Recent viewings

[dean]

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973): After wordless adventures with a legless and armless companion, including some time spent at a carnival where bullfrogs are dressed as conquistadors, a Christlike figure rides up on a moon-shaped hook to a tower where an ascended master prepares him and eight others to ascend the Holy Mountain by shaving his head and burning his feces.  Then things get strange.  Alejandro Jodoworsky decided that EL TOPO was too tame and conventional and he wanted to do something weird and outlandish this time; the results must be seen to be believed.  Set designs, with live animals wandering through them, are incredible, and several illusions (like the birds that fly out of bullet holes in corpses) are unforgettable.  The first 30 minutes or so are unparalleled in modern surrealism, though things take a dip in the middle portion when Jodorowsky tries out some tone-damaging social satire. 5/5.     

Jodorwosky is insane, and brilliant, but incredibly insane.

One of my best dvd sets was a three parter of Jodorwosky films including the soundtracks that went with them.  Holy Mountain, El Topo and La Constellation Jodorwosky.  Best dvd purchase ever.

I still like El Topo a little better, but it is an incredible journey. 

Fun fact: it makes a very interesting thing to project onto a wall at a drunken new years party.  Best new years ever when we had the projector.

[Jack]

Blood Massacre (1991) - some low life criminals are on the run after a recent robbery and take over the home of a good natured country family.  Except they're not so good natured after all    This is another Don Dohler film, Z-grade all the way.  It's mercifully short so it doesn't drag too much.  The characters were actually kind of entertaining - the main guy was the most pathetic murderous loser imaginable.  Not too much really stands out about this one, good for a boring Monday evening.  3/5.

[Flick James]

Watched Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland the night before last. There's two hours of my life gone. I knew I didn't want to do it, but there it was in the NetFlix queue and I gave in.

WTF is up with Johnny Depp? I used to like him. Last night I saw a trailer on tv for a new Jack Sparrow movie. Did Johnny Depp just decide to give up because he hasn't won and Oscar?

[bob]

I just finished Mommie Dearest (1981).  Mommie Dearest manages to be part camp, semi-serious, and a hiliarous film about child abuse. However, I can't give a review of it because the copy I rented from the library had some bad scratches on it and skipped about 10 minutes of it. But I will say that there are massive continuation errors, horrible acting, and very bad scene transitions. By what I mean by that is there are sevarel scenes that theonly way you can tell that months or in some cases years have passed is that a character who at the beginning of the movie is a small child slightly alters her appearance or has grown. However, there is nothing on the screen which indicates how much time has passed in between scenes.

[claws]

The Night Flier (1997)

Tabloid reporter investigating serial killer case gets more then he asked for. Based on Stephen King story this movie is pretty original and CGI free. Overlooked gem. 4.5/5

Campfire Tales (1997)

Never get tired of watching this one. Fun little anthology oozing with atmosphere and creepy urban legend stories. 4.25/5

[lester1/2jr]

Creation of The Humanoids (1962) -

What the f**k?  What is this? Plan 9 from Outer Space meets Waiting for Godot? I had read somewhere that this was of all people Andy Warhols favorite movie. I can kind of see why but this is a riduclous freakin movie.

I don't know where to begin exactly. Take a really really basic episode of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits and stretch it into feature length. Don't have any action, just dialogue, endless dialogue detailing every minute movement of the exceedingly simple concept of the movie.  The script must be a mile long. It's technicolor and everything is fruity looking. very weird all around.

It's the future and robots are slowy taking over everything so the humans form a kind of right wing political group / vigilante squad.  The robots think the humans are opposed to "progress" the humans think the robots are godless and out to destroy them and so forth. The analogies are obvious. Science Fiction, you know.

This is one of those movies that could drive someone nuts. You want there to be at least one flying saucer or something. It never happens. It's just basically a stoned scientist giving a lecture. I can't imagine what theatre goers in 1962 thought. My guess is they thought there was not enough action, if they were paying attention.

4/5

[Jack]

See No Evil (2006) - Some young prison inmates are brought to a big hotel to clean the place up (3 days work = 1 month off their sentence).  As luck would have it there's a huge, hulking killer (pro wrestler Kane) lurking about in the upper floors of the place.  Soon there are fewer young prison inmates.  This was a pretty good little slasher type movie;  the characters were interesting enough, the editing kept the plot/action moving along at a good pace, and it had a nice gritty texture to it all.  The pro wrestler guy only says about 3 words in the entire movie, so his acting isn't a problem.  4/5.

[claws]

The Wraith (1986)

Boy (Charlie Sheen) returns from the dead with the help of intergalactic powers from beyond? Not really sure about that. Part revenge-thriller, romance, comedy, sci-fi, action, car-chase and a bit of the supernatural. Add bubbly 80s cheese, violent flashbacks (surprised this got away with PG-13 rating), nudity (Sherilyn Fenn), fun soundtrack (Robert Palmer, Addicted to Love) and you're in for a good time. 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

BLOOD SABBATH (1972): A Vietnam vet drifter in Mexico (maybe?) falls in love with a water nymph which leads him into conflict with a coven of nude witches.  The modern fairy tale setting is sort of promising, but the movie's cheap, dull and talky, with only the ridiculously gratuitous full-frontal nudity supplying much interest.  Should have been titled "Boob Sabbath."  With Dyanne Thorne.  2.5/5, but if you just want nudity you could rate it much higher.     

[Doggett]

I need to post here more often.

Anyway.

X-Files - I Want To Believe.

