Recent viewings

[Josso]

If they really wanted to be realistic about it, everyone in a social setting would be ignoring each other in favor of talking / texting on their phones, and spending their entire lives playing Call of Duty or updating their Facebook status.

What gets to me is couples that won't stop texting each other (like on a constant basis), usually new relationships or soon to be new relationships. There's an easy solution: "Hey I'm just watching some * for a bit, I'll text you in a couple of hours", I've actually said before "this is kind of pointless watching/listening to this" because someone won't give up a conversation. I have people over all the time and I'll mostly ignore various IMs, I don't see why people can't apply the same courtesy to me with their phones.

[Newt]

it's something enough people do that it's a bit ostentatious if someone doesn't. just a bit 

Quite the opposite, I should think.

[lester1/2jr]

If you say so

[Jack]

The Pact (2012) - a woman dies and her daughter goes to her house to stay while attending the funeral. But it's not long before she disappears. Then her other daughter (Annie) comes looking for the first one. After the funeral Annie's cousin comes to spend the night, and she also disappears. So Annie goes to the cops and a detective agrees to investigate. I thought this was great. Really tense and unnerving atmosphere - I was as afraid to go in that house as our main character was. Good story; it gets off to a slow start but once the mystery starts unfolding it's really interesting. Everything about it just clicked for me, the atmosphere, the characters, the theme music, and the way the plot developed. Darned good ending too. 5/5.

[claws]

The Pact (2012) - a woman dies and her daughter goes to her house to stay while attending the funeral. But it's not long before she disappears. Then her other daughter (Annie) comes looking for the first one. After the funeral Annie's cousin comes to spend the night, and she also disappears. So Annie goes to the cops and a detective agrees to investigate. I thought this was great. Really tense and unnerving atmosphere - I was as afraid to go in that house as our main character was. Good story; it gets off to a slow start but once the mystery starts unfolding it's really interesting. Everything about it just clicked for me, the atmosphere, the characters, the theme music, and the way the plot developed. Darned good ending too. 5/5.

Hallelujah, we agree on a movie again 

[Jack]

The Pact (2012) - a woman dies and her daughter goes to her house to stay while attending the funeral. But it's not long before she disappears. Then her other daughter (Annie) comes looking for the first one. After the funeral Annie's cousin comes to spend the night, and she also disappears. So Annie goes to the cops and a detective agrees to investigate. I thought this was great. Really tense and unnerving atmosphere - I was as afraid to go in that house as our main character was. Good story; it gets off to a slow start but once the mystery starts unfolding it's really interesting. Everything about it just clicked for me, the atmosphere, the characters, the theme music, and the way the plot developed. Darned good ending too. 5/5.

Hallelujah, we agree on a movie again 

 

[Rev. Powell]

FILM CREW: KILLERS FROM SPACE: The movie involves bug-eyed aliens brainwashing atomic scientist Peter Graves; very slow setup (the guys rightly joke, "Killers from Space? More like killers of time!") This second episode in the short-lived series from Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy is an improvement over the first one (HOLLYWOOD BY DARK) but not quite up to the level of an average MST3K episode. Their "Robechet" skit is quite funny, though. 3/5.

[Ticonderoga 64]

NOT OF THIS EARTH(1988): Jim Wynorski/Roger Corman remake of Corman's low-budget 1957 cult classic about a guy from space who needs blood to send home to his dying world. Traci Lords, fresh from her exit from porn at the time, is Nadine, the nurse assigned to help the space guy with regular blood transfusions that he needs to survive so he can continue killing hookers, salesman and the like. Lords looks incredible and this is a pretty fast paced romp.

http://youtu.be/EuMS0DBv05A
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[lester1/2jr]

rev - reviewing MST3K etc is kind of hard. I try and do it but am always like "this was ... another episode". Unless it's some classic then everyone knows it already anyway

[Rev. Powell]

rev - reviewing MST3K etc is kind of hard. I try and do it but am always like "this was ... another episode". Unless it's some classic then everyone knows it already anyway

Yeah, but people aren't as familiar with the Film Crew stuff. I'd say they're like poor to average episodes of MST3K. Worth checking out for fans of the original show, I wish they'd done more. WILD WOMEN OF WONGO is my favorite of the four.

