Recent viewings

[Newt]

The Innocents, now thats an old b/w horror that chills me to the bone...

Scary, scary stuff that one!

[Jack]

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)  - Debbie Gibson stars as an environmentalist who releases genetically altered pythons into the Florida Everglades.   Tiffany stars as a park ranger who feeds steroids to the alligators in order to combat the pythons.  Very much a tongue-in-cheek sort of movie, between the intentional silliness and the unintentional stupidity, the bargain basement CGI and the bad editing, I had quite a good time    My favorite part was where a giant CGI gator was swimming after Debbie Gibson, leaving not so much as a ripple in the glassy smooth surface of the lake.  Then they lower a ladder from a helicopter to rescue Debbie, and as she's climbing onto in, we see the water doesn't even come up to her knees.  3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE FILMS OF SUZAN PITT (1979-2005).  Surreal animation.  These are available on Netflix streaming for anyone who's interested.

"El Doctor" (2006).  I thought this was the weakest of the three.  A melancholy Mexican doctor visits various patients---a woman with flowers growing out of her, a rather pretty female horse whom he's attracted to, and a woman who gives birth to dozens of mutant babies.  The separate stories didn't add up to a greater whole, and the animation was the crudest of the three.  2.5/5.

"Joy Street" (1995).  The story of a suicidally depressed woman, and her whimsical painted ashtray that comes to life when she's asleep.  There's some great visionary artwork in this one, a desolated river populated with flamingo corpses and a brightly colored forest canopy inhabited by monkeys.  There's also a great score (featuring a Casio keyboard version of "Danse Macabre") and a real emotional core.  3.5/5.

"Asparagus" (1979).  This is something to see just when you're peaking.  A real sensory experience: totally abstract and dreamlike, and the sound is nothing but various atonal drones.  A woman s**ts asparagus (which spells out the films title), then later she fellates the same vegetable.  In between nothing makes sense, but the animation looks like a cross between Salvador Dali and Terry Gilliam's work for Monty Python.  They took this on tour and sometimes showed it together with ERASERHEAD.  At only 17 minutes its about the right length for a pure surrealist work.  4/5.

[claws]

Gremlins (1984) Blu-ray

Still one of my favorites even though the snow is fake and the Blu-ray presentation is lacking quality HD. Seasonal must-viewing, even better on X-mas. 4.5/5

The Terminator (1984) Blu-ray

Linda Hamilton's hair is as thick as Schwarzenegger's accent - fun time capsule and one of the best sci-fi action movies ever. Impressive digital audio taking in account that the movie was shot in mono. 5/5

[Jack]

Dead Space (1991) - Some researchers at a lab on a remote planet are trying to find the cure for a virus, but instead they accidentally create a monster.  They call in intergalactic cool guy Marc Singer to save them.  Along with his dopey robot Tinpan (He's only a robot when seen from the front.  From the back, he's obviously a guy wearing coveralls).  This was pretty enjoyable.  The characters were well done, and had enough personality to make them sympathetic.  And I LOVED the bright blue spandex bodysuits the babes wore as pajamas     The monster was exactly what you'd expect from a Roger Corman production, a big rubber thingie with some guys just off-camera doing their best to bring it to life.  Watching it swing its arms around as Singer pretended to get knocked over desks and tables was worth a chuckle.  The plot/action moved along at an acceptable pace.  3.75/5.

[lester1/2jr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVtl4HExhzY

Harry's War (1981) - This is kind of insane. It's a kind of hokey sub- "Private Eyes" type family comedy about...going to war with the IRS!! The subject matter and the approach seem really at odds. This should have been like "Easyrider" meets "Over the Edge" or something. Instead it looks like a pg break time movie for tween home schoolers.

Harry is a lawyer defending a woman who the IRS, who are one dimensional bad guys/ a***oles, are going after for tax evasion even though she is a great phlilanthropist. The kangeroo court convicts her and eventually things escalate to where Harry's war literally becomes a war. He has access to all these old tanks and land mines and stuff and he declares war on the IRS.

As you can imagine I was rather sympathetic to all this. Many movies will throw in a line about the IRS, it's a cliche really that it is the least popular division on the government, but I can't recall a movie where the whole thing was about how the IRS is evil, petty and also unconstitutional. Maybe Mel Gibson could remake this.  As a movie, it's not bad. You can follow it and it's moederately entertaining but I think the the producers or directors didn't QUITE have the gusto to really go for it so they ended up with this mismatched hybrid of anarchy and family fare. Anarcho family fair!

3.5/ 5

[JaseSF]

The Shaggy Dog (2006): Lawyer Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) finds his and his family's life tossed into chaos after he is bitten by a magical shaggy dog which makes him act more and more like a dog and eventually, at inopportune times, turns him into an identical shaggy dog.

This was pretty disappointingly bad. Just an absolutely complete silly mess that even a talented cast including Allen, Kristin Davis, Robert Downey Jr. and Danny Glover (who's barely used) cannot rise above. Sure it had a few sparse laughs here and there most featuring the early stages of Douglas' change but the fun doesn't last very long and inevitably stupidity takes over especially concerning the involving of CGI animals. Watch the classic film with Fred MacMurray instead...it has its flaws too but next to this one, it looks brilliant. *1/2 out of ***** stars.

