What movie did you watch today?

[blastmaster]

Upgrade is my favorite movie of the year so far.

[Spartan]

Worth checking out The Invitation from a couple of years back, as it's a good thriller starring Fake Tom Hardy.

[alpha]

Upgrade is my favorite movie of the year so far.

I really liked it too.

[Spartan]

The Endless (2018)
Loved Spring, but l haven't watched Moorhead and Benson's first movie, Resolution; apparently this was a spin-off/sequel, this worked as a standalone movie, regardless. Bit tough discussing this movie without giving so much shit away, but I really enjoyed how this revolved around a cult and the weird shit going on. It's a slow burner for much of its time, but a deeply riveting one. Superb movie.

Ghost Stories (2018)
Think I enjoyed this more than most folk since I'm a sucker for the old Amicus horror anthologies from the seventies and its obvious cliches. Biggest gripe for me was obviously the wraparound that linked the three spooky tales was way longer than the rest of the content and the predictable twist ending still felt crudely shoehorned in. However, there was a lot to love about this movie. The first ghost case was executed perfectly; the level of atmospheric dread was phenomenally well done - especially when considering how immersion breaking it could have been since the lead in that tale was comedian, Paul Whitehouse. The other two tales aren't on that level, but still of a high standard. Martin Freeman amended himself after the awful Netflix dross that was Cargo from earlier this year.

Looking forward to catching both of these movies again very soon.

[drizzle]

Skyscraper - Very fun, I think this is the most I've liked a Rock-involved thing since F7. Essentially a straightforward Die Hard scenario updated for modern times, mostly well executed. I was really impressed by how neatly and efficiently this movie does its chekhov's guns, a whole bunch of details are set up in the first half and uses them one by one to further the plot as the movie progresses. It seems like a small thing but it pays off with a good sense of continuity and internal logic that you don't really get from blockbusters that just go through series of random ante-raising set pieces that seem to come out of nowhere.


Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Watchable enough for a rainy day but mostly mediocre as a whole, with a few good moments. I do appreciate the ambitions of whoever decided to turn this franchise back into a very thinly veiled metaphor for man-made climate catastrophe and science run amok, complete with nods to Frankenstein. We're probably only 1-2 entries away from a Jurassic Whatever set in a post-apocalyptic world of talking dinosaurs and out of control genetic manipulation, and it's gonna be sick as hell. There was a scene in this that was already pretty much this:

[Spartan]

Incident in a Ghost Land (2018) - I'm very pleased that madman Pascal Laugier known from Martyrs finally came through with another quality horror. It's basically a homeinvasion film with a brilliant narrative gimmick I haven't seen anywhere else. The ogre, one of the two antagonist, is one of the best horror villains in a while when he goes full Tasmanian devil. Would be my top horror pick this year thus far if it wasn't for Hereditary. Apparently the blonde girl in the film had her face cut up completely in an accident during filming which really sucks for her and I suppose it could be devastating for Laugier's career as well.

Just finished watching this. Uncompromisingly brutal stuff yet again from Laugier.

[drizzle]

Mom And Dad - loved this, didn't know one of the Crank guys was behind it but that makes sense in terms of direction and editing. I thought it was a legit good very dark horror comedy that's smarter than the premise and trailers make it seem, shame it got mostly trashed as dumb schlock. Cage might actually be crazier here than he was in Mandy, he's so overcranked now that he comes off like a lunatic even in scenes where he's supposed to play a normal dad.

AVP - somehow it took me 15 years to get around to watching it, it's not too shabby at all. Some of it dated pretty badly and probably didn't look good to begin with, but it's an entertaining b-movie overall if you don't think about it too much. Considering nobody really got either of these franchises 100% right in the last ~30 years that's good enough imo.

Final Score - The Rock got to do an expensive modern Die Hard ripoff in Skyskraper, so it's only fair that Bautista got to do cheaper modern ripoff of a cheaper Die Hard ripoff (Sudden Death) in Final Score. Nothing mindblowing here and the Die Hard formula is followed very neatly, but the cast is great (Ray Stevenson looking like Colonel Kurtz with a Russian accent as the lead villain, Pierce Brosnan slipping in and out of his Russian accent in a small role), and the direction is good and polished considering the likely small budget. A solid unpretentious shootemup with a couple of good highlights.

