Recent viewings

[Alex]

The Dead Lands Sort of a New Zealand version of Apocalypto. The son is a chief is left as one of the few survivors when a rival tribe attacks. Me meets up with another survivor whose tribe was wiped out years ago and who pretty much overnight turns him a seasoned warrior before they track down the rival tribes warriors to take revenge. The whole film has a bit of an anti war message running through it with frequent short discussions on honour for warriors and what it really means but they manage to integrate it into the plot well enough that it didn't come off as being preachy.

[Rev. Powell]

FUTURAMA: THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS (2008): The Planet Express crew deals with a tear in the fabric of existence that admits a godlike being of love into our universe, while Bender joins a secret society of robots. This second Futurama movie doesn't have the elaborate plot of BENDER'S BIG SCORE, but the comedy is smoother and funnier with fewer attempts to shoehorn in cameos from every minor character in the series, leading to a better experience overall. 3.5/5 for fans.

[lester1/2jr]

A Simple Plan (1998) - Billy Joe Bob Lou or whatever his name is and Bill Paxton and their friend find a crashed plane out in the woods that has 4.4 million dollars in it. Inflation would put that at around oh I don't know 15 million ish? They are country folk so it's definitely a game changer. The "simple plan" is that one of them will hold on to it until the spring (it's winter) then they'll split it up. Unfortunately they have a hard time following the plan.

This movie was definitely kind of on the sad side. I was vaguely more in the mood to see a comedy and this was ...not very funny. Seeing people make mistake after mistake and misery mounting and people carrying around guilt is not fun in life or movies unless you are sick. Yeah it's "good" and thornton is a good actor but at what cost? Half the time I just wanted them to drop a missile on these miserable people and go watch Weekend at bernies or something.

The portrayal of your workin class folk is a little patronizing here (Not to be reverse reverse PC or something). It's authentic in some ways but I think formally speaking you need to give these sorts of characters at least some kind of wisdom otherwise it makes no sense that they'd even be alive. Bridget Fonda is okay as the guys wife but the character is kind of boring. It's not single white female Bridget theres no sort of flair or seductive thing to it she's just a housewife.

I watched it over two nights and I was a little more into it the second night. I guess I had accepted the fact that it was going to be somewhat depressing and got into the story more. It's another one of those age old dilemmas: its all well and good to be honest but what if being briefly dishonest in a way that doesn't hurt anything can give you a great advantage in life? How much do those principles really matter vs having the rest of your life be so much easier. and once the goal of an easy life is in sight who has the strength to turn around and go back to the way things were/are?

This was nearly two hours, feels like what it is: 90's, kind of a labor of love and somewhat laborious for the audience if only due to the constant contact stress I'll give it a

4/5 it was well made but not really my thing all in all. too dour and sour

[FatFreddysCat]

"Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story" (2013)

http://youtu.be/S8E1GNx8vQw
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Absorbing documentary about Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, who led a very interesting life - building a magazine empire during the sexual revolution of the 70s, battling censorship in the '80s, and sadly losing it all thanks to the radical changes in the adult entertainment biz during the 90s.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE: The experiment is a Russo-Finnish movie (the first one the crew did) about a witch who kidnaps a Finnish girl so that a village blacksmith will build her a Sampo. "Here Comes the Circus" is the short, and it gets dark. This was probably one of the very first episodes I saw when it was first broadcast, and I didn't see it all the way through; unfortunately, it did not live up to my memories. It's an above-average episode with a goofy, colorful movie and a brilliantly-riffed short, with subpar host segments: good, but not great. 3.5/5.

[Jack]

Evil Laugh (1986) - some kids go to a house to fix it up, but of course there's a murderer lurking about. This could have been a decent little slasher but they were too clever for that and had to throw in a bunch of groan-inducing "humor". Though the music montage towards the beginning was so cheesy it was kind of so-terrible-it's-hilarious. Pretty slow moving too; the characters were sort of okay but not good enough to make me want to watch several 5-10 minute conversations between them. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Life Itself" (2014)

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A touching documentary about the life and death of famed film critic Roger Ebert, who never allowed his battle with cancer to diminish his love for the movies, for his family, and for sharing them both with the world via the written word. Emotional and inspiring.

