Rate the last movie you've seen

[MinionZombie]

I have seen Body Puzzle and I thought it was meh. I might revisit it sometime. As for the Demons-films, I can see the reason to diss them especially the second one which is really bland and not very exciting. But I dig the first one and both are great films to drink too because they're so crazy. Of the ones I've seen, I'd rank them: 1) Delirium 2) A Blade in the Dark 3) Demons 4) Macabre 5) Demons 2 6) Monster Shark 7) Body Puzzle You should give Blastfighter a go - I really enjoyed it - kind of riffs on First Blood and similar flicks. It takes a while for the poster to payoff, but when it does, it's like a party of explosions.

[EvilNed]

You should give Blastfighter a go - I really enjoyed it - kind of riffs on First Blood and similar flicks. It takes a while for the poster to payoff, but when it does, it's like a party of explosions. I've been eyeing it. I won't order it new, but sometimes my local used goods-record store has it in stock. I might pick it up there. Btw, having slept on the matter, I think I rate Monster Shark lower than Body Puzzle... It's just not good.

[Neil]

Ong-Bak - Fabulous martials arts! Jackie Chan'esque at times too! Tombs of the Blind Dead Felt an itch and wanted to see something gothic. Great spanish medieval zombie film. I'm a big fan. Just don't get trailers like this anymore

[bassman]

This is an older one, and also one of those movies that demands you watch it if you come across it on the tube, “Mr Holland’s Opus”. No matter what I’m doing, this movie always draws me in. Basically, it’s the life and 30+ year career of a high school music teacher, played by Richard Dreyfus. It’s a heartwarming movie about the love and importance of music/creativity. I really love it! Anyone else enjoy this one?

[EvilNed]

Possession Me and a few colleagues have a movie circle at work. I brought in this classic, which is such a great film but also crazy. I love so many aspects of it, and admire how wholesomely executed it is. Stressful, not unlike Uncut Gems in some ways, but also tormented, disgusting, horrifying and at times hilarious. Borg vs McEnroe Tennis-film about the 1980 Wimbledon finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. It's a pretty good film! Much more focused Biopic than other ones, which I like. The Cat O'Nine Tails The classic giallo which I'm revisiting for the hundreth time. The Two Popes The Netflix film about Pope Francis talks with Benedictus. Cozy buddy movie about two popes - or a pope and a Cardinal at the time. I like it, but the flashbacks to junta-era Argentina did detract. Face to Face Spaghetti western with Tomas Milian and Gian-Maria Volonté. The international version is shorter, and it shows. There's some great stuff here, but you can tell there's missing scenes. Looking forward to watching the italian version which is included as an extra on the Blu. The Grand Duel A rather slow-paced western that is not all that interesting to be honest. Umberto D. Classic neo-realist and very heart-wrenching film about an elderly man in 1950's Rome with nowhere to go and no money to spare. He decides to take his own life, but first must find someone to take care of his pet dog.   Are we lost forever A friend of mine directed this film and it premiered at the Gothenburg International Film Festival. Putting it in spoiler tags so it won't show up on google because I have to say it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. Absolute dog shit. LasseMajas Detektivbyrå - Tågrånarens hemlighet A kids movie based on the so called "WhoDunnit Detective Agency" which is a really big book series in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland - as well as some other countries. I'm producing the next one in the franchise. Eld & Lågor Swedish film, english title "Swoon". It wants to be Moulin Rouge, but isn't. Instead it's shit. Min Pappa Marianne Swedish film (btw, - January/February I went to a lot of red carpet premieres, this is why) that I walked out of half-way through and went home to have sex with my date instead. By all accounts it's a good film, but it feels a bit too shallow for me, despite it's topic of transvetism (sp?). The sex was OK. Have a good funeral, my friend... Sartana will pay Italian spaghetti western in the Sartana-franchise, and like all the other one's; It's OK entertainment but I can't really recall which one this was. They're all kinda similar, have a convoluted plot and a bit goofy to boot. The Beast and the Magic Sword Paul Naschy plays a werewolf who goes to Japan to find a cure for himself. Along the way he kills samurai and fights demonic ghosts. A weird film, and a bit too long at it's almost 2 hours running time. But the idea itself is enough to it worth a watch. A spanish-japanese co-production from the 70's? Werewolves and samurai? Jojo Rabbit Great film, which was much more tragic than I thought it would be. Not as much focus on humour as I'd expected. Liked it, but it's a 4 star film, not a 5 star film. The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire Revisiting this rather convoluted giallo that's all over the place. Set in Dublin and some goofy gore effects can't save this absolute mess of a plot. Breaking Surface Swedish Survival thriller, starring a colleague of mine. It's good! I liked it! Red Rings of Fear Giallo, I've seen it before. It's rather average. Fabio Testi looks handsome. The Silence of the Lambs Felt an urge to revisit this absolute masterpiece. Fine-tuned down to every last detail. Wow! Se7en I've never been floored by this one, and still am not. It's too artificial and not very human. Looks amazing, still 25 years on. Good detective story. Vampyros Lesbos Jess Franco's vampire-film which is completely forgetteable - except for the amazing soundtrack. 438 Dagar Another swedish film, made by a director who I worked with at the time. I felt bad for not having watched his previous effort, and so I rented it. Based on the true story of two swedish journalists who were held in Ethiopian prison for 438 days. It was a book, turned into a film. It's all good work, but the script tries to tell too much and in the end tells far too little. Blow Out Brian De Palma's classic. Love it! Amazing film, the suspense and script works on every level. The Ritual Netflix-horror film about hikers who run into trouble. OK. City of the Living Dead The Fulci classic, I'm rewatching his 80's fare. Downgrading it from "Love it" to "like it". But I'm upgrading another film from "Like it" to "Love it"... More on that later. Nineteen Eighty-Four The one with John Hurt. What a trashy film. It's good, but oh so bleak. So bleak. I don't want to watch this again. When the Wind Blows The animated film about the elderly couple who slowly fade away and die in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Not a feel-good film. A Blade in the Dark Italian 80's giallo cheese that works much better in italian than in english. Although some of the unintentional comedy is lost. The Black Cat Fulci's next film after City, great score but average shocker. It's a bit too silly at times but still interesting due to it's rather cozy english countryside setting. Obsession The worst film I've seen of De Palma. No suspense, nothing to keep it exciting. Beck - Enslingen Swedish crime-film. The Beyond Fulci's horror and gore fest that's a followup to City. I like it, but have seen it to death. Mission: Impossible - Fallout Exciting action. Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia Neat 70's thriller with an interesting setting of the Mexican country-side!