[blastmaster]

Pretty excited to sit down and watch a new Steven Seagal movie tonight. ATTRITION.

Watched A Simple Favor the other day. Pretty decent thriller from Paul Fiege. I’m a big Blake Lively fan and she shines like a sexy gemstone here. I mean, it’s shitty, but I had a good time.

[Spartan]

If you haven't already, it's worth checking out The Shallows if you're a fan of Lively.

Deadpool 2 (2018)
Enjoyed this way more than I expected. Ryan Reynolds has found his lane. There were enough funny gags that hit the mark for me to not dwell too much on the ones that didn't. Cable and Domino were cool supporting characters and Juggernaut was a nice surprise. I preferred this over the first one.

Solo (2018)
Sure fire mess, but much of it is still easy to forgive as it's still a fun ride overall. Shame it flopped, since I've found the SW anthology movies way better than the last two episodes of the Skywalker saga.

Five Deady Venoms (1978)
Poison Clan rocks the world! Every time I rewatch this I keep thinking Toad is going to make it, like Steve MacQueen and that fence in The Great Escape. Great, great movie.

Killing Gunther (2017)
Hipster assassins go hunting for the ultimate hitman and wind up being the prey. No awards for originality, but the mock documentary presentation and the cringeworthy gags caught my attention. Arnie stole the show, but I doubt I would watch this film again any time soon.

[drizzle]

I Am Vengeance (Vengeance) - a pretty terrible lowbudget actioner following the old 'dude with deadly skills is called back to his hometown to find it in the grip of gangs/drug dealers' scenario, watched it because I love that trope and because Gary Daniels plays a villain with a phenomenal mustache. The movie is about 25% good lowbudget action, 30% so bad it's good lols, and the rest is just bad. The mustache does a lot of the heavy lifting, and is really the only good argument for the movie.




The Satanic Rites of Dracula - I knew this has a dire reputation but on paper it sounded fun - Dracula is alive in 70s London, leading some kind of Satanic cult, and the MI6 are out to stop him. But it's actually just as bad as the reputation suggests, cheap and goofy and (worst of all) pretty boring. Gotta give Christopher Lee insane amounts of credit for staying professional through a climax where Dracula is killed because he gets tangled up in a spiky bush (seriously.) No wonder he quit playing Dracula after this one.

Devil Rides Out - Now this is more like it, I've seen this mentioned as one of the better Hammer productions and it indeed rules. Lee gets a rare good guy role as a rich dude who's into the occult, fighting some of the most polite and dapper Satanists ever put on screen. Lee is the shit in the lead, the old-timey practical effects dated in a charming way, the movie looks gorgeous, and the twist ending feels kinda ahead of its time. At certain points Lee throws a crucifix at demonic things like it's a hand grenade, with roughly the same effect, that alone makes this worthwhile.

[Spartan]

My fave onscreen depiction of the devil in The Devil Rides Out, and, yeah, Lee was dope as hell in it. You should check him out Hammer’s Rasputin, with Lee playing the mad monk. Great performance by him in that.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

Satan's Slaves (2018) - I've been a fan of Joko Anwar since The Forbidden Door and once again he comes through with a solid horror very similar to Hereditary in plot. The end starts to feel a little silly but it is generally a nice exercise in atmosphere and style.

Creep (2010) - It's quite impressive to see a very decent mumblecore frigthfilm made with such meager means. There are some really tense scenes as we try to make sense of what is going on and clocking in at 75 mins it never felt dull.

Creep 2 (2017) - The sequel is fairly meta and more humorous but just as interesting as the first one.

Brüno (2009) - I somehow gave this a miss until now because of negative reactions and little desire to see a lot of gayness, however rewatching Ali G US I thought Brüno was the highlight of the show so I gave it a go. It's really funny and a good companion piece to Borat.

Antiporno (2017) - Sion Sono does a roman porn similar to Inland Empire. Certainly not was Nikkatsu was expecting, a feminist mindfuck, when they commissioned this.

The Killer Inside Me (2010) - Having recently read the novel, which I absolutely loved, I couldn't resist checking out the film. It doesn't really work, maybe because of the limitations of the medium. On it's own it's a watchable crimefilm but not much more than that.

