Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

CAR CEMETERY (1983): A surrealist retelling of the Passion set in a post-apocalyptic junkyard, with Jesus as a free-love preaching punk singer. One of Fernando Arrabal's lesser-known but more fascinating films, where his blasphemy is not used for shock value but as a positive refashioning of the Christ myth that remains strangely true to the Gospels' messianic mood while switching the moral emphasis to human freedom. 3.5/5.

MST3K - SQUIRM: The pro-spring short "A Case of Spring Fever: highlights the penultimate episode of the show's Sci-Fi Channel run, while the feature presentation is the ridiculous story of pale Southerners and a big city visitor fighting off killer worms mutated by an electrical storm (?!) A very funny episode that proves the show was not running out of steam, despite its imminent cancellation. 4/5.

[indianasmith]

THIRST - This was a better than average "kids in the wilderness encounter alien monster" flick.  A group of five delinquents are brought out to a "tough love" camp in the wilderness in order to get their lives straightened out for them.  While hiking to a remote mountain camp, they run into a nasty, parasitic alien with a metallic body that sucks humans dry with a prehensile mouth/sucker thingie.  It's pretty by-the-numbers "how do we escape/kill it" after that, but the creature effects are pretty cool and the characters are nicely developed.  4/5

[Trevor]

The Uninvited (2009): a remake of the Korean film and very well done too. Goosebump moments - especially where the young lady sees her mother who burned alive  - and one heck of a twist ending. Not bad for a 2 am viewing*

* I saw it this morning. 

[claws]

Before I Wake (2016)

Adopted boy has the ability to manifest his dreams into the real world. At first everyone is delighted but the boy's dreams soon turn into nightmares thanks to a nasty  dreamdemon he also conjured up.

Director Mike Flanagan is channeling the spirit of Paperhouse (1988) and Guillermo del Toro's early movies in this dark fantasy disguised as a horror film. This was a bit unusual and not what I expected. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly worth checking out. 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

LOVE RITES (1987): A man finds a prostitute in the Paris Metro, and they share obscure symbolic conversations before heading back to her boudoir where her secret identity becomes clear. It might have worked with better pacing, but the entire first half is a worthless endurance test of uninspiring "poetic" dialogue; the second half is pornographic, but much more interesting as a twist arises. The hero says "I can't believe you're rally a prostitute, but if you are, you're a pedantic one," which is telling. 1.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Dark Waters (1993) -  I have no idea how this is rated but i'm betting it's "over". The lead actress is pretty, the scenery (an island in like Greece or something) is nice and with evil nuns walking around and allusions to monsters it resembles a great heavy metal video. That's the good. The less good is the actress is always clothed and theres really nothing in the way of drama or excitement whatsoever.

I knew something was off when the director came out before the film talking about whatever he was talking about I didn't even listen. I don't care about the special edition of the film dude I don't even know if it's good. There's no love interest, theres no tension it's missing something...maybe more than one thing. A typical scene is like: the lady walks into some persons shack on the island. the woman is blind and mumbles stuff. A nun then comes in and throws a burning cross in the room. the lead actress runs away this kind of thing happens every 5 minutes. make a f**king raft and get off the island lady

I liked the photography and setting in general. Basically the island itself is nice but can't give the director much credit for that. blandly watcheable but this won't change your perspective on anything thats for sure. "background movie" pretty much covers it

3/5

[Rev. Powell]

CAMILLE 2000 (1969): In this adaptation of a the Alexandre Dumas (fils) novel (also the source for Verdi's "La Traviata"), set in swinging 60s Rome, a playboy falls in love with the alluring Marguerite, but must win her affections from the much richer Duke who can support her in the party lifestyle she is accustomed to. Arty softcore pornographer Radley Metzger's amazing sets, costumes, women, and imaginatively shot sex scenes make this drawn-out, soapy, sexy romance tolerable. I guess it's supposed to be set in the year 2000? 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

To Be or Not To Be (1942) - I watched this because TCM gave it 4 stars and it looked interesting. If I watch TCM it's usually old horror or detective ones, this is a comic imagining of a Polish theater company using their wits to oppose the Nazi occupation. It wasn't hilariously laugh out loud funny but it was clever and enjoyable. it's in Poland but of course all the German and Polish people speak American English.

The nazis occupy Poland and one of them takes a liking to the main actress Carole Lombard. There's also a love triangle with her actor husband and a young soldier so everyone is just in love with her. In their defense, she looks pretty good in the tight dress they put her in. They try to support the resistance while also not getting themselves in trouble with the Nazis. They achieve this by using their acting skills to thwart Hitler. it's like a witty campy version of Red Dawn or something

4/5

[Rev. Powell]

MANSON FAMILY MOVIES (1984): A recreation of home movies (including the famous killings) hat the Manson family may have made. A potentially interesting experiment---at times, when the family is just hanging out taking LSD, you could mistake this for real rediscovered footage of the cult---is ruined by dumb, immersion-killing choices, especially the use of male actors in drag and an actress who looks nothing at all like Sharon Tate (admittedly a hard role to cast, but that shouldn't mean you don't even try). 1.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Kongo (1932)

TCm gave this 3 stars.  I guess technically thats accurate, the story itself is rather basic and it's pretty low budget, but it was really compelling for it's gritty (pre code) tone and especially walter huston's performance as a deranged jungle guy. The Hayes code was just around the corner and you can really see why. This is a sordid, exploitative, battery acid attack of a movie with very little redeeming social value.

