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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absurdexposition

Quote from: theworldisawarfilm on October 09, 2020, 05:54:25 PM
Quote from: ConcreteMascara on October 09, 2020, 05:00:11 PM
Quote from: theworldisawarfilm on October 08, 2020, 02:51:08 PM
Quote from: ConcreteMascara on October 07, 2020, 04:20:32 PM
Quote from: absurdexposition on October 07, 2020, 03:28:34 AM
Patricia Arquette in True Romance, too...

In my family we consider True Romance a masterpiece and regularly watch it on Thanksgiving. It's a weird tradition, especially given the amount of sexy Arquette time, but it's our tradition. Hail Amerika?

I just watched this for the first time last week and I thought it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen! The dialog in particular had me yelling at the television frequently.  Strong distaste for this particular brand of 'Americana' (See also: Wild at Heart which is barely redeemed by some Lynchian darkness. Barely.) Something foul and rockabilly in the air at the dawn of the 90's.

I guess you're not a big fan of Tarantino films then? Given that he wrote the dialogue for True Romance and it's fairly similar to a lot of his movies... It's certainly an American film if ever there was one. Different strokes for different folks I guess

Oh certainly. Not passing judgment on anybody for digging his stuff. But beyond Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction I can't say I care much for his movies. After Inglorious Basterds I started wilfully ignoring his output. However I did finally see Once Upon A time in Hollywood a month or two back and thought it was a pretty decent flick!

I thought Once Upon... was amazing. I really need to watch it again.

Updates on my chrono-Cronenberg journey:

Fast Company (1979)

Another rip-roaring adventure from David "Wholesome" Cronenberg!

Nah, this is absolutely a Cronenberg film. Obvious links to Crash but it also strongly bears the Cronenberg theme of technology as an extension of the body.

Mostly it serves well just as a look into car racing culture. Lots of focus on the inner workings of the cars themselves and their incredible sounds. Brought back some memories of when I was in the pit crew at one of the derby races my first boss (and family friend) had a car in at the Mission Raceway in BC. I can't say that was something I really enjoyed, but Fast Company certainly epitomizes the experience.

And +1 for John Saxon being a real POS in this one. RIP.

The Brood (1979)

After laying the groundwork with his first "trilogy" and then sidestepping for a moment with Fast Company, DC really came into his own with this outing and proved himself a master.

The last half hour might be his most ruthless descent into horror. The murders are just so brutal. The whole thing is supported by a perfect performance from Oliver Reed and a fantastic suspenseful score by Howard Shore (his later score for Crash is one of my all-time favourites). The hospital patient with the weird hair in Rabid is here as a hospital patient with weird hair again, and the kid from Fast Company is around, too. The Criterion blu-ray looks amazing. Big love.

Scanners (1981)

Ahead of its time in the sense that it came before the overuse of certain sci-fi computer tropes, but perhaps also ahead of its time in the sense that the concept seemed just one step ahead of what Cronenberg was able to achieve with his contemporary means.

I don't remember Stephen Lack being as bad of an actor as he was here but man, it's something else - though I'm not sure if a stronger lead would have done better justice to the material or simply amplified the shortcomings. At least Robert Silverman is back as an (ex-) hospital patient with (slightly less) weird hair, and of course there's Michael Ironside. Nice shots of certain Montreal and south shore locations, and a return to the Nun's Island condo building that was the central location in Shivers.
Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

ConcreteMascara

Re Scanners

I've come to accept Stephen Lack's powerfully wooden performance as a necessary evil in reaching maximum detachment. His inscrutability via ineptitude makes the story feel like an autistic dystopian fantasy in the best way possible. At least that's how I get through his parts of the film. Everything else basically fucks hard tho
[death|trigger|impulse]

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online prowler

Really enjoying the recent ZATOICHI box from Criterion. Blessed to be able to see all these classics in restored format. Recommend checking the series out for fans of samurai cinema in general and Japanese 1960s-'70s films.

