Recent viewings

[Jack]

Zombie Death House (1987) - some guy is a chauffeur for a mob boss, but he's doing the boss's girlfriend (can't say I blame him  ).  So the boss kills the girlfriend and puts the body in his hotel room, and soon enough he's in prison on death row.  To make things just a little bit worse, John Saxon is a government guy conducting experiments on, well, injecting people with stuff for some military purpose.  As you might have guessed from the word "zombie" in the title, this gets a little bit out of hand.  A pretty good movie overall;  pure '80s cheese all the way around.  My favorite part was when they were in the chapel at the prison, and the organist was playing the theme song to some cheesy '80s movie, maybe Not of this Earth from 1988 - I dunno.  Very familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  There aren't really many zombies in this until the last few minutes.  Mostly it's about the communicable disease threatening the prisons, their teaming up, the hot babe scientist at the prison, and of course John Saxon directing the whole thing from outside the gates.  I had fun.  3.5/5.

The Oblong Box (1969) - Vincent Price keeps his horribly disfigured and somewhat insane brother locked in a room, but he escapes and forces a doctor (Christopher Lee) to give him shelter as he carries out his revenge on all those who wronged him.  I liked this one too.  Plenty of Gothic scenery and atmosphere, Price and Lee are great, and there's lots and lots of plot.  It was moderately suspenseful - I never got bored.  4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1973): Dr. Phibes rises from suspended animation and travels to Egypt seeking waters of immortality to resurrect his beloved wife; but another man seeks the waters as well, and Scotland Yard is on his trail again.  If you liked the original DR. PHIBES, this one tries hard to give you more of the same---campy black comedy mixed with bizarre characters, sets and (now gorier) murders---except this time there's no logic or sense in the script whatsoever.  3/5.   

[lester1/2jr]

Waiting For Armegeeddon (2009) - interesting, not too long, hour or so, but a little scattered documentary about the "left behind " people and their beliefs. I just saw Margoe a week ago and can't help but think alot of these people are also suckers being taken for a ride by these big time preacher guys. Visiting the holy land is fine and Christians have been doing it since forever but when these evangelists get heated about Israel and stuff from the bible is when you get stuff like the Crusades. What's worse is they have the ear of many in congress so their sci fi influenced beliefs help form our absurd foreign policy in the middle east . They don't care  if it leads to war because they think the world is going to end and it's all gods plan. So basically, their goal in foreign policy is to bring about the end fo the world. Made me seriously consider leaving the United States.  3/5

[JaseSF]

Seven Pounds (2008): An IRS agent named Ben Thomas (Will Smith), apparently going through a personal crisis related to a costly mistake made in his past, sets out on a course of helping drastically improve the lives of seven other people for a mysterious reason that viewers will come to understand in the end.

Personally I have mixed feelings on this one. The story was intriguing and different although it played out almost exactly as I expected it would. Will Smith was better than he usually is in this, a more serious dramatic role, although honestly he's helped a lot by the supporting players especially Rosario Dawson, as his love interest in the film, and Woody Harrelson, although Harrelson's character seems to get less screen time than his character actually needed, in particular. The film has some very moving scenes but finally things move more into the realm of disturbing. In some ways, the tragic romance with Dawson's character seems to undermine the basic core concept behind the plot although I kind of understand why they did that. In the end, I just didn't like the final message it seem to send although on some level I did enjoy the movie. *** out of *****

[Pilgermann]

The Supernaturals (1986) - A crappy zombie flick involving an army squad performing some training exercises in some remote woods of Alabama who encounter some undead Confederates.  In the opening scenes a group of rebel soldiers are captured and forced to walk across their own (very small) mine field, and all of them are killed except for a little boy who evidently has some sort of supernatural powers that aren't explained until later in the film.  The army folks, led by their sergeant played by Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame (who is all wrong for the part), are eventually attacked by the Confederate zombies, but these particular zombies prefer to use old rifles.

