Cinema - Comments / Reviews by albert

Cinema - Comments / Reviews by albert

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
albert 13th Sep 2016		Cinema Johnny Suede (1991) (1991)	Review Johnny Suede is a jerk, a star-struck no-talent loser who daydreams he is as gifted as his heroes. He lives a dead-end existence in a scummy flat and spends more time on his look than practicing on his guitar. One day a pair of suede shoes literally crashes into his life, could they help bring the success he dreams of, or will his new girlfriend manage to make him see the reality. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 11th Sep 2016		Cinema Johnny Suede (1991) (1991)	This is a great movie, I laughed all the way through it, there are so many moments of comic put-downs for tragic Johnny - many of which are self inflicted. Note that the American cinema version cuts a fairly crucial scene right at the end of the movie which gives Johnny's character a sort of undeserved redemption. [YouTube Video]
albert 11th Sep 2016		Cinema Living In Oblivion (1995) (1995)	trailer [YouTube Video]
albert 11th Sep 2016		Cinema Living In Oblivion (1995) (1995)	Review A first-time film director with an inept crew, egotistical star and practically no budget attempts to hold things together long enough to finish the shoot. Sharp observations (from first hand experience), brilliant characterisations and spot on set design make us painfully aware of the somewhat naïve director's plight even if he doesn't know half of what is going on behind the scenes. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 11th Sep 2016		Cinema Meet The Feebles (1989) (1989)	Review The Feebles are not your average ordinary people - no kidding! these are bitchy puppets and they get up to all sorts of criminal and abhorrent behaviour and all done in the worst possible taste. Actually when you think about it they are quite like your average ordinary celeb really. The story concerns a variety show troupe with 12 hours to get rehearsed and ready before a live TV broadcast, but everything that can go wrong will go wrong. One hilarious jaw-dropping experience, its hard to believe that such a film could possibly exist, well recommended. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema Naughty Nurse (1969) (1969)	Included on the Criterion Collection DVD of Eating Raoul.
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema Naughty Nurse (1969) (1969)	Review In this early short film by Paul Bartel a nurse on her lunch break abandons the hospital for a more pressing engagement at a cheap hotel. Bartel’s subversive and humorous touch is fully evident in this 9 minute wonder. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) (1962)	A head that is kept alive in a tray of chemicals, a melted-man monster, a pair of fighting strippers, outrageous dialogue and a bit of telepathy, what more could you want from a cult movie? A wacko story and some much referenced imagery; this film has come to define the monster-movie era of the drive-ins (although it did arrive a little late in the day).
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) (1962)	Review Mad scientist and plastic surgeon Dr Cortner saves the head of his girlfriend, who's body has been destroyed in a car crash, by keeping it alive in a dish of chemicals. He then sets off on a mission to find the perfect body for her, but unbeknown to him she develops a telepathic link to a monster lurking in the laboratory who will give her the revenge that she craves. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema Aventure Malgache (1944) (1944)	Review Based on the true story of Clarus, the resistance leader in Madagascar, who is captured and faces extradition to Vichy, but is then freed by British forces and sets up Radio Free Madagascar offshore to broadcast propaganda. Its a story of duplicity told in clever flashbacks and played by the man himself, who was an actor at the time, but the finished film was never seen by it's intended audience. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema Bon Voyage (1944) (1944)	Hitchcock's wartime shorts are included as a bonus on the Lifeboat DVD & Blu-ray from Eureka (Masters Of Cinema).
albert 4th Sep 2016		Cinema Bon Voyage (1944) (1944)	Review A young Scotsman has escaped the Nazis and is escorted across France to make the final leg of his journey, however during debriefing back in England he finds out things did not go as smoothly as he had envisaged. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 3rd Sep 2016		Cinema The Baby Of Mâcon (1993) (1993)	In a possible attempt to become the most boring and tedious person on the planet, Peter Greenaway produced an accompanying book which, amongst other tiresome things, had a picture of every member of the play’s audience each with an invented back story of who they were and what their reason was for coming to see the play. I do quite like Peter Greenaway’s work, sometimes, but little wonder that most of his recent (last 13 years) films haven’t even had a UK cinema or DVD release [exception of Nightwatching].
albert 3rd Sep 2016		Cinema The Devil And Daniel Mouse	A reworking of The Devil and Daniel Webster story. A version of this short film was included on Odeon Entertainment's Rock & Rule DVD in the UK, unfortunately they sourced a cut down print used to fit in a TV slot. You can watch the complete version thanks to YouTube: [YouTube Video] The band Bauhaus took audio samples for their track Party Of The First Part.
