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What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

Sum Mary Millington film! Not sure which one! Probably doesnt matter either seein as most of em are similiar. Feck me we must have been starved of porn in late 70's if that what was on offer. Thank god fer danish mags an playin cards that at least showed people shaggin eh
 
Yetman said:
Daybreakers - not too bad vampire flick, set in future where there are only 5% of the human population left and vampires are freaking out about what to do about the lack of blood situation. 7/10
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IMO an utterly unmemorable film. When did we last see a decent vampire movie? 30 Days of Night?
 
TruXta said:
IMO an utterly unmemorable film. When did we last see a decent vampire movie? 30 Days of Night?
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Let the Right One In. Not just a great vampire film but one of the best films of the last decade.

...and I'm not sure since when the poorly received 30 Days of Night became a decent vampire film.
 
Reno said:
Let the Right One In. Not just a great vampire film but one of the best films of the last decade.

...and I'm not sure since when the poorly received 30 Days of Night became a decent vampire film.
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:facepalm: Forgot LTROI. I quite liked 30 Days, it was silly, but it didn't try and humanise or glamorise the vamps, which I'm unutterably fed up with considering recent fare. It was a good throwback to the Nosferatu-Salem's Lot line of vampires - proper monsters, not immortal and endlessly boring goths.
 
Last year there was an apocalyptic vampire film called Stake Land which had similarly feral vampires, but which I thought was a better film than 30 Days of Night. At least it made an effort to have characters an audience can root for.
 
Good shout, I saw that a few weeks ago. Good characterisation, but leant on the zombie tropes too heavily IMO to be a proper contender.
 
TruXta said:
Good shout, I saw that a few weeks ago. Good characterisation, but leant on the zombie tropes too heavily IMO to be a proper contender.
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yeah, they were sorta zombie/vampire hybrids like in I Am Legend - it still managed to twist the 'trope' a little and present something new and original i thought.
 
Orang Utan said:
yeah, they were sorta zombie/vampire hybrids like in I Am Legend - it still managed to twist the 'trope' a little and present something new and original i thought.
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It's a bit of a trend that hybridization of Hollywood monsters. Like the Underworld films have done too, mixing werevolves and vamps. Can't say I've been to impressed with their efforts. Speaking of I Am Legend, I could cry over how they manage to spoil such excellent raw material as the original novel.
 
the omega man does a much better job, though they're not really vampires or zombies in that. i do like the idea of the conscious zombie though or vampires with their own culture that isn't just wearing elegant 19th century frock coats
 
The thing that I found really creepy in the Matheson novel of I Am Legend was that the vampires, his former friends and neighbours, called out to the the main character every night, taunting him outside his house.

All three film versions of I Am Legend are rubbish really. The Last Man on Earth stayed the closest to the novel, but had a minuscule budget, was shot in Italy and starred a badly miscast Vincent Price. The Omega Man had a good first half and a very cool Ron Grainer score, but once the stupid looking blaxploitation mutants turn up the film goes down the drain and the Will Smith version gets just about everything wrong.

Though not amazing, Stake Land is better than all of them and almost feels like it takes place in the same universe as the novel.
 
Reno said:
Though not amazing, Stake Land is better than all of them and almost feels like it takes place in the same universe as the novel.
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Yeah, I had a bit of the same feeling of quietude, for want of a better word, in Stakeland. A sense of things slowing down, dying out.
 
The Lotus Eaters - 70s BBC drama, of it's time but good, the first season especially. Very different from most TV nowadays, not so much in terms of plot but in how the story was told.

I'm a big fan of the Omega Man, Heston at his best.
 
Managed to watch a few things over the last few days.
Infernal Affairs - amazing, totally shocked I hadn't watched it sooner and something I will definitely enjoy rewatching again soon.
Bullet Boy - good standard fair, but its heart is in the right place.
Brief Encounter - really warmed to it as it went on, liked the female driven narrative and the ending sequence.
Videodrome - enjoyed this immensely, liked the dark matter being pushed into different directions. I should probably try to watch more Cronenberg as a result.
Pontypool - creative take on zombie-esque horror, also thought it was pretty allegorical about disinformation, dissemination of falsehoods etc...
Oranges and Sunshine - Good drama, nice sentimental touches, occassionally let down by a poor script.
 
