Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

really i grew up on Return to oz (1985) it's always been among one of my favorite films

Yes, I know it has high nostalgia content for those who saw it as kids.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Alligator II: The Mutation" (1991)

Belated sequel to the 1980 cult hit is essentially a re-run of the original, moved to a new location in small town Florida. This time out, a gator grows to absurd size and develops a taste for humans thanks to toxic waste dumped in the sewers. A cop (Joseph Bologna), his scientist wife (Dee Wallace Stone) and a hillbilly gator hunter (Richard Lynch) have to find a way to destroy the monster before it threatens the grand opening of a new multi-zillion dollar lakefront condo community. Much chomping, screaming, and blasting ensues.

"Alligator II" is noticeably cheaper than the original and despite its cast full of dependable B-Movie regulars, it's not nearly as much fun. Stick with the O.G.

[Jim H]

Labyrinth - I can't really rate this movie fairly as it has too much nostalgia attached for me.  I'll say as an imaginative musical journey with great visuals, it largely succeeds... Plus, ya know, David Bowie. 

At the same time, a lot of the writing is kind of weak, sometimes the stakes of the story don't make sense, those kinds of issues.  It's strange to me how frequently a bit older family films often have weak structure - it's not like we just figured out film storytelling in the past 30 years.  It does hold up to adult viewings better than the original Dark Crystal, which is visually stunning and has a great world, but sometimes is uninvolving and boring.  I'd give it a 7/10.

The Suicide Squad - well, my family movie get together thing finally picked a winner.  This might be the most improved sequel I've ever seen.  It's funny, charming, has some great visuals, clearly actually cares about its core characters, great performances, pretty good action sequences, and is even a little moving at times.  It's also extremely gory, so hey.  I do have some negative things to say...  Some of the background character stuff just comes out of nowhere, it's jarring and poorly motivated.  Despite that, the characters work anyway, and get some great moments.

Also, Harley Quinn gets more to do than the original film, and some of it is definitely fun, but she still feels tangentially tied in - like she could have been cut, more time given to the other characters, and the film would be better for it. 

Finally, this is minor, but there's a couple pointless bits of animal cruelty that kind of bugged me.  You know when they have bad guys just randomly kill people or random animals purely to show they're bad, but the characters/animals are purely props, with nothing underlying them?  It just rubs me the wrong way these days, kind of gross somehow.  Which is funny to say, considering the extreme amount of murder in this film of unnamed characters that don't bother me at all, but it's a tonal issue I guess in how it is handled.

All told, 8/10.

[Gabriel Knight]

Finally, this is minor, but there's a couple pointless bits of animal cruelty that kind of bugged me.  You know when they have bad guys just randomly kill people or random animals purely to show they're bad, but the characters/animals are purely props, with nothing underlying them?  It just rubs me the wrong way these days, kind of gross somehow.  Which is funny to say, considering the extreme amount of murder in this film of unnamed characters that don't bother me at all, but it's a tonal issue I guess in how it is handled.

Sasn't Joe Bob Briggs who said something like "you can kill as many people you want but you never kill the pets. People gets upset!" 

[lester1/2jr]

Polytechnique - fact based movie about a school shooting in Canada. An ambitious young woman faces sexism as she attempts to make her way in the world of aviation science or something. Unfortunately, that's just the start of her problems because at the same time, a guy who can't laid get begins a shooting spree specifically targeting, you guessed it, women. The director weaves in and out with flashbacks including how the survivors try to deal with what they experienced.

It's not perfect but it gets the point across. I think the director went on to produce that last Blade runner movie? or something

4 /5

It's got some good stuff if a little amateurish in terms of the structure

[pennywise37]

i watched Return to Oz (1985) a few years ago  i think it was? it wasn't recent and i still enjoy that one too. Aligator 2: The Mutation (1991)a couple years after that came out i watched it on tv with my grandmother and though i have seen it on tv  a few times yeah it's pretty bad. i mentioned my grandmother cause she died like later on of Cancer.

Labyrinth (1986) i really love  this movie it for once has a young actress who was i think 15 or 16 when it was shot playing her age! say what you want about the film if you love it or hate it, it had an actual teenager playing her actual age damn i miss that in movies

[FatFreddysCat]

"Fear Street Part 3: 1666" (2021)
The final part of the Netflix horror trilogy starts off in Colonial times and details the witchcrafty origins of the town's centuries-long streak of bad luck, then returns us to the present day (well, the 1994 present day anyway) where the brother and sister team from the previous two films struggle to figure out how to stop the curse once and for all.
I think this was the best of the three "Fear Street" flicks - it was fast moving, atmospheric, sufficiently creepy/disturbing, and had some b***hin' gore to boot. Thumbs up.

