Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Captain Blood (1935) - a movie called Captain Blood is bound to be pretty good and this one certainly is. It's old and two hours long but it blows away most of the junk I've seen lately.

Errol Flynn gets wrapped up in a revolution and deported to the Caribbean. not to party on the beach but to be a slave, which is much worse. While there he meets Olivia De Haviland who looks great, as always. Eventually he's like f**k this and becomes a pirate.

The film relies on Flynn's charisma and acting ability which luckily for it he does possess. The love interest between he and de Haviland works though its kept mostly on the back burner, this is a swashbuckler not a soap opera. I didn't see this when I was a kid but I felt like I had, if that makes any sense. It had that old fashioned adventurous spirit and is something I would have watched on a Saturday afternoon because we had nothing to do back then and tv stations ran old movies because they were cheap for them to buy.

very enjoyable. It's from 1935 so obviously aspects of it have aged better than others, the dialogue is stagey has a lot of formality by todays conversational standards but it has unironic sword fights, cannon blasts, and plenty of revolutionary spirit and toxic masculinity to make up for it.
4.5 /5

[FatFreddysCat]

"He Knows You're Alone" (1980)

http://youtu.be/Xk77uhyKjv8
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A young bride-to-be’s pre-wedding jitters are further complicated by a psycho slasher who starts picking off all of her friends. Though it's mostly remembered today for the appearance by a young Tom Hanks (his first film role) in a bit part, this was a pretty decent little “Halloween” wanna-be, relying on suspense rather than gore. Several scenes and a good chunk of the soundtrack shamelessly borrow from Carpenter’s classic.

It's also a sentimental favorite of mine because it was the first “slasher” flick I ever saw, on Sunday afternoon TV when I was about 13 -- and it scared the absolute crap outta me. Revisiting it 30+ years later felt like opening a quaint time capsule.

As an added bonus, the flick was shot entirely in my old college stomping grounds of Staten Island, New York.

[Rev. Powell]

PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK (1974): A wealthy, workaholic bachelorette begins seeing visions of a lady in black, and a young blond girl; is she going mad or being tricked (or both)? This strange giallo has terrific art design but the we'll-make-it-up-as-we-go-along surreal plot gets tedious at times. Other people like this better than me. 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Batkid Begins" (2015)

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A heartwarming documentary about five-year-old Miles, a leukemia survivor whose request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation - "I wanna be Batman" - blossoms into a massive project worthy of Hollywood, involving hundreds of volunteers, dozens of actors and the entire city of San Francisco. If this flick doesn't make you tear up at least once, you have no soul.

[Rev. Powell]

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR (2015): Thai soldiers are succumbing to a mysterious sleeping sickness; a lame female volunteer tending to one soldier begins having vivid dreams that are almost indistinguishable from waking life. From the valium-toned auteur who brought us UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES comes another meditation that might have been titled "you are getting sleepy... the movie." 3/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched a creepy little horror movie called HELLIONS.
A 17 year old named Dora finds out she is pregnant, and being bummed out she decides to stay home from the Halloween party.  Then she is suddenly stalked by these VERY creepy little kids who want her and her unborn child for some nefarious purpose.  Some really creepy graphics and jumpscares, overall I found it to be worth the rental fee!

[claws]

The Boy (2016)

An elderly couple in England hire american nanny to look after their son. However, the son turns out to be a doll that comes with a set of strict rules. The nanny is irritated first, but "plays" along. When the couple goes on vacation things start to get even more creepier. Is the doll actually alive? or are there supernatural forces playing tricks on the nanny?

Decent mystery horror/thriller with an old school reveal that I quite enjoyed. Director William Brent Bell kind of redeemed himself after his disappointing The Devil Inside (2012) and the so-so Wer (2013). 4/5

[indianasmith]

Tonight I watched HAIL CAESAR!, the latest offering form the Coen brothers.
I was really prepared to like this one - the trailers made it look funny, I've loved some of their earlier works, and George Clooney is a favorite actor of mine.  But it was just way too slow and draggy, despite its all-star cast.   It wasn't BAD, mind you - just not nearly as good as I hoped it would be.  Still, it's a neat movie-within-a-movie set in the golden age of Hollywood, and as long as your expectations aren't too high it's pretty enjoyable.  3.5/5

[indianasmith]

Tonight it was THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY,  a grossout comedy by Sasha Bora Cohen.
This is the first one of his movies I've seen all the way through, and it was too disgusting to be funny.  I mean, I don't mind some lowbrow humor - I loved the AMERICAN PIE franchise - but this movie was just too gross for me to enjoy!  2/5

[lester1/2jr]

Black Heaven (2010) - this was a pretty good French mystery/ thriller that has probably gotten a lot of mileage out of it's salacious cover/ poster



A guy who already has a cute girlfriend falls into the universe of this gangster type guy and his hot blonde sister. He's concerned for the sister and communicates with her mostly as a character on this online virtual world video game. The hook of the thing creatively speaking is sometimes they go in the game and the movie is animated. Not stunningly original but it works well enough.