albert 27th Aug 2016		Cinema Curse Of The Demon (Night Of The Demon) (1957) (1957)	Review Ace director Jacques Tourneur yet again proves his masterly atmospheric touch with this tense and chilling psychological horror based on M.R.James' short story Casting The Runes. American psychologist John Holden travels to Britain on the invitation of Professor Harrington, who is currently engaged in a public spat with occultist Dr Karswell. However Holden arrives to find that Harrington has been killed in a freak car accident during a storm, with Karswell gloating on his demise. Holden is keen to expose wealthy Karswell as a fraud who preys on vulnerable people, but Karswell proves to be a difficult case being both charming and hospitable one minute and then disarming and sinister the next. Karswell slips Holden a mystical parchment and then strange things happen that even Holden cannot easily explain away. Desperation takes hold as Holden is forced to believe the hex is real, but how can he break the spell? 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 27th Aug 2016		Cinema Curse Of The Demon (Night Of The Demon) (1957) (1957)	The British original is Night Of The Demon, the cut down American version is Curse Of The Demon.
albert 25th Aug 2016		Cinema Django (1966) (1966)	The first Django and the best one. It didn't make any money when first released but it gained a massive following, particularly in the Caribbean and in Germany. It was one of those films we talked about but knew it was impossible to see, and then implausibly it got shown on British TV. I have the uncut remastered Blue Underground DVD with Italian and English Soundtracks and English Subtitles and it looks amazing, well recommended. Rough looking trailer (and bad dubbed English) here: [YouTube Video]
albert 25th Aug 2016		Cinema Django (1966) (1966)	Review A spaghetti western on steroids with a ridiculously high body count, copyist and yet distinctive enough to set it apart from the pack, Franco Nero looks amazing and the western set so lovingly created that you can almost smell it, just check out the streets of mud. Surprisingly there is a decent enough plot lurking behind the frequent and copious splashings of the tomato sauce, and thankfully nobody is wearing sunglasses. Django comes to town dragging his coffin behind, and when Django opens his coffin his enemies are swatted away like pesky flies. But when he gets involved with Mexican revolutionaries and they liberate a chest full of gold coins, Django finds that he cannot always come out on top. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 23rd Aug 2016		Cinema Those Redheads From Seattle (1953) (1953)	This Wikipedia article mainly discusses widescreen but is also cross linked to other formats so you may find some answers there. It also discusses masking and matte etc, (bit of an information overload really). I was also intrigued that cinemascope was not the first widescreen, though earlier innovations didn't seem to take off, quite an interesting read.
albert 23rd Aug 2016		Cinema Themroc (1973) (1973)	Review Experimental films rarely get as blackly comic as this one. Michel Piccoli's blue collar worker decides that he has had enough and regresses to his inner caveman self, taking a handful of neighbours along for the ride. Modern living literally goes out of the window as he trashes his flat and makes the ultimate man-cave, chowing on spit-roasted traffic cop and mating with his sister and the neighbour's wife. The film has no real language, the snippets of French make little sense and most of the dialogue becomes grunts and screams anyway. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 22nd Aug 2016		Cinema Ciao! Manhattan (1972) (1972)	I first saw this at London's Scala cinema and managed to miss the first 5 minutes including the disclaimer/tribute, making the experience all the more bewildering for me. It is a difficult and harrowing film to watch in part, the acting is fairly poor and the scenes of electroshock therapy and drug taking and abuse drag the film into exploitation territory, but when we zip back into the B&W footage all is forgiven. Youtube has no official trailers but is absolutely littered with people's crummy videos plundering the B&W footage and adding stolen music from The Doors and their ilk - please don't watch any of that stuff, it will spoil your enjoyment of this film. An all-regions DVD from Plexifilm was available many years ago and has a great transfer and special features, I would recommend that if you watch the DVD to turn off the volume until the disclaimer at the start of the film has passed. EDIT: now also available on Blu-ray/DVD in the UK.
albert 22nd Aug 2016		Cinema Ciao! Manhattan (1972) (1972)	Review A mess but a glorious mess. The film takes some amazing 1960's B&W footage of Edie when she was Andy Warhol's Superstar and mixes it with 1970's acted footage of Edie playing Susan Superstar, casualty of an excessive wild life, disturbed, drugged, frequently drunk, slurring her words, looking a mess. You can read about Edie's tragic life and watching this film it is hard to separate the screenwriter's cruel fiction from the exploitative fact, especially when it reaches the final scene. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 22nd Aug 2016		Cinema Malpertuis (1971) (1971)	The film is based on a book by Jean Ray (Raymundus Joannes de Kremer), though I haven't read the book. I checked the status of the DVD and it is still available from Cinematek, which is like the Belgium equivalent of BFI, I got my copy from their cinema shop. (actually that link shows quite a few titles I wouldn't mind owning, I wonder if they post to the UK).
