Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Cemetery Man" (aka "Dellamorte Dellamore," 1994)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS-GpYY6f2o

In this surreal, comedic Italian horror flick, Rupert Everett is the caretaker of a small village cemetery. A big part of his job consists of putting the dead back into their graves after they rise as zombies. As if that's not enough to keep him busy, he also falls in love with a lusty widow (Anna Falchi, in one of three roles - HOT!), has occasional chats with the Grim Reaper and wonders if killing living people would be easier than killing dead ones.

An atmospheric and utterly weird flick that honestly stopped making a lick of sense to me by around the halfway point. Had some good gore and nice gratuitous nudity but aside from that I really didn't "dig" (pun not intended) this one much at all.

[fulci420]

Wrong Turn 2 (2007)
Straight to video sequel is not as bad as you might think but suffers from a lack of originality throughout. This time the inbred hillbilly killers go after a survivor like reality program hosted by the one and only Henry Rollins. Now I'm a big fan of Rollin's having seen his spoken word but I have only seen him in bit parts in films before. Here he gets a larger role and he is awesome! He looks and acts the part of an ex marine and scenes of him battling the freaks are the highlight of the film. Other than him the characters range from annoying to pretty good with your typical assortment of hot girls, and mostly dumb guys.

This film decides not to take itself seriously which works to a point but does little to differentiate itself from other hillbilly horror comedies like the Hatchet films. Due to this comedic element the hillbilly's are more annoying than scary, and there is a lack of tension throughout. And also I think I'm pretty done with these deformed hillbilly movies of recent time. It seems a lot of recent horror directors flock to this and it's time to try something different. I mean in the past 10 years we have gotten: Wrong Turn 1-5 (!), Hills Have Eyes 1-2, Hatchet 1-2 (soon to be 3), All of the Texas Chainsaw reboots, and god knows how many others made that are made straight to video. Out of those I would say the first Hills Have Eyes reboot is the only legitimately great horror film with the rest going between passable entertainment and outright crap!

[indianasmith]

I do love me a good CMH movie, but the last WRONG TURN was a turn-off for me.  However, I am all aboard for the next HATCHET movie! LOL

[lester1/2jr]

Invasion USA was good but I liked Lone Wold McQuade a little better.

[Rev. Powell]

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (2012): Documentary examining some of the absurdities of the War on Drugs---like mandatory minimum sentences, the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity, and asset seizure---and how they've turned law enforcement into a self perpetuating prison-industrial complex that does nothing to address the root problems. It effectively sets forth the argument that the system is broken and that those profiting from it have no incentive to fix things, but the idea of comparing scapegoated drug-users to Holocaust victims will certainly turn some people off.  The doc's biggest flaw was that it needed to be made 20 years ago, when these crazy laws were being enacted. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Batman: Under the Red Hood" (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c9MsP3OVs

Intense animated "Batman" flick takes place five years after the death of Jason Todd (the second "Robin"), as a mysterious vigilante called The Red Hood is taking apart Gotham City's underworld, one murder at a time. While Batman tries to end the Hood's reign of terror and discover his identity, he learns that he should probably be careful what he wishes for.

Much grittier and more "adult" than even "Batman: The Animated Series" was (while "T.A.S." picked up where the Burton films left off, this one is definitely set in the ultra-violent Christopher Nolan-era Batman universe), with a cool "anime" look to it, this was simply a great Batman flick, period.

Holy crap, are all of these "DC Animated Universe" movies this good? I'm gonna have to check out more from this series.

