Recent viewings

[Jim H]

THANKSKILLING (2009):  A killer turkey stalks a jock, a fat hillbilly, a nerd, a naughty babe, and a nice babe in this hour long homemade Troma-style horror-comedy. It starts out with an axe-wielding turkey puppet stalking a topless Pilgrim woman (be warned: the movie blows its entire nudity budget in the first five minutes).  The whole thing's so proudly cheap and dumb, you'll be convinced it was made by actual frat boys over spring break. 2.5/5.  I think this could be up Indy's alley!

Didn't you add that to your list after I saw it, Rev? 

And yeah, I'd definitely second it for Indy.  The total budget for Thankskilling was about $3000, BTW.  And it's better than a number of actual Troma films I could name (best decision the makers made was cutting it down to an hour). 

Sounds like you and I agree on this one.   

I just saw King of Kong.  It was quite enjoyable and entertaining.  Very well made too.  8/10.

[Rev. Powell]

THANKSKILLING (2009):  A killer turkey stalks a jock, a fat hillbilly, a nerd, a naughty babe, and a nice babe in this hour long homemade Troma-style horror-comedy. It starts out with an axe-wielding turkey puppet stalking a topless Pilgrim woman (be warned: the movie blows its entire nudity budget in the first five minutes).  The whole thing's so proudly cheap and dumb, you'll be convinced it was made by actual frat boys over spring break. 2.5/5.  I think this could be up Indy's alley!

Didn't you add that to your list after I saw it, Rev? 

And yeah, I'd definitely second it for Indy.  The total budget for Thankskilling was about $3000, BTW.  And it's better than a number of actual Troma films I could name (best decision the makers made was cutting it down to an hour). 

Sounds like you and I agree on this one.   

I just saw King of Kong.  It was quite enjoyable and entertaining.  Very well made too.  8/10.

I honestly don't remember, Jim, but it's possible and I'm willing to give you credit!    You're right about the hour length too.

[InformationGeek]

Kick-Ass (2010): A teenager decides to take a shot at becoming a real life superhero  named Kick-Ass and actually succeeds at it.  However, this sparks the attention of the mafia who believe he is the guy killing their men.  The real culprits are two real life anti heroes called Big Daddy and Hit Girl.

This was an awesome and dare I say, kiss ass movie?  I loved the story, the acting, and the action.  The action was just pure awesome, especially with the scene where Hit Girl whips the floor with the mobsters towards the end of the film.  This is one hell of a violent and swear feast movie though!  Do not let any little kid see this!  This probably became my second favorite movie of the year next to Toy Story 3.

[Jim H]

Just saw Undisputed 2.  Pretty enjoyable.  I don't doubt it was better than the original, which I haven't seen.  It's really a crime Michael Jai White's career hasn't done better.  Good fights in this one too.  Worth a rental.

7/10.

[lester1/2jr]

th Phenix City Story (1950) - yet another film noir on the rare side. I read one book that referred to this as "post noir" I guess that's accurate I wouldn't really know.  It's alot like "appointment with danger" but wihtout the wiseacre remarks by the cops. It's the type of thing I'd tape off TCm and stick with but can see why it isn't well known. Elements of it are really strong though.

Phenix city Alabama is home to 14 th street which is where a bunch of shady gambling places are.  Everything is rigged massivaly in the houses favor, it's not legit.  The gang thoroughly runs the town, most notably the police force who consitently look the other way when they are enforcing their will on people, even murdering people. The hero is an old lawyer guy who has pretty much given up on reforming the place or attempting any sort of activism but when his idealistic son returns from fighting ww2 he starts to think change might be possible.  It's the only movie of this era i can recall hearing the n word for a black person though it might have been "nigra"

The actors are all no names, it doesn't have much atmosphere and its very straightforward, but when it gets rolling it is pretty awesome. By the end it had inspired me and challenged my way of thinking (not giving a sht vs giving one) 3.75/5

[3mnkids]

Shotgun stories~ A violent feud between half brothers starts at their fathers funeral. On one side you have the 3 brothers who were abandoned by dear dad and the other is the 4 brothers who were raised in a loving home by him. Its  slow moving...really, really, slow moving. The performances weren't bad, by most.... (The character shampoo,I think that was his name, was awful and worked my last nerve)

I wish they had shown what the father and mother did to them.  It was hard to sympathize with them since you dont know what happened. They were abandoned by dad and mom was a hateful woman is all you get. Once the feud starts its hard to like any of them really. Its worth a watch though.

[claws]

Just saw Undisputed 2.  Pretty enjoyable.  I don't doubt it was better than the original, which I haven't seen.  It's really a crime Michael Jai White's career hasn't done better.  Good fights in this one too.  Worth a rental.

7/10.

Fight movies aren't necessarily my thing but I bought Undisputed 2 at the bargain bin some time ago and I was pleasantly surprised. It kicks ass all the way and has some fun and entertaining characters. Above average DTV production.

[lester1/2jr]

through a glass darkly (1962)- I'm giving this 4 stars. get it? it's by ingmar bergman so it gets four stars  automatically. Its in the genre called "4 stars" .  I can see why critics at least at the time worshipped it and can see where elements of it have been influential.  In general I prefer something more straightforward storywise though.

