Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

I watched SANTA'S SLAY tonight.  How had I never seen this movie?  Great campy fun, awesome puns,
and a genuinely scary villain who really IS Santa Claus!  Plus seeing Fran Drescher getting torched in the
opening scene made the whole thing worth it!  This movie is AWESOME!

[Rev. Powell]

FANTASTIC PLANET (1973): In the distant future, humanity has been captured by a race of giant blue aliens with mystical powers and removed to a planet where they are kept as pets; one man raised in captivity escapes to join the "wild Oms" and devises a plan for humanity to escape. The Salvador-Dali-meets-Terry-Gilliam animation and psychedelic soundtrack invite altered viewing, but this is more than just a trip; there's a strong sci-fi story here set in a beautifully realized alternate realty. 4.5/5.

[JaseSF]

Black Cobra 2 (1990): Tired of his unorthodox methods, the local Chicago police force sends Lt. Robert Malone (Fred Williamson) to the Phillipines supposedly to learn the techniques of Interpol. While there, Malone is pickpocketed by a local small time crook and investigating further Malone finds there's far more at stake with regards to something the crook stole recently leading to international intrigue and murder, kidnapping and possibly worse. Along the way Malone butts heads with the more straight and narrow Lt. Kevin McCall (Nicholas Hammond) of Interpol.

This was pretty bad rip-off of "Miami Vice" really but it does have some entertainment value what with it starring Fred Williamson and Nicholas Hammond, perhaps best known in these parts as the 1970s "Spider-Man", as police action heroes. Williamson does get to kick a bit of butt too. Sadly though the plot is pretty dismal and when the action slows, this film drags along at a most boring pace. The ending with a school being held hostage too felt sort of tacked on and feels somewhat anticlimactic after the previous showdown with a gang of villains which also had a somewhat disappointing conclusion. A bad action movie no doubt but not without some interest for bad movie fans and non-demanding 80s action fans. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1962): Against her will, a scientist searches for a body for his decapitated fiancee. Deranged b-movie full of sleaze, mutants, cheap gore, purple prose, and general insanity. An old favorite. 4.5/5 on a bad-movie scale.

[lester1/2jr]

rev- My Mom saw that in the 60's pr 70's and still recalled when the guy was walking up the embankment with the head post car crash.

Dunn and Vito's Rock tour (recent) - the late Ryan Dunn and Bam margara's uncle Don Vito go around mostly the south drinking alot and doing their show for fans. The show seems pretty much them drinking and playing drinking games with the audience. What's amazing is Vito getting girls. They drink constantly. if you are a fan of Jackass / Viva La Bam you should surely see this. 4/5

Underworld (1927) - overrated silent film that is most noteable as an early gangster film. It's directed by von Sternberg. the first hour is dodgy. it doesn't really have the magic of some of the great silents. The story is of a likeable gangster guy who helps people but it is also a gangster.  The storytelling is sloppy. The last half hour is pretty good, it has a good standoff with the cops and finally a bit of real drama. not really impressed. low budget 3/5  

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Fantastic Four" (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcpmM-eTESI

Roger Corman's ultra-cheap film version of the Marvel Comics series follows Reed, Johnny, Ben and Sue as they gain their super powers during a failed space mission, then battle the evil Doctor Doom and a subterranean supervillain called "The Jeweler."

This flick was made on a shoestring budget and was then permanently shelved, merely so that the producers could maintain their film rights to the FF property. It's never been officially released and I've been wanting to see it for years, but never had the chance till some lovely person uploaded the whole movie to YouTube. (God, I love the Internet...!) It's pretty awful, but loads of fun in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way. The Thing looks like a gorilla with a bad skin condition!!

Still worth a look as long as you think of it as an elaborate "fan film" and don't even try to compare it to the two big-budget FF flicks that came out in the '00s.

[fulci420]

Spartan-Written and directed by David Mamet this film brings Mamet distinct dialogue into a tense political thriller. Val Kilmer does a terrific job playing a secret service officer who is part of an investigation trying to find a high ranking officials daughter who may have been kidnapped. Going from calm calculation to explosive violence the seriousness and quality of his performance was startling and it is a shame much of his career is lackluster. I've been on a bit of a Mamet kick recently and found this to be one of the best examples of his excellent dialogue and ability to get unique performances out of his actors. The twists are constant and the plot moves along quickly and tensely throughout its 2 hour running time. Highly Recommended.

Interestingly on the commentary by Val Kilmer, we see him go in between trashing and praising Mamet, sometimes in the same sentence! On the negative side he claims Mamet hates actors because he was a failed actor himself. Kilmer also says everyone on the set hated Mamet and that he mad many actors cry. He even insults Mamet's glasses and hair! This is unlike any commentary I've ever heard in my life. One of the most shocking accusations was that Mamet's daughter comes up with most of Mamet's material and that when she is not around Mamet must simply make up lies in order to hide "the fact that he is a fraud".

[JaseSF]

The Arrival (1996): A radio astronomer named Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen) stumbles across evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and suddenly finds his life turned upside down as he suddenly finds himself the target of mysterious enemies who don't want the truth to come out.

