Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Everything Or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007" (2012)

Everything Or Nothing Trailer

This way cool documentary about the history of the James Bond franchise was made to coincide with the release of "Skyfall" and celebrate the film series' 50th anniversary. Features lots of interviews with cast members, producers, directors as well as plenty of clips from each film and behind the scenes goodies. Fascinating stuff if you're a Bond fan.

[JaseSF]

Bare Knuckles (1977): A bounty hunter named Kane (Robert Viharo) sets out to bring down a serial killer (Michael Heit) of women, a Kung-Fu expert with some serious mother issues, hoping to land a substantial cash reward. In time however, things take a more personal twist when the killer targets someone close to Kane himself, girlfriend Jennifer (Sherry Jackson).

This gritty, grimy, somewhat sleazy tale of action and suspense delivers the goods in many ways. It's surprisingly involving and has a certain realistic dark edge to it. It takes us down the grimy streets of Los Angeles where criminals are always seemingly lurking just around the corner and also into the realm of the wealthy and the well to do as well. There's lot of action, blood, sweat, dirt, grime, grit (yeah one does feel almost in need of a shower after watching this) yet it also grips one in that Martial Arts revenge plot sort of way and also will likely appeal to those who like stories about crime and serial killers to boot. Sure it has its cheesy, cheap moments yet it's so bad it's good in many ways. It's also surprisingly action-packed and thrilling. Probably a bit overlooked this one. **** out of ***** stars from me. To most people, it's probably more like 3-3.5 stars.

The Blazing Ninja (1973): A group of resistance fighters in China work to try and outwit their Japanese enemies after Japan has occupied China. The Japanese retaliate by bringing in a notorious secret agent assigned the job of bringing down the resistance.

This is one of those poorly dubbed Hong Kong chop-socky films that proves unintentionally hilarious on many occasions. This is from director Godfrey Ho and features a plot that is often confusing and seems to jump all over the place but as far as I could tell is about a group of Chinese rebels in occupied by the Japanese China only the setting here seems to be the 1970s instead of the 1940s. It involves numerous double-crosses by characters, some of the Chinese resistance, some of those seemingly sympathetic to Japan. There's also lots of fighting and action but the conclusion seems to really come out of left field and is definitely not satisfying although one line might well make you laugh out loud. Enjoyable but for all the wrong reasons. ***1/2 out of ***** stars although that rating is based more on unintentional comedy than the film's actual nonsensical plot. I'd have probably rated it higher if not for the ending being so abrupt an so unsatisfying. And yeah, there's actually no ninjas in this film either.

[indianasmith]

Tonight I watched the latest Liam Neeson movie, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (2014).
Neeson plays an alcoholic ex-cop who works as a private eye.  He is hired by a drug dealer to find the two creeps who kidnapped the dealer's wife, took $400,000 in ransom money, and gave her back in 22 plastic bags.  As Neeson digs into the crime, he finds out that this isn't their first victim.
A rather cerebral whodunit that is long on drama but short on explanations - yet still strangely compelling.

3.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"RoboCop 3" (1993)

RoboCop 3 1993 Trailer

The third go round for Officer Murphy finds a new actor in the Robo-Suit (Robert John Burke) and a PG-13 rating (boooo!). This time the evil OCP has teamed up with a Japanese corporation. Their plans to bulldoze a Detroit neighborhood to clear the way for their new Delta City project causes the death of RoboCop's partner, Officer Lewis, Robo then joins the resistance movement against the OCP mercenaries and lots of shoot'em up, blow'em up fun ensues as usual.

This flick is widely considered to be the worst in the Robo-series, but despite that I've always enjoyed it. Yeah, it's cartoony, dumbed-down crap, but at least it's fun crap. I definitely like it better than the godawful early 90s TV series or the soulless 2014 remake.

[lester1/2jr]

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Asylum version of some Brenden Frasier movie or something. It's like a really phoned syfy adventure with no distinct theme or monster like they forgot to add the three headed teradactyl or whatever . The okay looking women we're following get mildly chased around by some rarely seen cgi dinosaurs and never change out of their army pants and tank tops. While they're doing this, a man and woman who are probably janitors at an actual movie studio do Sam and Diane type bickering and try to get it together to rescue the girls from their nondescript bad fortune.

pretty mediocre. None of the characters were too annoying though and I did make it through 2.5/ 5

[Rev. Powell]

PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES (2005): A doctor brings a piano tuner to his asylum to prepare his automatons for an opera he is staging for the benefit of a beautiful, nearly comatose patient who was once a singer. Thoroughly surreal, the story is basically an excuse for the Quay Brothers to stage a series of wild and beautiful Gothic dream sequences, such as a phantom boat rowed by a disembodied hand and a terrifying robotic woodchopper. 3.5/5.

