Last movie watched...

[Eric Plumrose]

It's tantamount to "humanising" the ultimate horror bad guys and therefore, I reckon, is stupid . . . If "Bub" is the whole point of the film then Romero became shite earlier than I'd previously given him credit for.

Been several years since I last watched DAY so I might be misremembering. Bub's champion and mentor, however, is portrayed as a bit of loon and one whose philosophy and methods are opposed by the lead character, yes?

[Spikes]

Just watched alien vs predator 2 and I loved it...

I enjoy the AVP flicks more than most, particularly the much maligned second film. Don't know why folks rag on them so much.

I dont mind the AvP films, ...well, actually i do, they be pants of the highest order, but ill usually watch them when they pop up on telly. Think the whole Giger Alien by this point is pretty worthless, but the Predator is still good value for money. Gotta say though, the 2nd AvP is just too dark, you can hardly make owt out..
and that hospital scene with the heavily pregnant women, im not that squeamish, but blimey....

[HdE]

Just watched alien vs predator 2 and I loved it...

I enjoy the AVP flicks more than most, particularly the much maligned second film. Don't know why folks rag on them so much.

I think the first movie loses something with every re-watch, personally... but the second is a solid effort. The only issue I have with it is the brutal offing of the kid and the woman in teh maternity ward. That stuff was just gratuitous and added nothing to the story.

On the plus side - Predator power punch makes me grin from ear to ear!

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

It was called 'Two Headed Shark.'

It was on the Sci Fy Channel.

Women in Bikini's got eaten a lot by the two headed shark in gloriously bad, cgi splat deaths.

Then protagonist was a female who was afraid of water after 'child hood trauma' at the Beach. She overcame her fear to [spoiler]destroy the two headed cgi shark[/spoiler]. Another actor unfortunate enough to be in this Movie-and last to the end helped her.

Carmen Elecktra tried to out act the wooden deck but failed.

If you ever see this film and keep your sanity your a better man/woman than dribble boy here.

[Tiplodocus]

ULZANA'S RAID
A pretty bleak and ponderous (by today's standards) but ultimately awesome 1972 western from Robert Aldritch.  Burt Lancaster looks like he's carved straight out of the rocks of Arizona and I don't think I've ever seen Bruce Davison look so young as they bandy about race and the nature of man. There are some fantastic lines despite the nihilistic tone ("I ain't about to argue with an Apache about horse shit" "He ain't fixing to fight you. He just wants to kill you").

[House of Usher]

Last night I watched Day of the Dead (2008). It was really terrible. I went to bed before it ended.

[SmallBlueThing]

Last night I watched Day of the Dead (2008). It was really terrible. I went to bed before it ended.

Good man. Now please never, ever, try to watch it a second time "just to see if it's as bad as you remember". I did this, and am forever sorry. It is a complete load of old shit.

Now then, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

I hadn't seen this in years (or even decades, possibly) and wanted my boys to experience it before they got too old and lost that naivety that I think is essential for the first viewing. Watching it through the wide-open eyes of my eight year old and (especially) my seven year old, I gained a whole new appreciation of Whale's masterpiece. And it really is a masterpiece.

If you've never seen Bride, or maybe think it a stuffy and ancient, clumsy, primitive attempt at filmmaking from the very early days of Hollywood, with nothing to interest the modern viewer, raised on Tim Burton, Scorcese, Star Wars and Michael Bay... then you're wrong. And possibly a twat. The Bride of Frankenstein is never more than one scene from something so jaw-droppingly audacious and entertaining that it will burn itself into your head forever. There's a reason people harp-on about it being "the superior sequel" and why my old film teacher called it "the best horror film ever made", bless him. The riches are abundant, the performances incredible- Dr Praetorius alone is worth it- a camp, threatening, archly-predatory and bitchy nasal old queen who tries to literally drag Henry Frankenstein from his marital bed with the promise of a much better way of making new life than boring old sex with a woman. Praetorius wants Henry Frankenstein to assist him in his diabolical experiments- and the scene in which those experiments are revealed is not only an absolutely eye-watering example of effects brilliance, but also the moment you can watch a first-time viewer lose their mind and wonder just what the hell they've let themselves in for.

As you'd expect for this type of thing, the scenery is beautiful- entirely studio-bound and looking at least three times more fantastic than the humdrum cack that Tim Burton's bored set designer could paint-by-numbers on his best day. Just check out those backdrops and the care that's gone into those fake forests! Look at that entirely convincing gentle hill outside the blind violinist's hut... and yes, it's here that we see that scene much parodied in later movies. The monster meets the blind man and makes a friend. Only it's funnier than Mel Brookes would have you think years later- and here's the point: It's supposed to be, because Bride is an awesomely dark comedy. So the monster smokes cigars, drinks wine and learns to talk- and just when you worry that he's become a figure of fun, does some awful things that remind you just what he is. And through it all Karloff gives him a pathos and a dignity that Hollywood still tries to ape with their creatures, and never quite manages.

I don't think Bride misses a note. Elsa Lanchester's double-role is perfectly judged- her creature is a droolsome beauty given to birdlike head movements, who stares startled at a world she can't understand and then, tragically, can only scream at how ugly it is. You can build the perfect woman, but you can't make her do what you want, or love who you want her to love- as an expression of early feminist cinema from a gay director, it's pretty spot-on and powerful.

