Search

Search only in certain items:

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
1970 | Horror
7
7.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The Vampire's Blood
Taste The Blood of Dracula- is the fifth Dracula movie made by Hammer. The Fourth with Christopher Lee.

The plot: Three elderly and distinguished gentlemen, searching for some excitement in their boring lives, get in contact with one of Count Dracula's servants.

Taste the Blood of Dracula was originally written without Dracula appearing at all. With Christopher Lee's increasing reluctance to reprise the role, Hammer intended to replace Lee and Dracula in the franchise with the Lord Courtley character played by Ralph Bates, who would rise as a vampire after his death and seek revenge on Hargood, Paxton, and Secker.

Hammer intended to replace Lee and Dracula in the franchise with the Lord Courtley character played by Ralph Bates, who would rise as a vampire after his death and seek revenge on Hargood, Paxton, and Secker. Hammer's American distributor refused to release the film if it lacked an appearance by Dracula; this prompted Hammer to convince Lee to return, with Dracula replacing the resurrected Courtley.

In its original United States release, it was rated GP (General audience, Parental guidance suggested—the forerunner to today's PG), but when it was re-released to DVD it was rated R for sexual content/nudity and brief violence.

Its a hammer film, what else do you expect.
  
40x40

Josh Sadfie recommended Shadows (2005) in Movies (curated)

 
Shadows (2005)
Shadows (2005)
2005 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
40x40

Josh Sadfie recommended Faces (1968) in Movies (curated)

 
Faces (1968)
Faces (1968)
1968 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
1975 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
1976 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
40x40

Josh Sadfie recommended Opening Night (1977) in Movies (curated)

 
Opening Night (1977)
Opening Night (1977)
1977 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
10,000 B.C. (2008)
10,000 B.C. (2008)
2008 | Action, Classics, Drama
𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘰. Visciously non-entertaining and laborious. There needs to be some honorary award granted to anyone who can finish this shit without turning it off, seriously. Super dodgy CGI aside, how can a film with such stunning locales and costumes still look like total shit until the last act? The video quality at times resembles a pirated DVD rip. Besides that, vigorously rote - another utterly faceless underdog story about destiny or heroism or selflessness or whatever, who cares? There's a scene early on where the characters are fighting some uglyass dinosaurs in cartoonish-looking tall grass (by the way, the ONLY time dinosaurs are used in this B.C. ACTION MOVIE) which is one of the worst looking things ever spat onto a screen. He at least tries here but I can't believe there was ever a time where Steven Strait was eyed as lead material. Among the most palled ways you could have excecuted this, Emmerich is in full 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘺 mode here: an out-and-out non-movie peddled off as entertainment through bloat and blind, unremarkable action. Watchable for maybe 15 minutes but bland in the extreme. Lest we even mention how it breaks up its subtitle lines into like 4 syllables a piece before switching because it assumes whoever is watching this must be an idiot.
  
    Home Alone 4 (2002)

    Home Alone 4 (2002)

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Movie

    Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House is a 2002 American made-for-television Christmas family comedy...

Secret Santa (2018)
Secret Santa (2018)
2018 | Horror
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
As alternative Christmas films go this one is way out there and probably the most Christmassy of them all. We've got actual Christmas events which is more than some.

Christmases in the family are always an over the top affair, snowy location, enormous turkey, secret Santa gifts and competition. But where there should be fun and merriment there's always a little bit of resentment, bitterness and not so friendly jabs.

April has turned over a new leaf and this Christmas is meant to be a way to apologise for past wrongs and bring everyone back together for some much needed family bonding, what she doesn't know is that someone else has other ideas. The family doesn't need more pleasantries, it needs a bit of truth.

Secret Santa is just pure batshit crazy and takes dysfunctional family to another level, there's so much going on that you'll certainly never be bored watching it. We obviously have a lot of gratuitous violence and there's also some nudity and sex thanks to Jackson, his girlfriend, and a... well, I won't spoil that bit. These are all selling points, right!?

What kick starts the craziness is the punch being spiked with an experimental military-grade truth serum, the effects start with what appears just to be their normal family bitchiness but it soon progresses into something a lot more homicidal. I liked that they kept a bit of a mix, not everyone showed the same sort of rage and it really depended on their original demeanour. The most extreme was definitely Jackson, and Nathan Hedrick certainly gives a fantastic, if disturbing, performance in the role. But everyone really commits to their parts and that's the thing that stopped this film from sliding into a bad made-for-TV affair.

There are so many things I want to mention but I don't want to spoil the fun to be had from watching this, so I'll just say that something wacky and nuts happens approximately every two minutes.

The film is done in such a way that you really get pulled into the action of it all by being up close and personal, and throughout there's a real contrast between the good and the bad, even in the opening titles. We're also treated to some great musical choices throughout and the festive vibe shines through. Make sure you watch into the credits as there are some great little additions to the story in them.


If you've brought the DVD then you'll also have a "making of" featurette, you absolutely need to watch this. It's almost as long as the film but it was really interesting to watch. Finding out the background to some of these films really does help you have a different appreciation for them and listening to the story begin Secret Santa was a real bonus.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/12/secret-santa-movie-dvd-review.html