Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Eyeborgs" (2009) in this impressive low budget sci-fi set in the near future, the U.S. is protected by a nationwide network of robotic security/surveillance drones... that suddenly begin killing people. A mix of "Terminator" and "RoboCop" with some post-9/11 paranoia thrown in for good measure. Despite the cheap CGI and the only "name" actor being Adrian Paul of TV's "Highlander," this is a cut above the usual SyFy schlock.

[Rev. Powell]

BLOOD TIDE (1982): A honeymooner tracks his missing sister to a remote Greek island where the weirdo locals and expats are hunting for treasure and dealing with a sea monster. James Earl Jones' performance as a drunken, "Othello" quoting archeologist is the only point of interest in this cheap and poorly designed creature feature that blatantly rips off better movies. 1/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Another Earth (2011) -




take a standard depressing indie movie about people dealing with a terrible tragedy, add a little bit of Lifetime harlequin romance trash, then add a totally inconceivable sci fi element and you get = a really good movie somehow. 5/5

[JaseSF]

The Snow Creature (1954): While on a botanical expedition in the Himalayas, Dr. Frank Parrish (Paul Langton) and Peter Wells (Leslie Denison) get sidetracked when the wife of one of the Sherpa guides employed by them is made off with by a Yeti. Soon their guides mutiny to search for the monster. Eventually they stumble across a Yeti in a cave and somehow find a means of capturing it. Bringing it back to the United States, Dr. Parrish has the creature kept inside a special freezer but when the Yeti gets delayed in its transport due to some debate as whether it is a "man" or animal, it escapes and runs amok in Los Angeles.

That description makes this sound far more exciting than it ever actually is. This, another little film from W. Lee Wilder (who also gave us Killers From Space and Phantom From Space) is overall a pretty dull affair. There are some brief scenes of suspense with the Yeti watching on getting ready to pounce in some scenes but these are few and far between. The first half of the film set in the Himalayas is slightly more interesting than the second half which plays like a straightforward police procedural which could have really any villain (here it just happens the criminal they're pursuing is a Yeti?!) being pursued by the police. It also doesn't help that the Yeti suit worn here isn't at all convincing and doesn't look anything like we envision as a potential Yeti nowadays. Truthfully though in that regard and even today, one really isn't sure just what it should look like. Several older films portray the Yeti as a potentially more human-like being. Bogged down mostly by dull scenes of people talking mundanely or walking around seemingly endlessly whether it be the Sherpas and the mountain expedition or later the police trudging through underground tunnels in Los Angeles. A tough slug to get through. ** out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,117338.0   < old White Pongo Thread

[indianasmith]

I watched an interesting movie last night called THE DEN (2013).
A young grad student named Elizabeth gets a grant to study human behavior in an online video chat service known as
The Den, where over 1 million people from all over the world log in and share, well, everything.  Penis puppets, practical
jokes, flirtation, insults, dance moves - nothing is off limits.  It is the unfiltered nature of this online world that draws
Elizabeth's interest as a student of sociology.  
But then she finds herself being stalked by a vicious killer after he murders a young woman  on her live feed.  He hacks into
her computer, sabotages her career, and one by one begins killing her friends.  At first the cops are convinced it's some silly
online practical joke, but later it becomes obvious that there is something very real and very terrifying going on.
 This was a pretty good movie, very dark and disturbing, with a brutal ending.  The constant video feeding of actual events
made it somewhat like a found footage film, but not entirely.  Definitely worth the rental.

[Jack]

Dark Space (2013) - in the future, some kids crash their shuttle on a remote planet and soon find themselves caught in the middle of a lower budget version of Avatar. Characters were passable (barely), plot was interesting for a bit until you figured out they were just ripping off another movie. Special effects were slightly above your average direct-to-video standards. 3/5.

The Ward (2011) - a girl burns down a house and gets put in the insane asylum. Soon we learn there's a ghost about that's killing the patients. The last 5 minutes of this is a really good twist ending which I didn't see coming at all. Unfortunately you have to sit through 85 minutes of a very mediocre movie to get to it. The main character wasn't likable, none of the characters were developed, the ghost wasn't scary, and for something directed by John Carpenter it had a complete lack of atmosphere. 3/5.

Logan's Run (1977–1978) - finished watching the TV series based on the movie. Logan (Gregory Harrison) and Jessica (Heather Menzies) escape from the city of domes, find a cool futuristic car, and travel from place to place getting into adventures. They meet up with an android (Donald Moffat) who joins them on their search for sanctuary. This was kind of made for kids; it's real simple, the characters lack any depth (they're just really good and nice), and all the episodes are pretty much the same - meet a group of people who seem friendly at first, then we find they've got a dark secret and want to kill or perform horrible experiments on our characters, and around the 55 minute mark they make their escape. About half the episodes have the other Sandmen from the city of domes chasing after them too. But it does have its retro charm to be sure. And you can't help but fall in love with Heather Menzies, she's just so cute and nice and she's got the most awesome hair in the entire world 3.5/5.

[Trevor]

Ruby (1992): the film about the bar owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I heard that people had it suppressed so as not to compete with Oliver Stone's JFK but Danny Aiello was good as Ruby and the film was good, not great, but good. 

