Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

A SNAKE OF JUNE (2002): The first half in an erotic drama in which a sexually repressed woman is blackmailed into living out her exhibitionistic fantasies by a stalker; the second half is a surrealistic continuation of the story, now seen from the perspective of her husband and of the stalker. An interesting, and sometimes frustrating, arty experiment from the director behind TETSUO: THE IRON MAN. 3/5.

[Jim H]

Howl - a British werewolf film!  Woo.  Oh, and it's got competent pacing and good creature effects and design.  That puts it head and shoulders over 90% of werewolf films, sadly, but it's still let down by irritating characters, flaky motivations, unbelievably stupid character decisions, and not enough payoff.  Would have worked better as a 30 minute short, but still watchable..   5/10.

An interesting, and sometimes frustrating, arty experiment from the director behind TETSUO: THE IRON MAN. 3/5.

Funny, I think that sums up almost all of Tsukamoto's films after the original Tetsuo: The Iron Man that I've seen, including the two sequels.  I want to love his films, but they're a bit too artsy and overlong and slow - aside from the original Tetsuo, which I love.

[Rev. Powell]

With you on Tsukamoto, Jim---he's been interesting but he never recaptured TETSUO's magic.

BLACK COBRA 3: THE MANILA CONNECTION (1990): A Chicago detective (Fred "the Hammer" Williamson) is called to the Philippines to help a couple of Interpol agents track down a missing shipment of missiles. I don't know how they managed it, but the plot is totally predictable and completely confusing at the same time. A generous 2.5/5 for bad action movie fans.

[Rev. Powell]

THE SHAPE OF THINGS (2003): A nerdy security guard falls for an anarchic art student (whose idea of performance art includes defacing Renaissance statues); she encourages him to change his appearance and dress, increasing his confidence---but is she really good for him? Directed by Neil LaBute (just before his WICKER MAN disaster) from his own play. I saw the ending coming from miles away, but I let it slide because I approve of LaBute's not-so-subtle attack on the postmodern art scene. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Frozen River - I thought this was going to be about people being trapped on some ice in a frozen river but it's actually a Winter's Bone-ish tale of hardscrabble flyover country existence. I was initially disappointed that people weren't going to be turned into human popsicles and menaced by bears but once I settled in it was pretty good. It certainly could have used a little comic relief and maybe some...I don't know music or something it's like really bleak. Imagine Winter's Bone with Susan Sarandon wearing no makeup instead of J Law and you get the idea. The story also takes a few cues from "Nickel and Dimed" I don't know if anyone remembers that book it was big a few years ago.

4/5 certainly healthy but could have been a little tastier in a places. more than I'll ever contribute to the human race though thats for sure

edit: how many points should I take off for this goof?

[Rev. Powell]

GREEN EYES (1934): A rich old codger is murdered at a costume party; the cops try to solve the case while a raffish mystery novelist shadows them making snide comments. A competent B-movie mystery with a surprisingly amoral (pre-code) ending. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (2005): Centers around a struggling performance artist who develops a crush on a recently-separated shoe salesman with two biracial boys; the movie takes time to explore incidents in the lives of their neighbors and co-workers (including frank incidents of adolescent sexual experimentation). There are a lot of quirky indie dramedy cliches in the overall scheme of Miranda July's debut film, but each individual scene is so well written---like a series of mini-short stories, each with its own climax---that it ultimately feels fresh and original. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Frankenstein created Woman - No, he created ONE woman. She's pretty cute though, as these Hammer ladies tend to be. I wouldn't say this was an A list Hammer movie but it's an interesting B level one.  I liked how Dr Frankenstein himself was sort of in the background and not all "they'll regret laughing at me at that symposium thing I will make them pay!!!" He's the most laid back and casual Dr Frank I can think of. in general it's a pretty decent and original variation on ye olde Frankstein tale if you can get past the slowish, not very horrory first part.

3.75/ 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Silver Hawk" (2004)

http://youtu.be/cLDXuAZcm0U
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This Hong Kong action flick is kinda like an Asian "Batgirl." Miss Lulu Wong (Michelle Yeoh) is a glamorous fashion model by day, but when her city needs help she changes into a motorcycle ridin', butt kickin' kung-fu super hero called Silver Hawk. Silly as hell, but loaded with lotsa fancy stunt work and impressive martial arts fight scenes.

[lester1/2jr]

Day of Wrath (1943) - I have to admit this is more up my alley than Frankenstein invented women or whatever it was I saw the other night. A medieval witch hunter/ priest guy has a hot young wife. He saved her mother from being burnt at the stake for the sole purpose of having her as his wife but he doesn't even have sex with her so who knows what his deal is. His son who is the wife's age shows up and this causes tension between everyone (including his b***h mother who lives with them and scowls at everybody).

