Change Your Image
Calenture
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againI used to avoid independent films, convinced that if they were any good they'd have had bigger budgets, higher production values. But after viewing a few very expensive and very disappointing films (Terminator Genisys, anyone?) I started hunting among what I thought were more obscure titles (Spring, Coherence, The Messenger, Let Us Prey...) and quickly realized how wrong I was.
Reviews
Mile a Minute Love (1937)
Different Enough to Merit Viewing - 5.8
I didn't really expect much of this one, as it had only attracted one reviewer (and no rating) but it kept me entertained. It's different inasmuch as the story centres around power-boat racing rather than cars. It's got a real sense of the time, a dastardly con artist (played by writer Renaldo), romantic difficulties, a rescue and of course a race. Seriously, what more do you want from a film of this period? Possibly the first reviewer is right in saying that parts are missing from the film; it's months since I watched it. A lot of these older movies do end quite abruptly. Naturally it's fallen into the public domain and isn't difficult to find online, so if you've a fondness for films of this age, possibly you'll enjoy it as I did. I'd rate it at 5.8.
Terrore nello spazio (1965)
I fell asleep twice trying to watch to the end...
Seriously, I kept starting awake from the sleep that this film had sent me into, and having to reverse the DVD to check what I'd missed.
I watch all kinds of films, pulp, schlock and highbrow, and usually I enjoy them on their own respective levels. I've enjoyed a few Mario Bava films. Black Sunday is a favourite. The costumes in Planet of the Vampires reminded me of Danger Diabolik, which I understand Bava directed uncredited.
Sadly, there's really no reason I can think of for anyone to watch this dreadful mess. The only hint of the Gothic splendour Bava brought to some of his best stuff is a giant skeleton which the spacemen find. I had high hopes of that, but it didn't actually do anything, just sort of the sprawled there... as you'd expect. Oh, and there was a bit of scenery that looked a bit like a petrified tentacle. But no-one actually seemed to notice it.
In the end, there was just a bunch of talking heads. Maybe he should have made a radio play from the script. But I think it would still have sent me to sleep.
Miskatonic University (2014)
Howard Phillips would have liked this one...
Quoting from their website:
"Black Bag Pictures is a Brooklyn based independent film company founded in 2010 by James Bentley, Perry O'Brien, David Donnelly and Josh W.E. Hays. We strive to tell stories that push the boundaries of genre, with mash-ups of science fiction, cosmic horror and dark comedy being our primary interest. We are currently screening our award winning short film Miskatonic University at film festivals nationwide."
Miskatonic University is a stylish short-subject based on the stories of H P Lovecraft. Thomas Highland returns from the First World War clutching a strange ebony tusk inscribed with eldritch glyphs. He's found this bizarre item clutched in the hand of a man buried in the desert sand. With his return to civilisation, he attempts to learn more of the thing's origin; then a letter from Professor Elliot summons him to Miskatonic University.
As soon as he enters this place a disquieting note is struck when he finds two students misbehaving in his room. A further bizarre touch is added when he witnesses a curiously violent sporting event. His sleep is disturbed by strange dreams, and when he wakes his room has more than the smell of the sea about it. His health is failing him, too, and he discovers that Professor Elliot has a collection of strange and arcane books which he believes might tell him more about the artifact in his possession.
Most Lovecraft adaptations invoke the names and plots without catching the spirit of the original stories. This one works beautifully, and in the space of half-an-hour a fine cast, good direction and a well-evoked sense of period combine to spin a tale that Howard Phillips would surely have appreciated.
My vote is 7 out of 10, and would have been higher if the film had more length to develop. I look forward to seeing more from the team at Black Bag Pictures.
I've decided to place a spoiler alert to be on the safe side, though I think the plot outline I've given doesn't really deserve that.
