Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS (1990): Acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa (THE SEVEN SAMURAI) directs eight short films based on his own dreams, including meeting a demon in a nuclear wasteland and chasing Vincent Van Gogh through his paintings. Beautiful, fantastic and elegant---although none of the segments are particularly 'dreamlike'---this isn't Kurosawa's greatest film, but its personalness, simplicity and elegiac tone makes it the perfect capstone to a brilliant career. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre" (2015)
A group of escapees from an Arkansas women's prison work program try to elude pursuit by hiding out deep in a swamp. Unfortunately, the pistol packin' gals soon learn that the swamp waters are infested by monstrous prehistoric sharks, freed from deep underground by natural-gas "fracking." Traci Lords (who appears to be aging gracefully) is a federal marshal on their trail. You can probably write the rest yourself.
As you might expect, this all-too-obvious "Sharknado" variant from cheapo jiggle-exploitation kingpin Jim "I Never Saw Cleavage I Didn't Like" Wynorski is dumb as a box of rocks, but the eye candy is outstanding and the well-endowed cast resists the urge to camp it up. By playing it straight, they make the whole thing funnier.

[indianasmith]

You had me at "Sharkansas!"

[lester1/2jr]

between the shark and the saw I'd say those young ladies are in a tight spot, so to speak

Strange Days (1995) - If this had been a straight to video action type movie it would be the greatest one ever. For something written by James Cameron and directed by Kathrine Bigelow I expected something a bit more "watch in one sitting" -y. It was good, but I watched it in 3 sittings. Granted, it's 2+ hours long but still. it could have moved a leeeeetle better.

Ralph Fienes, who is perfectly cast, is an ex cop who sells these mini disk things that have memories on them. You put the disk in a thing and it's like you are banging a girl in a hot tub or something. This is great except what if someone kills someone and you put that disk in thats no good. All of this is happening as the millenium is approaching and everyone is going crazy. It looks more than a lot like all the protests from last summer so good call on that one. Juliette Lewis, who was big in the 90's, is the main actress along with Angela Bassett who gets the cop part right but not the love interest/ femme fatale ish part. I was kind of indifferent to her, but having a black actress play that role was important formally so whatever. Tom Sizemore as a scuzzy doorman/ best friend is good.

long story short: while it's way better than your average movie like this, it's no "They Live". It doesn't have that extra dimension that pushes it into greatness. Considering all the talent involved it's certainly worth seeing though, as I imagine many here have

4.25/ 5

[akiratubo]

Suicide Squad

Some villains are tasked with stopping, uh, something bad from happening.  A demon or witch or somebody like that was going to blow up the world, maybe.  I dunno.  I was too busy gnashing my teeth and crying to pay much attention to the plot.

This movie is f**kING AWFUL.  I take back everything I've ever said about the Nolan-Batman movies or Bat-Murderer vs Sits-on-his-ass Man.  Those are damned masterpieces compared to this.

Will Smith is in this, doing Will Smith stuff.  Margot Robbie shows off her body and talks, but I don't know anything she said because her accent was so annoying I started hitting mute every time she talked.  Really.  Some guy wearing that "lizard man" makeup Wal-Mart sells at Halloween is there.  I think he might have been intended to be Killer Croc.  The guy from the RoboCop remake is in it, too, and he looks like he's on the verge of tears most of the time.  Perhaps he realized that RemakeCop will be the pinnacle of his career.   And there are some others but I don't care.  The only other one of note is a zombie-girl-witch, or something, who I initially thought was played by a pre-teen boy in drag.  That was a weird casting choice, I thought, but turns out it actually was a grown woman.  You seriously could have fooled me.

Oh, yeah, Bat-fleck and The Flash are in it, too.  Why the heck they couldn't handle the ... demon, or whatever it was trying to blow up the world, I don't know.

I paid attention for maybe thirty minutes, then I started looking at the internet on my phone.  Every so often, I'd look up to see if anything interesting was happening.  Nope.  Back to the internet.  Argh, Harley is talking.  Mute.  Damn, this sucks.  I need to pee.  Nah, I won't pause it.  You know, it's almost time for lunch.  I think I'll make a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.  Mmm, that was a good sandwich.  Was I doing something?  Oh, yeah, the movie.  Still sucks.  I wonder if there's anything on the internet, now.  Argh, Harley is talking again.  Maybe I'll just leave it on mute, this time.

At least I didn't pay for the blu-ray; my friend Jake (who also hated it) loaned it to me.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Sharknado: Feeding Frenzy" (2015)

! No longer available

A documentary that traces the history of the "Sharknado" film series from its humble beginnings as a ridiculous script that nobody wanted to touch, to the full-blown star studded pop culture and social media phenomenon that it's become today. Fans of the series will get a kick out of all the behind the scenes scoop, but if you're not already down with the 'nado there's nothing here that will change your mind.

[SynapticBoomstick]

Currently staying at my brother's house where he introduced me to this channel called TEN TV (Total Entertainment Network) which features tons of weird old movies as well as many indie works. From this I have learned that Kentucky has quite the active film industry as a large chunk of the independent works comes from that state. Some of the samplings include:

Killdo, a short film about two guy who break into a house to steal Beanie Babies and get killed by an anthropomorphic dildo.