ConcreteMascara

Boiled Angels [dir. Frank Henenlotter, 2018] - this was a fun documentary about comics I've still yet to read/buy. Oddly I've known the bones of the story for ages, but you get a lot of extra details here. I enjoyed all of the old VHS footage and time with the comic strips and somehow Jello Biafra wasn't incredibly annoying as a narrator. But I was struck by the absence of opinion by Mike Diana, even though he talks throughout the documentary. I couldn't really get a deeper sense of his feelings on everything other than he obviously didn't want to stand trial or be on probation for 3 years. I also would've liked to have known more about the appeal and why it wasn't granted cert, but oh well. Still a fun watch. I swear one day I'll buy the actual Boiled Angel comics...

Repulsion [dir. Roman Polanski, 1965] - this has been on my "watch soon" list since I bought it a year ago. The last part of the "Apartment Trilogy" I watched, having watched "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Tenant" about 8 years ago? I don't know what it is but I have difficulty connecting with Polanski's films, and "Repulsion" was no exception. Catherine Deneuve is ridiculously beautiful and effective as the rapidly deteriorating Carole, but I think the whole thing reminded me too much of the mentally unwell girls I tried to court in the past, so she just pissed me off half of the time. I will say the visuals were consistently great. But on the whole I felt like I was working hard at paying attention instead of being transfixed. Maybe I'll enjoy it more on a subsequent viewing but I think it'll be awhile before that happens.
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theworldisawarfilm

Just watched Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling on Sunday. Superb. Probably the best Giallo flick I've seen to date, I've found many I've watched to be boring/tedous/unsatisfying in some way. Any recs for something similar would be appreciated.

absurdexposition

I think we laid down a bit of a list in this thread recently, I'll see if I can find it.

edit: here it is. There's a bit of a discussion / more recs on page 198 of this thread.

Quote from: absurdexposition on May 06, 2020, 06:06:24 PM
Quote from: DSOL on May 06, 2020, 05:34:10 PM
Quote from: online prowler on May 06, 2020, 04:36:13 PM
Quote from: DSOL on May 04, 2020, 04:24:16 PM
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

Murder Obsession

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh is such a great flick. Have Murder Obsession on my to watch list.



Murder Obsession was okay - I just started to get into/watch Giallo films other than New York Ripper and some Argento stuff

next I plan on watching Torso and The Case of the Bloody Iris next

I have some more in my watch list on Prime - if anybody has any recommendations I'm all ears 

Some of these are definitely better than others.

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Amuck!
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Blood and Black Lace
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail
The Psychic
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Slaughter Hotel
Spasmo
So Sweet, So Dead
What Have You Done To Solange?
What Have They Done To Your Daughters?
Who Saw Her Die?
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

absurdexposition

Quote from: ConcreteMascara on October 13, 2020, 11:09:09 PM
Boiled Angels [dir. Frank Henenlotter, 2018] - this was a fun documentary about comics I've still yet to read/buy. Oddly I've known the bones of the story for ages, but you get a lot of extra details here. I enjoyed all of the old VHS footage and time with the comic strips and somehow Jello Biafra wasn't incredibly annoying as a narrator. But I was struck by the absence of opinion by Mike Diana, even though he talks throughout the documentary. I couldn't really get a deeper sense of his feelings on everything other than he obviously didn't want to stand trial or be on probation for 3 years. I also would've liked to have known more about the appeal and why it wasn't granted cert, but oh well. Still a fun watch. I swear one day I'll buy the actual Boiled Angel comics...

I've probably said this a bunch of times in this thread already but I caught the world premiere at the Fantasia film festival here a couple years back. Mike Diana and Frank Henenlotter where there for Q&A, it was fun. Every once in a while I'll get about 20 notifications in a row on Instagram and it's just Mike Diana going on a "liking" spree on my account, kinda weird/funny.
Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

Theodore

State television here created a platform like Netflix, free. Not that much stuff uploaded, they have them for a couple of months available then add new. But regarding movies their selection is interesting, better than Netflix's definetely -what to expect when they give millions to Harry and Megan instead of buying rights for good old movies ?- . I watched two with Klaus Maria Brandauer the last 2 days, Mephisto and Hanussen .

Mephisto is a great movie with amazing performance from him, especialy when he is on stage, breathtaking. He plays an actor in pre-war Germany, talented and ambitious, who starts communist friendly , without getting the recognition he deserves until he collaborates with the nazis. Whether he does it for his art, to be in position to help his old friends or just cause he is all about himself and power-hungry, is unclear ...

