Watched Mandela: The Road to Freedom. Great film with superb acting by Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. Really disappointed to find it was snubbed by the Oscars, with nothing more than a token award to U2 for a song in the end credits.
What was the last movie you saw?
- Thread starter Tabitha
- Start date
Watched A Walk in the Woods because I liked the book it was based on - by Bill Bryson of the same title and I was wondering how they could make this non-fiction travel/adventure book into an interesting film. It turned out quite enjoyable, thanks to the excellent acting of Robert Redford as Bryson and Nick Nolte as Katz. They couldn't have found better actors for the roles, though both are much older than the real two when they walked Appalachian Trail. Funny and heart-warming, great scenery too.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Voodoo Island (1957)
Directed by Reginald Le Borg; written by Richard H. Landau
Here's a Boris Karloff film, which features movie-style voodoo practiced on an island in the Pacific, instead of in its proper place in the Caribbean.
Wait a minute; didn't I just watch this? Oh, yeah, that was Snake People (1971). Never mind.
You can tell this is a 1950's movie, because there's a lot of theremin music, particularly at the start, to give us an eerie mood. We begin with what seems to be a really obvious model of a tropical island with some buildings on it, and we laugh at how cheap this movie is going to be. Surprise! It turns out that this really is a model, of a proposed hotel to be built on the island in question. There's one little problem, however. Of the folks who were sent out to scout around the place, only one came back, and he was found washed up on another island in a seemingly zombified state. Enter professional skeptic Karloff, who gets hired by the filthy rich hotel magnate to figure out what's going on.
Karloff insists on bringing the zombie along. Making up the rest of the party is a company doctor, to keep an eye on the zombie; a company troubleshooter; Karloff's very pretty but no-nonsense young assistant; and the company's chief designer, a stylish, elegant, slightly older woman. Amazingly for 1957, it's made pretty clear that the designer is attracted to Karloff's assistant. This isn't just my dirty mind; a little research reveals that this was one of the films shown on TCM during their "Screened Out" series, in conjunction with a book of the same name about gays in movies. (During one scene between these two women, the older one classy and the younger one lovely but mousy, the wisecrack I made to myself was "This is a weird version of Carol.")
During this early scene we get our first hint of the truly weird things this movie is going to throw at us from time to time, as one of the model plants starts to bleed. There doesn't even seem to be a supernatural explanation for this, and at times the film is nearly surrealistic.
But at other times it's mighty tedious. It takes a long time to get to Voodoo Island. (I'm going to call it that, anyway.) Along the way the plane our heroes are in runs into some bad weather (even though we're told they are no storms within 500 miles -- more unexplained weirdness) and radio trouble. (This gives us a chance to see a very young but unmistakable Adam West in his first film role as a radio guy.) Eventually we get to an island that is near Voodoo Island, where we meet two more major characters. One is our designated romantic lead, who drinks a lot because he is haunted by guilt. The other is Elisha Cook, Jr., always a pleasure to see, as the romantic lead's employer, who is as scared as a rabbit over the taboo forbidding anyone to go to Voodoo Island, but who soon changes his tune when he finds out he stands to make tons of money if the hotel gets built.
After a bunch of slogging through the jungle, the movie takes a wild left turn into a completely different kind of horror movie. Will we see some more voodoo? Will some of our heroes perish? Will somebody wind up a zombie? Will one of the two women go skinnydipping and be attacked by something? Will the beautiful but Spock-like assistant fall in love with the romantic lead, or will she fall into the arms of the designer? (Hint: This is 1957.)
Voodoo Island has enough weirdness going on to make it worthwhile to wait patiently through many dull stretches. It's got a good cast, and some interesting characters, as well as some really silly special effects near the end.
Directed by Reginald Le Borg; written by Richard H. Landau
Here's a Boris Karloff film, which features movie-style voodoo practiced on an island in the Pacific, instead of in its proper place in the Caribbean.
Wait a minute; didn't I just watch this? Oh, yeah, that was Snake People (1971). Never mind.
You can tell this is a 1950's movie, because there's a lot of theremin music, particularly at the start, to give us an eerie mood. We begin with what seems to be a really obvious model of a tropical island with some buildings on it, and we laugh at how cheap this movie is going to be. Surprise! It turns out that this really is a model, of a proposed hotel to be built on the island in question. There's one little problem, however. Of the folks who were sent out to scout around the place, only one came back, and he was found washed up on another island in a seemingly zombified state. Enter professional skeptic Karloff, who gets hired by the filthy rich hotel magnate to figure out what's going on.
