Last movie watched...

[Dandontdare]

JAWS THE REVENGE ...  It is indeed fucking shit, but saved by michael caine.

This is the film of which Caine famously remarked: "I haven't seen the film. By all accounts it's terrible. But I have seen the house it built, and that's bloody lovely!"

[Richmond Clements]

JAWS THE REVENGE ...  It is indeed fucking shit, but saved by michael caine.

This is the film of which Caine famously remarked: "I haven't seen the film. By all accounts it's terrible. But I have seen the house it built, and that's bloody lovely!"

That is a bloody good quote!
I haven't seen it for many years, but doesn't the shark somehow make a building explode at one point?

[QuickQuag]

Brick was quite an eye opener alright, as was Mysterious Skin and Manic. Keep meaning to hunt down Hesher but haven't got round to it yet.

Yep, Brick was someting special. Mysterious Skin was quality, but a bit too bleak for me (a bit like the other 'Skin' movie I sometimes confuse its title with, 'The Reflecting Skin'). I don't even think we've seen the best of JGL yet.

Last movie I Watched was... JOHN CARTER. I stopped mself before I could type "Of MARS" at the end of that, but boy I wish I could have. Quite quite underrated, with a couple of actually great action scenes an some genuine LOLs. No classic, but few movies are, and it didn't deserve its yellow press. A sequel, please, and get Stanton off the horse next time.

[Apestrife]

Triple Cross from 1966. Christopher Plummer playing Eddie Chapman in a true story made into good movie fun. He sleeps with women, blows up safes and plays both the limeys and krauts when his real alliance is to himself, a real charmer. And the intro theme is, well amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw_uUzTY0-w

[I, Cosh]

Kris Kristofferson is The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Bought it for a couple of quid in Fopp not knowing anything about it other than that Kristofferson is great in Convoy. Turns out to have been an excellent investment.

Young widow Sarah Miles falls for him while her teenage son, Johnathan, is torn between hero worship and Oedipal resentment. You initially assume the relationship between the two leads is going to dominate the film but it quickly becomes apparent that the dynamic between Johnathan and his weird little gang of mates, dominated by a truly appaling, precocious brat (NB character not actor) assured of his own cleverness and able to browbeat the others into following his lead. Despite an unavoidable stage school plumminess, the kids are generally pretty good and ,as this strand develops, parts of the film become really quite unsettling.

The ringleader of the gang has an anti-adult philosophy which sees them all as having failed or betrayed themselves and their kids. A sort of extremist version of Holden Caulfield's obsession with goddamn phoneys. I've never read the book this is based on but I have recollections of similar stuff from other Mishima books: the group of beautiful youths striving for perfection in the face of inevitable corruption. I take this to be one of the key things that gives the film its unusual edge.

Being made in seventies, it's not afraid to let characters and scenes be quiet and take their time to develop either. Also features an unintentionally hilarious scene with a seagull and a banger which predates the sad demise of Brother Crow in Four Lions by some thirty years. Good stuff.

[Colin YNWA]

Kris Kristofferson is The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Bought it for a couple of quid in Fopp not knowing anything about it other than that Kristofferson is great in Convoy. Turns out to have been an excellent investment.

Wow did not know there was a film of that book, love the book, must check this out.

So jealous you still have a Fopp, I miss Fopp...

[Richmond Clements]

Kris Kristofferson is The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Bought it for a couple of quid in Fopp not knowing anything about it other than that Kristofferson is great in Convoy. Turns out to have been an excellent investment.

Wow did not know there was a film of that book, love the book, must check this out.

So jealous you still have a Fopp, I miss Fopp...

I'm a Dapper Dan man myself.

[Professor Bear]

Born Of Hope, a fan-made Lord of the Rings film made for the huge sum of 25 large, and yet still a fair bit better than... well, pretty much every fantasy film I've seen made in the last decade or so, even that one that was Moby Dick with dragons and had Vinnie Jones as Stubb.  The fights in BoH aren't great as you might expect given the twin drawbacks of a limited shooting schedule and being directed by a woman, but the odd human touch to the characters in the course of the story will likely win you over as it did me, unless you're one of those types who hated LotR because, I dunno, it didn't have enough zombie rape or something, in which case I direct you to Pound World where you can get Zombie Virus On Mulberry Street for a pound, which should keep you happy for ninety minutes until something on the internet angers you again - probably me telling you how shit Farscape is and laughing in your stupid muppet-loving face.
BoH is pretty good, but the low budget is really apparent in the odd bit, especially the cave troll attack, but hey, it's a 25 000 pound film you get for free off the internet and you're getting a troll attack in it - in my day you actually had to pay someone to let you rent Hawk The Slayer.  You lot don't know you're bloody born.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qINwCRM8acM

[QuickQuag]

I'm curious, Prof - has BoH led you to check out its chum 'The Hunt for Gollum'?

[Dandontdare]

The fights in BoH aren't great as you might expect ... being directed by a woman,

Boom! Take that Bigelow!  Sounds interesting thjough, I'llk check it out.

Saw Terminator:Salvation last night - Didn't have high hopes, but it was a lot better than I expected.

[SmallBlueThing]

'Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street' (or to give it it's proper title, 'Mulberry Street') is an absolutely fantastic take on zombies (actually more rat-humanoids here) that ive been championing for some years now. I loved it very much indeed, and would advise anyone to pick it up long before they encourage people to make more (shudder) lord of the rings "fan-films"- and believe me, a greater argument for the death penalty being reintroduced for copyright theft ive never seen.

SBT 

[Charlie boy]

Last film I watched was UNDISPUTED, courtesy of channel5. Truly one of the great awful films... I'm actually tempted to buy it just so I can insist on friends viewing it.

[Professor Bear]

'Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street' (or to give it it's proper title, 'Mulberry Street') is an absolutely fantastic take on zombies (actually more rat-humanoids here) that ive been championing for some years now. I loved it very much indeed, and would advise anyone to pick it up long before they encourage people to make more (shudder) lord of the rings "fan-films"- and believe me, a greater argument for the death penalty being reintroduced for copyright theft ive never seen.

SBT

[JOE SOAP]

I suppose if we can have Minty, they can have theirs.

BoH is an aping mash-up of Jackson's more Mills & Boon scenes reshuffled and reappropriated with plenty of hugging and talky exposition. It's well acted and made with ok FX but waffly and reliant on too many of Jackson's tricks. It'd make more impact cut in half and with less clunky narration. A little less covnversation, a little more action, please. Better than any Star Wars fan-fic, at least.


I await 50 Shades of Aragorn.

[Professor Bear]

Fair play BoH is a mopy love triangle about Aragorn's dad, but I found that was why it actually worked.  Just look at all the low-budget SyFy offerings that concentrate on action scenes over their character arcs - BoH rightly concentrates on what can be done well with the cast and the budget available.