Recent Viewings, Part 2

Rev. Powell · May 14, 2020, 02:49:37 PM

Quote from: Alex on May 14, 2020, 01:36:34 PM
The guitar guy actually got a back story.

QuoteThere are two different back stories for Coma. George's version was Coma lived in an abandoned mine with his mother. He survived eating rodents and drinking water from the sea bed. Immortan Joe came past the mine one day and heard Coma playing guitar. He was taken in and from there rose to the position of bugler, calling everyone to war.

Iota expanded on that: he was a child musical prodigy brought up in a happy environment by his mother, who was a musician herself. Then Coma and his mother were attacked. His mother was dragged away and days later someone dropped her head in Coma's lap. Immortan Joe found Coma clinging to the head of his mother. Joe took him in. There are two different stories about the origin of his mask. The first story notes that Coma made a mask from his mother's face, which he sliced from her skull himself.[1] The second story differs, claiming that Immortan Joe made the mask for him, a battle singer, to "Enact Joe's revenge on the world with his mother's screaming face on."

I am the only person I know who hated the guitarist. When I mentioned hating him I found out I was apparently the only person in the world who hated him. I still think he belongs in a KISS video, not a Mad Max movie.

FatFreddysCat · May 14, 2020, 03:34:24 PM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on May 13, 2020, 08:56:20 AM
ASSASSIN 33 A.D. (2020): Muslim extremists use a time machine to go back to 33 A.D. to try to assassinate Jesus; with the encouragement of his Christian girlfriend, an agnostic genius tries to fix the time stream. I wouldn't say its impossible to make a good Christian time travel movie; but I am pretty sure it is impossible to make a good Christian time travel movie that involves strike teams with assault weapons going back to 1st century Judea to kill Jesus. 1.5/5.

Not gonna lie, that sounds (pun intended) god-awful, but I'd watch it anyway.

Gabriel Knight · May 14, 2020, 07:13:27 PM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on May 14, 2020, 02:49:37 PMI am the only person I know who hated the guitarist. When I mentioned hating him I found out I was apparently the only person in the world who hated him. I still think he belongs in a KISS video, not a Mad Max movie.

Well, to be fair, I don't particularly love the character, just the looks of it. I too believe electric guitars have no place in a Mad Max movie, and actually I thought about it while watching it, since the idea was very funny to me. Did Immortan Joe gathered his men and said "all right, now I want one of you to stand in front of a car and play a flaming guitar day and night! That's an order!"? I wonder if he personally selected the speakers too, lol.

Having said that, I do think the character fits the whole mood of this particular film. Honestly, for some reason the movie kept bringing the figure of Eddie from Iron Maiden to my mind, so a guy with a guitar made sense to me. And to be fair, considering there's biker grannies and super agile rastafari guys throwing bombs, the guitar guy just blends in.

lester1/2jr · May 15, 2020, 12:30:17 PM

Killer klowns from Outer Space - I hadn't seen this since it came out. like Elvira Mistress of the Dark and Pee Wee's Big Adventure it has that big comic book-y feel that the 80's uniquely delivered. obviously a bit of 50's/ midnight movie nostalgia is implied 5/5

Alex · May 15, 2020, 01:21:50 PM

Quote from: lester1/2jr on May 15, 2020, 12:30:17 PM
Killer klowns from Outer Space - I hadn't seen this since it came out. like Elvira Mistress of the Dark and Pee Wee's Big Adventure it has that big comic book-y feel that the 80's uniquely delivered. obviously a bit of 50's/ midnight movie nostalgia is implied 5/5

With a remake on the way.

lester1/2jr · May 16, 2020, 01:00:52 PM

the Klowns will bring everyone back to their rural cabin and torture them for 5 years then stupidly let them escape

FatFreddysCat · May 16, 2020, 08:23:04 PM

"Moving Violations" (1985)
A crew of misfit drivers must graduate from the city's traffic school to regain their licenses, but the hard-ass police officer in charge of the course has no intention of letting any of them back on the road anytime soon. Wacky hijinks and low-brow laughs ensue.
This silly but fun variant on the "Police Academy" formula (it's from the same producers) stars Bill Murray's younger brother John (in his first and only lead movie role), supported by an impressive cast that includes Jennifer Tilly, Wendy Jo Sperber, the late Fred Willard, and even Clara "Where's the Beef?" Peller. I've enjoyed this movie since it was an HBO staple back in the '80s, yet it seems like I'm one of the few who even remembers it after all these years.

