Recent viewings

[HappyGilmore]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of The Ooze- Turtles are homeless, living with April.  Shredder returns, finds out about the mutagen that transformed the turtles and steals the last cannister, hoping to use it to create new mutants.  A series of battles ensues, with Vanilla Ice rapping a song and Shredder using the ooze on himself to grow about 3 feet, bringing his height to like, 7'.  Overall a good movie.

[JaseSF]

The Kid (1921): Charlie Chaplin is a Tramp in this one who suddenly finds himself unexpectedly saddled with the unwanted responsibility of looking after an orphaned child. At first resistant to such an idea, the Tramp eventually comes to love and appreciate the child's happy presence in his life, an otherwise dark and dreary existence. However things get complicated when the child's birth mother comes looking for him.

This enjoyable comedy romp also has lots of drama and delivers not only laughs but gut-wrenching sad moments and delightfully happy ones. This isn't just comedic silliness but deals with real world serious issues such as poverty demonstrating how love can surpass most any bounds and/or limitations. Jackie Coogan as the five-year old version of the kid is an absolute delight and plays off of Charlie and his Tramp character wonderfully. Just a terrific job from a young talent who never once becomes annoying or irritating to the viewing audience as so many children in films often seem to do. *** out of ***** stars.

[threnody]

Shock (1946)

Vincent Price plays a psychiatrist named Dr. Cross who, in the beginning, has a fight with his wife and kills her with a blow to the head. This takes place in a hotel room. A young woman named Janet Stewart is waiting for her husband in her suite because she hasn't seen him in years, and she witnesses the murder on a balcony. She goes into shock and collapses with her eyes wide open. Her husband comes in the next day to find her in that state and calls a doctor. The doctor confesses that there's nothing he can do, so he recommends a psychiatrist. Dr. Cross is called in and discovers that she may have seen him kill his wife. She is sent to his sanitarium and left to his mercy. He is having an affair with another woman named Elaine, and Elaine finds out about the witness, Janet, so she starts putting pressure on Dr. Cross in a way that reminded me of Lady Macbeth. Will he become a tragic hero, or will he avoid punishment?

It was a good movie. My copy wasn't the best quality, but I'm happy that I saw it. It wasn't scary, but it was thrilling. If you like the story of Macbeth, you will probably enjoy this one.

[threnody]

Invisible Ghost (1941)

Charles Kessler's wife is supposably dead, but sometimes at night he sees her outside the window and it makes him insane. Through his insanity he is driven to commit murder. There have been several murders in his house over the years, and he is oblivious as to who's the killer. He genuinely wants to find the culprit, and because he doesn't know it's himself, an innocent man is tried and hanged. Charles Kessler is played by Bela Lugosi.

It's almost comical when he goes insane. His eyes bug out, his arms become outstretched and he shambles towards his next victim. Strangling is always the preferred method of homicide. If your arms are outstretched anyway, why not use them? I found that highly amusing. Despite the madness, the viewer is set up to sympathize with Mr. Kessler. He may have been a murderer, but he was the last one to find out about it. It's tragic.

One of my favorite characters was Evans the Butler, played by Clarence Muse. I admired him for telling his story about Ralph Dickson and the maid. It was the right thing to do. I like how he was treated so well by the family. That is probably what kept him alive for so long. The other two victims seemed to have it coming. Had Mr. Kessler killed Evans or his daughter, the ending would have been less tragic in a way. Perhaps it would have been a different, convoluted kind of tragedy. I am thankful that they kept up the simplicity.

It was an interesting film. Bela Lugosi's performance was quite good, despite being comical at times. The warmth and feeling coming from his character when the insanity was absent made me smile.

[HappyGilmore]

School Of Rock- Jack Black is hilarious in this movie.  He basically gets kicked out of his band right before a battle of the bands, and takes the opportunity to teach at a school so he could get the kids to be his 'band.'  Cute movie.

Little Nicky- Adam Sandler is Nicky, the 'nice' son of the devil, played by Harvey Keitel.  Rodney Dangerfield is Lucifer, Reese Witherspoon is his mom, an angel in Heaven.  Not a lot of people seem to like it, but I thought it was downright hilarious.  The cameos include Carl Weathers (reprising his Happy Gilmore character), Quinten Tarantino, Henry Winkler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Rob Schneider.

