Recent viewings

[claws]

Cold Prey 2 (2008) Blu-ray (Region B)

Jannicke (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), the only survivor of the abandoned ski hotel massacre in the mountains, is found and brought to a small hospital in a nearby village. Staff is limited as the hospital is about to close for good.
When the police bring in the dead bodies of Jannicke's friends and the presumably dead body of the killer, all hell will break loose sooner or later.

Not your average run of the mill slasher sequel: a decent follow up to the surprise hit Cold Prey (2006) - though filmed two years later the events take place the following day. If you loved the atmospheric, snow bound setting of the first one you will most likely dig the half empty dimly lit hospital setting with long dark corridors.

Lots of well-made jump scares (not the annoying kind), sympathetic characters, stylish but retaining that old school slasher feel. Recommended if you can track it down. 4.5/5

[alandhopewell]

     I just bought a copy of this, along with the "making of" documentary, FULL TILT BOOGIE. This is still one of the coolest vampire movies I've ever seen, a real hoot, and besides, it's got Salma Hayek and the luckiest albino python in the world....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYxxgvA8rlM

[FatFreddysCat]

"Tron: Legacy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9szn1QQfas

28 years (!) after the original "Tron," the grown son of Jeff Bridges' character enters the digital realm of the "Grid" to investigate his father's mysterious disappearance. Turns out that Bridges has been trapped in the computer realm while his evil digital counterpart, "Clu," has taken over. Now Clu wants to escape into the "real" world. Lots of whiz-bang, way cool visual effects (Light cycles! Disc battles! Recognizers!) ensue.

This flick probably could've been a bit shorter but otherwise this was a fun ride. Extra bonus points for the casting of Olivia Wilde from "House" as a female "program" cuz she looks hot as hell in one of those skin tight neon bodysuit thingies.

Also of note: the soundtrack by French electro-pop duo Daft Punk somehow manages to sound retro/80s and futuristic at the same time. Neat stuff.

[Rev. Powell]

CARMEL (2009): This confusing collection of sometimes surreal vignettes appears to be an autobiographical reflection by its Israeli director, mixed with recreations of a battle between Romans and Jews and poetry read by Jean Moreau.  There are a few interesting moments, like when an Israeli and a Palestinian carry on a "conversation" in which each delivers a separate monologue, but mostly, it's people you can't place reading letters from relatives you don't know.  1.5/5.

[Jack]

Growth (2010) - watched this again.  Back in the '80s some scientists on an island developed a parasitic worm that if inserted into a human made them stronger and increased their senses.  There were a few problems - a cemetery was erected.  Flash forward to the present and a girl has inherited the research complex and takes her friends to check the place out.  Sure enough, that prologue wasn't for nothin' because some of those little worm buggers are still on the prowl.  I really liked the characters in this.  They were fairly original and fun.  The plot moved along well enough as well.  4/5.

[Jack]

Scourge (2008) - Some demonic CGI thingie has been imprisoned in the basement of a church for 150 years or so, but then there's a fire and wouldn't you know it...  Meanwhile the bad boy comes back to town - on his Harley of course.  The sheriff immediately finds him and says "Haven't see you around in a while.  And I liked it that way".  Of course he's actually innocent, etc.  He meets up with his old high school sweetheart and while the cops are too busy blaming Mr. Bad Boy for all the dead bodies turning up, our young couple have to track down the creature and destroy it.  So yeah, as cliched as it can get really.  Good characters though.  The guy was sort of a mellow, nice guy and the girl was your typical sweetheart who seems a little sad.  The plot moved along at a pretty good pace and I never yawned once.  Unlike when we watched that Reese Witherspoon movie the other night     4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

PRIMER (2004): Two engineer/entrepreneurs accidentally discover a box that allows time travel, and quickly get themselves into trouble.  Extremely confusing, but that's the point: when the two begin casually screwing with causality, both we and they lose track of what's going on and which timeline we're actually in.  If ratings were adjusted for budget, this would get a 5/5---it was made for an incredible $7,000!  4/5. 

[FatFreddysCat]

Tried to re-watch "The Ring" night before last. A co-worker and I had been having a conversation about it the day before; he went on and on about how it was the scariest movie he'd ever seen, while I maintained that I remembered little of it except that I wasn't terribly impressed with it. Anyway, that conversation got me curious so I pulled it off the shelf.

...and I bailed out at around the hour mark. Seriously, that movie did nothing for me. I didn't get what all the whoop-de-doo was about it when it was current, and I still don't.

[claws]

Saving Private Ryan (1998) Blu-ray

5/5

My Name Is Bruce (2007) Blu-ray (Region B)

4/5 - We all love Bruce but I thought this was a bit on the overrated side.

[JaseSF]

Back to the Beach (1987): We revisit old teen idol Frankie Avalon, here called "The Big Kahuna", and his wife Annette Funicello, now living in the American Midwest but still as perky and positive as ever. Frankie however isn't, he's become a work obsessed conservative square car dealer who's on the verge of serious burnout. Meanwhile their son Bobby (Demian Slade) is completely rebelling against everything his parents once stood for adopting a punk image. They decide to take a much needed vacation and along the way decide to visit their daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin) whose unknown to them has secretly shacked up with her surfer boyfriend Michael (Tommy Hinkley) but as they visit a few of their old L.A. stomping grounds and Frankie runs into old love interest Connie (Connie Stevens), tensions within their marriage come to a head and threaten to break up their entire family.