Dr. Whom · May 17, 2020, 04:08:43 AM

The Battle of the Worlds (1961)

Another Italian production that tries to be American (Original title Il pianete degli uomini spenti - the planet of the extinct men). It has a lot in common with the War between the Planets (in fact, some of the spaceships and props look remarkably similar) in that a rogue planet comes into our solar system, and crates general mayhem. This time the planet turns out to be the last remnant of a long dead race (hence the Italian title).

While War between the Planets is all about daring adventures in space, this one takes a more 'intellectual' approach. It consists mainly of an insufferable know it all professor arguing with the authorities about what to do with the planet, and not agreeing on anything. In a curious way, the movie resembles a romantic opera: all tension is artificially created by stubborn adhesion to principles and a refusal to communicate, while the action mostly takes place off stage. Only this hasn't got any music. Instead, there is a lot of talk about Truth, and Science and Calculus, which seems to hold the key to the mysteries of the universe.

The space scenes are nothing to write home about, and acting is wooden all round, except for veteran Claude Rains as the professor, who takes it upon himself to compensate for the rest of the cast.

FatFreddysCat · May 17, 2020, 02:29:27 PM

"Bad Channels" (1992)
Alien invaders take over a radio station and use its signal to miniaturize Earth girls in order to bring them back to their home planet. Earth's only hope lies with an intrepid DJ trapped inside with the critters and a TV news reporter (MTV's Martha Quinn!) on the outside.
Cheesy on purpose sci-fi/comedy schlock from Full Moon Studios, featuring music from Blue Oyster Cult and Ron Keel's Fair Game. Good for a few chuckles but that's about it.

pennywise37 · May 18, 2020, 08:14:08 AM

moving violations WOW i just love that movie so much, i watched it all the time as a kid, no i never really got the S&M jokes back than but than i don't remember asking either. it was either that or i just wasn't thinking about it at all i think that's about it cause it was done for comedy pretty much.

it's also got Stacey Keach's Brother as well in it. i in fact own this sucker on VHS. i really need to get it on blu-ray if it's even on it that is! i honestly can't remember. Killer klowns from outer space is a favorite of mine as well, the film is utter cheese fest and i love it, ICP though i doubt any fans of their music is on here but me lol. use John Vernon saying, Sgt can i help ya? i forget his name off hand? and it's the phone call he takes to that women saying she's got a killer clown at her front door and he doesn't believe her. the end of it has always been my favorite part to be honest, i had forgotten they were doing a remake
uh WHY exactly?

the film is perfect as it is i think. Bad Channels i have seen and it's simply awful i love Charles Band's films but that one is one of his worst. anyways,
i watched some bad ones myself lately. (1981)'s Final Exam holy F... is that an awful film, than i watched "The Initiation from (1984) a really awful film with a great twist ending i did not see coming but than i really didn't think about either.

i watched on you tube in fact "Murder by Phone' and oldie from (1982) aka Bells if you watch it in Canada. a pretty good film actually and one i'm never gonna watch again but i liked it, it was different on you tube they had oh they so need to remake this, my question is WHY? not everything needs to be remade.

go after the really awful ones and remake those they need to leave the good ones alone ya know? but i good one i watched a few days ago you all should check out is (1981)'s The Burning' i had never seen it but i really loved it. 1st kill was about 40 minutes in and that surprised me but it worked because it had character development and we got to spend some time with them before they were killed off. well worth a watch for those who haven't seen it.

