Last movie watched...

[Frank]

that woman's film

Germaine Greer left your shores before her work was complete.

[JamesC]

that woman's film

Germaine Greer left your shores before her work was complete.

I wouldn't do Germaine Greer.

[Frank]

I don't think you're in her age range.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/11/highereducation.news2

[TordelBack]

that woman's film

Germaine Greer left your shores before her work was complete.

Well they do say it's never done...

Good link to an interesting-sounding book, Sauchie - may have to look that one up.

[Mardroid]

The House of the Devil

It seems the Horror channel is back on my Virgin Cableservice (I think it's usually a 'pay for' extra, but occasionally it'll apear for a couple of weeks for free then buzz off) and I noticed this was on.

I decided to give it a watch. A curious film. Not particularly original in premise but it pulled me in just the same.What I found interesting is that it had a very 80s feel to it down to the style of acting and the clothing and technology. (The girl uses a telephone box* to make calls and gets out a big chunky walkman at one point.)  I checked the film's description and was curious to see it actually came out in 2009!

Obvioiusly it was something they were specifically going for.

It's a slow burner. Takes ages for anything to much top happen, although it ramps up the creepiness and unease. Yet it didn't bore me like some of these films do.

Big spoilers ahead.

[spoiler]When the real nastiness happens it's quite close to the end. And while it didn't disappoint in some ways (I thought the elderly 'mother' character who briefly appears was a rather scary looking creature. That's witch make-up done right. Or wrong, depending on how you look at it. And that blood contamination thing was... ugh....) it could have been better. The main character escaped too easily for my liking and I think a couple of the baddies could have proven more of a challenge although it was thrilling to see the main protagonist turn the tables on them. She's not just another screaming victim that's for sure.

But I wished for a twist at the end. I didn't think it would happen... then right at the end.... hmmm. Interesting.[/spoiler]

Not a perfect film by any means. Rather predictable in places but genuinely interesting, and definitely worth a watch I'd say. I'd like to give it another go. Maybe pick up the DVD. While I followed most of it, my attention was elsewhere on occasion.

[Link Prime]

The House of the Devil

It's an excellent modern horror.
And yes, the 80's setting and appearance is exactly what West was going for.
Worth checking out his other slow-burner gem The Innkeepers, and disturbing contribution to anthology V/H/S too.

I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to see his latest, The Sacrament.

[JamesC]

Rambo - First Blood Part 2

Hadn't seen this in years and enjoyed it. I wasn't aware that James Cameron had co-written the screenplay. This was released in 1985 so would've come between The Terminator and Aliens.
The film features some terrible performances - mainly from actors putting on dodgy accents - but Stallone does his action hero with a heart schtick very well and the villains are suitably 'boo - hiss' worthy.
Good fun but very much of its time.

[Mardroid]

I'm not gonna spoiler tag this one as I dont think it's worth it, but big spoilers ahoy, if you care.

Nude Nuns with Big Guns


Um. Yeah. That is the name. I accidentally typed "Nude guns" to start with. Utter trash.  Gratuitous boobage. (As you'd imagine from the title, although the title character doesnt walk around naked all the time with guns, although she does get her kit off quite a bit). And did they have to show that amount of rape? Okay it was the bad guys that did it and they got their comeuppance (although the guy who did most of the raping in the film - a big dude called Kickstarter, or something like that) got off pretty light being killed out right with a single shot, but they seemed to wish to make it titillating. At least they didn't make the victims appear to enjoy it.

And that bit with the boss at the end. Dear me. He had it coming I guess but did they have to show that? Yes they shot it off. And showed it fall to the floor. Ouch!

Yeah. Nasty rubbish.

Any good points:

some amusement factor I guess.

A pair of huge beautiful revolvers. Really lovely.

Seeing a fully garbed nun walking around blazing away with a Tommy gun tickled my sense of humour.

[Professor Bear]

Rambo - First Blood Part 2

The film features some terrible performances - mainly from actors putting on dodgy accents - but Stallone does his action hero with a heart schtick very well and the villains are suitably 'boo - hiss' worthy.

I love the bit where the pilot looks behind him while flying and sees Rambo coming towards him from the back of the helicopter, so he jumps out because he's heard of people surviving falls from thousands of feet in the air but he's not heard of anyone surviving Rambo.

I also liked the episode of the cartoon spin-off where Rambo fought communists by teaming up with a guy in a red suit lined with white fur who lived at the North Pole making toys.

[Tiplodocus]

Planet Terror

No, I just didn't get the "joke" though I'm sure it was funny to Rodriguez and Tarantino when they were passed one night.

[Frank]

Nude Nuns with Big Guns

That's unfair: the title tricked you into thinking it was a classy sequel to Doubt.

[HdE]

Last night, I sat through 'Perfect Blue' which is widely acclaimed as an anime classic.

I found it wildly over-rated. And sloppily written.

When you have to look up a wikipedia article or check through DVD extras just to glean important tidbits of information THAT ARE NOT DISCLOSED OR EVEN HINTED AT in the main feature, that is truly abysmal writing, and awful film making.

Not a film I wish to sit through again, sadly, unlike Kon's 'Paprika' or 'Millennium Actress'. Which is a shame, because even despite a pretty horrible DVD transfer, some of the animation in this movie is amazing. 

[Professor Bear]

It's deliberate that not everything is told to the audience, as that would be to betray that Perfect Blue is largely a POV story told by an unreliable narrator.  Darran Aaronofsky's remake, Black Swan spells things out much more clearly, though.

[Keef Monkey]

The House of the Devil

It's an excellent modern horror.
And yes, the 80's setting and appearance is exactly what West was going for.
Worth checking out his other slow-burner gem The Innkeepers, and disturbing contribution to anthology V/H/S too.

I'm eagerly awaiting the chance to see his latest, The Sacrament.

The Sacrament is great, I loved it. Very different to something like House Of The Devil and a completely different kind of horror, but still bloody scary. The core performance is stunning too, really makes the whole thing. Still to get around to The Innkeepers, keep seeing it on Netflix but waiting for a suitably late/dark evening to really do it right!

Watched Monsters' University last night, hadn't really bothered with it because I loved the first film so much but in that way that I didn't really see them adding anything with another film (and without Boo I didn't see how it could have the heart of the first one). It was brilliant, really funny and full of heart. Young Mike was amazing!

[HdE]

It's deliberate that not everything is told to the audience, as that would be to betray that Perfect Blue is largely a POV story told by an unreliable narrator.  Darran Aaronofsky's remake, Black Swan spells things out much more clearly, though.

A decision not to spoon-feed the dramatic import of events to the audience, I can appreciate. In this case, however, important background details on the characters simply were not disclosed within the narrative. At all. Nor was enough evidence supplied to suggest WHY certain things might be happening to the characters. An example would be that Mima's agent supposedly had a failed career herself, which influences her attitude towards Mima. I didn't pick up on that at all.

At first that made me feel like I must be an inattentive viewer. Then I realised it was just down to muddy storytelling.  We're too often shown the 'what' of things with almost no hint of the 'why'.

My personal feeling on the movie is that it skirts awfully close to just being a sequence of things that happen, incomprehensibly in places, and relies too much on the audience to piece it all together. It tries to show more than it tells, and any time you mess with that balance in a narrative, you court disaster. 

Excuse the rant - I just get VERY annoyed when I see this sort of thing flagged up regularly as top tier entertainment. I prize clarity and follow-able plotlines far more than these kinds of head-melter narratives.