Recent viewings

[Raffine]

GENERAL SPANKY (1936)

An orphaned bootblack (Spanky) befriends an abandoned slave (Buckwheat) on a Mississippi river boat. After thwarting an evil card shark (Irving Pichel) they fall overboard and wind up on the plantation of kindly planter Marsh (Phillip Holmes).

After discussing the matter with Spanky, Marsh reluctantly agrees to join his friends in the upcoming war with the North. Buckwheat finds happiness living with Marsh's slaves (Louise Beavers and Willie "Stepin Fetchit" Best).
 
Spanky and Buchwheat team up with other local children (Alfalfa, et al.) to form their own army to fight the invading Yankees. The Yankees are lead by a kindly general (Frank Morgan) and his evil Captain (Irving Pichel again! Uh oh!). Pichel hs eyes for Marsh's Southern Belle girlfriend (Rosina Laurence)

An injured Marsh is captured by the Yankees and Pichel sentences him to death. Can Spanky and the Gang save him?!?


Alfalfa, Buckwheat and Spanky save the Old South


Hal Roach had great success moving Laurel and Hardy from shorts to feature films, so why not his Our Gang series? This is the only Our Gang aka The Little Rascals feature, and setting it in the Old South during the Civil War was a huge mistake.  Not only is the focus off the truly talented kids, but the setting makes it ripe for some truly awful racial content.

Films from this era usually have to be taken with a big grain of salt when it comes to racial issues, but a whole ocean of salt wouldn't make the content of this go down any easier. Watching the 'heartfelt' scene of Buckwheat going from fat old redneck to the next begging "Is you my master?" will literally make you ill and pretty much sums it up.

Too bad, since Roach's shorts were often pretty progressive for the time (well, and often not, too) when it came to racial content.

For some reason Alfalfa is missing his trademark cowlick and other than Spanky, Buckwheat, and Alfalfa none of the usual Little Rascal appear. The other kids are a bunch of non-Rascal imposters! Even Pete has been replaced with a more traditional Hollywood-type dog.

For Hal Roach and Little Rascals completist only.

[Flick James]

The Warriors (1979): It's been a very long time since I've seen this classic. NetFlix rules. I love this film. It is a movie that is incredibly awesome despite it's flaws. It's got plenty of cheese, but also has some very cool artistic elements. Just the whole aspect of themed gangs in late 70's New York, complete with costumes, is worth the price of admission alone. It takes the concept of inner-city gangs and adds an element of fantasy and mythos that is, in my opinion, it's strongest element. Very silly at times, too. What struck me in watching it so many years later was the ambition of the film. The production is pretty epic for a b-movie.

4.5/5

[Pilgermann]

Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters - Ray Dennis Steckler's got a reputation for making horrible movies, but so far I've really enjoyed the ones I've seen (well, Rat Pfink a Boo Boo was kind of dull).  They're really unique creations.  This one's actually three short films originally meant to be shown as part of a kidde matinee program, but they're fun and pretty doggone weird.  I'm not familiar with the Bowery Boys or East Side Kids but I understand that the Lemon Grove Kids are inspired by those films, but the Lemon Grove Kids are a mix of childish adults and actual little kids (a couple of which are Steckler's daughters).  The second adventure is the weirdest with an alien vampire and grasshopper-man kidnapping people.  Oh, and two of the stories feature Coleman Francis in a prominant role.  I'd say check this out along with The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies?! and The Thrill Killers for some more homegrown Steckler weirdness.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe - Finally got around to seeing this after wanting to for years and it doesn't disappoint.  The story's pretty normal kaiju territory with a touch of E.T. thrown in, but it's very fun.  Some of the optical effects are cruddy, but the monster suits are cool and the miniature construction is amazing!

[claws]

The Omen (2006) Blu-ray

I always thought this remake was entertaining and decent enough. Sure, it can't hold a candle against the original but hey, there are far more worse remakes out there.
Mia Farrow steals the show in my opinion - best smart casting choice ever. Had its breathtaking HD moments on Blu. 4/5

[Jack]

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) - This starts out like one of Ewe Boll's wet dreams - tons of bullet time, slo-mo camera pans, fake Kung Fu wire work, more bullet time     It's a parody of The Matrix basically.  Alice (Milla Jovovich) breaks into Umbrella Co.'s Tokyo headquarters and kills several hundred guys, all of whom are shooting at her with assault rifles, but of course she's got bullet-time abilities and...sigh.  Should I turn it off now?

But I persevered, and happily after this nonsense was over they gave us a story and some characters.  Alice is flying her airplane around over the zombie infested world, and finally finds some people who have taken refuge in a huge prison, surrounded by thousands of zombies.  Nearby there's a large ship that's broadcasting a message promising safety, but there's the little problem with the zombie hordes surrounding the place.  And they've managed to dig their way up through the basement.  Things finally come to a head when a 15 foot tall zombie shows up and starts pounding on the gates with a gigantic hammer.  He is so cool! 

Our dwindling group of survivors finally makes their way to the nearby ship, and the conclusion is pretty cool.  Though it does involve so much bullet-time and slo-mo Kung Fu that...oh whatever.  I had grown numb to it by that time anyway.  Overall it was a pretty good movie.  The characters were well done, the plot kept me interested, and there was certainly enough action for two or three moves.  4.25/5.

