Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

jack - you should change your screename to 2/5

I don't normally put trailer here but the review is short so what the heck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYqIvlQY1eA

What a massive massive dissapointment.  The first 1/2 hour of this movie is incredible.  A young, extremely well proportioned insane woman is obsessed with her dentist.  There is sex, there is violence there is RIDICULOUS tension and just fun all around.  I thought I found the guy to knock Quentin tarantino off his decades long perch as the hippest director.  Unfortunately, this dizzing pace slows to a jog then a crawl then a sputter.  The second half hour becomes a formulaic crime drama and you start to notice the clunky script and gaping mile wide plot holes.  By the last 1/3 it's just silly and a disaster with very little rhyme or reason to it.  2/5

[JaseSF]

Watched some more classic episodes from that same 100 Episode set from Treeline. Obviously these public domain releases are not first rate transfers by any means but it's still cool to get a chance to see some of this stuff.

Caught the following:

3 episodes of Flash Gordon

"The Claim Jumpers": Flash Gordon and Dale Arden rush to stop a pair of murderous space pirates from stealing a valuable mining claim from an old space miner named Planetoid Pete and Pete's daughter Marie.

"Akim the Terrible": Akim the Terrible, fittingly named ruler of the planet Carron where evil is embraced and good is frowned upon, plots with his follower Aru to brainwash any visiting dignitaries from G.B.I., including Flash's good friend Kurt Webber, and set them to then kill the top dogs at the G.B.I. Will Flash & Dale fall prey to the same fate when they are sent to investigate the planet Carron?

"The Breath of Death": Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are called upon to escort a dangerous prisoner to the prison planet of Gemini. Dale is also assigned the added and most urgent task of repairing the prison planet's oxygen purification system which must be done within the next 24 hours. While there Flaggart, a prisoner bent on revenge against those who put him behind bars including one Flash Gordon, escapes and commandeers the Skyflash. En route, they must refuel but the only place where they can get the fuel has a deadly atmosphere so Flash and Flaggart must risk holding their breath long enough to get the fuel inside the Skyflash. Can it be done? Is it even possible?

These Flash Gordon episodes are obviously meant to be exciting fare directed at children yet prove surprisingly dull for long stretches perhaps due to the constant use of narration and the often thick German accents of many of the actors and actresses involved with the show. The costumes and props though are quite interesting to see. I particularly like the rocketships, the freezing guns which didn't even have an actual special effect, the often outlandish costumes of the villains and the uniforms worn by Flash Gordon and the others at G.B.I.. Dale Arden's costume however seemed to change as these shows ran on getting skimpier and more like a Santa's helper costume after a few episodes   . The themes are also surprisingly adult for what was in essence a kids show with mentions of murder plots and even a battle to the death in "The Breath of Death". Some of the dialogue is now fairly laughable to us today such as when Flash compares taming a young woman to taming a wild young colt..."Friskier they are, the harder you have to bear down on the reigns."   And Planetoid Pete's daughter Marie's first thought on their family finally striking it rich is to return to Earth and get her hair done....  

3 episodes of One Step Beyond

"Dead Ringer": A turn of the century newlywed named Esther Quinn (Norma Crane), frequently ill with unexplained fevers, claims she can sense that her evil twin sister is the person responsible for a rash of fires being set at numerous different orphanages. But can she convince her husband (Grant Williams) and the local police inspector Chief Wilson (Dort Clark)?

"Earthquake": A lowly bellhop named Gerald Perkins (David Opatoshu) has visions of the impending Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 but finds no one will listen to him or believe him when he tries to convince others of the impending danger. It doesn't help his cause that Perkins is known to have a weakness for the bottle yet in this case, he's stone sober.

"Dark Room": An American photographer named Rita Wallace (Cloris Leachman) rents an old house in France. Soon she receives an unexpected mysterious visitor, a man with a most interesting face. Rita becomes focused on capturing his image for her magazine assignment about the faces of France and doesn't fully stop to think about where he came from until later when she learns the terrifying truth about this particular individual.

Watching these One Step Beyond episodes again made me realize again this series is even better than I had previously recalled. There are plenty of shows dealing with paranormal phenomenon these days but very few shows dramatize these events in as believable or charming a manner as One Step Beyond did while also managing to still deliver chilling frights and thrills at times. It of course helped that these shows usually featured a terrific character actor in the lead. These three episodes above all feature fine performances by their leads including Norma Crane in "Dead Ringer", David Opatoshu in "Earthquake" and Cloris Leachman in "Dark Room". I also like some of the supporting players in some of these stories too such as Elvira Curci, Martin Garralaga, Dort Clark, Olan Soule and Ivan Triesault.

7 episodes of Mr. and Mrs. North which I'm putting a thread about in the Television Section.

[Allhallowsday]

Mother of Tears- Slightly disappointed in this movie, but still watchable.   

Blood of Castle Dracula- One word describes this disasterpiece: B-licious!  It's so positively awful it's fun.  So many flaws I don't know where to start, but it's all good.  I feel like this movie asks the burning question of "What if Dracula was a flamboyant douchebag with a chin that dwarfs even that of Jay Leno, Bruce Campbell, or Sgt. Slaughter?"   

I watched BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE last night and found it completely boring.  I assume they're the same AL ADAMSON "disasterpiece".     I love bad movies, especially with no redeeming value () but this was just a waste. 

