Recent viewings

[dean]

4.5/5 She is really hot

That is perhaps the most honest reason for scoring a movie so high I have seen in a while.

[Jack]

Dead Space: Aftermath (2011) - animated horror movie based on the video game franchise. Various ships have gone to an alien planet, contact with all of them has been lost, and now yet another ship is sent to investigate. They find only 4 survivors on the previous ship, and nasty government agents interrogate them to find out what happened. The story is told via flashbacks as experienced by the 4 characters. You really need to have played the video games to understand the plot as a lot of the important stuff isn't explained, and if you have played the video games then there's little reason to watch the movie as it doesn't really add anything new. What little we do find out that we didn't already know is stupid nonsense. I dunno, this thing just didn't do anything for me. 2/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Dean- It is good though. The story is just thin. She is torn between two guys, essentially. that's it.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Nightmare City" (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtMRSb8L00g

(Warning: trailer contains gore and boobies. NSFW)

Also known as "City of the Walking Dead," this Spanish/Italian co-production is quite frankly one of the most batsh*t insane movies I've ever seen.

A radioactive spill transforms city residents into murderous blood sucking zombies, and a news reporter (Hugo Stiglitz) and his wife struggle to get outta town before they're totally overrun. Yeah, that's the whole plot. These are not just any garden variety zombies, mind you - they can drive cars, fly airplanes, and use guns, knives and axes. Yoiks!!!

Action packed from the get-go, this movie is terrible but it sucks so awesomely that you can't help but love it. There's cheap zombie makeup, some semi-decent gore (incl. an eyeball gouging; I guess every Italian horror flick made in the 80s was required to have one of those), lotsa gratuitious nudity, and  plenty of atrociously-dubbed utterly "WTF" dialogue. A totally irresistible slab of ultra-cheesy, grindhouse Eurotrash.

This was my first time seeing the uncut "Nightmare City" version of this flick (I own a crap quality dollar store DVD of the US edit version, "City of the Walking Dead"), and it was nice to see the movie in a nice clean widescreen transfer. Anchor Bay and Blue Underground, as usual, give this movie more tender love and care than it probably deserves. :D

[alandhopewell]

     BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS PART 1

    Faithful rendering of the Frank Miller / Klaus Janson graphic novel . Not to everyone's taste, but BTDKR undoubtedly influenced the character in all media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0osGZGwFNkk

[FatFreddysCat]

"Ed Wood" (1994)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CawVaHxWvnA

Tim Burton's bio-pic of the legendary 50s schlock-film director stars Johnny Depp as Ed Wood, a Hollywood wanna-be with a penchant for cross-dressing who strikes up a friendship with the has-been horror star Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) and eventually manages to capture the title of Worst Director of All Time.

Filmed in glorious black & white and featuring great performances by all involved (even Depp, who I usually find irritating), this is an entertaining look at the odd life of the man behind "Glen or Glenda," "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Bride of the Monster."

[Jack]

Queen of Blood (1966) - space explorers go to Mars and find a martian woman (she's green of course) and attempt to take her back to earth. On the way they discover a small problem - she's a vampire and lives off the blood of her victims. What will our intrepid space spacefarers do? Pretty idiotic stuff if you ask me. This was kind of interesting for the first two thirds, good cheesy '60s sci-fi. I got bored with it towards the end though. Just got a little too dumb and unbelievable. 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Ghost Town" (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBQGFMWVYuY

Bland comedy with Ricky Gervais as an anti-social New York dentist who suddenly gains the ability to see and talk to ghosts after a mishap during surgery. One particularly persistent ghost (Greg Kinnear) needs Gervais' help to tie up a few loose ends with his wife (Tea Leoni) before he can "move on."

This flick started off promising but quickly fell into dull, predictable rom-com formula, with laughs few and far between. Skip it.

[major jay]

     BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS PART 1

     Faithful rendering of the Frank Miller / Klaus Janson graphic novel . Not to tveryone's taste, but BTDKR undoubtedly influenced the character in all media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0osGZGwFNkk

Here's a podcast about Frank Miller you might enjoy.
http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushipodcast/2013/01/the-wayne-gale-variety-hour-ep-7-we-need-to-have-a-talk-about-frank/

[alandhopewell]

     STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982) / STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986)

    Just purchased them together, for $10, and watched them both, with and without commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPQfwmfRq2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRjOBl8eNgg  



These are my two favorite TREK films, although I'd be hard pressed to say which was first. The only real complaint I have with either film was the casting of Bibi Besch as Dr. Carol Marcus-she seemed somewhat removed from everything.

    These two films gave us back STAR TREK, the people, the pathos, the humor, all the things that made the entire franchise special. STTMP was a very good film, but it really wasn't STAR TREK, IMHO.

[alandhopewell]

     DIRTY HARRY (1971)
For $5, a steal- the film, a documentary on Harry and action films, AND one on Eastwood's career, up to UNFORGIVEN (which I also purchased). Commentary by Seigel.

    ROCK AND ROLL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Cv_8bhwQU

[retrorussell]

DEATH NOTE.  Neat idea for an anime, where a student finds a notebook in which he can write the names of people he wants to die, and they will.  A demon comes to claim the book, and begins following the kid around everywhere.  Since only the kid can see and hear him it's funny to see it floating around in his classroom, through parks in broad daylight, in his house, etc.

[Jack]

The Car (1977) - a demonic car is terrorizing the residents of a small town, and it's up to the sheriff and his surprisingly large number of deputies to put a stop to it. Decent '70s "horror" melodrama, if you're in the mood for it. Slow moving, a couple of major WTF? moments, kind of a cool ending. Which took a bit too long to finally arrive. Absolutely no explanation for the origins or intentions of the car, but it's all just very mysterious you know. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE TIN DRUM (1979): A little German boy decides to stop growing up at 3 and a half years old, then watches as Hitler rises to power. A classic comic nightmare about "little people's" acquiescence to Nazism. 5/5.

[fulci420]

In the last two days I watched two giallo's from the Blood Red Nights collection.

The Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)-This early effort from Argento is the one he considers his worst. After watching it I am confused has Argento not seen his version of Phantom of the Opera?... In this movie a reporter and a blind man (what is it with Italian horror movies and blind guys?) team up to solve a series of murders that may be connected to a top secret research project. Right off the bat we get some great POV handheld camera work and lots of cuts to closes up of eyes. Throughout each of the stalking/murder scenes there is a great sense of tension aided by Ennio Morricone's often dissonant score. This has your typically ludicrous plot with twists to spare, but the highlights would have to be the two set major set pieces, one in a train station and the other being the finale of the film. This is not quite up to the level of soon to come horror classics like Deep Red and Suspira, but it is still a very good suspense film in its own right.

Seven Blood Stained Orchids-(1972)-Coming at us from Umberto Lenzi is this stylish thriller that concerns a women and her husband attempting to identify a killer after she is attacked by him. Turns out this guy is leaving half moon's at his murder sites and has his eyes on seven women. Lenzi loves his zoom lenses in this film and there is nice camerawork throughout. Keeping it tight at 90 minutes I was never bored and this one actually had a half decent story. Highlight is the awesome Riz Ortolani score that reappears throughout the film. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-2LKUeQ1E