Recent viewings

[SkullBat308]

Psycho 2 & 3

[3mnkids]

lightning strikes~ SyFy movie..     I dont know where to begin. how about the beginning.  A mother and son are driving and are "attacked" by the lightning. whats so funny is when its striking the son is saying what is that?! duh, its lightning you idiot. The "lightning" cuts the car in half... and well, you can kind of guess how the rest of the movie goes. 

[lester1/2jr]

Witches Hammer (1969) -  Whenever one of these rare movies gets rereleased you can't help but wonder why it is rare.  Some of them simply stink, others you can't fathom why they weren't available before, some it's more related to marketability.  If I had to venture a guess on this one it has to do partially with the fact that this is from Czechoslavakia, and also with it's story:  midevil witch trials.  This is as good as "the Crucible" "Witchfinder General" or any witch hunt movie you can name and these is even a little bit of nudity and torture to show you they are serious.  the acting and the everything else are good.  The problem is we know this story all too well.  People were superstitious and there oppurtunistic people willing to pray on those fears with no qualms about torturing and killing innocent people in their thirst for money and power and so forth.  very well made movie but the story is too familiar.

[SkullBat308]

Abnormal Beauty - Didn't get it! (maybe I have to give it another watch?)

[Jack]

lightning strikes~ SyFy movie..     I dont know where to begin. how about the beginning.  A mother and son are driving and are "attacked" by the lightning. whats so funny is when its striking the son is saying what is that?! duh, its lightning you idiot. The "lightning" cuts the car in half... and well, you can kind of guess how the rest of the movie goes. 

I made it about halfway through that, but then some ad came on with Rick James' song Super Freak, and it made me want to listen to some music    I got a kick out of the car being cut in half though.

Watched The Hive (2008) again last night.  Gazillions of ants are invading a SE Asian island, and Tom Wopat and his team of exterminators are sent in to kill them.  It has really good characters and the story moves along pretty well.  Cheesy as hell, "I will not negotiate with ants!"  LOL.  4/5.

[SkullBat308]

Logans Run- "You can live! You can live!!" great movie

*138 posts

[Jack]

Watched Unearthed (2007) again last night.  Emmanuelle Vaugier stars as the drunken sheriff of a small desert community.  Some idiot resurrects an Alien type monster, and it goes on a rampage.  This movie was pretty good except for the MTV style editing during all the action sequences.  I'm thoroughly convinced that they just do that because they lack the skill to edit together a proper action sequence.  That rubbish always takes me right out of the movie and instead of being excited during the action, I'm sitting there saying "What dumbass did this crap?".  But I've watched it about 3 or 4 times now, so I'll give it a 4/5.  Characters were pretty good and it managed to generate some suspense.

[lester1/2jr]

Mantra- I rented this because I'm in love with Charmi .  SHe and the other female lead look great, but this is supposed to be a horror movie and it's just a typical corny bollywood comedy with some horro cliches thrown in.  on top of that the reproduction quality is poor.  skip it

[Rev. Powell]

$9.99 (2008): The lives of the residents of a Sydney apartment---including a surly angel, three miniature surfer dudes looking for a constant party, and an aimless young man who buys a book promising to give him the meaning of life for the bargain price of $9.99---are explored in a series of interlinked stories, most with an absurdist edge. The claymation is really not very good; the characters show little in the way of facial expressions, making you wonder if it might have worked better as a live-action piece. The story is too weird for those looking for a straight drama, and too literary to become a cult item.  3/5.  

INTACTO (2001): The interesting premise to this Spanish thriller is that some people are luckier than others, and those with the gift of luck play in a series of secret tournaments where they face off against each other, sometimes for fatal stakes.  Max von Sydow, playing a Holocaust survivor, is the luckiest man alive---but can a man who miraculously survived an airplane crash unseat him?  The idea of the underground luck circuit, and the strange, ritualistic games they play to determine who among them is the luckiest, is the most interesting thing about it; the rest of the movie is moody, humorless, and distant, and doesn't generate as much suspense as you might hope.  This is one of those movies with good ideas but flawed execution that might actually benefit from a remake.  3.5/5. (It's free this month On Demand from the Sundance channel, if you're interested.)

[schmendrik]

Maximum Overdrive (1986) :

Basically there's a comet passing by the earth. The comet leaves a green fog that causes all forms of machinery to go nuts and kill people. This only seems to affect North Carolina for some reason and mainly just big trucks?? Some people end up taking shelter in a local diner and then Emilio Estevez blows them up. Some cool scenes initially (my favourite one being the kid killed by the steamroller), but after about an hour, I realised I'm just watching trucks drive round a diner in a circle and getting really annoyed that Yeardley Smith exists. To finish me off, the film ends with AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", which I've heard about 10 billion times...

3/5

Hey, I remember reading this! I think it was in the first Stephen King book I ever picked up, the short story collection "Night Shift". The story is called "Trucks". I don't think he bothered explaining why the trucks were possessed.

[Jack]

The Quiet (2005) - A deaf mute girl moves in with a disfunctional family.  Mom is addicted to prescription pain killers so she's zonked out most of the time.  The cheerleader daughter is having sex with dad, and confused about her feelings towards him.  That's about all that happens for the first 90% of the film.  Sorry guys, but if you're going to make a drama where nothing really happens for almost the whole movie, you need to have characters that are a hell of a lot more interesting than this.  But it wasn't any worse than most of the crap I watch.  3/5.

[Jim H]

Recently watched three films from my local mom and pop store...

Machined, the straight to video film...  I liked the lead villain, he was funny at times.  Some interesting lighting choices at times as well.  But the film doesn't really go anywhere, has a very unsatisfying conclusion, and basically doesn't have a third act at all.  It was also shot at 30 FPS (or 60i), which makes it look very videoish.  I'm not a big fan of that, personally. 

5/10

The Night Andy Came Home (aka Dead of Night and several other titles).  Been interested in this Bob Clark horror flick for a while.  It was pretty solid.  Well shot, well made, a few good suspense scenes, and some good acting.  I also liked the commentary and Vietnam references (like how Andy is like a drug addict, and who he uses to feed the addiction).  Not quite great, and a few missed opportunities though..  The climax was also underwhelming. 

7/10

Bio-Hazard.  Only the second Fred Olen Ray film I've seen.  I think I need to track down some of his other films, as I find the lightly amusing and somehow innocent style of his films appealing.  Even when they're really awful in a lot of ways, like this one.  Humorously bad acting (at times I wonder if it was deliberate, but the ending outtakes indicate not).  A laughable monster that kills people.  Pointless nudity.  Scenes that have no relevance to anything at all, but are just kind of there.  And the ending?  WTF?

Taken as a serious film, 2/10.  Taken as an enjoyable bad movie..  I'd give it a 7/10.

The other Fred Olen Ray film I've seen is Deep Space.  That's a FAR better made film, which actually takes a couple ideas from this one.  Most obviously, the psychic who senses what the creature is up to.  I quite enjoy Deep Space, and own a VHS copy.  I also wrote a user review of it right here on this site!

[SkullBat308]

Harry and the Hendersons

[Doggett]

Gregory's Girl.

It's set in a British high school and it's about a boy who falls (along with all the other male pupils) for a female football player.


It's a really sweet, gentle rom com.

4/5

[Rev. Powell]

Gregory's Girl.

It's set in a British high school and it's about a boy who falls (along with all the other male pupils) for a female football player.


It's a really sweet, gentle rom com.

4/5

Doggett, you must break up with that girlfriend.  You've changed, man.