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Recent Viewings, Part 2

Started by Rev. Powell, February 15, 2020, 10:36:26 PM

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indianasmith

NOBODY SLEEPS IN THE WOODS TONIGHT II (2021) 
Picking up right where its predecessor left off, this Polish horror film wades through the aftermath of the technology camp slaughter in a way that renders it inferior in every way to the original film.   A young cop reports for duty to find a teenaged girl and two hulking, fat mutants in custody.  First of all - SERIOUSLY?  The mutant twins went through the cast of the first movie like a buzz saw, and an out of shape, overweight cop and his slim female deputy take them into custody and lock them in cells using nothing but tasers and handcuffs?  Then the sheriff takes the girl out to the cabin in the woods where her friends were butchered, trying to figure out why the mutant twins are still alive when she says she had killed them both - one by repeated stabbing in the chest with a machete, the other by running over him multiple times.   Turns out the parasitic aliens who inhabit them can heal almost any injury - AND that the meteorite it came from is still under the bed, with more parasites waiting to infect anyone who gets close - in this case, the final girl from the previous film!  So she becomes a mutant, kills a bunch of folks, infects the young cop, etc. etc.  The first movie was genuinely scary in places; this one felt more like a TOXIC AVENGER splatter comedy.  And NOBODY wants to see a sex scene between two pustule-covered mutants, OK?  (Except maybe other pustule-covered mutants, maybe, and I'm not sure about them.)  In all, not the worst movie I've ever seen, but nowhere near as good as the first one. 3/5
"I shall smite you in the nostrils with a rod of iron, and wax your spleen with Efferdent!!"

FatFreddysCat

"Coraline" (2009)
Henry Selick of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" fame directed this lavish stop-motion animated fantasy/horror story about a neglected young girl who, while exploring her gloomy new home, finds a hidden passageway that leads to a brighter, more friendly and all around "nicer" version of her world. As she makes repeated visits to the "other side," however, she eventually figures out that something sinister is going on behind the scenes. A lush, extremely weird, but very watchable dark fairy tale based on a book by Neil "Sandman" Gaiman. Worth checking out for the trippy visuals alone.
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Jim H

Belle (2021) - anime film, with sequences in traditional 2D and others in 3D.  I like what separates the two, that was neat.  People love this movie a lot, it got a huge ovation at Cannes.  But, I don't really quite see it.  It's got very good visuals and music, but the writing at its core is very thin and a lot of the first half is disjointed in its storytelling.  I guess if you just want to let visuals go over you and hear some solid music, you'll get it.  Some parts of the story barely makes sense and are very loosely filled in.  It's also overstuffed and has a number of elements very poorly setup and others that don't pay off in a remotely satisfying way (the villain for instance).  I dunno.  I was not impressed.

Rev. Powell

THE  MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (2001): There's been a murder at a skid row hotel peopled by eccentrics, and Mel Gibson in a back brace is sent to investigate. A great cast of character actors--Milla Jovovich, Peter Stormare, Jimmy Smits, Amanda Plummer, Bud Cort, and so on--run around maniacally trying to out-quirk each other, leaving little time for us to care about the story. Wim Wenders directed, from an idea by U2's Bono. 2.5/5
I'll take you places the hand of man has not yet set foot...

lester1/2jr

#2164
Cryptic Slaughter "The Lowlife Chronicles 1984-88"  - This combined my love of obscure documentaries with my love of thrash metal in an irresistible way (to me).

CS were in that strange 80's musical land known as "Crossover" where they had elements of both hardcore and metal. DRI, COC, and other 3 letter bands occupied this logical seeming but actually somewhat problematic formally genre. Today the two audiences rarely get together except maybe in Europe via the crust punk scene. I guess anything sounds okay when you live in an abandoned building with a big rat as a room mate.

Who cares about all that though, it's a fun documentary. The best interviewee is the guy from a band called Hirax who happened to know the guys early on and attests to their upbeat personalities and also that they played inhumanely fast. That gets thrown around a lot regarding bands from this era, but CS clearly went beyond normal hardcore and metal into the spazzcore regions occupied by bands like Void and Siege. The best comment was from someone who pointed out that bands back then played by their own rules and had their own sound in terms of the arrangements and the production. CS might not be all that colorful musically, its tuneless thrash after all,  but they are recognizable.

5/5  not discussed here but their big claim to fame is someone said their name in "Decline 2: the Metal Years" which is probably where most people outside of their native Santa Monica heard of them

Rev. Powell

RADIO ON (1979): A disc jockey drives across the UK when he learns about his brother's death. One of those slow Antonioni-esque movies, in drab black and white, where nothing really happens and we watch people get haircuts or drink pints in real time. Notable today mainly for its cult soundtrack with David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Ian Dury, Devo, etc., and an appearance by a young Sting as a guitar-playing petrol pumper. 1.5/5.
I'll take you places the hand of man has not yet set foot...

Alex

Prey.

A worthy addition to the Predator franchise, although it lacks any sense of fun or adventure that you'd find in the first two films. Not quite deep enough for me to term it a thinking person's action movie (although it is close to that territory), not quite a horror film either, but sitting somewhere in between. Those who like their movies to be constant action would be better off getting their fix elsewhere. I've seen a lot of complaints about the CGI, although the only thing I thought was a bit poor was a snake. I feel that is a very minor quibble though. Is it woke? Well, I would say it has certain elements, but nothing you wouldn't find in much older movies (Alien for a start), so I don't really buy that argument myself. Wasn't sure about a few elements of the Predator design, or how the creature seemed so unaware of how its own equipment works. I'd give it somewhere between a 3.5 to a 4.5 out of 5, but I think I'd have to watch it again to finalise a score.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

FatFreddysCat

"Suburbia" (1984)
Penelope Spheeris followed up her punk doc "The Decline of Western Civilization" with this downer drama that was also set against the backdrop of LA's punk scene. A diverse group of teenage runaways (one of whom is played by a young Flea, later of Chili Peppers fame!) sets up a "squat" in an abandoned house in an derelict suburban development. As the group gradually develops into a strange sort of "family" unit, their presence, looks, and attitude are seen as a threat by the "normals" who live in an adjoining neighborhood, leading to an inevitable violent climax. Not much plot in this one, but it's an engrossing culture-clash flick that also shoehorns in some live footage of D.I. (performing "Richard Hung Himself"), TSOL, and The Vandals. Like "Decline," this one's also a cult classic in punk circles.

"Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal" (2006)
Rick Ernst's fanboy love letter to the '80s Thrash Metal craze is loaded with ultra-violent live footage, classic clips and photos, and commentary from members of Exodus, Overkill, Slayer, Sodom, Megadeth, Kreator, and many more. As thrash-metal docs go, I think I preferred "Murder In The Front Row" over this one by a hair, but it's still a fun trip down mosh pit memory lane.
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lester1/2jr

#2168
Cub - pretty decent foreign horror movie. A cub scout troop makes the mistake of going to some haunted woods for a retreat thing. Besides it being the place where there was some sort of working class massacre, its also the legendary home of some homicidal forest kiddo. To make matter even worse, one of the campers is himself a child of horrible violent upbringing or something.

Will he wreak havoc on the campsite? or ironically save the day?

folks, it's not bad. It's a lot better than a lot of stuff, in fact

4.25 / 5

but not perfect

Rev. Powell

RESURRECTION (2022): Margaret, a successful businesswoman and single mom, becomes alarmed when a man from her past (a creepy Tim Roth) appears in town, taunting her with a buried secret. Great performance by Rebecca Hall as the woman who goes from confident to a nervous wreck in days; the finale (minus epilogue) is not as shocking as some have made it out to be--it's just the unflinching "logical" conclusion to the bizarre premise--but it does satisfy. 3.5/5.
I'll take you places the hand of man has not yet set foot...

Alex

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.

I was finally able to watch this for free on Amazon and decided to try and review it as a stand-alone movie, rather than a reboot. Four women, three of whom come off as being very neurotic and fairly unlikeable attempt to start a business hunting ghosts. They hire a charming idiot based on his good looks rather than his talents. The jokes tend to fall flat and failed to raise a single chuckle, tending to rely on the cruder elements of humour at least in the first half hour or so.The bad guy fails to come off as in any way menacing. Other than he is offputting to everyone around him, I didn't quite get why he wanted to end the world, but I found the story dull and hard to pay attention to compared to lets see... the attractions offered by watching paint dry. Plenty of special effects (I'd say that was the highlight of the movie), but the worst thing for me was the soundtrack. I found it really grated on me every time a song came on.

Had this been the first Ghostbusters movie back in the 80s, it would have sunk without a trace and the franchise would never even have started.

No wonder they decided to just go back to the original series. If you really want a fun and funny female-fronted franchise, how about offering up something new and original rather than just trying to retread ground that men have already covered?
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Rev. Powell

THE MADS ARE BACK: BATTLE OF THE WORLDS: A rogue planet flies into Earth's orbit, and only elderly scientist Claude Rains--who's kind of a dick--can figure out how to stop the aliens. This Italian production from 1961 spent its whole budget on Rains, leaving nothing left over for the laughably bad plastic-rockets-in-space battles. A decent amount of chuckles. The aftershow guest is a female comic/actress I'd never heard of, who wasn't very interesting. 3/5, I guess.
I'll take you places the hand of man has not yet set foot...

Alex

Jurassic World: Dominion.

A bit of a mess plotwise, it seems. It gives you a couple of storylines that it kind of follows without going into too deeply (although I did miss some exposition when I had to take Ash to the toilet, so it might have explained why what was going on, was happening). It was a fun movie regardless though. I felt they were trying to shoehorn a lot of elements in and might have made a better movie if they'd paired them down a little. A fun popcorn movie though, even if the dinosaurs no longer wow quite the way they did back for the first Jurassic Park.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell.

When this came up on my Amazon profile I figured I had to check it out. It looks very much like it was filmed in the 80s but made to look like it was filmed in the 70s. Guessing the director was very inspired by Evil Dead. Three people go into an old house and find it is haunted by the spirit of one of their fathers who killed his girlfriend in self-defence when she attacked him with a knife. One of the trio is a psychic and the spirit is able to take over his body, increasing her own power at the same time. Lots of buckets of blood being thrown around and piles of what look like mincemeat and plasticine for special effects. At just over an hour long, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

FatFreddysCat

"American Hardcore" (2006)
Absorbing documentary based on Steven Blush's book on the rise and fall of the USA's hardcore punk scene, which spread like wildfire across the country in the early 80s before fizzling out by the end of the decade. Loaded with ultra-violent pit footage and interviews and commentary from members of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, SS Decontrol, Gang Green, Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, and many more. I'm not even a particularly big hardcore fan, but I still enjoyed this doc.

"Day Shift" (2022)
Highly entertaining Netflix horror/action comedy about a divorced, down-on-his-luck Southern California vampire hunter (Jamie Foxx)who's reduced to cleaning swimming pools during the day to make ends meet. Eventually these two worlds collide when he uncovers a plot by a powerful lady vamp who's developed a way for bloodsuckers to walk during daylight hours. Funny as hell, ultra-violent and gory as hell too. Extra metal points for the use of "Body Count's In The House" during a pivotal fight scene.
Hey, HEY, kids! Check out my way-cool Music and Movie Review blog on HubPages!
http://hubpages.com/@fatfreddyscat