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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.152.74.159
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 11:39 am:   

Has anyone else seen this excellent thriller? It's been out for a week or so now. It's basically 90 minutes of a man trapped in a coffin underground. The camera never leaves the box and all he has with him is a lighter and a mobile phone. The Saul Bass-like titles allude to Hitchcock and the film itself is worthy of comparison. We loved it, not least for, in the words of our local film reviewer 'the best kick in the teeth ending you'll see all year'.

Anyway that was last week. We're off to see 'Jackboots on Whitehall' today - a British Nazi movie starring a load of puppets and filmed in 'Glorious Panzervision'.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.246.76
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 05:06 pm:   

I read the script, John. It was pretty relentless, and yes, if they kept that ending, a kick in the teeth indeed. I'm not sure I could take the actual movie, though... the claustrophobia of it all... does it come off like a one-man play? Maybe it'll become a stage-play at some point, cleverly lit, with booming sound-effects, voice-overs, etc....
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 05:11 pm:   

John - My friends went to see Buried and said it was excellent. They thought it might descend into the hysterics of the awful 'Phone Booth', or might be a rip off of the original 'The Vanishing', but that it steered away from both. They said it was also great to see Ryan Reynolds once again proving what a versatile actor he is. For another genre film with the same actor I would definitely recommend the surreal, mystifying but emotionally rewarding 'The Nines', which has echoes of Lynch via Aronofsky's 'The Fountain.

Thankfully they revealed nothing about the ending.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 06:23 pm:   

Frank, you thought Phone Booth was awful? I loved it - but I'm a big Larry Cohen fan, and the script here was almost quintessential Cohen (if such a thing exists).
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 06:23 pm:   

But, yeah, I've heard good things about Buried. I'll catch it on DVD.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 06:32 pm:   

Zed - liked the beginning of Phone Booth, but then it just tested my patience. Nothing wrong with the acting, and I usually love Cohen's screenplays, but then sometimes I also loathe them. I'm a massive, massive fan of Cohen's Best Seller, which for my money has some of the best dialogue in a B movie I've ever watched, and has two of the best paring of actors in any film bar none.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.152.74.159
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 06:34 pm:   

Frank - We kept expecting the film to cop out and have a feelgood ending but it didn't. And knowing that didn't diminish our enjoyment of it one iota

Craig - It's like a one-man play but I think the confinement comes across better on the big screen than it could on stage. Not one for the claustrophobes!

I've not seen Phone Booth. My feelings about Larry Cohen are equivocal. I think he has great ideas but when I eventually got to see the like of It's Alive! and It Lives Again! I found them rather dull. Q - The Winged Serpent was the same. Maniac Cop was fun but I think William Lustig directed that one.

Gary - The Human Centipede, The Manitou and now Larry Cohen. I think maybe we need to re-examine our relationship
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 06:44 pm:   

John - that's my cup of tea, then. BUT, don't reveal too much or I'll be up half the night trying to guess

Cohen was a definite part of my horror education, but he's hit and miss for me. BUT, I do think he's one of the most original of screenplay writers. I think that his ideas are sometimes translated badly.

I couldn't abide Return To Salem. I was so pissed off when I saw it. Maybe a return to the film might change my mind.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 07:58 pm:   

I agree that the films of Cohen's work are often a bit slapdash, but for me he's a brilliant ideas man - for instance, I cherish The Stuff, even if the film's ropey. Wish I'd thought of it... also, God Told me To is an odd mix of the sublime and the ridiculous. Another one I wish I'd thought of. So, yeah, it's the ideas rather than the execution that draw me to his work (or adaptations of his scripts).
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 08:01 pm:   

Actually, I don't know 'God Told me To? Will it check out now.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 08:04 pm:   

Yep, that's definitely a Cohen film/script. I had forgotten about the Ambulance. I bloody love that film.
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 08:04 pm:   

This was one of the films we caught at FrightFest, and I think I shared my thoughts on it over on that thread. Very well executed, tense, and anchored by a surprisingly good performance by Reynolds. For a film with such a limited setting, it managed some nice broadsides against a number of targets - dickish HR reps, mobile etiquette (his reaction to the friend who chides him for his bad language is priceless) and the inefficiency of wartime bureaucrats. There were occasions when the format felt a little stretched (the snake) but overall the film worked really well.

Just to pitch in on Phone Booth - I liked it. There were some stupid casting decisions; making the voice on the phone so easily recognisable made a bit of a mockery of the attempt at a twist late on. But I thought it was a fairly effective little thriller.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.9.106
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 08:28 pm:   

Okay, so who here saw the recent M. Night's DEVIL, speaking of confined-spaces films? I didn't... but wonder how it compares...?
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 08:41 pm:   

Craig - only saw the trailer, but it does look intriguing. He didn't direct it, did he? I thought he wrote it?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.10.177
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 09:20 pm:   

Whoops - you're right, Frank - well then, maybe it IS good after all!
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.152.74.159
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 09:49 pm:   

The local reviews of Devil weren't very good so we've given that a miss.

Skyline looks splendid, though, and we saw an ad for Tony Scott's new runaway train movie 'Unstoppable' today which could almost have been made by the Zucker brothers - it's unintentionally absolutely hilarious & we may have to go and watch the film!
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 10:28 pm:   

I like the look of SKYLINE a lot, but then I'm a sucker for city-stomping aliens. These ones look a bit more interesting than most, though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mns8EsSHMmI
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.21
Posted on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 10:48 pm:   

Hold yer horses, chaps. Skyline, which I posted a link to a while back, is made by the brothers who directed Alien Versus Predator Requiem. Great visuals, I suspect, but little else.

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