Recent viewings

[Jack]

Eliminators (1986) - a mad scientist takes a guy who was almost (but not quite) killed in a plane crash and turns him into a cyborg. But once cyborg guy has finished the mission he was sent on, he's outlived his usefulness and the scientist orders him killed. But he manages to escape and teams up with the woman who developed the technology used to create him (Denise Crosby aka Tasha Yar form Star Trek The Next Generation) and together with a comedy relief jungle guide they travel to the mad scientist's lair to thwart whatever his future plans may be. This was decent, not very exciting and a bit dopey in quite a few spots, but not the worst waste of a boring Tuesday evening. We get a little side-boob action from our Star Trek security chief   3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Taxi Driver" (1976)

http://youtu.be/sLpMx8_TYOo

"You talkin' to me? I SAID, you talkin' to me?"

A shell shocked 'Nam vet (Robert DeNiro) slowly descends into gun-toting madness while working the night shift as a cab driver in Martin Scorsese's gritty, scuzzy New York classic. Still packs a disturbing punch even after all these years.

[JaseSF]

Tarzan (1999): A Disney animated take on the classic Tarzan character and his origin story. Tarzan, a young man raised by gorillas must choose between the gorilla family that raised him or to return with his new found human friends after becoming smitten with a young woman named Jane.

By today's standards, Tarzan's origin story has some pretty dark, grim moments and this film surprisingly enough doesn't really shy away from that. Honestly I'm sure some parents were shocked by some of the opening scenes here with so much death and deadly peril throughout this film. As an adaptation of the story it's actually not half bad. Now there are flaws in logic especially the rescue on the ship. As an adult, I rather enjoyed its more adult moments but I'm not sure some of it is quite right for impressionable kids (although to be honest I was probably watching stuff a lot scarier than this at a young age). The songs by Phil Collins were good but not particularly memorable. Somehow Tarzan just doesn't feel right for a Disney film adaptation for some reason and this film is never quite a good fit in the usual mode of Disney film yet I think I might have enjoyed it more for that very reason. It's got some exciting suspenseful sequences but the bit of cutesy Disney stuff actually takes away from the story with this one. So a mixed bag, I'll give it ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Wild One (1953): Johnny (Marlon Brando), the leader of a motorcycle gang called the Black Rebels, arrives in a small town where he quickly finds himself taken with a young waitress named Kathie (Mary Murphy). However the Rebels are a gang used to getting their own way through intimidation and borderline unlawful actions. When the Beetles, a rival gang led by Chino (Lee Marvin) arrives on the scene, things start to descend into out of control chaos in the town especially once the Sheriff (Robert Keith) throws Chino, perhaps a bit unfairly too, into jail.

I found this film a very interesting study into how quickly chaos can envelop a town if there's not a strong police presence to maintain law and order. It also gives a great glimpse into how quickly seemingly civilized people can descend into mob violence. The best thing about this one though is Brando's performance and his great screen presence. Marvin's quite good as well in his role. Murphy is actually quite good too as a person sick of being trapped in a small town. Lots of memorable lines and scenes and although it is slightly dated in some regards, I really enjoyed this one. **** out of ***** stars.

[HappyGilmore]

Redneck Zombies. Title explains it.

[Rev. Powell]

THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (2001): A family retires to the country to run a bed and breakfast, but every guest dies. Oh, and it's a musical, with the action sequences done in claymation. This Takashi Miike experiment is better in its parts then as a whole; the musical numbers, especially the ones accompanied by corpses, are lots of fun. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Stalin's Bride (1991) -  A woman in a Hungarian village circa 1937  is the "village idiot" in non pc parlance. While some people, little children mainly, are nice to her, most of the grown ups attitudes range from barely tolerant to mean and teasing. She wears a literal potato sack and has an iq of about 50. While she occasionally smiles and has fun that only makes it more heartbreaking.

http://youtu.be/dOb9dZpy2oc

The actress is a genius. This isn't "like normal people", more like "Quest for Fire". She's like a cave person it's uncanny.

Everyone in the rough and tumble village drinks and is coarse. That's not so bad, but they're also under full communism.  Stalin can take your prize horse if he wants it. The local party leader is an ambitious true believer and anyone can be thrown under the bus for imaginary offenses. Any restraints on this sort of behavior are gone: theres no Christianity anymore, nor is there a Constitution. The oppressive atmosphere is palpable. It's sort of like "Of Mice and Men" in Hell.

The acting and writing were great. It's pretty low budget but what are you gonna do. It's relentlessly depressing and harsh but that's the point I imagine. kind of like some Hungarians got together, got their best actors and writers and composed the biggest middle finger to Russia and Communism they could muster. hard to quibble with any minor flaws. highly rec'd

5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Christine" (1983)

http://youtu.be/O08w8CegEeg

John Carpenter directs Stephen King's touching tale of a high school nerd (a perfectly creepy Keith Gordon) and his lethal love affair with a demonic 1958 Plymouth Fury. It takes a little while to get goin' but overall it's still one of the better King adaptations.

