What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Judgement Day

Deleted User wrote: »

High boot Benny stung me about 15 years ago too. All I can remember is a tar and feathering at some point!

Yeah, and the funny part about it is that the victim has virtually no hair before he's tarred and feathered.

ButtersSuki

I remember renting High Boot Benny from Laser (remember them?) I'd imagine in 1995 or 1996 and being disappointed with it.

Came across the soundtrack to To Live and Die in L.A. last weekend whilst browsing my CDs and after a few days of listening to it dug out my DVD copy of the movie. I snuck into this when it was first in the cinema and remember thinking it was pretty cool (again, please note I was underage - the sight of boobs alone probably made me think it was cool :rolleyes::D) and probably haven't watched this in 15 years at least. Written and directed by William Friedkin, it features a Friedkin hallmark car chase and some "interesting" performances from very young William Peterson, Willem Dafoe and John Turturro. It hasn't aged particularly well from a special effects point of view (the explosions and the gunshot wounds etc.) but I still found it watchable. It does feel a little rushed and some avenues the film ventures into remain unfinished and unanswered but it's ok. 5.5/10. I'd probably genuinely rate the soundtrack higher though, it holds up very well if you're into instrumental, weird atmospheric stuff!

Judgement Day

I liked "To Live and Die in LA" too - always fancied making a remake "See Dromod and Die" but that's another story.

kryogen

Where can one watch the documentary about Whitey Bolger mentioned a few posts ago has anyone an idea?

ButtersSuki

kryogen wrote: »

Where can one watch the documentary about Whitey Bolger mentioned a few posts ago has anyone an idea?

I saw it in the IFI but think it's finished. Maybe check though?

Edit: Yup, looks like it was a one off screening last week.
http://www.ifi.ie/film/whitey-united-states-of-america-v-james-j-bulger/

Here's the trailer if it helps whet your appetite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2klCnCBHFA

GAAman

Finally managed to get my hands on a copy of I Went Down. Haven't seen it since it was out.

Forgot how good Brendan Gleeson was in this was laughing away at it.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0126344/

Aidric

The Zurich film festival has been running with a week already and runs through until this Sunday. There has been an extensive and interesting variety on show, not least in the international documentary category.

I went to see 'Red Army' last Saturday night and was privileged to have the director Gabe Polsky in attendance for a Q&A afterwards. On the face of it it is a study of the soviet union ice hockey team, otherwise known as the red army, but it is much more than a sports doc. It brings a political edge without ever being intrusive. Told through the eyes of the hesitant but charismatic Slava Fetisov, it details brilliantly the conflict between the successes on the ice and the inhumane sacrifices they went through to bring that about.

Strongly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZxiPwGjqAE

Snake Plisken

ButtersSuki wrote: »

I remember renting High Boot Benny from Laser (remember them?) I'd imagine in 1995 or 1996 and being disappointed with it.

Came across the soundtrack to To Live and Die in L.A. last weekend whilst browsing my CDs and after a few days of listening to it dug out my DVD copy of the movie. I snuck into this when it was first in the cinema and remember thinking it was pretty cool (again, please note I was underage - the sight of boobs alone probably made me think it was cool :rolleyes::D) and probably haven't watched this in 15 years at least. Written and directed by William Friedkin, it features a Friedkin hallmark car chase and some "interesting" performances from very young William Peterson, Willem Dafoe and John Turturro. It hasn't aged particularly well from a special effects point of view (the explosions and the gunshot wounds etc.) but I still found it watchable. It does feel a little rushed and some avenues the film ventures into remain unfinished and unanswered but it's ok. 5.5/10. I'd probably genuinely rate the soundtrack higher though, it holds up very well if you're into instrumental, weird atmospheric stuff!

Great Wang Chung soundtrack, bought this on Blu-ray a year or two back as I actually think it's a pretty cool 80's movie.

Tony EH

And if I recall correctly, has one of the best WTF moments in film.

Nerdlingr

Oblivion

Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Jaime Lannister and the Russian Bond girl.
Absolute poppycock. What a load of sh*te. I had to watch it all the way through just to make sure it was as bad as I thought it was going to be and yes, I wasnt disappointed...it was awful. Think I meant to watch the 'Edge of Tomorrow' but somehow ended up watching this instead. Ah well. An honest mistake.

3/10

OldRio

'The best Exotic Marigold Hotel'

Sat down to watch this on RTE 1 last night. An utter pleasure from start to finish. Granted it would have been much better to see it at the cinema but I somehow missed its release.

