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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The Assassin Next Door (2009) ***
Isareli drama-thriller stars the gorgeous Olga Kurylenko as a guilt-ridden assassin who forms a bond with her neighbour - a pregnant, battered wife.
I didn't care for the digital photography, but once I got past that I found much to admire.
Feminists will approve of a film in which women stand up for themselves - the men in this are all scumbags - and there's more depth of characterisation than in most DTV product cluttering the shelves.
It's certainly not the film you expect it to be - in a good way.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Don't Talk to Strange Men (1961) **½
Quaint, low budget British chiller about a naive teen girl who makes the mistake of answering a public phone only to find a grooming pervert on the end of the line. Requires a certain suspension of disbelief - lead actress Christina Gregg was 22 - but the premise is probably even more relevant today than it was then. Decent performances, with Janina Faye (of Don't Take Sweets from a Stranger) amusing as Gregg's plucky little sister. Atmospheric photography by Jack Cardiff.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Cold Blooded Beast aka Slaughter Hotel (1971) *
Abysmal erotic giallo; set in a sanitarium where a masked killer stalks and splatters horny female patients (and nurses).
Would you stay in a sanitarium where Klaus Kinski is one of the doctors?
Gorgeous babes Margaret Lee and Rosalba Neri appear fully naked, otherwise film is a comically inept bore.

While She Was Out (2007) *½
Queasy cat and mouse thriller has Kim Basinger's abused wife witness a murder outside a shopping mall, and then spend the next couple of hours trying to dodge sicko assailants. Still not convinced Basinger is much of an actress. Illogical and unpleasant.
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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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Taste of Fear (1961) ***
Nicely done B&W Hammer chiller.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Markgway wrote: 18 Feb 2020, 15:48 Cold Blooded Beast aka Slaughter Hotel (1971) *
Abysmal erotic giallo; set in a sanitarium where a masked killer stalks and splatters horny female patients (and nurses).
Would you stay in a sanitarium where Klaus Kinski is one of the doctors?
Gorgeous babes Margaret Lee and Rosalba Neri appear fully naked, otherwise film is a comically inept bore.
I watched this on Amazon Prime a month ago and yeah, it's shit. I did grant it *½ but can no longer remember where the ½ came from. Not from the hard core shots, that's for sure.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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I saw this on Prime also.

I try to look for the type of films that won't turn up on regular TV (in this case with good reason).

I can only assume your generous ½ was for the lovely nekkid ladies.

My brain didn't enjoy the film, but my willy did! :D

I'm sure you know this already, but a body double was used for Neri's hardcore masturbation inserts.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019): 3/5

Period drama with many colourful and quirky characters. Not usually my type of thing but I enjoyed it, perhaps more than I thought I would. The lead actor (Dev Patel) is very good.
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L'amant Double (2017) **½
Peculiar psychological melodrama is reminiscent of David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.
Fairly graphic erotic scenes grabbed the review bylines, but an effective lead performance
from Marine Vacth is undermined by an absence of internal logic and a rug-pulling twist.
May provoke as much irritation as admiration.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Love Camp 7 (USA, 1969) – 1.5/5
The foundations of the nazisploitation genre, unfortunately a piece of shit film. It starts out amusing enough alright. First we get a British general declaring "You'll be whores of the 3rd Reich for the next five days" with a wide smug smile on his face, having just conceived his master plan to infiltrate two American female spies into a nazi camp. You also get a French resistance leader asking the two busty operatives to strip buck naked and change in front of him while he does the mission briefing... in a scene where not one viewer heard a single word he said. Unfortunately the amusement is stops there once the viewer realizes whoring is all this 90 min sex marathon has to offer. The premise isn't entirely indifferent to some Japanese exploitation films of the era, but the film is entirely missing their professionalism and seductive visuals. What you get here is girls licking the boots of a nazi leader played by producer R.W. Cresse himself, giving a whole-hearted if comically bad performance that perhaps reveals more about his motivations than we needed to know.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Les Quatre Cents Coups (France, 1959): 4.5/5

Landmark film of the French 'Nouvelle Vague' - excellent performance by the young lead, Jean Pierre Leaud.
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Morgan (2016) **½
Two-thirds a good movie, before predictability sets in.
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First Reformed (2017) *½
Paul Schrader's "return to form" is about 50% bleak drama, 30% climate change hectoring, 5% self-flagellation (literally!), and 15% unintentional comedy.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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Guns Akimbo (New Zealand, 2019) [amazon] – 4/5
Incredibly immature, crass and over-the-top, this film is the closest thing to a CRANK 3 we will ever get. Daniel Radcliffe stars as a loser who one night gets drunk, trolls an admin of the local underground death game with online taunts and then wakes up with guns stapled to his hands and a 24 hour deadline for killing his opponent, played by Samara Weaving as a drug-snorting psycho chick with vampire teeth implants. Radcliffe and Weaving are two of my favorite actors working right now and to get them both in a film so obviously tailor-made for my highly questionable taste was an absolute joy. An unfortunate abundance of CGI blood is the only reason I didn't give this a perfect score.

