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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 21, 2024 12:15:13 GMT -5
Wow, I remember Class of 1984. IIRC, it was pretty decent as '80s revenge movies go. Roquefort Raider , if you liked The Descent, you should have a look at Neil Marshall's previous film, Dog Soldiers. It's about a group of soldiers on a training exercise who end up trapped in an abandoned farmhouse besieged by werewolves. It's more action movie than horror movie, and the banter between the soldiers is hilarious. And features Kevin McKidd, of Trainspotting, and Sean Pertwee (Gotham) and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones). The bit with the super glue, to treat wounds, is a bit ridiculous, though. It was developed as a way to seal lacerations; but, not the way depicted in the film and not with the extent of the wounds you see. That part pulled me out of the movie, for a moment or two; but, otherwise, a great little film.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 21, 2024 12:24:38 GMT -5
I just rewatched The Descent (2005), a British horror movie in which a group of spelunkers get caught in a cave system inhabited by horrid, naked mole rat-like humanoids. It's really good at what it does, despite a few silly and predictable jump scares. However... THEY CHANGED THE ENDING FOR AMERICAN AUDIENCES! Unfortunately, that's the version we can see on Tubi. That's a pretty #@$ thing to do, as in this case it completely undercuts the power of the original ending. I can't imagine the director agreeing to that. According to wikipedia, it was a case of "Well, American viewers don't like this or that". For crying out loud... a work of fiction stands on its own, no matter who's viewing it. Why mess with it? That's not that unusual, as both Ridley Scott's Legend and the original Highlander had different cuts, in Europe (as did Blade Runner, which was the version available on home video, for a long time). Legend has a longer scene, when Jack first encounters the Gump, where he has to solve a riddle or die, and Gump throws a hissy fit when he solves it, before settling down and offering him tea/booze. It made the Gump a much darker character, who you didn't necessarily trust. In the American cut, he seems like an old friend, with no menace. Highlander, famously, in the American cut, had the whole WW2 sequence cut out, which explains the background of "Nash's" secretary/assistant, Rachel. She is a little girl, who he rescues from an SS officer, in WW2, by shielding her from a machine gun burst. She sees that he is still alive and asks how it is done and he responds "It's a kind of magic," and winks. In the US cut, you have no idea she is in on his past, until she says something to him, when he is leaving his loft. Neil Gaiman had several versions of his novel Neverwhere. There was the original British edition, which was then re-edited for the US, to explain some of the references to the British Underground system (characters are named for different locales, in London). It was then adapted into the tv mini-series, with further changes. The mini wasn't well received, in the UK and was shown mostly on PBS stations, in the US, un-altered. Don't recall if the DVD had changes or not (don't think so). I recall watching it on my local PBS station, during a pledge drive, and the response for the fundraising was pretty lackluster.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 22, 2024 5:59:24 GMT -5
I just rewatched The Descent (2005), a British horror movie in which a group of spelunkers get caught in a cave system inhabited by horrid, naked mole rat-like humanoids. It's really good at what it does, despite a few silly and predictable jump scares. However... THEY CHANGED THE ENDING FOR AMERICAN AUDIENCES! Unfortunately, that's the version we can see on Tubi. That's a pretty #@$ thing to do, as in this case it completely undercuts the power of the original ending. I can't imagine the director agreeing to that. According to wikipedia, it was a case of "Well, American viewers don't like this or that". For crying out loud... a work of fiction stands on its own, no matter who's viewing it. Why mess with it? That's not that unusual, as both Ridley Scott's Legend and the original Highlander had different cuts, in Europe (as did Blade Runner, which was the version available on home video, for a long time). Legend has a longer scene, when Jack first encounters the Gump, where he has to solve a riddle or die, and Gump throws a hissy fit when he solves it, before settling down and offering him tea/booze. It made the Gump a much darker character, who you didn't necessarily trust. In the American cut, he seems like an old friend, with no menace. Highlander, famously, in the American cut, had the whole WW2 sequence cut out, which explains the background of "Nash's" secretary/assistant, Rachel. She is a little girl, who he rescues from an SS officer, in WW2, by shielding her from a machine gun burst. She sees that he is still alive and asks how it is done and he responds "It's a kind