Recent viewings

[Jim H]

Ticker - didn't quite see it all, but for an Albert Pyun film featuring Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, and Steven Seagal, it is surprisingly dull on the whole.  While I missed the first maybe 10 minutes, I think I can still give it a rating...  4/10.  Pretty bad, even the action scenes (of which there are few) are weak.  At least the pacing is OK, otherwise I'd rate it even lower. 

The Dragon from Russia - confusing and chaotic even for a Clarence Fok/Ford film (probably best known on this forum as the director of The Naked Killer).  Just all over the place, difficult to follow, and not too good.  A few action scenes are very good, others are a little weak.  Doesn't add up to much.  5/10.

[hellbilly]

Vampires: Out For Blood (2004) - decent b-flick. Doesn't add anything new to the vampire genre but we get well made old school special effects by John Carl Buechler and good performances by Kevin Dillon playing a burned out Cop and *gasp* Vanessa Angel as his ex-wife.

Demon Under Glass (2002) - ambitous SOV flick about a captured Vampire being studied by the government. Outstanding performances overall, much better than most recent big budget Hollywood movies about Vampires out there.

[Jack]

Demon Under Glass sounds interesting, I'll have to check that out.

[3mnkids]

Lesbian Vampire Killers~ I liked it but I have strange taste. Comedy/Horror is my favorite genre. This isnt the best movie of this type but it is entertaining.

Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus~ Not the greatest bad movie but it does have some hilarious parts and the acting and dialogue are so cheesy I lmao throughout.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (2005):  Beautiful Geum-ja goes to prison for thirteen years for the kidnapping and murder of a six-year old boy, a crime she didn't commit, and on release commences an intricate and shocking plan of revenge on the true culprit. Arty, morally challenging revenge fantasy/meditation that's beautifully shot and acted but confusingly told; fans of the other entries in Park's "Vengeance" trilogy will eat it up.  The actual vengeance is the best part; it's plenty grisly, although most of the blood is offscreen, but very emotional as well.  3/5. 

This sounds interesting. I will check this one out.
   

[Rev. Powell]

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (2005):  Beautiful Geum-ja goes to prison for thirteen years for the kidnapping and murder of a six-year old boy, a crime she didn't commit, and on release commences an intricate and shocking plan of revenge on the true culprit. Arty, morally challenging revenge fantasy/meditation that's beautifully shot and acted but confusingly told; fans of the other entries in Park's "Vengeance" trilogy will eat it up.  The actual vengeance is the best part; it's plenty grisly, although most of the blood is offscreen, but very emotional as well.  3/5. 

This sounds interesting. I will check this one out.
   

If you have On Demand on your cable system, it's available for free from the Sundance Channel for another week or so.  I (and most people) thought the second movie in the tirlogy, OLDBOY, was better.  It has all of the above elements, plus kung fu!

[lester1/2jr]

Demon Seed-  this starts off as a typical 70's sci fi feature a la Phase 4 but takes a fairly  sharp left turn into bizarro land comparable to maybe recent Japanese fare like "meatball machine" or something.   My guess is people are very divided on this but I loved it.  at least you have to give it credit for being original, there aren't alot of movies abuot a woman trying to escape being emotionally and sexually dominated by her house!

5/5

[3mnkids]

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (2005):  Beautiful Geum-ja goes to prison for thirteen years for the kidnapping and murder of a six-year old boy, a crime she didn't commit, and on release commences an intricate and shocking plan of revenge on the true culprit. Arty, morally challenging revenge fantasy/meditation that's beautifully shot and acted but confusingly told; fans of the other entries in Park's "Vengeance" trilogy will eat it up.  The actual vengeance is the best part; it's plenty grisly, although most of the blood is offscreen, but very emotional as well.  3/5. 

This sounds interesting. I will check this one out.
   

If you have On Demand on your cable system, it's available for free from the Sundance Channel for another week or so.  I (and most people) thought the second movie in the tirlogy, OLDBOY, was better.  It has all of the above elements, plus kung fu!

I liked oldboy, found some of  subject matter disturbing, but liked it.  


Deathwatch~ In 1917 a small group of British soldiers find an enemy German trench an capture one of the soldiers who tells them the trench is evil and that they will all die. Not by the "enemy" though. I liked it. The atmosphere was foggy and creepy and the acting was very good with the exception of Andy Serkis who overacts.  The plot was interesting. nothing new or groundbreaking but a good film nonetheless.

[JaseSF]

Mesmerized (1986): Jodie Foster stars an a young orphaned girl named Victoria who suddenly finds herself wed to a most unpleasant, abusive and intusive older well-to-do gentleman named Oliver Thompson (John Lithgow). She soon seeks and finds comfort and sympathy from the other men around her including Oliver's younger brother George and a young preacher named Wilson, from whom she learns a secret means to elude Oliver's forceful advances. When Oliver suddenly starts getting sick and dying a slow death, it soon becomes apparent he may have been poisoned but how? This murder mystery set in the past and loosely based on a true case has its moments here and there, especially as it relates to the use of hypnotism but overall proves an entirely too predictable, entirely too unpleasant viewing experience. Like the scene in which Oliver's teeth must be extracted, this movie just proves much too ugly and its characters much too wooden and one-dimensional. ** out of *****

