What movie did you watch today?

[drizzle]

I never saw the first Purge because supposedly it completely wastes the premise for a dumb home invasion scenario, but this one really takes advantage of the idea and makes a whole world out of it and I loved it.

[alpha]

The second is better than the first just because it takes the premise places you want it to go. The first is not bad at all tho.

[perabigail]

So the Purge movies are actually good? I had completely written them off.

if you're 15 then yes, these movies are fantastic. i had the misfortune of seeing the first one but knowing how terrible the first one was i saw the second one too for no good reason. complete dogshit, continue to write them off.

[Spartan]

The Purge was a waste of a great concept. Those two kids were really fucking annoying.

EDIT:

So I just watched the second one, and pretty much agree with drizzle. The Purge: Anarchy is a massive improvement over its predecessor. Much grander in scope than the first one too. Frank Grillo was a bad ass. Might as well have been no supporting characters, since he ran the show. Waitress milf was well fit. Corny ending thankfully doesn't do enough to ruin the overall film for me.

[Spartan]

The Opening of Misty Beethoven |1976

Imagine Audrey Hepburn sucking off Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady and you've pretty much got this movie summed up as its a porno adaptation of Pygmalion. Other than the pegging, which I fast-forwarded, this film was decent. Way overrated, but decent.

[Spartan]

A Gun for Jennifer | 1997

Nineties post-punk grindhouse. Very much a mix between Deadbeat at Dawn, I Spit on Your Grave and Ms .45 and thankfully, none of that self-aware bullshit associated with fake-exploitation. It's a raw, amateur and fairly sincere ode to the vigilante flicks of a bygone era.

[Spartan]

Successive Slidings of Pleasure | 1974

Half way through that Alain Robbe-Grillet box set the BFI put out, and shit has been the best discovery I've made this year. Arthouse that I can happily watch without being bored to tears. This film might be Al's most genre friendly yet; somewhere between nunsploitation and that amusingly pretentious blow job story in Borowczyk's Immoral Tales. Female nudity, fucked-up dialogue and Jean-Louis Trintignant hilariously decked out as Inspector Clouseau make this a winner:

[Comedy Quaddafi]

The Treatment (2014) - This thriller reminds me of last year's Prisoners. It's based on some UK writer's detective series but made in Belgium. Geert Van Rampelberg carries much of the film. It starts a bit slow but really picks up.

[Kace]

El Topo (1970) - Finally got around to seeing this one. Wow what a movie! Absolutely mind blowing. At times it reminded me of Fellini's, Pasolini's or even Terry Gilliam's work. I don't get why this movie got so many bad reviews. What's up with that? The haters call the film pretentious and say it doesn't make any sense. Granted, it's not exactly easy at all to get into, but the symbolism is far from random. This is the first Jodorowsky joint I've seen and Holy Mountain will be the next.

The opening scene also can't help but remind me of faggot ass Corl from the Walking Dead somehow



Which isn't that strange because both Jodorowsky and Robert Kirkman are comic book writers. It wouldn't surprise me if the former inspired the latter.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

The Rover (2014) - I thought this was good but I also felt a bit disappointed for some reason. Great acting from Pattison who actually looked like a retard.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

Starred Up (2014) - British yoot gets transfered to adult prison where he meets his father. I thought this was a really good prisonfilm in the style of the movie R.

[Spartan]

The Night Child (aka The Cursed Medallion)| 1975

Way off the usual Rosemary's Baby / Exorcist rip-off path, which I didn't expect and is all the better because of it. Great performances from the always great Richard Johnson and creepy looking ginger kid Nicoletta Elmi. The film gets a little too slow and unnecessarily convoluted, but it eventually sorts itself out with one very cool ending. Shame Massimo Dallamano did so few films, I've really enjoyed the films that I've seen so far.

[wizeguy]

Just watched Fury. Holy shit that was one hell of a movie. One of the best war films I've ever seen.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

The Dead 2: India (2014) - The first The Dead could be described as the exact opposite of The Walking Dead. But the sequel has more characters and more dialogues, which doesn't work to it's advantage. But we still get stunning scenes of India and creepy hindu zombies. Its a bit of a shame that the leadactor is rather poor, considering he isnt required to do a whole lot. I read somewhere that the next film will be set in China and I think that could be good. This is worth watching if you liked the first.

[Julius Seizure]

Thought skeleton twins was pretty good. Luke Wilson and hader gave great performances. Didn't like the ending.

Gone girl was entertaining, but not a very good movie. Thought affleck's performance was pretty one note. Tyler perry was surprisingly good.

Birdman was amazing. Maybe a bit heavy handed at times, but i loved it.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

Under the Skin (2014) - Very weird and hypnotic film. I enjoyed it, and I also enjoyed knowing that this film will piss off everyone who wanted it to watch it because of ScarJo without knowing what they were getting in to. She is excellent btw. Really loved the ending though, that's what made the movie for me. It's strange to me that this movie was even made, but I'm glad that it's out there.

[Spartan]

Thoughts on this?

i feel bad about not fleshing out why scarlett johansson’s black skin reveal in under the skin is racist and eye-roll worthy but white people will jump to claim its not bcs #cinema anyway and its like… if you have one clue its obvious why this is part of a longer tradition of portraying the “other” as dark-skinned and therefore deserving of either fear (the movie never portrays her as someone to be feared i might add but the intent is obviously to “shock” the average moviegoer with the reveal that shes an alien… who happens to be black-skinned) or awe. this doesnt even mean the film is w/o merits but sorry if im yawning if your big climax is the conventionally attractive white woman is actually a dark skinned “other” and a violent sexual assault that reveals this…. its just tired. and this is only one opinion, not a definite fact or from any place of authority but its annoying to see this pattern over and over again unchallenged. the whole movie from the sexualized female killer to the stripped down sets and droning music follows in a tradition in genre cinema and while im not against playing with conventions through reusing them, it doesnt offer much more than the genre cinema that has come before and informed it. this doesn’t mean don’t see it and draw your own conclusions (this is only one approach i can’t stress that enough - you can even problematize the black skin and sexual assault as some sort of ~statement) but it does give another way to look at things.

source

[Comedy Quaddafi]

I don't think the color is relevant to the story or otherwise. Didn't occur to me that anyone could take that from it.

