Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

DOWNFALL (2004)

It's 1945, and Hitler's world is caving in around him. Down in his bunker, his top Generals an aides betray him and he sinks into delusion and madness, and eventually, suicide. This is the movie all those dubbed Hitler videos of him going off the rails for various reasons uses scenes from.

Perhaps the best movie about Hitler ever made!  Incredible performance.

[RCMerchant]

the MUMMY'S GHOST (1944)

Lon Chaney Jr. stumbles around killing folks at John Carradine's orders in another Universal B movie. Better (somewhat) then the previous 3 Mummy outings if only for the presence of Long John. Also has Ramsey Ames as a fetching looking leading lady with a white streak going through her black hair, who (gasp!)ages rapidly and dies at the end.

[RCMerchant]

WELCOME HOME,BROTHER CHARLES (1975)
 The plot-man gets falsely imprisoned for rape-learns the secrets of voodoo-gets out and gets revenge by strangling motherf**kers with his growing anaconda-like DICK. I bought this on vhs some years back at the flea market.

[lester1/2jr]

Cursed (2020 Korean TV series) - I'm about halfway through this 12 episode horror-ish series that's inexplicably on both tubi and Netflix. It lacks the style of an American series like Ozark or 24 but it's solid.

A little Korean kid (actually a teenager but she's small) has the power to put horrible curses on people. She has a vendetta against a Jeff Bezos type business giant. Unfortunately for her, he has a bunch of witchy people in his corner and unlimited financial resources. It's a Superbowl of mystical hooey, night time abductions, and evil folkloric ceremonies.

I was stuck in a rut movie wise. I think I was just sick of the regular 90 minute format so this is nice. It's good but not awesome. I'm not in awe here.

[indianasmith]

THE INVITATION (2022) - An American college student, working as a waitress, does a DNA test and discovers she is related to an aristocratic British family.  When she reaches out to a newfound cousin, she is invited to a wedding at a beautiful English manor house where not all is as at seems.  The domestics keep disappearing, and the Lord of the Manor seems a bit too interested in her . . . she also discovers that her family has been strangely short of female offspring for the last generation or so.  Interesting film that steadily builds suspense until the payoff . . . definitely worth the watch! 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: Invasion of the Neptune Men: Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo are trapped in "Roman Times," but still send Mike and the bots a really bad Japanese sci-fi movie from the 50s in which a bunch of unsupervised 10-year-olds with top security clearance and an unexplained but wispy superhero defeat a bunch of alien robots. One of just a few MST3Ks I'd never seen before, it's in the average range, suffering a little because it's surrounded by much better episodes. The Hitler Building is the highlight. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

THE INVITATION (2022) -  When she reaches out to a newfound cousin, she is invited to a wedding at a beautiful English manor house where not all is as at seems.  Interesting film that steadily builds suspense until the payoff . . . definitely worth the watch! 4/5

I am glad you liked this one. 15 minutes in she shows up at Carfax Abbey (yes, that one) and the butler "Mr. Field" welcomes her and I spent the next hour or so wishing she was even a little smarter or even slightly literate. Alas, I felt like all was exactly as it seemed!

[M.10rda]

VALLEY OF THE BEES (1968):
Right around the time Rev was watching MARKETA LAZAROVA (which I've never seen), I was coincidentally beginning to watch this follow-up by Frantisek Vlacil, which apparently was considered a disappointment after the critical acclaim of MARKETA. It's only 97 minutes long but it took me three sessions to get through, which says more about my schedule than it says about the movie. I think Rev suggested that MARKETA was challenging to decipher. VALLEY OF THE BEES ultimately has a pretty simple plot that just takes its time perambulating to digressive places before it settles into a mostly straightforward if rigorous and DEEE-pressing psychological/religious melodrama.

