Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA (1976): A young boy growing up in a seaside English town with his widowed mother is involved in a cultlike group of juvenile delinquents, but idolizes a passing sailor who woos his mom... for a while. Lewis John Carlino captures hints of the philosophy and psychology of Yukio Mishima's novel, but the translation to screen is fairly flat, with decent but unexciting performances and pacing. 3/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" (2018)
It's Halloween and the evil dummy "Slappy" is back for another round of family-friendly spooky stuff, bringing lots of his monstrous friends with him. Faster paced and more entertaining than the first "Goosebumps" flick, this is silly fun for kids and relatively painless for their parents.

[Trevor]

"The Predator" (2018)
An Army sniper, a lady scientist, and a crew of misfits get caught in the middle of a battle between two new Predators, as well as some shady U.S. government types who only care about getting their hands on the aliens' technology.
This latest addition to the Predator saga starts off well enough but eventually it falls apart under too many sub plots and moving parts. It was better than the last reboot attempt (2010's "Predators," with Adrien Brody) but that's not saying much. A resounding "MEH."

I have one creed I live by: Shane Black on credits, Trevor no see movie. 

Reason? He wrote the anti-SA POS Lethal Weapon 2.

[Rev. Powell]

DECASIA (2002): Scored to a disturbing minimalist composition, a parade of early 20th century images on partially decayed or damaged film stock march across the screen, forming hypnotic abstract landscapes. A cross between KOYAANISQATSI and LYRICAL NITRATE, the images are unquestionably fascinating; Michael Gordon's confrontational soundtrack may be the biggest obstacle for many. I'm a fan. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

lyrical nitrate was crazy. would be something to see that on the big screen

[Alex]

The Chipmunks. An animated version from the 80's rather than the computer generated monstrosities of more recent years.

[claws]

Trick or Treat (1986)

Outcast "Ragman", a bullied teen metal head, is devastated after hearing of the death of his favorite singer, Rockstar Sammi Curry. When Ragman obtains the original master  copy of Curry's final and still unreleased album, the teen receives vinyl backward messages from Curry himself. Soon enough Ragman goes on a roaring rampage of revenge against those who did him wrong, with a little help of undead Curry who has become a deadly annoyance in need of elimination.

Solid B-Movie with one of the lamest endings in horrorfilm history. Apparently the production ran out of money, and they couldn't film a proper ending. Still, for what its worth: 3/5 (Good).

[Rev. Powell]

HIGH LIFE (2018): Death row convicts volunteer to be put on a spaceship and shot towards a black hole to gather data that may eventually help humanity. A long, slow hard sci-fi trip to the ultimate nowhere, enlivened by the secondary plot involving Juliette Binoche as the mad doctor who runs icky reproductive experiments on the prisoners to try to conceive a baby in space. Lots of bodily fluids. I liked the final credits song, which captures the movie's sparse and spacey tone. 3/5.

http://youtu.be/GQhJ-q83bfE

[Rev. Powell]

TOP KNOT DETECTIVE (2017): Mockumentary describing a fake Japanese cult TV show about a ronin detective who fights samurai and giant robots and eventually travels through time, and the mystery behind its sudden cancellation. Leans a little too much on Western culture's wow-Japanese-TV-is-weird stereotypes, but it's enthusiastic and campy, provides a reasonable number of chuckles, and is relatively sweet for a movie with so many gory decapitations and facial implosions. On Amazon Prime. I think people here will like it more than the general public, so I'm bumping it up a star. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"A Dog's Purpose" (2016)
With a sequel now out on DVD, my son wanted to re-visit this warm-n-fuzzy tear jerker about a rambunctious pup who lives numerous "lives" over the decades till he's finally reunited with the now-grown boy who was his best friend. If certain scenes in this family flick don't make you tear up, you are a heartless shell of a human. Two paws up (again).

[Trevor]

I watched The Jungle Book (the half CGI half human version) and The Wolverine yesterday: both not bad.

[Gabriel Knight]

THE BEST OFFER (2013)

A lonely art expert working for a mysterious and reclusive heiress finds not only her art worth examining.

While the performance of Geoffrey Rush is amazing as usual, the rest of the cast just falls flat. The "twist ending" can be seen from a mile away, and it's simply way too removed from common sense to actually surprise you. Is it a romance movie? Crime, mistery? Who knows! Just put it in every genre and fool the viewer.
Aesthetically the movie looks gorgeous, as it should be since it's a movie that revolves around art, but the characters are impossible to believe. From instantly cured agoraphobic chicks to Mary Sue english engineers, nobody is remotely believable. The main character, as I said, is played flawlessly, but the script is just all over the place - I mean, he's supposed to be extremely observant, yet he can't figure out what's going on. Not to mention, the automaton plot is completely unnecesary: you can pretty much remove it and it won't change the movie at all. Red herring at its best.

You will end up with more questions than answers. Watch it if you like paintings. 2/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"A Dog's Purpose" (2016)
With a sequel now out on DVD, my son wanted to re-visit this warm-n-fuzzy tear jerker about a rambunctious pup who lives numerous "lives" over the decades till he's finally reunited with the now-grown boy who was his best friend. If certain scenes in this family flick don't make you tear up, you are a heartless shell of a human. Two paws up (again).

Clarification: the sequel to "Dog's Purpose" ("A Dog's Journey") is not out on DVD, it's coming to theaters.

My confusion stemmed from a DVD my son asked me to reserve for him from the library called "A Dog's Way Home," which is apparently based on a novel by the same author as "Dog's Purpose," but is NOT a sequel to that book/film. Whatever. I'm sure we'll enjoy that one too.

[Rev. Powell]

HARD TICKET TO HAWAII (1987): Two Playboy Playmates turned actresses play Hawaiian intelligence agents fighting diamond smugglers as a cancer-infected snake crawls around loose on set. Andy Sidaris films have a formula---exotic locations, ridiculously intricate plots, nonsensical explosions, centerfolds and Mr. Universe types cast as CIA agents who spend a lot of time in the jacuzzi. This is the "best" of his movies; if you like this one, you'll like the rest. 2.5 on a normal scale, 4.5 on a bad movie scale.

[FatFreddysCat]

HARD TICKET TO HAWAII (1987): Two Playboy Playmates turned actresses play Hawaiian intelligence agents fighting diamond smugglers as a cancer-infected snake crawls around loose on set. Andy Sidaris films have a formula---exotic locations, ridiculously intricate plots, nonsensical explosions, centerfolds and Mr. Universe types cast as CIA agents who spend a lot of time in the jacuzzi. This is the "best" of his movies; if you like this one, you'll like the rest. 2.5 on a normal scale, 4.5 on a bad movie scale.

The "cancer infected snake" is the best actor in the entire movie. :D