What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Red Heat (1988-USA) **½
Walter Hill's efficient mismatched, fish-out-of-water, buddy cop action saga settles after a ridiculous pre-credit sequence.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Big Trouble in Little China (USA, 1986) - 2.5/5
Always put this one off because I thought it looked silly. And so it is. Some cool scenes, though. I had more fun with the 10 minute Carpenter interview in the extras where he's gloriously grumpy and not giving a single fuck, sharing his heartfelt opinions about the film's box office failure, studio interference and political activists of the time calling for a boycott of his "white man's movie".
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Muse (Spain, 2017) BD - 2.5/5
Occasionally hilarious occult horror film about the Muses who aren't nice at all but actually kill people by whispering poetry. I'll say it must've taken some guts to make a film with such an absurd premise and play it straight.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Olympus Has Fallen 2.5/5
Another movie that's sat on my unwatched pile for years, this is a pretty generic actioner but has a solid cast and cannot be faulted for entertainment value.like most of these flicks a suspension of disbelief is required.
Natural Born Killers 1/5
Serial killers Mickey and Mallory rampage across the country until they are caught and the media circus takes hold. I hated this film, nihilistic, boring trash and overlong to boot. Oliver Stone at his worst, terrible.
28 Days Later 2/5
British zombie flick from Danny Boyle starts well but when the army enter the story it becomes quite predicatable and at 113 minutes too long for what it is.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Savage Sisters (USA / Philippines, 1974) - 1.5/5
Tame American International / Filipino actioner isn't really a WiP movie, but places it's protagonists behind the bars for the second quarter. Were there enough hard edged exploitation scenes it might set off the sloppiness, but instead we are treated truckloads of Sid Haig comedy, poor girl's Pam Grier Gloria Hendry and not even nudity (plenty of cleavage though). The plot is about a box of money rebels, bandits and the army are all after. Director Eddie Romero did much better with Black Mama, White Mama (1973).
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Bullitt (1968-USA) **½
Fresh and edgy at the time, this cop thriller now seems somewhat sluggish.
Not a bad film, but best recommended to Steve McQueen fans.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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28 Weeks Later 2/5
Ok sequel

Eraser 2/5
Arnie is a bad ass witness protection agent up against his mentor turned bandit James Caan. Plenty of action and fast moving but fairly forgettable fare.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway wrote: 21 May 2018, 18:45 Bullitt (1968-USA) **½
Fresh and edgy at the time, this cop thriller now seems somewhat sluggish.
Not a bad film, but best recommended to Steve McQueen fans.
That was my first ever dvd purchase, the Warner snap case, back in 2000. Still have it.

Caged Heat (USA, 1974) - 1/5
This frustrating piece of satirical chicken shit cinema was the directorial debut by Jonathan Demme, who had already scripted a couple of shot-in-Philippines WiP films for Roger Corman. This film is much different not only for its unexotic US setting but also for Demme's attempt to place himself above the genre by filling the movie with quirky irony, silly theatre play scenes, slapped-on-top violin music and artistry, strange voices, even a fart joke during an action scene. Humour and self-irony are not forbidden, but you can't do a decent genre film if you don't have enough balls and respect for the genre to do the real thing.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (Canada, 1974) [DVD] - 2.5/5
Mean spirited exploitation film mixes soft core sex with sickening human experiments that dominate most of the running time. Not exactly an enjoyable film, but certainly a memorable one. It's interesting to see how it differs from similar Japanese films (e.g. The Joy of Torture) which were technically and artistically superior, but also aestheticized and eroticized the violence against women to no end. Ilsa is much grittier and less sexy, making it feel sicker (although the opposite interpretation would also make sense).
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Barbed Wire Dolls (Switzerland, 1976) [DVD] - 1/5
I was under the impression that this was supposed to be a real movie, but it turned out to be a porno (and not even a good one). Or at least I think it was a porno; the Japanese DVD I rented was so badly fogged that I couldn't tell for sure. It was advertised as "hair nude" version but since beavers are still outlawed and the film only features about one hair shot as opposed to seven hundred beaver shots, that promise ended up meaning not a damn thing. This was my first Franco and would be the last if I didn't have another damn Franco disc lying on my table. Maybe it's time to put my recently renewed fire insurance to use?
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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A Quiet Place 2/5
Don't believe the hype. Blockbuster horror film with an interesting concept quickly gets stale even though it's only 90 minutes with credits.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Tropical Inferno (Switzerland, 1976) [DVD] - 1/5
Another Jess Franco WiP film. Compared to his earlier movie Barbed Wire Dolls this one tones down the porn and replaces it with very nasty sexual (and non-sexual) torture. Don't be fooled by the cool title either: most of the film is set indoors; only towards the end we get a bit of swimming in a river and a crocodile. That's it. What a mean spirited bore.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Chained Heat (USA, 1983) [DVD] - 1.5/5
Bizarrely popular WiP film feels like a director fired from The Bold and The Beautiful helming a group of Dolly Parton's porny cousins in DTV production in 1983. Linda Blair's boobs are presumably the main appeal here, however it is John Vernon as a horny pornographer warden who comes out more entertaining. Everything else from story to acting, cinematography, score and 80s hairdos are either dull or irritating.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Juggernaut 2.5/5
Decent 70's british thriller set on an ocean liner Brittanic, where a madman has planted bombs that will detonate mid-ocean with 1200 people on board unless he gets his money. Richard Harris & David Hemmings are the bomb experts trying to deactivate the bombs.

Valachi Papers 2/5
Charles Bronson is Valachi, a mobster turned informant. change of pace for Bronson but rather slow moving at times.

