Recent viewings

[Jack]

The Falling (1987) - Back in 1979, the Skylab space station re-entered earth's atmosphere and (according to this movie) a big chunk of it landed in Spain.  As you may know, the main purpose of Skylab was to conduct top-secret experiments with alien microbes.  Well, this is bad news for Spain as it turns the population of a small town into murderous weirdos.  Three American kids happen to be on an RV trip through the area, and it kind of spoils their vacation.  They spend the movie getting chased by, and hiding from said weirdos.  I enjoyed this.  Good characters - very likable and fun.  There's a nice subplot with the girl deciding which of the two guys she wants to get together with.  The movie had a delicious layer of '80s cheese over the whole thing.   4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON (1973):  Dean Stockwell is bitten by a werewolf in Hungary, then returns to the US to be assistant press secretary to the president; he conveniently turns into a werewolf only when characters important to his employer's political fortunes are around.  The movie is a huge mess in terms of style and tone: it's like they started with a script for a political thriller, altered it to be a crappy werewolf movie, and then decided about halfway through that it worked best as a comedy.  Biff McGuire, who's like a poor man's Hal Holbrook, does an occasionally amusing caricature of Richard Nixon, and there's a secret laboratory in the basement of the White House where a midget who's not afraid of werewolves conducts secret weapons experiments.  1.5/5.

[Raffine]

I've tried to to watch THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON a couple of times but cannot get through it without nodding off to sleepy-time. Dean Stockwell is usually a low-key actor but here he seems almost unconscious, always mumbling and looking at the ground.

[claws]

The Falling (1987) - Back in 1979, the Skylab space station re-entered earth's atmosphere and (according to this movie) a big chunk of it landed in Spain.  As you may know, the main purpose of Skylab was to conduct top-secret experiments with alien microbes.  Well, this is bad news for Spain as it turns the population of a small town into murderous weirdos.  Three American kids happen to be on an RV trip through the area, and it kind of spoils their vacation.  They spend the movie getting chased by, and hiding from said weirdos.  I enjoyed this.  Good characters - very likable and fun.  There's a nice subplot with the girl deciding which of the two guys she wants to get together with.  The movie had a delicious layer of '80s cheese over the whole thing.   4/5.

When did they rename this? It was always known to me as Alien Predators. Anyway, just watched:

Friday the 13th: Uncut (1980) Blu-ray

Still a great slasher in my opinion, and it looks gorgeous in HD. 4.5/5

My Bloody Valentine: Extended Cut (1981) Blu-ray

The cheesy badness seems more obvious now then it did back then. Hasn't aged well but I still like it. 3.75/5

[Rev. Powell]

I've tried to to watch THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON a couple of times but cannot get through it without nodding off to sleepy-time. Dean Stockwell is usually a low-key actor but here he seems almost unconscious, always mumbling and looking at the ground.

Can't believe I made it all the way through a movie that defeated an Andy Milligan fan!  The second half is better than the first half, not that it's recommended, either.  Stockwell does look asleep most of the time but its amusing to watch him crawl around on all fours as the "werewolf."  You just want to pat him on the head and say "Good doggie!  Who's a good doggie! You are!"

[Jack]

The Falling (1987) - Back in 1979, the Skylab space station re-entered earth's atmosphere and (according to this movie) a big chunk of it landed in Spain.  As you may know, the main purpose of Skylab was to conduct top-secret experiments with alien microbes.  Well, this is bad news for Spain as it turns the population of a small town into murderous weirdos.  Three American kids happen to be on an RV trip through the area, and it kind of spoils their vacation.  They spend the movie getting chased by, and hiding from said weirdos.  I enjoyed this.  Good characters - very likable and fun.  There's a nice subplot with the girl deciding which of the two guys she wants to get together with.  The movie had a delicious layer of '80s cheese over the whole thing.   4/5.

When did they rename this? It was always known to me as Alien Predators.

So that's why I couldn't find it on Amazon     I remember seeing it many years ago but had long forgotten what the title was.  I just streamed it off Netflix and they call it "The Falling" for some reason or another.

[SPazzo]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Not too bad.  It followed to book pretty good, and, while I was originally against the idea, I think it was good that the last book was made into two movies.  It has a lot more details than if they just made one long one.  (Although a 5 hour Harry Potter movie could be fun).

