Recent viewings

[Torgo]

KISS OF THE DRAGON  *** out of ****                                  One of Jet Li's better American films. Fun fight scenes, an above average storyline for a martial arts flick, solid acting and a smoking hot Bridget Fonda.

[Rev. Powell]

THE BLOB (1958): Interstellar space goo lands in rural America and eats people. Teenage time capsule where the plot is interrupted by backwards drag races and other hijinks; decent nostalgia with a little suspense, and McQueen is charming as the teen the adults won't believe.  I was bored stiff by this the first time I watched it years ago, but on a second viewing it wasn't so bad.  Still, I think it's no classic.  3/5.

[Jack]

Virus - alien computer program downloads itself into the computer system of a Russian research ship, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland are left to deal with the situation.  There are two DVD's of this, one with extras and the other with a DTS soundtrack.  I got the DTS version (contains the Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well), and the soundtrack was very good.  Nice enveloping surround sound when they're stuck in the hurricane.  Overall a very good movie with good characters, lots of action and an excellent setting.  Kudos for the creative take on the aliens as well.

Rise blood Hunter - Lucy Liu is killed by vampires, and of course she comes back to life and takes revenge on the other vamps.  The trouble is, there are only about 6 other vampires, and she kills the first 5 just by showing up unexpectedly, so there's little excitement.  Overall a dark movie devoid of any fun.  I recorded it and thought I hadn't seen it, but as soon as I started watching it I realized that I must have seen the first half of it before.  That's not good, when you turn it off halfway through and then completely forget you ever saw it.

Wild Things - an old favorite of mine, watched it again the other night.  Denise Richards and Neve Campbell are high school students, they accuse their guidance counselor (Matt Dillon) of raping them.  He hires Bill Murray as his lawyer.  Kevin Bacon is the cop who investigates.  There's a million plot twists, no one is quite what they seem.  I love this movie.  Hot and steamy, completely twisted plot, slick photography, excellent theme music. 

[Sister Grace]

Fangoria Blood Drive II- was composed of five short films. some were rather good; some not. One of the short films was called Disposer and it had a really great premise ( i won't give it away incase some of you haven't seen it yet). Another one of the shorts had a very 'eraserhead' feel to it and it was rather enjoyable. 2.5/5

[ghouck]

Virus - alien computer program downloads itself into the computer system of a Russian research ship, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland are left to deal with the situation.  There are two DVD's of this, one with extras and the other with a DTS soundtrack.  I got the DTS version (contains the Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well), and the soundtrack was very good.  Nice enveloping surround sound when they're stuck in the hurricane.  Overall a very good movie with good characters, lots of action and an excellent setting.  Kudos for the creative take on the aliens as well.

I've seen reviews of this move ripping it to shreds, I think it's all right. I've not heard the DTS version, , sounds good though. I didn't like the double-take ending though. .


I also saw "U-Turn" for the first time. Pretty good movie, , you can feel Sean Penn's frustration throughout.

[Jack]

It! the Terror From Beyond Space (1958) - black and white, the original Alien movie.  Some people go to Mars, a creature gets on the ship, and on the way back to Earth it starts attacking them.  This was a disappointment, probably because I read some good reviews of it and had high hopes for some real suspense.  It was pretty cheesy.  The monster wasn't bad, but his face looked silly, like his mouth was just painted on the mask.  I couldn't get over the fact that they went to Mars expecting to meet the crew of the first ship, and yet for some reason they had a load of firearms, hand grenades, and even a bazooka.  What for?  I mean, great planning I guess, always ready for the unexpected, but I just found it odd.  The worst part was that there was absolutely no character development.  The one thing I usually expect from black and white movies is excellent, well developed, unique characters.  This one had none of that.

