Recent viewings

[Jim H]

Sleeping Beauty (1959): Disney fairy tale classic in which a young princess named Aurora is cursed by a jealous dark witch named Maleficent to die on her sixteenth birthday after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. However three kind fairies try and undo her curse and one manages to change the end result of said curse so Aurora will simply fall asleep when pricked with the spindle until she is awakened by true love's kiss. To try and protect Aurora from Maleficent's evil reach, the three fairies adopt Aurora as their own and raise her in secret hoping to outlast the curse the day after her sixteenth birthday but the evil Maleficent has other plans.

I recall this being particularly powerful and downright frightening when I watched it as a child. As an adult, it does quite scare as much but the character of Maleficent is so dark and twisted and so inherently evil her presence still proves powerful throughout this film and the final in which the heroic Prince Phillip tries to get beyond her evil grasp and must face her most dire wrathful powers still has its suspenseful moments. The animation is also quite wonderfully acheived. A classic that well deserves its reputation. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

Dunno if you'd heard yet, but Maleficent (easily the most interesting and memorable Disney villain, both visually and character wise) is getting her own film in a year or two.  I look forward to it!

Lo: 2009 comedy-horror film.  Plot is about a guy whose girlfriend was taken from him by a demon, and he tries to bargain to get her back.  Extremely minimalist sets - clearly designed to look like a stage, but actually pretty well-acted and interesting throughout.  Genuinely funny at times too.  A few lapses at some points (the musical number goes on too long) and a tad overlong for how much story there is, but the resolution is satisfying and it is worth a watch on Netflix Instant.  I'm very curious about the budget on this one - depending on how well-connected and cheaply produced the makeup design and how quick the shoot, this could easily be in the $30-$50,000 range (point in fact, with a few compromises I could see this having been made in the micro-budget range).  I suspect low six figures though.

7/10

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Thing" (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHFFuMZv9VA

Prequel/remake/reboot (whatever you wanna call it) of John Carpenter's 1982 classic tells the tale of the Norwegian research scientists who first discover "The Thing" frozen in the Antarctic ice, and who make the unfortunate decision to dig it up and study it. From there it's action packed, gooey, gory, flame throwin' fun! I had low expectations for this since it was met with such fanboy hatred when it was released, but it kept me entertained well enough.

[lester1/2jr]

Black Swan- really liked this movie about a ballet star who copes with some kind of mental illness or something and tries to find her inner "Black Swan". Portman is pretty and Mena Suvari adds a populist sort of appeal that deflates some of the pretentious high arts world vibe.  5/5

[claws]

Mena Suvari adds a populist sort of appeal that deflates some of the pretentious high arts world vibe.  5/5

I'm sure you meant Mila Kunis 

[alandhopewell]

     Tracy and I watched this this morning, instead of DRAGONBALL Z/KAI, and I'm SOOOO glad! It's been at least thirty years since I last saw this film, and it still kicks SERIOUS a##. Christopher Lee is such a presence, he's there when he's not there, and not even Batman can work a cape like he does. Peter Cushing is at his best, the atmosphere tingling with menace,just a great work all around. 

[lester1/2jr]

claws- is there a difference?

[Jack]

Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain (1998) - in a crappy future where everyone lives in crummy little villages, the people are so poor that they have to sell their most precious resource - their hot babes - to the local mining outfit. Once there, the girls get dressed up in these short little skirts and have to crawl around in tunnels mining rocks. They also have to climb up and down a lot of ladders, and the filmmaker was nice enough to mount the cameras at the bottom of those ladders.  

Anyhow, one of the girls has a boyfriend who comes to rescue her from the mean ol' lesbian who runs the place. This was okay, though the characters didn't leave any impression at all. I mean, in the acting department. Plenty of noodity as one would expect. Must have been filmed in a very cold climate I'm guessing. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dorian Gray" (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/v/9h9a3Sx6220

Elaborate British production of the Oscar Wilde novel, in which a young nobleman remains eternally youthful while a portrait painted of him becomes more aged and hideous every day. After spending years partying, drinking, drugging, and screwing everything that isn't nailed down, he eventually learns that eternal youth is not all it's cracked up to be.

