Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

The Oh! in Ohio (2006): a woman named Priscilla Chase (Parker Posey) desperately seeks something she's lacked her entire life, an orgasm. Her husband Jack (Paul Rudd) feeling inadequate for failing to provide said service, for the first time in his life with a woman, first moves out into the garage and later leaves her. Both the wife and husband experiment with surprising new partners and find love and rejuvenation in unlikely and unexpected places.

While this does have some laugh out loud moments on a few occasions in what is essentially a sex comedy romp more from the female perspective for a change, what the plot asks us to swallow in terms of our disbelief just tends to be a bit too much in this case I think. I just cannot see the young women (Parker Posey and Mischa Barton) here going for men so much older than them, one of whom is played by Danny Devito, and to be honest I found the prospect of that more than a bit creepy at times and quite frankly really far fetched.  The funniest bits involve a vibrator and a phone and later Priscilla doing some experimenting. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Jack- that's a cool movie.

[Rev. Powell]

Powell is such a great character; frightening and buffoonish at the same time.

Thank you, I think. 

[claws]

My Soul to Take (2010) (Blu-ray)

Trippy and smart, or incredibly stupid. That's for you to decide. I think it's a blend of both and enjoyed it for what it is: a better version of Shocker with bits and pieces of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street thrown in for good measure. Probably Wes Craven's first true mindf*ck, intentional or not - but that's for you to decide. 4/5

[Jack]

Live Animals (2008) - some college age kids get kidnapped and held prisoner on a farm, where the evil guy who runs the place sells them into white slavery for use in brothels in Europe.  This focused entirely on gore and gross stuff and left out the character development completely - the girls spend the whole movie sobbing in fear almost unable to speak, and the guy gets into occasional confrontations with his captors.  I didn't feel like I knew these people in the slightest and therefore didn't give a rip what happened to any of them.  It borders on torture porn;  if you like seeing people (who you don't know at all) scared out of their minds and viciously tortured and killed, you'll probably get a woody from this.  But it gets a 2/5 from me.

Roman (2006) - some dude (who's got psycho killer written all over him) sits in his apartment paying very close attention to the cute girl who lives across the courtyard.  He notices she occasionally goes up on the roof to sit and relax, so he wanders up there with a couple of beers and of course she strikes up a conversation with him.  Even though he's so socially inept that he's barely capable of speech, she takes an immediate interest in him and next thing you know she's in his apartment making out with him.  So he kills her.  Not long afterwards, another cute girl comes along and basically throws herself at him (oh good grief  ) and of course they begin a sweet little romance too.  About 80% of this movie is just the guy sitting around his apartment doing psycho stuff, like drawing a picture of a TV on his wall and sitting there watching it.  After an hour my wife said she couldn't watch any more of it and that was fine by me     There wasn't anything the least bit interesting about this;  it wasn't like the psycho was unique in any way, and the idea that these cute girls would show so much interest in this guy was absolutely laughable.

[Rev. Powell]

THE BIG BANG (2011): An L.A. private eye (Antonio Banderas) goes looking for a missing stripper and uncovers a twisted plot involving the Russian mob, stolen diamonds, and the search for the God particle.  The extreme stylization and ultra-quirky twists with will make it just watchable for some but completely intolerable for others.  The faux-Raymond Chandler narration irks, and other than ethnicity Banderas brings nothing new to the hard-boiled detective character.  Odd enough to keep me watching, but be warned: almost everyone else hates it.  2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Attack of the Giant Leeches MST3K- I have no time lately it took me like 4 days to watch this. It's a good early episode, takes a little while to get going but has some funny stuff and is fun. 4/5

[JaseSF]

I Love You, Don't Touch Me (1997):  Katie (Marla Schaffel), a 25 year old virgin saving herself for the perfect guy seems to only end up dating dud after dud while remaining best friends with a truly nice guy named Ben (Mitchell Whitfield) who's in love with her.

While this has some clever  and witty moments, it doesn't quite fully work. It has too many slow moments, too many long singing performances; even if they do fit in somewhat with events happening in the movie; and too many pretentious and one-dimensional characters. Especially annoying and unlikable is Richard Webber, played by Michael Harris, although I do suspect this was somewhat intentional in his case. Katie's friends Janet (Meredith Scott Lynn) and Elizabeth (Nancy Sorel) feel particularly one dimensional as well with the first being the slut and the second the snob although Janet proves surprisingly more likable and honest especially as our lead here deep down seems to really want to be a slut too but just cannot admit that to herself. Average stuff. **1/2 out of ***** which is perhaps a bit generous.

[Jack]

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - some people take refuge in a house as zombies lay siege to the place.  This is mostly about the interactions between the characters:  you've got the calm, logical guy, the raging a-hole and his wife who doesn't like him, the hysterical woman, and a young and fairly normal couple.  It manages to create a bit of atmosphere in a few spots.  The characters watch some news reports explaining the possible cause for the dead coming back to life - those are kind of cool.  I got a chuckle out of how there happened to be enough wood laying around the house (in the kitchen and living room) to do a good job of boarding up the windows.    One of those classics that I, as usual, thought was only pretty good.  3.5/5.

