Recent viewings

[etmoviesb]

The Tooth Fairy [2010]. This is a nice children movie; the message the movie gives is: dreams are important, but life is not easy and probably it won't work out so well. On the other hand if you love something a lot, it is not a waste of time.

This pretty much the best thing you can teach to a children :)


All seasoned with The Rock charisma, silly costumes, ice hockey action, and funny dialog.
I don't get why the critics disliked this movie... Oh, well. It is long time I accepted that me and critics are on different planes.

[lester1/2jr]

Flashdance - I've been on a Adrian Lyne kick lately. This is kind of a weak link, but it has a bunch of top 40 hits and dancing and is good enough for an 80's throwback vibe.

More or less hot Jennifer Beals is a dancer in a quasi strip club where the focus is on DANCING, not stripping yes. That's definitely something a lot of people in NYC would be into checking out in 198-whatever I'm sure. She's also a welder at a work site. long story short: the first half of this movie is good, the second half where she meets the creepy older rich dude stinks. There's no chemistry and the movie just flails around waiting to end. Imagine if Rocky had just detoured into him and Adrian with the fight as an after thought. I'd guess the studio demanded the love story have more prominence.

She's a maniac maniac, What a feeling it is...to have her be a maniac. 2.5 /5

[FatFreddysCat]

Triple decker last night: one with the young'in's and the other two because I had insomnia:

"Despicable Me" (2010)

Despicable Me Official Trailer #3 - (2010) HD

A super-villain (voiced by Steve Carell) "adopts" three orphan girls as part of his evil master plan to steal the moon - but eventually being a "Dad" makes him re-examine his priorities. A very funny slapstick animated comedy; the "minions" are a highlight (and they're getting their own movie this summer!).

"Altered States" (1980)

Altered States - Trailer

In Ken Russell's sci-fi/horror mind f*cker, a young research scientist (William Hurt) is obsessed with  uncovering the deepest, darkest levels of the human psyche -- but his experiments, which involve a potent Mexican psychedelic drug and an isolation tank - eventually go wrong in a pretty major way.

"Wonder Woman" (2009)

Wonder Woman Animated Trailer

Action packed re-telling of WW's first adventure in "Man's World," nicely animated as usual plus plenty of ultra-violence.

[lester1/2jr]

Lost Horizon (The 1973 version that everybody hates) - This had a pretty decent if hard to fathom concept: people's plane crashes and they end up in Shangri La: a utopian community in the Mongolian mountains or something somewhere. You go through a cave to get to it. Once they get there unfortunately it's kind of boring and the songs don't help.  It reminded me of "Song of Russia" the WW2 era "we're working with the commies now" propaganda movie. They don't really sell you on the idea that this place is worth giving up the life outside for. One of the Shangri la ians girls is pretty but she's constantly fully covered. Liv Ulman isn't that attractive, the boyfriend guy looks like one of the puppets from that British sci fi show and everything is just way too 70's, socialist, and uneventful.

and it's 2+ hours long. yeah I'd say pass 2.5 /5

decent idea, drab execution, music mostly got in the way. waste of what looks like a decent budget

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lost-horizon-1973

[JaseSF]

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010): A sickly boy named Shawn stumbles across a family of legendary borrowers, a family of miniature people who live under the floorboards of the house his mother grew up in. His discovery has the unintended effect of disrupting the lives of said family as Shawn attempts to befriend the young daughter of the miniature family, a girl around his own age named Arrietty.

Very enjoyable anime film from Studio Ghibli. Some great visuals and a terrific story of friendship. Really good adaptation of "The Borrowers" story.  An anime likely to appeal even to non-anime fans. **** out of ***** stars.

Life of Pi (2012): A coming of age story about a young man named Pi (Suraj Sharma) who survives a terrific disaster at sea and struggles to survive as a castaway in a lifeboat with a most unusual boat mate, a fierce Bengal tiger.

This was a visual masterpiece. The special FX work is fantastic here making this look at feel rather like a living, moving work of art at times. Sometimes the story takes what seems to be some unbelievable and surreal turns yet it never fails to fascinate and I found myself really engrossed in its story. A great film and a great story even if it's a tall tale, or not. Believe or not. **** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Dune (1984) - so there's this drug called spice and it's the most important thing in the universe - people who take it gain increased mental powers etc. Various factions vie for control of the planet where it is created - Dune. Lots of political intrigue follows. I love this movie, the art design is just fantastically original and the plot is pretty interesting. Good ol' retro '80s big budget special effects too. The dialogue can be very stilted at times and some of the acting is pretty stiff, but that just adds an otherworldly charm to it in my opinion. 5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE BEYOND (1981): A young woman inherits a hotel that---oops!---was built over one of the seven gates of hell. Inept and absurd gory horror with lots of eyeball trauma and some unintentional humor. Hard to rate; I'd suggest 3/5 for this board, though some may love it.

