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

[Markgway]

I didn't like Argento's Opera.

Aside from not being any good, it was uncomfortably sadistic.

[Markgway]

Flashpoint (1984-USA) **½
A pair of Border Patrol agents (Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams) discover a twenty-year old corpse in the desert and a suitcase full of money. Who was he? And why are government suits out to keep shit quiet? Thoughtful thriller absorbs most of the way but is needlessly convoluted and hammers home its conclusion.

[Markgway]

Twister (1996-USA) **½
Jan DeBont knows how to direct a big SFX action sequence... but the script and acting (Helen Hunt excepted) are below par for a movie costing millions.

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) ***
BD viewing.

[Markgway]

The Hit (1984-UK) **½
Good crime drama with black comedy elements. Terence Stamp is particularly fine as a gangster informant awaiting execution at the hands of hitmen John Hurt and (in his debut) Tim Roth. Unfortunately the film is let down by a nonsensical final reel that needlessly undoes much of what came before.

[Markgway]

C.H.U.D (1984-USA) **½
Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller! Now you know!
I was expecting this to be total trash, but actually it was well made, with a decent script and better acting than usual for a movie with mutant flesh eaters (John Heard and Daniel Stern star). Little violence, some gory images.

[HungFist]

C.H.U.D (1984-USA) **½
Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller! Now you know!
I was expecting this to be total trash, but actually it was well made, with a decent script and better acting than usual for a movie with mutant flesh eaters (John Heard and Daniel Stern star). Little violence, some gory images.

wow, I've never heard of this before. Need to track this down. Thanks

[saltysam]

Dracula 2.5/5 marked down from my last score of 3/5 on last viewing,this is a little clunky but it remains very atmospheric and Christopher Lee is an awesome count.

Brides Of Dracula 2.5/5 despite the title this sequel doesn't feature the Count but one of his disciples played by David Peel.Peter Cushing returns as Van Helsing.Solid hammer production,the BD has a ratio of 2:1 which has caused outrage as it's apparently meant to be 1:66:1 movie.

Dracula:Prince Of Darkness 2.5/5 Another hammer entry sees Chris Lee return to his signature role but no Cushing as his adversary Van Helsing.not bad,let down by a slow first 45 minutes.Andrew Kier as Father Shandor is pretty good,i remember a spinoff comic featuring the character back in the 70's.

Rollercoaster 2.5/5 70's thriller sees George Segal as a amusement park safety manager on the trail of bomber Timothy Bottoms.at 2hrs a bit overlong but it's worth seeing as a slice of 70's style moviemaking.A young Helen Hunt,Steve Guttenberg & Craig Wasson show up here.

Sweeney! 3/5 definitely one of the better tv to film adaptions this well made cop drama has Regan & Carter on the trail of american press officer Barry Foster,who's manipulating politician Ian Bannen into fixing oil prices.there's a couple of i imagine for the time strong sequences here.

Sweeney 2 2.5/5 i always was of the belief this was a better movie than the first but while it's still a solid effort it's let down a bit by a silly 20 minute subplot involving a bomb in a hotel which drags the film off course from it's true path,a tale of bank robbers living in Malta who come to London to rob banks when short of cash.

[Markgway]

wow, I've never heard of this before. Need to track this down. Thanks

There's two versions out there. The 88m theatrical cut and an extended 96m cut. I saw the latter. Anchor Bay released this on DVD and apparently it has a very entertaining audio commentary. There's a comedy sequel "Bud the Chud" which I haven't seen.

[Markgway]

Brides Of Dracula... the BD has a ratio of 2:1 which has caused outrage as it's apparently meant to be 1:66:1 movie.

Yeah, there's no way this was shown at 2:1 in any cinema.

1.66 in the UK/Europe and 1.85 in the US.

[HungFist]

wow, I've never heard of this before. Need to track this down. Thanks

There's two versions out there. The 88m theatrical cut and an extended 96m cut. I saw the latter. Anchor Bay released this on DVD and apparently it has a very entertaining audio commentary. There's a comedy sequel "Bud the Chud" which I haven't seen.

The Japanese dvd seems to be the 96 min version. Listed as full screen, though. I'm thinking about renting it anyway.

[Markgway]

The Japanese dvd seems to be the 96 min version. Listed as full screen, though. I'm thinking about renting it anyway.

According to Rewind, the JP DVD is 1.33. Should be OK for a rental though as I expect the film was shot open matte. Anchor Bay's OOP(?) disc is the one to buy though.

[Markgway]

Open Range (2003-USA) ***
Kevin Costner stars in (with Robert Duvall) and directs this solid, if slow western drama, that builds up to a cracking climactic gunfight. Very well made and acted.

The Breakfast Club (1985-USA) ***½
BD - 4k remaster. Best teen film of the 80s.

Under Siege (1992-USA-France) **½
Slick, taut action movie with ex-SEAL Steven Seagal showing he can also cook. The reason I'm not giving this three stars? I find the villains (an overacting Tommy Lee Jones, especially) kinda irritating. Is that just me? Maybe three stars is fair. I don't know. I wouldn't argue with anyone who gave it a higher mark.

[Markgway]

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995-USA) **½
Seagal breaks many more limbs in this decent sequel.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987-USA-Israel) **½
Solid formula action sequel.

[Markgway]

The Mask of Zorro (1998-USA-Germany) **½
Perfectly fine entertainment... but there's something missing for me.