Karloff insists on bringing the zombie along. Making up the rest of the party is a company doctor, to keep an eye on the zombie; a company troubleshooter; Karloff's very pretty but no-nonsense young assistant; and the company's chief designer, a stylish, elegant, slightly older woman. Amazingly for 1957, it's made pretty clear that the designer is attracted to Karloff's assistant. This isn't just my dirty mind; a little research reveals that this was one of the films shown on TCM during their "Screened Out" series, in conjunction with a book of the same name about gays in movies. (During one scene between these two women, the older one classy and the younger one lovely but mousy, the wisecrack I made to myself was "This is a weird version of Carol.")
During this early scene we get our first hint of the truly weird things this movie is going to throw at us from time to time, as one of the model plants starts to bleed. There doesn't even seem to be a supernatural explanation for this, and at times the film is nearly surrealistic.
But at other times it's mighty tedious. It takes a long time to get to Voodoo Island. (I'm going to call it that, anyway.) Along the way the plane our heroes are in runs into some bad weather (even though we're told they are no storms within 500 miles -- more unexplained weirdness) and radio trouble. (This gives us a chance to see a very young but unmistakable Adam West in his first film role as a radio guy.) Eventually we get to an island that is near Voodoo Island, where we meet two more major characters. One is our designated romantic lead, who drinks a lot because he is haunted by guilt. The other is Elisha Cook, Jr., always a pleasure to see, as the romantic lead's employer, who is as scared as a rabbit over the taboo forbidding anyone to go to Voodoo Island, but who soon changes his tune when he finds out he stands to make tons of money if the hotel gets built.
After a bunch of slogging through the jungle, the movie takes a wild left turn into a completely different kind of horror movie. Will we see some more voodoo? Will some of our heroes perish? Will somebody wind up a zombie? Will one of the two women go skinnydipping and be attacked by something? Will the beautiful but Spock-like assistant fall in love with the romantic lead, or will she fall into the arms of the designer? (Hint: This is 1957.)
Voodoo Island has enough weirdness going on to make it worthwhile to wait patiently through many dull stretches. It's got a good cast, and some interesting characters, as well as some really silly special effects near the end.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
The Fury of the Wolfman (1970)
Wow, I didn't expect this Paul Naschy werewolf movie to be such an insane mess. It starts off in Werewolf of London style with our antihero attacked by a yeti (?) in Tibet and winding up with a pentagonal wound on his chest. (Of course, they call it a "pentagram.") Mind you, this is all revealed as a flashback-within-a-flashback with both flashbacks shown simultaneously as a double exposure! The plot then turns into The Postman Always Rings Twice as Naschy's wife and her lover plot to kill him. He survives the car wreck caused by the brakes they tampered with only to become a werewolf, eventually killing his wife and her lover. Right after that, he runs into an power line and gets electrocuted. End of movie? No, we're not even half an hour into it yet.
The film goes completely berserk as a Mad Scientist (seen earlier, she was just a colleague of Naschy's at a university) brings him back to life (this doesn't seem to take much more than just opening his coffin) and taking him to her hideout in a sinister castle, where she and her miniskirted minions are doing all kinds of evil stuff. All coherence is lost as random scenes are thrown in, some from the earlier Naschy flick Frankenstein's Bloody Terror. (Despite the American title, strictly a werewolf movie.) Example: Naschy in werewolf form is chained to the wall, getting whipped by the Mad Scientist, dressed for the occasion in an elegant evening gown instead of her usual science clothes. (Kinky!) Without seeing him escape from the chains, we see him jump through a window. Next we see somebody who isn't Naschy walking very calmly in werewolf makeup. This fellow's sedate attacks on random victims alternate with a rip-snorting, furniture-smashing attack stolen from the earlier film. Totally random stuff happens in the Mad Scientist's lair: mind-controlled mutants, plant-people, a love-in among some hippie types, a guy hiding in a suit of armor, and a guy in a Phantom of the Opera/Leatherface mask wandering around.
The story goes that the director had a serious drinking problem and let his fourteen-year-old son do some of the directing and writing. I can believe it. This is an absolutely terrible film that makes very little sense, but you may find it fascinating for its weirdness.
Wow, I didn't expect this Paul Naschy werewolf movie to be such an insane mess. It starts off in Werewolf of London style with our antihero attacked by a yeti (?) in Tibet and winding up with a pentagonal wound on his chest. (Of course, they call it a "pentagram.") Mind you, this is all revealed as a flashback-within-a-flashback with both flashbacks shown simultaneously as a double exposure! The plot then turns into The Postman Always Rings Twice as Naschy's wife and her lover plot to kill him. He survives the car wreck caused by the brakes they tampered with only to become a werewolf, eventually killing his wife and her lover. Right after that, he runs into an power line and gets electrocuted. End of movie? No, we're not even half an hour into it yet.