[Jack]

Children of Dune (2003) - so the main guy from the last movie who ended up being emperor of the universe has been in power for a dozen years, and has turned out to be worse than the "evil" emperor he replaced. But he takes off into the desert leaving his sister (who's slowly going insane) in charge. Meanwhile his two kids grow up and they've got some destiny to fulfill or something. I'm guessing this  is just a really bad adaptation from the books to the screen. The characters we're supposed to dislike are well developed and sympathetic, the one's we're supposed to like are undeveloped and paper thin.  And then there's just a huge load of other characters; I couldn't figure out who half of them were supposed to be. As far as the plot, it's like they were trying to include a whole plethora of subplots from the books but gave the interesting ones short shrift while spending way too much time on the uninteresting ones. By the end it was like they'd given up and were just throwing in scenes with no explanation or context. Stuff that was supposed to be touching or climactic just left me confused and disinterested. 2/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched THE BURNING DEAD, a new DTV release that caught my eye for two reasons: number one, it had red-eyed zombies who resembled the Ash Spawn from SKYRIM: DRAGONBORN's DLC, and second, it had Danny Trejo.  How can you lose, right?
The CGI lava was hilarious, the plotline made no sense whatsoever - the cannibals of the Donner Party were swallowed by the mountain's evil spirits and then came back to life with the volcano blew its top?  Trejo only had a bit part, as an old Indian shaman narrating the tale to his grandkids.  There was one photographer/blogger whose sole function was to take of her clothes to do nude selfies in front of a volcano that is about to blow, then get eaten by zombies - and the drama between the characters was so cheesy as to be ridiculous!  All told, this was pure bad movie gold.  Andrew really ought to review it when he has time!

4/5

[JaseSF]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011): Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a troubled young, possibly autistic boy struggling with the recent death of his father in the 9/11 World Trade Center Tragedy, goes on a search for answers when he finds a mysterious key amongst his father's belongings which sends him on a journey to uncover what it unlocks. This is similar to adventures of discovery which he father would send him on in the past, a game between the two of them. Along the way, he meets many people from all walks of life and learns more about their stories while struggling to make sense of his own.

This was a terrific film. I was really surprised by how good this one really is. Horn steals the show with his fantastic performance while Sandra Bullock offers good support as his concerned mother and Max von Sydow is great as the mysterious "renter" who lives with his grandmother and who claims he cannot talk. A very moving film that subject matter saddens deeply but yet has great moments of joy and wonder as well. Recommended. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Trevor]

I watched Nimrod Antal's Vacancy early this morning: that's two hours of my life I won't get back. 

[Trevor]

Lost Horizon (The 1973 version that everybody hates) - This had a pretty decent if hard to fathom concept: people's plane crashes and they end up in Shangri La: a utopian community in the Mongolian mountains or something somewhere. You go through a cave to get to it. Once they get there unfortunately it's kind of boring and the songs don't help.  It reminded me of "Song of Russia" the WW2 era "we're working with the commies now" propaganda movie. They don't really sell you on the idea that this place is worth giving up the life outside for. One of the Shangri la ians girls is pretty but she's constantly fully covered. Liv Ulman isn't that attractive, the boyfriend guy looks like one of the puppets from that British sci fi show and everything is just way too 70's, socialist, and uneventful.

and it's 2+ hours long. yeah I'd say pass 2.5 /5

decent idea, drab execution, music mostly got in the way. waste of what looks like a decent budget

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lost-horizon-1973

 

I saw that forty one years ago when I was six: I hated it and told my folks that it was silly. A bad movie fan at six? Yessir. 

[claws]

THE BEYOND (1981): A young woman inherits a hotel that---oops!---was built over one of the seven gates of hell. Inept and absurd gory horror with lots of eyeball trauma and some unintentional humor. Hard to rate; I'd suggest 3/5 for this board, though some may love it.

As far as ridiculous euro horror goes I think The Beyond is one of the best out there. You get more or less genuine bloody gross out chills and thrills with more or less awkward European unintentional funny cheese. A perfect blend in my opinion, and one of Lucio Fulci's greatest achievements because all this is so darn entertaining. For every "Do Not Entry" there's a brilliant "silent footsteps" flashback kind of scene. A blasting Goblin soundtrack? Yes please. Ever noticed that Emily's voice has a slight unreal echo? To this day I still discover things I didn't pay much attention too before.
Count me in as someone who loves The Beyond 

[Trevor]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011): Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a troubled young, possibly autistic boy struggling with the recent death of his father in the 9/11 World Trade Center Tragedy, goes on a search for answers when he finds a mysterious key amongst his father's belongings which sends him on a journey to uncover what it unlocks. This is similar to adventures of discovery which he father would send him on in the past, a game between the two of them. Along the way, he meets many people from all walks of life and learns more about their stories while struggling to make sense of his own.

This was a terrific film. I was really surprised by how good this one really is. Horn steals the show with his fantastic performance while Sandra Bullock offers good support as his concerned mother and Max von Sydow is great as the mysterious "renter" who lives with his grandmother and who claims he cannot talk. A very moving film that subject matter saddens deeply but yet has great moments of joy and wonder as well. Recommended. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

Because my birthday falls on 9/11, I have never seen this nor any other film based on the horrors of that day. I started to watch World Trade Center and couldn't finish it.  

[Rev. Powell]

THE BEYOND (1981): A young woman inherits a hotel that---oops!---was built over one of the seven gates of hell. Inept and absurd gory horror with lots of eyeball trauma and some unintentional humor. Hard to rate; I'd suggest 3/5 for this board, though some may love it.

As far as ridiculous euro horror goes I think The Beyond is one of the best out there. You get more or less genuine bloody gross out chills and thrills with more or less awkward European unintentional funny cheese. A perfect blend in my opinion, and one of Lucio Fulci's greatest achievements because all this is so darn entertaining. For every "Do Not Entry" there's a brilliant "silent footsteps" flashback kind of scene. A blasting Goblin soundtrack? Yes please. Ever noticed that Emily's voice has a slight unreal echo? To this day I still discover things I didn't pay much attention too before.
Count me in as someone who loves The Beyond 

I'm shocked at the love this gets from people I respect. I thought it was somewhat enjoyable bad movie, but no classic. I'll be writing it up soon so I will watch it again and think about it harder.