Movies you've just watched

[Casey120]

After " an American werewolf in London " last week , an old movie I saw more than once and love I watched " The Howling " last night .
An old film with Patrick McNee from the Avengers series long ago .
I enjoyed it and the special effects where surprisingly good for such an old film !

[CMoon]

Watched the first half of Black Rain tonight. This movie is definitely better than I remember it. Scott's direction is strong throughout, while the plot carries the throw-away trashy cop theme feel mixed with a super alienating cultural rift theme. I'll watch the second half tomorrow, but this one is definitely a winner...I'm glad I asked you dudes about this film.

[Skykid]

I watched Ninja Assassin last night. Meh, it's crap - but I didn't expect anything else. Had some okay fights and the whole thing is a complete bloodbath, which was amusing. Probably not as awful as it was made out to be, just hearkened back to those trashy 70's/80's Ninja flicks.

The main chick in it though (she's in 28 Days Later) is blooming awful. The shittiest actress they could have put in a lead role. Really annoyed me throughout the whole film, and really mis-cast.
Tbh, she's one of those sorts of actors who would be mis-cast in anything though. She can't say a single line like it's not being read off of a page, or without being uber conscious she has a camera on her face. Even the Ninja guy was better, and he's a Korean pop star.

[Shocky]

I dug out my old VHS of Tetsuo: The Iron Man today. ... No one makes movies like Shinya Tsukamoto.

Tetsuo, whoah. And VHS makes it even better! I just watched "Phantom of the Regular Size", Tsukamoto's short film which was already very much like Tetsuo, all the important elements were there, although this one's in color.

Actually, there is one who succeeded 100% in making a "Shinya Tsukamoto" movie. Yoshihiro "Tokyo Gore Police" Nishimura's Anatomia Extinction (1995) has the same underground aesthetics, same energy and same-spirited themes as Tsukamoto's best works. And most of all, it's in no way a blatant Tetsuo rip-off or cheap imitation, but an original, ambitious work, even if it could easily fool people to think it was a genuine Tsukamoto. Highly recommended to fans of Japanese underground gore/cyberpunk/cronenbergian body horror!!

[CMoon]

Watched the second half of Black Rain and was underwhelmed by it. The first half was incredibly well made and made incredible use of its alienation/isolation themes, the second half was just macho man BS. Of course, cop shows are meant to have a certain amount of that, but it feels so out of place here--almost undoing everything accomplished in the first half.

[njiska]

I dug out my old VHS of Tetsuo: The Iron Man today. It's the first time I've watched this film for several years. It's still as bizarre, atmospheric and creepy as I recall. No one makes movies like Shinya Tsukamoto.

I've been meaning that watch Iron Man and Body Hammer for ages. Maybe that's something to do this weekend. Hoping that Tetsuo: The Bullet Man gets a home release soon.

[drauch]

Shanghai Express - Terribly disappointed. Could have been the greatest thing ever, but instead is ruined by silly attempts at humor. Cool showdown at the end, though.

Tiger Cage - hardcore HK action

Death Wish 2 - Bronson is the man. I want to be a vigilante.

[Joe T.]

Just watched "My Son My Son What Have Ye Done" tonight.

I enjoyed it immensely.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

After " an American werewolf in London " last week , an old movie I saw more than once and love I watched " The Howling " last night .
An old film with Patrick McNee from the Avengers series long ago .
I enjoyed it and the special effects where surprisingly good for such an old film !

We've got to thank special EFX artist Rick Baker for pulling off those impressive werewolf transformation scenes -- all done in real time for more realism. Another cool werewolf flick to watch would be the 1985 "Company of Wolves" with it's novel twist on the werewolf transformation scene.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skykid]

Aw man, two horror classics. American Werewolf is Landis' best, and the Howling is definitely one of Joe Dante's best too. Good Halloween fodder.

[CMoon]

While you are gearing up for Halloween, check out Devil's Backbone by DelToro. It's streaming on netflix, and for some reason (perhaps not being in English) very few have seen this film, but it is one of his best.

[Daigohji]

My Alien Anthology blu-rays arrived two days early. I've watched the first two films today and the quality of the transfers knocked my socks off. They look like they were shot yesterday. Sets and miniatures hold up to scrutiny in 1080p revealing seemingly endless amounts of detail. Every few minutes I was seeing some detail I'd never noticed or been able to see before in the 100+ times I've seen each film, like Frost's t-shirt proclaiming "Peace through superior firepower" or the bullet hole on Hicks's armour with "born again" scrawled around it.

Likewise when I thought the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVDs had as exhaustive a set of special features as was possible, this set takes all those, adds the excised features from the 1999 Alien Legacy set and then throws in hours more features on top of that. A few highlights I've come across so far include the legendary deleted scene of Burke cocooned in Aliens (which I'd read about, but didn't know had actually been filmed!), Dan O'Bannon describing the insane lengths he had to go to to prevent the producers of Alien from stealing his screenplay credit, finding out that Gale Anne Hurd was a stunt double during a key moment in Aliens, and discovering that Meryl Streep could easily have been cast as Ripley if she hadn't suffered a bereavement just before the casting session.

[Skykid]

My Alien Anthology blu-rays arrived two days early. I've watched the first two films today and the quality of the transfers knocked my socks off. They look like they were shot yesterday. Sets and miniatures hold up to scrutiny in 1080p revealing seemingly endless amounts of detail. Every few minutes I was seeing some detail I'd never noticed or been able to see before in the 100+ times I've seen each film, like Frost's t-shirt proclaiming "Peace through superior firepower" or the bullet hole on Hicks's armour with "born again" scrawled around it.

