What Have You Just Seen... Marks Out of 5

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 18 Sep 2005, 18:37

Samaritan Girl was nasty

(in a good way)

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Sep 2005, 18:58

So bad its good you mean?

ReconFive · Post by **ReconFive** » 19 Sep 2005, 07:05

Blood Rain - 3.5/5
Pretty good film. Its basically a period film that plays very much like a modern murder investigation drama. Although the mystery itself can be alittle drab at times, I found the plot to be interesting as it constantly keeps you guessing if its going in a supernatural direction or not.
I'm not even going to start going into details of the crazy plot or ending, but its safe to say that i don't fully understand it after one viewing. I'll be watching it again for sure. Recommended if your a fan of these types of films.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 19 Sep 2005, 07:56

Is there a fair amount of animal cruelty in Blood Rain?

Aye Recon, I've only seen Bad Guy and the Isle - so I'm actually thinking Kim Ki-duk isn't that great a director, becase I wasn't particularly fond of those films.

I may check out 3-Iron and the like.

ReconFive · Post by **ReconFive** » 19 Sep 2005, 08:37

BiscLimpkit wrote:Is there a fair amount of animal cruelty in Blood Rain?

Yes, in fact that is very noteworthy and i probably should have included it in my comment.

There is a scene where 4 or 5 real chickens are slaughtered. There are actual close up shots of them having their heads lopped off with bloody results. Although it is very quick, its still not very pleasant to watch.
One of the shots is actually pretty disturbing since you can really see the terror in the live animal's eye right before being killed.

I can respect that other countries have different standards on issues like this, but what bothered me is that the script does not even attempt to explain to the audience why they just saw 5 chickens killed. I was able to find out online what relevance it had to the plot, but in the movie it just seems to happen for no reason.

Anyway, i certainly do not condone this kind of thing in Asian films, however it is something i can look past as a cultural difference and not have it ruin the film for me.

I've only seen Bad Guy and the Isle - so I'm actually thinking Kim Ki-duk isn't that great a director, becase I wasn't particularly fond of those films.

Please do check out some of KKD's other work. I am well aware that his films are deffinetly not for everyone, its really 'love or hate' type material...but i just can't get enough of the visual narrative he uses to tell the story.

If you only see one more of his films, make it 3-Iron

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Sep 2005, 08:56

It wasnt a ritual like the scenes in Mr Vampire and Spooky Encounters then Recon?
Doesnt sound nice.

Have you seen GWTW?

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 19 Sep 2005, 10:21

American Pie 4/5

Class comedy. Not quite as funny as first time round cause other films are trying to push the boundary more for the gross out humour, but still a classic film. And Shannon Elisabeth is hot!

Contact 5/5

One of my fave film's of all time. Thinking man's science fiction film. I know there are some criticisms concerning the end of the trip and who she meets, but I like it that way, as at least the film doesn't presume to know what aliens are going to look like. Also worth reading the book if you liked the film. It's different enough to be interesting and engaging even though you kind of know what is going to happen.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 19 Sep 2005, 12:23

Ah man Recon that sounds nasty. I'm in two minds now...

...see I loved Bungee Jumping of their Own (same director). And now he goes and does something like this.

Killing animals for the sake of entertainment seems low, guess some people don't understand the value of life.

Animal cruelty was quite common in The Isle, luckily - I watched the UK censored version (unaware of the cuts), perhaps the one instance where I benefited from censorship lol.

Yeah it looks like I picked the worst two KKD films. I'll give 3-Iron a go, despite me saying that I refuse to watch any of his films again.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 19 Sep 2005, 22:15

I haven't watched "3-Iron" and "The Bow", yet. My favourite movie from Kim Ki Duk is definitely "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring". I also liked "Samaritan Girl" a lot and especially "Bad Guy" was a film I was watching with a lot of interest.

As for "The Isle", I turned it off after a while and I watched "The Coastguard" at a time I didn't even know who KKD was.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 20 Sep 2005, 15:57

Regarding GWTW, I thought the last parts were very emotional (perhaps piling on the tragedy too much?)
What did you think of the way black people were portrayed in the film Recon (if you've seen it? The film glosses over the slavery issue and the appalling indignities suffered by blacks in the Southern states, but then GWTW never claimed to be an accurate history of the civil war.

