Recent viewings

[claws]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

5/5

The Grudge 3 (2009) (German Blu-ray)

Not great but good enough for a DTV sequel. 3.25/5

[Flick James]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

5/5

The Grudge 3 (2009) (German Blu-ray)

Not great but good enough for a DTV sequel. 3.25/5

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is damn near a perfect comedy, and also one of John Candy's finest moments. It's not easy to upstage Steve Martin, and he did.

[bob]

Kazaam 1996 - Shaq is the worlds largest genie who rhymes when ever possiblein this movie where nothing and I mean NOTHING happens

this movie stands as evidence that athletes should not cross over into film

0 out of 5 stars and one of the worst things ever made

[Jack]

House of Bones (2010) - some paranormal investigators are shooting an episode of their show at a house that's possessed by some evil force.  Predictable junk follows.  The first two-thirds of this took place in broad daylight, which along with its cheesiness made it completely non-scary.  The characters were the sort of people I couldn't care about, and they certainly didn't care about each other.  I dunno, it's the type of thing that makes me wonder why these folks got involved in the film industry when they so obviously have nothing to contribute.  2.25/5.

[claws]

Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps (2010) (German Blu-ray)

1975: A beautiful but mute and alien to the world young woman appears in a small Swiss village out of nowhere. The local policeman is trying his best to identify the mystery woman while a priest thinks she is the spawn of the devil. Soon deadly, dark and disturbing secrets are revealed leading to a lonely cabin located in the Swiss alps ...

Superb Horror-Thriller with a few surprises, atmospheric setting, unusual story telling and a more or less semi-confusing ending. Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps is based on a Swiss legend which tells of lonely herdsmen who in their desperation at high altitudes make a woman out of broomsticks or pitchforks for a spine and stuff a dress full of hay. The doll comes to life, and the herdsmen "have their way with her" but with fatal consequences. Great movie. 4.5/5

[Flick James]

Bridesmaids (2011): Okay, okay, don't snicker. My wife put it in the Netflix queue and it arrived. So anyway, it was actually okay. Yes, it's got elements of a Rom Com, and it is certainly estrogen filled in parts, but it's a pretty funny movie. It's got some bite and some edge. It bogs down at a couple of points where I thought "this is it, it's going to start sucking now," but then it would pick back up and start being entertaining again. Not a great movie by any means, but funnier and more entertaining than I expected.

3.5/5

[ChaosTheory]

DEVIL - A handful of condemned souls gets stuck in an elevator so the devil can toy with them a while before carting them off.  Nowadays I'm dubious of anything with Shyamalan's involvement, but this wasn't too bad.  Interesting concept, thought they could have taken it farther. 5/10

BAND OF BROTHERS - watched the whole thing in one sitting.  Not much needs to be said, really; it was awesome,  I want to go read the book now. 9/10

[bob]

BAND OF BROTHERS - watched the whole thing in one sitting.  Not much needs to be said, really; it was awesome,  I want to go read the book now. 9/10

the book is awesome, I kept it after having to read it for history class in college

[lester1/2jr]

Pirahna (2010)- awesome. You can nit pick about the corny jokes or this or that but all in all it's alot of fun. Wish I'd seen it in the theatre in 3D 5/5

Lessons oF Darkness- Herzog doc. You'd have to be in the mood for it, it's just shots of the oil fields in I think Kuwait post Gulf War. Theres shots from a helicopter and it's obviously a pro/ nice camera so it looks cool, but it's just guys in fields and bubbling oil. There are one or two short interviews in the begining but it's mostly just music, not Popul Vuh but classical music, and the imagery. 54 minutes long. 4/5

Joe Duarke  ?  short on TCM - This was funny. That name is wrong. The guy does pg 13 humor about marriage.  from the 50's. I'll try to get more info lol

edit joe mcdoakes!  he was also the voice of George Jetson.

[Flick James]

BAND OF BROTHERS - watched the whole thing in one sitting.  Not much needs to be said, really; it was awesome,  I want to go read the book now. 9/10

the book is awesome, I kept it after having to read it for history class in college

I once watched the whole thing during a sick day at home. Great stuff. I have the series on DVD and usually watch it once a year around Veteran's Day. I love the interviews with the real soldiers at the opening of each episode, and how they revealed the names of the remaining living member of Easy Company so you could tie them into their actor counterparts. I swear the guy who played Bill Guarnere looked just like the real Guarnere, and was also one of my favorite characters.

[Rev. Powell]

APHRODISIAC: THE SEXUAL SECRET OF MARIJUANA (1971): A documentary featuring amusingly-edited fake "man-on-the-street" interviews, real newsreel footage, and the main attraction---a series of short hardcore sex sequences graphically demonstrating the aphrodisiacal powers of cannabis.  One features John Holmes as a businessman who boffs his secretary when she offers him a joint.  Not only does marijuana cure his premature ejaculation , but it gives him psychological insight: "I had always used my penis as a club to beat women into submission... The marijuana brought me to a moment of truth with myself... here, with this girl, I would make up for all the 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am' beatings I had jumped on women since I lost my cherry at the age of 11."  The sex scenes are not like modern porn; they're far between and mostly softcore, with perhaps 30 to 90 seconds of penetration shown, and no "money shots."  Historically, this pre-DEEP THROAT feature shows how exploitation-minded filmmakers tried to get graphic sex into movies by including "socially relevant" material.  This has to be the dirtiest movie you can buy on Amazon.  I have no idea whether to recommend this or not.  It's a curiosity; it's not very erotic, and it's not very informative.  It's strange without being laugh-out-loud funny.  I will go with a 2/5 for members of this board (in terms of quality it's a 1/5).