Bride of the Saucer Monster, a short homage to the cheap alien invasion flicks of the 50's and 60's.

Wolf Blood: Tale of the Forest, the oldest surviving werewolf movie. (This has so far been my favorite.)

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, zombies munch on the drama club.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched  2001 MANIACS: FIELD OF SCREAMS, in which a bunch of undead Confederate cannibals munch on a Yankee reality TV crew.  Tons of gore, gratuitous nudity, and camera mugging by Bill Moseley (TRUE BLOOD).  Silly and gory fun. 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

L'INHUMAINE (1924): A celebrity singer feels responsible for the suicide of a young suitor. This overlooked Art Deco melodrama with sci-fi elements features incredible set design and every camera trick in the silent film arsenal; it's held back form classic status by the horrible miscasting of matronly opera star Georgette Leblanc (who bought the lead by funding half the production) as the legendary beauty Claire. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) - I really liked Aubrey Plaza in The To Do List which was a sort of ... American Pie but more east coasty/ SNL sort of comedy thing. This has a similar vibe but is slightly more dramatic. Also, I don't know where the title comes from. Safety isn't guaranteed in ...life and love or something? Whatever, it's a good movie.

Plaza, which is an odd name that makes me think of a toll plaza, is an intern at a Buzzfeed type magazine. They get an idea to do a story on a guy who takes out a classified ad looking for a time travel partner. Her boss shows her the ropes of the journalism field which is basically do whatever and charge as much as you can to your expense account and then make a half assed effort to do the story. As this happens she takes her own route and befriends the guy and so forth. There's a geeky/ horny Indian intern who they throw in for variety and comic relief.

Overall it's intelligent and funny though elements of it feel tossed off and rush. Different things, intimacy between people, just kind of happen and the viewer is left to figure out what it means. It's definitely something different for me though. I'm not really up on what's going on in like liberal comedy movie making indy sort of circles.

4/5

edit: oh now I see where the title comes from. they didn't really mention it in the movie though

[lester1/2jr]

back again for the nine-tray. Who gave you guys the day off?

Phantom Lady (1944) - Whenever someone say "it was better than I thought it would be" it begs the question "Why did you watch it if you didn't think it was going to be that good?" I guess curiosity is greater than our fear of boredom. Anyway, this was one of those. It wasn't quite great but it was awfully close in many places.

A guy gets in a fight with his wife so he goes to a bar and meets a girl. He invites her to the show he and his wife were going to see. Nothing much happens besides of the woman being ogled by a jazz drummer but when he gets home his wife is dead. uh oh! Only his devoted secretary (played by a rather striking if not drop dead gorgeous actress named Ella Raines) can keep him from going to the chair. His weird friend played by the weird Franchot Tone stops by to help too but it's mostly the lady and a fat detective guy.

It's not perfect. The screenplay is good but there's not a lot of attention paid to detail and the budget doesn't allow for much fanfare. It's very set bound. I don't think they go outside more than twice and those are probably sets as well. Also, how did she know what the hat looked like? She wasn't on the date. I won't bother explaining it. Good movie that really shines in places. I liked especially when the secretary went to the bar and stared at the bartender for 3 days in a row to try and make him tell her something.

4.25 /5

[FatFreddysCat]

With the kids this evening:
"The Angry Birds Movie" (2016)
On an island populated by flightless, clueless, perpetually perky birds, one red misfit with a bad temper stands out from the rest...until they're invaded by a horde of egg-stealing hillbilly pigs, and Red's anger management issues suddenly make him an asset.
Based (of course) on the mega-hit game franchise, this flick is nicely animated, action packed, frequently funny and way better than I expected.

[indianasmith]

BEING THERE (1979)
   I love this movie.  It's a bit slow, but Peter Sellers is pure brilliance in this tale of a mentally challenged, illiterate gardener who suddenly becomes a political celebrity, advisor to the President, and potential candidate for the office himself - all while talking about nothing but trees, flowers, and television shows.  If you've never seen this one, it's a very subtly hilarious film that is totally worth the watch. 4.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"A Christmas Horror Story" (2015)

This nifty little anthology flick features four tales of Yuletide terror - film students investigate a Christmas eve murder, trespassers bring home something else along with their Christmas tree, a dysfunctional family meets Krampus, and a buffed out, badass Santa deals with a zombie outbreak amongst his e!ves. Added bonus: William Shatner ties it all together as a drunken radio DJ (in an ugly Christmas sweater!) who serves as host/narrator.

I thoroughly enjoyed this flick - the production values were better than I expected for a straight to DVD flick, it's got lotsa cool/spooky/wintry atmosphere and a way bigger mean streak than "Krampus." Highly recommended!

[Rev. Powell]

GIRL ASLEEP (2015): A socially awkward girl falls asleep at her disastrous 15th birthday party and enters a fantasy world. Sort of like putting NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, LABYRINTH and a random Wes Anderson movie in a blender, with Australian accents---it's fun. 4/5.