IMO Scarletts last line, the "fiddle-dee-dee - tomorrows another day" optimism sat uneasy with me conisdering whats just happened. She just lost her husband and daughter - huh?
In a way it reminded me of the closing line of Wizard of Oz, when Scarlett remembers her family telling her "You'll always have Tara and land" etc, its a bit like saying "There's no place like home"

Unrealnils · Post by **Unrealnils** » 20 Sep 2005, 19:49

Rainy dog 1/5 a big boring pile of poo (stolen from romero)

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 20 Sep 2005, 20:06

I have you know I write a lot more detailed stuff than that when I review a film

Day of the Dead 5 out of 5

One of the films I could watch endlessly for all time and never get bored of, as it is so well made. It creates such a sense of dread, spookiness and mayhem that I always get tingles down my spine when I watch it. Its just full of acting far above any other horror films out there and it makes you think about what the situation is like above ground as the epic struggle for human survival is reaching a peak. Its scale and scope really make the film a real detailed classic, and hey it is so professionally made it even shames Romero's Dawn of the Dead, not sure if its a better film than Dawn, but its great to have them both available to choose to watch at any time.

The film follows on from the zombie infestation in Dawn of the Dead, the world is now very much covered by the plague of the dead and we follow a small band of survivors hidden away in an underground military and scientific installation. Both the soldiers and scientists live in an uneasy peace deep in the earth, trying to solve the problem in some way, but each group is at one another throats and it isn't only the zombies these people have to worry about as the whole place comes to the boil and starts to overflow.

This is a creepy film and nothing carries this across to me more than the first ten minutes of the movie. Its just heaven watching the city empty with the mess of destruction and desolation all around, and then the zombies start to wander about, its just an impressive sight. The end of the world feeling is wonderful and watching this opening as it just teases the viewer into the scale of the zombie infestation, as really it is a world of crap now and anyone still alive must not be having a very nice time. The shock tactic used in the opening scene also stand out as some scary stuff. The set up for it is perfect and really disturbing too, then into reality and the world isn't much better. I just find this beginning to the film as good as it gets and it just shows us what we want to see for about ten minutes, and really does leave me wanting a lot more like this. Not that the film doesn't perform after the opening scenes, it does, but on a very different scale and setting. If anything the film does make you always want to see far more of the whole aftermath, a more wider and larger world lurks behind the films cave setting and I guess Land of the Dead may fill that little hole left behind twenty years earlier by Day of the Dead.

The film relies on the set up of the invading zombies to catch your attention and that it does. But everything else about the film really does stand out as really far better than your average horror film. The actors for starters, while all playing fairly standard characters, they make the people come to life and actually seem realistic, and if anything the acting is far and away some of the best acting you will ever see in a Zombie film that's for sure. Everyone involved seems to be doing the best they can and it all comes together to make the film quite a bit too real, as it just punches home the fact that if this happens the people around you will be what keeps you alive. The standard of acting for me is amazing, as these people show realness that actually scares me.

A fine example of this is Capt. Rhodes played by Joe Pilato, who eats the screen with anger and rage. A man who tries so hard to convey his distain and force that his head nearly explodes in some of his stand out dialogue driven shouting scenes. The man just screams "I am the Law, and I rule this place" in everything he says, and boy he gets some angry words to below thru the echoing caves to his lesser minions, everyone seems scared to death of this ruler and you definitely get the sense that this is no normal zombie movie when he opens his mouth. Joe Pilato really makes the film come alive, you hate him and want him to die, but he really gives the film some grand speeches to listen carefully to. That's the power of this man, he can act pretty damn perfectly as the almost insane Rhodes. The acting all round is way above what you expect and even the caricatured characters don't over do it and become unrealistic. They all just seem real in this unreal situation, as it would drive you a bit mental being locked up with a few people underground and cut off by the undead for weeks, even months on end. Some cast members do better than others, but none do bad work and if anything most make an impression on you.

Terry Alexander as Jamaican American John "Flyboy" really works and gets to be the strong black character in this Romero film, some well written words come from this mans mouth and he just feels like a really nice guy, and that's down to Alexander's fairly subdued and silent acting as he holds a lot back and uses his face to express his feelings, more than his mouth like a lot of the cast. The fairly small cast of about twelve characters all do very well and round out the cast, but final word has to go to the Zombie acting! Bub the Zombie played by heavily made up Howard Sherman is one of them roles that rarely ever comes along, a zombie with feelings. Small ones mind you, but more than your average blockbuster star ever conveys to the audience. Bub is just someone / thing to watch as his rotting brain works slowly and assimilates some new information. He seems to make you feel for a zombie, and you cannot say that about many films, as they are usually too busy overacting as a dead thing trying to catch its next meal. He does get to miss out at swearing mind you, but the rest of the cast are so crazy and full of nasty words they take his share, then times it by a factor of one hundred.