Still a bit confused about what the point of the guy on the motorcycle was :(

[drizzle]

reading too deep into it. the black is very obviously an aesthetic choice meant to echo other previously shown aspects of the alien environment. she could've just as easily been pink or green or polkadot. i don't believe it's meant allegorically. and i very much disagree with the idea that every aesthetic choice needs to be minutely vetted to make sure it doesn't offend any sensibility in any way, which is the ultimate implication of this kind of critique.

the thing about genre tropes is tenuous too, he mismatches a few idea to stretch his point. the movie is far more about style and execution more than plot, critiquing it for having a routine plot is kinda missing the point. the story is indeed not mindblowingly original but it's not really in line with the formula he is implying either. ScarJo is never sexually objectified as part of the narrative or aesthetically, the sexual angle here is outside the context of what happens on screen. it's specifically in the fact that an attractive woman who doesn't often get naked does so in this particular movie. the actual nudity on screen is brief and fleeting and purposefully routine, the camera never leers at it. the fact that he sees her character as a sex object on a killing spree is more telling about how he sees the movie and the actress' role in it than about anything in the movie itself.

[drizzle]

Still a bit confused about what the point of the guy on the motorcycle was :(

he was her controller/supervisor. she's supposed to be a drone harvesting humans or whatever, the bike guy(s) make sure she doesn't get too human or go off mission etc...

[Random Sample]

I finally got a chance to watch A Most Wanted Man yesterday. Pretty solid movie.

[Dap]

saw fury last night (brad pitt, michael pena, shia). was good but not great. could have been great with maybe a different ending or better editing. some parts just felt out of place or useless


acting was pretty great for the most part.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

The Fifth Season (2012) - A small village in Belgium experience a crisis when their farm-animals and crops stop producing. This could have been a great movie, but it's way too slow for a 90 minute feature. Great Wickerman-like ending and some beautiful and weird scenes made the movie worthwhile but it didn't work for me.

[Julius Seizure]

Anybody else see Birdman? I'm wondering what the curb community thought of this film.

[Spartan]

Edge of Tomorrow | 2014
Complete tosh. I do like Emily Blunt tho.

[Y@k Bollocks]

Edge of Tomorrow | 2014
Complete tosh. I do like Emily Blunt tho.

Yeah, she's great.

Stupid film though. Had to watch it in two sittings as my mind started drifting and I fell asleep.

[Spartan]

Watched three movies with Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scot and Simón Andreu and I've come to the conclusion that both of these Spanish veterans of gialli are the Lidl equivalents of Edwige Fenech and George Hilton.

Death Walks on High Heels | 1971
The one where Nieves Navarro does a NSFW Al Jolson tribute. Offensive as hell, but the rest of the movie is really cool with lots of twists and turns. Watching and hearing Italian actors posing as Cornish people with Cockney accents is pretty fucking hilarious.

Death Walks at Midnight | 1971
The one where Nieves Navarro wears a metal wig. Surprisingly well shot follow-up. That first kill witnessed by Navarro while she's higher than a kite is really fucking amazing. Virtually the same cast from the first film are in this. It loses its way and drags around the middle of the film, but I still enjoyed this. Rooftop finale was awesome.

Death Carries a Cane | 1973
The one where Nieves Navarro is suffering from a weak bladder (no link for that, sorry). This giallo isn't directed by Navarro's hubby Luciano Ercoli and it's much trashier than the previous two. It also has a psycho-sexual killer for a giallo antagonist rather than a out-for-the-cash type of murderer. There are far too many characters (including identical twins) and the plot is ridiculously convoluted to even bother making sense of it all, and I know I shouldn't be complaining but seeing lots of hot broads undressing all the time, distracted heavily from the rest of the film. By the time the killer's identity and ridiculously nonsensical motive were revealed, I was done for the day.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

The Death Walks... films are great. They're the next best thing to the classics by Argento, Fulci and Martino IMO. Susan Scott is magnetic.

Midnight is my favorite and it figures because it was written by Ernesto Gastaldi who was a real boss of Italian cinema in the 70's.

[Spartan]

Gastaldi is a legend. Dude is like Italy's answer to da gawd Jimmy Sangster.

Don't know about the Death Walks films. I would place both of Emilio Miraglia's gothic hybrids over Ercoli's crime thrillers pretty easily if I had to rank celebrated gialli.

I do like Navarro, but I do find her annoying sometimes, e.g. those really stupid wigs and the time of the month outbursts. Let's not forget her erotic fish eating scene in Death Walks in High Heels! The fuck was all that about?

[Spartan]

Bloodsucker Leads the Dance | 1975

There isn't a bloodsucker in this, nor any dancing. You can tell from the opening titles that this movie is going to be terrible when you see what looks like a blue Fiat 500 parked in the distance followed by a bit of text reading, "IRELAND, 1902". This is a sixty minute sleazefest with lesbians, cock-hungry milfs, followed by thirty minutes of women getting decapitated, and a hilarious fake confession to the crimes by one of the red herrings. Downton Abbey, this ain't. Despite the slow to a crawl pace and how utterly inept and trashy it was, I still kind of liked it.