Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Atari: Game Over" (2015)

Atari Game Over Trailer

Video game nerds descend on a landfill in Alamagordo, New Mexico (where Atari allegedly trashed several million unsold "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" game cartridges, and other games & hardware, just before going out of business) and start digging to find out if the fabled "Great Cartridge Dumping of 1983" legend is actually true. Fun stuff.

[Jack]

Devil's Backbone Texas (2014) - some people go to a ranch in Texas which was owned by the recently deceased father of one of the guys. Dad was a reclusive guy who believed the place was haunted. And eventually our group of characters start encountering scary stuff as well. This was pretty good, the characters weren't especially likable but they were believable, and the tension did a nice slow ramp-up to a fairly exciting conclusion. The ending itself was somewhat ham-handed, but oh well. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

INNOCENCE (2004): A young girl of about 6 wakes up inside a coffin and finds herself in a strange girl's boarding school, planted in a forested park walled off from the outside world. A slow, graceful and enigmatic metaphor for childhood, not essential but so lovely that it should be seen by more people than it has been. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

The Boids (1963) - strange sounding birds, some of whom sound more like cats terrorize a sleepy California shore town. How many movies have completely and totally ripped this off? conservatively at least a thousand literally that we could sit and name.

Tippi Hedren who though she has an old lady's name is very pretty and charismatic, pursues a guy who lives in said town. She goes there and is having a good time though the birds seem weirdly aggressive. long story short we have the standard "get to know the doomed people" first part and it's sort of laid back and light and this is to to counter the agitated, unsettling second part.

Why do The Birds freak out? After all, this is decades before global warming. A drunk at the bar suggests it's The Rapture but he's just a drunk at a bar. We never find out, which is more interesting to me than the above explanations. What happens when all of the sudden our world falls apart for no reason? When everything is turned upside down and it's not because of a burglar or a disease, but from some random thing we never thought for two seconds about? There's utter panic as we attempt to adjust to a reality that makes no immediate sense.

5/5 obvs

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched LATE PHASE, a pretty interesting film in which a werewolf is killing off folks in a Florida retirement community.  A blind veteran figures out the score and goes after the hairy beast.  This was well-acted, with great effects, and some interesting plot curves.
I liked it a good bit!  4/5

[claws]

MurderLust (1985)

Tall and handsome Steve is a well respected Sunday school teacher. The rest of the week he works as a security guard. Steve has problems with women. They turn him on, but when they try to have sex he turns "limp" resulting in killing the women. Soon enough he is branded the Mojave-Killer as he dumps his victims in the desert. When Steve meets a former student with a childhood crush on him things get kind of complicated.
Rare serial killer flick with B and C-movie qualities. Steve is sort of a pathetic character, he is a malicious liar, cowardly deceitful, confident arrogant and charmingly smooth talking. He's spiteful when dumping bodies (he even urinates on a dead body) and acts like a happy child when collecting newspaper articles of his killings. Speaking of killings, they all happen mostly off screen. Acting in general is surprisingly decent, with an above average soundtrack. I guess the intention was a serial killer character study, but the lack of bloody violence makes this a somewhat underwhelming exploitation experience. 3/5

[Jack]

Stinger (2005) - a submarine was missing for two months but has recently been found - a team of soldiers and scientists is sent in to investigate and retrieve its top secret cargo.  They find all 200 crewmembers dead, killed by giant scorpions.

Actual line from the movie, after they find the entire crew torn apart:

"I need to know if there's anything on this ship that's going to endanger our lives."

Nah, ya think? This was just soooo stupid, like it was written by a 7th grader. With acting to match. And CGI that looks like a PlayStation 2 game. I don't know, maybe if you like laughing at how idiotic something is you might enjoy this. Me? Eh...1.5/5.

[major jay]

GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (1933)
It's a movie about the depression made during it's lowest point. A useless "do what's good for the party" President gets possessed by the angel Gabriel and then goes all hardcore on the situation at hand. This movie is one of a kind and kinda gives you a feel for how desperate those times must have been. (I got a real kick out of how they dealt with the gangster problem) 5/5

[lester1/2jr]

I dvred Gabriel over the White House. It has an infamous reputation in right wing circles http://politicalhat.com/2013/03/30/gabriel-over-the-white-house/

[Rev. Powell]

CAT SOUP (2001): The surreal adventures of a cartoon cat and his half-dead sister. I envy the lucky critic who was able to get to this first and dub it "Hello Kitty on acid!," although "Hello Kitty goes to Hell!" might be more accurate. Only 30 minutes long, which is perfect given the lack of plot. 4/5.

TRICKED (2013): Often horrific documentary about prostitutes forced into sex slavery by pimps. Honest, depressing, and well-intentioned, but it offers no suggestions for addressing the atrocities of human trafficking, other than the naive faith that greater awareness and outrage will somehow magically make a millennia-old problem go away. 3/5.

