Recent viewings

[Doggett]

Silent Hill (2006) - A woman loses her kid in the spooky town of Silent Hill, and for the first 90 minutes (it's two hours total) we watch her walk around and get scared by stuff.  Too bad we barely know her, and we don't have any idea what's going on, so you're basically left with a long parade of special effects sequences.  It's pretty obvious they were going for the whole 'living through a nightmare" thing, but I've never had a nightmare that consisted of one big budget special effects shot after another after another so it didn't work for me.  Eventually we do get to know this woman a bit, and they finally explain the plot, but it's fairly confusing (I guess I should have been taking notes).  Then there's a whole bunch more special effects and the twist ending.  The effects were really good, both in a technical and creative sense.  Definitely needed more character development early in the movie at the very least.  3/5.

The film is just shouting out names with a few monsters thrown in. Still, it can be very creepy.

Rose !

Sharron!

Rose !

Sharron !

*MONSTER ! GGRRRR.....*

 

[Allhallowsday]

I have watched several LONG films on TCM the last several weeks for their 31 days of Oscar. 

GANDHI (1982) I must have seen this more than 25 years ago.  It was better than I had realized.  Awesome film, one of the great film biographies.   

THE LAST EMPEROR (1987) An endlessly watchable film to me, it only gets better.  One of the most legitimate Western takes on Chinese culture. 

LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING (2003)  I was never a fan of this film.  I loved the first one, found the second one half engrossing and half tedious, and this last overlong and boring.  I think the first film should have won the Best Picture award that year, but everybody knows they were waiting to give it to the third flick in the series.    RETURN OF THE KING I still think overlong and boring, and TOLKIEN must be a better read than cinema, HOWEVER, I enjoyed it last night.  I've sat thru it before, own it on an unopened DVD, but I guess I was in the mood for a long long movie that you don't have to watch too closely.  (I mean really who can keep track of all them threads 'bout throne stewards, Sauron the eye, Sauron the Dark Helmet, kingdoms and daughters and sons and burning drama and ghost people of the mountain...??  )  Like... who are they again?  Wait, he looks familiar... But, check brain at door and it is a lot of fun!!  I finally got it!  Watch RETURN OF THE KING after two martinis and a bottle of wine!!   

[Rev. Powell]

SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963):  A journalist has himself committed to a mental institution to try to solve a murder.  This mix of lurid melodrama, heavy-handed symbolism (America in 1963 is an insane asylum!), and nympho assaults shouldn't work at all, but Sam Fuller's passionate direction turns it into something maddeningly entertaining.  4/5.   

[Allhallowsday]

SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963):  A journalist has himself committed to a mental institution to try to solve a murder.  This mix of lurid melodrama, heavy-handed symbolism (America in 1963 is an insane asylum!), and nympho assaults shouldn't work at all, but Sam Fuller's passionate direction turns it into something maddeningly entertaining.  4/5.   

Yeh, the one with PETER BRECK... that's a surprisinly good flick.

[Jack]

Spirit Camp (2009) - a group of cheerleaders go to a spirit camp out in the woods, where a national champion cheerleader is going to drastically increase their spirit level.  But wouldn't you know it, there's a mysterious slasher lurking about, and it doesn't take long before our cheer squad is missing a few members.  This was very much a horror/comedy, which I usually detest, but I enjoyed this one quite a bit.  Most of the humor was mean and sarcastic instead of the usual brain dead stupidity.  I liked the characters a whole lot - I suppose most people would think they were all total b***hes, but I'm a guy and they're cheerleaders, so they can do no wrong in my opinion.  And they actually had a bit of depth to their personalities, all played in an amusing fashion.  The killings were good for a chuckle, for instance the slasher attacks one girl, and afterwards we see her with the knife buried right into the side of her skull.    I really disliked the killer - I mean these girls are totally hot!  What an a$$hole.  4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

NOTHING (2003): Two losers, who live underneath an overpass at the junction of a highway, discover they have the power to wish the world away, leaving... nothing.  A clever script pushes the simple premise and two character dynamic as far as it can go; this is probably as good a movie about nothing as you'll ever see.  3.5/5.   

[lester1/2jr]

Revanche (2008) - This is one of the few current titles I've seen offered by the Criterion collection and while it does have some elements that are probably pretty shocking to fans of those sort of classics, namely some infrequent but pretty raw sex scenes, it fits in pretty well, mostly because the guy who directed it is really talented and the photography is great. It doesn't really wow you with a lot of profound creative shooting or tour de force performances, it's just a good dark movie, like a good...cognac or someething I don't know I drink malt liqour I don't know about any of that stuff.