albert 22nd Aug 2016		Cinema Wings Of Fame (1990) (1990)	This is a great film, very witty and quite unique, I think some of the ideas presented have a cultural slant and may be more familiar to our European neighbours but there is still much to enjoy. Peter O'Toole and Colin Firth are on top form. The DVD is available, I got my copy under its German title Hotel Zur Unsterblichkeit (it includes the English language soundtrack). I cannot find a trailer on youtube except this Czech one, still it gives you an idea of what to expect.. [YouTube Video]
albert 22nd Aug 2016		Cinema Wings Of Fame (1990) (1990)	Review Its what happens when you die, maybe. Playing about with the fickle nature of fame, your stay in the afterlife and the comforts that you enjoy there will be governed by how well you are remembered and loved back in the land of the living. Valentin, a once great movie star enjoying the last years of his life sometime in the 1960s is murdered by anonymous writer Brian Smith, furious that Valentin stole and claimed his work as his own. Smith also dies in the ensuing chaos and both end up in a very grand hotel populated by the likes of Hemmingway, Einstein, Lassie, and a bunch of others who may be famous dead people, or may be inventions to avoid lawsuits (like the anarchists). Valetin and Smith play a cat and mouse game of minds and both chase the same woman. There are philosophical questions to be asked, religious notions to debunk, charlatans to expose, and much fun is had with the changing parameters of fame such as humiliating room swaps and the fear of an eternity swimming in limbo. But for a lucky one there is also a chance for a second life, now in the 1980s present. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 21st Aug 2016		Cinema Malpertuis (1971) (1971)	Hard to find on DVD, I got my copy over in Belgium and its a 2 disc edition with the Cannes version and the Director's version, both in excellent shape. Both versions are worth watching but I prefer the Cannes version as its in English and the trims do not damage the story despite what the director thinks, [Harry Kümel, he of Daughters Of Darkness fame]. Susan Hampshire plays 3 or 4 parts at the same time. EDIT: youtube deleted the trailer. boo
albert 21st Aug 2016		Cinema Malpertuis (1971) (1971)	Review In a huge decrepit house somewhere in another time, another place, a dying old man gathers a strange collection of people to hear his will and final judgement. The people shall be rich but they must never leave Malpertuis forever. I cannot say any more without spoiling the plot, lest to say this is one of the strangest and most intriguing arthouse films you are ever likely to see. Mystery, myth and madness, the story is pure fantasy but played straight, the ending when it comes is a bit disappointing but then you realise you've witnessed something that will stay with you for a long time. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 10th Aug 2016		Cinema La Horripilante Bestia Humana (Night Of The Bloody Apes) (1969) (1969)	Review This is just your average gorilla-heart-transplant-into-human-experiment-gone-berserk, with added female wrestling, rape, bloody murder and eye-gouging mayhem type of film. The DVD I have from Something Weird Video features the American version with real open-heart surgery inserts for added fun. Really, you cannot describe this film without it sounding like the sickest thing ever made, it might make you cover your eyes, it might leave you shell shocked for a while, it might even make you want to shower afterwards, but you cannot but laugh when the sickly kid transforms into mr muscle (with a monkey head) and jumps out the window for the first time. I would put a link to the trailer but it could cause offense. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 10th Aug 2016		Cinema The Reflecting Skin (1990) (1990)	Review What is THIS! its a film about childhood, and about traumas, nightmares and hideous unseen danger, and what is real and unreal. If this was a conventional thriller, you would have the gang of sick hoodlums raping and killing around the countryside while being pursued by the one-eyed sheriff who dispenses justice in his own way. But instead we follow Seth, through the eye of the storm, the gang making fleeting appearances and looking cool, the sheriff appears threatening and brings torment and anguish in his wake. Seth is withdrawn, has a difficult mother and hero-worships his brother, he thinks his neighbour is a vampire and she plays along with it, he finds a mummified baby and believes it is an angel. There is so much strangeness this could be mistaken for a David Lynch film, but it is unlike any other, the photography is astounding, the soundtrack sparse and just right, if there is a film guaranteed to polarise an audience this could be it, personally I love it. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
albert 10th Aug 2016		Cinema The Reflecting Skin (1990) (1990)	Rejoice, The Reflecting Skin has finally had a proper release on DVD, with the director's involvement, so throw away your video tapes and dodgy foreign language versions. (Note that the DVD extras prove that no frogs were harmed during film making). [YouTube Video]

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