reading older posts Free Jack another classic from (1992) is a favorite film of mine i haven't watched it in a few years so i dunno how good or bad it's aged to

be honest. though Mick Jagger was freaking awesome in it

FatFreddysCat · May 18, 2020, 10:03:05 PM

"Rambo: Last Blood" (2019)
Stallone's 5th (and final?) go-round as Rambo, Johnny is now living the quiet life on his family farm in Arizona, until his adopted daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers in Mexico, forcing him to head south of the border.
This one took a little while to get going but once the bodies start dropping, the violence is gloriously brutal. It's a decent butt kicker but its relatively small scope doesn't really feel like a "Rambo" movie, if that makes any sense -- it's a fairly generic revenge saga that could have starred just about anybody. Sly is looking kind of leathery nowadays so it may be time to put this franchise to rest.

Gabriel Knight · May 19, 2020, 07:49:23 AM

LOGAN (2017)

In a future where mutants are nearly extinct, an elderly and weary Logan leads a quiet life. But when Laura, a mutant child pursued by scientists, comes to him for help, he must get her to safety.

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

Apart from the original trilogies of SPIDER-MAN and X-MEN, I'm not much into super heroes movies. I watched X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE and I tought it was really good, not sure why everybody trashed it. In contrast, I consider THE WOLVERINE and DAYS OF FUTURE PAST complete garbage, and made me move away from the franchise altogether. I had the disgrace of watching stuff like BATMAN V SUPERMAN and one of the AVENGERS (don't ask me which), and I regret it to this day.
I decided to give this one a shot because I heard good things about it, and they weren't wrong. The movie does have some problems tho: it's extremely bleak and depressing, it has some plot holes, some things came out of nowhere, like the Logan clone, and it doesn't follow any of the other movies, since it's a stand alone film; this may be considered a good thing because someone who is not familiar with Wolverine or the X-Men franchise can follow the plot without any issues.

But these things are minor when you face amazing roles from the main leads, especially the young Dafne Keen as Laura. Unlike the previous films the gore is ranked up high, which I think it's fitting for the role of Wolvie, although it's weird seeing the Professor saying "f**king". Speaking of him, they gave a great ending to the main character but not to one of the most important ones in the whole franchise, they could've put more effort on his death I think. Still, Logan did had a good treatment, and his farewell from the screen was a satisfying one, ending with a note of hope.

A well done and powerful movie. 8/10

Rev. Powell · May 19, 2020, 08:50:03 AM

THE WOLF HOUSE [A CASA LOBO] (2018): Stop motion animation from Chile, telling the dark fairy tale story of a girl who flees a cult, finds an abandoned house in the woods, and raises two piglets as her children. The experimental animation traps us in a constantly shifting nightmare dollhouse; Maria merges into and out of the walls, conjures human features for her pigs, and even the religious paintings on the walls can't hold their forms for more than a second or two. 4.5/5.

Rev. Powell · May 20, 2020, 08:58:46 AM

THE LIVING IDOL (1957): A Mexican woman is inexplicably terrified by the sight of a stone idol; her adoptive father, an archeology professor, thinks it's a "racial memory" of an Aztec human sacrifice ritual. There's a lot of fevered nonsense in the second half of this ridiculous adventure yarn, but since the heroine starts off by falling in love with the movie's white-bread narrator, you have to sit through forty-five minutes of tepid romance before they let loose the jaguar and things heat up. 2/5.

lester1/2jr · May 21, 2020, 12:23:49 PM

The Heretics (2017) - Its not a masterpiece, but this movie has some really good EVIL in it, and thats high praise for a horror movie. At its best, it recalls the kind of late night devil worship movies I used to watch on Elvira and similar such programs. At its more mediocre , it's like so many of the quickly made, predictable looking and feeling movies of the current age. Hard to derive much meaning from it all, but you love to see someone who acts nice then has secret devil worship stuff in their closet. You know you do!

4/5