Movies you've just watched

[RGC]

Witchfinder General - One of Vincent Price's most diabolical roles. Ohhhh, witch trials.

God, I've seen this so many times, it's almost embarassing. "Set him to running!"

Definitely top-tier diabolical, but as for abominable:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3322840064/tt0066740

[drauch]

Yeah, Dr. Phibes is awesome as well. Nine eternities in doom! Never have watched the sequel. It's been in my "watch or sell this" limbo collection for years.

[RGC]

I recommend watch then sell. If you later regret letting it go, you can have my copy for free. It's nowhere near in the same league as the first. The screenplay, The Adventures of the Curiously Inept Inspector Trout is just begging to be written. I love his captain's attitude (is that Superintendent Waverly?) to the string of bizarre murders, like the rats in the airplane, or the throat-ratchetting frog-mask..."bloody coincidence, Trout. Pull yourself together man!".

[Casey120]

Earthquake - Another disaster film during the 70s craze with Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Richard Roundtree and others. Another mess of a film in ways, probably because it wasn't produced by Irwin Allen. Some good scenes during the actual earthquake with some fantastic model and prop work, yet simultaneously has some of the worst f/x I've ever seen, most notably a blotch of blood (I guess it's now quite infamous) that shoots at the screen, as well as some terribly inconsistent camera work. Also, Richard "Shaft" Roundtree disappears halfway through the film, never to really be heard from again. Extremely anti-climactic. Still, worth watching for fans of disaster movies.

Only proper way to watch that is with the Sensurround system they used back then in movie theatres , they only used it for a couple of films though .
You need to be shaken , not stirred !

[CMoon]

Witchfinder General - One of Vincent Price's most diabolical roles. Ohhhh, witch trials.

Streaming on netflix.

[Mischief Maker]

The Warrior and the Sorceress

A "sword and sandals" version of The Glass Key/Yojimbo/A Fist Full of Dollars starring David Carradine. Russ Meyer once said that breasts were the cheapest special effect and the word for this movie truly is cheap. Every bit as entertaining as it is sleazy. I love how whenever Carradine names his price the warlord he's talking to has a pouch with just that amount immediately at hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbcDaJS-Qbw

[CMoon]

Wow, another movie based off Yojimbo. How many times can they remake that movie? I should start making cheap movies myself, and make every single one a remake of Yojimbo.

[drauch]

The Warrior and the Sorceress

A "sword and sandals" version of The Glass Key/Yojimbo/A Fist Full of Dollars starring David Carradine. Russ Meyer once said that breasts were the cheapest special effect and the word for this movie truly is cheap. Every bit as entertaining as it is sleazy. I love how whenever Carradine names his price the warlord he's talking to has a pouch with just that amount immediately at hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbcDaJS-Qbw

Not my favorite Yojimbo remake, but I still really love it. Actually, I don't love it, but it's pretty awesome. I think this is one of the movies Carradine doesn't even remember making.

Russ Meyer was God.

[Bloodreign]

Mystery of the Wax Museum, a 1933 movie starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, remarkable that a film at that time was in (techni)color. Atwill is a museum curator who once sculpted wax figures , his partner burned his place down and burned him as well. He moves to the US apparently and opens a wax museum there, there's a nice twist Glenda Farrell tries to uncover why a body goes missing from the morgue. Is the wax museum more than what it seems?

Pretty good mystery film with some horror undertones, is nice to see the beautiful redhead Fay Wray in color.

[lilmanjs]

Butterfly Swords. What did I watch?! great cast, but horrible other than that. Action scenes end usually with a random jump cut to at times feels like an entirely different movie. Donnie Yen, Tony Lueng(sp?), and Michelle Yeoh(sp?) can't even save this movie. also of note, not at anytime does the music make you feel like you're watching an action movie.

[drauch]

Gymkata - Absolutely BIZARRE gymnast action/horror/martial-arts movie. Starts off at blinding speed with training montage and a mission. Lot's of swinging around and ass kicking instantly! Then it pulls the "oh, we ran out of budget and need to fill in some time with needless dialogue" card, making you seem like your watching a mediocre action movie. Then it gets absolutely bizarre. A creepy town with zombie-like goons, cultists, and weirdos is the final place for a game of death. Lots of slow motion, creepy sounds and bizarre townsfolk. Kinda like Resident Evil 4/The Blind Dead/Cannon martial-arts. Very interesting.

