Recent viewings

[Torgo]

THE KING OF KONG: A Fistful of Quarters   **** out of ****

The best documentary that I've seen in quite some time.  I'm an old school gamer myself but nowhere even remotely close to the  level that a lot of the guys in this movie are.   Steve Wiebe's family seems really cool BTW.  He's actually  someone that you can really get behind in this flick in his quest to prove himself the king of the game Donkey Kong by breaking Billy Mitchell's long standing 1982 record on the game.  Billy Mitchell BTW I had heard of before when he played the 1st perfect game of Pac-Man back in 1999. I just didn't realize that he was as big of a pompous narcissistic jerk as he was in real life.  This is definitely a case where truth is stranger than any fiction.

[Rev. Powell]

THE DEAD ZONE: High school English teacher Christoper Walken falls into coma while sporting an awful bowl haircut, and wakes five years later with a slightly better haircut.  Oh, and the ability to tell ironically tragic futures. A nicely doomed performance by a bedraggled Walken and a strong finish make this psychological horror loom in the memory longer than it perhaps deserves.  3 of 5

FIVE EASY PIECES: Nicholson mesmerizes as a musical prodigy who seems to prefer the life of a drifter in this subtle meditation on talent squandered---or on the tragic inability of talent alone to secure happiness. Angry, angsty and extremely literate, it's far more than a memorable chicken-salad joke.  5 of 5.

BLOODLUST (MST3K version): The main film is another uninspired MOST DANGEROUS GAME ripoff, with a Vincent Price wannabe and his gang of "counter workers from Long John Silvers" using a teenaged Mike Brady and his friends for crossbow target practice on a deserted island.  The gangs riffing makes it barely watchable.  The host segments are nothing special either: Tom psychoanalyzes Crow, Dr. Forrester receives a visit from his mother in Deep 13 (she's more interested in tequila shooters with TV's Frank), and the three sketches involving a veggie stand, a square dance and a murder mystery dinner theater go nowhere.  Not one of the premier episodes. 3 of 5.       

[Killer Bees]

The Marsh with Gabrielle Anwar.

This movie was good in principle.  A children's writer suffers from recurring nightmares which are getting worse.  She takes a break at an old house in the country surrounded by a marsh where scary supernatural stuff starts happening. She has to figure out why.

I was very disappointed with this movie.  It was slow and cumbersome and Anwar looked like she had taken a very high dose of sedatives and botox.  She moved around the movie like she was in a trance and her facial expression didn't change.  Even when spooky stuff started happening, she didn't blink.  Talk about phoning in a performance.

I got the feeling that there were scenes cut out that shouldn't have been because the story forced you to imply things that you really had no way of knowing if you were 100% correct or not.  The assumptions I made fit in with the story, but I could have come up with any number of them and still been right.

The ending was satisfactory, but there was no twist and no "ahhh!" moment were things finally click into place.  I found out and then thought "where did I put my knitting again?"

The special effects were well done and there were some moments that made me jump, but on the whole it was a good story that wasn't told well.

[Killer Bees]

Creep

Excellent British film from the maker of Severance, Christopher Smith.

Kate (Franka Potente) is a German girl in London who goes to the underground to catch a train home after a party.  But she falls asleep on the platform and gets locked in.  She then finds herself in nightmare with something nasty after her and she has to stay alive until morning when the underground opens for business again.

Really great creepy atmospheric movie.  Right up there with Dog Soldiers, Severence, 28 Days Later etc.

Highly recommend it.

[moman]

Watched Night of the Living Dead yesterday, think I'm gonna watch Slither tonight.

[HappyGilmore]

Bride of Chucky- Pretty decent sequel in the Child's Play franchise, and definitely a step up from Child's Play 3.  By the fourth flick, they pretty much needed to add the humor, because, in my opinion at least, killer dolls only go so far in the 'fear' department.

[Oldskool138]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow **** out of *****

Am I the only person who likes this movie?  It's pure fun and has an old school sci-fi plot.  Sure, it's all green screen and CGI but it never pretends to be anything but what it is.  I wish they would have made a trilogy or series of Sky Captain movies....Oh well, at least I have one.

[Torgo]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow **** out of *****

Am I the only person who likes this movie?  It's pure fun and has an old school sci-fi plot.  Sure, it's all green screen and CGI but it never pretends to be anything but what it is.  I wish they would have made a trilogy or series of Sky Captain movies....Oh well, at least I have one.

