Tarantino-esque, mystery thriller / whodunnit kinda thing.

Not met with great enthusiasm on release it seems, rather a general indifference... but I thought this was thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing, as several characters converge in a motel around a central mystery, no-one seems to be who they say they are... or are they?

... and how does each relate to the central plot?

So it kind of unfolds as it goes, very well done, dramatic, surprising, violent on occasions, but all the cast is excellent, especially Cynthia Orivo, who is outstanding in this.

(Chris Hemsworth plays a real nut job in it too :)

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Not as bad as you might imagine.

(Given the awfullness that was Terminator: Genysis)

Somewhat a return to form in terms of the quality of the film, largely, I suspect, due to James Cameron coming back as producer / writer...

...but for me, the whole franchise was ruined when hey deployed the now Hollywood formula of "alternate timeframes /Universes " blah blah blah... basically, when you do that, you say that nothing you have previously seen matters, as you get a "do over" whenever you want one - kills the sense of jeopardy - and since this whole franchise is based on the concept of fate, it pretty much shoots the poodle right then and there.

But this fairly rolls along, and is fairly entertaining, mostly due to a more up to mustard new Terminator, and Mackenzie Davis, who is excellent, as is Linda Hamilton, who although a little older, plays to this, and gives a great performance as a bitter, older Sarah Connor.

The only thing they really ought to have given the heave ho though, and which is really clunky and odd, is Arnie and his character (I know, blasphemy!) but it's true, it just gets more depressing as time goes on, watching him trying to justify this role again and again when he isn't getting any younger.

But they should leave this franchise alone now I think, call this a moderate high to go out on, then leave it be... That'll do pig... that'll do.

For this is a dead franchise now, nothing new to offer we have not already seen.

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Probably the best film of any kind I've seen in the last five years...

... almost certainly the best super-hero movie around - better that the Avengers ones even!

Mind bendingly brilliant visually, and the soundtrack is one of my "must gets" - even on vinyl.

Highly original, innovative, pacey, and crucially... extremely entertaining.

(Unlike some of the other sludge you have to wade through in this genre occasionally)

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An outstanding 1950s sci-fi adventure which borrows from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and serves up a cautionary tale on scientific experimentation. A scientist uses psycho-kinetic machines developed by the super-advanced ex-inhabitants of the planet to increase his mental capacity, but subconsciously unleashes an actualisation of his very jealous id.

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To say there isn't much to this VERY short film would be an understatement.

Unless you are a massive fan of William Burroughs or Parrots then there's not much to get excited about.

But seen as the film clocks in at under 2 minutes it's worth watching just to say you have!

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Jean Harlow plays Lil, the social climbing, marriage wrecking, man-limpet who never takes no for an answer and bullies her men to get what she wants, and she does want everything money can buy. Una Merkel plays Sally, her no-nonsense friend who always has something up her sleeve to deflate Lil's ego. The film zips along with comical cringeworthy situations, witty asides and knowing pointers which you might need a sharp eye to catch. The men are like putty in Lil's hands and when you think she finally gets her comeuppance she still manages to trump them all.

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Oh yes! I mean, oh blimmin' yes!!!

I love this film so much, I could just cry. The two leads are so charismatic and meant to be together, ably supported by Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagen.

The songs, comedy and dance routines are to die for and, along with aaaalll that, there's a good story about the birth of the talkies.

Marvellous!

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Just sat and watched this movie last night. I have been tempted on and off since it's release to buy it, especially the Blu Ray. While shopping in Sainsbury's they had the DVD for sale at £5 so I threw it in the trolley with the groceries and thought to myself, if it's any good and worth watching again I'll buy the Blu Ray. I honestly couldn't see what all the fuss was about on it's release and the praise that Gary Oldman received for his portrayal of Winston Churchill. To me the performance was average and not very convincing at all and there were parts where it wasn't 100% accurate. I was glad when it finished as by the end I was getting a tad fed up with it. A much better movie about Churchill in my humble opinion is The Gathering Storm. Albert Finney's portrayal of Churchill knocks Gary Oldman's into a cocked hat. Darkest Hour only gets a 5/10 from me and The Gathering Storm gets 10/10, it's a movie well worth the time invested in it to watch.

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Absolutely brilliant!

I know this has divide critics but my squeeze and I absolutely loved this film!

We both really liked the first one but this is that movie plus! More effects, more fights, more effects, more gags, more out-and-out abuse of the fourth wall!!!

Ryan Reynolds is just so prefect in this role, it's impossible (for me, anyway) to imagine anyone else doing it!

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Quite a good action movie with lots of guns and fast cars along with a reasonable story line. What made this movie for me was the soundtrack and how it was used in relation to the storyline of the main character.

