Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Jane and the Lost City" (1987)
In 1940s Africa, a bumbling British colonel and his blonde, ditzy secretary "Jane" set off on an expedition to find a legendary lost city of diamonds before a team of Nazis (led by Maude "Octop***y" Adams) can beat them to it. Sam "Flash Gordon" Jones is the dim-bulb soldier of fortune guiding them to the treasure.
This silly, breezy adventure spoof is based on a British comic strip from the 1940s, with which I am unfamiliar. The running gag where Jane's clothes are constantly, accidentally torn off by passing cars, wild animals, and other random things is apparently carried over from the strip. Those bits of T&A provide the film's most interesting moments. (Kirsten Hughes, who plays Jane, is quite the babe.)
An OK time waster but not a must see unless you're compelled to watch every "Indiana Jones" knock-off ever made.

[indianasmith]

I've been wrapping up my summer vacation watching bad movies on PRIME and TUBITV this week.  My last two viewings included
CAMP 139 (2013) - Four friends head up to a camping ground at a place called Fossil Creek, near an abandoned army base where human experiments were supposedly performed from the 50's thru the 80's by doctors extracted from Nazi Germany at the end of WW2. Loaded up with drugs and beer, they are looking forward to a weekend of partying when a mysterious, masked figure known as The Patient begins picking them off. Super low budget, goofy slasher with a decent twist at the end. 3/5
CREEP VAN (2012)  A loser named Campbell wants to buy a van because he's tired of taking the bus to his job at the car wash.  But the van is owned by a serial killer who uses it to dispatch his victims, and now he wants to pin the murders on poor Campbell.  When he kidnaps Campbell's co-worker girlfriend Amy, Campbell calls in the aid of a mystic named Swami Ted to take down the killer before his girl becomes the next victim.  OK, this one is DREADFUL, redeemed only by the cuteness of the female cast.  3/5

[lester1/2jr]

with a decent twist at the end

 great now no one needs to see it 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978)
A San Francisco health inspector (Donald Sutherland) and his colleague (Brooke Adams) discover that an alien race is slowly "replacing" their fellow city dwellers with duplicates grown in plant-like 'pods.' Soon everyone around them has become part of the alien plot (don't fall asleep!), as they struggle to escape the city so they can get the word out about the invasion.
This remake of the 1950's paranoid sci-fi classic has held up pretty well, with some suitably gooey effects and an overall atmosphere of creeping dread. One of the better remakes of the era.

[M.10rda]

^^^Kaufman's best film!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Strangeland" (aka "Dee Snider's Strangeland," 1998)
A police detective hunts for a tattooed, pierced torture fiend and serial killer known as "Captain Howdy" (Dee Snider), who kidnapped his daughter after contacting her via an Internet chat room.
Loosely inspired by the Twisted Sister track "Horror-Teria" from 1984's Stay Hungry, this oh-so-90s flick was supposed to turn Dee into the next big horror icon ala Freddy or Jason, but it didn't quite work out that way. This flick looks cheap and feels like an episode of "Criminal Minds" stretched out to feature length. The nu-metal soundtrack, body-mod backdrop, and 90s Internet tech are all dated as hell.
Dee spent much of the next decade trying to get a sequel to this movie off the ground, without success. Perhaps we should be grateful.
Worth watching for Twisted Sister fans and cult horror aficionados, but not a must see by any means.

[indianasmith]

My wife has been in an Olympics trance every night this week, so I have been watching one movie per evening. Here are my three most recent viewings with my thoughts on them:

MEN (2022) After her fiancé's suicide, a young woman named Harper goes on holiday in a rented cottage in the English countryside.  The owner of the house is friendly but eccentric, but as she rambles around the area, Harper is stalked by a bizarre naked man who pops up, first on a woodland trail, and then outside the cottage. All the men in the town are acting weird - the vicar, an anonymous teen wearing a strange mask, and even the local policeman. The weirdness amps up in the movie's final 20 minutes, culminating in one of the most bizarre episodes of body horror since THE THING in 1985 4/5

6:45 (2021) What if GROUND HOG DAY turned into a nightmare? After a pretty serious argument, Bobby takes his girlfriend Jules to a lovely island community off the coast of New Jersey to patch things over.  The first day is as lovely as anyone could ask for, except that, as the sun sets, a mysterious masked man cuts Jule's throat and snaps Bobby's neck - and then Bobby wakes up in bed the same morning, the same time, with Jules alive next to him. And the day ends the same way.  No matter Bobby does, the day always ends with both of them being murdered.  I won't give away the end, but it's definitely not what I was expecting.  Well-written and well-acted!  4/5

INCIDENT IN A GHOSTLAND (2018) This movie is freaking BRILLIANT and deeply disturbing!  Two teenage girls, Beth and Vera, go with their mom, Pauline, to a creepy old house in the country that Pauline has inherited from an eccentric aunt.  Their first night in the house, they are attacked by two very violent intruders, and Pauline, despite being injured, manages to rescue the girls and kill the two attackers.  Now it is 16 years later, Beth is a wildly successful horror writer, and she gets a call from Vera, who has never recovered from the trauma of the assault she endured that night and is in screaming hysterics.  Beth returns to the old house to see if she can help her Mom and sister, and that is when things start to get VERY weird.  That's all I'll say about the plot, but this movie features some horrific trauma and is downright uncomfortable to watch at times - but it's brilliantly done keeps you guessing till the end.  Highly recommended!  5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Logan's Run" (1976)
In a post-apocalyptic future, humans live in a giant domed city where life is devoted to seeking pleasure -- the catch is, you can only live until age 30. Anyone who tries to extend that life span is called a "runner," and they are hunted down and terminated by policemen known as "Sandmen."
When a Sandman (Michael York) is assigned to pose as a "runner" and seek out a mythical place outside the dome known as "Sanctuary," it sends him and a female runner (Jenny Agutter) on an adventure that changes their entire world view.
This 70s dystopian cult classic is an old favorite of mine; the sets and special effects look pretty kitschy by today's standards, but they were state-of-the-art back in the day. I revisit this one every couple of years and it's still holding up well.

