Movies you've just watched

[RGC]

Suspiria beats Profondo Rosso every time, IMO. But you'll struggle to get away from the dubbing issue. I'd also place Tenebrae and Bird with the Crystal Plumage above Deep Red for Argento, with Lizard in a Woman's Skin as Fulci's best contribution to the genre.

Also, I hear some online accusing Fulci of being a pretender to the giallo throne in a more exploitation vein... but I've still got the U.S. dub of Zombie on the way just to try. I hear that one delivers the goods with no bullsh!t, so here's hoping.

It's outside his wheelhouse for sure, but Lizard... and also Perversion Story (ahem, ok let's go with the alternative title, One on Top of the Other. Shit, that's not much better!), are competent enough entries. I'm not going to argue either is a masterpiece though.

I agree with you about the romcom sections of Deep Red. The extended version includes some low video quality scenes with no translation, focusing almost exclusively on the burgeoning relationship between David Hemmings and Daria Nicolidi's characters. It's supposed to be lighthearted and fun. I felt the film was stronger without that stuff restored.

[neorichieb1971]

Tetris, apple plus.

Jesus. Never thought i'd ever see a tense thriller about securing the licence rights to handheld videogames. Its a pretty good movie but it did miss some storyline elements i'd be interested in seeing, like Segas face when they didn't get the rights. Of course I have no idea how close to reality the story is, but its pretty good if you know some of the history.

[sumdumgoy]

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[GaijinPunch]

Tetris, apple plus.

Jesus. Never thought i'd ever see a tense thriller about securing the licence rights to handheld videogames. Its a pretty good movie but it did miss some storyline elements i'd be interested in seeing, like Segas face when they didn't get the rights. Of course I have no idea how close to reality the story is, but its pretty good if you know some of the history.

I've not watched this yet, but a friend of mine who works for an NPO is pretty tight with him as he is a philanthropist now... or at least a section of his business is focused on that. He's apparently a great guy - nice to know all the dough didn't make him an asshole like it could have.

[Lord British]

Saw Once Upon A Time In The West on the big screen last night to full house. Truly awesome experience.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Dawn of the Dead (1978)


Our zombie epic. The zombie epic... like it or not, of all time.

Dawn is cool and all, but IMHO the ultimate zombie flick is Return of the Living Dead. It switches from hilarious comedy to incredibly dark nihilism and back again effortlessly, plus it has Linnea Quigley.

[NYN]

I'll second the statement about The Return of the Living Dead. Among the uncountable:

"Freddy's got a job?! What a dick!!"

[sumdumgoy]

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[sumdumgoy]

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[Lord British]

Saw Once Upon A Time In The West on the big screen last night to full house. Truly awesome experience.

But what did you think of the movie?

My wife and I revisited it a few weeks ago, and we got real sick of all the characters fawning over Claudia Cardinale as the stereotypical Strong, Independent Ex-Prostitute™ who knows the score 'cause she's seen it all, blah blah blah. "You're quite a remarkable woman," they kept saying over and over again. I mean, give me a break! She's no Siân Phillips, Isabelle Adjani or Maria Falconetti. Just another "actress" chosen for her body and face, emblematic of many of her ilk in the era. Halfway through, we started fast-forwarding to the good parts.

The good parts being: Henry Fonda's turn against type as a villain with deathly blue eyes (looking best when they're full of fright, as in the scene where The Stranger rifles off the dead names of his victims), Leone's signature stand-offs, gorgeous scope cinematography, Robards' amusing game of hide-and-seek on the train, and Morricone's work on The Stranger's theme.

It happens to be my favorite, but yeah Isabelle Idjani is more my jam. The whole movie is "the good part" you just have to watch it 50 times.

I actually saw it 40 years ago in the theater when it was 100° out and the air conditioning in the theater was broken. I remember my Twizzlers melting.

[sumdumgoy]

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[Lord British]

I've only seen a movie 50 times if it was great the first time.

Lol true

[sumdumgoy]

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[sumdumgoy]

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[sumdumgoy]

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[sumdumgoy]

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[RGC]

The Dirty Dozen (1967) Dir. Robert Aldrich

Spoiler

This sits alongside Raiders of the Lost Ark or a Moore era Bond as a classic weekend go-to adventure of my youth. A bit unusual in that my mates showed no interest in it, and also it's the only WWII film I can remember really appreciating as a kid (although Raiders nearly qualifies). I had a weird experience with it this time. The joyous attitude toward “killin’ Nazis” at the end is almost in Tarantino's Basterds territory. The setup is great. It's mostly about the comradeship forming between a bunch of ill-fated military convicts, plus the hardwon respect they gain for their leader, during training for an involutary suicide mission in Nazi occupied France. The training takes place in the verdant idylls of ol' Blighty.

