Last movie watched...

[Famous Mortimer]

Still The Enemy Within

Won an award at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, but I hadn't got round to watching it til it came for a special showing in my little town. Absolutely brilliant, the wasteland of large parts of the country around me (and everywhere, really) show the extent that the Tories wanted to destroy organised workers. Congrats, you bastards! Great documentary.

[shaolin_monkey]

Herbie Fully Loaded.  It says something about my cynicism that I thought this was about some sort of Cheech and/or Chong-style weed-smoking drugs mule making a dash for the Mexican/American border in a banger full of narcotics instead of an entry in a series of slapstick kids' films about some sort of ghost car, but in my defence, the lead is played by Lindsey Lohan, so I feel justified in my mean-spirited assumptions.
Anyway, it's more like HERBIE FULL OF SHITE on account of it is not very good, although I don't think the film I thought it was would have been any better, not that we'll ever know unless Kevin Smith makes the next one.
Lohan has really big knockers, though, so if you like that kind of thing you might enjoy this more than I did.

Thanks Bear, that sounds right up my street!

[ZenArcade]

A firm womanly busom being a prerequisite for a good movie, Bear. Z

I hope we can have your presence at the monthly discussion group meeting at the Europa on Saturday?

[Hawkmumbler]

Currently watching Tenebrae (1982) by Argento. First time viewing and it's the last movie in his pantheon I needed to complete. And half way in it's utterly superb.

[Radbacker]

Jupiter Ascending, more like Jupiter Ass-ending!! amirite!!
Nah good bit of Sci-fi fun, some lovely design and probably the closest we're ever going to get to seeing some classical space opera on the screen, imagine a Banks Culture novel done with this sort of attention to detail.  Wachoski's rock, loved Cloud Atlas too.

CU Radbacker

[Keef Monkey]

Saw a whole bunch of movies at Frightfest (missed the first two so can't comment), here are my short impressions -

Wyrmwood was an instant cult classic, full of mad ideas, a great sense of humour, and a quite frankly astonishing lead actress. Film of the fest for me, hilarious and badass Mad Max meets Evil Dead 2 riot of a movie.

88 had some reaĺly great moments but the action scenes didn't float my boat and I found the narrative gimmick grated a bit as it went on. Worked best in its dramatic moments.

The Asylum (or Exeter as it seems to be called online) had me on the backfoot due to a hackneyed premise (teens party in abandoned asylum, one gets possessed oh god not another fucking glossy exorcism movie etc.) but then surprised me by being a total riot with a really witty script, some great gore gags and a cracking sense of comic timing. Over - reliance on constant never ending jump scares and furious sound design meant that by the last chunk I was totally numbed to it and sort of just wanted it to stop though. That first hour was brilliant though!

Clown - Fun and surprisingly dark, like a modern day Grimm tale. Had Eli Roth involved in some capacity but he didn't seem to have written or directed it, which I've found is usually the best form of Eli Roth involvement.

Blood & Black Lace - Looked pretty, but I always find the traditional restored oldie slot of FF quite dull to be honest. The giallo thing doesn't seem to do anything for me either, just a stream of victims and no suspense. Missed half an hour in the middle and didn't mind.

The Woods Movie - I was obsessed with The Blair Witch Project when it came out, and have always thought it one of the most interesting film - making stories out there. Might be because I devoured every bit of info I could find at the time, but this doc didn't really have anything new to say about it. The stuff I hoped they would cover in detail (how the crew messed with the cast and what the alternative endings looked like) weren't featured at all. Oh well.

The Treatment - Oh man was this a dark and uncomfortable watch. Didn't feel particularly Frightfesty - not a horror film but a detective drama/thriller about the hunt for a serial child killer/rapist, so not exactly a barrel of laughs. Very good, very uncomfortable and occasionally feels like the detective's only deduction method is to escalate to shouting instantly and then get dragged away by colleagues.

[REC] Apocalypse - Saw the first film at my first FF knowing nothing about it and it completely blew my mind. Probably the most terrifying horror movie of the last decade for me reckon. Loved 2 as well and thought it continued the series brilliantly but then felt like Genesis was just sort of OK and a bit of a pointless side story that diverged too much from the panicky nerve shredding of the first two.

Anyway, I was really hoping this final film would be a return to the RECs of old, and for the most part it really is. Picks up after 2, is intense and action packed and will happily sit alongside 1&2 in that trilogy. One complaint - something I found incredible in the original was the clarity of the action, that despite it being found footage they managed to do the POV and shakeycam thing without sacrificing readability. Whenever things kick off in Apocalypse that skill for clarity of action just isn't apparent, the editing and camera work are so hyperactive that it's all a bit of a blur. It's a shame really. There's also one CG monkey shot that I didn't like and wish they'd gotten around.

That aside though I loved it, and at several points felt that particular blend of panic and terror that only [REC] seems to give me (the sound design on the infected is horribly intense). Also it's fantastic to see Manuela Velasco back and on a big screen. Too much swoon for words.