[Rev. Powell]

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (2000): A series of carefully woven absurdist and magical realist sketches set in a nameless modern Swedish city where flagellants parade down the street, no one can explain why there's a traffic jam, a desperate church and government endorse pagan sacrifices, and a man sees ghosts.  Slow, sad, intricate, strange, hypnotic.  If you saw Anderssen's later film YOU, THE LIVING, this is essentially the same idea.  Too slow for many, but there are some wonderfully rewarding scenes if you can stick with it; the ending, where the main character stands by a huge mound of discarded crucifixes and sees a slowly advancing crowd of ghosts, sticks with you.  4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous (1977) - I didn't know anything about Thin Lizzy except "The Boys are Back IN Town" and that they had 2 guitars and a singing bass player like Slayer.  My overall impression is that they are a classic rock band whose songs are less drawn out and punchier than alot of those groups, but not as wild and fast as Motorhead or something. about 45 minute long, I liked some better than other, all in all a good show.  3.75 /5

[JaseSF]

Don't Make Waves (1967): Carlo Cofield (Tony Curtis) finds himself down and out and suddenly thrust into a beach paradise after unexpectedly running across an Italian mistress (Claudia Cardinale) but quickly devises a way to turn things around for himself and soon focuses on winning a blonde booblehead skydiver goddess named Malibu (Sharon Tate) despite her muscular surfer boyfriend.

This was rather enjoyable fluff, entertaining enough but not particularly believable in many respects, very much an escapist fantasy featuring lots of beautiful girls, beaches and a scheming lead who uses his wits to try and get a taste of it all. I really thought it might go the romantic comedy route with Cardinale but alas it sticks to being a rather superficial beach movie for most of its running time. Not bad but not particularly memorable either. Has some fascination as it stars the late Tate in a supporting role. **1/2 out of *****

[claws]

The Shining (1980) Blu-ray

I always try to watch this once a year during winter. This classic makes for a great viewing on Blu-ray. Very film-like, excellent detail and colors that pop. You haven't experienced true HD until you have seen that wave of blood coming out the elevator. Or every fine detail of fabric on Shelley Duvall's funky clothing  5/5

[ulthar]

The Day the Earth stood Still (2008)

3.5/5


Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)

4/5


Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996)

2.5/5


Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1985)

3/5


The Haunting (1963)

3/5 (kinda disappointed with this one)

Oh my word.

What does it say that a 2008 remake of one of the truly greatest sci fi flicks of all time rates worse than ILSA and just beats out CHOPPER CHICKS IN ZOMBIE TOWN?

Hollywood...STOP IT!  Leave the CLASSICS alone, already!

I think I am going to cry. 

[Jack]

The Terror Within (1989) - Some people in a post-apocalyptic world are living in an underground bunker.  They send out scouting parties occasionally, and happen across a survivor that they bring back to their bunker.  And she happens to be pregnant - with a monster!  This is very much an Alien ripoff, and Alien ripoffs are some of my favorite movies of all time, but this thing is just mediocre all the way.  It seemed to exist in that limbo between good and bad movies - not good enough to be good, but not cheesy and entertaining enough to be a good bad movie either.  The characters were rather superficial, the plot was too predictable, the action scenes were rather dull, and there wasn't nearly enough eye candy.  2.75/5.

[Doggett]

The Day the Earth stood Still (2008)

3.5/5


Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)

4/5


Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996)

2.5/5


Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1985)

3/5


The Haunting (1963)

3/5 (kinda disappointed with this one)

Oh my word.

What does it say that a 2008 remake of one of the truly greatest sci fi flicks of all time rates worse than ILSA and just beats out CHOPPER CHICKS IN ZOMBIE TOWN?

Hollywood...STOP IT!  Leave the CLASSICS alone, already!

I think I am going to cry. 

In my defence, I had low expectations for TDTESS and high expectations for 'The Haunting'.

Simply put, the remake exceeded them especially because iof the bad reviews I was expecting something awful, but with the fantastic reviews the Haunting I was expecting something fantastic. Keanu Reeve's is really good as a distant, alien being. Its suits his acting perfectly. I also liked that is was just humans being destroyed and not the whole planet. The whole 'government is evil' thing I thought was the easy route though. Still, its a lot better than its reputation.

I didn't find the Haunting as scary as 'The Innocents' or 'Carnival of Souls'. Its pretty much loud noises and people looking scared. Certainly not a bad film but I did find TDTESS more entertaining and fun. Anyway...


Dirty Harry (1971)

3.5/5

Magnum Force (1973)

4/5

The Enforcer (1976)

3.5/5

Sudden Impact (1983)

3/5 (I had some moral problems with this especially after I saw Magnum Force)

The Dead Pool (1988)

4/5

The Warriors (1979) -  LOVED IT !

4.5/5

[JaseSF]

Doggett, with regards to The Haunting, I think you underestimate it...after all, imagine the force behind what happens in the movie and just how powerful it would have to be to do all it does there...

[Doggett]

Doggett, with regards to The Haunting, I think you underestimate it...after all, imagine the force behind what happens in the movie and just how powerful it would have to be to do all it does there...

Fair enough.
Still don't find it that scary as an adult. As a child I had to turn it off as it got too frightening.

I just don't get creeped out. The only parts I found frightening were the moments with the profs wife appearing in the attic opening and when you see her run quickly past Elenaor's car at the end.

The Innocents, now thats an old b/w horror that chills me to the bone...

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS: Great episode.  Everyone here probably knows the plot of the movie already; if not, the title pretty much tells all.  It makes for great riffing material, and the host segments are top notch (including the new Christmas carol "A Patrick Swayze Christmas.")  4.5/5.