Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE: This dialogue-free Surrealist film follows six people who go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy their bizarre fetishes, including a man obsessed with enacting an elaborate chicken/voodoo scenario, a dominatrix with a stop-motion animated scarecrow slave, and a woman who snorts dough. Jan Svankmajer's essay on the erotic and ridiculous nature of creativity is funny, fascinating and, at the end, quite disturbing.  4.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

INTERSTATE 60: EPISODES OF THE ROAD (2002): Neal, a struggling young artist tempted to give up painting for law school, meets a mythic character who grants him the chance to figure out the answers on a road trip down Interstate 60, a highway where every hitchhiker comes with a metaphor. Genial fantasy with a 1980s feel, helped along by the casting of both Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in small parts. 3/5.

[dean]

Creep: Found footage film about a guy who is hired off craigslist to follow someone around for a day documenting their life. Pretty generic overall but a good performance from Mark Duplass as the guy with terminal cancer who hires a cameraman to film his last thoughts for his unborn child kind of saves it from 'stupid and slow' to 'stupid and slow and no point but at least Duplass has a strange charm to him.'

[lester1/2jr]

Maniac (2012) - This is a remake of a 1980 movie that I haven't seen. It doesn't really work as a horror movie but does kind of work as inadvertent camp, like something Quentin Tarantino might make as a joke.

I never bought Elijah Wood as a serial killer but the various actresses were pretty and often partially nude or at least sexily... posed. more in an American Apparel way than an old horror movie way but I'll take it. It's pretty dumb if you think about it. He's in New York City yet he always manages to pursue these women into places where there is no one around for miles and they don't have a phone etc. and what about DNA evidence? in 1980 the suspension of disbelief was much much different for that stuff than now though even then this was probably pretty silly. As far as failed experiments go it's pretty watchable but it doesn't have any sort of crazy slasher/ grindhouse energy like I'm sure it wanted.

2.5 /5

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched SILENT RETREAT (not the movie of the same title I watched last year).
A group of young business types go on a weekend retreat to a mountain lodge that used to be a mental hospital.
One by one they start disappearing/dying, and the ghost of this weird little kid keeps showing up, and there's some drama.
Not bad, but not great either. Girls were cute, gore minimal, plot decent.  3/5

[claws]

"The Take" (2009)

Four episode UK mini series about sociopath Freddie Jackson played rather convincingly by Tom Hardy. It is 1984, and Freddie - just released from prison - immediately gets to work on his status as a rising crime lord, after curiously examining a Culture Club album   Tagging along is Freddie's cousin Jimmy who has crime dreams of his own. Jimmy marries Maggie, the younger sister of Freddie's wife Jackie. Domestic problems ensure as Freddie always wanted a piece of Jackie's younger sister.

Well acted with a heavy dose of violence this made for an entertaining watch. Soundtrack is reflecting the era with pop songs spanning from 1984 - 1994. There is also a James Bulger murder reference some might not notice unless familiar with the case. 5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Metal Obsession: Collecting Heavy Metal Records" (2016)
http://youtu.be/OHFAOtl27vA

A cool indie documentary about heavy metal vinyl and the obsessed fans who still love it. When these metal lifers from all corners of the globe start telling stories about how they discovered metal during its formative years it'll bring back a lot of memories. 

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS: The experiment is another Bert I. Gordon mess about science making things grow big: in this case, juvenile delinquent teenagers! Back in Deep 13, Dr. Forester decides to fire TV's Frank and hire Torgo instead. Very silly, fun episode with giant breast jokes, lots of laughs, and a great song ("Let Me Be Frank About Frank)." 4/5.

[claws]

After Dusk They Come (2009)

Five young adults on vacation crash their yacht and end up stranded on a island. While waiting for help they discover creatures living in a nearby cave.
Glossy B-Monster movie with practical effects covering all B-Movie basics. There's a embarrassing we-are-having-a-good-time montage on the boat involving a blow up sex doll, and use of gangsta rap music with bad lyrics. None of the characters are very sympathetic, except maybe for the final girl. Her fiance Peter and his buddy (Kellan Lutz) are jock douche bags, and the other couple (older fat dude with spoiled hot wife) are simply there for unfunny comic relief. The no use of CGI is refreshing and the creature effects are actually well done. On a quality level this is a step above a SyFy production but still kind of, well, average. 2.5/5

Night Claws (2012)

Mutilated corpses are found near some backwoods-ish town. Local Sheriff Joe (grizzled with age: Reb Brown) is investigating with unwanted help from out of town anthropologist Sarah (still stunningly attractive: Leilani Sarelle). Meanwhile a small group of hiking city slickers (still got all his hair: Ted Prior) appear to be in mortal danger - cold blooded professional killers working for the Government turned bigfoot hunters will eliminate anyone interfering.

