Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

I watched THE STRANGERS last night - don't know how I missed this when it first came out.  This is one of the most relentlessly suspenseful movies I have ever seen, and the anonymity of the evil home invaders drives home the point that sometimes bad things happen for NO apparent reason.

[Raffine]

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: FROM THE MARGIN TO MAINSTREAM (2005)

A fascinating and entertaining look at six films that defined the 'Midnight Movie' phenomenon of the 1970s. Many of the folks responsible for these films, including David Lynch and John Waters, are interviewed.

Movies covered include El Topo (1970), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Harder They Come (1973), Pink Flamingos (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Eraserhead (1977).

The only one I wasn't in a first-name relationship with was The Harder They Come - a Jamacian-made gangster film that apparently sparked the whole Reggae fad.

It looks pretty awesome!
 

[JaseSF]

Wild Wild West (1999): In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant calls upon two of his top secret agents namely cowboy sharp-shooter James West (Will Smith) and inventor/master of disguise Artemis Gordon (Kevin Kline) to bring down a megalomanicial ex-Confederate named Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) who's looking to bring down the Union after teaming up with foreign powers and kidnapping all the Union's top scientists and inventors forcing them to invent a powerful super weapon for his purposes.

This dumbed down attempt at a comedy/action adventure summer popcorn blockbuster fails on several levels. First off, it's never truly funny. Second the action is dumb and obviously so to most anyone. Third, it just feels like a soulless, empty attempt at making a cash grab out of moviegoers pockets by offering up some cool special effects to hide a subpar story. Honestly that's the main thing this film has going for it..it's special effects, mainly its giant spider menace which comes as no surprise as it was widely revealed in trailers. At times too Kenneth Branagh's performance as the over the top villain hoping to take over the world has its moments too and I actually liked his villain here. Really he was the only thing about the film I really liked at all. The rest was just forgettable. This remake of the vastly superior TV series from the 1960s-1970s pales in comparison. The show was actually funny, clever and consistently entertaining with likable and fascinating characters. ** out of ***** stars, one star for the spider and one for Loveless.

[Jack]

Showdown at Area 51 (2007) - two aliens come to earth (well, one guy has a face tattoo and the other wears a mask).  They're looking for something called the Omega Seed, a cheap plastic prop device which can kill everyone on the planet.  One alien wants to use it for its intended purpose as a prerequisite for invasion, while the other wants to turn it off and save us all.  Our human characters, Jason London and Gigi Edgley, first have to figure out which alien in on our side and then attempt to help him turn the maguffin off.  Many gunfights and silly action scenes follow.  I found this amusingly bad, from the cheesy characters to the cheap props to the laugh out loud ending.  SPOILER - the aliens show up with an invasion fleet that Darth Vader would be proud of, they could easily take over the planet without any help from a cheap plastic prop, yet as soon as its turned off, the order goes out "Invasion canceled - return to base".  END SPOILER.  Another favorite little detail was when they were in the room with the Omega Seed - in a basement under a barn - there was a 6' replica of a triceratops in there.  WTF?  Did they film that scene in a prop warehouse or something?  3.5/5, mostly due to Gigi Edgley's cuteness.

[lester1/2jr]

House (1977)- This had some cute girls, interesting camera work and creative effects but I can see why it stayed largely unreleased for so long. The story isn't very strong and its ecentricity sort of gets the best of it. Then agin, I'm really not a big Japanophile. It was certainly better than , say, Malpertius.  3.75 /5

[Rev. Powell]

ALIENS VS. NINJAS (2010): Aliens land in feudal Japan, and a band of ninjas must defeat them.  Excellent action choreography narrowly defeats cheap special effects.  Among other odd and funny touches, there's a weird scene where a female ninja is fighting an alien and the fight is choreographed so it looks like they're having sex.  You might go as high as 3.5/5 out of this one if you're interested in the subject matter.

[JaseSF]

Red Planet (2000): In the future, the Earth has become so polluted and poisoned humanity's last hope lies in terraforming and colonizing Mars. When something seemingly goes awry with the terraforming, a manned mission made up of several key specialists and scientists is sent to Mars to learn what's gone wrong.

I actually rather liked this one. It definitely reminded me of the Sci-Fi films from the 50s, 60s and 70s bringing and blending together a somewhat diverse group of people and thrusting them in a situation that requires them not only to excel but forces them to examine questions about humanity's destiny, God and the nature of existence...all while being determined to complete the mission which they were initially assigned. A terrific blend of space adventure and thoughtful human philosophy. What is and isn't really important, questions no doubt which would cross one's mind when faced with an hostile environment where death may be waiting just around the next corner or with the next mistake or error. However there are a lot of factual errors, plot holes and plot contrivances/conveniences present here. They should have gotten their facts more in order but otherwise like I already said, I really liked this movie which felt like a throwback of sorts to films like Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 12 To the Moon, Rocketship X-M, etc.. The cast does well enough with Carrie-Ann Moss and Val Kilmer being the obvious leads/leaders with great support from Tom Sizemore and Terence Stamp. There's that neat sense of that fun B-movie exploration style adventure it's rare to see in modern SF films. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Caged (1950) -I 'm not sure if this is called Caged or Caged! the envelope said Caged but the cover said Caged! Anyway, this isn't any great expose of the prisons and its kind of Lifetimey and hackneyed in places but it won me over in the end, largely as a result of the superior, grittier second half when they lay on the shock value. The main actress was nominated for an Oscar but the movie itself is not at that level and while she does a good job it is an enormously sympathetic role.

