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paul1314
Reviews
Day Dreams (1922)
Great print of an average Keaton
Sky Movies just screened this in UK ; 2001 restoration by Lobster Films, with some great tints and hues. Running time about 23 minutes makes it pretty complete, overall not too much nitrite decomposition on the print either. It did seem to drag in places, today's audiences seem a bit less able to take the pace, although there are some great sequences. The best scene is probably the elongated one on the run from the law, particularly on the riverboat where Buster is caught on the wheel as it sails and apparently walks on water. The gag ending falls kind of flat, but overall a pretty complete print to my knowledge - 6/10 for the film and 10/10 for the folks at Lobster Films !
Monster Man (2003)
Contender for the worst ever
I really really despair that 90% of you rated this above 1. In fact, I despair further that I could not pick a zero for the rating. Woeful acting throughout. Aimee Brooks visibly laughing when she's MEANT to be looking scared (Oh yes she is think about it) about 64 minutes in as the three of them flee the truck on foot. The rest of the unknowns keeping her company are destined to remain so. Parking cars and pumping gas beckons, boys & girls, in a Bacharach & David sort of way. What effrontery to Duel , Jeepers Creepers & Texas Chainstore Masochists to be named on the DVD cover. Also, driving from dusk to dawn day after day - it's T-shirt weather as we see; say 14 hours daylight ? 600 miles a day ? Maybe they should have got their car out of second gear and made the damned wedding.
Il paese del sesso selvaggio (1972)
Truly woeful - Deep River Sausages
No shortage of female flesh but still not interesting! Lenzi at least is capable of so far greater probably peaking at Spasmo and starting with Kiss Me Kill Me
The Hard Gore R2 DVD release may be cut at 86 minutes, but this movie contains one act of cannibalism and one victim - a scene with a native girl who is brutalised and disembowelled by the cannibal tribe we are warned of and who later set fire to some huts. Arsonist Holocaust? Firestarter Fernox anyone?
Certainly not a cannibal flick but was there ever a decent one made? Avoid.
Ripley's Game (2002)
Fava beans & chianti anyone?
Tense and gripping entertainment with solid performances throughout, it does look more like a PG certificate 'Hannibal' than a follow up to Talented Mr Ripley, with Malkovich reprising Lecter's role of the artisan at home-from-home in the splendour of Northern Italy doubling as a completely sangfroid and sociopathic killer. Ray Winstone is type cast again as the Cockney hood (Scum, Nil By Mouth, Sexy Beast)and most of the black humour comes from the dismay and contempt the refined Ripley holds him in. Dougray Scott delivers a perfect Sassenach accent and the devilishly handsome beggar has done well to lose a lot of weight and genuinely looks ill for his part. Poorest aspect of the film is that the transition from refusenik to conspirator and murderer for Scott is not convincing, lack insight to his internal decision making process, and the speed of the U-turn and reverse polarity is the one major flaw. Still excellent!
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Most underrated of the series
When this used to run on ITV in Britain in the 1980s the film critic of TVTimes described it as 'visually more spectacular than the first'. Surprisingly, unlike so many other things, he was absolutely right. Apes are on screen from the first scene (albeit a resume of the ending of the original for continuity )and the most powerful scenes include the magnificent Ursus (the late James Gregory) making the case for invasion to the assembled Ape City. Ursus carries the menace that is missing from the first, feebly implied with the lowly gaoler Julius and the deferred threat of Dr Zaius. The best visuals include the full gorilla war machine and the Dante-esque infernal Lawgiver hallucinations. The New York Underground is almost altogether another planet (no change there then) with its pious transUranic mutants.
Suffered mostly from comparison in proximity to #1 - the curse of the sequel - but less so today, as easily the best of the four sequels and the only true 'Planet of the Apes' sequel, with the action set on the post holocaust world of mute humans, Forbidden Zones and ape rule, before the budget cuts meant we were down to just two Apes after the first 30 minutes of the next sequel. First follow up to herald the dawn of that hitherto unheard of phenomenon, the science fiction blockbuster series, without which, no Star Wars series, Aliens, Terminator, or even Star Trek.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Out of date in 1928!
As a devotee of vintage horror and silent era in particular this should have been meat and drink to me. With a feature being released at the same time, commercialism was not one of the movie's flaws, but the reduction of the Poe tale to a vignette of a little over 10 minutes is woeful.
By the Sun's Rays (1914)
Nine minute milestone
The version popularly on the go here is a little under ten minutes long, nitrate decomposed and light. I am told it is from the only surviving print. The film is unremarkable and if you have it on semi official VHS there are probably continuity errors (e.g. the law chase the outlaw signalling to his accomplices with the mirror BEFORE they spot the sun's rays bouncing out of the woods)- also check the numbering on the titles which are out of sequence. What does make it a milestone? The 1914 pairing of Lon Chaney and Tod Browning.