Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Trevor]

65 (2029) Captain Mills is piloting a colony ship full of cryogenically suspended settlers across the galaxy when an uncharted field of asteroids damages his ship and sends him crash landing on EARTH, at the end of the Cretaceous era.  All his passengers but one young girl are killed, his ship is broken in half and scattered across miles of dinosaur-filled jungle, and of course the emergency escape craft is in the other end of the ship.  Adam Driver stars in this watchable bit of dinosaur mayhem and does a pretty good job portraying a grieving father protecting a child about the same age as his own lost daughter. Nice lenght, good dino effects, very contrived plot, this is basically an A-budget B-movie. 4/5

(2029)?

Looks like Indy got an advance copy.

😆😆😆😆

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Horror Show" (aka "House III," 1989)
Serial killer Max "Meat Cleaver" Jenke is executed in the electric chair, but he comes back as a supernatural force intent on getting revenge on the police officer who brought him to justice.
Sean S. Cunningham of "Friday the 13th" fame produced this knock-off of "Nightmare on Elm Street" and/or "Shocker" that doesn't have an original bone in its body, but it's got plenty of cool/creepy atmosphere, some decent gory bits and strong performances by the late great Brion James as "Max" (who has said that this was his favorite role of his career) and the always dependable Lance Henriksen as the tortured policeman. Released as "House III" outside of the U.S. for some reason.

[RCMerchant]

^ I like that movie! I first saw it on HBO way back when! Kinda reminded me of SHOCKER (1989).

[Dr. Whom]

Gattaca (1997)

In a world where genetic manipulation is the norm, a man with unfit genes tries to beat the system by impersonating a genetically superior person. Things go smoothly until a coworker is brutally murdered.

Having heard high praise for this, I found it a bit disappointing. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into creating the world and its 60s retro-futurist look, and it is superbly done. I really like the 60s cars with the whizz of an electric motor overdubbed. However, the story that is set in it, is pretty thin. The first half hour is essentially an info dump, it then becomes a retro futurist noir before veering off into melodrama. More interesting for the world it creates and the questions it asks than for the story it tells. And we get a glimpse of how Maya Hawke came into being.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Boneyard" (1991)
A couple of cops, a lady psychic, and some night shift workers are trapped inside a small town morgue building with a bunch of corpses who won't stay dead. Hilarity ensues, but I'm not entirely sure it was intentional.
This weird-as-hell horror cheapie doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's watchable due to its bizarro-world casting (Norman "Mr. Roper" Fell and Phyllis god-damn Diller have supporting roles, and the female lead tips the scales at about 275 lbs.) and its uncomfortably creepy puppet/creature FX. If you can imagine a low rent "Return of the Living Dead" knock off featuring a monstrous zombie poodle (yes, seriously) you're in this movie's ball park. Make no mistake, this was terrible, but in an awesome sort of way.

[Rev. Powell]

ASTRAKAN (2022): An orphan boy struggles to adapt to life with his French foster family, dodging abuse as best he can. Sad and ultra-realistic for most of the runtime, obliquely hinting at buried traumas and childhood horrors, ending inconclusively with a surrealistic coda featuring some startling imagery. 3/5.

[M.10rda]

I did a VHS rental double-feature of THE HORROR SHOW and SHOCKER in '89 or '90 and watched them back-to-back... SHOCKER second, as I expected it to be the better of the two. I liked HORROR SHOW more - better pacing, more action, Lance and Brion. SHOCKER has a few good points but it's a slog as I recall.

[FatFreddysCat]

I did a VHS rental double-feature of THE HORROR SHOW and SHOCKER in '89 or '90 and watched them back-to-back... SHOCKER second, as I expected it to be the better of the two. I liked HORROR SHOW more - better pacing, more action, Lance and Brion. SHOCKER has a few good points but it's a slog as I recall.

I revisited Shocker for the first time in decades a year or so ago. It started off promising, but the wheels started falling off early on and by the final reel I was rolling my eyes and checking my watch. Uncle Wes phoned that sucker in (and later admitted as much).

This was my first time seeing Horror Show and I liked it much better than Shocker.

[M.10rda]

He phoned it in frequently. He has a handful of really cool (if imperfect) movies and also plenty of mediocrities-to-stinkers...

[FatFreddysCat]

"Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America" (2023)
Disturbing but intriguing Netflix doc on the Boy Scouts' decades-long habit of downplaying and/or covering up child sexual abuse within the organization, which was finally revealed in the 2010s when the BSA's top secret, so called "Perversion Files" became public and the depths of the problem were exposed for the first time.
Not the most pleasant subject for a doc, but I was interested as I was a Cub Scout when I was a kid in the 70s, and I was also very involved as an adult leader when both of my sons were Scouts. Thankfully I never witnessed anything weird or inappropriate, but it was kind of scary to learn how widespread the problem was (and probably still is) in spite of the BSA's claims that they're a "safer" organization now.

[RCMerchant]

STREET TRASH (1987)

This is a bad movie. Not in a good way. No name actors play scummy "street trash' in a film that has no redeeming value. Scenes of necrophilia, rape, and playing football with a severed penis are played for laughs. Not one likeable character in the whole film. On occasion a bum drinks some toxic booze called Viper which makes them melt in sub-par F/X. Only for fans of masochism. I have no idea who the target audiance for this drek is.

[Jim H]

Endgame (1983) - Generally fun Italian post-apoc cheapie.  Starts off as a death game show then merges into a sort of Mad Max wasteland fleeing scenario, but quite low budget.  Quite a lot of action and a high body count too.  Action is well-interspersed too, I hate it when Italian films of this era are boring for like the middle 40 minutes.  It's handled above average for the genre too, by director Joe D'Amato.  My fave of his films I've seen, but goddamn, he has a lot, so who knows if it's his best.

The lead, Al Clive, is SO wooden and boring though, like goddamn, ZERO charisma and seems like an extra they just promoted or something.  George Eastman as a secondary character seems like Laurence Olivier in comparison, he's not amazing but has screen presence and is intimidating like he's supposed to be.

All in all, it's my second favorite of these films I've seen, with 2019 still holding the crown.

[Alex]

Sisu.

Other than a minor quibble about the tank (it is a Soviet vehicle that didn't come into service until the mid-50s), I found this to be an enjoyable movie. Then again I rarely get tired of seeing nazi's get killed in a variety of ways. Plenty of blood and gore if that is your thing, impossible moments and so on. Just shut down Mr Brain and enjoy.

[lester1/2jr]

Skew (2011) - Another day, another found footage experience. This is watchable and has a decent vibe/ concept but the director doesn't know exactly what to do with it all and it gets a little tedious.

A group of friends are going on a road trip. Immediately we encounter the two biggest things I will remember about the movie:

1. The two people CONSTANTLY tell the third to put down the camera. It must be a dozen or more times they have this same conversation.

2. The female lead Eva is hot. They should give her all the profits.

Why was he so obsessed with the camera? Why did all the bad things that happened happen? I kind of know, but not really. Again though, the dark vibe is there and the time passes quickly enough

4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dragnet" (1987)
Action/comedy update of the 50s/60s cop show stars Dan Aykroyd as the hilariously uptight nephew of the original Sgt. Joe Friday and Tom Hanks (in one of his last second-banana roles before he became a leading man in his own right) as his freewheeling new partner, racing to stop a crime wave masterminded by a crooked TV evangelist (Christopher Plummer). Lots of fun, it's a shame that they never made any sequels to this because Dan & Tom were a great team.