Lee Marvin heads up a rock solid cast as the somewhat maverick General Reisman, whose repertoire of ways to win the men over includes paying local prozzies to entertain them for the night (top man!). There's a huge roster of well known faces from that era who I can't be bothered to mention, but who are also fantastic in their own ways (Cassavetes was rightly Oscar nominated). The film takes a weird turn in the last 30 minutes though, when the dozen commence their assault on a remote chateau containing numerous Nazi officers _and_ their civilian wives. Somehow, the brutality of this slaughter passed me by as a youngster (the simple lens of “goodies vs baddies” perhaps). Back then I just thought it was cool the way that dude ran along pulling pins and dropping nades like it's christmas. If “war is hell” is the intended message, then it doesn't quite work for me on that level. The fate of the majority of the dozen is a foregone conclusion and more or less spelled out from the get-go. But the other aspects of the ending leave a slightly bitter taste. “What do we do about these people?” says one of the soldiers about the mansion's kitchen staff. “Feed the French and kill the Germans,” says Reisman (or words to that effect), with a casualness and absolute lack of compassion that morally damages his character. How dare this cool (and funny!) action adventure flick remind me about the horrors of war!

[RGC]

Why do I do this to myself?

Robert (2015) Dir. Andrew Jones

Spoiler

Ultra low budget UK horror flick, inspired by “true” events, about a possessed killer doll; allegedly the same one Mancini would have heard about and been inspired by to create Chucky. I don't know what I was expecting with this one. I paid 50p for it in a charity shop. I hate to slag it off too much given the director died of a rare disease at the mere age of 39, but yeah, it isn't great. Clearly it was sufficiently financially viable in the straight-to-dvd market, as Jones went on to make four sequels, none of which I'll be watching. There are times I think I could make a better film, and while it's probably not true, this was one of those times. The story isn't a million miles from Child's Play, but the child recipient of the demonic toy is significantly older than Andy Barclay here, possibly twelve or so. Which makes it all the more implausible he wouldn't freak the f*ck out when the doll came alive and started talking to him, punting it into oblivion like any self-preserving grown up would (in fairness, the adults in the film don't do the latter either; a pervading flaw in the Chucky films).

The main weakness I actually found to be the lead who plays the boy's mum. She employs a strange acting method like she's forgotten her lines, but I believe it's for deliberate dramatic effect. I found it too distracting. It's supposed to be set in England, but numerous folk with US accents randomly show up (a young woman who applies to be a nanny at the house, the previous maid's next door neighbour, and the previous maid's previous employers). Weird. Maybe it's near an airbase or something. Anyway, glad my 50p went to a good cause.

[sumdumgoy]

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[RGC]

Zombie (1979)

It's true, no one else does putrescence quite like Fulci. You can almost smell rotting carcass wafting from the screen. Reminds me of a time many years ago we threw fish in our kitchen general waste (bad move!); days later a brand new smell was discovered as maggots began spilling out onto the kitchen floor. That indellible kind of smell that becomes a taste. :barf:

On Cannibal Holocaust, I think it's effective schlock but I could never overlook the animal snuff elements. Not my kind of entertainment at all.

Thoughts on Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Of Romero's zombie trilogy, Day is my most watched by far, followed by Dawn, which is a fair bit longer. Night I have seen precisely once, and never felt the desire to revisit. I even keep a copy of Day on my phone in case I get stranded somewhere without internet and need entertainment.

[sumdumgoy]

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[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Eggers Nosferatu. Really bad.

[cj iwakura]

Anora was fantastic, especially the ending, Madison earned that Oscar, no question.

But someone please, PLEASE put an end to the 'guy plays FPSes and nothing else' gaming trope.

Tetris, apple plus.

Jesus. Never thought i'd ever see a tense thriller about securing the licence rights to handheld videogames. Its a pretty good movie but it did miss some storyline elements i'd be interested in seeing, like Segas face when they didn't get the rights. Of course I have no idea how close to reality the story is, but its pretty good if you know some of the history.

Kind of makes me hope we could get a drama like this about Sega and Nintendo's battle during the golden age.

