By Tim Greaves
Between the early 1950s and mid 1980s the Children's Film Foundation was a non-profit making establishment behind dozens of films aimed at a young audience, most of them screening as programme constituents at Saturday morning 'Picture Shows'. I didn't catch many of these during my own childhood. But I do recall a couple of particularly enjoyable ones that I did get to see in the early 1970s: Cry Wolf (1969) and All at Sea (1970), both of which are conspicuously absent from the half dozen or so collections issued on DVD to date. Many of the Cff’s films had a run-time of around an hour, although there were also a number of serials in their catalogue. Masters of Venus was one such production. Comprising eight 15-minute instalments, it arrives on DVD in the UK in a restored release from BFI.
On the day prior to mankind's first mission to Venus,...
Between the early 1950s and mid 1980s the Children's Film Foundation was a non-profit making establishment behind dozens of films aimed at a young audience, most of them screening as programme constituents at Saturday morning 'Picture Shows'. I didn't catch many of these during my own childhood. But I do recall a couple of particularly enjoyable ones that I did get to see in the early 1970s: Cry Wolf (1969) and All at Sea (1970), both of which are conspicuously absent from the half dozen or so collections issued on DVD to date. Many of the Cff’s films had a run-time of around an hour, although there were also a number of serials in their catalogue. Masters of Venus was one such production. Comprising eight 15-minute instalments, it arrives on DVD in the UK in a restored release from BFI.
On the day prior to mankind's first mission to Venus,...
- 7/26/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
This British scary movie is preposterous and cheesy, if occasionally oddly enjoyable
Like a horror version of Sid James's Bless This House, this British scary movie is preposterous and cheesy, if occasionally oddly enjoyable. It is (but of course) based on a true story of a family in Yorkshire in 1974 – an era haunted by strikes and power-cuts. They believed a poltergeist was plunging their house into darkness. The movie does not present the story as political satire or psychological case-study, merely a somewhat daft ghost story. Just as no one in EastEnders watches EastEnders, no one here mentions the sensational 1973 film The Exorcist, which found millions of fans and whose staggering popularity may, I delicately suggest, account for this true-life phenomenon.
Rating: 2/5
HorrorPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions...
Like a horror version of Sid James's Bless This House, this British scary movie is preposterous and cheesy, if occasionally oddly enjoyable. It is (but of course) based on a true story of a family in Yorkshire in 1974 – an era haunted by strikes and power-cuts. They believed a poltergeist was plunging their house into darkness. The movie does not present the story as political satire or psychological case-study, merely a somewhat daft ghost story. Just as no one in EastEnders watches EastEnders, no one here mentions the sensational 1973 film The Exorcist, which found millions of fans and whose staggering popularity may, I delicately suggest, account for this true-life phenomenon.
Rating: 2/5
HorrorPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions...
- 9/13/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
You may find the new Ben Stiller movie The Watch strangely familiar. But that's not necessarily a good thing
You might be forgiven for thinking that you've seen The Watch before. Not because Ben Stiller's character is the same uptight blowhard that he has played in everything for the past 15 years, or because Richard Ayoade is basically just Moss from The It Crowd again, or because Vince Vaughn remains content to sit back and bibble out the same directionless patter that has been his stock in trade for what seems like centuries.
No. The reason is because, once you've scraped away all the sex jokes and clanging Costco product placement, you're basically left with Dad's Army. Both are essentially stories about a group of ill-prepared middle-aged incompetents trying to escape the monotony of their day-to-day lives by fudging together a defence against an enemy they don't fully understand. With The Watch,...
You might be forgiven for thinking that you've seen The Watch before. Not because Ben Stiller's character is the same uptight blowhard that he has played in everything for the past 15 years, or because Richard Ayoade is basically just Moss from The It Crowd again, or because Vince Vaughn remains content to sit back and bibble out the same directionless patter that has been his stock in trade for what seems like centuries.
No. The reason is because, once you've scraped away all the sex jokes and clanging Costco product placement, you're basically left with Dad's Army. Both are essentially stories about a group of ill-prepared middle-aged incompetents trying to escape the monotony of their day-to-day lives by fudging together a defence against an enemy they don't fully understand. With The Watch,...
- 8/16/2012
- by Stuart Heritage
- The Guardian - Film News
For those familiar with Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, the character of Dr Van Helsing is a strange, almost unintelligible, elderly eccentric who practically speaks Double-Dutch! After reading the book one wonders how someone as formidable as Count Dracula could ever be defeated by this rather odd and seemingly ineffectual little Dutchman.
In cinematic terms, the character is unactable on screen. Peter Cushing remains the definitive Van Helsing because he’s (thankfully) furthest from the book. His Van Helsing was portrayed as an intelligent and resourceful action hero; the prototype for Hugh Jackman’s later interpretation.
With the exception of Cushing, Jackman and Edward Van Sloan (who played the part in the thirties), the other movie Van Helsings have been pretty dire, and the better the actor, the worse he is in the role. Let’s have a look at the ten really bad ones.
An established horror name with great screen presence,...
In cinematic terms, the character is unactable on screen. Peter Cushing remains the definitive Van Helsing because he’s (thankfully) furthest from the book. His Van Helsing was portrayed as an intelligent and resourceful action hero; the prototype for Hugh Jackman’s later interpretation.
With the exception of Cushing, Jackman and Edward Van Sloan (who played the part in the thirties), the other movie Van Helsings have been pretty dire, and the better the actor, the worse he is in the role. Let’s have a look at the ten really bad ones.
An established horror name with great screen presence,...
- 1/14/2011
- Shadowlocked
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