In a nutshell: Ondrej and Armin are two medieval knights of the "Order of the Cross" which is probably some Rosicrucian bulls**t or something. Armin is ultra-devout and possibly a repressed homosexual or otherwise just the world's most fanatical broseph; Ondrej on the other hand is looking for any opportunity to slip away from the Order and go explore some unresolved Freudian business with his rich dad and hot stepmother. Eventually Armin has to go retrieve Ondrej and return him to the fold, which doesn't go well for either one of them or anyone else they encounter. I shouldn't get carried away w/ my enthusiasm here since I did digest this in half hour chunks, but on the whole I thought VALLEY OF THE BEES was superb. Essentially it's a remix of elements from Dreyer, Bergman, Kurosawa, and early Tarkovski (and probably Bresson, who I'm not that into) filtered through great B+W photography and some good sound design and a pitch black attitude towards humanity that might bum out Michael Haneke. There are even a couple of lines that are unnervingly similar to themes and dialogue from FIRE WALK WITH ME... unlikely that Lynch was consciously or even unconsciously quoting VOTB, but he tapped into the same dark universal vein of spiritual reference.

Regarding also my previous review of a Naschy Wolfman film, I should acknowledge a couple of brief lapses in VOTB where Vlacil's budget or technological restrictions are a little humorous, at least out of context. Less than ten minutes into the film there is a moment of violence (and brief gore) that is staged, shot, and edited in just about exactly the same way a small group of 13-15 year old boys would stage, shoot, and edit the exact same action. Honestly it was heartening to see a late-60s art film struggling to solve the same practical challenges that I was struggling with in my backyard in the late 80s and early 90s, and arriving at the same solution, too! Also for much of the film characters refer to the vicious "hounds" who (Anton Chekhov would assure us) will be unleashed upon some poor soul in the final act. They finally let the hounds out at the film's conclusion and of course they're half a dozen happy German shepherds who wag their tails as they frolic around their victim, probably looking for the steaks hidden in his wardrobe. Oh well, the movie's downbeat enough, at least the doggies are having fun.

4/5
Probably a 4.5 but maybe someday I'll rewatch in one sitting to confirm.

[lester1/2jr]

I loved Valley of the Bees. I watched the other movie of his Netflix had Adelheid which I also liked.

[Dr. Whom]

Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)

The eccentric band Leningrad Cowboys (I think they're supposed to be Siberian in the movie) travel through the US trying to make it big, and finally find succes in Mexico.

The deadpan absurdist humour is great, but even at 79 minutes, I found the joke was wearing a bit thin near the end. This is strangely reminiscent of the Blues Brothers, with an eccentric band showing up in various locales and performing there. The main weakness is that the musical numbers (of which there are several) aren't particularly good. That is of course the point of the plot, but it doesn't make them more watchable.

Still, overall enjoyable.

[RCMerchant]

THREADS (1984)

England is attacked by atomic bombs in the near future, and the lives of various people is followed up to 13 years. Pretty harrowing and realistic. Not a feel good movie. Very well made.

[Trevor]

THREADS (1984)

England is attacked by atomic bombs in the near future, and the lives of various people is followed up to 13 years. Pretty harrowing and realistic. Not a feel good movie. Very well made.

That and The Day After scared the crap out of me 😳

[M.10rda]

Lester, I hadn't heard of ADELHEID or any of his other films besides MARKETA but now I will check them out.

The LENINGRAD COWBOYS review is spot-on, imho. All Kaurismaki films are amusing for 20-30 minutes then keep going for another 60+.

[Alex]

Timetrap.

Not strange enough for me to recommend to the Rev, and no boobs in it for me to recommend it to Indy, but I felt this time travel adventure was a bit of a cut above most of its ilk. Didn't pay 100% attention to it while it was on, but what I did see interested me enough that I'll give it another go later on.

[RCMerchant]

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)

One of the best horror films of the 1930's.
Richard Arlen, our hero, gets stranded on an island run by the sadistic Dr. Moreau (wonderfully played by Charles Laughton) and inhabited by his horrifying creations, the Manimals. Besides performing vivsectioning expeirments on his live subjects, he tries to play matchmaker between Arlen and the Panther Woman Lota ( who looks almost exactly like my son Jed's wife Tanya!) When Arlen tries to escape, Moreau orders his gorilla/man Oran to kill Arlen's savior; the beast men revolt on the prodding of the wolf-like Lawmaker (Bela Lugosi) and Moreau finds a horrible death in his own House of Pain.
A truly perverse storyline helped get this film banned in many countries and is rarley shown.
A classic.






Kathleen Burke as Lota



Bela as the Lawmaker