Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

I know someone who works on horror movies in Chile I'll ask about Zombie Dawn

[JaseSF]

Darby O' Gill and the Little People (1959): Clever and crafty Darby O' Gill (Albert Sharpe), who some suspect of having perhaps lost his marbles slightly, matches wits the king of the leprechauns King Brian Collins (Jimmy O'Dea) in an attempt to procure three wishes but King Brian is no fool either. Darby O' Gill is caretaker of a large grounds and mansion owned by Lord Fitzpatrick (Walter Fitzgerald) who recently has decided to replace him with a younger man, young Micheal McBride (Sean Connery) of Dublin, who reluctantly agrees to move in and keep Darby's news a secret for a spell but unexpectedly falls in love with Darby's daughter Katie (Janet Munro). Darby doesn't know just how to let his daughter, the lovely Katie, learn the truth of these new circumstances (that's he's being retired) and so hopes to learn what she desires so Darby can get good ol' King Brian to deliver it for her.

This was an enjoyable Disney classic featuring great performances from the leads. Sharpe and O'Dea are particularly good in their roles and Connery and Munro manage to create some good on-screen romantic chemistry. There's fun songs and a neat, light-hearted feel to most of the proceedings until towards the end when the presence of a banshee adds some frights (at least for kids perhaps). The creepiest thing about her though is her hands and she's much scarier when she's covered up that when she's revealed.  Fun escapist folklore style tale from Disney. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Shaggy Dog (2006): After getting bitten by an ageless Tibetan sheepdog, who's been rescued from a lab where they secretly experiment on animals looking for the fountain of youth, assistant D.A. Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) is shocked and disturbed when he learns he's begun to sporadically turn into a sheepdog himself.

This remake of the Shaggy Dog, which is actually closer to the Shaggy D.A., was pretty bad. Aside from some funny scenes featuring Allen acting and thinking like a dog, this is painful at times. It drags on and on, drags out the ever predictable evil lab experimenting on animals sub-plot, and features many more dumb and unbelievable plot twists than it should [even for a Disney movie], and the whole naked thing seems widely inappropriate. Pretty much a dumbed down version of the Shaggy D.A. with unbelievable CGI critters thrown in the mix. Robert Downey Jr. plays the lead villain and gets a couple of funny scenes with Allen towards the end. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Gnome-Mobile (1967): D.J. Mulrooney (Walter Brennan) is a somewhat eccentric millionaire who's made his money in the lumbar business. In this film, he meets up with his grandchildren Rodney (Matthew Garber) and Elizabeth Winthrop (Karen Dotrice), the young actors of Mary Poppins fame, and heads into the woods for a picnic. There young Elizabeth unexpectedly encounters a lonely gnome named Jasper (Tom Lowell) who fears he and his Grandpa may be the last of the gnomes. Elizabeth believes her grandfather can help Jasper to find other gnomes and sets out to introduce the two. Reluctantly, D.J. agrees to help the gnomes and carries them to an hotel but a freak show owner named Horatio Quaxton (Sean McClory) plots to steal them away and D.J.'s talk of gnomes eventually leads others including Mulrooney employee Ralph Yarby (Richard Deacon) to believe Mulrooney has lost his marbles.

Fun, energetic classic Disney film has lots of memorable and fun moments particularly during an extended funny  and crazed car chase sequence, some nice if forgettable songs. Overall I enjoyed it even if it wasn't at quite the level of a Mary Poppins. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[claws]

Dogs (1976)

A pack of dogs go on a killing spree, and its up to a biology professor and his associate to save the day. Typical 1970s nature-runs-amok horror jumping the (back then) successful "Jaws" bandwagon. Acting is decent with one exception - David McCallum - who plays the lead rather bored, and comes off as unsympathetic and arrogant. The rest delivers. 3.5/5

The Godsend (1980)

A family of six living in the country encounter a pregnant woman who gives birth to a girl in their very home. The woman disappears the next day, leaving behind the new born baby. The family adopts the child but they are unaware that evil lies within the kid. As Bonnie grows older she starts to kill her step-siblings one by one...
The delicate subject matter of a child's death (four deaths in this case) is displayed in a rather, well, "insensitive" way, as there doesn't seem to be enough (screen) time for mourning - which is diminishing any attempt at "realism". The rest was alright. British Horror-Thriller with an "Omen" vibe including cute and innocent looking but still creepy blonde little killer girl. 3.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Apartment 143 (2011) - Crudely efficient Paranormal activity style set up the cameras for the ghost and wait horror. Certain key scenes were marked by a serious lack of imagination but it gets the job done 3.75/5

[Jack]

Zombie Night (2013) - a zombie apocalypse takes place and the movie follows two groups of people who try to survive but for the most part are just too stupid. There's all kinds of Darwin award type stuff in this - one group takes shelter in a greenhouse with plastic windows on all sides. Brilliant! There are only a handful of likable characters in this, the rest deserve their fate. It does a really good job of portraying the drama and scares of a zombie apocalypse, and it was nice to see the few likable characters progress from average folks to hardened zombie killers.  It's just too bad you don't care if the majority of the cast died. 2.5/5.

