Recent viewings

[Jim H]

Shiver - Spanish horror flick about a boy with xeroderma pigmentosum who moves out into a country village to escape sunlight.  Once there, some murders happen, and he gets blamed for it. 

Some quite good scenes of suspense and generally creepiness throughout.  Really nicely shot and well-paced.  Lots of stupid character decisions (some of which are commented on by the characters themselves - genre commentary?).  There's also a bit of a mystery to the film, and when it is revealed it's a little too obvious and cliche for me.  The ending is also fairly weak (especially the rather silly final shot).  Worth a watch.

7/10.

[3mnkids]

Pierrepoint~The story of Albert Pierrepoint, a British executioner. To say this man was good at his job would be an understatement     I really liked this. I wasn't familiar with this story before watching so I was a bit shocked to see the number of people he hanged. 

[Jack]

Creature Unknown (2004) - yet another repeat viewing.  Can't wait for my new router to arrive so I can get back to Netflix streaming again.  Anyhow, some kids get together at a cabin in the woods to commemorate the disappearance of one of their friends.  But there's a creature lurking about and he starts picking them off.  Chase Masterson shows up as a sort of mad scientist / survivalist who's responsible for creating the thing.  The characters were okay, mostly just generic good people with one b***h in the bunch, but they were somewhat likable.  The twist ending was actually good and moderately surprising.  The pace of the action moved along well, it never got boring.  And the babes were all pretty hot    3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

poison for the fairies (1984) - if you really liked Heavenly Creatures and /or Don't deliver us from evil you may want to check this out but it's kind of a miss. It's hard because it could have been amazing. the two girls are adorable and the scenery, it's a mexican movie, is beautiful, lots of old mexican mansions and so forth. It looks more than a lot like a giallo.  Unfortunely almost nothing happens!

the one girl is new and brings her friend into her world of witchcraft and so forth. except we don't really see much of this world other than just the sort of cruel and  diabolical mind games she plays on her friend. Not alot in the way fo special effects or real horror.  It's mainly them walking around geting in trouble due to the head one. It's also a whole lot of the pervy director filming the girls knees and up their dresses from every conceivable angle (they are like 11)

the head girl now plays mainly villainesses in telenovellas.

3/5

[JaseSF]

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008): Now retired, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn (Mario Bello, a poor replacement for Rachel Weisz) get drawn back into the world of mummy-fighting (well technically no character here is truly a mummy in the traditional sense) adventure when their son Alex (Luke Ford) unknowingly unearths the evil Han (Jet Li) the Dragon Emperor of Qin, a cruel dictactor turned to terracotta by a witch's curse who if awakened by the elixir of eternal life poses quite a threat to the world given his command over the five elements and his shapeshifting ability not to mention the huge Terracotta army awaiting his command.

While I did like the characters involved in our little story here and its sense of fun and adventure, the thoroughly unconvincing FX and poorly realized monsters really put a damper on things. I really think this would have been better had they keep the FX focus squarely on the Dragon Emperor (although obviously given his name the Dragon seemed appropriate), his terracota army and the undead army and had eliminated the rest. The more monstrous critters that appear here are never in the least bit convincing as anything but a videogame style 3D cartoon creation and the battles featuring them for the most part are either pointless or look downright ridiculous.

Not even fun supporting characters beyond Fraser and Jet Li like Evey's brother John (John Hannah), Mad Dog Macquire (Laim Cunningham), Lin (Isabella Leong) and her witch mother Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) can save this and it's only for their  presence here that I think this proves passable entertainment on a one time basis. **1/2 out of ***** stars

28 Days Later... (2002): an epidemic of uncontrollable rage, a surprising new virus of infection, quickly spreads across the UK. A small group of survivors search for a sanctuary in this nightmarish tomorrow.