The Sand (2015)
Blood Beach Revisited - an entertaining trip
I didn't really expect to stay with this one to the end, but it got its hooks into me. After a while, I found myself getting quite tense and rooting for the survivors. If you remember Blood Beach (1980), a sparky little thriller about a beach that eats people, you'll know exactly what to expect.
It could have done with more editing: It's a miracle that I got past the beach party at the start - it seemed like a bad memory from the 'eighties. After that, it was a while before I could figure out what was actually happening to people. Something bad, obviously - but at first I had the impression that the watching survivors could see something that I couldn't. Curiosity kept me watching, and soon things became clear.
But what was that guy doing stuck in a barrel? How did he ever fall asleep or pass out standing up in the damn thing?
I did get involved in the survivors plight. The girls were pretty, the acting was adequate, the effects likewise, and generally I was entertained. In the days when going to the cinema was fun, this would have made an OK supporting movie to the main feature.
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Oh my god...
***This review might contain spoilers (but frankly nothing I could do here would be worse than the appalling mess that the scriptwriters and director have already made of this film)***
Others here have had the patience to carefully note the many (many) reasons this film fails. I became so confused by the plot, which is not so much labyrinthine as just plain muddled, confused and contrived, that the only thing that kept me watching was a morbid curiosity to see if it could possibly get worse. It did.
There were warning signs even before Jai Courtney stepped into the time machine. The conversation between Courtney and Jason Clarke had already become mawkishly sentimental. When Courtney asks Clarke how Sarah Connor will know he's speaking the truth, Clarke reels off a speech half a page long that he's supposed to remember and recite to her.
I watched the movie with a friend, and at one point asked him if he was still following the plot. "Dunno mate," he said. "I gave up on it long ago."
We see Big Arnie's Terminator arriving naked in the past and meeting itself. The ensuing fight between Terminators is just embarrassing. It's so obviously CGI, and very poor CGI at that. Hell, the CGI rendition of Oliver Reed in Gladiator, 15 years ago, was more convincing.
Emilia Clarke was a hopelessly wrong choice to play Sarah Connor. She looks far too young and soft. When she strips in front of Jai Courtney, I wondered if the filmmakers were about to add kiddie porn to their list of transgressions. And she definitely didn't look strong enough to take the weight of the heavy artillery or its recoil!
And the dialogue. At one point Emilia Clarke says to Jason Clarke, "What are you going to do? Talk us to death?" Yeah, right.
As for the helicopter chase... that was so incompetent. To spell it out, a helicopter is a very unstable flying machine. Tip one over the edge of a building and it won't stop until it hits the street. Watching Bruce Willis jump off a building onto a jet fighter's wing was ludicrous but entertaining in Live Free or Die Hard - and it was brilliantly filmed. The helicopter sequence in Terminator Genisys is just ludicrous.
The most worrying thing is that, once again, the ending is left open for yet another sequel. Really, people, don't do it! Look at what's happened with Ex Machina. That's how to make a film about robots. If you must make another Terminator, make it a cartoon, then we'll know what age group it's directed at.
The Innkeepers (2011)
Can't believe the rating for what's become a modern classic
The few times I've felt driven to add a review to IMDb it's been because either the film is obscure or forgotten, or - as in this case, I think - the reviewers who've been most prolific and have set the tone here have clearly not been sympathetic to the the more slow and compelling type of ghost story.
And The Innkeepers is slow - but compelling. It's also one of the more frightening films to be made in recent years. Forget jump-scares, CGI ghosts, slashers, repetitive franchise sequels. If that's what you want, look elsewhere. Ti West is an independent movie director, and indie cinema has brought us some seriously interesting films just lately. Monsters, Spring, Coherence, The Babadook, to name a few. The Innkeepers is one of those.
OK, I'll get off the soap-box.
The Innkeepers is probably not a perfect movie, but it's a good one, and there was at least one point where I felt that marvelous and rarely-felt lurch of heart-stopping horror. I just hope you'll have the patience to experience it for yourself.