I was never sure what the squad's training was, exactly.  They spent their time wandering through the woods, and the sergeant barked at them to set up camp and set up radio communications and that's about it.  The zombies look cool, but are hardly seen and the film's never frightening at all.  The dialogue is mostly idiotic, too.  Aside from some decent music and nice looking zombies, there's nothing to really recommend here.  Oh!  I almost forgot to mention that LeVar Burton's in this and it's amusing to hear him call someone "mother f-----!"
4/10


Slime City (1988) - Alex, a college student/aspiring artist with a loving girlfriend moves into a crappy NYC apartment occupied by a few weird folks, one of whom is a trashy girl across the hall who seduces him.  He's also given some weird green "yogurt" and wine by another neighbor and shortly thereafter starts to ooze yellow goop from his skin.  He gets the urge to commit murder, starting with a homeless man in an alley.  Turns out that a cult leader (who wrote a book about "Flesh Control") and his followers commited suicide in the basements of the apartment complex some years ago and their souls are gradually taking over every new occupant.

It's a pretty icky film, and is obviously shot on the cheap, but it's actually kind of funny at times and is strangely fun to watch.  There are a lot of obvious references and influences to the likes of Street Trash, Evil Dead, and even a moment similar to one in The Wicker Man, but it still has its own unique charm.  One of my favorite moments involved some thugs who attack Alex and one of 'em stabs him in the gut, only to have his arm sink in and get bitten off.  His buddies take off running, although one come back to grab his boombox that he left on the ground.
7/10

[lester1/2jr]

In A Lonely Place - Humphrey Bogart as a past his prime screenwriter accused of the murder of a girl he hits on.  The ambiguity is the interest. You really can't tell right up until the end if he did it or not. The first half is engaging if rather understated. It's noir- ish but a relatively sedate drama too. Gradually it gets crazier and builds and builds to the exciting finale. Kind of like a stage play but made more accesible and audience friendly with Bogarts presence. 5/5

[Rev. Powell]

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (2009): A corrupt, drug-abusing New Orleans cop finds himself deeply in debt to dangerous men and under investigation by his department in the course of investigating the massacre of an immigrant family, and must pull off several double crosses to clear his name and crack the case.  Very different and more ambiguous than Abel Ferrara's NYC-set BAD LIEUTENANT; the underlying thriller plot is very involving, and Cage puts a great spin on the corrupt cop archetype, and gets off one of the great gonzo lines of the decade: "Shoot him again, his soul is still dancing!"  4.5/5. 

MST3K: FUTURE WAR:  This is the movie about a kickboxing starman and a streetwise nun teaming up to fight dinosaur puppets in a cardboard box factory.  With a movie this ridiculous, incoherent, cheesy and inept, it would be hard for this experiment not to be a classic.  The only downside are mediocre host segments, which keep it from reaching perfection.  4.5/5.

[3mnkids]

Zombie Wars~ 50 years ago the dead started to rise and no one knows why. A small group of "soldiers" fight the zombies and rescue humans... see the zombies have a farm, a human farm, where they breed humans for food. Pretty smart, huh?      ****Spoilers******



The farm supposedly supplies enough humans to feed the zombies 4-6 times a day yet there are maybe a dozen humans there and no kids, no babies.

 They have been raised by them so they dont speak and live like animals... I saw one woman with a huge tattoo on her arm... I doubt the zombies did it.     They also have sex in order to breed but since they cant talk and are idiots the one chick points to the guys ... nether regions  (with a carrot) and then points to her nether regions.. that's what goes for foreplay I guess. Anyway, one of the soldiers is taken captive and his soldier buddies are going to rescue him. It takes them weeks to organize this but the zombies attacked all of the human colonies at once in an organized strike.

Its so ridiculous. The acting by most,except the guy sliver,is decent. Ive seen much, much worse. The plot is so stupid its laughable(if only it was funny), and I've seen better makeup on the neighborhood kids during Halloween. I could overlook those things. What kills the movie is that its soooo freaking boring.

[Raffine]

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1973): Dr. Phibes rises from suspended animation and travels to Egypt seeking waters of immortality to resurrect his beloved wife; but another man seeks the waters as well, and Scotland Yard is on his trail again.  If you liked the original DR. PHIBES, this one tries hard to give you more of the same---campy black comedy mixed with bizarre characters, sets and (now gorier) murders---except this time there's no logic or sense in the script whatsoever.  3/5.  

