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Post by bluetomb on Feb 4, 2021 10:55:04 GMT
Every year I try to watch some independent horror movie or two. Mostly I follow Lord P. and his critics for inspiration. Last year I didn't and had to regret it.
So I bought and watched The Isle(2018) . I don't have a problem with a low budget and less than stellar actors, and I truly don't mind slow. But this was just dull. Three sailors in 1841 are shipwrecked and strand on a little isle where most of the settlers have gone or are dead. There is a siren loose or something. The movie poster was better than the movie. The photography looked flat, the characters were unconvincing, and the story was boring and unsuspenseful. I don't understand how this got rave-reviews. Go read Hope-Hodgson instead.
Also got Jean Rollin's Dracula's Fiancée. Rollin is an acquired taste, and I can understand everybody who thinks his work is badly made trash. But I really like his work. The desolate mood, the dreamy atmosphere, the one step beyond reality, the morbid fascination with cemeterys, the nude girls. The iconic pictures he did achieve. The Castel twins as vampires, so lovingly tributed in Newman's Dracula Cha Cha Cha. Brigitte Lahaie and her scythe. Dracula's Fiancée was the last one I was still missing. I liked it a lot.
I treasure Rollin as one of cinema's great fantasists, watching his best I feel he was one of those whose images seemed to come from a deep connection within before a pursuit of beautiful art or fantasy in the more prosaic sense, much fascinating (or tedious and pseudo-intellectual depending on where you sit on these things) interpretation possible of his clocks, beaches, cemeteries, beautiful women and their apparel, and so forth. I particularly connect to him as Fascination was the first European erotic horror I saw from anyone and it hooked me immediately, and showed that it actually wasn't just the nudity that was important. All this being said I don't think he was immune to clunkiness, over static shots or dodgy effects or whatever, but still, at his best, bliss. I've not seen Dracula's Fiancée in a while but I remember liking it a lot. Bit of a late period summation as I recall, a lot going on and a bit of a caught out of time goofiness to it. But very charming.
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Post by bluetomb on Feb 13, 2021 3:58:59 GMT
They Came From Outer Space (1967)
Disembodied aliens use a precision meteor strike on Cornwall to possess human hosts for their mysterious plans. Amicus renamed and relocated this from more exciting sounding source novel The Gods Hate Kansas, by Joseph Millard. The result is nothing original or striking but in the capable hands of Freddie Francis it's a solid watch, occasionally mildly exciting, with some cool production design. Intriguing plague aspect is undercooked but comically abrupt climax is a definite win. Worthy slow afternoon filler
Gorgo (1961)
A British kaiju! Shipwrecked sailors figure out there's a creature in them depths, and capture the thing (which they call Gorgo) to put on show in London. Of course it has a mum. Director Eugène Lourié fails to revisit the glories of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms but this is still great, if a bit stodgy fun. American actor William Sylvester puts in some of his better Brit B work and Gorgo's mum trashes a couple of notable British landmarks and enough nondescript buildings in the climax for it all to be worthwhile.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 15, 2021 16:25:24 GMT
Hellboy (2019) - I read a lot of negative reviews about the R-rated reboot of the comic character before finally watching it yesterday on tv for free. Why the world needed a reboot after merely 15 years is anyones guess, but it seems the movie was one of biggest movie flops of 2019. The director of the two original Hellboys del Torro didn't want to do it, so Ron Perlman who played the character under the heavy make-up twice also declined. Now the character was played by actor David Harbour, who was new to me.
As a fan of the comic book who has collected nearly every issue of Hellboy, BRPD and the rest and actually read most of it I guess I was both the target audience and not. Block buster movies are for the masses and the fans come next.
On the whole I was just bored. Basically the director and his not very good writer took the last years of the comic book, picked a few key plot elements and shuffled them around without adding anything new. What used to be fun on the page turned into a deadly dull paint-by-numbers affair. Instead of developing a story flow, the viewer was bombarded by monster-action, and the in the comic over decades developed Hellboy universe was clumsily force-fed in a series of enough flashbacks to start a drinking game.
