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Torture Garden (1967)
Torture Garden (1967)
1967 | Horror
6
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Yet another Amicus horror anthology in which a mysterious stranger tells a mixed bag of actors their fortunes, all of which turn out to be grim. Michael Bryant gets over-familiar with his dead uncle's cat, Beverley Adams learns the dark secret of the Hollywood A-list, Barbara Ewing falls for a man who loves his piano, and it's mutual, and Jack Palance discovers that Peter Cushing owns the ultimate Edgar Allen Poe collectible.

Written by Robert Bloch, which may explain why it's a bit less cartoony than some of these films, and the final twist is not actually the usual one. However, the decision to go with four stories rather than the five or so does slow the film down a bit and there's a bit of meandering about in some of them before we get to the punchline. In the end, there are some good bits: Burgess Meredith's performance is fun and the moment where one character is attacked by a musical instrument has a sort of kitsch grandeur to it. But other films in this series as livelier and more fun. (I should say: not much torture, even less gardening.)
  
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David McK (3557 KP) rated The Old Guard (2020) in Movies

Jul 14, 2020 (Updated Apr 11, 2021)  
The Old Guard (2020)
The Old Guard (2020)
2020 | Action, Fantasy
Netflix's newest (at the time of writing) action-adventure, starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a group of immortals (whose immortality can come and go at any point) that have been alive for centuries, if not (in her case) for millennia. Think a less Scottish Highlander, and with the immortals working together rather than trying to chop each others heads off.

Apparently based on a relatively-new comic series, you can also tell that this is a straight-to-TV affair, with it not *quite* having the budget or flair of a Hollywood film. It's also unclear just what happens if any of these immortals lose a limb - does it grow back?

Anyway, the driving force behind this is the discovery of a new immortal, just after the other's last mission goes sideways, with Big Pharma - in a plot development that will surprise no one - now out to see if they can extract the secret of their immortality from the group (who don't know it themselves).

Also definitely set up for a sequel: if it is half as good as this one, I'll be watching.