Just curious - does the DVD of this restore the use of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' at the end? When I saw this at the theater during its release Phibes and his wife (SPOILER!) ride off to eternity to this tune playing on the Victrola. Due to copyright problems this was later re-edited so they're listening to 'Night on Bald Mountain' or some similar piece.

Too bad they never made the annouced third film THE BRIDES OF DR. PHIBES.

[Rev. Powell]

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1973): Dr. Phibes rises from suspended animation and travels to Egypt seeking waters of immortality to resurrect his beloved wife; but another man seeks the waters as well, and Scotland Yard is on his trail again.  If you liked the original DR. PHIBES, this one tries hard to give you more of the same---campy black comedy mixed with bizarre characters, sets and (now gorier) murders---except this time there's no logic or sense in the script whatsoever.  3/5.  

Just curious - does the DVD of this restore the use of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' at the end? When I saw this at the theater during its release Phibes and his wife (SPOILER!) ride off to eternity to this tune playing on the Victrola. Due to copyright problems this was later re-edited so they're listening to 'Night on Bald Mountain' or some similar piece.

Too bad they never made the annouced third film THE BRIDES OF DR. PHIBES.

Yes, the version I have from "MGM Screen Legends Collection" restores the original ending. 

[Rev. Powell]

MANIAC (1934):  An on-the-lam vaudevillian kills and impersonates his mad scientist employer and is suddenly afflicted by every psychosis in the book, which leads him to accidentally create an orangutan-man rapist, eat cat eyeballs, and lock women in his basement to fight with syringes.  1934 audiences looking for sleaziness had their appetite sated by the shocks and pre-Code nudity, but today it's admired for the deranged performances and the insane inventiveness of the plot, which result in a jaw-dropping oddity that must be seen to be believed.  For bad movie fans it's a 5/5, but I think EVERYONE should see it!   

[JaseSF]

Watched a pair of Jack Palance films on a Quality Video Inc. $1 DVD.

The Cop in Blue Jeans (1976): I've submitted a reader review for this one that can be read here: http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,131222.msg355870.html#new

Since that review includes what certainly could constitute many spoilers (not sure how to do the style of review on here without spoilers), here's the non spoiler version:

An undercover special police agent named Nico Giraldi (Tomas Milian), while trying to catch the elusive Baron who's the leader of a bunch of petty thieves and purse snatchers, accidentally stumbles upon a much more serious case of murder when the Baron's henchmen start turning up dead executed mafia style. Behind it all is mob boss Norman Shelley (Jack Palance), a nasty tempered fellow who wants back the five million dollars the Baron and his men made the bad mistake to steal from him.

This film is kind of a mixed bag. There's a lot of entertainment value to be found here some of it intentionally a comedy/parody of the crime genre (the opening showing numerous clever purse snatching methods is often hilarious and well likely leave many watching with their mouths open in wonderment) and some of it unintentionally funny. Nico Giraldi, the film's hero, is unshaven, long-haired and looks like he rarely changes his clothes. Despite this he remains surprisingly cool in his constant stylish rainbow colored wool cap and shades and is obviously patterning himself after his hero Al Pacino's Frank Serpico from Serpico (1973). Giraldi delivers lots of funny quips and one-liners throughout this thing most of them directed at the more inept henchmen and crooks he comes across but he's not afraid to get a dig in at fellow police officers either if it seems justified. The movie plays up the action and excitement what with numerous motorcycle stunts (surprisingly no one wears an helmet in this movie  ), motorcycle car chases, several down and out fist fights that involve more things getting smashed than your typical hardcore pro wrestling match. In fact, Giraldi rather reminds me of some of those hardcore wrestlers in some of his more over the top fight scenes as guys go through tables, get thrown thrown obviously fake brick and concrete walls as well as through glass doors! The people behind this film though it seems couldn't make up their mind fully as to whether to present this as a comedy or a more gritty police action drama. In the end, we get a mix of both but things definitely lean more towards comedy because even the more serious stuff tends to come across as quite crazy, and sometimes kind of sleazy too, plus quite over the top more often than not.  The motorcycle jumps are taken to extremes and are added when it isn't even necessary and often we see no visible means for Giraldi to be making said jumps on his motorcycle yet he performs them over and over again. The biggest negative here is the annoying "dadadadadondonda" score that seems to play endlessly and really makes this hard slugging at times. If it wasn't for the score, I suspect this might be a bit more fun. Also Jack Palance barely appears in the movie too which is definitely another negative. When he does pop up, he comes across like a menacing, crazy fox yet he isn't on screen near enough to be a fully realized character and we never actually see him get the just desserts on camera his character so richly deserves. **1/2 out of ***** stars

