Recent viewings

[Venomx73]

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

The Punisher (2004)

UFOs: 50 Years Of Denial

[JaseSF]

The Cannonball Run (1981): Several race teams gather for a cross country race named "The Cannonball Run". In order to win the race, it's to a team's advantage to be able to elude the police or disguise one's vehicle so as to not get pulled over and of course to win, the team have to drive more than the 55 mph speed limit. Our lead characters J.J. McClure (Burt Reynolds) and his mechanic Victor Prinzi (Dom DeLuise) decide to use an ambulance in the race believing it far less likely to be stopped by the police. Their competition takes the form of assorted oddball characters including Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin's characters dressed as priests driving a red Ferrari, Jackie Chan and Michael Hui playing Japanese characters driving a souped up, computerized Subaru, a character identifying himself as Roger Moore (played by Moore too), actually driving an Aston Martin DB5 and behaving a whole lot like James Bond, Jamie Farr of "M*A*S*H" fame playing a rich Sheik driving a Rolls Royce, Tara Buckman and Adrienne Barbeau driving a black Lamborghini Countach and using their vast sex appeal to their advantage and assorted other teams of characters mostly made up of so-called "good ole' boys".

Initially this film is pretty fun but as it wears on, gets a bit tiresome before its end. Honestly Roger Moore gives one of the most entertaining and consistently funny performances in this one even if it was having a lot of fun at the expense of him and his Bond character, Jackie Chan is also quite fun in his much smaller role and Martin & Davis are fun too in their parts. Weirdly enough in the end, the race disappoints compared to many other car films and this one suffers from a lack of real chase sequences and the movie becomes too sidetracked with a Burt Reynolds-Farrah Fawcett romance in which Fawcett becomes lovestruck with Reynolds despite his character's huge ego not to mention the misadventures of Dom DeLuise in superhero guise as Captain Chaos. In the end, this one's a disappointment. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

Octop***y (1983): 007 James Bond (Roger Moore) is assigned to follow a trail of stolen priceless Russian jewels and artifacts that leads him to a wealthy Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) and eventually his associate, a jewel smuggler named Octop***y (Maud Adams). In time Bond learns there's far more dangerous plot at work involving the Russians and a nuclear bomb hidden aboard a train.

While filled with outstanding stunt and action sequences, this movie just goes on and on far too long in between its more exciting sequences and has some rather silly comedy moments that seem ill-fitting, especially given they are arguably at the expense of the lead character, in an actual Bond film and not a parody. Also the motivations of the villains, although Jordan does look the suave villain, are never truly made as clear as they needed to be. Still some undeniable fun moments and some thrilling action on the outside of a train and airplane . *** out of ***** stars.

Fast Food Nation (2006): Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear), a marketing director for a fast food chain named "Mickey's" decides to investigate the company meat supplier when it's learn there's a presence of fecal matter in their meat. Meanwhile an high school student working at "Mickey's" begins the learn the truth about the company for which she works. Eventually we as an audience learn the ugly reality behind what goes on at this meatpacking plant.

Truthfully this film should be given an R rating and probably should not be watched by anyone with a weak stomach. Granted its message gets through with regards to the mistreatment of farm animals, the horrible truths with regards to just what might be in the meat one is eating (as I understand it, in the U.S., a certain amount of fecal matter in ground beef is considered acceptable), the ugly reality with regards to slaughterhouses, the misuse of people who are desperate and the crushing of those dreaming of a better life in America - all that gets across but you know it often feels as subtle as heading one over the head with an hammer. And truthfully the film is populated with mostly unlikable and unsympathetic characters and seems to suggest those fighting to change the system will get nowhere. It's also surprisingly dull for most of its running time and completely unfunny despite the marketing for the DVD for this movie suggesting it has humorous moments. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

Empire of Passion (1978): Toyogi (Tatsuya Fuji) is a poor young man who becomes infatuated with an older woman named Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) and decides to seduce her despite the fact she's married to a local rickshaw driver named Gisaburo (Takahiro Tamura) and has children. In time, he becomes possessive and jealous of Seki and cannot bear the thought of her being with her husband Gisaburo so the pair then plot to kill him and dump his body in an old well. However as time wears on, Toyogi and Seki's grow more and more afraid of the town suspicions about them and the investigations of local police knowing they will be hung if found out. Perhaps even worse, Gisaburo begins to haunt Seki.

