Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

Couple nights ago I watched a Danish zombie flick called DEAD SNOW.  A group of young medical students head up to a remote mountain cabin for some fun in the snow and have a nasty run-in with a bunch of undead SS troops and their zombie commander. LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of gore (one of the heroes winds up dangling over a cliff face, hanging on only by the ripped out intestines of the zombie he just killed), no nudity, little plot.  Worth a rental if you've already seen ZOMBIELAND.  Way better than BIOPHAGE.

[Jack]

Blood Sisters (1987) - Some sorority initiates have to spend the night in a haunted house.  Some guys have rigged up things to scare them, but of course the house is actually haunted.  This thing was so forgettable that by the time I got to the 15 minute mark, I had completely forgotten the first 14 minutes.  Undeveloped characters, the movie doesn't take itself seriously, it lacks even a cheesy attempt at scariness...some high quality T&A though.  2.5/5.

[Jack]

Death Warmed Up (1984) - A mad scientist is trying to make people immortal, but meeting with little success.  His patients are lucky to live for a few years.  Some of them even have their heads explode    Maybe this is just the early stages of his research?  Anyhow, the other scientists disapprove of his work, so he injects some kid with some substance, which causes the kid to kill the disapproving scientist.  So the kid spends 7 years in the nut house.  When he gets out, he takes his girlfriend and another couple to the island where this mad scientist is conducting his research.  He's apparently quite a bigshot, with many patients.  So yeah, kid wants to kill the scientist, manages to get his friends killed along the way.  Girlfriend disapproves.  There are a horde of insane zombies running around and they attack everybody and make a general nuisance out of themselves.  This whole thing is so pointless it's funny.  It rips off the Road Warrior, it...it...just doesn't make any sense at all.  the girlfriend was totally hot, but of course these Mill Creek 50 pack DVD's look like they were recorded off a 20 year old VHS tape.  2/5. 

[Jack]

Screamers The Hunting (2009) - Sequel to Screamers.  As you may know from the first movie, screamers are nasty robots that can mimic human form.  They've killed just about everybody on some planet, but one survivor manages to get out a distress signal.  So some military types are sent from Earth to check this out.  They meet a small group of survivors, and through one act of wanton idiocy after another, manage to get just about everybody killed.  Example:  after meeting the survivors, they then find that they've got three people that they're holding prisoner - by attaching them to a magnetic grid.  Gosh, could it be that these are metallic robots that just look human?  Oh, we're far too stupid to think about that - let's just release them.  Oh gee, they WERE killer robots, and now they've slaughtered just about everybody we were sent to save.  Darn it anyway.  Throughout the movie, there are things that are just so damned obvious to the audience, yet none of these people have a clue.  The special effects weren't really all that bad, far better than this rubbish deserved.  Yet another 2/5.

[3mnkids]

The Descent: Part 2~~~ I loved the first one and was really looking forward to this.. It starts out exactly where the last one ends, with Sara making it out.. Its been 2 days and people are looking for them.

They aren't getting anywhere since they are looking in the wrong place so they use a dog, find where they think she came out, and get ready to go in. oh, they take Sara with them because the cop thinks she may have done something to her friends. (she cant remember anything)

It has a couple of pretty good scares, one scene that made me almost vomit, and an ending that made my daughter cry(my daughter is not a crier at all).. so, not good. There was a kinda cool surprise that they didn't use to its full advantage and that was disappointing. But that ending,     lame.

[lester1/2jr]

Guyana Crime of the Century: I really disliked Cardonna's "Tintorerra: killer shark" but at least it was somewhat entertaining, however distasteful.  This is basically a wikipedia entry on the jonestown massacre acted out in a colorless competent manner.  The actor playing Jones, called Johnson here, is good and in general it's all okay though some of the dialogue is stiff but its like ....okay...it's about the Jonestown massacre.  It's like if an italian Giallo director making a nazi-sploitation flick all the sudden decided to make a factual documentary about the holocaust.  

     All the more psyched for tonights arrival "Zombie Strippers" 2/5

[Jim H]

It starts out exactly where the last one ends, with Sara making it out

...yeah.  In the version you saw, maybe.   

[3mnkids]

It starts out exactly where the last one ends, with Sara making it out

...yeah.  In the version you saw, maybe.  

  ok, I guess I should have said.. starts out where the last one ends, SPOILER







except...Sara gets out.

[lester1/2jr]

Zombie Strippers (2008)- Like alot of low budget movies, this one starts off clunky and cliched and gives you that "Why did I rent this" feeling moving towards a "I am going to take this out and watch something else" feeling.  Don't though because after the first 10 minutes of generic action and groan inducing non humor when they get to the strip club it gets better and when the strip club does become a zombie strip club it gets still better.  Robert Englund is really good as the a***ole manager.  The strippers are the skinny w/ silicon Vegas types of the type only Howard Stern likes anymore but again, when they Zombie out it's fun.  Not a masterpiece but pretty good and it's raucousness did take me someplace on a Saturday night in a bulls**t town when everyone I once knew has either left the state or country or is too weird to talk too.

