Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

BLOODY ORANGES (2021): An elderly French couple enters a dance contest hoping to erase their debts, while a scandal-ridden politician tries to improve his image and a young woman hopes to lose her virginity. Well-written purported black comedy, but the third act turn into rape and torture porn is jarring, and in-depth discussions of the French pension system will probably further restrict its audience. 3/5.

[indianasmith]

THE WRETCHED (2021) - Teenaged Ben comes to a small seaside community to spend the summer with his Dad after his parents' recent divorce.
He notices his Dad's neighbors right away - a pleasant young couple with two kids (the Mom is pretty hot, explaining his notice).  But then he sees an odd creature on the porch at night, and next day there is no sign of the two kids.  Not only that, the neighbor is now denying that he and his wife ever HAD any children.  A skin-stealing, shape-shifting vampiric entity is possessing the townspeople one by one and feeding on the children it forces them to forget.  This was a better than average horror film with some really creepy effects.  A solid 4/5

[Jim H]

Savage Dawn - Fascinating.  Lance Henriksen, George Kennedy, William Forsythe, Karen Black and Richard Lynch...  And they're all almost entirely wasted.  An adequate premise largely for nothing.  Awful direction, some of the worst I've ever seen.  Bad writing.  Bad action.  But it does move and keeps changing what is happening, so it isn't boring.  Also clearly has a more than adequate budget - the technical people working on this clearly know what they're doing, just the head and the writers don't.  Weird.  A lot of sequences barely fit together, some poor editing.  This is a disjointed summary, but so is the film. 

It's worth a watch if you like the people in it and bad movies. 

[lester1/2jr]

^ that sounds  

The Blob (1988) - I cant believe I never saw this. It's got that classic 80s feel a la Pee Wee's Big Adventure or Elvira Mistress of the Dark. It's darker and not quite as good as those but nothing really is. The male lead street tough looks like he listens to Kenny G and plays bass in Europe. very intimidating!

I didn't really like the original The Blob so can't really compare the two, though this also has a scene in the town movie theater. The female is cute but the movie is much more focused on creative kills than sex. My friend Gabe used to have movie nights circa 1989 and this must have been at one of them. I guess I had the flu that week. He worked at a video store until he got fired for absconding with all the pornographic titles

4.5 /5

[RCMerchant]

^ The lead was played by Kevin (tv show Entourage) Dillon, the brother of Matt Dillon.

[Rev. Powell]

DENKRAUM (2020): Alex observes various videos on a computer monitor for a new social network named "Denkraum" (which may also be a self-aware entity). That description sounds much more coherent than the film actually is, since it involves schizophrenia, suicide, a religious cult, spirituality, technology, fascism, dream spaces, memory loss, a complicated romance, and about a dozen other themes that are impossible to follow because of the choppy and inconsistent delivery of ideas. It doesn't help that the subtitles (at least in the screener I saw) were full of typos and often disappeared from the screen before I could read them. Still, some interesting bits, and I think the director could do good work with more focus. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies" (1993)
While he was a film student at NYU, future "Joker" and "Hangover" director Todd Philips directed this documentary about GG Allin, the notoriously unhinged, feces-flinging, death obsessed, ultra-violent punk rocker. His camera follows GG and his band around on an East Coast tour, where GG shares bits of his bizarre life philosophy, uses dope, picks fights with his audience, spits, bleeds, poops, and basically acts like an out of control lunatic. In other words: this is a portrait of a guy who shouldn't have been walking around loose, and the world is a safer place now that he's gone. Skin-crawlingly weird and disturbing, but also fascinating in a strange, "you can't make this up" kind of way.

[Rev. Powell]

"Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies" (1993)
While he was a film student at NYU, future "Joker" and "Hangover" director Todd Philips directed this documentary about GG Allin, the notoriously unhinged, feces-flinging, death obsessed, ultra-violent punk rocker. His camera follows GG and his band around on an East Coast tour, where GG shares bits of his bizarre life philosophy, uses dope, picks fights with his audience, spits, bleeds, poops, and basically acts like an out of control lunatic. In other words: this is a portrait of a guy who shouldn't have been walking around loose, and the world is a safer place now that he's gone. Skin-crawlingly weird and disturbing, but also fascinating in a strange, "you can't make this up" kind of way.

