Recent viewings

[Jack]

The Eerie Midnight Horror Show (1974) - some art critic is looking at some ancient crucifixes and she takes one back to her studio for some reason. Turns out it's actually from a church of devil worshipers and the spirit of the figure on the cross takes her over. Eventually they travel to some remote village and a priest performs an exorcism. Yawn. Another one of those Italian things with undeveloped, unsympathetic characters and a plot that moves at the same rate that glaciers advance across the earth. My wife was suggesting several times that we turn it off but then all of a sudden the credits started rolling lol. 1.75/5.

Horror Rises From The Tomb (1973) - Paul Naschy and friends travel to a remote village to search for ancient treasure. All they find is a box containing the spirit of a devil worshiper (also played by Naschy) and it turns various people into ghouls who chase our protagonists around, etc. This wasn't too bad. At least some stuff happened during it and it had a bit of a plot. Not one of Naschy's better movies by any means. 3/5.

Monstroid (1979) - one of those preachy environmentalist relics from the '70s. I suppose I would have gotten to see a comical rubber monster if I hadn't turned it off after 15 minutes.

[Rev. Powell]

WHAT YOU DON'T SEE (2009): A college boy goes on a seaside vacation with his mom and her boyfriend and befriends a mysterious couple who live nearby. A drama/thriller that teases you with the promise of shocking secrets, but waits so long to drop clues that you lose interest long before the reveal comes. 2/5.

DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG (2008): Made by Josh Wheedon as a web series to keep busy during the 2008 television writer's strike, this curio stars Neil Patrick Harris as a mad scientist applying for membership in the Evil League of Evil; he has an arrogant superhero nemesis and a useless sidekick Most, and is desperately in love with a girl from the laundromat. Original and fairly funny, with the main joke being the "villain" is idealistic, likeable and lovelorn while the "hero" is a big blowhard and a girlfriend-stealing jerk. The songs aren't bad and it's only 45 minutes long. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ATTENBERG (2010): Greek character study about a strange, asexual girl and her promiscuous but equally odd best friend. The conceit in this study of the ineffable otherness of other people is that we watch these young women as if we're watching a nature documentary about animals who communicate in ways we don't understand; to remind us of that fact they occasionally break into weird dances or slip into animalistic rituals. Excellent acting makes the idea work better than it probably should have, although the average moviegoer will still find it insufferable. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD (2010): On her 16th birthday a bullied teenage girl discovers she's really a half-breed mutant with a claw for a hand; she joins up with others of her kind but must decide if she will help destroy humanity and usher in an age of mutants. Just like Troma movies, if you've seen one of these ultraviolent Japanese mutant gore comedies from Sushi Typhoon, you've pretty much seen them all; it's a formula, and the only creativity is the way they tweak the weaponry details (this one has a cheerleader mutant with a chainsaw in her butt and soldiers with guns strapped to their noses). 3/5.

[Jack]

Monsters (2010) - aliens have taken over an area around the US/Mexico border, and an American reporter must help his boss' daughter travel from Mexico to the US safely. It isn't your typical alien/action/adventure movie; I'd liken it to the story of Mexican immigrants trying to illegally enter the US, and putting their fate in the hands of smugglers who would probably just as soon slit their throats if they weren't being paid. The aliens really just provide a backdrop of additional danger to the proceedings. The characters were well developed, with the girl being quite likable and the guy being a minor douchebag. It was immersive and definitely drew me into its world. 3.75/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Smokey and the Bandit" (1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMpOvKxXdM
Burt Reynolds is "Bandit" in one of the all time great car chase films. He's one half of a legendary outlaw trucker team challenged to transport a load of bootleg beer from Texas to Georgia, with a crazed redneck sheriff (Jackie Gleason) in hot pursuit the entire way.
I absolutely loved this movie when I was a kid, and hadn't seen it in probably 30 years till tonight. I'll admit that it hasn't aged very well and the car stunts, which were amazing for their time, have been outdone by countless films since, but Gleason is a total hoot and "Smokey" is still a fun redneck ride that entertained my inner 8 year old.
Revelation: Sally Field (who plays a runaway bride that Reynolds picks up along the way) had a great ass in 1977.

[Jack]

The House That Screamed (1969) - back in approximately Victorian times, a girl arrives at a French boarding school and although most of the girls are friendly, a few are very mean and the headmistress is somewhat severe in her punishments. And there's a killer on the loose as well. This actually had good atmosphere and a bit of suspense in parts. Nice twist at the end too. I had a hard time telling one girl from the next though lol. Meh...I'll give it a 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

"Smokey and the Bandit" (1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMpOvKxXdM
Burt Reynolds is "Bandit" in one of the all time great car chase films. He's one half of a legendary outlaw trucker team challenged to transport a load of bootleg beer from Texas to Georgia, with a crazed redneck sheriff (Jackie Gleason) in hot pursuit the entire way.
I absolutely loved this movie when I was a kid, and hadn't seen it in probably 30 years till tonight. I'll admit that it hasn't aged very well and the car stunts, which were amazing for their time, have been outdone by countless films since, but Gleason is a total hoot and "Smokey" is still a fun redneck ride that entertained my inner 8 year old.
Revelation: Sally Field (who plays a runaway bride that Reynolds picks up along the way) had a great ass in 1977.