Uncut Gems (USA, 2019) [netflix] – 3.5/5
This latest film from the Safdie Brothers starts the same way as Yutaka Ikejima's appropriately execrable TWO BIG-TITTED WIFES: MIWA AND AKANE (二人の巨乳妻 ~美和と茜~, 2017), which is to say with a colonoscopy of the film's lead character. Admittedly, it could be a coincidence. Apart from this curiosity, this is the rare 2h 15min film that goes by before you even realize it. For a film without anything that could qualify as standard action scenes, this is a seriously tense and nerve-wracking affair. Sandler, whose "comedy" I loathe, is quite good here but the real stars are all the amazing characters that populate every single scene. A fascinating glimpse into a world I'm glad I will never be a part of.
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Kill 'em All (2017) **
Average DTV fodder for Van Damme is basically The Usual Suspects with (stunt doubled) kicks.
Lead actress Autumn Reeser is good, but this is no more than late night post-beer cable filler.
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Deadpool 2 (2018) **½
I wasn't a big fan of the original, so I didn't expect much here. In fact, I almost didn't bother putting it on. But, surprisingly, I quite enjoyed this sequel. I laughed more than usual, and you have to admire a film than not so much breaks the fourth wall, as blows it to smithereens.
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The Senator aka Chappaquiddick (2017) ***
Quietly engrossing drama about Ted Kennedy's involvement in a fatal car crash in 1969.
Jason Clarke is persuasive as Kennedy, and despite the latter's reputation with the American public,
the film has the guts to make the senator's culpability (and cowardice) clear.
Corruption in politics writ large: Kennedy should have gone to jail in disgrace,
instead he remained in his position, and later ran for the democratic presidential nomination!

Thoroughbreds (2017) **½
Very black comedy about two teenage psychopaths who hatch a plot to murder a rich step-father.
Amusing and well-acted; a millennial stab at Heathers. But unlike that film, this one's neither funny enough,
nor satirical enough to withstand the sheer mean-spiritedness of it all.
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Avengers: Infinity War (2018) **½
With a handful of exceptions, the filmmakers have managed to cram all 225 Marvel Universe characters into this epic blockbuster saga. Well, at least the first half of it. Plot and characterisation suffer, but as long as shit explodes the fans don't seem to mind. The slightly childish script throws in some major shocks, but I'll have to watch Part 2 (Endgame) to see if they stick. Somehow, I doubt it.
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Avengers: Endgame (2019) ***
The better half of Marvel's farewell to The Avengers improves in its storytelling and just about justifies its gargantuan run time.
EVERYONE and their raccoon shows up for the GINORMOUS super battle at the end.
Film does exactly what was asked of it and sends the fans home happy (in a bittersweet sort of way).
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We Die Young (2018) **½
JCVD is a soldier with PTSD living in a Washington hellhole under the control of a nasty Latino gang.
Noble attempt at a more serious social drama; doesn't totally work, but is better than most of its ilk.
Making Van Damme's character a mute is of no real benefit.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Lighthouse (2019): 4/5

Excellent performances from Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in this slow-burn psychological thriller/horror about 2 19th century lighthouse workers who may not be all they seem. Sometimes a bit weird as you question exactly what's going on, and you have to pay as much attention as you can, but definitely worth it in the end. The black and white cinematography really adds to the film.
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Rogue One (2016) **
Tedious Star Wars cash grab, er, spin-off has no personality and should have been renamed Black Crush given how dark it all is.
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Women in Cellblock 7 (Italy / USA, 1973) - 2.5/5
A crime / action / WiP hybrid with Anita Strindberg going undercover in prison to retrieve information to save her father who is being chased by gangsters. It would be a stretch to call this a good film, but the prison drama / erotica is a bit better done, more story driven than in many other WiP junk films, and the frame story sneaks in an entertaining car chase or gunplay scene 25 minutes. Oh, and Alien vs. Ninja stole a scene from this.
Markgway wrote: 21 Mar 2020, 16:48 Rogue One (2016) **
Tedious Star Wars cash grab, er, spin-off has no personality and should have been renamed Black Crush given how dark it all is.
This is where I stopped going to cinema to see these new SW films. Which was actually a mistake because the "feminist propaganda" (what was the title again?) turned out to be a pretty good film.

Still haven't seen the Han Solo film.
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I enjoyed the Solo film a lot more, although it's still too dark and drab. These DPs evidently don't pay their electric bills.
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Re: What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

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The Invisible Man 2/5
Bland modern remake is overlong at 2 hrs . The title character is a woman abuser who stalks and terrifies his ex through using his new found abilities. One very well done restaurant sequence aside and a coupler of twists in the climax this is standard fare.

The Hunt 3/5
Delayed in the States due to it's alleged political anti-Trump message this spin on The Most Dangerous Game/ Hard Target is a decent watch despite it's negative reviews. Gets straight to the point, no messing about and at 85 minutes before credits doesn't outlive it's welcome.

Richard Jewell 3/5
Interesting but overlong Clint Eastwood directed film about the real life story of the tubby wannabe cop security guard who finds a bomb in the crowded Atlanta Olympics park.Despite initially being hailed a hero suspicion soon falls on Jewell, thanks to an FBI agent and a bitchy reporter.
working class blu-ray fan
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All-American Murder (1991) **½
Although this violent mystery never quite gels, it has something, namely watchable performances by its leads: Christopher Walken, as a wry detective, and Charlie Schlatter, as a sarky college kid suspected of murdering his sweet girlfriend. There's humour, suspense, and an actual plot, but it's also very off-kilter, and slightly off-putting. Worth a look.
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