Recent viewings

[major jay]

ATTACK OF THE 50 FT WOMAN
I watched this, for the first time, on TCM last night. Holy kerap is this bad, and sleezy as hell too! I liked it, I liked it a lot.

[lester1/2jr]

The Chase (1994) -This is a sloppily written, hard to believe and /or take comedy starring man of the a month or so ago hour Charlie Sheen and also Kristi Swanson. Apparently Sheen is quite the ladies man out in LA but he does not excude any charisma here. Speaking of "Out in LA" the Chili Peppers have a cameo as does very briefly Ron jeremy and Henry Rollins has a fairly major role as a cop. These were slightly more clever people in 1994 than they would be now but not much really. Peppers are pretty disposable, Rollins is actually pretty good which is good considering his self named band he had at this time is probably the most overrated musical entity I can think of.

Sheen kidnaps Swanson and the movie is them on the freeway as the bumbling police chase them. It was funny at first though the jokes definately need to be "punched up" as they say. As it goes on and you get to know the hostage and hosty it is less good. It's alright but the lines Swanson gets are pretty bad and though there are some occasional wacky sort of things, (like one time she looks at him and he is wearing a clown costume then the next moment he isn't, you know messing with the reality of it) it doesn't really rise above barely passable all around.

 3/5

[JaseSF]

Date Night (2010): Phil (Steve Carrell) and Claire Foster (Tina Fey) - an husband and wife , hoping to spice up their marriage with an expensive evening in the city, get mistaken for a pair of blackmailing thieves and wind up on the run - the rather unlikely targets of the mafia and crooked cops for hire.

This was for the most part incredibly far-fetched yet also surprisingly funny. Steve Carrell and Tina Fey both do very well and get to deliver some very funny lines and seem to mesh quite well with one another. Carrell is especially good at playing the lovable everyman goof who seems well out of place even cussing let alone trying to outwit criminal types for his life. Fey offers good support and the pair are quite believable as a married couple who's perhaps been married a bit too long and have lost or are on the verge of losing the spice in their marriage. Placing them then in the unlikely roles of dumb action heroes makes for some funny reactions on their part and entertaining hijinks for viewers. But of course one really has to swallow one's level of disbelief to really sit back and enjoy this comedy. Some fun support here by Mark Wahlberg as a sort of super spy agent who doesn't seem to like to wear his shirt much to Fey's delight and Carrell's dislike added a few bright spots here and there. Also James Franco and Mila Kunis have a funny and scene stealing bit part as Taste and Whippet. *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Vibes (1988) - Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper star as psychics, recruited by Peter Falk to find his son, lost somewhere in the Ecuadorian Andes.  Except Mr. Falk is a con man and actually he wants them to help him find a lost city of gold.  This is a really fun, light hearted comedy with some gorgeous Ecuadorian scenery.  It's not often you see a film featuring a lost city, at least not depicted in quite such a cool and mysterious manner as this.  I really enjoyed that aspect of it.  The performances are good, though Lauper is kind of on-again off-again in regards to believability.  The humor really is funny and clever.  Overall a sweet, fun movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.  4.25/5.

[JaseSF]

Accepted (2006): When a high school slacker named Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) is rejected by every college to which he applies, he hatches a scheme to make his own college using a rundown piece of property he leases and some computer trickery via his friend Sherman Schrader (Jonah Hill) in order to trick his parents out of being on his case about it. However the unexpected happens when he suddenly finds his new "school" inudated with hundreds of new students seemingly rejected by every other college but his "South Harmon Institute of Technology" which seems very open to acceptance in its online website.

