7 Days/Les 7 jours du talion (2010) by Daniel Grou
Good brutal film,… I’m still digesting it duo for its subject matter , need some time I guess. Although I’m leaning more towards liking it than not liking it.
Slap Shot (1977) - George Roy Hill, with Paul Newman.
A re-watch from a recent blu-ray purchase. I love this movie and being a fan of the sport just makes it even more enjoyable to watch. It’s violent and funny, one of the best movies Newman ever did. You got to love hockey to fully get this. 8/10
[quote=“Lone Gringo, post:12384, topic:1923”] Slap Shot (1977) - George Roy Hill, with Paul Newman.
A re-watch from a recent blu-ray purchase. I love this movie and being a fan of the sport just makes it even more enjoyable to watch. It’s violent and funny, one of the best movies Newman ever did. You got to love hockey to fully get this. 8/10[/quote]
I don’t think it’s a great movie, but it is fun, a lot of fun actually
Circus of Fear (1966)
Had this for a while on the shelf and always assumed it was some kind of horror / thriller thing but, as it turns out, it’s a UK made Krimi. I didn’t know such a thing existed but once all the principal players had shown up it became clear this is what it is. It’s a British German co production and along with the a nice list of British actors which include Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Suzy Kendall and Margaret Lee it features 3 German ones who made the Krimi connection clear for me; Klaus Kinski, Eddi Arent and Heinz Drache. Arent in particular is the face of Krimis for me since I discovered them a few years ago. Turns out, on reading up about it after that the story is based on an Edgar Wallace too so there you are then.
Enjoyable nonsense for the most part which starts with a nice armed robbery on Tower Bridge and then revolves around a series of murders in an off season circus. My favourite part is when Kinski turns up at the circus asking for a job. Magnificent interview technique which I think should be rolled out at all job centres across the country. You can see the whole movie here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pdhv2 but the quality is awful so just watch KInski’s interview from the 25:55 mark. It’s priceless.
[quote=“Phil H, post:12386, topic:1923”]Circus of Fear (1966)
My favourite part is when Kinski turns up at the circus asking for a job. Magnificent interview technique which I think should be rolled out at all job centres across the country. … just watch KInski’s interview from the 25:55 mark. It’s priceless.[/quote]
Indeed - I’d give him it. ;D
I bet the dwarf did it…*
[size=8pt]
(* edit by head honcho, priory of the golden apples - the above view suggesting that a ‘vertically-challenged’ individual is the immediate suspect as a mass killer does not represent the priory’s community-cohesion attitude - sorry!)[/size]
The New Barbarians - great cheesy fun from Castellari, seen it quite a few times now over the years.
Touch of Evil (Welles/58)
“Touch of Evil” (1958), directed by Orson Welles, is a great, baroque film noir which marked Welles return to Hollywood after a decade of self-imposed artistic exile in Europe. The man who had transformed theatre, radio and cinema by the time he was 25, took a pulp thriller called “Badge of Evil” by “Whit Masterson” (a nom-de-plum for Robert Allison Wade and Robert Clatworthy) and produced a startling, daring masterwork.
Welles translates the intensity of theatre into cinema with long, mobile takes: the opening three minute shot has become justifiably iconic, a testament to what cinema is capable of. A small film in and of itself, it traces the progress of the car which has a bomb planted in it, along the main street to the border post. This shot introduces us to Vargas and his wife, the geography of the town and establishes the crucial back story. It’s the organic integration of the shot into the story which makes it extraordinary. Throughout the film, almost without the audience registering it, whole scenes are composed in one take, and it contributes to the picture’s fluid, propulsive dynamism, Welles’ formal devices are as exciting as the ostensible thriller elements. The deep focus cinematography Welles had helped to pioneer on “Citizen Kane” (1941) is further refined here by Russell Metty, underlining the visual and moral darkness of the town, a key aspect of the film.