In the Spider's Web - Some people are hiking through the jungles of Northern India, one of them gets bitten by a poisonous spider, and they take her to the nearest remote village for help.  The doctor there is Lance Henrikson.  Nobody really seems to care about this woman, they're all in fine spirits even though she's apparently in a coma.  Two of them go off exploring a cave, and find it filled with spiders.  Three others go to a larger town to get help, but mostly the girl and the guy just flirt with each other.  The girl is just...bizarre.  In one scene she's flirting with the guy, in the next she can't seem to stand him, in the next she's changing clothes in front of him.  After several life-threatening adventures together, he gets trapped on the other side of a gorge, and she just takes off without so much as as a "We can't just leave him!".  He's lucky he gets a glance over her shoulder.  Bad, bad acting.  Overall it wasn't all that awful, better than watching political speeches on a boring Tuesday night.

[Pilgermann]

Just watched The Old Dark House (1932) and I thought it was fairly brilliant.  It works well as a weird comedy but the sinister elements become greater towards the end.  The Femm family are a wonderful bunch of characters.

[HappyGilmore]

Psycho- Hitchcock classic that never gets old.  Stellar performances, I'm sure we've all seen it.  Perkins knocks it outta the ballpark.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back- Fifth movie in Kevin Smith's Askewniverse franchise.  Two drug dealers who have comic book characters based on them find out that a movie is being made about the comic.  Instead of going to collect their money they're owed, they decide to stop the movie cause fans are making fun of them on the internet.  Good cameos by George Carlin, Tracy Morgan, Wes Craven, Jason Lee, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and about a dozen or so other actors, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

[Torgo]

Virus - alien computer program downloads itself into the computer system of a Russian research ship, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland are left to deal with the situation.  There are two DVD's of this, one with extras and the other with a DTS soundtrack.  I got the DTS version (contains the Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well), and the soundtrack was very good.  Nice enveloping surround sound when they're stuck in the hurricane.  Overall a very good movie with good characters, lots of action and an excellent setting.  Kudos for the creative take on the aliens as well.

I've seen reviews of this move ripping it to shreds, I think it's all right. I've not heard the DTS version, , sounds good though. I didn't like the double-take ending though. .


I also saw "U-Turn" for the first time. Pretty good movie, , you can feel Sean Penn's frustration throughout.

I had the misfortune of seeing Virus in theaters during it's extremely brief theatrical run.  There was a ton of potential there along with a great cast but the movie just stunk IMO.

U-Turn is one of Oliver Stone's more underrated movies IMO.  Jennifer Lopez was oh so hot in this one and Billy Bob Thorton was his usual great self as the scuzzy auto mechanic. 

[Torgo]

9 Songs   ** out of ****. I watched the uncut version and this was definitely the most sexually graphic mainstream film that I've seen to date.   The two leads offer nice & brave performances but at only 65 minutes long the movie shortchanges them. The film mainly consists of them either having hot, kinky (unsimulated) sex or going to see live rock bands. There's some brief glimpses into the male lead's on screen profession and some brief relationship exchanges. But it winds up going nowhere which is a shame as there's a ton of untapped potential here. Most definitely not for prudish sensibilities BTW.

[Jack]

The Descent - a group of women go into a cave to do some exploring and get attacked by creatures.  Overall very very good movie.  The claustrophobic atmosphere was done wonderfully and the action scenes rocked.  Only two complaints:  The women all had such thick accents I couldn't make out half of what they were saying.  I watch a lot of British TV and never have any trouble understanding anyone, so I don't know why that was necessary.  Also the last 10 minutes or so really went downhill, violating my suspension of disbelief, having characters act completely irrationally, and then throwing in an  unnecessary twist.  Kind of left a sour taste after an otherwise really entertaining experience. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE (2001):  During the Spanish Civil War, a boy deposited at an orphanage must deal with a ghost and the deadlier evil posed by a ruthless war opportunist. Well-characterized and atmospheric pre-hash of themes that would explode in director del Toro's followup, PAN'S LABYRINTH.  4/5.

My giving the movie only 4 out of 5 stars actually makes me one of the film's biggest detractors; it's pretty much universal praised.  I can't help but wonder if I would have been more impressed if I'd seen it before PAN'S LABYRINTH.