Lots of classic tracks from Bob & Earl, T.Rex, Damned and Carla Thomas to name a few. I also enjoyed the way the opening track (Bob & Earl) played out like a pop video with the graffiti graphics. I have posted the youtube link below.

[YouTube Video]

PS Since posting this review/comment I have read a printed interview with the director where he explains how he first came up with a list of songs that he wanted to use as the soundtrack and the script was written to fit in with those songs rather than fitting the songs into the script as is the norm. Explains why it looks to me like a long pop promo.

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I first saw this when I was very young and the slow, inexorable creeping of the flowery menace was quite intimidating at the time! I watched it again last night.

The effects have not worn well - the muppet-like plants and frankly terrible matte filming almost detract from what is an innovative story (from the great John Wyndham) and Howard "Oh what a beautiful morrrrrniiiiing!" Keel makes an effective hero. Needless to say, Ron Goodwin's score is immaculate.

What I also like about this is that there are two only tenuously linked threads going on: one with said Keel, guiding two damsels in distress to safety; the other with a dysfunctional married couple, pulling together to try to use science against the foe.

Finally, it was good to see Moorfield's Eye Hospital in screen. I was there a year or two ago and will be back soon.

:happy:

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In my (otherwise) dismal opinion, the trashiest exploitation film ever. Mean-spirited and cheap, highly recommended, and I gave it a well deserved rating of 10.
Too many highlights to mention, but the inclusion of Abie Baker's strip-tease instrumental; "The Web" is priceless. For anyone requiring further information, see FILMFAX No.18, (January 1990), it features a five page article/interview by Sharon Williams and Rudolph Grey with director Joseph Green. He explains all the nuts & bolts relating to The Brain that Wouldn't Die.

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A fascinating documentary concerning the opulent 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire in 1971 with a grand banquet awaiting those invited monarchs and heads of state from around the world. The whole thing was staged in a desert area of Iran with huge amounts of money spent to import trees, plants and even birds in an attempt to make a forest in the desert. As one of the talking heads says 'It was like something out of a James Bond film'

The argument is that the consequences of this overindulgence are still being felt today.

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You may think that a film in which 99% of the scenes are shot inside a car and where the dialogue consists exclusively of phone calls with only one actor shown on screen (Tom Hardy) sounds a bit boring but this film is far from it!

Tom Hardy is excellent (yet again) as a deeply driven and moral man (Ivan Locke) who finds himself in difficult personal circumstances which literally turn his career and family life upside down in the space of a drive between Birmingham and London.

The film is almost unbearably tense with phone calls and problems streaming in from all sides threatening to break the ever dependable construction site manager's 'man of steel' resolve.

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One of the funniest films of all time, not much more to say! :happy:

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A perfect study of a psychopath in today's age of "journalism".

Jake Gyllenhaal gives a brilliant performance in creating the creepiest, and most dangerous character - a relentlessly ambitious ambulance chasing chancer that will probably have to go down with Christian Bale's American Psycho character in the most perfect portrait of an actual psychopath.

Riz Ahmed , Bill Paxton, and Rene Russo play the other three key characters in this film, who have the misfortune to be around him.

Could easily have been set in the worlds of finance or politics.

Watch for the charactericts portrayed in this film, in others... then avoid them like the plague!

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This is one of the classic ghost movies. Four people decide to stay in this haunted house to study it.
Seeing this in the video era aged over 40, this movie did not affect me. It did not create an atmosphere that drew one in. The male leader was played by an actor with no personality or soul, just mechanically reciting his lines. Scenes that should have been effective did not involve me. Obviously it takes a special touch to create such films. "The Others" (2001) had that.

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OK, no-one is expecting a documentary here but still I feel the level of frivolity spoils what could have been a very good film. Crowe and Gosling have presence/chemistry and all that jazz but for me the whole thing was just too silly to make it any more than an enjoyable (one time) watch.

I'd really like to have seen a much darker take on the Hollywood Vice/conspiracy subject matter rather than the 'buddy movie' angle they've gone for. It's not a terrible movie by any means but I'm not convinced that in 5 years time anyone will be remembering the reasonably enjoyable 2 hours they spent watching it....

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'So bad that it's good' is a bit of a cliché but it certainly fits this film.

The chances are your jaw will drop several times in the 90 odd minutes of it's duration.

It would be fair to be perplexed by the balance of the A-list Hollywood cast vs C-list production values.

And then you learn the directors surname is Coppola and that Nicolas Cage is his brother. Surely only family ties and a repayment of favours can explain why so many great actors were involved in this wild turkey.

Don't get me wrong, I love this film as entertainment but it is ultimately a load of rubbish.

Nicolas Cage's performance in this film has to be seen to be believed.