Spy Hard- 1996 movie with Leslie Nielsen as a spy, who's long thought dead enemy, played by Andy Griffith, returns with no arms and kidnaps an agent of the government.  I felt it was a pretty decent flick.  Might not have compared to Naked Gun or Airplane, but Leslie carries the flick and is pretty hilarious in it.  Hard to believe he started off doing drama and horror flicks.  Plus, I loved the cameos by Weird Al Yankovic and Hulk Hogan, as well as Mr. T and Ray Charles.

[JaseSF]

Long John Silver (1954): "Argh! A Land Lubber I'll Never Be!!"

Robert Newton returns once again to his famous role from TREASURE ISLAND, that of Long John Silver. Once more he chews the scenery with gusto and is just grand fun to watch in this particular role any time you can catch him.

This time Long John sets out to save young Jim Hawkins (played by Kit Taylor who sadly doesn't possess the memorable screen presence that his predecessor Bobby Driscoll put into the role) from a cutthroat pirate named "El Toro" Mendoza (Lloyd Berrell) but also added into the mix are a slightly more memorable crew of pirates following after Long John's lead and Long John's frequently comedic interactions with his main squeeze Purity Pinker (Connie Gilchrist), who has her eyes firmly set on marriage and settling down the old sea Captain. Things become truly adventurous when the band of pirates set out for a return to Treasure Island and meet up with some most unexpected surprises and obstacles along the way.

In many ways, this unofficial sequel to the classic Walt Disney film, has a more gritty, real down to Earth feel about it although it really adds little new to the mix. Still any boy who ever dreamed of pirates and searching for lost treasure should find much to enjoy here. Great fun overall, Newton is just a pure delight to watch in this entertaining, surprisingly well-written and executed boys fantasy brought to life. *** out of ***** stars.

The Scarlet Letter (1934): In 1642 Puritan America, a woman named Hester Prynne (Colleen Moore) is forced to wear a mark of shame, a Scarlet Letter "A" on her chest after being found guilty of adultery after bearing a child two years after her husband disappeared thought lost at sea. The truth is known to only two others, the town's beloved Reverand Dimmesdale (Hardie Albright) who happens to be in reality secretly the child's father and Hester's returned husband Dr. Roger Chillingworth (Henry B. Walthall), who assumes that identity rather than be shamed by a cheating wife. Chillingworth is determined to gain a measure of revenge by trying to make the lives of Hester and the Reverand as miserable as he possibly can.

While this movie may be faithful to its source material, it's overall a dreary, melodramatic bore for most of its running time. Albright's sometimes hammy performance as Dimmesdale seems particularly overdone. Moore does try as Hester Prynne but ultimately the role proves fairly plain, simple and unmemorable overall. Only those comedic bits featuring Alan Hale and William Kent added here and there to lighten the mood makes this the least bit viewable at all.  ** out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

SUBLIME (2007): A man goes into a hospital for a routine colonoscopy, and wakes up with strange scars, drugged out of his mind on morphine, and having difficulty distinguishing reality from paranoid fantasy.  Slightly more misses than hits in this direct-to-DVD psychological horror.  2/5.

FANTASY MISSION FORCE (1982): A ragtag band of conmen and criminals fights through the wilds of Canada to rescue captured general Abraham Lincoln and comrades from the Japanese.  This jaw dropping intentional kung fu comedy features Jakie Chan and Brigitte Lin, and moves seamfully from musical numbers to rejected Benny Hill skits to capture by a tribe of Amazons wielding bolts of brightly colored cloth to a haunted house inhabited by hopping vampires and disembodied hands offering rolls of toilet paper to a demolition derby where all of the characters except Chan and his girlfriend are killed in operatically tragic and bloody fashion by Japanese Nazis.  The review by Max Gardner is pretty accurate. A pulp surrealism classic filmed in some previously unknown movie universe at the conjunction of the Shaw Brothers, Luis Bunuel and the Three Stooges.   5/5.

