Last movie seen — Page 198

Slasher films were an inexpensive formula for exploitation flicks, the expensive ones came later and the really pricey ones were cashing in on nostalgia.

Found footage has gone through a similar arc.

We had The Last Broadcast and Blair Witch, then more expensive flurries with Cloverfield, Chronicle and Apollo 18, we have had the odd surprise like REC, Troll Hunter and Grave Encounters but once people get officially bored enough to no longer justify the Paranormal Activity sequels the subgenre will lay dormant for a while until those films are old enough to feel nostalgia for.

Haute Tension proved that the slasher formula can be scary.

Alien is basically a slasher film for it's second half so maybe all it takes is for someone to find a successful gimmick to move the formula out of the nutter in a mask killing vulnerable women safety zone. 

Yeah, sometimes as early as February.

Black Christmas had all the trappings of the slasher film back in 1974 but I don't think the sub-genre truly got recognised until the mid eighties where the term Spatter Film had shifted away from Herschell Gordon Lewis type fare and perched on shoulder of the masked maniac with a knife, on a calender featured day, picking one young sexually active woman off until the virginal last girl repels him.

Tonight I watched the second in the Whispering Corridors series Memento Mori aka Yeogogoedam Dubeonjjae Iyagi (1999). 

More Korean girl's school fun.

It's rather sweet up until one moment that completely shifts the tone of the piece.

Even the most minor characters are very well observed.

I imagine Twin Peaks must have been a big hit in South Korea because many of the films I've been watching from there recently have a Peaksian vibe.

The film wasn't scary but it wasn't trying to be.

It's more tragic with flashes of released pent up hysteria.

4 Terrapins. 

Yeah, the Donner Cut isn't perfect, but it made a decent film really good. I really appreciate the "adult"ness of it. The first hour is entirely character driven and actually a bit slow, but in a good way if you connect with the characters. And unlike the Lester cut, the villains have a lot of menace and there is a quite a bit more of a darker tone to the film. Thank god those awful small town Texas scenes were chopped out, and the White House assault is pretty neat now. The only complaint I have is that the climax doesn't have enough action--which is maybe why they re-vamped it for Lester--and the new special effects are probably worse than what they would have actually done in 1980. I didn't think the screen test footage stood out too much. Overall, it's an interesting and mostly effective salvage.

There are Hybrid fan edits out there which give us the best of both worlds.

To be honest I didn't mind some of the goofy moments Lester put in (I imagine most of Anthony Sher's dialogue is delivered annually at genuine Niagara hotels), my only objection is when they tipped the balance too far.

It's hard to worry about the people of Metropolis when you are laughing at the guy in the phone both or the man losing his wig.

But at least they were actually funny unlike George's Gungan pal.

As someone who loved Deputy Dawg I didn't have a problem with that.

Berserk! (1967)

In theory this should be ideal for me or the very least Frink's So Bad It's Good Thread.

Joan Crawford, Michael Gough, Diana Dors, Robert Hardy, Philip Madoc and George (Oomba Loompa) Claydon in a gory slasher/melodrama set in a circus with an intelligent poodle act?

What the film needed was a director with an eye for the perverse and good ironic dialogue timing.

John Waters could have made this the masterpiece it deserves to be.

Sadly Jim (Valley Of The Gwangi) O'Connolly can barely lift this film above the level of a tedious curio.

The poodles are good, the best bit.

1 tent peg.

Monster In The Closet (1986).

It's the eighties and something popping in and out of the closet in the San Francisco area is defying science and killing people.

The cry is DESTROY ALL CLOSETS!!

Sadly everyone goes back to their closets eventually but it was a brief moment of sanity in an insane world.

The film is the only Troma film I've actually enjoyed.

Four Glockenspiels.

Wishing Stairs aka Yeogogoedam 3: Yeowoogyedan (2003).

It's the third entry in the Whispering Corridors series of South Korean spooky flicks set in girl's schools.

As such it's neither as spooky as the first film or as well observed in terms of characters as the second.

It's still okay but it's more cartoonish.

Basically there are a flight of 28 steps leading to the sculpture hut on the school grounds.

School tradition goes that if you count the steps as you climb them a 29th step will magically appear and grant your wish if it touches the spirit of the steps.