[JaseSF]

That Darn Cat! (1965): A cat on the prowl stumbles upon a kidnapped woman being held by bank robbers on the lam. She hastily puts her watch on the cat with a message asking for "Help" which she didn't even have time to quite finish. Later when the cat's owner Patti Randall (Hayley Mills) discovers the watch and its message, she calls in the F.B.I. who surprisingly send agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones) to investigate. His investigation actually involves trailing the cat to see if it will lead him to the kidnappers. Along the way, nosy neighbors and jealous boyfriends get in the way of Kelso's undercover actions.

While the plot to this Disney movie is wild, outrageous, somewhat corny and silly, this proves surprisingly enjoyable nevertheless. It's got a great cast which definitely helps a lot. The bank robbers are actually played by Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin (of Riddler fame),  Roddy McDowell is on hand of the would-be boyfriend of Patti's sister Ingrid (played by Dorothy Provine), Elsa Lanchester plays nosy neighbor Mrs. MacDougall whose interactions with husband Mr. MacDougall (played by William Demarest) prove quite funny and amusing. Also appearing in the film are Richard Deacon, Tom Lowell, Grayson Hall, and Ed Wynn. The antics of the cat comes into play as well and often leads to many humorous situations as humans try and trail him. All in all, this is a delightful and charming Disney film which proves much more of an hoot than one would expect of its premise. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

That Darn Cat (1997): Disney remake of the classic 1965 film. In this case, the woman kidnapped is the maid of a wealthy couple, one of whom is played by Dean Jones from the first film. Similar to the original, she scratches a message seeking "Help" on a watch she places around the D.C. the cat's neck. D.C. owner Patti (now played by Christina Ricci) seeks out the F.B.I. for help who assigns one of their worst agents Zeke Kelso (Doug E. Doug) to the case. Assorted hijinks results when Patti and Kelso trail D.C. and they learn some unexpected truths about Patti's seemingly quiet and boring little town.

This remake lacks the charm of the original and has a much less stellar cast. That said, I felt Ricci did quite well in her role even though she initially seems miscast. The problem is this film goes completely over the top with its attempts at humor and dumbs things down even more than the classic. There's a crazy overlong chase sequence at the end and this film seems much more interested in creating weird and unusual characters for Patti's small town which proves anything but boring in reality. The focus on the cat is missing much more here and in that way, this film pales in comparison to the original. The characters are not as likable, it's just seems like a bunch of assorted weirdos in a small town and the story here seems designed to help Patti come out of her shell more than it's focused on rescuing somebody in trouble. There's also a lack of any real danger here which was a very important element in the classic version. That said, this did have some funny moments and some decent character actors too  (George Dzunda, Peter Boyle, John Ratzenberger, Rebecca Schull, Estelle Parsons, and Megan Cavanagh) so it wasn't all bad, just very disappointing when compared to the classic version. *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Devil Seed (2012) - a girl gets a psychic reading, and the next day strange things start happening - she hears noises in the house, sees people who aren't there, and does weird things that she can't remember afterwards. She begins to suspect she's possessed. This was actually scary! Between the theme music, directing and photography it all came together to create a nice tense atmosphere. Characters were okay, and although the plot didn't really get developed to any extent, it served its purpose. It's so rare I see a horror movie that's actually effective; even though it was far from perfect I'll give it a 5/5.

[Trevor]

There Will Be Blood: I found this film intensely disturbing and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis' character very hard to like or even to take.

Dillinger: Warren Oates and Ben Johnson were great in this: the actress who was screaming at the end where Dillinger is shot dead should have been given a silencer. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Sound City" (2013)

Sound City Official Trailer

Dave Grohl directed this cool behind-the-scenes doc about the legendary California recording studio that was the site of countless classic recordings by Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield, Nirvana, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. Sound City closed in 2011, a victim of changing times in the music biz, but its main console remains in use in Grohl's own recording studio. Educational and entertaining!!

[Jack]

Killer Mountain (2011) - SyFy Channel thing about some people who disappear while climbing a mountain in Tibet, and some other people are called in to mount a rescue operation. Turns out there's these giant CGI lizard/snake thingies living up there. This was watchable. Characters were nothing (Emmanuelle Vaugier is listed first in the credits and I usually like her, but she's barely in it). Plot was typical SyFy junk. More entertaining than staring out the window for 90 minutes I suppose. 2.5/5.

