Recent viewings

[dean]

Elle (2016):

If you haven't seen his non-Hollywood works Paul Verhoeven is really quite good in a totally different way to Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. Between this and Black Book, he really is a pretty fantastic director.

Isabelle Huppert stars as a video game company owner who is raped at the start of the film by a man in a mask. Instead of tears and police she sort of shrugs it off (in a fashion) and moves on whilst dealing with a horrific past and a building fascination with who did it to her. Great understated acting here from Huppert and a masterclass of European style pacing with a dash of black humour thrown in make this a really engaging watch. Thought it was fantastic though the assault parts would be questionable for some audiences who don't understand slightly subversive cinema.

4.5/5

[indianasmith]

Last night my wife and I watched INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE.
I thought it was much better than some of its critics, although nowhere near as good as the original film.
Brent Spiner's performance was absolutely standout, probably the best and funniest part of the entire film.
Nice to see much of the original cast back in their old roles; too bad Will Smith couldn't be talked into it.
Not deep or philosophical, but a fun popcorn flick. 4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

Watched a BIG time turkey today in honor of Thanksgiving:

"The Possession of Nurse Sherri" (1978)

The leader of a bizarre religious cult dies while undergoing heart surgery, and his spirit possesses one of the hospital nurses, who then starts randomly murdering people ... for revenge (?) or something... I guess. (shrugs)

...that's about all the explanation you get in this bizarro-world "Exorcist" variant from legendary Z-Movie director Al Adamson (whose extensive exploitation filmography contains such additional gems as "Black Fist," "Blood of Ghastly Horror" and "I Spit On Your Corpse"), and it was a chore to get through. It's full of plot holes, awkward pacing, unintentionally hilarious dialogue, cheap set pieces, and laughable acting.

This movie has been released under a host of alternate titles including "Terror Hospital," "Black Voodoo," "Beyond The Living," and "Killer's Curse," none of which really fit. An alternate cut of the movie, titled simply "Nurse Sherri," also exists, which apparently drops much of the horror element in favor of a bunch of softcore sex scenes featuring the well-endowed nurses. I wish I'd watched that version instead...

[FatFreddysCat]

"Ski School II" (1994)
Hard partying ski bum Dave Marshak (Dean Cameron) returns to the slopes when he learns that his ex girlfriend is about to marry an obnoxious preppie (who, of course, has an ulterior motive). Wacky hijinks ensue.
The original "Ski School" certainly wasn't Shakespeare by any means but this sequel is dumb as a box of rocks. Of course there's lotsa pretty, frequently undressed girls in it and a few decent gags but otherwise you won't miss much if you skip this one.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Punk's Not Dead" (2007)
This documentary traces the history of punk rock from its humble 70s beginnings (Ramones, Sex Pistols) through the hardcore '80s (Black Flag, Minor Threat) and finally to its "commercial" breakthrough in the 90s thanks to Green Day, the Offspring, Pennywise, etc. Features interviews and commentary by a who's who of punk royalty including Henry Rollins (of course), Jello Biafra, Billie Joe Armstrong, and members of the UK Subs, the Adicts, the Anti-Nowhere League, L7, Bad Religion, the Circle Jerks and lots more. Loud, chaotic fun.

[Rev. Powell]

OJ: MADE IN AMERICA (2016): 7 1/2 hour (!) documentary covering the fall of O.J. Simpson, from football and movie star to accused murder to convicted robber. The documentary attempts to put O.J.'s crimes and the polarized response to them in the context of Los Angeles race relations from the 1960s to the 1990s, and succeeds in that aim. Still, I have to wonder if this subject deserves this much attention--this is the SHOAH of celebrity crime movies. I liked it but most people seem to love it---I guess race is still a major obsession with Americans, and the documentary is balanced enough that you can use it to strengthen whatever preconceptions about the case you had going in.  3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Punk Vacation (1990) - hard to believe grunge and pop punk were just around the corner. You'd think by 1990 Hollywood (or wherever this was made some other part of California I'd guess) would have some slight clue about punk rockers but no dice. These characters look like more like a dance group from Star Search than people you'd see in a slam dancing pit.



Punk Vacation has, of course, no punk music at all. They aren't even on a vacation they are quasi bikers or something. One of them gets in a fight with a local diner owner over the latter's non functioning soda machine *. The thing quickly spins out of control and its soon punks vs cops and rednecks. ( *actually, the evil punk was in the right: the guys machine was broken and he should have given him his money back. )

The prettiest girl is probably the girlfriend who gets tied up in her underwear. Theres another blonde but I couldn't figure out who the Hell she was. This was on TCM's Saturday night weird movies thing and the image wasn't all that sharp but it was still great. There is quite a bit of relatively decent comedy relief and the action scenes are laughably bad.

