Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

WICKED CITY (1992): Members of a secret government agency in Hong Kong charged with killing shapeshifting "monsters" investigate a new killer drug called "Happiness" which is part of a plot to destroy all humans. There is some admirable craziness here---such as a scene where a man has sex with a pinball machine (!)---but the combination of needlessly arty Dutch angles, poor pacing, and uneven special effects doom CITY's B-movie cult aspirations. 3/5.

I didn't know they did a live action remake? And by Tsui Hark no less... If you haven't seen it, the Anime is a classic, if only due to the fact that there is plenty of sex and gore and a vagina dentata.

Yeah, I have heard from people who saw both that the anime is better.

[Trevor]

The flick is visually impressive, with amazing stunt work but the story is strangely un-involving. It's a decent one-time watch but not something I'll ever revisit.

I think this was probably one of those movies that needs a big screen to get the full impact.

And a South African won an Oscar for her work in this - Margaret Sixel, George Miller's wife. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE ICE PIRATES (1984): In a galaxy far far away where water is in short supply, band of pirates team up with a princess to investigate her father's disappearance. This goofy movie (it has alien parasites called "space herpes" and the head of Bruce Vilanch) seems like it came from a script that was intended as a serious adventure, but was half-heartedly retooled at the last minute as a space spoof---an unsexy BARBARELLA. Watchable. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Deathgasm" (2015)

http://youtu.be/Cg-c7UpJZLQ

"Black Roses" meets "Evil Dead 2" in this entertainingly sick 'n' silly heavy metal horror/splatter comedy from New Zealand (of all places). When a couple of suburban metal dorks form a garage band, they attempt to play an ancient piece of "evil" music ...which (naturally) re-awakens a demonic force that turns everyone in town into bloodthirsty monsters and threatens the entire world. Yep, I hate when that happens.
Don't get me wrong, this flick is dumb as a box of rocks but it's a fun watch, riddled with in jokes for the headbanger crowd and featuring a thrashin' soundtrack featuring Elm Street, Skull Fist, BulletBelt and many more.

[indianasmith]

I've almost rented that one two or three times.  Now that summer is here I'll probably watch it.

[lester1/2jr]

Bliss (aka Mutluluk) 2007 Turkish movie - It's not going to blow anyones mind, but hard to dislike this movie about a rural teenage girl who, after being expelled from her village for the "crime" of being raped, goes to Istanbul. Her male guardian guy she travels with has seen a bit of the world in the military but they are both super naive and, in the great Islamic tradition, pretty backward in terms of men and womens roles and so forth I mean sorry.

Besides international indy cinema I'd say Bollywood and it's very safe, saccharine sort of stories are somewhat of an influence here. Theres no singing but its clearly geared to an audience that is comfortable with at most pg 13 rated films and isn't super sophisticated. It's not dumb per say, but it's not like some great literature either, the story.

A good way to describe it would probably be "nice" though it does have occasional dark moments

4/5

[indianasmith]

PAINKILLERS (2015) is an interesting thriller about a squad of Marines - or are they? - who are recovered from a failed op in Afghanistan with their memories wiped clean.  What was their mission?  Why did it fail?  Where - and what - is the "package" they were sent to retrieve?  As their memories return, the story heats up.

This one was better than I thought it would be - not great, but worth the rental for sure.  Decent performances all around, rather tired "corporate America is the villain" Hollywood plot.  4/5

[indianasmith]

This was a pretty busy weekend overall.  First I watched REGRESSION (2015).

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter films) stars as a young woman who accuses her father of molestation.  Hypnotic regression therapy recovers horrible memories of ritual Satanic abuse involving several other people, including her grandmother and a local police officer.  Eventually the investigating detective, played by Ethan Hawke, realizes that the hypnotic regression theory is creating these memories of abuse, not recalling them, even as the whole town descends into panic.  Based on real life events, this film captures a rare moment of hysteria that wasn't that long ago, when the whole country was gripped in fear of Satanic cults that never existed doing horrible things that never happened. 4/5

Last night I watched a pretty forgettable film called THE CONDUIT.  A young man, mourning the failure of his first marriage, meets a pretty young drug addict and rescues her from the streets, inviting her to live with him.  However, he quickly discovers there is more to her than meets the eye, when their intimacy triggers her possession by malign spirits.  So-so, not bad but not that great, either.  3/5

Then there was ALL THE WAY on HBO last night . . . but that one gets its own post!

[lester1/2jr]

Let the Right one In - it's essentially a pro vampire movie. Out of I think Sweden it made me think of black metal music, in particular it's "Satan as anti authority figure that helps weirdos" vibe.  A outsider ish little boy meets a vampire girl and their relationship is the focus of the movie. There's a bit of suspension of disbelief as to why and how a damn vampire could go around vampiring people and not be detected but in general it's pretty suspenseful, well written, and good.


4/5

[claws]

Cop Car (2015)

Two young boys who ran away from their homes discover a seemingly abandoned cop car left in secluded farm area. They go on a joy ride, putting the owner - a corrupt small town coke sniffing cop (Kevin Bacon) - in a rather stressful and not always successful tour-de-force.