Not a bad flick, if it had been an American release it probably would've been directed by Tim Burton and starred Johnny Depp in the title role.

[indianasmith]

I really like that film!  A great morality play!

[JaseSF]

Copycat (1995): An agoraphobic psychologist/expert on serial killers named Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) reluctantly agrees to help a pair of homicide detectives - M. J. Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) track down a possible serial killer who seems to be copying famous serial killers of the past.

This thriller is pretty solid and suspenseful. It really does a nice job building up suspense and leaving one guessing as to its outcome. Harry Connick Jr. also proves quite memorable here as imprisoned serial killer Daryll Lee Cullum. Only problem is it doesn't quite feel as polished as most theatrical releases and in fact feels closer to something that might play on late night cable television. Nevertheless it's really a quite good albeit appropriately disturbing little film. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Blind Side (1993):  Doug (Ron Silver) and Lynn Kaines (Rebecca De Mornay). a couple visiting Mexico hoping to set up a new plant location for their furniture manufacturing business accidently run down a Mexican police officer. Instead of reporting the incident and possibly putting his pregnant wife Lynn in danger, Doug decides to keep quiet and return to the U.S.A.. However shortly after their return, a mysterious dark stranger named Jake Shell (Rutger Hauer) shows up insisting they give him a job and intruding in their lives in unsettling ways hinting he knows something about what happened to the couple south of the border.

This TV Movie is surprisingly good. Hauer is great as the crazed blackmailer who sometimes feels and looks like the evil villain who stepped out of some weird Western film. He really elevates the entertainment level of this movie and helps create most of its suspense. De Mornay and Silver do well as the couple who find their backs pushed up against the wall and must decide how best to remove the blackmailer's unpleasant presence from their lives. Still in parts this feels just a little uneven (some of the dialogue is cheesy) but this definitely has it moments and features some actors I consider rather underrated and is much better than usual late night TV movie fare. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Absent-Minded Professer (1961): Quirky oddball college Professor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray), who seems to have a habit of even forgetting his own wedding to longtime girlfriend Betsy Carlisle (Nancy Olson), invents a new anti-gravity device he names "flubber". A corrupt local businessman named Alonzo P. Hawk (Keenan Wynn) learns of said device and soon wants to get its secrets and profits for himself and so plots to steal it from Brainard who wants to give it to the government in order to benefit the whole country.

This Disney classic is great innocent fun. The best scenes involve Brainard flying around in his modified Model T car thanks to flubber and especially the way he uses it to torment Professor Shelby Ashton (Elliott Reid) when he tries to move in on Brainard's girl when Brainard misses yet another wedding. Wynn too is often a laugh here in the villainous role as an obnoxious greedy businessman and gets to deliver some of the film's funniest lines in said role. Tommy Kirk is on hand as Hawk's dumb jock son Biff in this one. Funny minor Disney classic looks great in black and white. **** out of ***** stars.

The Love Bug (1968): a down on his luck race car driver named Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) finds his luck and life improve for the better when he reluctantly becomes the owner of a little Volkswagon Beetle nicknamed Herbie that seems to have a mind all its own.

This Disney classic was a particular favourite of mine growing up so I definitely have a soft spot for it and may be a little prejudiced in its favour due to nostalgia but I still really love this one. Jones makes for an almost perfect everyman hero type lead while Buddy Hackett as friend and mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz and Michele Lee as love interest Carole offer great support. Best of all though here perhaps is lead villain Thorndyke (played by David Tomlinson) who is not only Douglas's main adversary in the film but also Herbie's as well. Sure he does feel at times a bit of a cartoonish over the top villain but he's also very very believable and convincing in his role. Lots of funny scenes and some that definitely stretch credibility quite a ways but if one is willing to go along for the ride, there's lots of magic and fun to be found in this one. Funniest scene actually involves a bear in a rather unlikely scenario. I love this one. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

