Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

Started by GEWALTMONOPOL, December 29, 2009, 06:31:05 PM

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FallOfNature

Quote from: A-Z on January 10, 2019, 10:00:01 AM
Quote from: FallOfNature on January 10, 2019, 04:36:08 AM
Revenge
Modern day "I Spit On Your Grave" kinda thing. Many genre fans claimed it was one of the best of the year but I can't agree. Watchable once though.

Awesome visuals

If you're talking about the actress, then I certainly agree.

brutalist_tapes

a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

Peterson

Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

I would recommend the straightforward Nicholas Roeg Heart of Darkness adaptation from 1993, starring Tim Roth and John Malkovich, if you haven't already seen it. Pretty much exactly as I imagined the book when reading it, and Malkovich as Kurtz is great. Nothing super brutal of course but atmospheric as it gets and one of the better book-to-film treatments I've seen, really. "Mistah Kurtz, he dead."

EXU

Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

Well, I guess you have already watched "Apocalypse Now".
For my money, "Vinyan" is VERY underrated and fits right your bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaLclD6Sgg4

brutalist_tapes

Quote from: EXU on January 11, 2019, 10:40:29 PM
Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

Well, I guess you have already watched "Apocalypse Now".
For my money, "Vinyan" is VERY underrated and fits right your bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaLclD6Sgg4
thanks!

A-Z

Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081112/
have you seen this one?

aububs

Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

i love ferox. probably more than holocaust, on balance

i'd recc Embrace of the Serpent


brutalist_tapes

Quote from: Force Neurotic on January 11, 2019, 10:19:48 PM
Quote from: brutalist_tapes on January 11, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
a big fan of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, one of my all time favs, but i was wondering.. are there other stone cold classics like that one in the genre? what about cannibal ferox, worth watching? generally a fan of the "heart of darkness"-theme, so it doesn't have to be cannibal exploitation per se.. any tips?

I would recommend the straightforward Nicholas Roeg Heart of Darkness adaptation from 1993, starring Tim Roth and John Malkovich, if you haven't already seen it. Pretty much exactly as I imagined the book when reading it, and Malkovich as Kurtz is great. Nothing super brutal of course but atmospheric as it gets and one of the better book-to-film treatments I've seen, really. "Mistah Kurtz, he dead."
will definitely watch this. thanks!

EXU

Mandy
Everybody's talking about it here so I gave it a try. It has that "backwards writing" feel, like they used to say to Argento, that he designed the murder scenes and then wrote a script around it, but in this case seems like the fever/wet dreams of a 80's teenager (or the "not lived nostalgia" of the younger) put in a blender with more artistic mannerisms, and the fact that it can stand as something watchable still is remarkable. Even more, it's enjoyable. It embraces nonsense from the get go and I really like that, the psychdelic images and more art cinema pace of the beggining annoyed me at the start but as the cult was introduced it got quite an interesting mood, that was kind of shattered at the end when it goes full octane but I didn't dislike the change so much to be a problem.
Surprinsingly it's all played quite straight faced for the most time, aside Cage horrible jokes (that I think are intentionally bad)... As much straight faced as an acid drenched cameraman can be at least. I haven't seen BtBR yet but I am intrigued now, because Mandy almost feel like a a marriage between (for lack of better terms) high art (experimental cinema) and low art (exploitation, cheap horror movies) where the approach to it's material is inversed - ridicule treated as sublime and seriousness as a b movie prop. It makes you constantly think about other movies (Evil Dead, italians horror...) and rock/metal/rpg imagerie (album/book covers, etc) and I feel that it doesn't just recycle things but take then to some refreshing conclusion, the kind of movie a 80's teenager would make with the repertoire at hand while taking art classes. It's no masterpiece and most of it's qualities are awful ones in another context but I enjoyed a lot. Don't know how it will age but for now it's good.

And I really liked that sequence where Nic rides a quadricycle thru tunnels and then get stucked on the mud. The way it makes no sense at all, and then the epically camera zooms back a little slowly showing a nice and gratuitious passage just made me crack and sums up the directors M.O.

You Were Never Really There
From the same director of the great We Need to Talk About Kevin (and other two movies I have to seek now) this one is almost as good (or perhaps just as good but more subtle). Downbeat and crude but also with a lot of sensibility and heart.
I started watching The House That Jack Built after this one and just had to turn off after 20 minutes of pretentious bs that was made even bigger by the huge contrast between the two movies. YWNRT never explains too much and relies on the viewer intelligence remarkably while THtJB treats you like a moron and at the same time tricks you into felling smart because you "get" what the "genius director" is doing... I'll tackle THtJB later and probably the same way I endured Antichrist: shit faced drunk and as a comedy (tho the comedy aspect does feel more clear in the 20 minutes I watched).
Plus, I do like Matt Dillon occasionally but after watching Joaquin Phoenix acting on YWNRR... He sounded too forced, tacky, annoying and shallow.