Return of the Swamp Thing - Jim Wynorski's sequel to the Wes Craven film adaptation. It's terrible, like most of his stuff. Conceptually he knows what to do, yet he can't execute it. A mockery to the comic like every other adaptation. Even the show is better.

[Mischief Maker]

Wow, another movie based off Yojimbo. How many times can they remake that movie? I should start making cheap movies myself, and make every single one a remake of Yojimbo.

Poor Dashiell Hammett. I even mention "The Glass Key" by name in my post and everyone starts saying, "Oh, it's a remake of "Yojimbo," huh?" Then again, Hammett's "Red Harvest" could be said to be an even bigger plot influence.

Fun fact about Hammett's books, and the "hard boiled detective" genre: Most copycats feature a hard-drinking private eye as the protagonist, even if it's set in present day. Those copycats are missing the point entirely. Hammett was a member of the communist party and his books often have an anti-authoritarian subversive bent that is lost on the modern reader.

To whit: Hammett wrote his books during Prohibition. When Sam Spade shares a drink with the cops who just told him he's a murder suspect and says "success to crime" as his toast, or when the Continental Op wants to buy some booze and he goes to the police to hook him up, it's equivalent to a private eye in modern times passing a joint with on-duty cops.

Arguably, "The Big Lebowski" is one of the most faithful adaptations of Hammett's work, at least in the subversive facet.

[spadgy]

I finally watched the Raid - boy, that's great.

And then Big Man Japan. I really like the interview sections, but the rest? Not so sure...

[Acid King]

Poor Dashiell Hammett. I even mention "The Glass Key" by name in my post and everyone starts saying, "Oh, it's a remake of "Yojimbo," huh?" Then again, Hammett's "Red Harvest" could be said to be an even bigger plot influence.

Fun fact about Hammett's books, and the "hard boiled detective" genre: Most copycats feature a hard-drinking private eye as the protagonist, even if it's set in present day. Those copycats are missing the point entirely. Hammett was a member of the communist party and his books often have an anti-authoritarian subversive bent that is lost on the modern reader.

To whit: Hammett wrote his books during Prohibition. When Sam Spade shares a drink with the cops who just told him he's a murder suspect and says "success to crime" as his toast, or when the Continental Op wants to buy some booze and he goes to the police to hook him up, it's equivalent to a private eye in modern times passing a joint with on-duty cops.

Arguably, "The Big Lebowski" is one of the most faithful adaptations of Hammett's work, at least in the subversive facet.

I thought that too when I saw Cmoon's response, but c'mon, man, no one gives a shit about Hammet or Cain or any of those old bastards. Take yer book learnin' back to Russia, comrade...

Seriously though, his anti-authoritarian streak is pretty easily transformed into power-worshipping fascist sympathy. It's interesting how the cool, collected Continental Op eventually morphed into vengeance addled Dirty Harry and Mike Hammer.

[SuperGrafx]

Lucky 13 --- what a stupid movie.
It was on some random TV channel this evening.

[CMoon]

c'mon, man, no one gives a shit about Hammet or Cain or any of those old bastards. Take yer book learnin' back to Russia, comrade...

So, is Chandler still king? I do need to read Hammet, but it doesn't change the fact they keep remaking that same damn film over and over, yet no one is willing to touch the Maltese Falcon which could very much use a remake (I love the Bogart version, but it certainly isn't perfect.)

[Mischief Maker]

c'mon, man, no one gives a shit about Hammet or Cain or any of those old bastards. Take yer book learnin' back to Russia, comrade...

So, is Chandler still king? I do need to read Hammet, but it doesn't change the fact they keep remaking that same damn film over and over, yet no one is willing to touch the Maltese Falcon which could very much use a remake (I love the Bogart version, but it certainly isn't perfect.)

No, the Bogart version IS perfect, because of all the movie adaptations (1931 of the same name, "Satan met a Lady" in 1936), the 1941 Bogart version keeps the closest to the original novel, especially the dialogue:

Joel Cairo: You have a smooth answer for everything.
Sam Spade: Whaddya want me to do? Learn to stutter?

