Topic: What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2021 Edition)

[Inspector Norse]

Wild Tales Entertaining anthology film from Argentinian director Damián Szifron comprising several short stories about people losing control and giving in to their violent and vengeful urges. Could have been trashy but thanks to stylish direction and a cast of top-rank Argentine stars playing morally ambiguous characters (Darin etc) it hits the mark.

Daisies Cult Czech classic about two girls going round poking fun at everyone and everything. Was banned by the authorities because, well, it takes the piss out of them, though it's more about social rules and mores than the specific political situation. It's very highly rated by many even today; for me, I never really warmed to the two leads, which stopped me really getting into it, but it's hugely creative nonetheless and there are some great bits of psychedelic avant-garde cinematography (the scene with the scissors stands out).

[St_Eddie]

Wild Tales Entertaining anthology film from Argentinian director Damián Szifron comprising several short stories about people losing control and giving in to their violent and vengeful urges. Could have been trashy but thanks to stylish direction and a cast of top-rank Argentine stars playing morally ambiguous characters (Darin etc) it hits the mark.

An outstanding anthology film.  Right up there with Creepshow and Twilight Zone: The Movie for my money.

[Alberon]

The Devil At Your Heels

1981 Canadian documentary about stunt driver Ken Carter and his attempt to jump a mile across the St Lawrence river in a jet powered car. The film covers five years in his attempt to make the jump happen. Health and safety is virtually non-existent and the whole endeavour is very ramshackle.

It’s here on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgIhGTpKTwM&t=615s

[SteveDave]

"99 and 44/100 Dead"

I saw a trailer for this on one of those Color Space compilation things. It looked amazing, like a knowing James Bond rip-off starring Richard Harris.

It was shit. The small kernels of ideas weren't popped into life and left to wilt. The opening with all the bodies wearing cement shoes in the river was the best bit.

[Egyptian Feast]

"99 and 44/100 Dead"

I saw a trailer for this on one of those Color Space compilation things. It looked amazing, like a knowing James Bond rip-off starring Richard Harris.

It was shit. The small kernels of ideas weren't popped into life and left to wilt. The opening with all the bodies wearing cement shoes in the river was the best bit.

Very disappointing movie. It never lives up to that opening and Harris' hair was so shit it kept distracting me.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Barfly - grim 70's Cannon films adaptation of Bukowski's work. Bukowski doesn't do much for me and I'm well aware he was a shit, this film caught my eye amongst some others when watching the Boogaloo documentary on Cannon because of some clips in it showingmmisery and squalor and Dunway and Rourke seemed to intrigue me. It was alright in a learned helplessness kind of way. Pretty sleazy but that's Cannon innit.

Might make a cannon thread, I've also got Joe and Masters of the Universe amongst others to get through.

[SteveDave]

Very disappointing movie. It never lives up to that opening and Harris' hair was so shit it kept distracting me.

The hair! Even when it was wet it looked like a hat!

[Vitalstatistix]

They're his two best for me, though Talk Radio isn't on the same level as Salvador. James Woods is so good in the latter it's a shame he's such a mahoosive cunt.

Such a wild ride of a film. On one hand a tragic, searing indictment of US foreign intervention in central America and on the other hand a weird, darkly comic, drug addled buddy movie.

[Artie Fufkin]

Page Eight - 2011
The first in the 'Johnny Worricker Trilogy'.
Really slick 'government shenanigans' type of film.
Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Rachel Weiss & Ralph Fiennes head the cast.
Will definitely be watching the other 2 films.

Turks & Caicos - 2014
The second in the JW Trilogy.
Which finds our Johnny hiding out on an island off the coast of Florida, and getting into more government style mischief. Christopher Walkern stars, and is of course awesome, along with Helena Bonham Carter & Rupert Graves.
Polished stuff. Really enjoyable. Life changing? No. Just good stuff. Nighy is so debonair, isn't he?

[Dex Sawash]

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword no shot lasted longer than 5 seconds. Gave up trying to understand what was happening, started trying to follow along with the Wikipedia plot summary.

[McChesney Duntz]

They're his two best for me, though Talk Radio isn't on the same level as Salvador. James Woods is so good in the latter it's a shame he's such a mahoosive cunt.

I asked him on Twitter if he thinks Salvador has a happy ending these days and he didn't even bother blocking me for it. What's the use, I say...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Might make a cannon thread, I've also got Joe and Masters of the Universe amongst others to get through.

Please do. I watched that wildly entertaining Cannon documentary last week, and while I appreciate that it's probably more fun to sit through than most of the shite they pumped out, I did laugh at the sheer amount of shameless sleaze and gore in some of the film clips.

I've seen Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV and the hilarious Death Wish 3, but is there anything else worth checking out from their oeuvre?

[Dr Rock]

This one sounds good

Little Girl... Big Tease
Plot
Virginia, the 16-year-old daughter of a wealthy businessman, is kidnapped by a two men, J.D. and Dakota, and Alva Coward, a woman who is her high school economics teacher. While the details of the payout of the $2 million ransom are being worked out by J.D. and Alva, Virginia is raped by the muscle-man of the outfit and is comforted by the woman, whom she has sex with. Virginia also has sex with the boss of the outfit. She enjoys having sex with the three and helps them escape after she is ransomed.

