Recent viewings

[alandhopewell]

     PREY (ALIEN PREY) 1978

      Odd little English film, found on one of those MillCreek sets. An alien lands in the English countryside, attacks a couple making out in the woods, killing the man. The alien takes the man's appearance, and comes across a house in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by a lesbian couple. He moves in with them, and the film gets even stranger.

     Very little blood, some nudity and a sapphic sex scene, but a good, very original film; nice ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQywixTcBM4

[tracy]

One of my favorite musicals,recently purchAsed on DVD.

Adam Pontipee,a hard-working backwoodsman in the Oregon territory,decided one day to go into town and get a bride,which he does. He doesn't tell her that his 6 brothers live on the farm as well until she gets there. After she adjusts,Millie settles right in and wants the other 6 married as well. After a barn-raising the men still hanker for the young ladies they met there so Adam takes them back to kidnap them. They spend the winter snowed in and when spring arrives they all are in love. Great music and the athletic,foot-stomping choreography of Michael Kidd make this a very fun film.

[indianasmith]

     PREY (ALIEN PREY) 1978

      Odd little English film, found on one of those MillCreek sets. An alien lands in the English countryside, attacks a couple making out in the woods, killing the man. The alien takes the man's appearance, and comes across a house in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by a lesbian couple. He moves in with them, and the film gets even stranger.

     Very little blood, some nudity and a sapphic sex scene, but a good, very original film; nice ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQywixTcBM4

I watched that one many years ago while I was in the Navy.

[FatFreddysCat]

With the kids this evening...

"Monster House" (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEaT6fNGOHw

Cool, creepy (but still kid friendly) animated horror flick about three kids who discover that the creaky old house in their neighborhood is inhabited by an angry spirit. Highly original, action packed, funny as hell.

[Jack]

Snakes on a Train (2006) - a woman has a curse put on her which causes little garter snakes to come out of her mouth, and pretty much any other gross-out thing the makeup people could come up with - I've seen zombies that looked much healthier. Anyhow she's on a train and needs to get to LA so some witch doctor can take the curse off her. Meanwhile every other passenger on the train has their own cheesy subplot going on which actually keeps this pretty interesting. It doesn't take long for the little garter snakes to grow; how big will they grow? Oh, hilariously huge. This was quite a bit of fun, liked it better than Snakes on a Plane. 4/5.

[indianasmith]

I watched a new release called H.P. LOVECRAFT'S COOL AIR last night.  Put me right to sleep.  No action, very little dialog, mainly consisted of the lead actor in voiceover reading an adaptation of Lovecraft's story as the characters interacted. Avoid at all costs!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Detroit Rock City" (1999)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WluOWjUL6KQ

It's 1978 and a quartet of suburban stoners are skipping school and heading to Detroit to see KISS at Cobo Hall... naturally, they encounter a seemingly endless series of disasters along the way.

A funny as hell rock N roll road comedy that captures the late '70s period details just about perfectly, with great performances by Edward "T2" Furlong, Sam "Being Human" Huntington and B-Movie queen Lin Shaye (as a crusading anti-rock Mom from Hell).

This flick belongs on every rocker's DVD shelf right next to "This Is Spinal Tap," "Rock N Roll High School" and "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II."

[JaseSF]

Winnie the Pooh (2011): Winnie the Pooh and his fellow friends from the One-Hundred Acre Wood, namely Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and Owl, engage in a series of adventures/misadventures. First they begin a contest as they search for a replacement tail for Eeyore who seems to have misplaced his original and then later they set off in search of their missing friend Christopher Robin whom they fear kidnapped by a mysterious creature called the "Backson".

This was a total delight. Very true to the source material I remember watching in my youth, this was charming, sweet, fun and also teaches a moral lesson or two before it's all said and done. Only negative really was the bad spelling but that's long been a part of the original material. Some admittedly might find this a lit too gentle, cute and cuddly. But that seems just the right mix for this material to me. Watching this made me feel like a kid again. And stick with the end credits for this movie. There's a neat surprise at the very end. ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953):  Abbott and Costello are two bumbling American policemen, named Tubby and Slim, sent to Britain to learn the methods of the British police (more likely the Americans just wanted rid of them). After embarrassing themselves by being unable to control a riot at a women's suffrage meeting, they look to redeem themselves by finding a monster killer on the loose - the nefarious Mr. Hyde.