I enjoyed it, but if you haven't read the books (or at least seen the other movies) you'll hate it.
3.5/5

[Jack]

Death Race (2008) - Jason Statham stars as a guy falsely convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison - a futuristic prison where inmates drive in a life-and-death demolition derby with the winner gaining their release.  If you saw the trailer for this, that's exactly what you get.  Basically the car crashes of The Road Warrior and the plot of The Running Man.  There's not much in the way of character development, everybody's just uber-cool, but this is one of those rare movies where that's okay because the action is what's it's all about, and the action is good enough to carry the whole thing.  The vast majority of it is real cars having real crashes, with only a very limited amount of CGI added afterwards.  And that really makes ALL the difference.  I enjoyed this!  Basic plot, basic characters, lots of adrenaline-pumping racing and demolition.  4/5.

[claws]

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Blu-ray

Too bad there wasn't a "Get Your Name on the Paranormal Activity 2 Blu-ray" thingie like they did with the first one. Would have loved to see my name again during the end credits 
That said, part 2 is solid but not so creepy like the first one. There is however one amazing scene that made me jump out of my bed  4/5

[JaseSF]

Lover Come Back (1961): A manipulative advertising executive named Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson) uses alcohol and girls to land his accounts from wealthy businessmen. This really gets under the crawl of rival ad executive Carol Templeton (Doris Day) who tries to get him thrown out of the advertising business due to his unprofessional conduct. In the end however, Webster uses his cunning and guile to trick Templeton into believing him someone he's not in an attempt to seduce her.

SPOILERS WARNING!!! Spoilers will follow in the next paragraph.







This has some fun moments but is basically a retread of Pillow Talk (1959) for the most part although here Hudson's character is arguably more unlikable and much more conniving. Honestly the  love conquers all ending here doesn't quite jibe IMO given the history of lies and deceit Webster has used to his advantage throughout this film. It also feels a bit overlong and the idea of a cheap candy/alcohol pill being made available to the public at large I find revolting (considering all its potential for widespread addiction and under the influence stupidity).Tony Randall as reluctant corporate figurehead Pete Ramsey, who suffers from a paternal inferiority complex, steals the show whenever he appears on screen and honestly provides a lot of the film's funniest moments and as usual Hudson works well with both Randall and Day. **1/2 out of ***** stars

[Jack]

Dark Rising (2007) - Three teenage witch babes manage to conjure up a demon, as well as a scantily clad demon hunter babe to go with him.  There's a whole lot of scantily cladness going on in this movie actually.  There are a couple of guys along as well, and romance all around.  This is a completely silly horror/comedy, which actually verges on being clever a couple of times.  It also gets fairly dull in spots.  More than a few spots.  But there's all that scantily clad, or completely unclad stuff     3.5/5.

[claws]

Splice (2009) Blu-ray

Another gem that gets better on repeated viewing. Like I said before, Dren is simply amazing. 4.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Fright Night - this was on one of those weird channels that all have different themes but all seem to show the same stuff eretro or emovies or something. It was pretty good. I liked that they used the concept of vampires as things that are destructive but also attractive, like drugs and cults and so forth. Amanda Bearse isnt't really my idea of a hot screem queen but she did an alright job acting wise. 

The first part was the typical thing like the Shatner Twiilght Zone with the thing on the wing where no one believes the kid and everyone thinks he's crazy. The cat and mouse with him and the vampire is the main thing but there are also some choice special effects I 'm guessing were done by Tom Savini? or someone similar.  It was a little long at 1 hour and 50 minutes but if you haven't seen it, which you probably have, check it out. 4/5

[Jim H]

I just saw The 1931 version of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.  Very impressed.  MUCH better than the Barrymore silent version, which I saw a few months back.  In particular the cinematography is gorgeous, especially for such an early talkie.  It's hard to point out too many individual shots, as almost every sequence has noteworthy ones in it - ranging from extreme closeups of the eyes of characters (in a way reminding me of some silent films), to some rather grand pans and dollies.  The transformation scenes early on are very clever and well-done (though the more traditional shots in the latter half, using dissolves, are much less effective than similar shots used in the Wolfman a decade later). 

This is also the first horror film to win an Oscar, a Best Acting oscar for Fredric March's dual title role.  And he is truly great, particularly as Hyde.  What a bastard Hyde is in this version, controlling, cruel, sadistic, menacing and wild.  It's hard to imagine a better version, and to my knowledge, 80 years on now, it still is the best screen version of the character.

There are some stagey bits in the writing and acting, as you'd expect from a film this old, and my one major issue with talkies this old comes up as usual - there's some dialogue that is hard to understand, though this is far from the worst I've heard.  Still, this is the best screen version of the classic story I've seen, and from what I gather, I'm not going to find a better one.

9/10.

[Kaseykockroach]

Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The greatest film Joe Dante ever did (love the first one too, but this is what happens when you give a director like Joe complete freedom). Too many great moments to count, but my favorite has to be the Leonard Maltin scene. :D