Recent viewings

[Jack]

Remains (2011) - after a zombie apocalypse, some people barricade themselves in a hotel/casino in Reno.  They face the occasional zombie incursion, and then some folks show up supposedly to rescue them, but they may not be quite what they seem.  Mostly this was a character driven thing, with our two leads basically hating each other but also having sex with each other;  it made for a refreshing break from the usual cookie cutter characters you get in these sorts of movies.  There was a dark comedy aspect to it as well which I really enjoyed.  It was genuinely funny but didn't go overboard with it.  Just the occasional thing to make you chuckle.  Not a must watch by any means but for yet another movie in a very crowded genre, it was a perfectly pleasant waste of 90 minutes.  4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE RING (2002): An urban legend says that seven days after watching a mysterious videotape, you will die; a journalist investigating the phenomenon has a week to figure out the secret behind the tape. Well-made, satisfying horror-thriller about viral vengeance from beyond the grave. 4/5.

[tracy]

Alan drug this one out for me this morning...wow! What delightful schlock! Seems this way out hippie-type brings Dracula back to "life" so he can marry van Helsing's grand daughter for revenge. Christopher Neame,who played the hippie,was so over-the-top that had Jack Palance been in the film he'd have belted him just for trying to out do him!

[Jack]

House of Dark Shadows (1970) - vampire Barnabas Collins is awoken from his 200 year slumber and wreaks havoc on the residents of Collinwood.  Pretty much takes a year's worth of plot from the TV show and puts it in movie form.  Manages to do it quite well IMO, it doesn't unnecessarily linger on unimportant subplots, but it includes enough to keep it interesting while maintaining focus.  For someone who's never seen the TV show I imagine it would seem a bit disjointed, but it was made at the height of the show's popularity and assumes that people were familiar with everything.  Characters - what can I say, these are the folks I've grown to know and care about over the course of the 6 years of TV episodes.  The Blu ray is simply a thing of beauty;  the lush colors and late '60s Gothic atmosphere are brought to life with a state of the art restoration - it's breathtakingly gorgeous.  I may be just a tiny bit biased seeing as I own 880 episodes of this show on DVD, but I'll give it a 5/5.   

[lester1/2jr]

Dolly Dearest (1992) - kind of appropriate for a came a day too late Halloween horror movie. It's halfway decent if entirely predictable. Spanish Satan spirit of some kind enters a doll and it possesses a little girl. The girl is pretty good and her wiseacre brother is too. The second half is a little better with more doll horror. The ending was nondescript at least I think it was I kind of fell asleep. Worth seeing but only for people on this particular website 3.5 / 5

[Jack]

Sorry Lester I put 2 spaces in between my sentences again - I'll try to remember to go back to one next time 

[lester1/2jr]

It doesn't matter anymore ( Mayan calender)

[indianasmith]

This week I was in a Cannibal Mutant Hillbilly mode, so I watched CHERNOBYL DIARIES (those were Russian CMH's).  It was pretty entertaining overall - the jump scares worked and the end was somewhat unpredictable.  Definitely worth the rental.

Tonight I watched WRONG TURN 5: BLOODLINES.  I have enjoyed this franchise up till now, but this one was so brutal and lacking in any redeeming qualities that I found it hard to watch.  Every single remotely likable character dies horribly, and the CMH's all survived through the end.  Not to mention, HOW MANY TIMES can these guys get shot and continue torturing and killing as if they were entirely unhurt?  If you are a hardcore gorehound, you might like this, but I think I am done with the franchise.  Nothing but hillbilly torture porn.

[Jack]

The Vineyard (1989) - a winemaker is, well, doing all sorts of stuff. He's burying zombies under his vineyard which makes his wines taste better. He's sacrificing women (he's got a whole bevy of babes chained up in his cellar) to make him immortal. And he's also a movie producer who lures people to his estate under the pretense of getting a part in a film. Oh and he's also got some goddess held captive and is using her amulet for his immortality rituals...thingie. Took me a long time to figure all this stuff out - they spend 20 minutes introducing each subplot and every time I though I had it figured out they started on something new. Rather confusing. The characters were okay, and there's some high quality boobage near the beginning. Sexy babes throughout - not that that's the only thing that kept me watching. Still kind of a confusing mess overall. 3/5.

The Terror (1963) - an officer in Napoleon's army (Jack Nicholson) gets separated from his regiment and meets a mysterious girl who can appear and disappear at will. So he's trying to track her down and winds up at a spooky matte painting castle owned by Boris Karloff. Turns out there's a big mystery surrounding the girl's existence and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. I had no idea this was Jack Nicholson until I looked it up this morning lol. The character was a douchebag IMO. Using his position as an officer in Napoleon's army to give him carte blanche to boss everybody around. The story was kind of interesting, but towards the end they tossed in a twist that made absolutely no sense. Not a terribly memorable movie but it was alright. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

This week I was in a Cannibal Mutant Hillbilly mode

as opposed to every other week? 

[Rev. Powell]

ZORNS LEMMA (1970): One second shots of street signs starting with "A," "B" and so on, cycling through the alphabet, with a set of (unrelated?) images gradually replacing the individual letters. With a prologue and an epilogue, it lasts for an hour. It's hypnotic at times and not as unwatchable as it sounds, which may be why it has become semi-legendary experimental film; it's one of those films for cineastes to see once just to scratch it off the list. 3/5.