[FatFreddysCat]

BLOOD TIDE (1982): A honeymooner tracks his missing sister to a remote Greek island where the weirdo locals and expats are hunting for treasure and dealing with a sea monster. James Earl Jones' performance as a drunken, "Othello" quoting archeologist is the only point of interest in this cheap and poorly designed creature feature that blatantly rips off better movies.

What about the scene where Lydia "Too Close For Comfort" Cornell does stretching exercises on the beach in a bikini? 

[Rev. Powell]

BLOOD TIDE (1982): A honeymooner tracks his missing sister to a remote Greek island where the weirdo locals and expats are hunting for treasure and dealing with a sea monster. James Earl Jones' performance as a drunken, "Othello" quoting archeologist is the only point of interest in this cheap and poorly designed creature feature that blatantly rips off better movies.

What about the scene where Lydia "Too Close For Comfort" Cornell does stretching exercises on the beach in a bikini? 

I stand corrected.  If she had actually had a nude scene I would have bumped it up a star.

[FatFreddysCat]

I stand corrected.  If she had actually had a nude scene I would have bumped it up a star.

If she'd had a nude scene, I wouldn't have sh*t-canned my dollar store DVD of that flick immediately after viewing!! 

[JaseSF]

Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (1964): After slaying a dragon in hopes of winning the hand of a princess named Telca (Spela Rozin) who's super hot and curvy, Argolese (Dan Vadis) discovers her and her people have been enslaved and her village has been ransacked by a notorious war-like tribe called the Demulus or something like that. Apparently they practice cannibalism too. Argolese sets out to rescue her!

This was a pretty enjoyable Hercules style retread. This was edited down into a Sons of Hercules presentation for TV in the U.S. back in the day which had a catchy theme song. There's really very little new here as Argolese, son of Hercules does like Hercules and tangles with a lion (who's seems particularly passive), a bear (who's obviously trained), and a dragon not to mention battles the war-like tribe (the Demulus) before being captured. Then their evil queen decides to have him slain by being pulled apart by two elephants (usually in previous films horses played this bit) which makes for a visual spectacle to be sure. When that doesn't work, she begins to fall in lust with Her...er I mean Argolese only a rival has her eyes on the throne and hatches a plan to bring about her undoing. Meanwhile, Argolese and a timid comic relief sidekick played by John Simons set out to rescue Telca and her people and set out to destroy the Demulus' underground kingdom inside a mountain surrounded by lava from a nearby volcano. Simons is actually quite good in his role even if it does seem a bit silly that he's so successful at times. Actually his presence in this reminds me of the later 90s TV series which featured lots of comic relief too and often had war-like marauding tribes as villains. Enjoyable escapist fantasy adventure fare but there's very little here that's really new. Dan Vadis does alright in the lead but isn't quite as charismatic as his predecessors. Still surprisingly fun so I'll give it ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[SynapticBoomstick]

Dark Space (2013) - in the future, some kids crash their shuttle on a remote planet and soon find themselves caught in the middle of a lower budget version of Avatar. Characters were passable (barely), plot was interesting for a bit until you figured out they were just ripping off another movie. Special effects were slightly above your average direct-to-video standards. 3/5.

I liked the visual tension in the scene where the native lifeform is stalking about in the trees while two of the "kids" hide near their ship. The way it's framed by the trees and the way it moved around just worked for me. The armor suits were also pretty cool but I chuckled at the paintball gun-laser rifles.

[FatFreddysCat]

"All Cheerleaders Die" (2014) a dreary high school horror comedy about a quartet of cheerleaders who die in an auto accident, only to be revived via witchcraft so they can exact bloodsucking vengeance on the jocks who done'em wrong. Even the high eye candy quotient and some totally gratuitous  girl-on-girl action can't keep this flick from being a tough slog. Revisit "Jennifer's Body" instead.

[Jack]

Dark Space (2013) - in the future, some kids crash their shuttle on a remote planet and soon find themselves caught in the middle of a lower budget version of Avatar. Characters were passable (barely), plot was interesting for a bit until you figured out they were just ripping off another movie. Special effects were slightly above your average direct-to-video standards. 3/5.

I liked the visual tension in the scene where the native lifeform is stalking about in the trees while two of the "kids" hide near their ship. The way it's framed by the trees and the way it moved around just worked for me. The armor suits were also pretty cool but I chuckled at the paintball gun-laser rifles.

I liked the part where the other "kids" were in the woods and they thought maybe one of the aliens was sneaking around, and then all of a sudden about 100 guys in armored suits appear and start blasting everything in sight. It's like "What the fuuuuuu!?!?"   

The Apocalypse (1997) - a big cargo spaceship has gone missing and several years later it reappears. It's full of valuable cargo so a salvage crew sets out to claim it, not knowing that the insane computer programmer on the cargo ship has set it on a collision course with earth. Just to further complicate matters, half the salvage crew decides to kill the other half so they can get the valuable loot for themselves. I pull this movie out once every five years or so just to see if I can make it to the end lol. Laura San Giacomo is the computer programmer and repeats the same 4 or 5 Shakespeare quotes about 200 times. Sandra Bernhard is the captain of the cargo ship and one of the most unlikable characters in film history. And nothing happens for long periods of time, other than San Giacomo repeating her quotes. Over. And over. And over. And the plot is just pure stupidity of course. 1.5/5.