Recent viewings

[Psycho Circus]

Dr. Alien! (1989)

Bikini babe Judy Landers stars as a substitute biology teacher with a big secret....she's a big blue headed alien! As Ms Xenobia, she seduces student Billy Jacoby into an extra terrestrial experiment that significantly improves his sex life and confidence as a result. This film is filled to the brim with boobs and cheesy acting. It gets better as it goes on and is very enjoyable. Plus, it contains two of the greatest made for movie songs I have ever heard in my entire life, "Killer Machine" and "Midnight Belles" and a small part for B-movie queen Linnea Quigley.

4/5

[3mnkids]

The Mist~ Im not sure why I watched this again.    I love to hate the crazy religious woman and Andre Braugher is really good in his all too short role but the ending.. damn. I think this one is going in a box so im not tempted to watch it again.

Wall-E~ I just cant get enough of this movie, it's so cute.

Gamer~ ugh, what a stupid movie.

[SPazzo]

I just saw My Sisters Keeper.  Pretty good, I was the only guy in the theater  .

Also just watched Walker.  I loved it.

[Doggett]

SUPERMAN RETURNS  *** out of ****.  I still think that the script is all over the place at times, but I caught this on TV last night and didn't dislike it like I once did. Casting was great as was most of the effects work. But after the extremely solid 1st half the film starts to sputter and almost doesn't recover. Enjoyable if you can get past its flaws.

The only things I don't like about this film are the kid and Kate Bosworth. Other than that, I think it's great !

[JaseSF]

Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling is the full title of this 2006 documentary directed by newcomer filmmaker/childhood World Class fan Brian Harrison. This documentary focuses on the changes that helped Fritz Von Erich's territory move from drab to something millions tuned in to watch week after week. Innovative television using new camera angles, more behind the scenes skits, better sound and production values along with bright young wrestling stars who seemed larger than life helped tremendously too. Fritz's biggest star power proved to be his very own sons David, Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, charismatic young men who seemed to be down to earth good christian American boys, young men who seemed like superheroes, like nothing could touch or hurt them. Comic book style heroes perfectly designed to vanquish baddies like General Skandor Akbar's army Devastation Inc. or the Fabulous Freebirds, themselves cool enough to transcend the traditional bad guy role often getting cheered as well unless wrestling the Von Erichs of course. Sadly this would prove to be a terrible untruth as the Von Erichs in reality were very human, very flawed people even if daddy Fritz used his connections to cover up their misdeeds.

First David was found dead in Japan, then Gino Hernandez, one of World Class's brightest young villains was found dead in his hotel room the result of a massive cocaine overdose. Later still Mike Von Erich, who it was hoped might be able to replace his lost brother David could never live up to those expectations eventually committed suicide. Eventually younger brother Chris would follow suit and years later tragically enough so would Kerry. All were plagued with drug problems. Only Kevin Von Erich is still alive to tell the tale and he features prominently in this documentary.

Where this succeeds is in coveying the good. It gets across just how good World Class really was during its heights of success and really it was terrific, engrossing wrestling during its prime era. They were very successful for quite a while as the illusion of the Von Erich heroes working to vanquish villainous threat after threat keep fans glued to their seats as did their quest to win the NWA World Title from Ric Flair and Harley Race before him. Even second tier stars like Chris Adams and Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and valets like Sunshine and Precious kept things interesting to boot. It does address the bad too but it always feels like punches are held back more than a little in this regard. The full impact of drugs isn't fully addressed. It does get mentioned but mostlly in passing reference and rarely addressed is the full extent of the Von Erichs abuse of these drugs and their other real human weaknesses. Also Fritz's exploitation of his sons is only skirted over, even going so far as to exploit the tragic deaths of his children to put on big shows and faking a heart attack to try and renew interest when ratings began to fall. Sadly the illusion though was shattered as Von Erich after Von Erich proved to be no superhero after all, just real flawed human beings, hardworking wrestlers to be sure but hardly the Christian do no wrongs they were presented to the public as being.

In some ways, I`m glad they didn`t go all ugly in this documentary and treated the Von Erichs with a certain level of deserving respect but at the same time, some of these issues still prominentally exist in wrestling and skirting over these issues and trying to sweep it under a rug doesn`t change the fact that far too many young men, numerous wrestlers who were stars in World Class in particular, have died far too young.

Make no mistake, this documentary is good and very engrossing viewing but always keep in mind the people interviewed here grew up in the era of kayfabe and some still seem firmly entrenched in that thinking. Overall I`d give this one three and half stars (or should that be bodyslams) out of a possible five.