[claws]

The Howling (1981) Blu-ray (Region B)

Joe Dante mixes genuine thrills with satire perfectly. Nice European Blu-ray release with strong colors and fine detail. However, some scenes that I remember as being shot dark are now kind of bright. On the upside you'll finally get to see those walking werewolf legs in full glory when Terry finds the small house in the woods. Bill and Marsha's animated cartoon campfire sex origins are more obviously then ever now though. 4.5/5

An American Werewolf in London (1981) Blu-ray

John Landis mixes genuine thrills with comedy perfectly. I watched this for the first time with audio commentary provided by Griffin Dunne and David Naughton. Both don't appear to be very enthusiastic walking down memory lane, but they do share quite a few anecdotes and behind-the-scenes info. Dunne is quite the bubbly talker at times while Naughton seems to be the more quiet type. Gaps of silence near the end, though. Audio commentary: 3/5 Movie: 5/5

[Jack]

The Slaughterhouse Massacre (2005) - watched this again.  After a night of partying, some kids decide to get their thrills by going to an old abandoned slaughterhouse, where legend has it that a psycho killed some people ten years earlier.  And it plays out exactly as you might imagine.  The bad editing kind of screws everything up - somebody will get separated from the group and I'm like "Huh?  How did that even happen?"  A couple of the characters were okay, the others I was hoping would die.  And I really had to wait a long time for that to finally happen.  The suspense didn't work, it was just boring and rather dumb.  The only good point was the eye candy.  2.5/5.

[claws]

Inside: Unrated (2007)

A symphony of blood and violence on Christmas Eve. Brutal female vengeance not for the squeamish. It's still a hard watch for me but I love every minute of it. Instant classic 5/5

Edited to add: makes for an interesting viewing experience with a crowd. Some of the reactions I witnessed were priceless 

[JaseSF]

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960): Bumbling flower shop assistant/would be famous botanist Seymour Krelboin (Jonathan Haze) discovers the secret to bringing a unique plant he's grown to vibrant life, after which it becomes quite an attraction at Mushnick's skid row flower shop - it needs and craves human blood! After the plant grows, Seymour finally gets some of the attention he's so long craved and Mushnick sees dollar signs from all the new customers coming to check out Seymour's Audrey Jr. plant, named after his unlikely love interest fellow flower shop assistant - the busty but dim Audrey (Jackie Joseph).

This is pretty weird and somewhat silly. It definitely feels unique to the era it was made, almost a minimalist comedy populated with quirky unusual characters who seem more caricature than real yet in some bizarre way it's fascinating to watch them interact and see how Audrey Jr., the film's unlikely monster, comes to dominate them all, even controlling certain characters. The dialogue feels almost improvised on the spot, or at least seems geared towards just making things arty and well weird, maybe a bit experimental. Jack Nicholson frequently gets top billing on cheap DVDs of this film even though he's only briefly in the film as a masochistic dental patient yet he arguably does get to deliver some of the film's best lines. "No novocaine. It dull the senses", "Don't stop now!". The real star here is Jonathan Haze and arguably even moreso Audrey Jr. ("Feed Me! I'm Hungry!"). In some scenes, it is surprisingly gory yet this isn't nearly as effective as it might have been because the FX are far from convincing. Still the scene of Seymour singing "Tis the season to be jolly" while doing what he does is disturbing and enhanced somewhat by Mel Welles reaction as Mushnick to it. Certainly this won't appeal to everyone but for those who can appreciate it charms, it has some entertainment value as a curio of sorts. **12 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Death Machine (1994) - Some people are trapped in a building with a killer robot.  The robot was cool as hell, sort of like Robocop 2 except designed by a total psycho.  That's about all that was good about this movie though.  The characters were very superficial and not sympathetic.  The psycho who designed and built the robot was actually the only one who had any depth at all.  The plot wasn't believable - you know how the bad guys in Die Hard devised a plan to break into the vault in the Nakatomi building?  Now image some mega-stoners doing the same thing.  It could never decide if it wanted to be serious or tongue-in-cheek either.  It did have a certain oddball style to it, but still only rates a 2.75/5.

[Pilgermann]

Space Mutiny - Wow, this one sure did live up to its reputation, but I enjoyed it of course.  Reb Brown cracked me up, especially any time he was yelling and cursing.

[Nightowl]

Groundhog Day (1993)

[Jack]

Land of Doom (1986) - In a post-apocalyptic future of the '80s, a guy and girl team up to survive the dangers of the desert wasteland.  The main baddies are a group of bikers - my first impression was that they were a motorcycle-based furniture moving company.  There's just crap sticking up all over the place.  They've all got these picture frames with saw-toothed edges, made out of 1/4" fiberboard, mounted to their handlebars.  Oh yeah, totally macho!  So our main couple endures various cheesy battles against these guys, culminating in some big explosions.  This was okay.  The two main characters were fairly likable, and the action was moderately entertaining.  One of the main selling points of these '80s post-apocalyptic movies was all the scantily clad babes, but they totally forgot about that in this movie.  Our main babe wears coveralls throughout the whole thing.  3.25/5.