What are you watching?

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

PLASTIC TREE - Dir. Eo Il-Seon (2003)

Psychological thriller about an outwardly happy couple whose lives are shattered when an old acquaintance enters their lives and a love triangle emerges when dark secrets are revealed by the drifter. Just a standard melodrama disguised as art house for most of its run time. The ending is not nearly as shocking as I'm sure the director had envisioned due the fumbling nature of the plot and the director's incongruous use of the soundtrack.

[Johnny Stickman Way Out Hep Cat Find all posts View Profile Close Johnny Stickman]

SHOGUN ASSASSIN. Why did it take me so long to see this movie? Damn it, I feel so far behind for not seeing this masterpiece earlier.

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Extremely hard to watch yet totally compelling for two hours. Richard Burton deserves all the praise here. I've never seen him better to be honest. Taylor gets a lot of praise too but to me she felt a little hammy in places. But that's just my opinion. I'll probably never watch it again but it is a great movie. Beautifully shot too.

Jailbait
Shameless sleaze from Asylum (I think). Steven Seagal's cute daughter (think of a less hot Emmy Rossum) from Belly Of The Beast has gotten herself a shitty boob job (nipples pointing every fucking way) and has given up all hope of a serious career. Standard prison story of innocent girl raped by step father who accidentally kills him then goes to jail. This is a thin excuse to see a bunch of lesbian love scenes set to shitty rock music. The whole movie is basically: Get beat up by dykes, strip naked, get raped by the creepy warden, strip naked, get jumped by dykes, shoot heroin, get raped by the warden, strip naked and fondle your cellmate, smoke meth, cheesy yard fights aplenty, strip naked and get put in isolation. It goes on like that for 90 minutes. It's awesome. Will buy when a Blu shows up (doesn't seem to exist yet).

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Jailbait
This is a thin excuse to see a bunch of lesbian love scenes set to shitty rock music.

SOLD!

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Bad Milo! I quite liked it. As did our overlord Ian Jane. Read his Review here! http://www.rockshockpop.com/forums/c...3511-Bad-Milo!

Cutest animatronic puppet since Gremlins, and Peter Stormare is perfect as the new age shrink.

[Johnny Stickman Way Out Hep Cat Find all posts View Profile Close Johnny Stickman]

Africa Addio and Goobye Uncle Tom, both English versions. GUT is bizarre, provocative, and too trippy for my senses, but its brilliance can't be denied. Africa Addio, didn't get too much into that one; an interesting film nonetheless and important in Mondo doc history.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Turks & Caicos part two of The BBC spy trilogy with Bill Nighy as Johnny Worricker. This one has Chris Walken in it. I like it!

[Christian Bates-Hardy Pod Person Find all posts View Profile Close Christian Bates-Hardy]

Bad Milo! I quite liked it. As did our overlord Ian Jane. Read his Review here! http://www.rockshockpop.com/forums/c...3511-Bad-Milo!

Cutest animatronic puppet since Gremlins, and Peter Stormare is perfect as the new age shrink.

I need to hurry up and get on this one. I loved the 80s styled poster art for it.

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Loveletters Of A Portuguese Nun
I'd forgotten how beautifully shot this film is. Every frame is a piece of art. Every set-up lit like a glorious painting. Francos scathing indictment of religion and hypocrisy plays wonderfully on every level. I love how strong, defiant and resourceful Hemingways character remains after dealing with all these absolute cockbuckets in her life. Even the music is beautiful.

[Barry M Super Fiend Find all posts View Profile Close Barry M]

THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE. Tom Hanks, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, David Ogden Stiers, Tom Noonan, Gerrit Graham, Carrie Fisher, Lori Singer! Man, I enjoyed the fuck out of those title credits. The movie was not so hot.

THE TERRORNAUTS. Charles Hawtrey and a visual aid discover MISSILE COMMAND, save the planet. Simon Oates acts with fruit (apple, banana, apple). There's a robot, and some miniatures, and two sets. Thank you for the spear-throwing primitive aliens with a human-sacrifice altar all prepped should a human turn up one day. John Brunner wrote the screenplay from a Murray Leinster novel. And there's a tea-lady, which reminded me pleasantly of Nigel Kneale's THE DUMMY. The Network DVD includes a presentable 58 minute cut, and a slightly-more beat-up 1:14 theatrical version, buried in the special features. I could almost stand to watch it.

