Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF (1969)  Happened to catch this classic with James Garner on cable tonight, and it's just as much fun now as it was when I first saw it as a kid! Drifter James Garner blows into town on his way to Australia, and volunteers for the job of sheriff after the last three holders of the title lasted two months combine - with quick wits and faster guns he cleans up the town in no time, and wins the heart of the mayor's daughter to boot!  4/5

[Rev. Powell]

RAW (2006): A vegetarian girl develops an insatiable taste for meat after she eats a rabbit kidney as part of a veterinary school hazing ritual. It's not realistic, nor is it meant to be; but the imagery gets surprisingly, er, "raw." French. A lot of people indulge in pleasures of the flesh while away at college, but this is ridiculous! 4/5.

[Alex]

Feed the Gods. Two brothers and one fiancee go searching for their biological parents after their adoptive mother dies. They find something is most definitely wrong in the town they track their parents down to. A slow-burn horror, limited by its budget but one I enjoyed. You aren't going to see buckets of blood thrown at the screen (although there is some), or big special effects. Not going to be to everyone's tastes but I'd watch it again.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes" (2020)
Former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes looks back on his life and career as he adjusts to living in Europe, where he's attempting to re-establish himself as a solo artist.
Chris can't sing worth a damn, which may not bode well for his new band, but otherwise he seems like a pretty cool, humble guy, who's just grateful to be out there making noise again after so many years. A fun, breezy documentary that made me want to dust off my vintage W.A.S.P. albums for the first time in a while.

[Jim H]

The Father (2020) - A portrait of dementia.  An aging Anthony Hopkins portrays a man going through it, as his daughter attempts to care for him.  The narrative, characters, setting, and actors are fractured and change, reflecting the disease and it's progression.  Anthony Hopkins is fantastic, running the gamut from menacing to funny.  Olivia Coleman as his suffering daughter is also excellent.  Music is just present, but skips and fits thematically.  It's simply shot, but beauitful.  The decision to anchor the film on Hopkins was a great one, as it forces you to attempt to pay attention, but still end up confused at times like the title character. 

If you've dealt with family members with advanced dementia (as I have), expect to be deeply affected by the ending.  I'm not ashamed to say I was.

9/10.

[Dr. Whom]

The Eye Creatures (1967)

Another one of the dreadful Larry Buchanan remakes of 50s movies, this time of The Attack of the Saucer Men. Painfully unfunny, it somehow manages to be even more nonsensical than the original. As with Zontar The Thing from Venus, parts are simply lifted from the original and put into a 60s setting, becoming completely incongruous in the process. The only effective bit is when the Mike character is chased by the aliens, but apart from those 3 minutes or so, the movie is silly and boring at the same time.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Kevin Smith: Silent But Deadly" (2018)
Filmmaker/podcaster/comedian Kevin Smith performs to a packed house and tells lots of funny, foul mouthed stories about his family life, his career, and of course, how much he loves weed. Immediately after the show he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in his backstage dressing room, which makes the previous hour and ten minutes much more poignant. It would've sucked to lose this guy.

[indianasmith]

COLD GROUND (2018)  A found footage movie set back in 1976, this film tells the story of David and Melissa, two French journalists who accompany an expedition into the Alps to investigate stories of strange disappearances and cattle mutilations.  Seeking a group of scientists who have failed to report in for several days, they get stranded on the mountain top by an avalanche and attacked by strange, werewolf-like creatures with an appetite for human flesh.  Slow in places, but creepy. Good creature effects, although you never get a really clear look at them, they move an attack more like a wild animal would than a person in a costume.  Worth the hour and a half it took to watch it, and the actress who plays Melissa is quite lovely.  4/5

[pennywise37]

i really need to see that as i love Kevin Smith has it been 3 years already? damn does time go fast guys. i haven't really been watching movies but mainly tv shows i own on dvd such as i finished Season 2 of Law & Order Criminal Intent Season 2.  i'm on Season 4 CSI Miami i started from Season 1 i'm on episode #80 i think?


and watching CSI and i'm on Season 3 on that one and season 2 on CSI NY. on the home show i have 1-12, on Miami i have  1-8, on NY i have 1-3

[Rev. Powell]

THINGS (1989): Three hosers from New Jersey drink beer while things infest their house and Amber Lynn breaks in every now and then to read news bulletins from cue cards. This is astoundingly bad on nearly every level: unlikable characters enacted by bad actors, terrible dialogue, frequent references to better horror movies you could be watching instead, confusing plotting, and frequent, halfway decent gore. Of course, bad movie fans will find this to be prime stinky cheese. 1/5 for normal folks, probably 3.5/5 or even higher to folks on this board.

