-131. Dreyer: Master of the House 6/10
-132. Dreyer: Day of Wrath 8/10
-133. Arnold: Creature from Black Lagoon 6/10
-134. Corbucci: Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure 6/10
-135. Dreyer: Ordet 9/10
-136. Chang-dong: Burning 6/10
-143. Sautet: Cesar & Rosalie 8/10
-145. Burton: Batman 6/10
-147. Mäkelä: Man Who Loved Speed (cinema) 5/10
-150. Carpenter: The Thing 10/10
-151. Launois: Devil’s Thing (cinema) /10
-153. Waters: Cry-Baby (cinema) 8/10
-157. Deray: La piscine 7/10
-161. Granier-Deferre: Le train 7/10
-164. Finnegan: Vivarium 5/10
-168. Koreeda: La Verite 6/10
-169. Stone: The Hand (cinema) 5/10
Two recent sightings I wanna report back on: Time Guardian. Hilarious and great new BluRay restoration. Enemy Mine. Fascinating and cheesy remake of hell in the Pacific.
I haven’t had much time to watch anything recently, due to moving home (packing, unpacking). However, I managed yesterday to watch these three beauties on Bluray.
An animated Batman adventure, which I thought was excellent. The idea of setting our Gotham hero in the 19th Century, to take on Jack the Ripper, was inspired and a great fun-ride.
Note: R.I.P to the extremely talented voice artist, Kevin Conroy, who so memorably added depth and character to the Gotham Knight’ in ‘Batman - The Animated Series’. He died on 10th November this year.
Arnie back on top form as a small-town modern-day sheriff, who takes up arms with his meagre group of deputies, to defend the town against a drug cartel boss and his gang of thugs who are passing through. Very reminiscent of a classic Western Great entertainment, with plenty of action and explosions to keep your neighbours alert to the fact that you are still their neighbour!
The idea of a film where most of the population has been wiped out by alien creatures who detect even the slightest sound, and then move in for the kill, is a unique one. Unique in the respect that the lovely Emily Blunt (‘The English’) and her surviving family hardly say a single word throughout the proceedings - they rely on sign language, so as not to become creature fodder.This leads to many tense moments: not least when one of her children, who really is deaf, is unaware of the constant danger. A worthwhile watch, and something which is just that bit ‘different’…
Hadn’t watched for many years but remember seeing it in the cinema back when it came out and enjoying it. It’s still enjoyable but pretty dated and the special effects really haven’t aged well. One of those films that confuses a bit as 3 of the 4 main actors are British, as is the director, but it’s clearly a Hollywood film. I’m a sucker for 70s Sci Fi so this was an easy watch for me.
“Sometimes, you gotta dig deep, to find what you’re lookin’ for…”
SUPERB!!
Featuring one of the best homages to ‘The Man With No Name’ that I’ve ever seen…What a shame that Clint didn’t actually voice the character…now that would have been something…
I watched that movie just about ten years ago, when I was nine years old. I remember liking it to a degree at least, but maybe I was really a bit too young to appreciate it fully. Chances are I would love it now, judging from extracts I’ve seen on YouTube.
Although I do remember feeling a little disappointed over the fate of Rattlesnake Jake. They set him up as an irredeemable evil villain and then they just let him make his getaway drag out the mayor, unpunished although with his reputation slightly damaged. If I could rewrite the film, I would give him one last scene and make it play out as a tribute to Cheyenne’s death in Once Upon a Time in the West (which is already richly referred upon throughout the movie). Picture this:
Before the movie closes, Rango finds Jake severely wounded in the desert, where the latter explains that the Mayor managed to grab his gun for a second and shoot him before getting killed. Now dying and afraid of going to hell, he declares Rango free to take his properties and distribute them to the townsfolk as a sign of redemption from his side, before telling him to go away so he will not have to be witnessed dying entirely mundanely, to keep his legend alive. Rango turns around and hear his head fall to the ground.
I just watched Nymphomaniac, Volumes 1 and 2, directed by Lars von Trier. I had never watched a Von Trier movie before. So, it was quite an intro, lol.
I liked the story overall, but I didn’t like the way they replaced actresses with portraying the young adult Jo versus the adult Jo. I thought the ending was kind of a cop-out too.