[lester1/2jr]

Jack - Decent Little Slasher is the name of my boat

The Double (2013) - twitter sized review: take the plot twist from Fight Club, add some dank "weird" atmosphere and resolve it all in no meaningful way

regular review:

Jesse Eisenberg who is some sort of person I'm supposed to know plays two roles. One is wimpy asperger's ish simon and the other one is confident James. It's kind of reverse Death of a Salesman Simon always loses and James always wins. Simon works hard at his job but, because he doesn't have any self confidence, people walk all over him if they even notice him and his life is miserable. Enter James who doesn't do any work but because he's outgoing and suave everyone loves him and his life is great. People are so swayed by James and repulsed by simon they don't even notice that look exactly the same.

Yes, it's a lot like the plot twist from Fight Club but it is interesting not to mention frustrating and realistic. The blonde love interest is cute too.

Visually, it's dank and weird (a la Th Dark Backward) to no particular end. Why couldn't it take place in a regular office? I didn't mind it per say but it didn't add a lot or feel essential. I don't think they exactly knew what to make of the information they presented either. Why do people hate the one guy and love the other one so much. They do play with the issue in funny and smart ways though.

3.75/ 5 not hugely recommended but if you get stuck watching it does have a compelling hook which is more than I can say for a lot of these talking pictures

  

[JaseSF]

Adjust Your Tracking (2013): A documentary examining the underground culture of modern day VHS collectors - including those who refuse to leave the format behind, and those who see it still offers a lot (of supposed hidden treasures) that cannot be found elsewhere.

I enjoyed this although I wasn't too surprised by a lot of the revelations. I lived through the rise and fall of the format (and I'm not surprised some are discovering there are things on VHS that may well never be available in other formats). I myself was at one time a huge collector of VHS and I still own a lot even now (especially pro wrestling videos and some obscure stuff I know will never likely see release on DVD or Blu-Ray). Those who provide insight do come across as a bunch that would probably fit in well on this site. Only real problem with this was there wasn't enough of it as it only ran 80 minutes. Also wasn't enough focus on the formats that have essentially replaced VHS for the most part and the biggest culprit in the fall of popularity of video stores - on-demand Internet services such as Netflix. Another thing is the primary focus here is on the horror VHS collector and there seems to me far more genres than that which aren't so readily available in other formats. Still an enjoyable watch for anyone who can relate to it. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Columbus Circle (2012): An agoraphobic shut-in named Abigail Clayton (Selma Blair), who's actually hiding a secret with regards to her true identity, finds herself drawn into an uncomfortable place when she decides to unexpectedly provide help and support to her new neighbor Lillian Hart (Amy Smart) following domestic abuse incidents with her lover Charlie Stanford (Jason Lee). However Charlie and Lillian have secrets of their own as does most every other character in this film and one character in particular is a dangerous murderer.

While this film has elements that remind one of Hitchcock, it lacks that level of craftsmanship. It never fully delivers the level of bite or edge one would really like. Also some things here are problematic to buy into particularly for an agoraphobic character to achieve. That said, the cast here is surprisingly enjoyable in performing their roles and there's so many twists and turns that keep your interest well through that this proves more watchable than I initially expected. ***1/4 out of ***** stars.

That Awkward Moment (2014): Jason (Zac Efron), Daniel (Miles Tiller), and Mikey (Michael B. Jordan), a trio of best friends make a pact to stay single guys and continue having fun living the single life. The only problem is all three of them inevitably end up with women in their lives who might just be the right choice for a possible serious relationship.

This is like a romantic comedy aimed more towards an audience of males. This makes this one seem a bit unusual in that regard. Initially this seems like it's going to follow a different path than usual for movies of this type (with offensive jokes more likely to appeal to certain males, guys acting like jerks and a***oles) but in the end, it follows the typical, predictable rom-com pattern. There's some fun moments here and there with this one and Imogen Poots and MacKenzie Davis provide good support as Jason and Daniel's love interests Ellie and Chelsea. Only partly succeeds as in many ways, it's hard to buy into these guys really changing long term. *** out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988) - This doesn't try to compete with the original Return and that's good because it can't. The original was a total awesome masterpiece. This follow up is basically good for talking over about how good the first one was.