[shootemindehead]

Have a good funeral, my friend... Sartana will pay You have to laugh at these Italian titles sometimes. They're so long drawn out an convoluted mish-mashes. 'The Red Queen Kills 7 Times in the locked Room that is Your Vice that Only I Have the Key of' Starring Klaus Kinski.

[EvilNed]

You have to laugh at these Italian titles sometimes. They're so long drawn out an convoluted mish-mashes. 'The Red Queen Kills 7 Times in the locked Room that is Your Vice that Only I Have the Key of' Starring Klaus Kinski. Part of the charm! Sometimes not even the english distributors could be bothered. The italian title of "Eyeball" is more like; "Red cats in a glass maze" which makes absolutely no sense at all - except that the killer is wearing a red poncho.

[MinionZombie]

Alita: Battle Angel I enjoyed it, but boy-oh-boy is it trying to cram everything into two hours. Apparently James Cameron handed Robert Rodriguez 600 pages of notes and the script was built from that ... blimey! As a result you do get a fair bit of exposition explaining the world, although generally it felt not too bad, however the main problem was there were so many characters or plot points that were introduced only to either be given scant screen time or just swept aside altogether. It also muddles the structure of the movie - just as you're expecting a big finale, the movie literally cuts to the credits. I really enjoyed Rosa Salazar as the titular character who put forth a good combination of doe-eyed innocence and gymnastic arse-kicking, although again because the movie is in such a rush to cram far too much into the running time, you do end up with situations that kind of leave her either over-powered with not enough sacrifice/learning, or see her fail but then almost immediately hop back up again right as rain. Visually it's pretty good with lots of fun sci-fi visuals, even if the movie is a bit of a mish-mash of so many things we've seen before, filtered through one film/show/comic after another until we've ended up here. It's kind of a mixed bag. Some characters I really got into, others I wanted more of but was left totally hanging, and others I was rather ambivalent about because they were either cliched villains or never given enough time for me to invest. What we really needed was a far more focused introduction to the world with enough room to let a smaller scale story breathe, but as such it's like a 10 hour epic smashed into 2 hours, so even the best stuff can't compete with the problems that creates in terms of story telling and emotional investment. ... Gotta love an Italian movie title - they're so enticing, vibrant, and evocative. Sure, some are shite or quite silly, but there's so many cool stand-out titles. It's also fun to find common themes or trends. "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage" kicked off a trend of using animal species in giallo titles (e.g. "The Case of The Scorpion's Tail"), for instance, or you have Euro crime movies with really gung-ho titles like "Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man" or "Syndicate Sadists".

