The Second mrbasehart Film Challenge!

[Relaxing Dragon]

I had a serious interest in Titanic for a while (which sank in 1912, by the way), and I always wanted to see that one. This was way before I was really into movies, so when the interest in the ship faded, the interest in the film went with it. I'll have to look it up one of these days.

[goflyblind]

I had a serious interest in Titanic for a while (which sank in 1912, by the way)

maybe it's a harrowing tale about the ship's construction. :\

[mrbasehart]

I had a serious interest in Titanic for a while (which sank in 1912, by the way)

maybe it's a harrowing tale about the ship's construction. :\

That's what happens when you let the imdb trivia page overrule your memory.

[mrbasehart]

Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the rather clumsily titled sequel to Dr Who and the Daleks, made the previous year in 1965.  Peter Cushing again take the role of the Doctor, an inventor who builds the TARDIS (not an alien Time Lord) and gets caught up in some adventures with various hangers-on.  This time, the Daleks have taken over the Earth (well, a small part of the Home Counties, at any rate) in the year 2150 and are using human slaves to mine the Earth's core.  Much better than its predecessor, it has a bigger budget, a stricter control of its tone (no silly comic relief here) and some good looking special effects.  I still can't buy the Daleks as a threat though, looking silly and ungainly (which is presumably why Robomen are featured in the story) and really under-cutting any of the tension the story should carry.  However, it's decent enough to stand as a movie in its own right, despite its discretions against the Dr Who name.

[mrbasehart]

Raw Force is a ridiculous movie.  A group of tourists taking a tour of some local islands in some nondescript part of South East Asia find themselves at the mercy of a group of islanders, who happen to made up of outcast martial-artists, who regularly import prostitutes for food from someone who's probably a Nazi war criminal (although that's never brought up or addressed).  After having their boat scuttled, they're left to fend for themselves on the island where there are Kung Fu Zombies.  Yep, Kung Fu Zombies.  Cue some tame punchy-kicky action which is rather a let-down, to be honest.  Total crap of the best kind, it features plenty of boobs, a couple of gory "money" shots and enough jumps in logic to make your head spin.  Highly recommended for fans of this sort of thing.

[THE QUEEN!!!]

A Night to Remember is a British take on the Titanic disaster of 1911.  There's not a whole lot of plot going on, and it doesn't feel the need to give the movie a romantic interest to somehow give us a reason to care, so unlike its most modern take, it's affecting and at times quite moving.  Kenneth More plays the ship's second officer and designated lead of the movie, a practically minded man who seems to take control when the ship begins to sink, and organizing the orderly departure of the women and children onto lifeboats, despite increasing pressure from the ever growing challenge of the task.  What impressed me most about the movie was its measured tone, and the lack of hysterics makes the whole ordeal feel real and more human.  There were a couple of things that I would've liked to have seen more of, like the plight of the third-class passengers, but this is a fine film nonetheless, and the best Titanic movie I've seen (so far - I haven't yet seen the Nazi's 1943 version).   

Wait, did I suggest this movie? Because I adore this movie. I'm glad you seemed to enjoy it. I love the accuracy. Have you read the book, A Night to Remember? It's a must read, and a quick read as well.

[mrbasehart]

Wait, did I suggest this movie?

You did!  Honestly, I didn't feel particularly motivated to watch the movie before the Film Challenge, but I'm glad I did now.

The Tenant is a psychological horror movie directed by and starring Roman Polanski.  Polanski plays a mild-mannered office worker who moves into a new apartment building and begins to suspect his neighbours of being complicit in the suicide of the former tenant.  What the movie balances really quite well is whether or not the events unfolding are actually occurring as we see them, or whether its a by product of Polanski's paranoia.  It goes a little too loopy in the final third, but until then it's really quite effective in a way that I didn't believe Rosemary's Baby was.  Polanski does well in the role, and the lovely Isabelle Adjani gives good support.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Raw Force is a ridiculous movie.  A group of tourists taking a tour of some local islands in some nondescript part of South East Asia find themselves at the mercy of a group of islanders, who happen to made up of outcast martial-artists, who regularly import prostitutes for food from someone who's probably a Nazi war criminal (although that's never brought up or addressed).  After having their boat scuttled, they're left to fend for themselves on the island where there are Kung Fu Zombies.  Yep, Kung Fu Zombies.  Cue some tame punchy-kicky action which is rather a let-down, to be honest.  Total crap of the best kind, it features plenty of boobs, a couple of gory "money" shots and enough jumps in logic to make your head spin.  Highly recommended for fans of this sort of thing.

