kal
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Post by kal on Oct 31, 2023 13:54:14 GMT
Hmm, you may be right. Whats rapey in robocop, total recall and starship troopers though? There’s definitely a rape that Robocop stops. The other two I don’t think have them, but Showgirls and Basic Instinct both have one. And more recently Elle is all about a rape. The Hollow Man ones though are particularly gratuitous and there’s no meaningful value to the story or point of the film. They’re really grim.
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 31, 2023 14:03:42 GMT
Hollow Man Never seen this before. Was curious to see if it’s really as bad as reputed. In some ways it’s not awful. It has that same b-movie science fiction energy that Robocop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall all have, and it’s quite compelling. It’s well paced, the effects hold up in a late 90s way, Kevin Bacon is obviously having a great time and it’s kinda fun… …but unfortunately it’s really pervy, and you do get the strong sense Verhoeven is living out his invisibility rape fantasies on screen. It’s also completely devoid of any kind of social satire unlike his other films. Verhoeven supposedly hates it and it was the last Hollywood film he made. I can’t help but wonder if it’s more that he didn’t like what he revealed about himself with it. Rape is certainly a common theme in his films and it really feels fetishised here in particular. So yeah. While there’s some fun to be had here, it has an unintended darkness that really makes it unpleasant to watch. I think it's doing Verhoeven a disservice to say the darkness is unintended. You're right, it's immensely uncomfortable to watch but the main character is a piece of shit, you're not on his side at any point. I like Verhoeven's films because there is often the duality of the glossy surface and the disgusting underbelly. I agree that the satire isn't completely convincing because I'm not sure what it's satirising, but it's ripping it out of Hollywood and the industrial military complex in my opinion. Both being run by the equivalent of horny teenage boys. I'm guessing he hates it because of studio interference watering down any message he was trying to get across.
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 31, 2023 14:04:45 GMT
But yes he appears to be 'fascinated' by rape.
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Post by rawshark on Oct 31, 2023 14:05:36 GMT
Arnie gets his brain raped in Total Recall. Or does he? And there is that Brain Bug scene near the end of Starship Troopers. Does that count?
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kal
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Post by kal on Oct 31, 2023 14:33:15 GMT
harrypalmerYes I guess to be more specific it’s not that the film isn’t intended to be dark, it’s that it’s dark in a way that wasn’t intended. If that makes sense Again I just think he’s said the quiet part out loud a bit. The message is dangerously close to being “we’d all be rapists if we thought we could get away with it”, and even the way the assault scenes are shot are highly sexualised and soft porny. And I don’t think it’s done with satirical intent.
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Bongo Heracles
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Technically illegal to ride on public land
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Oct 31, 2023 14:46:23 GMT
This is thing that lets it down. Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers were clever, subersive genre movies. The Hollow Man is played with a pretty straight bat and is kind of whatever because of it.
I would probably watch it again over the one with Elizabeth Moss, though. I found that kind of annoying. At least the invisible man in this one does something.
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 31, 2023 15:17:57 GMT
It's a huge missed opportunity.
It's a fun, sleazy sci-fi slasher film, with flickers of Verhoeven genius here and there, but it doesn't work as an actual good film.
I enjoy the grim ridiculousness of it, and it has some pretty weird nonsense in it that I enjoy, but I'm probably guilty of giving Verhoeven a pass.
I do miss the times when this kind of thing would actually get made though (the concept, not the rape stuff).
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Post by Reviewer on Oct 31, 2023 18:29:29 GMT
Tenet 6/10
Thought I’d give this another go. I definitely lost interest last time as there a huge chunk of it I have absolutely no memory of.
It’s overly convoluted and moves too fast to work out its weird time bending, yet also has a lot of exposition that essentially tells you very little and there’s no reason to care about any of it.
Some of the action is very good and Robert Pats is dreamy and underused.
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Lukus
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Post by Lukus on Oct 31, 2023 18:39:11 GMT
I watched Predator 2 last night.
Weirdly, I was certain I'd watched it loads before, but it turns out I'd only ever seen bits of it when it was on ITV all the time, never a complete run through.