4.5 /5 half point off because they should have kidnapped the little sister and turned her into a "punk"

[dean]

Punk Vacation (1990) - hard to believe grunge and pop punk were just around the corner. You'd think by 1990 Hollywood (or wherever this was made some other part of California I'd guess) would have some slight clue about punk rockers but no dice. These characters look like more like a dance group from Star Search than people you'd see in a slam dancing pit.



Punk Vacation has, of course, no punk music at all. They aren't even on a vacation they are quasi bikers or something. One of them gets in a fight with a local diner owner over the latter's non functioning soda machine *. The thing quickly spins out of control and its soon punks vs cops and rednecks. ( *actually, the evil punk was in the right: the guys machine was broken and he should have given him his money back. )

The prettiest girl is probably the girlfriend who gets tied up in her underwear. Theres another blonde but I couldn't figure out who the Hell she was. This was on TCM's Saturday night weird movies thing and the image wasn't all that sharp but it was still great. There is quite a bit of relatively decent comedy relief and the action scenes are laughably bad.

4.5 /5 half point off because they should have kidnapped the little sister and turned her into a "punk"

Free on youtube (it sounded silly fun so I looked it up)

! No longer available	Small | Large

[lester1/2jr]

punks will need a vacation after seeing punk vacation, I think

Severed (2005) - very typical, but enjoyable horror movie about zombies being unleashed after a logging company experiments with some serum that regrows trees super fast. like I said very typical. In it's defense this was 10+ years ago when a new one of these only came out every 14 seconds.

The trees seem to bleed human blood when they are cut wow that's some heavy symbolism. Crunchy environmentalists and logging blue collar guys are forced to work together to evade the zombie threat. There's no explanation given for why something that is supposed to make trees grow fast would make people become zombies. My favorite character was the fat indigenous (it's in Canada) looking guy who runs a fortress for people who escape the zombies. but you gotta play by his rules! honorable mention to Carter, who is the guy in the disaster movie who just thinks for himself and doesn't want to help someone in trouble taken to ludicrous extreme.

What did Rambo say about life being like a party that it doesn't matter if you show up to? that's kind of this movie. It's good, but so what?

3.75 /5

[lester1/2jr]

the theatre Bizarre - Tom Savini, Debbie Rochon and other fanboy faves combine their talents in 6 different thingies ( I won't say vignettes) that are like 15 minutes each. Most of them are interesting if not all that great, really. Variety is the selling point here: in the different segments and in the format itself. My favorite one was Sweets which had a very odd but colorful fetish horror thing going ( a la American Mary or something)



all in all a decent diversion but not a classic by any means. One of them has a Lovecraft theme I know some people are into that

3/5

[lester1/2jr]

v/h/s - well this is a horse of a different far more frightening color. Blair Witch was okay but it was long and a lot of it was pretty dull as far as I can recall. This is a much more immediate found footage horror experience. A bunch of ne'er do well twentysomethings go around their podunk town filming s**tty, often misogynist pranks so they can get 50 bucks from some website.

Eventually they are tasked with finding some forbidden videotape and thats when the movie really begins. It's a vignette fest and yeah maybe it's not tied together perfectly but..it's close enough. All the stories are pretty good and quite sinister. I caught it on some cable channel and it was certainly the best thing I've seen on cable since ..I don't know...Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? It's not much like that though.

5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Street Law" (1974)
A mild mannered urban dweller (Franco Nero) goes vigilante after he's beaten up by gangsters during a bank robbery.
This Italian "Death Wish" variant has a great, action packed opening scene and a gritty ending, but the mid section drags quite a bit as Nero wallows in self pity for awhile before he finally starts bumbling around the city, trying to get his hands on some weapons and finding out where the gang hides out. I've seen better, but this was an OK time waster.

[Rev. Powell]

NERUDA (2016): Communist poet and senator Pablo Neruda is hunted by a policeman after he is declared a traitor by Chile's new right-wing government in 1948. The most laid-back manhunt in cinema history, with literary symbolism taking precedence over action. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Krampus" (2015)
A dysfunctional family's Christmas celebration becomes a fight for survival when the demonic anti-Santa of German yuletide folklore crashes the party. I was kinda hoping for something with a bigger/more horrific mean streak at first, but Michael "Trick r' Treat" Dougherty's entertaining black comedy/horror/fantasy eventually won me over with its fast pace, clever dialogue and cool creature FX.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Krampus: The Christmas Devil" (2013)

A cop who narrowly escaped the clutches of the Yuletide demon 30 years ago when he was a kid must prepare to face the creature again when local children begin disappearing.
...do NOT confuse this with the far superior "Krampus" flick I reviewed above. This one is a zero budget, shot on video amateur-night piece of sh*t that may be the worst movie I've seen all year.
AVOID.