[Spartan]

The Etruscan Kills Again (1971)
Obscure giallo that marketed itself in the US as a zombie flick. It's underwhelming and poorly paced regardless of which subgenre it's miss sold as. Coincidentally, this is the second film with Horst Frank in it where he plays a gay dude rocking a hilarious hair style. Weak movie.

Jailbreak (2017)
Cambodia cashing in and jumping on The Raid bandwagon. Fight choreography was ok, but nowhere as visceral as what it was replicating. Ex-pornstar, Katsuni played a samurai sword wielding mob boss with a female hit squad as her entourage and both of these elements were just as at odds with some of the forced humour found in this film. A flat movie overall with only a few highlights I found.

Inferno (2016)
Tom Hanks making Tom Hanks money off typical chav reading material. This was a predictable jet-setting yarn from start to finish; so much is sloppily telegraphed that you can see the twists and turns coming at you right from the beginning. I did enjoy the apocalyptic visions, but they were the only real interesting scenes in this film.

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Liked this a fair bit, despite it trying too hard to replicate James Wan's supernatural horror flicks. A fan of Mike Flanaghan's movies even if they're as derivative as this, they're competent and enjoyable movies regardless.

[Spartan]

Hagazussa (2017)
Late pass! Caught this Austrian chiller last night and absolutely loved it. Has many immediate comparisons and similarities to The Witch, but it branches off in its own unique path. Gorgeous movie, with a fantastic central performance by its lead. There's minimal dialogue and it heavily focuses on atmosphere; it's what builds this into something so utterly oppressive and disturbing. Still processing it, but can't wait to catch this again. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't get offended so easily and enjoys slow-paced macabre movies.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't get offended so easily and enjoys slow-paced macabre movies.

I remember seeing the trailer and skimming reviews thinking this film would either be awesome or painfully dull.

Cop (1988) - Another Ellroy novel adapted for film. James Woods tries to track down a serialkiller preying on women. He gives a powerful performance full of right-slanted diatribes about realism v idealism. It's very much a product of its time and not something you could imagine in a mainstream copthriller 30 years later. I'm not too familiar with Woods at all but apparently hes a big pro-Trump personality on Twitter with a fairly hilarious feed.

Blood and Rain (2009) - Film and TV set in Colombia is almost exclusively about the dangerous and glamorous life of famous drugdealers. This film however is about ordinary people being unwillingly caught in the middle of petty streetviolence and gives us a relentlessly bleak portrayal of the rainsoaked streets of Bogota in the AM-hours.

[drizzle]

Resolution - yea I can see what you guys mean, this one makes the other one better. I think I'm with Benji here, might like this one more just because it's more self contained and tidy. Love how these guys are approaching the same situation from different angles and povs, and I really dig how they've created a neat little world here out almost out of nothing, and it feels pretty fresh and not too tropey. That in itself is pretty impressive.

[ric]

A Star is Born 2018
A lot of truth here. Mostly great performances from the cast. Cooper and Elliott smooth out so many little wrinkles the shit just doesn't matter. Gaga does well though. Direction and photography are fucking fab though. Great production values. From the moment it starts the movie submerses you in this highly sensual environment and sensibility. Really brings out the sensuality in country music and these kind of characters and setting which I've never seen before really. Fucking really nice music. Some of it is fucking dope and some of it kind of lays on those pop-gaga sensibilites but sounds novel and good to me so I'm not complaining. But some of that music is just fire really and of course used well in the movie. Obviously when Gaga and Cooper are singing together (it is Cooper singing) Goggs just takes over but whatever who cares cool shit. Not 100% pleased with all the choices in the movie and in the story but it still delivers. I cried like 5 times in this one

[Comedy Quaddafi]

Climax (2018) - I thought Gaspar Noe's peak was behind him but this is his best film. A French crew of streetdancers drink sangria spiked with LSD at an afterparty and crazed primate behaviour is unleashed with some terrifying freakouts and a level of intensity very few films have ever managed. We get long takes of their pain individually and the collective breakdown of civilization. The music and gradually more intense colours and camera handling make you feel a bit druggy yourself and geniously the endcredits arrive at the beginning so you have no time to sober up before the cinema is lit and you have to head for the exit. I love this film dearly and saw it under the influence of nothing but caffeine but can't help but wonder how insane it would have been under different circumstances.

