Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

AFTER BLUE (DIRTY PARADISE) (2021): Check this out: on the all-female planet "After Blue," an ingenue digs up a woman in the sand, who turns out to be the monstrous killer "Kate Bush," and her and her mother are tasked with killing it. A bizarre, erotic scenario staged on psychedelic sets, there's always something cool to look at; I just wish the characters had been given interesting things to say or do on those colorful sets. A missed opportunity for a cult movie from Bertrand Mandico. In French. 2.5/5.

HUSTLE (2022): A hustling NBA scout (Adam Sandler) with hopes of entering coaching stakes his career on an under-the-radar freak athlete from Spain with anger-management problems. It has all the disadvantages of "Rocky"-style inspirational sports stories---predictable plot arcs, contrived obstacles and opportunities, can't go left---but it's entertaining enough to earn a tryout, even if it's unlikely to make it into your regular rotation. The dozens of NBA cameos, from Anthony Edwards to Dr. J, are a treat for basketball fans. On Netflix. 3/5.

[chainsaw midget]

"Jason X" (2002)
The tenth "Friday The 13th" installment is also the most insane one yet. In this slasher/sci-fi mashup, The Big J is cryogenically frozen in the early 2000s, and re-discovered 400 years later by a futuristic salvage crew. When the team makes the terrible decision to bring the Jason-sicle back to their space ship and thaw him out, it leads to havoc on an inter-galactic level.
As long as you can wrap your head around the utterly absurd concept, "Jason X" is a fast paced, funny as hell, ultra violent hoot. I've found that it works best if you treat it as a parody of the "F13" films rather than a legitimate series entry.

I think legitimate entires into that series had already reached the "treat it like a parody" level before that movie. 

With that said, I liked the movie. 

[Rev. Powell]

TINY CINEMA (2022): Anthology of six short horror comedy/black comedy installments involving necrophilia, erectile dysfunction, time-traveling self love, geriatric lovemaking, dad lycanthropy, and an unusual obsession with the "what she said" joke (the first and worst of the lot). These shorts are extremely well-made, technically speaking, for their budget, although the jokes tend to be modest and overplayed even at a brief 15 minutes each. Entries were expanded from a webseries, and probably worked better as microshorts. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Dark Water (2003) - Japanese horror movie I wasn't that into. A woman moves into an apartment building and they start to see a ghost girl who went missing before they moved in. It's got that slow Japanese style. I guess if yuo are really tired of over the top CGI and so forth it could be refreshing, but I don't watch any of that stuff so it was mostly just a spare horror movie that had some good parts but overall not too entertaining

3/5

[Alex]

Dark Water (2003) - Japanese horror movie I wasn't that into. A woman moves into an apartment building and they start to see a ghost girl who went missing before they moved in. It's got that slow Japanese style. I guess if yuo are really tired of over the top CGI and so forth it could be refreshing, but I don't watch any of that stuff so it was mostly just a spare horror movie that had some good parts but overall not too entertaining

3/5

I cannot recommend the US remake (even if it does have Jennifer Connolly in it). A bit too slow moving.

[Rev. Powell]

RISK (2017): This documentary follows Julian Assange from 2010 to 2016 as he plays games of legal cat and mouse with authorities, while facilitating information leaks. A portrait of a troubling and complicated man, equal parts radical idealist and Machiavellian manipulator, with director Laura Poitras attaining an unprecedented level of access to the cloistered activist. I didn't know what to think about Assange before this documentary and I still don't know what to think about him afterwards. He's done some good things, but he's not trustworthy, and his response to the sexual abuse allegations against him---that it's a conspiracy by "radical feminists"---rings hollow (just watch his defense lawyer's dismayed reaction as she tries to coach him on how to talk to the press). The director debuted this at Cannes but had to re-cut it after the DNC email dump. There's also a bizarre scene where Lady Gaga visits Assange while he's holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy and conducts a strange interview with him. 3.5/5.

[Alex]

Fresh.