This was a quite enjoyable A & C monster outing. While not as good as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, it does features a fine performance from the one and only Boris Karloff in the dual role of Jekyll and Hyde. While this does drag a bit at times, especially during an arguably overlong chase sequences, there is some fun stuff here both for monster movie fans (transformations, Karloff's performance, the revelation of Jekyll's motivation for his actions, the hulking lab assistant Batley played by John Dierkes), and comedy fans (Costello's transformations especially into a mouse, Costello in the wax museum, Abbott & Costello searching for Hyde in a dressing room). Perhaps a tad bit underrated, I'm giving this **** out of ***** stars.

[ChaosTheory]

PLAYING FOR KEEPS (2013) - Something about Gerard Butler and soccer moms.  Meh/10

ANNA KARENINA (2012) - I didn't like this at all.  The director took this overstylized approach - which I can respect his trying to do something different with ground that's been covered several times but it was really really grating.  Felt like watching a half-assed Baz Lurhman movie. And I'd forgotten just how awful these characters are. I wanted to throw them all under a train (except for maybe Kitty).  Oh, and the story's set in Russia,it's one of the most definitively Russian stories of all time; so why is EVERYBODY speaking with stage-posh British accents? Blagh! 1/10

[Jack]

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - some kids go to a cabin (in the woods) and soon enough they've awakened some zombies who start chasing after them. Meanwhile some government types are manipulating events from behind the scenes. This starts out as a bit of a dark comedy and it's vaguely amusing I guess. Then it turns into a completely over-the-top special effects extravaganza with a plot that's 1,000 miles past unbelievable. The ending was just the "this doesn't work" cherry on top of the "none of this works" sundae. 2/5.

Primal Force (1999) - a small plane crashes on an uninhabited island, and Ron Perlman is put in charge of a rescue team sent out to retrieve the survivors. Too bad the island is full of semi-intelligent and completely savage baboons. This is a minor favorite of mine. Good characters, the plot is presented in an interesting manner, Perlman does a good job, and the whole thing feels a bit suspenseful. Oh it's not averse to a bit of cheesiness here and there, but it's a good time overall. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Zu Warriors from Magic Mountain (1983) - waited years for this to come to Netflix, found a serviceable version on youtube. Mankind is engulfed in endless pointless wars between groups of people in various colors, like gangs. One guy escapes and ends up being part of a wirework/ magic heavy ( in a cool new wave HK way, not a lame recent HK way) good vs evil great struggle. There's a good mix of action and comedy (I'd go for the subtitles over the dubbed though it's just better) and lots of crazy colorful stuff , funky effects and imagination. Even when there are stretches where it's rather dark and they are flying around sort of aimlessly it's still good. my kind of movie 5/5

[Jack]

Total Reality (1997) - in the distant future, all life on earth has been wiped out by a war and the remaining survivors fight each other in low-budget spaceship battles (which are actually kind of cool). A rather original idea about the war - many years earlier a guy wrote a self-help book that really caught on and people began following it like a religion, which led to the conflict. So some guys go back in time to, I dunno kill the guy or just kill each other. A few of these commandos meet up with the author's ex-wife and she helps them track him down while they simultaneously battle the other guys sent back from the future. 

Low budget junk all the way, but I really liked the cynicism behind the idea that a self-help book could form the basis for a world political movement. And they delved into how it got so popular which I found interesting and probably not too far from total reality. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE TELEPHONE BOOK (1971): An oversexed girl encounters stag film producers, perverts and lesbian seductresses as she searches Manhattan for the obscene phone caller who has stolen her heart. This is sexploitation comedy as designed by the NYC art scene (Warhol Superstar Ultra Violet shows up as the "whip woman"). It bogs down in the middle, but stay until the end for an explicit, surreal cartoon featuring a woman making love to a skyscraper and other obscene sights that have to be seen to be believed. 2.5/5.

[ChaosTheory]

KING KONG VS GODZILLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PBbK8tkTE8

So, so ridiculous 

[Jack]

Dracula's Widow (1988) - the owner of a wax museum receives a shipment of stuff from Romania - of course he gets five crates instead of the four he ordered. What's in the 5th? Could it be the wife of Dracula? This was kind of a light comedy; the comedy coming from the fact that it's got a thick layer of cheesiness over everything. Characters were okay, it was sort of amusing. Pretty average stuff but a pleasant enough waste of 90 minutes. 3/5.