Recent viewings

[Jack]

The Frankenstein Theory (2013) - A documentary film crew accompanies the great-great-great-great grandson of Dr.Frankenstein to the Northwest Territories in Canada to search for the monster. It's a lost footage film, but made by the professional cameraman in the group so it's fairly well filmed. Nobody except Frankenstein Venkenhein takes the whole monster thing seriously, but it's a job and they're getting paid, so good enough. When Venkenhein eventually tells us his reasons for suspecting that the monster is still alive, it at least convinces us that there's something dangerous afoot.

I enjoyed this. The characters weren't fantastic but they had personalities and did a decent acting job. I really liked the sense of creepiness it created - they were way up in the snow covered wilderness, 50-60 km from the nearest person, with a guide who made everybody uncomfortable. The winter scenery which I usually think is beautiful took on a spooky air. They heard wolves howling in the distance the first night. The second night they stayed in some windowless old shack used by trappers, and heard what they thought was a bear growling very near the camp. And the third night..oh boy   I thought it did a good job of building tension until the eventual payoff. The main character, the narrator for the documentary, was especially likable and sympathetic. And cute. 4/5.

[indianasmith]

I have been thinking about renting this one the last couple of weeks; I may watch it this week.

[indianasmith]

Friday night I watched DEADBALL, a Japanese movie about . . . well, it's complicated. Basically, a young kid with a super fast nuclear powere flaming fastball pitch accidentally kills his Dad while they are playing catch.  He swears over his father's dying body never to play baseball again.  Next scene is 10 years later, same kid is a wanted vigilante who has just been captured by the police.  The governor of his province sends him to a juvenile prison and instructs him to play on the the "Juvie League" baseball team.  The prison warden is a Japanese female Nazi sympathizer, and the morning stew is actually vomit.  There are brutal body cavity searches, exploding baseballs, lots of killing, and a final battle with a giant evil robot with the face and brain of the hero's missing little brother.  Blood spouts in geysers, and there is a female Juvie baseball team of scantily clad homicidal maniacs.
Fairly straightforward and sensible for a Japanese B movie.

[voltron]

The Hanging Woman (1973)
Decent, if quite slow paced, Spanish zombie flick set in 18th century Scotland about a man who travels to a small village to claim an inheritance. He finds a hanging woman (obviously) in a cemetery but her death seems suspicious. He experiences strange omens and visions and encounters exhumed corpses which leads to the resurrection of the dead.
This movie might be a turnoff for those who like their zombie movies fast paced, but I rather enjoyed this one as it has a nice atmosphere (pretty bad dubbing job though). Paul Naschy has a minor role as a crazed gravedigger and chews up the scenery when onscreen. I give this one a solid  .

[JaseSF]

Mr. Magoo (1997): A visually impaired eccentric millionaire named Mr. Magoo (Leslie Nielsen) unexpectedly embarks on an James Bond-ish style adventure getting mixed up with a jewel heist gone wrong,  a deadly femme fatale, gangsters and the criminal underworld.

While falling quite a ways short of the original cartoon, this adaptation is nevertheless quite funny largely due to the presence of the one and only Leslie Nielsen who does his best despite seeming somewhat miscast in the leading role. This film's IMDB rating seems to suggest it's not that well liked. While it is silly and seems to apply cartoon laws to the real world, I feel it deserves a bit better than the 3.6 out of 10 rating it currently has over there. Nielsen is frequently hilarious and easily made me laugh on numerous occasions throughout. Also fun here are Kelly Lynch as the femme fatale/black widow catwoman-ish Luanne Le Seur who plays it pretty straight and Nick Chinlund as bumbling henchman Bob Morgan. Stephen Toblowosky  as FBI Agent Chuck Stupak is a hoot too. And Ernie Hudson basically plays his CIA foil. Also look for Jennifer Garner here in an early role and Malcolm McDowell as a criminal mastermind named Cloquet. Also Nielsen pulls a Sean Connery in more ways than one here appearing in a wedding dress before this one is said and done. This film, while not quite the cartoon original, is nevertheless very funny IMO and made me laugh quite a bit. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[claws]

The Fog (1980)

Mariners killed in a shipwreck 100 years ago return as vengeful ghosts surrounded by glowing fog - and the people of small coastal town Antonio Bay will have to face terror and death during preparations for their 21st April centennial celebration.
Classic John Carpenter spookiness starring Adrienne Barbeau as the town's radio DJ overlooking paranormal activities from her lighthouse. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as a hitchhiker shagging up with Tom Atkins, and Halloween victim Nancy Loomis plays Janet Leigh's assistant. 5/5

[Jack]

Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (2011) - totally silly parody of Carrie with a bit of Silence of the Lambs at the beginning and Wayne's World at the end. Our pernicious pastry perpetrator goes back in time to 1976 and arrives at a roller skating rink, right in the middle of the big roller boogie queen competition. The shy girl is popular with the crowd, much to the chagrin of the popular girl. Our demonic doughy dude runs around killing people unnoticed (he's only a foot tall). This was mildly amusing I guess. The ending was beyond stupid but it's not like I cared. There were plenty of babes in sexy roller boogie outfits I'll give it a not too crumby 3/5.

