What movie are you viewing at the moment?

[Brecht]

Battle of Neretva (1969)



In early 1943 and on Hitler's direct orders, the Wehrmacht and its allies, the Italians, the Croatian Ustashe and the Serbian Chetniks are supposed to destroy the Communist Yugoslav Partisans in the Operation Weiss. The Partisans and 4500 of their wounded and sick are surrounded in the Neretva Valley (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) but under no circumstances are they to leave the wounded behind. There's only one bridge left where the Partisans could cross the Neretva river and this is where the Germans and their fascist allies expect them. But the Partisans blow up the bridge and leave their enemies in confusion. General Lohring (based on Alexander Löhr, the actual commander of the operation during WWII) is convinced that the Partisans are trying to escape to the north into Bosnia, so while he's concentrating his troops on the path to Bosnia, he doesn't realize that he was tricked by the Partisans.


Battle of Neretva is based on events that really occured during World War II. While most of the performers are Yugoslavs, it has an international cast: Yul Brynner as the Partisan Vlado; Orson Welles as a Chetnik senator, representing the Serbian king in exile; Franco Nero as the Italian officer Michele Riva who decides to join the Partisans. German actor Curd Jürgens plays General Lohring; Hardy Krüger is Colonel Kranzer; Sergei Bondarchuk is Martin, a Partisan commander. Scottish actor Anthony Dawson was cast as the Italian general Morelli. Most of the other leading Partisans were portrayed by Yugoslav actors Bata Zivojinovic, Ljubisa Samardzic, Sylva Koscina and Boris Dvornik.

The first poster you can see above was created by Pablo Picasso who didn't ask to be paid. He wanted a case of the best Yugoslav wine instead.

[Wendigo]

8213: Gacy House (2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667418/


A team of paranormal investigators looking at famous serial killers set up shop in the house of John Wayne Gacy to see if there is anything spooky going on

Er, his house was demolished years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al43aP5-J7w

It's from The Asylum but I normally expect a bit better from them, still that and factual events aside it's the usual found footage nonsense and will pass an unchallenging hour or so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNODHkwRbiE

[diamelsx]

Turk182 (1985)

After New York City firefighter Terry Lynch (Robert Urich) is unable to receive any compensation for an injury incurred during the off-duty rescue of a young girl, he grows suicidal. Furious, his brother Jimmy (Timothy Hutton) attempts to have Mayor Tyler (Robert Culp) intervene, but the corrupt politician instead denounces Terry as a drunk. Determined to get justice, Terry begins a graffiti campaign of embarrassing slogans mocking the mayor, which soon captivates the city.

[Brecht]

The Prowler (1951)



Trailer

Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) spots a prowler outside her window and calls the police. Officers Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) and Bud Crocker (John Maxwell) arrive at the scene but can't find a trace of the prowler. One of the cops, the disgruntled Garwood, is attracted to Susan but she's married to a middle-aged radio host. When Garwood returns to her house under the pretext of checking if she's alright, she invites him to stay for a coffee and Webb learns more about her marriage than he should. Although she's not impressed by him, Susan's loneliness takes hold of her and the two start an affair. When her husband begins to suspect that she may be unfaithful, Webb plots a scheme to get rid of him.

This is an underrated film noir classic. It was directed by Joseph Losey and written by Dalton Trumbo, both blacklisted by the movie studios. Losey fled to Europe the very same year.

[Brecht]

Battle of Sutjeska (1973)



During the "Fifth Offensive", the Yugoslav Partisans led by Marshal Tito (Richard Burton) are trying to reach the Sutjeska region in east Bosnia. They are surrounded by German and Italian forces who are bombing the Partisans with everything they have. Despite being outnumbered by a vastly superior enemy, the Partisans don't give up and earn the utmost admiration of a British military mission sent to Tito. Although they manage to reach Sutjeska, the Partisans do not celebrate due to huge losses but surrender is out of the question.

