Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Harem (1999)  for a movie set in a sultans harem, this was pretty drab and dull.  there are 1 or 2 phoned in "erotic" scenes probably so they could get some critic you never heard of to say it was erotic and put "erotic" in quotes on the cover, but mainly it was this woman and her slow moving, dialogue heavy move to the top of the food chain in the harem.  Wow, what a hero, the best concubine.  This should have been a musical or something.  The most interesting thing that they do is attempt to replicate Ingres's "Odalisque" painting which they sort of do.  would not recommend for dirty , historical or just general movie fans very much.

[JaseSF]

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): A crazed military commander named Brigadier General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), obsessed with a perceived communist threat to "our precious bodily fluids", sends a fleet of B-52 bombers under his command in to strike the Soviet Union with a nuclear bomb attack. When he learns the news of this, a shocked U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) must try and work together over a War Room "Hot-Line" with an equally stunned Russian President, who reports this will trigger his country's own "doomsday device",  in order to put a stop to this madness or else the whole world will go POOF!

This dark comedy explores a world on the brink and its does so through humor, albeit a humor that deeply disturbs on many levels. The characters portrayed in this film are nothing short of "over the top". Peter Sellers' Dr. Strangelove is a former Nazi scientist turned  somewhat sinister scientific advisor for the U.S. President Merkin Muffley ,also played with gusto by Sellers even though he's arguably the most sane and level-headed character in the whole movie aside from Sellers third character Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the man who tries to get the code to stop the impending nuclear holocaust through to the U.S. President. George C. Scott is great and energetic as the spoiled child-like General 'Buck' Turgidson, who pouts when scolded by the President for his insensitive ways. Sterling Hayden is brilliant as the loony, scene stealing  Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, resembling the square jawed serial movie hero but here he is a man obsessed with the purity of his and his fellow Americans' bodily fluids. Also on board are Slim Pickens as Texas cowboy turned bomb rider Major "King" Kong not to mention Keenan Wynn in a small role as rather bewildered Colonel "Bat" Guano who has a memorable bit with a Coca-Cola machine. But the true brilliance of Dr. Strangelove is how it looks at world leaders, men in power dealing with life and death on a massive scale and basically showing that when it comes to nuclear war, any real-life pursuit of it is just plain idiotic and insane in the extreme. And anyone who did so would be as foolish as all the nutty characters that populate this film. ***** out of *****

[Jack]

Sunshine (2007) - watched this again last night.  The sun is burning out, so they send a small crew on a spaceship with a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan island to reignite it.  We spend the first half hour with character development - these people have no personality whatsoever so this is a total waste.  The movie is quite convinced that it's epic, but it's just boring.  Towards the end it decides it wants to be a horror movie...I guess.  This doesn't make any sense and it isn't entertaining either.  This is the type of thing that convinces me that there's no difference at all between B movies and Hollywood blockbusters except the size of the special effects budget.  2/5.

[Rev. Powell]

AUTOMATONS (2006): The lone survivor of a nation lives alone in a bunker, her only companions being voice recordings of a long-dead scientist (Angus Scrimm) who describes the backstory to her, and the robots she sends out to do battle with the enemy on the unbreathable, poisoned surface.  In scratchy black and white with lots of theremin noises in the background and deliberately cheesy and clunky robots, it looks like a recreation of a 1950s sci-fi movie; I wanted to like it, but there's just not enough story to maintain interest even during its short run time.  1.5/5. 

DEAD-ALIVE [BRAINDEAD] (1992): A mama's boy finds his budding romantic entanglement with a local Latina shopkeeper complicated when mom turns into a zombie who he keeps tranquilized in his basement.  Campy and often hilarious horror comedy; the last half-hour is a bloody extravaganza that will never be outdone in terms of absurd comic gore.  This was even better than I remembered it to be when I watched it back in the 90s.  5/5 on a "bad" movie scale (though it's not a bad movie by any definition).