It's definitely not as good as the first, but speaking of RoboCop, it feels like it may have been influenced by that a bit, with the crazy gang war violence at the start.
The tone is definitely more silly and over the top than the original and not as slick or cohesive, but the call-backs are fun and I like the added lore it brings into things.
Is that an actual Alien skull in his trophy cabinet, or just a vague suggestion?
6.5 out of 10
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Oct 31, 2023 19:01:38 GMT
Actual alien. But we have no interest in that film, here.
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Post by dfunked on Oct 31, 2023 19:06:57 GMT
It deserves an extra point for all of the sweat
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Oct 31, 2023 20:03:55 GMT
Talk to Me - 7/10
Decent little horror flick. A sort of social media twist on the old ouija board movies, but with a disembodied hand instead. Obvs got some grief / issues to deal with as is standard at the moment.
Started really strongly but tailed off a bit towards the end. Not bad though.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Oct 31, 2023 20:33:45 GMT
Passages - 9/10
Man smashes woman. Other man gets angry because he's supposed to have his passage pushed in by him, not her. Other man gets his passage smashed by another man. There's quite a lot of smashing.
It's very good. A love triangle about some very mixed up souls. Tbh, Man 1 is (intentionally I think) a total asshole and I thought the film was more about toxic masculinity more than anything else. Great acting, but the lead guy treats everyone appallingly. And when you treat Ben Whishaw badly, that's not on.
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kal
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Post by kal on Oct 31, 2023 21:31:23 GMT
This is great.
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askew
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Post by askew on Oct 31, 2023 21:36:52 GMT
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Post by Rubicon on Oct 31, 2023 21:55:12 GMT
Nightbreed (1990)
Not a big Clive Barker fan but I thought this was all over the place. There's a serial killer randomly stabbing people with his mask probably being the scariest thing in the film. Aside from a couple the main 'breed' feel like the bland rejects from Hellraiser with all the standouts only ever glimpsed. The hero has one of the shittiest transformations ever and that's before we get onto the awful acting, lack of plot and shitty CGI to round things off.
3/10
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Oct 31, 2023 23:42:40 GMT
Five Nights at Freddy's
Basically a gateway horror movie. A couple cheap jump scares to keep you on your toes, but there is nothing that is actually scary.
Now I haven't played any of the games past the first one, so I guess I'm not exactly the target audience here... but from my experience, there's about ten or so minutes that feel like FNAF1. Everything else is kind of a fantasy horror-lite. Judging it as its own thing, I'd say the story is a bit all over the place. The animatronics don't look very convincing either, they seem like PS3-era CG models juxtaposed on the screen. But there's some fun moments, and the filmmakers cleverly managed to space them out just well enough that you don't quite get bored enough between them.
Edit: I just read that they are actual animatronics rather than CG, which just makes it all the stranger. I'm not sure why they looked so weird to me. Must be the big cinema screen. Shame there are no iMAX theathers around.
It's not a bad time overall, especially they were smart to bill it as a Halloween movie. In the end though, it's very forgettable. Kinda like the first Sonic movie, I guess?
6/10
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Post by rawshark on Nov 1, 2023 9:34:55 GMT
Even if it’s intentional, I can’t bear to look at that with the misuse of “too”.
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Post by simple on Nov 1, 2023 10:14:38 GMT
How does FNAF compare to that Nicolas Cage movie that was basically FNAF from a couple of years ago?
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Post by Whizzo on Nov 1, 2023 10:22:08 GMT
How does FNAF compare to that Nicolas Cage movie that was basically FNAF from a couple of years ago? Mark Kermode compares the two in his review.
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Post by rhaegyr on Nov 1, 2023 10:29:55 GMT
Terrifier
What a load of bollocks with absolutely nothing to say. Can't believe I wasted my Halloween film watch on this.