Watching it through the eyes of the kids, I saw them react to all the right bits. They backed the monster completely. "Oh no, Franky, get away, run!" said the youngest when Karloff was in peril, "Why don't they understand he just wants a friend?". I reckon I saw the exact moment- for Bela at least- where he fell in love with monsters- just like his mum and dad did all those years ago. With luck, he'll never need any other type of movie as long as he lives.

SBT

[HOO-HAA]

Watched DEMONS. 80s zombie trash and what the hell's wrong with that, I ask you?

Got the second one ready and lined up for late night viewing. Meanwhile, Ms HOO-HAA and I are loving a bit of ANGEL rewatching. Noir and vampires and pretty much the birth of Urban Fantasy, I'd say. Great stuff.

[DeFuzzed]

The Irrefutable Truth about Demons

Because it has Karl Urban in it and made in NZ, around the time of LOTR maybe. It's about a college professor, a doctor of anthropology, who is obsessed over his brother's death, believing it to have been due to Satanists.

Interesting, entertaining. Not a high budget horror, at all, but who cares. There's blood and monsters, chains and chainsaws, nekkid women, quite a bit of Urban skin too, insects, crazy, crazy talk.

And going by the behind-the-scenes feature, those insects in a certain orifice was real. Crazy actor.

[Mardroid]

Gotta say though, the 2nd AvP is just too dark, you can hardly make owt out..

That's my main problem with that film. I attempted to watch it for the second time the other night and lost interest partly because of that. (The other reason was that I missed a bit doing something in the other room.)

I don't dislike the AvP films as a whole though. The Wolf Predator in AvP:R was a pretty cool tough character. And I have a soft spot for the first AvP film with the Antarctic pyramid although I think the predators are a bit too big and having the lady outside in the Antarctic cold wearing just a thin top* was ridiculous.  [spoiler]I wonder if she just froze to death after all that trouble, and being awarded a telescopic Predator spear too! The preds could have dropped her off somewhere at least, but I guess they're not really into that... unless they're going to make a go of it  collect a few more skulls and spinal columns.[/spoiler] I suppose it could be argued that heat from the Pyramid heat-source leaked outside....

*Well, not just a thin top, she had trousers too. Heh.

[SmallBlueThing]

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

Twenty years on from Bride of Frankenstein, and Universal finally complete their set of classic monsters, with the gillman. Most surprising things this time were the blatant sexuality of the creature's famous swim with the object of his affection, and his very scary 'crocodile death roll' treatment of his victims in the second half. The creature costume is, from a design point of view, flawless- with it being most effective when the 'land' version (with proper eyes) is submerged in the water cage, and it becomes a little too uncomfortably lifelike; and again when it stalks into big close-up for the only time, bladders pumping his gills open and shut maniacally. He's just gorgeous. Both boys loved this one too, and have gone to bed to play 'gillman vs frankenstein' upstairs.
They're going to freak tomorrow, when they watch House of Frankenstein!

SBT

[Dandontdare]

Roger Corman's 1994 Fantastic Four movie. They only made it because otherwise the studio would lose the rights, and it was never actually released, so you can only find poor quality bootlegs online.

So fair enough, it's cheap and the effects aren't very good, but I've gotta say I enjoyed it easily as much as those multi-million dollar turds we got later. Dr Doom camps it up a bit too much,  but at least he LOOKS like Doom; and Reed's stretchiness only seems to affect his right arm in a straight line, but it's goofy fun.

Biggest WTF moment comes near the end - Doom  has fired his diamond-focused laser death-ray at New York from his castle (presumably in Latveria, but I don't think the location is ever mentioned) - all seems lost! So after a brief chat, Johnny Storm flames on, takes off really slowly and then CHASES AFTER AND OVERTAKES THE FUCKING LASER BEAM  He turns and then somehow stops the beam - by SHOOTING FIRE AT IT  - the beam and flames struggle, but gradually he manages to push the beam back, all the way across the Atlantic where it blows up Doom's death-ray machine.

[JOE SOAP]

Good thing they never told the crew that it was never intended to be released otherwise it wouldn't have come out as good as it did.

In the end the ploy worked for Constantin Films as they ended up co-producing the last two big-budget F4 films 10 years later.

[Professor Bear]

Roger Corman's 1994 Fantastic Four movie. They only made it because otherwise the studio would lose the rights

Hey now, rights-squatting has got us cinematic classics such as Superman Returns and X-Men First Class!  And also the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, though its quality remains unknown beyond generic and noisy trailers.
Never really had a problem with the later F4 movies myself, though granted they weren't classics.  Fun and inoffensive, all the same.

If you liked Corman's take on superheroics, give the Black Scorpion movies a gander - they're pretty low quality, but Corman was clearly trying to invent his own mainstream franchise by this stage instead of just churning out shlocky B-movies for a living.  I am in no way only recommending you check the movies/series out (I recall the lot costing less than fifteen quid on dvd a few years ago) because 90 percent of the supervillains are played by Penthouse and Playboy centerfolds, oh no - there were episodes where Adam West played a bad guy called Breathtaker (who goes around breathing heavily, but given his co-stars I don't blame him, etc etc) and what comics fan could resist seeing that kind of ham?

[JOE SOAP]

Hey now, rights-squatting has got us cinematic classics such as Superman Returns and X-Men First Class!  And also the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, though its quality remains unknown beyond generic and noisy trailers.

Good thing Disney never gave a shite about Dredd.