[Rev. Powell]

OLDBOY (2005):  A man is imprisoned for 15 years by an unknown enemy; when he is released, he's obsessed with finding the man who wronged him, and the reason why.  A stylish, complicated and sadistic warning about the consuming power of revenge.  Ultraviolent at times, with a surprising fight scene in a corridor that seems almost to have come from a different movie.  4/5.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Well, I finally sat down and watched two more movies in the Mill Creek Gore and More collection.  Oh god help me...

Night Train to Terror
I tried watching this movie before, but couldn't get past the first segment.  I tried again this week, only to find that the movie sucked so much that every DVD player in the house rejected it.  On the bright side, the disjointed segments make me want to buy the movies that were edited into them... Anyway, I did finally get this movie to work on my Polaroid portable DVD player, and oh god how agonizing it was.  I am now having a meeting in the back of my head, in which all my different tangents are trying to decide if this really is the worst film I've ever seen.  The current reigning champ is Superbeast.  Can this film actually be as bad as Superbeast was boring?  I'm beginning to think it's just a hair under Superbeast's awfulness, but I still have not reached a verdict.

Let's see... 1) Pointless bad music at the beginning.  I know, some people find the music appealing in a kitschy sort of way. I found it like having my spleen removed, sans anesthesia.  2) The segments were basically extended trailers for better movies, except they tried to work them in as "mini-stories" with a horrible sense of editing and resolution.  Many of the segments just felt like they stole random scenes without rhyme or reason.  Finally, 3) the band dies at the end, you're really excited to see this, and it's utterly disappointing!  How could they possible hose a scene as potentially awesome as one of the most irritating in-movie bands to walk the face of the Earth dying?!  Argh!  The movie makes me hurt!  It burns us!  It burns us! 

The Pyx
I suppose it didn't help that the blurb spoiled this movies secret, thereby making this hour-and-forty-something-minute film feel about 90 minutes too long.  The cheese, feel, and dialog are great in a bad sense, which is what I was looking for, but holy cow did I feel bored and apathetic about the whole thing already knowing what they were trying to build up to, simply because Mill Creek posts spoilers in their blurbs.  Only watch it if you know nothing about this film, simply because it'll feel like a total wash. And why the hell was this on the Gore and More box set anyway? 

I also showed my girlfriend Dark Crystal recently.  She told me she hadn't seen that, Labyrinth, or Neverending Story, so I've decided to open a mini-movie school for her to see those, oh, and South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut!

[Jack]

Deep Blue Sea - Some killer sharks get loose in an underwater research lab (that's quickly becoming under water on the inside too).  Overall a fun movie with good special effects and plenty of good action sequences.  Only thing that partially ruined it was some of the characters.  Their whole personality consisted of them self-righteously criticizing the head researcher for everything going wrong.  Hey, people, you've been working on this project for years, you obviously have very in-depth knowledge of everything.  Bad enough to claim ignorance, but being sanctimonious about it is downright offensive.   Then there's a rapper, who's the cook, but halfway through he becomes a preacher and starts quoting the bible.  I have no idea what that was about.  I really loved the way the sharks could break through steel doors, really big, strong, heavily reinforced steel doors, but it took them 5 minutes to break through the window on an oven door.

Night Skies - read a good review of this on another site.  I would like to get some of what that guy was smokin'    The complete absence of any sort of plot was a tad off-putting.  Some kids are taking an RV trip, and they see strange lights in the sky.  Then they run into a telephone pole and, despite the fact that their buddy is dying because he fell on a knife that was lying on the floor (?), they pretty much just argue about their relationships and stuff.  Then the aliens attack.  There was some moderately good suspense for a while.  Then the two survivors wake up on an alien spaceship.  At this point I thought we were a good 10 - 15 minutes from the climax, but no...the damned thing ends right there.  Gigantic WTF moment there.  Like the old saying goes, there's no worse excuse for making a bad movie than claiming that it's true.  Never mind the strange lights in the sky were conclusively disproven years ago - they were a group of signal flares.