Right.
There a woman gone missing and Mulder and Scully get called upon to help as the only source of infomation the FBI have is from a pedo priest.
First off, I like the X Files.
Heck, I love the show. Its my fave ! But even I found my attention waining slightly.
Its perfectly well directed and perfectly well acted but there is no real momentum or threat. Usualy when you watch a detective type film, you watch the characters gather clues.
If a psychic priest just goes: 'Oh, it's over there. And another bit over there', well, it kinda takes the fun out of it...
Mulder does... pretty much nothing. Scully is now a doctor and spends most of her time in the film trying to help a sick kid in hospital. She doesn't know if she can cure him, but she wants to believe...

Also where's the X in this X Files film?
This isn't the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits, they need to show their freak flag early ! The only time it gets remotely freaky is right at the end for a brief scene.

What we basically have is and aging Mulder and Scully walking around the snow for a hour and a half looking miserable.
I loved it when Scully mention that Mulder was still searching for his sister. He got over that in the series 7 ! She was there, it was a very good conclusion for Mulder. Why was this even brought up ? It was pointless.

This feels like a Mulder and Scully: Where are they Now ? film, instead of a film set in the basement of the FBI where some agents take on the strange and unknown.

Okay, look it isn't bad. Not at all. Just kinda dull. We never feel the girl's pain who has been kidnapped. Also for fans and even the reputation the show has for those who haven't seen it, a kidnapping is kinda low key to global take over by aliens.
Not to mention all the other freaky case that have happened over the years.

People might have been confused by the first film, but it still felt dramatic and things were happening.
Heck, the ending was pretty good !

This film leaves me with no impression at all. I can neither love nor hate it.

2.5/5


And where was DOGGETT !?!?
 

[JaseSF]

Hmm well I liked the movie myself but then I didn't really watch the X-Files past Season 7 anyways....so I guess they didn't keep true enough to the continuity from what you're saying...

Anyways watched The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues (1955) again last night about an investigation into mysterious deaths occuring nearby the local Oceanography school with a scientist turned government man named Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor) and government agent named William Grant (Rodney Bell) teaming up to investigate. Somehow it all involves practically everybody occupying the Oceanography school in its off season, a mysterious radioactive death ray under the ocean and a goofy monster with a serious dislike for a certain rowboat every person in the movie seems to like to use. Yeah, it's a dull as ever, the monster suit just looks ridiculously cheap and it never truly seems to do anything although everyone who comes in contact with the Phantom winds up dead from radiation burns anyway. This is a Grade Z cheapie all the way with the same few handful of sets being used and reused constantly and the movie being filled out with extraneous scenes of Professor King (Micheal Whalen) taking his labcoat on and off and putting his suit coat on and off when it doesn't have his assistant George (Phillip Pine) following everyone around spying on everyone. This movie's best feature arguably is watching Prof. King's daughter Lois (Cathy Downs) lounge around and show far more skin than was likely the norm for fifties films and when's she's not, there's enemy spy Wanda (Helene Stanton) to lounger around in a bikini. But overall, it's all rather flat and boring and it's much too obvious who's behind it all. In the end, it does delve into the theme that there are some things in nature man and his science just shouldn't mess with. It is a movie easy to make fun of and laugh at and it might have some bad movie entertainment on that level but it's a less entertaining bad movie than many just because for most of its running time is dreadfully dull. Nevertheless I've seen this four times now. *1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Fiend (1980) - a plump guy with a Saddam Hussein mustache comes back from the dead, but of course he's got to kill a steady stream of victims in order to maintain his existence.  This draws the suspicion of his neighbor who sets out to investigate the whole thing.  This is another Don Dohler movie, filmed mostly in Don's basement as well as his aunt's house and the surrounding neighborhood.  It's really boring with a capital B, but for some odd reason I seem to like boring movies.  The characters, if you can stay awake long enough, are vaguely interesting.  Can't really say the same for the plot.  I'll give it a 2.5/5, but others would probably give it a 1/5.

[claws]

I remember renting Fiend on VHS back in the day. This was one of our first rentals that my mom (she was into Horror movies) and me dismissed as boring amateur crap. We still joked about the badness weeks later  I've always meant to check it out again, just to see how it holds up these days.

Purple Rain (1984)

The Kid (Prince) dedicating "Purple Rain" to his father always gets me choked up inside  5/5

Mutant (1984)

Blue toxic zombies in redneck county. Fun & furious action-horror with decent bladder FX. 3.75/5

[spongekryst]

Zombie Bloodbath- This was a fun 70 or so minute long homage to every zombie movie cliche' ever. I would'nt argue how amatuer it is, but I considered it fun SOV schlock.

Zombie Bloodbath 2: Rage of the Undead- Bluuuuuuh! (that's me vomiting) This one tries to have more a story, with a serious message, go figure (we're already zombies...). The plot was pretty incoherent, and that's saying something for me, because I usually don't nit pick at that. I actually think the acting in this one is worse than in the first one and maybe I'm crazy, but I think there's even less zombie action. Horrible.

Catwoman- Pretty funny and campy at times, but still just as bad as most people say. It would've been a whole different movie if it weren't for that horrendous basketball scene.

[Jack]

I remember renting Fiend on VHS back in the day. This was one of our first rentals that my mom (she was into Horror movies) and me dismissed as boring amateur crap. We still joked about the badness weeks later  I've always meant to check it out again, just to see how it holds up these days.

I got it from Netflix on a double feature DVD with Alien Factor.  There's a surprising amount of special features for such an obscure zero-budget movie:  a full length commentary track from one of the actors, which is full of amusing information (the actor who played the Fiend doesn't like to watch this movie because he was overweight at the time  ), blooper reel, quite a bit of stuff.