A guy lives in the jungle making a living and gaining influence by doing magic tricks for the natives and selling himself as some kind of voodoo god. He's in a wheelchair and is probably the most bitter person who ever lived and one of the meanest. His goal in life is to get back at the guy who took his wife and also put him in the chair. His plan is to kidnap the guys estranged daughter and maker her live in these horrible huts he has. the other characters are Lupe velez as a Spanish floozy who wears low cut dresses and some other guy as a doped up doctor on the run. It's all totally crazy. and a pet monkey of course

I couldn't take my eyes off it, though. the women were both extremely sexy as they tend to be in the hot sweaty jungle and the relentless negative tone was just mesmerizing.

4.5 /5 yeesh!

[Rev. Powell]

SUDDENLY IN THE DARK (1981): A Korean housewife believes that their new maid is having an affair with her husband; is it all in her imagination, or does it have something to do with the mysterious shaman's doll the strange girl carries around everywhere with her? Exploring the disintegration of a female mind through paranoia (and lots of kaleidoscope lenses), this feels like a Korean take on the giallo; recently "rediscovered" and released on Blu-ray by Mondo Macabro, it's not quite a lost classic, but it is a very solid psychological horror/drama with a unique focus on female sexual insecurity. 3.5/5.

MST3K: DIABOLIK: The series Sci-Fi channel finale features Mike and the bots returning to Earth, courtesy of Pearl's incompetence. Their final feature movie is one of the five best films they ever did; directed by Mario Bava with recognizable stars John Phillip Law and Michel Piccoli, DIABOLIK is a campy super-villian flick, but not really a bad movie. It makes for an entertaining watch accompanied by solid (if not spectacular) riffing. It's no MITCHELL (or even LASERBLAST), but it's not a huge disappointment as a sign-off episode, either. 4/5, including a bonus half-star for nostalgia. Next week I start the new series!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Predator" (1987)
Arnold Schwarzenegger leads a team of commandos into the South American jungles on a rescue mission, where they're targeted by a technologically advanced hunter from another world. Will anyone make it out alive?
I saw "Predator" during its theatrical run in '87 (good Lord, that was 30 years ago!) and it's still my favorite Schwarzenegger movie - mainly because for juuuuust a little while it looks like Ahhh-nold might actually lose. It's been quite a few years since I last saw it but "Predator" is still holding up very well.

"Predator 2" (1990)
This underrated sequel drops the alien big-game hunter into the urban jungle of Los Angeles, where he lands in the middle of a turf war between rival drug dealing gangs and tangles with a tough L.A. cop (Danny Glover). "2" is not necessarily better than the first "Predator," but it's certainly bigger, louder, and splashier, with lots of machine gun fire, explosions, and breaking glass.  It also has a great supporting cast that includes genre faves like Robert Davi, the late Bill Paxton, and even sleaze-TV legend Morton Downey Jr. as ... a sleazy tabloid TV reporter. "2" hasn't aged as well as the original but it's still entertaining.

[claws]

Deranged (1987)

A pregnant housewife with a history of mental disorders caused by childhood trauma kills a man entering her apartment in self defense. During the fight she looses her unborn baby. The attack triggers schizophrenia causing disturbing encounters of people from her past appearing in her apartment.

Cast and crew of Deranged have worked in the porn industry prior to this, but the outcome is surprisingly engaging. This is basically a one-woman-show with limited setting that plays out like a stage play. Despite low production values and 1980s corny fuglyness adult film star Veronica Hart's journey into madness delivers on almost every account   3.5/5

[AoTFan]

Just saw Suicide Squad.

Oh. man... this is ultimate in BIGOs (Brilliance In, Garbage Out) the acronym I use to describe those films that has a REALLY good sounding premise that was almost completely lost in execution.  (Keep mean do a paper possibly Youtube series about these and others but that's another subject.) 

The trailer for this made it look SOOOO cool!  I mean, lots of action, colorful characters, freaking Queen in the background etc.  Granted, I was a little concerned about two things when I saw the trailer: one) the movie had SO many characters I didn't see how they could do any (or even most) of them justice and two) that the movie was just gonna be a remake of Assault on Arkham Asylum (not that that movie was bad mind you, just concerned about seeing the same thing twice) but after watching this I can't help but think they SHOULD have just gone with a live action remake of AoAA and I was dead on about the first point.

There were so many missteps I don't know where to begin.  Heck, a lot of things that were funny in the trailer (Captain Boomerang trying to quiet pop open and drink a soda can for example) were somehow edited to be not funny in the film.

So, yeah, I was let down by this. 

[lester1/2jr]

The Canal - nondescript horror movie out of ireland. The house is haunted, the husband is losing his marbles, he thinks he sees a ghost and its Shatner in the window seat stuff with him trying to flim the ghost and show it to people. The lead actor isn't bad but he's not amazing either and hes in it way too much. the cute wife and the cute babysitter were a lot more interesting. not bad but very skippable. The ideas are old and have been done better the director is jut not ready for prime time

2/5