A daughter returns home from a mental institution and attempts to have a normal family life with her sensitive younger brother, much older seeming husband and her somewhat distant father. The acting is good but the dialogue itself is kind of on the flowery and melodramatic side. It doesn't seem all that realistic, alot of it seems to be more of an excuse to set up the shots themselves. At the same time, the point of the story does come through and it is interesting in an unsettling and dark way.

The acting is great, espeically the beautiful whoever she is as the girl and Max Von Syndow as the father. The thing that I got most from this though was the photography. it is great and so different from most movies of the time that just sort of follow the actors around and show a nice sunset occaisonally.  Bergmans direction is much more expressive than this and its clear many directors appreciated this. Wether they got it from him or not I don't know. Also the Criterion print looks imaculate. Of course we are used to nice prints in the digital age but this is really a cut above.

4/5 I would like to see it again.


The Silence (1963) -



 this is part of a trilogy on faith from bergman including through the glass darkly and another one.  You would definatley not know this watching the movie. You would not know the plot of the movie from watching it either. It is mainly people loafing around this hotel being bored waiting for something. The one woman is so bored she masturbates, the other one hangs around seedy dives, the little kid bugs his mom then walks around the hotel trying to find stuff to do. He suceeds, if you consider meeting a troupe of dwarfs and peeing on the floor in the hallway suceeding.  and there is quite a bit of Silence.

As always you have the stunning photography, unsettling intimacy between family members and war time background of the foreign films.  4/5

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Shotgun stories~ A violent feud between half brothers starts at their fathers funeral. On one side you have the 3 brothers who were abandoned by dear dad and the other is the 4 brothers who were raised in a loving home by him. Its  slow moving...really, really, slow moving. The performances weren't bad, by most.... (The character shampoo,I think that was his name, was awful and worked my last nerve)

I wish they had shown what the father and mother did to them.  It was hard to sympathize with them since you dont know what happened. They were abandoned by dad and mom was a hateful woman is all you get. Once the feud starts its hard to like any of them really. Its worth a watch though.

I was flipping through my tv yesterday and saw this on but the plot description alone turned me away from watching it.

[Rev. Powell]

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (2006): A young man who trouble distinguishing waking reality from dreams falls in love with his next door neighbor.  The dream sequences are interesting, but it could have used a stronger narrative to pull us along; we can't tell if Stephanie returns Stephane's affections because most of their scenes are imagined, and the hero's crippling self-doubts make it hard to root for him.  3/5.

MST3K: BOGGY CREEK II: THE LEGEND CONTINUES: An above average episode.  The movie isn't totally incompetent, but it's a flat and unsuccessful documentary-style monster flick; it picks up when "Old Man" ("I was just carded yesterday!") Crenshaw enters the scene.  Riffing is good.  The host segments are good: the bots have a Cub Scout meeting with Mike as den leader; there's a parody of the movie's flashbacks; and a running bit where Pearl tries to create a cryptozoology craze of her own with Bobo as the legendary creature.  3.5/5.

[Raffine]

I've been watching a number of those ultra-rare early 30's 'Thelma Todd-Zasu Pitts/Thelma Todd-Patsy Kelly' Hal Roach comedy shorts recorded from TMC last week.

I was aware these existed but have never seen any of them. The early episodes with Todd and Pitts are fine (Mae Questel based her Olive Oyle voice on Pitts) but the later episodes and particularly the Todd-Kelly shorts are hilarious as the girls get more heavily involved in Stooge-style slapstick. It's great watching the beautiful Todd evolve into a sort of female Moe character, with all the smashed clocks over the head and the "Why, I outta..!"s that go with it. Asleep In the Feet (1933), with the girls becoming taxi dancers and One Horse Farmers (1934), with the girls buying a derelict farm house literally filled with dust, are favorites. Several of these were actually later reworked as Three Stooges shorts.

Sadly, Todd was found dead in her car in 1935 (Suicide? Accident? Murder?), which put a premature end to the rapidly improving series.


Pitts and Todd

[indianasmith]

My wife and I went with another couple to go see THE EXPENDABLES this afternoon.  It was a gentle, slow-paced romantic comedy that really could have benefited from some action, maybe and explosion or two, or perhaps a Bruce Willis cameo.  Other than that, for a chick flick, it was surprisingly good.

[SkullBat308]

My wife and I went with another couple to go see THE EXPENDABLES this afternoon.  It was a gentle, slow-paced romantic comedy that really could have benefited from some action, maybe and explosion or two, or perhaps a Bruce Willis cameo.  Other than that, for a chick flick, it was surprisingly good.

 

[Jack]

Subspecies (1991) - two girls go to Transylvania or someplace to study the local culture.  Of course there's a vampire lurking about, too bad he's really corny looking.  Think Edward Scissorhands with fangs.  The characters are uninteresting and the story...can't even remember if there was one.  There were some cool sets.  Well, one cool set.  Some little claymation demons with abs of steel made an appearance as well.  Meh.  2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

Aw, come on, Jack!!!  SUBSPECIES was awesome . . . back in 1991!