Recent viewings

[Sleepyskull]

On Father's Day my dad wanted me to watch one of his all-time favorite films:

Deliverance (1972)

He has been wanting me to see it for years, but we never got around to it.

I have been wanting to see this anyway and I was not disappointed!

12.6 out of 13 stars

[3mnkids]

vertige(high lane)~A group of dumb "friends" go mountain climbing and run into the typical movie mountain man dumb ass hell bent on killing them. 

I'm a big fan of french horror so I was hoping that this would surprise me. It didn't. There are so many things wrong with this. The characters are so unlikeable I was rooting for the bad guy at times. Granted, I don't know crap about mountain climbing but I know enough to realize that these "mountain climbers" were unprepared for it. oh, they also bring a guy with them who has no experience,suffers from vertigo, and is such a whiner I wanted him gone in the most painful way. 

SPOILERS********


At the end the only survivor is fighting with the crazed man and after several minutes of them beating on one another she cuts his throat with a nasty, dull, looking knife but doesn't kill him.. nope, leaves him there spurting blood while she runs to the gondola. Smart, right?     She is cruising along on this thing when the killer manages to stumble over to it and take this dull ass knife that couldn't him kill him when it cuts his throat, and cuts this thick cable for the gondola..    They don't show him cut it but you know that is what he does..
I was very disappointed. oh i almost forgot. It does the lame thing in the end like this was a true story.. these people were never found blah, blah, 3700 people have disappeared, blah, blah(im paraphrasing)
 

[ChaosTheory]

The Book Of Eli
Denzel Washington totes a Bible across a postapocalyptic America, encounters postapocalyptic Gary Oldman and others.  I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this but I really enjoyed it.  It looks gorgeous and has a pretty decent (if slightly heavy-handed) message about the purpose of religion/faith in society; and the cast is cool.  (Am I alone in thinking Ray Stevenson is kinda sexy?  yeah, probably....)  Only major complaint; the "twist" at the end, while a cool idea, was a little hard to swallow; maybe I need to watch it again and see if they hint at it more and I just wasn't noticing. 
Overall more style than substance, but enjoyable.  And cameos from Tom Waits and Malcolm McDowell! 
7/10 

[Jim H]

The Book Of Eli
Denzel Washington totes a Bible across a postapocalyptic America, encounters postapocalyptic Gary Oldman and others.  I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this but I really enjoyed it.  It looks gorgeous and has a pretty decent (if slightly heavy-handed) message about the purpose of religion/faith in society; and the cast is cool.  (Am I alone in thinking Ray Stevenson is kinda sexy?  yeah, probably....)  Only major complaint; the "twist" at the end, while a cool idea, was a little hard to swallow; maybe I need to watch it again and see if they hint at it more and I just wasn't noticing. 
Overall more style than substance, but enjoyable.  And cameos from Tom Waits and Malcolm McDowell! 
7/10 

The twist thing is hinted at a number of times, kind of like how the Sixth Sense did it.  Like when the blind servant girl first enters his room.  I enjoyed that, but that has a lot to do with other movies that have characters with the same trait (which I can't mention, as it'd give it away) that I also like.

[ChaosTheory]

The Book Of Eli
Denzel Washington totes a Bible across a postapocalyptic America, encounters postapocalyptic Gary Oldman and others.  I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this but I really enjoyed it.  It looks gorgeous and has a pretty decent (if slightly heavy-handed) message about the purpose of religion/faith in society; and the cast is cool.  (Am I alone in thinking Ray Stevenson is kinda sexy?  yeah, probably....)  Only major complaint; the "twist" at the end, while a cool idea, was a little hard to swallow; maybe I need to watch it again and see if they hint at it more and I just wasn't noticing. 
Overall more style than substance, but enjoyable.  And cameos from Tom Waits and Malcolm McDowell! 
7/10 

The twist thing is hinted at a number of times, kind of like how the Sixth Sense did it.  Like when the blind servant girl first enters his room.  I enjoyed that, but that has a lot to do with other movies that have characters with the same trait (which I can't mention, as it'd give it away) that I also like.

Ah, okay.  I just wasn't paying proper attention, it was pretty late last night when I sat down to watch it. 