[Psycho Circus]

Wanted Dead Or Alive (1986): Rutger Hauer is a bounty hunter who is paid to track down terrorist Gene Simmons, which he decides to do after about 45mins of absolute nothing! This film is so boooooooring, yet still better than the CGI cinema tripe of today...

2.5/5

[mahoney]

The Five Fingers Of Death [1972]
not quite as good as I'd hoped it to be but still a fun movie. Interesting to see which parts Q.T decided to pinch for Kill Bill such as the pulling out of eyeballs & the danger alarm.
***

Cat o' Nine Tails [1971]
Was good though not as exciting as the other Giallo flicks i've seen recently.
***

Blow Out [1981]
****

Maniac [1980]
Wasn't very impressed with this. Plodded along & wasn't as exciting as it should of been. Half the women killed were actual porn stars yet hardly any of them get their tits out, what a let down. A few cool death scenes especially when he blows the bloke in the car away with his shotgun, he didn't f**k around there. Majority of the film was forgettable though which is surprising as it tends to be valued so high around horror fans.
**

Twisted Nerve [1968]
Superb, great cast selection with great performances all round.
****1/2

Dracula A.D 1972
This was alot of fun, meant to be in 72 but the cast were really bad examples of stereotypical 60's kids saying "man" at the end of every sentence. Christopher Lee is awesome as always as Dracula & the film is enjoyable start to finish. No f**king tits though
***1/2

Shogun Assassin[1980]
I finally got around to watching this. Originally I bought a real bad copy with the worst picture imaginable but got a decent version now & it didn't disappoint. Blood spraying left right & centre, a kid with a buggy that slashes people up, superb! Loved it so much I've ordered the Lone Wolf & Cub box set
****1/2

Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects [1989]
Typical Bronson performance, film lacked depth though. I love Bronson's face, he can be talking, punching someone in the face or making love yet his face never changes, thats the sign of a hard bastard.
***

[indianasmith]

Ii watched THAW this weekend - Arctic scientists studying the effect of Global Warming on polar bears discover a frozen mammoth filled with some kind of deadly ice age parasite that kills every human it touches, so he decides to infect humanity with it in order to reduce our carbon footprint.

Boring and VERY preachy, esp. for a global warming skeptic like me.

[lester1/2jr]

indiana- I am also a skeptic but I liked Thaw

[InformationGeek]

Anaconda: Just finished it and I say that I'm not impressed.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.  It just wasn't engaging and didn't leave a mark on me like most films do.  It was my first ever killer snake movie, so I'm hoping that next time I watch a snake movie, it'll be more engaging or interesting.  The special effects were interesting blend of live footage, CGI, and pupperty for the snake, though it only looked good and convincing during the one night scene that it attacked in.

[Jack]

Alien 3000 (2004) - There's an invisible monster living in a cave, and he's got gold - like a pirate's treasure:  Gold goblets, swords, etc.  Why would an invisible monster have gold?  Is he saving for retirement or something?  For that matter, why is this movie called Alien 3000, since it has absolutely nothing to do with the future or anything related to the number 3000?  Anyhow, every idiot in the area goes into his cave and tries to steal his gold, only to be torn apart in some comically over-the-top CGI sequence.  Ah, but then there are the biggest idiots of all, and they recruit some psychic girl from a mental institution, who has foreknowledge of the creature's activities (this is never explained at all) to help them.  A couple of these people are straight off the Jerry Springer show - extremely loud, vulgar, infantile, and far beyond idiotic.  Yadda yadda yadda, they almost all wind up dead, add on a cheap "Will there be a sequel?" ending and you're done.  It had a few moments of laugh out loud bad movie brilliance, but for the most part it was a real chore to sit through.  2/5.