Firstly, I must profess that I/we are of a certain age. Therefore seeing the story of this stellar cast of OAP's unfold in there new life in was fascinating.
And what a cast. Superb performances from them all. Smith, Drench (She is lovely) Nighy, Wilkinson Imrie and Wilton.

It did dip into a wee bit of mawkish sentimentality towards to end but I can forgive that. Lovely way to spend 90 odd minutes.

As an aside the Wednesday RTE film is usually utter trash. Poorly acted and directed teen romcoms or second rate 'action' films. It is worth noting that
occasionally and I mean occasionally you find a hidden gem amongst the muck. I'm thinking the likes of this and 'Midnight in Paris' by Woody Allen.
It's always worth checking what film is on.

Judgement Day

Last night another one from my trove of hard found Irish VHS movies:

"La Jeune Folle" (1952)

aka "Revenge at Daybreak" aka "Desperate Decision" aka "Troubles".



Based on the novel “Ar Follez Yaouank” by Catherine Beauchamp. The author had an eventful life herself which would make a good subject for a movie. Catherine Beauchamp was a pseudonym of Francine Rozec a Breton poet who was involved in a pro-Nazi Breton militia modelled on the IRA. She fled to Ireland after the war.

Starring French screen heart throbs of the day Danièle Delorme and Henri Vidal.

Set in Dublin during the War of Independence. In an Irish convent, a young woman (Danièle Delorme) has a premonition that her brother is in danger and needs her. She makes her way to the city and begins a search for her brother who - unbeknown to her - has just been shot as an informer. During her search she is befriended by by the IRA leader (Henri Vidal) who ordered the killing and falls in love with him. Eventually she finds out the truth and the tragedy plays out to an obvious conclusion.

In French with no subtitles, lots of meaningful gazes, pauses, and the usual stuff found in French romantic movies. Some glimpses of Dublin in the 1950s but nothing substantial and much of the shooting must have been done in a French film studio. A curiosity and a keeper for that reason. Danièle Delorme is stunning too!

Harry Palmr

The Wild Bunch Dir Sam Peckinpah 1969 145 mins.

After the hors d'oeuvres of Fistful of Dollars and Bonnie & Clyde the bloodgates opened up with this seminal wide-screen epic on the directors favoured Tex/Mex border landscape. Old west meets mechanised new west and the nascent Mexican revolution. Its not fully formed Peckinpah but getting close with his first use of that signature cross cutting of slow-mo and and real time action which would become a trademark and used to great effect in films like Junior Bonner and The Getaway. The cast is the very definition of "grizzled" no way you'd be able to assemble such a brilliant group of proper unshowey character actors now. Rather like Unforgiven this is both anti-western and anti-violence while managing to confirm the downbeat romance of the genre and show loads of people being mown down with some glee.

I watched this on ITV4 recorded and while I was able to zip through the breaks this really needs to be seen without a break every time one arrived it robbed some momentum.

Arghus

Coherence- I didn't really know what to expect from this one when I sat down to watch it. I'd seen decent reviews and mentions of the phrases "mind bending" closely followed by "thought provoking", so I thought I'd take a leap into the unknown and give it a watch. I'd recommend it to fans of indie sci-fi. It reminded me in places of Primer and, to a lesser extent, Upstream Color. Of course it isn't as good as either. Upstream Color is just on another level entirely and Primer is a film of ideas that goes about its business without needless fuss. This is a film, with one good idea, that allows an intriguing mystery to play out for the first half, but once you have put the puzzle together things don't hold the same appeal anymore. I think it's meant, in theory, to make you cry out that you can't get a hold of what's happening, but ultimately it all makes fairly linear sense.

Not a bad film by any means. It wears it's budget well, builds a sense of palpable claustrophobia and does have a basically intriguing and original premise. Let down somewhat by some overly showy ACTING in places and the fact that it's not as clever as it wants to appear at first glance, complete with a sudden abrupt turn into borderline slasher movie territory towards the close.

The Machine- It seems to have been the week of the indie sci-fier for me. Not that there's a whole lot in common with both movies, aside from the fact that they would be probably better served being labelled as fi-sci, taking into account the amount of hard science present in both.

The Machine is more rigorous in it's method, going down the trope highway route of showing us the journey of a scientist trying to change the world. The near future dystopian world in question is only of tangential interest to the story- it's there present, grimy and correct, but not too far removed from our own, apart from from more smog, militarization and advances in computing. The Machine follows in the footsteps of it's forebears- 2001, A.I., Ghost in The Shell in asking- “consciousness, what's it all about, eh?”. Once the question is asked it kind of stops there. Wisely deciding that the medium of film can not answer this ancient question and that most people are here to see butts being kicked and people thrown through plate glass windows. Leave the boring stuff for the philosophers.

