What have you been watching?

[lemming13]

I've noticed this section seems to expand alarmingly (sorry, dem, as much my fault as anyone's) and thought it would be nice if we made life a bit easier for the dedicated ones who have to organise our ramblings by just having a thread for whatever movie or tv show we've been inspired to comment on; anything really spectacular will undoubtedly get its own thread anyway, but this is along the lines of What Are You Reading rather than in depth commentary. I'm kicking off with Santa's Slay, which is just about as daft as it gets - a low budget 2005 Canadian horror comedy starring an ex WWF wrestler as Santa. In this case Santa is actually the son of Satan who lost a bet to an angel and was forced to spend 1,000 years being nice to people - but time's up now. Not the world's best acting, fx or script, but I admit I laughed my anatomy off so loudly it attracted the spawn down from their lairs and away from Eve Online and Vocaloids anime. I topped the double bill with The Wrong Box - not as funny as Santa, but still a charmingly silly period piece (and worth it just for Peter Sellers' cameo as Dr Pratt).

[Dr Strange]

The last 3 horror films I saw -

Wake Wood - huge disappointment. Timothy Spall is very good, but unfortunately not much else about it is (think Hammer House of Horror, rather than the classic films).

Let Me In - went in thinking it was completely pointless to re-make this, but ended up loving it (the exact opposite to my Wake Wood experience). Not very different from the original (in fact some scenes look like an almost frame-for-frame copy) but some superb performances and very creepy.

The Last Lovecraft - low budget, comedy-horror (think Evil Dead 2/3, but more Lovecraftian). Better than it sounds, quite funny in places, but ran out of steam a bit towards the end. Or maybe that was just me.

[andydecker]

The last 3 horror movies? Hm...

Saw - the final chapter: I hadn´t high expectations for this, but this was just terrible. This script wasn´t good enough for a writing seminar not to mention a produced movie. Moffatts has plottede better than this so-called writers.

Deep Red: I bought the cheap Dvd with the extended version. Those movies really don´t held up, do they? I was bored and thought the trademark Argento murder scenes absolutly dull.

Baba Yaga: Those editions from shameless films are interesting. I bought this because of the Crepax angle, and while it didn´t worked it was better than a lot of of those euro trash movies.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Recent viewing:

The Objective (2008)

I was a bit concerned when I realised this is by the director of Blair Shite Project, but it's a big improvent.

A C.I.A. agent takes a military team out to Afghanistan to find an Afghani cleric, but there's more to their mission than he's letting on, leading to the group not trusting him. It soon becomes clear that what they're really looking for may not be human. As said, this is a big improvement & I thought it a very good effort, it takes its time but it's worth watching.

Noise (2007)

Tim Robbins as a man who has had enough of noise, car alarms in particular & takes matters into his own hands. It feels a bit contrived in places, but overall it's enjoyable, if a little unbelieveable.


Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

Grim home invasion film from the same director as London To Brighton. A surburban couple's evening becomes life shattering after answering the door to three violent youths who are after their son, as he has grassed them up. It's pretty brutal & the lead yob certainly inspires wanting to give him a kicking.

The acting is great & it never drags at 74 mins. I liked the Director's previous film & this one is recommended too.


The Runaways (2010)

I can't comment much on accuracy here, as I really don't know a great deal about The Runaways, but there's some great performances, especially Micheal Shannon as Kim Fowley. My main complaint is it seems to concentrate more on Cherie Currie & Joan Jett (more on the former), than actually on the band (though as it's based on currie's book, this probably isn't surprising). It just feels a bit like it races to the end, without anyone being any the wiser about the band.


Burke & Hare (2010)

Enjoyable enough, but I don't seem to find Simon Pegg as funny as I used to & this wasn't as good as I was expecting. Andy Serkis seems a bit underused here, despite being one of the leads. It's fun, but it does all seem a bit of a mess, Landis has done better than this.

Also enjoying Psychoville 2, particularly Mr.Jelly the Clown, The Obsessed Librarian ("not now, silent singer") & the Sourbutts. Easily as good as the first series so far.

If you like violent revenge films, keep an eye out for aussie film The Horseman (2008).

Lemming, I certainly enjoyed Santa's Slay, I tried it a couple of christmases ago & it was certainly a good antidote (along with Black Christmas & Silent Night, Bloody Night).

Edit: Fogot to add Fistful Of Dynamite - Sergio Leone's Mexican revolution set western. First time I've seen it & it's great, James Coburn putting in a highly entertaining performance. Duck, You Sucker! indeed.

[Dr Strange]

I've seen The Objective and thought it had a very interesting starting premise but was let down by a rather weak ending.

As for Burke & Hare - it is one of the worst films I have seen in years. As British comedy, it is in the same league as Carry On Columbus.

[David A. Riley]

Burke and Hare was a big disappointment, though I did wonder how they could make a comedy out of it. Two men murdering people to sell their bodies on for dissection, one of whom ends up on the gallows to be dissected himself, never struck me as material for humour.

