Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

^ David Lynch wanted to make a movie about his brother with the weird notebook but he died

[FatFreddysCat]

"Bad Boys For Life" (2020)
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back for a third, long delayed go-round as straight shootin', wise crackin' Miami cops Mike and Marcus. This time out, Marcus is considering retirement (again), and Mike has been marked for assassination by the seriously ticked-off lady boss of a Mexican drug cartel. Naturally, this leads to lots of stuff getting shot, blown up, and crashed into other stuff.
It's been more than fifteen years since the last "Bad Boys" movie but Smith and Lawrence fall right back into their buddy-cop groove and as usual, the stunt work and pyrotechnics are a sight to behold. Sometimes you just gotta have a big, dumb, flashy, shoot'em up action flick full of empty calories, and this franchise has always filled that bill.

[Rev. Powell]

BEAST CLAWING AT STRAWS (2020): A crime boss, a ruthless madam, a corrupt customs official, and a struggling sauna clerk all scheme to possess a bag stuffed with cash. An exquisitely plotted neo-noir deftly handled by first-time Korean director Kim Yong-Hoon. I could definitely see this getting a Hollywood remake. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Venom" (2018)
An experimental space craft crash lands on Earth, letting loose several parasitic alien life forms. One of them eventually "bonds" with a down-on-his-luck investigative reporter to stop a full scale invasion by the critters.
Loosely based on the Marvel Comics super-villain, this flick wisely opted to re-write Venom's origin story, throwing out all the Spider-Man connections so the character can stand on his own. Tom Hardy is a hoot as the guy learning to deal with his new "partner" and the visual FX are top notch. I honestly wasn't expecting much from this flick, but it turned out to be a fun, action packed sci-fi/horror ride.

[Gabriel Knight]

LOOPER (2012)

In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

What starts as an interesting time travel ordeal, it crashes into another completely different movie in less than an hour. Don't watch this expecting another PREDESTINATION, this is trash. When you try to unravel the plot it falls apart so bad that is hilarious, it literally looks as if they lost the script and had to find a new one - it reminds me a lot of what I felt with HANCOCK. See that synopsis I just put above? I kid you not, it has nothing to do with the main story.

If you can deal with the fact that in this world the mob can't get rid of a body but can travel in time to do it, even when in a scene we clearly see them killing Joe's wife without many issues, and they still go through the trouble of "disposing" him. Did they forget they have another body lying there? Oh well. If you can deal with these blunders, it's nevertheless a fun movie. Good ol' Bruce still got it, and even when it's completely unnecesary, he shoots people, because that's what he does.

If you don't have anything else to do, give it a watch, but otherwise stick to better time travel or gangster films. 6/10 

[lester1/2jr]

Anna (aka Mindscape) (2013) - There are a lot of movies called Anna so if you are ever looking for this one search Anna memory detective or something. and you should because its pretty good

The acting. writing etc aren't great and the story is pretty unbelievable but I enjoyed it, so much so that I stayed up till like 3:30 am watching it and got up at 1:30. luckily I drive uber and there's not much going on now so nothing really matters.

John Washington is a memory detective. via some combination pf psychic powers and technology he can enter peoples minds and see if they are telling the truth about a crime or something. Coming back from a rough period, his boss gives him an easy job: get this rich girl who is refusing to eat to eat. Well, it wouldn't be much of a movie if it didn't turn into a little more than that.

He enters her memories and sees all kinds of crazy stuff, but is she actually gifted too and changing the memories around? It had me hooked even though its totally impossible and the acting is run of the mill.

4.5 /5 shows how a strong story can over come a lot of budgetary/ talent, logic obstacles

 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Detroit Rock City" (1999)
It's 1978 and a quartet of doofus teens cut school and hit the road to see KISS at Cobo Hall in Detroit, having a variety of wacky mis-adventures along the way.
A very funny, well made period piece comedy with a great cast and a rockin' soundtrack. "DRC" tanked at the box office back in the day, which is a shame -- this one deserves to become a cult classic. Enjoyable even if you're not a member of the KISS Army.

[lester1/2jr]

Wes Craven's Summer of Fear (1978) - I had seen this as a kid and didn't think I'd ever find it. While not quite as awesome as "Invitation to hell" Craven's other made for tv movie it is very entertaining and trashy.