Oh, and why did the zombies take time out from their quest for brains to perform a random act of violence against an unoccupied truck?   

[claws]

Monsters (2010) (Blu-ray)

A young man and woman must travel from Mexico to America but thanks to the NASA dangerous alien lifeforms wreak havoc while heading to the U.S. as well.
Indie drama and road movie with a dash of romance and apocalyptic setting. Not your typical sci-fi but with references to U.S. immigration policies.
Acting and dialogue can be amateurish at times but that didn't really spoil the fun for me. 4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

Last night I watched "Horror Express," a Spanish cheapie from the '70s that tries to emulate the classic Hammer Horror films, right down to the casting of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Lee is a turn-of-the-century scientist who discovers a frozen caveman fossil while on an expedition in China. While bringing it back to England via the Trans-Siberian Express, said fossil thaws out and starts stalking around the train, draining the brains of the various passengers... and then it only gets WEIRDER from there.

Silly fun that also stars a pre-"Kojak" Telly Savalas in a bit part as a Cossack army captain.

[The Burgomaster]

RIO (3D blu-ray) - very enjoyable

BATTLE LOS ANGELES (blu-ray) - average sci-fi, nothing special

MASTER OF THE WORLD (Netflix streaming) - last time I saw it I was probably about 10 years old; pretty good AIP / Jules Verne flick with VERY dated special effects

DEMON OF PARADISE (DVD) - cheesy "rubber monster suit" flick directed by Cirio Santiago; got it on a double feature DVD with UP FROM THE DEPTHS

[JaseSF]

Nobody Knows (2004): Keiko (You), a childlike mother of four rather inventively sneaks three of her kids into her new apartment with only young 12 year old Akira (Yûya Yagira), her oldest, allowed to go outside the premises. It's like it's all a bizarre game but one with rather serious consequences should they be found out and thereby potentially separated. She soon begins to disappear for long stretches of time and it seems eventually she may not be coming back at all leaving young Akira to try his best to keep himself and his young siblings going and together as a family which soon proves tougher and tougher as money and food begins to run out.

This was a pretty powerful movie that feels all too painfully real at times. It's a very moving story, one that eventually takes a rather tragic turn. It's a slow-moving thoughtful, reflective type of movie so many may find it too slow and a bit overlong but it is very easy to get lost into the lives of these likable young kids and as a viewer, one soon finds oneself rooting for them. Still it does seem a bit of a stretch at times that no one notices these kids and their plight even as they do their vesy best to hide it and keep it to themselves. Still a pretty darn good movie with a great performance from young Yagira. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Kaseykockroach]

Johnny Guitar (1954) - It's been recognized somewhat, thanks to Scorsese and his money, but Nicholas Ray's colorful and cynical masterpiece with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden should seriously be recognized. It's easily the greatest American western that wasn't directed by John Ford and doesn't star John Wayne.

[Jack]

Survival of the Dead (2009) - So there's a zombie apocalypse, but it's not really all that apocalyptic.  There are TV shows where comedians make fun of the zombies, the internet is still working, and the whole thing apparently amounts to little more than a low level insurgency.  But there are some military (or paramilitary) forces dealing with the threat, and a small group of these folks decide they'd like to move to an island and live in zombie-free peace.  But the people on the island like zombies - they're all family on this small island, and instead of killing their (already dead) relatives, they chain them up and let them mindlessly wander about.  Huh?  They think it's important to teach zombies to eat animals other than humans - as if that would stop them from looking at us as the special of the day?  WTF?  And they think there may eventually be a cure for the infection.  I mean, these people are dead and their flesh is rotting away.  You think somebody could cure that?  What, on Star Trek or something?    Oh and did you notice that two-thirds of the people on your island are now zombies?  Yeah, this isn't really turning out to be a very safe course of action now, is it?     If this was supposed to be satire of some sort, it missed its mark by a country mile.

That's the central plot of this thing, and it's just nonsensical.  It would be great if somebody made a zombie movie focusing on the emotional aspect of losing loved ones and still having them walking around, but this sure ain't that movie.  And when I watch a Romero zombie movie, I expect something serious, but this is a moronic comedy.  Some guys are in a building shooting at some other guys.  The people being shot at throw a grenade, which completely destroys the front wall of the building, but leaves the guys standing behind it uninjured - just covered in soot - and looking really surprised. I mean, what is this, a freakin' cartoon?

The characters were pretty good, and well developed.  I especially liked the head military guy - I was expecting some macho dude, but he was a real down-to-earth type guy who even got shot in the shoulder and then passed out 10 minutes later from the pain.  Characters are really important to me, and that's the only reason I'll give this a 2.5/5.  Otherwise it's just an example of a formerly well-respected director who's gotten to the point where he should just give it up and retire.