I'm being facetious here, but only partly so. The film has a lot going for it. The budget was minuscule so credit has to be given for it looking amazing, all things considered. Perhaps the greatest thing about it is the smattering of undeniable visual style and its creation of a plausible near future, a hard thing to conjure up, that doesn't seem too overtly fake. Whatever about the money involved, the film-makers make it look top dollar. Too bad then that the story plays out in a distinctly bargain basement fashion, with corners definitely cut to streamline us to blood and thunder action, as opposed to waiting for a moment to really think through it's ideas and themes . It's ambition is commendable but the initial promise of a truly thought provoking film is largely washed away in an eventual hail of bullets and over familiarity. But I would be interested in what the director could do with more financial power and confidence.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Neds

John is a bright young student despite his alcoholic father and delinquent brother but when he enters high school and finds the influence of his older brother hard to escape he struggles to stay on track eventually joining one of the many street gangs roaming about Glasgow.

To be honest I thought this was a bit all over the place. At times it feels like your standard coming of age story, then it takes a turn towards gritty social realism, then there's people being stabbed in the throat to a 70's glam rock soundtrack, then Jesus gets involves and there's some lions...... yeah. It kind of felt like the director (Peter Mullan, who also plays a small part as John's dad) didn't want to push it too far with the dark stuff and kept trying to lighten it a bit or something. At just over 2 hours long perhaps it could have benefited from a little extra time in the editing suite?

Liam McPoyle

Going to try and do the 31 horror movies in 31 days in the run up to Halloween. Thus far its been.

Porno Holocaust
Legendary sleaze peddler Joe D'Amato's hard core epic is about a group of people that go to an island that happens to be inhabited by some kind of radioactive native that sets about killing all the travellers.

Its basically a hard core porn movie with a loosely tacked on horror element. Rubbish from start to finish but the xxx scenes are good for a chuckle. A couple of times the male actors were in receipt of fellatio and the camera panned up to their non reactionary faces, when they realised they were been focused on the ooo's and aaa's started.

Awful tripe.

Cabin Fever 3 : Patient Zero.

I love the original Cabin Fever. Its gross, its funny and its thoroughly enjoyable. Part 2, while not near the same league as its predecessor is relatively enjoyable with some nice gooey effects.

Part 3 continues the downward trajectory of the franchise but is saved from total mediocrity by some quality (though sometimes silly) gore.

It centres on Porter, played by a tubby looking Samwise Gamgee himself, Sean Astin. The movie kicks off with him being brought into a facility of some sort by army types and doctors, apparently he is patient zero ie a carrier of the virus but completely immune to it. No clue how he became patient zero, its not explained and no reference is made to the previous 2 movies so its anyones guess.

We are then introduced to a group on the eve of a wedding who decide to take the groom to be to a remote island for one last hurrah but surprise surprise, the island just so happens to be where the medical facility is.

Infection ensues with much mirth including vomiting blood, skin getting peeled off and cunnilingus leaving much more behind than was intended.

Where the original won me over was its humour, it was quite dark as the group descended into paranoia but this one is sadly lacking.

As I said though, the gore is top notch with all practical effects which is always nice and there is one scene in particular involving a massive dildo that did bring a smile to this jaded face of mine.

All in all not great but a decent enough way to pass 90 minutes.


Grotesque

This came out with massive hype and it got the red tops in a lather due to its content and it has been banned by the BBFC after the furore. Having been put off watching it until this evening I can see why it was banned, certainly in its unrated format.

The story, such as it is, centres around a doctor who kidnaps a couple and spends the majority of the movie torturing them, and thats it. The "Guinea Pig" series of movies from the 80's & 90's immediately sprung to mind and one would be hard pushed to say that Grotesque was not influenced by (or totally plagarised) those horror classics.

What surprised me about this one was the sexual nature of the torture and degradation.

There is a prolonged scene where the protagonist masturbates to orgasm his two helpless victims, he also constantly refers to his acts arousing him and encourages his captives to turn him on, this is what caused it to fall foul of the BBFC, sexual arousal or pleasure from violent acts is a big no no from them and Grotesque has it in spades.

There are some brilliant special effects through out and some pretty harsh scenes

one in particular where the female has her nipples cut off with a scissors is shown in close up

.

Has the movie any artistic merit?

Probably not.

Is it purely an exercise in the extreme designed to shock its audience?

Absolutely.

Did I enjoy it?

Well, I must say, I did. Its a shock/sleaze movie and nothing else and harks back to the days of the Category III shockers like Dr Lamb, The Ebola Syndrome or The Untold Story.