Hanussen is not that good. I didnt get what was the point. It's the lifestory of a psychic in central Europe / Germany after WWI.
"ἀθάνατοι θνητοί, θνητοὶ ἀθάνατοι, ζῶντες τὸν ἐκείνων θάνατον, τὸν δὲ ἐκείνων βίον τεθνεῶτες"

WhiteWarlock

The Haunted Palace - Vincent Price 1963 total Lovecraft...
Buio Omega for the Goblin Soundtrack & twisted tale...
House of Clocks.... NYRipper... The Beyond... Gates of Hell aka City of the Living Dead... most any Giallo is entertaing
whatever you do.... don't get bored enough to watch Fulci 1975 western Four of the Apocalypse... so agonizingly bad!
Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?
FreakMaker
SynthWizards/N01ZE

ConcreteMascara

Halloween II [dir. Rob Zombie, 2009]

So my friend and I are finally at the end of the Halloween franchise and it was either this or the straight-to-video Halloween: Resurrection. Now my friend warned me this was an utter shit-fest but goddamn I couldn't have imagined how truly dumb AND boring it would be. The good first: Malcom McDowell playing the fame-hungry version of Dr. Loomis was very entertaining. He's such a believable asshole and it's just about the only passable writing in the whole film. Easily the best part of the movie. Second, Brad Dourif is in this one a bit more than the first and I love Brad Dourif, so that was nice. The music was kinda okay.

Ok so the bad: somehow the plot framing for this movie is so fucking stupid it makes Halloween IV through VI look like film classics. I do not care what's inside the mind of Michael Myers. I also don't ever want to see him without a mask. That's sort of his whole thing and this Rob Zombie via Sons of Anarchy looking motherfucker we see is just dumb. Compared to Rob Zombie's first Halloween there's almost no tits and the tits we do see are not in the context I want. The lead character is painfully annoying and most of the kills are meh.

The cherry on top of this shit sundae was the stream quality was worse than a 2005 era torrent. WTF Amazon. So now all that's left of this pointless journey is Busta Rhymes stint in a found footage take on Halloween. kill me.
[death|trigger|impulse]

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WhiteWarlock

Saw that Halloween II remake couple years ago during Halloween Movie Fest....
it was so absurdly bad lost interest fast beyond WTF is this trash...
completely agree with your review...
on the bright side, saw yard/house this year decorated with SilverShamrock Halloween theme!

Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?
FreakMaker
SynthWizards/N01ZE

ConcreteMascara

It was nice that Halloween came on a weekend this year as I was able to properly binge on horror movies this time.
Friday Night:

Halloween Resurrection [dir. Rick Rosenthal, 2002] - I've finally seen the last Halloween film in the franchise and I have to say I didn't think it was that bad. My friend and I affectionately refer to it as Bustaween since Busta Rhymes is in it not as a token celebrity but as a full blown character [full blown character being relative]. We were also dying at Jamie Lee Curtis's 'fuck you pay me' appearance for five minutes. I can barely even speak to the plot or dialogue because we were riffing so hard over it, but there were some decent kills, Michael Myers was of an appropriate size, even if his mask look especially ridiculous, and there was some solid titty from the redhead. Also Busta Rhymes kung-fu kicks the shit out of Michael and while some may think that's the worse development in the Halloween series I'd say it was the best thing I'd seen in many a movie. On the whole this is definitely a trash film but it was infinitely less painful than Zombie's Halloween II or H20.

Firday the 13th: A New Beginning [Danny Steinmann, 1985] - so after rewatching the first 20 minutes of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter to confirm I had actually seen it before we watched this thing. I've seen it described as especially sleazy numerous times and while there is '80s sleaze it didn't blow my mind. Having lived a pretty sleazy lifestyle for many years its gotta hit hard for me to get excited. Regardless there's ample nudity in this one, mediocre kill shots, but solid 'dead body art' corpse posing. I like that Corey Feldman's character as an adult is a pill-popping, easy-to-anger autist, who just beats the shit out of anyone he decides to flip out on. And I like the setting of barely functioning halfway house for troubled adults. You could watch anyone of the scenes in this movie and marvel in wonder at the ineptitude, but taken as a whole its a surrealist romp from one kill or set of tits to the next. Also a black guy in full leather having sweaty Mexican food confetti shits gets killed in an outhouse. It was fun.

