DVD's and Films You Have Watched Recently

[Au]

Much like Setting Sun, I saw a lot of Asian films during the Tartan Asia Extreme festival. Me and my ex went to see all of them without knowing anything about them first. Including The Tale Of Two Sisters which, whilst a bit confused in places is the terrifying cinema experience I've ever had. The bits that didn't make any sense paled in comparison to the sheer sense of dread and unease it built up throughout the film. It doesn't hold up to further viewings once you know the twist as the more confused parts become more prevalent. I did, however, come to the conclusion that it's not as confused as you might first think, just a bit badly constructed at times.

 

Oh, and Loki, most Asian girls have long, dark hair and grow up in very patriarchal societies where women aren't a threat. I imagine that's why they're used to such effect in J and K horror.

[Loki]

Although most of their porn involves shitting into each other's mouths or cartoon baby foxes wanking their nippled tit-cocks, so it seems a bit strange.

 

That's the bit of their culture I like.

 

 

[Carbomb]

Despite my geek-cred, my knowledge of Japanese cinema is poor. Is there such a thing as a Japanese slasher, in the American sense, with a Freddy/Jason style antagonist hacking people up?

 

Yeah, they're rare, aren't they? They just don't seem to be a part of the movie culture over there at all. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Evil Dead Trap, which isn't bad actually. Never seen the sequel though.

 

I might be exposing my cultural knowledge as shoddily racist, but it must be a cultural thing. Most Western slashers revolve around attractive college kids in some remote location fucking and smoking weed like it ain't no thang, whereas the likes of Battle Royale have these huge emotional moments around dying-breath confessions like "I...I have tiny crush on you..." *dies*

 

Although most of their porn involves shitting into each other's mouths or cartoon baby foxes wanking their nippled tit-cocks, so it seems a bit strange.

 

I wish I still had the link but I read an article on Japanese/Korean horror that suggested the lack of slasher films over there is due to the lack of serial killers they have tended to have over there to influence their horror movies in that way. Not sure if that's true but I guess it's one rough theory.

 

They've had a lot of people go berserk and kill several people before committing suicide in the past ten years or so.

 

But another of the main reasons why the Japanese aren't big on slashers is because, as a part of the cultural mindset, they tend to find the concept of spiritual horror much more terrifying - the whole "anticipation of death is worse than death itself" dealio.

 

One movie to watch (back in the spiritual vein) is Shikoku. Kuriyama Chiaki, of Kill Bill and Battle Royale fame, plays a girl whose best friend has died, and who has to stop the mother of the best friend from completing a pilgrimage to all the shrines of Japan in reverse order, as to do so will open a gateway to Hell. Good movie, well worth a look.

[Devon Malcolm]

Much like Setting Sun, I saw a lot of Asian films during the Tartan Asia Extreme festival. Me and my ex went to see all of them without knowing anything about them first. Including The Tale Of Two Sisters which, whilst a bit confused in places is the terrifying cinema experience I've ever had. The bits that didn't make any sense paled in comparison to the sheer sense of dread and unease it built up throughout the film. It doesn't hold up to further viewings once you know the twist as the more confused parts become more prevalent. I did, however, come to the conclusion that it's not as confused as you might first think, just a bit badly constructed at times.

 

Oh, and Loki, most Asian girls have long, dark hair and grow up in very patriarchal societies where women aren't a threat. I imagine that's why they're used to such effect in J and K horror.

 

I miss Tartan Asia Extreme

[bAzTNM#1]

Sky Premiere's Premieres this week are...

 

The Fox And The Child

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Kung Fu Panda

The Love Guru

The Mechanik

Any thoughts on these releases? Cheers!

Edited July 25, 2009 by bAzTNM

[Devon Malcolm]

Sky Premiere's Premieres this week are...

 

The Fox And The Child

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Kung Fu Panda

The Love Guru

The Mechanik

Any thoughts on these releases? Cheers!

 

I remember when film premieres on Sky Movies actually sometimes used to be good. Still, good to see a Dolph Lundgren film centre stage, and The Mechanik also has Olivia Lee in it, so bonus!

[JamesTyler]

Equilibrium.

 

A lot of people told me it was a Matrix rip off, which put me off. After watching the film last night those people are complete morons.