A lady driving the getaway car for her husband is hauled off to prison. All the cliches you wll come to know (and which were probably already in place) like the lesbian, the sadistic head warden, being sent to the hole for something principled yadda yadda are on display. The first half is dissapointingly cut and dry and I almost turned it off. It got better though and there were some cool things going on in the second half. it was almost like there were two different directors or the first director decided halfway through that he didn't give a s**t about the Hayes code and just made the movie.

not essential by any means but ultimately pretty entertaining. 4/5

[Jack]

Outlander (2008) - A guy from the future crash lands his spaceship on Earth in around 700 AD, and encounters a clan of Vikings.  Unfortunately a monster had stowed away on his ship, so now he has to team up with his newfound friends to defeat it.  This was great!  Really good characters, lots of intelligent and believable subplots - really kept me interested.  Only complaint is the monster was a bit cheesy looking.  Still gets a 5/5 though.

[Rev. Powell]

PAPRIKA (2006): Dreams cross the border into reality when scientists design a device to access the subconscious.  This anime was Christopher Nolan's inspiration for INCEPTION, but it's more focused on creating startling dreamlike imagery and mood than plot, a task at which it succeeds magnificently. 4.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Who can Kill a Child? (1976) - If you've seen one too many giallos with a bunch of people in a castle saying badly dubbed stuff back and forth definately check this out, it's different and way better.  The cinematographer notes in the extras that it's basically Night of the Living Dead meets the Birds (2 movies I have not actually seen believe it or not) but so what? Yeah it's kinda basic but its really compelling too.

A guy and his wife take a vacation to a beautiful secluded island. When they get there it's REALLY secluded, like not one person is there.  They start noticing weird stuff, namely that there are kids everywhere but no adults and the kids are freaking strange. The director slips in the classic tension adder- the wife is hugely pregnant. Most of the movie takes place on this island (called toledo I think?) and it's really really beautiful. The movie is worth seeing just for the scenery.  

If you like Twilight Zone/ Hitchcock type stuff you will probably be into this, even if it sounds predictable.  It has more plot and themes than alot of giallos but there is certainly some suspension of disbelief required. Also, in the extras the director notes that it was kind of random of him to put all the stuff about the holocaust, Bangkok uprising and all these other massacres at the begining of the film apropos of nothing and felt they should have gone at the end. I would probably have skipped it altogether.

4.75 / 5  


Enter the Void (2009) - drugsploitation. This guy did Irreversible which I get confused with Baise-moi. I think they are like really "outrageous " movies with realistic rape and drugs and yadda yadda yadda. we have 24-7 balls to the wall porn and fetish online. You can't shock me with that s**t I just feel bad for the actors. When the tree of life or whatever fell in Avatar, basically putting the onus of 9/11 on imperialism THAT f**king impressed me,  meth boobs don't. Maybe I'm just old I don't know.

A druggy british looking white guy in Tokyo makes some money as a drug dealer , enough to bring his sister from wherever she is in Europe. This is important to him because they are all they have family wise, their parents were killed when they were kids. The first like half hour of this movie is cool though you have to kind of get used to the weirdness of it. Theres ALOT of "wooooooh" kaleidscope drug things from the first person POV and weird shots going over and around buldings. It's still decent after that first section but  the general weirdness and endless  pervy drugginess is kind of "meh" to use a popular phrase.

Also, what is it with Europeans and having sexual tension between family members? Don't put it in your movies, no one wants to see that s**t.  That stuff belongs in soap operas and porn lit, not normal movies.

This is the type of thing you'd see at a film festival and be like "that was cool" but also kind of spend the last hour of it thinking about where you are going to eat. It's 2 1/2 hours long. I got into it and its got that weird sort of Tokyo as futuristic sci fi dystopia vibe. Basically, I think if you have a movie with like alot of space where there isn't much dialogue, you better REALLY know what you're doing.

3.75/5

[indianasmith]

I watched a movie called ZOMBIE FARM last night.  Abused Mexican housewife buys a potion from a bruja lady to make her husband more docile, instead it turns him into one of the living dead.  An attempt to take the traditional, Haitian style voodoo zombies and blend them with the Romero style flesh munchers.  Neat concept, rather boring and lame execution.

[bob]

Burn After Reading (2008) staring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. I rented this because my dad said he liked it and I'm a big fan of Pitt and Clooney. This movie disappointed me. There are no likable characters. I was never given a reason to care for what ever happened to any of the characters throught the film as the script was horrible. Almost all the characters appear to be dumb as rocks, will all due respect to rocks.

I highly recommend no one watch this.

[Jack]

Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1993) - Some scientists create a monster using alien DNA.  The first half of the movie is all flashbacks, showing how it was created, how the boss of the research facility is a cliche Mr. Evil type, and how the female researcher and the guy who got turned into the monster were romantically involved.  Later, in the current part of the movie, the two daughters of one one of the people who were killed by the monster come looking for dad at the facility, and get chased around a lot.  The babes were really hot.  The movie was really not.  It could have been a fun cheesy Alien ripoff, but they went overboard with the cheese and sunk into dopey comedy on too many occasions.  A ton of time was spent in the boss' office as the female researcher explained everything via flashback for the first hour, and that was pretty darned boring.  Still, there were those hot babes.  3.5/5.

[claws]

Love Me Deadly: Uncut (1973)

A movie about necrophilia done in the most entertaining way. Not your typical sick-flick, and certainly not what you might expect. Or maybe it is? Either way, this movie blew my mind. 5/5