I’ve only watched Drive as well. I gotta check other stuff by Refn. He seems to be a really great guy who is different from an army of shitty CGI directors.
i can second that - and i’d add also Bleeder
The Blood Beast Terror - Detective Inspector Quennell (Peter Cushing) is investigating a series of deaths where the victims are drained of blood which leads him on the trail of a giant killer moth!
I thought I hadn’t seen this Tigon film before but after it had been on a while realised I had.
I thought it was pretty good but hardly a Cushing classic.
The Seven Ups - Really enjoy this 70’s thriller with Roy Scheider, the German Blu Ray looks nice and crisp. Recommended.
I will definitely give a look to all the mentioned Nicolas Winding Refn films. I didn’t realize he had all of those previous films, thanks for the recommendations
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:8383, topic:1923”]The Seven Ups - Really enjoy this 70’s thriller with Roy Scheider, the German Blu Ray looks nice and crisp. Recommended.
[/quote]Nice!
Not as good as the French Connection, but still a good film.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD - Was slightly disappointed by this Sidney Lumet vehicle starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as the two desperate-for-some-cold-hard-cash brothers who plan to rob their own parents in order to rearrange their fucked-up lives. Not sure whether the unconventional narrative worked that well and the climax left a whole lot to be desired. Not bad really, rather average for Lumet’s standards.
“House Of Dark Shadows” (1971)
-Jonathan Frid
Plot :IMDB
Recently unleashed from his coffin by local drunk, Willie Loomis, the vampire Barnabas Collins goes on a killing spree, while at the same time charming his present day family members. In the process he meets local girl Maggie Evans and notices that she looks exactly like his deceased fiance Josette. Barnabas assumes that she is the reincarnation of Josette, and plans to make him his unholy bride for eternity.
Phantom’s Review: One of my favorite vampire films. Good story (adapted from the soap opera) plenty of Hammer film style gore and atmosphere. And some fine acting from the stars. Highly entertaining.
[url]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/87/yamatob.jpg/[/url] [size=12pt]Space Battleship Yamato[/size] (2011)
![http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/87/yamatob.jpg/[/url]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/87/yamatob.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
Based on an immensily popular anime series, this feature length movie even beat Harry Potter at the Japanese box-office
I had heard of the series but knew very little about the story, which might have been an advatage. Initially it’s all a bit vague, but once you’re into it, the story’s quite compelling. The earth has been attacked by aliens who have destroyed the face of it with their meteor bombs. Humanity now lives in underground city but the radiation of the meteor bombs will soon reach them, causing the extinction of mankind. But then a message is received from a planet in a distant solar system called Iskander. The Iskandarians say they have a solution for the radiation problem. Are the Iskandarians honest or is it a trap? Humanity must take even the tiniest chance of survival, so Space Battleship Yamato is sent to Iskander …
The movie had a fairly high budget for Japanese standards, but nothing compared to Hollywood blockbusters. If you keep this in mind, the look of Space battleship Yamato is incredible, at least on a small screen. As said the story about saving the world is compelling, but the film was aimed at the Japanese market, and Japanese audiences are used to higher levels of bombast than western viewers and their ideas about loyalty and self sacrifice are different from ours. Some scenes might look way over the top, but if you can handle this, Space battleship yamato is a very enjoyable movie. I liked it a lot.
Damnation (1988) by Bela Tarr.
I’ve already seen two movies by Tarr (The Turin Horse, Werckmeister Harmonies) and this is DECIDEDLY the best one. Yes, it’s pretty gloomy (just like the title and actually every film by Tarr), but I found it extremely gripping and riveting. The story about a depressed man who has an affair with a singer in a night club and she decides to return to her husband might sound familiar, but the movie is far from being straight-forward. It’s well made in a very unconventional way, with catatonic pace, some one of the most stunning tracking shots I’ve ever seen and gorgeous soundtrack by Mihaly Vig. One of my favorites of all time. Phenomenal flick, but I can see why some people might dislike it. It’s austere, gloomy, pessimistic, and very, very cold. So cold that you can almost feel a chill in the air. I felt it. The only thing which assured me that the temperature hadn’t dropped below zero around me was the fact that my breath didn’t steam in the air. 9/10
Sweet Karma (2009) - former Playboy playmate Shera Bechard stars as a mute girl set on revenge for her sister’s death in a russian prostitution ring. Not terrible but not good either. Lacks any creative touches and doesn’t seem like it was made by someone who really loves or understands this kind of movie… more of a very amateurish attempt by a first time crew with no real skill. Terrible soundtrack… lots of skin though. Way too talky and not enough action… the action that was present was lackluster and too spread out. An alright watch but not really worth it either
Sheba, Baby (1975) - Pam Grier in her usual styled film of this time, leagues beyond Sweet Karma while not quite as good as Grier’s best.
