Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Best Worst Movie- I 've seen and liked Troll 2 and I knew it had a bit of a reputation but I wasn't aware it had become a Rocky Horror Picture show type thingy around the country with hipsters. As you've probably have heard the Italian director still thinks it's a good movie and gets mad when people call it bad. Italian directors are the biggest slackers ever quality wise so to him it's probably like the fact that it's finished and has a title on it should be good enough for you.


The kid from the movie made this and alot of it is the Dad from the movie. There is ALOT about stuff BESIDES the making of Troll 2 in: the Dad guys life in his town, various people talking about the movie and what it means ( basically it's bad but uniquely and sincerely bad a la Ed Wood.) Then there is stuff about it's "resurection" via it's MST3K esque ironic embrace by bored college students.

I liked it. I hope this doesn't sound too cynical. The director does a good job of somehow filling 90 minutes without it being stupid. I liked especially the stuff with them at horror conventions when no one cares/ has heard of Troll 2. Everyones probably seen this or is going to seen this anyway I guess I don't have much to add other than it's well made and not half assed. At the same time, it's just about people from a corny 80's movie getting together again, albeit an infamously corny 80's movie, so it's not like King of Kong level awesome.

4.5 / 5

Also, I enjoyed Troll2, but I'd like to think there are still people at netflix who rent it thinking it's going to be something along the lines of Gremlins meets Conan or something and are genuinly dissapointed and even angry at this bizarre idiosynchratic failure of a sequel and not just people who WANT to see a bad movie.

[JaseSF]

Burn After Reading (2008): Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), two "Hardbodies" gym employees, stumble across the memoirs of a former C.I.A. agent named Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) and now hope to sell it to the highest bidder. Meanwhile Cox's wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with the also married Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) who seems himself intent on banging every woman in the movie. Eventually the C.I.A. and then Russians also get involved.

This started off being pretty funny. And is certainly entertaining for the majority of its running time. Things veer into darker territory once the deaths start and honestly it made the viewing experience a bit less enjoyable from there on for me. Malkovich steals the show as a seemingly rightly perpetually p**sed off individual who just can't seem to catch a break in this one and has to deal with one nut after another. Pitt & McDormand are also quite good as the clueless gym workers who get in way over their heads playing at being spies and Clooney makes for an entertaining womanizer who nevertheless has a certain level of charm and many considerable quirks. In many ways, this movie will have you reacting at least by the end with a WTF? rather like a lot of its characters throughout. Tons of cursing and a couple of gory deaths can be found here too so it's not for the kiddies. Yeah the ending? WTF? **3/4 out of ***** stars.

[SPazzo]

The Hangover 2.  I actually liked the first one.  It was a guilty pleasure movie (and I'm saying that on a Bad Movies website).  But, this one was just basically the same thing, only a little darker and a different guy getting married.  I thought it was cheesy and it seemed to try to be too shocking...but it didn't really shock at all. 

I laughed at it, so I'll say 3/5.

[indianasmith]

Watched BATTLE LOS ANGELES last night.  I really enjoyed it, and Aaron Eckhart did a superb job as the Staff Sergeant.  Aliens invading earth FOR its water makes a lot more sense than aliens who are allergic to water invading earth, ya know?

[lester1/2jr]

I thought Burn After Reading was kind of a failure. A weird combination of left wing politics and slapstick. They are good fiilmakers but I think it wasn't a good idea for a movie.

[Jack]

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008) - A guy and girl meet and for 45 minutes have the most boring and stupid romance imaginable.  Then the world's worst CGI birds attack.  I honestly could not make it through this, but halfway through I decided to check out the commentary tracks.  That's where the comedy gold lies.  As utterly awful as this thing is, the director seems to think he made a good, and important movie about the dangers of global warming.  This guy can't say two sentences without "global warming" being included in there.  Then switch to the actor's commentary - it's just comical.  The director couldn't afford to pay for a hotel room for the lead actor, so he had him stay at his mom's house.  But he couldn't go in until after mom had gone to bed, so the actor would sit in his car waiting until midnight, then sneak in and sleep on her sofa.  At one point they were filming on a public beach, and there were quite a few joggers on the bike path.  The director started yelling at them for getting in his scene, and the lead actress told him he shouldn't do that - they're jugging on a public beach.  So the director got mad and for the next several weeks wouldn't speak to her - he gave his "direction" through another person.  Direction that, according to the actors, consisted of stuff like "in this scene you're sad". 

