Recent viewings

[Torgo]

I highly recommed the MST3K version of Tornented if you haven't seen it.

[Rev. Powell]

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005): Two members of the Firefly family of serial killers improbably escape a police raid by sneaking out the back door and go on an abduction and torture spree.  HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES was a spectacular failure, but at least you could laugh at it; the sequel is a sick, slick, soulless and pointless torture montage.  1/5.

[Jack]

Bog Creatures - some college students go out in the woods to dig up some bog bodies, of course they come to life and eventually start chasing them around a bit.  This adds some sorely needed forward momentum to the movie, but not until the last 20 minutes.  Ever get the feeling you're not watching a "real" movie?  Even Sci-Fi Originals at least seem like real movies - this thing really didn't.  A combination of bad acting, bad script, theme music that didn't set any sort of mood, camera-mounted microphones, crummy locations, boring camera work, etc.  Absolutely no effort to establish any sort of atmosphere - I mean, it's a bog, at least break out the smoke machines.  No real plot and what there was, well, don't think about it for more than 5 seconds or you'll realize it doesn't make any sense at all.  Overall a pretty weak effort. 

Die Monster Die! (1965) - A nice Gothic horror movie.  A guy goes to visit his girlfriend out in the country.  In the nearby town, everyone acts terrified at the mere mention of the place he's going to.  Once he arrives, the girlfriend's father (Boris Karloff) practically kicks him off the property, but luckily the girlfriend shows up just in time and welcomes him in.  There's strange doings at the household, the mother is apparently disfigured, the area around the house is devoid of life and all the plants are charred, and the greenhouse glows at night!  Leave it to the boyfriend to get to the bottom of it all.  Overall a pretty good film, though the big reveal isn't terribly satisfying.  The conclusion is rather exciting though.  Good performances by everyone involved, good atmosphere, somewhat disappointing plot. 

[Oldskool138]

Speed Racer (2008) - Wow!  Go out and rent this movie.  Get the Blu-Ray version if possible.  This movie is a visual treat and just an all-around good time.

First the negatives - It's a little long coming in just over 2 hours.  It's almost drags in some places but the pace is brisk and they get back to the action rather quickly.  Some people might not like the visual style and bright colors.  The hi-jinks of Spritle and Chim-Chim (Speed Racer's younger brother and his pet monkey) might annoy people but they behave much like they do in the source material...and come very close to ruining the very end of the movie.

Now the positives - The movie creates is own world and the characters and races fit into it.  The plot is reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons.  It's not complicated but it fun.  The dialog is crisp and maybe a bit hackneyed but it works in this kind of story.  Unlike most kids fare out these days, Speed Racer has a non-dysfunctional family.  But they story is not just for kids, it's a great morality tale.  The acting is great esp by Mathew Fox (Racer X), John Goodman (Pops Racer) and Roger Allam (as the sneering corporate villain Royalton)

Long story short, this one should be seen on the best home theater system you can find.  This will be a movie you will either love or hate.  There doesn't seem to be any gray area.  I loved it!  But, don't go into it thinking you're going to see a movie...look at it like you're sitting down early on a Saturday morning in front of the TV with a bowl of cereal getting ready to watch a cheezy but fun action cartoon.

[Torgo]

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005): Two members of the Firefly family of serial killers improbably escape a police raid by sneaking out the back door and go on an abduction and torture spree.  HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES was a spectacular failure, but at least you could laugh at it; the sequel is a sick, slick, soulless and pointless torture montage.  1/5.

I thought that The Devil's Rejects was quite good. I didn't really care much for House of 1000 Corpses with the exception being Sid Haig's performance.

[Jack]

Evil Unleashed:  The Mummy - Oh my god, this is truly the worst movie I have ever seen in my life.  And I'm a frightening Fanatic of horrible cinema, so this statement should carry some weight.  We begin with not one, but two prologues, both featuring some of the most awful "acting" that has ever been captured on film.  "Read your lines in a clear and distinct voice" must have been the only direction given to these folks.  Then we meet four college kids in a scene that can only be described as horridly embarrassing.  Then the title character comes to life and starts killing people.  One of the "special" effects during a kill scene includes a guy with squiggly marks from a red pen drawn on his face.  Ancient Egyptian warriors use spears - these are actually those little posts that surveyors use to mark a roadway, about 2" wide by 1/2" thick.  Yup, couldn't even afford broom handles.  Painfully dull, putrid acting - good lord, any six people from this board could do a better job - a budget that would have filled my car with gas twice.  This thing makes movies by the Polonia brothers look well conceived and highly professional in comparison.  How can crap like this actually get distribution?  It boggles the mind.

[Rev. Powell]

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005): Two members of the Firefly family of serial killers improbably escape a police raid by sneaking out the back door and go on an abduction and torture spree.  HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES was a spectacular failure, but at least you could laugh at it; the sequel is a sick, slick, soulless and pointless torture montage.  1/5.

I thought that The Devil's Rejects was quite good. I didn't really care much for House of 1000 Corpses with the exception being Sid Haig's performance.

