Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (1998): Evil Reggie Van Dough (Jake Richardson) plots to embarrass rival Richie Rich (David Gallagher) on Christmas and manages to do so by stealing a sleigh remote control. Following this Richie wishes he was never born only to have Professor Keenbean (Eugene Levy)'s wishing machine pick up on that wish creating a much darker Christmas future. Now in this altered future, can Richie find a way to restore the world the way it was and stop Reggie's plan to cancel Christmas?

This sappy, lame direct to video Christmas movie feels horribly forced with terrible acting, a troubled script, and comes across as somewhat dumb and silly a lot of the time. Sure it is on some levels harmless Christmas themed fluff only here it never feels as genuine as one hopes for. Don't bother with this one. ** out of ***** stars.

The Hoodlum (1951): Recently paroled Vincent Lubeck (Lawrence Tierney), despite the warnings and attempts at help from his family, soon reverts back to his old criminal ways hoping to make a big score by pulling off an unlikely armored car heist.

Gritty performance from Tierney as Lubeck [a heelish character with a world sized chip on his shoulder feeling he's owed more than he's ever been able to get who decides to take what he wants, whatever way he has to get it] makes this more watchable than it would be otherwise. Interesting film noir style crime film where one character basically manages to destroy the lives of almost everyone around him. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002): Arnold and Gerald work against the odds to save their neigborhood as a big city developer looks to tear it down.

The plot here seems one that has appeared a bit too often in films but getting past that, the characters and pace feels true to the TV series that led to this film. It has some enjoyable unexpected moments, some fun homages to other popular films but there are some elements that just seem a tad too convenient and in many ways, this is just an overlong series episode. Still it's enjoyable enough if you like these characters and don't have too high expectations. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Separate Tables (1958): It's winter at the Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth, England and long term residents find their usual routine disturbed with two happenings at the Beauregard - one, the arrival of a young woman named Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth) who has come to visit her ex, John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster) who has turned to drink perhaps to forget her - and two, news that long time resident Major Pollock (David Niven) may not be all he has claimed to be and a wrongdoing that could upset others at the hotel, especially young Sybil Raiton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) who may secretly be in love with him.

Very enjoyable film featuring great performances from an outstanding cast. Lonely people gathered at a hotel with other lonely people where the loneliness and hurt feels all too real and the fear of hurt is all too palpable. Some characters even rise to challenge the sensibilities (or should that be sensitivies?) of the era. **** out of ***** stars.

On Golden Pond (1981): Old set in his ways curmudgeon Norman Thayer Jr. (Henry Fonda), who's struggling with heart palpitations and memory lapses as he turns 80, finds his life with wife Ethel (Katherine Hepburn) thrown into upheaval when left to care for a young boy named Billy (Doug McKeon), the son of his estranged daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda)'s new boyfriend Bill Sr. (Dabney Coleman).

This was a surprisingly moving and engaging film moving from fun, funny moments to sad, dark moments just like in life. Henry Fonda gives a great performance here and his character is really the one who makes the movie so watchable. Hepburn and Jane Fonda both provide great support too and young McKeon does quite well in his role too IMO. Another big plus is Jane in her prime. **** out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

FIST OF THE VAMPIRE () - This was on a 20 pack of horror movies I bought recently, and last night I sat and watched it.
This thing is a bad movie lover's dream - horrible gunplay (bullets sparking and ricocheting off of everything, including plastic DVD cases in a video store!), cheap CGI blood and flame effects, TONS of badly choreographed martial arts, utterly gratuitous nudity (much of it from the lovely Darianne Kaine), and a story that is incomprehensibly weak at times. Why would vampires want to run an underground fight club anyway?   As a vampire film, this is a solid 1/5, but as a Bad Movie Lover's movie, it's at least a 4/5!

[Rev. Powell]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST THE MOVIE: THE CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALLA (2005): A dimension-hopping teenage cyborg alchemist (or something like that) finds himself in Weimar Germany, where the Thule Society, backing the Nazis, try to invade his home world. Intriguing but confusing as hell if you haven't seen the series; there are fairly great moments like biplanes fighting a dragon and Fritz Lang subverting Nazis, but it feels overstuffed, like they tried to cram an entire series worth of plot into a 105 minute film. I have to stop watching the movie versions of anime TV shows I've never seen, it never works out too well. 3/5.