The special effects makeup person quit because they couldn't stand the director.  Quite a few people quit for that reason, including some of the actors.  Then a second effects makeup artist quit.  So the director asked the lead actress to do the job, because "You're a girl so you know about makeup". 

The movie gets a 1/5, it's darned near unwatchable.  The commentary tracks probably get a 3.5/5 for the screwball director's belief that he made a good movie, and the actor's stories about just what a fruitcake the guy really is.

[claws]

Sounds like a real winner 

[Jack]

Sounds like a real winner 

Before I discovered the commentary tracks, I was literally checking the clock every 1 - 2 minutes to see if it was time to go to bed yet   

[lester1/2jr]

South Shaolin Master (1984) - At one point in my life I watched a TON of kung fu movies. Some of them were great , some were terrible some I remember vaguely, others, like "Master Killer" aka "36 Chamber's of Shaolin" I think of all the time, almost daily. I remember this as being one of the better ones and as being a mainland (as opposed to Hong Kong lensed) one, which in the best cases meant really good kung fu, scenes shot in the place called outside not just little sets and colorful costumes and pageantry and so forth. This has all that in spades and it's a nice print to boot. widescreen as well. I have a small tv but I didn't mind.

4.5/5 probably deserves higher but the plot and script aren't exactly sophisticated.

[indianasmith]

OK, it's summer and I have been wearing out the road to Hasting's over the last week or so.  I have watched most of THE PACIFIC (two more discs to go, review to follow).  But this week I also watched RED RIDING HOOD and THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU.  Both were solid, watchable popcorn flicks with some pretty cool moments, but neither is one that I am dying to see again.  On the other hand, SUCKER PUNCH is coming out next week and I am STOKED about seeing it again - I think it was the Movie of the Year for me, so far.

[Jack]

Son of Frankenstein (1939) - So a few years after the events of the first movie, Frankenstein's son shows up to take possession of the castle, and brings his wife and kid along.  Of course the villagers are pretty upset about this, and it's not long before Frank Jr. takes up where dad left off.  I really didn't care for this much to be perfectly honest.  Basil Rathbone plays Baron Frankenstein, and his character just isn't the least bit sympathetic.  He lies to everyone (in a rather frantic manner) about how he's not doing any experiments, and it's so obvious he is.  And then there's the extremely annoying kid who yells all his lines in a voice that could shatter granite.  Igor (Bela Lugosi) is by far the best character in the whole thing;  at least he's got some motivation and his actions make sense.  The other characters just aren't developed at all.  It seemed like one of those sequels that exists only to make money off the first movie, and nobody really tried too hard to make anything more than a cash cow out of it.  2/5.

[claws]

Drive Angry (2011) Blu-ray

Nic Cage vs. Satanists. In 3D.

If you happen to like Piranha (2010) you will most likely get a kick out of Drive Angry. Similar carnage, lots of nudity, over-the-top violence and Nic Cage sporting worst fake hair yet. Trashy & Fun. 4/5 Cheese

[Rev. Powell]

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960): Meek Seymour Krelboyne grows a weird and very hungry plant that brings fame to Mushnik's Flower Shop on Skid Row in this black horror comedy. Great comic supporting characters (including a young Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient) and snappy dialogue are the reason it's considered the best movie ever shot in two days.  3.5/5.   

[retrorussell]

Santa Sangre (1989).  The first Jodorowsky movie I've ever seen.  Really weird, but very watchable.  A messed up guy in an insane asylum recalls what sent him there.  As a boy with his parents in a circus he was a magician, his dad was a big, burly knife thrower and his mom did a high wire act.  After catching dad fooling around with the Tattooed Lady she threatens him with a knife.  He gets the drop on her though and cuts off her arms, then kills himself.  Later she does an act with her son hidden behind her, serving as his arms.  After she dies she seems to possess him and force him to kill girls he likes, including a mute one he knew as a child.  Very odd but never dull.

[Pilgermann]

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) - No way does this come close to 2001, but I like that Hyams didn't try to emulate that film and simply made a nice sci-fi film.  8/10

The Beyond (1981) - I caught this on TCM last night and kind of regret watching it.  I'm all for films that make little sense, but this was boring, idiotic garbage.  2/10

The Thin Red Line (1998) - I saw this when it first came out on video but I hardly remembered it.  I went out and picked this up on Blu-ray after watching Malick's The Tree of Life and it's a beautiful looking presentation of an awesome film.  Kind of meanders along at times but I don't mind.  9/10