The only new stuff was the extremely heavy-handed character reversal, which in some parts was an abject and grating failure. As this was a reboot of course characters had to be the opposite of what was already done, but the "re-imagining" of Hellboy's kindly foster-father Professor Bruttenholm didn't work at all for me. I really adore Ian McShane, but here he just had to channel his abrasive Al Swearengen character from Tombstone. I didn't mind that they re-wrote Johann Kraus, the spirit in the containment suit, as a woman character. This is Hollywood, and today a movie has to have a woman heroine, if the story demands it or not. The movie already had a solid shitstorm before starting production because they wanted to cast Daimio, the undead soldier coupled with a jaguar spirit and who is supposed to be Japanese-American - which I frankly never did realize as a reader -, with a white actor before giving Daniel Dae Kim the role. But to transform the character into a antagonistic British agent - instead of being the military leader of the B.P.R.D. - just to have some internal conflict between the characters was piss poor writing. Milla Jovovich, which I also adore, didn't had a lot to do as the villain. If the CGI villain - in this case the Baba Yaga - is more interesting and better realized than the human villain, your movie has a problem.
The production looked quite nicely done and a lot of the CGI monsters worked well, but on the whole this was a severe disappointment.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 15, 2021 20:20:22 GMT
Hellboy (2019) - I read a lot of negative reviews about the R-rated reboot of the comic character before finally watching it yesterday on tv for free. Why the world needed a reboot after merely 15 years is anyones guess, but it seems the movie was one of biggest movie flops of 2019. The director of the two original Hellboys del Torro didn't want to do it, so Ron Perlman who played the character under the heavy make-up twice also declined. Now the character was played by actor David Harbour, who was new to me. I liked Harbour as Chief Hopper in Stranger Things and can imagine him as Hellboy, but Perlman is a tough act to follow. As a fan of the comic book who has collected nearly every issue of Hellboy, BRPD and the rest and actually read most of it I guess I was both the target audience and not. Coincidentally, I just read the first storyline in the comic series (the one about Rasputin) yesterday. Good stuff, and thanks for recommending it. What used to be fun on the page turned into a deadly dull paint-by-numbers affair. Instead of developing a story flow, the viewer was bombarded by monster-action, and the in the comic over decades developed Hellboy universe was clumsily force-fed in a series of enough flashbacks to start a drinking game. The only new stuff was the extremely heavy-handed character reversal, which in some parts was an abject and grating failure. As this was a reboot of course characters had to be the opposite of what was already done, but the "re-imagining" of Hellboy's kindly foster-father Professor Bruttenholm didn't work at all for me. Hearing this makes me happy I passed on the reboot. The relationship between Hellboy and Bruttenholm was one of my favorite parts of the original move, and it sounds like the reboot's handling of it would've ticked me off. The movie already had a solid shitstorm before starting production because they wanted to cast Daimio, the undead soldier coupled with a jaguar spirit and who is supposed to be Japanese-American - which I frankly never did realize as a reader -, with a white actor before giving Daniel Dae Kim the role. He should've been their first choice all along, given his background in genre television ( Angel and Lost, for example). Plus, my wife is quite the fan of his cheekbones.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 15, 2021 21:23:24 GMT
He should've been their first choice all along, given his background in genre television ( Angel and Lost, for example). Plus, my wife is quite the fan of his cheekbones. Dae Kim is always a joy to watch. I recently re-watched a few seasons of Hawaii 5-0. One of my guilty pleasures. Dumb as a doornail, but fun. He was very good and had a nice chemistry with Park. Frankly I had forgotten that he did Angel. Glad you liked the first Hellboy.
Of course if you don't know the story lines of the comic book I guess this movie is more fun. 15 minutes in I was crossing a checklist in my head which is never a good thing :-)
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Post by ripper on Feb 16, 2021 13:05:17 GMT
They Came From Outer Space (1967) Disembodied aliens use a precision meteor strike on Cornwall to possess human hosts for their mysterious plans. Amicus renamed and relocated this from more exciting sounding source novel The Gods Hate Kansas, by Joseph Millard. The result is nothing original or striking but in the capable hands of Freddie Francis it's a solid watch, occasionally mildly exciting, with some cool production design. Intriguing plague aspect is undercooked but comically abrupt climax is a definite win. Worthy slow afternoon filler Gorgo (1961) A British kaiju! Shipwrecked sailors figure out there's a creature in them depths, and capture the thing (which they call Gorgo) to put on show in London. Of course it has a mum. Director Eugène Lourié fails to revisit the glories of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms but this is still great, if a bit stodgy fun. American actor William Sylvester puts in some of his better Brit B work and Gorgo's mum trashes a couple of notable British landmarks and enough nondescript buildings in the climax for it all to be worthwhile. I have They came from Beyond Space on one of Mill Creek's cheapie 50 movie megapacks, though I first saw it on TV in the 70s. Yes, it's not too bad for what it is. I was reminded of the Dr Who serial Spearhead from Space when it came to those meteorites. A few of these sci-fi flicks were made in the mid to late 60s. Mainly budget-challenged with at least one actor you would recognise. I think Michael Gough was in one and, of all people, Charles Hawtrey. Amicus also made The Terrornauts, while rivals Tigon produced The Body Stealers and Zeta 1.
