Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OK (2006): In a Korean insane asylum, a kleptomaniac helps a woman who believes herself to be a cyborg. This "romantic comedy" from the director of shockfests such as OLDBOY goes beyond offbeat into the realm of decidedly strange, as the principals try to solve universal human problems such as loneliness and a sense of puproselessness using their own delusional logic.  The imagery in the hallaucination sequences is fantastic.  It had all the elements to be a classic, but for some unknown-to-me reason it didn't completely jell.  3.5/5 

[lester1/2jr]

Vanessa-  this german soft core obscurity had the exact same plot as "Felicity" a different soft core movie from the same era,  but wasn't as good due to worse acting, directing and babe quality.  at it's best it resembled a penthouse photo shoot. 

[Doggett]

1. Kingpin.
2. Candyman Farewell to the Flesh.
3. Elvira Mistress of the Dark.

1, Very funny, underrated in my opinion.
2, Not as good as the first, a lot better than the third. A worthy sequel.
3, All the Elvira talk got me watching this again. (like I needed an excuse). y'know, what ? It's actually quite funny. Definitely better than anything Adam Sandler's been in.

[lester1/2jr]

a Child Called Jesus- (80's Italian television production) -   this is pretty substantial for a made for tv movie.   a 3+ hour 2 part series based on new testament apocrypha such as the infancy gospels of Thomas and Luke.  I think in America we were watching stuff like "killdozer" or the texas cheerleader whose mom kills the other cheerleader.  actually those are from the 70's and 90's respectively but you get the idea.   

                            Though it won some sort of international emmy it was famously or infamously panned by Variety magazine for it's corny dubbing,  ridiculous length, and dull production.  defenders noted the "critics" response to Star Wars and the massive popularity of that and it's all quite fascinating if you have the time to google about it.  Both sides are kind of right.    The dubbing, music, amd elements of the direction are pretty perfuctory in some places and the second half does wear on ones patience as the quizzical-faced Jesus journeys and walks and journeys some more to good ol gallilee.   I wasn't familiar with alot of these stories and don't buy that they are real for various mundane reasons but they are almost as old as the new testament so with the historical value and natural looking sets (it was filmed in tunisia) i give it a thumbs up.



Journey Among Women (1977) -  I can't really recommend because the quality of the film is really awful.  It looks like coal was rubbed on it.  There is a copy of "poor pretty Eddie" out there that is almost as bad as this, but in general this is really really bad.  Which is a shame because this is pretty interesting and unique.  It's basically a feminist women in prison movie.  redcoats british soldiers circa I guess 1700's?  have a bunch of women in a shack / prison alot liek the one in Amazon Jail where they accost and brutalize them all the time.  the women,  who are not models or actresses,  have no good options as escaping means tackling the aboriginal outback.  Eventually they go for it.  They steal a boat from to guys and one of the women says "go ye and be fishers of men"  little biblical joke there.   The rest of the movie features nudity, violence and creepy seance thingies  not of the type you'd read in HP Lovecraft or Aleister Crowley but acedemic feminists of the late 60's and early 70's like Monica Wittig or Andrea Dworkin or somethign (I'm not an expert on this genre, I have a copy of Wittigs "les Warriores" that this slightly resembles without the constant vocus on the vulva (never mind ) ) . 


      So cool movie bad print.  for the adventorous only.  didn't work in:  Survivor, Thelma And Louise.

[indianasmith]

Sounds like an interesting pair of films.  The Gnostic "I and II Infancy" gospels that A CHILD CALLED JESUS was based on aren't "nearly as old as the New Testament," though.  The four canonical Gospels were composed, roughly speaking, between 50 and 100 AD - while there was plenty of eyewitness testimony still around.  The earliest Gnostic Gospels, "the Gospel of Thomas" and "The Judas Gospel" date from the middle of the Second Century, while the "Infancy" Gospels were dated from the mid to late 3rd Century AD. 

In relative terms; the Biblical Gospels are about as chronologically far removed from the life of Jesus as we are from the Viet Nam War; the Infancy Gospels are about as far removed from Jesus as we are from the American Revolution.

But the Infancy stories are neat, whether they are charming myths or if they reflect some real oral history about the life of Jesus as a child.  I like the story where He makes the little birds out of clay, then blows on them and they come to life and fly away.

[Jack]

Heroes of Telemark (1965) - One of my favorite WWII movies.  Based on a true story, the Germans have set up a heavy water plant in Norway, and a small band of Norwegian Resistance fighters (led by Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris) set out to sabotage it.  Fabulous winter scenery throughout.  The scene where they slowly make their way into the German facility, sneaking past the guards, into the building, planting the charges, etc. is a huge favorite of mine.  Makes me feel like I'm right there with them, experiencing every bit of tension along the way.   They "touchy feely" up the ending somewhat over what happened in real life, which was sort of a mistake in my opinion.  My only complaint is that they have to throw in a romance.  Why do they always do that in an otherwise perfectly good war movie?  I can't believe this hasn't received a decent DVD release yet.  There's a DVD available, but according to the reviews on Amazon it's got horrible video and audio quality.

