Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Wasn't Dune the movie that was the farthest into the future that anyone could think of?

[Jack]

Wasn't Dune the movie that was the farthest into the future that anyone could think of?

I think it's in 10,191 or maybe 10,919.  It had 9's and 1's in it, I'm sure of that.

[fulci420]

Assassination (1987) Charles Bronson has to defend the first lady in this mediocre Bronson vehicle.  I'm a pretty big Bronson fan so I found this to be entertaining enough. Unfortunately we don't see a lot of Charles killing ppl, but we do get him shooting a rocket launcher and firing a gun while on a motorcycle.

Meanwhile Bronson's secret service partner is an attractive Asian women who constantly makes advances on him. At first he denies her but eventually he succumbs to her charms which leads to the best dialogue in the entire film.

Charlotte Chong: Killy, why don't you move in permanently?
Jay Killion: I don't want to die from a terminal orgasm!

This is not a good movie on any level, but I found it enjoyable enough.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Batman: Gotham Knight" (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUx6r27FPaA
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Dark, gritty anthology flick from the "DC Animated Universe" line features six short Batman stories, each directed by a different animator. The transitions between "styles" from one segment from the next are occasionally somewhat jarring (some are a bit "artier" or more "anime" styled than I would like) and though some of the stories are better than others, it hits its stride in the later chapters featuring The Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and "Deadshot."  More neat eye candy for Bat-Geeks.

[Rev. Powell]

ALPS (2011): A group of four people act as stand-ins for deceased loved ones to help families with the grieving process. The idea isn't a bad one but there is almost no story development, and the (deliberately) bad acting, lighting and camerawork create 90 minutes of unpleasant awkwardness without much to reward the viewer. The second film from the director of DOGTOOTH shows all the stereotypical flaws you associate with sophomore efforts.  2/5.

COMPLIANCE (2012): A man calls a fast food restaurant claiming to be a police officer and talks the manager into conducting a strip search of an 18-year old female employee; as the harried manager returns to cover the girl's shift, the caller cons other employees into humiliating the innocent girl. Intensely provocative and tense, it will have you screaming at the characters' stupidity; you wouldn't believe it was possible people would meekly submit to the bizarre demands of an apparent authority figure so easily, except that it's based on a true story of a prank caller who called almost 100 fast food franchises across the country and tricked seven of them into falling for the strip search ruse. 3.5/5

[Jack]

Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds (1977) - watched this stupid thing again last night. Some dinosaur comes out of a lake and attacks a Japanese country music festival. They kind of had it coming if you ask me. Then a pterodactyl also shows up and he mostly attacks the dinosaur. They've got this rubber thing suspended on elastic bands and it bounces up and down and then they run that in fast forward to make it look like it's dodging the dino attacks. Oh good lord. Since it's a pretty stiff piece of rubber it can't really move its wings so it hovers in midair. When it gets knocked to the ground...it's almost too dumb to even be funny. The ending of this is just god-awful. An earthquake causes a big crack to open up in the earth, and there's a tree that falls across the gap, and this screaming woman hanging from it. For like ten minutes. It's agonizing. I actually liked most of this, it's got kind of a cool smooth jazz soundtrack and it's dopey but kind of mellow and entertaining. 3/5.

[fulci420]

The President's Man-(2000)

Chuck Norris stars in this cheap looking made for TV Production. Norris is the President's man but that doesn't mean he doesn't have time to be a professor as well. In fact the movie opens on this ridiculous exchange.

Stewart: [Professor McCord, as part of a college lecture on Bushido, has just demonstrated the use of a samurai sword on an apple] ... Dude, that is so cool!
Joshua McCord (Chuck): I'm glad you think so. By the way, Stewart, that's *Professor* Dude to you.

So after that bit of nonsense we see Norris rescue the first lady from some terrorists. After this Norris wonders if he is too old for this and along with his assistant began looking for a new President's man. Turned that man is a square jawed army guy in jail for resisting a superiors orders. Norris gets the assistant to take him out of jail and it's time to train a new president's man. This leads to a long training sequence that is mostly dull with one exception, one of the exercises at the Norris compound is a form of pull up where an Asian lady kicks you in the stomach after every rep! This was incredible and happened two times unfortunately it is by far the most compelling thing going on here.

This is a pretty horrible movie marred by cheap production values and a poor script. Some of the stunt work is pretty bad and except for a few moment's is not even over the top enough to enjoy in a so bad it's good kind of way. I found this on one of this 10 movie action packs put out by Echobridge and the quality is about as bad as you would expect. Also on the set is the sequel to this movie which I am not brave enough to attempt.

[JaseSF]

Recently been watching some Christmas movies. I enjoy the many different versions of A Christmas Carol out there but none comes close to 1951's Scrooge starring Alastair Sim. I just like all the characters and performances in this one the best of all. I also watched the 1984 TV Movie version starring George C. Scott which was a pretty solid effort too. In some scenes though, the performances seemed too forced. That said, in some ways the reactions of characters to Scrooge's transformation seemed somehow more believable than in other versions. Also watched Holiday Inn (1942) which is a delightful effort starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as rival romantic suitors. Although many holidays actually factor into the story, Christmas and New Year's seem to factor in the most heavily. Also watched The Family Man (2000) starring Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni that's surprisingly entertaining in a story with a reverse style take of sorts on It's a Wonderful Life. The ending doesn't entirely prove convincing however which takes away somewhat from the film. Also watched the TV Movie The Christmas Clause which was pretty much forgettable fluff with a story actually similar to The Family Man only in reverse and starring Lea Thompson as a mother who wishes away her family for a  few minutes peace. It had a few moments but yeah was pretty forgettable stuff overall.