CATALINA CAPER (MST3K version):  A very fun season 2 episode.  The feature film is a beach party comedy with some sort of stolen scroll serving as the brain dead MacGuffin.  The real plot is the tasty chickees in sixties bikinis gyrating provocatively ("this is the kind of padding I like!", Crow observes) to the music of a squiniting Little Richard ("I see a promising young artists who's hepped up on goofballs!" Joel remarks) and far less talented rock n' roll bands.  Host segments include Joel's nostalgic/bitter diatribe about the sixties; Tom Servo's lovesick doo-wop ballad dedicated to the mysterious "Creepy Girl"; and a Tupperware party hosted by Frank, with mole people Sylvia and Jerry as the guests.  Sci-fi and horror films can be easy to mock, so its lots of fun to see the gang stretching by taking on an extremely inept beach comedy.  5/5.

[Torgo]

THE ORPHANAGE   **** out of ****
Terrifice Spanish ghost story.  Don't want to say too much about it other than anyone who likes a great ghost story should seek this one out.

TOTAL RECALL  ***1/2 out of ****
One of Paul Verhoeven's best movies and also one of AHNOLD's best flicks as well.  Sharon Stone is great and the movie manages to be ultra violent and nihilistic while also being thoughT provoking at the same time.  The effects are great throughout.

[Killer Bees]

Beavis and Butthead Do America

I haven't seen this for a loooong time.  I'd forgotten how gut bustingly funny it is.  Great little story about the guys going on an epic trip across the good ol' US of A to find their stolen TV.

One of my favourite comedies and well worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.

[HappyGilmore]

Beavis and Butthead Do America

I haven't seen this for a loooong time.  I'd forgotten how gut bustingly funny it is.  Great little story about the guys going on an epic trip across the good ol' US of A to find their stolen TV.

One of my favourite comedies and well worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.

Great movie.  I love it.  Also love the fact that Greg Kinnear, David Letterman, Bruce Willis and Rob Zombie are involved in it, as well as Robert Stack.

[threnody]

La Sirène du Mississipi (1969)

Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Louis Mahé, a rich tobacco plantation owner. He asks a woman to marry him who he's never met before. They converse through the mail. Catherine Deneuve plays the woman, supposably named Julie Roussel. Louis Mahé finds that something is amiss. Julie isn't telling the entire truth. He stupidly puts his name on both her bank accounts. This film is full of clichés, and sometimes that doesn't bother me, but in this case it made it even more boring. It's entirely in French, though I think it made it more interesting. Had it been in English I probably would have turned it off sooner.

[HappyGilmore]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3- Decent sequel, which features time travel and equal mass replacement (basically, whoever holds the magic scepter in the past, and is of equal proportions to somebody of the present, switches, or something to that effect.)  So April gets transported from 1993 New York to feudal Japan, and the Emperor's son is transported to 1993.  So the Turtles have their friend Casey babysit Splinter and they head back to feudal Japan, and in turn, send 4 honor guards to New York.  My favorite part is Casey showing the Honor Guards hockey on tv, and he puts on a goalie mask and attempts to play with them, but all they do is fight, cause that's what they saw on tv.

[Torgo]

To Die For  (1994)  ***1/2 out of ****.
Nicole Kidman at her most drop dead sexiest as well as turning in an Oscar worthy performance. The movie is very darkly funny and the pseudo documentary type approach in parts of the movie ( in regards to the interviews of certain characters) actually adds to the proceedings nicely.

[Shadow]

D-War aka Dragon Wars - What a complete and beautiful mess. Giant monsters, ancient prophecies, otherworldly armies, terrible dialog, bad acting and not a single lick of sense.. I loved it!

[Killer Bees]

Watched Eragon last night.  Quite a nice little film.  Jeremy Irons, as always, is a pleasure to watch.  A lot of people make parallels between this and Lord of the Rings, like this is a rip off or something.

Of course there will be similarities but that is natural when the times and societies are similar.  The acting was well done, the dragon was kick arse and the bad guys were really ugly and evil and needed killing.

John Malkovich plays the evil king effortlessly.  He doesn't even have to try hard and you just want to punch him.  But such is his talent I guess.

All in all a film worth a look-see if you want a decent well paced adventure story that you can just enjoy for it's own sake.