The only flaw, if you could call it that, is that the femme fatale was played by an aging actress and all the other female characters had to look less attractive. A flaw the 1931 version did not share. So you get a sexier actress but at what cost? What skinny little metrosexual puke would they have stand in for Bogart out of today's leading men? Shia Labeouf?

You know what needs a remake? Casablanca! Wait! Maybe not. Maybe the original was perfect.

Hey, I've got a crazy idea! How about Hollywood gets the cojones to put money behind new ideas that don't have an established Intellectual Property Brand behind it. Can you believe there was a time someone risked greenlighting a comedy about ghost exterminators?

[mesh control]

DUNE.

On a Lynch kick.

[BIL]

Casino Royale (2006) Always liked this one for the brutal athleticism of the action scenes preceding the card game (both the construction site and airport sequences pack enough entertainment for an entire film each), and the smooth shift to cloak and dagger surrounding the contest. Unfortunately after a snappy opening gambit the treacly dialogue makes Jimmy's blossoming romance with Eva Green harder to bear than it should be.

"i wuvwuv u"
"u wuvwuv me?"
"i wuvwuv u"
"u wuvwuv me?"
*gets knackers smashed in*
"i wuvwuv u"

The Man With The Golden Gun Now this is more like it. The only 70s Bond film I don't blank out, starring Roger Moore before he got old and fat and needed Depends. Christopher Lee is magnetic, giving Scaramanga a disarming layer of bonhomie and almost childlike exuberance just barely concealing the glacial killer beneath. It's almost like he played Dracula at some point in his career! The duel was surprisingly satisfying given all the kung-fu schlock preceding it.

LOL @ M telling Q to STFU, twice. LOL @ the black handyman guy being a would-be rapist whose dead body is a plot device for blowing up everything. LOL @ Britt Ekland's dumb blonde ass quite literally causing problems for Jimmy who's trying to get important shit done. LOL @ the filthy look he shoots her when she points out an escape from Exploding Villain Island. I just wish Bond had horribly murdered the midget before getting down to fucking, to make the movie a clean sweep for able-bodied white manhood. "Sorry M, something's come up!" <-- HE MEANS HIS COCK

[CMoon]

DUNE.

On a Lynch kick.

Fuck! I wish I liked that movie more. It has the potential. Too bad Lynch didn't direction Return of the Jedi as planned. Dune is another movie that probably should be remade...maybe Danny Boyle?

[njiska]

Up to Diamonds Are Forever in my Bond marathon and dear god is it a great film. Completely ludicrous, but incredibly entertaining. Right down to the faked moon landing. After being bored by pacing of You Only Live Twice and the overly long On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds is a real treat. For Connery's last proper Bond film, it's a nice send off.

Edit: Apparently the film is hated because of it's campiness, but I love it.

[drauch]

Terror of Mechagodzilla - Good Godzilla film that kinda drags with the human subplot a bit but finishes with a fantastic and lengthy finale. The second appearance of Mechagodzilla, and while not as menacing as his first outing, deals quite a bit of damage to Godzilla with his buddy Titanosauraus. Some brutal beatdowns, especially with Godzilla getting blown into a whole, shot with missiles, and then stomped on by Titanosaurus as if he were doing some Riverdance. Can't wait for the Godzilla Vs. Biollante DVD this year!

[Mischief Maker]

Gojira

So titled to differentiate it from the Raymond Burr softened up American release of the first Godzilla movie. Growing up in a world where Godzilla had become a Hulk-Hogan-esque heroic figure, this was a shocking firm to watch, because it is clearly and 100% a horror movie.

The story behind the release is interesting. Post-WW2 japan had strict rules against making movies about the nuclear attacks. Godzilla was originally pitched as a cheesy radioactive giant monster movie like the ones coming out of the US by the truckload. But the makers of the film took that premise and used it as a means to circumvent the censorship. The Godzilla in this movie is nothing less than a nuclear bomb explosion going off in painfully slow motion.

A mother clutching her children close and saying "soon we'll be back with your father," firefighters rushing to a scene only to be annihilated, a refugee hospital where a doctor waves a geiger counter over a little boy, then shakes his head at the parents. These scenes sure as hell never reached the states in the Burr version! It helps that all the Godzilla attacks happen at night, making the special effects seem as little like a toybox as can be.

Watch it at night, sober.