[JaseSF]

I pretty much agree AHD, I found it tough slugging myself. Here's something I had to say about it in an old IMDB thread from some years back:

"I'm not to going to lie to you. This is a BAD movie with BAD in capitalization.
It's dull, dreary, poorly acted and written and has what are probably the two most ineffective vampires in history (even though one is supposed to Count Dracula?!)....Even in terms of Adamson's offerings, this is poor in comparison. John Carradine never had it so bad and seems embarrassed in this film.
Still I keep it in my collection bizarrely enough digging it out to watch on occasion. I really have no idea why beyond saying Robert Dix as the homicidal Johnny completely steals the show here."

[Jack]

jack - you should change your screename to 2/5

I'm mostly going through my Nightmare Worlds 50 movie set, which I bought for about $17.  I'm finding there's a good reason these movies cost 34 cents each 

[3mnkids]

Storage~~ A nice little Australian film about a young guy who moves in with his uncle and starts working at his self storage facility. He thinks a customer may be hiding evidence of a murder inside his storage unit and decides to find out for sure..

I liked this. There were a few times I thought wth! why is he doing that? But it makes sense later on. There is nothing new or groundbreaking with this film but its definitely worth a one time watch.

[Jack]

Embryo (1976) - Rock Hudson plays a scientist who's working on growing embryo's outside of the womb.  His first experiment is on a dog, and that seems to work out well.  Except for the fact that it kills a poodle when he's not looking.  So then he tries his technique on a human, and that too seems to work well...for a while.  Rock Hudson can pretty much do no wrong in my book, and he single handedly carries this movie.  The first three-quarters of the run time is very predictable and proceeds at a languid pace (It's from the '70s, I think you were supposed to smoke a bowl before entering the theater), but it finally tosses in a bit of excitement towards the end.  Hudson isn't your typical mad scientist, he's a very nice guy who truly wants to advance medicine in order to save lives.  He's just a bit ethically challenged.  Lest I be accused of giving every movie a 2/5, I'll give this a 2.5/5 

[Jack]

The Disappearance of Flight 412 (1974) - The crew of an Air Force plane witnesses a UFO encounter, and are taken to a remote airbase where government operatives try to brainwash them into thinking they didn't see anything.  The characters were pretty good, and it wasn't as boring as a lot of these "Nightmare Worlds" 50 pack movies, but I have to ask:  What's the point?  To spend 72 minutes pounding it into the viewers' heads that the government is trying to cover up the existence of UFO's?  Maybe that was interesting back in the '70s, but I can't say the same for today.  I'm afraid I'll have to go back to my usual 2/5 rating on this one. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE GATE (1987): A gateway to Hell opens in a suburban kid's backyard.  Horror aimed at preteens and young teens, and it's decent on that level; the claymation mini-demons are memorable.  2.5/5.

[InformationGeek]

Turner Classic Movies were playing some old classic sci-fi movies, so I watched them.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms: It was a pretty good 50s sci-fi movie about gigantic monster being awaken from its sleep.  The special effects were good for the time and the acting was decent.  I'll have to give it another watch at some point.

It Came from Beneath the Sea: Another pretty good movie, but then again I do enjoy killer animal/creature flicks such as this one.  It got boring at some points durign some dialogue scenes, but it was still pretty fun.  I liked it when the octopus attacked the ship.  Looked very good for the time.

[indianasmith]

I watched CLOWNSTROPHOBIA tonight,  the title was the best thing about it.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Arachnophobia- Seen this one quite a few times.  Still like it. 

Yongary: Monster From the Deep- A decent Korean kaiju flick.  Standard fare, really.  It felt like a Gamera movie without Gamera.  I even noticed some similarities between Yongary and Barugan.  Still, worth a look. 

Death Race 2000- Loved it!  That's all.

[Jack]

30 Days of Night - Watched the first half of this last night and I have absolutely no ambition to go through the drudgery of sitting through the second half.  Vampires invade Barrow Alaska during the month of darkness they get there each year.  People run around and try not to get killed by the vampires.  The dialogue was unrealistic and illogical.  The director was a complete flippin' hack who had no concept of suspense or horror in general.  Or how to make a movie period.  It violated my suspension of disbelief in nearly every scene.  I get the impression this was made for the 'tween crowd - I'm sure fans of Twilight would think this was a great horror movie 

[oxode]

 
I've just watched Juzo Itami's "Tampopo" . . . . again, I must have seen it over 100 times by now.
If You don't know it and get Your hands on a good DVD (I have to say, there is a DVD version that's a shame), look in the phonebook for a good japanese homeservice, (WARNING!KEEP THE NUMBER AT HAND!) and watch!

O.K., to be more precise, it is a japanese episode movie about food and it's pleasures in all aspects. It is funny, dramatic, tragic, sexy (with one of the most raunchy erotic scene You'll ever find) and yes, even educational.

It should be seen on the big screen with a lot of friends, willing to move later on to a restaurant, because the camera work is also exceptional, but I doubt You'll find a cinema to show it.

[3mnkids]

Night Train~ A couple of passengers and the conductor find another passenger dead. This passenger just happens to have a box filled with precious stones so they decide to keep the box for themselves and just get rid of the body... This could have been a very good movie instead it was just a mess.  There were so many times I said what! That's stupid!     The plot just got more and more confusing.. It did have a couple of funny scenes and thats the only good thing I can say about this.

The boondock saints 2~ Im so disappointed in this. The dialogue, the terrible acting, the plot.. omg, its absolute garbage. I couldn't finish it and I really liked the first one.     The worst was the woman FBI agent who replaced Defoe's character.. awful!