Recent viewings

[bob]

LOTR The Felowship - gave this one yet another chance and I ended up ejecting it about 2 hours and 15 minutes in

LOTR 2 Towers - gave this one yet another chance and I ended up ejecting it about an hour and a half into it

[indianasmith]

Everyone is different, I guess, but I can't even imagine doing that - not even after seeing it as many times as I have.

[Rev. Powell]

L'ATALANTE (1934):  A young barge skipper brings his new wife to live on board the ship L'atalante with him; confined to the boat, she grows bored, leading to domestic tragedy.  Simple and charming, with comic relief and memorable, poetic shots; a minor classic, but fans of sentimental romances will consider it a must see.  4.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Bail Out- Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff star in this pretty useless 80's straight to video actioner. It's like people who work on movies tried to make their own and didn't realize that a movie needs decent dialogue and to go from like a to b to c in some way that doesn't put you to sleep. It wasn't completely terrible though and hasselhoff does a good job. The pre HasselBlair first 15 minutes could easily be lopped off. This is something I'd dvr off THIStv and "watch" only if I was playing guitar mostly.  2.5/5

and no, she doesn't.

[bob]

I attempted to watch the final LOTR movie and like the others before I ejected it

[JaseSF]

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968): Hammer continues its Dracula series with Christopher Lee returning yet again to his classic role as Count Dracula, who is here accidentally (or was it?) revived following the events of Dracula: Prince of Darkness only to find his castle has undergone an exorcism ceremony. Outraged by this, Dracula, with the help of a few minions under his control, sets out to exact revenge upon the man who performed these rites - the Mosignor of the Holy Catholic Church Ernest Mueller (Rupert Davies) targeting the Monsigner and his family including the Monsigner's beloved niece Maria (Veronica Carlson). The only one really standing in his way perhaps is Maria's young love interest- the outspoken atheist Paul (Barry Andrews).

This was a pretty solid entry in the series and delivers the goods in terms of gory chills and thrills, exotic beautiful women in both Carlson and Barbara Ewing as the buxom waitress/temptress Zena, good and energetic performances from Lee and  Rupert Davies not to mention Ewan Hooper as a Priest who seemingly loses his way. Best of all perhaps here are the wonderful gothic visuals like the Monsignor climbing the mountainside to Dracula's castle with the golden cross on his back, etc.. Great stuff if a bit cheesy and over the top at times. A lot of fun IMO. *** out of ***** stars.

The Sum of All Fears (2002): CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) is asked to examine the motivations of a new Russian President and also gets involved with the investigation of nuclear bombs potentially being built in secret in the Ukraine. Eventually all of it will tie together and a terrorist plot involving detonating a nuclear bomb during a championship football game to pit the U.S. against Russia in a potential nightmarish nuclear war. Can Ryan get the information to his boss DCI William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) and the U.S. President Robert Fowler (James Cromwell) in time to stop the bomb and the potential escalation into an end of the world war?

This was pretty solid. It moves well and leaves you guessing as to how it will all ultimately play out. Freeman and Cromwell both give solid performances and the story feels a bit epic in scale. Still it does disappoint on some levels - Affleck isn't fully convincing in the Jack Ryan role, mostly yelling and looking concerned depending on what the scene called for - he's passable I guess but not much more than that. I was a bit disappointed too at the lack of focus on the nuclear explosion and its impact - maybe they didn't have money to do the FX on a large scale. Also the story feels a bit too familiar as this type of story isn't anything new by this point and even at times feels a bit behind the times as the Cold War seems to be making a comeback of sorts here. But the disappointments aside, this is solid enough entertainment to waste away a few hours in an enjoyable fashion. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983): Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is determined to have a fun family adventure and do it the old-fashioned family bonding way by driving cross country from Illinois to the holiday resort Wally World in California. The trip proves more troublesome and ardous than anyone could have ever predicted as they have zany misadventures and meet up with perhaps even crazier relatives along the way.

This classic has its fun moments and some are downright hilarious albeit a lot of the comedy here is of the more disturbingly dark, certainly non-political correct variety on a lot of levels. In some ways, this film is way ahead of its time as this sort of comedy would become even more popular since and arguably this film is now rather tame by comparison. Still Chevy Chase is great here as the all too believable Clark Griswold, an ordinary family man who finds himself getting into more and more extraordinary and unexpected situations and sure enough slowly is driven over the brink by it all just wanting to at heart have a fun family getaway. A funny comedy but not for those who are easily offended. The best stuff here probably though featuring Clark and his interactions with extended family including Cousin Eddie and his family most notably Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca). Beverly D'Angelo offers great support here to Chase playing Clark's addled wife Ellen. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

I attempted to watch the final LOTR movie and like the others before I ejected it

AAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you live?????????

