Recent viewings

[Newt]

THE KEEP (1983).  Really dull and uninteresting flick about an evil, immaterial presence inside a Romanian fortress during the Nazi regime that is disturbed when the Nazis try to steal silver crosses for their value, which kept the spirit inside.  It kills or possesses its victims, not sure why it bothers with possession.  Ian McKellen, Jurgen Prochnow and Gabriel Byrne should be embarrassed by this one.

Well, in the book the entity thrives on chaos and doesn't possess people so much as screw with their heads (for example when a Jewish character is questioning it, it pretends to be frightened by a cross but doesn't react to a star of David, to make the man doubt his religion) and try to turn them against each other.  I haven't seen the movie but I love the book & always thought it had the potential for a cool horror movie.  It's a shame that wasn't the case.

I loved the book too.  It would have been great as a movie had they done it justice.  The movie, as I recall, owes little to the book and truly is dull. (That sort of thing always annoys me because I assume it reduces the chances of anyone re-visiting the story to make it the way it should be done.)

[Jack]

I really loved The Keep - it was all about the mood and the atmosphere. 

Anyhow,

Burial of the Rats (1995) - weird little Roger Coman movie about some women who live in an underground palace and worship rats.  I never did figure out why they're into rats, it makes a more interesting title I guess.  I never did figure out why they dress in black leather S&M outfits either, but I'm not complaining.  So they end up kidnapping a young Bram Stoker and he agrees to write about their exploits in exchange for them not killing him.  There's a nice girl who falls in love with Bram and a mean girl who hates him because he's a man, and Adrienne Barbeau presides over the whole thing from her throne - which I don't believe she leaves throughout the entire movie.  Not a bad waste of a boring Tuesday evening.  3.5/5.

[Trevor]

The MGM channel here in SA screened Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected (aka Shatterbrain) which is a version of H P Lovecraft's The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. Entertaining but I wasn't sure if Mr O'Bannon didn't have his tongue in his cheek all the way through. 

[claws]

The MGM channel here in SA screened Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected (aka Shatterbrain) which is a version of H P Lovecraft's The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. Entertaining but I wasn't sure if Mr O'Bannon didn't have his tongue in his cheek all the way through. 

Love this movie. Was it shown in widescreen? The U.S. DVD is 4:3.

[bob]

my personal Odyssey of 2001


my 1st viewing of it

2001: A Space Odyssey - boy oh boy. This bored me to death. During the first 10 minutes of the film I could feel myself starting to fall asleep. The only interesting things in the movie to me was when Hal killed someone and attempted to kill someone else. This film is so boring that I can't remember the names of the characters. The lack of dialogie didn't help with that either. However, I found it really funny when Hal's memory was being taken away and he kept regressing to his beginning stages. I didn't like the ending. The effects were ok. I ended up taking about 3 hours worth of breaks during 2001: A Space Odyssey because I was determined to finish it. 0 out of 5 stars.
   

my 2nd viewing of it

A fantastic visual achievement and nothing else but incredible special effects. It’s like a videogame that has excellent graphics and nothing else. It's incredbily dull.

1.5 out of 5 stars.

today my 3rd time watching it

5/5

the only reason I gave this a  3rd shot was because I read that 2001 takes multiple viewing to get it and appreciate it....I'm very glad I did

I don't "get it" or at least a few things such as what it is about but WOW

 

fantastic

[Flick James]

my personal Odyssey of 2001


my 1st viewing of it

2001: A Space Odyssey - boy oh boy. This bored me to death. During the first 10 minutes of the film I could feel myself starting to fall asleep. The only interesting things in the movie to me was when Hal killed someone and attempted to kill someone else. This film is so boring that I can't remember the names of the characters. The lack of dialogie didn't help with that either. However, I found it really funny when Hal's memory was being taken away and he kept regressing to his beginning stages. I didn't like the ending. The effects were ok. I ended up taking about 3 hours worth of breaks during 2001: A Space Odyssey because I was determined to finish it. 0 out of 5 stars.
   

my 2nd viewing of it

A fantastic visual achievement and nothing else but incredible special effects. It’s like a videogame that has excellent graphics and nothing else. It's incredbily dull.

1.5 out of 5 stars.

today my 3rd time watching it

5/5

the only reason I gave this a  3rd shot was because I read that 2001 takes multiple viewing to get it and appreciate it....I'm very glad I did

I don't "get it" or at least a few things such as what it is about but WOW

 

fantastic

It takes a big man to dig back and reconsider a previous position and make corrections/updates. The world would be a better place if more people had that ability. Good on ya.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Scenesters"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyQ_mbX_YH0
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Technically well made but fairly dry satire of indie filmmaking, in which a couple of wanna-be producer/directors take a job as videographers for the L.A.P.D. shooting crime scene video. When a series of murders begin to plague L.A. they simply work it into the storyline of the documentary they're shooting on the side.

Supposedly this won all kinds of hipster/indie film awards but I thought it was pretty slow moving and not all that funny aside from a few chuckles.

[Jack]

Snow Creature (1954) - a couple of botanists get some Sherpa guides to take them up in the Himalayas to do some research.  One of the Sherpas finds out his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a Yeti, so he asks for a day off to go look for her.  The botanists say no way, cataloging ordinary moss species is much more important!  So eventually this Sherpa dude takes them prisoner and has them help out with the search for his girl.  They find and capture a Yeti and bring it back to the states but of course it gets loose, etc.  Pretty dull movie with pretty unlikable characters.  The Yeti is good for a chuckle though - he's just a guy in a fur cap and some furry long johns.  A plain old gorilla costume like you'd rent for Halloween would have been much more convincing.   2.5/5.