 

I quite liked the idea of a society drugging themselves to be Vulcans. Oddly that thought was enhanced in a line that mirrored Spocks re-training in ST4. It was nothing like I thought it would be, fight sequences kept to a minimum, interesting plot, Sharpe and Kevin Hill sharing the screen with Batman. Good stuff. Two good twists at the end and Bale seemed quite good in the role of withdrawing from the drug and opening himself up to his feelings.

 

Parts of the end were a bit predictable, though overall I enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Au]

Yeah, I've always thought that film was unfairly slated so I'm happy to find someone who enjoyed it too.

[Carbomb]

Equilibrium is a severely under-rated movie. Action-wise, unbelievably great. Storyline-wise, a little formulaic, but well told and executed. Sean Bean is pretty good in it, as is the talented, but woefully under-utilised Taye Diggs. Bale does well, but in retrospect, it's basically him in his fallback position.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

with nothing on the telly this afternoon, apart from a rerun of last sunday's tna ppv on bravo, i started to flick through the movie channels and lo and behold what did i find on sky movies scifi/horror (i think!) but the 'Masters of the Universe' film starring Dolph Lundgren as He-man and Frank Langella as Skeletor.

 

i totally forgot how cheesy and fun the film was and picked up a little bit of trivia, Courtney Cox plays one of the earth based characters who befriend He-man and help in his fight, while Christina Pickles plays the Sorceress who is captured by Skeletor and just 8 years after the film was released the two actresses went on to star as mother and daughter in Friends

[Surf Digby]

The Game Plan.

 

It's Disney. It's so Disney. Even the music at the end is really Disney. The script is fucking terrible, and the film is basically carried by The Rock's charisma. The stupid white guy gets a few good laughs in, and the ballet teacher is nice on the eyes, but it's just a bit too sacharin for me.

[Harvey Dent]

Just went to see The Blues Brothers as cineworld were playing it today for some reason. A true classic and great to see it on the big screen.

[The Cum Doctor]

I'm thinking about watching the Twin Peaks movie on the ITV Player, but one thing is stopping me. Would watching the series be essential ?

[donnie420]

Just went to see The Blues Brothers as cineworld were playing it today for some reason. A true classic and great to see it on the big screen.

 

I too went and saw the blues brothers at my local cineworld yesterday. Where are you from? I thought it was just my cineworld showing it yesterday for some reason, but i guess not. Unless we went to the same one of course. The Blues Brothers is a true classic and one of my all time favourite films. Was great to finally see it on the big screen in its entireity as 3 summers ago I went to a special outdoor screening of it and it started pissing down with rain half way through and was turned off.

 

Cineworld are showing scarface next month.

[Astro Hollywood]

Hush. Absolute garbage. There was nothing you haven't seen better done in Duel, Breakdown, Joyride and so on and so on. The opening ten minutes has the clunkiest exposition I've ever seen, and the dialogue itself was atrocious. I was openly calling everything that happened the entire way through (I'm hard), and I've never seen a more predictable, by-the-numbers film. I've put some plot points in spoilers, but you'd be saving yourself by not watching it.

 

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

A dog shows up, he's obviously going to be killed with an offscreen whimper by the bad guy, to denote that the bad guy is close, and he is.

Someone he runs into for help turns out to be in on it.

Protagonist convinces the police to help him, only to have the policeman killed 2 seconds later.

There are two (!!) scenes of looking for someone in toilets, obviously supposed to be tense and Hitchcockian, but just shit. Quick, lift your feet up! Of course when someone looks under the door - gasp! - they're not actually in there. This same cat & mouse bait and switch is used numerous times.

No cell phone reception, only when it suits the attempts at tension, ditto no fuel.

The villain was a hoody wearing charicature.

 

The whole thing is shockingly pointless without an original thought in its 80 minutes. Two people die instantly from being poked in the eye with a small wrench and a nail respectively, in different scenes. No gurgling, no thrashing about, just "I've got an inch of metal in my eye, I R DEAD"

 

[close spoiler]

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It was also shot with this irritating shakeycam in closeups with a pointless soft focus glow for the external scenes. Surprise surprise, Mark "not a fucking clue" Kermode loved it, and although he is mates with the director, I suspect this specific piece of evidence of him knowing nothing at all was mostly just down to him talking out of his arse.

Edited July 30, 2009 by Woyzeck