Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"A Special Cop In Action" (1976)

The late, great Maurizio Merli -- aka The Man With The Most b***hin' 'Stache in Eurocrime -- returns for his third and final go round as two fisted Italian cop Inspector Betti. First he takes down a gang of kidnappers who've grabbed a school bus full of kids for ransom, then goes after a smuggling ring led by American actor John Saxon, slumming in yet another European B-Movie for some quick cash.
"Special Cop" is a fairly mindless slice of action packed Italian guns-n-gangsters nonsense, I may have dozed off for a few minutes in the middle of this, but when I woke up it didn't feel like I'd missed anything.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" (1985)

Lil' Tommy Jarvis - lone survivor of "The Final Chapter" and slayer of Jason Voorhees - is all grown up now and trying to get his head together at a halfway house for troubled teens. However, someone who looks an awful lot like The Big J suddenly starts carving up the housemates one by one. Is Jason back from the dead? Has Tommy gone off the rails? Or is it someone else entirely?
I hadn't seen this installment in quite a few years and it was actually better than I remembered. Nothin' fancy of course, just 90 minutes of ultra-violence, blood, boobs and sleaze.

[Rev. Powell]

THE SORCERERS (1967): An old couple use a mind control device to experience life through a young London swinger's eyes, but the experiment quickly turns into a thrill-crime spree. Even Boris Karloff and the moderate depravity of the swinging London Sixties scene can't liven the drab and predictable script. 2/5.

[dean]

Morgan:

A team of scientists have created a human AI that feels emotions, and are now getting it assessed due to an emotional outburst that resulted in a significant injury to one of the staff. A terrific ensemble cast here is squandared by loose dialogue, shoddy pacing (good character beats are skipped over too quickly for example) and bad plotting. Seriously great cast. I kept saying 'oh THEY'RE IN THIS?' each time someone new comes out. No real surprises here, and it really doesn't seem to want to make up its mind whether it is an action piece or a psychological thriller, and as such fails miserably at both. That said I still rather like the concept, unfortunately with better contermpory's like Ex Machina it becomes hard to get too invested. 2/5.

[Chainsawmidget]

Terror Tract

While it's nothing outstanding, it's a good quality anthology horror movie.  The framing sequence involves a real estate agent trying to sell a home to a young couple.  of course, he has to give them the full disclosure of what actually happened in those houses he's trying to sell.  We get stories about a cheating couple trying to cover up their murder, an evil monkey that a young girl has adopted as a pet, and a teenager who's either psychic or psychotic.  If nothing else though, the movie is worth checking out just for the ending sequence. 

There's also a small role by wrestler Buff Bagwell. 

It's fairly new, having come out in 2000. 

[Rev. Powell]

NUIT NOIRE (BLACK NIGHT): An insect specialist at the natural history museum in a land where the sun only shines for fifteen seconds a day returns to his lonely apartment one day to find a sick, nude African woman lying in his bed. Totally irrational French nightmare that feels like a lost Lynch film; it has that ERASERHEAD pallor, and a terrible aloneness. 4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

^hate it when that happens

[indianasmith]

Let's see - three movies this week:
CITY OF DEAD MEN - A young American running from his past winds up homeless in Medellin, Columbia.  There he meets up with the charismatic leader of a group of disaffected youths, the Dead Men, who live in an abandoned women's hospital where terrible things once happened.  Of course, he quickly discovers that terrible things STILL happen there - and they are happening to him.  A bit slow and predictable in places, but still creepy and entertaining.  3.5/5

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN - An alcoholic woman named Rachel rides the same train into New York every day, and watches a young woman who seems to have a perfect life, a perfect marriage, in a perfect house.  As we learn more about Rachel's past, we realize that her life and the life of this girl are deeply intertwined - and the girl has disappeared.  Did Rachel kill her? Did someone else?  An excellent psychological thriller, 4.5/5

31 - Why do I watch Rob Zombie films?  I mean, the guy is brilliant and I loved his remake of HALLOWEEN - but his hatred of all humanity comes through in every film that he makes.  I have yet to find a single sympathetic character in a Zombie film - or if they are there, he makes sure they die horribly with their hopes, dreams, and beliefs crushed before their life is cut out of them.  This movie features five carnies who are captured and turned loose in a maze to be stalked by killers.  Their sole assignment: survive for twelve hours.  It's gory, it's foul-mouthed, it's got its share of gratuitous nudity, and it ends happily for no one.  In other words, a typical Rob Zombie film!  3.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Alien 3000" (aka "Unseen Evil 2," 2004)
Treasure hunters uncover a hidden cave full of gold - and encounter the murderous extraterrestrial something or other that guards it. Hilarity does not ensue.
If you've ever wondered what a remake of "Predator" would look like if it were shot on a budget of five bucks and a Handycam, here you go. This flick makes even the worst of The Asylum's output look competent.
AVOID.

[Rev. Powell]

INDECENT DESIRES (1968): A creep controls a blonde secretary using a voodoo doll, which he caresses at inappropriate times. Typical Doris Wishman softcore silliness---in fact, maybe a little bit better made than most, as the audio was frequently in sync. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films" (2014)

The director of "Machete Maidens Unleashed" and "Not Quite Hollywood" details the rise and fall of Cannon Films, the '80s B-Movie studio run by two Israeli cousins who tried their damnedest to take Hollywood by storm - and almost made it thanks to a steady stream of movies featuring Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, breakdancers and ninjas. Loaded with classic clips from the Cannon library, this documentary is tons of fun.

[indianasmith]

MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES (2016) - Vulgar, crude, crass, and funny as all get out!  Two overly competitive, bumbling brothers have amassed such a history of ruining family events trying to impress the girls there that their Dad lays down an ironclad rule:  they CANNOT come to their sister's wedding in Hawaii unless they each bring a "nice, respectable" date.  Enter Liz and Tatiana, two wild and not very bright party girls who want to go to Hawaii.  Hilarity ensues.  This one was a fun excuse to turn off the brain cells for an hour and a half and just enjoy the silliness.  4/5

[Chainsawmidget]

31 - Why do I watch Rob Zombie films?  I mean, the guy is brilliant and I loved his remake of HALLOWEEN - but his hatred of all humanity comes through in every film that he makes.  I have yet to find a single sympathetic character in a Zombie film - or if they are there, he makes sure they die horribly with their hopes, dreams, and beliefs crushed before their life is cut out of them.  This movie features five carnies who are captured and turned loose in a maze to be stalked by killers.  Their sole assignment: survive for twelve hours.  It's gory, it's foul-mouthed, it's got its share of gratuitous nudity, and it ends happily for no one.  In other words, a typical Rob Zombie film!  3.5/5

I saw that one.  I loved the idea behind it too.  It just falls prey to the Rob Zombie faults of a bit too much sleaze.  Having fewer characters be sleazy would have made the sleazier ones look even worse and provided something that resembled normality to contrast everything with. 

Even the good guys in this movie felt greasy. 

Also, it needed to end about a minute before it did.  I don't want to spoil it, so let me just say, the very last scene has two characters meeting one last time that should not have met again or if they did, it should have cut out before we saw what happened. 

[lester1/2jr]

twitter sized review

Red Lights (2012) - Deniro / S.Weaver lend their talents to this "psychic scam...or it it?" timewaster that might have been neat in 1973 2/5

[Rev. Powell]

MY BROTHER'S WIFE (1966): A sleazeball seduces the title character. Not too much nudity, but lots of depressing melodrama and shots of houseplants and knick-knacks during conversations (Doris Wishman's trademark). 2.5/5.