Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

One Body Too Many (1944): An insurance salesman by the name of Albert Tuttle (Jack Haley) finds himself mixed up in old dark house murder and mystery when he decides to play the unlikely role of detective/watchman for a pretty young and rightful heiress named Carol Dunlap (Jean Parker) who soon becomes his love interest. Unfortunately for Tuttle, another heir or heiress at the secluded, creepy and dark old mansion wants to eliminate Ms. Dunlap and anyone else who might stand in the way of said person acquiring Ms. Dunlap's  late Uncle's fortune.

This has most of the trappings of the old dark house murder mystery subgenre - there's the out of the way mansion, stormy nights, hidden passageways, people peeping through eyeholes in paintings, red herring suspects and of course murder and mystery. Actually this later entry is played more for laughs for the most part with the bumbling Haley, better known of course for The Wizard of Oz, playing reluctant hero for the sake of the pretty girl. All in all, it's not too bad for its type, is consistently amusing and is even quite funny at times. The most disappointing thing here is horror legend Bela Lugosi is relegated to the spooky butler role yet again although at least here he gets to play a bit with comedy. Also they kind of overplay things I felt with regard to trying to keep the killer's identity under wraps. Still this wasn't too bad at all. *** out of ***** stars.

The Towering Inferno (1974): Epic 1970s disaster movie in which hundreds of people get trapped in an high rise building with a fire burning out of control in the floors beneath them. This story then focuses on the rescue efforts of the building's architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) and firefighters captained by Chief Michael O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen).

This was pretty well done I felt. For such a long film, it seems to barely let up with regards to action, drama and excitement and I felt consistently entertained throughout. Sure, there might be a few times here and there credibility might have been stretched but overall I felt it was pretty believable. I love these kind of movies so I might be a bit prejudiced but I do feel this is one of the best examples of this style of film done right. This is good, with a good cast and a lot of stuff going down. Some characters did not feel as fully fleshed out as others but it's kind of hard to do that in a story like this although I felt they did a pretty good job with most of the stars and most everyone got at least a moment or two to shine.  **** out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

Last night I tried hard to watch a piece of dreck entitled MOMMY'S LITTLE MONSTER. The copy on the back of the box looked interesting enough at the video store, but when I actually began watching the movie I realized that  the actual film  was so different from the synopsis that I honestly think they were describing the wrong movie!!!  I mean, it was the right box because they had pictures of the actors on the back - but the plot synopsis bore ZERO resemblance to what I watched.

  As near as I could tell (I got bored about 30 minutes in and watched a good bit of it on Fast Forward), a young man who was totally dominated by his mother as a child is released from a mental institution and goes to work for his Uncle on an archeological dig that is supposed to be searching for Indian burials in order to block a proposed development.  Except his uncle has a gambling addiction and has taken a huge bribe from the developers to NOT find anything, so he has his team of archeologists digging in the wrong spot!  Then there is the attractive, drunk lady next door who falls for the former mental patient - not sure why - and they fall afoul of various drug dealers and real estate developers.  This thing was an abslute train wreck of a movie; the only thing that really caught my interest was when the main character started digging outside the grid and found a Clovis point (I'm sure the piece was a modern reproduction, but a tip of the hat to them for knowing what a Clovis point was!!).  Then he found a 600 year old Chumash burial BENEATH the 12,000 year old Clovis point, and my attention waned again.  AVOID THIS MOVIE!

[Rev. Powell]

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971): An eccentric chocolatier lures children into his hallucinogenic candy factory, where he arranges for them to meet gruesome, ironic deaths.  Early torture porn, in a crunchy candy shell, with great tunes sung by the orange-faced dwarf refugee race Wonka has enslaved.  5/5.

[Flick James]

Water for Elephants (2011):

A Great Depression period piece based on the novel of the same name. It stars Robert Pattinson, starting out as an idealistic young college student, Jacob, about to graduate from Cornell and become a veterinarian in 1931. His Polish immigrant parents both die in a car crash as he is about to graduate, having risked everything, including their house as collateral, to send him to college. He becomes just another Depression casualty, jumping a train that happens to be a travelling circus train, and gets hired on to care for the animals. He meets and falls in love with Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) a central performer and wife of the abusive and unbalanced circus owner (Christoph Waltz). Whilst developing a strong bond with each other, Jacob and Marlena also develop and equally strong bond for an acquired elephant and star of the show, whom the circus owner abuses in his constant efforts to exert control over everything to do with his circus.

This was a decent film. Despite any potential annoyance some may have with Pattison's association with the dreaded Twilight films, he does have some talent and turned in a respectable performance here. Witherspoon was likewise sufficient, although nowhere near her Walk the Line caliber. Christoph Waltz also was watchable, although, because of his recent trimuphant performance in Inglorious Basterds, I found myself hoping for a little bit more. My assessments of these performances are much like my general assessment of the overall product. Good, but not great. It succeeds as a convincing period piece, that much is certain. It is somewhat endearing, but also a bit melodramatic and schmaltzy at times. The influence of Of Mice and Men can easily be seen in the abusive circus owner. Overall a watchable and respectable film, but nothing that will go down in history.