Over the last few months I've watched the Gidget films which were also pretty much fluff yet featured a likable character in Gidget even if she was played by three different actresses. Sandra Dee in the original and Cindy Carol in Gidget Goes to Rome do the character the best. The second film Gidget Goes Hawaiian starring Deborah Walley as Gidget proves the most forgettable as focuses more on the lead's parents than on them. James Darren plays the romantic lead for Gidget in all three and does some good song performances but it's hard to really like his character as he often doesn't treat Gidget very well if one really stops to think about it.

I also caught some bonafide romantic classics in It Should Happen To You (1954), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Alice Adams (1935) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). All I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend to fans of this type of cinema.

I also caught two Abbott and Costello films - Hit the Ice (1943) and In Society (1944). I really enjoyed Hit the Ice quite a lot and In Society was also enjoyable in a more slapsticky zany kind of way but I liked it a bit less than Hit the Ice honestly.

Also caught the Carry On film - Carry On Nurse (1959) which has a few funny scenes but honestly doesn't stand out too much aside from perhaps one sequence involving laughing gas and hopsital patients attempting to perform surgery. I also rewatched Speed (1994) which has some great action sequences and a great lead villain in Dennis Hopper but it's really hard to buy into its thoroughly unbelievable plot. Aside from that I watched Goose on the Loose (2006) starring Chevy Chase as an evil school principal who plots to eat a goose and the boy who sets out to rescue the goose who talks to him and him alone. All in all, this was pretty forgettable fluff with some surprisingly gross flatuence and potty humour gags for what's supposed to be a family film. Also watched Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) which was truly awful with no character having any truly likable or redeeming quality and is just bad taste offensive style humour for the most part.

 

[Jack]

Deathstalker II (1987) - dug out he Roger Corman Sword and Sorcery Collection and watched this again. Totally silly take on the genre, with our hero helping a princess regain her place on the throne. Highlight (lowlight actually) was a pro wrestling style match between him and Queen Kong of GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling fame   Oh dear lord this is stupid lol. The princess (Monique Gabrielle) was quite cute and Toni Naples also looked very nice as the evil Sultana. 3.75/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Batman Beyond: The Movie" (1998)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlobFExM-UM
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Cyberpunk update of the Dark Knight saga takes place in a "Blade Runner"-esque future version of Gotham City. Batman has been retired for the past 20 years, and the city is now ruled by crooked business men at the top, and street gangs at the bottom. After accidentally discovering the secret identity of the now-elderly Bruce Wayne, troubled teen Terry McGinnis adopts the Batman persona and starts kicking butt all over Gotham City in a cool high-tech bat-suit.

Nifty detour from the usual Batman mythos, rendered in a cool anime-inspired style.

[lester1/2jr]

Blood Gnome - This was abuot 1/4 as fun as it should have been. soft core bondage babes in the background as a dweeb scientist battles a lady with a Cthulu thing in a box amidst plastic gnomes who interrupt bondage sessions with scratching and biting and killing. 2.5/5 The love interest was pretty

[indianasmith]

Deathstalker II (1987) - dug out he Roger Corman Sword and Sorcery Collection and watched this again. Totally silly take on the genre, with our hero helping a princess regain her place on the throne. Highlight (lowlight actually) was a pro wrestling style match between him and Queen Kong of GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling fame   Oh dear lord this is stupid lol. The princess (Monique Gabrielle) was quite cute and Toni Naples also looked very nice as the evil Sultana. 3.75/5.

One of my all-time favorite bad movies!!!!  Best line:
STALKER: "You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to catch the Prince of Thieves!"
PRINCESS: (Seeing a squad of goons in front of them) "Stalker, it IS pretty early in the morning!"

[indianasmith]

Over the last couple of days I watched IRON SKY - a fun little send-up of old sci-fi films; Nazis have been hiding out on the moon for 70 years and are now going to invade and take over the earth. They capture a black astronaut and bleach him to "fix" his skin color; he escapes and tries to warn people that the Nazis are coming.  A Palin-esque redneck President is looking for a trick to get re-elected, and the invasion comes along just in time to help her out.

This goes back and forth between being a screwball comedy and an attempt at biting political satire; the comedy aspect works better than the politics.

Last night I watched a Dutch horror film called SAINT NICOLAS; the jolly old elf is really the ghost of murderous 11th century archbishop who comes back every time there is a full moon on the 5th of December to terrorize the people of Amsterdam.  It was watchable but not great.

[fulci420]

Got the new Francis Ford Coppola blu ray set (both versions of Apocalypse, Tetro, The Conversation and One from the Heart) The only film I hadn't watched before was One From the Heart so that one went first.

One From the Heart (1982) This is the that famously put Zoetrope Studio's out of business receiving poor critical reviews and dismal box office. So naturally I wanted to see what was going on here. This film focuses on a couple who upon their 5 year anniversary get in an argument and break up. The guy just bought the deed to their house while his girlfriend dreams of traveling and getting away. They both have romantic encounters that test their relationship as they go out into the lights of Vegas. Although the main characters do not burst out into song their are song's by Tom Waits throughout as well as a dance number or two.

Although I can see why people would not expect something like this from Coppola after the intensity and darkness of Apocalypse and The Godfather, I don't think this is a bad film by any stretch. Visually it is unbelievable shooting on a controlled set gave Coppola amazing freedom in what he could do with lighting. The music is a little disappointing in parts though, as while the Tom Wait's songs are good there is no standout memorable track IMO that this kind of movie needs. By the end though I was completely entranced and fully emotionally into the story. Sadly the blu ray is not quite up to snuff looking to be about the quality of a dvd, there are some nice special features though. Kind of a shame as it's the only new transfer on the set.

[tracy]

My daughter got Alan this for Christmas. It's an excellent film for all DC fans out there.