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Cheesy horror film, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is very much of it's time...especially in the fashion department. Pat Priest (Marilyn on TV's horror-comedy, The Munsters) and legendary DJ Casey Kasem -- who both turn in mediocre performances -- are dressed in what was considered modern at the time. In a cheapo 70's horror film way, Priest's clothing can be excused. Kasem, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. I'm guessing it was his choice, to look younger. The shirt he wears in the final act is scarier than the monster.

Bruce Dern, a veteran of exploitation cinema in mostly biker films, is effective even with the weak screenplay and laughable special effects. The film was clearly aiming for the Saturday kids of 1971, who no doubt gobbled it up and were satisfied. And since it was aimed at kids, a couple of scenes involving Danny's father being killed, as well as the violent death of a biker, were trimmed to get the GP rating. Those edits, by the way, were sloppy and the scenes suffered for it, but apparently the DVD release has restored them, which bumped the film up to an R-rating. I haven't seen this cut and probably won't bother.

The next year, American International recycled the 2-headed theme with The Thing with Two Heads, although played for laughs with race and the generation gap, as well as slightly better production values and a couple of recognizable actors for the marquee.

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I think the film is a chuckle, a parody of organized crime and hippies. Well made, everyone did a good job.
Faye Dunaway's early breakthru role. What I find interesting is the personality type as related to the time era. At this time she was similar to other newcomers like Cybill Shepherd and singer Connie Smith.
The title song existed at Motown before the film, and the producer bought the rights to it. Frank DeVol contributed to the composition.


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Living on an island are farmer Gyles MacDonald, his wife, Grampa (who passes away early on), and 3 offspring Ronald, Ronald and Ronald (though she prefers Ronnie), oh and the 4th kid, Billy, who is a bit of an animal. Billy grows fast, scavenging food, however he pushes his luck when he goes for Gyles' moonshine and is chased from the farmhouse. Out in the wilds Billy fends for himself but develops a taste for human flesh …soon he will return to the farm looking for more food!

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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.

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Absolutely love this film!

Yes, the special effects are limp by today's standards but the story itself is an amazing idea and the whole is terrifyingly and engagingly realised. The tension builds and builds until the climax...

It could happen! :eek:

No spoilers but I always look up when walking under cranes at night...

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What an unsuccessful movie this was in my opinion. Held no interest, let alone suspense. Did not involve me whatsoever. The story is that when excavating the London subway, they reach a spot where an ancient extraterrestrial people had been living. By excavating, they free the spirits, which then create destructive effects on London.
Oh .... I don't know.
Dig that female reporter in the underground as she questions the scientist. What kind of facetious acting is that when you are creating a sca-a-ary movie?
By the way we need a screen of the British title.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful 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.

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Milton Subotsky, one of the heads of Amicus Films, is in Noo Yawk and gets this idea he'd like to make a werewolf movie. He scours his investor friends around the world and mooches enough money. He gets a screenplay put together as much as he can.
Peter Cushing is offered it. Pete asks his wife to look it over, and she says there's only about 40 minutes of footage in the miserable thing. Well the producers have to get to work making it a 90 minute movie. So half this movie is like filler, people sitting around chatting and sipping tea.
Okay one of the people at this weekend party is a werewolf and we will know who by the end. Just get ready for 90 minutes of lousy movie-making.

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Set in the mid 21st Century where the earth has become so unpleasantly overpopulated, polluted and crime ridden that the rich live in an off-Earth utopia named Elysium leaving the proles back on earth to fend for themselves and keep working like slaves to keep the rich in the style they've become accustomed to.

Without giving the story away too much Matt Damon finds himself in a do or die situation that may overthrow Elysium's equilibrium.

The parallels with current politics help to make this Science Fiction vision quite believable. Matt Damon could have been working for Sports Direct (minus the radiation poisoning) and the chilling treatment of immigrants by Jodie Foster as Secretary Delacourt screams Trump.

What's less believable are the Laptops and USB cables inserted into the brain. I think if we can believe that you can download knowledge/data from the brain then we can make that jump that it wouldn't have to be via cable!

So overall it looks good, speeds along at a gripping pace and has surprisingly leftist politics but it's also somehow pretty lightweight and I'm not sure I would watch it again but it's a decent watch for an hour and a half.

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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.

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Disappointing attempt at modernizing the old vampire story, at least for 1970 standards. The acting is not a problem, but the pace is lethargic. For me typically, slow pace and character development is not a problem, but there's no payoff here as it all leads up to a completely clumsy climax mired in staggeringly inept lighting. Since that closing sequence all takes place in a spooky mansion, dark lighting might have added some atmosphere, but instead, it looks like every light in the house is turned on. Each shot casts huge shadows on the wall that are distracting and amateurish. And since when are vampires killed by a wooden stake to the stomach?

Not recommended unless you're bored or simply need a nap.

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