[Jim H]

THINGS (1989): Three hosers from New Jersey drink beer while things infest their house and Amber Lynn breaks in every now and then to read news bulletins from cue cards. This is astoundingly bad on nearly every level: unlikable characters enacted by bad actors, terrible dialogue, frequent references to better horror movies you could be watching instead, confusing plotting, and frequent, halfway decent gore. Of course, bad movie fans will find this to be prime stinky cheese. 1/5 for normal folks, probably 3.5/5 or even higher to folks on this board.

You see the director's 1991 follow-up film finally got an OK quality release like a year ago, Rev?  Another one to look into.  It's called Wicked World.

I just watched Train to Busan: Peninsula.  Quite lackluster followup unfortunately.  I do appreciate they try to do something different (it's a bit like Doomsday for comparison)...  But this just doesn't work.  All the characters are weak, the villains are poorly developed, the narrative is barely coherent.  Good action scenes and well-shot, a few fun gags and ideas, not boring, but everything else just doesn't do it and nothing gels.  4/10.

[Rev. Powell]

THINGS (1989): Three hosers from New Jersey drink beer while things infest their house and Amber Lynn breaks in every now and then to read news bulletins from cue cards. This is astoundingly bad on nearly every level: unlikable characters enacted by bad actors, terrible dialogue, frequent references to better horror movies you could be watching instead, confusing plotting, and frequent, halfway decent gore. Of course, bad movie fans will find this to be prime stinky cheese. 1/5 for normal folks, probably 3.5/5 or even higher to folks on this board.

You see the director's 1991 follow-up film finally got an OK quality release like a year ago, Rev?  Another one to look into.  It's called Wicked World.

Yes, I saw that. He released a three-disc DVD set with his latest movie on it, too.

KONTROLL (2003) (rewatch): A Budapest kontroller (basically a subway conductor/ticket-taker) deals with rowdy travelers, rival kontroller squads, a prankster nicknamed "Bootsie" who makes a game out of running from the knotrollers, and a serial killer pushing people onto the tracks. Shot entirely in the Budapest subway system, the mixture of comedy, action, mystery and symbolism makes KONTROLL click, even though we never figure out exactly what it's a metaphor for. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Sphere (1998) - I'm still kind of on the fence about having Dustin Hoffman be in this, but I did like it. Sharon Stone is good, Samuel Jackson is okay but still a question mark on Hoffman. He's a great actor don't get me wrong, but I don't picture him on a sealab 2021 style underwater thingy being in great danger and so forth.

Weird things are happening in a coral reef and the government fears it's due to some sort of UFO jammed in there. There's no protocol for dealing with this except a random, hypothetical working paper written by a psychiatrist (Hoffman) years ago simply to make money and with no expectation that it would ever actually be put into practice. Suddenly he's called into action and he, Stone, Jackson and millions of jellyfish battle it out for their minds and for planet Earth.

2 or so hours long. It's not a home run, but above average sci fi with a solid plot/ concept. circa 98 Stone was still pretty hot even with a buzz cut

4/5 on tubi

[pennywise37]

there's an interview Hoffman did a couple years back and he spoke about this film briefly,  his kids apparently have names for all of his films that didn't work and one of them is for Sphere (1998) i haven't seen it but i just find it funny that his kids do that. he finds it funny too

[indianasmith]

THE MEG - Jason Statham battles Jurassic Shark in this deep-sea epic, with a great supporting role from Rain Wilson.  Not as good as the book it was based on, but its accurate portrayal of Megalodon, the prehistoric shark that could bite a whale in half, provides some genuinely spooky moments.  Now that I have a couple of nice Megalodon teeth in my fossil room (one of them about 5 1/2" long!), it made me appreciate the movie all the more.  Glad these guys are extinct! 4/5