There Are Monsters - This wee low budget Body Snatchers riff came out of nowhere and creeped the bejeezus out of me. Such an unsettling premise and the scares really seemed to click with me, not ashamed to admit I was a little terrified at times. It's a weird approach to found footage where on one hand they go way overboard with the shakeycam, out of focus and image/audio glitchyness, then on the other hand they just abandon that conceit a load of times just to get shots from cameras that aren't present. That was a bit distracting, but not a deal breaker because I went home totally on edge and given how rarely a film actually scares me that's very well played.

[Hawkmumbler]

Gotta disagree with you on Blood and Black Lace, Keef. It's one of my fabourites and I have limitless love for the Giallo genre. Yes it's an acquired taste but the oft phenomenal visuals generated by Bava and Argento (adored Tenebrae the other night. A new favourite perhaps.) and genuinly queasy special effects in Bay of Blood, Suspiria, Phenomena, and Baron Blood amongst others make for some fun viewing.

Nice to hear Clowns getting a good rep, i'm quite intruiged by it myself.

[Keef Monkey]

Gotta disagree with you on Blood and Black Lace, Keef. It's one of my fabourites and I have limitless love for the Giallo genre. Yes it's an acquired taste but the oft phenomenal visuals generated by Bava and Argento (adored Tenebrae the other night. A new favourite perhaps.) and genuinly queasy special effects in Bay of Blood, Suspiria, Phenomena, and Baron Blood amongst others make for some fun viewing.

Nice to hear Clowns getting a good rep, i'm quite intruiged by it myself.

Yeah, with the Giallo thing I am really aware that it's down to taste. My comment here sounds overly flippant about it, they just don't seem to be my thing really! The film did look beautiful, and I loved Suspiria but I've not seen anything else that has matched that for me (I did really enjoy Amer, which seemed to be a real homage to the genre). Will seek out Tenebrae and give that a try.

I guess I just felt the set-up was overly familiar and because I didn't find the killer frightening and wasn't interested in any of the characters it just felt a bit flat and dull. It also possibly suffers a bit for being such an early example of that sort of thing, maybe because I've seen a ton of slasher movies that came since and were influenced by it, actually going back and seeing the early stuff for the first time now they can feel really cliched and derivative (even though the opposite is true), which is unfortunate. They suffer in front of a first time viewer for having been so influential I guess.

[Hawkmumbler]

Yes, I get you, it's all horses for courses isn't it. Personly I find them to have more flavour and robustness to tem than the typical western slasher film. Giallo are more or less a sum of several different genres gelling together to different degrees. Horror, supernatural suspense, murder mystery, and glam. Susperia is the hight of the genre and mixess all four elements perfectly IMHO.

Indeed, in 90% of the films I have guessed who the murderer is off the bat, the only one's I haven't twigged on to are some of the more shitty, bargin bin titles like Sisters of Ursula, Torso, and Formula for a Murder. Should be noted that I still enjoy a lot of these titles for what they are.

Though if you didn't gel with Blood and Black Lace, Tenebrae won't have anything for you. I'd say check out Inferno or Phenomena instead. Bonkers, the pair of them.

[Richmond Clements]

John Wick. After seeing The Raid redefine action cinema, I was curious to see what the next big thing after it would be. And here it is. With it's long tracking shots of the action and the music building as a fight scene progresses, the influence of The Raid is clear.
However this is its own beast. Brilliant and exhilarating.

[JamesC]

John Wick. After seeing The Raid redefine action cinema, I was curious to see what the next big thing after it would be. And here it is. With it's long tracking shots of the action and the music building as a fight scene progresses, the influence of The Raid is clear.
However this is its own beast. Brilliant and exhilarating.

Yep, cracking film.

[Ghastly McNasty]

Must have slipped under my radar when first released - last night I saw the 2013 movie Coherence. Can't say too much about it as it feels like a bit of an extended Twighlight Zone episode and any spoliers will ruin it but wow, great film.

The obligatory character introductions at the start along with some silly framing shots are worth wading through for a complete gem of a sci-fi movie that's full of tension, paranoia and WTF aplenty. A really clever and creepy movie.

[Spikes]

I availed myself of HMV's '3 for £20' offer yesterday, and bought a few Blu-ray's.
And watched a couple last night.
World War Z, which I haven't seen since watching it in the cinema. Not perfect, but still very watchable. And the extended cut, whilst offering nowt really spectacular, is good.

And No Country for all Men (packaged with True Grit as a double disc) is simply perfection.

[Goaty]

Double bills of awesome Serenity and Predators on FilmFour in few mins.

[Famous Mortimer]

That's Adequate! (1989)

Bruce Willis, Robert Downey Jr, Ben Stiller

Listed as 1986 in the credits, it reminds me of what I imagine "Movie 43" is like - a whole bunch of sketches with people who were asked to do favours for the producer, where a camera would turn up at the actual movie they were working on for 20 minutes and have them film a bit of something. This is a mockumentary about Adequate Films, and it's a combination of heavily re-edited public domain footage, sketches masquerading as clips from their many films and TV shows, and interviews with the people involved. Quite a lot of it's improvised as well.

It's a strange one, as you'd think with just those names involved, someone would have re-released it down the years, but it's on VHS and nothing else. If you can track it down, it's worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0icnaxzOnA (the Robert Downey Jr sketch, "Einstein On The Bounty")