WHAT I WATCHED - DECEMBER 13-19 2015:
More moving house (yes I own a lot of stuff) so not much movie-watching again.
Rubble Kings (2010) Netflix
- Reading the synopsis of this one, I thought it was going to be about the rise of hip hop in New York City. But while that is covered in the last 10-15 minutes, the bulk of this documentary is about street gangs in the Big Apple from the late 1960s through to the present day, in particular the gang The Ghetto Brothers. They turned to peace and, according to this doco, made a lot of other gangs join their cause, in something of a real-life scene from The Warriors. Told via talking heads from a bunch of current and ex gang guys, with archival footage in between, this is fascinating stuff while not particularly earth-shattering.
Let Us Prey (2014) Netflix
- Pollyanna McIntosh just keeps popping up in stuff I've watched lately - Tales of Halloween, The Blood Lands and now this. That's not a complaint, as she's a pretty good actor - kind of like Milla Jovovich with acting talent. In this Irish horror she plays a straight-laced rookie cop who moves to a small town just in time to witness some strange goings on involving a group of people who end up in the police station's holding cells. It seems one of them (Liam Cunningham from Dog Soldiers) is more than he appears and knows quite a lot about each of the others' lives. I won't say any more, other than to say this one leaves things moderately ambiguous. There's not much in the way of actual horror or gore (although one of the characters takes a surprisingly sick twist), but first-time director Brian O'Malley crafts a tense and intriguing thriller.
- With my Netflix temporarily disconnected and my DVDs all packed away I reached for what was laying around to watch while packing boxes. I've seen this one before and enjoyed it so popped it in for a repeat viewing. This variation on the Most Dangerous Game theme, thick with Vietnam War tension, is a good little action thriller, helped by a great cast including Oscar-winner Rod Steiger (In The Heat of the Night, Amityville Horror), Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat in The X-Files) and David Huffman, who was tragically murdered at the age of 39 just five years after this movie. Huffman plays a Vietnam deserter who is hunted by a group of old war vet buddies, with predictable but enjoyable results.
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