Recommended for hardened horror fans (just make sure its the unrated cut you watch), for those of a nervous disposition though, Id say stay away.

AMKC

Oblivion

Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Jaime Lannister and the Russian Bond girl.
Absolute poppycock. What a load of sh*te. I had to watch it all the way through just to make sure it was as bad as I thought it was going to be and yes, I wasnt disappointed...it was awful. Think I meant to watch the 'Edge of Tomorrow' but somehow ended up watching this instead. Ah well. An honest mistake.


I seen Oblivion in the cinema and must say I quiet enjoyed it. The sound was fantastic and the picture looked fabulous too. Maybe it is how you seen it. Ok the story was nothing special or new but I still found it an enjoyable film to watch.

'The best Exotic Marigold Hotel'

I seen this too. I did not really see anything new in it. There was the usual love story bla boring. There was the women that falls in love with the man she can,t have in this case because he had no interest in women and so she goes back to being bored and wanting to get out of India because she did not like it in the first place. Then there was all the others just having fun. It was ok a few funny bits in it but nothing really funny.

Harry Palmr

Business Cat wrote: »

There are some brilliant special effects through out and some pretty harsh scenes

one in particular where the female has her nipples cut off with a scissors is shown in close up

.

Sure they were doing that stuff in Italian movies 35 years ago! Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals 1977. Not that I've seen such tripe of course, Joe Tomato rubbish!

Myrddin

Watched The Mist there, man dat ending! So dark Refreshing in another way though, as it's not what you'd expect at all

The Black Oil

Battle: Los Angeles

I was about to say not much gung-ho stuff yet, then there was mini 'fighting for our freedom!' speech. Thanks to CNN we know meteors hit Ireland, too. Plus,

'word is going out to every other army in the world', oh I did laugh out loud at that line, ya know, taken from that other film.

Barna77

Being sick and and without internet :eek: I've gone through my DVD collection over the last few days:

My Neighbour Totoro
Porco Rosso
Dazed and Confused
Indiana Jones trilogy

All good for long hours of couch and tea.

Saw Gone Girl last night. Enjoyed it, was a tad long. But God I wanted to slap her as soon as she was on screen. I could have killed her myself.

Judgement Day

Last night I ticked off another of my 'Irish' must sees on YouTube.

"Reign of Fire" (2002) Sci-Fi.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Christian Bale leads a band of survivors eking out an existence in the ruins of a remote Scottish castle. They are amongst the few remaining humans in a world dominated by fire breathing dragons. Not half as corny as it sounds and having put off watching it for a long time I was very pleasantly surprised. Much of the film was shot in Ireland - the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains and Mayo. Not too gory and just the right amount of CGI to bring a realistic feel to the movie.

7/10 and I'll be buying the DVD as a keeper.

Schadenfreudia

Over the past week have watched the first two seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix.

Never saw it before - it is almost as good as the hype...so far.

Harry Palmr

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) Dir Basil Dearden

Man driving to work is overcome by an urge to drive recklessly, crashes and briefly is clinically dead during surgery after recovering he is shadowed and impersonated by someone who seems to be him. The role that illustrated Roger Moore could act a bit when he chose to. Its as hokey as the plot suggests but the building mystery and frustration is nicely handled by veteran Dearden in what was his final film as Roger fears for his sanity. A state of affairs not helped by having Freddie Jones complete with very Scottish accent and black shades as his psychologist.

Judgement Day

"Fatal Inheritance" (1991) on VHS.

Starring Emma Samms, Kevin Davis and David McCallum plus a variety of Irish actors - Jimmy Bartley (Bella), Anna Manahan (best known for Mrs.Cadogan in The Irish RM), Alan Stanford (playing a British army officer - what else!), Joan O'Hara (Eunice in Fair City), Joan Brosnan Walsh (Mags in Fair City)........



This very strange movie never appears to have made it to an English language VHS release and thus it was that I sat down to watch it last night - in German with no subtitles! The extent of my German comes down to a few words such as Heil Hitler, Achtung and Englander schweinhund so it was always going to be a struggle but at least I had a synopsis of the plot:

Jack Carnegie (Kevin Davis) is an American Heirhunter, whose job it is to trace unknown family members who should rightly inherit unassigned fortunes. He arrives in Ireland to find the sole heir to a fortune — Timothy Murphy. Murphy cannot believe his good luck and he goes out that same night, to celebrate with his fiancee, Brigid O’Toole (Emma Samms). On his way home he is murdered by a mystery assailant - we're never told who or why! Brigid is grief stricken, as is Jack — Timothy had no known heir, so Jack is not able to collect his commission for delivering the inheritance to the heir.