A Brush with Death (2007) - some girls go out to a country house and meet a couple of guys. Mostly they sit around the pool in their bikinis. And they play truth or dare for a while. Eventually they decide to spend the night in a spooky old abandoned house. Well, the girls were cute; they didn't really posses acting skills but in this sort of micro-budget thing, that wasn't too surprising. Plot wasn't presented in a way that generated any suspense really. 2.5/5.

[Alex]

Dead Snow 2. Being a big fan of the first movie I was looking forward to this one. Thought it was pretty decent, but seemed to have lost its way a bit (the humour and touches of horror in the first one seemed to have been replaced with crude jokes), and the isolated location of the original has been swapped for a more urban setting during daylight which removes a lot of the tension). For anyone who hasn't heard of it, the plot involves nazi zombies in Norway. The first one had them hunting down anyone who disturbed loot they had pillaged during the war, while in the sequel they decide to fulfil their last order, to wipe out a Norwegian town in retaliation for resistance activities.  Overall, its an ok watch but I don't think its going to convert many new fans.

[Rev. Powell]

88 (2015): A woman wakes up in a diner with a gun in her handbag and no memory of how she got there; she accidentally shoots a waitress and goes on the run while experiencing a series of flashbacks that explain her personality change. Katherine Isabelle is sexy and Christopher Lloyd makes a surprisingly good heavy in this attempt to make a b-movie version of MEMENTO with a hot chick, but you never get the sense the confusing plot is worth working out (a suspicion confirmed by the final reveal). 2/5.

[indianasmith]

Let's see - over the last couple days I watched GONE GIRL - which was darkly brilliant and very well acted!  I give it a 5/5

Then I watched ANNABELLE last night, another great creepy doll movie.  I think that is all - did I talk about FINDERS KEEPERS?

I think I did. 

[JaseSF]

Celtic Pride (1996): Mike O'Hara (Daniel Stern) and Jimmy Flaherty (Dan Aykroyd), two fanatic Boston Celtics fans take things a bit too far when they kidnap Lewis Scott (Damon Wayans), the cocky, arrogant star player of the Utah Jazz in hopes of helping their team win the championship.

This was much better than I expected although I did approach it with low expectations. The pairing of Stern and Aykroyd, two stars I have been long been a fan of from other works, actually proves better than I initially thought it would be. There are some laugh out loud funny moments here and Wayans is also quite good in his role as the ultimate prick/jerk star basketball player who is quite clever and quite capable of messing with the heads of Mike and Jimmy, especially Jimmy. It's in part a sports comedy but it's much more focused on fans who perhaps take the game too seriously although there is a good message here about the importance of being a team player and showing dedication to your team. Surprisingly fun and enjoyable if not a classic like some of the stars' other films. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The 6th Man (1997): Kenny (Marlon Wayans) and Antoine (Kadeem Hardison) Tyler are star basketball players on the University of Washington Huskies college team. When Antoine unexpectedly dies of a heart problem, Kenny struggles to get on with his game but finds it hard without his brother and misses him terribly. Kenny asks his brother if there's any way he can help him out and sure enough, Antoine's ghost is soon helping his old team on their way through the championship tournament only Kenny starts to believe the way they're winning might just be wrong.

I thought this movie was a hoot. This film had me almost in tears with laughter and moments before and after almost had me in tears because of how it made me feel about, connect with, and care about its characters. Sure it's a light comedy ghost movie that akin to something one might have expected from Disney but it's actually really good. This really surprised me by how good it was. An underrated little film this one. Really fun, really moving, a great message is probably the best way to sum this one up.  **** out of ***** stars.

The Associate (1996): Laurel Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg), feeling stuck in a dead end job at an investment firm, decides to quit and try her luck on her own. Eventually hiring Sally (Dianne Wiest), a clever secretary from the same investment firm who also felt stuck in a dead end job. Initially Laurel finds she has little to no luck, that is until she creates an ideal partner, an older Caucasian male named Robert Cutty. However as her success grows due to the growing reputation of the invented Cutty, she finds his absence harder and harder to explain.

This was quite entertaining and amusing and I felt its message was at one time very, very relevant (maybe even still so today in some circles). Goldberg does a great job here and creates a very likable character in Laurel for whom it's easy for viewers to root on. This also boost a great cast what with Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth, Eli Wallach, Austin Pendleton and more. A clever, smart, and somewhat underrated comedy. **** out of ***** stars.

I think paying 3 bucks for these three films (a Mill Creek set) was quite a bargain in all honesty.