1/10
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wunty
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Pastry Forward
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Post by wunty on Nov 1, 2023 10:41:15 GMT
Lights Out
This was our Halloween film for me, the wife and the boy last night. I'd seen it before but thought it was a good shout as it wasn't too intense or scary and had some nice visual tricks going on. It's a decent film with likeable leads that you actually want to root for. It's not top tier horror for me but it seems to be a film that I'll happily rewatch every so often, and it got the thumbs up from Mrs and little wunty as well, with no chances of nightmares for either.
A solid 8/10
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kal
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Post by kal on Nov 1, 2023 11:05:17 GMT
The Exorcist: Believer
Despite the terrible response to this I thought I’d treat myself to this as my Halloween film.
Honestly, I’m a bit bemused by the terrible reviews. It’s really not bad at all. It has two quite significant problems.
The first is that (amazingly) it’s just too short. It starts off really strongly and builds very well to the point where it connects with the first film (which is also done really nicely). But the final third is stupidly rushed and the film loses not just all the tension it’s been building, but also the weighty gravitas. It feels like it stops taking itself seriously somehow in the rush to get to the end.
The other problem is that it’s not particularly scary, or at least it’s not scary in the way modern horror films tend to be. But that was always the case with The Exorcist. It’s about the horror of an innocent child being corrupted. Again if the film had allowed itself to be slower paced it would have been more successful in achieving what the original did.
It also has some new things to say for itself about the real nature and purpose of faith that takes it away from the heavily Christian centric original which some may interpret as “woke” but again I found it interesting.
So honestly you’re left with a film that has good intentions and feels like it just didn’t have permission to be the film it really needed to be (a bit like Exorcist III). It’s really not as bad as RT will have you believe and I do wonder whether it being a bit woke affected that.
I’d give it a good 6.5/10.
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Post by rawshark on Nov 1, 2023 20:54:58 GMT
Lights Out This was our Halloween film for me, the wife and the boy last night. I'd seen it before but thought it was a good shout as it wasn't too intense or scary and had some nice visual tricks going on. It's a decent film with likeable leads that you actually want to root for. It's not top tier horror for me but it seems to be a film that I'll happily rewatch every so often, and it got the thumbs up from Mrs and little wunty as well, with no chances of nightmares for either. A solid 8/10 I’d check out the short film it’s based on as well, if only as a curio. Should be on YouTube.
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Nov 1, 2023 22:30:03 GMT
Rec on fake Prime
Why why why why why did I leave it so long to watch this? I remember mates talking about it when it came out but heard "found footage" and switched off.
Absolutely brilliant. Easily best of its genre, probably in the top 5 zombie films, brilliant horror and basically stealth Resident Evil prequel.
That said, very much like a thrill ride and probably won't watch it again. Fucking great, though. Paranormal Activity can fuck off.
8/10
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Post by harrypalmer on Nov 1, 2023 23:13:58 GMT
Yeah Rec is great. I used to watch it all the time. Haven’t seen it in ages. The sequel is pretty good too, although I think I only saw it once and can’t really remember what happens.
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Post by rawshark on Nov 2, 2023 9:39:04 GMT
Agreed, loved Rec. Absolutely nails the climax.
It’s funny - I watched it with two housemates who were cold on it, but both really enjoyed Paranormal Activity. Different strokes, I guess.
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Nov 2, 2023 12:51:35 GMT
They're no mates of yours.
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Post by Zomoniac on Nov 2, 2023 15:24:03 GMT
The Rocky Horror Picture Show First time watching it in the best part of 30 years. Since then I've seen the stage show a good half dozen times, and I love that. The energy from the crowd, the audience participation, the quips of the narrator make it a great experience. The film, however, lacks all that energy and fun, and highlights all the shortcomings that you overlook in the theatre, like the story being a load of bollocks and most of the songs being a bit shit. 4/10
Anatomy of a Fall Last night's Screen Unseen. A very compelling if overly long French courtroom drama, which was hitting all the right notes until it just ended abruptly and awkwardly. 7/10
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geefe
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Post by geefe on Nov 2, 2023 22:33:51 GMT
Just caught a bit of Rocky. I forgot he mansplains southpaw to Adrian.
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