What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

The Birds - Probably the only "big name" Hitchcock film that I hadn't seen. It's Hitchcock of course so it's pretty great and full of wonderful scenes. I think the first half, where Hedren and Taylor are playing games with each other and Hedren meets the villagers, is the best part of the film. The second half where the birds really start attacking people is good but not quite as strong IMO.

Saw The Raven - about Edgar Allen Poe assisting the police with catching a murderer who is killing in the style of his poems/stories - bloody garbage - i missed the final 15 minutes as i fell asleep without alcohol being imbibed thats how enthralling i found it.

currently watching something called Unstoppable . . . so so dire! still it fills a quiet night at work.

That train? My mrs mate was like 'you'll be on the edge of your seats the whole time!' - it was about a train that was going like 30mph and the brakes werent working. Real edge of seat stuff yeah

aye unstoppable was a right pile of pish.

Vertigo. My wife was a little surprised that I'd never watched it. I picked it as it's now the BFI's best film ever or something after taking over from Citizen Kane. I must say that I think it's better than Citizen Kane too. I was very tired but it kept me gripped as I tried to work out what the hell was going on.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy - excellent stuff. The first and third were definitely the better of the three but all were extremely enjoyable and gripping

Frost / Nixon - enjoyed this too. Didn't know a great deal about the whole thing before watching it, but thought it was interesting and well put together

The Krays - bit of a weird one, the scenes about dreams were very odd and felt a bit out of place, but the acting was great, the twins were very sinister

WE HAD A DREAM LAST NIGHT... WE HAD THE SAME DREAM

King Creole (1958) You wouldn't want to step on his blue suede shoes coz he plays an hard man in dis one and gets ta act anawl.
You know he's gone, gone, gone
Hip shaking king creoleeeeeeeeee.
Eh!

I watched that last night - quite enjoyed it - bizarre idea - lots of McFly referencing -

Odd Man Out.

James Mason is an IRA commandant in postwar Belfast. He kills a man in a robbery, and is fatally wounded himself. As he wanders round the city, slowly dying of his wounds, he is hunted by the police, his comrades and his lover. The story is about the people he meets and the effect he has them.

This was directed by Carol Reed, and is usually seen as just the dry run for Reed's masterpiece The Third Man. I'd say it's actually a very different film, and at least as good as TTM, if not better.

Left me feeling nostalgic for Belfast, especially the scene in the Crown bar. . .

Yes, it is good. I also like Reed's other film (sort of being part of a trilogy) set in east Berlin after WWII, called The Man Between.

The remake of Straw Dogs - while it doesn't have the visceral power of the original it's competent enough as a revenge movie. Kate Bosworth isn't in the same league as Susan George in terms of acting ability or screen presence but the character of Amy is more fully drawn in the remake. On the other hand James Marsden isn't anything to write home about as the hero and the bloke playing the David Warners (a truely fantastic actor IMO) role is absolutely dreadful.

Ted - It was reasonably funny. I kept thinking Ted was Brian though, coz of the voice.

'Ill put my plonker on the table if you don't get me my mushy peas'

Where did it all go wrong, eh Lusty?

Forgot to mention that the other night I watched Easy Rider.

Very much of its time, but bar the graveyard scene (which is just embarassing) it actually does stand up 45 years on. You know things are bad when Dennis Hopper is the sane and plausible voice of reason, though.

Also, it's always interesting to see what Jack Nicholson could do before he became a caricature of himself.

The real star of the movie, though, is America. It would actually make you want to get on a bike and ride through the deserts and canyons. . .

Is that Mason as well?

Now watch the follow up:



"My wife and I have dropped out of society"

I watched an early 90s horror film called The Resurrected. Never heard of it till I stumbled across it on the MGM movie channel. It's the other film directed by Dan O'Bannon, best known as a screenwriter on Dark Star and Alien and the director of Return of the Living Dead. It's a faithful adaptation and update of HP Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and despite the B-movie cheesiness it was quite good with effects of the latex and KY gloop variety

Yes, he's in it.

Hello Lusty.

'Let's talk about our sexuality, flash boy.'

It's brilliant, isn't it. I don't really like old films, but I love the Birds. I love it when they are trying to get into the house, scary stuff. I love the end too.

I watched the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers again. Still my favourite of the 50s sci-fi movies, probably because it feels much like a noirish paranoid thriller. I like the 70s version just as much, which sticks closely to the story of the original and yet feels like a completely different film.

Just watching the 70s re-incarnation thriller Audrey Rose. Hoping for lurid, Exorcist style thrills which is how it was advertised as when it came out, it was disappointing then and it still is. Anthony Hopkins is terrible in it.

He does a nice old style judo strangle in it.

Watched the original The Day The Earth Stood Still. (Which, along with Forbidden Planet, is my favourite 50's sci-fi.)

The Day The Earth Stood Still would be my second favourite 50s sci-fi.

Do you like This Island Earth ? I like Forbidden Planet but it always feels like they arrived on the planet after the party has finished. This Island Earth is more fun and while Forbidden Planet may be a classier film, its about a civilisation that died long ago. This Island Earth is about a world which is in the process of dying, which I always found more dramatic and sad. And it has half man/half insect style mutants.

On nights shifts but can't sleep so rented some films. Saw Man on a Ledge first. Terrible but not quite soporific enough. Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez were cringeworthy.

Shame though was amazing. The melancholy version of New York New York was excellent. Carey Mulligan & Michael Fassbender were heartbreaking.

"We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place."

Eden Lake - chilling indictment of evil yuppies trespassing on idyllic rustic paradise. Community spirit triumphs.

I quite liked that

True Blood season 4