BOOKER'S PLACE: A MISSISSIPPI STORY (2012): A filmmaker investigates the background and eventual fate of a black waiter who gave an incendiary speech in his father's documentary about racism in Mississippi in the 1960s.  A moving and vivid examination of the black experience in Jim Crow's south. 3.5/5.

[fulci420]

Beyond the Law (1968) Lee Van Cleef stars as a thief who along with two partners in crime conspire to steal from a small town. Along the way Cleef meets Antonio Sabato and the two immediately take a liking too each other. Through this relationship and the friendly nature of the town Cleef who never liked violence in the first place changes his ways eventually becoming the sherrif of the town on Sabato's suggestion. As this goes on Gordon Mitchell and his gang of thieves make attempts to steal the towns silver culminating in a climatic confrontation.

My exposure to westerns are very limited but I found this to be a rather enjoyable movie. Cleef's transformation from thief to sherrif was enjoyable to watch and did not feel forced. Their seemed to be some homosexual undertones between Sabato and Cleef's relationship which I would not expect from a western of this time. It's a tad bit overlong, but the fine preformances and enjoyable visuals make the experience worth it.

I saw this through Mill Creeks "Ten Thousand Ways to Die" 12 movie collection. As a owner of several Mill Creek sets I've become used to sub par transfers, but this one was actually a pleasant surprise. We get a nice widescreen presentation, and the full unedited version.

[JaseSF]

Watched the following recently. The first three I covered in the Halloween 2012 viewings thread. Each is a true classic and almost perfect in its own way..all three I consider masterpieces of horror.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922): The title "Symphony of Horror" certainly fits as this is decidedly creepy, eerie and unsettling yet it manages to transport the viewer to a dark nightmarish world where hideous monsters stalk the night in search of victims and their blood. Nosferatu brings with him death in many forms or a promise of unending torment. Max Shreck is a show-stealer throughout this one. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

Dracula (1931): Bela Lugosi becomes Count Dracula and is so good and convincing in the role, he's still the man people first have in their mind when they hear the name Dracula. This may be similar to Nosferatu in many ways plotwise but it manages to forge a separate memorable identity all its own creating an entirely different spooky atmosphere yet one that still remains quite haunting for the viewer and Dwight Frye is certainly memorable in his own right as Renfield. Only a sense of it being at times a tad creaky and slow and dated work against it. Still I'd give it a solid **** out of ***** stars.

Halloween (1978): The sense of impending dread as horror lurks throughout this one patiently waiting and waiting for its chance to strike only to be let loose upon an unsuspecting world on Halloween night in the small town of Haddonfield. The sense of Michael Myers being that unseen, unknown killer lurking and watching, biding his time to create and recreate the perfect kill. Music adds tremendously to this movie's impact as do many small little touches here and there, many one probably won't notice until repeated viewings. ****1/2 out of ****** stars.

Also caught the following recently:

CM Punk: Best in the World (2012): the recent documentary about CM Punk and his struggle for recognition in WWE and his eventual rise to the top despite all the odds being seemingly against him in every way. Watching this, one truly learns how Punk's straight edge lifestyle and the positive philosophies that much of the positive straight edge hardcore music scene embraces (hard work, discipline, do-it-yourself, positive thinking, a clean lifestyle) have truly helped him to become the man he is. We also see how some of that may have hindered him as well as he certainly had to fight hard to prove himself worthy given he never has quite fit in with the expected body type or behaviour typically expected of most professional wrestlers (certainly not the corporate image). This documentary is actually really good and we see a lot about Punk's early development in IWA Mid-South and Ring of Honor as well as in WWE Developmental's OVW. Honestly the only thing wrong with this one is it all seems to end a bit too early which is perhaps appropriate because perhaps Punk's best chapters are still to come. And yeah, we also get glimpses as to how Punk is something of a lovable prick at times. **** out of ***** stars.

Duck Soup (1933): Marx Brothers hiliarity ensues as Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) becomes the zany appointed leader of a bankrupt country named Freedonia. Meanwhile Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) play spies sent by an ambassador of a neaby country to discredit Firefly. But Groucho is far more concerned with telling hilarious running jokes which come fast and furious here, Harpo with over the top clownish antics and Chico with the arguable bad jokes about language miscommunication which nevertheless often prove very funny too. The whole thing becomes a crazy mess but yet remains surprisingly watchable and engaging and even in some ways could be said to be something of a political commentary on occasion. Plain and simple,  comedies can't get no betta than this. ***** out of ***** stars.

[fulci420]

Decided to continue into mill creek territory.
Mad Dog aka Beast with a Gun aka The Human Beast aka Ferocious aka Wild Beasts with Machine Guns (I am not making this up this is from imdb and thats not even all of them.)

This is the movie we see the characters watching in the Tarantino classic "Jackie Brown". Helmut Berger escapes from jail and goes on a rampage of murder, rape and revenge. Incredible music elevates this nasty grindhouse film into low art. Slow motion is used along with the score in several scenes and the results are amazing. Unfortunately the version that I saw which is from the 50 Drive in Classics collection is terribly cropped. It really ruins the presentation of which is clearly a lost gem of 70's italian explotation.

I also watched The Great Adventure from the 10,000 ways to die 12 movie set. It was pretty much a dog saves the day kind of movie. Jack Palance plays the bad guy and he does it well.   Not a bad transfer either, I am impressed by the quality of this collecton.

[Rev. Powell]

BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (2011): Seven British retirees relocate to the titular Indian establishment, run by a hospitable but bumbling young entrepreneur. A great cast makes it a pleasant if predictable entry in the inspiration "cute old folks discover a reason to grind out a few more years" subgenre. 3.5/5