RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[M.10rda]

Tarantino's first 2 films actively drew me in, and made me feel like I was in that world. Whereas every film he's done since almost feels like I have to put myself in that 'world' first, in order to enjoy?

Seems fair. His films have generally grown more aggressively formalist after JACKIE BROWN, often to the detriment of audience engagement. I think I'd consider DJANGO and OUATIHOLLYWOOD my two favorite QT films overall but on the account that they rather buck the trend of the BILLs, DEATH PROOF, BASTERDS, and H8FUL, all of which go out of their way to alienate the viewer in one way or in several others.

[zombie no.one]

ah, not actually seen OUATIHOLLYWOOD yet... need to check it. I know it divided opinion but all his stuff tends to, so nothing new there.

I tried to buy C.H.U.D. today, but only the incredibly lousy sequel seems to be easily available in region 2... the guy at the store actually knew what C.H.U.D. stood for when I asked about it. I kind of 'whooped' out loud when he said it, and nearly went to try and hi-five him, but restrained myself.

[M.10rda]

LOL, you fly that freaky C.H.U.D. flag! 

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
Deluge (1933)
https://youtu.be/wpduvYP1QVU?si=JL6W3MV1kbar3TwZ

The end of the world, earthquakes, torrential thunderstorms, very fast paced for the first twenty minutes...
Then it's all over, & a lawyer separated from his family meets a pro swimmer... She's on the run from a brutish survivalist, while unbeknownst to both of them, the lawyers family has survived and is living in a tourist town a few miles away....
Meanwhile, the survivalist takes up with a bad gang.....

[Dr. Whom]

Star Knight/Knight of the Dragon (1985)

This is one the YT algorithm suggested to me. So I clicked, and saw Klaus Kinski, Harvey Keitel and Fernando Rey on the opening credits, and was interested enough to keep on watching.

That was a bad decision. This movie has absolutely nothing going for it. In an undetermined Medieval setting, a spaceship lands and is mistaken for a dragon. Also the alien and the daughter of the local count fall in love. The whole thing can best be described as Monty Python and the Holy Grail without the funny bits. The dubbing does it no favours either, making even Klaus Kinski sound subdued. The spaceship is pretty though.

[M.10rda]

Okay, I kind of resolved to do fewer frivolous rewatches in 2025 but then I put in an old DVD of CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS for a first-time viewing yesterday and instead Dark Skies (remember them?) treated me to a "Drive-In Experience", including opening and intermission reels (mmmm, mouth-watering jumbo red hots "done to a turn") as well as coming attractions (for FRANKENSTEIN VS THE SPACE MONSTER, HORROR AT PARTY BEACH, THE FLESH EATERS (!), and 1963's DOG EAT DOG, which I should check out one of these days). The "drive-in" offered a "double feature" and the second feature, as it turns out, was HUMANOIDS. It also had a headliner (unfortunately). What it didn't have when I first put it in was a working title menu... so all I could do was click "play" and watch all the concession counter ads and sneak previews and the entire first feature... lol... the "FF" also wasn't working on the disk. 

So, that first feature is one I've seen previously and wouldn't have chosen to watch again. I should've cleaned the house or done some other work while it was playing, but it was Saturday after a not-particularly-relaxing Christmas vacation, so I just laid inert on the couch w/ my cat Special Agent Tail Cooper on my chest.

Okay, what the menu screen and the title on the print declare that the film in question is... is WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS. It's obviously dubbed and the title on the print appears abruptly on an old blue toaster backdrop w/ white block letters, so I was suspicious. Almost immediately I knew "I've seen this" and the instinct was confirmed eventually. The credits rolled and I nodded - Ah yes, one of those Antonio Margheriti space operas w/ the cool lighting and nothing else good about them! Nevertheless, given the lack of uneventfulness about this one, I was pretty sure it was the first one - WILD WILD PLANET (1966)... especially on the account that the astronauts are traveling to an evil red planet that they keep calling uhh the "wild planet".......

So I Googled "Margheriti" and made the mistake of clicking on his Wiki. The first one listed under his credits is BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, which it says was a 1961 release about an evil red planet starring Giacomo Rossi Stuart, who is definitely the lead in this one... but then lists WILD, WILD PLANET as "1966" and none of the other films in what I thought was a four (4) film series. Whaa? Okay, Wiki, you've failed me again. I go to IMDB. Nope - BATTLE OF THE PLANETS is 1961, directed by Margheriti, and has a similar plot to what I watched, but it stars Claudie Rains (!!!) w/ no Giacomo Rossi-Stuart. Then, in 1966, we begin the GRS Space Cycle proper: 1.) WILD, WILD PLANET, which is apparently about an evil space scientist and not what I watched at all; 2.) WAR OF THE PLANETS; 3.) and then, I crap you not, WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS; and finally, 4.) THE SNOW DEVILS.