[lester1/2jr]

man, woman, and the wall (2007)-  really liked this unpretentious sometimes clever, sometimes cliche but entertaining japanese soft core sex film.  This isn't one of those foreign movies that is like hiking a mountain to watch, it is very conventional and viewer friendly . The existence of films lke this owes alot  to advances in technology, namely cheaper costs for making decent quality pictures and the ability to download movies and so forth.  It feels very modern.  I didn't like it quite as much as    "cat girl kiki" but it is of similar quality.  

                   story: a guy lives next door to a hot girl.  he rigs up an eavesdropping system so he can listen to her have sex with her boyfriend.  on top of this ANOTHER guy is eavesdropping on her and frequently calls her up and does dirty /harassing phone calls in one of those voices "aah I'm going to rip of  your clothees aah hahaha".   first guy hatches a plan to replace the boyfriend and sets to work on wooing her.  Will he achieve this lofty aim?  Do we WANT him too? after all he not only spies on her, we see him go though her garbage and gaze in wonder and who knows what else at her clipped toe nails.  

  In both this and cat girl kiki the main character is a shlubby working class guy who finds himself in the presence of an extremely hot girl.  I don't know exactly what you call this genre of film, but they usually look like they are going to be porn but end up being something less assaultive but still sexual, if juvenile.  4/5

[asimpson2006]

The Running Man **** out of **** - It's been a while since I have seen an action film that made me feel really good while watching it.  I loved every minute of it.  I though the film would have been more violent but I was surprised that it wasn't as violent as I though it would have been.

Scotland, PA ** 1/2 out of **** - It's Mcbeth set in White trash America in the 1970's.  For an independent film I didn't think this was too bad of a film, but I felt it could have had some better pacing to it.  It just felt like it took forever for scenes to complete, and it just felt like the film was going to come to a complete stop at any moment.

[Sister Grace]

Good Dick- 5/5. "Good Dick is a modern fairy tale about a troubled, reclusive young woman and the persistent video clerk who draws her out of her claustrophobic world by starting up a unique courtship with her.As they become closer, her sexual antipathy is met with his unflinching optimism, until finally her aggressive defenses overwhelm them both and the relationship bursts apart(IMDB)." watched this again the other night. I adore this film.

Jennifer's Body- 3/5. a young girl is used as a sacrifice in a satanic ritual by a dopey rock band. i won't say anything else cause the plot is pretty simple. Honestly I only gave this three stars because of a twisted love scene involving Kyle Gallner; it was worth wading through the other eighty or so minutes of this film.

Roman- 5/5. "Roman is a lonely young man who yearns to find love, happiness and companionship. Tormented by his ungrateful co-workers and trapped in a life of tedium as a welder in a local factory, Roman's one pleasure is his obsession with the elusive beauty who lives in the apartment in his building complex. When a chance encounter with the young woman goes horribly wrong, a moment of frenzied desperation triggers a chilling turn of events leading to murder. As he teeters between deranged fantasy and cold reality, Roman's struggle to hide his grisly secret is further complicated by an eccentric neighbor who develops an unlikely attraction to Roman and forces herself into his dark and tortured world (IMDB). I've seen this several times and own a copy of it. I didnt actually find it to be so dark or disturbing but still a great film.

[lester1/2jr]

Government issue- Live 1985-  If you had the "Flex Your Head" compilation put out by Dischord records, an album that was entirely mandatory in some circles in the late 80's, then you remebmber Government Issue.  That's how I remeber 'em anyway.  This is from later in the career and it was interesting but not all that great.  I think if they had caught them a few years earlier it would have been at least a little more time relevent.  The singer is kind of annoying, though definately full of energy, and not as distinct as HR from the Bad Brains or Ian McKaye of Minor Threat.  The music sounds what you'd expect a DC band from this ea to sound like: mainly hardcore and punk with traces of melody which would come more to the fore with bands like Ignition and Embrace and so forth.  The band is not as enthusiastic as the singer though I like that the guitarist wears a leather jacket.  There are two shows and the first one is better, it's a smaller venue with more crowd interaction. 2.5 /5

[SkullBat308]

Inglorious Basterds- What a great movie .... Should have seen it in theaters.