Yeah, I liked this when I was a kid --- I'm scared to watch it as an adult.  I'm afraid the reality would rape my fond memories.

[Jack]

Badlanders aka Prison Planet (1992) - in a low budget post-apocalyptic future, a guy gets sent to a prison planet (the deserts of Southern California would be my guess) where he intends to rescue the former king of his planet who's been exiled there. Of course he soon runs afoul of the bad guy, who's got a truly world-class mullet and a Fu Manchu mustache to go with it. His henchmen are such incompetent nincompoops that even though they capture the good guy on at least five separate occasions, he escapes every time. By the climatic battle at the end, people are even getting shot in the chest with shotguns and getting up a minute later to continue fighting    Cheap, stupid, and a fun slice of slightly-post-'80s cheese from start to finish. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Big Lebowski" (1998)

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

Jeff Bridges is a middle aged L.A. slacker known as "The Dude," who, without really meaning to, gets mixed up in the kidnapping of a millionaire's trophy wife, dragging the members of his bowling team along with him.

Quirky-as-usual comedy from the Coen Brothers of "Raising Arizona" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" fame has great performances by Bridges and John Goodman (as his psycho Nam-vet buddy "Walter") and the bizarre-at-times dialogue is endlessly quotable.

The Dude abides. 

[alandhopewell]

     GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE is what you might call a blue-collar horror film, not a standout, but not bad, either.  William Smith plays, perhaps for the first time (1973) a hybrid, the result of a rape by a vampire (Michael Pataki). Sonny boy spends his life hunting dear ol' Dad, finally trailing him to (where else) California, specifically a college campus, where the hemophage teaches a course on myths and legends....a night class, natch.

     Acceptable levels across the board, acting, story, what have you. I first saw this in '84, on BIG CHUCK AND L'IL JOHN, and had never heard of it before. I own a copy, thanks to the PURE TERROR compilation set. I couldn't sleep last night, so I put it in at about midnight, watched the first 45 minutes or so, crashed, woke up at 5 am, and watched the rest.

     Movies like GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE are perfect for such situations.

[lester1/2jr]

Some Italian movie with various astrological symbols for a title - I can't remember it sorry. it's one of the few italian sex comedies netflix has. Edwig Feneche is hot, that's the reason to rent this. She looks great in a euro MILF way. The comedy is silly Jerry Lewis nonsense. it's not on the level of "French p***ycat" in terms of over the top craziness but's it's generally watchable. Should they have just made it a porn movie? yes, but it's entertaining 4/5

[JaseSF]

Give Me A Sailor (1938): Two sailors in the U.S. Navy, brothers Jim (Bob Hope) and Walter Brewster (Jack Whiting) also happen to be rivals for the affections of the beautiful blonde Nancy Larkin (Betty Grable) while both Nancy and her sister, the more plain Letty (Martha Raye), who happens to have far better skills at the time thought necessary for a wife especially cooking skills, are both smitten with Walter. Meanwhile Jim and Letty plot to help one another to try and break up Nancy and Walter.

While it's nothing truly great, this was pretty solid escapist romantic comedy entertainment. It helps its characters prove suprisingly likable and engaging throughout even when they are scheming and plotting against one another. There's also a certain feel of realism to the way the characters interact here that feels rather true to life IMO. There's some song and dance numbers on this one but really it's Martha Raye who steals the show here as a clutzy ugly duckling type gal who stumbles blindly into making good. Hope offers good support here and does get to deliver some great lines, in particular some rather descriptive insults. Grable too gets a moment to shine as the gorgeous gal everyone wants who just cannot cook to save her life. Definitely a charming, fun little movie that makes for pleasant escapist fare to help one forget one's troubles for a little while, so I'll give this one ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Howling V: The Rebirth (1989) - a group of people go to a Hungarian castle which hasn't been entered in 500 years - since everybody who lived in it were killed one fateful night. So they sit around and talk, and walk around and explore the place. And occasionally a werewolf shows up and kills one of them. But who is the werewolf?  They'll figure it out eventually I suppose. I LOVED the atmosphere of the castle, warm and cozy and oh-so Gothic on the inside, with a blizzard raging outside preventing them from leaving. And of course a spooky network of tunnels running under the thing, perfect werewolf hunting grounds. The characters weren't bad at all, they kept things somewhat interesting. Not much of a plot really, practically a slasher movie as much as anything else - just with a werewolf doing the killing. 4/5.

[tracy]

Very good film with Gary Sinese as a married scientist who gets pegged as a cyborg posing as a citizen to assasinate people,planted by an alien race.