Cargo (2017) - Fairly tame Aussie zombiefilm with the relatable character from Office UK. It looks good and has some nice elements to it.

Baskin (2015) - This Turkish Hellraiser-inspired scarefest is gloriously filthy and reaches greatness on several occasions. Cops are called to an abandoned building in the suburbs and then all hell is unleashed. Up until somewhere in the third act it felt as a legit modern horror classic, unsettling in the extreme, but perhaps it didn't fully deliver on its promise in the final 20 or so minutes. The villain of the film has a rare medical condition IRL which makes him perfect for a film like this and he seems to be having the time of his life chewing scenery in his torture dungeon.

Almost Human (1974) - Lenzi directing, a Gastaldi script, Morricone music and a handful of eurosleaze familiars in the cast make this a winner. It is in particular the characterization of the grotesque antagonist which is a homerun. He is envious of the Milanese upperclass and feels entitled to murder everyone who stands in the way of his path to a similar lifestyle.

[ric]

Predator (2018)
The remake. Production values are actually pretty damn good and in line with how you'd expect a movie with this name to be at this point in time. Acting is perfect for what they're going for. I don't like what they're going for all the time except the idea that they're bringing back some classic hero team up movie stuff and really it's executed pretty well in terms of character chemistry, down time for comedy, comedy that is inserted into minor action oriented transitions, there's some romance that feels like it's from a cheese mid-early 90s action or horror movie etc etc.

[Spartan]

Really hope to watch Climax before the end of the year.

Bushwick (2017)
Writer & director duo from the underrated Cooties deliver an unexpectedly memorable action flick. Loved the concept of this being a Second American Civil War kicking off; I found it far more convincing than the gang bangers bumbin' Aesop Rock, tbh. Dave Batista can't act for shit and much of the time I was wondering how perfect Frank Grillo would have been in his role instead, but dude did his best. Some nice unexpected turns kept this movie from getting stale. Kind of movie you'd want John Carpenter to make if he only just started making movies today.

Two Males for Alexa (1971)
Another very obscure giallo with Roselba Neri as an adulterous wife trapped in a room with her lover and her dead husband. Much of the film is told in flashbacks, but it's fairly linear and doesn't take much to piece everything together. Can't say I found the film that interesting. Wasn't a fan of this.

22 July (2018)
Kind of tough to make a movie based on the the relatively recent events of the Norwegian massacre. Paul Greengrass delivers a very mature take on the real life event. Much of the movie takes place in the aftermath leading up to the trial. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm glad this did not feel in the least exploitative.

Scorpio (1973)
Any flick with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon as globe-trotting assassins and it's directed by Michael Winner will instantly earn my time, but I found this a bit of chore to get through sadly. Maybe it caught me unprepared but this was way too long compared to Winner's other movies. I think he was attempting to copy The Third Man with the way shit panned out in the second half.

[drizzle]

Yea Scorpio wants to be LeCarre way more than it wants to be The Mechanic, and it lands kinda in the middle without quite working correctly in either direction. It's cool for the people involved but def nowhere near the top of what they could do.

[Spartan]

There were some obvious similarities, but The Mechanic was a lot better.

[ric]

First Man (2018)
Really liked this movie. The use of sound was great. The music sound/arrangement profile was very very well done. The production is excellent and the acting is there. The writing is also good but this basically falls on the direction and the acting. The beginning is kind of a bit muddled but what's obvious here is that they've obviously mastered the rhythm of the marriage between sounds and pictures and ideas and how all that comes through the movie into your fucking soul.

like there are a few different moments in the film that are really more like montages than anything else but they are so powerful. And it's almost like they are playing in the middle-low octaves of a piano just laying deep in that range but it works

[Comedy Quaddafi]

BuyBust (2018) - A film about the Pinoy drugwars with a fairly insane bodycount racking up in a Manila slum. The police characters are all portrayed well and the directing and use of scenery is pretty much perfectly used to amp up tension before the party starts. What follows is 90 minutes of stabbing and shooting which is impossible not to enjoy. However the fighting is fairly clumsy and doesn't look convincing, only the big guy who is an MMA fighter IRL delivers solid blows, and there is a bit of a lack of "oh shit"-moments considering what type of film it is. Still an awesome film which belongs on the shelf with The Raid(s) and Headshot, what sets this one apart is the very timely subtext of the political situation in the Philippines.