This film has some startling imagery especially as it involves scenes around the old well and a ghostly nighttime rickshaw ride. The performances of the leads are also very well done and one really begins to see and feel the growing desperation of Toyogi and Seki as their situation becomes more and more unbearable for them. Nevertheless the plot is pretty straightforward and surprisingly unremarkable on some levels. I'd give this ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Stroker Ace (1983): Stroker Ace (Burt Reynolds) is a successful NASCAR driver with a reputation for trouble and womanizing. When he grows tired of his current sponsor from Zenon Oil, he decides to sign on with fried chicken mogul Clyde Torkel (Ned Beatty) mostly due to the presence and distraction of Torkel's director of marketing and public relations Pembrook Feeny (Loni Anderson). However he soon comes to regret this decision when Torkel forces Ace to take part in embarrassing advertising campaigns even dressing him as a chicken at one point and forcing him to have "The Fastest Chicken in the South" painted on his racecar. Ace and mechanic Lugs Harvey (Jim Nabors) and their friends, including new romantic interest Feeny, now plot ways to try and get Ace fired and out of his contract. Meanwhile Ace continues to race and forges an ongoing rivalry with an ambitious young driver named Aubrey James (Parker Stevenson).

While this does have an handful of funny moments here and there mostly involving Beatty's character Torkel and a few at perhaps Reynolds' expense, it proves somewhat disappointing. Again there's a lack of any real fun chase sequences and the most exciting race one seem to be made up of stock footage. Worst of all is Reynolds' character Ace whom Anderson's Feeny blindly loves despite him being pretty much an egotistical jerk throughout the film whose main goal seems to be get her drunk and in bed. The whole sequence with her passed out on the bed comes across a bit more creepy than funny. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

A View To a Kill (1985): 007 James Bond (Roger Moore) is assigned to investigate one Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) of Zorin Industries, who has race horses, oil interests and now plans to corner the market on microchips through a most diabolical plot involving the destruction of California's Silicon Valley.

Like Octop***y, this film feels overlong and has far too many long, uneventful stretches between its more exciting action sequences. That said, I actually enjoyed this one slightly more. Its villains feel a little more larger than life and a little less low key and the scope of the plot feels a tad more epic. The action sequences in this are also quite thrilling with a great opening chase on a ski slope, an exciting chase up and down the Eiffel Tower, a fun car chase involving a fire truck and a thrilling final showdown involving the Golden Gate bridge. Also Bond seems a tad more human and vulnerable in this film for some reason. Only real flaws here is arguably Moore was a bit too old for the role at this point and Tanya Roberts as love interest Stacey Sutton proves rather bland, almost your typical dumb blond in over her head. Much more exciting is Grace Jones as Zorin's main henchwoman and sidekick, as assassin named May Day. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[claws]

Alien Abduction: Incident at Lake County (1998)

11/27/97: Tommy is filming his family on Thanksgiving, but a power failure during dinner is causing mild panic. When Tommy and his two brothers try to fix things they discover a UFO in a nearby forest, but not only that. Red-light shooting Aliens are ready to start a scary home invasion /w abduction.

Found Footage flick with its share of creepy and unintentional funny moments. I got a kick out of "Mom" who has a alcohol problem since Dad passed away. She is holding a glass of wine throughout the movie. Other than that you'll get lots of shouting, crying, nose bleeding and unsuccessful attempts at leaving the house. 3.5/5

[alandhopewell]

     NIGHTMARE AT NOON (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a7an4Sc79Q

     I'll tell you up front, I didn't finish watching this foolishness-it was about a quarter of two in the morning, and this wasn't worth it.

     This was yet another entry in the "let's-make- some-potion-to-make-people-crazy-and-test-it-on-a-small-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" sub-genre, and a such was a melange of bad acting (Wings Hauser, 4-X), shoddy production (my fave was the guy catching a shotgun blast full in the chest, in slo-mo, so we get a real good look at the Kevlar vest he's wearing under his shirt).

[JaseSF]

The Fog (2005): Something hiding within a mysterious ghostly fog heading towards Antonio Island, Oregon is seemingly killing any people found in its path.

This remake of the 1980 film runs through more or less the same plot but still manages to be inferior in every way to the original from its lackluster cast (aside from a few Canadian veteran stars [Kenneth Walsh and Sara Botsford] who have much too short roles here to really be effective) that seems to be based on getting the prettiest young people available more than talent, its choice of music, its build up of suspense, even its special FX seem less convincing somehow..yeah everything is less convincing. The ending here too proves confusing and seems to almost come out of left field. Still I did like this a tad more than I expected mainly because it's got a kind of Canadian look and feel to it being filmed in Canada and having some familiar Canadian faces on board and the plot plays out somewhat like the original but of course here everything is explained too much and not enough is left to mystery and imagination. ** out of ***** stars.