[claws]

House at the End of the Street (2012)

Divorced mom and 17 year old daughter encounter danger after moving to new town.
Old school type of ridiculous but fun plot with "shocking" twists that didn't really surprise. I did appreciate the effort though. 3.5/5

Carrie (2013)

Remake of a classic. However, the original still blows this "update" straight out of the water. Some of the updated stuff works, some not. Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie did a pretty good job however. Overall ok and is worth a rental at least. 3.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark" (2014) Third installment of The Asylum's signature series unleashes yet another massive Megalodon upon the Earth, but this time humanity is ready to battle it - with an equally huge shark shaped submarine piloted by former "Law & Order" hotty Elisabeth Rohm. Overacting and lots of hilarious CGI ensues in a monster mash that's tons of silly fun.

[Jack]

Demonic aka Forest of the Damned (2005) - a group of kids gets stranded in the woods and are attacked by naked nymphos. Er I mean wood nymphs. This wouldn't have been too bad if one kid hadn't been a terrible actor and one of the girls was a mega witch with a capital B. Still once they got killed off it was kind of cool. The main couple did a good job acting wise and it actually managed to create a good suspenseful atmosphere in the second half. 4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DON PEYOTE (2014): An unemployed pot-smoking graphic novelist takes psychedelic drugs, becomes involved with the conspiracy underground, has a psychotic breakdown and ends up in a mental hospital, and eventually becomes one of those crazy homeless guys. An aimless indie drug trip movie that somehow convinced Anne Hathaway to show up for two minutes (she's an I.R.S. agent who knows all about the Illuminati). (I watched this via an advanced screening link, it will probably show up on DVD this summer). 1.5/5.

[claws]

Demonic aka Forest of the Damned (2005) - a group of kids gets stranded in the woods and are attacked by naked nymphos. Er I mean wood nymphs. This wouldn't have been too bad if one kid hadn't been a terrible actor and one of the girls was a mega witch with a capital B. Still once they got killed off it was kind of cool. The main couple did a good job acting wise and it actually managed to create a good suspenseful atmosphere in the second half. 4/5.

God, this movie gave me physical pain when watching. I got rid off my copy in no time.

[Jack]

Demonic aka Forest of the Damned (2005) - a group of kids gets stranded in the woods and are attacked by naked nymphos. Er I mean wood nymphs. This wouldn't have been too bad if one kid hadn't been a terrible actor and one of the girls was a mega witch with a capital B. Still once they got killed off it was kind of cool. The main couple did a good job acting wise and it actually managed to create a good suspenseful atmosphere in the second half. 4/5.

God, this movie gave me physical pain when watching. I got rid off my copy in no time.

But that one girl in the green shirt was kind of hot 

[Jack]

Mutants (2008) - some company has created a sugar additive that makes it super addictive. They've been doing testing on various vagrants and drug addicts they kidnap, and despite a lot of problems with their earlier subjects turning into flesh eating killers, they think they've got things all worked out now. A security guard and his daughter try to get to the bottom of the deception etc. 

This is what the mutants look like on the DVD cover:



In the movie, they're just regular people with a bit of blood smeared on them. Rather disappointing to say the least. The characters were fair, the story was uninteresting.  2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Shaolin  (2011)- This is an interesting take on the Shaolin legend in that it isn 't a variation on "Master Killer" or any of that. There are no extended training scenes and not even that many fights. Instead, it focuses on the role of the temple during a tumultuos period in relatively recent Chinese history, when warlords fought for control leaving the country vulnerable to various invaders. The main invaders were the Mongolians, who anyone who watched old kung fu remembers as the filthy Manchus. Also though there were western interests, in this case they are maneuvering to build a railroad ( and more nefarious things)

The story posits the temple and Buddhism itself as the populist, nationalist alternative to the warlords' lust for power and greed. While the various generals and so forth are never satisfied, the monks are content to simply live, train and do what they can to ameliorate the suffering of the local townspeople. There are "lessons for today".

Jackie Chan has a cameo. Most of it is okay but I don't know if this was the place for his wacky slapstick things. He does some relatively straight acting and it's good, but it's obvious he's lending his name to the project more than anything else.

This is different and strong enough to recommend even if it doesn't have all that much kung fu and what it does have isn't super realistic ( guys with guns vs guys with wooden poles come on )

4.5 /5

[Rev. Powell]

WRONG COPS (2013): Los Angeles cops sell weed (hidden in dead rats), harass aerobics dancers, blackmail each other, and compose electronica; they are never seen fighting crime. With a  few exceptions (like a fatally wounded music aficionado who refuses to kick the bucket), this black comedy from Quentin Dupieux is missing the unique conceptual meta-humor of his first two movies, RUBBER AND WRONG, and plays more like mildly edgy sketch comedy---it's almost mainstream. 2.5/5

[Chainsawmidget]

Curse of Chucky

After a couple of very tongue in cheek slashers, the Child's Play series gets back to being pure horror again.  It actually manages to create a very gloomy atmosphere and quite a bit of suspense.  For the first half of the movie, it even feels more like a haunting than any kind of slasher, and the idea of making the main hero a girl who can't walk works incredibly well.  This may have been a straight to video, but it didn't look it.

The weakest part of the movie is the little epilogue which features characters from the previous movies and feels a bit too tongue in cheek considering the feel of the movie so far. 

It's also really nice seeing Chucky go back to his normal face instead of the stiched up version although.