Been watching some episodes of HAZELL, about a private eye in late 70’s London. Cracking stuff, really enjoying it.
Speaking of Hill, I just finished watching Streets Of Fire an hour ago. It’s endlessly amazing. The cast is great and the script is rapid-fire awesome. I saw it when it first came out and it still feels fresh. Hill’s handling of the quarry-hammer fight between Willem DaFoe and Mike Pare is action-filming at its finest, being that nobody spent months choreographing how to wield quarry-hammers… Just quickly intersperse swinging-shots, facial grimaces, and defensive-thrusts in a swiftly paced editing style, and Voila! The two look like they can take-on an army. The music’s great. The girls are great. The sets are great. This film meshes neatly alongside The Warriors and 48 Hours.
[size=12pt]Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein/Hard to be a God [/size] (1990) - Peter Fleischmann
My quest for film adaptations of Strugatsky brothers stories, brought me directly to this strange film a Soviet West German French production, that feels better than any Star treck flick (and I like Star trek). I confess I’ve never had heard of this before, but its a very cool film, an 100% European production, this sci-fi will a must for every fan of the genre and not only.
The story in the film is great (not better than the book, but how often that happens), in the future humans discover another planete where people very similar to humans live in, but they are in the start of their civilization, or what can be considered our middle ages or post-roman empire period (well almost, not quite mifddle ages but with a feeling of the period), so lots of war going on, one human is send to mix with the ihnabitants of the planet in a totally undercover mission, to learn there ways, but if you got the chanve to be a God will you take it, great premisse indeed.
Its a very good film a nice surprise, got an anormal mix between a Soviet made film and a German film, not an easy watch violent sometimes, it does not have that Hollywood/mainstream feeling.
A good surprise, totally recomended
Right on top, Yod. 
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:7361, topic:1923”]Been watching some episodes of HAZELL, about a private eye in late 70’s London. Cracking stuff, really enjoying it.
[/quote]
I used to really enjoy this series when it was first aired back in the late 70s. Wasn’t it co written by Terry Venables?
[size=4] The Vow (2012).
Woman is involved in a car accident and is pretty ok on physical injuries, but her memory is affected. The rest of the film is spending trying to remember and sorting her marriage out. Based on true events, but did find the film a bit to much on the mushy side for me. Jessica Lang co stars and have not seen her in anything for a while, so was sort of surprised how old she looked. Only seems like yesterday she starred in the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice.[/size]
[quote=“Phil H, post:7365, topic:1923”]I used to really enjoy this series when it was first aired back in the late 70s. Wasn’t it co written by Terry Venables?[/quote]Yeah it was. I’ve never seen it before, I was 6/7 or so when it was on.
In the last few days, I’ve seen:
The Walker. I absolutely love Paul Schrader, but this is not his best. Lovely soundtrack, though, particularly the Bryan Ferry track ‘Which Way to Turn’. Needed a bit more bite and then it might have been really great. Shame, because Woody Harrelson was good.
Legend of the Eight Samurai. Like a Japanese Krull, kind of. Good fantasy fun and highly recommended.
Ilsa, Harem Keeper Of The Oil Sheiks. Not nearly as disturbing and sadistic as the first film. I quite enjoyed it as a piece of bad taste schlock.
Zombi 2. Fulci’s seminal classic. Not my personal favourite of his films, but damn good. In fact, better in some ways than I remembered.
[quote=“Phil H, post:7364, topic:1923”]Right on top, Yod. ;)[/quote] 8)
Rough Cut - A famous actor who keeps beating up others shooting fight scenes finds he has no one who be his adversary in roles so he persuades a violent gangster to take on the role, he agrees but only if they can fight for real. Worth a watch but nothing to rant and rave about.
The Girl in Room 2A - Really enjoyed this, a good balance of suspense and nastiness.
Cujo - Always liked this one, the Lionsgate Blu Ray looks fantastic.
In Time
i’m not very familiar with Justin Timberlake as a musician (i hope he is one, or am i jumble something?), but i like him as an actor, he was good in Alpha dog and here as well
Cillian Murphy is great too, i think i should rewatch Sunshine or 28 days
OOOoooh! I remember this. I’m gonna have to get this now I know it’s out on dvd.
What I remember most was that Sam Spade/Bladerunner (as it’s been mentioned recently) stylee narration/talkover.