The scenerio isn't wildly original: A guy who works in a whorehouse falls in a love with a whore in the house. They do Bonnie and Clyde stuff and so forth. or try to. Their lives end up  intersecting with a cop who they ran into while they were doing a robbery and they don't know that they know who they are or do they? kinda thing. If it sounds like a comedy it's not, at all.

The guy who loves the whore is impressively not handsome and he spends alot of time chopping the s**t out of wood at his dads house, p**sed off about everything. The other noteable character is the cops wife who has really big breasts. That sounds silly but it's sort of unusual and uh yeah she should definitely stick with it! There is very little music at all which is strange, even in the closing credits.  It's just a really good foreign film if not one that is going to make you like re evaluate your life or something.

4.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

THE THIRSTY DEAD (1974): Four (American) women in the Philippines are kidnapped by a cult who drink blood for eternal youth and worship a guy named Raoul whose head they've preserved inside a brick of cherry jello.  Nice sets and scenery (including the scantily clad female cast) are the only real points of interest in this stupid, stupid film.  2/5.

[movie masochist]

I just watched Repo Man (1984) again after many years.  I’m going to lose all my remaining punk rock points for saying this, but I forgot how awesome this movie is.   It's so slow, yet so weird and random that it keeps your attention.  There's Harry Dean Stanton and his motley crew of repo men.  Then there's the lobotomized radiation victim driving around with dead aliens in the car.   If you haven't seen this gem in a while, I recommend watching it again.  

thebestbadmovies.com

[claws]

Courier of Death (1984)

No budget but solid C-Action shot in Oregon. This one has a devoted cult following in Scotland, of all places.
What to expect? Hostility towards women (usually gut-punched), some bloody violence, bad fight scenes, car chase, shoot outs, pole dancing, pool beating, hands cuffing, one explosion, small airplane flight, spiffy 80s hair, bad dialogue, above average soundtrack, local "actors", rural setting, backyard setting and lots of dead bodies.
There are a few dull parts but the cheese can be funny at times. 3/5 Cheese

[Jack]

The Immortalizer (1989) - Are you old and want to be young again?  Got a million bucks?  Go see Dr. Devine and he'll transplant your brain into the body of a teenager!  But the good doctor has to get those teenagers from someplace, and so he uses his malformed WWF type guys to kidnap a foursome of attractive young folks and bring them back to his lair.  This was pretty typical '80s B-movie stuff:  nice and cheesy, the good characters were likable and the bad guys could pull of a convincing "mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha".  There were several subplots to keep it from getting boring.   3.25/5.

[Doggett]

Bikini Carwash Company

From the imdb:

In this multi-layered art house film, Ed Hansen makes use of dialectical conflict to tell his story of unbridled capitalism. Polarities such as streetwise beach girl - naive farm boy, brash new marketing ideas - conservative ideas, hard work - play at work, bikini on - bikini off are presented. It is the reconciliation of these opposites in which Hansen demonstrates the plus side of naked ambition. A well rounded cast featuring Sara Suzanne Brown, Neriah Napaul, Rikki Brando, Kimberly Bee, and the gorgeous Kristi Ducati give performances that bust out with enthusiasm. Ms. Ducati, as sleek and detailed as the Ducati motorcycle, earned All-Century second team status. We here at the academy, on principle, do not like to dwell on the physical attributes of the actors, but Ms. Ducati has the most bodacious pair of ... eyes. Also keep an eye out for the auteur Wynorski in an important role. In summary this is a great film with an uplifting message and definitely a classic.



 

3/5

[indianasmith]

And all this time I thought it was about soapy boobs . . .

[claws]

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) Blu-ray

What's there not to like? It's kick-ass and cool and Salma Hayek's legendary snake dance in HD is a stunner   5/5

The Craft (1996) Blu-ray

Underrated witchcraft-horror with a cute cast (well, Fairuza Balk ain't that cute but she was great anyway) and somewhat dated 90s CGI. Still a fun ride though. 4.25/5

[spongekryst]

Hard To Kill- Steven Seagal is a burned out drug angent that decides to take it easy and visit his family. Unfortunately, there are a lot of drug crimes going on in his sister's neighborhood, due to...Jamaicans. Seagal's family is caught in the crossfire (imagine that), so he pretty much goes on a rampage and wins the only way Seagal knows how: flawlessly.

With this being my first Seagal film in years, as far as action films go, there are worse. However, I don't need to tell you good people how rediculous and horrible of an actor he is.

Mulholland Dr.- I watched it in bits and pieces, so I'll have to watch it again from start to finish, but I did like it. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it, so you know it's good, although I still prefer Eraserhead and Lost Highway.

Rocky IV- My favorite one of the series. A superhuman Russian kills Apollo. Rocky fights him.

Guru: The Mad Monk- Andy Milligan is cool, hahaha.