Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

AMISTAD (1998) - Spielberg's brilliant and moving account of the 49 slaves who broke their chains and took over a slave ship, only to wash ashore in Martin van Buren's America, is a perennial favorite of mine.  Perfect casting and a haunting soundtrack, plus the one and only Anthony Hopkins in an Oscar-nominated performance as John Quincy Adams - this is a powerful film that you won't forget!  5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"No Escape Room" (2018)
Visitors to a small-town "Escape Room" tourist attraction slowly begin to suspect that they're not really playing a "game," and that there's something supernatural going on behind the scenes.
This SyFy Original horror flick has a cool premise and some nice set designs, but the "secret" behind the Escape Room is never made very clear, so by the three quarter mark the movie is just spinning its wheels. I've seen worse, but you can safely skip this one.

[Rev. Powell]

IL BIDONE (1955): An aging con man finds his prospects and his dignity slipping away. A good performance by a very weary-looking, very sleazy Broderick Crawford is the reason to watch. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Rift" (1990)
When a Navy submarine mysteriously disappears, a sister ship is dispatched to find out what happened to it. Following the sub's S.O.S. signal, they eventually discover an underwater cavern full of mutant seaweed and giant, carnivorous something-or-others. You can probably figure out the rest.
This low budget Spanish/American co-production (directed by Juan Piquer Simon of Pieces fame) was one of numerous "underwater" horror flicks that tried to capitalize on the release of James Cameron's The Abyss (see: Leviathan, Deep Star Six, Lords of the Deep, etc.). It's junk, but at least it's entertaining junk, thanks to some cool/cheap creature and gore effects and a cast full of familiar B-Movie regulars like Jack Scalia, Ray Wise and the great R. Lee Ermey.

[Dr. Whom]

Freaks: You're one of us (2020)

The title of this German movie is of course a Todd Browning reference. Wendy, a downtrodden cook in the uniquely German fast food 'Koteletthimmel' meets a tramp who tells her that the medication she is taking serves in fact to suppress her superpowers. So she stops taking the pills, and develops superstrength. She then discovers that there is conspiracy to keep her and others like her under control, and things get very complicated very quickly.

A German take on the 'what would happen if people had superpowers in a realistic setting' theme. It doesn't do anything particularly new, but it moves along nicely, and Cornelia Gröschel gives a great performance as Wendy, trying to make sense of her new found ability.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966)
Before he can get into Heaven, a recently-deceased millionaire (Boris Karloff) must perform one good deed. He sends his foxy, ghostly assistant to his mansion to make sure his heirs receive their proper  inheritance -- but the place is soon overrun by greedy lawyers, a gang of dim-witted bikers, a bus load of pool partying teens, and a gorilla (!), all searching for the old boy's loot.
This cheap, cheesy, campy mash up of Sixties beach movies and haunted-house flicks features lots of pretty girls running around in bikinis, some absolutely terrible rock 'n roll songs, (one of which is sung by Nancy Sinatra) and the most shameless, mugging over-acting you've ever seen outside of a Three Stooges short. An entertainingly terrible movie with great eye candy.

[Jim H]

The Social Network - Somehow missed this one.  It's very good, as you might surmise.  Great lead performance, fantastic score, brilliantly edited.  Visually, it's Fincher - so really good, reminds me of Zodiac especially.  Sorkin can write some great scenes too.  Some characters feel a bit thin at parts, and sometimes things don't fully add up, I guess, as some mild criticism.  Like Timberlake's Sean Parker.  I'd have preferred less of him or more of him, as is there was just enough to make him feel like a major character without quite enough meat. 

Also, I'll say I'm glad I knew a little bit about how liberal it is with artistic license in this story though. 

9/10.

[Rev. Powell]

SOUTHLAND TALES (2006): In a near-future America during WWIII, a nervous action movie star (Dwayne Johnson) finds himself used as a pawn between the Republicans and the Neo-Marxists. A deliberately chaotic, sprawling 2.5 hour satire that veers into nonsensical apocalyptic mayhem at the end; I find myself on the "love" side of love it or hate it. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957): Follows the nocturnal adventures of Cabiria, an archetypal hooker with a heart of gold whose rough exterior hides a romantic soul. Of all Fellini's neorealist tragedies, this is the cruelest, because Cabiria is far more endearing than his male antiheroes; for all her rough edges, she's more a victim of circumstance than of bad choices. Her tragic flaw is hope. 4/5.

