Last Movie Watched

[orpheus]

Barker's short stories are better (I think) than his longer works. The brevity keeps him a little more focused. Once again, reminds me of a movie. Diehard have you seen Midnight Meat Train?

I LOVE Clive Barker!

Barker is sort of two types of writer which he has developed into. The earlier short story more oriented horror writer and latter day more dark fantasy novelist. I like the bulk of his work, but some of his novels do get long winded. The Great and Secret Show, however, is made up of all sorts of win! And creepy. :O

I was thinking about his Books of Blood collection because I read "In the Hills, The Cities" yesterday. And I can see how some people would prefer short stories. The good ones get to the point, but at the same time, deal with strange and weird ideas that make them seem bigger.


But this thread is about movies, oops!

I like Midnight Meat Train okay. It's not perfect, but it's enjoyable. A lot of people didn't think it brought justice to the story, but I disagree. I would've liked it set in NY like the story, however.

I also watched Book of Blood, which I also enjoyed. Interesting creepy sexual story.

Haven't watched Dread though yet. Anybody watch it?

Oh, and I am really fond of the Candyman. What do you peeps think about that?

 

[Diehard]

I've seen Midnight Meat Train, didn't really care for it. I'm just not very fond of stories revolving around demonic mutants and ****, which it seems like Barker writes a lot about.

 

[orpheus]

I get a feeling that JD is quite fond of demons and stuff. Just a guess.

I know I am!

Barker has some Irish ancestry and his demon stories and what have you are partly inspired by Catholicism.

Apparently, Universal was developing a Tortured Souls movie to be directed by Clive Barker himself, but was ultimately shelved because the studio didn't want to have 2 demon movies. The other demon movie they were talking about and got made? Doom. :facepalm:

 

[jerseydevil]

Yeah Orph...8 years of Catholic school does tend to make one fond of Fallen Angel/Demon stories...so, guilty.

Still trying to get caught up on tv so no time for new movies...yet I have revisited some older ones I wanted to mention

Such a shame. Martin Lawrence/Eddie Murphy probably haven't been as good as they were in this for a long while, but NOBODY went to see this. Sure it's a little predictable but its funny/sweet and actually touching at times. Nice supporting cast too including Bernie Mac. If you haven't seen this and still remember when Eddie was good, give it a try.

and this

is really a perfect movie. Just fun on a bun. Great action sequences that are filmed SO WELL. The Rock, Stifler, Rosario Dawson, Uncle Rico, Christopher freaking Walken and Ewen Bremner(who almost steals the whole thing). It's funny, moves fast and just all around entertains the **** outta ya! LOVE this movie and it's probably in my all time top ten.

 

[adgy-san]

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Extended Version) - So the original cut of this made-for-tv film (and the two sequels) is almost 4 hours long and available for free Amazon Prime streaming right now, so over a couple nights I watched the entire first movie. As a big fan of the books and the movies, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Smaller plot threads and character bits are given a little more room and time, which I liked. There were also a couple "detective" parts that were more fleshed out so they seemed a little less... lucky, I guess. Having said that, though, nothing really essential was cut out of the film for it's international release and I'd recommend this version only to people who really enjoyed the theatrical version.

Men In Black III - Not much to say about this one other than it's fun. Nothing too heavy, nothing too terribly funny, but a good time. Josh Brolin does a great Tommy Lee Jones impression and the Andy Warhol cameo was pretty fun. Worth a watch.

Savages - I've never been much of an Oliver Stone fan, so I went into this with some serious trepidation and got pretty much exactly what I expected. It's not a bad movie, but other than enjoying the **** out of Benicio Del Toro's scenery chewing, the film didn't do much for me. I thought Blake Lively's character was really annoying, and I couldn't find anything to make me care about anything else that happened.

V/H/S - Went to a press screening of this new horror anthology with extremely high expectations and I'm happy to say I came out of it pretty satisfied. I have to write a full review for the website, but briefly I'll say that there was something to like in every segment. Some were, of course, better than others (I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Ti West's segment might have been my favorite) and I don't know if I'd say that any of them were perfect but this film gives the whole 'found footage' subsection of horror a nice extra bit of life. Highly recommended for horror fans.