Stone Killer 2/5
The Bronson/Winner team usually work well but this cop thriller never takes flight and is curiously uninvolving.Even at 95 minutes it seems overlong.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Breakout 2.5/5
Ok if far fetched Bronson thriller, playing a pilot trying increasingly ludicrous ways to free the wrongly jailed Robert Duvall from a tough mexican jail.

The Fifth Element 2/5
Colourful but largely inane Luc Beeson sci-fi actioner. At least Bruce Willis as a cabbie looks interested unlike his recent output.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Women's Prison Massacre (Italy, 1983) [DVD] - 2/5
Semi sleazy WiP thriller does well by introducing a pack of psychotic male prisoners who are temporarily placed in a women's prison about 25 minutes into the film. The score isn't half bad either, if extremely repetitive, and the ending is zombie film gory. This could've been a good film had they remembered to wrap up the opening 25 minutes (there's a build up for something that never materializes) and if the rest didn't drag. The thriller vibes are there, but every other shot is too long and the film could've lost a good 15 minutes from the 89 minute running time. Still, it's more watchable than some of the duller and more sexploitative entries in the genre.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Jane Got a Gun (2015-USA) **½
Natalie Portman is Jane, she has a gun.
When her new husband is shot-up by scummy pimp Ewan McGregor,
she turns to former flame Joel Edgerton for help in keeping a posse of rapist pukes at bay.
Layered story and fleshed-out characters are at odds with *bland direction of low key western drama.
The finale takes place mostly in the dark, poorly lit cinematography robbing the viewer of crucial detail.

*In director Gavin O'Connor's defence, he was hired after original director Lynne Ramsey went AWOL the first day of shooting.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Escape from Hell (Italy / Spain, 1980) - 3/5
Surprisingly enjoyable jungle prison film is the very definition of exploitation with (frequently naked) female prisoners consumed by the heat, sadistic guards, snakes, even heart failures when they're not engaging in sex scenes bordering pornography. Just like the better Italian cannibal films this is a relatively well made, stylish and slightly mean spirited film that knows what it is and throws a menacing score on top to underline it. It could use trimming (at 93 min its 15 min too long), but there's something so charming about its honest trashiness that it can only receive a recommendation. Unsurprisingly, BBFC banned the film upon its first release attempt in 1980, probably for displaying the women's mistreatment in a slightly too appealing manner.

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And no Mark, I do not recommend you to watch this, or any films I've reviewed recently :lol:

Well, Chained Heat we actually agree about.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Yeah, I've seen Chained Heat and a couple of the AIP ones (I forget which).

I saw Caged Heat back in the 90s, not since; I remember thinking it was OK at the time.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Strangers:Prey At Night 3/5
A belated sequel to a minor horror hit from 10 years back this is a surprisingly effective slasher,that gets by a slow first act to end up a creepy and well done horror. Excellent use of some 80's pop tunes and a little homage to 1974's TCM. Not bad at all.

Death Wish 2/5
Reasonably well made but ultimately redundant remake ofthe Charles Bronson classic. Here Bruce Willis takes over the role of Paul Kersey, in this incarnation a surgeon who takes the law into his own hands after his wife & daughter are brutally attacked. A slightly more interested Willis here than in his recent efforts and gorehound director Eli Roth is surprisingly restrained here for the most part.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Hot Box (USA / Philippines, 1972) - 2/5
Not quite a WiP film but women in captivity nevertheless, again shot in the Philippines and scripted by Jonathan Demme. A group American nurses get kidnapped by South American rebels trying to overturn the government. Action and plentiful bath scenes ensue, but not much exploitative edge since the kidnappers are essentially good guys. While more action packed than some others, the film is just so mediocre that it fails to make any kind of impression. One of the problems is that there's too much focus on the rebels instead of the girls who remain too passive in the action scenes.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (cinema) - 4/5

I think I understood this a bit better than the first time I saw it. The visuals, music and scope of ideas is just amazing.
The ending shows David being "reborn" - I think? But slightly before that, what were all those trippy lights and coloured landscapes all about? The film shows everyone is violent (how the monkey uses the bone at the beginning), and IMO HAL shows the dangers of technology etc, when he takes over :s
Watching this made me understand where so many parodies/spoofs came from better.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Atomic Blonde (2017) HBONOW 4/5
It took me a bit to warm up to this movie, despite the fact that it looks great (everyone is smoking and vogueing throughout), but by the time I got to the 20 minute fight scene leading to a car chase about the middle of the movie I realized I was watching what may be one of the best American modern exploitation movies.
Everyone in it is enjoyable to watch, even the overused John Goodman, who underplays his character for once. And Sofia Boutella, I could watch all day long. Charlize Theron really impresses here and James McAvoy is slimy in a fun way, all backdropped by Berlin as the wall comes down. Really an enjoyable spy thriller that is brutal in its fight scenes, and featuring a soundtrack of 80's synth euro pop.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Silent Trigger (1996-Canada-UK) **½
Russell Mulcahy's atmospheric thriller about a sniper;
and the last of Dolph Lundgren's cinema-worthy output.
No classic, but essential if you're a fan of the big Swede.
Co-star Gina Bellman is hot, her acting less so.

Bad Neighbours (2014-USA) *
Originally called Neighbours, 'Bad' was added for the UK market.
It's as if someone watched the movie...
Irresponsible, drug-taking oafs with a newborn baby (God help it!) wage war with the Frat house next door.
Even dumber (and more vulgar) than it sounds.
Seth Rogen movies should come with a health warning.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Deadpool 2 (2018, USA): 4.25/5

Very funny comic book/superhero parody, really enjoyed it - lots of in-jokes and fourth wall breaking, and the Bond-esque title sequence is brilliantly spot-on.
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