Despite making what was supposed to be a B-movie, Welles imbues his film with a Shakespearean concept of character, with his own character cutting a fascinating figure. Quinlan goes on intuition and plants evidence to get the murder; yet it’s revealed that he did indeed get the right man, leading to a muddying of the initial good cop - bad cop dichotomy established between Vargas and Quinlan. In the Wellesian universe, there are no simple answers.
Charlton Heston playing a Mexican is absurd but it does contribute further to the viewer’s feeling of dislocation, that within the seedy environs of the border town, anything could happen. He seems to be the film’s moral compass, but his error of judgement in abandoning his wife at a motel and later use of underhand methods to try and catch Quinlan leads to a far more complex, multi-faceted character.
Welles called on many of his friends to act in the film as a favour, leading to a phenomenal cast of character actors: Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Ray Collins and even a cameo from Marlene Dietrich. It’s an incredible gallery of faces, performances, leaving indelible marks on cinematic history.
“Touch of Evil” proved to be one of the last of the classical noirs, but its impact still reverberates through cinema today. Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich summed it up simply as “a masterpiece - a Goya-like vision of an infected universe”. No one else could have made it and it’s one of the great artistic achievements of the 20th century.
Terminator Genisys [2015] by Alan Taylor with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke.
Arnie is back in this latest Terminator installment, but it wasn’t as good as 1 and 2 IMO. In this one, the story has some interesting twists to it and it’s heavy on the sci-fi, but it got confusing as the film progressed along and I kinda lost track of the time travel timelines witch started getting ridiculous. On the other side of it, the special effects were decent enough and there were some cool action scenes to keep you engaged. As for the acting, Arnie is good and Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor plays the part well, but the rest of cast were just plain awful, especially Jai Courtney who was atrocious in the role of Kile Reese. A decent enough watch if you’re a fan of the franchise.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (or just Lady Vengeance on the dvd I picked up)… 2005
Slow to build but never boring, primarily because of the superb acting of Yeong-ae Lee as the main protagonist going by the name of Geum-ja. She is a character that was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a murder of a child that she was innocent of. And she’s out - and out for revenge… yep, this is how we like 'em!
Her playing out of a desensitised vengeance-obsessed character that puts on a façade of ‘niceness’ whilst in the prison is so well done, as is the cold red-eyed persona when she’s left. But, we also find that she is not devoid of all feeling - as we discover when her own young and sassy daughter arrives on the scene.
And, although she plans to kill someone, and that ain’t nice, it all turns rather more nasty and dark when she realises the deeper significance relating to his mobile phone’s (no longer) lucky charms and keepsakes… 
There is very dark humour at play, and the violence is nasty - but is not explicitly shown for the most part.
All in all, a pretty damn fine revenge (and redemption) movie that is wonderfully acted out. (I was supposing I need to find the other 2 parts to this loose “trilogy”, but I’ve a feeling that I’ve seen the …Mr. Vengeance one, but it obviously wasn’t as memorable as this one may seem to be.) Poetical, almost beautiful, in some parts - and certainly less visceral than I thought it would be - (and probably all the better for that).
Recommended - but of course you’ve probably already seen it… 
Twice. But this is the kind of movie that works better when you watch it for the first time. When rewatching it it’s still beautifully looking, funny and occasionally touching, but the jump cuts, subs to express thoughts, the non-linear narrative structure, etc. all become a bit irritating.
The Burglars (1971).
Viewed this one a few times over the years, but this time via a not bad 2.35 print. The robbery at the start always fascinates me with all the gadgets. Plus the star is pretty cool and laid back. Great car chase in the film, which is far better than much more hyped car chases from around the same period of film. This heist film is well paced for the running time, and we even have a Morricone score, what more can you ask for I say.
No, nit for me, it only gets better on a second watching, like all really great films. This is a total masterpiece. 10/10
The slightly less spectacular original title is something like The Kind-Hearted Ms. Geum-ja
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
A rewatch. First time I saw it in the cinema when it came out and remembered I didn’t like it that much. This time it fared better but it’s still the least liked Tarantino by me. Some of the violence is not handled very well imo and that adds mostly to my dislike (yeah, I’m getting soft). But what a cast! I think Tarantino’s greatest strength is work with actors. It’s not just that he collected the best of Germany (plus France etc.) - he knows how to pick 'em, but he also knows how to drag someone in the spotlight and make a star out of him/her, as has happened here with Waltz and Laurent. So the stuff I like most in this movie are the actors, real pleasure to watch them all.
