Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

Stop Me Before I Kill (1960): This is also known as "The Full Treatment", the book on which it was based. Following a near-death experience in a car wreck, a former race car driver named Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) finds himself suddenly plagued with the strange and unexpected urge to brutally strangle his newlywed wife Denise (Diane Cilento). His wife soon pleads with him to seek the help of a psychiatrist they meet during their honeymoon abroad, a man named David Prade (Claude Dauphin) who himself seems a little mysterious and suave.

While enjoyable overall for the performances of our three leads and the many Hitchcockian style plot twists and turns, some ironic, in some ways this just doesn't work quite as well as I would have liked. The jazzy score in particular doesn't seem appropriate at all and the plot itself often seems a bit far-fetched with the wife continuing to love and support the abusive husband (although I guess one could argue some certainly do follow this pattern in real life too). Also the film is a little too set-bound, talky and really the only standout actors are the three leads and Françoise Rosay as David's mother Madame Prade. The rest of the cast seems amateurish at best. Still the twists are really fascinating to watch unfold and make this one worth sticking with through the end, there's certainly great attention to detail here, even if it ultimately proves a tad disappointing overall, especially for a film directed by Val Guest. *** out of ***** stars although I'm probably being a tad generous there.

[claws]

War of the Worlds (2005) Blu-ray

Pretty much going against the grain here. I actually enjoy this Spielberg remake and I actually don't care what gospel Cruise is preaching and I actually think Fanning was a good casting choice.
I'm a sucker for alien invasion movies and this one delivers. Great popcorn entertainment with amazing visuals. 4.5/5

[Jack]

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) - Our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) from the previous two movies is out in the desert trying to escape the attention of the evil Umbrella Corporation.  In fact the whole world is now desert - never mind that in the sequel to this movie they go to Alaska and it's certainly not desert up there.  Eventually she meets up with a band of survivors led by a smokin' hot Ali Larter.  Ali's character seems to know Alice and be familiar with her story, which is odd since this is her first appearance in this franchise.  Their battles with zombies out in the desert are interspersed with occasional scenes of the evil scientist at the evil Umbrella Corporation performing evil experiments - it's all very evil.  Of course there's the inevitable showdown at the end.  Not a bad popcorn flick at all, plenty of action, a bit of story, and the zombies are some of the best I've ever seen.  They look almost otherworldly.  4/5.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) - a gold-digging husband would like to get all his wife's money so he can enjoy it with his slutty girlfriend, and the wife's just seen an alien spaceship with a giant monster in it;  so maybe they can get her declared insane?  The plan doesn't work out too well when the wife grows to 50 feet tall (well, 15 feet maybe) and goes on a very short rampage in the last 5 minutes of the movie.  This is only about an hour long, which helped keep the plot moving.  Good performance from Allison Hayes as the wife, her character was quite sympathetic.  Yvette Vickers did a good job in the girlfriend role as well.  The giant papier-mâché  hand that we see in several scenes is definitely good for a laugh.  3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

FRANKENSTEIN 80 (1972): Stupid cops hunt a modern day Frankenstein's monster who kills women for no particular reason in this Eurosleaze cheapie.  It  only exists as an excuse for nudity and gore, but there are hundreds of more interesting and better lit movies that serve the same function.  So bad, it's bad.  1/5.

[spongekryst]

The Company of Wolves- A girl is stuck in a dream where fantasy and nightmares clash. Meeting in the middle are twisted tales of infedelity, vengeance, Satan, and coming of age, all involving wolves/werewolves. Few movies really catch the "dream logic" perfectly, I think this one did. Definitely a new favorite of mine! Watch or Buy it when you can! This is no "Red Riding Hood" (because this movie is actually good).

Trail of the Screaming Forehead- A parody/homage to the fun, yet scientifically inaccurate, schlockiest of the schlocky 1950's creature features. Alien foreheads are invading, scientists are attempting to prove that all of our thinking is done with the forehead, the local gangster is selling foreheads of the deceased, among other related forehead anamolies. It's better than it may sound, but hey, this is badmovies.org I'm talking to here.

[Cthulhu]

eXistenZ-What can I say....it's undeniably Cronenberg. I liked it.

[Jack]

Blood Monkey (2007) - a group of college students travel to a remote jungle to do a research project for a professor.  Unfortunately the professor has discovered a new species of ape, the bloooood monkey, and he's willing to do absolutely anything to bring a specimen back to civilization and get credit for the discovery - including using the kids as bait.  This started out kind of bad, with annoying clichéd characters.  But it didn't take too long for them to develop some actual human personalities, and the psycho doctor was fairly menacing.  It built a modicum of suspense I guess, kind of a fun little B monster movie.  3.5/5.

[Criswell]

Lonesome Dove - Watch this movie/miniseries with my dad. He said its his favorite movie of all time, and even though i'm not huge on westerns I really enjoyed it.