LA JETEE (1962): This thirty-minute "photo-roman" (series of narrated stills) tells the story of a man who's sent backwards, then forwards in time to try to find a way to avert a nuclear war, but spends his travels romancing a woman he saw once as a child whose image burned itself into his memory. An interesting science fiction storytelling experiment about the nature of memory that's been extremely influential over the years (it inspired Terry Gilliam's 12 MONKEYS). There is one moving image in the film; blink and you'll miss it... 4/5.

SANS SOLEIL (1983): Difficult-to-describe, stream-of-consciousness essay travelogue; essentially, it's an arthouse mondo movie.  Remarkable images include the disturbing slaughter of a giraffe and a Japanese temple devoted to ceramic cats; it seems random, but every shot is accompanied by a keen observation on culture and humanity. Dreamlike, floating, and poetic, it's a must-see for the intelligent and adventurous viewer. 5/5.

These are available together on one disc from the Criterion Collection.

[alandhopewell]

CUTTER'S WAY (1981).  Blah movie with Jeff Bridges and an excellent John Heard performance.  A guy (Bridges) witnesses a prominent landowner dumping a woman's body.  After telling his boozy, crippled Nam vet buddy (Heard) he is spurred into finding and exposing the murderer, or killing him himself.  Some characters are bland, and some just kinda disappear without real rhyme or reason.  We barely see the killer until the very end, and when we do, he's extremely dull.  Only worthwhile for the Heard performance.

     One of the most depressing films I've ever seen.

[Vik]

Clash of the Titans(remake)
Better than I remembered. That said, it still sucked ass.

[Jack]

Run Like Hell (1995) - repeat viewing. A group of girls wearing black thongs (and nothing else) escape from prison. They haven't done anything wrong - you see, this is in the far-off future of 2008 and all single women are locked up. I guess it's okay to be a married woman, which kind of brings up the question: how do you ever get to be a married woman if all the single ones are in prison? Doesn't sound like a great situation for the guys either. But, hey, the future is hell ya know. Anyhow these girls set off across the desert (unfortunately finding some clothes after about 10 minutes) and meet up with a ninja dude who's on his way to participate in the "tournament of death". Much cheese follows. The final fight has ninja dude vs. some guy with a chainsaw - I swear they filmed about 15 seconds of fighting and then just showed the same footage over and over until it was 3 minutes long. 

Meanwhile the prison warden's having sex with some women in black thongs (and nothing else) and there's a big prison catfight between girls in black thongs (and nothing else). Must be laundry day?  I dunno. 

This thing is just goofy as all get out. On a good movie scale I'm sure it would rate a big 0/5. On Jack's scale, maybe a 3.5/5   

[tracy]

Run Like Hell (1995) - repeat viewing. A group of girls wearing black thongs (and nothing else) escape from prison. They haven't done anything wrong - you see, this is in the far-off future of 2008 and all single women are locked up. I guess it's okay to be a married woman, which kind of brings up the question: how do you ever get to be a married woman if all the single ones are in prison? Doesn't sound like a great situation for the guys either. But, hey, the future is hell ya know. Anyhow these girls set off across the desert (unfortunately finding some clothes after about 10 minutes) and meet up with a ninja dude who's on his way to participate in the "tournament of death". Much cheese follows. The final fight has ninja dude vs. some guy with a chainsaw - I swear they filmed about 15 seconds of fighting and then just showed the same footage over and over until it was 3 minutes long. 

Meanwhile the prison warden's having sex with some women in black thongs (and nothing else) and there's a big prison catfight between girls in black thongs (and nothing else). Must be laundry day?  I dunno. 

This thing is just goofy as all get out. On a good movie scale I'm sure it would rate a big 0/5. On Jack's scale, maybe a 3.5/5   

That sounds positively tragic...I must find it!