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The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
1961 | Horror
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Curse of the Werewolf, Oliver Reed. Hammer Films. Hammer did all these fabulous horror films after Unviversal. Hammer really became the guardian of the horror genre and between Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Oliver Reed also, they did so many remakes and Curse of the Werewolf was terrific. There was a voluptuous vixen who winds up being thrown into a cell and getting banged by some questionable beast."

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Night Train to Munich (Gestapo) (1940)
Night Train to Munich (Gestapo) (1940)
1940 | Classics, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"In black and white, made in 1940 by Sir Carol Reed, who of course also did The Third Man, Odd Man Out, Oliver!, etc. Night Train to Munich is a witty and quite gripping thriller. Intricate and romantic with very amusing performances."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Brood (1979) in Movies

Oct 24, 2020  
The Brood (1979)
The Brood (1979)
1979 | Horror, Sci-Fi
Key Cronenberg movie starts off relatively restrained but ends up with a festival of bonkers ickiness. A man in the middle of a custody battle finds people connected to his ex-wife are being murdered by deformed child-like dwarves with weird, non-human anatomies. Can unorthodox psychiatrist Oliver Reed shed light on the situation?

Undeniably a horror movie, but one rich in subtext and metaphor, as well as containing several ew-that's-unbelievably-gross moments. (Students of the director may also wonder just how bad his divorce must have been.) Less Oliver Reed than you might hope for, but a remarkable performance from Samantha Eggar, and a great many memorable and disturbing sequences. Works on all sorts of levels, though some people may struggle to see past the more graphic aspects of the film. Still, this is horror done with brains and style.
  
HT
Hired to kill (1990)
1990 | Action
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Brian Thompson (0 more)
Just watched this movie for first time very low budget late 80s early 90s action movie staring brain Thompson not that great movie not all it has its moments in lucking Oliver reed chewing the scenery as the bad guy as this an arrow blu Ray it includes interviews with both the director and the star of the movie Brian Thompson hoping to ask Brian about the movie when I meet him in November
  
The Four Musketeers (1974)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
1974 | Action, Classics, Comedy
7
7.3 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Fairly lavish historical romp from the Salkinds and Richard Lester; the kind of film that lets you feel cultured for no very good reason. The (somewhat thin) plot concerns the machinations of the evil Milady against musketeer d'Artagnan and his nearest and dearest, but what you stick around for are the incidental jokes, big turns from a star cast, and peerless fight choreography from William Hobbs, doyen of sword masters.

The humour is broader than in the first film, but the overall tone is somewhat darker, with an unexpectedly downbeat ending: this is reflected in a striking performance by Oliver Reed, the kind of thing which really makes one wish he had had a more consistent career. Rather classier than it probably deserved to be, and good fun.
  
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
1969 | Action, Comedy
6
7.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Knockabout black comedy thriller. A feisty journalist (Rigg) challenges the leader of a group of elite assassins (Reed) to have himself killed: feeling his associates have become sloppy and corrupt, he accepts the challenge as it will allow him to purge his organisation. Exploits across Edwardian Europe follow, together with a touch of romance.

Oliver Reed never had the career as a leading man he deserved; Diana Rigg didn't get the film career you would have expected, either, so the film has a certain rarity value. However it's just not very funny, or thrilling, and the duo don't seem to have much chemistry - that said, a script which doesn't seem to know whether to be darkly witty or zany means he seems to be operating at about half-power. With Rigg and Savalas co-starring in a 1969 film about a suave assassin taking on a criminal conspiracy, the temptation is to speculate that this film gives a hint of what On Her Majesty's Secret Service might have looked like had Eon made better casting decisions - one hopes not, for this film isn't great in any department, on top of which the special effects in the climax are rotten and the closing song is pretty grim too. A waste of several great talents.
  
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David McK (3422 KP) rated Gladiator (2000) in Movies

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:11 PM  
Gladiator (2000)
Gladiator (2000)
2000 | Action, Classics, Drama
Are you not entertained?
"The General who became a slave.
The slave who became an Gladiator.
The Gladiator who defied an Emperor.
A gripping tale, is it not ..."

So says Joaquin Phoenix's Emperor Commodus towards the end of this movie, talking to his erstwhile friend Maximus (Russel Crowe), after seizing power in the early parts of the film and believing the General to be dead in Germania (as per his command) and after also killing Maximus's wife and son.

The plot, then, basically, is a straight A to B revenge.

This, I believe, is also the film that launched Russel Crowe and Phoenix both to stardom - I struggle, personally, to think of any other since where either have been as electric as they are in this movie.

It may also help that they have a stacked supporting cast, including the likes of Oliver Reed (in his last onscreen role), Connie Nielsen, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi and Djimon Hounsou and some spectacular action scenes of the Roman games ...
  
The Fallen Idol (1949)
The Fallen Idol (1949)
1949 | Classics, Drama, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Carol Reed was a brilliant director and a sweet man, but he was not a one-man band like David Lean; he required a strong, patient producer who loved him, as my Uncle Alex did, and a gifted screenwriter, which Alex found for him in the novelist Graham Greene, as well as an art director of genius—my father. He was at his best surrounded by talented people who loved him, who were virtual family, and that shows in his best films, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, and The Third Man. One unusual aspect of Carol’s gifts was that he was among the rare directors good at working with children—go watch The Third Man and you will be astonished at the brilliant inclusion of the ghastly little boy who accuses Holly Martins of murder. Most of the great directors hate working with animals or children, but Carol—himself the illegitimate son of the great Edwardian actor and theatrical producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree—had a natural sympathy and understanding of children. He was in fact childlike himself—hence his choice, later in life, to make a film of the musical Oliver!—and this shows in his direction of Bobby Henrey in this, another of those English films in which good manners manage to hide passion and even murder, except in the alarmingly clear view of a child. Ralph Richardson, dear Ralph, is at his best in the role of the butler."

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The Brood (1979)
The Brood (1979)
1979 | Horror, Sci-Fi
An R rated version of Inside Out?
Frank Carveth is just a father with some problems. His wife is currently enrolled in an intense, secluded, mysterious form of psychotherapy being conducted by an unusual doctor. His eccentric mother-in-law, has just been murdered through unusual circumstances and his young daughter is showing signs of physical abuse at the hands of his institutionalized wife that he must now investigate.

After the murder, his father-in-law also arrives, the situation worsens as he attempts to visit his daughter while in therapy without success. Still grief stricken, he wants to confront the doctor or at least understand what is happening.

Here is where the story becomes very unusual. The brutality being dispatched to various individuals is being administered by disfigured "dwarves" or misshapen children which makes no sense to Frank or the police which asks more questions.

After learning additional details, Frank returns to his wife's benefactor for a final confrontation with her and the doctor to ensure the release of his kidnapped daughter.

Cronenberg's early body horror films still stand as some of the most provocative of the gene and this film is certainly no exception. The deformed assailants provide immediate unique intrigue in the film representing something you have never seen previously and it only gets worse.

The total brutality they complete upon their victims is worsened by the fact some of it is even performed in front of children who would obviously be scarred for years to come.

The final reveal of "The Brood" is so intense, bizarre and graphic it will still turn off, repulse or offend almost anyone who watches it. Only true fans of the macabre, strange and totally extreme will find this palpable.

The great Oliver Reed is especially intense in his performance as the unconventional doctor performing his ritualistic treatments which include offbeat role plays where he has conversations with his patents pretending to be other people.

I can only imagine the reaction this film had upon its release in 1979.