[indianasmith]

RUN ALL NIGHT (2015) 

Liam Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, an aging hitman with a serious drinking problem.  His son Michael is completely estranged from him, his wife is dead, and the only person who still cares about him is his former employer and boyhood friend, Sean McGuire (Ed Harris in a brilliant performance!).  Sean has gone legit and no longer needs Jimmy's services but continues to treat his old friend with respect.  Sean's son Danny is trying to step up and take over his Dad's business, but he still wants to walk on the wrong side of the law and tries to set up an arrangement with Albanian drug dealers, so that he and his Dad can import heroin into the country.  When his Dad vetoes the deal, Danny panics and guns down the two Albanians, who had gotten a ride to their appointment in a limo driven by Jimmy's estranged son Michael.  When Michael witnesses the murders, Danny comes gunning for him, too.  His Dad steps in to save his son's life, but kills Danny in the process.  Now Sean is gunning for Michael, determined to kill him and then kill his father.  Conflicting loyalties, epic gun battles, and dysfunctional family relationships make this a very poignant film - one of Leeson's best performances.  A tad long but still a remarkable story of a father in search of forgiveness and maybe even a bit of redemption after a lifetime of regrets.  4.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Open Grave (2013) - I really enjoyed this which is why I was surprised to see a few bad reviews. I think there are a class of film reviewers who think every horror movie should be like Hitchcock and if it's not it's like stupid. I think maybe too there are people who only watch blockbusters and can't appreciate just seeing an entertaining movie, it has to have Jlaw or something in it.

A guy wakes up in a pit full of dead bodies with no memory of how he got there or even his own name. He gets to a house and meets up with several other people in the same predicament. They attempt to piece the story together as memories slowly come back to them. There are also zombie type people who turn up in the darndest places.  No one knows who or where they are, they're surrounded by weird zombies and whoever is or was in charge seems to have flown the coup. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I found this by following the bio of Josie Ho who was in the epic gore fest "Dream Home". She has a minor role here but she does it right. There were a few areas that could have used some touching up: some of the male characters exhibited behavior that didn't really make sense and seemed foolish in the context of the whole situation. kind of like the guy in the disaster movie who pushes everyone out of the way and takes the life boat for himself and you just know he's going to get eaten by a pirahna or whatever it is. The dude with the glasses as just like agitated for some reason. It was missing something in there.

cool beans as they say
4.5/ 5

p.s. I don't watch a ton of modern, mid budget horror movies. People who do may be less impressed by this idk

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched a movie called A DEADLY GAME.  It was pretty low budget, with no one I've ever heard of in it.  A mother and her daughter go to this motivational spa resort called The Source, run by a charismatic guru.  Of course, it turns out to be one of those cult things that is impossible to get out of, and if someone tries to leave, they generally don't make it.  Overall, not bad, although it had kind of a made-for-TV vibe.  3/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"3 Days of the Condor" (1975)

http://youtu.be/PBZf7vifXmY

An old school political/spy thriller, with Robert Redford as a CIA researcher who unwittingly uncovers a secret plot within the "agency," which makes him a target for elimination.

[Jack]

Neverlake (2013) - a young girl goes to live with her father in Tuscany, but he's not around much so she befriends some kids who live in some sort of hospital / orphanage or something. There's also a lake nearby that has some supernatural...something or other. This is one of those movies where it's totally obvious that there will be a big plot reveal somewhere around the 70 minute mark, and until then you're just watching a series of unanswered questions accumulate, which I found totally uninteresting. The main girl was okay, but her personality could be fully summed up by the word "nice" and there are few things as boring as nice. 2/5.

Bloody Moon (1981) - this one came up in the "weirdest 80s slashers" thread and it certainly didn't disappoint in that regard lol. Some girls go to a school in Spain, which looks more like an apartment complex, and there's some disfigured guy lurking about; maybe he's the slasher or maybe just a red herring. The awful dubbing was easily the most entertaining thing about this, though I doubt it would be much better in its original language. Lots of low budget silliness like a discotheque that's obviously just another apartment and character actions and reactions that are just...comically ridiculous. Pretty entertaining in that so-bad-it's-good way. 3/5.

[ChaosTheory]

HER, LONE SURVIVOR, and JOHN WICK. Enjoyed them all, 7/10.

[lester1/2jr]

Miami Connection - caught on TCM. enjoyable because it was so amateurish and so 80's. I think they had a live screening of it recently would have loved to have seen that. 4/5

X-Men (2000) - Anyone ever heard of this? It's pretty cool. A bunch of people are "mutants" which means they have unusual abilities most humans don't have. hard to fathom I know but they make it work somehow. reminds me of some of the edgier French new wave efforts 5/5

[Alex]

Watching Killjoy at the moment with parts 2 and 3 to follow. So far, I'd have to say that even by Charles Bands usual standards this is low budget.