Split
Not my favorite from Shyamalan (a director I like a lot) but it is very good. Second part is not as strong as the first perhaps, even with the Unbreakable linking being very interesting. Rock solid to perfect performances and the director builds tension like a motherfucker when he wants to. Like Lynne Ramsay from YWNRT he can tackle heavy subjects with a lot of sensibility and intelligence, and you never feel like he judges or hates his characters, or use them as sock puppets for his own ego (*coff*cofflarsvontrier*coff*coff), even tho Split is a little more heavy handed than Ramsay and even prior movies from Shyamalan.

ConcreteMascara

Annihilation [2018] - I wanted to see this when it came to theaters but I missed it. finally caught it on Hulu last night. I hoped it would be good but it was fucking awesome. visually its fucking gorgeous and super detailed. the acting is solid, the writing is a little hit or miss but mostly good. the score jumps between twisted IDMish electronics, drones, vocal fuckery and acoustic guitars. it's fucking great. Reminds me of the score for Blade Runner 2049 mixed with Mick Gordon's score for the video game Prey. I liked the ending too. Honestly I didn't have a complaint by the end and I just wanted to re-watch it immediately to see what I missed.

also there's a part that very much reminds me of something from Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun universe and it was totally fucked up.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

aububs

it definitely cribbed from gene wolfe which is not a bad thing

the ending was basically a Tool video

i was into it tho

bitewerksMTB

Blue Underground's 3-disc bd/cd release of MANIAC is an absolute must-own for slasher fans. This is the first time it has ever been seen scanned from the orig. camera negative which had been blown up from 16mm to 35mm originally . It's still an ugly film but there's more detail and the blacks look better than on the dvd (the previous blu-ray is suppose to look horrible). This & BU's release of Fulci's ZOMBIE were two of the very best releases of 2018. This year we should get Fulci's NEW YORK RIPPER and DEAD & BURIED.

Also watched Refn's BLEEDER. I really, really want a proper Blu-ray release of this film no matter what country releases it as long as it has English subs & the orig. Danish soundtrack! I wonder if the use of movie clips in it causes issues? Also, I'd like to know if it's common for people from the Middle East in Denmark to be considered 'black' and 'the n-word'? I'd welcome bd's of the Pusher trilogy, as well.

Future releases in 2019 I'm looking forward to include AUDITION (Arrow); VICE SQUAD (Shout Factory); the two above from BU; ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (Severin); RITUALS (Scorpion)... There are others but that's all the comes to mind right now.


FallOfNature

Quote from: bitewerksMTB on January 17, 2019, 03:54:51 AM
I'd welcome bd's of the Pusher trilogy, as well.

I know of one atleast that has subtitles, Australian release by Accent Films. I have it and it's ok. The transfer isn't amazing and not that much better than the DVD I had previously. A bit bare when it comes to extras too but it cost me less than $10 so I can't complain too much.


ConcreteMascara

Quote from: bitewerksMTB on January 17, 2019, 03:54:51 AM
Blue Underground's 3-disc bd/cd release of MANIAC is an absolute must-own for slasher fans. This is the first time it has ever been seen scanned from the orig. camera negative which had been blown up from 16mm to 35mm originally . It's still an ugly film but there's more detail and the blacks look better than on the dvd (the previous blu-ray is suppose to look horrible). This & BU's release of Fulci's ZOMBIE were two of the very best releases of 2018. This year we should get Fulci's NEW YORK RIPPER and DEAD & BURIED.

I can agree that the previous BluRay version is lacking. and mine has some kind of manufacturing error because it glitches and freezes in the same part on every BluRay player I've watched it on. super fucking annoying. Interested to check out this new edition though not chomping at the bit to buy Maniac for the 3rd time.

Quote from: bitewerksMTB on January 17, 2019, 03:54:51 AM
Future releases in 2019 I'm looking forward to include AUDITION (Arrow); VICE SQUAD (Shout Factory); the two above from BU; ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (Severin); RITUALS (Scorpion)... There are others but that's all the comes to mind right now.

I've only watch All the Colors of the Dark once and it did blow me away. Martino's Torso is one of my all-time favorite films but his other giallo just don't do it for me the way that one does. A lot of people worship them so I feel like I must be missing something....  happy to see though that this Severin bluray is still available as I thought it was already sold-out but I just checked and they've got copies.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512