[Alex]

I Am Dragon. A Russian fantasy / love story. Incredibly predictable, but very sweet none the less. One to curl up and watch with a lady needing a romantic night.

[lester1/2jr]

I Wake Up Screaming - no one wakes up screaming in this really pretty engaging mystery staring the very mature Victor Mature. As a challenge, he and his friends make a star of a blonde waitress they meet. It works, but then she wants to go to Hollywood, leaving them in the dust. or she would have gone there except she gets killed. She was pretty annoying so the viewer might not be too broken up about it, but they still have to figure out who did it.

Was it her envious sister? One of the three stooges who made her famous? The gigantic detective investigating the whole thing?

I can never figure anything out and I more or less did with this one, but it was still colorful, albeit in black and white. Its been on the TCM film noir thing but I watched it on youtube.

4.5 /5

24 Hours to live - I don't know much about modern action movies but this was pretty good. A hit man is coerced into doing a job he doesn't want to do by his friend. They both work for Red Mountain, a scary private militia type firm that secretly runs the world. as the title indicates...he ends up with 24 hours to live! rather than go to Studio 54 or to church, he dedicates himself to stuff involving the case he's working on.

All the motivations and stuff made sense and there was a fair amount of unrealistic gunplay and stuff too, so it had depth and excitement. In the ago of super hero movies every week it is a little besides the point and appears to have had a relatively meager budget. I was impressed with Sinister and I'd say Hawke made a another good film choice

4.5 / 5

American Swing - interesting documentary about Plato's Retreat in NYC, a sex club. It was sort of like a dance club except people would not just dance with other people they would go have sex with them and lots of other strangers. I would have liked more info about how in the world they paced themselves. Do you go and have sex right away then go do one of the random activities they had...then go back? There are plenty of other gory details though.

As the 80's approached, this sort of thing became less popular and AIDS put the final nail in the coffin. The owner, Larry Levenson, ended up being a cabbie. Ron Jeremy, Anni Sprinkle, Melvin Van Peebles and various trenchcoat looking motherf**kers provide commentary.

One funny bit was where Abbie Hoffman, on the run from the law, really wanted to go there. They took him and...he struck out.  "Only guy I ever seen who couldn't get laid at Plato's retreat"  I wonder why?? haha

5/5

[Rev. Powell]

KEEP AN EYE OUT [AU POSTE!] (2018): A long interrogation of an innocent man accused of murder is complicated by another accidental death. Beginning with the arrest of a man for conducting a symphony orchestra in his underwear, this strange and funny, dialogue heavy 75-minute surrealist goof with absurd deaths and time-travel paradoxes inside of flashbacks is Quentin Dupieux's most Bunuelian movie to date. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story" (2020)
An enlightening (yet also depressing) documentary about the hit '90s Nicktoon and its obsessive weirdo creator, John Kricfalusi (aka "John K"), whose out-of-control, tyrannical work habits made for a hellish environment behind the scenes and eventually got him fired from Nickelodeon.
"R & S" still has a cult following today, but unfortunately the show's reputation has been even further tarnished by revelations about John K's abusive relationship with an underage intern in the early 2000s. I guess that's why we don't see "Ren & Stimpy" reruns on TV anymore. (sigh)

[indianasmith]

ISLAND ZERO - On a remote island off the coast of Maine, the normally rich fishery has collapsed.  No fish, no lobster, nothing.  Then all contact with the mainland is lost.  And then the islanders themselves start to disappear.  A fairly well-done, low budget creature feature with some memorable characters; nice way to waste an hour or two during a boring evening.  3.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Solo: A Star Wars Story" (2018)
Young Alden Ehrenreich steps into the role made famous by Harrison Ford in this "secret origin" story of the iconic character. The flick goes back to Han's youth as a small time thief and hustler and follows him as he joins a criminal crew for a dangerous interplanetary adventure. Along the way we see him meet Chewbacca and Lando for the first time and take possession of the famed Millennium Falcon.
...this was my second viewing of "Solo" and I thought it was tons of fun. Unfortunately its mediocre box office returns killed Disney/Lucasfilm's plans for an series of stand-alone "Star Wars Story" adventures, which is a bummer, cuz I would've liked to see more of these.