Last movie watched...

[SmallBlueThing]

Oh, and its a western in the sense that it takes place on an island off the coast of Delaware, where two families control the industry and agriculture. The muldoons are farmers, the o'flynns are fishermen, and both are at odds with the other over their approach to dealing with the zombie problem (now a month or so old). There are no cars on the island, and the iconography and themes are right out of The Big Country.

Into this come the national guardsmen who held up the winnebago in Diary, encouraged by old man o'flynn's promises of a 'safe' eden on the island. Lots of cowboy hats, revolvers and rifles, and horse-chases ensue. And zombie carnage.

SBT

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I watched the remake of The Crazies yesterday and I must say I was impressed.

It was quite tense throughout the whole film, from the baseball scene at the start to the ultimate climax. Okay we have the normal just in time saves here and there but I was well chuffed that the Sheriff was actually quite switched on and we didn't go down the cliche route.

Some disturbing scenes are played out with the military and their quarantine drills that they place upon the town. This also helped it look like a lost case for the Sheriffs wife when she's been quarantined and the infected bloke walks into her ward with the pitch fork 

Great stuff and some shocking scenes take this way above the expected in this genre. I put that down to the gravity of the situation and how the actors all play their parts so well, you really felt for them as the shit hit the fan.

9/10

[brendan1]

Survival Of The Dead is shit.

It's probably less shit than Diary Of The Dead, and about as shit as Land Of The Dead.

Some truly appalling acting, some ropey effects and - unforgiveably for a zombie film - rather unexciting.

Stick with the original classic trilogy of Night, Dawn and Day, and pretend the rest didn't happen.

[Ghastly McNasty]

I watched Horrible Bosses last night. It's very funny actually with some good performances from top names and the 3 lead characters. The most The Hangover like comedy i've seen since well...The Hangover.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I watched the remake of The Crazies yesterday and I must say I was impressed.

It was quite tense throughout the whole film, from the baseball scene at the start to the ultimate climax. Okay we have the normal just in time saves here and there but I was well chuffed that the Sheriff was actually quite switched on and we didn't go down the cliche route.

Some disturbing scenes are played out with the military and their quarantine drills that they place upon the town. This also helped it look like a lost case for the Sheriffs wife when she's been quarantined and the infected bloke walks into her ward with the pitch fork 

Great stuff and some shocking scenes take this way above the expected in this genre. I put that down to the gravity of the situation and how the actors all play their parts so well, you really felt for them as the shit hit the fan.

9/10

Oh! Watching this tonight.

Got 5 DVDs for £5 from Blockbuster: The Box (middling); Triangle (an average Twilight Zone episode); The Crazies (tonight); Buried (Sunday) and Valkyrie (Monday/ Tuesday)

[Professor Bear]

Just finished Batman:Year One http://www.movie2k.to/watch-Batman-Year-One-online.html// an almost panel for panel adaptation of Miller & Mazzucchelli's story. Enjoyed it,but while all reference to Gordon smoking was omitted, they had no problem including an under age prostitute stabbing Wayne in the leg.

I guess if you just want a verbatim adaptation - and given how whiny the nerd contingent can get about comic book adaptations and the concessions made for wider audiences I don't doubt there are many people who do - Batman: Year One is fine, but if you want something that works as a film that you could show to someone else and expect them to appreciate it as the same kind of paradigm shift that the comic book was in its day, this is not that.
After BtAS, Batman Begins, Dark Knight - hell, even the Burton gothic campfests - this kind of story is just irrelevant to a wider audience as they already know that Batman isn't like the 1960s tv show.  If this was a free dvd with the graphic novel it would probably be fine, but as something in and of itself?  Nah.

Although I do feel compelled to point out that the execution creates some inadvertent changes to the material, particularly a more modern Gotham than is seen in the comic - which is a shame given that the pseudo-Eastern European look and muted colour scheme (the 'toon is typical bright cartoony cel colours) of Mazzucchelli's Gotham was an aesthetic masterstroke as much a factor of the book's enduring appeal as Miller's script.

[Roger Godpleton]

Well apparently Bryan Cranston who is in Year One had no idea that Batman wasn't like the 60s show so once again the Prof is wrong.

