Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

^ that first one is a classic.

[pennywise37]

Elm Street Remake (2010) i was bored with that one i rented that from maybe drug mart? back when it hit video and other than changing names to the characters a character that was Clearly Nancy i was bored watching it. with the Friday the 13th which i do have on bluray since i bought that fantastic box set last year

well that was i think a better film i do not know what my thoughts think about that now since i haven't watched it in years and that's the only disc in the set i have not watched yet.  anyways, i watched last night Black Widow (2021) it was a better film i think that most people are saying about it.

i loved the cast and wow did Ray Winstone put on weight i didn't realize that was even him since he's so much older now and it has been a long time since i last saw him in a film to be fair. but the film while i agree isn't in the MCU films top 10 films or even in the top 5 for that matter it was still a pretty decent picture.

i'd say 8/10. the script needed a bit more work though and it should have been released after Civil War than made afterwords. i fell in love with the main cast and i wish they had made this before the we lost our Black Widow in End Game.  but i enjoyed it now i need only 3 more to have them all in 4K. i need Hulk (2008) 

Age of Ultron (2015) and Homecoming (2017) and of course the new one but since that's still in theaters and not on video yet i'm not counting that just yet

[Rev. Powell]

SUPER ME (2019): Aspiring screenwriter Sang Yu has nightly nightmares that keep him from sleeping and functioning properly, until he discovers he has the power to bring valuable artifacts back from his dreams. A sort-of cool premise with a shaky execution, long stretches of "meh," and a conclusion that's strange but unsatisfying. Chinese, on Netflix. 2.5/5.

[Dr. Whom]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

A mad doctor experiments with transplants (which is apparently an abomination unto the Lord) and finally succeeds by developing a special serum. This seems to have the side effect of bringing back the dead. He gets in a car accident together with his fiancee and keeps her head alive. He then tries to kidnap a girl so he can put his fiancee's head on her body. Luckily his plans are foiled by a monster he created in his earlier experiments. In a strange twist, the monster saves the girl this time.

This is one of those movies where they had enough script for a 30-40 minute TV episode, and there is a lot of padding to stretch it to feature length. In the best case this is some 60s eye candy as the mad doctor prowls for victims. At worst it is the morality of science and God's will being discussed at length.

[Dr. Whom]

"Elvira's Haunted Hills" (2002)
 Watch her first movie from 1988, "Elvira Mistress of the Dark," instead.

Amen to that

[Rev. Powell]

THE ALPINIST (2021): Documentary following rock climber Marc-André Leclerc, a world-class alpinist who shuns the spotlight (he disappears for months in the middle of filming), climbing the world's most treacherous cliffs for pure love of the sport. After FREE SOLO, the rock-climbing-doc is now its own subgenre; as always, this had breathtaking vertiginous vistas (eliciting several audible gasps from the audience). Leclerc is just as foolhardy as FREE SOLO's Alex Honnold, but with his ever-present broken-toothed smile and purity of vision he's so winning that the doc has no choice but to treat him with affection. Saw it in a theater, you need a big screen to get that feeling of vertigo. Surprisingly, there were about six or seven other people there. 3.5/5.

THE ONE YOU FEED (2020): A wounded Stranger (no one in the movie has a name) is taken in by a Man and a Woman who live in some sort of mildly sadomaochistic relationship, which he's drawn into as a third wheel. The characters are vague--deliberately so, though that doesn't soften the blow--and the plot arc flat; even the title is inapt (the Protagonist doesn't have any kind of meaningful internal struggle), leaving you with nothing to cling to except a tiny bit of pretty scenery. Could have been worse, but not by much. I endured this because I asked another reviewer to write it up for me, and I felt like I couldn't do that unless I was willing to suffer, too. 1/5.

[pennywise37]

the brain that wouldn't die (1962) i have only seen the MSTK3000 i think? yeah it's a bad one but it's not a bad idea for film to be honest

[Dr. Whom]

the brain that wouldn't die (1962) i have only seen the MSTK3000 i think? yeah it's a bad one but it's not a bad idea for film to be honest

Well, that is a common problem with many B-movies of the 50s and 60s (and sometimes later). The basic idea is OK, but is not enough to fill a feature length movie, and the budget isn't there to add action scenes or effect shots. What you get instead is padding by means of badly written dialogue delivered by bad actors.