This is a damn good little sci-fi thriller in the style of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and They Live (yet it's very much its own animal too) delving further and further into paranoia and not knowing who is or isn't an alien and who is or isn't possibly in league with them. Lindsay Crouse plays Ilana Green, a climatologist Zaminsky meets in his search for mysterious radio signals in Mexico, who's investigating herself given an unexpected spike in worldwide global warming. Teri Polo plays Zaminsky's girlfriend Char whom Zane isn't quite sure about with regards to her loyalty. Ron Silver is also good as Zane' villainous boss Phil Gordian. There's a great sense of suspense and a gradual build to a final showdown in which the odds seem greatly against our everyman hero Zane. There's also a certain surreal-ness to some of the scenes, especially the stuff in Mexico. The aliens sadly prove a little bit more problematic and aren't always convincing in alien form and Sheen is well Sheen in some scenes. Also some might find this one a tad preachy but as an exercise in paranoia, it's pretty fine. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Fulci - wow!

[Pilgermann]

Spartan-Written and directed by David Mamet...

Interestingly on the commentary by Val Kilmer, we see him go in between trashing and praising Mamet, sometimes in the same sentence! On the negative side he claims Mamet hates actors because he was a failed actor himself. Kilmer also says everyone on the set hated Mamet and that he mad many actors cry. He even insults Mamet's glasses and hair! This is unlike any commentary I've ever heard in my life. One of the most shocking accusations was that Mamet's daughter comes up with most of Mamet's material and that when she is not around Mamet must simply make up lies in order to hide "the fact that he is a fraud".

Sounds worth it for the commentary!

F For Fake (1973) - Awesome "documentary" by Orson Welles about fakery.  Focuses on a famous art forger Elmyr de Hory and a man who wrote Elmyr's biography (as well as writing the fake biography of Howard Hughes).  It's really interesting and incredibly entertaining, with odd little tangents and some really slick and rapid editing.  Welles proclaims himself a charlatan in the film and uses the medium as another example of playing tricks on people.  I don't think it's easy to describe, just one of those films you have to see to really get.  10/10

[Rev. Powell]

PUTNEY SWOPE (1969): When the chairman of an ad agency dies, the board all secretly vote Putney Swope, the token black executive, as the company's new leader, assuming that no one else would vote for him. He immediately fires the cracker staff, hires brothers and changes the company name to "Truth and Soul Advertising." Wicked, politically incorrect and completely absurdist satire packed with nonsense and wordplay; the president is a pot-smoking dwarf and director Robert Downey Sr. dubbed all Putney's lines, so the black hero sounds like a Brooklyn Jew. 4/5. (P.S. You might know Downey Sr. from GREASERS' PALACE).

[Jack]

Sector 7 (2011) - Korean horror about the crew of an offshore oil rig. They're not having any luck finding oil, but they do find some cute little fish. They're only cute when they're little though - one of them grows up into a large icky monster that chases everybody around the oil rig for the remainder of the movie. I enjoyed this quite a bit - characters were well developed and likable, the plot actually had several neat twists to it, and although it got off to a slow start, once the action got going it didn't let up. It had a comedy relief character, but he wasn't too annoying. And there were some scenes of our characters racing motorcycles around the oil rig that really violated my suspension of disbelief. Other than that though, really good film. They obviously put an adequate amount of money into the CGI, and it looked pretty good. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

TOW TONS OF TURQUOISE TO TAOS TONIGHT (1975): A series of nonsense sketches, including home movie footage, edited together at random. There are occasional interesting ideas (people playing a game of baseball on horseback) but mostly this is just Robert Downey Sr. jumping off the cliff of self-indulgence, without his usual parachute of comedy. 1/5.

[fulci420]

Grabbed some 5$ blu ray's the other day and have been making my way through them.
A Perfect Getaway-Wow this was a bunch of nonsense! Before my complaints begin I must say that visually this blu ray was fantastic. Set in Hawaii (but actually largely shot in Puerto Rico) we get to see some spectacular wide shots of nature at its finest. In fact this stands out among the finest looking of my blu ray collection.
Unfortunately this beautiful scenery is littered with an extremely annoying Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich. Now I think Zahn is good in films generally as is the gorgeous Milla but in this film their character are truly annoying and every person they encounter in their Hawaii honeymoon is even more annoying than them! This is what sinks this film, complete lack of likeable characters. We hear about murderers killing couples on the island and are given a couple of suspects but I could care less. There's a big twist in this one that might have worked in a better written film but here it falls flat due to my total disinterest in the characters lives. Also any twist that needs a 10 plus minute flashback to explain itself is not that clever in the first place...

Winters Bone-On a brighter note we have this 2010 title that I had heard some good reviews of. Jennifer Lawrence (of the hunger games which I haven't seen) delivers a strong confident performance as a young girl given immense responsibilities. With no parental help (father is absent and has put up her trailer and land up for his bail) and a mentally absent mother, Jennifer's character has to find her father while taking care of two young children.

This was a pretty great film made more impressive by what was not included rather than what was. We don't get a romantic subplot. We don't get Jennifer Lawrence dolled up in makeup. We don't even really get any action. Instead we get a serious, depressing look into a different way of live. In the Ozark's we see meth abuse, run down trailers and largely unlikeable people. Many of the people are not professional actor's and this helps to immerse the viewer in this world Lawrence has to go through. The Academy nominations were deserved and unless this is a fluke (I've yet to see her in other films) I see many more nominations and win's coming for Lawrence in the future.

[indianasmith]

WINTER'S BONE was an incredibly well done film, but it was so bleak and depressing that I found myself wishing I had not watched it!