Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

breezy (1973) -  directed by clint eastwood.  I knew Breezy wasn't going to be easy but it ended up being much more difficult than I anticipated and in the end I just cuoldn't finish it.  the obstacles were

1.  it's a woman's movie.  and

2.  it's a movie by a middle eaged guy about a middle aged guy banging a much younger girl and is obviously the writer/ directors progression of his own yuckiness (a ls ghost world). 


       though it's from 1973 people speak oprah language "  when you were here i was gone and when I was gone you were here and now what we had is not what we wanted" or whatever.  new agey relationship talk to a backdrop of carole king type soft rock.   

         Elements of the drama aspect are good if a little unrealistic in places (a guy would not have a discussion with a topless 18 year old and then finish talking and go to the kitchen  and make somehing to eat and think about something else)  and I like how all the middle eaged women are completely insuffereable but I simply don't speak this language.  sorry breezy!

[HappyGilmore]

I watched FRIDAY THE 13TH Pt 3 DREAM WARRIORS on IFC last night.  Of course, I'd seen it.  I hate Freddy.  But, I enjoyed it. 

Don't you mean Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3?  Cause I don't remember Jason being anywhere in that hospital with the kids.   

[asimpson2006]

Hell raiser : ** 1/2 out of ****.  I though it was a decent film overall.  At the beginning I was half confused on what was going on at times, but towards the end it got better.
 

[Caronte]

- Shark on Venice. A product of  "nu image", sharks, Venice...and medieval knights. 1.2/5.

- Planet of Vampires. Mario Bava's travel to outer space. 2.5/5.

[Jack]

Yeti - Sci-Fi Channel premiere last night.  We begin with a college football team on an airplane, traveling over the Himalayas.  They encounter a storm.  The plane is CGI.  Yes, we're off to a laughably lousy start.  They crash, and the team mascot declares that "that was awesome!"  or some such crap.  Yup, hit rock bottom already.  So the kids argue for the whole freakin' movie.  If you see them not arguing for 30 seconds, it's the prelude to an argument.  The Yeti, well...it looks like the costume was stiff as a board and the guy could hardly walk in it.  They CGI it sometimes, which is immediately obvious.  The face, which you see a lot, almost looks more like a space alien than anything you might imagine a Yeti looking like.  Oh, back to our kids.  Here's a typical scene:  They're hungry and decide to eat the people who died in the crash.  After much arguing, one guy goes to cut up the bodies.  They've been lying in the snow for days, one would think they'd be frozen.  But they make squishy sounds when he cuts into them.  He goes for the guts, I guess he finds intestines rather tasty.  He returns to the survivors with these bite-size little nibbles of meat.  One guy pulls out what looks like a cookie sheet, and a girl asks him where he got that.  He says he made it out of the wreckage.  How does one "make" a flat piece of metal?  Anyhow, there's this one chick who finds cannibalism to be morally reprehensible, so she decides to sentence everyone to death by burning the remaining corpses.  Yup, she puts at least 6 frozen corpses on a teeny-weeny little fire and they burn up in no time.  She announces that if they eat people, they're no better than the Yeti.  It's not always just about survival, she says.  At this point I reached into my television set, grabbed her by the neck, and snapped her idiotic head right off.  It was by far the best part of the movie.  Well, anyhow, I have no idea how it ended.  Hopefully they all died.  1/5.

[asimpson2006]

Juno *** out of **** - I though it was a good film.  I would say it's a tad overrated as I didn't think it was an Oscar winning film, I felt there were some things that could have been better with the film such as more character development for the married couple.

[Psycho Circus]

THE BEAST (1988)

In 1981, a Soviet tank unit in Afghanistan destroys a Pashtun village, before one of the tanks commanded by the ruthless Commander Daskal (George Dzundza) gets separated from the unit, and enters a dead end valley. Taj (Steven Bauer) returns to discover the village destroyed, and his brother gruesomely executed by being crushed under the tank by the retreating Soviet forces. As the new khan, following his brother's death, Taj is spurred to seek revenge by his cousin, the scavenger Mustapha - and together they lead a band of mujahideen fighters into the valley to pursue the separated tank, counting on their RPG-7 to destroy the tank.

As the remaining three members of the tank crew begin to realize they are trapped in the valley, a Soviet helicopter appears and offers to rescue them. Daskal, caring more for his tank than his men, refuses the offer and simply refills the vehicle's oil and gasoline. They get their bearings from the helicopter pilot and head back into a narrow mountain pass, looking for the way out of the valley. The mujahadeen and Konstantin catch up with them and fire their last RPG round, but hit only the main gun. Just as it seems the tank will escape, an explosion in the cliffs above the tank sets boulders rolling onto it, disabling it at last.