Out for Justice (1991-USA) ***
Violent revenge thriller. Seagal's best film and best performance.

Fletch (1985-USA) **½
Patchy Chevy Chase vehicle has just enough bright spots to get by.

[saltysam]

Jurassic World 3/5 solid,entertaining continuation of the dinosaur franchise. As summer blockbusters go,this is one of the better ones i've seen in a while.Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard make for decent leads and the dino effects are very good.

Don't Go In The Woods..Alone 0.5/5 terrible,terrible slasher pic,one of the worst films i've ever seen.the 0.5 is for a couple of ok gore effects.terrible acting,incoherent story.how trash like this is getting afforded blu-ray releases while there's shitloads of classics still languishing unreleased is beyond me.

Twins Of Evil 2.5/5 Solid Hammer hybrid of witchhunting,devil worship and vampirism. The Collinson twins arrive to stay with their puratanical witchhunting uncle Peter Cushing (shades of Matthew Hopkins) doesn't take long before one of the twins starts rebelling and becomes embroiled in Count Karnstein's web.

Zombie Holocaust 1.5/5 Ian Mculloch is back on a remote island battling zombies and cannibals in this mostly tepid italian horror.

[Shingster]

Are you on a Video Nasty binge? Even among the worst on the list Don't go into the Woods has a rep for its awfulness! In fact if any film on the list ever got banned just because of how bad it was, it's probably that film!

Have you seen Don't Go Near the Park yet? Just as incompetantly made but it's so batshit insane it's almost brilliant!

[Markgway]

Minority Report (2002-USA) **½
Smart, imaginative futuristic thriller from Spielberg/Cruise gets bogged down in plot. Would've benefited from less CGI and more real action.

Mad Max 2 (1981-Australian) ***
A definite improvement on the original. Memorable vehicular stuntwork, Gibson's charisma are obvious assets; script is very thin though.

Extract (2009-USA) **
Unappealing black-ish comedy from Mike Judge. You might call it misJUDGEd.

[saltysam]

Have you seen Don't Go Near the Park yet? Just as incompetantly made but it's so batshit insane it's almost brilliant!

Not yet,i'll try and catch up with it

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

... Fletch (1985-USA) **½
Patchy Chevy Chase vehicle has just enough bright spots to get by.

Fletch F. Fletch. I actually like the movie quite a bit, though I have seen it countless times. I even later read the novel it was based on. I prefer the movie, one of the rare times where I do. I think this is better than the sequel though not many will debate that point. I quote from this quite often, even recently used the "It's all ball bearings nowadays." at a mechanics shop (no one got the reference.) The afro quote I have used countless times over the years. This is quintessential Chase role, well after Vacation.

[Markgway]

Fletch F. Fletch. I actually like the movie quite a bit, though I have seen it countless times. I even later read the novel it was based on. I prefer the movie, one of the rare times where I do. I think this is better than the sequel though not many will debate that point. I quote from this quite often, even recently used the "It's all ball bearings nowadays." at a mechanics shop (no one got the reference.) The afro quote I have used countless times over the years. This is quintessential Chase role, well after Vacation.

I gave up on Fletch Lives after 30m.

Vacation I rewatched last year and thought it was terribly unfunny.

The remake (out next week) will no doubt be even worse.

[Markgway]

Iron Man (2008-USA) ***
The first and best of the current Marvel Universe cycle and for that I give it a good mark; not really my kind of movie though.

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

Iron Man (2008-USA) ***
The first and best of the current Marvel Universe cycle and for that I give it a good mark; not really my kind of movie though.

Probably my favorite of the whole newer cycle of Marvel films. I've seen it several times already. I'm always a little wary on any reviewer who paints the latest comic book action film as the greatest (actually I'm suspect on any writer/reviewer saying any last film they saw as the greatest or worst film they have seen.)

I probably will not see the new Vacation film.

[Markgway]

Eraser (1996-USA) **½
Probably the last of the "classic" Arnie period.
Energy flags in spots, but mostly this is slick, fun entertainment.

Maximum Risk (1996-USA) ***
This Ringo Lam-directed action thriller holds up really well.
Now ranks as my second favourite Van Damme movie (after Hard Target).

The Thing (1982-USA) ***½
Suspenseful horror remake and Carpenter's best film.

[Markgway]

L.A. Confidential (1997-USA) ***½
Classy neo-noir; the real Best Picture of 1997.

Rambo (2008-USA-Germany) **½
Surely the goriest R-rated action movie ever made?
The best of the series (though that might not be saying much).
Stallone has a few interesting things to say on the nature of war... but it's probably best not to take any film with this much cartoonish violence too seriously.

[HungFist]

L.A. Confidential (1997-USA) ***½
Classy neo-noir; the real Best Picture of 1997.

Been ages since I saw it; I recall it being excellent but I'd still surely rate Jackie Brown and Hana-Bi above it. And maybe, uhm, Titanic (ok, forget about that )

Rambo (2008-USA-Germany) **½
Surely the goriest R-rated action movie ever made?
The best of the series (though that might not be saying much).
Stallone has a few interesting things to say on the nature of war... but it's probably best not to take any film with this much cartoonish violence too seriously.

Not saying much? All of the films in the series are good!

But yeah, I always liked how it's a shamelessly entertaining action film but it also has bit of valuable message. That's how a lot of Japanese action films used to be back in the 60s and 70s (unfortunately not anymore).