[JaseSF]

Christmas in Connecticut (1945): Celebrated popular magazine food columnist Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) finds herself forced to play herself off as the fictional character she portrayed herself in her columns, a family oriented woman who lives the hard-working country life on a farm and is a superb cook. In reality, she's unmarried and doesn't even know how to fry a pancake. But now if she doesn't go along with this deception over Christmas, she may be out of a job as her boss Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) who's a stickler for honesty and a returning war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) are coming a calling on her expecting an old fashioned country Christmas. With the help of her friends John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), who really does want to marry her and happens to own a farm, and her Uncle Felix (S.Z. Sakall), the source of all the wonderful recipes she writes about, can she pull it off and save her job?

This charming Christmas classic is more romantic comedy than anything else and it's a pretty darn entertaining one at that. The actors are superb and all do a fine job. The country scenery is often wonderful and atmospheric. The film also never lets up in terms of being amusing, funny and/or romantic and you quickly come to like and root on the lead characters and no character is utterly detestable. Just a fun, old-fashioned style sort of romantic escapism in an old traditional Christmas setting. Yes the word is charming for this little perhaps a tad underrated holiday classic. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

A Christmas Story (1983): We follow the trials and tribulations of a nine year old boy named Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and he plots and plans hoping to convince his parents (Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon) and Santa Claus to bring him what he most desires for Christmas - a Red Ryder BB Gun! Along the way we get a glimpse of childhood in the 1940s, his friends, his parents, his schoolteacher, even his childhood bullies.

It just wouldn't be Christmas without an annual viewing of this classic (I'll probably watch it again during Christmas) but I think the reason it works so well aside from it being frequently downright freaking hilarious is the story feels very true to life as does it characters and its dialogue which is also very quotable. Not to be missed. ***** out of ***** stars.

The Polar Express (2004): A little boy who's beginning to lose his belief in things magical including Santa Claus finds himself mysteriously invited to take a magical train ride to the North Pole.

This computer animated film featuring a lot of voice work from Tom Hanks has some really great moments that fully embrace that magic and wonderment that goes with simple belief. It also has some unsettling dark moments that seem a bit odd and strange here and there in what is in essence a kids film and one character - the Know It All Kid voiced by Eddie Deezen is particularly annoying. Overall though the good outweighs the bad and reminds us to embrace a little magic in life here and there. *** out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Set Up" (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO3JIyH0fX8
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Fairly average direct-to-DVD "gangstas vs. mobsters" crime drama set in the Detroit underworld, with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as a small time hood out for revenge against his former partner, who screwed him out of his share of a big diamond heist.

The flick has some decent action bits and Bruce Willis has several good scenes as the local mob boss. On the other hand, "50" might know his way around the Thug Life, but he can't act his way out of a paper bag.

I've seen better, but I've seen worse.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Demonic Toys" (1992)
A lady cop chases a suspect into a toy warehouse which turns out to be haunted... by an evil spirit with nefarious plans for her unborn baby.

Semi-classic flick from Full Moon Studios is kinda like "Child's Play" to the Nth power. It's totally ridiculous but so much fun. I love the old school puppet/stop motion special FX, and the many shots of Tracy Scoggins' sweaty cleavage ain't too shabby either.

[Flick James]

The Polar Express (2004): A little boy who's beginning to lose his belief in things magical including Santa Claus finds himself mysteriously invited to take a magical train ride to the North Pole.

This computer animated film featuring a lot of voice work from Tom Hanks has some really great moments that fully embrace that magic and wonderment that goes with simple belief. It also has some unsettling dark moments that seem a bit odd and strange here and there in what is in essence a kids film and one character - the Know It All Kid voiced by Eddie Deezen is particularly annoying. Overall though the good outweighs the bad and reminds us to embrace a little magic in life here and there. *** out of ***** stars.

I just watched this recently with the little ones. I do like it. It has it's flaws, but overall does what it is intended to do. I agree there are some unsettling dark elements, but nothing dire. The ghostly hobo character was one of those elements. It is a bittersweet movie, not simply a bunch of jolliness. And this is fine. I was watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and that has bittersweet elements as well. I found that, although there were some minor dark elements and some bittersweet elements, its was ultimately a warm tale that was not at all cynical.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE DEVIL DOLL:  This "ventriloquist's dummy" movie isn't good (thanks entirely to the script), but puppet Hugo is genuinely uncanny.  The movie is too slow and talky and not nearly bad enough for a great MST3K episode.  Mike and the bots get a ton of mileage out of a scene where the dummy wants to eat ham.  Host segments are a mixed bag: Pearl and the Observer on the Roman planet (doesn't work that well), but the segments where recurring character Pitch visits the Satellite to sell Devil Dolls to Crow are fun.  The final segment has Tom transformed into a toaster strudel.  This episode also suffers a bit by comparison because it's sandwiched in between season 8 classics like PRINCE OF SPACE and SPACE MUTINY. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

The Rapture (1991) - This starts off as a cheesy skinemax type hard R or maybe a Zalman King type "art" porn but quickly becomes something else entirely. A woman who is a swinger gets a visit from some door to door christian guys talking about the rapture and Revelations and whatnot. She becomes intyriqued and discovers  theres a network of people who believe it and also hushed talk about "the boy" who is some kind of old testament style prophet.

The movie is really unique. People in 1991 must have been like "huh?". It's not abstract so much as just kind of this reflection on religion and the end times appropos of nothing, though we are hearing more of that stuff nowadays. The woman is played by Mimi Rogers who is good and Dave Duchovny of all people is one of the sleazy swinger guys. It's definitely somethin' else.

4.5/5

[claws]

Really enjoyed The Rapture back then. I recall quite a few eerie ("rapture horns") scenes.