DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[Loki]

Blood On Satan's Claw

I think perhaps this film had too much hype for me, but I found it a little bit disappointing. Some great cinematography and some great moments, but the story is a bit of a mess. Didn't have that complete mythos feeling of The Wicker Man. Still good though.

[Vamp]

I saw Blood on Satan's Claw at the BFI a few weeks back. Its a medley of surreal scenes, which meant I really enjoyed it.

[patiirc]

Has anybody else been watching/rewatching the Hammer Horrors on BBC 2 in the early hours of the morning? Them and Witchfinder General (also on) have been the best thing about Christmas by quite a way.

 

Caught a few of them thus far, love it. Are these the remastered efforts or just whatever versions are available?

[Tommy!]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre:

 

I've obviously heard a fair bit about this film, but expected it to fall short. Thankfully I was proven wrong and enjoyed it all the way through.

I liked that it wasn't all gore and had a few things left just out of shot for the imagination to fill in. Some of the moments with the family are intriguingly creepy, particularly when they are all around the table with her tied to a chair.

 

I would say that Franklin has to be the most annoying character in any film ever, so it was a relief to finally have him killed off.

 

Are the sequels/remake worth the time, or are they a bit shit?

 

Frankenstein created woman to finally finish off a Hammer box set. Great fun, Cushing is a joy as the aloof mad scientist and the story of revenge from beyond the grave was fun and played out well enough to keep me watching until the death of Blaketon from Heartbeat.

 

I also watched Street Fighter, which is cosmic as we all know.

[Surf Digby]

Been working through the pile of CEX shite this week. Anything is allowed, so long as it's less than a pound.

 

Red Planet

I remember this getting a slating when it came out, and I can see why. What makes it worse is that it has the potential to be so much better, if had just applied the brakes a bit and not included every idea that popped into the director's head.

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Yes, it's bad that the ship got hit with a solar flare and they had to evacuate. And then they had a bad landing where Terence Stamp died. And the habitation unit was trashed. And the robot decided to go into Predator mode. And one of the crew went all murderous. And there were insects that would burrow into you and eat you from the inside out.

 

[close spoiler]

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Every film set on Mars is going to look like it's shot in a quarry with an orange filter over the lens, but this looks alright. The CGI isn't brilliant, but most of its use is in scenes that the film didn't need.

 

Some Guy Who Kills People

The title made me think of some oddball comedy, filled with "irony", but instead it's a pretty good dark comedy that's played mostly straight. It's framework is the standard "murders in a small middle American town" kind of thing, although has a needlessly inserted "British" woman (a cross between Bridget Jones and a female version of the bumbling Hugh Grant character).

Barry Bostwick is tremendous in it, and the mother is brilliantly unlikable.

 

Super 8

I'm now seeing why people joke about lens flare in JJ Abrams films. That aside, I enjoyed this very much. It has a lot of Spielberg and ET's influence in it, with the low camera angles echoing the children's point of view, and I don't think there's one clear shot of the creature in the whole movie.

[Richie Freebird]

Darkside Blues (1994) made it's way onto my screen last night, and I quite enjoyed it. A Japanese animated sci-fi flick, and (visually at least) quite a cool one. The story was based around an all encompassing corporation controlling almost the entire earth in

Edited December 29, 2013 by Richie Freebird

[Mr_Danger]

Elysium- The film is good but Sharlto Copley is fockin great.

[Surf Digby]

Onwards with the CEX shitefest!

 

Raving Maniacs

Low budget ($10,000 according to IMDB) zombie film set at a rave. It's not good in the slightest, and it doesn't even seem like a labour of love. There's a few unconventional bits thrown in, and some gratuitous girl on girl action for no other reason that it might keep some of the audience attention for that little bit longer, but it's generally just a bunch of mates who wanted to make a film and got their mates involved.

 

Skyline

This is fucking rotten. I don't think I've ever seen a film that had so little to say other than "look how much money we spent on this!" Apparently the commentary track features the directors contradicting each other when trying to explain what's going on. I can't think of one positive point to make about this film. Absolute shit.

