Info and forum posts by 'Andy Larkin'

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Joined on: Friday, 24th January 2003, 14:44, Last used: Friday, 5th August 2005, 15:14

Access Level: Competent

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This user has posted a total of 264 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0.03 messages a day, or 0.24 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: Feast your eyes on this!!!

Is it the new cricket ball England will be using against the Aussies and Ricky Ponting in particular?

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 31st July)

Ghost Ship (2002) - horror thriller which starts out quite interesting and fairly gory too. A group of salvage experts track down a ghostly 1960s luxury liner that seems to be haunted by its passengers. Sadly the film descends into the usual cliches a nd cgi overload plus the characters are all pretty stereotypical (ballsy female, stoical leader, cool black dude, a couple of practical jokers etc). A missed opportunity.

Mon Oncle (1958) - more Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot at odds with the modern world. Some great humour in this one - particularly the houseproud couple and their dream home with the unusual water feature that only gets switched on when important guests arrive.

Danger Diabolik (1967) - comic book fantasy from Mario Bava featuring master criminal Diabolik. Totally bonkers story but visually great. My only problem with it was that Diabolik is a bit of a dull character and because he actuallly kills innocent policemen he is not really a likeable rogue or diabolical enough to be a nasty villain. Batman made its villains much more over the top and comic which makes them more interesting. Excellent cheesy psychedelic score from Ennio Morricone.

Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965) - an early Italian horror featuring muscleman Mickey Hargitay as the owner of a castle who terrorises a group of visiting glamour models and their entourage. Story is stupid but gets quite nast at the end as he gleefully tortures everyone. Very camp in places but a watchable b movie with a totally inappropriate jazz lounge score.

Andy

Whatever Happened To Saturday Football

Just checked my Arsenal fixture list for the coming season. We dont have a home game on a Saturday until October 22nd. Bloody TV companies ruining traditional Saturday football.

Andy

RE: Asian People - All Look The Same?

A pathetic 5. I thought i would do ok considering the vast number of HK, Japanese and Korean films I watch.

Number 10 was hot though!!

Andy

RE: Genesis - Gabriel era.

I think that Lamb is possibly their best album - seems to have a bit more of a darker edge to it than the others. I gave up on Genesis when Gabriel left.

Incidentally i went to see Van Der Graaf Generator recently and they were superb - always were my favourite progsters.

Andy

RE: Do you have a favorite B Movie which everyone else says is dire, but you love

Most of the films I seem to watch are B and C grade.

Always loved Trancers although that might be too well made for inclusion here.

Robot Monster would be my other choice

Andy

RE: A Grave Miscarriage Of Justice

Ah yes Bulgarian justice - I have had first hand experience of that. Back in 1982 I travelled by train from Munich to Instanbul and you go through Bulgaria but need what they call a double entry/exit visa. The stupid Bulgarian Embassy in the UK only gave me a single visa so on my way home from Turkey to Germany the Bulgarian gestapo unceremoniously kicked me off the train , rifled my luggage and threw me in a police cell for a couple of yours. They then drove me by taxi to the Bulgarian/Turkish border (and made me pay a fortune for the cab). I had to walk accross the border through no mans land back into Turkey all the while under the gaze of itchy fingered border guards. The Turks just smiled when I got to their side and said "visa problem?"

Andy

RE: Any oldies remember this kids TV series

Thanks Rassilon you have got it. It was called the Pretenders and was made by Harlech TV, broadcast 1972 in 13 episodes. It was set around the monmouth Rebellion as you said. Apparently John Thaw was in some episodes

Andy

Any oldies remember this kids TV series

I have been trying to remember details of a kids TV series

Broadcast in the 1970s it was a historical weekly drama shown on ITV. I think it was about the Jacobite Rebellion and there were 2 orphan kids in it being looked after by a Dutch or German gunnery expert marching around the countryside as part of a rag tag army. Thats about all i can remember it was a fairly cheap production along the lines of Arthur Of the Britons etc and i think shown on early Sat nights

anyone remember it?

Andy

RE: Footie! Footie! Football!

I have the (mis)fortune to support a very successful Prem league club. Have supported them since a kid in 1969. Things have not always been great but I was there home and very often away during the really crap times when we were s***. Travelling to places like Middlesborough in the 70s was no fun having to fight your way back to the train station etc. One thing I have noticed is that once you get some success then all of the glory hunters come out of the closet plus lots of other supporters who have no emotional or geographical connection with the club. Chelsea fans will start to notice this now.