I also hope IMDb will change the incredibly negative first-page review and replace it with one that's more favourable - there are plenty of sympathetic reviews here to choose from. Only time can change the rating, but IMDb can (and does) influence the DVD-buying public, and in a world that can't wait, that first page counts for a lot.
Let Us Prey (2014)
Surprisingly good Indie Horror
I was surprised. This Indie film is great! I'm a very critical viewer and the IMDb rating of 5.6 didn't offer much encouragement. The odd thing is, a number of those reviewers admitted to liking it (so much for the rating system).
The plot of this comes straight out of those Amicus movies (From Beyond the Grave, etc.) as a mysterious stranger arrives at a small-town nick where pretty soon all Hell breaks lose. The acting is fine, the effects effective, script and direction good, and there's a nice nod to John Carpenter with the soundtrack. If you like the better Carpenter movies, you'll probably like this one. Oh, and something a few IMDb reviewers agreed on: they loved the end. So did I.
Seuseung-ui eunhye (2006)
Audience Deception Wrecks a Potentially Good Movie - Contains Spoiler
The infuriating thing about this movie is that it could have been so good if they hadn't tried to be so clever with the plot. 90% of this film, we're told, didn't actually happen. So why film it?
If two of the characters are actually the same character (one in disguise) then how do we - and the other characters, apparently - see both these characters at the same time?
At one point a detective explains how the victims were 'initially killed'. Huh? It doesn't matter what language you use, once someone's been killed there's no second time you can kill them.
Even one of the alternate titles is misleading: 'To Sir With Love.' There's no 'Sir'. The teacher's a woman!
So far (despite my subject line) I've somehow avoided giving any real spoilers. The reason is, if you're prepared to sit through a better- than-average slasher movie, even prepared to accept the appalling ending which informs you that almost everything you've seen was bogus, that's fine. I love Asian cinema and some of its best has come from South Korea, but this is a total cop-out. Blood and gore thrown in apparently to please a mass market, then a 'clever' ending trying unsuccessfully to tie things up, possibly in the hope of pleasing any highbrows in the audience. It just doesn't work.
I'd like to think that maybe the director was coerced into adding those nonsensical later films by studio bosses and maybe one day a much shorter director's cut will be released, with all the illogical bits taken out. If that happens the result will be a still-complex film that transcends the average slasher picture. At the moment it's just a mess.
Leap in the Dark: To Kill a King (1980)
Tape-to-flash conversion of this now online - can find no other trace of it
Anthony Bate plays Harry, a writer suffering from a years-long writers' block. At times we see his muse, who seems more elusive than helpful. Or is that just my view? Can it be she's taunting him? Possibly many writers externalize their inspiration this way. Or is he finally slipping into the madness of breakdown?
As his mental state deteriorates his agent and sister become vaguely sinister figures, while the external world seems oddly alien.
Can find no trace of a DVD release for this and it seems possible it's another of the items lost in the BBC turn-out of some years back, when so many pieces of archived film and tape were trashed... to create storage space, or that's what I've heard. I've placed my own recording online and the link appears at the foot of this post.
Anthony Bate ... Harry
Jonathan Elsom ... David
Clare Griffel ... Voice
Nicola Roch ... Girl (Muse)
Pauline Yates ... Clare
Paste the link below into your browser to view this film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZiu8uEcPTY
Thunder and Lightning (1977)
Writer William Hjortsberg
The only point that seems worth adding here is that the writer William Hjortsberg later wrote the screenplay for Angel Heart filmed by Alan Parker in 1978 with Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke, based on Hjortsberg's novel Falling Angel.
Aside from this and the aforementioned air boat race and gator-wrestling church it was pretty much business as usual for David Carradine and Kate Jackson at the time.
I enjoyed it when it first came out, when there seemed to be car chase movies every week at the local flea pit (recently I was surprised to see just how few Carradine actually appeared in!)