A cousin from the Ozarks comes to stay at Linda Blair and her families' house. Blair has a poofy hairdo and isn't as hot as she was in her early 80's efforts. The cousin isn't bad and she soon makes moves on everybody in sight, including the Dad! Having sexual tension between ostensible family members is a little odd, but the horror element really doesn't come into play until the second half so I guess they had to keep viewers attention some way.

I remembered this as being less campy and more straight horror but it holds up as what it is. 4.5 /5

[Gabriel Knight]

THE MARTIAN (2015)

An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

An interesting movie, but not very original to be honest. While I cannot discuss the science behind it, although I assume it must be somewhat correct since NASA helped, they failed miserably in the psychological side of the story. At no point our hero shows us the despair of being stranded alone in a planet deadly for any form of life. In fact, it seems like he's having some kind of vacation in there. Only at the end it kinda shows some emotion, the rest of the time it's like "lol disco music". MOON captured this a million times better.

While I do appreciate the fact that everything seems to go wrong, most of the problems are solved inmediately by some conveniently placed object: duct tape, a piece of plastic, whatever. Mark is not just a botanist, but also an engineer, electrician, chemist, surgeon, and anything else the plot requires. The guy has more knowledge than Wikipedia, it's amazing.

Still, an entertaining movie, although it's longer than necessary. The Mars landscape is gorgeus! 7/10 

[FatFreddysCat]

"White Christmas" (1954)
Two ex-Army song and dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) romance a pair of singing sisters (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) while putting on a really big Christmas show at their former commanding officer's Vermont hotel to help save his business.

This is one of those classic holiday perennials that my wife insists on watching every year and while I generally don't care for musicals, this one has an old-fashioned charm that makes it watchable. (Truthfully, I tend to spend most of the run time ogling the astoundingly leggy Vera-Ellen, who plays Kaye's love interest...)

...besides, I can't watch "Silent Night, Deadly Night" sequels all December long, y'know! :D

[pacman000]

Fantasy Island (2020)

The individual fantasies were ok, but the overall plot & added mythology was unnecessary.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Trancers" (1984)
23rd century cop Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is sent back in time to 20th century L.A. to stop a murderer whose killing spree has the potential to change the future.  
Basically this is a low budget mish mash of ideas borrowed from "The Terminator" and "Blade Runner," but it's fast paced, junky fun in its own right. Thomerson is hilariously deadpan as the hard-boiled future cop and his punk-rock chick sidekick is played by future Oscar winner Helen "Mad About You" Hunt, who was quite the hottie back then!
Charles Band directed this cult classic that was followed by at least five sequels (I lost count). "Trancers" even takes place during Christmas time, so it's seasonally appropriate viewing as well!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Trancers II" (1991)
Future Cop Jack Deth has spent the past six years coolin' his heels in the 20th century, until his old boss returns through the time stream to inform him of a new threat: a mad scientist has begun assembling an army of zombie-like "Trancers" to do his murderous bidding.
I described the first "Trancers" as "junky fun," but this one is mostly just "junk" in spite of the great cast (which includes Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Richard Lynch, Geoffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton). It's needlessly complicated and looks even cheaper than the original, which is really sayin' something.
I got a few laughs out of it but somehow I doubt I'm going to go much deeper into this franchise.

[Rev. Powell]

LUCKY (2004): An alcoholic writer finds inspiration when a stray dog starts telepathically dictating scripts to him---and orders him to kill. A low budget, shot-on-video affair, but with a competent script; it starts off like a twisted sitcom but descends into sleazy grindhouse territory as the bodies pile up. Not wholly successful, but the oddness keeps you watching. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Irresistible (2005) - the title has nothing to do with anything but this is a pretty okay thriller starring Susan Sarandon who looks great. It's kind of hard to recommend though because its so full of cliches. Sarandon and director Ann something worked on the script together and they should have worked a little harder. It's filmed in Australia and everyone else is Australian. Emily Blunt is in it. She's hot.

Sarandon is some kind of illustrator in a way I didn't quite grasp and her husband is a really good at business guy. A sexy new secretary at work (Blunt) provides temptation, but she also seems to be ingratiating herself as people in these things often do. Or is Sarandon imagining the whole thing? This question was the best part of the movie even though you know how it's probably going to turn out.

It passed the time well enough. I had to look at wikipedia to fully understand the ending.

Well folks, it's alright and surely much better than the Jessica Simpson album of the same name

3.75 /5