Last night I watched Black Roses with my other half. It’s about a group of demons masquerading as a heavy metal group in order to steal the souls of young people. It’s complete trash, but we had a good laugh at the bad special effects, overacting and the crazy death scenes. The basic premise was really good, though, and the eighties cheesathon was helped along by a great soundtrack.
No Escape, with Ray Liotta and Lance Henriksen… the thin premise is easy to dismiss (Liotta dumped onto a futuristic Devil’s Island) as the action gets going. He flees the ‘bad’ tribe of prisoners and is welcomed by the ‘good’ colony of prisoners, but is determined to survive as an island unto himself. It’s entertaining and beautifully filmed, but it still seems to be missing something (other than females). Director Martin Campbell should’ve added 30 more minutes and toned-down the anti-corporate ‘messaging’ a bit. Henriksen is spectacular, as-usual.
Torso - Watched the Blue-Underground Blu Ray, looks really nice and fresh but sometimes there is a slight flickering on the screen in darker scenes.
this movie has great villain-killing, not only the idea of that, but it is well-made as well
i kinda liked this one, it´s not postapocalyptic, but atmosphere is similar - and with higher budget than most of PA flicks
Repulsion 1965
Roman Polanski’s first English language film shows us the slow decent into madness from an extremely attractive woman’s point of view.
“Black Death”. sombre film set in the middle ages where a young monk is assigned by the church to accompany a group of battle weary veterens to kill or capture a necromancer who it is said has the power to bring the dead back to life.they trek through a hellish path as a plague ravishes the area. quite bleak despite reminding me of " Monty Python & The Holy grail" and " Jabberwocky" at times. 7/10.
[quote=“man with a name, post:5626, topic:1923”]“Black Death”. sombre film set in the middle ages where a young monk is assigned by the church to accompany a group of battle weary veterens to kill or capture a necromancer who it is said has the power to bring the dead back to life.they trek through a hellish path as a plague ravishes the area. quite bleak despite reminding me of " Monty Python & The Holy grail" and " Jabberwocky" at times. 7/10.[/quote]Saw it at the cinema, thought it was “just alright”, the thing that gets me is that they show that contraption and what it does and you’d think they show you that so you know what it is when it’s put to use later, but was it put to use… no
Saw that one too, better than I had expected. Good atmophere and good performances.
“Priest” (2011)
Plot: IMDB
PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world – one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Written by Screen Gems
Phantom’s Review: My Recipe For “Priest”:
One part: "The Matrix"
One part: "Mad Max"
A dash of : "Judge Dredd"
A pinch of :"Batman"
Add in some vampires (the scary kind, not the twinkly, sparkly kind)
and a huge spoonful of westerns (spaghetti flavor)
mix together and there you have it :"Priest"
Actually I thought this was a very entertaining action packed movie. Ive never had a chance to read the original comic book, so I didn’t known what to expect, but the movie surprised me. It was fun and enjoyable.
Starcrash.
Very cheap ( and it looks it ) science fiction romp with the good guys and gal saving the Universe. Everyone hams it up big time in this, from Christopher Plummer to Joe Spinell. Caroline Munro is the reason you watch this one for though 8) .
2002, Ripley’s Game… starring John Malkovich, who plays a more purposeful ‘Ripley’ than the character in 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, with Matt Damon. I liked that one too, for different reasons than director Liliana Cavani’s updated version; which depicts Malkovich as a sinister art-forger and manipulative arch-criminal rather than Damon’s ‘wayward’ manipulator. Both films take-place in Europe, but Malkovich is thriving in the crimimal-underworld. An art-scam goes wrong, pitting Ripley against his ‘partner’, Ray Winstone, who plots to have Ripley killed by elements of the Russian-mafia. Ripley becomes aware of the scheme and manipulates an ‘innocent’ neighbor-who’s-dying-of-cancer; Dougray Scott, as a pawn against the killers. Malkovich is compelling and superb, absolutely commanding every scene with his presence.
Defiance - not seen this since I had a Japanese laserdisc years ago.Great little film from John Flynn, come out in the time where New York was just right for these sort of vigilante films in the 70’s-early 80’s when it was a gritty grey gloomy city.