The film goes completely berserk as a Mad Scientist (seen earlier, she was just a colleague of Naschy's at a university) brings him back to life (this doesn't seem to take much more than just opening his coffin) and taking him to her hideout in a sinister castle, where she and her miniskirted minions are doing all kinds of evil stuff. All coherence is lost as random scenes are thrown in, some from the earlier Naschy flick Frankenstein's Bloody Terror. (Despite the American title, strictly a werewolf movie.) Example: Naschy in werewolf form is chained to the wall, getting whipped by the Mad Scientist, dressed for the occasion in an elegant evening gown instead of her usual science clothes. (Kinky!) Without seeing him escape from the chains, we see him jump through a window. Next we see somebody who isn't Naschy walking very calmly in werewolf makeup. This fellow's sedate attacks on random victims alternate with a rip-snorting, furniture-smashing attack stolen from the earlier film. Totally random stuff happens in the Mad Scientist's lair: mind-controlled mutants, plant-people, a love-in among some hippie types, a guy hiding in a suit of armor, and a guy in a Phantom of the Opera/Leatherface mask wandering around.
The story goes that the director had a serious drinking problem and let his fourteen-year-old son do some of the directing and writing. I can believe it. This is an absolutely terrible film that makes very little sense, but you may find it fascinating for its weirdness.
StuartBurchell
Well-Known Member
Sole Survivor, 1970. William Shatner leads an USAF investigation of a crashed WWII B25 bomber in the Libyan desert 17 years later. With him is the plane's sole survivor, Richard Basehart, now a senior USAF general. And watching all of this are the ghosts of the plane, unable to leave it.
Based on the discovery of a US bomber, Lady Be Good in 1968/69? the plane's crew were recovered two years later, except for 1, still unrecovered.
EDIT: got it on doubleplay blu-ray/dvd from Amazon UK
Based on the discovery of a US bomber, Lady Be Good in 1968/69? the plane's crew were recovered two years later, except for 1, still unrecovered.
EDIT: got it on doubleplay blu-ray/dvd from Amazon UK
Last edited:
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman (1970)
(I actually saw this Eurogothic shocker under the name Werewolf Shadow. That version is apparently a little longer than the most common version, released under the longer title. I'm not sure it matters a whole lot, however, because the version I saw contained a couple of scenes left in the original Spanish, without English dubbing!)
Made just about the same time as the bizarrely chaotic The Fury of the Wolfman, this Paul Naschy werewolf flick is a very different creature. The plot actually makes sense, most of the time. Although Naschy plays the same character, there's little or no continuity between the two films.
We begin with two autopsy guys who go to a morgue in the middle of the night (and, yes, this scene was clearly filmed in bright sunlight) to examine the body of Naschy, who was killed by being shot with two silver bullets. In order to prove that all this werewolf stuff is nonsense, one of the guys takes the bullets out of Naschy's heart. You can guess what happens.
Meanwhile, two college students are trying to find the grave of a woman who was executed for practicing Satanism (and for being a vampire) centuries ago. They wind up in the middle of nowhere, and run into Naschy, who lives in an isolated home with his mentally ill sister and his sane but unpleasant manservant. He helps the two women find the vampire's grave. They open the coffin and remove the cross-shaped dagger from the skeleton inside. During this process one of the students cuts her wrist, and some blood falls on the vampire's skull. Again, you can guess what happens.
That's all the plot summary I'll provide, since the film is worth watching for fans of this kind of old-fashioned monster rally. There isn't a whole lot that's terribly surprising, but the movie is pretty effective. There are some nicely filmed scenes, and the Vampire Woman is a striking figure, with convincing pale skin makeup, draped in filmy black veils. It's not a groundbreaking classic, but it's enjoyable on its own terms.
(I actually saw this Eurogothic shocker under the name Werewolf Shadow. That version is apparently a little longer than the most common version, released under the longer title. I'm not sure it matters a whole lot, however, because the version I saw contained a couple of scenes left in the original Spanish, without English dubbing!)
Made just about the same time as the bizarrely chaotic The Fury of the Wolfman, this Paul Naschy werewolf flick is a very different creature. The plot actually makes sense, most of the time. Although Naschy plays the same character, there's little or no continuity between the two films.