Iron Sky (2012)
“Independence Day meets Inglorious Basterds” quoth the cover… and maybe? Well - it has a big spaceship - and Nazis.
“In 1945, the Nazis retreated to the moon, now they’re coming back.” says the tagline - and this idea of moon-Nazis got me forking out a hard earned quid at the charity shop. I was robbed!
How could you take such a great concept and get it so wrong?
Well - it’s a comedy…'scept it aint funny - just stereotypical farce instead of the dark humour I was expecting. A couple of moon-bound astronauts find a huge Nazi swastika shaped enclave on the dark side of the moon. One of these chaps gets killed and t’other who don’t one is black. The USA is run by a Sarah Palin-alike president, and the 4th Reich (who are after mobile phones to power up their mother-ship, 'cos their idea of a computer is a room) end up advising her on how to do things in her presidential re-election.
What I did like, and what they should’ve stuck with, was the 1940s version of technology that had evolved independently of earth-based technology - sort of Nazi-lunar-steampunk - and it was partly evident in huge battleships that looked like Hindenburg airships on steroids, and the aforementioned room-sized computer.
But - to allow their clunky technology to be simply plugged into an apple mac, and then to find that the rest of their huge invasion force looked like any that from any other starwars-y sci-fi-y nonsense was a big let-down. As was the limp finale. It actually suffers for having had too big a budget which was mainly spent on cgi. This yarn would have been better served by having spaceships made from plastic washing up liquid bottles and spending a bit more on the script. It needed better fleshed-out ideas, consistent techno-logic, and satire instead of slapstick.
Whereas Starship Troopers succeeds as a satire about American politics and totalitarianism, this one fails miserably.
So much potential - such utter shit. >:(
(edit - oh well, I got my charity shop’s 3 quids worth in the form of Lady Vengeance… and I’ve still got Zombie Killer Barbys to go…)
I’ll ask the Hungarian president to put up a fence to keep these nasty creatures out.
It’s a queer one for sure, Iron Sky. I bought it unseen back when it first came out because… well, you know: Nazis from the dark side of the moon! Cinematic catnip, it seemed rude not to buy it. And I really enjoyed it in that sort of insubstantial, candy floss, can’t-remember-a-thing-about-it-three-hours-later way. Fun stuff, and that’s the end of that. Fast forward to the start of this year, and I’m part of a “Movie Club” thread on a football forum (someone nominates a film, we all acquire that movie by whatever means, watch it, talk about it, rate it). Someone nominates Iron Sky and I agree to watch the “Director’s Cut” of the movie since I’ve never seen that extended cut and it’s on Netflix at the time so it’s nice and convenient. Anyway, this time around I found it to be naff, slightly cringeworthy and - worst of all - uninteresting. I put it down at the time to a movie as silly and inconsequential as Iron Sky not requiring an extended runtime, but I’m wondering now if I hadn’t maybe been under the influence of a bad clam or something the first time around. Perhaps I need one more look; a deciding rubber, if you will.
Jeez! 3 times!!! 
You don’t get this time back y’know. 
The Priory has an open door policy… as I’ve mentioned, bearded women and flower headed blokes are ok, as are Zombie Killer Barbys - just moon Nazis and morris dancers can fuck off!
I’ve just realised what you’ve said here… spooky! I’ve sitting at my desk designing/drawing a bad clam for the last two days… really - God told me to do it :
what’s a morris dancer?
check out post a pic talk whatever thread. It’s pagan fertility stuff.
Ah Ok
I thought it had something to do with the cars the Morris ones that is. I remember that the morris 1300 was very popular in the 70’s here in Portugal