[Jim H]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST THE MOVIE: THE CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALLA (2005): A dimension-hopping teenage cyborg alchemist (or something like that) finds himself in Weimar Germany, where the Thule Society, backing the Nazis, try to invade his home world. Intriguing but confusing as hell if you haven't seen the series; there are fairly great moments like biplanes fighting a dragon and Fritz Lang subverting Nazis, but it feels overstuffed, like they tried to cram an entire series worth of plot into a 105 minute film. I have to stop watching the movie versions of anime TV shows I've never seen, it never works out too well. 3/5.

Yeah, and this one isn't a recap type movie like they often make, it's a sequel to the series, which ended on a cliffhanger.  I'll add that even with the series context, it still is overstuffed - the original series is based on a manga that wasn't finished as they created it, so they had to make up an ending on the fly and only did an OK job.  Later on, they made a new anime series called Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood that uses the manga ending.

[Ticonderoga 64]

Bram Stoker's Dracula(1992)
The Mad Ghoul(1943)
Brides Of Blood(1968)
Phantom Of the Opera(1925)
Blacula(1972)
The Bat Whispers(1930)
The Invisible Man(1933)
Terror Is A Man(1959)

[FatFreddysCat]

"Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla" (2002)
When a typhoon churns up the seas around Japan and awakens a "new" Godzilla, the Japanese government creates a giant robot duplicate of The Big G. to do battle with it. Naturally, the usual roaring, smashing, blasting, zapping, crashing and stuff blowin' up ensues.
You just can't go wrong with a Godzilla movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon! :D

[Rev. Powell]

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (2016): Living off the grid, Ben (Viggo Mortensen) raises his six kids to be self-sufficient paragons off physical and intellectual virtue; when he packs up the family to attend his wife's funeral in New Mexico, his extreme style of parenting is challenged for the first time. Entertaining and sure to provoke conversation. 4/5.

HUMAN HIGHWAY (1982): A formless counterculture comedy centered around a garage/coffee shop in Glowtown, an irradiated community located by a nuclear plant in the dystopian near future. Did you know that in the early 1980s Neil Young farted around with filmmaking under the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey" and got Devo and a bunch of aging Hollywood acidheads (Dennis Hopper, Russ Tamblyn, Dean Stockwell) to run around in a goofy post-apocalyptic musical comedy? No? There's a reason for that. 2/5.

[JaseSF]

The Pagemaster (1994): Cowardly Richard Tyler (Macauley Culkin) hides in a library when a storm hits. Following a fall, he finds himself transformed into an animated cartoon and finds himself threatened by literary characters and obstacles he must overcome in order to return to real life.

This movie ultimately proves somewhat a disappointment. I will give it some points for trying to encourage reading, the cool animated dragon, and good literary references. However it was disappointing we never really got to see Tyler actually crack open a book, that there were some major spoilers for certain book classics, Whoopi Goldberg's Fantasy book character proves annoying, and everything seems to peter out in most cases before it ever really gets started. *** out of ***** stars.

Shattered Glass (2003): Stephen Glass (here played by Hayden Christensen), popular star writer for The New Republic, finds his world beginning to crumble when some of the facts behind his articles do not seem to hold up. Now new editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard) must make a decision as to how to deal with this.

Good performances here help especially Sarsgaard as Lane and Christensen's Glass. Also Hank Azaria does quite well in the role of editor Mike Kelly. Interesting film with a good message about ethics and morality when it comes to reporting the facts. Hard to believe he could pull this off for so long...of course, it's also notable that much of today's news seems to be more entertainment than fact too. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Revolutionary Road (2008): Set in the mid-1950s, a married couple named the Wheelers (Leonardo Dicaprio & Kate Winslet) appear to be living the dream only the facade of 50s married happiness soon begins to show major cracks in its foundation especially when April (Winslet) dreams of moving to Paris but Frank (DiCaprio) isn't so sure about leaving when he's offered advancement at work.

This movie might be your idea of fun if you like to watch people argue endlessly as that's the main thing that seems to be happening in this film. Also of course it beats you over the head with the "1950s married happiness" was only a facade thing continuously over and over as no married couple in the film seem truly happy. I just did not care for this at all. Disappointing and very downbeat. ** out of **** stars.

[Jim H]

FIST OF THE VAMPIRE () - This was on a 20 pack of horror movies I bought recently, and last night I sat and watched it.
This thing is a bad movie lover's dream - horrible gunplay (bullets sparking and ricocheting off of everything, including plastic DVD cases in a video store!), cheap CGI blood and flame effects, TONS of badly choreographed martial arts, utterly gratuitous nudity (much of it from the lovely Darianne Kaine), and a story that is incomprehensibly weak at times. Why would vampires want to run an underground fight club anyway?   As a vampire film, this is a solid 1/5, but as a Bad Movie Lover's movie, it's at least a 4/5!

