Invasion (1966)
Quaint lo-rent black & white British sci fi.
Currently doing the rounds on practically the only TV film channel where you can escape Marvel superhero films (
) Talking Pictures TV (FV81 / Sky 343).
Mostly consists of a few actors trapped in a hospital surrounded by a forcefield, slowly "cooking" to death, while an Asian humanoid looking alien who's been brought in there after a hit-and-run accident tries to hide from his (female) alien compatriots.
Oddly engaging, mainly because the film is quite effective at keeping you guessing whether any of the aliens are "goodies".
Is the "man" a nasty criminal on the run from deserved justice, or is he a refugee from the cruel oppression of the matriarchs hunting him down ?
Sad Dr Who nerds like myself will note a striking similarity to a scene in "Spearhead From Space" (1970) where a doctor gets annoyed that someone's sent him a blood sample and thinks a practical joke's being played because it isn't human.
So Dr Who didn't just steal from Quatermass in those days !!!
Arrival 4/10 - yet another film that failed to live up to expectations, a two hour film where nothing exciting happens.
King of the Ants(2003)
A Stuart Gordon effort released by The Asylum,so you know that it's going to be very cheap,in fact it's the most scantily budgeted of all Gordon's films but its also one of his most vicious.The story follows a man who is lured into a gangster's violent,murderous world and at times,this is a very difficult watch.
6.5/10
guardians of the galaxy 2... well almost watched it all... got bored after about 30 mins and skipped though most of the rest of it.
Tempi Duri Per I Vampiri[aka Uncle Was A Wampire](1959)
A slapstick comedy effort famous for supposedly being Italy's first vampire film and an appearance by Christopher Lee.The story follows down on his luck Baron Osvaldo(Renato Rascel)who reluctantly has to sell his ancestral castle in order to pay off his creditors.The castle is then reopened as a hotel with Osvaldo being allowed to work there as a porter.Things get more interesting when his uncle(Christopher Lee)turns up and reveals himself to be a vampire with every intention of feeding on the guests.Silly but quite good fun in places with Lee as watchable as ever in his respective role.
6/10
War for the planet of the apes - 9/10. Almost perfect, they really do bring the apes to life and Andy Serkis is just amazing. Although it's quite a serious film for the most part, seeing as it's about survival/war, you do get a laugh with ''Bad Ape'', that little dude is funny. The humans are cunts.
The Emoji Movie - 7/10. A bit of fun, who knew so much was going on in our phones.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - 7/10. Visually brilliant (which is why it gets a seven), but the casting was bad, Cara was fine, but the dude playing Valerian did not fit as a bad boy, hero or love interest, just wrong on so many levels. I love Luc Besson, so it's easy to forgive him for a few missteps, as I said visually this film exceeds expectations, but given its length, the story could have been more substantial. I think if the hero felt like a hero and not a moody teen, that would have been a huge plus.
Poltergeist (2015) 1/10 - yet another 80s classic remade as a pile of shit, just when will these dumb hollywood execs realise that improved special effects does not make a film better.
A Face in the Crowd(1975)
A powerful indictment of the process of which personalities are manufactured by television to then be accepted by the viewing public at face value.The impressive cast includes Walter Matthau and Patricia Neil but its the screen debuts of Andy Griffith,who charms and revolts at the same time as a hillbilly philosopher from a local radio station made into a star and Lee Remick as a nublie,sexy and manipulative drum majorette that steal the show.
8/10
Dunkirk (2017)
Starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy & Mark Rylance
A very powerful film about the evacuation of the troops from the beaches of Dunkirk
9/10
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
A remake of George Romero's 1968 classic that ultimately proves unnecessary and fails to generate the required response from a horror audience. I felt that the characters in this one aren't as well portrayed as in the original and the plot is virtually a carbon copy so ultimately you wonder why it was remade at all. I suppose modern horror film fans can relate to this one as they may not have seen any of Romero's early work but while the increased special effects obviously brings this to a modern age, that's not really a good thing. It could render another original film completely redundant with a certain audience and that's a shame - because these reboots so often fail to offer anything different. Not a memorable film and with poorer actors standing in for their predecessors, I wished for the end credits long before they rolled. Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson and horror veteran Bill Moseley star in director Tom Savini's flawed reboot. 1/5