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Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound After Vietnam
Book
In Hymns for the Fallen, Todd Decker listens closely to forty years of Hollywood combat films...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Count Dracula (1977) in Movies
Nov 15, 2020
Surprisingly faithful BBC adaptation of the famous story has definite merits, but also perhaps shows why most people don't stick so close to the text. Young solicitor Harker goes off to Transylvania to close a deal with the engimatic Count Dracula; you can probably guess the rest.
Scores very highly for its acting - Frank Finlay is a charismatic Van Helsing and Louis Jourdan a playfully evil Dracula - and also for its atmosphere, even with BBC TV production restraints (videotaped interiors, some rather weird special effects). For an adaptation to stick quite so close to the book is very nearly exceptional, too - Savory makes Lucy and Mina sisters, combines Arthur and Quincey into one character, and cuts down the final act, but that's about it. The drawback to this, of course, is that after the first act Dracula gets relatively little screen-time and even less dialogue, and it does drag on just a tiny bit. Nevertheless, its fidelity and seriousness mean that this is certainly among the top echelon of Draculas in any medium.
Scores very highly for its acting - Frank Finlay is a charismatic Van Helsing and Louis Jourdan a playfully evil Dracula - and also for its atmosphere, even with BBC TV production restraints (videotaped interiors, some rather weird special effects). For an adaptation to stick quite so close to the book is very nearly exceptional, too - Savory makes Lucy and Mina sisters, combines Arthur and Quincey into one character, and cuts down the final act, but that's about it. The drawback to this, of course, is that after the first act Dracula gets relatively little screen-time and even less dialogue, and it does drag on just a tiny bit. Nevertheless, its fidelity and seriousness mean that this is certainly among the top echelon of Draculas in any medium.
Bobby Gillespie recommended African Dub All-Mighty - Chapter 3 by Joe Gibbs & The Professionals in Music (curated)
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Ginger Snaps (2001) in Movies
Mar 22, 2021
Ginger Snaps is certainly a product of it's time. A couple of decades later and it's so painfully 2000s, however, it still offers something fresh to the werewolf sub genre.
The allegory of burgeoning womanhood and simultaneously turning into a force of nature is an effective one, and is realised well, thanks to its well written characters and solid cast. Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins do a fantastic job in carving a realistic portrayal of sisterhood and a challenging time in life. Mimi Rogers is great on her supporting role as well.
For a film that has some potential to be silly, Ginger Snaps plays the whole ordeal pretty straight and sticks the landing for the most part. Nothing comes across as goofy.
There's plenty of impressive practical gore on display and some decent creature effects to top it all off.
This movie has a huge following for a reason, and although it's a little dated these days, it's still an enjoyable horror with a surprisingly emotional centre.
The allegory of burgeoning womanhood and simultaneously turning into a force of nature is an effective one, and is realised well, thanks to its well written characters and solid cast. Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins do a fantastic job in carving a realistic portrayal of sisterhood and a challenging time in life. Mimi Rogers is great on her supporting role as well.
For a film that has some potential to be silly, Ginger Snaps plays the whole ordeal pretty straight and sticks the landing for the most part. Nothing comes across as goofy.
There's plenty of impressive practical gore on display and some decent creature effects to top it all off.
This movie has a huge following for a reason, and although it's a little dated these days, it's still an enjoyable horror with a surprisingly emotional centre.
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Lifeforce (1985) in Movies
Feb 16, 2021
Contains spoilers, click to show
Lifeforce is a typical English movie, bringing together myth and Sci-Fi with a number of familiar faces and one church being blown up (really, we brits even have to blow up churches in doctor who).
Lifeforce is part Quatermas, part (gender bent) Dracula with inspiration from Alien and various Zombie movies and a space ship that looks like the inspiration for Lexx. Add nudity and you have one hell of a Sci-Fi flick.
Lifeforce actually stands up quite well, most of the practical effects hold up but the alien energy does look like the Ghostbusters containment generator has, once again been shut off.
There is a hint of a backstory to the vampires and where they came from which could have been worked on but perhaps it was meant to be a set up for a sequel/prequel that never happened.
Life force is an exiting story and well worth a watch but there is a lot of nudity if you don't like that sort of thing.
Lifeforce is part Quatermas, part (gender bent) Dracula with inspiration from Alien and various Zombie movies and a space ship that looks like the inspiration for Lexx. Add nudity and you have one hell of a Sci-Fi flick.
Lifeforce actually stands up quite well, most of the practical effects hold up but the alien energy does look like the Ghostbusters containment generator has, once again been shut off.