[Rec] 3: Genesis - Also went to a press screening of this on the same day. I still haven't seen the second film in the series, but I really like the first one and I'd read that this was a standalone film, so I felt ok about seeing them out of order. I was not at all prepared for this flick like I thought I'd be. The first film in the series, and the second I hear, are straight forward, found footage horror films. This movie starts out that way, but just as the infected/zombies/whatever are terrorizing this wedding, the film title pops up and everything changes from then on. This is a ****ing over the top, violent and gross zombie COMEDY and it's actually FUNNY. And they ditch the found footage thing, too! It's not exactly Shaun Of The Dead, but it's not trying to be, either. It was a LOT of fun and I recommend it highly, as long as you're ok with it not being anything like the first two.

 

[jerseydevil]

Damn it I wish I had made it to those screenings. Perfect review of MIB3. It's just fun. Did you see it in 2 or 3d? The 3d really added to it becuase it was used really well. Disagree sort of about Savages, but I wanted to like it so that might have helped. Think Lively is taking a lot of hits for, what I thought, was a good performance. Her character, in theory, was unlikeable and she pulled it off. Ending was a cop out.

 

[adgy-san]

Damn it I wish I had made it to those screenings. Perfect review of MIB3. It's just fun. Did you see it in 2 or 3d? The 3d really added to it becuase it was used really well.

2D. I remember you saying that about the 3, but the timing was off and for a movie like this, that I was only expecting to be fun, I just didn't care enough to spend the extra money.

Disagree sort of about Savages, but I wanted to like it so that might have helped. Think Lively is taking a lot of hits for, what I thought, was a good performance. Her character, in theory, was unlikeable and she pulled it off. Ending was a cop out.

I think she made her character more likable than it might otherwise have been, and I don't really think it's her fault I found her character annoying. I think that was more a script issue. But, yeah, something about Oliver Stone movies... the way he directs and/or writes just doesn't sit with me.

 

[jerseydevil]

The scene in MIB3 where he broke out of prison and jumped across the moon towards the screen, alone justified the 3d. I think Sonnenfeld was a dp before he became a director and it really showed. Fair enough about Savages. Stone is very divisive style wise although this was kinda Stone-light as far as conspiracy theaories/politics. Travolta/Hayek were pretty damned good too.

 

[Diehard]

I'm really, really looking forward to seeing V/H/S, and adgy's review just increased my anticipation tenfold. On the other hand, kind of disappointed that Rec3 is going to be a comedy so I'll probably skip it.

 

[KingInTheWest]

is really a perfect movie. Just fun on a bun. Great action sequences that are filmed SO WELL. The Rock, Stifler, Rosario Dawson, Uncle Rico, Christopher freaking Walken and Ewen Bremner(who almost steals the whole thing). It's funny, moves fast and just all around entertains the **** outta ya! LOVE this movie and it's probably in my all time top ten.

I remember that movie being surprisingly very fun and being impressed with Dwayne Johnson enough that I have been wanting him to play Jack Reacher. How silly of me to not realize that a 50-year old couch-jumping midget was better suited for the part.

 

[Diehard]

Watched The Echo, another Yam Laranas film. Once again, the movie had a very creepy, dark atmosphere. It was really slow paced but built up to a nice climax at the end. Watchable movie but nowhere near as good as The Road.

 

[jerseydevil]

****ing a this movie is a pure adrenaline rush. The Loved Ones starts out a little slow but by the end the intensity reaches insane levels. The best way I can describe it is a combination of Misery, Audition, Wolf Creek,, Frontiers and Hostel. And personally I liked it better than the aforementioned films. Yes, some may call it torture porn and I can imagined being scarred by it if I watched it when I was a child (lol). And admittedly some parts were pretty hard to watch but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Damn you JD, now I'm a horror fanatic because of you lol (I guess adgy deserves a little blame too)

I dunno. I rewatched this and found I liked it even less the second time. At 80 something minutes it felt long. I don't understand the shoehorned in plot of the daughter of the policeman (or at least the necessity of it other than to pad out the running time). The third act from the point SPOILERS




'the Prince' dies is boring and drawn out. Oh yeah...and the dog frigging dies. There is nothing new here. Ok, maybe because it's a boy getting punished at the hands of a girl. But I have just seen my fill of 'CRAAAAAAAAAAZY family' horror pics and I could fart out a list of ten that are sooo much better than this. I really thought I had judged this too harshly when I originally watched it, but it turns out I was kind. Wafer thin plot stretched, and I do mean streeeeeeeeeettttttttccccccched to 80 + minutes. And all the horror 101 cliches you can eat. This movie kinda sucks. No Offense Diehard...we can disagree and still be friends.