Jack has one alternative line to follow — Brandon Murphy (David McCallum), who supposedly died in an airline accident several years before — maybe he left an heir. As he searches, Jack finds himself being drawn into a Northern Ireland underworld network, lead by Brandon Murphy himself! He enlists the help of Brigid, for her local knowledge. Jack and Brigid become very close, but it soon becomes apparent that Brigid is carrying Timothy’s baby, who when born, will become the heir to the fortune. From that moment, Jack realises that Brigid is in mortal danger, until the child is born.
So they hide out on a remote island and as the weeks pass Jack and Brigid fall deeply in love. Jack arranges with Woodward Dawes, his trusted colleague in America, to file papers for Brigid’s baby to claim the inheritance.

When Jack goes to Dublin for the day the sinister Quinn (Bella Doyle) comes to the island, and kidnaps Brigid. In an attempt to escape Brigid falls overboard. Believing she has drowned Quinn returns to the mainland. Jack on returning to the island arrives just in time to hear Brigid’s screams and rescues her. She is now in labour, and must get to a doctor quickly.
But even now Brigid is not safe as Murphy, Quinn and Dawes turn up to kill her, and take the inheritance to fuel their cause. As Brigid and Jack struggle for survival during the climatic ending they are forced to confront the truth that Jack’s partner, Woodward Dawes, has masterminded the whole thing!


The plot is plodding, the north Dublin scenery intriguing as the locals seem to be living in the 1930's, and Emma Samms develops from a slim lass into the Michelin Man overnight - or at least that how it seemed to me but I did nod off for a few minutes. The movie would lend itself to a "Downfall" type parody or two and I maybe tempted. Anyway, I'll leave the last word on the film to this review from IMDB as I certainly couldn't put it any better...5/10 for unintentional humour.

One of the worst films I have ever seen, the only reason I sat through it was because it was largely filmed in my home town (Skerries) and it was fun recognising the extras. And given that that is this film's only merit, you'd be well advised to avoid it. Confused imagery of Ireland, poor acting and dodgy accents abound as do rather strangely unconvincing IRA men and various other odd characters. Do not see it (unless you come from Skerries too).
Noel O'Sullivan, Sydney, Australia

kryogen

Judgement Day wrote: »

Last night I ticked off another of my 'Irish' must sees on YouTube.

"Reign of Fire" (2002) Sci-Fi.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Christian Bale leads a band of survivors eking out an existence in the ruins of a remote Scottish castle. They are amongst the few remaining humans in a world dominated by fire breathing dragons. Not half as corny as it sounds and having put off watching it for a long time I was very pleasantly surprised. Much of the film was shot in Ireland - the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains and Mayo. Not too gory and just the right amount of CGI to bring a realistic feel to the movie.

7/10 and I'll be buying the DVD as a keeper.

I remember seeing that in the cinema and was tempted to walk out it was so bad!

I might give it a re watch cause a couple of people I know have also only seen it recently and didn't think it was that bad, two really enjoyed it

Liamalone

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Over the past week have watched the first two seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix.

Never saw it before - it is almost as good as the hype...so far.

It only gets better and better

longshotvalue

Just seen Igby goes Down, and its excellent. I also watched Girl in the Cafe an english film from a few years ago which i really liked.

You have to love the who if you like that you'll like this in imdb or rotten tomatoes.

Harry Palmr

The Brain 1962 Dir Freddie Francis - a film noir styled version of the "living brain" hardy annual - Donovans Brain which has been filmed in one shape or another several times. Actually a British-German co-production which may explain its stark black and white impressionist visuals though not the awful muffled soundtrack. Still if you have the will to stick with it it becomes quite intriguing - complete with a flash of boob which only a sneaky projectionist would have noticed in 1962 (and me on slo-mo in 2014!) and an impassioned speech about good v greed which arrives almost like it was added by the UN under force of law. Very much a relic of its second world war origins and the view that community values should triumph personal gain.

Judgement Day

“Clash of the Ash” (1987)

Filmed in Fermoy, County Cork.

Phil Kelly (Liam Heffernan), Leaving Certificate student and angry young star of the local hurling team prefers the cider-drinking company of his mate Martin (Vinnie McCabe) and Martin’s glamorous girl-friend Mary (Gina Moxley) to the cameraderie of the sports field. His frustration with small town life and with other people’s determination to plan his life for him, ultimately drives him to get the boat.

I had forgotten just how good this was and it's one of the few films that I've watched recently that left me wanting more.

Was released on VHS but long gone. The full movie is available on YouTube courtesy of a Boardsie - not me! 10/10

More here: http://wheresgrandad.wordpress.com/tag/cork/