[indianasmith]

"Logan's Run" (1976)
In a post-apocalyptic future, humans live in a giant domed city where life is devoted to seeking pleasure -- the catch is, you can only live until age 30. Anyone who tries to extend that life span is called a "runner," and they are hunted down and terminated by policemen known as "Sandmen."
When a Sandman (Michael York) is assigned to pose as a "runner" and seek out a mythical place outside the dome known as "Sanctuary," it sends him and a female runner (Jenny Agutter) on an adventure that changes their entire world view.
This 70s dystopian cult classic is an old favorite of mine; the sets and special effects look pretty kitschy by today's standards, but they were state-of-the-art back in the day. I revisit this one every couple of years and it's still holding up well.

This movie was filmed at the newly opened Town East Mall in Mesquite, TX - about 45 minutes from where I live.  The mall is still standing and open today.

[lester1/2jr]

The Prowler (1951) - I thought this basically sucked. I watched it because the Noir Alley guy's foundation spent tons of money to have it restored, so I figured it must be good or interesting. This is not the restored version and it's not good or interesting. It's not horrible, it's just that sometimes all the elements are in place but the thing just lies there.

It's also not a movie about a demented prowler, instead it's about how a cop who responds to a call about a prowler gets involved with the lady who called. She's not hot, and is so dumb she deserves all the bad things that happen to her. took forever to get through. skip

2.75 /5

edit: virtually all the reviews are 7-10

double edit: Film noir needs an element of horror. That's what this is really missing. Its basically an English soap opera, though I've never actually seen one of those.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dark Tower" (1987)
A detective believes there may be a supernatural force  behind a series of mysterious deaths at an under-construction luxury office tower. He hires a parapsychologist to help him investigate, and they uncover a sinister connection to the building's foxy lady architect (Jenny "Logan's Run" Agutter).
...a pretty dull Spanish/American horror thriller that's very slow moving and talky, with minimal gore and laughably cheap FX.. Things pick up slightly towards the end, when the terrified Agutter is being chased thru endless corridors while wearing very little clothing, but otherwise you can easily skip this cheapie.

[lester1/2jr]

Innocent Thing (2014) - My second Korean drama and one thing I've learned from both: Korean schools have very impressive swimming facilities. Not just lanes and such, but all the different level diving boards and even the super high platform. Olympic level.

It's the Fatal Attraction plot. A little too long and runs out of steam here and there, but seeing a different culture with different tendencies in their storytelling was interesting. Less moronic sexual innuendo and more "emo" has made this stuff popular around the world, but it's still very formulaic. The female lead is cute but her performance is definitely not Glenn Close level. I think I prefer Deadly DILF type Z grade trash for this kind of thing, but I'm glad the kids are watching relatively less snarky, American Pie type stuff nowadays.

The sex scenes were restrained but good.

3.75/ 5

I'm still looking for a real knockout K Drama/ teen/ non gore or action type movie if you know one clue me in


They got caught in the rain together. Can you believe it?

[FatFreddysCat]

"Nobody" (2021)
A seemingly average, slightly wimpy suburban husband (Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) unexpectedly turns into a world class ass kicker after a pair of burglars break into his home. His urge for violence escalates from there until he's involved in an all out war with a Russian mafia boss. Of course, this means that lots of stuff gets shot, crashed, and blown up real good.
This fun, ultra violent action flick in the "John Wick" vein was a surprise hit in 2021 and a sequel is apparently in the works. I say "bring it on."

[FatFreddysCat]

"Life Itself" (2014)
Engaging documentary on the life of legendary Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert, whose sometimes thorny TV partnership with cross town rival Gene Siskel took film criticism out of its high-brow ivory tower and brought it to the masses. Interviews with friends and co-workers, vintage photos, and film clips from his long career are interspersed with scenes of Roger battling the cancer that eventually took his life in 2013. Some of those bits are hard to watch but even though the disease robbed Roger of his ability to speak, he never let it diminish his love for movies and for the written word. A touching tribute to a guy who's greatly missed.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Seduction" (1982)
'80s TV babe Morgan Fairchild (aka the generic brand Farrah Fawcett) is a foxy L.A. news anchorwoman who's being stalked by an increasingly-obsessed fan (a hilariously sweaty, bug-eyed Andrew Stevens). This low budget, trashy erotic thriller from the director of "Tourist Trap" was an HBO and "USA Up All Night" staple back in the day. It's pretty standard, silly woman-in-peril stuff, but Ms. Fairchild provides more than enough eye candy to keep it watchable. Sleazy fun!