Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

  

[indianasmith]

I watched  a rather bad cretaure feature called BOTTOM FEEDER last night.  A scientist had developed a formula that caused dead and damaged tissues and organs to regenerate; a badly burned millionaire wanted to use the formula but decided to test it on the inventor first - by having some of his thugs beat, shoot, and stab the man nearly to death, then inject him with some of his own compound!  Then they locked him in an underground tunnel, planning to come back the next day and see if he had healed.  Of course they completely forgot the meta-protein that was supposed to keep the regeneration under control, so the scientist had to eat some rats and a homeless guys' dog - which caused the formula to replicate their genetic structure and incorporate it into his!  So you wind up with a part rat, part dog, part mad scientist creature roaming the tunnels bent on revenge!!

I LOVE creature features!

[Rev. Powell]

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2011): This Werner Herzog documentary is the only place you can see the oldest artwork in the world, the 20,000 year old Cro-Magnon paintings of Chauvet Cave, discovered in 1994 and of such historical importance that only the world's top scientists and archeologists had previously been granted access.  It's both important, and interesting.  Originally in 3-D, but the impressive paintings and stalagmites look fine flat.  4/5.

MATRIMONY (2007): The ghost of a woman who died moments before her lover proposed to her schemes to possess the body of his new bride.  Both the plot and the visuals are patchy, but if you crave a romantic ghost story and don't mind subtitles this might hit the spot.  2.5/5.

[ChaosTheory]

DEATH TO SMOOCHY - Superdark comedy about the rise, fall and comeback of idealistic children's performer (Ed Norton) and his rival (Robin Williams).  Apparently the children's entertainment industry is just as sinister and corrupt as the porn industry, at least to hear these guys tell it.  Thought the premise wore kind of thin but Norton was great. (Williams, well, I can kind of only stand him when he's doing drama, but he's a good match for the character).  Some pretty good out-of-nowhere one-liners.  6/10

STARGATE (1994) - time-travel yarn that begat the massive tv franchise.  I'd seen this before but it was a long time ago, hadn't remembered much of it.  This is quite possibly the only movie Roland Emmerich ever directed that's even approached being good.  Also the only time I've ever seen James Spader as a likeable character. 7/10

HUNGER - movie about IRA prisoners protesting their treatment in the Maze prison in 1981 with a hunger strike, instigated by Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), who eventually starved to death.  Really brutal to watch but manages not to feel exploitative, not a political flick so much as a study of human nature/behavior, and more even-handed than I would've expected.  Fassbender is stunning and the rest of the cast is great too.  One of those "I'm glad I saw it but I never want to see it again" movies. 9/10

[lester1/2jr]

Island of Lost Souls (1931)- I'm not all that into the Isle of Dr Moreau concept, it's just not that fascinating to me, but this was as good as I could have conceivably hoped. Lugosi is barely recognizable as one of the creation things. The panther woman is great, all the actors are good. I think the panther woman was my favorite part. Criterion's  extras were interesting particualrly members of the band Devo talking about how much the movie influenced them. They read stuff into it that was maybe not directly implied but hey, they're Devo. 4.5/5

[bob]

very very strange

3/5

[bob]

I was in the mood for a bit of the ol ultra-violence this evening

5/5

[Rev. Powell]

PASSIONE (2011):  John Turturro takes us on a tour of the Naples music scene, where a melange of influences---from opera to Arabic music to American jazz/pop of the 1940s (brought in by G.I.s during WWII)---blend together to create a unique musical atmosphere.  Almost entirely built around full length music-video style performances, it's more a variety show than a documentary; adjust the 3/5 rating up or down depending on how much you like the featured musical style. 

[claws]

Psycho (1960) Blu-ray

Outstanding audio and video quality. And yeah, classic movie. 5/5

Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) Blu-ray

Homeless person is sick and tired of violence in his town so he grabs a shotgun and kills the bad guys.
Over-the-top violence and gore plus a few Tarantino-like cool scenes makes Hobo worth a watch. Reminded me of Toxic Avenger for some reason. 4/5

[alandhopewell]

     Another Wal-Mart $5 bargain....the film holds up excellently (my 20-year old daughter loved it, particularly the Rick Baker work), and the extra stuff is fantastic.

     I'd forgotten how creepy it was, when it wasn't being funny.

[Jack]

Bleeders (1997) - A married couple go to an island off the East coast.  The guy is having health problems and they want to research his family history because they think it might be an inherited genetic condition.  The local doctor (Rutger Hauer) tells them of an aristocratic Dutch family that moved to the island many years earlier.  It's rumored they're all dead due to inbreeding.  Or maybe a bunch of them are still alive, horribly mutated, and living in tunnels under the island?  Hey, ya never know.  I really liked this.  Not your typical cheeseball monster movie at all, this started out as a serious drama and I thought it was pretty successful in that regard.  The characters were excellent;  the supporting cast as much as the main players.  It created a very believable and somewhat strange atmosphere.  Once the monsters make their appearance it does get a bit cheesy, but I though it was fun.  4.25/5.

[claws]

Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975)

15 year old Sarah (Linda Blair) seems unhappy with her life. She just moved to another town and her parents are divorced. To sooth her troubles Sarah stars drinking alcohol. First she empties the house bar resolving in getting the maid fired, then she starts skipping class while ordering booze from a liquor shop. Things get out of hand when Sarah returns home drunk from a party; grounded for two weeks she still manages to sneak out to get blasted - by trying to steal whiskey at the store or begging strangers for a drink (and paying with off-screen sex).

Made for TV Drama without expected cheese. Good film overall I guess but it was missing, well, some cheese. Highlight includes a crying Mark Hamill and a drunk Linda Blair riding a horse on the freeway. 3.75/5

[Jack]

The Cursed (2010) - a guy arrives at a small Tennessee town to do some research on a book, but soon finds that a shadowy spectre is killing off the dumb hicks who populate the place.  This had about enough plot for 30 minutes, of course it lasts 90.  Characters were flat and undeveloped and the acting was noticeably bad even for a movie like this.  The creature was kind of cool looking though.  My favorite part was when the main guy came up with a plan to kill the creature by using an even more powerful rifle than everybody else was using.  It fired bullets at Mach 20 you see.  I dunno, a couple minutes with Google reveals that the highest velocity bullet travels at about Mach 3.9.  Gotta admire the amount of research that goes into these things 

The movie wasn't awful, just boring.  I guess I was in the mood for something dull, so I'll give it a rather generous 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

I took my sons to the library this PM and my 9-year-old picked out the first "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" movie cuz he's been reading the books...he insisted I "HAD" to watch it with him because "it's soooooo funny!"

...and y'know what? It actually was pretty a pretty funny kid-centric comedy, following the pre-teen hero from the books through his absolutely hellish first year of Middle School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZVEIgPeDCE

Usually I try to find other stuff to do during kids' movies, but I enjoyed this one. Will have to look into the sequel next.

[bob]

Ben-Hur on blu-ray (1959) WOW!   

this movie is excellent as a normal DVD but it just looks so much better on bluray


5/5