosh]

• Baise-moi - from the earlier wave of New French Extremity and while it still transgressive and has the power to shock, even with all the violence and unsimulated sex it doesn't seem as strong as the more recent wave.

Hmm. I'd put Baise Moi alongside Irreversible rather than stuff like Ils or Martyres. That might just be me.

• Naked Weapon - granted it is exploitationy ([spoiler]they are told to kill the men after having sex with them[/spoiler]) but it is s decent story with some reasonable gun-fu and wire-fu (although some of it sneaks over the border into silliness territory - [spoiler]like when she ends up standing on his head during the final fight[/spoiler]), so I suspect it is best watched with friends, after quite a few beers.

How on Earth have I missed this? Naked Killer is an old favourite round my manor and the prospect of naked Maggie Q is an extremely interesting on.

Just watched Drive. Really great looking film and manages to make what could've been a load of boring driving around seem gripping. At least for the first hour. The moody driving and the interesting dynamic between Gosling, Mulligan and the kid propels the first half but it loses its way a bit when it gets down to the standard gangster thriller double-crosses. Really loved the overpowering music used throughout and it'll be interesting to see if that seems dated or still just right in five years time.

[Emperor]

• Baise-moi - from the earlier wave of New French Extremity and while it still transgressive and has the power to shock, even with all the violence and unsimulated sex it doesn't seem as strong as the more recent wave.

Hmm. I'd put Baise Moi alongside Irreversible rather than stuff like Ils or Martyres. That might just be me.

Horses for courses I suppose, but I found Martyrs a lot more gruelling than Baise-moi, with a stronger story. It certainly seems to be the one that stick with me longer, but only time will tell...

For those on LoveFilm it is free to watch, just don't watch it with the family:

http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Baise-Moi/11415/

• Naked Weapon - granted it is exploitationy ([spoiler]they are told to kill the men after having sex with them[/spoiler]) but it is s decent story with some reasonable gun-fu and wire-fu (although some of it sneaks over the border into silliness territory - [spoiler]like when she ends up standing on his head during the final fight[/spoiler]), so I suspect it is best watched with friends, after quite a few beers.

How on Earth have I missed this? Naked Killer is an old favourite round my manor and the prospect of naked Maggie Q is an extremely interesting on.

Oh well then Naked Weapon is a must-see, it is certainly one of the slicker Asian girls-with-guns films and free to watch instantly on LoveFilm:

www.lovefilm.com/film/Naked-Weapon/15273/

[HdE]

I just saw a Japanese movie called 'Returner'. BLOODY HELL was it awful.

One of those films where the writers felt it was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to do each and every one of the plot strands to death.

RANT #37A, subsection 2b: I was taught IN PRIMARY SCHOOL, that when you write a story, you keep it punchy, and you don't labour over details unnecessarily. Methinks my English teachers were frustrated writers, somehow...

Point of interest about this movie: Fans of Bang Zoom!'s anime dubs will hear not a few of their actors on the English language dub track. I spotted Dave Wittenberg, Kari Wahlgren and Richard Epcar at least - plus another guy whose name escapes me.

That aside - yeah. Total crap. Give it a miss.

[HOO-HAA]

• Baise-moi - from the earlier wave of New French Extremity and while it still transgressive and has the power to shock, even with all the violence and unsimulated sex it doesn't seem as strong as the more recent wave.

Hmm. I'd put Baise Moi alongside Irreversible rather than stuff like Ils or Martyres. That might just be me.

Horses for courses I suppose, but I found Martyrs a lot more gruelling than Baise-moi, with a stronger story. It certainly seems to be the one that stick with me longer, but only time will tell...

For those on LoveFilm it is free to watch, just don't watch it with the family:

http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Baise-Moi/11415/

MARTYRS is an awesome film. But definitely hard on the eyes, at times.

The French have taken the horror crown from the Japanese and South Koreans, I think. Other classics are INSIDE and SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE (aka HAUTE TENSION). Another cracker is FRONTIERS. And MUTANTS is one of the best zombie flims I've ever seen.