[Jack]

The Host (2006) - Korean movie about a sea monster that comes out of the river running through Seoul and starts attacking the population. It doesn't necessarily kill everyone, but takes them back to its lair deep within the sewer system where it keeps them as its food supply. The story centers around a young girl who's trapped in these sewers, and her idiot father, her grandfather and aunt and uncle who try to find her and hopefully rescue her. Odd movie with a combination of very effective and emotional horror scenes all mixed together with a bunch of dopey comedy. For instance, the little girl is scared out her mind, trapped in the sewer with the monster mere feet away, she's surrounded by dead bodies and desperately searching them for cell phones so she can call for help - it's a wonderfully effective scene...and then 5 seconds later you've got some dude picking his nose. I dunno, weird. The funny parts were mildly amusing and it generally kept me entertained. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

KING OF THORN (2009): A group of randomly chosen volunteers are cryogenically frozen to escape a petrification virus, and wake up to a world overrun by monsters. Overlooked, but it has everything anime fans crave: psychedelic visuals, non-stop action, a convoluted, mindbending sci-fi plot, and schoolgirls in ridiculously short skirts.  3.5/5.

HOUSE OF PLEASURES [AKA HOUSE OF TOLERANCE] (2011): Dreamy drama following the travails of a group of prostitutes in a belle epoque bordello. It's slow, extremely sad (the main character is permanently disfigured by one of her clients) and features some unsuccessful stylistic gambles (a montage set to "Nights in White Satin"), but it's also a beautiful-looking, elegant and moving film with believably scarred characters. 4/5.

[tracy]

The Gorilla(1939)-A comedy horror movie starring The Ritz Brothers,Lionel Atwell and a seriously under utilized Bela Lugosi. When a wealthy man's life is threatened by a serial killer known as "The Gorilla" he hires a detective agency...the Ritz Brothers....to investigate. Unfunny and clumsy mayhem ensues. Also,there is Patsy Kelly as a paniced maid who yells,screams and offers to quit....wouldn't have helped. Just to let folks know,I'm not a fan of the Ritz Brothers at all....just watched it out of a sort of weird curiosity. They are so amazingly not funny and their comic timing is like being run over by a tank. Plus poor Bela....such a great presence there and he was shoved aside by those buffoons. 1 outta 5 for me.

[tracy]

"Batman: Under the Red Hood" (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c9MsP3OVs

Intense animated "Batman" flick takes place five years after the death of Jason Todd (the second "Robin"), as a mysterious vigilante called The Red Hood is taking apart Gotham City's underworld, one murder at a time. While Batman tries to end the Hood's reign of terror and discover his identity, he learns that he should probably be careful what he wishes for.

Much grittier and more "adult" than even "Batman: The Animated Series" was (while "T.A.S." picked up where the Burton films left off, this one is definitely set in the ultra-violent Christopher Nolan-era Batman universe), with a cool "anime" look to it, this was simply a great Batman flick, period.

Holy crap, are all of these "DC Animated Universe" movies this good? I'm gonna have to check out more from this series.

Excellent! We have that and it is very good.

[alandhopewell]

     THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (2005)

    Every once in a while, you run across a movie that makes you want to throw back your head, and ask the eternal question, "WHY?"

   This remake of the 1979 dud does exactly that. In the first place, the whole Amityville haunting was debunked ages ago. Secondly, the first film  stunk, and the various sequels stunk even worse. Third, this picture is just dumb, rife with people doing things for no other reason but for stuff to happen, relying on what by then were cliche' ghostie FX for so-called scares.

    I've wasted enough time on this. Don't waste yours.

[Jack]

Night of Dark Shadows (1971) - a guy and his wife move into their ancestral home, which is a huge and gorgeous mansion. It's not long before the guy starts seeing visions of the past and believing himself to be his own ancestor who lived 100 years earlier, and was in love with a witch. She takes over his mind and next thing you know he's trying to kill his wife so he can take up with the witch. This was really disappointing considering what a huge Dark Shadows fanboy I am. It's very slow moving. I don't see why they didn't set the movie 100 years ago which is obviously where the story was, but instead we get these people lying around or sitting around doing nothing in the present day with just the occasional flashback to the story in the past. It finally picks up a bit in the end. The Blu ray looks gorgeous, they really did a great job with these Dark Shadows movies. 3/5.