Quite often i go to games and i am seated with a bunch of Japanese supporters or something - they know nothing about the history of the club apart from the current squad and just sit there in total silence offering no real support. The club loves them of course because they spend a fortune on the tat in the club shop. If the team starts to slip to mid-table mediocrity will these "fans" be there - of course not but the traditional working class supporters will be unless they have been priced out.

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 17th July)

not much this week - - too hot for DVD watching

Macabre (1980) - debut film from Lamberto Bava son of the great Mario. Horror thriller that is quite slow paced but gradually builds up nicely to its gruesome climax - strong characterisation for a change and good performances too. A woman has a torrid affair but when her lover and young son are both killed she spends a year in a mental institution. On release she returns to the scene of her illicit meetings, a boarding house run by a blind young man. Just who is she making love too up there in her room and what exactly does she keep locked in the icebox. Throw in her nasty little daughter and you have one of the better examples of the giallo genre.

Phenomena (1985) - not seen this film since the old cut video version which was called Creepers. This widescreen complete version is almost like watching a new film. A young student arrives at a girls finishing school in Switzerland and with the help of a crippled entomologist played by Donald Pleasance she helps to track down a local serial killer. Like most Dario Argento films you can ignore the plot deficiencies and concentrate on some of the superb visuals. Good soundtrack although the heavy metal numbers are a bit off putting. Reminded me a bit of Suspiria in parts

Blood of Fu Manch / Castle of Fu Manchu (1968) - a couple of films from the Fu Manchu series with Christopher Lee as the master villain. Pretty average fare directed by Jess Franco. Castle is the better of the two with Fu Manchu planning to turn the worlds oceans into ice. Lee has very little to do but look menacing and Richard Greene as Nayland Smith lacks any real panache. The earlier Fu Manchu films are better and Franco just cannot direct decent action sequences.

Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) - a really entertaining horror mystery dealing with an ancient amerindian curse, shrunken heads and decapitations. A ripping yarn and very enjoyable.

Playtime (1967) - this was Jacque Tatis "Citizen Kane" - it took him about 3 years to make and almost bankrupt him. A wry look at modern life in the big city where people work in large impersonal offices and live in apartments like shop windows. It is all very clever but just not that funny. The best scene revolves around a restaurant that opens but is not quite ready for customers yet. Over long and Tati is only on the periphery a lot of the time so does not really get to do many of his comic routines.

Andy

RE: Ashley Cole

He is not too popular at Highbury with the fans these days. I wont be booing him but he wont get any encouragement from me either. Hopefully he will be gone next year.

Andy

RE: What r the IMDB 250 films?

seen 189 of them - just about all of the pre 1980 films but missing a few of the later ones.

Andy

RE: DONT FORGET 2 MINS SILENCE AT MIDDAY TODAY

Pretty poor show from our office staff as well - too intellectual to bother perhaps. Interestingly the big construction site opposite me had about 150 building workers standing respectfully in silence.

Andy

RE: Do you think our country has changed forever?

Yes I know it was a generalisation but my point is that there are not many brickies, postmen, lorry drivers, binmen etc etc sat in front of a computer all day like us able to contribute to boards like this. We may find their views to be a bit different to ours when we chat to them down the pub.

Andy

RE: Do you think our country has changed forever?

Some very measured and well written comments which i would expect on here given as most of the contributors are probably well educated, middle class , white collar workers (sorry to use such stereotyped language but you know what i mean)

Problem is that there are a lot of people out there living in poor housing and run down areas who have nothing at all in common with Muslim people - they see them as outsiders and a threat to "the British way of life" - whatever that may mean. These bombings will only sharpen the divide for people like that and ignoring them is just burying your head in the sand.

The main question for me is will it ever be feasible for two very different communities to co-exist without conflict and as we have seen in N. Ireland and Yugoslavia it only needs a small spark to set things off and once that happens then trust and respect can be lost forever.

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 10th July)

House Of Usher (1988) - another version of the classic Poe story although this one has a modern setting and never really feels like Poe at all. Oliver Reed is Roderick Usher and Donald Pleasance is his even crazier brother. Watchable but very average although the scenes with Walter running around with a power tool attached to his arm are quite fun.

THX 1138 (1970) - the first major George Lucas film is a sci-fi story set on a future Earth where man lives underground and conforms to rigid social and work patterns. A mixture of 1984, Metropolis and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Robert Duvall is the worker who rebels and tries to escape to an unknown and hopefully better world above ground. An excellent piece of serious intelligent sci-fi - the sort of thing you dont see much of these days.