The Winter Soldier kidnaps women and keeps them alive as long as possible while carving bits of them off for lunch or selling bits for large sums of money to other people who share his tastes.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Morbius" (2022)
A brilliant scientist who's dying of an incurable blood disease finally discovers a cure for his condition... but it grants him unexpected,  vampiric abilities that require him to drink blood to keep the symptoms from returning. As the Doc attempts to figure out how to undo the side effect, another less scrupulous sufferer takes the "cure" and he has no problems with killing innocents to keep his disease at bay.
I wasn't expecting much from this mediocre "Spider-Man" spinoff, which tanked at the box office earlier this year, but it wasn't as bad as the word of mouth suggested. Jared Leto's performance as Morbius is fine and the special effects are decent, but the villain is kinda lame.
Without the Marvel branding, this would be just another generic horror/action flick like any random "Underworld" or "Resident Evil" entry. Watchable, but forgettable.

[chainsaw midget]

"Morbius" (2022)
A brilliant scientist who's dying of an incurable blood disease finally discovers a cure for his condition... but it grants him unexpected,  vampiric abilities that require him to drink blood to keep the symptoms from returning. As the Doc attempts to figure out how to undo the side effect, another less scrupulous sufferer takes the "cure" and he has no problems with killing innocents to keep his disease at bay.
I wasn't expecting much from this mediocre "Spider-Man" spinoff, which tanked at the box office earlier this year, but it wasn't as bad as the word of mouth suggested. Jared Leto's performance as Morbius is fine and the special effects are decent, but the villain is kinda lame.
Without the Marvel branding, this would be just another generic horror/action flick like any random "Underworld" or "Resident Evil" entry. Watchable, but forgettable.

That was pretty much my thoughts on Morbius.  It wasn't horrible, but it's not something you'd ever be recommending to your friends. 

[lester1/2jr]

Magnum Force (1973) - Clint Eastwood is incredible as Harry Callahan, the archetypal cop who "plays by his own rules". His performance is a little one note, but it's a damn good note. He's a cop who hates the system but its working to change it from the inside, so what happens when he bumps up against vigilantes who are dispensing street justice to people who largely deserve it? That's good tension, you have to admit.


I've never seen the original so have to check that out tonight. I'm told it's better so I'll give this one

4.5 /5

[Trevor]

Fresh.

The Winter Soldier kidnaps women and keeps them alive as long as possible while carving bits of them off for lunch or selling bits for large sums of money to other people who share his tastes.

I thought you were joking about The Winter Soldier doing that and after googling the title, I see you weren't joking 😳😳😉🐢

[Alex]

Fresh.

The Winter Soldier kidnaps women and keeps them alive as long as possible while carving bits of them off for lunch or selling bits for large sums of money to other people who share his tastes.

I thought you were joking about The Winter Soldier doing that and after googling the title, I see you weren't joking 😳😳😉🐢

It isn't a bad movie if you fancy a thriller.

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: BRIDE OF THE MONSTER: You know the movie: Bela Lugosi tries to create an atomic-powered "rice of pipples" with help from Tor Johnson and hindrance from Ed Wood. The riffing is... OK. You already know all the beats. Guest was Rachel Lichtman; I didn't know who she was before and, honestly, don't know much more now---they didn't do a good job of introducing her or really explaining her current project except to promise we'd love it. 2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

THE PERFECTION (2018)

Charlotte, former virtuoso cellist, left the demanding concert tour to care for her aging mother several years ago.  Now that her mother has passed, she decides to reconnect with her former instructor and his current prodigy, a young girl named Lizzie. They quickly become friends, and then lovers.  But when Lizzie invites Charlotte to join her on a ramble through the Chinese countryside, things go sideways in a hurry, spiraling into a maelstrom of sickness, madness, mutilation, and revenge.  This ultra-twisty tale of music and vengeance kept me guessing right up to the end.  VERY well done!  5/5

[chainsaw midget]

I just watched "Out There Halloween Mega Tape". 

It's the sort-of sequel to WNUF Halloween special that I talked about a while back. 

Out There is presented as an old bootleg VHS tape of two local TV Halloween specials.  One of them being from a trash talk show, the other, set years later as the talk show host has been cancelled and now works as host for an low budget show.  This new show is one of those "Alien visitors:  Are they real?" they things, and there's a wonderful twist at the end that nobody will see coming. 

The DVD features "original commercials" that feel like they were pulled right out of the early 90s when the movie was set, and the whole thing is done with a wonderfully retro bad TV quality. 

Plus it has a great looking "cheap Halloween" style box.  There's even an guest star actor that talks about all the scary movies he's been in and it feel like he's reading things straight from our make a bad movie title topic.  (He's not, but it's the same kind of quality badness.)


Look at this.  This is art.