 I saw this one originally in theaters and I also subsequently purchased the DVD later on.

Very underrated IMO.  I enjoyed the hell out of it as well.

[indianasmith]

Maybe it was because I watched it while really, really tired, but I got little out of it.  The scenery was beautiful, but I couldn't make head nor tail of the plot . . . .

[Oldskool138]

Maybe it was because I watched it while really, really tired, but I got little out of it.  The scenery was beautiful, but I couldn't make head nor tail of the plot . . . .

Give it another shot.  It's a fun action adventure movie with great production design.  It's the type of film Lucas and Spielberg forgot how to make.

[Pilgermann]

I watched Fistful of Dollars for the first time yesterday, and it was pretty darn good.  Earlier today I watched Four of the Apocalypse which wasn't quite so good, but it's unique enough to watch if you're into Spaghetti Westerns.  I plan on watching For a Few Dollars More tonight.

[Killer Bees]

Watched Night of the Living Dead yesterday, think I'm gonna watch Slither tonight.

Slither kicks arse!        

[asimpson2006]

Since I haven't posted in three weeks, since I couldn't sit, I watched some movies in my spare time and I watched quite a few.

Superman III *** out of ****

It was corny at times, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

Showgirls **** out of ****

It was so bad at times, but I just loved it though. 

Flesh Gordon * 1/2 out of ****

I watched and really couldn't stand it.  Maybe it was just all the nudity that was in the film that made me dislike so much.  I though at first I was watching a porn film by mistake.

Bully * out of ****

I agree with Indianasmith on this one.  I really ended up not liking it at all.  I got tired of seeing rape and pubic hair every 5 min and the use of the f word like it was going out of style.

Kids * 1/2 out of ****

Not as bad as Bully but still not enjoyable.  It was heavily over rated imo

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ** out of ****

It was funny how bad this film turned out, and it had such great potential.  I'm considering giving it the MST3K in the near future.  Other than that I still enjoyed it.

The Ladies Man (2000)  ** 1/2 out of ****

Another SNL skit made movie.  It was decent, but had a lot more potential.

Superbad Unrated *** 1/2 out of ****

Funniest movie that I have seen in a long while.  At times I think it could have been better, and I though there would have been some more nudity in it, but I was mistaken.

Lawnmower man 2: Jobe's War ** 1/2 out of ****
 
It was funny that they showed the lab being destroyed from the first film, but I guess they missed the part that Jobe's body becomes flat and that he took over the cyber world.  It was bad at times, but I think if Jobe would have never come in a physical body like he did, it would have probably made the film better.

Austin Powers *** out of ****

I loved the film when it came out, and it was years since I seen it last, so I had to watch it again.  It was funny in 97 and today it's still pretty good.

Austin Powers 2 ** 1/2 out of ****

Good, but not as good as the first.  Some of the jokes were funny, but some seemed forced to be done.

Tootsie **** out of ****

I enjoy Dustin Hoffman as an actor.  The cross dressing idea to get a part was very funny and I really felt like that if I didn't know that he crossed dressed as a women to get a acting part, I really would have though that his character was a women, not a many trying to be a woman.

[Killer Bees]

I just finished the first disc of Season One of Stickin' Around.

I saw this cartoon when I lived in Canada a few years ago and it was hilarious!  I didn't know it was available here so when it came in the mail I was looking forward to much enjoyment.

Alas, it was over all too quickly, but the second disc of season one should be arriving any day.

[Sister Grace]

Rambo  (2007)   ***1/2 out of ****

Sorry, Torgo, I have to admit I'm skeptical of that rating without further explanation...

I was short on time and didn't have a chance to explain.

Anyone wanting a return to the full blooded (and bloody) action flicks of days gone by will love this one. If avoids the pitfalls of the 2nd and espcially 3rd Rambo films and like Rocky Balboa it bookends the series in great fashion.

The story was well done, Stallone's performance was cold faced but nuanced when need be (well, as much as  a Rambo movies calls for), the action scenes were extremely well orchestrated and the last 30 or so minutes of the movie is gory balls to the wall action that I haven't seen like that in quite some time.

Hope that explains a bit!

This is the only time Rambo ever interested me, guess i'm just not a big fan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1hKQULa9Y
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