The Killing Time (1987): A psyhcopathic killer (Kiefer Sutherland) assumes the identity of a deputy in a small town. Meanwhile the local town Sheriff Sam (Beau Bridges) and his mistress Laura (Camelia Kath) begin secretly plotting the murder of her abusive husband.

This was an enjoyable made on the cheap thriller. It benefits from having many familiar faces involved including Wayne Rogers, Joe Don Baker and Michael Madsen in a short role. Best of all here is Sutherland's performance as the psychopath. I really feel he does a great job here. Sure it all plays out in somewhat predictable fashion but this was surprisingly involving and easy to watch. Slightly better than I expected so I'll give it *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Psycho II (1983) - Norman gets out of the nut house after 20 years and goes back to his spooky house above the Bates Motel. A relative of one of his victims is upset that he was released and will do anything to get him recommitted. It's not long before he meets a girl (Meg Tilly!) and invites her to stay with him. And of course Norman is soon back to his old self and various people start disappearing. This was good; Meg Tilly was a great addition and there were several interesting plot twists toward the end. Only thing that was a bit odd was that Tilly's character was WAY too trusting of Norman, even though it was pretty obvious he'd gone off the deep end. And he's got a bit of a bad history with that as you probably know. Still, I'll give it a 4/5.

[JaseSF]

Without Warning (1980): Flying blood-sucking alien parasites (that rather resemble pancakes) begin attacking people somewhere in the American Midwest. Two teenagers named Greg (Christopher S. Nelson) and Sandy (Tarah Nutter) escape to tell their story but the only ones who seem to believe them are a pair of crazies, one a washed out war veteran named Dobbs (Martin Landau) and the other a local game hunter named Taylor (Jack Palance) who seems to have been living on his own far too long, both of whom seem to insist on taking them back where they came from in search of these nasty critters.

This low budget sci-fi/horror is surprisingly fun and involving. The flying pancake critters are pulled off nicely with some neat gooey effects for when they're attacking and sucking their victims' blood and a neat creepy teeth and tentacle design when we finally get a closeup look at them. There's also a full size alien in this too and a neat costume we never see too closely which is probably for the best. It also helps that we have such a cast of talented familiar faces who do their best with the rather limited material they've got to work with here. This film is just full of familiar faces, also look for Neville Brand, Cameron Mitchell, Ralph Meeker, Larry Storch and even a young David Caruso in a bit part. There's also a neat foreboding atmosphere throughout this thing and when you really stop and think about, this is of sorts a precursor for the later Predator films. Very enjoyable on a B-movie level but not quite the camp classic some other films of this sort are. I'll give it a solid *** out of ***** stars (BMFMS mainly for gooey FX and Palance & Landau)

The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002): In the year 2087 on a colony on the Moon, a former smuggler turned nightclub owner named Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) becomes the target of a man named Rex Carter who wants to force Nash out so he can start up a new gambling casino establishment in its place. When Nash refuses, Carter sends a group of henchman out to hunt him down and eliminate him. On Nash's side is Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), a young singer who finds herself stranded and later in the wrong place at the wrong time ending up on the run with Nash, and Nash's robot bodyguard Bruno (Randy Quaid), an outdated android model 63 who seems to have a few quirks yet for whom Nash feels a certain loyalty.

This was one of the biggest box office bombs in history. Honestly I didn't find it so bad. Sure it's total fluff, sometimes the jokes and gags fall a bit flat and it's not terribly memorable but in terms of escapist entertainment, I've seen far worse films in a similar vein that were blockbuster successes. I think they took a chance on this one in the hopes that special FX would bring the audiences in but by this point in time, there was little here that hadn't been done or seen before - perhaps had this come out in the mid-90s, it might have worked. I rather liked the quirky Bruno and any movie that has appearances from Pam Grier, John Cleese and Peter Boyle as supporting characters (granted their roles were all rather short) cannot be all bad. I really didn't think it was as bad as so many others are suggesting but one has to stick with it past some rather unpleasant opening scenes involving a disgustingly dirty nightclub and bathroom. Honestly this doesn't deserve to be rated as low as it is so I'll give it a solid *** out of ***** stars too. I should also add the film is more along the lines of Total Recall than it is a comedy and in many ways feels similar to 80s style sci-fi adventure.