We begin with two autopsy guys who go to a morgue in the middle of the night (and, yes, this scene was clearly filmed in bright sunlight) to examine the body of Naschy, who was killed by being shot with two silver bullets. In order to prove that all this werewolf stuff is nonsense, one of the guys takes the bullets out of Naschy's heart. You can guess what happens.
Meanwhile, two college students are trying to find the grave of a woman who was executed for practicing Satanism (and for being a vampire) centuries ago. They wind up in the middle of nowhere, and run into Naschy, who lives in an isolated home with his mentally ill sister and his sane but unpleasant manservant. He helps the two women find the vampire's grave. They open the coffin and remove the cross-shaped dagger from the skeleton inside. During this process one of the students cuts her wrist, and some blood falls on the vampire's skull. Again, you can guess what happens.
That's all the plot summary I'll provide, since the film is worth watching for fans of this kind of old-fashioned monster rally. There isn't a whole lot that's terribly surprising, but the movie is pretty effective. There are some nicely filmed scenes, and the Vampire Woman is a striking figure, with convincing pale skin makeup, draped in filmy black veils. It's not a groundbreaking classic, but it's enjoyable on its own terms.
michaelhall2007
Area 51 Escapee
Just watched PAUL.
Anything Pegg touches is gold.
Anything Pegg touches is gold.
The fifth wave.
I can't even begin to list all the things wrong with this story. Just best to not watch it. Everything is bad about it. And for goodness sake, if ever someone points a gun at you, dont try to disarm thew with the move the (cant remember his name, he was so memorable) guy shows the (equaly un-likeable) heroine. You will die.
Please, use your 90 minutes on something worthwhile. Like sleeping. Or washing stuff.
I can't even begin to list all the things wrong with this story. Just best to not watch it. Everything is bad about it. And for goodness sake, if ever someone points a gun at you, dont try to disarm thew with the move the (cant remember his name, he was so memorable) guy shows the (equaly un-likeable) heroine. You will die.
Please, use your 90 minutes on something worthwhile. Like sleeping. Or washing stuff.
michaelhall2007
Area 51 Escapee
If Heinz Beanz ran an advert on TV saying "Their beans will make you look sexy to anyone that smells your fart's" it would get thrown off the aid for false advertising BUT when a movie trailer convinces you that the film will be enjoyable, there are no repercussions when its a total bank of w**k? Grrrr. 2hrs I'll never get back too and £25!!!!!
michaelhall2007
Area 51 Escapee
Sooooo funny
Ajid
Only Saltwater Fish Drink
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2016
- Messages
- 588
It Really is, I'm very surprised by the Star Trek Beyond trailer actualy, I thought with SP involved in the screen play and who much respect he has for the genre and Star Trek it would seem a bit more, well a lot more, "To Boldly Go". Apparantly the trailer does not reflect the film, I hold out little hope.Paul is a great film
J Riff
The Ants are my friends..
Nothing, have watched nothing lately, but Victorier's review of Fury of the Wolfman means that tonite, rubbish will be viewed. Also spotted The Face of the Screaming Werewolf 1964, cannot resist such a title.
Lenny
Press "X" to admire hat
Watched the new Fantastic Four film tonight. Nothing special, but nowhere near as bad as I expected.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2007
- Messages
- 2,711
Sicario for a second time. A cracking good movie, Benicio del Torro and Josh Brolin chewed every scene they were in.
And for the weekend that's in it The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Set in my home county it recounts the War of Independence in Ireland. Ken Loach did a good job here using local actors and only two established 'stars' Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham(Ser Davos). I think he put too much of his socialist ideology into it. It doesn't tally with the tales I heard from my grandparents, however he captures the emotions, betrayals, hard choices, and the pure strength of what a determined local populace can do against larger, better armed foreign forces.
And for the weekend that's in it The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Set in my home county it recounts the War of Independence in Ireland. Ken Loach did a good job here using local actors and only two established 'stars' Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham(Ser Davos). I think he put too much of his socialist ideology into it. It doesn't tally with the tales I heard from my grandparents, however he captures the emotions, betrayals, hard choices, and the pure strength of what a determined local populace can do against larger, better armed foreign forces.
Hilarious Joke
Fool
Zootopia. I loved it - breathtakingly beautiful animation, hilarity, exciting crime story, clever dialogue for adults, great setting.
Star Wars 7. Better than eps 1,2 and 3. Duh. A bit derivative of ep 4; predictable in spots. But overall, pretty good fun.
Deadpool. Simply the best movie of the year. IMHO. I'll say no more or I'll start to rant.
Deadpool. Simply the best movie of the year. IMHO. I'll say no more or I'll start to rant.
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