Yeah, I know I'm in the minority on this one.  Even Ebert liked DEVIL'S REJECTS.  I thought both were bad movies, but to me HOUSE was bad in a bombastic way that made it entertaining.  I just found the torture/shock scenes in REJECTS grating, like nails on a chalkboard.

[Jack]

The City of the Dead (1960) - A college student wants to do some in-depth research on witchcraft, so her professor (Christopher Lee) suggests she go to a small, permanently fog-shrouded town in Massachusetts, where a witch was burned at the stake back in the Puritan days.  Of course, the witch problem certainly isn't finished with, and after a couple of weeks the girl's brother goes to the town to investigate what happened to her.  Unfortunately, he spends the whole middle of the movie discovering things that the audience already knows, which isn't very interesting for the audience.  It does have an exciting conclusion though, and excellent atmosphere throughout.  The VCI DVD is excellent, with superb picture quality and nice clear mono sound.  You get a commentary track with Christoper Lee, as well as a fairly long interview.  His opinions are quite entertaining and informative, however he does tend to ramble - a lot.

[lester1/2jr]

strait jacket (1964)-  I had never heard of this and i understand why.  as a horror movie, it stinks.  but as a "rocky horror picture show"  camp thing it is actually pretty incredible, mainly for the performance of Joan Crawford, who reminds me of none of than the crimson executioner from Bloody Pit of Horror.  or Wings hauser from "Vice Squad".  Of all the movies I've read or wrote about on this site this one is probably one of the most appropriate to be discussed here.  It's like the first ridiculous b slasher movie.  the reviews on netflix for it are all 5 stars and like half from homosexuals.

[Rev. Powell]

BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR (2003);  Dr. Herbert West may be serving a life sentence, but when the prison doctor hands him his old glowing green syringe he quickly gets his groove back and starts re-animating corpses once more, leading to another gory holocaust. Jeffery Combs as Dr. West is hammy but in control in this third entry in the series, which captures trangressively comic atmosphere of the insane original better than BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR did. 4/5 stars.

[HappyGilmore]

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005): Two members of the Firefly family of serial killers improbably escape a police raid by sneaking out the back door and go on an abduction and torture spree.  HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES was a spectacular failure, but at least you could laugh at it; the sequel is a sick, slick, soulless and pointless torture montage.  1/5.

I thought that The Devil's Rejects was quite good. I didn't really care much for House of 1000 Corpses with the exception being Sid Haig's performance.

I agree. Devil's Rejects was quite good.  Even about House.  I did like House, but Sid saved that.

[HappyGilmore]

Killer Tomatoes Strike Back- Third film in the Killer Tomato series.  For years, I couldn't find it on dvd until recently, as I had only seen "Attack" and "Return", respectively.  I felt Strike Back was better than I thought it would've been.  Rick Rockwell, later of Who Wants to Marry A Multi-Millionaire fame, did a halfway decent performance in it as a cop investigating a series of murders, seemingly perpetrated by tomatoes.  Finletter makes an appearance, as the police chief, parachute in hand.   

[Jack]

Tower of Blood - this could have been a nice little 30 minutes slasher but they padded it out to 75 minutes with epic-length opening and closing credit sequences and a bunch of other irrelevant scenes.  Some kids go to party in an an abandoned hi-rise and are killed off by a slasher.  It actually had great atmosphere inside the building, but we're talking 5 minutes out of a 75 minute yawn fest.  The characters were unsympathetic, it had no plot at all.  The killings were dull, it just kind of stank overall.  Too bad, there was the potential to have a pretty darned good movie, but the people involved obviously just didn't give a damn.  Take advantage of the excellent location to do some really atmospheric and terrifying stalk sequences?  Nah, screw it, let's just make the opening credits a quarter of an hour long.

[Andrew]

The Educational Archives:  Social Engineering 201
We learned all about shopping for groceries, and I promised my wife that the next time she asked me to stop at the store for "something for dinner - whatever looks good" I was going to buy 3 quarts of oysters, 2 turnips, and a cake (a man actually does this).  There is also a cartoon about two fraternal twins who encounter more pedophiles in a single day than police detectives who investigate pedophiles deal with in their entire career.  These were along with films about the importance of getting along with others and personal hygiene.

Lambada
The forbidden dance!  An Indian princess comes out of the rain forest (because Richard Lynch ran over her apple tree), teaches a spoiled rich boy how to dance the Lambada, and then wins a dance competition so that she can appear on TV and talk about saving the rain forests!  Sid Haig is her witch doctor!  His biggest trick is handing people his "snake bag."  If you take the snake bag your hand is wracked by paralyzing pain.  Personally, I wouldn't take the bag from him.

Citizen Kane
I had not watched this film in years, but suddenly Amazon had the 2-disc SE DVD for something like $8.  The print is gorgeous, and the film is still excellent.  The acting is acceptable (I think many of the people were from Welles Mercury theater), but the story and just the way the film was done are the reasons it is a classic.

[lester1/2jr]

lambada was directed by the guy who did "Black Shampoo" and "Joysticks"