[Jim H]

Class of 1984 - This came to Shudder recently, and it has been a while so I rewatched it.  I have to say, for what sounds like (and kind of is) a crass exploitation film, it really is solidly made.  Well-acted, well-paced, and just well-made almost across the board.  It's occasionally funny, has some great scenes, and a satisfying climax.  Roddy McDowall is a real highlight, especially his "teaching" scene.  He must have had a blast in this picture.

8/10.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Monster Man" (2003)
Two dudes on a road trip to attend an old flames' wedding are pursued through deserted back roads by a deformed psycho in a souped up Monster Truck that looks like it was constructed in Hell itself. Hilarity ensues.
A very entertaining low budget horror comedy that's kinda like a mash up of "Wrong Turn" and "Clerks" (via the constant banter between the two leads) with a pinch of "Texas Chainsaw" for flavor. This one has you laughing one minute, then going "ewwwww!" the next. Lots of fun.

[Alex]

"Monster Man" (2003)
Two dudes on a road trip to attend an old flames' wedding are pursued through deserted back roads by a deformed psycho in a souped up Monster Truck that looks like it was constructed in Hell itself. Hilarity ensues.
A very entertaining low budget horror comedy that's kinda like a mash up of "Wrong Turn" and "Clerks" (via the constant banter between the two leads) with a pinch of "Texas Chainsaw" for flavor. This one has you laughing one minute, then going "ewwwww!" the next. Lots of fun.

And there was me thinking I was the only person who had found a copy of that one lol.

[Rev. Powell]

HOMUNCULUS (2021): An amnesiac man who's living out of his car accepts a proposal to submit to an underground medical experiment in trepanation, and develops psychic powers. J-horror from the director of "The Grudge" series starts strong, with visual hallucinations and uncomfortably creepy scenes, but loses steam and ends with underwhelming revelations. 2.5/5.

[Jim H]

"Monster Man" (2003)
Two dudes on a road trip to attend an old flames' wedding are pursued through deserted back roads by a deformed psycho in a souped up Monster Truck that looks like it was constructed in Hell itself. Hilarity ensues.
A very entertaining low budget horror comedy that's kinda like a mash up of "Wrong Turn" and "Clerks" (via the constant banter between the two leads) with a pinch of "Texas Chainsaw" for flavor. This one has you laughing one minute, then going "ewwwww!" the next. Lots of fun.

I ended up seeing this because the director did Shoot Em Up.  He's not done a single feature since then (just an OK animated short), kinda disappointing as I enjoyed both of them. 

[Rev. Powell]

HOTEL POSEIDON (2021): The reluctant owner of a decrepit hotel deals with an incoherent nightmare of sultry guests, a skeevy pal whose turning the ballroom into a happening dancehall, and a "sick" aunt. Beautifully shot on the grungiest, grimiest set you ever saw, but depressingly one-note and nearly plotless---great technique and atmosphere languish because the film doesn't give us any reason to care what happens to its characters. Saw it online from Fantasia Film Festival, not sure how you can see this (if you want to). 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015)
Continuing my 14 year old's Star Wars indoctrination. 30 years after "Jedi," the galaxy is still at war. The Empire has been reborn as "The New Order," Luke Skywalker is MIA, and as a young girl named Rey gets caught up in the galactic shenanigans, the evil Kylo Ren realizes that she may be a powerful candidate to join him on the Dark Side.
J.J. Abrams hit all the right notes with this comeback movie - there's plenty of fan service for old farts like me and the new characters were cool enough to hook the newbies (like my son). The special effects are top notch, of course, and it's nice to see some old friends like Chewie, 3PO, and Leia again.
My son enjoyed this but it'll be interesting to see his reaction to the rest of this trilogy (which I'm looking forward to revisiting too) ...

"Virus" (1999)
An ocean salvage crew (including Donald Sutherland and Jamie Lee Curtis) think they've hit the jackpot when they come across a huge Russian satellite-tracking ship adrift with no crew. What they don't realize is that the ship has been taken over by an alien intelligence that is combining parts of the ship's machinery - and its former crew members - to create cybernetic killing machines bent on conquering Earth.
So essentially this is a high tech mash up of "The Thing" and "Terminator," with a hint of "Death Ship." It's fast moving, loud/violent, and full of cool/gross looking half human/half machine hybrids. I was entertained, but Jamie Lee Curtis apparently hates this movie and considers it the worst thing she's ever done. I personally find that hard to believe, because she was also in "Halloween: Resurrection."

[Dr. Whom]

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Sonic lives in hiding in a small town in Montana, but inadvertently creates a power surge that gets the military interested. The send doctor Robotnik to investigate. Luckily Sonic gets help from the local sheriff and his wife, a veterinarian.

Fun but forgettable. The team fully embraced the silliness of the concept, and ran with it (pun intended). This is just a goofy movie for kids of all ages. Jim Carrey pulls out all the stops as Doctor Robotnik. Sonic is meant to be annoying but adorable, yet for me the went a bit too far on the annoying.