[JaseSF]

King of the Lost World (2005): Survivors of a plane crash find themselves in a lost jungle world which has giant spiders, giant scorpions, man-eating vines, flying dragons, and King Kong.

All in all, this wasn't anywhere near as exciting as it sounds above. It features lots of unconvincing CGI critters who never for one moment do you really believe are real, saddest of all is the disappointing CGI Kong who only appears briefly in the beginning and closing of the film. The film's best feature is hot, sweaty girls running around the jungle in shorts and tank tops or dressed as jungle native girls. This tries to be an action adventure style film and probably would be kind of fun if the FX critters were just a bit more convincing and the plot wasn't so dumb. Bruce Boxleitner chews the scenery as a soldier on a secret mission to disarm a bomb. Nothing one really needs to watch more than once here. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

Finally got to see MONUMENTS MEN this weekend.  A fascinating look at a little known effort at the end of World War II to save Europe's greatest art from the clutches of the Nazis.

[lester1/2jr]

The Wicked (2013) - Between this and House at the End of the Street I'm definitely done with teen horror movies. I've only seen two but the idea seems to be: quite a bit of teen drama, minimal violence and nudity and no deep themes about the human condition or points to make about anything at all. It's always good to have a little variety but how much fun is it to ride a bike with training wheels if you're an adult? Granted, if I'd NEVER seen a horror movie in my whole life this would probably be very impressive and it was blandly entertaining but...it's very overtly aimed at teenagers which I am not.

The acting ranges from bad to okay. the standout is the young Jennifer Lawrence ish blonde.



She was I believe in her late teens but looks younger. The rest of the cast: a guy who is a virtual reincarnation of the MILF kid from American Pie, a mean jock, a girl with boobs you never get to see, blonde girls not very charming love interest, 2 unrealistic comedy relief cops, and the "new girl" with no personality whatsoever.

2.5 /5

[Rev. Powell]

SIN CITY (2005): Stylized, intertwined stories of rough men in an urban hellscape full of ninja hookers, corrupt cops, and cannibal serial killers. The visionary quality of the noirish visuals (black and white with occasional color accents) outweighs the cartoonish PULP FICTION-lite plot and the general sense that the whole movie is nakedly pandering to teenage boys' least sophisticated sex and violence fantasies. 4/5.

[JaseSF]

Empire Records (1995): Our story follows the lives of a group of underachieving slackers with big dreams working in a record store who face a real crisis when it looks like the independent store, Empire Records, will be absorbed by a large corporation named Music World.

This was much more enjoyable than I expected. A great soundtrack definitely proves the main asset here but the story is pretty good to boot mainly because we get to know, albeit briefly, and come to like plus root on many of the characters in the story even some we didn't expect too. Other characters prove more villainous and unlikable. A great cast here including Anthony LaPalgia (as a record store manager with dreams of something bigger), Rory Cochrane (as a guy who takes a gamble that doesn't pay but still hopes the pieces of a broken puzzle will fit together), Johnny Whitworth (as a dreamy artist type with a crush on a girl he thinks out of his league), Robin Tunney (as someone confused as to where she fits in the world), Renee Zellweger (as an oversexed cashier who wants more from her life), Liv Tyler (as the perfect girl who isn't quite so perfect after all), Ethan Embry (who has dreams of being someone), Brendan Sexton III (as a youth looking for somewhere to belong), and Maxwell Caulfield (as unlikable fading pop susperstar Rex Manning). Just a fun and likable little film with a great cast and good music. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Story of Us (1999): This tells the story of marriage trials and tribulations of long time married couple Ben (Bruce Willis) and Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer) Jordan.

While there is a surprising amount of truth revealed here in terms of the problems long-term couples face and watching this might very well help someone who's part of a couple realize certain truths and open their eyes to some harsh realities, this story is much too talky and uneventful for most of its running time making it feel a bit overlong and dull at times. This is a very serious film with some funny moments thrown in here and there. It's sort of interesting in terms of looking at the psychology of couples but otherwise it's well kind of boring. Rob Reiner directs and co-stars. Other featured guest stars include Tim Matheson, Rita Wilson,  and Paul Reiser. Also look out for Betty White, Jayne Meadows, Red Buttons and Tom Poston in funny bit parts as the Jordans' parents. *** out of ***** stars.