[Rev. Powell]

I like THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. The padding is so sleazy, but still innocent because they couldn't actually show anything, that it's kind of hilarious.

TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (2020): Punk DJ Amy is having a bad night when she's bitten by a bat on the way to the studio as a hurricane approaches, then learns that she's about to lose her show to an intern. The hallucination-based plot will alienate those hoping for a conventional vampire story, but it features a great angry turn by veteran scream queen Caroline Williams as the scorned professional being forced out for a younger woman the boss wants to sleep with, and it's wild and fast-paced enough to keep interest up. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dirty Work" (1998)
Norm Macdonald's recent passing led me to revisit his cult classic "slobs vs. snobs" comedy about two jobless slackers (Norm and Artie Lange) who find success when they start a "revenge for hire" business, pulling pranks on people for money. When they do a job for a crooked real estate developer and find out they're the ones who've been played, it leads to their biggest "revenge" set up ever.
I hadn't seen this movie since it first hit video back in the day, fortunately it still holds up, I laughed a lot. Norm, we hardly knew ye.

[lester1/2jr]

^ yeah I gotta watch Dirty Work again


Butterfly Kisses (2018) - tubitv is kind of like the Middle East upstairs room in Cambridge Mass. It's where a lot of bands play their first show, but it's also where a lot of interesting, non mainstream bands with serious statements that just aren't marketable play. Or maybe it's just a channel of old and/or unwanted dreck. Either way I'm on board. plus it's free

I've been knee deep in the "found footage horror" section lately. This one is pretty different and extremely contrived but enjoyable. okay:

A guy finds a "box full of digital tapes" in his parents basement, watches them and is intrigued by what he sees. A failed filmmaker and current wedding filmer, he decides to go for it and solve the mystery of the thing. Sounds totally fake right?

The character is manipulative and has as much charisma as Hillary Rodham Clinton, so a tough sell of a job becomes virtually impossible. In the first interview he does, the guy isn't enthusiastic enough for his liking so he turns on him and gets tossed out. He also has a film crew that is filming HIM for another documentary that they are doing.

Talking heads include the director of the Blair Witch Project who discusses how stupid and insincere he thinks the whole thing is. It's kind of like that Nightmare on Elm street sequel that was about the movie franchise itself. meta meta horror movie. This whole tone is likely to be too much for some people and as one IMDB review pointed out you don't learn all that much about Peeping Tom, the local legend that the found tapes were about.

4.5 /5 you will want to punch the main guy but it's still good

[pennywise37]

not just movies from the 50's and 60's my friend but even movies made today as well.  it's not just B movies that often suffer from that it's the A list films as well

[FatFreddysCat]

"Decoys" (2004)
Two slacker college roommates suspect that the pair of hot new sorority sisters on campus are not only responsible for a series of mysterious deaths around the school, but might even be of alien origin.
... this severely tongue-in-cheek teen horror comedy borrows heavily from the "Species" films,  but it makes the most of its wintry campus setting and the special effects are decent enough. Plus, there are lots of pretty girls in various states of undress. Therefore I was entertained, though I doubt I'll ever bother with the 2007 sequel.

"Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" (1987)
In 1957, a prom night prank gone wrong kills Hamilton High's uber-b***h Mary Lou Maloney just as she's being crowned prom queen. 30 years later her, Mary Lou's restless spirit possesses one of the current front runners for prom queen, using her body to do away with the competion and get some long overdue revenge.
This cheap but effective high school horror is bolted together from bits of "Carrie," "Nightmare on Elm Street" (Mary Lou is essentially a female Freddy), "The Exorcist" and more, but it's enjoyably sleazy fun in its own right. This is the only movie in the "Prom Night" series that's worth watching more than once.

[RCMerchant]

the brain that wouldn't die (1962) i have only seen the MSTK3000 i think? yeah it's a bad one but it's not a bad idea for film to be honest

Well, that is a common problem with many B-movies of the 50s and 60s (and sometimes later). The basic idea is OK, but is not enough to fill a feature length movie, and the budget isn't there to add action scenes or effect shots. What you get instead is padding by means of badly written dialogue delivered by bad actors.

That's one of the best films ever made.

[Allhallowsday]

...That's one of the best films ever made.

Hardly. 

 

But it is a box o' bonbons for the BAD movie lover.  JAN IN THE PAN!  It's a CLASSICK!!!