Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"1941" (1979)
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine is sighted off the California coast, which causes mass panic (and major property damage) in downtown Los Angeles.
Steven Spielberg's big-budget slapstick comedy epic has mayhem to spare, but it tanked at the box office in spite of its amazing cast (incl. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Nancy Allen, Tim Matheson, Christopher Lee, Robert Stack, and more). "1941" is way too long and overstuffed with far too many characters and subplots. For every gag that hits, there are a dozen more that fall flat.  I hadn't seen this movie in dog years and as I expected it hasn't aged very well, but I still got a couple of laughs from it. Worth seeing at least once.

[indianasmith]

I remember seeing that one in the theaters when it came out! 
Amazing how much nudity those old PG movies could get away with, in retrospect.

[FatFreddysCat]

The Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977)

Believe it or not, I'd never seen this longtime drive-in favorite and late night cable staple till today!
A pre-"Animal House" John Landis and the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker writing team (later of "Airplane!" fame) teamed up for this cult sketch comedy flick that's kinda like flipping through a raunchier version of MAD magazine. The rapid fire segments include takeoffs on TV news, commercials, and parodies of  blaxploitation movies ("Cleopatra Schwartz") and kung-fu flicks ("A Fistful Of Yen"). Not every gag is a hit but there's more than enough goofball humor in "KFM" to appeal to everyone's inner 12 year old.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Superman & Batman: Apocalypse" (2010)
Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin from Krypton, arrives on Earth and understandably has some trouble fitting in at first. When the evil Darkseid decides that Kara would make a nice addition to his tribe of warrior women back on his hellish home planet Apokolips, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman team up for a rescue mission. Cue the usual animated ultra-violence.
This was a pretty "meh" entry in the DC Animated Universe series. It didn't suck but there are far better ones out there.

[lester1/2jr]

The Boy (2016) - If you like stuff like Orphan definitely check this out. If not, you'll probably hate it. It's similar in that it's a little too campy to be truly scary, but is entertaining in a way that makes you laugh and say "oh come on".

A British couple hires an American nanny to look after their kid. Nothing strange about that except the kid isn't a kid: it's a creepy ass British school boy doll named Brahms. The couple go away and leave the freaked out girl with the doll and weeeird things start happening. Is she losing her mind? or is something sinister afoot? You've probably already guessed what the story is and how it ends but its still pretty fun.

I didn't realize this had ctually been released in theatres it seemed a little on the low budget sort of Insidious ish side.

generous 4/5 not as over the top, scenery laden or alive as the above mentioned Oprhan and not hugely original but pretty good and if you don't watch a lot of horror movies you won't guess stuff as easy as those who do.

[claws]

a couple of re-watches

The Devil Inside (2012)

Young woman documents her journey to Italy where she meets her insane/possessed mother for the first time in over 20 years. While in Rome she visits exorcism class and hooks up with two young priests in order to perform an exorcism on her mother. Fun disjointed limbs action and menstrual blood squirting on the lense - the best thing about this film however is a quick shot of a super creepy old nun staring at the camera. 2/5

Texas Chainsaw (2013)

Young woman inherits property/house in Texas and travels there with three friends to collect. Corruption rules the small town fueled by a deadly feud between two families. While the young people prepare to party Leatherface emerges from the cellar and starts a bloody massacre. Pretty dumb and sloppy sequel that ignores all the other sequels. The action and gore scenes do deliver so 2.5/5 it will be.

Apollo 18 (2011)

A 1974 Moon mission failed and NASA wants to keep it a secret. Thanks to the Internet the leaked footage was exposed and we get to witness this freightfully journey in outer space. Fake found footage sci-fi that is actually kind of a slow burner. It certainly has its moments but could've been much better. 3/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Friday Foster" (1975)
A glamorous photo-journalist (Pam Grier, foxy as usual) witnesses the attempted assassination of a black millionaire, and eventually learns that it's all part of a vast conspiracy to eliminate all rich and powerful black Americans. Damn, Honky, why you always tryin' to keep the brothas and sistas down?

But seriously... "Friday Foster" (based on a long-forgotten comic strip) is technically well made but overall it's a pretty "meh" blaxploitation flick, in spite of an impressive supporting cast that includes Yaphet Kotto, Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, and even Ted "Isaac, The Love Boat Bartender" Lange. If it weren't for the occasional (and very welcome) shots of Grier's bare boobs, this could pass for a made-for-TV movie.
For obsessed Pam Grier fans only, everyone else can skip it.

