Last movie watched...

[Mudcrab]

Rubber - Fantastic. Complete madness, but basically like any 80s horror film, completely nonsensical and pointless, but somehow brilliant, unlike any 80s horror film. Loved it.

The Rum Diary - No doubt Jonny Depp will get slagged for it for being himself but loved this too, very Hunter Thompson (obviously).

[Mardroid]

The People under the Stairs.

I've seen it  few times (although a most of those weren't all the way through) but it's always enjoyable.

[Ghastly McNasty]

Love People under the stairs. One of my fave films.

Been trying to catch up with classic horror movies I've never seen but should have. Saw Phantasm this week which was cool but week before watched Return of the Living Dead which was down right brilliant. So inventive and so funny. Awesome movie.

Will try Rubber this week if it's as good as Mr Mudcrab says it is.

[Professor Bear]

Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog, the tale of a rookie police detective tracking down the handgun stolen from him by a pickpocket.  Set as it is in the Japan that's just had its arse handed to it in WW2 and centering on the lower class areas and populace displaced directly by the war, the scene is set admirably with actual stock footage shot for the film that make you really feel like this place is fucked, but it's sobering to see the rebuilding from the ashes of an empire up close like this compared to the one-dimensional comic-book society of wannabe samurai or yakuza Japan is still being painted as today in western noir fiction, and the characters are wonderfully flawed and rounded.
You could probably write an essay on the larger meaning of the film being about the Japan(ese) emerging focused from the war with new direction versus the Japan(ese) who see only the devastation, rationing and massive population displacement, but taken as it is, it's still a good noir detective story - albeit one without an identikit antihero protagonist.
Damn good stuff.

[Roger Godpleton]

KILLER JOE: Not to be confused with Killer of Joe, the movie of the book they write about my life. An interesting exercise in the MPDG tradition, casting her as siren, but alas she is still annoying as fuck. Mostly good times are here to be had, with a bunch of creeps and idiots digging their own graves. Cynical types may claim that Matthew McConaghey is angling for some actorly credibility but he acquits himself well enough and I wish him well.

[radiator]

Last night we watched Spider-man (2002). In all honesty it really hasn't aged terribly well and I was surprised by how naff a lot of it is. I've never been a huge fan of the series, and rewatching it now I'm reminded why.

Occasionally weak and uber-contrived storytelling, obnoxious product placement, soap-opera level bad acting (the aunt and uncle especially, but Maguire himself isn't great tbh), truly terrible rubber-man cgi and some downright bizarre editorial choices along the way. My girlfriend never saw it first time round and thought it was pretty crap, and even James Franco couldn't hold her attention in this.

It's been well-documented, but the design of the Green Goblin is truly awful, and a huge waste of what could have been a great villain. Dafoe is one of the best things in the film, but loses all of his menace the moment he appears in that shit costume. I saw the original make-up tests and that could have been incredible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEZBhL5lpqg

Hope Spider-man 2 holds up better!

[brendan1]

The People under the Stairs.

I've seen it  few times (although a most of those weren't all the way through) but it's always enjoyable.

I watched it too.

I do sometimes wonder if my affection for it is largely nostalgia-driven because it is one of the many classic films me and my brothers rented out (several times) from our local video shop for the weekly Friday night gore-fest when we were all back at home.

Then I watch it again, and nope, it's still fucking great fun and is on our all-time favourite list of films we all watch over and over again. cf Tremors, The Hidden, The Thing, Aliens, Predator, They Live, In The Mouth Of Madness, Excorcist III

[Dandontdare]

Finally got around to watching Donnie Darko. I taped this off the telly years ago, but once I know I can watch something at any time, I never get around to it. This weekend I was chucking out some old videos and realised that I still hadn't seen it.

Wish I'd seen it long ago now,as it was brilliant. I understand there's a 'directors cut' version - anyone know if it's worth finding, or if it's significantly different?

[Spikes]

Short answer - Yes.
Apart from the extra footage, the DC boasts a better picture quality, and the audio has been re-done, as have some of the effects.
The DC does tend to spell things out a bit more, and lose some of the mystery, but both versions are excellant. Wasnt there a ultimate DVD type of package that included both cuts, plus all the extras released a few years ago? Might be worth tracking that down, if you can.

[Taryn Tailz]

Just watched "The 13th Warrior" tonight after getting a copy off Amazon for a penny. It's not a perfect film by any means, but I think its actually pretty good and deserves a proper rerelease on DVD (as the dvd was released way back in 1999 with no special features at all).

[Beaky Smoochies]

Just watched "The 13th Warrior" tonight after getting a copy off Amazon for a penny. It's not a perfect film by any means, but I think its actually pretty good and deserves a proper rerelease on DVD (as the dvd was released way back in 1999 with no special features at all).