The film is quite serious and also more than a little depressing really. The mood is a slightly harsher tone than say Dawn of the Dead, it is funny, but the tone just seems to be more severe and unstable. The setting the film takes place in is one hell of a location, the cave system is massive and its scale is just un-buildable in set form, its a real underground cave system and it shows as this place is almost impossible for the film makers to even light fully. So that leaves plenty to the imagination lurking around in the darker patches of the screen, it builds tension and creeps me out. The caves also hold fairly clinical rooms inside, they are brighter and a stark, harshly lit place for the survivors to live. The deep dark caves mesh well against the empty and sparse looking rooms and corridors, its like a bare hospital with plenty of opportunities for sound design and plenty of echoing groans from the zombie experimentation subjects locked inside with the survivors. The look of the film is very rich and I always find something new to look at, its just a really interesting film to watch and the design and use of the real caves is a master stroke. They picked a perfect location for the films end of the world setting, its big and dark and looks really cool.

The one thing zombie films have in abundance is zombies and their prey being ripped up and eaten. Tom Savini is the master behind this films special effects work and really brings it all to the screen and in your face. The special make up effects look far superior to Dawn of the Dead, and pretty much any other zombie film ever made as these buggers really do look appallingly nasty. Zombies look more worn in and aged, as if the zombies have been around a while and have started to rot away and putrefy, they are grim looking things and most of them are just awful looking beasts with actors playing them with the slow movements we expect from zombies as the shuffle around hunting for dinner. The zombies seem more aggressive in this film, and sometimes they freak out and seem to get really angry and you really feel threat from them and wouldn't take them for granted like most other films of this type. Overall the zombies are varied and rarely similar to the last one you see. When the blood and entrails start flying the effects work really does go completely crazy! Zombies are blown away as we would expect with a head shot here and there, they all look very convincing and blood explodes and spurts from many a zombies bullet littered corpse. The various experiments in the film are the tasty ones, body parts are removed and sliced off, as we see many of these experiments very clearly and they really do stretch what we see as gore effects, they are big and impressive and full of bloody bits and bobs to make the rotting zombies really come to life, well death.

The best stand out effects of the film are saved for the end, as the humans are torn limb from limb, in appalling scenes of disembowelment and extreme violence. Still they do bloody work very well and show us how far films can go in creating some memorable death scenes. People are ripped apart, fingers are bitten off, heads are pulled off as they scream in agony and pain, and one guy is even quite literally split in two as intestines and vital organs spill out everywhere, all these scenes push the envelope and the sight of zombies biting down on humans is the worst the effects get (in a good way that is). The Humans really do get some truly eye popping deaths and various shots seems very realistic and very brutal, the various bites from zombies into human flesh really do look horrendously real and the sight of someone's skin and muscle tearing away as blood pours out is truly something to behold. If you like your films hard and nasty this film does not exactly hold back, and we see more than enough of everything to keep people feeling ill for days. It doesn't phase me at all as I just admire the work that goes into creating these very startling images, Tom Savini's best work and that's saying a lot as he has created many films best moments in his lifetime.

The music, well its definitely a sound from the 80's, but that for me is no bad thing in any way. Its a haunting soundtrack which fills up the empty space on screen and gives us plenty to hear, and fear. I just think the music fits this film as well as anything ever could, and it creates a great sense of drama and loneliness which always keeps you on edge. It is unusual and fills the film with many tunes which stay with you. Its more a soundtrack, than a set of verbal tracks, vary rarely it ever sounds like anything you have heard before (or since) and the way the music is placed into the film always seems to highlight what is on screen, be it a moment of shock, or a quiet screen of an echoing, dark, damp cave. The way the music is laid over the Day of the Dead credit at the beginning really shows you how well it is integrated with the on screen footage, and by the time the films credits roll at the end you have been put thru the ringer and are ready for the final song, with a little more funk and some words for once.

I will wrap up my ramblings by saying I love this film. Its got everything I need to stay entertained, and after over ten years this film has just got better and better in my mind. People may not like it as much as me for various reasons, but most the reasons why people seem to slag of the movie are reasons out of the film makers control. As most people didn't want this film, they wanted an epic and a very different film to what they got. If anything that's not the films fault, as the film we have is what it is, not what someone else wants, they are dismissing the film for their disappointment of an image in their heads. I guess I didn't know what to expect when I saw the movie for the first time, and in that way I was going in as a clean slate and I didn't have years to dwell on what comes after Dawn of the Dead and create the sequel in my head, I saw Dawn and Day in a very short space of time so didn't have to wait seven years for the follow up. The film that Day of the Dead has become is one of the best examples of horror ever made, and everything is just so well made in it that it jumps out from the zombie movie category and stands tall as a really superb film in its own right. Its a classic and if you like movies I don't see why anyone would not like this, but if you don't like gore its best to avoid that's for sure.

Bring on Land of the Dead in a week! I cannot wait, but no way can it be better than Day and Dawn surely! Time will tell.