 

[Diehard]

SPOILER ALERT


The point of the policeman's daughter subplot was to show how Lola's actions affected more than just her victims. It's obvious that the daughter is distraught and has a lot of issues as a result of her brother ("the one who got away") disappearing. Also shows how the main character's night should have been - drugs, sex, etc. - but instead his geeky friend experienced that while he got the royal treatment from Lola and her father. Further, the daughter is basically the antithesis of Lola. She wears heavy goth makeup, does drugs, sleeps around, basically appears to be the bad girl. Lola wears no makeup, acts shy, and appears to be the innocent girl. Then we find out that goth girl has this self destructive behavior because of how distraught she is over losing her brother, while Lola is ****ed in the head and hurts others purposefully for the **** of it. So yea, the subplot definitely had more relevance than just screentime filler.

And I disagree about it being just another crazy family horror flick. I thought the kid who played Lola did a terrific job, and was definitely one of the most twisted psycho bitches of any movie I've seen. I thought the director did a great job of using a played-out storyline and making it into a twisted and adrenaline-pumping ride.

Anyway, just my opinion.

 

[Diehard]

OHey, that 100 feet callback reminds me of the other flick I saw that day...have you seen The Burrowers? You may wanna put that on the watch list.

Well, now I have. Was entertaining enough. Probably won't watch it again but it was mildly entertaining. Also, Doug Hutchinson does a great job of being a creep, probably because he is one in real life, being in his 50s and marrying a high schooler and all.

 

[Diehard]

I'm generally not a fan of the mutant monster subgenre but Descent was a really fun movie. Never a dull moment in the film really. I really liked the ending too.

Watched the sequel not long after, thought it was entertaining as well but not as good. Plus the ending kind of sucked. I still say it's worth a watch if you liked the first one.

 

[ketel&tonic]

Ok, so The Lives of Others is a great ****ing movie.

 

[Diehard]

Ok, so The Lives of Others is a great ****ing movie.

Hell yea it is! I remember seeing it in the theater. Awesome film. Too bad the director followed it up with The Tourist. Had higher expectations for him.

 

[jerseydevil]

SPOILER ALERT


The point of the policeman's daughter subplot was to show how Lola's actions affected more than just her victims. It's obvious that the daughter is distraught and has a lot of issues as a result of her brother ("the one who got away") disappearing. Also shows how the main character's night should have been - drugs, sex, etc. - but instead his geeky friend experienced that while he got the royal treatment from Lola and her father. Further, the daughter is basically the antithesis of Lola. She wears heavy goth makeup, does drugs, sleeps around, basically appears to be the bad girl. Lola wears no makeup, acts shy, and appears to be the innocent girl. Then we find out that goth girl has this self destructive behavior because of how distraught she is over losing her brother, while Lola is ****ed in the head and hurts others purposefully for the **** of it. So yea, the subplot definitely had more relevance than just screentime filler.

And I disagree about it being just another crazy family horror flick. I thought the kid who played Lola did a terrific job, and was definitely one of the most twisted psycho bitches of any movie I've seen. I thought the director did a great job of using a played-out storyline and making it into a twisted and adrenaline-pumping ride.

Anyway, just my opinion.

Well then it was handled poorly because you just described a better movie than the one I have watched twice now. Yeah Lola was good, but really she was just playing the same part all the reality drones play on spackle like My Super Sweet 16th Birthday. I am glad you got more out of it than I did. And your earlier point about torture porn...this really doesn't qualify. TP usually delights in making you watch the act. This movie pulled the camera away during the money shots and used sound to substitute. In my opinion, a bit of a cheat. If you are going to commit to violence then bring it big or go home. Not that I NEED to see flesh rendered, but just saying. It was indicitive of this movies wishy-washiness, in my opinion.

Burrowers just had a good cast all around. It's nothing earthshattering but a western/indian mysticism/Tremors mash up is worth it just for the attempt.

 

[Diehard]

I guess The Loved Ones is to you what Event Horizon is to me lol

 

[Diehard]

I tried watching Dead Birds a while back, got bored and didn't finish it. Decided to watch it all the way through last night. I thought it was alright. Nothing too special, it does have its share of scary moments but nothing spectacular.