Return of the RECENT VIEWING

[Tactful Cactus]

Loved it. Not a sci-fi head, I knew very little about Dune but I loved Jodorowskys energy and passion onscreen (how many times did he say 'spiritual' ?) and loved how it never got made but the fantasy grew, like a lost album. It could never have lived up to his dream, but just imagine, Dali, Jagger, Welles etc..

[Matt Wilson]

Hannie Caulder

Raquel Welch's best western is still fairly mundane, even by early '70s standards. A rape-revenge story which really isn't convincing with a feminist reading and is probably best enjoyed as a straight oater with some standard character actors giving their all (Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam). Not terrible, but not great, either. But I'm just gonna say it: Raquel was one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the screen.

[Matt Wilson]

They Live by Night

Nicholas Ray's first feature still holds up as a prime example of romantic noir. The first (as far as I know) of the lovers-on-the-run films and the clear predecessor of Gun Crazy, Bonnie & Clyde, Thieves Like Us, Badlands, Natural Born Killers, et al.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Looks like Matt and I are on a noir binge at the same time.

I actually toyed with watching They Live By Night this evening. Instead I opted for this one:

It's a pretty fascinating thing. Noir meets staged documentary. Incredible looking film.

Speaking of which - also saw The Maltese Falcon on a big screen earlier in the day.

[Matt Wilson]

Yeah, I've got that one too. Criterion still hasn't upgraded their DVD to blu yet. Maltese Falcon is a stone-cold classic and better than both of the films you and I just watched.

[teenageriot-1]

Beast Stable, to be exact. The best one, I feel. The exploitation is toned down a bit and it's more slow-paced but it's so bloody good.

[Darkness_Fish]

I keep hearing how good the Bourne thrillers are as modern-day Bond films, but I found this quite dull. Most of the negative reviews online seem concerned with shakycam overload, perhaps I've been desensitized to that now, it didn't bother me. What did bother me was the lack of reasonable plot, it made no sense whatsoever, and even if you give it the usual action film allowances, it's a particularly dull and convoluted rationale for a sequel. It's basically a fighting/chasing tour of Europe, in the hope of eventually punching a purpose on the nose.

[Dr Markus]

Has aged well, and still you still can't take your eyes off the screen for the whole film. I think in today political and social climate it would cause serious protests. The use of racism and the black humor is not over indulgent but it's there and can be brutal. The first 20 minutes of Hartman is still some of the funniest shit I've seen on film.

[Matt Wilson]

Straw Dogs

One can say so much about this highly controversial film, and we did once, years ago right here. Criterion's new blu sports the best transfer I've ever seen of the picture. The rape scene is still disturbing and the acquiescence of the Susan George character still rubs me the wrong way. Leone did the same thing in Once Upon a Time in America and I didn't like it there either. The other female character, Janice, is also sexually provocative and that's one of the main reasons feminists have such a hard time with Peckinpah. I can't say it's a masterpiece, but I've been watching it now for decades, so it must not bother me that much.

[Darkness_Fish]

An interesting if fairly short horror, pretty much the worst morning after the night before that you can imagine. Bloke is having sex with his girlfriend when she gives him an early Christmas present: a gun, which she asks him to put in his mouth and pull the trigger, as an example of his trust. He blacks out, next thing he knows is he's still in bed, and his girlfriend is dead, with much blood spattered across the ceiling. And then his day gets worse. It's pretty tense, with genuinely black humour, and a rare kind of opposite of anti-hero (not an anti-villain) of a main character.

[clive gash]

If anything the reviews have undersold this no-dialogue animation on the theme of Man and Nature. The images are exquisitely naive, yet have depth and texture. It'll crush you.

[Matt Wilson]

Black Widow

Interesting, but no more than that, eighties noir whose main selling point is that both the serial killer and the FBI agent on her tail are women. It's also a Bob Rafelson film starring Debra Winger with a Dennis Hopper cameo. In other words, it should have been better.

[sloopjohnc]

[Dr Markus]

The wolfpack.
Ridiculously interest topic, that could have went in a few directions. All the brothers are interesting in their own way but (and I know this sounds patronizing) they appeared more normal than you'd suspect after what they are/were going through. I thought the doc lost steam near the end, like the director covered everything she wanted too fast. The real interesting person in the doc was the ma. She seemed so passive yet loyal to her cunt of a husband. The joyous moment came when she called her ma after 30 years. The symbolism near the end when it shown her and the husband gives you hope that she got out, but I'm not holding my breath. The sons seemed genuinely excited yet clam on camera, the shifts in mood when they were happily remaking films to talking about their da was sinister but understandable considering what he put them through. A good doc but was just missing something.

[Matt Wilson]

Hell in the Pacific

Pretty good Lee Marvin/Tishuro Mifune survival film about two WWII soldiers (one American, one Japanese) stranded on an island in the Pacific. Minimal dialogue, interesting plot. They become friends, of course. Average transfer as usual, from Kino Lorber. I should do a thread on Marvin. That guy made a lot of good movies and even some great ones.

[Matt Wilson]

The Only Game in Town

George Stevens' rather unfortunate last film, with Liz on the downward slope of her career as a movie star and Warren on the rise. She's five years older than him but looks more like ten. It's neither funny nor overly witty, but that's not to say it blows. Lots of talk, good transfer, and it's almost out of print on blu, which is why I bought it of course. Can't say I really recommend it either.

[Matt Wilson]

Odd Man Out

Stellar transfer of Carol Reed's second best film after The Third Man. Exquisite film noir of the highest order with superb Irish locations and probably James Mason's most memorable film performance. How come you guys don't mention this when discussing the best British films of all-time?

[...]

Just watched a pretty nifty doc about movie posters (24 x 36). Strangely, they seem to have overlooked this masterpiece during their trawl through cinematic history

[pcqgod]

Triangle (2009)

A young mother of an autistic child joins a pleasure cruise with some friends and acquaintances. Somewhere in the fabled Devil's Triangle, the yacht is beset by a terrible storm and capsized. The survivors are seemingly rescued by an ocean liner, but it soon becomes clear that the horror is just beginning, as she is attacked by one of her group for no apparent reason. She eventually realizes that she is in a time-loop which leads to the repeated horrible murders of members of the group, and can find no way to break the repeating chain of events. A fairly clever sci-fi/horror movie, even though parts of it don't stand up to logical scrutiny.

[Matt Wilson]

Grand Prix

Pretty good John Frankenheimer picture about European racing which was a big hit in '66/'67. At almost three hours it's a tad long but the blu ray transfer is excellent and if you can get past the soap opera aspect of the screenplay, the racing footage is superb for the time. It's more entertaining than McQueen's Le Mans five years later, and if you've got a big screen monitor it makes it all the better.