[Jack]

The Land That Time Forgot (2009) - The latest remake from our friends at The Asylum.  This wasn't bad at all - some people are on a pleasure cruise and get sucked through some portal in the Bermuda Triangle.  They end up on an island with a few other people who disappeared in the Triangle.  There's also a T-Rex on the island, as well as a German U-boat.  The plan is to get the U-boat operational and use it to escape.  The characters were a likable enough bunch, and although the action slowed down substantially in the second half, the first part was quite engaging.  The CGI is the usual chuckle inducing stuff we've come to expect from the Asylum.  I'll give it a solid 3/5.  It could have gotten and extra .5 if the chick in the tight tank top wouldn't have been wearing a jacket for 90% of the movie - she was fine. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE INVENTION OF LYING (2009): In an alternate reality where everyone always tells the truth and says exactly what's on his or her mind, one man spontaneously develops the ability to lie, which gives him almost godlike powers since everyone believes whatever he says.  A thinking man/woman's romantic comedy that wanders off track at times with a heavy dose of religious satire and has some trouble balancing cynicism and sentimentality. There are some very funny moments in the opening segments before it bogs down a little.  From the creator/star of the British "The Office." 3.5/5.

[Sleepyskull]

I just finished watching A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984).

It was pretty good.  I give it 10.9 out of 13 stars.

I now want to watch the entire series.

I have the 1st four movies on 1 set, so that should be pretty easy.

[JaseSF]

Watched a bunch of TV episodes from Treeline's 100 Episode Multi-pack.

5 Episodes of Four Star Playhouse

1. "A Study in Panic" - after writing a scathing editorial critical of men panicking trying to escape during a fire, a writer
(Dick Powell) finds himself put to the panic test when he receives a letter from a mysterious stranger promising to kill him within the next 24 hours. I enjoyed this one. Dick Powell was good in the lead and there's a couple of great scenes here such as when Powell meets a poetic bum on the streets and when he confronts a desperate man in a restaurant. The ending twist was a nice surprise too. Just suffers a bit from its stagebound look.

2. "Let the Chips Fall" - a reformed card shark (Charles Boyer) is recruited by a society mens club to discover if one of their own has in fact been cheating them at Poker. I liked this one as well. Boyer is charming in the lead role and the connection he feels and creates with the "suspect" proves surprisingly believable.

3. "The Girl on the Park Bench" - Faced with a changing law that will see her rent hiked up severely, a woman (Joan Fontaine) protests the Mayor's changes by setting up tent in the local public park and contacting the press. The Mayor responds by sending his star District Attorney to convince her to leave the park. Fontaine is a delight here although this story soon, perhaps too soon, turns into the expected comedy/romance. It is a suprisingly convincing one though.

4. "Full Circle" - an actress (Jeanne Baird) plots revenge against a critic (David Niven) whose written a bad review that may just ruin her career ambitions. This romantic tale never quite is as convincing as it ought to be yet is enjoyable enough in its own way. Niven proves a surprisingly likable fellow for a guy who writes nasty reviews.

5. "The Contest" - A District Attorney (Dick Powell) is conflicted when his fiancee becomes the leading suspect in the murder of a man they both had very good reason to hate. This murder mystery episode is more focused on the character interaction between our two leads with Powell's moral compass being fine-tuned to convincing his lady friend to do the right thing. This was a little tougher slugging to get through as a viewer although I liked Powell in the role of the honest to a fault D.A..

1 Episode of The Star and the Story

1. "The True Confessions of Henry Pell" - a man (Howard Duff) and his wife (Randy Stuart), given their mundane suburban existence, begin to crave a little more adventure and status in life. However the husband eventually discovers things aren't always brighter on the other side. This story is almost surreal. It really makes one think about the sameness of society in the era in question here. In the end, is mundane sameness really as bad as crazy unpredictability? It makes for interesting and somewhat bizarre viewing experience at least.

Also caught six episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet which I started a thread on in the Television forum.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Mother of Tears- Slightly disappointed in this movie, but still watchable.   

Blood of Castle Dracula- One word describes this disasterpiece: B-licious!  It's so positively awful it's fun.  So many flaws I don't know where to start, but it's all good.  I feel like this movie asks the burning question of "What if Dracula was a flamboyant douchebag with a chin that dwarfs even that of Jay Leno, Bruce Campbell, or Sgt. Slaughter?"   

[Jack]

End of the World (1977) - A scientist receives a message from space, warning of an upcoming disaster.  Sure enough, there's a big earthquake in China.  Then he intercepts some signals being sent to space, so he decides to track down the source.  He finds Christopher Lee, a priest at a convent, along with some nuns.  They're actually aliens!  They need a crystal to travel back to their home planet, and luckily the scientist has just the crystal they need.  The name of the movie is End of the World, so that's gonna figure into the plot somewhere as well.  My theory is that this was meant to be seen at the drive-in, and they figured everyone would be busy making out during the first half hour, so absolutely nothing happens in that portion of the movie.  We watch the scientist leave work, drive the entire distance to his house, then there's a long establishing shot of his living room.  He has a conversation with his wife, then we watch them drive to a party, where people mill about.  Then we watch them drive home.  My favorite part is when they're walking around in the dark, and we get to stare at an almost completely black TV screen for about 5 straight minutes.  The pace finally picks up at the end, thankfully.  Listening to the techno-babble about interplanetary travel is comical enough, but listening to an 80 year old nun speak it - priceless.  Unfortunately it commits the cardinal sin of being boring, so it gets a 2/5.