[CMoon]

Up to Diamonds Are Forever in my Bond marathon and dear god is it a great film.

I wholeheartedly agree. While You Only Live Twice and Goldfinger are the two quintessential Bond films (so many other bond films feel like attempts at remaking these two), Diamonds Are Forever is a really fun romp that never quite lets up. It does foreshadow where the Roger Moore films are headed, but not nearly as cheesy as films like Man With The Golden Gun and Moonraker.

Gojira

Don't forget that this film just got a beautiful Criterion release.

[MX7]

Terror of Mechagodzilla - Good Godzilla film that kinda drags with the human subplot a bit but finishes with a fantastic and lengthy finale. The second appearance of Mechagodzilla, and while not as menacing as his first outing, deals quite a bit of damage to Godzilla with his buddy Titanosauraus. Some brutal beatdowns, especially with Godzilla getting blown into a whole, shot with missiles, and then stomped on by Titanosaurus as if he were doing some Riverdance. Can't wait for the Godzilla Vs. Biollante DVD this year!

Watched this the other week. Pretty good, though I agree the human bits dragged somewhat. More than redeemed itself with the battles and Katsura the TRAGIC FEMALE CYBORG <3

Watched Invasion Of The Astro Monster most recently I think. That was fucking amazing. Super campy aliens and some awesome crumbling building action. Even better was the finale. I don't want to give too much away (not that it really matters) but the ear shredding final reel will please anyone who's into noise music.

What other Godzilla films are worth watching? My favourite so far is probably Godzilla vs Mothra and the 1992 remake of the same film.

Also, inspired by this thread am gearing up for a James Bond marathon. I can see a lot of allegories between Bond and Godzilla actually. Both of them make extensive use of meta narrative as the series progresses, and both of them are overtly concerned with foreign enemies destroying national identities. Also, both Bond and Godzilla films become 1000000x better when you're utterly smashed.

[Skykid]

watching Bond

Talking about Bond

From Russia With Love. The best of them imo.

[njiska]

watching Bond

Talking about Bond

From Russia With Love. The best of them imo.

I don't know if I'll agree with that as I still have not seen all of them, but it's definitely on the high end of the spectrum for me. Certainly my favourite portrayal of Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

[RGC]

"something's come up!" <-- HE MEANS HIS COCK

Stop getting Bond wrong!!

[BIL]

It would've been the best film ever made - if only Bond got chased by some Russian shits in black jumpsuits with lemon piping!

[drauch]

Watched Invasion Of The Astro Monster most recently I think. That was fucking amazing. Super campy aliens and some awesome crumbling building action. Even better was the finale. I don't want to give too much away (not that it really matters) but the ear shredding final reel will please anyone who's into noise music.

What other Godzilla films are worth watching? My favourite so far is probably Godzilla vs Mothra and the 1992 remake of the same film.

Yeah, Invasion of the Astro Monster is awesome. I wish Godzilla danced more. I'd recommend:

Godzilla VS. Mechagodzilla- My favorite. Absolutely bizarre subplot and the team of Godzilla and King Caesar is awesome.

Son of Godzilla - Pretty light-hearted but a lot of fun. A cute Godzilla film, one might say.

Godzilla vs Hedorah - The Smog Monster! Our environment is dooooomed! Awesome monster and great fights with one of the most hardcore environmentalist themes abound.

Destroy All Monsters - The brutal murder of King Ghidorah by Godzilla, Minilla and friends. Random Kaiju make an appearance just to kick his ass. Not one of my favorite films, really, but that fight is so dastardly! Even Kumonga shows up!

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster - Back when Godzilla was starting to go lawful-neutral. Rodan and Godzilla are having turf wars until Ghidorah shows up. Mothra shows them the way of friendship, and they team up to take down the three-headed goliath.

I'd really recommend anything, but I'm kinda a super fan. I don't really dislike any Godzilla film, but I'm certainly a fan of the older material. I'd also recommend Gamera (both original and late 90s stuff), Rodan, Mothra (Mothra Rebirth series is kinda for kids, but still fun.), Daimajin, and really any of the tokusatsu kaiju stuff from Toho.

In response to Mischief Maker: Yeah, the original Gojira really stands alone as a frightening metaphor for nuclear warfare. Godzilla was never again this scary, or as bleak.