While this has its fascinating moments, in particular as a type of character study of people pushed to the brink desperately struggling to survive and hoping, just holding on to the brink of hope, there's something better out there...somewhere. It ultimately though seems to descend into a violent frenzy, enough you will find it almost hard to tell the infected from the "uninfected". Lots of gore and gruesomeness here, surely enough to please many gorehounds, and a constant sense of foreboding, of something bad just waiting to soon happen or just lurking around the next corner, is constantly present. This is very much a Science Fiction End of the World style scenario, something almost reminscent of many films from the 1970s particularly to me it brings to mind No Blade of Grass yet this is it's own animal although like No Blade of Grass, ultimately I found this just a tad disappointing. I think it's because it just descends into such a violent frenzy where it seems the survivors might not be any better than the infected. **3/4 out of *****

[3mnkids]

Dark Reprieve~ Matt and Kate wake up in an abandoned prison with no knowledge of how they got there. They spend a good chunk of the movie trying to figure it out... are they dreaming? Nuclear holocaust? crazed psycho? is it all in their heads?..etc. These scenes are inter-cut with a model/psychologist being interviewed by police about some murders, video from a crime scene, flashbacks, flash forwards, a weird monster, a wolf(that sounds like a roaring lion), zombie looking guys in hospital uniforms, a strange surgeon guy, and a couple others.

The acting is so unbelievably awful. Seriously, awful. The ending was not what I was expecting but I still felt let down. It was an interesting concept and with some decent actors it would have been better.

[Jack]

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) - A Monsignor travels to a small town to check on the church there, but finds it empty and its priest drinking in the local tavern.  Everyone is afraid of the evil emanating from Dracula's castle high in the mountains, so the Monsignor drags the reluctant priest along and places a big cross at the entrance to the castle.   Unfortunately ol' Drac' himself, Christopher Lee, is brought back to life and is more than a little ticked about the big ol' cross on his front door, so he tracks down the Monsignor to take his revenge.  For the next hour or so, we get to know the Monsignor, his widowed Sister in Law and his niece,  who's in love with a local atheist.  This whole romance thing is REALLY well developed, which is fairly typical of this sort of movie but it sure does take away from any horror aspect the movie might have had.  Eventually Dracula  decides to start nibbling on people and turns it back into a vampire movie, but it's a crying shame when they so horribly under-utilize a great talent like Lee and have him just standing around looking scary.  He has only a tiny amount of dialogue and really doesn't come off as much of a menace.  Being a Hammer Studios film, it's chock full of gorgeous scenery and the cinematography is fantastic.  Really excellent video and audio quality on the DVD as well.  3.75/5.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE FINAL SACRIFICE:  The really horrible, dopey base movie is something about cults and has a hero (?) named Zap Rowsdower.  Well-riffed but slow to start; still, the chuckles come pretty frequently.  The host segments, which feature Pearl trying to take over the world one person at a time and the cast coming down with "hockey hair," are nothing special, except for the classic "The Canada Song."  Not a classic but an above-average episode.  4/5. 

[JaseSF]

28 Weeks Later (2007): We witness events unfold following the outbreak of the rage virus in the UK (as seen in 28 Days Later... (2002)) with things seemingly finally getting back to some semblance of normality as the U.S. Army tries to secure a small area of London for survivors to start their lives again. However when a woman, a carrier with immunity to the virus, is discovered; the virus is once again unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace with dire consequences.

28 Days Later...(2002) is kind of more like a blend of The Omega Man and No Blade of Grass just much more violent and gory than either although both those films have their bloody moments too. 28 Weeks Later(2007) looks and feels like a more speed up, ramped up version of I Am Legend crossed with Night of the Living Dead what with high speed infected chasing and brutally attacking their victims in a style very reminscent of modern era zombie films. Add in here the extra element of a military presence and our story's main focus being on two kids caught up in the horror of having their family become bloodthirsty infected and this takes on a new dimension of interest. It has some very disturbing moments and as I said pretty much amps up the violence, gore and explosions from the original. This film is even much more gruesome than 28 Days Later...(2002) and its fast, intense pace should well please action fans although personally I feel the character focus isn't as strong in this one. In the end though, this movie's decided overall unpleasantness and particularly its unnecessary showcasing of brutal violence often directed at women takes away from a lot of the enjoyment I might have had watching this. **1/2 out of ***** stars

[Jack]

Angelfist (1993) - A female martial artist is competing in a tournament in Manila, but she happens to photograph a US military officer being assassinated, and the bad guys track her down and kill her as well, but not before she gets rid of the film.  As it happens, her sister is also a martial artist who lives in LA, and she's soon on her way to Manila to investigate the murder.  Since everything seems to be centered around the martial arts tournament, she enters it as well.  This was a pretty fun little movie.  The plot was classic B movie nonsense, the characters were fairly likable, and we even get totally hot babes in spandex fighting each other in a really fake tournament!  Several shower scenes as well.  Actually I think it was just one shower scene, as everyone is standing in the exact same place in the second scene.  Some of the stuff in here is just great - Melissa Moore (see my avatar) is being tortured by the bad guys, which involves them opening her shirt and laying her chest-down on a block of ice    There's also a great scene where the main heroine fights off some bad guys wearing nothing but a pair of panties.  Ahhh, pure B movie goodness all the way.  4/5.

