Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

Yesterday I watched most of THE TWO TOWERS again.  What an all-around remarkable film - true to the novel to a remarkable degree, perfectly cast - every single actor and actress PERFECT for the role they played - and the effects and score are just beautiful!  It is hard to believe that the same man who created such a perfect adaptation of a classic trilogy could turn around and completely butcher THE HOBBIT!

[lester1/2jr]

The Substitute (2007 Danish) - mean substitute teacher wants to kill all the kids* as some sort of space experiment. similar plot as Dr Alien (1989) except its family friendly, clever tween horror not USA up all night soft nudity.
5/5

*or does she?

[FatFreddysCat]

"Piranha" (1978)
! No longer available

Genetically modified flesh-eating fish escape from a remote Army testing facility and wind up in a Texas river, which naturally turns out very badly for a group of summer campers and vacationers at a fancy resort farther downstream.
Joe Dante's tongue-in-cheek "Jaws" knock off is fast paced, gory fun.  This has been one of my favorite "B's" since I first saw it on Sunday afternoon TV when I was a kid, and it still holds up surprisingly well even after all these years.

[FatFreddysCat]

Continuing the "man eating fish" theme...

"Mega Piranha" (2010)
! No longer available

A secret agent must stop a ravenous strain of gigantic mutant piranhas before they can eat their way out of the rivers of Venezuela and reach the ocean, where they will menace the entire world.
The Asylum's "Piranha 3-D" mock-buster features their usual no-budget CGI, terrible acting, frequent lapses in logic and some absolutely brilliant stunt casting, with Barry "Greg Brady" Williams appearing as the U.S. Secretary of State and '80s pop tart Tiffany (!) as a crusading marine biologist.
This was one of the Asylum's better pre-"Sharknado" offerings... but that really isn't really saying much. :D

[FatFreddysCat]

Yet another "Piranha" movie...

"Piranha Sharks" (2017)
! No longer available

It's Christmas time in New York City and the season's hottest gift items are Piranha Sharks - genetically altered sharks that have been shrunk to the size of goldfish and sold via TV infomercials. Unfortunately some of the little suckers escape into the city's water system, and soon they're multiplying - and eating - like crazy. Can a trio of slacker pest exterminators figure out how to stop the critters before the government authorizes a nuclear strike on NYC?
This ultra-cheap, campy on purpose "Sharknado" wanna-be fails on just about every level aside from the presence of several hot girls wearing low cut tops. It makes the other two "Piranha" movies I've watched this weekend look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
AVOID.

[lester1/2jr]

Run Like Hell (1995)


Wow where to begin. That guy with the huge face is in this "movie" about thong clad women who escape from some sort of prison in the future (the future =  a desert somewhere). The women aren't all that attractive, but they are very frequently topless.



This is so bad it's no wonder it's a rareflix release. As low as late night cable standards were, I doubt this one ever made the cut. It's an absolute chore to sit through and seems like they had no real script and just filmed some stuff.

lots of chicks with guns saying "No, YOU made a mistake PAL" gun shot, guy lies down with blood on him but no wound

toward the end there is some sort of kumite with people we've never seen before.

ironic 5/5

If you liked that movie where they trained las vegas showgirls to do the mission at the castle check this out.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Runaway" (1984)
! No longer available

At the height of his "Magnum" popularity, Tom Selleck tried to cross over to movie stardom in this high-tech (by 1984 standards anyway) sci-fi/action flick from Michael "Jurassic Park" Crichton. He plays a near-future cop whose specialty is stopping rogue robots, on the trail of a maniac(Gene Simmons of KISS, making his acting debut) who's re-programming ordinary household droids to commit murder. This chintzy looking flick has decent performances by its two leads and even features a young Kirstie Alley (when she was still hot) but otherwise, this one has aged horribly. Interesting in a time capsule sort of way, but pretty much worthless beyond that.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Super B*tch," aka " Mafia Junction," aka "Blue Movie Blackmail" (1973)