Indy, you should totally check out Len Kabasinksi's other films.

Speaking of which:

I just saw Curse of the Wolf, which was made around the same time as Fist of the Vampire.  It's bonkers and enjoyable, never boring.  Good stuff for bad movie fans.  I find it hard to even write coherently about it longer, I'll just say if you've bought a few of those cheapo DVD movie packs, you probably own it - give it a watch.

[Rev. Powell]

DEATHGASM (2015): A band of teenage metalheads discover an occult tune that, when played, summons demons to their small New Zealand town. Nothing extraordinary, but this horror comedy has some funny moments (a do-over decapitation) and should satisfy its target demographic. 3.5/5.

[BoyScoutKevin]

 Jerk, or excerpts from Jerk.

This is not The Jerk. This is not Steve Martin's 1st starring role. This is not a film.

It is a show. A puppet show using animal and human hand puppets. Excerpts of which were filmed and put on the world wide web.
Based on the novel of the same title by gay novelist Dennis Cooper. Adapted by Gisele Vienne. Puppets manipulated by Jonathaon Capdeville.

Depicting the actions of serial killer Dean Corll, who killed at least 28 boys and young men in Houston (Texas) between 1970 and 1973.

I don't think I have ever read or seen anything that more realistically depicted what those poor boys went through at the hands of their killer. Just gut churning.

And powerful stuff for the audience. When is the last time an audience member fainted? When is the last time an audience member walked out crying? Powerful stuff.

Next time: any of these: Citizen X, Evilenko, Child 44, or In a Glass Cage (Tas el Cristal)

[Rev. Powell]

MOONLIGHT (2016): Bullied and neglected by his crack-addict mom, lonely Chiron learns how to affect a hard exterior and hide his same-sex desires while growing up on the streets of Miami. Sadly believable and made with lots of love. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

The Janitor (2003)

A janitor has anger management issues so he's always killing people though sometimes he just tears their arms off as The Troma guy finds out in an unwanted cameo. The https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ahcJVQiBw trailer would lead you to believe it has some sort of pro working class angle but it really doesn't. It's just a dumb slasher movie with "we are friends with this guy and know this is cheap and ridiculous" charm.

That said you can't help but notice that the director really understands the format and is also somewhat talented. It is I guess, in essence, a parody of a bad movie rather than an actual movie the director THINKS is really good, but it's one that works extremely well. gore, nudity, insanity abound. It's dramatic arc only goes so high but asking to "get lost" in a movie made for 30 cents about a slasher janitor who battles another janitor for a job at a sorority house is really asking too much.

5/5

[Rev. Powell]

KAILI BLUES (2015): A doctor goes on a journey to his old home town, which turns increasingly dreamlike as he travels through a village that seems to be unstuck in time. Great cinematography and impressive tracking shots, though the slow and elliptical narrative will frustrate most viewers; think Apichatpong Weerasethakul (UNCLE BOONME) with less explicit fantasy and more experimental camerawork. Taiwanese. 3/5.

PETER AND THE FARM (2016): Documentary following Peter Dunning, a depressed 68-year old alcoholic Vermonter who works his declining farm alone. Poetic and honest; Peter despairs, but keeps drinking and keeps farming, realizing he and his farm have become one. 4.5/5. 

[FatFreddysCat]

Insomnia fueled double feature...

"The Keep" (1983)
During WWII, a troop of Nazis arrives in a rural Romanian village and sets up HQ inside a huge stone citadel in the center of town. They soon learn that the locals avoid the place for a reason, as they accidentally unleash an ancient evil from within the walls which claims them one by one.
This strange, artsy horror flick has a way-cool concept but unfortunately it totally drops the ball. Supposedly "The Keep" had a troubled production history and was eventually disowned by director Michael Mann, and I can see why. The movie's only 96 minutes long but feels like at least twice that, the special FX are laughable, and it wastes a great cast (incl. Sir Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne and Scott Glenn). AVOID.

"The Satanic Rites of Dracula" (1973)
A Scotland Yard detective investigating occult activity around swingin' '70s London stumbles across a plot by a group of Satan worshippers - led by The Big D himself  - to destroy the entire world with a new strain of Black Plague. This flick marked the last time that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing teamed up to play Dracula and Van Helsing for England's legendary Hammer Studios, and it's a fun ride.