[GaijinPunch]

The Sure Thing

Given the year (1985) this is pretty tame. John Cusak plays a guy that's kind of in the middle of who you'd find as the main character of these type of flicks.: he's had some luck w/ ladies before, but not a ton. He's quite relatable. Oddly enough, his BF played by a very young Anthony Edwards with a full head of hair, is bagging pussy left and right. Daphne Zuniga, the love interest, is a certified stick in the mud. This is part teen romance, part comedy, part road movie. Directed by Rob Reiner. I never saw this back in the day, and watching without the aid of the nostalgia glasses, it's hard to get too involved with it. But, it was fun to watch while I was sick and didn't have a lot of brain cells to donate. The soundtrack is fantastic though.

[sumdumgoy]

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[vol.2]

Star Wars (1977)

It was the special edition print where they shoot at the same time. I guess that's annoying, but I got past it.

I sill think the scene with Jabba makes sense, but it was clearly crapped out and would not have been the final cut had they chose to use in the actual film. At least this one isn't nearly as bad as the third film where they added the horrible song and dance number.

Not sure if this is my third or fourth time seeing the movie in a theater actually. I know I saw the original when it came out, and I saw the special edition in the 90s when it was released, but this might have been the first time I've seen it in a theater since then.

All in all though, it was refreshing to watch again after all of the lame movies they made in the 90s and forward. It's very clear to see how the ships and costumes made for an amazing toy fantasy universe for my cousin and I to play in. Good fun!

[GaijinPunch]

Oddly enough, his BF played by a very young Anthony Edwards...

...I did not read that as "best friend."

Then my work here is done.

Star Wars (1977)

Mark Hamill was the guest on Smartless this past week. It was a good listen.

[sumdumgoy]

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[PC Engine Fan X!]

Thoughts on Alien (1979)

Spoiler

Just like William Friedkin and Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott is a man in love with architecture: all sets and special effects. And like those same directors, watching Scott's stuff makes me feel like the script and the acting are an afterthought. And that's where I find the movie struggles.

Aside from Ian Holm's performance as the suspicious Ash and his resurrected interrogation where he admits to his admiration of the alien creature (his words complimenting a face covered in white liquid), the movie's filled with pedestrian acting and dialogue. Nothing has been done in the writing to make me care about these people (they're just walking jobs), and they don't act with any serious urgency to everything they've seen in the alien ship which, if I was there, would've been enough to make me sh!t my pants and nope out. Not here. No, the show must go on. It's all MUH COMPANY REGULATIONS from there. The script is literally in service to the spectacle, and so when I saw they weren't scared until the writing required it, I wasn't scared at all. That's what makes something like The Blair Witch Project so effective for me: because the movie takes its time to let me get to know the characters--doesn't matter if I like them or not. (Hell, even Hostel took the time to do that, and I hated those characters!) So, when they start to fight and lose their minds--all cold, lost and scared--I care about them, and then the same effect happens to me. And I can't help them! Now, that's scary!

And since all that money and effort is spent on those sets and special effects, with Scott taking his sweet time lingering over every inch of it... I'm restless long after I've got the point already and start glancing over at the clock. (It starts feeling more like a museum piece at the halfway mark.) So, what I'm left with are false-alarm jump scares, music cues and a camera so in love with these creations, you can't help but notice in several shots that the alien is actually just a guy in a suit. (The way the alien went BOO! with his hands at Dallas in the air duct nearly made me laugh.)

Thankfully, the good news after was twofold: Carpenter came along in '82 and showed us how it's done... and we all know how Dan O'Bannon redeemed himself six years later with his smash cult hit.

If this movie had to happen in order to get those gems, then... thanks, I guess?

For sumdumgoy,

The scene with the chestbuster alien, the cast wasn't told what was going to happen during the filming of that classic scene and their reactions to it were "geniunely real" (Director Scott was wise not to tell the cast what was about to transpire in this particular instance). Sure, it was a 7 foot tall actor whom wears the alien suit to give it the sense of a wholly new alien entity never seen before.

Watch Alien , then the interquel of Alien: Romulus and then Aliens afterwards -- you'll see how Alien: Romulus fits in between those two classic and groundbreaking hybrid sci-fi/horror films like a well-worn baseball glove that just gels for all the right reasons. Alien: Romulus takes place 20 years after the events of Alien and 37 years before what happens in Aliens. Even Director James Cameron was consulted as to how Alien: Romulus would fit in between the two Alien & Aliens movies (considering that he did direct the Aliens 1986 sequel). There is talk about a possible Alien: Romulus sequel (which would be interesting to see how that one would play out, story-wise & plot-wise).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[sumdumgoy]

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