Those in need of a quick Bacon fix will find plenty to enjoy in this dark and twisted crime thriller. 4/5

Chappie (2015)

RoboCops are doing a much appreciated job in cleaning Johannesburg from crime and filth. However, shady happenings among authorities lead to the invention of an intelligent robot who falls into the hands of criminals. They name him "Chappie" and want to program him to commit crimes but Chappie has a difficult time adapting.

This is basically District 9 retold. Instead of aliens its robots. I quite enjoyed this, a movie with a few challenges (the director wants the audience to feel sympathy for deliberately unsympathetic characters). 4.5/5

[BoyScoutKevin]

The Shadow of the Tower (1972)

Episode III
Schooling of Apes
48:37

09. Patience

10. Diplomacy

11. Henry VIII could have learned a couple of things from his father Henry VII, and he'd have a lot fewer problems, but . . .?! They both believed they were called by God to rule.

12. Historical unrealism is not always the filmmakers fault. Apparently, in "Wolf Hall," there was a historical character who favored pink silks. Yet the filmmakers dressed him in dark worsteds, and I can see why. There is a character here who dresses in pink silks, and you can't take him seriously. Of course, he is also depicted as being not the sharpest tool in the shed.

13. Normally, the more actors I recognize the better I like a film, but . . .?! here I think it works in reverse, as I recognize so few of the actors, I'm thinking of the historical characters and not the actors. There is one actor I recognize. Geoffrey Palmer, who I recognized from seeing him on British TV.

14. The fear is worst than the fact. The fear of the Tower of London, which we'll get to later, was actually worst than the factual Tower of London.

Episode IV
Crowning the Apes
50:03

15. Where did they get that guy with the Irish brogue? Could it be anymore comedic?

16. Uneasy the head that wears the crown. One can feel a certain amount of sympathy for Henry VII, who probably during his entire reign, there was not a moment that he did not only fear losing his crown, but . . .?! also his head.

17. But . . .?! the ones you really feel for, are the children who are depicted so far, and one wonders how historical this is, because this is not the 1st time I've seen them depicted this way.
a. No more sense than what God gives a rock.
b. No understanding that their actions have consequences not only for themselves, but . . .?! for others.
c. Used and exploited by every adult.

18. Except by Henry VII, who is more merciful to the children who fall under his power than his . . .
a. Daughter and the way she treated her teenage cousin and the cousin's teenage husband.
b. And Richard III, and the way he treated his 2 young nephews, for whatever happened to the boys, their disappearance from sight began under their uncle Richard.

19. One of the things which seemingly helped Henry VII survived was his sense of humor, which comes out in this series.

20. The series does do a good job (IMHO) of getting at the feel of the time, even if . . .

21. While a TV miniseries, it is staged like a play on stage.

22. Which means, the weakness of the series is the action scenes, which look staged.

Next time: episodes V and VI.

[JaseSF]

Lymelife (2008): Set in the late 1970s, this is a coming of age story about young Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) who deals not only with the challenges of growing up while your family is falling apart as his parents (Alec Baldwin and Jill Hennessey) are headed for divorce, his brother is shipping out to the army, and the girl next door Adrianna (Emma Roberts) he's crushing on seems more interested in older guys. Meanwhile Adrianna's family is beginning to fall apart too as her father (Timothy Hutton) battles Lyme disease.

The performances in this film were actually pretty good and solid, better than I expected, but yet this film never truly proves as funny as it's advertised. It does have some moments of dark humor and moments that ring true to life. The ending even though I could see it coming a mile away nevertheless disappoints as it conflicts sharply in a lot of ways with the tone of the coming of age story. There`s also a lack of character development with some key characters. There`s also better movies out there with similar tones. A movie that is competently done, surprisingly well acted considering the cast, yet is also the type of movie one probably won't want to revisit. *** out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

L'IL QUINQUIN (2014): A big city detective with facial tic disorder comes to a remote French beach village to investigate a bizarre double murder---parts of the victims were found inside the bodies of cows---in this Bruno Dumont 4-part miniseries released as a 200 minute movie. Because of its quirky dark humor and strange-outsider-in-a-strange-town mystery plot, it's almost always dubbed "the French 'Twin Peaks,'" and it has many of that series strengths and weaknesses. It features fantastic acting and brilliant individual scenes, but the frustrating, enigmatic non-ending leaves things on a sour note. 3.5/5.

[indianasmith]

NIGHT OF THE PUMPKIN - A bunch of naked girls get killed by a guy in a ridiculously bad pumpkin costume.  In between killings, they argue about atheism vs. faith and whether pumpkin dude is a demon or not.  Really, really bad . . . but somehow enjoyable, too.
3/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Fantastic Four" (2015)
http://youtu.be/POBI7OhGB18

This expensive turkey attempted to reboot the Marvel Comics heroes as a quartet of teenage geniuses, hired to work on a government-sanctioned experiment with inter-dimensional travel. Naturally things go wrong, endowing each of them with cool super-powers - and giving birth to a super-villain who wants to destroy our world.
I was honestly expecting much worse from this flick after all the bad word-of-mouth it got, but in the end I can understand why it received so much fanboy hatred. This is a "Fantastic Four" movie in name only, as it bears almost no resemblance to the comic books aside from the characters'  names and their powers. Skip it, unless you absolutely have to see every Marvel Comics related movie in existence.