[ChaosTheory]

Got all the superhero movies of the year done in one fell swoop (xcept Captain America which I saw in theaters):

GREEN LANTERN - I liked Synestro and thought Peter Saarsgard did a good job as Hector, the story was OK, but Hal wasn't really Hal and Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively were just so, so dull.  Prefer GL: FIRST FLIGHT. 5/10

GREEN HORNET - this was....I just...no. You've broken my heart, Christoph Waltz. 0/10
(for the record I haven't really watched the show and don't have strong feelings either way about Seth Rogen in general)

THOR - I dug this.  Cast was excellent, especially Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston (Loki).  And it's always cool to see Agent Caulson.  Storywise I liked Capt. America a little better but this was really fun.  (So weird to think that Kenneth Branagh directed this) 8/10

XMEN: FIRST CLASS - It's official: Chaos is in love.


OK, Fassbender aside...this was OK.  It was kinda weird to see a young version of Prof. X but I thought McAvoy did a good job.  Kevin Bacon was a cool villain.  I liked Mystique but the other secondary mutants didn't do anything for me.  Better than X3 (except for the Beast character who was much better in X3) but not as good as the first two.  I would've loved this if the whole thing had been Magneto Nazi-hunting in South America.  6.5/10

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST:  A real mixed bag.  First off, the Roger Corman-produced feature monster movie is talky and terrible, and Mike and the bots don't do much to make it tolerable.  On the other hand the short, "Once Upon a Honeymoon," is a bizarre musical thing with an effeminate guardian angel that's advertising either phones or appliances, and there's a lot of great one-liners.  This is also the only experiment that contains alternate host host segments.  The "standard" ones introduce Pearl as the replacement for Frank, and they're terrible---she's far too abusive towards him and it becomes awkward and un-funny.  But the alternate "Turkey Day" segments are as good as the standard ones are bad.  Various characters from previous episodes visit Deep 13 for Thanksgiving dinner, and Jack Perkins gets drunk and hits on Mr. B-Natural---it's comedy gold!  3.5/5 for the Turkey Day version (3/5 for the standard).

[FatFreddysCat]

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" (1956)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnZ6Ktjynh0

Classic "Americanized" re-edit of the first "Godzilla" film, in which square jawed, chain smoking U.S. news correspondent Raymond Burr recounts the story of The Big G's debut monster mash through Tokyo.

Still as bad-ass as ever!!

[Flick James]

Let Me In (2010)

I know there was a thread about it not too long ago, but I just watched it last night on NetFlix streaming.

What a good little horror film. I was impressed. I watched it really without any knowledge of it's premise, so it was nice to have that little bit of mystery, although it didn't take long to find out the nature of the new neighbor.

One could call it a supernatural horror film with dramatic/romantic elements, but I would consider it more the other way around. The dramatic pace was just right and the supernatural horror elements were just understated enough that when the action happened, it was jarring and effective. Clearly CGI enhancement was used, but it wasn't over-the-top, and much of the action was more obscured so that it wasn't so obviously CGI. It took a very big backseat.

I finished the film being very impressed. I know it was a remaking of a Swedish film, but it was a pretty damn good bit of horror/drama.

4.5/5

[bob]

I watched all 3 of these today

there is amazing continuity throughout all of them and enjoyed the hell out of them

5/5 for all 3 of them

[Silverlady]

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" (1956)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnZ6Ktjynh0

Classic "Americanized" re-edit of the first "Godzilla" film, in which square jawed, chain smoking U.S. news correspondent Raymond Burr recounts the story of The Big G's debut monster mash through Tokyo.

Still as bad-ass as ever!!

Caught this one on tv this afternoon.  Was surprised by how much I had forgotten.  It still rocks.   

[Rev. Powell]

MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001): A naive would-be actress from Ontario meets and falls for a knockout amnesiac; impenetrable dream sequences and reality shifts follow.  Beautiful confusion from David Lynch. 4/5.

[Flick James]

MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001): A naive would-be actress from Ontario meets and falls for a knockout amnesiac; impenetrable dream sequences and reality shifts follow.  Beautiful confusion from David Lynch. 4/5.

That's not the first viewing of this for you is it Rev?