Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

Old Dogs (2009): Two old friends (John Travolta and Robin Williams) find their bachelor lives turned upside down when one of the two (Williams) discovers he in fact is the father of twin 7 year olds. Through a series of circumstances, the two pals wind up being forced to look after the kids.

Despite a few sweet moments here and there and a scattered funny line or two, this relies too much on standard dumb, offensive, mindless style comedy. Honestly I expected better of this cast which included John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston and Seth Green. I found the jokes about facial paralysis particularly tasteless given I've had Bell's Palsy in the past. Everything plays out in completely predictable fashion. May please fans of dumb humor but me, I'd take Look Who's Talking and Mrs. Doubtfire over this anyday....kinda disappointing honestly. ** out of ***** stars.

Gamera the Monster (1965): A giant turtle monster named Gamera is awakened from his frozen Arctic slumber when a foreign plane carrying a-bombs is shot down. The monster sets off on a path of destruction across the Earth eventually settling on attacking Japan numerous times to find desired sources of energy it needs to consume.

This was the original Japanese version of the film that introduced us to Gamera! It flows a whole lot better than the Americanized version which adds totally unnecessary and often boring footage featuring Brian Donlevy behind a desk. In the original version, the action moves along at a much better pace although the film does still have a few slow moments here and there. One does wonder why the monster decides to spend so much time in Japan and why the little boy takes to defending Gamera despite it clearly attacking and killing many who get in its way here. Still this is a classic monster mash featuring a classic big monster and is good fun overall with an ending that definitely surprised me on initial viewing. I definitely like this version better than the Americanized Gammera the Invincible which feels too overlong with the action often interrupted by dull inserted scenes. *** out of ***** stars

Thriller: "The Twisted Image" (1960): A successful businessman named Alan Patterson (Leslie Neilsen) finds himself unexpectedly the focus of two mentally disturbed people's fixations - one a girl named Lily Hanson (Natalie Trundy) who envisions herself as his wife despite him already having a family and the other -  a man named Merle Jenkins (George Grizzard) who wants to become him.

This episode is interesting and suspenseful, kind of a noirish thriller that keeps you guessing and wondering what twist and turn will happen next. George Grizzard provides the episode's best and most disturbing psychological performance. Neilsen and Trundy do well in their roles too. This was the first episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller series and in some ways it's a little disappointing when compared to some of the series later more macabre episodes. Still it seems like in the early days, they weren't quite sure what direction they were going with the series and the earliest episodes prove much more reminscent of crime and psychological dramas of which "The Twisted Image" is one of the finer examples. Still it's really nothing that's absolute must see although I did enjoy Grizzard's performances and the neat style of cinematography used in the episode. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Flick James]

I watched Couples Retreat this weekend, mostly because it was on cable and I was flipping through channels. Wow, what a mediocre comedy. Swingers was the only great thing Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn have done together. However, Made was pretty decent. I chuckled that the director was Peter Billingsley, the actor who portrayed Ralphie in A Christmas Story. I looked it up and apparently he and Vince Vaughn have been close friends for years. Anyway, it looks like Ralphie has moved into directing mediocre comedies. There were a few mildly amusing gags, the funniest being when Vince Vaughn's character answered the call from the security company when his home alarm went off at the beginning of the film and tried to explain why his security word was "Ass-tastic." Overall, though, only a few chuckles here and there but not once did it make me really laugh. I'm really getting tired of Vince Vaughn just being Vince Vaughn. He does the same bit every movie, and it's always just him being himself. There was a time when he actually tried to act and turn in performances, now he just phones in his usual Vince being Vince. I wonder how long he's going to be able to keep that up before he has to make a serious career overhaul.

2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Matrubhoomi (2003)- I was pretty impressed with the directors fortitude in taking on this subkect. Women in India as you may know are aborted / abandoned at much higher rates than men due to something invovling the dowry of the family. If this persists its obvious that tings could get pretty unbalanced. Matrubhoomi is a reductio ad absurdium however you spell about what would happen if it got really really bad, like virtually no girls anywhere. Unlike most Indians movies it's not song and dance and is normal running time.

The first 30 minutes are really compelling and right away you get what the director is doing: shoving the ugliness of the phenemoneon in your face.  India deserves that. This movie has become notorious for its grossness but it works. Men would do this stuff  (this stuff: drinking urine, bestiality, weird s**t). Aborting fetuses because they are women distorts the society.

