Recent viewings

[Torgo]

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL  ***1/2 out of ****.  Took me awhile to see this one but it is one of the funniest films that I've seen in a while. Great performances, clever writing and a fearless attitude combine for a terrific R-rated comedy.

[3mnkids]

a couple of underrated movies

Lucky number slevin~ A case of mistaken identity causes a lot of problems for slevin.       I love this movie. I can recite it verbatim.    While I have never been a fan of josh hartnett he is really good in this. Its one of my favorite movies

Suicide Kings~  a group of friends kidnap a "retired" mafia boss. I love christopher walken and denis leary adds some nice comedy to this.

[lester1/2jr]

carbide and Sorrel (1963) - No this isn't abut 2 chums named carbide and sorrel.  carbide is an explosive industrial material and ...sorrel is either sex or sherbert I'm not sure.  I had read Wolfgang Borcherts  "The Man Outside" in college and am sort of fascinated with post ww2 Germany.  this is one of the few movies I know of to chronicle that era though it's in a much more light hearted fashion than "the man outside" (Borchert died at 27 right after he finished the play,  it wasn't alot of sunshine and roses as you can imagine).  The plot is that Kalle the main character has been given the duty of bringing 7 barrels of carbide from his hometown to a cigarette factory in the destoryed (by us)  city of Dresden.  With no car and a country in absolute dissaray and non functionablity this is a tall order indeed.  On top of that he has to outwit russian, and american authorities and their desire to issue permits and lock people for not having permits and so forth, especially when one is carrying a massive amount of an explosive material.

     Did I mention it's a comedy?  5/5

[Joe the Destroyer]

The Hangover- A pretty funny, ballsy, and well-written comedy.  It seems to stay afloat without having to market another comed superstar.   

Finding Nemo- Yes, I did finally watch this movie.  It was very, very well done.  It seemed to capture that old feeling Disney used to have back before they started this rambunctious sequel business, except that the film is in CG.   

Drag Me to Hell- Watched this last night at the theater.  It was good, but not great.  Was it better than most of the horror films that have come out in US theaters in recent years?  Sure, but it doesn't exactly have a staunch lineup of opponents there.  The blend of polar opposite horror and ridiculous comedy went well, and made the film enjoyable.  I recommend it. 

[InformationGeek]

Octopus 2: River of Fear:

Yes, it is the sequel to the movie Andrew reviewed and it is just as bad.  A giant octopus (why it is giant is never revealed) is killing people on the east river.  It has some of the most painfully obvious plot holes, bad editing, no consistancy with how big the octopus is, and a terrible, dragging ending was thrown is as well.  The acting was half and half, while the movie's plot pulled out every cliche in the book, from a best friend getting killed to a dream sequence.  This is just a dreadful, sometimes very dull movie no matter how you look at it.

[Jim H]

Just saw Heroes of the East.  It's a Shaw Bros. film that's basically a take on Taming of the Shrew.  A Chinese man marries a Japanese woman, and they have marital strife over whose fighting style is best.  This all eventually culminates in a series of duels the Chinese man has to win against Japanese opponents.

A good film, quite non-violent for a kung fu film, and some pretty funny comedy in parts.  Quite enjoyable, and it's nice seeing a Chinese film that shows respect for both the Japanese martial arts and the Japanese themselves.  With one partial exception, all the Japanese characters are strictly honorable and essentially good people - it is largely a cultural misunderstanding that leads to the fights.  And the fights are well-choreographed, and for the most part the Japanese arts looks somewhat like the actual arts, if exaggerated.

Good stuff.  Except for Gordon Liu's one line of Japanese, which was possibly the worst Japanese I've EVER HEARD.   

8/10.

[Rev. Powell]

BEGOTTEN (1991): God disembowels himself with a straight razor, among other metaphysical atrocities in this nearly narrativeless 70 minute experimental feature where each frame of film has been painstakingly transformed and distressed to create a starkly beautiful chiaroscuro universe. A very hard film to rate; a successful, if painfully overlong, visual experiment, but the overall effect is almost the opposite of entertainment.  4/5. 

SOULTAKER (MST3K): In the experiment, Joe Estevez is a subcontractor for the Grim Reaper, collecting souls from the recently dead.  Somehow four teens escape his grasp and he has to hunt them down.  They don't realize they're dead, which makes this play at times like CARNIVAL OF SCHMOES.  At one random Joe Estevez closeup Crow remarks "My nephew made THE MIGHTY DUCKS!"  Not a great film, or particularly great riffing.  For fans of the series, this is a great nostalgic episode because Joel and TV's Frank return in bit parts, but overall, it's really not one of my favorites.  3.5/5.   