[Keith Houchen]

Watched some putrid shite called I Am Number Four the other night. It was one of them when you're round the in laws house and everyone is too polite to mention how cack it is in case someone may be enjoying it.

 

Nobody enjoyed it. After the third can we were honest in our opinion and stuck with it for laughs. Awful film.

[Devon Malcolm]

Watched a bunch over Christmas after the XBox broke:-

 

* Never Let Me Go - Really liked this. Its second half did rely on one idiotic coincidence but I still enjoyed it. Carey Mulligan is some kind of fabulous talent. Wasn't so keen on Andrew Garfield, though.

 

* Young Frankenstein - Quite simply one of the funniest films ever made. Madeline Kahn in this is so good that I'm not sure I've seen many better comedy acting performances.

 

* Hard Candy - Bit disappointing. It wants to pretend to be something a bit more serious minded than it actually is but really it's just some girl torturing some bloke for over an hour. You want to watch that Page, Astro.

 

* Death Wish - Still nowhere near as good as Death Wish 2 but still great fun. Interesting to discover that Sidney Lumet was initially going to direct this with Jack Lemmon and Henry Fonda in Charles Bronson and Vincent Gardenia's roles.

 

* World On A Wire - Went on forever but was well worth it. Cracking bit of virtual reality sci-fi stuff from the Germans. It will bore the shit out of most people, though.

 

* Snake In The Eagle's Shadow - One of Jackie Chan's best. The bit with the cloths under the feet is fucking brilliant.

 

* Sharky's Machine - Quality bit of Burt Reynolds. Good violence.

 

* Last Man Standing - Easily one of Walter Hill's worst. Really dull, wastes a great cast, complete waste of time.

 

* Last Train From Gun Hill - Really good and underrated western with Kirk Douglas. Really deserving of a lot more attention, I thought this was very good indeed with a great ending.

 

* Mr. Majestyk - The one where Charles Bronson is a melon farmer. Fades away a bit towards the end but still good stuff.

 

* Five Easy Pieces - Not as good as I hoped but the scene in the diner is amazing.

[Maverick]

Last Train From Gun Hill is excellent alot of people who know their movies ignore Westerns glad(ers) your not one of them. I only discovered Bad Day at Black Rock on your recommendation and it's in my top five favorite movies now. Robert Ryan is hugely underrated.

[Egg Shen]

Skyline

This is fucking rotten. I don't think I've ever seen a film that had so little to say other than "look how much money we spent on this!" Apparently the commentary track features the directors contradicting each other when trying to explain what's going on. I can't think of one positive point to make about this film. Absolute shit.

wasn't one of the main talking points of Skyline the fact that it cost very little to make though? the director's (who are special effects guys), did it all on a bit of a shoestring budget didnt they?

[niff]

Frozen was great. Best Disney film in quite a while.

 

I was planning on going but then the kids saw it at the cinema as part of someone's birthday party and they loved it, but I didn't fancy on paying full whack again for them so we'll catch it when it's on as a Cineworld

[Surf Digby]

Skyline

This is fucking rotten. I don't think I've ever seen a film that had so little to say other than "look how much money we spent on this!" Apparently the commentary track features the directors contradicting each other when trying to explain what's going on. I can't think of one positive point to make about this film. Absolute shit.

wasn't one of the main talking points of Skyline the fact that it cost very little to make though? the director's (who are special effects guys), did it all on a bit of a shoestring budget didnt they?

$10,000,000 according to IMDB. I wasn't aware that it was so low budget, so fair play to them for being able to make something so overblown and expensively garish looking.

 

Dead Snow

Or D

[bAzTNM#1]

Starting a bit of a DVD watching marathon tonight. Bought a few 50p ones. What should I start with?

 

Revolver (Guy Ritchie), You Me and Dupree or Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker". YOU decide?

 

Cheers!