[Tricky]

The Siege of Firebase Gloria I saw this on Netflix while browsing for something to watch at the weekend and thought I'd give it a go. I actually turned it off about two thirds of the way in as it was just terrible. I thought with it having R. Lee Ermey in it would be reasonably good, I know it's an old film but so are Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill which are so much better depictions of the Vietnam war. Every time there was a firefight the sergeant in it was holding his M16 in one hand emptying mags at hordes of charging Vietcong, accurately hitting them despite not even aiming down the sights, and the M60 gunners firing wildy from the hip with similar results. As a serving British soldier things like this in war films really grate on me, it's not how you're trained to shoot and you wouldn't hit anything with the recoil throwing your aim way off. Then there was a scene just before a battle where the same sergeant who is meant to be a bit of a battle hardened lunatic is giving the female medic captain a gun that she looks at like she's never seen one before, and he's talking to her like she's some poor helpless woman while she looks all scared and pathetic. I don't know about the U.S. army in the 1960's but in the modern British army all our combat medics including women get plenty of range time so they can defend themselves if it comes to it. How would this woman depicted on the film have reached the rank of captain and be deployed on a tour in a firebase without ever handling a firearm? The film has a 7/10 score on IMDB so I was expecting it to be at least on a par with Hamburger Hill, personally I'd give it a 2/10.

[bassman]

Grosse Pointe Blank This is a 90’s(1997, I think?) John Cusack flick that I tend to revisit every year or so. In a nutshell, A professional hit man goes to his ten year high school reunion while his competitors are out to remove him as competition. Hilarity ensues. Cusack has always been one of my favorite actors, and “Blank” is probably at the top of my list of Cusack favorites, usually fighting for first with High Fidelity.

[MinionZombie]

Grosse Pointe Blank This is a 90’s(1997, I think?) John Cusack flick that I tend to revisit every year or so. In a nutshell, A professional hit man goes to his ten year high school reunion while his competitors are out to remove him as competition. Hilarity ensues. Cusack has always been one of my favorite actors, and “Blank” is probably at the top of my list of Cusack favorites, usually fighting for first with High Fidelity. Ditto. I love Grosse Pointe Blank. The first time I saw it I enjoyed it, but I was only in my early-ish teens at that point, so a lot of what makes the film really special kinda flew over my head. The second time I watched it, however, I really began to connect with it and I've now seen it several times. Just a perfect movie - much like High Fidelity, another flick I saw around about the same time and didn't quite 'get' the first time around, but which I have since come to adore. The unofficial 'spiritual sequel' to Grosse Pointe Blank ("War, Inc"), though? Nah.

[bassman]

^ I don’t think I ever saw War, Inc. This is the first I’ve heard about it being a spiritual sequel, so now I have to find it! Even if the results aren’t great, I have to see it for completist reasons.

[MinionZombie]

^ I don’t think I ever saw War, Inc. This is the first I’ve heard about it being a spiritual sequel, so now I have to find it! Even if the results aren’t great, I have to see it for completist reasons. 'Spiritual sequel' in-so-far-as Cusak plays an assassin, Joan Cusak plays his handler, and Dan Ackroyd is in it. Other than that there's about fuck all similarity (the writers and director aren't the same either). Tonally it's totally different from GPB, as well, with "War, Inc" being very much a dark satire in reaction to George W. Bush's 'War on Terror'.

[bassman]

Vertigo Of course this is a major Hitchcock classic, so there’s not much new that can be said. If you’ve never seen it, I feel like it’s a requirement for any fan of cinema. It had been many years since I’d seen this final collaboration between Hitchcock and Stewart, so it had regained a bit of it’s “new car smell” for me. This is probably the first time I’d seen it in it’s pristine, high definition presentation, as well. Such a great flick, highly recommended, of course!

[MinionZombie]

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw Finally got around to seeing the spin-off. Working the Shaw character into the F&F franchise has been a bit of a clumsy affair at times, with him starting out as a villain and then these convoluted twists and reveals and so on to make him a good guy ... but, those mental gymnastics aside, there is a fun bit of macho banter between the two leads and some good punchy-punchy stuff. However, Idris Elba's villain is linked to technology and some weird bad guy plotline that feels dangerously close to sci-fi at times, plus the now done-to-death motivation of "to save humanity we must kill a shitload of people with a virus". Certain sequences work really well, and it is fun to see Hobbs and Shaw berate each other, but it doesn't quite hold together as well as the main F&F franchise movies. But - bonus points for Helen Mirren's return as Mrs Shaw. Vertigo Of course this is a major Hitchcock classic, so there’s not much new that can be said. If you’ve never seen it, I feel like it’s a requirement for any fan of cinema. It had been many years since I’d seen this final collaboration between Hitchcock and Stewart, so it had regained a bit of it’s “new car smell” for me. This is probably the first time I’d seen it in it’s pristine, high definition presentation, as well. Such a great flick, highly recommended, of course! I've always struggled a bit with Vertigo. Was bored to tears with it the first time, but the second time it was better, and the third time better than that - although I'm still kind of lukewarm about it. I recognise it's qualities and strengths, but it's also a bit of a slog. Now, "Rear Window", on the other hand - I love that one.