The Four Deuces (1976): A prohibition era 1930s mob boss named Vic Morono (Jack Palance) carries on a seemingly never-ending turf war against arch-rival hoodlum Chico Hamilton (Warren Berlinger). Each man is testing the other and searching for his weakness which in Vic's case might just be his love of beautiful dames like Wendy Rittenhouse (Carol Lynley) or perhaps it's his allies, the four deuces - four key gang members, who will prove his undoing. A reporter named Russ Timmons (Adam Roarke) researching for a book he plans to write on Vic tags along and plays witness to all the carnage.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this period piece. When it plays things seriously, it works incredibly well although the characters look and feel as if they stepped out of the pages of a comic book, which in fact is how we're introduced to this one in its opening credits which are quite cool although I did have to laugh at Palance laughing maniacally while reading Batman and Buck Rogers comics. However where those who made this film truly made a major error was playing certain scenes for laughs - in fact the very scenes that demanded the most serious attention and care and often played for laughs which comes across as poor taste to say the least. Worst of all is a comically sped-up gang ambush that has many characters brutally killed yet it all sees some colossal joke here perhaps pertaining to the possible shortness of life as does a later scene in which a character is blown up in a car while singing the song "That's life". There's some good scenes here and there in this that are really worth watching and some decent surprises. Palance and Berlinger do chew the scenery but Palance does get a few more moving scenes here and there, some that particularly accentuate his character's sense of loneliness, and Roarke and Lynley add a more serious tone to things whenever they appear on screen. I really enjoyed this more overall than I expected although I was put off somewhat by the bad comedy choices. *** out of ***** stars.

The picture quality on The Cop in Blue Jeans is pretty cruddy and looks like an EP multi-generation dub as does the print for The Four Deuces although it's slightly better than the previous.

[3mnkids]

Its been so hot I wanted to watch something wintery.. 

Fargo
A simple plan~~ This is such an underrated movie. Its one of my faves.

[Derf]

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1973): Dr. Phibes rises from suspended animation and travels to Egypt seeking waters of immortality to resurrect his beloved wife; but another man seeks the waters as well, and Scotland Yard is on his trail again.  If you liked the original DR. PHIBES, this one tries hard to give you more of the same---campy black comedy mixed with bizarre characters, sets and (now gorier) murders---except this time there's no logic or sense in the script whatsoever.  3/5.   

I just watched both of the Dr. Phibes movies today, and I concur with your assessment of the sequel here. 

I also watched Cabin Boy, an enjoyably insane flick, but one that suffers from not being able to decide what time period it belongs to: It randomly moves from quaint Victorian English villages with David Letterman selling sock monkeys to sailing ships with microwave ovens.

I haven't watched this many movies in a day for a very long time. It was quite a nice break.

And then I also watched Popeye with Robin Williams. I still think this is one of the most visually rich movies ever made, and it has a very unique sounding sound track that fits it quite nicely. I know it's been panned even by Williams himself, but I can't help but enjoy it.

[3mnkids]

Barking dogs never bite(Flandersui gae)~Tired of hearing a yapping dog in his apartment building a man dog naps it and hides it in the boiler room. He finds out later he took the wrong dog and goes back to get it but its gone- Someone likes to eat dog.    Not much he can do about it now so he "takes care" of the real yapping dog....


If you are a huge dog lover this might not be the movie for you. Its not anything extreme and its meant to be funny but I can see how it might bother some. Its a little slow moving but I thought it was different and pretty funny.

The mark of cain(2000)~ A documentary about the tattoos in Russian prisons and the conditions of those prisons... wow, I think the prisoners here in America dont have anything to complain about. It was an interesting documentary and some of the tats are amazing. I wouldn't want a tat made from soot and urine though.