Recent viewings

[vukxfiles]

The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008): When a female FBI agent goes missing and a psychic is the only lead and hope of finding her, Fox Mulder reluctantly gets drawn back into the FBI fold and Dr. Dana Scully even more reluctantly gets dragged into the investigation along with him.

My expectations for this were fairly low. I was pleasantly surprised. In many ways, this plays out like a slightly better than average two-parter series episode. It has some good mystery and surprises and doesn't take viewers down quite the path they might have been expecting. It also treads very close between real-life crime drama and its more fantastic elements with a fine line between the fantastic and the possible. Most fascinating though is watching the evolution of the characters as Scully and Mulder have been affected greatly by their past X-Files involvement and it shows here in more ways than one. Not great but quite good and entertaining especially for fans of the show. *** out of *****

This is where you are wrong, because most die hard fans, including me, didn't really enjoy this movie because we've seen every episode of the series that is better than this movie (except maybe the episodes Fight Club, Space and the season 9 MOTW episodes). It can maybe entertain someone who isn't a fan, as a solid mystery movie.

[JaseSF]

I watched The X-Files every single week up until the end of Season 6 after which I kind of lost interest in the series and I have to say that as an early fan of the series, this film really did appeal to me. Although I do have to admit, I was a little confused, but not by a whole lot, by some of the ways in which the characters had progressed. I like that looking into the dark world of "The X-Files" where trust is so hard to come by and horrors constantly lurk in the darkness did have a great affect upon the leads as evidenced in this film.

[vukxfiles]

I watched The X-Files every single week up until the end of Season 6 after which I kind of lost interest in the series and I have to say that as an early fan of the series, this film really did appeal to me. Although I do have to admit, I was a little confused, but not by a whole lot, by some of the ways in which the characters had progressed. I like that looking into the dark world of "The X-Files" where trust is so hard to come by and horrors constantly lurk in the darkness did have a great affect upon the leads as evidenced in this film.

Oh, I thought you were talking story-wise, and not about the shippiness.

[JaseSF]

Well in terms of the film, I really feel it's closer to the early seasons of the X-Files where there were far more monster of the week stories (which to be honest I tend to prefer over convoluted story arcs although I do like to see character development).

[vukxfiles]

If you really like character development you should have finished the series, seeing Mulder and Scully kiss, her getting pregnant and searching for Mulder after he disappears, Scully finally believing in the paranormal, and her taking care of a baby.

[JaseSF]

I probably should have finished it that's true but I found the story mytharc so convoluted it completely turned me off of the show...that and its changing location away from Vancouver. To me, the show was never as good as it was in its first couple seasons. But I do hope to someday finish viewing the entire series, perhaps when it plays in syndication someday.

[lester1/2jr]

Slim Susie (2003) - This is a good movie.  It's not the movie that wins tons of awards at the movie festival, but it's solid and entertaining if not hugely ground breaking.  The first half is more of a (good) comedy, the male lead comes back to the small swedish town he grew up in from his succesful job of some kind in Stockholm and we see all the "quirky characters"  and charming backwardness and so forth.  Theres some violence and nudity and this goes a long way towards soaking up the excess quirkiness in the system.  The second half is your Tarantino or whatevever -esque amateur crooks scheme falling apart comedy of errors/ terrors.  Slim Susie is the guys sister.  The whole thing is a mystery about where is slim susie and we have to find slim susie, etc.  She is a cute drug addled teenager.  movie accepted.  NEXT

[lester1/2jr]

Junkfood (1997) -  weird.  Thie first 30 minutes of this movie are incredible.  We start off watching an old blind woman making her way to the local convenince store to buy bread.  it's very quiet and real timey and "...okay....whaaat is this"  then immediately it 's contrasted with the first story of this collection of seedy urban urban-ness:  a young, pretty woman, we don't know what or who she is, appears to be mid downward spiral smoking meth (I guess I don't know ) in a gross looking apartment in her underwear.  The whole story with her is really off the wall violent, crazy and great.  Unfortunately, the remaining hour of the film, featuring gangsters hookers, youths with bats and so forth,  is not nearly as riveting.   It's okay, but I got through it only by breaking it up with a DVR'ed episode of "Thundarr".  It was a really good episode but then again they all are because it's just about the greatest show ever.  was unique in that it contained extended scenes of some of the very worst spoken english I've ever heard.  Junkfood, not Thundarr.