The extras prove a bit disappointing though as there`s no World Class wrestling footage to be found outside of the documentary itself. The extras include an interview with Jim Cornette (who actually perhaps sums up here better than anyone why World Class died), radio interviews with Bill Mercer and Brian Harrison and a PWTorch audio commentary about the documentary that delves more into the true darker realities of World Class than did Harrison`s documentary.

[SkullBat308]

Friday the 13th: Part 3
Haunted World of El Superbeasto

[lester1/2jr]

Jasesf-  that sounds awesome. I was a big von erich fan as a kid and was perplexed when they started dying as it seemed really incongruous with their hero image.  always wanted to know the story behind all that stuff.


Heroes for sale (1933)-  pre code movies hae really aged well in some regards.  what was shocking at the time makes them more realistic or at least recognizble to viewerts now.  I enjoyed this sort of man with the golden arm meets atlas shrugged meets grapes of wrath story.  it moves well, has likeable characters and colorful , moemorable touches like the "red" downstairs and the broken coward guy who gets all the credit for the stars heroism.  IN an effort to tell alot of different stories there are some serious plot holes but it's probably more valuable as an educational piece anyway so don't worry about it.  4/5

[JaseSF]

Lester, HEROES OF WORLD CLASS is quite well done but doesn't fully explore the darker issues like one might hope....believe it or not, the McMahonland version entitled The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling IMO does a better job of fully covering all the bases although Heroes has things unique to it too with better coverage of the impact of Bruiser Brody's death in particular. Honestly I'd recommend both for old-time World Class fans but be prepared for a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride. Both can be quite, quite sad at times.

[Jim H]

Bad Day At Black Rock - Been meaning to see this for ages.  It was pretty good.  Not totally sure what I was expecting, but the biggest surprise is how Tracey really isn't that self-reliant in the film. 

Favorite part of the film was Tracey beating up Ernest Borgnine.  Never thought I'd see Tracey deliver a judo chop, but there it was, right in the neck!   

Good acting, too.  The premise of the movie is so simple and so little happens though, it felt like it could have been compressed down to about 45 minutes without much issue.  I think that's the films biggest weakness.

Overall, a 7/10.

[lester1/2jr]

Jasesf- I've been watching AWA wrestling on ESPN classic.  I used to go to wrestling with my Dad here in Boston at the garden as a kid.  It had a craziness to it that I think is long gone.


The boys on the road- this is on the same disk as "heroes for sale".  it is similarly very educational about the depression and what life was like for the thousands of teenagers who left home to ride the rails in search of work.  it's essentially a pg 13 movie, but for 1933 that was probably more than alot of people culd handle.  teenagers necking in the back seat of a car,  fighting , riots, a rape, kids goihng hungry and panhandling far from home.  between this and "heroes for sale"  I really learned alot and they were very good if not great movies.  be good for classrooms.

[Doggett]

Superman IV
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/supermaniv/

3/5

I liked it. Yes ! The effects are rubbish, but it tries and you have to give it credit. Really, it's not half as bad as I thought it was going to be.

[3mnkids]

The cottage~ I know a lot of people dont like this movie but I think its hysterical. I have watched it so much I can recite it verbatim.

LS&2SB~ Another one I can recite verbatim. I never get tired of watching it.

War~ LS&2SB put me in a statham mood..    The movie isnt that great but Its worth a watch on a cloudy sunday.

[InformationGeek]

I sat down the other day and rewatch 3 of my favorite Disney movies.

Hercules: I know, it isn't close the source material, but it is still entertaining and fun to watch.  Hades was a great villian.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire: I haven't seen the movie in a couple of years, so seeing it again was great.  The animation and atmopshere was great.

The Emperor's New Groove: The jokes and humor still are appealing after so many years.  The voice acting was also great and really helped make the movie even better.

All three movies are underrated as Disney flicks.  Oh sure, they aren't as great as the other or are different, but they are still good films.

[NowhereMan]

Let The Right One In....not bad.
Original Funny Games---awesome. Haven't seen the 'remake' yet or whatever you call it.

[Pilgermann]

I WAS in the middle of watching THE WICKER MAN, (the original) on demand but the signal got all effed up and I only had like 20 minutes left.  CRAP CRAP CRAP i'm going to try getting it to play in a moment.  Up untiul this point it was decent, kind of frustrating what with the crazy a-hole islanders.  The police officer should;ve been armed so he could just start blowing the crazies brains out or something.

The previous bit was typed while I was slightly inebriated, so here's the conclusion:

I was able to finish watching The Wicker Man last night, and I wasn't amazed by it or anything but I thought it was pretty interesting.  It has a very strange atmosphere which I liked but overall I didn't feel that it amounted to much.  I didn't see the longer cut so maybe that hurt it a bit.