Road To Perdition - Tom Hanks underplaying his role as a mob hitman in 1930s America. A basic revenge story that manages to combine some good action and plotting with interesting and well drawn characters. Hanks is dour but plays the character just right.

Planet of the Vampires (1965) - Italy has never been that famous for its sci-fi movies and apart from a handfull they are usually pretty dull. This is one of the very best, directed by Mario Bava. The story is a simple one of a spacecraft being drawn onto a mysterious planet and once there the crew experience strange phenomena and start to behave oddly. What makes this film great is the use of light and colour by the director. A low budget single sound stage is no constraint for Bava who creates an alien landscape of swirling mists, vivid colours and eerie menace. This film can be seen as an early version of Alien and in one scene in particular there is a direct comparison.

Monsieur Hulots Holiday (1953) - Jacques Tati as the wonderful Hulot on holiday in a Breton beach resort. A master of visual comedy he creates an almost silent world with some great gags that Keaton would have been proud of. A good cast of funny support characters as well. Watching this you almost feel nostalgic for those long hot summer holidays at your local beach resort.

I love A Mystery (1945) - subtitled the Decapitation of Jefferson Monk. Based upon the popular radio series featuring amateur sleuths Jack Packard and Doc Long this was the first of 3 movies made with those characters. A man has been threatened by a strange cult with decapitation in one year becuase they need his head to replace the decaying one belonging to their founder. A good mix of mystery and some minor horror elements make this one of the better examples of the genre. Good acting and a clever story too.

RE: I have never...

i have never....

seen a LOTR film
owned a mobile phone
been to Spain
been skiing
broken any bones
won a bloody thing
understood the popularity of Queen
left a football match early
chatted up a woman in a nightclub
refused a decent beer

Andy

RE: The Scottish Football Association...

They could put out a GB squad with 5 players each or so from all of the home nations. Lets face it the olympics has always been a minor tournament in terms of world football. The nation would get behind a GB team if there were players in there who they could cheer on and it doesnt really matter if we dont win it.

Andy

RE: What a Fantastic Day !!

Do the lottery tonight!!

Andy

RE: Just what is the point...?!

Seems like there will be an endless conveyor belt of players at Chelsea until they get just about every available star they want - already rumours that Joe Cole will not be willing to hang around as understudy if Gerrard comes. I think Gerrard will go abroad personally - surely it is not about his wages. I would like to see him stay at Liverpool and i dont even support them.

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 3rd July)

Yes it is available in the UK on a cheapo DVD label. It comes in a wafer thin DVD case and the print is fullscreen but decent quality. I picked mine up new for £3. They do not seem to appear in shops such as HMV etc but turn up on market stalls and places like Poundland. I got mine from a film fair in Camden

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 3rd July)

16 Years Of Alcohol (2004) - the story of Frankie and his early childhood growing up in Edinburgh and then his drink and violence fueled 1970s years. Directed by Richard Jobson (yes ex -Skids frontman) this is a very simple story but clearly a very personal one as it was based upon some of Jobsons own experiences and those of his brother who died in 2000 under mysterious circumstances. Very well acted and great use of the Edinburgh landscape. Nice to see a film that was made under its own terns without recourse to Hollywood style populism. For anyone who grew up in the 70s this is a film well worth watching.

Twilight Samurai (2004) - Japanese film which is not really a typical samurai movie at all - more a character based drama. A lowly samurai retainer just wants to get on with his life looking after his 2 daughters and his senile mother. Gradually it emerges that he is a master swordsman and against his will he is asked to use his skills by his masters. Acting is really good in this and there are also nice touches of humour. Not much action but then again the film is not really about that. Recommended.

Great Gabbo (1928) - an early talkie with Erich von Stroheim as the egotistical ventriloquist who treats all those around him like a doormat. There is the usual premise of the artist only being able to communicate via his dummy but it is not taken to the horrific extremes we see in Dead of Night or Magic. Stroheim is brilliant in this film - he does not seem to be acting at all which I suppose is the sign of a great actor. The dialogue is very realistic and modern for its time. Only drawback is that the film is padded out a bit with vaudeville musical acts.

Frankenstein 1970 (1958) - for a change Boris Karloff gets to play the Baron himself. He is the last surviving member of the Frankenstein clan who survived WW2 but is badly scarred physically and emotionally by the Nazis for refusing to co-operate with them in scientific experiments. Not that this stops him now as he uses a visiting US TV crew as fodder for his basement antics. Karloff is great and the film is well worth a look although dated in its approach when you consider that Hammer brought out Dracula the same year and revolutionised the horror film. Title of the film has no meaning from what I can see.