[Jim H]

Probably the biggest indicator, that is only obvious if you've seen other films with similar characters, is how (and more importantly, WHEN) he reacts to an attack.  He never makes the first move.

[Jack]

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre (1993) - Jeremy Brett stars as Sherlock Holmes, investigating strange goings on at a small English village.  Several unexplained deaths have taken place recently, and the village inhabitants are blaming it on a rather mysterious newcomer to the area.  Apparently 100 years earlier, his ancestors were suspected of vampirism, and their house was burned down with them in it.  Holmes and Watson try to get to the bottom of it all.  This really wasn't one of the better episodes - the plot was a patchwork of unexplained and sometimes bizarre character motivations, red herrings, and cheesy vampire cliches that seemed shoehorned in with little thought given to their believability.  Still, Holmes and Watson in the beautiful English countryside will almost always rate a 4/5 from me.

[Jack]

Razortooth (2007) - A giant ell is killing people down in redneck land.  Four college students, two nerds and two jocks, go to help their professor study the eels in the area.  Also, the local harmonica playing animal control guy teams up with the female sheriff (gee, do you suppose they used to be married?) to hunt the CGI critter down.  Then there's a variety of local rednecks to add color and clichéd death scenes.  This was all very cheesy and if you've seen a low budget monster movie, this has nothing new to offer.  At all.  The CGI was your typical chuckle inducing stuff.  The monster was kind of cute actually.  I think he was just misunderstood    The action moved along well enough and it wasn't boring.  3/5 for an average evening's entertainment.

[lester1/2jr]

the Rachel Papers (1989)- Imagine Ferris Buellers Day off set in London but not funny but with the star still doing constant 3rd wall breaks or 4th wall or whatever they are talking to the camera. That's this movie in a nutshell.  Ione Skye plays the wayward American the british kid, who looks like Mick Jagger so maybe Ke$ha would have been into him, is trying to seduce. He utterly fails but she becomes interested in him because that's what the movie's plot calls for.

American kids who saw this in the 80's were probably impressed with the lack of a drinking age but the "sophistication" or britishness is oversold and not in and of itself as interesting as the filmakers likely thought it would be. Even if you are a diehard John Hughes/ 80's nut I'd say skip it. Ione Skye looks great.

2/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wduI6vjidzk
	Small | Large

Night of the Lepus (1972)- There are all different kinds of stinkers, all the colors of the rainbow kid. Some fail due to their dreariness and incompetence, the type lampooned on MST3K. Others have gaping holes in the plot or scenerio that effectively suspend the viewers ability to get lost in it. The 70's in particular seemed to have a unique belief in an audiences lack of intelligence and/ or desperation to be entertained. Ridiculous scenerios and hoaky "twists" were aplenty. The whole decade was in sense a plot hole.

Anyway this movie BLOWS. The acting is fine, the direction is competent, there are no big technical flubs in that respect the problem is the BUNNIES. They are obviously just regular cute nice bunnies. They make a little barn and a little fence and they have them going in slow motion with weird sound effects. Unlike the Templar Knights in "Tomb of the Blind Dead", this does not give them any sort of air of sinister evil, i just makes them look that much more ridiculous.

I can picture a stoned girl in 1972 saying to her boyfriend "be quiet, I'm watching this" and the guy saying "but they're bunnies!! ...they're frickin bunnies " and that's all they are. That said, I'd probably watch it again if it came on tv just for the ludicous spectacle of the rampaging cuteness. They occasionaly show attacks and it's bared bunny teeth and bright red blood thrown about the place. Here Craig, put on this bunny suit and make sure your back is to the camera. Should not have been released.

2/5

[Flick James]

Shakes the Clown (1992)

A few days ago I dug up a VHS copy I had long forgotten about. I was equally surprised that my old VHS player still worked. So I popped it in last night for a watch during a late night cholic-fest with my 5-week-old. Anyway, despite being a wasted train wreck today from lack of sleep, I did enjoy the movie. I don’t care what anyone says, I love this flick. I understand it ruined Bob Goldthwait’s career. I thought it was a riot. I can see how some may find it annoying, especially Julie Brown, but I even liked her in it. Including the Boston Globe blurb, “The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies,” on the box just added to the quirkiness. Also, Robin Williams’ cameo was one of the few comic performances of his that I like. Stupid? Check. Obtuse? Check. Low-brow? Check.