[SpetsnaZ99]

Watched Cool As Ice the vanilla ice story.
Christ on a bike, what a waste of time. I may as well have just painted my eyeballs with HP sauce. Apparently you shouldnt drink or swear in order to look cool but it's ok to ride high powered motorbikes next to horses and pickpocket peoples diaries.

[JamesC]

Heh - I quite like Cool as Ice! Especially when he says 'Let's Gee Oh' instead of 'Let's Go'.

I watched 'Stake Land' and 'Attack the Block' last night. Both were ok but nothing special.

The former had little character development and no real plot. I think it was supposed to be more about the mood and the bleak apocalyptic desperateness of the situation. It pissed me off right at the start though and didn't win me back over again - suffice to say I don't really want to see infant death or rape in my escapist genre fiction thanks.
They weren't even proper vampires anyway, just rubbish zombie type things, and the main baddie was fucking shite.

Attack the Block was better but it wasn't really very funny and wasn't scary. The best thing about it was the monster design which I thought was great. The young actors weren't up to much but the main lady was very good - I though it was Sarah Smart but it was someone who looks very similar.
The story was very formulaic but it entertained well enough. It felt a bit like a kids horror film in parts.
I'd definitely watch it again if it came on telly. 

[Rog69]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not the kind of movie to go and see on a late showing after a couple of beers and a very long week.

How I managed to stay awake through it is a miracle, it was like watching brown paint dry for 2 hours.

[Zarjazzer]

Thor finally, didn't take itself too seriously and that was a good thing -sets and CGI landscapes looked good and quite "cosmic maahN" in it's own trippy way especially the LSD bridge.  Enjoyable hour and fifty mins.

[brendan1]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not the kind of movie to go and see on a late showing after a couple of beers and a very long week.

How I managed to stay awake through it is a miracle, it was like watching brown paint dry for 2 hours.

Did you not have some idea what to expect?

[klute]

Y

It's what, ten years old now? Back then, Glee didnt exist, and i'll happily let you know it's nothing like it!

Not Glee specifically, just what Glee is in general, as I'm pretty sure the cover old songs in a new story approach was a well-trodden path before MR got there otherwise it wouldn't have been the basis for two Xena episodes, and at least one episode of some late 80s hospital drama whose name escapes me.

I've nowt against musicals, either - in my opinion anyone who does not like Muppet Christmas Carrol is dead inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpb9EbmvM5M

The hospital drama wouldn't be chicago hope would it?

[brendan1]

"Hanna"

Drivel.

"POTC - On Stranger Tides"

Drivel. Despite Depp's always interesting and endearing presence, and Cruz's tits.

[SmallBlueThing]

The Exorcist III

Havent seen this in a few years, and we had a craving tonight. Gorgeous film, that even with the infamous studio-fiddling (reshoots shoving Nicol Williamson in it, as studio heads were alarmed a movie with 'exorcist' in the title didnt actually have an exorcism in it) manages to appear perfectly-pitched.

It's very clever, magnificently intense, has a powerhouse central turn from George C Scott (who shines whenever he opens his mouth, but especially in scenes with Ed Flanders and Jason Miller) and a couple of sequences that stay with you long after the end credits.

21 years ago, at the UK premier (Splatterfest 90, at the much-missed Scala) i sat with 300 or so other hardcore horror fans and watched a mexican wave of sheer horror go through the audience at the infamous corridor sequence. It's lost none of its power two decades on, and later when nursey pulls the enormous shiny head-cutter-offers out of her bag, i once again very nearly shit myself.

Ive never liked the original particularly- Mark Kermode (he'd, thankfully, be on The Gemini Killer's list, due to his second initial. That's karma, that is) may call it 'the best horror film ever made', but to me it's always been a mildly fascinating sub-hammer infrequently unsettling experience. But then, i grew up with no religious beliefs- so satan, or pazuzu, or whatever you like to call him here, is just another horror monster like Dracula or Jason Voorhees. Exorcist III somehow manages to overcome this and be extremely frightening for its entire length.

Based on the novel 'Legion' by Blatty (who wrote and directed this), the trailer reveals it came very close to having that subtitle in the final cut- and reminds me that, when announced, one uk paper reported it would feature 'a legion of exorcists fighting the devil'. Presumably as some kind of brilliant tag team.

Anyway, Exorcist III: bloody genius.

SBT