Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

NEOWOLF (2010) - An aspiring rock star returns to college to try and reunite with his estranged girlfriend, and falls in with a Romanian rock band who are all secretly werewolves.  She suspects the truth and tries to rescue him from their evil clutches before his transformation becomes permanent.  Rock and Roll, werewolves, and boobs, all in one movie!  Who needs a coherent plotline?

[Doggett]

Daybreakers.

In a future, humanity has become vampires and they harm the living. A vampire sympathetic to humans joins a rebel human group to try and find a cure to vampirism. Meanwhile, the global vampire population are suffering from blood shortages and as they do, they become feral, bat like monsters...

Could've been a bit longer with a few more action scenes, and clearly ripps off Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Still, it did a better job than that film so I don't mind.

Good directing, good gore effects, solid actors.

4/5

[Joe the Destroyer]

Carny (2009)- I expected this film to suck horribly, but it surprised me.  It was a fairly fun, modest horror flick that didn't completely do all the cliches.  Though, it wasn't totally original, either.  Still worth a look. 

Deadly Friend- I finally got to watch this one all the way through.  Love the movie, but god that robot irritates me. 

Up- Wow, I've never seen a Pixar movie quite this well done.  It had some pretty mature themes in it, which was surprising, and was all around entertaining.   

[Jim H]

Thankskilling.  The title says it all, really.  It's about a killer possessed Turkey from the 1600s murdering people.  It's silly, ultra low-budget (I gather it was made for less than $3000) and did I mention silly?  It's a comedy, and actually I thought it was genuinely funny at times.  A lot of the dialog and situations are just so surreal as well that I found it pretty entertaining.  It also makes a very wise decision many films along these lines don't - a short running time.  It's 67 minutes.  Because of the short length, it doesn't ever quite run out of steam (though it still manages to come close at one point).

Biggest complaint I have: there are a few situations and jokes where there is a sort of running gag or some point that was muddled and unclear.  One of those situations where it seems obvious the writer and people making the scene know what the scene is building towards, so it is funny for them, but the audience simply can't get it.  One example: there's a scene where the turkey (who, by the way, can talk) is wearing a pair of those moustache+plastic nose+glasses disguises and is talking to one character, who assumes he's just a dwarf in a turkey costume.  It's silly and rather ridiculous, but at the end the turkey starts to get super p**sed and kills the guy.  I got the impression he was supposed to be GRADUALLY getting mad about the guy constantly making "little" jokes, but it really failed to come across.

That aside, it's worth a watch via On Demand Net Flix.

First real funny scene, to serve as an example of the style of humor:

The turkey has just killed a man's dog, who runs up and sees the slashed open dog. 

Man: "What the hell!?"

The turkey looks like a normal turkey (sort of) and is just sitting there, then talks.

Turkey: "Your dog had an accident"

Now, the man's response to a friggin' turkey TALKING TO HIM is far funnier than the punch line of the gag.

Man: "WHAT KIND OF ACCIDENT!?"

 

[Rev. Powell]

Thankskilling.  The title says it all, really.  It's about a killer possessed Turkey from the 1600s murdering people.  It's silly, ultra low-budget (I gather it was made for less than $3000) and did I mention silly?  It's a comedy, and actually I thought it was genuinely funny at times.  A lot of the dialog and situations are just so surreal as well that I found it pretty entertaining.  It also makes a very wise decision many films along these lines don't - a short running time.  It's 67 minutes.  Because of the short length, it doesn't ever quite run out of steam (though it still manages to come close at one point).

Biggest complaint I have: there are a few situations and jokes where there is a sort of running gag or some point that was muddled and unclear.  One of those situations where it seems obvious the writer and people making the scene know what the scene is building towards, so it is funny for them, but the audience simply can't get it.  One example: there's a scene where the turkey (who, by the way, can talk) is wearing a pair of those moustache+plastic nose+glasses disguises and is talking to one character, who assumes he's just a dwarf in a turkey costume.  It's silly and rather ridiculous, but at the end the turkey starts to get super p**sed and kills the guy.  I got the impression he was supposed to be GRADUALLY getting mad about the guy constantly making "little" jokes, but it really failed to come across.

That aside, it's worth a watch via On Demand Net Flix.

First real funny scene, to serve as an example of the style of humor:

The turkey has just killed a man's dog, who runs up and sees the slashed open dog. 

Man: "What the hell!?"

The turkey looks like a normal turkey (sort of) and is just sitting there, then talks.

Turkey: "Your dog had an accident"

Now, the man's response to a friggin' turkey TALKING TO HIM is far funnier than the punch line of the gag.

Man: "WHAT KIND OF ACCIDENT!?"

 

Thanks for that review, I am going to put this on my potential viewing list.

[Pilgermann]

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - A big old pile of fan-service that's only a little bit entertaining.  Visually it's extremely cool, but there's not much of a plot and it's an excuse to see characters from the game in action again.  Don't watch it unless you really like the game.

