Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Straight Outta Compton - This one definitely erred on the side of straightforward. I's basically a wikipedia article on NWA brought to life. The acting certainly isn't great but the characters look a lot like the people they portray and the sets and so forth are very authentic seeming. 

Its just one of those biography stories that is way too "Yes, I'm exited. I should be as it is march 30 1986 and we are about to sign our record deal with Priority records" reverent and bland. I would have preferred a more creative approach but it was fascinating and there was some good film making here and there. Suge Knight is a terrifying person. Is he in jail? I certainly hope so

3.75/ 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Becoming Bond" (2017)
This comedic documentary (streaming exclusively on Hulu) tells the odd story of George Lazenby - an Australian used-car salesman and male model with no acting experience, who still somehow managed to bulls**t his way into taking Sean Connery's place as James Bond. After making his debut in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," however, he turned down a long-term contract to make more 007 films and disappeared.
The guy who plays Lazenby in the "re-enacted" scenes from George's life doesn't look much like him, but those bits are quite funny, as are the interviews with the now elderly George himself, because you find yourself wondering how many of his "memories" are true and how much is creative embellishment. Either way, he's an interesting fella and if he hadn't bailed on the 007 role, film history might have been very different!

[Trevor]

"Becoming Bond" (2017)
This comedic documentary (streaming exclusively on Hulu) tells the odd story of George Lazenby - an Australian used-car salesman and male model with no acting experience, who still somehow managed to bulls**t his way into taking Sean Connery's place as James Bond. After making his debut in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," however, he turned down a long-term contract to make more 007 films and disappeared.
The guy who plays Lazenby in the "re-enacted" scenes from George's life doesn't look much like him, but those bits are quite funny, as are the interviews with the now elderly George himself, because you find yourself wondering how many of his "memories" are true and how much is creative embellishment. Either way, he's an interesting fella and if he hadn't bailed on the 007 role, film history might have been very different!

When I'm asked what my favourite Bond film is, I always reply On Her Majesty's Secret Service and I get blank stares. Of course, once those peeps have seen OHMSS, they almost always agree with me.   

[claws]

Bloody Wednesday (1987)

Thirty year old Harry may or may not be mentally disabled though he acts like he is while working in a garage. Harry is eventually fired, and his brother sets him up in an abandoned hotel that he owns. When Harry feels the need to attend church fully naked he is taken into psychiatric care. However, due to lack of space Harry becomes an outpatient and is told to report back twice a week by his attractive doctor. Back at the hotel Harry encounters three punks but calls the police on them. Soon enough he starts to have conversations with his teddy bear while getting nightly visits from former hotel employees and guests supposedly long dead. After starting an affair with his doctor who denies having an affair with him Harry's ex-wife interferes and the three punks return to terrorize him. Things get out of hand when Harry obtains a machine gun with intentions of killing random people at a diner.

Notoriously odd horror fanboy favorite "inspired" by The Shining (1980) and the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. Painfully low budget with enough "wtf?" to keep the viewer interested. The abandoned hotel setting is pretty cool, the Harry character has its moments, the ending is ridiculous beyond belief. I really don't know what to make of this. This isn't a stroke of genius by any stretch but there's a lot to digest, and the quirky plot and overall appearance has all the ingredients of a underground cult film. Still, I remain torn and my rating shall be 2.5/5

[claws]

The Void (2016)

A group of people trapped in a hospital try to fight off hooded cultists and weird creatures. Crowdfunded Canadian horror that pays homage to several John Carpenter films while being its own entity. This was one of the most talked about and hyped movies on the internet in early 2017. Most critics loved it, audience reaction was mixed. I thought it was good but had a few weak spots. IMDb rating went from 6.2 down to 5.8 so that is kind of telling. 3.5/5

[indianasmith]

Last night before bed I watched SEIZURE - a group of sex traffickers kidnap a Romanian girl with the "mark of the witch" so they can sacrifice her in order to make their gang invulnerable.  While the kidnappers are waiting to hand her off to the traffickers, weird stuff begins going down, and one by one they kill each other.  I'll be honest, this one was hard to follow, and I got tired of hearing multiple "F" bombs dropped with British accents so thick that was the only word you could make out.  2.5/5

[Trevor]

I am still - after being lent the DVD about three weeks ago - trying to get through Sinister. How anyone would want to make a film like this - let alone pay to see it - escapes me. 

[indianasmith]

SINISTER was bloody terrifying! 

[Trevor]

SINISTER was bloody terrifying! 

Thanks: give me a call at around 2 am South African time tomorrow - about six hours ahead of the USA - and I'll see if I can watch it early in the morning. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"London Has Fallen" (2016)
Gerard Butler returns as Secret Service bad-ass Mike Banning in this sequel to "Olympus Has Fallen," protecting the President from terrorists while on a state visit to the U.K. Big, loud, dumb, ultra violent shoot'em up fun.

[Chainsawmidget]

Resident Evil the Final Chapter

A lot of people don't like the Resident Evil movies, but I've always found them fun.  Even while I know they aren't good movies, they're at least entertaining. 