Nice, you found this one. That's pretty much dead-on how I feel about this movie (also, a guy jump-kicks a moving truck. And the bad guy looks a lot like Hitler). It's a totally enjoyable z-movie

[Johnny Unusual]

Wait, did I suggest this movie?

You did!  Honestly, I didn't feel particularly motivated to watch the movie before the Film Challenge, but I'm glad I did now.

The Tenant is a psychological horror movie directed by and starring Roman Polanski.  Polanski plays a mild-mannered office worker who moves into a new apartment building and begins to suspect his neighbours of being complicit in the suicide of the former tenant.  What the movie balances really quite well is whether or not the events unfolding are actually occurring as we see them, or whether its a by product of Polanski's paranoia.  It goes a little too loopy in the final third, but until then it's really quite effective in a way that I didn't believe Rosemary's Baby was.  Polanski does well in the role, and the lovely Isabelle Adjani gives good support.

I recommended this one right?  It might have been someone else, but I always recommend it when I can.  I love the very very last scene.  Sends shivers up my spine.  Roman might be a raping creep but he makes good movies.  I saw this at university where my film professor was having an obscure (relatively) horror film festival.  My friend was a little bored with it (I think he was hoping for something a little more overt and less subtle), but even he admitted he loved the end.  As well as the someone ridiculous climax.  Immediately following this was Demons.  That was a switch.

I'm glad you enjoyed-ish The Wrong Guy.  I admit it isn't a classic but I really like the movie and it didn't get the fair release it deserved, even in Canada.  I love Joe Flaherty as the Bank Manager whose bank is going to be foreclosed by an insidious farmer.

"He couldn't hurt anyone.  I don't just mean his character but he's not capable of hurting someone.   Physically."

[THE QUEEN!!!]

I'll bet Basehart is frantically trying to finish this challenge so he can watch the movies in the new Film Club, eh?

[mrbasehart]

I'll bet Basehart is frantically trying to finish this challenge so he can watch the movies in the new Film Club, eh?

Nah, I'll do both.  I don't know if you know this, but I watch a lot of movies. 

(though I am watching a film from the challenge right now)

[THE QUEEN!!!]

I'll bet Basehart is frantically trying to finish this challenge so he can watch the movies in the new Film Club, eh?

Nah, I'll do both.  I don't know if you know this, but I watch a lot of movies. 

(though I am watching a film from the challenge right now)

Which? Do tell!

[mrbasehart]

I'll bet Basehart is frantically trying to finish this challenge so he can watch the movies in the new Film Club, eh?

Nah, I'll do both.  I don't know if you know this, but I watch a lot of movies. 

(though I am watching a film from the challenge right now)

Which? Do tell!

Alien Raiders.  After 30 minutes, its surprisingly okay.

[mrbasehart]

Finished!

Alien Raiders is a pretty decent low-budget horror Sci-Fi movie, made by some of the people behind The Blair Witch Project.  It's the end of a shift at a supermarket in a small town when masked raiders burst in and kill a seemingly random number of the people inside, claiming them to be infected by a parasite that arrived on a meteor.  The police then arrive and a hostage situation ensues, though (in true back of the DVD blurb fashion) the greatest danger may be within! There's a lot to like in the movie, not least its utilization of its relatively low budget.  It's also quite well crafted, and has some familiar TV actors who give the script more weight than it probably has, so what could've been just another lame rip-off of The Thing turns out to be something a little more admirable.  There were a couple of things I thought could've been improved, like the total lack of ambiguity in the movie, and the less than exciting climax, but it's easily a step up from the usual Sci-Fi channel rubbish.

[mrbasehart]

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a computer generated anime movie based upon the super-popular JRPG of 1997.  Frankly, the movie made me feel old and feeble.  Taking place 2 years after the events of the game, it picks up with the same characters trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious illness plaguing people that seems to be caused by a disruption in the lifeforce by Mother, who is somehow related to the Jenova project, and the reappearance of Sephiroth.  Cloud, infected with the same disease and depressed because of the death of (Spoiler Alert!) Aeris in the game, must defeat Cadazh, a mysterious trio of gangsters and the summon Baphomet.  I hope you understand that all, because I was bloody baffled by the whole thing and I've completed Final Fantasy VII, and spent much of the movie going "huh?" and "what's going on?" in the manner of Grandpa Simpson.  I think it's probably because the movie serves as a love letter to the hardest core of FF fans, which makes it nigh-on incomprehensible to casual viewers.  It does have some nice action sequences, but the entire last third of the film is a string of ever-increasingly silly set-pieces that become wearisome and in the end, boring.  Square, just do the right thing and either remake the game like everyone wants, or make a video game sequel to it, because it doesn't hold up in this medium.