If this had been American I don't think it would have been as good. With the French people you get that sort of trashy, decadent, suicidal high fashion sort of feel. Americans aren't good at that and that's probably for the best, really. the execution isn't perfect but for a low budget sort of effort it's impressive.

4/5

[indianasmith]

Ever wonder what happens when a neurotic, psychologically scarred germophobe falls in love with a rotting corpse?
Neither had I, or anyone else I know - but that didn't stop the movie DECAY from exploring this issue in pretty disgusting detail.
But, the thing is, the movie actually worked!  It was a gross but fascinating character study of a man who, by sheer accident, has an attractive young girl die in his basement.  Instead of turning the body over to the authorities, he keeps her literally on ice, talks to her, bathes her, and eats dinner with her strapped into the chair across from him as the forces of decomposition gradually have their way with her.  Intriguing concept, well executed!  4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" (1991)

http://youtu.be/vnOgwm_5o3o
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Two down-on-their luck friends - a biker (Mickey Roarke) and a cowboy (Don Johnson) - plan an armored car heist to help bail out a friend's bar. Unfortunately, they pick the wrong car to rob, and then spend the rest of the movie on the run from some very bad people.
This flick was a major bomb when it was first released but has become something of a cult flick since then. It's far from a masterpiece, but it's a fun piece of action junk.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Delta Force" (1986)

http://youtu.be/89zJuh0Nmwk
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An elite commando unit headed up by Lee Marvin and Chuck Norris (does it get any more bad-ass than that combo? I think not!) is sent to Beirut to rescue a plane load of American hostages...naturally they blow up a good portion of the Middle East in the process.
Cannon Films honcho Menahem Golan's adventure epic starts out as a pretty suspenseful hijack drama in its first hour, sporting the biggest cast of well known character actors I've seen since the glory days of the '70s disaster flick (George Kennedy! Joey Bishop! Robert Forster! Shelley Winters! Lainie Kazan! Martin Balsam!), then it turns into typically sadistic '80s shoot'em-up/blow'em up fun when the Delta Force comes riding to the rescue in the second half. Chuck actually turns in one of his better performances here, maybe because he's just a small part of the huge ensemble cast. A retro guilty pleasure.

[FatFreddysCat]

This is what I get when it's my 8 year old's turn to pick a movie: 

"Invisible Dad" (1997)

http://youtu.be/5ACwOx3dm9k
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No-budget kid stuff directed by schlock kingpin Fred Olen Ray ("Dinosaur Island," "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers," "Evil Toons"), of all people!

When a kid and his widowed father move into a new house, the boy finds a mysterious machine left behind in the garage by the previous owner. The gizmo magically makes wishes come true. After a fight with Dad, the kid accidentally says "I wish my Dad would just disappear!" ... aaaand you can pretty much write it yourself from there. Wacky hijinks ensue as Son tries to make Dad visible again. This isn't the worst low budget kid flick I've ever sat through, but it's still 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

[FatFreddysCat]

"RoboCop Prime Directives: Dark Justice" (2001)

http://youtu.be/j2p5lRy4Xic
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This was the first of four made-for-cable RoboCop movies that combine into one long story arc. Set ten years after the events of the first film, "Dark Justice" finds RoboCop teetering on the brink of becoming obsolete. While the Detroit P.D. deals with a high tech, murderous vigilante called "Bone Machine," the corporate sharks at O.C.P. are still up to their usual dirty business behind the scenes, including a plot to disgrace RoboCop/Murphy's former partner.
"Dark Justice" occasionally looks a little chintzy due to its made-for-TV budget but aside from that it's nice to see them bring back the darker/grittier/more satiric feel of the original film. There are a few oddities in continuity (most of the cops in this flick don't seem to know that Robo was once officer Alex Murphy, even though practically everyone in the film series called him "Murphy") but overall as a longtime Robo-Nerd I enjoyed it and I"m looking forward to checking out the remaining three installments.