The last one though, it just has nothing worth recommending in it. 

Spoilers be here.

They explain who the Red Queen is again and it's completely different from the last time they explained it. 

The last movie revealed that the main villain was working for Wesker, and this movie it's plot point (and by Plot Point I mean Scene ripped from Robocop) that Wesker is working for him. 

Despite having no memories, working with a bunch of clones of herself, and seeing a freaking factor that mass produced clones of her, our main character is completely shocked and in disbelief of the fact that she's a clone.

The airborn Virus cure they introduce drops the zombies suddenly in a scene very reminiscence of Weird Al's machine gun firing in UHF. 

And a HUGE HUGE problem is that the last movie gathered all the main characters together in Washington DC, heroes and villains alike, for a last stand against the zombies.  This movies takes place apparently years later Washington DC is rumble, and we never find out anything that happened during that seige. 

There's also a huge pterodactyl/dragon thing because why not?

[AoTFan]

I just saw Secret Life of Pets.

Er... well.. it was a movie.  Dunno, think I chuckled once or twice, but there's really not much too it.  It's a bit like Toy Story, except with Pets instead of toys, minus the humor, wit, and developed characters.   

[lester1/2jr]

I don't have the energy to describe these too much but

The Adventures of Dr Fu Manchu (1956) - go for the earlier or later version of this, basically anythign except this. The guy who plays fu manchu ( glen Gordon) is terrible and its totally distracting how stupid he is. the plots are like American ww2 propaganda in 1956 its just too late for this to do what its trying to do. By the late 50's the hard crazy spirit that drove the original was gone.  and what happened to the trapdoors I want trapdoors!  The bright spot is the hot Spanish lady who is somehow his daughter



no number just thumbs down

Dark horse (2011) - interesting if not entirely successfull Todd Solondz effort. Its kind of a cross between a Solondz movie and a more overt comedy. A middle aged Jewish guy who lives with his parents attempts to woo a girl he met at a bar mitzfah. She is like the him of her family except she's actually attractive ( it's Selma Blair) and ...well this is Todd Solondz so you are definitely not going to get ANY rom com vibes. Instead it's just like the awful horror of life! Its no Happiness but if you saw that or storytelling you will want to check it out

3.75 /5

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Replacement Killers" (1998)
East meets West in this ultra-violent shoot'em up starring Hong Kong action star Chow-Yun Fat (making his American movie debut) as an assassin who refuses to complete an assignment from an L.A. crime lord, thus making himself (and a cutie-pie document forger played by Mira Sorvino) the target of some very bad people. Lotsa bullets, bodies, and shell casings fly.

"The Wrecking Crew" (2008)
Fascinating documentary about a tightly knit group of L.A. studio musicians who performed on pretty much every hit record of the 1960s (including classics by Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, the Mamas & The Papas, the Monkees, and countless others), but never got any of the credit. Some great stories are told, and it's nice to see these once-mysterious figures finally getting their minute in the spotlight.

[ER]

Rorschach a low budget 75-minute film (shot for $7,000.00) available free on YouTube.

It's a little like a more realistic and more grounded Paranormal Activity, or maybe Ghost Hunters if Ghost Hunters owned up to being staged. It's pretty good, really, and centers around a single mother and her young daughter who summon into their modern suburban home two science geek skeptics who do paranormal investigations as a hobby. The duo listen to the residents' claims and seek to sort through to an explanation, admirably applying genuine effort and being methodical a la scientific method. Soon then they too begin to experience the exact same occurrences the owner told them about.

Why it's good: It never jumps the shark or stops being marginally plausible. It never gets to any "oh, please, sure" moments, and it builds nicely to a boil. For seven-grand the filmmakers did a fine job of crafting their angles and lighting and throwing in sound effects that were chilling. The cast likewise played their parts perfectly, never over-acting and only once, at the very start when some necessary background dialogue had to be introduced, did it feel like you were watching people act. It also does not take the easy way out with loud noise= jump effects that have become cliched. Not to give anything away, but a particular object that was gotten rid of stayed gotten rid of, when your every expectation was it wouldn't. Nice, guys!

Why it's bad: Well, frankly, this strayed into "found footage" territory (The Last Broadcast, The Blair Witch Project, etc.), and that genre has grown long in the tooth over the last twenty years. Rorschach is also is not for the ADD crowd, as it slowly unspools the thread of its tale, never leaping forward, though if you can't sit still for an hour and fifteen minutes, you shouldn't be watching movies at all. If you're used to getting a big bang for your buck, this may not be up to your standards, because subtlety that keeps one toe on the base of realism is the order of the day.

Best line: "It f**kin' giggled at me!"

Creepiest moments: A) It was no child walking past the window. B) "They don;t live here anymore.

Moment you'll remember in bed at night: A certain sound in the last five minutes.

Number of times I fast forwarded to get to the good parts: zero.

It's worth seeing, so check into it on YouTube!