Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

^Popul Vuh soundtrack has some nice stuff.

[JaseSF]

We watched Wreck-It Ralph (2012) last night. Loved this film with its fun references to real games of the past and present. Basically an arcade video game villain named Wreck-It Ralph, whose gift is destruction, has designs on becoming a would-be hero but his plans don't always go as well as he'd like. Also a great message here about being the best "you" that one can be. Most video game fans will most likely enjoy this one even if the film does arguably spend a bit too much time in the syrupy Sugar Rush game scape. Regardless, I'd give this film ****1/2 out of ***** stars just for surprising me with how really good it actually was.

[Rev. Powell]

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (2012): A precocious but unpopular high school freshman finds friendship (and love) in a group of misfit seniors. This coming of age drama has a very John Hughes-y feel, right down to the 80s soundtrack, but with dark undercurrents; should please bright teens and nostalgic adults. 3.5/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched ARGO and LAKE PLACID 3: THE FINAL CHAPTER.
ARGO won best picture, and I can see why.  It's a great story with some amazing moments,
and just enough humor to break the tension.  Still not better than LINCOLN though.
LP3 was more of the predictable same: giant crocs versus high school swim team.  Like a SYFY
original, but with a few boobies.

[Jack]

Dragon Wasps (2012) - watched this on SyFy yesterday.  A girl's father goes missing in the jungles of Central America, so her and her best friend go looking for him and meet up with some military guys who are battling the local cocaine cartel. The military unit is commanded by Corin Nemec, who's a good guy to have around in these situations as he's previously done battle with Sand Sharks, Mansquitos and even an SS Doomtrooper in other movies. This wasn't bad at all for one of these silly low budget things. The cartel guy was suitable nasty, the girls, though they seemed like they'd be much more at home hanging out with Paris Hilton than traipsing through the jungle, looked nice in their tank tops, and the story was fun and had just enough humor in it to keep it entertaining. 3.25/5.

[ChaosTheory]

HEREAFTER (2010) - Clint Eastwood-directed tale intertwining a psychic (Matt Damon), a tsunami survivor (Cecile de France) who begins to experience visions, and a boy whose twin has died (Frankie & George McLaren).  Heartfelt but ultimately pretty cliche.  Bryce Dallas Howard, Jay Mohr, and Derek Jacobi also appear.
6/10

[claws]

Werewolf & Vampire slayer/hunter triple feature with my sister today:

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)

Full moon activity at some east European looking village: a hairy monster is killing "low lives" and a group of werewolf hunters are brought in to trap and destroy the beast.
Decent direct-to-video release from Universal with excessive gore and blood splatter. Action scenes are well shot, and production values are above average for these kind of movies. There are quite a few colorful characters but the werewolf is not. In other words, the CGI creature was neither good or bad looking. 3.5/5

Priest (2011)

After a war between vampires and humans a priest goes on a mission to find his kidnapped daughter. Apparently there are still vampires roaming about and the priest will have to face his biggest enemy soon.
Dirty post apocalyptic action set in the future. This movie certainly had its moments but could've been much better. 3.5/5

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

The future president of the united states tosses the stakes and chops bloodsuckers with an axe.
Fun revenge flick mixing basic history facts with fantasy. Kudos for playing it straight. 4/5

[lester1/2jr]

House of Traps - middling later Shaw Brothers work. The acting is good but the story isn't all that compelling and they don't do enough with the house of traps itself. Still its better than a lot of stuff out there. 3/5

The Lathe of heaven (1980) watched on youtube. second viewing. If you like classic Sci Fi you should probably see it. 5/5

[Jack]

I watched that Abominable Snowman movie again. I recorded it off SyFy and finally got around to editing the commercials out so I could watch it like a real movie. It's nothing special, a bunch of half-developed characters taking refuge in a ski lodge and being attacked by a couple of the goofiest looking CGI bigfoots imaginable. But it's a perfectly pleasant waste of 90 minutes and one of my "comfort food" movies.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched a British found footage movie called THE HOLLOW about a haunted hanging tree in the Suffolk countryside.  Had some eerie moments, but it was VERY slow and draggy . . . not worth the rental.

[tracy]

Although not a big fan of war films I do like this one. Yes,it stars John Wayne,who was a gift to movies IMO. This was made during the heighth of our involvement in Vietnam,to counter the growing anti-war movement in America. Luckily,it didn't come across as pro-war but as an example of why we were over there. They had full military cooperation for and this made for a quality movie. With a stellar cast including Jim Hutton,George Takai and David Jansen "Green Berets" is a fine film.

[Jack]

Rush Week (1991) - the first half of this plays like some lame Animal House ripoff, with the jerks at the cool frat house pulling pranks on everybody, mostly the kids at the uncool frat house. If you can last long enough to make it through that, you get a by-the-numbers slasher movie with a reporter for the school newspaper investigating a series of disappearances on campus. Of course nobody believes her - they probably just dropped out, left school and didn't tell anybody. You've got the obvious suspect, the obvious red herring, and the nearly as obvious "It's probably not going to be one of the obvious ones" twist ending. Uninteresting characters, slow pacing and way too much frat boy shenanigans; all the boobs in the world couldn't save this thing. 2.25/5.

Zombie Women of Satan (2009) - watched this again. The performers in a modern day burlesque show go to be interviewed by some guy who runs a website. Unfortunately he also runs an all-female cult and his dad has been experimenting with creating zombies. And they've had a little problem. It's a very perverted, low-brow comedy and I thought it was quite clever and enjoyable. Really fun characters and lots of topless zombie chicks. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941): Three men crash land their plane on a Caribbean island where a doctor with a German accent is secretly creating a mini-army of "sombies." As the cowardly black butler, Mantan Moreland steals the show ("zombies is dead folks what's too lazy to lay down"); his role is stereotypical minstrel show stuff, but his delivery is killer, and he's the only living thing in the otherwise brain-dead movie. 2.5/5.

[alandhopewell]

     I found this at the library in Hillsboro yesterday....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers_(film)   


I'd never seen THE SEARCHERS, although I'd heard a great deal about it over the years. I found it a very good, yet very disturbing film, with John Wayne in a role I'd never seen him play the like of before.

     Afterward, I wished I'd had the opportunity to sit down with Messrs. Wayne and Ford, to ask them about their impressions of this film, which is now on my "must own" list.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hellraiser: Hellworld" (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlW6dg-SsPM

In the seventh (or maybe it's the eighth, I've honestly lost track) installment of the seemingly endless "Hellraiser" saga, Pinhead takes to teh interwebz.  A gang of computer geeks are invited to a spooky ol' house party celebrating a Cenobite themed online game, hosted by the always-welcome Lance Henriksen. One by one, of course, horrible things begin happening to them. Have the game players unwittingly opened a portal to Hell so Pinhead can come back to Earth?

For an obviously low budget flick "Hellworld" delivers on the gore front and the gratuitous boobage, but unfortunately it suffers from a severe lack of Cenobite action. Pinhead and his pals are barely in the movie!! They pop up every once in a while, but for most part, they let Henriksen's character do most of the dirty work. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to find out that this flick originally started out as a straight up nothin' special Dead Teenager Movie that had some Pinhead scenes shoehorned into it at the last minute so it could be passed off as a "Hellraiser" flick.

Interesting side note: Henry Cavill, star of this summer's forthcoming Superman reboot "Man of Steel," plays one of the unlucky game players in this flick. If his career as Superman takes off, he may want to consider striking this one from his resume.