Scream of Fear (1961) - Yes I watched 2 movies in one night.  it is about zero degrees here and I had nothing to do. I tried to go for a walk, it wasn't happening.  anyway this movie was AWESOME. A hammer production from 1961, this jr Hitchcock mystery is 10 times better than most movies they make today.  A very cute rich girl girl played by susan strasberg who looks about 16, comes home after 10 years living with her Mom to her dads massive mansion to find a very weird situation where he isn't there and his new wife is and where is he? There's "big old house" type hallucinations or are they and even speculation that her being wheelchair bound I forgot to mention that, is psychosomatic.  She thinks they are trying to drive her nuts so the new wife can get her share of her dads estate.  We don't know if he's dead or alive, who's on first, or really anything.  great great great.  was on TCM early yesterday am

[Rev. Powell]

WAKING LIFE (2001): A young man has a series of dreams, animated in various styles, from which he cannot awake; he gradually comes to realize that he is dreaming and asks the characters he meets how he can wake up.  An interesting experiment featuring great animation, but there are problems in that there is no sense of threat or urgency to the protagonist's plight, and many of the talkier sequences seem more like philosophical excerpts from the director's personal journal than depictions of dreams.  Still worth a look, for the animation alone.  3/5.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004): Lacuna, Inc. is a corporation specializing in medically removing people's unpleasant memories.  After hearing that his impetuous girlfriend has erased all memories of him, Joel decides to have his memory of her erased as well; in the middle of the procedure, however, he changes his mind, and fights internally to keep the memory of their love alive.  A strikingly original and often mysterious take on the romance movie; highly recommended. 4.5/5.   

[lester1/2jr]

king of kong - what can I say about this.  it's  awesome. Billy Mitchell's hair = 5/5

space ghost coast to coast- I didn't have cable in the 90's so I missed this.  it's also awesome 5/5

[lester1/2jr]

The Beast in Space (1980)- this is a another foolish Italian movie of which there are far too many to count.  The male lead is like John leguizamo doing a parody of 70's porn star.  He has very little charisma and was a bad choice for the star.  The first 20 minutes or so were a decent enough swanky soft core movie set in the future, the next 30 minutes were where the real problem is. No, it's not some nazi guy torturing a nun or something, it's an extremely boring and useless quasi star wars/ trek VERY MST3K attempt at a sci fi movie.  It has the production values of the Muppet Show's "Pigs in Space" but certainly not the entertainment value. After THAT it settles back into being a soft core sex film with particularly unattractive men. It's just more italian junk folks.

[InformationGeek]

The Spirit (2008): Here's an interesting film I just saw.  It was an adaption of a Will Eisner comic and man, was it bad.  The plot was weird and confusing, the acting was medicore to so bad or so hammy that it was amusing, the main hero continously kept monologuing to himself over and over, and I felt the movie was just lacking all over.  The visuals, on the otherhand, were amazing and the choice in women were great too, making me believe that this entire movie was just eye candy and nothing more.

[indianasmith]

I reviewed that one on here last year.  I liked it pretty well.

[lester1/2jr]

Chinese Roulette (1977)-  oh man.  watch this really late at night.  It's sort of a cross between the breakfast club and the Ice Storm or something.  A cute disabled girl with curly locks is actually rather devious and is intent on settling the score with her rich family for, I guess their neglect of her or not living up to her expectations or something.  She invites her mother and her lover and her father and HIS lover (who looks an awful lot like his wife as is often the case) (and also like my neighbor Alla!)  to (her?) huge estate for the weekend. Instead of awkwardly stammering and making an excuse and leaving... they all stay!  The whole thing is really weird.  not weird like surrealism but weird like a guy and his girlfriend are having dinner with the guys wife and her boyfriend weird.  The title refers to a "21 questions" type parlor game they play that not surprisingly goes awry. By the big deal German art director Fassbinder. I liked it but you might not. 

Arlington Road (1999)- one of the greats from the 90's. Tim Robbins is amazing.  I'm not the biggest Jeff Bridges fan, is he a method actor or something?,  but he does his thing and it works.  117 minutes flew by.  Bridges teaches a class on terrorism which at this time, hard to believe, meant okhlahoma city type militia people.  No reference at all is made to the middle east but many to Waco and so forth though they are dramatized and given other names.  "The Gift" is just about the only movie of this era I can think of that tops this in this sort of style. 5/5

[Rev. Powell]

BUG (2006): When a delusional escaped mental patient holes up with a slow and extremely lonely white trash waitress, good things will not follow.  Well-acted, if a bit wearying, adaptation of a stage play that traps the viewer deep in a claustrophobic web of paranoia and conspiracy theories.  3/5. 

THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997): A retired special-ops agent turned cab driver (Bruce Willis) in the 23rd century must save all humanity by rescuing some magic stones from a convention of futuristic celebrities.  This kitchen-sink space opera is almost unhinged at times in its manic plot and relies too heavily on failed attempts at comedy, but it's always colorful enough in set and costume design to keep you watching.  2.5/5.