[Professor Bear]

Dinocroc - I am pretty sure a crocodile is already a dinosaur, but who am I to argue with boffins if they tell me there is not enough dinosaur DNA in something?  In a break with the usual movie trend of everything going swimmingly when someone splices up a better kind of killing machine in a low security laboratory, the dinocroc escapes and terrorises the local area, only it does so in a way that is very inexpensive to realise on a screen - yep, this is a SyFy movie with about three seconds of CGI that is still somehow utterly terrible to look at despite being the money shot of films like these.
This is not a good film by any objective evaluation, but by the nonexistent standards of the average SyFy flick I would tentatively call this "not the worst" despite a rubbish monster that looks more kangaroo than dinosaur and a vacuum where the actors should be - the late and already-missed Charles Napier aside.  There's a couple of amusing fake-outs, though, like [spoiler]the overly-graphic death of the token kiddie who usually comes out unscathed, and a false ending where everything finishes up in a neat little package - soundbites are uttered, cast members disperse to the winds after saying their goodbyes and expressing grudging respect, music swells - and then the monster gets right back up again and goes on a rampage.[/spoiler]
I have seen worse, but that's usually a SyFy movie too.  Statistical probability seems to finally be kicking in for them at last, as I thought Lost Future was an equally servicable post-apocalyptic romp from the same outfit that I enjoyed more than I'd like to admit.
Never understood the venom The Postman received from some quarters as it was far from being the worst movie I've ever seen the first time around, and I've seen a whole new level of shite films since then so I'm not inclined to think worse of it now.  Looking back, a lot of the criticism - while not unfair - seems more a Freudian slip on the part of reviewers still pissed that Waterworld wasn't the worst thing ever like they'd hoped it would be, particularly the criticism that the movie is a love-letter to Costner because they make a big statue of him at the end - telling that this criticism is essentially "this guy ain't so great."  I liked it fine, and think it makes for a better post-apocalyptic missive about the importance of hope in desperate times than the dreary and pointless adaptation of The Road that everyone was fapping about a few years ago.

[Mudcrab]

The Task - reality show contestants spend the night in an old prison. Really, really bad but kind of does the scary thing reasonably well here and there. Don't let that make you think it's worth watching though. For a reality show with a horror twist you're far better off with Wrong Turn 2 (I think it's called) or Live! for by far the best take on reality stuff.

[Emperor]

• Baise-moi - from the earlier wave of New French Extremity and while it still transgressive and has the power to shock, even with all the violence and unsimulated sex it doesn't seem as strong as the more recent wave.

Hmm. I'd put Baise Moi alongside Irreversible rather than stuff like Ils or Martyres. That might just be me.

Horses for courses I suppose, but I found Martyrs a lot more gruelling than Baise-moi, with a stronger story. It certainly seems to be the one that stick with me longer, but only time will tell...

For those on LoveFilm it is free to watch, just don't watch it with the family:

http://www.lovefilm.com/film/Baise-Moi/11415/

MARTYRS is an awesome film. But definitely hard on the eyes, at times.

Indeed, there will be people who don't make it all the way through, but it is definitely worth it.

The French have taken the horror crown from the Japanese and South Koreans, I think. Other classics are INSIDE and SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE (aka HAUTE TENSION). Another cracker is FRONTIERS.

I agree. There has been a bit of a backlash against the Japanese ghost films that seemed to be everywhere a decade ago (an article in 2005 asked if J-horror was dead) - in Japan you get the Takeshi Miike raising the bar in his own special way, as well as the more cartoony violence of the New Japanese Gore films, in the English-speaking world you got the Splat Pack's movies that got labelled "torture porn" but it does seem to be the French who are now leading the field.

And MUTANTS is one of the best zombie flims I've ever seen.

Welllllllll leaving aside fact that the monsters are four-nostrilled orc-a-likes (I've got stricter in my definition of what makes a zombie film over the years) I'm not even sure if it'd count as my favourite French "zombie" movie (I preferred The Horde). Amongst recent zombie films I'd suggest Zombieland and Planet Terror were better although perhaps a little too self-concious, The Dead delivered some old school chills and there is Dance of the Dead, Deadgirl, The Dead Outside, Outpost, [Rec], [Rec] 2 (and the Quaratine films if you must), Dead Snow and half a dozen others I've yet to see. It has a good start but gets a bit loose in the middle, and the ending was obvious about half-way through. I seem to recall being niggled by some plotholes  when watching but can't think what they were.