3.5/5

[Jack]

Primal Impulse (1974) - Some woman has no memory of the previous three days of her life, so after a bit of detective work she finds out she was on some island. She goes there and finds that people remember someone resembling her, but the person had different hair (she eventually finds a wig), was frightened, and also rather rude. I only made it about an hour into this. Absolutely glacial pacing, a main character that didn't make me care about her in the slightest, and a mystery that took forever even to offer up the first clue. My wife was reduced to a semi-comatose state where all she could do was plead "Can we please turn this off now?" over and over. 

Oh god I dunno, maybe I'll try to finish it up tonight.

[JaseSF]

Despite me pleading for her not to do so, my girlfriend choose to rent this last night.

Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star (2011): an insufficiently equipped man, who behaves more like a man-child, sets his sights on Hollywood and making it in the porn industry after discovering his parents were huge stars in the field in the 1970s.

This was truly painful. If rated here, I'd imagine it would be in the skull territory or pretty close to it at least. It fails on every level. Its attempt at comedy are painfully unfunny. Its attempts at portraying some kind of message falters on all levels. The basic message, if in fact there is one, seems to be it's not nice to make fun of people yet it can make some feel better about themselves and their own inadequacies yet the whole film is making fun of people and their inadequacies. Don Johnson and Stephen Dorff, both of  whom I usually like, pretty much embarrass themselves here and only Christina Ricci comes through the film with her dignity as she plays the only seemingly normal and likable character involved and the only female character in the film who doesn't degrade herself in some fashion at least that we see on film. This movie is like the opposite of those bad movies you enjoy, where they're meant to be serious but are unintentionally hilarious. This film is completely unfunny and its attempts at seriousness are hampered by its attempts at comedy. Ive only seen one film worse that this - Envy (2004). * out of ***** stars, the 1 star is for Ricci as her character is the only thing one can seemingly latch on to in order to survive this one. This is one which one wishes would end and end and end way before it ever does.

[alandhopewell]

     I saw this last night at the Nazarine church near our building; an excellent film, well made, well acted, about real men, and the commitment they make to their God, their families, and to those they serve.

[joejoe]

watched "Raid on Entebbe" this morning

pretty good made for tv movie from 1977

movie was based on the orignal hostage rescue

good cast of characters

[alandhopewell]

     A friend loaned this to Trace and I, and we watched it last night....



     IMHO, this should win for Best Picture; it's touching, funny, sad, very well done, all the way around.

[tracy]

     A friend loaned this to Trace and I, and we watched it last night....



     IMHO, this should win for Best Picture; it's touching, funny, sad, very well done, all the way around.

Excellent film.

[Flick James]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture. If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.I do intend to check this one out.

[Rev. Powell]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture.  If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.

Wanna bet? 

[JaseSF]

The Poseidon Adventure (1972): Following an undersea earthquake, a tsunami capsizes a large luxury liner on her final voyage from New York to Athens. A small handful of desperate survivors decide to follow a rebellious preacher (Gene Hackman) who has a plan for finding a way out.

While not without its flaws in that credibility seems to be stretched many levels, this was pretty damn enjoyable disaster film escapist entertainment. Back at the time this was made, the FX wasn't yet up to displaying all that was going on, although I felt those behind this film did a pretty fine job nevertheless, the focus here is mainly character and conflict driven as no one's entirely certain as to what the right decision is to make with regards to their survival or if it's even possible at all but an handful here decide to at least give it a try. The whole element of rebelliousness proves interesting too as to ultimately move forward anywhere in their plans for survival, the characters our story focus on here must ultimately work together and decide to follow one plan or another as much as they might clash and/or butt heads along the way. Ultimately the film becomes a question as to who will survive or will anyone survive at all? A good cast here helps heaps given on board are Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall, Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley and Jack Albertson and most of their characters feel believable and each has his or her likable quirks although some characters do feel a little more fleshed out than others. Still if you like me enjoy these 1970s disaster films, this one is a must-see. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

I remember seeing that at the drive-in with my folks, back in 1972 I would imagine.  

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) - A scientist has invented an invisibility ray, with plans to create an invisible army and sell them to a foreign government for billions of dollars. But he needs more radioactive material, so he breaks a safe-cracker out of prison, makes him invisible, and sends him to a military base to steal the stuff. Trouble is, the safe-cracker has plans to use his invisibility to rob banks, and also he's a major a-hole and just creates nothing but problems wherever he goes. This doesn't end well. Mercifully short at only 57 minutes, the characters were vaguely interesting (except for the safe-cracker who I was hoping would die almost from the moment he opened his mouth for the first time). The plot was pretty predictable and also only vaguely interesting. Meh, 2.25/5.

Edit: Whoops, had to fix the whole space-behind-the-period thing.  

[Flick James]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture.  If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.

Wanna bet? 

Sure. What's your pick? I'll bet 10 karma on it The Help for Best Picture.