Hercules In The Haunted World (1961) -a peplum with Britains own Mr Universe , Reg Park and Christopher Lee as the villain. Like most films of this type the story is fairly routine but what makes this film superb is the direction and style of Mario Bava. The use of colour is simply mesmerising in places and even more impressive when you think of the low budget involved. If you are a Bava fan then you must see this - the story is pretty good too.

Midnight Faces (1926) - silent movie about a man who inherits a creepy old house complete with phantom figure, mysterious woman and strange chinaman. A lot of roaming around cobwebbed rooms and thats about it to be honest. Some very un-PC black face humour with the manservant as well. Disappointing.

Communion (1976) - aka Alice Sweet Alice. This is a very well made horror thriller set around a seemingly normal household where one of the 2 daughters seems to have severe psychological problems. When her sister winds up dead in church on her communion day people begin to suspect the dysfunctional sister. A great cast of odd characters and all mixed in with catholic guilt and repression make this one of the most disturbing and effective films of its type. Definitely one to seek out.

Andy

RE: `Classic` Pink Floyd will play at Live 8!!

Never been much of a Floyd fan from Dark Side onwards but they were good on Live8. Mind you it helps when most of the acts on before you are a pile of cack. My only complaint would be that they do stick very close to the sound of the album versions. Nice to see that Syd got a namecheck. Would have been great if they had done Set The Controls or Careful With That Axe - that would have really shaken the dull audience up a bit

Andy

RE: Glastonbury 2005 - Rubbish or What?

I sometimes turn it on to see if there are any interesting new bands cos i dont follow the current music scene anymore. Saw a band called The Doves - yaaaaawn! Now i know why i have given up on the current music scene - they reminded me of a US band called American Music Club and they were doing similar stuff 15 years ago.

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 26th June)

Macabre (1958) - a typical William Castle exploitation horror thriller. The prologue has his usual showmanship claiming that Lloyds of London have insured all cinema patrons against dying of fright during the movie. A doctor searches desperately for his young daughter who has been buried alive by an enemy. Lots of red herrings and black humour but the plot is too weak to sustain the movie for long.

Face Of Marble (1946) - horror veteran John Carradine as a doctor experimenting with bringing the dead back to life (dont they all). He succeeds with his pet great dane but when he tries it with a human strange things begin to happen. Fairly average for its type but Carradine is always good value.

Count Yorga (1970) - by the time this vampire film came out the genre was struggling to say anything new, Hammer had more or less given up and elsewhere in Europe lashings of sex and gore were spicing up such films. This American effort actually goes back to the basic vampire tale with a suave hypnotic count played by Robert Quarry corrupting the local women in a small American town. The modern setting means that a lot of the gothic atmosphere is missing but despite a slow start it builds up nicely and the climax is quite effective.

Return of Count Yorga (1971) - the success of the original led to a sequel with a bigger budget and higher production values. The count is back and up to his old tricks although there is no explanation as to how he returned from his demise in the first movie. Basically a rehash of the first film set around an orphanage and very predictable.

The Man In Half Moon Street (1944) - a scientist has discovered the secret of halting the ageing process but needs surgery every 10 years and a human victim in order to survive. A fairly non sensational melodrama with slight horror overtones. Well made by Paramount but lacking any real bite.

City Of The Living Dead (1980) - at last a Fulci movie I really liked. A priest hangs himself in the graveyard of a small town and from then on strange things begin to happen. The atmosphere really builds up well in this movie and although there are some typial Fulci gory set-pieces (a woman regurgitating her innards, a man having his head drilled etc) they work well within the story. The zombies appear at the end of course but they do not dominate the entire film. Some nice eerie camerawork and a great musical score. Recommended.

Pit And The Pendulum (1991) - directed by Stuart Gordon for Albert Bands Full Moon company this has Lance Henriksen as Torquemada. For a Full Moon production this is not that bad and they have clearly given it a decent budget (filmed in Spain I think). The one failing is that they just cannot resist the modern hip wise-cracking dialogue and at times it is like watching an episode of Xena but with gore and nudity. Lance Henrikson plays his part totally straight and at times he is over the top but he does manage to make his character multi-dimensional. Some nice set pieces including a delicious one where a witch is burned at the stake and takes revenge on the baying crowd in front of her. Oliver Reed has a cameo as a cardinal who meets a nasty end.