of magic," and winks. In the US cut, you have no idea she is in on his past, until she says something to him, when he is leaving his loft. Neil Gaiman had several versions of his novel Neverwhere. There was the original British edition, which was then re-edited for the US, to explain some of the references to the British Underground system (characters are named for different locales, in London). It was then adapted into the tv mini-series, with further changes. The mini wasn't well received, in the UK and was shown mostly on PBS stations, in the US, un-altered. Don't recall if the DVD had changes or not (don't think so). I recall watching it on my local PBS station, during a pledge drive, and the response for the fundraising was pretty lackluster. I'm not that keen on different cuts, but they're not so bad if they just add or remove ancillary material... even the brilliant scene in Aliens where Ripley and Hicks exchange their given names. In the case of Descent, though, they actually changed the ending. It's like Rocky winning the fight at the end of the first movie, or making Aragorn immortal at the end of LotR; it would negate much of the original cut's intended message.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 7, 2024 17:00:57 GMT -5
Michael Caine was very good in the 1986 film The Whistle Blower. Excellent performance, especially when he grieves in a very restrained way. The epitome of the British gentleman.
I love that type of slow burning thriller, which were also quite a thing in France in the 70s and 80s. No ninjas, no races over rooftops, but mysterious agendas that often crush innocent people who don't understand the game that great powers play.
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Post by berkley on Apr 7, 2024 18:20:51 GMT -5
Michael Caine was very good in the 1986 film The Whistle Blower. Excellent performance, especially when he grieves in a very restrained way. The epitome of the British gentleman. I love that type of slow burning thriller, which were also quite a thing in France in the 70s and 80s. No ninjas, no races over rooftops, but mysterious agendas that often crush innocent people who don't understand the game that great powers play.
I don't think I ever knew about this one. It sounds good, so I'll probably try to see it some time.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 7, 2024 19:15:15 GMT -5
Michael Caine was very good in the 1986 film The Whistle Blower. Excellent performance, especially when he grieves in a very restrained way. The epitome of the British gentleman. I love that type of slow burning thriller, which were also quite a thing in France in the 70s and 80s. No ninjas, no races over rooftops, but mysterious agendas that often crush innocent people who don't understand the game that great powers play.
I don't think I ever knew about this one. It sounds good, so I'll probably try to see it some time.
It's available free on Tubi, and I really enjoyed it. Recommended!
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 8, 2024 12:59:04 GMT -5
I don't know if anybody here can help me with this, but I was watching part of a silent movie on YouTube maybe almost a year ago which I never got around to finishing (though I think it was under half an hour if I remember correctly), and I can't remember the name of it to try and find it again and finish it' and it's no longer in my view history. Again, it was a silent movie, I think it was Buster Keaton (though maybe it was Charlie Chaplin) and it's got a newlywed couple (Buster/Charlie/whoever is the husband) trying to build their own how from some kind of house building kit, and there's a scene (probably semi-famous) where he's standing there, and the front wall of the house falls over, and he's only saved from being crushed by the fact that he happens to be standing right where the cutout for the window falls. It's a really cool scene. I checked out both guys' credits on imdb.com and none of those titles rang a bell.
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Post by Chintzy Beatnik on Apr 8, 2024 13:45:42 GMT -5
Fatty Arbuckle used the gag in Back Stage. Buster Keaton used it in One Week and Steamboat Bill Jr.
Pretty sure it’s One Week that you saw. The plot revolves around the house kit as described.
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Post by dbutler69 on Apr 8, 2024 18:32:53 GMT -5
Fatty Arbuckle used the gag in Back Stage. Buster Keaton used it in One Week and Steamboat Bill Jr. Pretty sure it’s One Week that you saw. The plot revolves around the house kit as described. Yes, I believe it's One Week. Thanks!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 10, 2024 20:10:46 GMT -5
I've just watched Dominion: a prequel to The Exorcist (released in 2005). According to Wikipedia, it's the original cut of another Exorcist prequel, Exorcist: The beginning, which was released first. It seems that preliminary viewings of the first cut failed to please the producers, who asked for a retooling of the thing. As I haven't seen The beginning, I can't compare the two.