I expected this to be just another dumb teen/youth comedy. Actually it proved slightly better than I expected. Not only was it often funny and featured likable lead characters but it also seems to have its heart in the right place promoting the idea of a place of study for all the dreamers and misfits who don't seem to fit in anywhere else. Long and Hill are both very good in particular. The only major flaw was the school seems to have much too great a party atmosphere for any real learning to take place (although these scenes were likely added to deliver to audience expectation). This was funny and enjoyable but it's also not really a film I see myself revisiting or feeling the need to revisit so I'd give it **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Pandorum (2009) - Got this on Blu ray and it's about the third time I've watched it.  A gigantic spaceship is taking the last remnants of the human race to a new planet, but they're all in suspended animation and something goes terribly wrong.  Two crew members wake up to find the ship overrun with murderous, sub-human creatures.  And just as bad, the reactor is screwed up and of course it's on the opposite end of the ship.  Will our hero be able to make it through the gauntlet of monsters and fix the reactor before it blows?  I really like this one.  It has a nice sense of mystery about it, as the viewer is just as confused about what's going on, and how it happened, as the people who just woke up from suspended animation.  The characters are well done and made me care a lot about them.  And the fights with the monsters are great - real brutal and bloody.  And the big surprise ending is excellent as well.  4.5/5.

[claws]

Faster (2010) Blu-ray

Slick revenge flick far from dumb action, and The Rock was surprisingly good. I kept reading this was a homage to 1980s action movies but all I got was a slight old school vibe which was very much appreciated. 4/5

Tangled (2010) Blu-ray

I must admit that I was rolling my eyes a bit because I had no clue this was a musical (thanks to the misleading trailer). However, there isn't really that much singing and therefore could have easily done without. Not that I hate musicals, it's just that I have a hard time getting into new musicals. Other than that Tangled delivers typical Disney magic with lots of fun characters, good pacing and breathtaking visuals (a real treat in HD). 4.25/5

[JaseSF]

Mr. Mom (1983): Jack Butler (Michael Keaton), a recently unemployed car factory worker finds his life suddenly turned upside down when his wife Caroline (Teri Garr) lands a successful new business job and he now has to stay home and look after the kids, something he's never done before.
 
Caught this on TV today. Wasn't expecting anything too great but this was a pretty good role reversal style comedy with its heart seemingly in the right place. Keaton is surprisingly really good in the lead here (really quite funny and comes across quite  believable as a Dad and family man when it's required) and Garr does well here too. There's some funny gags such as Keaton and the town's fellow housewives playing poker with coupons and them whisking an unaware Keaton to a male strip club. The sudden change not only we see puts a strain on Butler but also on his marriage. In some ways, it's all quite believable even if some of the ideas at work here nowadays seem a bit behind the times. Also look for Martin Mull as Caroline's squirmy boss Ron, Jeffrey Tambor as Jack's former boss playing friend to your face and slime behind your back and Ann Jillian as Joan, a housewife friend of Caroline's who wants to get a little too friendly with Jack. Pretty good stuff there's also some funny scenes involving a washing machine and a vacuum cleaner. Worth a one-time viewing anyways. **3/4 out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Willow (1988) - This wasn't a great movie to watch on my little portable DVD player in my room. I think it would be really mandatory to see this either in a theatre or at least blu ray on a nice big tv. There is so much fast moving action and the camera is so close and it is also kind of dark alot of the time. Maybe it's just me and as a (very) amateur photgrapher I am really conscience of light but all in all it kind of gave me a visual headache at times.

That said, it's a fun movie. It's got your Conan / Hobbit type medieval looking but who knows what actual time it is vibe down well and the script is not overly stupid and the motivations for the characters and so forth make sense. Val Kilmer is great as the flawed hero guy and the redhead lead actress whoever she is is very pretty. It is kind of a tween movie, clearly aimed at younger veiwers but with a fair amount of violence, death, swearing etc. and Willow going down the mountain on a shield/ sled "whoooah!!!"

4/5

Vertical Limit (2000) - I think this was the director's cut or something because it seemed a little long and lots of like climber talk /color not always totally related to the plot ie expendable-ish banter  but I still liked this. You gotta like mountain movies. They didn't end up having to eat each other but it got pretty bad.

A woman, who is pretty in the first part of the movie then gets a kind of butch hair doo for most of it, is climbing Mount Everest with some guys. Her brother is like at the bottom of the thing for some reason. The one guy wants to keep going the other guy says the storm is coming. There is plenty of people falling and a guy putting a pick into the ice and people hanging off the rope and all that. frostbitey predicaments and alot of probably technically accurate stuff about doing this or that in high altitude. There is some kind of dodgy stuff with nitro glycerin that seems unusally like not easy to explode but hey,  it's still nitro glycerin and that's always cool.