So be careful what you wish for... etc

2 Cakes.

13 Assassins.  Michael Bay should take notes.  12 out of 13...um...assassins.

Cloud Atlas

My only real complaint is that it's overly long, with 6 separate stories on offer the movie clocks in just under 3 hours.

It's also distracting when you see the cast playing six or seven different characters each and things like Hugo Weaving as a Korean man just don't look quite right - The parts are generally well acted, though [unlike when Eddie Murphy plays 7 different characters..]

I would be interested in a version that follows the structure of the novel. The movie tends to weave between the various stories randomly - it is done well though, The story flows and I never felt disoriented.

3 balls.

Doctor X returned and marked his spot.

Been awhile since I've posted.

The Game of Death (1978) 4/10 - I think I might be too generous with this score. This movie is awful, stupid, and offensive. And, yet, it's very funny. And, you know, Bruce Lee does actually show up at the end and kick ass in that yellow jumpsuit.

M (1931) 10/10 - Absolutely perfect film. Superbly crafted. Ahead of its time.

A Shot in the Dark (1964) 8.5/10 - Really quite funny. Makes you wonder why they had to go back to doing Pink Panther films for Clouseau.

Gojira (1954) 9/10 - It's not just a dumb monster movie! In fact, it's not even a monster movie. It's actually just a really good movie. 

A Bronx Tale (1993) 9/10 - Very good "tale." Makes me wish De Niro directed more, and acted less nowadays (though don't think he wasn't good in this - he was great [and his acting career has seen a return to form very recently {see bottom}]).

Bottle Rocket (1996) 9/10 - Sweet, funny, entertaining, oddly moving little film. 

Videodrome (1983) 9/10 - Equal parts freaking weird and cool.

Blow Out (1981) 10/10 - This is a wow. I don't know why I haven't seen this before. Simply outstanding all around. Highly recommended film. Instantly one of my favorites of all time. If you haven't seen it, do.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) 8/10 - As if I didn't hate the MPAA enough. This really is eyeopening in some ways, yet disappointing in others. I just feel there was some much more they could have done on the topic. Still, very good doc.

Blue Velvet (1986) 10/10 - Amazing, dreamy noir. And a David Lynch film I can actually entirely understand! (I think) Great film.

The Virgin Spring (1960) 9/10 - Great, if not hard to watch, Bergman film. Seriously, this guy is great - need to watch more of his stuff.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) 10/10 - I don't know why it took me so long to watch this, but all I can say is that all the praise is well deserved. And we truly did lose something great when Heath Ledger died.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) 9.5/10 - Funny and sweet, yet still deep, highly entertaining, purposefully, and wisely, off-kilter film. I loved it. All the acting was especially great, including the aforementioned De Niro in his best role since who knows when. Deserves all the Oscar noms it got. Jennifer Lawrence deserves the win, too (though maybe Chastain - I'm torn).  

I can't quite remember what the last film I watched was. I think it might have been Superman and the Mole-Men.

Drive (2011)

Great movie.  I love when a movie takes its time.  Really dug the soundtrack as well.

My friends watched T1 and T2 this week, one of them had never seen the original and the other hadn't seen T2 since he was very, very young. They both agreed that the first Terminator was better, scarier and more original, which I have been saying for my whole life. I hadn't seen the original in a few years now, and based on my friend seeing it for the first time as an adult and being really impressed by it I decided to see it again and try to look at it fresh (I've been watching it since I was 5, which is arguably far too young to have seen it, but meh). And damn, is that just a weird, original film, one that straddles the line between paradoxical sci-fi storyline, comic book action film, and believable human drama. It's a strange, compelling, over the top film that is actually quite dark and intense in places. First film to ever give me nightmares as a child!

My friend who watched them for the first time summed it up like this: T2 is a better action film, but it comes across as less original because it is like watching the origin of all the action tropes we have come accustomed to; and the special effects don't have the wow factor they originally did. The original, on the other hand, is very bizarre and unique, and very compelling and scary, and unlike any other movie he had seen. This is a very useful way at looking at the two in my opinion. It goes against the common sentiment that had been in place since the 1990s, but I've noticed that as more and more films draw influence on T2--and not the original--that first film really has begun to stand out more and more as the gritty, quirky, masterfully made film that it is. Time magazine did list it on their top ten films of 1984 back in the day!

Exactly.  Great movie.