Saturday:

Hocus Pocus [dir. Kenny Ortega, 1993] - haven't seen this one since I was a kid and boy is it a weird one. Sarah Jessica Parker as a ditsy blonde witch is hawt. Bette Midler as the leader of the trio is very fun. the main character makes me want to kill myself, but he gets roasted the whole fucking movie for being a virgin so it makes up for it. There's a bunch of other weirdly out of place pseudo raunchy detours that just add an air of WTF to this movie that made it relatively easy to watch.

Resident Evil [dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, 2002] - so I wanted to watch this because I just started playing RE games again and thought it would be fun. I only saw it once on a bad torrent right after it came out and all I really remembered was brief Milla Jovovich side boob and the laser defense thing slicing commando dudes up. Well both of things happen with a lot of dumb stuff on either side. There's no way around the fact that this is a stupid movie with minimal interior logic BUT because I wanted to watch it and was willing to accept maximum dumb, I was actually entertained as hell. I totally forgot about the scene where Jovovich runs up a wall and then kicks a mutant doberman pinscher in the face, which they showed in every trailer before this movie's release. It's so dumb but now it's just fun dumb instead of kicking a video game I loved in the face dumb like it felt then. There was a surprising lack of blood and gore but I think that was more a product of 2002 era movies which I remember as being largely bloodless. Also the score which is done by Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami is kinda good at some points, even when it is the big chunky "industrial metal" riffs. I'm pretty sure I'll be working my way through this series very shortly because I have no self-respect.

Child's Play [dir. Tom Holland, 1988] - I've spent my whole life thinking I'd hate Child's Play/Chucky movies because I rarely like intentional horror/comedy and for no other discernable reason. then I listened to a podcast on the history of this series and it convinced me to give it a chance. The fact that Brad Dourif plays/voices Charles Lee Ray/Chucky forced me to take the plunge. I gotta say, I thought this first one was great! Chucky is way creepier than camp 90% of the time and when it's not being a horror movie it almost feels like a bitching action film. It also helped I kept thinking how terrifying it would be if your kid honestly believed his 3 foot doll was alive. Lock that fucker up! While watching the Resident Evil series will be an experiment in self-inflicted torture, I'm hopefully going through the Chucky movies will actually be rewarding. It's certainly starts off 100x stronger.

Antichrist [dir. Lars von Trier, 2009] - to end the night my partner and I watched Antichrist. Does it get much better?  I think only now after years of showing her weirder and weirder stuff could she get into it. It felt complimentary in style to Twin Peaks: The Return, which we've been watching too. She'd never seen it before so it was fun to watch her rapid descent into disgust in those last 30 minutes. SPOILER Still makes my skin crawl to see that penis get bashed with a log and jerked off to a load of bloody completion. Fucking hell.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

Balor/SS1535

Quote from: ConcreteMascara on November 02, 2020, 04:52:41 PM


Child's Play [dir. Tom Holland, 1988] - I've spent my whole life thinking I'd hate Child's Play/Chucky movies because I rarely like intentional horror/comedy and for no other discernable reason. then I listened to a podcast on the history of this series and it convinced me to give it a chance. The fact that Brad Dourif plays/voices Charles Lee Ray/Chucky forced me to take the plunge. I gotta say, I thought this first one was great! Chucky is way creepier than camp 90% of the time and when it's not being a horror movie it almost feels like a bitching action film. It also helped I kept thinking how terrifying it would be if your kid honestly believed his 3 foot doll was alive. Lock that fucker up! While watching the Resident Evil series will be an experiment in self-inflicted torture, I'm hopefully going through the Chucky movies will actually be rewarding. It's certainly starts off 100x stronger.


I had the same feelings about the first Child's Play before I saw it.  I was sure that it would be trash, but I was pleasantly surprised by it.  The story was really well put-together and compelling.  I still need to see the most recent remake of it, though, as I have heard that it is good as well (the doll is a broken AI this time around).

WhiteWarlock

Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?
FreakMaker
SynthWizards/N01ZE

Balor/SS1535

Quote from: WhiteWarlock on November 03, 2020, 12:37:17 AM
GF has life sized "Chucky" doll she got from somewhere...

I may like the movie, but that would still be too much for me!