The Man from Planet X (1951) - planet X is going to pass very close to earth, and a scientist has set up a lab way out in some remote area of the UK in order to observe it as it goes by. He's got a few other researchers with him, and they eventually discover a small alien space capsule on the nearby moors. And an alien - the man from planet X! Maybe he's friendly? Or maybe he's a scout for the planet X invasion force? I enjoyed this quite a bit. Characters were well developed and likable, even the secondary characters had personality and I felt like I knew them right away. The plot moved along at a good pace and kept it interesting. Lots of fog in this movie - at one point a car gets a flat tire but you can't even tell because the bottom half of the wheels are lost in the fog 4/5.

Saint Nick (2010) - Dutch movie about Saint Nick - not the cheery gent who gives presents to little kids...well actually I guess he is but those legends are all wrong you see. In reality he was an evil Cardinal who demanded money from the peasants until they eventually burned him alive. Now he's back for revenge every time there's a full moon on December 5th. The story starts with a group of college friends who have some unfortunate run-ins with our antagonist, and then we shift to one of the guys who meets up with an old coot who knows the secret and has a plan to destroy him. Probably the biggest problem with this is that Netflix only has the English dubbed version, and Dutch lip movements apparently don't sync up at all with the English language. It looks worse than most Godzilla movies. Other than that though it was quite a bit of fun. There's some cheesy CGI scenes where St. Nick is riding his horse across rooftops, then he stops and holds his staff way up in the air for no apparent reason. My wife's like "Yay!  Go team!" I need to get this on DVD and watch it in Dutch, I think it would be a lot better.  Still gets a 4/5 though.

[alandhopewell]

"Batman: Under the Red Hood" (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2c9MsP3OVs

Intense animated "Batman" flick takes place five years after the death of Jason Todd (the second "Robin"), as a mysterious vigilante called The Red Hood is taking apart Gotham City's underworld, one murder at a time. While Batman tries to end the Hood's reign of terror and discover his identity, he learns that he should probably be careful what he wishes for.

Much grittier and more "adult" than even "Batman: The Animated Series" was (while "T.A.S." picked up where the Burton films left off, this one is definitely set in the ultra-violent Christopher Nolan-era Batman universe), with a cool "anime" look to it, this was simply a great Batman flick, period.

   

Holy crap, are all of these "DC Animated Universe" movies this good? I'm gonna have to check out more from this series.

DCAU is definitely worth your time, particularly the Batman / Justice League films.

[lester1/2jr]

La Cienga - "Slice of Life" (no plot) about a largely unlikeable family of rich people in Argentina. They constantly look down on the Indians, who look exactly like them to me but are different somehow. The acting and camerawork are good but you really have to be in the mood for it. On the downside, the director seems to take too much time photographing pubescent girls and there is weird sexual tension between people who may be related? I couldn't tell. It made it less cute and more gross. "European" to put it charitably. The rich people come off as self indulgent and awful and the poor people are stupid, as is evidenced by their constantly seeing the Virgin Mary on water towers and so forth. that's the implication anyway. A much more accesible and interesting movie about Argentina is "the Take" 3/5

[fulci420]

Infernal Affairs (2002)

Knowing that this was the film that Scorcese's "The Departed" was remade from I had been meaning to check it out for a while. The basic plot is the same here with some key differences. Firstly this is a much shorter affair at a bit over 90 minutes. This results in a film that has a superior sense of tension IMO. Also the relationship between the men is better developed in IA I felt more emotional resonance about certain characters dying in IA vs the remake. On the other hand the male female relationships are much stronger in the remake as the longer length allows them to be better developed.

So which is the better film? I feel my judgement is clouded because I have seen and enjoyed The Departed several times before. Also with my Internal Affairs dvd I have a choice between bad subtitles or bad dubbing, which hampers my appreciation but is no fault of the film itself. What stands out to me about Internal Affairs is that it makes a clearer point of the moral ambiguity between police and criminal in around 90 minutes than either "The Departed" or Mann's "Heat" do in 2.5 hours plus. As for what's more entertaining I would have to say the remake, I wonder if my perception of it will change now having seen the original. Anyways I know that many people (at least those I know) are unaware of The Departed being a remake, and fans of that film should definitely see where that story originated.