Far from a perfect movie, but I would watch it once a year without hesitation and enjoy it every time.

4/5

[Rev. Powell]

ANDY WARHOL'S TRASH (1970): All the women (and transvestites) want hunky Joe Dellassandro, but he's impotent from shooting too much junk.  Nearly plotless, sometimes improvised, it's almost a documentary portrait of NYC losers at the end of the 1960s; no longer shocking and not a great movie by any stretch, but it does have significant curiosity value.  2.5/5.

[Jim H]

Don't Go In the House - 1980 quasi-slasher about some guy who had a domineering mother who burned him.  So he decides to burn women alive with a flame thrower to get revenge after she dies. 

It was kind of...  Ehhhh.  Not terrible, and competently shot.  Some weak acting though.  Pretty slow as well, considering the 82 minute running time.  My interest wandered a few times and I think I may have missed something, as the ending was more confusing than anything.

4/10.

[Jack]

Asylum (2008) - some college students find out that their dorm was once an insane asylum.  If you haven't guessed already, the doctor in charge of the asylum was conducting cruel experiments on his patients.  Each of the college students has some dark secret, and the doctor kills them in ways that correspond to those secrets.  The characters are only marginally developed, and there's really no suspense - any time you've got an antagonist who can magically appear anywhere, and kill people via supernatural means, how can there be any suspense?  It's not like anybody has any chance of escaping him.  And it's not like anybody could care about these people anyway.  Apparently the writer thinks everybody on planet earth uses f*** at least once per sentence.    2/5.

[3mnkids]

Cyrus:mind of a serial killer~ A couple of investigative reporters go to a small town to investigate disappearances. Most of the town wont talk to them but one man(Lance Henriksen) agrees to tell them everything. They go to his home and have a nice sit down while he tells them about Cyrus, the serial killer.

Wow, this was disturbing. Maybe even more disturbing is that it held my interest.    The guy who plays Cyrus is really good in this. I couldn't watch it again but it is a better than average low budget horror/thriller.

ETA~

White Panic(Fu-Rai) 4 people wake up in a room naked and covered in white powder. Every once in awhile smoke gets pushed through the vents and guys in protective clothing come in and squirt some kind of liquid in their mouths.. They do get out of that room and split up and that is when it really gets good.

This is a short movie but very entertaining. The acting is so bad its laughable, the music, meant to add tension, is comical, and the subtitles are a joke. I really enjoyed this.    The acting is sooo weird. You got the angry guy, the stupid guy, the insane guy, and the sweet but weird girl.

I dont understand Japanese but I know the subs are wrong. At one point the stupid guy says that the insane guy(who screams like a little girl BTW) needs to throw up to feel better. How does he know this? anyway, the girl comes over to help and the stupid guy probably says something like turn his face, turn him on his side... but the subs read.. lie on his face. Another time stupid guy is stuck, I wont say how because its one of the funniest scenes, and the subs read.. help me! Im stack!  

I will be buying this.

[ulthar]

OCEAN'S ELEVEN (1960)

Wow, what a disappointment.  I have to put this one into the "the remake is better than the original" category - way better.

I thought the plot started interesting enough, but then I realized it was building awfully slowly.  Okay, I figured, it was from a different age.  I like to think I can get into an older movie somewhat from the perspective of when it was filmed (ie, not judging all older movies from today's cinematic lens, for better or worse). 

The cheesy, hip dialog - okay by me (SD, JR's garbageman character actually said "I'm Hip" at one point)
The misogyny - sign of the times ("Police Woman" should have shot Old Blue Eyes)
Big Band jazzy sound for the score - no problem
Oedipus issues - okay, we can deal with that too, if a little odd (and Mommy's hubby #N to be trying to stick it to junior was a bit weird also)

Almost totally failed plot?  Hard to forgive this one.

This movie was boring.  The mechanics of the heist were laughable.  The only part I can say was of interest was the twist at the end.   That was a good way to end this film.  The whole movie could have been 20 minutes; Opening Title Card:  "Some WWII vets reunited and stole some money; here's what happened after."

2 of 5 - watch it only if you like seeing Sinatra act or hearing Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, JR sing.  Actually, Sinatra did very little in it.