There is a hint of a backstory to the vampires and where they came from which could have been worked on but perhaps it was meant to be a set up for a sequel/prequel that never happened.
Life force is an exiting story and well worth a watch but there is a lot of nudity if you don't like that sort of thing.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated The Golden Compass (2007) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
Just nukes the ever-loving fuck out of the book. To turn a pretty bloody and challenging series into this hyperincompetent snooze of shit storytelling, genre rehashing, and violently diluted themes (or what's left of them, if anything) should have been criminalized on arrival. Find me anyone who can tell me what the plot of this is or why anything in it happens, this is 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦 of crummy children's fantasy flicks (which were the 2000s answer to the dull, samey YA craze of the 2010s). Oh and those Academy Award winning effects? They're fucking ghoulish. The production is nice but how anyone could think this mess of badly-aged animation and awful greenscreen work looks good is far beyond me. The armored polar bears were pretty dope though, and this wakes up a bit in the weird 15 minutes where a group of crazy institution fanatics start experimenting on children out in like the middle of the arctic for no real reason lmao. But otherwise absolutely not, no thank you.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Retro Podcast Massacre in Podcasts
Oct 12, 2020
There are so many great things in this podcast, I sat down to listen to 10 minutes and ended up binging a few episodes by accident. There's fantastic humour, a selection of popular and obscure horror films, skits that will make you chuckle and a super bonus occasionally of cat content... oooh, plus a feature called Pets In Peril which is something I didn't even know I needed!
Apart from all that... the host's voice sounds like it has been pulled out of a classic horror film, or perhaps from narrating The Twilight Zone, it's glorious and I have never heard such beautiful swearing.
Possibly the most impressive thing is the production, this is a gold standard for podcasting as far as I'm concerned. I don't think I've heard such a fantastically crafted piece of audio. All of those things above were wonderful on their own, but add in sound effects and music and well... it's spooky season, go and check it out yourself and see why I love it so much.
Apart from all that... the host's voice sounds like it has been pulled out of a classic horror film, or perhaps from narrating The Twilight Zone, it's glorious and I have never heard such beautiful swearing.
Possibly the most impressive thing is the production, this is a gold standard for podcasting as far as I'm concerned. I don't think I've heard such a fantastically crafted piece of audio. All of those things above were wonderful on their own, but add in sound effects and music and well... it's spooky season, go and check it out yourself and see why I love it so much.
Russ Troutt (291 KP) rated Stan & Ollie (2018) in Movies
Jul 13, 2019
Laurel & Hardy were one of the world's greatest comedy duos to ever step, or stumble, rumble, and dance rather, in front of audiences. I'll be honest, I've never really watched a lot of their work, I was always more of an Abbott and Costello guy myself, but you don't have to know or love their work to love this movie. Stan & Ollie gives a beautiful look into the real lives of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy at the end of their career. Their friendship and career, often like the hats on their heads, had its ups and downs, but they had a true chemistry and bond that could not be broken; whether their wives liked it or not. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly each give one of their best performances to date. And a huge tip of the hat to the special effects, makeup, and costuming department of this film. What are you waiting for? Don't make me give you a swift kick to the butt to dance away and add this to your watch list.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Konga (1961) in Movies
Sep 7, 2019 (Updated Sep 7, 2019)
Staggeringly camp entry to the annals of man-in-a-gorilla-suit fantasy deserves about a 2 as a serious drama, but earns a much higher mark for sheer entertainment value. Michael Gough chews the scenery energetically as a mad scientist whose stated plans to discover the secrets of life by breeding giant rubber Venus fly traps actually seem to revolve around him leching all over his attractive female students and sending his pet ape Konga to strangle people. It all ends badly, as you might expect.
You have admire a film where people are given lines like 'There's a monster gorilla that's constantly growing to outlandish proportions loose in the streets!' and manage to deliver them with a relatively straight face - or perhaps that's just me. Much here to appreciate if you enjoy overacting, dodgy special effects, absurd melodrama, and terrible dialogue. The climax feels a bit bolted on considering what has come before, and it's disappointingly limp and static, but a hugely enjoyable Bad Movie in all other respects.
You have admire a film where people are given lines like 'There's a monster gorilla that's constantly growing to outlandish proportions loose in the streets!' and manage to deliver them with a relatively straight face - or perhaps that's just me. Much here to appreciate if you enjoy overacting, dodgy special effects, absurd melodrama, and terrible dialogue. The climax feels a bit bolted on considering what has come before, and it's disappointingly limp and static, but a hugely enjoyable Bad Movie in all other respects.