To say this is lighter would be an understatement: it's essentially a comedy, most likely made in hopes that Return fans would rent it. One of the barrels w/ the gas and a zombie in it falls off a truck and the same stuff happens is the plot. Nothing scary and there's no emotional investment in if this guy or that guy becomes a zombie at all. It's all played for laughs and mild action.

The special effects are okay and there seems to have been a relatively decent budget. The little kid who plays the lead is good its always funny seeing little kids kill zombies and swear and stuff. It's R but could easily be PG 13. Overall it has a decent "we know this is crappy" late night atmosphere that while not good enough to be actually good is likely good enough for some. even at this straight to video cheap o level it could have used a little more inspiration though. Instead it's mainly a lot of wisecracks though I did like when the zombies went to the pet store.

2.5/ 5

not as good as King Frat the directors earlier effort. no fart contests take place

[Jack]

The Wrecking Crew (2008) - documentary about the group of 15-30 of the most elite studio musicians who played and basically created all the hit songs from the '50s and '60s, right around the time of the birth of rock 'n' roll. As Nancy Sinatra said, they wouldn't record the album until this group of musicians was available. They were usually given fairly basic sheet music and it was their job not only to play it, but to create all the parts that would transform it into a hit song. Lots of amusing anecdotes, like Peter Tork from the monkees showing up at the studio with his guitar, expecting to start work on the album, only to be told it was already done and they just needed him for background vocals. Or one of the guys from The Byrds saying that on their first album, the studio musicians recorded two songs (including Mr. Tambourine Man) in three hours. Then on their second album, which they didn't use studio musicians for, it took them 77 takes to get one song recorded.

Started out kind of slow but after the first half hour it picked up nicely. Would have been much more entertaining for someone ten or twenty years older than me who grew up with that music, but I still enjoyed it. 4/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched THE TOOLBOX MURDERS 2.  A masked killer with a hideously deformed face kidnaps a girl and holds her prisoner for the entire movie, forcing her to watch as he kills people, making her sleep with dead bodies, and feeding her human flesh.  At one point he cuts her hand off and cauterizes the stump with a blowtorch.  The killer never talks, so it's hard to figure out his motives.  It's just gore and torture for the sake of gore and torture and I didn't like it much.  2/5

[lester1/2jr]

Ida (2013) - Anna is a nice nun in a black and white Polish movie with a nice relaxed pace, not much dialogue and nice photography. I don't know who Ida is.

Apparently, during The Holocaust Anna's parents were killed and she was brought to a convent where she was raised. An aunt of hers has informed her that the two of them are going to find her parents bodies and they begin a road trip sort of thing to do this. It's odd that she has the power to do this but she's a beaurocrat of some sort in commie Poland so I guess it makes sense. Along the way Anna sees that her aunt has a somewhat decadent lifestyle and sees ...stuff for the first time she's never left the convent before. The world... yadda yadda

I liked the spare dialogue, Anna is very pretty ,and she made a good team with the worldly somewhat grizzled aunt. The dialogue was so spare, however, that I wasn't totally clear on two major plot movements in the second half. Why are they doing these things? am I supposed to guess? a good movie but once you get by the whole kind of goth thing of a nun in black and white sharing the screen with whiskey and cigarettes and so forth, I think it leaves a little too much unanswered as far as the plot. I liked it better than A Simple Plan though because there was a pretty girl in it and it I didn't have to watch hillbillies arguing in the woods, so I need to give it a higher score.

4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Roadracers" (1994)

http://youtu.be/zyoUwOeHJXI
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Robert "Machete" Rodriguez directed this better-than-expected made-for-cable ode to '50s drag racing B-movies. David Arquette camps it up big time as a tough guy rebel-without-a-cause type who chain smokes, drives fast, plays loud rock and roll, and rumbles with crooked cops and rival hot rodders while romancing a smokin' hot Salma Hayek (lucky bastard). Lots of retro flavored fun!!

[Rev. Powell]

I don't know who Ida is.

That's Anna's birth name.