Unfortunately, while the first half is rightous funny and shocking after that it becomes merely grueling as the one woman is violated repeatedly by an entire family of men. The director, possibly used to a much longr time frame, REALLY drags this out. The ending is just okay. It was a genuinly noble effort though and I am definately checking out this guys other stuff

3.5/ 5

[SkullBat308]

Diary of the Dead- I would consider this a good movie  3/5

[Leah]

The Road Warrior- it's a great film, but has that one scene which I have a problem with, it's the same with Badlands. NOT THE DOG!
all in all, a 5.5/5 is in order

[Jack]

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) - A girl with psychic powers goes to a cabin in the woods with her therapist and her mother, looking to work through her grief over the loss of her father years earlier.  Next door, a group of young people are doing some partying.  Oh, and there's some hockey goalie named Jason who's just not in a very good mood at all.  I really enjoyed this - really good characters, likable, fun, doing all the classic slasher stuff.  I especially liked the bad girl, she was totally hot.  One of the partying kids was Elizabeth Kaitan, star of Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity.  The subplot with the therapist was quite interesting, and all the suspense scenes were done in the classic slasher fashion - scared kid hiding, scary music, Jason makes his move.  EEK!  There was plenty of good cheese as well, like when Jason would be chasing someone through the woods so they'd run 100 yards, ah...now we're completely safe and we can relax.  Oh-oh!  This was a huge breath of fresh air from all the assembly line slashers that they make these days, almost every one of which should be premiering on the SyFy Channel.  4/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Drop Out wife- Another late era Ac Stephan/ Ed Wood thing. I really liked Fugitive girls but this isn't like that. It's two movies one a half decent soft/medium core porn the other a depressing drama about a failed marriage. The woman is really annoying and its no surprise her marriage is on the rocks. If you want to rent to as close to a full on porn as you can get from netflix check it out but the story is not sexy. 3/5

[Jack]

Trailer Park of Terror (2008) - Back in the '80s, Norma was a white trash girl living in a trailer park populated by horrible rednecks.  They killed her boyfriend, so she got a gun and killed pretty much everyone in the trailer park, including herself.  Flash forward to the present, and a group of delinquent kids on a religious retreat end up stranded near the trailer park.  And Norma's still there!  Except she's a zombie now, as are the former redneck inhabitants.  Norma is able to disguise herself as a normal human, and is nice enough to put the kids up for the night.  Yup, that doesn't turn out well.  This is very much a horror/comedy, which I usually hate, but I guess I must have been in a really weird mood last night because  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  There's some pretty gross stuff in here - one of the rednecks makes beef jerky, and he skins one of the kids alive and feeds him his own flesh, while telling him about his wonderful jerky recipe.  Then he deep fries him alive.  The characters were quite good, the dialogue was witty ("Oh Norma, you're making my South rise again!") and I'd have to say that it was a pretty entertaining 90 minutes overall.  4/5.

[Hammock Rider]

L'arnacoeur( Heartbreaker)

   I crossed a personal line this weekend and saw a French Rom-Com. And since I always try to face the truth unflinchingly I have to admit I liked it. It was pretty funny and not quite as schmaltzy as the ones I've seen.

   Basically, a charming, scruffy Frenchman, his sister and her husband run a business where they break couples up for money. They only break up couples that they are sure are not truly in love.  They are hired to break up a dream couple by the woman's father. The couple seems truly in love but because this little trio owes serious cash to the French Underworld they decide to take the job.

   It's a nicely done movie, funny, and comfortable but not sappy. It follows the basic rom-com outline but its doesn't come off as too formulaic. It takes place mostly in Monaco, which looks great. Overall it's fluff, but fluff well made. I recommend it.

[Rev. Powell]

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE? (2009): A deranged man commits a murder and holes up in his house with a couple of hostages and we learn his story through flashbacks as detectives interview those close to him.  Surprisingly uninvolving, and considering the talent assembled (directed by Werner Herzog, produced by David Lynch, starring Willem Dafoe and Michael Shannon) a big disappointment.  2/5.

[3mnkids]

Modify~ A documentary about body modifications     Not for the squeamish and its very, very graphic.. wow.

[Raffine]

I recently recorded the TCM 4 1/2 hour semi-restored version of GREED.

It will either be a revelation or an endurance test.

Zasu Pitts is in it - a favorite!

[Jack]

Fallen Angels (2006) - A bunch of skeletons are found in an old prison scheduled for demolition, so a very lengthy and dull investigation follows.  Some cheesy monsters show up occasionally.  All I can say about this is that the writer/director was apparently stoned;  it's a disorganized mess that drags on in a fairly senseless fashion.  One of those where the characters come off as nothing more than moving pieces of set dressing.  They got Micheal Dorn (Worf from Star Trek:  TNG) to show up for this thing.  That dude has a ton of nose hair.  There are some pretty yucky face mutilations, but that's about the only thing of note in the film.  The ending was perhaps a bit clever, but it was so poorly realized that it didn't have any impact.  2/5.

[SkullBat308]

Event Horizon 

[Sleepyskull]

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Very, very fun movie! As people have stated, it's a horror comedy, but surprisingly it wasn't as gory  and over the top as I thought it would be. That's not necessarily a complaint. Every now and then, I wished it had a little more gore, but either way it was great! 12.7 out of 13 stars

Amazon Women on The Moon (1987)

Pretty freaking funny! I wished it had lasted longer. The only note-worthy complaint I have is the segment of Harold Pitnik's funeral/roast lasted a little too long. I will definitely watch this in the future! 9.4 out of 13 stars