This was a surprisingly entertaining bit of harmless beach party style fluff. Early on, it's a little tough slugging with Bobby being exceedingly annoying but once the primary focus switches to Frankie and Annette, it improves quite a bit. Lots of fun cameos from 1960s stars including Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Don Adams, Barbara Billingsley , Edd Byrnes, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, musicians d**k Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughan and a really fun appearance by modern era star Pee Wee Herman. Most fans of the 1960s Beach Party films should enjoy this but don't expect anything extraordinary, just a bit of silly escapist fun. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Lodger (2009): A modern serial killer operating in an Hollywood neighborhood is patterning himself after the legendary Jack the Ripper. Hardened detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina) works against time to try and solve the mystery of who this killer is before he strikes again but finds it quite a challenge saddled with some harsh personal issues involving his clinically depressed wife, has the FBI breathing down his neck and now finds himself paired with a rookie detective in Street Wilkenson (Shane West). Meanwhile a clearly psychologically disturbed woman named Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) takes in a mysterious lodger (Simon Baker) who may or may not be the killer.

This was slightly better than I expected it to be. An updated version of the Lodger set in modern times. Alfred Molina is excellent in the lead role as Detective Manning while Hope Davis also does very well in the role of Ellen Bunting. The plot actually manages to make us suspicious of practically everyone in the film making us wonder as to the true identity and reality surrounding the killer. In the end though, I still found it pretty easy to guess how this would all play out. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable if somewhat disturbing, given this murderer and his methods are just as grisly as the original Jack the Ripper, ride. A solid little film if not spectacular. *** out of ***** stars.


Raising Arizona (1987): An ex-con named H.I. McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) marries a female cop nicknamed Ed, short for Edwina (Holly Hunter). Life is good until they discover Ed cannot have children. Now desperate to have a family of their own, the pair, now an ex-con and an ex-cop team up to kidnap a baby, one from a family of quintuplets but they could never have guessed just how wildly this choice would affect their lives especially as a bounty hunter seemingly from Hell is soon on their trail not to mention how their lives also get entangled with escaped cons who would be bank robbers and how everyone inevitably falls in love with the new baby and wants him for their own.

This Coens brothers film was just as much fun as I'd remembered. Some scenes are wildly funny such as the extended Huggies robbery and the long extended trailer fight. Others are just wildly weird and outrageous particularly the scenes featuring the nightmarish biker/bounty hunter Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb) and the escaped cons/bank robbers - the Snoates brothers (John Goodman and William Forsythe). Highly entertaining and definitely unpredictable only the ending feels a little anticlimactic. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Fox and the Hound (1981): An orphaned young fox named Tod (voiced by Keith Coogan) adopted by Widow Tweed (voiced by Jeanette Nolan) befriends a neighboring young hound dog named Copper (voiced by Corey Feldman), the property of hunter Amos Slade (voiced by Jack Albertson) who plans on turning Copper into a great hunting dog. Sadly the pair soon learn it's their destiny to later be enemies, the hunter and the hunted. In their older forms, Tod is voiced by Mickey Rooney and Copper is voiced by Kurt Russell.

This story was surprisingly moving playing with your emotions as the two young friends will inevitably become enemies yet both retain memories of that more innocent time. This one really leaves you guessing as you watch it as to how it will all play out and there's lot of heartbreaking scenes along the way, more than one usually expects from a movie obviously aimed at kids. The climax is downright thrilling with a surprise appearance from a nasty critter. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[bob]

easily one of the funniest things I've ever seen, from the opening credits to the ending much laughing took place

5/5  

[JaseSF]

Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007): This tells the epic story of a how a young boy named Temüjin fights to survive enormous obstacles including persecution, starvation, humilation, betrayal and even slavery to go on and become one of history's greatest conquerers and leaders uniting the Mongolian people.

I'm not sure how historically accurate this movie was but if it is even mostly true, Genghis Khan's early life was truly extraordinary. While I have a feeling some of this at least was fabricated to present him a more sympathetic light, it doesn't make our story any less enthralling. This is truly an historical epic featuring great sweeping vistas, huge crowd scenes and gory and surprisingly realistic battle showdowns. The acting is solid and it was interesting to see an Eastern take on the legend of the man who would become Genghis Khan. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Vik]

Insidious
Rather good. If only it didn't revolve around such a boring ass family.

[Rev. Powell]

MAXIMUM SHAME (2010): How to describe this?  Well, the tagline is "an apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird feature movie," and I'd say that's pretty accurate.  A black hole is about to swallow the world, or has swallowed it, so a man crawls underneath his bed and finds an empty warehouse ruled by a dominatrix queen.  His numerology obsessed wife follows him and meets more strange characters.  There are musical numbers (the music is actually very good, although there's no dancing).  Interesting but patchy.  2.5/5.  Not coming soon to a theater near you.

[Jim H]

Finally finished It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  I don't really get it.  The humor in 95% of it just doesn't work for me, it's overly long, and kind of boring.  And I actually have seen most of the cast be funny in other stuff, too. 

5/10.