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


Devon Malcolm

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1 hour ago, Scott Malbranque said:

The cinema with the symphony gigs are great, @Onyx2, seriously.

Oh I'm beside myself with anticipation being a fucking huge Star Wars mark (it's where my forum name came from, once upon a time) and John Williams is just mind blowing. A wizard. 

I'm worried I'm starting too high, as it's London Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall. I'm going to be a fucking stain on the seat by the time Han gets his medal. 

(I think @johnnyboyis going too) 

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My only problem with the Ghostbusters reboot was that it was a reboot. Fucking needless, and uncreative. They could've easily done a Ghostbusters III and made the women Ghostbusters TNG. There was still room for us to have our cake and eat it - the original guys we all know and love, passing on the torch to an excellent new crew played by really good actresses, and nostalgic call-backs.

A friend of mine recently came up with an excellent idea for such a film. After the whole Vigo thing, the Ghostbusters have gone from strength to strength, and now, around thirty years later, they're a massive corporation with franchises all over the world. The third film would be set in Boston or Chicago or San Francisco or Salem - wherever that has a good ghost-story culture about it. At this point, Zeddemore, being the quiet guy he is, is now a silent partner, collecting his pay-cheques, and Stantz and Venkmann are the ones going around approving the franchises, like the containment systems, particle-throwers, nuclear accelerators, and traps. Spengler hasn't been seen since he went missing on some field excursion project, and nobody knows where he is despite extensive searching. Dana (not Zuul) is also an exec, having been cut into the company given how much crap she was put through, and she's been an effective CEO running the company while her son is a junior exec on the board. The four women from the reboot are the new prospective franchisees for, let's say, Boston. 

Unfortunately, Venkmann is still a sleazy, obnoxious (but hilarious) prick, and he makes things difficult for our new heroes, and Stantz, as ever, is oblivious as he's still fascinated by the paranormal - and he's particularly impressed by the new-and-improved systems built by the new team's technician. Maybe do some thing about the system having some kind of supernatural WiFi/Cloud system that keeps them contained in a satellite or something. It's clear this new team is really very good - they're organised, disciplined, highly adept with ghost-catching tech. Their Ectomobile (custom-designed nowadays for Ghostbusters franchises) is a sleek, bad-ass piece of kit that still retains some affectionate design vestiges of Ecto-1, but it's clearly a vastly superior vehicle.

All of a sudden, the new containment system reads out a message on its display: "GONE." People start freaking out - has the containment system broken? Have the few ghosts they've caught as a test for the system got out? Venkmann, of course, takes this as a sign that the new guys are incompetent and withholds approval, but Stantz decides it's necessary to stick around and take a look at what's going on. 

As the storyline builds up, it becomes increasingly clear that a major threat is on the horizon, possibly a demon, and that's when the message GONE re-arranges to become EGON. He's stuck in the containment unit, trying to get a message out about the threat. 

 

***********

 

At this point, I liked the idea so much, I thought about ways this could be expanded and provide openings for various bits and bobs.

 - As the story progresses, have the message on the containment start reading "GOZER GONE". That ramps up the panic level, and also provides an opening for Dana to show up to share her extensive experience, and also haul Venkmann back into line, and to get Zeddemore out of retirement to provide both the everyman advice/perspective and extra muscle. Maybe explain the re-emergence of Gozer is what Spengler was investigating in his trip to Iraq when he sadly was killed.

- When Gozer finally shows up, he/she asks, say, Melissa McCarthy's character: "Are you a god?" to which she immediately replies "Yeah!" Zeddemore looks on approvingly. Of course, this doesn't stop Gozer trying to kill them.

- Ray screws up again. "THE CHOICE IS MADE" rings out again, and they all look at Ray. "Seriously?! We've gotta fight Stay Puft again?!" To which he shakes his head dejectedly and says: "No - I just remembered Gozer AS the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man." Meaning Stay Puft reappears, but is now triple the size and looks grotesque and malevolent. 

- Maybe have rivals from the new crew on the original New York chapter show up, chasing a ghost (that turns out to be Slimer again) that escaped them back in their city. They're obnoxious (because of their Founding Chapter status, amongst other things) and overly macho in a cliché Clint Eastwood way, stepping on the Boston guys' turf. Or they could be a parody of the original four. They're also terrible at their job, and as a result end up causing a load of problems trying to catch Slimer - and the Boston crew end up having to do their job for them. It also provides a way for the heroes to have a little extra back-up to deal with Ultra-Gozer when things get really bad (and the NY lot finally learn to be a bit competent).

- Have a bit in the resolution where Egon's spirit somehow helps in defeating Gozer, before disappearing into the ether. Would be a nice, poignant moment, especially if they could do some CGI magic with some old Harold Ramis footage.

- The ghost of Walter Peck. Shows up at some point, and he's a floating torso. "Told you this man has no dick", says Venkmann.

 

 

I'm well aware that some or all of these ideas might seem abhorrent to some. They were basically just things I thought would've been great to see. A reboot meant that we missed out on so much that could've been fun, as well as introducing new generations to the greatness of Ghostbusters.

EDIT: Hmmm, reading back, I'm not happy with the lack of more detailed story for the main characters. Needs to be less focus on the old guys.

Edited by Carbomb
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Boar - An Aussie creature feature. It's actually great fun and it has Nathan Jones steaming into a fight with an oversized pig and digging the head off it.

I think the Aussies do these type of films best as the characters are always that bit more real and relatable than their American counterparts. But yeah, good flick if you enjoyed the likes of Black Water, Rogue, Lake Place et al.

EDIT - @CarbombCracking idea with regards Walter Peck!