Likewise when I thought the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVDs had as exhaustive a set of special features as was possible, this set takes all those, adds the excised features from the 1999 Alien Legacy set and then throws in hours more features on top of that. A few highlights I've come across so far include the legendary deleted scene of Burke cocooned in Aliens (which I'd read about, but didn't know had actually been filmed!), Dan O'Bannon describing the insane lengths he had to go to to prevent the producers of Alien from stealing his screenplay credit, finding out that Gale Anne Hurd was a stunt double during a key moment in Aliens, and discovering that Meryl Streep could easily have been cast as Ripley if she hadn't suffered a bereavement just before the casting session.

Wow, sounds great, might have to trade in my Quadrilogy for it one day (in the UK DVD's and boxset prices plummet quickly after release, so I'll be waiting this time.)
Meryl Streep as Ripley would have been the ultimate failure too, they dodged a massive bullet there.

[DEL]

Bought IP Man on a whim (& the fact that Sammo Hung directed the action).
Liked it a lot.

[Skykid]

Bought IP Man on a whim (& the fact that Sammo Hung directed the action).
Liked it a lot.

I thought the fights were a bit weak, but it had a better story than most of Donnie Yen's recent stuff.

[Daigohji]

I'm still digging around the Alien Anthology set. I watched the work-print of Alien 3. This was on the 2003 DVD set, but apparently they brought in some of the original actors to ADR some of the restored scenes for this release. It's another good-looking transfer, but lacked the wow factor of the first two films. That could be more down to the relatively simplistic set designs in the third film though, not to mention the cinematographer's relentless dedication to the colour brown. The suit shots of the alien still look amazingly realistic, but the composited puppet shots are easily the worst effects in the series, and they look even more fake in HD.

I've found yet more good stuff in the special features, including some materials that I'm amazed have survived all these years. For Alien, there's a reel of all the video sources used on the Nostromo's various monitors, including the red Purge screen and the animation of the ship uncoupling from the refinery, both of which were later reused in Blade Runner. For Aliens, there's the video source of the Nostromo crew information display that was projected in the background of the inquest scene. This reveals all sorts of interesting backstory about the characters, though rendered in droning corporate language. For example, the Company encouraged employees to take IQ enhancing drugs. Lambert was gender swiched from male to female at birth. It was against Company regulations for Ripley to have a baby, and she got into a protracted legal battle with them when she wanted a leave of absence to spend more time with her daughter. And perhaps most cynically, rather than saying that these people had died, the files end by stating that there was a break in the continuity of their employment.

Oh, and there are some hilarious promotional photos for Alien where HR Giger is posing with a startled-looking stuffed cat that looks like Jones.

[Square King]

ALIENS MUUFUCKAS

[neorichieb1971]

Alien 3 Blu ray Special edition.

Liked it better than the Theatrical version. PQ was pretty awesome. I only watched Aliens a few weeks ago so I didn't bother with that one yet.


I just got my replacement disc for Gladiator so will probably watch that tonight. The original disc on blu ray was pants so they restored it again and apparently its awesome now. I had to wait 2 weeks for the replacement disc.

[Mero]

I saw Jaws 3 on the telly a couple of nights back, the growling shark!

[drauch]

Royal Warriors with Michelle Yeoh! She was a cute-tay.

[Acid King]

I saw Red this past weekend. I enjoyed it.

[njiska]

I saw Red this past weekend. I enjoyed it.

I caught it on Saturday. Glad to see the film doesn't take itself seriously, but also doesn't reach the level of a complete farce. Sort of a nice light hearted romp filled with action, intrigue and some great door-related humour.

[xris]

I went and saw The Other Guys with Mark Wahlberg and Will Farrel. Actually, I rather liked this, I went and saw it 'cause a friend wanted to see it. It ended up being really funny, actually it was fucking hilarious! It was a little long at two hours, but the jokes were spot on, the running gags were good, and the combo of the two main actors played off of each other really well. The caper that they were investigating was okay, nothing special, but it was appropriate fro the movie. This was probably the funniest movie I've seen this year, but it has been one of the worst years ever for new movies.
Also watched Cujo on tv. Slow moving through the first half, but the end is alright. I would have to admit to being scared of a big ass rabid dog myself.

[jonny5]

I went and saw The Other Guys with Mark Wahlberg and Will Farrel. Actually, I rather liked this, I went and saw it 'cause a friend wanted to see it. It ended up being really funny, actually it was fucking hilarious! It was a little long at two hours, but the jokes were spot on, the running gags were good, and the combo of the two main actors played off of each other really well. The caper that they were investigating was okay, nothing special, but it was appropriate fro the movie. This was probably the funniest movie I've seen this year, but it has been one of the worst years ever for new movies.
Also watched Cujo on tv. Slow moving through the first half, but the end is alright. I would have to admit to being scared of a big ass rabid dog myself.

+1 for the other guys....that whole lion vs. tuna thing was hilarious....

one of the few times i let my g/f pick the movie and wasnt massively disappointed

[RGC]

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[RGC]

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[emphatic]

..but which to watch first?

The Darjeeling Limited

[Engineer]

Just watched They Live the other night for the first time ever. Can's believe it took me so long. Great movie!

[JBC]

Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy

Suspiria - awesome
Inferno - pretty good follow up
Mother of Tears - total crap but <3 Asia Argento

Also I've just learned Suspiria is supposedly being remade and stars Natalie Portman

[drauch]

I still haven't seen Ghoulies IV...Ghoulis III: Ghoulies Go to College is garbage, though. Ghoulies II is an absolute masterpiece, regardless.

They Live is toooooo good!

I kind of refuse to see Mother of Tears. I love Suspiria and Inferno, but after seeing some of his crap later on in his career I couldn't care less anymore...sad to say that.