Chinatown - I know that this is a familiar and popular film, but after having watched it I feel like it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.  The script is amazing, and it's realized by wonderful work behind and in front of the camera.

[claws]

The Burrowers (2008) (Blu-ray/Region B) - When a family is found killed people blame native Americans. Further investigations reveal something deadly in the meadows though, things with long sharp claws ... Well made and beautifully shot (it looks simply gorgeous in HD) Horror-Western with great effects and a creepy atmosphere. Best Horror-Western since Dead Birds (2004) for sure. 4/5

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1960) - When an expedition brings back the remains of a mummy to London all hell breaks loose. Fun but not perfect Hammer production, and quite graphic at times. I loved the fact that the Mummy could throw a hard right uppercut. I guess boxing wasn't uncommon in Egypt back in the day. 3/5

[lester1/2jr]

My Best Friend: Klaus Kinski (1999) - There are spoilers for several of the movies they made together including aquirre, fitzcaraldo and Cobra Verde, so you may want to see those first, but this documentary about the tumultous friendship of Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, most of the tumult coming from kinskis part, stands on it's own. When Herzog meets Kinski he (kinski) is living in an attic, the floor of which is covered with a layer of leaves. He is generally nude. When a package arrives he rumbles out of the leaves and down the stairs naked and signs for it. So right away we're talking about a very extreme level of eccentricity. Most of the movie is various tales of Kinskis over the top behaviour and some footage of it, such as his road show he did where he got onstage and told everyone he was Jesus and yelled violently and angrily at people who disagreed. Various actors and others back up this portrayal but most also agree whatever he did yielded, or at least did not seem to hurt, generally very powerful and excellent performances on film.

            Herzog shot in some exotic locations on compatatively small bugets but the biggest and most dangerous obstacle was usually Kinski. Many times various people or even Herzog himself would decide they'd had enough and then usually the actor would back down, he was actually a bit of a coward and mostly was just seeking attention. It doesn't compare to anything in this film, but one of my favorite stories about him was in an old Psychotronic magazine interview with an actor, I can't remember who. Kinski invites him and a few others to lunch and serves Caviar and champagne. That's all he had for them. He died in 1991. If you've seen any/all of these movies it's an obvious recomendation but even if you haven't it's pretty entertaining and of course true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITx7txr-7M
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4/5

[Jim H]

Religulous - Bill Maher's documentary about religion, I guess.  The movie brings up Maher's viewpoints on it, and what he sees as cognitive dissonance amongst many religious people.  He has some interesting discussions with a few of them, goes to a lot of strange places and meets some interesting people (the priest in the Vatican was my favorite, he was awesome), and it is at times a little interesting.  For someone who has already done a decent amount of reading on religious debate, there's a lot of retreaded ground, but the presentation is good. 

Major problem is a lack of a real thesis or structure.  Maher basically wanders around, talks to people and points out what he doesn't like, and does a few bits, and a number of parts are genuinely funny, but the movie has no real narrative progression and thus feels a little listless.  When the movie ends and Maher has a reasonably well-written rant about the future of humanity and religion, I felt like it could have been put in the middle of the movie and it would have worked just about as well as a 50 minute film instead of a 100 minute film. 

Still, reasonably entertaining and interesting.

7/10

Oh yeah, and a very brief bit from Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death was shown.  I wonder how many people watching the movie could spot it.  Not many, I'd guess...  But I could   

Devil Hunters

Late 80s HK action film - mostly focusing on gun battles, but also featuring decent spots of hand-to-hand fighting.  The plot is a mish mash of too many characters with too much going on, confounded in my case by English dubbing that made things worse.  I had to buy this on VHS, as it is long out of print and a little hard to find.

While the plot and character stuff was weak, there was a lot of action and most of it was well-done, making the film worth watching.  Glad it was relatively cheap though ($7 shipped).  A few interesting notes: one character makes memorable use of an M16 variant with the Masterkey - instead of a grenade luncher under the barrel, it has a shotgun.  You may have seen the same setup on Billy in Predator.



Also, another gun of note: one of the lead characters uses the Auto-9, Robocop's pistol!  It looks rather ridiculous when a normal person is wielding the gigantic pistol.

However, the most famous aspect of the film is the film-ending stunt-gone-wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJOjctQ2Kk4
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Yeah, the two people engulfed in flames there weren't supposed to be.  And they got third degree burns.  But eventually they did make full recoveries, and the movie of course makes good use of the footage, showing it multiple times.  I particularly like how the director thanks the injured parties for their loyal service.

Overall, a 7/10.

[Doggett]

Doghouse.

A group of blokes try to help their buddy getting over a divorce by having a lads weekend in a small town. Once they arrive in the small village, they realise that all the women have gone zombie like and the fellas have to try and survive !!