Recently rewatched series 1 and 2 of Spaced. Simon Pegg was so inventively funny then. What happened? Since Shaun of the Dead his films seem to have got less and less funny.

[Johnlprobert]

May 17, 2011 8:59:30 GMT David A. Riley said:

Burke and Hare was a big disappointment, though I did wonder how they could make a comedy out of it. Two men murdering people to sell their bodies on for dissection, one of whom ends up on the gallows to be dissected himself, never struck me as material for humour.

Recently rewatched series 1 and 2 of Spaced. Simon Pegg was so inventively funny then. What happened? Since Shaun of the Dead his films seem to have got less and less funny.

We didn't think much of Burke and Hare. Oddly enough I very recently introduced Lady P to Spaced and I'd forgotten how good it was - I hadn't watched it since its original broadcast. We're going through all of Alan Partridge at the moment.

[benedictjjones]

recently watched 'the collector'(2009) which was better than I thought. written by the people who did the last three saw films it revolves around a burglar entering a huge home to steal a gem stone while the family are on holidayonly to find out someone go there first and the family never left...

[Craig Herbertson]

The Most Dangerous Game the 1932 adaptation of the 1924 short story by Richard Connell. Fay Wray of King Kong fame is in it to give it that extra kick and I just discovered that it made more dosh for the company than King Kong. It's also an excellent short as warm up or come down from another film. Very good film.

[andydecker]

This is a lovely movie. Short, to the point, creepy. The understatement works perfect here, and Fay looks lovely as the damsel in distress.

This must be one of the most ripped off story of all times

[Craig Herbertson]

May 18, 2011 17:51:02 GMT andydecker said:

This is a lovely movie. Short, to the point, creepy. The understatement works perfect here, and Fay looks lovely as the damsel in distress.

This must be one of the most ripped off story of all times

I'd definitely have taken Fay with me despite the chances she might sprain an ankle

[Craig Herbertson]

Curtis Harrington's How Awful About Allan (1970)

Remarkably watchable film which let's you know that Perkins was destined for Psycho. What an unnerving actor. Could do more with a twitch of his finger than most modern actors.

[Thana Niveau]

JLP recently subjected me (yes, that's right) to Herschell Gordon Lewis's 2,000 Maniacs. I grew up in the southern US, so this was just a bit TOO realistically hayseed hillbilly white trash Dixieland horror for comfort. Gruesome and effective in a Chainsaw Massacre kind of way, but I couldn't get it out of my head afterwards. Ugh.

So naturally we bought HGL's Color Me Blood Red and Blood Feast next. I'd seen the former, JLP the latter. Color Me is inept rubbish while Blood Feast is *inspired* inept rubbish.

Also in our bumper crop of crap was Godmonster of Indian Flats. Disappointing to say the least. Like someone wanted to shoot a western and got together the Old West town and costumes and some real cowboys but decided that wasn't enough so they shoved in a monster and some awkward political satire. If you've seen the famous trailer shot of the creature sneaking up behind the schoolgirl picnic, you've seen all that's worth seeing.

Troll 2 was a first for both of us and wow, what a truly unforgettable piece of filmmaking that is! Better still is the affectionate documentary Best Worst Movie, which made it well worth the hour and a half squandered on Troll 2.

But maybe it's time to see a GOOD film for a change...?

[Dr Strange]

When I first heard about this - www.imdb.com/title/tt1612774/ - I thought it had to be a joke, but I actually saw a trailer on some DVD I rented recently.

[David A. Riley]

We bought some cheap DVDs recently from a charity shop in Garstang, which led to an epic night. To start with we had Killer Shrews, so cheap that both the producer and director were cast members! Oddly enjoyable, if only because, though filmed on a shoestring (and a frayed shoestring at that) there was sincerity in the effort. It made me think of the Pan Books of Horror for some reason.

This was followed by a 1959 Roger Corman classic, A Bucket of Blood, starring Dick Miller as a wannabe beatnik sculptor, who does a Mystery of the Wax Museum. Wonderfully wacky, but again made with such sincerity that it was great to watch. Loved some of the poems recited by an oddly bearded beatnik poet. Dick Miller appeared in many of Corman's films, though this was his only starring part. Memorable in later years as Mr Futterman in Gremlins and the unlucky gunshop owner in Terminator.

Then we watched Karloff and Jack Nicholson in Roger Corman's The Terror, which was bizarrely plotted, didn't make much sense, but it had Karloff and Nicholson and Dick Miller again! The film was split into a prologue, main story, then an epilogue. The prologue and epilogue were set twenty years after the main story and I was impressed that Dick Miller, who was the only member of coast to be in these and the main story, actually looked twenty years older - till I discovered that these bits were actually filmed twenty years later! Corman had odd sequences filmed in the belief he could one days patch them together into a film. Almost worked.

Then the night went downhill with a much later Hasselhoff/Linda Blair film called Witchcraft, (one of umpteen titles for this film)which was neither quirky enough nor sincere to be in the same class as the others.