[indianasmith]

This weekend's double feature:

NIGHTMARE MAN (2007 or so) -
   This was an entertaining film about a woman being stalked by an evil spirit - or is it? - manifesting itself through a frightening "fertility mask" she purchased online.  The plot had some unexpected twists and turns, lots of pretty girls, and the mask was genuinely creepy.  Nothing great or noteworthy, just a fun, watchable DTV horror flick.  4/5

TENDERNESS - I think this one was made in 2014.  It stars Russell Crowe as a bitter detective tracking the movements of a young man just released from juvenile detention after killing his parents at age 15.  Crowe is convinced the young man will kill again, and is determined to catch him.  But things are complicated when a 16 year old runaway girl takes up with the young killer, because she wants him to end her life.  A deep and thoughtful film, very well-acted but a bit draggy in parts.  Still, I kept watching until the very end.  4/5

[AoTFan]

"Final Girls" (2015)

A young woman (Max) is still mourning her actress mom three years after a car accident took her life.  She (reluctantly) attends the 20th Anniversary showing of the film Camp Bloodbath, a cheesy 80s slasher flick that seems, to her chagrin, to have been her mom's most  (in)famous acting job.  During the showing, a fire breaks out in theater causing Max and her friends to escape by cutting through the screen and everyone finds themselves inside the film. Now, they have to play the movie's rules in order to survive, while Max tries to keep Nancy (the character her mom played) alive.

So, I was really looking forward to this one.  The trailer made it look like a really good horror/comedy blend with a bit of sentimentality in the mother/daughter relationship.  As good as the premise was, though, I REALLY don't think the movie went far enough with it.  Being stuck in a cheesy eighties horror flick is a goldmine of cliches that the film just didn't take complete advantage of.  Still, it had some decent laughs, so I'd recommend giving it a watch.

[Rev. Powell]

ASTRO-ZOMBIES (1968): A mad doctor's first attempt at making robotic "zombies" is a bloody flop when he accidentally puts the brain of a psycho-killer into his prototype; a team of government agents try to stop him while spies from an unspecified country try to steal the technology for themselves. I have no idea what message Trapper John was trying to convey with this script, but with John Carradine, Tura Satana as the slinkiest spy this side of the iron curtain, a hunchback, a body-painted burlesque dancer grinding to a bongo tune, and a zombie who recharges his solar cell with a flashlight despite the fact that it's broad daylight, you could do a lot worse in a bad movie. 3.5/5, though some would call it a near-classic.

[lester1/2jr]

https://vimeo.com/122585343

Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001) - abstract and strange movie set in a dystopian sort of urban setting but you know what? I got it. I used to hang around in weird parts of Boston when I was in college and down towards Chinatown and the Industrial parts there is a weird sort of energy and this film taps into that. When they aren't literally feeding open wires into their bodies to get electro power they are soaking in the anti environment of the gross sprawl. It's not bohemian and downtown-ish,  more industrial and insane. recommended for the adventurous viewer. 60 minutes

5/5

[Rev. Powell]

https://vimeo.com/122585343

Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001) - abstract and strange movie set in a dystopian sort of urban setting but you know what? I got it. I used to hang around in weird parts of Boston when I was in college and down towards Chinatown and the Industrial parts there is a weird sort of energy and this film taps into that. When they aren't literally feeding open wires into their bodies to get electro power they are soaking in the anti environment of the gross sprawl. It's not bohemian and downtown-ish,  more industrial and insane. recommended for the adventurous viewer. 60 minutes

5/5

Wow, that actually appears to be an authorized upload of a movie I have queued to review. Bookmarking.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Cannibal Holocaust" (1980)
A team of filmmakers disappears in the South American jungle while shooting a documentary on cannibal tribes. Six months later, a follow up expedition finds the film they shot, but when they get it back to New York they're horrified by what they see...
Ruggero Deodato's still-controversial "found footage" splatter epic is seedy, grimy, and unrepentantly sleazy, though I honestly had expected a lot worse, given its rep as one of the premiere lunch-losers of the exploitation era.
PETA members will *definitely* want to skip this one due to the numerous scenes of real animal cruelty, which bothered me more than any of the so-called "cannibal" scenes. Either way, you'll feel like you need a shower when this flick is over.

[Rev. Powell]

A CURE FOR WELLNESS (2017): A young executive goes to a remote spa planning to recover his company's CEO, who appears to have gone insane and joined a "wellness" cult; circumstances lead him to become a patient as he investigates the place and learns its dark secrets. Gore Verbinksi creates very powerful imagery with nightmarish eels and a cringeworthy scene of dental torture; the obvious knock on the movie is that it can't decide if it wants to be a psychological thriller, surrealist dream-film, or straight-up horror movie, resulting in it being none of the above. 3/5.

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (1972): Six upper-class twits (and a bishop) attempt to have dinner together, but they are always interrupted before they can eat. Starts out as an on-the-sleeve satire of bourgeois manners but spirals into dreams inside of dreams; not savage surrealism, like THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, but dry and sophisticated absurdism. 4.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Sausage Party" (2016)

In Seth Rogen's definitely-not-for-kiddies cartoon, food products think that life beyond the grocery store doors will be paradise... until one brave sausage learns the horrific truth and battles to save his friends from the inevitable.
Yes, it's dumb as a box of rocks but "Sausage Party" is also funny as hell. How can you not love a movie where Salma Hayek voices a lesbian taco and the villain is (literally) a douche? Just turn your brain off for 90 minutes and have a blast.