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 16, 2021 13:38:25 GMT
The Body Stealers - is that the one about parachutists disappearing mid-drop? Saw it fairly recently on Talking Pictures, I think. Pretty awful if I remember right.
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Post by ripper on Feb 16, 2021 14:51:15 GMT
The Body Stealers - is that the one about parachutists disappearing mid-drop? Saw it fairly recently on Talking Pictures, I think. Pretty awful if I remember right. I saw The Body Stealers on the Talking Pictures schedule, but couldn't watch it due to being in the process of buying a new telly, though I think I saw it one afternoon in the 80s when films used to be shown regularly at that time. Just looking, it has a pretty decent cast, with George Sanders, Maurice Evans, Patrick Allen and Hilary Dwyer, plus Sean Connery's brother, Neil. It was The Terrornauts that starred Charles Hawtrey, and apparently was a double feature with They came from Beyond Space, which was the one with Michael Gough. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend Battle beneath the Earth from 1967, in which a mainly British cast strive to fool you into thinking they are Americans, the Chinese are tunneling under the USA to plant nuclear bombs beneath cities, and the final clinch between hero and heroine is against the backdrop of a nuclear mushroom cloud blast. It was shown in the 70s over two Saturday mornings when Tiswas used to show films in the early days of the programme, way before it turned into the anarchic classic it is remembered for.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 16, 2021 15:23:14 GMT
Amicus also made The Terrornauts, while rivals Tigon produced The Body Stealers and Zeta 1. I love Zeta 1. Or Terror of the Pasties, as I call it. It is a terrible movie, it is slow and really stupid. But it has Yutte Stensgaard, Valerie Leon and Brigitte Skay. So all is forgiven :-)
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Post by ripper on Feb 16, 2021 16:18:08 GMT
Amicus also made The Terrornauts, while rivals Tigon produced The Body Stealers and Zeta 1. I love Zeta 1. Or Terror of the Pasties, as I call it. It is a terrible movie, it is slow and really stupid. But it has Yutte Stensgaard, Valerie Leon and Brigitte Skay. So all is forgiven :-) Zeta One was another outing for Charles Hawtrey; I suppose it was a change from all those 'Carry on' films. Also featured a favourite crush for me back then, Carol Hawkins, who played Sharon in the big screen adaptation of sitcom Please Sir! and went on to play her in The Fenn Street Gang, replacing Penny Spencer. I've only seen Zeta One once on TV. Yes, it's not too good, but with so many good-looking girls in it, I'm not complaining!
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Post by helrunar on Feb 16, 2021 19:54:43 GMT
I've never seen Terrornauts, but the trailer is a camp hoot I periodically feel called to revisit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=On99-TAoxvUHad never heard of Zeta One but the trailer is hilarious! How on Earth did James Robertson Justice and Dawn Adams get trapped in such goings-on? www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1X61zeDCIgLooks like the intergalactic espionage dude is a Jason King knock-off, too... spicy! cheers, H.