[Torgo]

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION   *** out of ****
A CHRISTMAS STORY   ***1/2 out of ****.
BAD SANTA  (unrated version)   ***1/2 out of ****
THE REF    *** out of ****
GREMLINS   ***1/2 out of ****

[asimpson2006]

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (MST3K version) ** out of ****.  I though the episode was quite funny to watch since I don't normally watch MST3K.  The movie it self was really crappy but so bad it's good in a way.  The regular version of the film the non MST3K that I got from Netflix didn't work so I sent it back to get this version instead.  I would probably enjoy the movie more if I had downed a few beers while watching it.  I was trying to explain to my dad the movie and he kept telling me to stop otherwise he would be laughing to hard.

[lester1/2jr]

indianasmith-  the sparrow story was in the movie.  it's in the Quran as well, along with other "incorrect" information.  3rd century is kind of close to 1st century relatively speaking 


also,  a crazy thing  about "journey among women" is that the director went on to be a "cinematographer"  for Survivor which the movie heavily resembles in many places. 

[Rev. Powell]

EL TOPO (1970): A killer fights four mystical master gunfighters in the desert, then becomes a pacifist and helps freaks trapped in a cave to tunnel their way to a fascistic Western town. Jodorowsky's impossible to describe mix of spaghetti Western and art-house surrealism is jaw dropping, obscene, pretentious, and brilliantly inventive; whether you end of loving or hating it, it's a movie that demands to be seen once.  5/5 for bad/weird movie fans.

[lester1/2jr]

el topo is one of those movies with such a huge reputation that it's hard to just rent it and watch it like yo would any other so  iam I guess "building up" to it in some way



The Entertainer (1960) -  my ongoing struggle with british cinema continues.  I loved the backdrop of the "Carnival of Souls" type run down beach front area but it was about 45 minutes of british chattering before I kind of zeroed in on what the movie was about.  It beame easier to follow but also incredibly depressing.   I was alot more interested in the pretty dancing girls in the variety show than this alcoholic vaudeville melodrama itself though it is as you can imagine quite venerated in cinema phile quarters.  Laurnece olivier gives a strong performance as the entertainer hisself.


MSTK3K Werewolf-  by this point in the series these guys were pretty much picturing themslves on a beach somewhere and mentally phoning in their lines but it's still about as good as any other episode.  "werewolf" is an incredibly useless re telling of the werewolf legend with unusually bad acting from some european actors.  the disk also came with a half hour long documentary about the history of mystery science theatre that is interesting for about 20 minutes then you learn about all the people behind the scenes and all the nice people they met over the years and on and on and on. 

[Rev. Powell]

el topo is one of those movies with such a huge reputation that it's hard to just rent it and watch it like yo would any other so  iam I guess "building up" to it in some way

I'd suggest you jump right in... the longer you let the film's reputation build up in your mind, the more likely you'll be disappointed.  I've seen some of the other weird stuff you pick out (GLOBOLINKS), so EL TOPO shouldn't be too bewildering to you.

[Rev. Powell]

Wes Craven double feature...

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1987):  An anthropologist travels to Haiti in search of the legendary "zombie drug" and gets mixed up in voodoo and third world politics. Sadly, horror movie cliches eventually overtake the unique premise and vivid nightmare sequences. Zakes Mokae's black voodoo priest steals the show. 3.5/5

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991): A good-hearted ghetto youth nicknamed "Fool" is dragged along to a burglary inside a mazelike house of psychosis and horror. Interesting but uneven update on the haunted house theme; the attempts at black comedy are often mood-breakers, and the young lead isn't quite ready to tackle the role. 3/5.

[Jack]

House of Dracula (1945) - Dracula shows up at the doctor's office, looking for a cure for his vampirism.  A short time later, the Wolfman also appears, also looking for a cure for his affliction.  And then they find Frankenstein, lying unconscious in a cave.  So we've got three monsters and what do they do with them?  Pretty much nothing.  Wolfie only turns into a werewolf for about one minute, after he's taken the precaution of having himself locked in a cell.  Frankenstein is only reanimated for a couple of minutes at the end of the movie.  They may as well have left those two out entirely.  Dracula, played by John Carradine, is fantastic, and the doctor is a fine character as well.  Personally I would have preferred a good story with one monster instead of three monsters and no story, but I guess they were going for ticket sales and not necessarily quality.   2.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

KUNG FU ARTS (1980):  Amidst a background of Chinese Imperial intrigue, a woman is forced to marry a benevolent chimpanzee.  Starring "Sida, the French monkey star"!  Abundant monkeys + kung fu = cheesy chopsocky fun.  3/5.