07.02.09
Oh my word!
Scary fillum night has just happened. Pizza, the usuals plus Tom sadly minus Nicky made for a nice crowd and pizza turned out to be as cheap delivered as it would have been to pick up. Huzzah!
Tom came last time where the worst of it was a bit of goriness in Black Sheep.
This evening’s fare was to be a little more nervy.
But more of that later. First flick was City of God from Brazil. This is one we’ve had waiting for an age. It doesn’t really fit into the “scary” bracket but it didn’t disappoint.
It’s a tale of a few characters in the eponymous slum area near Rio. We watch as they fall for and lose girls, nick stuff, shoot children, get shot, get stabbed, sell drugs, buy off police and chase errant chickens.
Despite all the nastiness there are some loveable characters. Benny for one and the wannabe photographer “Rocket”. And the cast are bloody marvellous.
At some points the various stories collide to give some narrative.
Highly recommended if a trifle downbeat.
After a brief break and having to convince Pete to stay awake we get to the star performer of the evening. I say that even after saying that the first fillum was so good.
[rec] is its name. It’s another of the fillums that’s so good they made it twice. (Well the mercans made it again because no American seems to be able to read – they didn’t even change the name of the main character!)
In terms of fillum making this was in a league below City of God but lordy lordy it did its job. After Tom’s gentle intro to our little group last time, this one had him saying that he’s not coming back for another. Clurb squealed like a squealy thing and even let rip the odd startled yelp. Bloody fantastic it was.
The only real negative for me was the handheld camera work which did leave me feeling queasy by the end of it. Thankfully it was only 75 mins long (shorter in the UK than in other versions – peculiar).
The story was pretty thin but that’s not an issue for a no-holds-barred adrenalin flick. Think a very constrained 28 Days Later. The characters are all stuck in a smallish apartment building instead of all of the UK.
The usual guff about infection followed by homicidal fury. All fillumed by a bloke called Pablo and fronted by a rather fetching spanish reporter.
Wonderful shock moments, scary and fast moving, and it all leads to a boss level with king baddy at the end with more shocks and claustrophobia.
Top end to the week.
A shame Nicky missed it. I might lend her the disc and tell her it’s not that bad really, she should probably watch it on her own. I think I’d be in trouble if I did though.
A very good pair of fillums indeed.
clurb said,
February 7, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Obviously I only yelped and squealed to cover up the noises coming from Tom.
Tom said,
February 10, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Yes, that’s right, to cover up *all* of the noise that I was making…