Look out for a younger Paulie Walnuts
The Sweeper (1996) - Again, some very impressive constant action scenes make up for the script… the director is very good at car chases from the 2 films of his i’ve seen… and the main actor reminds me of Tomas Milian.
" The Resident" the third film released by the resurrected Hammer films, this one isn’t horror just a straightforward thriller about a woman on the bounce from a relationship who seeks comfort with another man who turns out to be a disturbed man with psychopathic tendencies. slow paced, all been done before but it’s quite watchable. Star Hilary Swank also part produced it and a rather sad part of it to me was the appearance of Christopher Lee back at Hammer, he looks ill and very old ( yeah i know he is old at 87 but he’s showing it now). 6/10
The Unjust - Crime drama about about getting someone convicted for a crime no matter what, excellent drama, had me enthralled throughout with the occassional bit of violence here and there.
Beast Cop
Totally took me by surprise, I wasn’t expecting such an uniquely different crime film. Stylish direction, exciting action scenes, but the real meat of the film is the characters and their interactions with each other. And of course, Anthony Wong.
I Knew Her Well
Tough film, with some cruel scenes, plenty of despicable beings and a punch-in-the-gut style ending. But what a cast! Outside of spaghettis I don’t know my Italian cinema that well, so it was nice to see some familiar faces like Franco Nero, Claudio Camaso and Mario Adorf, but this was also chock-full of great actors I either didn’t know or only had heard of (and JC Brialy). Superb Stefania Sandrelli.
[size=12pt]Octopussy[/size] (1983, Scott John Glenn Glen)
Funny how those Bonds have become different movies over the years. Films I used to like, such as You only live twice, are major disappointments these days, while others, like From Russia with Love, turn out to be much better than I remembered. I really thought Octopussy was one of the worst, but it turned out to be quite a nice ride (and flight), over before you know it … well, almost over before you know it (it starts to drag towards the end and the finale is disappointing)
I liked it a bit better than its predecessor, For your eyes only. That one had the better story, this one has the better stunts and overall looks better (even though Maud Adams is no match for Carole Bouquet). Both films have the same problem: those incredibly stupid visual gags during the chase scenes that mar nearly all Moore Bonds. For this reason some have tried to imagine how Octopussy would have looked like if Timothy Dalton had taken over the role from Roger (actually there were ideas of replacing him by either Timothy or American actor Josh Brolin, but rumors were heard that an unofficial Bond starring Sean Connery was planned, they chose to hire Moore one more time – and then again for A View to a Kill). Moore is, by the way, quite good, he has grown into the character, for the first time I had the idea he was Bond.
The pre-credit sequence (with the small plane) is one of the best and so is the theme song, All Time High, by Rita Coolidge.
A nice surprise, 7/10
What was wrong now with You Only Live Twice?
I also think it is one of the least Bonds.
And Octopussy is quite nice apart from the usual stupid gags. I prefer it also meanwhile to For Your Eyes Only, which has aged not that well.
[quote=“Stanton, post:5638, topic:1923”]What was wrong now with You Only Live Twice?
I also think it is one of the least Bonds.
And Octopussy is quite nice apart from the usual stupid gags. I prefer it also meanwhile to For Your Eyes Only, which has aged not that well.[/quote]
Twice has great sets (the finale) and a few good action scenes (Little Nellie), but Connery looks so bored, some of the effects are so corny and the story is so predictable that I felt dissapointed after all these years. Thought I had seen a different film.
Octopussy is indeed quite nice if you forget about the gags, and the gags are basically limited to the chase scenes, so they don’t interfere with the storyline too much. I used to prefer For your Eyes only, but today it’s the other way round. Director Glen seems to have more grip on the material. In For your Eyes only things seemed to slip from his hands from time to time. Jourdan and Berkoff are also good villains, they make up for Adams, who doesn’t make much of an impression, to put it mildly.
Watched them both relatively recently and I completely disagree. Octopussy has some moments but the gags completely spoilt it for me. For Your Eyes Only held a much better balance, had a better storyline and utilised the ageing Moore far better. It was a ‘back to basics’ Bond in many ways and was all the better for it in my opinion. I like Moore a lot but by this time his ability to be convincing as a virile espionage agent were long gone. I also didn’t like Coolidge’s theme song much. One of the least dynamic songs from the series.