[Doggett]

So Close (2002)

A chinese action flick.
Okay, in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what the plot was so if I get it wrong forgive me. Two assassin sisters infect a high tech company run by bad guys. They kill the head villian, to the sound of a Carpenters classic (!), which then gets the attention of a police woman who goes in to investigate. This is a running, jumping, chasing, shooting, kung fu-ing, swordfighting, female action flick !

This was great for all the right reasons and the wrong reasons:
For the right reasons, all the action was terrific, although I was a little bothered by the CGI glass. But I found this sooooooooooo much fun. And I'm not that much of an action fan.
Now the wrong reasons. It might just be a cultural thing. The music cues. Oh, those music cues... I want to say more but I think I'll just leave it at that. But, boy, did I laugh at the bottle of water scene. But, hey, maybe it just seems funny to my western ears.


Imagine Charlies Angels. But good. And chinese.

4/5

[lester1/2jr]

so close and angelfist both sound good 

[Rev. Powell]

Angelfist (1993) - A female martial artist is competing in a tournament in Manila, but she happens to photograph a US military officer being assassinated, and the bad guys track her down and kill her as well, but not before she gets rid of the film.  As it happens, her sister is also a martial artist who lives in LA, and she's soon on her way to Manila to investigate the murder.  Since everything seems to be centered around the martial arts tournament, she enters it as well.  This was a pretty fun little movie.  The plot was classic B movie nonsense, the characters were fairly likable, and we even get totally hot babes in spandex fighting each other in a really fake tournament!  Several shower scenes as well.  Actually I think it was just one shower scene, as everyone is standing in the exact same place in the second scene.  Some of the stuff in here is just great - Melissa Moore (see my avatar) is being tortured by the bad guys, which involves them opening her shirt and laying her chest-down on a block of ice    There's also a great scene where the main heroine fights off some bad guys wearing nothing but a pair of panties.  Ahhh, pure B movie goodness all the way.  4/5.

Wow, I didn't remember this as being that entertaining.  Forgot Melissa Moore was in it.  Maybe I should give it another chance.

[Rev. Powell]

THE DRESS (1996):A series of linked stories following the owners of a dress that always seems to bring bad luck to its wearer.  Well-written, gloomy, quirky; but despite the linking device and several recurring characters, the stories lack a unifying thematic thread, beyond pessimism.  2.5/5.

[Jack]

Angelfist (1993) - A female martial artist is competing in a tournament in Manila, but she happens to photograph a US military officer being assassinated, and the bad guys track her down and kill her as well, but not before she gets rid of the film.  As it happens, her sister is also a martial artist who lives in LA, and she's soon on her way to Manila to investigate the murder.  Since everything seems to be centered around the martial arts tournament, she enters it as well.  This was a pretty fun little movie.  The plot was classic B movie nonsense, the characters were fairly likable, and we even get totally hot babes in spandex fighting each other in a really fake tournament!  Several shower scenes as well.  Actually I think it was just one shower scene, as everyone is standing in the exact same place in the second scene.  Some of the stuff in here is just great - Melissa Moore (see my avatar) is being tortured by the bad guys, which involves them opening her shirt and laying her chest-down on a block of ice    There's also a great scene where the main heroine fights off some bad guys wearing nothing but a pair of panties.  Ahhh, pure B movie goodness all the way.  4/5.

Wow, I didn't remember this as being that entertaining.  Forgot Melissa Moore was in it.  Maybe I should give it another chance.

I got a good chuckle out of it.  A few adult beverages are highly recommended.  I forgot to mention the big fight in what must have been a paperboard shack, where people kept getting knocked right through walls.  That's just shoddy construction