Dominion starts well enough. It has no head-twisting or vomit spewing scenes, and the increasing influence of evil in the small Kenyan town where the story occurs is deftly handled. A scene where a British officer commits a gratuitous crime is absolutely chilling, and for a while I believed we were in for a decent psychological horror tale. (Well, all right... the terrible CGI animals sort of ruined many scenes, but I was fairly optimistic).
When Satan shows up, he actually makes a good job of tempting people. His arguments are pretty sound, and what he offers isn't gold, sex or fame but freedom from guilt (and the protagonists carry an awful lot of that). Unfortunately, the fact that the devil is right there in front of us (albeit just as a spirit possessing a young lad) quickly defuses any terror we might feel. And the last act of the movie turns into a superhero origin story, not really making good use of the tension built up in the beginning.
As with many prequels, this one commits the sin (see what I did there) of making the world smaller. There is no particular reason for Father Merrin to be an old acquaintance and personal enemy of the devil; it doesn't give The Exorcist any extra depth, and as a film this one would have been better served not to reference The Exorcist at all. Yeah, I know, marketing... but this probably didn't make a lot of money either way.
Not particularly recommended, but a decent B-horror movie to listen to while drawing, I suppose. (The scenery is quite pretty, though. It looks like they might actually have shot the film in Africa).
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Post by Rags on Apr 22, 2024 15:12:20 GMT -5
Loving the 4K without the dumb, stupid, horrible comic transitions, especially after Ajax says "where are they?" and spots the Baseball Furies. Who were really a bunch of wimps.
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Post by Calidore on Apr 22, 2024 16:58:37 GMT -5
Loving the 4K without the dumb, stupid, horrible comic transitions, especially after Ajax says "where are they?" and spots the Baseball Furies. Who were really a bunch of wimps.
Also, the Warriors are good. Real good.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 24, 2024 8:37:36 GMT -5
I'm watching 1965' The Nanny with Bette Davis, a thriller from Hammer Films. It's a haunting thing, with a preternaturally calm nanny taking care of a psychologically disturbed woman and her extremely creepy kid. The tension in there could be cut with a knife, and the actor who plays the boy is so scary that he could give lessons to Damian Thorne!
Really good stuff. Davis is excellent, and the script is spooky as can be.
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Post by tartanphantom on Apr 24, 2024 18:30:28 GMT -5
Loving the 4K without the dumb, stupid, horrible comic transitions, especially after Ajax says "where are they?" and spots the Baseball Furies. Who were really a bunch of wimps.
I agree. And even though their uniforms were loosely based on the Yankees uniforms, they performed more like the late-'70s Toronto Blue Jays... embarrassing.
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Post by Rags on Apr 25, 2024 0:01:31 GMT -5
Where did everyone first see The Warriors? Did anyone actually see it in the cinema in 1979? I wasn't born yet.
I first saw it quite by chance in the mid 90s, we had an early morning flight and I was excited about that but couldn't sleep so I switched on the telly...and there was freaky Rhonda Shear on USA's Up All Night. The late night movies were one of the Friday 13th films (I think Part 5) and....The Warriors! Mum heard the telly on and came over with some ice-cream and we had a girl's night out. Since then, I've watched it at least once per year. Too bad there wasn't a sequel....there was an imagined one in the comics called The Warriors: Jailbreak which actually had a good plot. After all the gang-arrests at Van Cortlandt Park (where Cyrus called the meeting), the jails are filled to capacity so Ajax is taken to a detention center that's not as fortified as a city jail. The Warriors learn this and plan to spring him by forming an (uneasy) alliance with The Riffs as some of their men are there too. Inside the detention-center, Ajax is defiant as ever and the target of a psychopath Baseball Furies member who wants to earn his stripes by killing Ajax. Might have made a great film....
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