I loved this when I was but a yooof… I even had the picture disc of the theme music (sung by Maggie Bell).
Thanks Yod.
I’m glad one of my pals put me onto it, I’d never heard of it myself until a couple of years ago but only just got around to getting it.
I watched Che: Part 1 & 2 recently and was very impressed. I am hardly Steven Soderberg’s biggest fan (allthose Ocean’s 11 movies plus the poor Solaris adaptation means I approach each of his film’s with caution), but I have to admit, this film was excellent. It really gave you a sense of what fighting a guerilla campaign must be like. Benicio del Torro has an uncanny resemblence to Che and his performance was very, very good. In all, a movie that will only grow as the years go by.
I saw this last year and remember sort of liking it, but wanted to like it more…didn’t really grip me like I thought it would. I think Soderberg said if he could do it again he would have made it as one of those long TV films (like HBO, I guess). Lot of stuff must have been cut. You’re right though, del Torro’s great in it.
few movies i have watched recently
Devils by Ken Russell - great movie, and i must have seen some uncut version - there were some very nasty scenes with nuns masturbating on JC statue :o
but really great spectacle, one of my favorite movies for sure
Un Dollaro Bucato - a better effort than Adios Gringo (to pick up some other recently watched gemma SW), sometimes it is little dull, but generally quite enjoyable, nice touch with those revolvers with sawn off barrels - did unionists really do such a thing to confederate soldiers?
and i have been watching some episodes of eighties tv show Sledge Hammer (a pic in CCCC competition) with great David Rasche - his motto is “Make war, not love”. Most unconvincing cop show (okay, after T.J. Hooker) but most funny.
So far for 1980:
Ordinary People
The Long Riders
Kagemusha
The Shining
Shogun Assassin
The Shining is still very creepy and effective but I wasn’t convinced by any of the acting, which is odd because the cast is very good. Somehow though I had a constant sense that they were speaking lines from a script rather than acting. And Nicholson’s transformation into raving nutter was all a bit sudden for my liking too. Despite that, the film still works in terms of fear factor and this has to be down to Kubrick for me.
The Long Riders was enjoyable too although I do find it one of those films that is gradually diminishing in my opinion with every viewing. It still has plenty to keep me coming back but, if I’m honest, I don’t rate it as high as I used to.
Ordinary People on the other hand I actually appreciated more this time around than I had previously. It is, ultimately, something of a depressing film so not much pleasure in it for me but it is well made and it has some very good personal moments.
Kagemusha and Shogun Assassin are two very different Japanese films but, in their own ways, both made for rewarding viewing for me. I haven’t seen the two original Lone Wolf and Cub films which were amalgamated to create Shogun Assassin but it works surprisingly well for a mash up montage type job and the kid’s voice over narration, which I would usually hate works really well. Kurasawa’s film is not his best in my opinion but is still a very good film, as you’d expect from the old master.
Still got a few lined up before the week’s out of which Raging Bull is an obvious inclusion.
here’s the pilot episode of Sledge Hammer, just wait until Sledge will appear on tv news, it’s just great
[url]- YouTube
I really like Sledge Hammer, but the missus can’t stand it!
We had a very rare opportunity this afternoon to see the 1986 movie Black Moon Rining on the big screen. Expectations were fairly low, thanks to the poor reviews available online, but it’s actually pretty good. Tommy Lee Jones stars, back in the days when he looked like a rock star, as a thief who is a sort of working class James Bond. Linda Hamilton is excellent as a high class car thief trapped into working for the splendidly villainous Robert Vaughn.
If you ever get the chance, try to catch it.
[B]Aces Go Places[/B] - Great fun, always enjoyed this one.
[B]Games Gamblers Play[/B] - Really enjoyed this, a lot more than I expected to. I think the GH Hui films are better than the SB ones.
In the trailer there was a scene that wasn’t in the film with Sam Hui jumping around on the beach copying Bruce Lee with Way of the Dragon music playing and having a fight with Sammo Hung. Can’t see Hung credited for this anywhere so I wonder of it made it to any prints of the film.
[B]The Cats[/B] - Enjoyable enough crime romp from Duccio Tessari with Giuliano Gemma, Klaus Kinski and Rita Hayworth. Some of the camera shots were just like some of the Tessari/Gemma westerns.
