Recent viewings

[claws]

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

Surviving brother of a fatal car crash is taken care off by the Mayor of a small town in Australia. He soon finds out that townsfolk arrange car accidents so they can salvage their victims. However, a dispute between the younger generation of the town and the oldsters erupts into bloody violence. 
Cult film from Peter Weir that looks horribly dated. Lots of off beat dark humor and crazy car designs. 3.5/5

Westworld (1973)

Two friends spend their vacation ($1000 per day) in Westworld - a high tech resort inhabited by robots that look like humans (and animals). A glitch in the system causes the robots to run amok.
Classic Sci-Fi with a creepy Yul Brynner as a robot on a killing spree. James Cameron certainly borrowed a few ideas for The Terminator. 5/5

More American Graffiti (1979)

This unwanted sequel takes a look at most of the characters (minus Richard Dreyfuss) years after the first American Graffiti took place. It's the groovy mid-to-late sixties and four different stories are told, each one year apart. More American Graffiti is lacking charm and cult appeal, feels overlong and dull at times. Interesting new characters are added and the soundtrack (The Doors) is quite good. Other than that, a bit above average. 3/5

[Rev. Powell]

Warm Bodies (2013) - I know what you're all thinking. I thought it, too: the idea sounds like Twilight with zombies. All across the internet that was all I heard and the only still you ever got was of an Edwardy zombie. Well prepare to have your bubbles napalmed.

First, a lot of movies might go for the "Edward" look with their young lead actors but Mr. Zombie Protagonist is certainly no Eddie. He's clumsy, slack-jawed, and not at all thrilled by the Un-life.

Now that that's out of the way I can cover a little of what you can expect from this movie. Yes, it is a love story about a zombie who falls in love with a human and gradually regains bits of humanity but what made it actually enjoyable is that those involved with the film knew how ridiculous a senario that was and portray it as such. Scenes don't drip with emo tones and there's no, "Oh, you could kill me at any second but I LOVE YOU." Girl knows he's a zombie and girl's all like, "Oh, HELL no!" I was very happy that this movie went out of its way to point out, "You see that senario over there? Isn't that f******* stupid? How can they be serious about that senario?" The result is a comical farce on the supernatural love story that fits into multiple genres without being any of them.

And yes, there are also more evil zombies in the film that just want to eat your livers. You've got your recently zombified folks and you've got "Bonies", and bonies are bad business. I thought they were cool as hell.

Warm Bodies: a better concept than I first thought and a good lesson on why you shouldn't judge a film by its poster.

4/5 - I have seen far better and far gorier zombie flicks but I havn't seen one this original.

I saw this yesterday. You know, the TWILIGHT connection never occurred to me until after I read this; I was thinking it was going to be like ZOMBIELAND with romance. I liked it but not as much as you; I'd give it 3/5. As they laid out the premise in the airport, with R doing his internal monologue explaining what it's like to be a zombie, I thought it was going to be great. But the longer it went on and the more human he became, the less I liked the movie. It should have hit the comedy a lot harder, in my opinion. Still, it'sworth a look on DVD or as a great compromise if your date wants to go to a chick flick.

[lester1/2jr]

Rising Son: The legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi (2006) - Tony Hawk and Powell- Peralta were the big names that came out of the 80's skateboard scene, but Christian Hosoi was neck and neck with Hawk in vert comps for much of the time. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to maintain his legacy because he got involved in crystal meth and his skateboarding and life suffered just as stuff like X Games was taking off. In fact, he missed the first X games because he was busy getting high.

He eventually came out of it, but he is no longer neck and neck with Tony Hawk in any respect other than the historical one. Was very refreshing to see something not about the Bones Brigade! 5/5

[tracy]

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

[alandhopewell]

The Dunwich Horror (1970) - a rather dumb girl with no personality is taken in by a creepy guy. She gives him a ride home to his house in Dunwich, and he drugs her to make her sleep. Could have just had her watch this movie. Anyhow, he wants to sacrifice her to make "the old ones" come back. Meanwhile her college professor is investigating the history of Dunwich and trying to save her. This was a total snooze fest. I liked the theme music they played over the opening credits, but had no idea I'd be listening to it over and over throughout the entire movie. The bad guy was sedate and although he pulled off "creepy guy" pretty well, it was all too predictable. There was some good photography here and there and a hint of atmosphere, but the director threw in tons of scenes rendered in bright red, yellow, blue etc. Don't even know why, but besides being tiresome it just serves to date this thing now. 2/5.

     At the time, Ameican- International Pictures was trying desperately hard to be "hip", with rather strange results; AIP films of the late 60's/early 70's are a whole trip in themselves.

[Jack]

Ameican- International Pictures was trying desperately hard to be "hip", with rather strange results

That's a perfect description 

Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005) - some college kids come across a barrel of Trioxyin and take it to a chemistry major to figure out what it is. He's an idiot and misses the whole "it turns people into zombies" thing; he thinks it's some drug and of course starts selling it all over campus. Things come to a head at the big Halloween rave when everybody turns into the undead. This is sort of a minor favorite of mine, it's got fun characters and it entertainingly stupid. Jenny Mollen looks pretty fantastic as the female lead and there are also a couple of Interpol agents who provide comedy relief that's actually funny. 3.5/5.

[indianasmith]

I actually liked that one - especially the little cameo by Tarman at the end!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hollywoodland" (2006)

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

Engrossing based-on-a-true-story mystery set in late '50s Hollywood stars Adrien Brody as a down-on-his-luck private eye investigating the death of actor George Reeves - who was best known for playing "Superman" on TV. Reeves' death was officially declared a suicide but as Brody digs deeper into the mystery (and Reeves' career is played out for the audience in an effective series of increasingly-tragic flashbacks) he learns that there may have been much more going on behind the scenes.