[McChesney Duntz]

Please do. I watched that wildly entertaining Cannon documentary last week, and while I appreciate that it's probably more fun to sit through than most of the shite they pumped out, I did laugh at the sheer amount of shameless sleaze and gore in some of the film clips.

I've seen Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV and the hilarious Death Wish 3, but is there anything else worth checking out from their oeuvre?

Runway Train and 52 Pick-Up are both well worth your time (one genuinely excellent, one a brilliant exercise in high sleaze from Elmore Leonard source material). I get my share of high-low chortles from the two titles they produced when Golan-Globus were trying to buy sophistication: Godard's King Lear and Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance. Can't in good faith call them "good" films, or even "non-boring for the most part," but they have their moments if you're in the right mood. (There's a certain Ryan O'Neal moment in the latter that has justly become legendary, which I shan't ruin if you haven't seen't.)

[McChesney Duntz]

.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Please do. I watched that wildly entertaining Cannon documentary last week, and while I appreciate that it's probably more fun to sit through than most of the shite they pumped out, I did laugh at the sheer amount of shameless sleaze and gore in some of the film clips.

I've seen Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV and the hilarious Death Wish 3, but is there anything else worth checking out from their oeuvre?

I'll get round to doing a proper thread shortly. I found it quite funny how Alex Winter was simultaneously so jolly and scathing about Cannon and Winner.

Life Force is good in a scifi B-Movie kind of way. It's not exactly sleazy as such but there's a lot of gratuitous and unneccesary nudity from the leading woman (she's pretty much in the buff for most of her time on screen) but if you're willing to put that aside there's a good B-Movie with decent special effects (I think they may have near bankrupted themselves on that, Buzby did a good explanation last time it was mentioned).

[greenman]

I'll get round to doing a proper thread shortly. I found it quite funny how Alex Winter was simultaneously so jolly and scathing about Cannon and Winner.

Life Force is good in a scifi B-Movie kind of way. It's not exactly sleazy as such but there's a lot of gratuitous and unneccesary nudity from the leading woman (she's pretty much in the buff for most of her time on screen) but if you're willing to put that aside there's a good B-Movie with decent special effects (I think they may have near bankrupted themselves on that, Buzby did a good explanation last time it was mentioned).

I spose you could argue within that story of a space vampire seducing people the nudity isn't "unnecessary" and honestly I do suspect it had a bit of an influence on Under the Skin in the kind of unsettling inhuman pacing. Moreso really the whole film is a bit of a mess of ideas, none of which are really devolped that well but have enough of a budget behind them to make for impressive B-movie entertainment, exploding zombies, alien ships, etc.

[Dex Sawash]

Capricorn One1970s with made for TV vibe about a Mars mission that turns into a conspiracy thriller. Mostly Unremarkable except for a faceless villians that are pair of helicopters. They search in tandem for rogue astronauts. After they hover facing the camera and any sign of what they are looking for, they turn and face each other and exchange unblinking chocohelicopter gaze before resuming their mission. It is brilliant/hilarious. Seen here just after surveying a "crash" scene.



And it has  mostly silent OJ as one of the astronauts.

[Dex Sawash]

Made a gif



what ya thinking choppy?

<choppy shrugs>

[zomgmouse]

Rewatched Kiss of the Spider Woman. Holds up very well, tender and nuanced prison bottle film. William Hurt and Raúl Juliá act up a storm as two cellmates in Brazil. Woefully forgotten I think.

The Legend of 1900. Schmaltzy tale with Tim Roth as a virtuosic pianist who was born on a cruise ship and never left. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore who made Cinema Paradiso, one of my favourites. I feel like if this was filmed in Italian I would have loved it, something about the English dialogue made it a bit naff. But features some brilliant cinematography.

Who's Singin' Over There?. Serbian comedy about a ragtag bunch of passengers travelling on a bus to the capital at the cusp of the outbreak of WWII. Seems to be quite renowned; I quite liked it but didn't think it was particularly amazing.

Kuroneko. Japanese horror drama from the director of the excellent Onibaba, Kaneto Shindo. Beautiful ghost story.

[dissolute ocelot]

Party Girl (1995) - low budget New York-set indie comedy starring Parker Posey as an irresponsible young woman who goes to a lot of parties, but takes a job as a library clerk to pay back her godmother for bailing her out of jail, and is bewitched by the Dewey Decimal System. Apparently a cult among librarians, it's entertaining with some funny moments (jokes about DJing and psychotic club-owners) and nice clothes, although it's nothing very special, and some cultural appropriation around her Lebanese boyfriend now seems slightly dodgy. It's directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer whose best-known film is probably the 1998 adaptation of French schoolgirl story Madeline. It's free on Amazon Prime but their version is really shitty quality and seems like a bad NTSC TV conversion with extra frames for added jerkiness and slightly non-synced speech (unless the original is like that too).