Edited by Scott Malbranque
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23 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

The Hitman's Bodyguard.

Decent enough Odd Couple type film, thought there was genuine chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson, with the latter seeming to be really enjoying himself.  I did love the scenes in Coventry though, even if it did look a bit like Kensington.

Watched this last night. Really enjoyed it and always get a kick out of seeing places I've been in films so enjoyed that aspect also.

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Brilliant write up @Carbomb! I'd have loved that. A soft-reboot works infinitely better when you include the previous movies as cannon. Helps the older fans ease into the new universe and  new characters and gives the franchise more oomph. I understand marketing it towards a new audience but a good film maker will be able to get the previous story arcs across within the first portion of film. That'll serve as memorable callbacks to older fans and much needed info to those new to Ghostbusters.

What didn't help matters was the four new Ghostbuster being, generally, nice people looking to save the world and do good. The original squad were a mix of bitter bastards, anoraks and scam artists. Wilson was in it for the money, Venkman was a sleazy prick and they forced Ray to mortgage his childhood home to fund it all. It worked because the characters were interesting, down on their luck and naturally grew into people you rooted for.

But I'm of the growing opinion that movies like this are going to continually fail as TV-style programming becomes a much better option for telling these stories. Even if they went with the hard-reboot with little-to-no referencing of the previous two films, a 10 episode story-arc where you're slowly introduced to the new characters and new rules would've fared a hell of a lot better than what we actually got.

 

 

 

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DEF trivia - The song I walked my new wife down the isle at our wedding was the Back To The Future theme and it was awesome.

 

Alice Sweet Alice aka Communion aka The Holy Terror - I've wanted to see this for years. It's a proto slasher from 1976 that was sold off the back of a glorified cameo from Brooke Shields as a child. Having now seen it I have really mixed feelings about it. It has really peado sub plot undertones which I have a really hard time with. I don't think child abuse should ever be used as entertainment and this was absolutely repulsive imo.

Having said that I actually really liked the rest of the movie. It's somewhere between Hitchcock and Argento in style. The music score nods very much to both as does the visual style. The cinematography reminded me alot of Psycho and Vertigo. There's even a scene where some characters stand infront of a Psycho poster which was a little heavy handed. The killer is really creepy and there's some good scenes of ramped up tension. Some astonishing over acting too. 

I watched the 88 Films Blu-ray which has a 2k restoration from a 35mm film print. Which is commendable and damning at the same time. Sadly these are the best elements they could use but because of that if you were to just bung it on uneducated you'd probably think it was an awful Blu-ray. The image is very yellow tinged and the colours have been warped and faded heavily. Detail is ok at times but at others theres signed of noise reduction that removes detail.

Now having said that there is a featurette on the BD that shows picture in picture the original 35mm print and the restoration and it's astonishing. This was sourced from one of the most beaten up prints I've ever seen. The unrestored print looked like a cat had clawed the hell out of it, a dog had taken a dump on it then it had been left out in extreme rain and sun for the last 40 years. Honestly the Blu-ray looks superb considering its source. I'm big on film conservation and 88 Films should be commended that they have spent this much effort saving this film. It's only a shame that they weren't able to get the colours to look more natural.

 

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Watch Me When I Kill - A paint by numbers murder mystery Giallo from 1977. I love a Giallo. The visceral Color pallet, the sexy 70's flamboyance, the taught tension and absolutely mental violence.

Sadly this is a bit dull. It's a very straight forward guess who the killer is type of deal. The kills are pretty tame and it never really gets into second gear in the tension stakes. At 1.35hr it REALLY felt 15 minutes to long.

I think part of the problem is that instead of the sexy flamboyance or beautiful colour palette it's a very dull looking film. All the characters wear drab clothes and the buildings all look old and worn out. It's just not exciting to look at. Add that a plodding story and you're looking at your watch at the 1.15hr mark.

Having said that the Blu-ray is another 88 Films restoration and this one is also cracking. It has another restoration comparison and whilst the original elements weren't quite as bad as Alice Sweet Alice but it's still pretty bloody remarkable. There was a dark brown hue to everything so that was so bad that in dark scenes you couldn't see a damn thing. The side by side comparison is night and day. Alright the film still looks like it could have been better treated for decades but it's certainly as good as it possiblely could considering the source.

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31 minutes ago, DEF said:

Watch Me When I Kill - A paint by numbers murder mystery Giallo from 1977. I love a Giallo. The visceral Color pallet, the sexy 70's flamboyance, the taught tension and absolutely mental violence.

A friend of mine is going this evening to a gig by Goblin, the band that did the soundtrack to Suspiria. I haven't seen all the film, just the trailer, but the score is tremendous.

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4 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

A friend of mine is going this evening to a gig by Goblin, the band that did the soundtrack to Suspiria. I haven't seen all the film, just the trailer, but the score is tremendous.

I would LOVE to see Goblin. The soundtracks to Suspiria and Deep Red are wonderful. Two of the few film score CDs that regularly get a spin that I own.

Suspiria is great, I love it but I can totally see how it could be a bit on the marmite side of films. Talking of Suspiria, I can't wait for the remake. Apparently it made Tarrantino cry so it must at least have something to it and the trailer makes it look bang on.

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Logan Lucky turned up on Amazon Prime, and my lady  & I had intended to go to the pictures to see it so we gave it a watch the other night. From the look of the posters I thought it'd be a comedy, but it's actually a pretty slick heist movie with quite a dry, dark sense of humour in places. The cast are all good in it as well. It resolves itself really nicely as well.

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Logan Lucky is terrific. One of those films where I just smiled the whole way through because it's just constantly entertaining, funny and silly. Except the Seth MacFarlane bits.

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