[lester1/2jr]

Heroes of the Wild aka Heroes of Shaolin (1977) - neither title exactly fits but this is a really good chop socky movie with alot of fights and a fair amount of creativity and character development. It also features an actress named Lung jun Erh who I've always liked. A kid and the guy who killed his father form a bond, this is the "martial world" after all, and go about on a tyical patriotic anti manchu crusade. This version was edited down a little from the vhs I have and it seemed slightly less homoerotic which didn't dissapoint me. There is a menu thing just for "fights" and there is like 10 of them. If you are looking for a cool kung fu movie that isn't boring I doubt this will dissapoint you even if it isn't a major classic or something. 4.5/5

The Hangover (2009)- I've seen a bunch of these movies like Tropic Thunder, Wedding Crashers and whatnot. This is probably the best of the ones I've seen in that it is actually funny. Maybe Heather Grahams character could have been devleoped a little more or maybe we could have seen more of her instead of Ed Helms teeth but it's a good fun movie. I didn't want to like Zach Galfinakis ubt he won me over 5/5

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)- Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver who both look really good are in Indonesia being press people covering the goings on under the Suharto regime. The first half is good but not for all tastes. They are always in thes dark rooms and the dialogue is good but not a hell of alot really happens. An interesting character is a local fixer sort of guy who is played by some Indonesian actor who is like 4 feet tall who I've never seen in anything else. he's really good. Gibson is trying to make a name for himself and news and falls for Weaver.

The second half is a bit more exciting as a revolution of sorts starts up. The people are starving and the commies are gaining power. I'll take a king over communism anyday but that's not how they saw it there, plus they are starving. This doesn't really buld to a fever pitch or anything but it's a good tastefull sort of movie generally speaking 4/5

[Jack]

Evil Remains (2004) - On the back of the box it says "This bloodcurdling tale will glue you to your seat and should definitely not be watched alone."  Yeah, more like I've been watching it for two evenings now and it's so damned boring I still haven't finished it.  Five young people go to an old haunted plantation.  And then they talk.  The three guys go in the house and talk.  They hear a scary noise, they talk about it.  They move closer to the source of the scary noise.  They talk some more.  The two girls walk around outside.  And talk.  One of them steps on a gopher trap - while wearing hiking boots.  It catches her around the heel.  I mean, c'mon;  she wouldn't even be able to feel it.  She spends the next half hour limping around.  Meanwhile, the guys in the house talk about stuff.

I've got a half hour to go, but if this thing doesn't improve dramatically (and I have no reason to hope it will), it's looking like a 1.5/5.

[claws]

I've got a half hour to go, but if this thing doesn't improve dramatically (and I have no reason to hope it will), it's looking like a 1.5/5.

Hold your horses. Estella Warren gets naked with her lesbian girlfriend. Not. 
It's been a few years since I watched this. Don't remember much about the ending, except for fire ...

[lester1/2jr]

The Great Outdoors (1988)- This was okay but I didn't like it as much as Private Eyes as far as family friendly comedy and it had quite a bit of swearing for pg. I don't really care about such things but in this case I think it was part and parcel of the kind of off putting self indulgence on display. It was alright and sometimes funny though. I was disappointed that teen love story sub plot was so clunky and phoned in considering this was directed by John Hughes but I think they felt the appeal was the SNL type antics of Akaroyd playing off Candy, which it was to an extent. I'm sure they had a great time making it but that doesn't always translate. Alot of peopel really like it though.  It's kind of aimed more at the Dads of families than families. and again, kind of aimed at entertaining themselves. maybe I'm nitpicking.

3.75/5

[JaseSF]

Cash on Demand (1962): A rigid bank manager named Fordyce (Peter Cushing) finds his world turned upside down when a daring albeit charming and exceptionally clever bank robber (André Morell) decides to rob his bank in broad daylight in a rather unconventional way.

This low budget thriller from Hammer Films is honestly an exceptional film. The two leads Cushing and Morrell are terrific in their roles and play off each other really well. Honestly this might in fact be Cushing's, known more for his horror roles, best film performance. The tension and suspense builds and builds in this one and it has you wondering just how far things will go. Quite gripping throughout, I couldn't take my eyes off it much the way one can't put down a really good book. This movie also has a realistic feel too as the characters look and feel very much like real people in the time and era in which it is set. I highly recommend this one. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

I've got a half hour to go, but if this thing doesn't improve dramatically (and I have no reason to hope it will), it's looking like a 1.5/5.

Hold your horses. Estella Warren gets naked with her lesbian girlfriend. Not. 
It's been a few years since I watched this. Don't remember much about the ending, except for fire ...

Oh you're just toying with me now   

The ending actually managed to be a bit worse than the rest of it.  The two girls are trapped in the basement of the house, awaiting the arrival of the killer, and of course having a nice long argument about which of the two doors he'll come in.  One girl is going to fire off a camera flash in his face when he comes in, but as soon as he starts pounding on the door, she starts firing off the flash repeatedly for a good 30 seconds before he even comes through the door.  So the girls get outside, and have an argument about which direction to run in.  Then an argument about something else.  Have you ever put a throw rug in the washer, and had it unravel and come out as a big mess of strings?  That's what one girl has on her head - as her hair.  The killer finally - FINALLY - impales her.  Hip hip hooray!!!  There is no ending.  Flash forward 4 years and a new group of people are going to the haunted house   

1.25/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE VIOLENT KIND (2010): Bikers party at an isolated house, but a scarier, even more violent force is lurking in the woods outside.  Grindhouse-style pic starts as a plodding EVIL DEAD ripoff but really picks up when the devil-worshiping alien rockabilly ghosts show up; if the energy of the last third had been spread out through the entire movie, it would have been an above average horror.  I'll say 2.5/5.