This is really good. As they have no weapons, they can't really do head shots and kill the zombies. There's lots of running around and hiding and you get used to seeing the same zombie characters running around, which I like. They become real chcarcters and I love that they use weapons.
Very gory and very funny and I'd pic this over Zombieland !

4/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8rsPuFN8wg&feature=related
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[Rev. Powell]

O LUCKY MAN! (1973): An eager young coffee salesman (Malcolm McDowell) sets out to make his fortune in the world but instead has many peculiar and unlucky adventures, finding himself mistaken for a spy, volunteering for medical experiments, taking up with a touring rock band, becoming personal assistant to a ruthless capitalist, and being sent to prison, among others.  Basically a 1970s version of Voltaire's "Candide."  At 3 hours it's way overlong, although the ambition is admirable; McDowell's charming performance and some very strange, surreal satirical set-pieces make it worth watching.  3.5/5.

MOTHER [MADEO] (2009): When her mentally incompetent adult son is accused of murdering a girl, an overprotective mother will go to any lengths to establish his innocence.  A winner thanks to the believably tender and slightly twisted mother/son relationship, the engaging mystery, and a great performance by an obsessed and pathetic Hye-ja Kim. 4/5.

[Jack]

O LUCKY MAN! (1973): An eager young coffee salesman (Malcolm McDowell) sets out to make his fortune in the world but instead has many peculiar and unlucky adventures, finding himself mistaken for a spy, volunteering for medical experiments, taking up with a touring rock band, becoming personal assistant to a ruthless capitalist, and being sent to prison, among others.  Basically a 1970s version of Voltaire's "Candide."  At 3 hours it's way overlong, although the ambition is admirable; McDowell's charming performance and some very strange, surreal satirical set-pieces make it worth watching.  3.5/5.

I saw that way back in the late '70s / early '80s on HBO or something and it's stuck with me all these years.  Really need to check it out again some time.

[lester1/2jr]

The Sniper (1952)- fifties is a little late for film noir. As far back as the 20's movies were being made with those sensiblities and by the 1950's America had changed and people didn't really do the tough talk quite as much. We weren't in a war or a depression, times were pretty good,there wasn't an awful lot to be noir about. I'm not a filmologist but I know that in general, this is later in the era (which I understand essentially ended with "Psycho" and the resultant horror boom). It doesn't feel quite the same as the ones from the genres heyday, but it's good, about as good as another later noir I saw "The Set Up" and also takes place in San Francisco.  

                                     The Sniper is a mentally unstable guy who hates women and can't stop himself from wanting to kill them. If you are like me, you wonder "what's so bad about that? " but that's their premise *. There is some law and order ish cop talk and a little unwanted criminal justice type bloviating but it's a good story with a fair number of murders and good anguished lead guy. I liked when the hooker at the bar called him on his bs story and when he went nuts throwing a dozen perfect strikes at a dunking machine thing because he so loathed the mouthy girl on the chair. Some good details like that. It's a cool movie I didn't listen to the expert commentary but it's probably full of scintilating stuff like pointing out famous landmarks and you know this old guy had been in a hundred silent westerns and this was his second to last movie and so forth.

4/5

*just kidding

[JaseSF]

Death Proof (2007): Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) targets young women with his car. However the women he targets aren't always as easy prey as he might prefer.

This is pretty simple and straightforward in terms of plot. There's some gory violence (one intense sequence in particular early on), one rather good car chase and a few interesting character performances (I liked Russell, Zoe Bell and Tracie Thoms in particular) but the movie is way too preoccupied with two things: women's feet and the inane everyday conversations women tend to daily engage in.  Early on it just seems the film is an excuse for a bunch of people to go on a drinking binge. These latter elements tend to take away from the exitement and intensity that I'm sure viewers, myself included, would have preferred.  I also really wasn't ever made to truly care about any character in the film and each seems self-absorbed with their own lives and immediate graitification. I know I was also disappointed by the lack of car action as I was expecting quite a bit more and this definitely pales quite a bit in comparison to the many films that get namedropped here. Disappointing on many levels, I think if it wasn't for the actors I mentioned this would have been a complete dud for me but as I liked Russell, Bell and Thoms I'll give it **1/2 out of *****

[Jack]

Terror at Red Wolf Inn (1972) - A college girl wins an all expenses paid weekend to a resort hotel.  Turns out to be a charming old house next to the ocean, run by a charming old couple.  There are a couple of other girls staying there, and once they disappear rather suspiciously, our main girl starts to get concerned.  Do you suppose the charming old couple might be psychos?  This thing started out as slow as molasses.  There was a ten minute scene of everybody eating dinner, chewing their food, complimenting each other endlessly on how good it all tasted, while comically inappropriate public domain music played.  It finally picked up in the last third or so.  The main girl carries the movie pretty well, she's sweet but at least somewhat resourceful.  The old psycho couple is pretty entertaining as well.  For a really dull horror movie, I got a moderate amount of enjoyment out of it.  3/5.