The script is kind of old school (when they mention "email" it seems out of place), naive and is riddled with cliches. Some effort was put into the characters as each come with a bit of background, even minor characters, who usually tend to babble longer than anticipated. Night Claws is one of director David Prior's (RIP) final movies - production values are decent on a C-Movie level, the badness is dull and the plot twists are ridiculous. The only good thing about this movie was seeing a couple of iconic B-Actors (Reb Brown, Frank Stallone, Ted Prior). The rest is forgettable. 1/5

[lester1/2jr]

Eye in the Sky (2007) - This was a very good if maybe a little too straightforward and authentic cop movie. theres no sex scenes, they don't go to any strip clubs or have any wacky scenerios. The boss tells a couple of bad jokes thats as crazy as it gets. it's not unlike what many of our jobs our like, except most of us probably don't track jewel thieves and have shoot outs. The point is if you were going to make a movie about health inspectors would you show them inspecting restaurants the whole time? don't get me wrong it's a cool movie just could have used a little pizzaz

A division of the police in Hong Kong surveill people and the new recruit is a very cute chick named something or other. The boss guy is her mentor and he shows her the ropes. The case they are working on is trying to spy on these jewel thieves to figure out who their boss is. Its kind of like The Good Shepherd they do all these techniques and stuff to stay hidden from the person and plant cameras here or there. The crooks do surveilling of their own too though and its a chess match of sorts. The major obstacle for the squad is a guy who they call "Hollow Man" who is like a super criminal, always figuring out what they are up to.

not wildly exciting, they bad guys are just jewel thieves after all, but well done and again the recruit chick is very attractive

4/5

here they are in their van they listen in on things in

[FatFreddysCat]

"Vice Academy" (1989)
http://youtu.be/lA7tsOir5Ek

No budget T&A cop comedy about inept recruits trying to earn a place in the city's Vice squad by busting illegal porno and prostitution operations. The movie is dumb as dirt but it stars a lotta purty gurls, like '80s porn goddess Ginger Lynn (in one of her periodic attempts at "straight" acting) and B-movie scream queen favorite Linnea Quigley, and they spend much of the film in various states of undress. Therefore I was entertained, because I'm shallow.
This long time late night cable fave was followed by five (!) sequels!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Everly" (2014)
http://youtu.be/E4e3t_P8MI8

A call girl (Salma Hayek) turns state's evidence on her Yakuza boyfriend, which naturally marks her for death... so she has to shoot her way out of an apartment building crawling with hired killers in order to save her little daughter.
The plot of this flick was probably written on a cocktail napkin but it's an entertaining little shoot'em up, it's kinda like a "Die Hard" variant with better cleavage. Your mileage may vary depending on how much you perv on Salma Hayek. I personally would watch a movie of her reading the phone book for two hours, so I was entertained. :D

[FatFreddysCat]

"009-1: The End of the Beginning" (2013)
http://youtu.be/f2f0eSzTwhQ
Japanese action/sci-fi flick based on a long running manga comic and anime series (with which I am unfamiliar), about a female cyborg secret agent who starts digging into her past to recover her lost memories. Mayhem follows her every step of the way until she eventually gets mixed up with a mad scientist, zombies, and a plot to destroy the world.

I'll be honest, this flick didn't make a lick of sense but it was so insanely ultra-violent and packed with female eye candy and gore that it didn't even matter, it was still a boat load of fun to watch.

[dean]

Crimson Peak: Del Toro's strange ghost and gothic love story. Pretty visuals but seems to lack a bit in terms of cohesion at times. I'm still not sold on Mia Wasikowska as an actress [she's very samey] though I tend to quite enjoy the movies she's in strangely enough.

3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Light Blast" (aka "Neon Killer," 1985)
http://youtu.be/uM2Q3IOoOOg

Enjoyably cheesy Italian action flick with a sci-fi twist. A tough San Francisco cop (Erik Estrada of "C.H.i.P.S" fame) has to track down a mad scientist who has invented a laser beam weapon that melts humans, and is threatening to destroy the city with it unless they pay him a $10 million ransom.
Aside from the hilariously gory scenes of people "melting" when the laser is used on them, this is pretty standard cop-movie stuff, with lots of car chases, gun battles and stuff blowin' up. At least "Ponch" gets to shoot his gun in this movie - I don't think he ever drew his weapon once during all his years on "C.H.i.P.S." :D