Great performances all around, especially by Brody, Diane Lane (hot!) as Reeves' cougar-iffic girlfriend, Bob Hoskins as a scuzzy movie-studio head, and by Ben Affleck (yes, really) as the troubled George Reeves.

[fulci420]

I have hollywoodland on dvd I think it's a fine film. Definitely overlooked and I see it as somewhat of a turnaround for Affleck after the string of bad films he was in at that point.

Recently I watched

Jagged Edge (1985)-While I was never really that bored I must say that this film has not aged well at all! Firstly what stuck out to me that this is one of the most ineptly shot Hollywood films I have ever seen. There is not a single well framed shot in this film and the whole thing looks like a tv movie despite having a 15 million dollar budget. Secondly in terms of twisty courtroom thrillers this has been done much better in times since, in fact Glenn Close (who plays the lawyer here) was in a far better one "Reversal of Fortune" just a couple years later. Thoroughly predictable and with a ton of plot holes you might as well save yourself the time and watch "Primal Fear" instead. Performance wise this is fine but when this was over I felt like a got hit in the head with a brick of stupidity. I have read screenwriter Joe Esterhaz's book and he sure is proud of writing this nonsense.

Rushmore (1998)-After being impressed by Moonrise Kingdom I decided to check out this earlier Wes Anderson film. This movie just clicked for me, funny, fantastic performances and direction. Jason Schartzman impresses in his first role at 15 and Bill Murray is fantastic. Loved it will check out "The Royal Tenenbaums" next which I remember hating when I watched it about 10 or so years ago for some reason or another.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Superman III" (1983)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9fVrQxkfcY

The third Superman flick is an odd mix of flashy superheroics and misplaced slapstick comedy. A computer genius (played by an utterly miscast Richard Pryor) and a crazed multi-millionaire (Robert Vaughn) team up to build a super computer that can control the weather, take over the world's oil supply, and oh yeah - figure out a way to kill Superman. Their synthetic Kryptonite doesn't quite do the job (but it does bring out Superman's evil side, transforming him into Super-Dick for a while) and eventually sets up a final show down in the Grand Canyon between Superman and Super-Machine.

Overly busy and stuffed with out-of-place comedic bits, "Superman III" still manages to be entertaining in spite of its flaws, but it obviously pales in comparison to the first two films in this series. However, it's still not the worst Superman flick, because "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace" exists.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Enemy Gold" (1993)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgG359We9wM

This is the second film I've watched from my new "Girls, Guns & G-Strings: The Andy Sidaris Collection" box set and I wasn't disappointed. Once again we have a paper-thin plot - three federal agents  (two dudes and a hot girl) go hunting for some Civil War buried treasure and end up battling with a drug lord and his goons. As usual, the lame plot is propped up by some gorgeous gals, plenty of gratuitous hootage, and the occasional running gun battle and/or explosion. Turn your brain off for 90 minutes and enjoy some mindless fun.

Best line:
Male agent (describing a crossbow) "This arrow detonates three seconds after penetration."

Female agent: "Reminds me of an old boyfriend."

[claws]

The Last Circus (2010)

Madrid, Spain 1973: Javier is the new guy at a circus hired as the "sad clown". He falls in love with beautiful trapeze artist Natalia but she already belongs to Sergio - a "happy clown" and main attraction of the circus. Sergio also happens to have a violent temper. Things escalate when Javier and Natalie are caught on a date resulting in more bloody violence, obsession and madness.
Dark humor comedy that isn't shy with the sex and violence. It's beautifully shot and quite dramatic when it needs to be. I was impressed. 5/5

Room in Rome (2010)

A young beautiful lesbian woman from Spain meets a young beautiful straight woman from Russia in a bar in Rome. They feel attracted to each other and spend the night in a hotel room. What follows is lots of sex, nudity, tears, compassion, passion, understanding, little white lies, misunderstandings and yeah, sex. Low-key euro-drama with thick accents. The two women are mostly nude but do an ok job in the acting department. The sex is never really explicit but can get saucy at times. The movie feels semi-exploitative but there's a not-so-corny message combined with a few genuine sad moments. 4/5

[Trevor]

I watched The Gate 11 this morning: I'm glad I had to shut it off so that I could go catch my bus to work. 

[dean]

Lockout (2013)

This "based on an original idea by Luc Besson" is basically Escape from New York in space.  Not a horrible film but suffers from some by-the-numbers plot points, almost to the point that it seems like they wrote the script so much on autopilot they deliver the jokes kind of half assed, knowing that everyone knows the punchline anyway so why bother filming it all.

Effects were so-so in parts but not really that frustrating.  It just seemed like things moved way too quickly and the pacing was way off.  That being said, I still really like Guy Pearce [I quite enjoyed the interrogation scene at the start] and this is despite them not using his character to its full potential.  Maggie Grace is easy on the eyes which doesn't hurt and she actually acts the hell out of her part, most of the time, which certainly helped.

Overall it was an enjoyable 2.75 out of 5 [I rate it lower because of some underdeveloped plot points and rather brief and random action set pieces.]

[indianasmith]

My wife and I finally watched LIFE OF PI this week.  It was . . . OK.  Visually beautiful and a moderately enjoyable story, but "Best Picture"?  Really?

I also finished watching all the episodes of SPARTACUS: VENGEANCE.  This is a blood-soaked, boob-filled continuation of the STARZ series.  Historical inaccuracies galore, but very entertaining if you are not easily offended.  The last season is currently airing.