NVP said:
W.

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It was more coherent than a lot of Oliver Stone's films and it didn't go for the obvious portray-Bush-as-a-gurning-chimp tack which I'd expected. Richard Dreyfuss was really good as Dick Cheney but the bloke that played Blair was shite. Interesting that it portrayed Colin Powell as the only dissenting voice against the war in Iraq initially too. Don't know how accurate it all was but it wasn't bad for Oliver Stone. The only film of his that I've really enjoyed before was Salvador.
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Actually, I really highly rate W. Much more so than practically every stone movie since at least Nixon. Mind you, the key to 'W' is thinking of it not as a biopic, but as something else. The closest companion piece I can think of it is probably 'Being There'. Taken in the same frame of mind, 'W' is damn good.

Daybreakers? lots of good ideas in what is essentially B movie schlock, very well executed and done totally seriously. A lot of crap movies treat themselves as crap and can't be bothered with doing a good job - Daybreakers doesn't fall victim to this, and as such, really is worth a watch.
 
Hua Mulan - given the source material, this is catastrophically offensive. Frivilious, overly sentimental, with no-concept of pacing, character development etc..etc.. with unecessary kung-fu silliness, nonsensical romance sub-plot and bizarrely for a film about a female protagonist and female empowerment, it contains sexism in places. Avoid.
 
Cowboys & Aliens was on in the background so didnt really get what was going on. I like the idea though.
 
I watched several episodes of Enlightened, the HBO series starring Laura Dern and written by Mike White (Freaks & Geeks, Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, School of Rock) I really like Mike White's writing, there is a generosity towards his characters with everything he does and I really like this show. The main character is often infuriating, but the series never turns her into a caricature like with something like The Office. As a comedy it is a bit of a hard sell because it's quite delicate and subtle, but that's its strength.
 
Hero, nice visually and interesting plot structure, but nothing more than being an alright film. The politics of the piece are also a bit warped.
Grosse Point Blank, an action, romance, comedy that seemed to lack all three. Expected better things.
 
I can't see how you could possibly say that. It seems to owe alot to True Romance on some level, but has none of its charm.
 
True Romance has charm, no doubt.

Watched HGTTG tonight...awesome and Adamsian...apart from the ending shit which was uncalled for.
 
copliker said:
A documentary on the Molly Maguires and the Pennsylvania miners struggles on TG4. It could have done with another half hour as it felt a bit rushed at the end. It's still up on the player under docs but dunno if it's available to forrins.http://www.tg4.ie/en/tg4-player/tg4-player.html

Guard Post. Korean troops in a DMZ bunker killing each other to bits. Still a bit confused.
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Reminds me, watched The Lost Republic parts 1 and 2 earlier this week - political history of Argentina from 1933 to 1983. Nothing innovative and weakened by concentrating almost solely on the electoral history of the period - the wider classes only appearing as actors in supporting or opposing various elite blocs - which follows from the Yrigoyenist approach of the makers. Worth the 5 hours for the amazing footage though - esp of the 70s madness.

I enjoyed Guard Post, though it was basically an attempt of the director to repeat the success of the far superior R-Point
 
Countdown to zero, covers the threat of nuclear attacks from terrorism, rogue states and miscalculations. Quite informative about the proliferation of nuclear arms, how close we have come to nuclear exchanges and some of the science behind it all. Good, but quite a bit of padding.
The 39 Steps, Hitchcock's 30's thriller. Clocking in at 86 minutes, a really tight awesome piece :cool:
The Ipcress File, thought it was alright, nothing more. Probably made more sense during the hysteria of the Cold War.
 
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Some clunky moments, but certainly not as great a travesty as the Watchmen movie was.
 
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