Maybe I’m late to the Christmas party, but I revisited this old acquaintance earlier this week as a boost to the holiday spirit. I’ve understood this is something of a divider, several reviews I’ve read complaining about the sometimes rather strange-looking motion capture animation and/or the story (i.e.it’s too outdrawn for being based on a 23-page book). I don’t know about that, it might not be completely unfair criticism, but this has always been a Christmas favorite in my family, and as such it’s hard to suddenly drop that and make a rational analysis of the film. Although to what extent I can make a non-sentimental judgement of this film I would honestly say it holds up generally rather well. While I’d be the first one to admit that the animation can look a bit “off” at times, the voice actors and surrounding atmosphere make up for it well enough in terms of providing the venture with a distinct soul. The overall strength is definitely the mood; the feel of adventure, mystery and Christmas spirit put together in a dreamlike, slightly surreal mix strikes me as effectively now as it did when I was a child. It’s as it best as a roadmovie (or, rather, ”rail movie”) before they actually reach the north pole; after that, it drags a bit, and the dialogue between the child protagonists is not always completely natural, but on the other hand they get quite fleshed out in the third act (generally, the weak points are such I didn’t like very much as a child either, like the mentioned occasional forced interaction between the main children and some strange plot points whose logical gaps are not related to the magic nature). One that does not fall into any corny dialogue whatsoever is the Conductor, who is my favorite character in the film by far; Authoritarian, easily irritated but at the same time rational and empathetic, he provides the one logical bastion of the adventure.
At one hour and a half, the film depicts the trip in a well-balanced pace that never really feels plodding despite the obvious expansion upon the book (which I wasn’t aware of until I was like 10-11). It is, in the end, terribly hard to disklike, even though I didn’t quite understand all of the plot as a child; In the Scandinavian and Baltic Sea region, 95% of the celebrations take place on Christmas Eve, with Christmas Day basically being just a slow-moving day off to relax on. Thus many families meet Santa Claus, who traditionally visits in the late afternoon or evening (in Sweden, usually in the 4-7 PM gap between the two big TV traditions and suspiciously soon after one adult ”goes out to buy a newspaper”). This makes the whole “Santa Claus must never be seen” thing incomprehensible to Scandinavian children.
Unless I’ve written it elsewhere on the board, I hope you all have (and have had so far) a Merry Christmas.
A title can’t be more simple or strictly to the point: and X-rating is probably what the film makers wanted for their movie, and on meta-level it also refers to the movie within the movie: the x-rated porn movie the six young protagonists have planned to make on the rural property of an elderly couple. Right from the start we sense there’s something wrong with this elderly couple (and their property: they seem to have an alligator as a sort of pet!), and what was supposed to be porn (and fun) soon turns into a nightmare (and horror)
X was one of last year’s surprise hits, a slasher movie that received some positive comments by so-called ‘serious’ critics, who called it a ‘fresh spin on the classic slasher formula’. Is it really that different? No, not really. The story of six younger people stalked by a vicious murderer is nothing new (even if this murderer is a bit different) and the referential style (most references to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but Psycho, Lake Placid and The Shining were also clear sources of inspiration) has even become a bit trite. What sets it apart - at least within a low-budget genre like the slasher - is that it’s very well made and surprisingly well acted, especially by Mia Goth (in a remarkable double role). Good fun, but note that some of the shock effects are pretty gross (after all this is a slasher)
Just finished up Righting Wrongs today, a very solid Hong Kong Action Drama with very well choreographed fight scenes.
I watched The Ultimate Cut first which has the best flow and content in my opinion, and 88 Films gives viewers the option of watching the cut with one of 4 possible endings, or an option that picks the ending you see at random.
I then watched the Singapore Mandarin Cut, which is quite close in length to the Ultimate Cut, and that version is a good one to watch as well.
As to audio options, I found the subtitles with the Cantonese track a little hard to follow at times and felt like a lot of slang was used I couldn’t grasp. The subtitles on the Mandarin track on the Singapore Cut is much is easier to follow.
All in all, I would give this 80’s Hong Kong flick a **** 1/2 out of ***** stars.
/10