Hannie Caulder (1971) - a rarity that is a British western - actually from the Tigon studio of all places. Racquel Welch is the woman seeking revenge on the 3 dirtbags who killed her husband and raped her. Robert Culp is the bounty hunter who reluctantly tutors her in gunplay. Christopher Lee turns up as a gunsmith and Diana Dors has a brief cameo as saloon madam. The most interesting characters in the film are the three bickering villains played by Strother Martin, Jack Elam and Ernest Borgnine - when they are onscreen the film perks up, when they are not it is fairly routine. Acting is pretty good throughout although Racquel Welch is not entirely convincing in the lead role. Woth a look if you like eurowesterns.

Andy

RE: Opening Day Fixtures..

Last game of the season is Arsenal v Wigan . Cant help but think that is fixed in order to give us Arsenal fans a final happy memory and win at Highbury before we move. No disrepect to Wigan fans of course

Andy

RE: Essential Horror Purchases???

Yes I see the point you are making but I think that choice on the shelves (or lack of) may have had a lot to do with it. The so called video nasties all had lurid titles and box cover art to match so its no wonder that people chose these over a dull looking thriller like the Amsterdam Kill for example. A lot of it was also to do with the repressed nature of the great British public who lapped up anything remotely sleazy because censorship had always denied them access to such material. You only have to look at the laughable Britsh sex films of the seventies to see how tame and pathetic they were compared with French, Italian or even American counterparts.

An interesting subject though and one which still fascinates me. I go to a lot of film fairs / conventions and you still come accross individuals who claim to be film fans but are actually gore fans - in other words its not the film as a whole that excites them but individual scenes of violence.

Andy

RE: Essential Horror Purchases???

I remember in the early days of home video (betamax and all that), the only films that you could get were low budget b-movies. My local video shop - well not really a shop more of a shack next to a railway line had lots of cheap horror movies, westerns, crap comedies, titillation movies, or failed American releases.. Not much was available from the the big film studios and releasing companies. The only films that most small shops could get hold of were from relatively unknown film-makers and Italian distributors etc. They were a cheap product to manufacture too. Perhaps it was a coincidence that a lot of these happened to be horror films and most of them were pretty awful but I dont think that there was a deliberate attempt to push nasty horrors on the unsuspecting British public.

Andy

RE: What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 19th June)

The Last Vampire (1993) - a full length Jeremy Brett Holmes TV episode. An unusual tale in that there is not a lot of master detective work in evidence but it does have a creepy atmosphere and a superb performance from Roy Marsden as the man who may or may not be a vampire. One of the strangest of Holmes stories

The Black Sleep (1956) - Basil Rathbone , John Carradine, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr all together in one movie has got to be the classic horror fans dream come true. Poor old Bela has nothing much to do apart from look sinister and he would be dead not long after this film. Chaney too is suffering the ravages of his alcoholism by this time. Rathbone is great though but the film does look dated for 1956, especially when you consider that Hammers groundbreaking Curse of Frankenstein would be relased only a year later. You also get Tor Johnson in this film too. Great stuff!

Lights Out (1959-1952) - I managed to get 18 episodes of this early US TV series which was originally a successful radio show. Creepy and twisted ending tales are good fun but not in the same league as later shows such as the Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. Nice to see actors like Robert Stack and Leslie Nielson in early roles though.

Roadkill (2001) - two brothers on a road trip have fun with a CB radio and seriously p*** off a psychopathic trucker. For the first 40 mins this is quite good but after that it just has nowhere really interesting to go and becomes predictable. Clearly influenced by Spielbergs Duel it cannot provide the same degree of suspense and excitement as that masterpiece.

Nosferatu (1979) - the Werner Herzog remake of the classic silent version of Dracula. Klaus Kinski plays the lead in makeup almost identical to that of Max Shrek in the original. Some scenes are almost identically filmed as well. Some people really rate this film but I found it flat and lacking in excitement during many of the scenes despite some eerie camerawork and great location. Kinski plays the lead as a rather pathetic character who just wants to be loved. A brave failure.

Creation - Our Music Is Purple With Red Flashes - the Creation were one of the best UK sixties mod, psychedelic bands but never really got the credit they deserved in this country. This DVD has 2 reunion shows recorded at the Mean Fiddler in 1992 and 1995. The 1992 show is the best but only has a handful of songs whereas the longer 1995 show has a full set but the sound mix, particularly on the vocals, is poor. Eddie Phillips is still a superb and innovative guitarist and the songs still sound pretty fresh and new.

Andy