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Post by bluetomb on Feb 16, 2021 22:06:54 GMT
They Came From Outer Space (1967) Disembodied aliens use a precision meteor strike on Cornwall to possess human hosts for their mysterious plans. Amicus renamed and relocated this from more exciting sounding source novel The Gods Hate Kansas, by Joseph Millard. The result is nothing original or striking but in the capable hands of Freddie Francis it's a solid watch, occasionally mildly exciting, with some cool production design. Intriguing plague aspect is undercooked but comically abrupt climax is a definite win. Worthy slow afternoon filler Gorgo (1961) A British kaiju! Shipwrecked sailors figure out there's a creature in them depths, and capture the thing (which they call Gorgo) to put on show in London. Of course it has a mum. Director Eugène Lourié fails to revisit the glories of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms but this is still great, if a bit stodgy fun. American actor William Sylvester puts in some of his better Brit B work and Gorgo's mum trashes a couple of notable British landmarks and enough nondescript buildings in the climax for it all to be worthwhile. I have They came from Beyond Space on one of Mill Creek's cheapie 50 movie megapacks, though I first saw it on TV in the 70s. Yes, it's not too bad for what it is. I was reminded of the Dr Who serial Spearhead from Space when it came to those meteorites. A few of these sci-fi flicks were made in the mid to late 60s. Mainly budget-challenged with at least one actor you would recognise. I think Michael Gough was in one and, of all people, Charles Hawtrey. Amicus also made The Terrornauts, while rivals Tigon produced The Body Stealers and Zeta 1. Now I'm wishing that Robert Holmes did more writing for film and not just his often brilliant Doctor Who work. I have the vaguest recollections of Invasion, in which the aliens were Japanese people, but given his talent with the four part Doctor Who story format, or roughly a feature length, I'm sure he could have done well with more. I've yet to see The Terrornauts, The Body Stealers or Zeta 1 but will keep an eye out for them, I'm rarely less than entertained even by the lower end of old sci fi B's. Actually just put some Leslie Nielsen affair called The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler on to tape, which has a solid 2/5 from the Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction. Looking forward to it.
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Post by ripper on Feb 17, 2021 13:10:35 GMT
I've never seen Terrornauts, but the trailer is a camp hoot I periodically feel called to revisit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=On99-TAoxvUHad never heard of Zeta One but the trailer is hilarious! How on Earth did James Robertson Justice and Dawn Adams get trapped in such goings-on? www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1X61zeDCIgLooks like the intergalactic espionage dude is a Jason King knock-off, too... spicy! cheers, H. Thanks for the trailer link. It's been such a long time since I saw it that I can't recall too much, but it certainly has that campiness that seemed to be a feature of a fair number of horror and sci-fi films made in the UK in the 60s.
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Post by ripper on Feb 17, 2021 13:19:40 GMT
I have They came from Beyond Space on one of Mill Creek's cheapie 50 movie megapacks, though I first saw it on TV in the 70s. Yes, it's not too bad for what it is. I was reminded of the Dr Who serial Spearhead from Space when it came to those meteorites. A few of these sci-fi flicks were made in the mid to late 60s. Mainly budget-challenged with at least one actor you would recognise. I think Michael Gough was in one and, of all people, Charles Hawtrey. Amicus also made The Terrornauts, while rivals Tigon produced The Body Stealers and Zeta 1. Now I'm wishing that Robert Holmes did more writing for film and not just his often brilliant Doctor Who work. I have the vaguest recollections of Invasion, in which the aliens were Japanese people, but given his talent with the four part Doctor Who story format, or roughly a feature length, I'm sure he could have done well with more. I've yet to see The Terrornauts, The Body Stealers or Zeta 1 but will keep an eye out for them, I'm rarely less than entertained even by the lower end of old sci fi B's. Actually just put some Leslie Nielsen affair called The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler on to tape, which has a solid 2/5 from the Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction. Looking forward to it. The Body Stealers is actually on Youtube. I watched it last night. The only thing I could remember about it was the disappearing parachutists. It's certainly low budget, but there are some prominent names in the cast list. Seeing Mr 'Protect and Survive' as a kind of low rent James Bond was interesting. There's some rather dodgy acting in a few scenes and for some reason our dog got a bit restless during the parts showing the parachutists--don't think he appreciated the weird sound effects.
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Post by samdawson on Feb 17, 2021 17:24:43 GMT
Of the three I don't think you'd be wasting your money on a DVD of The Terrornauts. It's endearingly cheap and bonkers (and features a guest appearance from faithful British sci-fi location Betchworth Chalkpits). The Body Stealers should be a much better film (and I suspect might have been with someone more charismatic in the lead or if Patrick Allen had played his role differently). They Came from Beyond Space is a bit dull, despite this viewer at least willing it to achieve greatness.
Of course if you want a cheap British sci-fi film that is actually really rather good you could do worse than have a look at The Earth Dies Screaming.
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