[3mnkids]

Half broken things~ A older woman who is short a few dots on her dice meets a young couple while she is house sitting. They become a family, a morally corrupt one. What impressed me was the character development. I found myself really sympathizing with these broken, dysfunctional, not very nice people. 

[Torgo]

HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT 2  **1/2 out of ****.  In name only sequel to the 1980 slasher classic starts out kind of slow but features a last act that is crazy fun.  Features full frontal nudity of the lead actress, a discreet use of gore, a couple of nice kills  and a really strange sense of humor at times.

[Doggett]

The Stepford Wives (1975)
3/5
I want to give it more but it's just such a slow film !
There might be a few people who don't know the twist so I gotta be vague...A family move to the quiet town of Stepford where the wife notices something's wrong with the female community.
Anyway, the films well acted although the main character isn't as fun as her friend who's really cool ! There are a few slightly silly moments which seem childish, but on the whole the film was a solid affair.

[Jim H]

Outlander - Not bad, but not as good as it should have been.  Basically a scifi-ified version of Beowulf.  Some OK action scenes, a cool creature, and good use of a viking setting...  But somehow, it just doesn't come together all that well.  I did like Ron Perlman's brief role though. 

6/10.

[InformationGeek]

Jaws 3:  I don't know.  It didn't seem as bad as I thought it would turn out.  It was still pretty awful, but I can safely say that I have seen worse.  My verison of the film didn't have the 3D gimmick in it, so I can't see if it was bad or not.  Acting was alright and the setting was fine, but I think it was more a promotional plug for Sea World throughout the entire movie. The shark attack scenes were downright bad, with them between disjointed or horrible edited.  I think the all time classic horrible moment on the movie was when the shark descend above the people in the control room.  All in all, it wasn't as bad as Jaws 4.

Megalodon: It's hard to sum of this movie extactly.  It was good, but it was all bad.  The plot was slow and was all over the place.  Acting ranged from great to average.  Pleasent enough characters and interesting setting for a shark movie.  The CGI was both good, but terrible as well.  The undersea cavern was perfect and just wonderful for the eyes to see, while the shark attack scenes were terrible and hard to look at.  I say you could do a lot worse when it comes down to shark films.

Jaws: Ah yes, the original movie.  Classic indeed and this was the first time I saw it.  Saw a couple of painfully obvious advertistments in it and Quint was very hard to understand at some points, but overall it was for sure a good experience.  Shark attack moments were good and done well enough to look convincing at far distance (with the kid getting killed) to close up (Quint getting killed).  All in all, best killer shark movie I ever sat through.

Yep, I am gearing up for my Shark Week.

[Jack]

Rise of the Gargoyles (2009) - A college professor is exploring an old church in France (which was built on top of an even older church), and finds a gargoyle down there.  The professor's agent (he's trying to get his book on Gothic architecture published) picks up a weird looking rock, which turns out to be a gargoyle egg.  So the gargoyle chases her around until it gets its egg back, then the professor teams up with a tabloid reporter and her cameraman and they have some confrontations with the gargoyle.  Dialog and acting were surprisingly good for a Sci-Fi original.  The CGI didn't make me laugh, and the characters were likable and interesting.  The plot was sort of run-of-the-mill stuff, but still held my interest.  4/5.

[schmendrik]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. Directed by Billy Wilder, who also wrote the screenplay. Finally got around to seeing this classic noir, which I've been meaning to see forever. It's everything people say it is. Nice reversal of types with normally nice-guy Fred MacMurray playing the amoral murderer and frequent-gangster Edward G. Robinson playing the straight-arrow investigator who slowly, slowly tightens the noose. Without ever realizing till the end he's tightening the noose around one of his closest friends. 4.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. Directed by Billy Wilder, who also wrote the screenplay. Finally got around to seeing this classic noir, which I've been meaning to see forever. It's everything people say it is. Nice reversal of types with normally nice-guy Fred MacMurray playing the amoral murderer and frequent-gangster Edward G. Robinson playing the straight-arrow investigator who slowly, slowly tightens the noose. Without ever realizing till the end he's tightening the noose around one of his closest friends. 4.5/5.

Interesting that you would give this 4.5/5, I did the same.  I fully expected it to be a 5/5, being the prototypical film noir and all, but it seemed to me to fall just a little short of perfection for reasons I couldn't fully express.  Maybe it's because we've seen these cliches used so many times in movies since, we can't appreciate how original it was in 1944?