Predators [2010]
followed by
And Sartana Kills Them All.
[B]The Laughing Policeman[/B] - Not seen this for a few years, good solid 70’s thriller.
[B]Tropic Thunder[/B] - Fancied something easy to watch so revisited it. Enjoyed it more the first time round but it’s still funny. Robert Downey Jr steals the show though.
“The Fire Within”, a Louis Malle film - didn’t like it…
Watched the first 2 episodes of The Walking Dead. Very good so far.
I’m also towards the end of the 4th season of Breaking Bad. Also highly recommended.
[size=12pt]Total Recall [/size]
The new version. Starring Farrell, Beckinsale and Biel you can at least say it has an attractive cast. Overall it looks good and I thought the first half wasn’t bad at all, but it becomes a mindless, extremely noisy rollercoaster ride in the second, with an endless series of chase scenes, shootouts, narrow escapes, chase scenes, shootouts, and so on, and so on.
I don’t remember the original too well (it has never been my favorite Verhoeven), but I had the idea the director was more inspired by Blade Runner and some more recent SF stuff (some scenes reminded me of I Robot) than by Verhoeven’s movie. Maybe I should rewatch the original. I saw it cinema when it was first released and I don’t think I ever rewatched it a-z (I usually watch a couple of minutes when I stumble upon these kind of movies while zapping late at night).
Average
[quote=“Stanton, post:8394, topic:1923”]Watched the first 2 episodes of The Walking Dead. Very good so far.
I’m also towards the end of the 4th season of Breaking Bad. Also highly recommended.[/quote]
Both are great shows. Breaking Bad is maybe the best television show in decades.
I also watched the new Total Recall again last night, and it didn’t hold up so well on second viewing. Perhaps it was too soon after my first viewing or maybe it didn’t work as well on the small screen as it did at the cinema. Either way, I was fairly bored with it this time around.
Followed with Killer Joe (2011) - Now this is a strange movie. Matthew McConaughey plays a cop who has a side business of killing people for hire. The film is not so much about this, but more about presenting strange characters in a kind of reflection on good old American Values
mentioning a television shows, Lost 3. and 4.season arrived, so i can continue in this great show, at least 2.season was great for me, i hope it won’t disappoint
There are better ones. Of the few I have seen I would prefer The Sopranos and especially Mad Men. Mad Men is virtuous.
Breaking Bad is on the level of Deadwood and Rome.
Next ones will be Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and The Wire. Maybe Sons of Anarchy. Or Dexter.
I skipped Six Feet Under after the 1st season, and True Blood is also on a lower level.
I really loved Six Feet Under - I’d say its one you need to follow more than the 1st season but it gets really great. Never bothered with True Blood, looked like crap
Dexter is also good and I’m about to resume watching it at Season 4. A lot of people seem to think it went to crap after the second season, but I still like it.
I never really liked mobster stuff very much and always have a hard time with the genre, so I never tried to watch Sopranos.
[size=12pt]Cold Sweat[/size] 1970 Terence Young
Another Bronson film from his French period, it seems that many of those are now public domain, don’t know if it’s the case of Cold Sweat.
Cold Sweat got an intriguing to say the least cast, pairing Bronson with Liv Ulmann is unexpected, and if you add Mason in a non German General part but as an American Captain you get the picture.
So not the worst leit motiv for Bronson I’ve seen around, but still average stuff. Somehow Terence Young makes most of his films look with an excessive, I don’t know, cheap or vulgar feeeling to it, the action scenes are decent enough, he knows how to create tension, the initial scene with Michel Constantin is a perfect image of that, but fails in telling the story.
And that is the main problem of the film, a story that seems to have come out of a corn flakes pack.
The all thing turns into skeptical affair, with a very nasty guy carrying a machine gun all the time, with more screen time than Mason does.
Bronson does his stuff, Ulmann looks strange as the obedient housewife, and why Manson was chosen for an US character I don’t know, nice to see Pisitilli and Constantin on the screen. I know Bronson always forced his wife to be in the picture, but this time she was really forced in to it
So far from Le Passager de la pluie by far his best French film, but still decent enough for a watch with a cool car chase in the Alpes Maritimes, pity about the B grade plot, which could be a good thing but not in films with Ulmann and Manson