The shifty Inspector Cliff, an Italian narcotics agent, wants a piece of that sweet European drug money for himself. He sets two cartels - one based out of a London escort service, the other an Italian crime family run by a little old lady called "Mamma" - against each other so he can take over their operations after they kill each other off. Dudes get shot, cars crash, bullets fly, and girls get naked. In other words, this is a pretty typical early 70s Euro-crime outing.
By the way, I have no idea why this movie is called "Super B*tch," but then none of the alternate titles make much sense, either. The literal translation of the original Italian title is "Can Anyone Be More of a Bastard Than Inspector Cliff?" which i guess would have been hard to fit on a theatre marquee.

[lester1/2jr]

3 Women (1977) - understated, slow building thing about 2 roomies and their life working at a nursing home and hanging out in an empty bar. lots of depressing characters esp Shelly Duval as the desperate, charmless lead. audiences would never sit still for this today 5/5

[indianasmith]

My wife and I watched A KNIGHT'S TALE the other night together.
What a great, funny, well-done film - as well as having some of the best recreations of medieval jousting tournaments ever filmed (although I doubt they had a 70's soundtrack playing back then!).

[FatFreddysCat]

"Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation" (2008)

B-Movie documentarian Mark Hartley of "Electric Boogaloo" fame zooms in on the Australian exploitation film scene. When Aussie censorship laws were loosened in the early 70s, local filmmakers responded with a wave of home grown raunchy sex comedies, gory horror films and ultra-violent car crashin' action flicks that packed drive-ins across Oz and became video-store staples around the world. Includes lots of clips from trashy classics like "Patrick,"  "Razorback," "Roadgames" and "Mad Max" (of course) as well as interviews with directors like Brian Trenchard-Smith and Russell Mulcahy, stars like former 007 George Lazenby, Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries and Jamie Lee Curtis, and junk-film fan boy Quentin Tarantino. Entertaining and informative stuff - I added at least a dozen movies to my "must watch" list!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Gamer" (2009)
! No longer available
It's the near future and in the next generation of online role-playing video games, nerds can control a real live mind-controlled death-row inmate across an urban battlefield from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy recliners. When one such fighter (Gerard Butler) rejects his programming and escapes from the game back into the "real" world, a whole lotta people naturally want him dead.
This flashy, ultra violent shoot'em up borrows a lot of ideas from "Death Race 2000," "Tron," and "The Running Man," because it doesn't have a brain to call its own. My 11 year old video-game addict son was entertained, but I was checking my watch by the half way point of this one.
AVOID.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Religulous" (2008)
! No longer available

Comedian/commentator and skeptic Bill Maher teams with director Larry "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Charles for this documentary about religion. Bill travels around the globe, meets believers from all the major faiths, and eventually comes to the conclusion that they're all pretty much totally insane. Your mileage may vary depending on your level of religiosity (is that a word?), but if you've ever experienced even the slightest bit of doubt about religion in general, this is funny and thought provoking stuff.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Lodgers" (2017)
In 1920s Ireland, a peculiar pair of twin siblings live alone in their family's crumbling estate, adhering to a set of strict daily "rules" in order to keep their cellar-dwelling family curse locked away. When Sister meets a handsome outsider who might be her ticket out of this life of misery, all Hell starts to break loose.

This atmospheric Gothic horror flick isn't particularly scary, but it's stylish, well acted and nice to look at. If you like period-piece spooky stuff like "The Woman In Black," "The Others" or "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," this one should be up your alley as well.

[FatFreddysCat]

"House By The Cemetery" (1981)
A paranormal researcher and his family move into a house that has been the site of numerous murders and suicides. Needless to say, it turns out badly for all of them in this low budget, extremely gory "Amityville"/"The Shining" knock off directed by Spaghetti splatter maven Lucio Fulci. This flick doesn't make a lick of sense but it's strangely entertaining anyway.