Edit: the poster reproduced on the reverse of the case makes this film seem a little less British than it actually is.

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

SHADY - Dir. Ryohei Watanabe (2012)

Quite an auspicious debut & I can see why this indie flick & young director/screenwriter, Watanabe in particular has garnered accolades upon its release on the festival circuit a couple years ago. I've seen the themes central to this film (bullying, sexual identity, teenage angst & alienation, etc) countless times but credit to Watanabe for presenting them in a fresh and non-derivative manner. One can sense that both Shunji Iwai and Kiyoshi Kurosawa were strong influences on Watanabe & that's not a bad thing in my book. Ryohei Watanabe is one to keep an eye on for sure. I would be remiss if I failed to mention both lead actresses (Izumi Okamura & mimpi*β) were superb. mimpi*β deserves extra mention as well for her work on the soundtrack as she is known primarily as a musician and this film was actually her first foray into acting. The Third Windows DVD has a very informative interview with the two actresses and director, Watanabe in the bonus features.

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Deadlier Than The Male
-----------------------
NOW we're talking. MUCH better than the sequel "Some Girls do". Snappy pace, some quite brutal violence in places, cheeky humor and an awesome bickering assassin team in Sylva Koscina and Elke Sommer. Speaking of Koscina, that's my new euro starlet crush right there. Phew what a woman! Crazy gorgeous!!! Also, Richard Johnson is a complete boss in this while Nigel Green provides sophisticated villainry. I miss these old timey kind of actors such as Green, George Sanders and the likes. Present day Hollywood is much too preoccupied with youth hysteria. Everyone's a freaking mid twenties supermodel. Anyway, this was great fun and is in desperate need of a Blu-Ray release... stat!

The Children's Hour
-------------------
I really liked this film. Very gripping despite the occasional overacting here and there. The film is beautifully shot and nicely paced. The kid was awful though. Constantly mugging with that one facial expression of hers. It works in favor of the movie though, since she's such a punchable little cunt, which I guess was kind of the point.

Karate, Kí¼sse, Blonde Katzen
------------------------------
Delightful bit of silliness this. It's sleazy but still manages to walk the tightrope in the center of female empowerment and misogyny. The sight of
topless chicks fighting ninjas is pretty awesome and the groan worthy "comedy" elements are just about tolerable.

One thing that bothered me however, was some of the cinematography. I'm guessing the dvd was in the OAR but some of the shot compositions are way to crowded. Garish set dressing and up to 10 people (nude at that) moving around in a tight frame made my eyes feel like I was inside of a pinball game. I just didnt know where to focus when so many things at once were competing for their attention. Boobs... awful set dressing... Gah, stop moving... hey nude chicks... horrible set dressing... camera dollying around.... boobs...

But that's my only complaint. Very entertaining cool movie.

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

THE 18 BRONZEMEN - Dir. Joseph Kuo (1976)

Was in the mood to watch some Shaolin Temple "training scenes" and decided to plop this one in the DVD player. I enjoyed training scenes in this flick even more than 36 Chambers mainly due to the "bronzemen" of the title & Carter Wong is a total bad ass while undergoing the rigorous training. Unfortunately, the film falls flat after the training even with the addition of Polly Shang Kwan.

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Love Among Thieves
An older, more distinguished and still incredibly beautiful Audrey Hepburn goes on the road with a charming rogue played by Robert Wagner. This was made for TV apparently and while it is no masterpiece it still makes for a really damn good time. Wagner and Audrey have good chemistry that makes up for the predictable story (I figured it out 15 minutes into the film). Also, Jerry Orbach is entertaining as the guy chasing them and Brion James shows up as a henchman.

The Petrified Forest
Bogie is downright magnetic in this great old film. Leslie Howard and Bette Davis star, and they're very good, but Bogie commands every second as soon as he shows up in the film. I especially loved how beautifully written it is and the grampa character is a real hoot. The old fart just can't seem to get a damn drink. Funny, intense, exciting and lovely paced. Recommended viewing.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Wajda's MAN OF MARBLE. Superb stuff. Never seen this one before. Taking a little time out for a tea break before getting back to it.