:shock:

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 20 Sep 2005, 20:36

Unrealnils wrote:Rainy dog 1/5 a big boring pile of poo (stolen from romero)

Whats the film about Nils?

Are you going to post on BnB more now?

Havent seen you around. How've you been?

ReconFive · Post by **ReconFive** » 20 Sep 2005, 21:39

grim_tales wrote:It wasnt a ritual like the scenes in Mr Vampire and Spooky Encounters then Recon?

Sorry for late reply grim.

No, not at all. It just comes out of nowhere and is upon you so fast that you don't really have time to even close your eyes. As i said before, there is no real explanation in the film as to why you just saw it.

Have you seen GWTW?

I have a LONG time ago, so honestly i don't really remember much of the details. I'll have to watch it again

Anyway, i just watched..

Hart's War - 4/5
WAY underrated flick!! Great preformances from Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell (as much as i hate that guy, i can't deny that he's got some real acting talent) and a very cool story, IMO.
It does suffer from some problems which are common in WWII POW movies. For one, the Nazi commandant is much too 'friendly' and accomedating to the situation until the very end, and it seems kind of unbelieveable that the 'trial' was even allowed to take place.
Despite a few flaws in the realism area, this movie simply rocks, IMO.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 20 Sep 2005, 22:06

Rainy Dog is part of Takashi Miike's Shinjuki Triad Society isn't it?

Keep meaning to check it out.

I concur with Grim that Nils should post here more often, if not then all the time. He was like a father and role model to us all, the forum wasn't the same without him. May he come back to enlighten each and every one of us (especially me).

Unrealnils · Post by **Unrealnils** » 21 Sep 2005, 14:02

LOL im still a mod here too

Yes i will post more, life is complicated though just got settled into norhtampton and sorted out net at my place

just to be made redundant and i might move back home to Leicester

Oh well life is fun.....

I am doing well though its good to have money to spend/mess about.

Yea its a part of Miikes triad society i quite liked the first part , this sucked and have ley lines waiting to watch....

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 22 Sep 2005, 09:12

Lord of The Rings - ROTK EE (Disc 6): 5/5

Another great set of documentaries - everyone clearly had fun making the film but also spoke about how tiring it was, since it was completed (almost) at the last minute

Cameron Duncan's (he was the inspiration for the song "Into The West") short films are incredibly touching and moving and very good too.

Gotta to listen to the commentaries on all 3 films next!

Unrealnils · Post by **Unrealnils** » 22 Sep 2005, 13:18

CONSTATINE...... 3/5

this film should have gotten 5/5 it had some great vsiauls and a good backstory to charge he film but it felt very cut as if smeone had gutted out 30 mins of footage......

Story felt very cut too hence the 3/5 avrage movie

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Sep 2005, 09:10

Game of Death - 2.5/5

Pretty bad cheesy film

IMO it was the height of bad taste to put footage of Bruce's real funeral in the film

But thats just me.

It does have high points though, its' fun spotting all the Bruce "doubles" and the locker room fight with Bob Wall (which I believe was choreographed by Sammo) deserves special praise, as does of course the final 20 minutes with the real Bruce 8)
I dont know why but I LOVE John Barry's G.O.D theme, which has a very Bondish sound to it.

Wierdly, a few seconds of James Tien fighting Hakim does actually make it into the 1978 version of G.O.D
I think the film should of finished after Hakim was finished off, having Billy Lo kill the Doctor and Hugh O Brian's character at the end felt tacked on IMO

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 23 Sep 2005, 16:08

Yeah the original 40 minutes worth of GoD footage is great (should be on the HKL disc), but the released version was gash.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Sep 2005, 18:48

Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon - 3.5/5

Great fun film IMO!

Sammo does a fine job imitating Bruce

Sesame Street must have been shown in HK back then

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 23 Sep 2005, 22:52

grim_tales wrote:It does have high points though, its' fun spotting all the Bruce "doubles" and the locker room fight with Bob Wall (which I believe was choreographed by Sammo) deserves special praise, as does of course the final 20 minutes with the real Bruce 8)

I'm pretty sure you're right and the locker room fight was choreographed by Sammo, but don't forget Yuen Biao! He did a lot of work in that scene & a few others in that film too).

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 23 Sep 2005, 23:16

Yes, Sammo did all the choreography for the "new" fight sequences. Yuen Biao was "Billy Lo's" acrobatic double.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 23 Sep 2005, 23:22

The once lost 40-minutes are present on the HKL Platinum DVD. While the HKL picture quality is better than on "A Warrior's Journey", the John Little version does in my opinion have a way cooler music and way better sound effects.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 24 Sep 2005, 08:37

I havent seen the John Little version in a while but IMO I LOVED HKL's rock remix of the G.O.D theme

I'll watch it sometime (John Little version) and compare.