Cinemexperience: part deux., Some more filums you saw. Options

[Serafina_Pekkala]

The only thing that made me laugh about Wrong Turn was Eli Roth's indignation about how he couldn't see Eliza Dushku's tits even though raping inbred hillbillies would have been all over those puppies like a vomit-enducing rash. And what is she? Some TV star who won't show her tits.

He has a point. It is an inaccuracy. Hillbillies await Dollhouse the R-rated version.

[angle]

Braindead

Been years since i first saw this but enjoyed it just as much as the first time round, buckets of gore (actually tankers of gore may be more accurate) some dodgy stop motion effects and some ropey acting but the whole thing works.
Quite funny to go back and watch it now after having watched the mega budget films Peter Jackson has made in the last few years. It seems to be quite the 'done thing' now to make a low budget horror movie in the hopes of attracting the big boys with the serious wonga, Jake West is another one going this route with films like Razor blade smile,Evil Aliens and now Doghouse which kinda looks like a LAD'S MAG version of Shaun of the dead.

[maian]

Le Doulos (1962)

Beautifully shot and tricksy French noir from Jean-Pierre Melville. Jean-Paul Belmondo is a police informant who gets involved with a crime organised by his friend, Maurice (Serge Reggiani). The heist goes awry, and Maurice suspects Silien of being the one who informed on him, and plots his revenge. All the while, Silien tries to find out who it was that told the police.

A gorgeous film in an aesthetic sense and the plot itself is wonderfully complex. It really drags you in as you watch Silien delve into the murky underworld of Paris and tries to untangle the web of deceit that falls around him.


A Walk With Love and Death (1969)

I've been watching a few of the more obscure John Huston films recently and they have somewhat diminished my enthusiasm for his work, though only in so much that I no longer think ''Oh, a John Huston film, could be good'' as I do ''Oh, a film that John Huston both directed and wrote, could be good'', since this film and the others I have watched have proven to me that the times when Huston was at his best were when he wrote the screenplays for his films as well as directing them. The films on which he had only a directing credit veer wildly in quality, with this being one of the poorer efforts.

Not completely terrible, it does boast an okay performance from a very young Angelica Huston, but the story of a young man walking across France during the Hundred Years' War is really quite dull. There are moments of interest, such as an encounter with a religious order whose members, well, cut their members off so that they will not think sinful thoughts or commit carnal acts, but they are few and far between. The overall piece is really insipid and inconsistent, without even the saving grace of a strong central relationship between the two main characters.

[ipse dixit]

Saw Terminator Salvation last night. S'alright. There's some fun action, and a lot of plot holes. The little kid's kinda irritating. Best suited to dvd viewing (on a good, big TV with decent sound set-up for all the bangs and shouties), with drinks and friends.

This post has been edited by ipse dixit: Jun 3 2009, 01:57 PM

[logger]

Most of Star Trek II

Not as good as IV, which is the best of the old films. Having missed the beginning I wasn't sure what Kahn was. Was he human or an alien?

[Shack]

Saw Terminator Salvation last night. S'alright. There's some fun action, and a lot of plot holes. The little kid's kinda irritating. Best suited to dvd viewing (on a good, big TV with decent sound set-up for all the bangs and shouties), with drinks and friends.

Sounds fair to me. I'll not rush to the cinema.

(Unless it's to see the new Transformers, obviously).

[NiteFall]

Most of Star Trek II

Not as good as IV, which is the best of the old films. Having missed the beginning I wasn't sure what Kahn was. Was he human or an alien?

He's a genetically enhanced human frozen from the Eugenics War (which if the Trek timeline is to be believed we are currently just in the middle of) who Kirk found, defrosted then subsequently marooned in the episode Space Seed.

[maian]

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army avec director's Commentary

One of my very favourite films from last year, complete with a witty and informative commentary from Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro is very eloquent concerning the themes of the story, divulges plenty of interesting facts about the production and the reasons why he considers it to be the most autobiographical of all his films, a claim that I had previously derided but now can completely understand.

As ever, the breadth of del Toro's influences and the depth of the subliminal messages and images in the film are staggering. There are just so many little things that I didn't notice the first time round that are almost imperceptible. I was really struck by the number of references to fertility and pregnancy that litter the film, subliminally reflecting the plot, and the sheer amount of things that are going on in the scenes in the troll market, as well as the ways in which the architecture of the buildings are associated with certain characters. It always amazes me how much effort del Toro puts into his worlds, even though a lot of the details may be completely missed.

His hints about a possible third film and how certain scenes in this film would play into it were a bit frustrating, though, since he was unwilling to expand on any details. Pretty tantalising, though.

[logger]

He's a genetically enhanced human frozen from the Eugenics War (which if the Trek timeline is to be believed we are currently just in the middle of) who Kirk found, defrosted then subsequently marooned in the episode Space Seed.

He was cool but he was beaten too easily.

It'd be interesting to see him in the new films but not for at least another film.

[Raven]

He was cool but he was beaten too easily.

Spock laid down his life for your entertainment, show a bit more respect.

[logger]

Spock knew what he was doing.

[ella]

Saw Leon for the first time the other day. Just stunning.

[Sean of the Dead]

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Arnold Schwarzenegger fights a Robert Patrick with magic tinfoil for innards and is taught how to love by a young Edward Furlong. It has some cracking moments - the initial Arnold/Robot Patrick encounter and the escape from the mental hospital - but it's all just a bit too nineties for its own good. It's worrying that mankind is to be saved by a steel mill with absurdly unfair employment practices - open at that hour? Christ on a small electric bike, that's convenient. I can only interpret it as a propoganda film from the Tories, circa the early 19th century, due to how change in the form of killer robots is admonished while the obvious lack of a trade union is depicted as crucial to mankind's salvation. Revision of British reform 1832-1885 is clearly getting to me.

[Sostie]

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
Well it's downhill after the rather good opening credits (seeing that Wolverine fought in WWII with Captain America it would have been a nice touch to have seen him in the background somewhere). Some passable action sequences, fairly good performances, some crappy dialogue. All plotholes opened up in relation to later X-Men movies are rather conveniently filled by amnesia. All a bit meh.

When did Sabretooth become Logan's brother? He was originally going to be his father in early comics, but then turned out later to be no relation, so why start messing round with an already established mythology.

What a waste of Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds gets about 5 minutes screentime at the beginning and Deadpool is turned into something he isn't (the sewn up mouth!). How can they have a spin-off if he is decapitated? Has anyone else noticed that Reynolds is a little bit boss-eyed.

[Rua]

Deadpool was a massive disappointment. Gambit wasn't nearly Cajun enough.

All plotholes opened up in relation to later X-Men movies are rather conveniently filled by amnesia.

Isn't that how it was with Wolverine anyway? That's how I remembered it, maybe I have amnesia?