Wait, you mean to tell me there are three films by Antonio Margheriti titled BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, WAR OF THE PLANETS, and WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS, and all of them are different films?! Yep - BATTLE has Claude Rains, WAR OF THE PLANETS has Franco Nero, and ol' Giacomo is only in WAR BETWEEN....... but then what, I say, what is WAR OF THE PLANETS (1977)??? ...Which I know I've also suffered through in the past??? A totally different film by Alfredo Brescia that still looks like it was made in 1966.

Honestly I have profound suspicions that most of these reuse the same space footage and some of the same alien planet footage (which is very cool). The thing that I found depressing about WBTP this time (besides its snail's pace) is how much effort the filmmakers clearly invested in building miniatures of futuristic cities and spacecraft, designing alien planets, lighting things to look cool, and even moving the camera around in portentous ways... and even how much effort the actors were putting into looking serious about their roles... and yet the story is utter careless trash and nothing happens for an hour and the viewer is bored senseless in spite of all the technical aspirations. Wotta' waste!

2/5
In spite of this, I still foolishly want to watch SNOW DEVILS one day...

[Dr. Whom]

Much of that confusion is due to a marked lack of imagination in coming up with English titles. The Italian titles are I diafanoidi vengono da Marte, I criminali delle galassia, Il pianeta errante and La morte viena dal pianeta Aytin. The Italian wiki informs me that these were simultaneously over 12 weeks, reusing much of the sets and the cast. Apparently Margheriti wanted to produce the SF equivalent of the spaghetti Western.

[zombie no.one]

the Italian manager of a shop round the corner from where I work is a big fan of this guy, and told in Italy he is known by the nickname 'Dawson'... I told them that sounds like an english name. (I've only just seen by checking imdb now that was actually his pseudonym, didn't realise that.)


He did CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE .. love that one!

[lester1/2jr]

Creation of the Humanoids goes incredibly hard. The script must be 4,000 pages long.

[M.10rda]

I'll review CREATION OTH this week. Hard it goes indeed! 

I like some "Dawson" movies. CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE is easily the most fun Italian cannibal movie (a distinction kind of like being the tallest member of the Seven Dwarves) and according to some sources he also directed much of Paul Morrissey's ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN. (Morrissey says Margheriti was only credited for legal purposes but those films are classy and crap in equal enough measure that it's possible Margheriti was involved in the direction.)

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)
https://youtu.be/BTmCyhZxs3Y?si=bvTb1-STC7qNNjno

Researchers at the south pole discover Josef Mengele is still up to his old tricks...
Mostly torture & gore-sploitation for the first hour, then we find out they saved Hitler's brain, turned him into a transformer, & built a flying saucer...
Then the movie changes pace, & there's a shootout with lasers that make things disappear...
Pretty slow & dreadful...

[lester1/2jr]

^ I loved that one

[zombie no.one]

CHRISTINE (1983)

Thought I'd seen this before? maybe only saw the trailer.

Not a *bad* movie, but

-  I never felt like I really knew the main character (who also steadily turns into a douchebag)

- never felt like I knew why he had such a strong connection to the car

- the car itself was simply not treated like much of a sinister entity. It did not have enough of a malevolent presence in the film bearing its name.

- sllllooooowwwwww pacing.

Enjoyed the general early 80s horror ambience though, and the opening 'highschool antics' section was fairly entertaining... shame it then stalled and never got out of first gear (pun totally not intended, much)

[M.10rda]

I agree that CHRISTINE could be better (and snappier), and that it misuses its good cast and Keith Gordon as Arnie, particularly. I had a lot of sympathy (okay... empathy!) for him early on, but if he'd become a truly tragic anti-hero or even villain, that would've been fine. But Arnie sadly underdelivers... or the screenplay underdelivers on Arnie's promise.

[zombie no.one]

he seems to go from hapless geek to shady badass in no time at all...then we feel distant from him, even though he's the lead. strange

- it has 63 ten-star written reviews on imdb, out of 366 reviews total... so about 1 in every 6 reviews gave it a ten!  clearly has its devotees.