The film had some pretty violent moments, especially within the first 15 minutes. One scene where an Afghan is crushed by the tracks of the tank. I thought this film was just "okay", it didn't really hold my attention all of the time and I didn't really care for any of the characters. My biggest gripe was that all of the tank unit were supposed to be Russian, yet they all spoke with clear American accents!?  3/5

[lester1/2jr]

Cronenberg's "Spider"-  The problem with this movie is it looks like a horror movie but is really a dark drama and a pretty confusing one occasionally.   for a horror movie the acting and directing are very good but as a drama it is a little overwrought.  BUt if you are a cronrnberg fan you'll want to see it.  it gets better as it goes along.  kind of excercises a part of your brain you don't normally use.  the one that waits and waitsd and slowly but surely gets ...somewhere.

[Rev. Powell]

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960): With his daughter forced to wear a blank porcelain mask to hide the scars from an automobile accident, a brilliant plastic surgeon will go to any lengths to find a cure for her disfigurement. The pace is a bit too measured at times (they could have squeezed in one more victim), but the images are beautiful and haunting. 4/5.

THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (2008): A photographer finds himself on the trail of a mysterious killer who butchers his victims in empty subway cars. More style than suspense or sense in this disappointing adaptation of a Clive Barker story.  All it really has going for it is gore effects, so if those make a movie for you, go for it.  2/5.

A DIRTY CARNIVAL (2006):  (No, it's not a clown porn movie).  A desperate young gangster moves up the criminal ladder while simultaneously trying to reignite relationships from his more innocent school days. It desperately wants to be the Korean GODFATHER, but the characters/scenario/milieu aren't unique enough to justify its epic running time.  Features some nicely choreographed brawls.  2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

pet semetary- in my version of how this project came togather,  stephen king is so full of himself that he gives a couple million to an agent and orders them to find the most mediocre director and non descript cast he can, so assured is he that his story can make lemonade of it.  Are there people who think this is as good as The Shining or Misery?  they are certainly wrong.

[lester1/2jr]

the man who could cheat death-  solid early hammer mad scientist  flick.   they don't show the hot girl nude but they show an unfinished STATUE of her.  that's a good trick.  more care than usual taken with the philisophical nature of the dialogue , but it's still pretty predictable.  but not in a bad way.   it's really just....  a solid early hammer mad scientist flick!!

[Pilgermann]

Just watched Christmas On Mars.  Not nearly as entertaining as I'd hoped.  I'm a huge fan of The Flaming Lips, and they put on a wonderful live show, but Coyne and co. haven't made much of a movie.  It's pretty weird and somewhat entertaining, but it's not weird enough, or funny enough, or profound enough, etc.  The soundtrack is cool, though.

[Rev. Powell]

MINDWARP (1992):  A headstrong young girl seeking "real experiences" gets what she asked for when she is exiled from a safe society where everyone spends the bulk of their lives hooked into virtual reality pleasure machines, and is forced to fend for herself on a post-nuclear surface world filled with cannibal mutants. Fast-moving and surprisingly thoughtful; would have been better if co-star Bruce Campbell's charisma had been put to better use.  It appears to have one of the strangest morals I've ever seen in a movie: reality sucks, and anyone who doesn't try to escape it is a sucker.  3/5

[Jack]

Van Helsing - I've seen parts of this various times on TV, but could never make it through it due to all the commercials.  Finally picked up the DVD.  Van Helsing goes to Transylvania to kill Dracula, and along the way meets a hot Transylvanian princess, along with Frankenstein and the wolf man.  This is just a big dumb effects-laden blockbuster type thing.  The action is non-stop and it makes for a pretty fun ride.  Plenty of problems though - the protagonists are super-cool and although they have some personality, it's not nearly enough to keep a person interested.  Dracula is a complete goof and his wives, though totally hot, have such comically overdone accents it's groan inducing.  The comedy didn't come off very well either, a movie like this needed a more low key approach, but instead they got dopey.  The CGI is non-stop and although the budget was very high, it still looks very cheesy a lot of the time.  By the end everyone's getting knocked 300 feet through the air and suffering no ill effects.  I really liked Stephen Sommer's other movies, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, but this one isn't nearly as good as those.  I got the feeling the actors were just there to give the special effects people something to work around.  It was long too, 2 1/4 hours.  Ninety minutes would have been better.  3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

NOWHERE TO HIDE (2000): Brutal but bland Korean cops chase crooks through a generic plot. With its blaring soundtrack, flashy editing and pointless camera trick, it seems like a 112 minute music video, with all the depth of characterization typical in that genre.  A few decent fight scenes and moments of intentional humor help soften the blow a little bit.  1.5/5

RAODSIDE PROPHETS (1992): While biking across the Nevada desert in search of a particular spot to cast a buddies ashes, stoic factory worker Joe runs into annoying but decent youngster Sam. The carpe diem message would have worked better if their quirky mini-adventures had been a bit more interesting or added up to a whole greater than the parts, but the aimless neo-hippie idealism (witness cameos by Arlo Guthrie and Tim Leary) makes for a mildly pleasant ride. 2.5/5.