[JaseSF]

My Man Godfrey (1936): During the depression, rich socialites are playing a ridiculous party game leading to ditzy Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) finding a "forgotten man" in the city dump. There she finds Godfrey (William Powell), a derelict, and brings him back to the party and later hires him to be the Bullocks' new butler, seeing him as her own potential "protege" since her mother (Alice Brady) already has one in the form of would-be musician/performer Carlo (Mischa Auer). Godfrey however is no fool and has more than a few surprises in store for wacky, idle rich Bullock family.

The overall cleverness of this film's dialogue and plot is largely what makes it so engaging. Great performances from the leading cast helps as well with William Powell playing sane man in a cast of looney characters, the best of whom are Lombard as the overly dramatic Irene, Alice Brady as her even nuttier mother, Gail Patrick as her conniving, scheming sister, Eugene Pallette as their addled father, and Auer as the bizarre Carlo who basically just eats the Bullocks out of house and home and pretends to be an aspiring artist. At some point or another, Godfrey puts pretty much every character in their place and exposes to them who they really are. A great classic screwball comedy, the only real flaw here is that Gail Patrick seems to have better on-screen chemistry with Powell than does Lombard. **** out of ***** stars.

His Girl Friday (1940): Clever newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) plots and plans ways in which to entice his ex-wife, ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) away from the idea of quitting the newspaper business and settling down and marrying a dull insurance salesman named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).

Another very cleverly written madcap comedy, this too has its screwball moments. Great, crisp dialogue, the excitement of seeing Johnson pursue her story and the zaniness of Burns' plots to keep her around make this very engaging. Grant and Russell are great on screen here together, showing great energy, chemistry, and each keeping up with the other in this fast-paced, clever story. They really don't make movies quite like this anymore. Really enjoyable film from director Howard Hawks. **** out of ***** stars.

Operation Mad Ball (1957): Clever Private Hogan (Jack Lemmon) runs a grandiose scheme/plot to hold in secret a great dance/ball for the soldiers and nurses working at an army surgical hospital in France right after the end of World War II. However standing in the way of success for Hogan is the strictly by the book Captain Lock (Ernie Kovacs) who could quickly shut things down if he figures out Hogan's plan and the plans of one Colonel Rousch (Arthur O'Connell) who wants to hold a celebration for the return of his heroic brother than same night as the dance. Can Hogan and his many friends pull it off in spite of all the obstacles standing in their way? Will Hogan win the love of fair nurse Lt. Betty Bixby (Kathyrn Grant), for whom Capt. Lock also has eyes?

This was enjoyable albeit a bit predictable. Seen lots of comedies in a similar vein to this in the 50s and 60s but the cast for this one is so great and full of familiar faces (Mickey Rooney, Dick York, James Darren, Roger Smith, L.Q. Jones, William Leslie, Richard Bull, David McMahon, and more) it raises this one a notch or two in my eyes. Clever dialogue and good performances from the leads definitely help too. ***3/4 out of ***** stars.

The Frozen Ground (2013): Aging Alaskan state trooper Jack Holcombe (Nicolas Cage), with the help of escaped victim Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens), works to try and bring down notorious serial killer Robert Hansen, also known as Bob the Baker (here played by John Cusack).

This film seems pretty true to historical events and definitely adds some startling visuals with the Alaskan scenery and the ugly underbelly of street life. The performances are pretty solid here too with Cage doing a decent job, slightly better than I expected although he still comes across a little too much like Cage playing Cage at times. The best performance was actually that of Hudgens as Hansen's former victim prostitute Paulson who still seems haunted and tormented by the horrible life she's lived and is still living as things unfold in this film. Cusack is solid in the more challenging role of Hansen as well. This was a disturbing film at times but perhaps lacks a little of the bite or edge it really needed to be as startling effective as it could have been. Still a solid film based on a true story which actually proved slightly better, as a film,  than my expectation for it. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[major jay]

I dvred Gabriel over the White House. It has an infamous reputation in right wing circles http://politicalhat.com/2013/03/30/gabriel-over-the-white-house/

I gotta feeling you're gonna like this one.

[lester1/2jr]

major jay- I wish Robert Osburne and Drew Barrymore would just get a room, you know?

Antibodies (2005) - Okay German thriller that's kind of like an good episode of law and Order meets a very cut rate version of Silence of the Lambs. They even at one point make fun of themselves for how much like Silence of the Lambs it is the psycho guy goes "were you expecting Hannibal Lecter?"

A small town cop gets called in to talk to fake Hannibal Lecter. The small town cop who people call Farmer for that reason worked on a case that the psycho gyu is a suspect for. They play some cat and mouse and the Farmer has a dark spiritual journey. This is a dark, engaging par for the course sort of movie that you can watch if you want or not. it really doesn't matter

3/5

[major jay]

major jay- I wish Robert Osburne and Drew Barrymore would just get a room, you know?

Your're painting an ugly picture there lester.

[Jack]

Time Walker (1982) - some archaeologists discover a mummy hidden in a back room of King Tut's tomb and bring it back to a university in America. One of the students finds some gems in a secret compartment under the sarcophagus and gives them to various girls he knows. But then the mummy comes to life and he wants his gems back - oh oh! I liked this, there's nothing special about it but it's got a wonderfully '80s cheesy horror movie atmosphere that sucked me right in. Enjoyable stuff  4/5