I saw this sad and disturbing doc back when it came out, didn't realize it was directed by Todd Phillips until just now.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Maniac Cop" (1988)
A psycho in an NYPD uniform is murdering innocent citizens by night. A detective (Tom "Halloween III" Atkins) and a patrolman (Bruce Campbell!) team up to find out the killer's I.D. and stop him before he can achieve his ultimate goal of murdering NYC's chief of police and mayor.
Cult classic horror/action B-movie that does a nice job of mixing police procedural elements with cool slasher mayhem. Followed by two sequels.

[lester1/2jr]

I had 2 friends who were junkies and they behaved similarly to that. The addiction to that drug causes people to lose their dignity, which can have the effect of making them go overboard in demonstrating that, if that makes any sense. my theory

[FatFreddysCat]

"Maniac Cop 2" (1990)
The murderous Officer Cordell is back for another round of slaughtering innocent (and some not so innocent) New Yorkers, and this time he's got a partner, a serial killer who likes to carve up strippers. A new duo of NYPD officers (Robert Davi and Claudia Christian) have to stop their rampage before they can stage a massive prison break at the notorious Sing Sing.
This direct-to-video sequel is superior to its predecessor. It's faster moving, packed with more elaborate stunts and action sequences, and it doesn't skimp on the splashy gore, either.
Make sure you stick around for the hilariously awful "Maniac Cop Rap" song that plays over the end credits.

[indianasmith]

NOBODY SLEEPS IN THE WOODS TONIGHT (2019) A group of technology-addicted kids in Poland are sent to a special camp where they learn to live without any access to the internet.  Four of them are taken out in the woods on a hike by one of the camp counselors, where they have a run in with two hideously deformed, cannibalistic twin brothers who had been infected with parasitic alien DNA from a meteorite years before.  Mayhem ensues.

This is a good all-around cannibal mutant hillbilly movie set in Europe.  The makeup for the twins is outstanding, the kills are gory, the plot somewhat nonsensical, and the comic relief scenes are actually funny.  In short, this is a buffet of gore and sleaze for any bad movie buff!!!  5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Prey" (2022)
The latest installment in the Predator franchise (streaming exclusively on Hulu) is a period piece set in the 1700s, and it focuses on a young Comanche woman who wants to prove she's just as good as the boys on her first-ever hunting expedition. She and the tribe get more than they bargained for when a Predator (perhaps the first one ever to visit Earth?) drops in on the proceedings.
I was pleasantly surprised by this one, it took a little while to get into gear but once it did, the action was non-stop straight till the end. I thought it was the best Predator movie in years!

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: THE LOST MISSILE: A rouge UFO missile orbits the earth, causing destruction wherever it flies. A sort-of interesting premise, but the movie is about 1/3 stock footage and 1/3 static graphics of the cheesy missile/UFO. Trace and Frank get some laughs out of it. The after-show guest is the always perky Bridgette Nelson. Par for the course for this show. 2.5/5.

[Jim H]

I also saw Prey and quite enjoyed it.  Decently written, a good lead performance, very good action set pieces, lots of gore.  I think the first act is a bit rough in spots, and I wish the character drama between a few side characters was a bit better, but otherwise really good.  Totally worth a watch, and easily the best Predator film since the original.  I might have liked this MORE than the original, except it's really hard to top the charisma of the original's cast, which elevate already good material - the cast and characters in Prey aren't as strong. 

NOBODY SLEEPS IN THE WOODS TONIGHT (2019) A group of technology-addicted kids in Poland are sent to a special camp where they learn to live without any access to the internet.  Four of them are taken out in the woods on a hike by one of the camp counselors, where they have a run in with two hideously deformed, cannibalistic twin brothers who had been infected with parasitic alien DNA from a meteorite years before.  Mayhem ensues.

This is a good all-around cannibal mutant hillbilly movie set in Europe.  The makeup for the twins is outstanding, the kills are gory, the plot somewhat nonsensical, and the comic relief scenes are actually funny.  In short, this is a buffet of gore and sleaze for any bad movie buff!!!  5/5

Oddly sex positive too, for a slasher film.  Worth a watch.  I gather the sequel is a huge step down, unfortunately, but haven't seen it yet.