[retrorussell]

Star Blazers: Season 2 The Comet Empire.  Sometimes tough to wade through some atrocious dubbing but still one-of-a-kind for its time.

[JaseSF]

Airport '77 (1977): An hijacking aboard a luxury 747 leads to disaster and distress as the passengers and crew find themselves trapped aboard an underwater crashed plane with time running out be it lack of air or water finding its way in.

While rife with inaccuracies and disaster film cliches, this does benefit from a few likable performances. Most notable here is an energetic Jack Lemmon as lead Captain Don Gallagher but also on hand giving good if somewhat underdeveloped character performances are Brenda Vaccaro as Lemmon's love interest Eve, Christopher Lee as heroic diver Martin Lawrence, Lee Grant as his manipulative shrew wife Karen Wallace, Darren McGavin as Stan Buchek who basically works as Gallagher's right hand man during the crisis and the legendary Jimmy Stewart as the 747's owner Philip Stevens. Also appearing here briefly as part of the airport rescue personnel is Joe Patroni as played by George Kennedy who appears in all the Airport films although this is probably his most forgettable appearance in the whole series. Overall this one just doesn't work as although it does manage to build up a certain level of suspense, honestly for the most part we really don't get to know the characters enough to really care about what happens to them as much as we rightly should. Has its moments but could have been better. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

Airport '79 - The Concorde (1979): A recently purchased Concorde turned into a commercial airliner becomes the target of an arms dealer (Robert Wagner) who wants to do away with one of its passengers, a reporter named Maggie Whelan (Susan Blakely) who's about to expose him and his crime of selling arms to Communist and enemy countries during the Cold War. Now its flight crew Captain Joe Patroni (George Kennedy), Captain Paul Metrand (Alain Delon) and second officer Peter O' Neill (David Warner) will have quite a challenge trying to keep the plane in one piece in the face of enemy missiles, aircraft and more.

Of the Airport films, this one is by far the most cartoonish. Its plot definitely feels akin to one you might see in a mindless action driven animated show. All in all it's pretty predictable stuff that's only really surprising given the huge amount of action and disaster cliches we're expected to swallow and suspend our disbelief for in this one. In terms of rating the Airport films, this is the Superman IV of this bunch. And it's dull, unbelievable and feels more like a TV movie than an actual theatrical feature. Perhaps the funniest and most amusing thing in this one is Eddie Albert's performance as the geriatric Eli Sands, owner of the company [Federation World Airlines] that purchased the Concorde, who has a trophy wife in Sybil Danning. Honestly this movie is so over the top it might have worked better if they played it for laughs what with George Kennedy somehow moving through the Airport films from mechanic to Airport manager to eventually  becoming a top notch pilot in this one?! Still it really wasn't played for laughs and even though Kennedy is likable enough, this one's pretty tough slugging to get through. ** out of ***** stars. Nonetheless, some bad movie fans may well find something to enjoy here.

Also rewatched Home Alone (1990) and For Richer or Poorer (1997) again recently. Both films are very funny and I'd say the latter is somewhat underrated and ultimately both promote a good message too, the first about the importance of family and both about the need for communication and understanding between people (regardless of different philosophies and idealogies in the case of For Richer or Poorer). Both are somewhat guilty of stretching credibility beyond its limits which certainly isn't all that uncommon in comedies to be fair.

Home Alone (1990) - ****1/2 out of ***** stars

For Richer or Poorer (1997) - **** out of ***** stars

 

[InformationGeek]

Nutcracker: The Untold Story (2010): A young girl named Mary gets a gift from her Uncle Albert Einstein, a Nutcracker.  Turns out that Nutcracker is alive and a boy under the evil curse of the Rat King & Queen.  He and Mary must team up with a colorful bunch of characters in order to defeat the Nazi Rat Empire.

One of the most unbelievable and poorest excuses for a Christmas movie, this film reaches new lows with spin on the classic Nutcracker ballet by taking out all the dancing and adding its own crappy musical numbers and terrible acting, not to mention the bad CGI and poorly written plot with creepy dialogue.  All of this adds up to being one of biggest blunders you could ever watch during the holidays.  All in all, an ugly movie inside and out.  A well earned and deserved 1 out of 5.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: JACK FROST:  The movie is a colorful and wacky Russian fairy tale featuring a mushroom elf, the "hunchback fairy" and her house on legs, a wearbear and (of course) Jack Frost.  Meanwhile, in Pearl's absence Brain Guy and Bobo work out their issues (turns out Brain Guy has really bad B.O.).  This is a great movie for MST3K: it's really not a bad movie, it's easy to watch, but there's enough bizarre stuff happening to give the crew plenty to comment on.  I wish the host segments were better but this is an excellent episode I'd look forward to watching again.  4.5/5.

WEEKEND (2011):  A lifeguard who's halfway in the closet picks up an artist at a gay bar, and they spend the weekend together taking drugs, having sex and discussing their deepest secrets.  Very naturalistic and believable with excellent acting and dialogue.  This isn't my kind of thing (and it still wouldn't be if it were about a guy and a girl) but I have to admit that it's extremely well done for this kind of movie.  4/5.