Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

THE BED-SITTING ROOM (1969): A family living on a functioning subway train in post-apocalyptic London travels to the surface looking for a nurse for the pregnant daughter; they find Marty Feldman in drag and Ralph Richardson, whom the radiation has mutated into a bed-sitting room. You can see the roots of Monty Python in this Spike Milligan/John Antrobus scripted, Richard Lester directed absurd black farce that's more silly than satirical.  3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/v/8DNqpUH4tpw

Remake of the 1973 cult classic (with which I am sadly unfamiliar) in which a troubled family moves into a Victorian mansion with a dark past, and the daughter is menaced by a horde of tiny creatures that whisper to her from the basement.

Cool, creepy stuff with loads of atmosphere, produced by Spanish horror maestro Guillermo Del Toro.

[Vik]

I watched the two leaked The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra episodes.

[lester1/2jr]

The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) - Bugs invented flying. Bugs are winning. 5/5

[Rev. Powell]

LABYRINTH (1986): A spoiled teenage girl (Jennifer Connelly) must find her way through a magical labyrinth designed by M.C. Escher and inhabited by Muppets to save her baby brother from the Goblin King (David Bowie). Excellent coming-of-age fantasy that's a sweet and spectacular adventure for youngsters; the undercurrent of sexual tension between Connelly and Bowie is unnerving but adds a certain creepy fascination for adults. 4.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) - Bugs invented flying. Bugs are winning.

I would have thought you'd dig this one. It's pretty wacked-out for a documentary.

[lester1/2jr]

rev powell- fixed, Did you ever see phase 4?

[FatFreddysCat]

"In Like Flint" (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZtFYLqs9nY

James Coburn stars as ultra-cool American secret agent Derek Flint in this obviously tongue-in-cheek James Bond spoof/ripoff from the late '60s. A secret organization of beautiful women wants to take over the world and Flint is the only spy who's man enough to handle all of 'em!!

Silly little flick with lots of eye candy, and Coburn is a hoot as the perpetually self-assured Flint. As spy parodies go this was way more fun than that piece of sh*t "Casino Royale" that I saw last week.

[Rev. Powell]

rev powell- fixed, Did you ever see phase 4?

Nope.

[ulthar]

LABYRINTH (1986): A spoiled teenage girl (Jennifer Connelly) must find her way through a magical labyrinth designed by M.C. Escher and inhabited by Muppets to save her baby brother from the Goblin King (David Bowie). Excellent coming-of-age fantasy that's a sweet and spectacular adventure for youngsters; the undercurrent of sexual tension between Connelly and Bowie is unnerving but adds a certain creepy fascination for adults. 4.5/5.

What I find amazing is that people compare this to PAN'S LABYRINTH, as in "hey this movie is like that other one."

Riiiiiight.  Word association at it's finest....

[alandhopewell]

     I rented these two over the weekend....






     I really didn't expect much from either one, particularly MASSACRE, but I was pleasantly suprised. HAUNTING was well-crafted, the cast itself was a pleasant suprise; I was perusing the "extras" list before running the video, and saw, "Interview with Sissy Spacek", which left me wondering, "What would she have to do with something from Lionsgate?" As it turned out, she and Donald Sutherland played the mother and father of a nineteenth-century Kentucky family beset by a curse.The film was not a gorefest, not loaded with shocks either, but had that gradual creep into creepiness thing going, which you rarely find in horror films post-FRIDAY THE 13TH.

     MASSACRE was a mockumentary about the making of a slasher film, with David Naughton playing the director. Pleasantly, this wasn't a "let's-make-a-horror-movie-OMG-someone's -actually-killing-people" movie, but a chronicle of the oy of bad filmmaking. It wasn't fall off the furniture funny, but funny enough.

     I recommend both, particularly AN AMERICAN HAUNTING, as it serves to show that we can still craft good, atmospheric horror films here in the Good Ol' US of A.

[lester1/2jr]

David Naughton

awesome! I jsut saw him in hot dog the movie.

Rev- it's directed by saul Bass who mostly did opening credit sequences. It's pretty awesome.

[alandhopewell]

David Naughton

awesome! I jsut saw him in hot dog the movie.

Rev- it's directed by saul Bass who mostly did opening credit sequences. It's pretty awesome.

     Both PHASE IV and HELLSTROM CHRONICLE are unsung classics of science-fiction, as opposed to the usual sci-fi.

[alandhopewell]

     One of my wife's aquaintences just gave us , on DVD, STAR BLAZERS, Seasons I & II, plus this....



     It was on a disc simply labeled , "Yamato", so I assumed it was the cartoon series edited to feature length, until I started watching it last night.

    THIS is a great science-fiction film. The story is basically the same as STAR BLAZERS, but with signifigant changes I won't go into, in case you run across it. Excellent FX, acting (I watched a subtitled rather than dubbed version), and story.
I highly recommend it.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Mimic" (1997)
http://youtube.com/v/LL-GB11uyTI

Genetically-engineered insects, turned loose in the New York subways to combat a cockroach infestation, eventually mutate into human-sized flesh eaters in Guillermo Del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Hellboy")'s English language debut. Mira Sorvino and a team of scientists descend into the city's underbelly to combat the threat, and lots of guts and goop ensue. Sorta like a subterranean, urban "Aliens." Cool stuff.