The Boston Strangler (1968) - Overly flashy with lots of split screen gimmicks, but a great cast (Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy) all giving solid performances, and an engrossing investigation. Some interesting stuff about how a lot of detectives (incorrectly) assumed the killer was gay, leading to scenes of early-60s gay establishments that may or may not be accurate. It was spoiled for me afterwards on learning that the events in the film are almost entirely made up and bear very little resemblance to the real murders or investigation. The real killer strangled his victims with silk stockings, none of that here, and rather than as in the film Henry Fonda's bookish lawyer breaking him down, the real DeSalvo originally confessed to another inmate, and then made a confession to police which wasn't used because they were unable to find corroborating evidence (some people believe he was lying) but it was eventually revealed by his defence lawyer (!) in an entirely separate case trying to argue he was insane. Still, as a film it's solid entertainment and fun for fans of armchair psychology.

[Neomod]

Two return viewings...

The Station Agent 2003

Gentle yet dry comedy starring pre GOT Peter Dinklage as Finbar who inherits an old derelict station in the middle of nowheresville USA and his (non) adventures with lovavble lunk Bobby Carnavale and Patricia Clarkson's unhappy with her lot Olivia.

Quirky would be doing it a disservice as it's more than the sum of it's parts. Well worth 90 minutes of your time.

The Quick and the Dead 1995

Well made Sam Raimi western that wears it's Leone influences on it's sleeve. Star studded for such a directorial indulgence with Sharon Stone, Di Caprio, Gladiator, Bishop and of course the great Gene Hackman reprising his role from Unforgiven. Love it.

[Spiteface]

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Epic Showa-era goodness, with Godzilla and all the other Toho kaiju up to that point engaging in a big scrap. This is the kind of thing that if they ever follow up the recent Godzilla vs Kong, they should do, or even full-on Final Wars insanity.

All Monsters Attack (1969)

This was short, and even at less than 70 minutes, this dragged. There's even recycled footage from the previous few films. The worst so far.

[frajer]

Smithereens (1982)

A Criterion blind buy which I liked a lot. Refreshingly moral-free (definitely no hugging and only the hint of learning) and with great and authentic performances from everyone, especially Susan Berman in the lead role. Her character Wren is affected and caustic and a social parasite, but you can see the fragility of the facade, and the constant self-aware tension that she's been inspired by society to want something that isn't fulfilling. A very real and affecting performance worn very casually.

It was filmed without permits and the early 80s New York and punk scene captured by Susan Seidelman's guerrilla-style filmmaking are fascinating to see. Feels like a peek into living history. For its simple 'week in the life' narrative, it's deceptively complex too. It's nice that there are no judgements about Wren's decisions, although the consequences are there to see. I wasn't sure about the ambiguous ending at first, as it felt a bit too bleak-leaning for a character you've come to know and empathise with, but after thinking it over I like that they didn't wrap it up neatly or offer anything more than the chance for development.

It was also a great reminder of how films don't have to be straightforward or follow the tried-and-tested storyline structures to work. Been watching too much algorithm-produced stuff lately and this was a proper blast to the senses. Cracking soundtrack too.

[greenman]

Winter Kills from 1979, Jeff Bridge staring in a kind of black comedy send up on political conspiracy theories with a alternate Kennedy family. Very nice looking film and excellent cast though it doesn't feel like it really gets to grips with the black comedy side of things to me, I spose being a fore runner to this kind of film does mean its feeling its ground somewhat but only really Huston and especially Antony Perkins I think really tap into true absurdity. The obvious comparison I spose is the Coens and especially Lewbowski with Bridges uncovering a similarly absurd plot.

[SteveDave]

Maps To The Stars

After reading about this David Cronenberg film that I've never heard of in the "Scanners" thread I thought I'd give it a go.

Meh. It's sort of disjointed and feels like it's been chopped down from a much longer running time.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Bad Words

A very funny film about a 40 year old man entering a spelling bee, although I really didn't like how the main character made several racist comments about one of the other characters. If they had got rid of those, this would be one of my favourite films. His racist comments went otherwise unremarked in the film, which annoyed me. It was made in 2013 as well.

I mean the main character is meant to be a complete dick but the racist comments made him totally vile.

[SteveDave]

Wild In The Streets

A band of "young" "kids" (feat. 28 year old Richard Pryor on drums) take over America and put anyone over 30 into LSD camps. Hal Holbrook is the one voice of reason.

[phantom_power]

Assault on Precinct 13 - Carpenter really was the tits in the 70s/80s. This is lean, taut, economical, cliched but knowingly. I really liked the proto-Plisken despite not being sure at the start. There is almost nothing to the film but it is just so enjoyable

[frajer]

Assault on Precinct 13 - Carpenter really was the tits in the 70s/80s. This is lean, taut, economical, cliched but knowingly. I really liked the proto-Plisken despite not being sure at the start. There is almost nothing to the film but it is just so enjoyable

Picked that up recently when Second Sight had a sale and it really is the nuts isn't it. Studio Canal releasing the four Carpenter films they had access to on remastered 4K the other year was a bloody gift.