[claws]

Never seen any of those Gingerdead Man movies but I know lots of people who adore the series. I've seen the trailers but they never peaked my interest.

[indianasmith]

Sunday afternoon I watched A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: Ghosts of Georgia

First of all, I will say that this is a pretty well-written and produced ghost story that is fun to watch and has some decent scares and a cool twist ending.

That being said, it had NOTHING! WHATSOEVER! TO! DO! WITH! THE! FIRST! MOVIE!!!
This has to be the most unrelated sequel of all time.  There are NO tie-ins whatsoever other than the title.  Why not just call it "A Haunting in Georgia"??  The stupidity of the attempt to tie it to the first film really  ruined an otherwise enjoyable movie for me.

[Jack]

Sabretooth (2002) - Sci-Fi Original type thing about a sabretooth cat genetically engineered by Vanessa Angel and funded by the always cheesy and always enjoyable John Rhys-Davies, that gets loose and starts munching on some campers in the local woods. David Keith plays a big game hunter who's called in to save the day. Silly fun, with enjoyable characters and terrible CGI. A favorite of mine. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

HORROR EXPRESS (1972): An archeologist packs a frozen caveman head into a crate to ship it from China to Europe, but it comes to life and starts killing passengers on the trans-Siberian express. With Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas. This Hammer-style mix of Old World elegance and goofy-assed pseudoscience makes for a tolerable ride. The creature stores photographic images in his eyeball fluid (?) For bad movie fans, 3.5/5.

[Jack]

The Snow Devils (1967) - alien bigfoots want to take over the world.



^Eek!

First they want to melt the polar ice caps and flood the place, then freeze the planet to create a nice environment for themselves. It's up to our intrepid spaceman Rod Jackson to save the day. This is one of those ridiculous Italian things full of wonderful nonsense. From spacemen swinging on wires to bigfoots in green leather leotards to dialogue like "Proton problem...if this is a proton problem." this movie's got it all  Watched it about 5 times now. 4/5.

[claws]

Sabretooth (2002) - Sci-Fi Original type thing about a sabretooth cat genetically engineered by Vanessa Angel and funded by the always cheesy and always enjoyable John Rhys-Davies, that gets loose and starts munching on some campers in the local woods. David Keith plays a big game hunter who's called in to save the day. Silly fun, with enjoyable characters and terrible CGI. A favorite of mine. 4/5.

This was one of my very first Imported DVDs I bought. Not much choice when you are located in Europe without a credit card but eager to watch the latest US releases on home video. This German based mail order company had outrageous prices. I paid 40€ for the Lionsgate Sabretooth DVD, that would be around $50 these days 
Fun flick, but the CGI shots of the creature are done pretty bad. But then again, it was a SyFy sort of movie so what to expect ...

[Jack]

Sabretooth (2002) - Sci-Fi Original type thing about a sabretooth cat genetically engineered by Vanessa Angel and funded by the always cheesy and always enjoyable John Rhys-Davies, that gets loose and starts munching on some campers in the local woods. David Keith plays a big game hunter who's called in to save the day. Silly fun, with enjoyable characters and terrible CGI. A favorite of mine. 4/5.

This was one of my very first Imported DVDs I bought. Not much choice when you are located in Europe without a credit card but eager to watch the latest US releases on home video. This German based mail order company had outrageous prices. I paid 40€ for the Lionsgate Sabretooth DVD, that would be around $50 these days 
Fun flick, but the CGI shots of the creature are done pretty bad. But then again, it was a SyFy sort of movie so what to expect ...

I'd say it was the worst CGI sabretooth I'd ever seen, but then there's Attack of the Sabretooth that's actually much, much worse lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkblH8Q22I
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[ulthar]

I'd say it was the worst CGI sabretooth I'd ever seen, but then there's Attack of the Sabretooth that's actually much, much worse lol.

LOL...looks like they forgot to render textures on the falling tooth!  Excellent 2-D animation there.   

(Heading over the Netflix queue....)