Recent Viewings, Part 2

[VenomX73]

whoa! too dam cool RC! 

[indianasmith]

Tonight my daughter and I went to see THE INVISIBLE MAN together.  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, from start to finish.  Some cool jump scares, yes, but also an engaging plot and very believable and sympathetic protagonist.  I was completely sucked in!

[Dr. Whom]

Godzilla 2014 (yeah, that one)

Why can't Hollywood just let the Godzilla franchise be, and leave it to the Japanese? They are better at that. Not that this is a particularly bad movie. It has its moments and the concept of the monsters just wanting to make a nest and are hunting for nukes to eat them, is a nice touch. However, this is such an uninspired by the numbers monster movie that it is hard to remain interested.
Also, this is not a Godzilla movie at all, but more of a generic disaster movie, with monsters in the background. Very little is done with Godzilla, except for the occasional cameo. You are about an hour in before you catch your first glimpse of Godzilla, and I use the word 'glimpse' advisedly. Most of the monster scenes are so dark, it is hard to make out what is going on. Now, I totally get the idea of building up tension and working towards the great reveal, but that is not how Godzilla movies work. It is almost as if you were to make a Batman movie and spend an hour working towards the moment that the viewer finally is shown that yes, Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same person.

[lester1/2jr]

^ he is???  mind = blown


Invincible Armor - I just hooked up my roku and watched 2 kung fu movies from the wu tang collection. This one was basic but good with good fights. The plot is very typical: a power struggle between various kung fu masters, the head baddy is a master of the titled technique, where he can't be hurt except for one point in his body. it wasn't invincibly entertaining but it was good enough 3.75 /5

Shaolin v Ninja - another one with a thin plot and lots of fighting. not as ridiculous as a lot of Godfrey ho movies and the fighting is pretty good. The idea of Shaolin monks fighting monks for the Japanese (??) Shaolin temple is absurd. the Japanese guys didn't seem to use karate techniques either. 3/5

[claws]

Midsommar (2019)

A traumatized young woman joins her on and off boyfriend and friends on a vacation in Sweden where they visit a cult community preparing for a midsummer festival.
Ari Aster's follow up to his much praised scary outing Hereditary is a somewhat unusual viewing experience. It is off beat and weirdly engaging but compared to Hereditary lacking a strong lead even though Florence Pugh as the traumatized has a few outstanding moments, but only in the movie's first half.

Midsommar is very bright, white and out in the open whereas Hereditary was more of a dark affair. Still, I'll rate it 4/5 and it is nothing like The Wicker Man as I first expected. Recommended.

[VenomX73]

Invincible Armor

yeah did you like that ending? did it make you cringe lol?

[lester1/2jr]

yeah that was a great special effect. the eggs

[chefzombie]

lester, check out "fantasy tv" on roku, lots of fun old movies i love.

[lester1/2jr]

chef - thanks for the tip

Cam (2018) - I'm embarrassed to say I've never face timed with a cam girl. I'm too paranoid about my credit card I think, not to mention I live at home with my mom and my cat. Anyway, it doesn't look like I was missing much. Vapid girls teasing horny guys into giving them money. I shouldn't knock it till I try it, I guess.
 
A cam girl named Lola is doing well, slowly climbing up the charts despite attempts by catty backstabbing other camgirls to steal her thunder. One day, something really strange happens: she sees her channel going when she's not on it! The rest of the movie is figuring out what's going on.

The plot resolution is really really good but the ending, the very last scene, seems like the director doesn't quite understand what he's done. It's a great comment on the phoniness of pornography, on how the "personality" we give ourselves in person to person oriented jobs (as a rideshare driver I kind of do it too) are corny, etc

maybe I just didn't get the ending

enjoyable and different though 4.25/ 5  

[Rev. Powell]

THE OLD FASHIONED WAY (1934): W.C. Fields is the Great McGonigle, a peripatetic theatrical flim-flam man putting on the play "The Drunkard" in a small town while his daughter is romanced by a wealthy beau. Fields doesn't booze much in this one, though he does scheme and mumble put-downs; the best parts are the over-the-top melodramatics of "The Drunkard," the play within the movie. Directed by William Beaudine, back when he cared. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Black Dynamite" (2009)
A tough as nails kung-fu brother from the 'hood seeks vengeance when mobsters kill his brother in this dead-on parody of /homage to the blaxploitation flicks of the '70s -- it was even filmed in 16mm rather than 35mm to give it that proper, grainy, grindhouse look. Michael Jai White is hysterical as the title hero, who's pretty much a combination of Shaft, Jim Kelly, Fred Williamson, and Dolemite as he whoops bad guy ass all the way from the ghetto to the White House. An action packed hoot.

"Things Are Tough All Over" (1982)
Cheech and Chong play dual roles in this wacky road movie --as their standard stoner characters and also as a pair of Arab mobsters. The stoners are hired to drive a car full of the Mobsters' laundered money from Chicago to Vegas. Naturally they lose the cash well before they reach their destination, and spend the rest of the movie on the run from the p**sed off bad guys. Not C&C's best flick, but it's fast moving and silly enough for a few good laughs.

"Stripped to Kill II: Live Girls" (1989)
In this extremely low-budget sequel to the '87 cult hit, someone is murdering strippers at a run down gentlemens' club. One of the dancers is having dreams about the deaths, which makes her the main suspect, but a police officer isn't convinced that she's the killer.
Nobody in this flick can act, the story is a muddle and none of the girls are particularly hot, either. The original "S.T.K." was a classic slice of entertainingly sleazy crap, unfortunately this one is just crap.
AVOID.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" (2010)
I've been meaning to revisit Sam Dunn's endlessly entertaining documentary on Canada's favorite power trio since Neil Peart's passing earlier this year. This is at least the 3rd time I've seen it, and it's still a fun trip through the band's long and mostly proud history through extensive interviews, vintage clips and photos. I think this may be my favorite "rock doc" ever at this point.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Shock Treatment" (1981)
In this ultra-bizarre pseudo-follow up to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a now-unhappily-married Brad and Janet take part in a TV game show that lands Brad in a mental hospital, and leaves Janet to be groomed by a scheming fast food magnate and TV preacher to be the Next Big Celebrity Thing. All of this is played out on live TV in front of their friends and neighbors in a television station that no one seems to want to leave.
...so yeah, this flick is even weirder than its predecessor, which is really sayin' something if you've ever seen "RHPS."  A few of the musical numbers are kinda cool in that early '80s new-wave-y sort of way, and if you think about it, this movie actually predicted the rise of reality TV, but overall it never quite comes together. It's watchable enough as a curiosity item, especially for "Rocky Horror" fans, but even they might find it to be a bit of a slog.

[claws]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Three friends in 1968 find a cursed book in a haunted house on Halloween. The book starts writing by itself scary stories about the kids greatest fears that become real. In order to survive they must dig in the past to break deadly happenings.
Norwegian film director André Øvredal teams with Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for his U.S. debut after wow-ing critics and genre fans with Trollhunter (2010) and The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016). SSTTITD fits in nicely with the current trend of 'retro kids' facing horror spearheaded by Stranger Things, the It remake, Summer of 1984 and more. It took me a while to warm up to the movie as it felt rushed, a bit annoying and not scary at all. Once the kids do research in the R.E.D. room Scary Stories finally delivers the goods and becomes a solid effort thanks to André's talent and keen eye for the creepy stuff. 3.5/5

[indianasmith]

VENOM (2005)  A garage owner gets bit by magic voodoo snakes and turns into a homicidal zombie, killing teenagers left and right.  Seriously, that's about it, plot-wise.  A by the numbers "immortal slasher".  3/5