The 13th Warrior could have been a little classic, it had everything going for it; John McTiernan directing, a fantastic premise, a charismatic leading man, and lots of potential for epic and bloody battles scenes to rival anything before it, alas, it wasn't meant to be.  McTiernan was hired as a gun-for-hire by producer Michael Crichton (who also wrote the source novel Eaters of the Dead, a much better title that should have remained the title of the film adaptation), who went on to butcher McTiernan's original 127-minute cut by filming extensive reshoots, hacking it to pieces beyond any coherence or cohesion, changing the title (because his neighbor hated the aforementioned original title, no kidding!), and basically turning it into a $160m total mess... no wonder it was dumped by the studio in the graveyard release time of August 1999 and subsequently flopped!

Had they gotten someone like Tom Stoppard or Walon Green (whose Crusades script remains one of the finest unfilmed epics to date) to write the script from scratch, and to not be precious about Crichton's source material (changing and altering where deemed necessary), with McTiernan insisting on having final cut approval (with a hard R-rating in mind during principal photography), that film could've been a fine and entertaining historical action pic that dealt with issues like superstition, prejudice, cultural perceptions, etc., all mixed with big and bloody battle scenes and striking cinematography.  There's been a petition campaign on the 'web for a good while to try and get Disney to release McTiernan's original 127-minute cut (with the original Graeme Revell score) on DVD and Blu-Ray (it exists somewhere in the vaults 'cause it was shown to test audiences in mid-1998), but hasn't happened yet, a pity, a full 'special edition' re-release with both cuts of the film, plus a McTiernan audio commentary, a documentary on the troubled history of the project, and the original (and rare) Eaters of the Dead teaser trailer would be a must-buy in my opinion...

[Zarjazzer]

The Woman in Black, creepy film with Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame. Surprisingly scary-I'd seen the stage play but this felt even creepier. Alas too much "shock 'em with a stab of music" bits but some genuine chills -I'll never look at a rocking chair with anything but foreboding now. A real horror film ending too.

[Taryn Tailz]

Just watched "The 13th Warrior" tonight after getting a copy off Amazon for a penny. It's not a perfect film by any means, but I think its actually pretty good and deserves a proper rerelease on DVD (as the dvd was released way back in 1999 with no special features at all).

The 13th Warrior could have been a little classic, it had everything going for it; John McTiernan directing, a fantastic premise, a charismatic leading man, and lots of potential for epic and bloody battles scenes to rival anything before it, alas, it wasn't meant to be.  McTiernan was hired as a gun-for-hire by producer Michael Crichton (who also wrote the source novel Eaters of the Dead, a much better title that should have remained the title of the film adaptation), who went on to butcher McTiernan's original 127-minute cut by filming extensive reshoots, hacking it to pieces beyond any coherence or cohesion, changing the title (because his neighbor hated the aforementioned original title, no kidding!), and basically turning it into a $160m total mess... no wonder it was dumped by the studio in the graveyard release time of August 1999 and subsequently flopped!

Had they gotten someone like Tom Stoppard or Walon Green (whose Crusades script remains one of the finest unfilmed epics to date) to write the script from scratch, and to not be precious about Crichton's source material (changing and altering where deemed necessary), with McTiernan insisting on having final cut approval (with a hard R-rating in mind during principal photography), that film could've been a fine and entertaining historical action pic that dealt with issues like superstition, prejudice, cultural perceptions, etc., all mixed with big and bloody battle scenes and striking cinematography.  There's been a petition campaign on the 'web for a good while to try and get Disney to release McTiernan's original 127-minute cut (with the original Graeme Revell score) on DVD and Blu-Ray (it exists somewhere in the vaults 'cause it was shown to test audiences in mid-1998), but hasn't happened yet, a pity, a full 'special edition' re-release with both cuts of the film, plus a McTiernan audio commentary, a documentary on the troubled history of the project, and the original (and rare) Eaters of the Dead teaser trailer would be a must-buy in my opinion...

I had heard that there was a lot of footage that had been cut from the film. It was only a few hours after watching it last night that I realised the character of the Prince just seems to disappear about half way through the film. We see his friend get killed in the Viking Duel scene, and then the Prince storms off never to be seen again. I can only presume any further scenes featuring him were cut.

[Beaky Smoochies]

I had heard that there was a lot of footage that had been cut from the film. It was only a few hours after watching it last night that I realised the character of the Prince just seems to disappear about half way through the film. We see his friend get killed in the Viking Duel scene, and then the Prince storms off never to be seen again. I can only presume any further scenes featuring him were cut.

It was Crichton's fault, the whole fiasco, a good reason why the author of the source novel should NEVER also be the producer, they just can't stand any re-interpretation of their 'baby', and will inevitably insist on reshoots to 'correct' their vision, which basically means more cost, an inconsistent final cut (being a film of two directors and two visions ultimately), and a big flop at the cinema.  Now Crichton's popped his clogs - so to speak - it would be an ideal time to release McTiernan's original 127-minute cut, don't know if it'll ever happen though (ditto Jeremiah Chechik's original 115-minute cut of The Avengers  that is actually rather good, supposedly)...

[I, Cosh]

Donnie Darko...I understand there's a 'directors cut' version - anyone know if it's worth finding, or if it's significantly different?

Different? I'll say. They essentially start off with a great film and shit all over it.