This resembles fellow Criterion alum Ingmar Bergman stuff like the Virgin Spring but instead of amazing cinematography theres Adrian Lyne type sexual tension and The Crucible type religious scariness and hypocrisy.  deep, engrossing and subversive even moreso in 1943 I'm sure

5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Q: The Winged Serpent" (1982)

Summoned by an ancient ritual, a giant winged Aztec serpent God arrives in New York City, takes up residence atop the Chrysler Building and begins snacking on unlucky Manhattanites. Fortunately, the NYPD - led by David "Kung Fu" Carradine - are up to the monster destroyin' task.
Larry ("It's Alive") Cohen's tongue-in-cheek cult classic creature feature looks like it was made on a budget of six bucks and a broken cracker but it gets great mileage out of its gritty early '80s New York locations and its charmingly cheap-n-cheesy monster effects.

[claws]

Satan's Triangle (1975)

Following a distress call coast guards in a helicopter spot a seemingly abandoned ship in the ocean. While investigating one female survivor is found, and also two dead bodies: a priest hanging upside down from a pole and a floating (!) corpse in the cargo area. Due to unfortunate events the woman and the coast guard are forced to stay on the boat until another rescue team arrives. Time enough for the woman to tell what the hell went on...

Satan's Triangle easily managed to give me the creeps. This scary TV movie deserves more attention. It might not be in the same cult league as "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" or "Trilogy of Terror" but its pretty close. 4.5/5

[claws]

Punk Vacation (1990)

A young Cop in love with Lisa who works at her father's diner is confronted with harsh reality when a group of Punks on vacation kill Lisa's father. The Punks hide out on a abandoned farm, and Lisa takes matters into her own hands - equipped with a gun she wants to avenge the death of her father, but she is captured by the Punks before she can do any real harm. Now its up to Lisa's Cop boyfriend to come to her rescue.

Odd "Punkploitation" first released to video in the early 1990s by Raedon, who was specialized in putting out obscure exploitation Indie flicks on VHS. Punk Vacation might be one of the "better" Raedon releases (though my favorite still is Dead Girls) as it has "cult" written all over. Genre label Vinegar Syndrome saw the potential Punk Vacation had to offer and released it to Blu-ray. PV is filled with offbeat characters, and ocassionally making the bad Punks appear sympathetic. There's some mild violence, the action pretty much drags and they only play one Punk song. Anyway, this was probably one of the most dullest but still somewhat entertaining movies seen recently. Rating: 2/5

[Rev. Powell]

SHAOLIN TEMPLE [AKA SEVEN SPIRIT PAGODA] (1976): In an unspecified time in ancient China, the prince is poisoned in a coup attempt, and it falls upon two sisters to protect him and to pass the trials required by Shaolin monks to prove worthy of the antidote. Not much sense to the plot and the action is very backloaded, not really kicking in until the sisters show up in the final half. Despite the misleading title, do not confuse this Taiwanese knockoff with the Shaw Brothers' 1976 SHAOLIN TEMPLE or 1982's SHAOLIN TEMPLE starring Jet Li, both of which are said to be greatly superior. 2/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Key Largo - I first saw this at the Boston public Library that had free showings of movies. I used to stop studying and go watch them. I didn't really remember anything from this though. It's good though the dialogue while good for it's time I'm sure might strike some as slightly unrealistic. These gangsters giving these sololiquies and being clever and so forth. It works don't get me wrong, but I think a writer today would take a different approach. That said, Bogart is good, what's her name his wife Lauren Bacall is good, Edward g Robinson is good and despite the large amount of talking in the same room it's entertaining.

4.5/ 5 I don't know exactly how it could have been a 5 but maybe the story itself just isn't all that amazing? It's just people being held captive by a guy.
 

also saw Dollar Dizzy (1930) - I had never seen Charley Chase before. It's obvious why he's not as famous or remembered as Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, his style is more straightforward and less unique, but it was still awesome. The humor is very much like a bugs Bunny cartoon. One motif in this one is him picking girls up, physically, and then dropping them. They are all after his money i won't explain it but it's funny when he does in part because you know it's coming.

All the nostalgia and so forth is nice but one unexpected delight was Thelma Todd, who is actually really hot and also funny and a good sport about being thrown across the room and what more can you ask for really. only a half hour long and the whole scenerio is unlikely, silly, and stretched in the best possible way. pre code so there are a couple of very very mildly risque jokes wow

5/5