Another Partisan film from Yugoslavia but not as good as its predecessor Battle of Neretva. Many of the Yugoslav actors seen in the previous film are back on board, though in different roles. I'm not familiar with the exact reasons but Richard Burton was hired to play Josip Broz Tito, the great Yugoslav leader who led the Partisans to victory against the Nazis and their allies in Yugoslavia. The soundtrack was written by legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.

[rosestone]

*spoilers spoilers spoilers*



'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story', although a better title would have been 'Rogue One: A Load of Bollocks'.

Considering the excellent job they did casting the new young actors for 'The Force Awakens', I was very surprised by how thoroughly bland and lacking in charisma all the young 'uns were in this one. The main lass in particular (don't know her name), was so uninteresting that they could have replaced her with a box of washing powder halfway through and I don't think I would have noticed - although I did notice at one point that she has a spectacular arse, so there is that.

Then there's the established actors, like the brilliant Forrest Whittaker, but just as it looks like he might be warming up to turn in a Forest-Whittaker-y performance somewhere between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the daft character he played in Battlefield Earth, this movie stupidly kills him off before we have a chance to even care who he is. Ditto Le Chiffre from Casino Royale, who is taking a break from walloping James Bond's goolies to help build the Death Star, but he's ultimately wasted too. And there's that fantastically sleazy Australian guy, Ben something or other, who is his fantastically sleazy self as the sneering imperial blackguard. I also noticed a cameo by Chief Inspector Grobbelaar from an episode of 'Bottom', which was weird.

Some of the effects are great in the climatic battle, but not so the CGI'ing of Peter Cushing and young Carrie Fisher. They look okay when they're static, but as soon as they move, you immediately see they're just a cartoon face.

The story is a bit daft, and I'm pretty sure uses a plot device so hackneyed that the Simpsons parodied it more than 20 years ago. All the major characters die, and you don't care, because firstly you know they're going to have to die because they're not in Episode 4, and secondly because with the exception of sleazy Ben, they're all duller than crap on a stick. There's also a surprisingly underwhelming cameo by Darth Vader. All in all, the movie is a load of wank.

[Wendigo]

Battledogs (2013)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2457138/


The opening scene is in JFK airport NY as an aircraft lands and a sick looking female passenger starts to experience sensory overload, she heads to a toilet cubicle and removes a bandage revealing a bite woundm, she starts frothing at the mouth and within seconds she has turned into a werewolf. Soon she is ripping through the waiting passengers but she is not alone for long as you know what happens when a werewolf bites you
Damn wouldn't you know it those freaky US military gung-ho type goons are involved in weaponising this virus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YInaW2lasFk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRc7p5HzKIQ

[Brecht]

Candyman (1992)



Trailer

Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She's writing a thesis with her co-student and friend Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) about urban myths and legends. One of them is the legend of Candyman (Tony Todd), a murderous soul who can be summoned when his name is said five times in front of a mirror. Of course, Helen and her colleague don't believe in this rubbish but the residents of the Cabrini-Green housing project are running scared when they hear about Candyman. But when Helen begins to spread rumors about the legend being just a figment, Candyman decides to prove her wrong.

A decent horror flick with good performances. Recommended if you can endure the awful soundtrack by Philip Glass.

[loplop]

I had recently re-read the novel it was based on during a flight back from Tokyo for work because it had came up as a recommendation on my Kindle app. I had forgotten how different the Frederick Forsyth novel was from the movie. I was messing around this morning and decided to pull out the movie just to spot the differences. Still a great movie and one of my all time favorite Christopher Walken movies.

[Wendigo]

Even by my standards this is weird

Big Man Japan (2007) aka Dai-Nihonjin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997147/

A shabbily dressed divorced cat-loving loner is turned into a giant to fight off a series of really strange monsters, thankfully like the Hulk he keeps his underwear on when he grows, this is unlike anything you may ever see and is visually both disturbing and amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRny1wok0Ao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTAoxSspBJE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Cm39xDWmQ

wait for it .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsXi-XPL4kE