[I, Cosh]

Sorry. What I was getting at is that stuff like Martyrs is outright horror and I don't think something like Baise Moi is really coming from the same direction at all.

[SmallBlueThing]

Paranormal Activity 3

Not much to add about this that hasnt already been said. If youre predisposed to hating this kind of thing, it wont change your mind. Personally, i found absolutely fucking terrifying, just like the last two. Franchise fatigue may have set in though, as a couple of times i found myself scoffing at the contrivances used to make sure everything was filmed. A less-obvious soundtrack this time, and a couple of standout sequences- one being the best use of a sheet in a horror movie since michael myers wore one in Halloween.

However, the trailer for 'The Devil Inside', also on the disc, is by far the scariest thing ive seen in years. If the movie is as good as this makes it seem, i may have a Film Of The Year.

SBT

[I, Cosh]

However, the trailer for 'The Devil Inside', also on the disc, is by far the scariest thing ive seen in years. If the movie is as good as this makes it seem, i may have a Film Of The Year.

This is not a dig. It just never ceases to amaze me how people can have such radically different opinions about the same thing. It's like an object lesson in subjectivity.

This trailer makes the film look so hilariously awful that I'd be tempted to think it was an internet joke knocked up in somebody's spare time if I hadn't seen it at the pictures tonight: The Devil Inside.

Seriously. Did nobody involved watch that before it was released?

[HOO-HAA]

Paranormal Activity 3

Not much to add about this that hasnt already been said. If youre predisposed to hating this kind of thing, it wont change your mind. Personally, i found absolutely fucking terrifying, just like the last two. Franchise fatigue may have set in though, as a couple of times i found myself scoffing at the contrivances used to make sure everything was filmed. A less-obvious soundtrack this time, and a couple of standout sequences- one being the best use of a sheet in a horror movie since michael myers wore one in Halloween.

Absolutely agree with this - cracking film and a cracking franchise. I'd love to see more films in this series, although I'm not sure just where they could take it.

However, the trailer for 'The Devil Inside', also on the disc, is by far the scariest thing ive seen in years. If the movie is as good as this makes it seem, i may have a Film Of The Year.

Yeah, really looking forward to that one. Long live Satanic Panic, eh? 

Me? Watched CONTAGION last night. Mixed feelings. Tried to be a little too clever for its own good and ended up being kinda dull, kinda detached and kinda entertaining. Felt more like a trailer for a 22 episode series as opposed to a film in its own right. For a much better version of this kind of thing, go for low budget thriller RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR.

[SmallBlueThing]

It's horses for courses, cosh, isnt it? These kind of things are guaranteed to put the willies up me, so naturally i love them. I hope it's as scary as it seems, i really do.

Some people watch trailers for Tinker Tailor or The Dark Knight Rises and get excited- they mean nothing to me. But promise me something that'll chill me and make me jump, and im panting like deranged puppy.

SBT

[Emperor]

Sorry. What I was getting at is that stuff like Martyrs is outright horror and I don't think something like Baise Moi is really coming from the same direction at all.

Oh yes, well I suppose so but it looks like the NFE is a broad church running from the violent to the sexual (Base-moi occupying the middleground there) and the horror films that tend to get lumped in don't have much supernatural horror (well Martyrs, etc., something like Malefique is and The Horde/Mutants is more traditional horror but they are only part of the broader resurgence in French horror), so tend to fall into the more realistic home invasion/torture porn/backwoods horror territory. Which suggests they operate in similarish territory.

[brendan1]

Paranormal Activity 3

Not much to add about this that hasnt already been said. If youre predisposed to hating this kind of thing, it wont change your mind. Personally, i found absolutely fucking terrifying, just like the last two. Franchise fatigue may have set in though, as a couple of times i found myself scoffing at the contrivances used to make sure everything was filmed. A less-obvious soundtrack this time, and a couple of standout sequences- one being the best use of a sheet in a horror movie since michael myers wore one in Halloween.

However, the trailer for 'The Devil Inside', also on the disc, is by far the scariest thing ive seen in years. If the movie is as good as this makes it seem, i may have a Film Of The Year.

SBT

The Devil Inside is fucking shit. A moronic, one-note shaggy dog story that is like The Exorcist remade as a Scooby Doo cartoon.

So given all that, it probably will be your Film Of The Year.