[Jack]

Psycho III (1986) - Norman's up to his usual shenanigans - having lots of conversations with his dead mother; dressing up in his old lady outfit and killing the guests at his motel. Just like last time, a woman befriends him, another suspects him, there's an amoral assistant manager at his motel, and Anthony Perkins acts all weird. But unlike last time, none of this stuff is interesting. Meg Tilly was really the focal point of part 2, adding greatly to the movie. The woman in this movie is completely uninteresting as serves only to pad out the runtime. The woman who suspected him of continuing his murderous ways in the last movie had a plan to get him recommitted and played an integral part in the plot. Her counterpart in this movie serves only to pad out the runtime. This was obviously made because the studio knew it would be profitable, not because anyone had any worthwhile ideas that would justify a new movie. 2.5/5.

[ChaosTheory]

YOUNG ADULT - a shallow, manipulative YA fiction writer (Charlize Theron) returns to her hometown in an attempt to get back her high school boyfriend (Patrick Wilson) - despite the fact that he's happilly married and just became a father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar_-v7dEEoo

I had low expectations for this, as I'm no fan of the screenwriter, Diablo Cody, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a fairly heartfelt examination of the lengths some people will go to try and reclaim their fading youth.  Theron and Wilson are good, but the standout is Patton Oswalt as a somewhat tragically unpopular classmate.   8/10

[claws]

Outpost: Black Sun (2012)

Female Nazi-hunter and a scientist end up in East Europe where re-animated Nazi soldiers cause death and destruction with world domination in mind. Uninspired Fantasy Action "Horror" from the same director who gave us the entertaining genre-fave Outpost (2008). This bigger budget sequel takes a different approach and tries to be "epic" - it's like the director has a Lord of the Rings kind of saga in mind (part 3 will follow in 2013). Overlong and bloated, partially boring with brief splatter and decent production values. Acting was fine, but the plot too crammed. 2.5/5

[indianasmith]

I watched a slasher flick called WRECKAGE this week.  Most of the characters were unlikable, and it featured the dumbest cops I have ever seen in any B-movie.  About its only redeeming feature was the rather neat little twist ending which I did not expect in the least!

[Venomx73]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

[JaseSF]

For Your Consideration (2006): While filming on the set of their latest movie Home For Purim, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer) a pair of veteran character actors who've been out of the spotlight far too long begin to get caught up in the hype that their might be potential Oscar buzz surrounding them for this latest film effort. Eventually it seems a younger actress involved with the film named Callie Webb (Parker Posey) might be up for consideration as well.

This is a somewhat clever parody of Hollywood and the plastic, artificial, quasi-happiness media show business circus that surrounds it but you know it's really not terribly funny. In fact, it runs more into the area of sad and tragic which doesn't make this one terribly rewatchable. Actually the funniest bits here involved the parody of Entertainment Tonight style talk shows with Hollywood Now and the Wake Up L.A. talk show bits which both felt surprisingly realistic as reflections of today's media with a ventriloquist act actually stealing the show there as well but it's kind of sad the bit parts prove far more interesting than the film's main story. Sure it's clever and makes a statement but yet this remains sadly pretty unfunny and surprisingly boring and disappointing in a lot of ways given the vast talent involved with it. ** out of ***** stars.

[JaseSF]

The Amityville Horror (2005): The Lutz family move into their new home in Amityville, New York where they are plagued by seemingly demonic and paranormal events. Prior to the Lutzs moving in, the house had previously been the site of a mass murder committed by one Ronald DeFeo Jr. who claiming to be possessed shot and killed six of his own family members in cold blood.  

This remake of the 1979 film that's largely based on the same novel and claims, many of which have seen been challenged and some even proven outright false, on which the original was based. It runs fairly similar territory but does make a few changes making George Lutz (played by Ryan Reynolds) largely the antagonist, possibly the victim of demonic manipulation, in the story and a few other changes here and there adding more outright gore and blood splatter. Ultimately this actually makes the film less scary than the original and the acting here is fairly subpar when compared to the original as well with perhaps the exception of Philip Baker Hall as Father Callaway. Reynolds and Melissa George as Kathy Lutz are adequate enough I suppose but to be honest they just don't really stand out in any really memorable fashion here and I'd argue the child actors actually give better and more compelling performances. Overall this is so-so, has a few creepy scenes and a few scares here and there but really was a completely unnecessary remake that doesn't really add anything new and is a bit below the original in terms of overall quality and the original itself wasn't all that great a film either. The basement scenes do prove far scarier in the original film and I feel the film cast is superior too. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Venomx73]

Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978) Movie.

When a decaying Russian satellite crashes on the island, the Professor uses a key component for a barometer. With that device, he learns that a massive wave is going to swamp the island. In desperation, the castaways lash their huts together into one structure in order to have any chance to ride the disaster out.