Rehearsal For Murder (1982): On the one year anniversary of his fiancee''s death, a playwright named Alex Dennison (Robert Preston) invites all the top leading potential suspects in her murder to a special rehearsal for his newest play, one designed to trap the true killer once and for all. This is quite good. The writing and script in particular is terrific especially given this was a television movie. Still the script takes many twists and turns and will really leave you guessing and second guessing right up to the end. I certainly didn't see the final twist coming which is all the more compliment to writers Richard Levinson and William Link (also known for their work on "Columbo" and "Murder She Wrote"). Also quite good and more than capable here are a fine cast of great veteran/character actors including Preston, Patrick Macnee, Jeff Goldblum, Lynn Redgrave, William Daniels, William Russ and more. Captivatingly good television at its best. **** out of *****

[Doggett]

Lars and the Real Girl
5/5
A very lonely man who lives in his brother garage gets a mental illness where he thinks a sex doll is a real woman and starts a relationship with her. His brother and his brothers wife, along with the rest of the community, go along with his delusion in an attempt to help him through it.


A sweet little romantic film.
It's a little strange laughing at a man's mental health but it's done in a very sweet and harmless way. This film is a real favourite of mine. Some people and critics complained that in the real world people would be making fun of Lars instead of helping him. They are probably right. But it's good to see a film where people's mental delusions get respected instead of laughed at and ridiculed.

[lester1/2jr]

the Rosebud Beach Motel (1984)-  I always critize "the first part" of movies for being boring and this is a prime example.  You simply could make a more bland, unfunny depressing and unwatchable half hour than peter soclari and co have done here.  Eventually it becomes a decent screwball comedy and it features such LA icons as Eddie Deezen and the Currie sisters from The Runaways who are saddled with fronting a cheesy hard rock group wearing horrible outfits and bad eighties hair.  Collen Camp has a strange sarcastic acting style.  Start it at the 30 minute mark and you have some funny nudity and explosions and partying a la the 1980's.

[Cthulhu]

Demon Under Glass (2002) - ambitous SOV flick about a captured Vampire being studied by the government. Outstanding performances overall, much better than most recent big budget Hollywood movies about Vampires out there.

I'll have to disagree with you there. I've found it terribly boring. Nothing happens.
 Althrough some of the performances really are good.

[3mnkids]

Dark Secrets AKA cold earth~ The daughter of a celebrity is kidnapped and... well, beats me. Between the horrible acting, cheesy dialogue and bizarre music I tuned out half way through. Damn you Redbox!! teasing me with that cool looking cover.  


I also rented two more that I will be watching soon I can only hope that they are better than this garbage.


ETA~ I really picked some crappy ones tonight. Redbox is usually a good place to get great bad movies but no such luck this time.

The cry~ A detective investigates the disappearance of several children. There is some supernatural thing causing the children to disappear and for mothers to kill their children.  words can not describe how bad or boring this movie was. Avoid at all cost.

Blindness~  People suddenly start going blind. no explanation is given. The movies main focus is on those first groups of people who are quarantined. Its not pretty to say the least. Its also not a very good  movie. I cant remember a movie that made me cuss at the tv as much as this one did. Its ridiculous.

[Jim H]

Laid to Rest.  It was on sale at Best Buy for $7 and I bit.  Some great gore FX and a few spectacular kills.  Cool design elements and some good ideas..  Not quite the sum of its parts though, and it really lags some in the middle.  One of the better STV slasher films of the past few years anyways, due to how weak the market has been lately.

It's a high 6 or a weak 7 out of 10.

***MILD SPOILERS***


One final note: the killer gets disabled and/or injured so many different times (no joke, he gets his eye gouged out in the first five minutes by the heroine, AND nearly knocked out at the SAME TIME) without follow through on the heroes part I'm starting to think it was meant as parody, but I'm not actually sure.  Considering how the film ends, I might be right though.  Basically, the killer kills himself by accident.  He uses this glue crap to hold the mask on, and in an attempt to make a weapon someone mixed a batch of his glue in with this nasty super duper glue s**t that melts flesh.  He puts it on, then peels it off, basically ripping his own face off.

Considering how NO ONE could manage to kill the killer, even two different characters with friggin' guns, then he just offs himself in the last few moments...  Parody?  It was subtle enough that I think I may be giving the film more credit than it deserves...



**END**

[Rev. Powell]

STAY (2005): A psychiatrist is assigned to a suicidal art student when the boy's regular therapist has a breakdown, and finds the case has metaphysical as well as psychological dimensions.  Neatly done psychological thriller is well scripted (up until the final revelation) and is likely to impress newcomers to the genre; unfortunately, while dedicated fans of this sort of stuff may have some fun, they're likely catch the twist early on and to have seen it executed more spectacularly before.

[3mnkids]

Im almost embarrassed to admit this     

One-eyed monster~~ I was hooked immediately when the movie started and I saw this.. In February 2007, ten people went to the remote mountains of Northern California to shoot an adult movie. What happened next was something no one expected, but everyone saw coming and then they show the "stars" heading to the location in a short bus.     There isnt as much nudity as you would think in a movie like this but they make up for it with the crude language.  Its not something I would watch again but its worth a one time viewing.