4.25/5

[HappyGilmore]

Jackass 3- What can I say? No plot to go into so can't really knock the acting.  Great fun movie overall that kinda brings a little tear to your eye by the end.  Lots of funny stunts and dumb stuff that makes great use of the 3D Technology. 

Best part: T-Ball with Steve O asking "Why do I gotta be Steve-O?" just before he takes a baseball to the testicles.  Or Johnny Knoxville dancing for some buffalo before they gore the sh*t out of him.

For what it is, 3 out of 4 stars.

[JaseSF]

Taking Lives (2004): Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie), an F.B.I. agent, is called in by the Montreal police to help profile and track down a serial killer who takes on the lives and identities of each person he kills.

Despite some flaws in terms of believability on some occasions with regards to the plot that also is sometimes a little too predictable, this was a pretty exciting suspense thriller that does keep one gripped and guessing for a lot of its running time. Good performances from Ethan Hawke, Jolie (who however does seem slightly miscast) and Oliver Martinez and Jean-Hugues Anglade (as a pair of French cops) help keep things lively and interesting. Also look for Keifer Sutherland in a key role. This is not for the faint of heart however as there's several disturbing gory scenes. Jolie does steam up the screen during a very erotic sex scene. Overall it's not half bad. *** out of ***** stars.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus- Enjoyably bad from start to finish, I only wish there had been more shark-on-octopus mayhem.   

Food of the Gods- My first time having seen it since I was about ten.  Not as great as I remember it, but still fun and silly.  I think my main problem with it was the characters' reactions to what was going on.  I found those to be less plausible than the giant animals. 

Train (2008)- Take the plot of Turistas and put it on a train.  Mediocre torture porn with a few nice nude scenes.   

[Jack]

Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq (2001, or 2006?) - In 1830, France's greatest detective (sort of like their version of Sherlock Holmes) is murdered by a mysterious man who wears a mirrored mask.  A journalist who was writing a biography of the detective takes up the case, as capturing the criminal would make a fantastic ending to his book.  Most of the story has the journalist visiting people involved in the case, and then we flash back to see the detective's previous investigation of the person.  It's quite an an interesting plot as clues are uncovered and we eventually learn the whole story, which has a supernatural basis.  The cinematography is very artistic, giving the whole thing an otherworldly feel.  I quite enjoyed this.  4/5.

[dean]

Vertical Limit (2000) - I think this was the director's cut or something because it seemed a little long and lots of like climber talk /color not always totally related to the plot ie expendable-ish banter  but I still liked this. You gotta like mountain movies. They didn't end up having to eat each other but it got pretty bad.

A woman, who is pretty in the first part of the movie then gets a kind of butch hair doo for most of it, is climbing Mount Everest with some guys. Her brother is like at the bottom of the thing for some reason. The one guy wants to keep going the other guy says the storm is coming. There is plenty of people falling and a guy putting a pick into the ice and people hanging off the rope and all that. frostbitey predicaments and alot of probably technically accurate stuff about doing this or that in high altitude. There is some kind of dodgy stuff with nitro glycerin that seems unusally like not easy to explode but hey,  it's still nitro glycerin and that's always cool.

4.25/5

I remember watching this at an outdoor cinema and couldn't help but make fun of how crappy it was.  It wasn't that bad, but we kept seeing the boom and because all the actors wore sunglasses you'd keep seeing the film crew in the reflections.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't a bad film, but I just couldn't help but laugh at the bad mistakes like those above.

[Pilgermann]

I remember watching this at an outdoor cinema and couldn't help but make fun of how crappy it was.  It wasn't that bad, but we kept seeing the boom and because all the actors wore sunglasses you'd keep seeing the film crew in the reflections.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't a bad film, but I just couldn't help but laugh at the bad mistakes like those above.

There's no excuse for the reflections, but if you were seeing booms it was likey because of poor framing by the projectionist.  Some films are printed with an open matte and certain parts of the frame are supposed to be masked when projected.