So Sweet, So Dead (1972) - When you scrape the bottom of the barrel for gialli you hope that the films, at the very least, won't be boring. And this one delivers on that account. A killer kills unfaithful upperclass housewives in this one and there are enough stylish setpieces, red herrings and nudity to keep you interested and entertained.

[drizzle]

Glad you liked BuyBust, I loved it. The fighting is definitely kinda sloppy, but I didn't mind that, the energy was there. The superior characterization and the way the movie uses space and builds tension and comments on the drug war make up for it anyway. I want to see more by this director, he did On The Job which is supposed to be very good.

Interesting thing - I saw 3 Filipino movies at the NY Asian Film Fest this year, 2 action and 1 fairly grounded and realistic crime drama. All 3 were directly about the drug war and its side effects. It reminded me of the way political strife in Italy in the 70s became a huge influence on the poliziotteschi genre

[Comedy Quaddafi]

What were the other films?

I have actually seen On the Job but remember absolutely nothing about it - not even if I liked it. It bothered me so I skimmed a bit through this thread but couldn't find my comments about it. Apparently there's a sequel currently in post production.

Reading through this thread is really fun btw but I'm also shocked that I have actually watched some films twice without realizing it.

[blastmaster]

Had time to go see Halloween. It was good. I guess. Definitely didn’t add anything and felt unnecessary at times. It was very well made and definitely captured the atmosphere of the original. As good as the first sequel and H20 I would say. Better than Rob Zombies shit holes. Let this franchise die.

[Spartan]

Various friends have advised me to avoid the new Halloween. I'm in no rush to see it.



Let the Corpses Tan (2017)
This has been on my watch list for ages and I'm so glad I finally caught it. Another visual treat from Cattet & Forzani. This is perhaps their most accessible movie so far, but would still get lambasted as pretentious by some. Much like their previous efforts, the film is still an homage to eurocult cinema (in particular with spaghetti westerns here) weaved with an experimental / arthouse style treatment. Worth noting, while relatively minimal it has the most dialogue compared to their other flicks. They still out did Tarantino by lifting other movie soundtracks and making them work more effectively in their own films - got a real rush when Nico Fidenco's Zombi Parade started playing.

Lean on Pete (2018)
Not gonna pretend this road movie was for me, but I wanted to get through this depressing film hoping the kid protagonist, played brilliantly by Charlie Plummer, did not end up as a rent boy.

Contagion (2011)
Worth watching for Gwyneth Paltrow getting her cap peeled and all the chaos erupting, but the whole pharmaceutical conspiracy racket the film focused far too heavily on was a real turn-off for me. Not sure if some scenes were meant to be as hilarious as I found them, but that last scene had me in hysterics.

[drizzle]

Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Never actually seen this one before. For some I always assumed it was another actiony scifi anime about tank robot cops or something, didn't realize it was a tense and subtle character-driven spy drama. So it wasn't quite the light viewing I was looking for, but it's is an excellent thriller with a really powerful ending. LeCarre and Graham Greene would approve.

Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce - Holy shit, how did I never know about this one before it popped up on Prime. It seems like at some point in the mid-80s Canon got Hooper to make a fairly well-budgeted adaptation of a novel called 'Space Vampires', and he went at it with the similar unhinged energy and crew talent that Corman was bringing to his scifi/fantasy productions around the same time. The reviews were apparently terrible upon release but this movie is tons of fun. About half of it is legit good space scifi about a mysterious encounter between a crew of astronauts and a UFO, the other is a messy but rarely boring mix of Hammer and classic 50s scifi alien invasion flicks (a couple of scenes reminded me of Bava too, surprisingly). Wild practical effects and all sorts of unexpected wtf moments abound throughout. Really good stuff.

[Spartan]

I, Tonya (2018)
Loved it! Definitely, one of my faves this year. Went in thinking this would be some run of the mill Oscar bait biopic, but it wound up like something from vintage Farrelly Bros. Margot Robbie was awesome in this and the supporting cast were also very strong; particularly Allison Janney as the psycho mother. Can't believe this was by the same twat who did the Fright Night remake.