Recent viewings

[Jack]

*talking about Jan in the pan, right?

Definitely    The Head had Dr. Abel on a shelf, just doesn't have the same ring to it.

The Day Time Ended (1979) - there's some astronomical event, and a family (think Brady Bunch) go to their solar-powered house out in the desert. Weird, cheap special effects start taking place. UFO's fly overhead, a couple of claymation aliens have a fight, and fireworks start spinning in front of the camera. Stupid solar powered houses! This is basically a kid's movie, except Jim Davis (Jock Ewing from Dallas) says "son of a b***h." Really didn't have any plot or character development. I managed to stay awake 'till the end. 2.25/5.

Nice pic' of Mr. Davis over on IMDb.  He looks all rustic yet cool in that totally '80s way.  That's not from this movie though lol.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Alone in the Dark" (2005)

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

A paranormal investigator (Christian Slater) and a museum researcher (Tara Reid) must save the world from an invasion by carnivorous other-dimensional creatures in this video game based turkey from the infamous Uwe Boll. The story is a mess, the script is nonexistent, the effects suck, and for a supposed "action" movie, it moves at an absolute snails pace.
This flick wants to be an  action extravaganza like "Resident Evil," but it turned out more like a ripoff of the first "Alien Vs Predator" flick... without any predators... But with a heaping helping of extra stupid.

[Mofo Rising]

Day of the Dead (2008)

Well that was terrible. That's the last time I watch a zombie movie with Nick Cannon in a lead role.

I've always been sort of fond of Steve Miner's movies. None of them are great, but there are some pretty solid b-movies to his credit. This isn't one of them. The zombies in this movie make no sense. They're super-fast and strong, able to climb across ceilings, and yet can be held off with a lamp. They're also sped up in a herky-jerky fashion which makes them look more like Keystone Cops than anything terrifying.

Bad plot, bad acting, mostly bad gore. The worst part is when they try and bring back parts of Romero's original. Yes, "Bub" is here known as "Bud." The makers claim they tried to stick with the social relevance of the original, but I couldn't find a single lick of it anywhere in the film.

1 of 5.

Also watched a movie called Telstar (2008). Not a genre film in any sense, but of interest to anybody fond of '60s British music. A biopic of legendary British weirdo Joe Meek. I quite liked it.

[rebel_1812]

I saw 2 troma movies this weekend. 

Jesus christ vampire hunter and teenage cat girls in heat.

The vampire hunter one was pretty good, makes that lincon vampire hunting movie look like a cheap reboot.

[JaseSF]

The Breakfast Club (1985): Coming of age teen comedy featuring five students from different social backgrounds and each part of their own clique beginning to interact with one another as they spend time together in detention.

While some of this seems far-fetched at times and some of the actors seem too old to play teens, this is nevertheless a true contemporary classic one can watch over again and again and enjoy each time. John Hughes teaming up with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall yet again certainly doesn't hurt this one. Judd Nelson though as the troubled Bender arguably steals the show. Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy round out the memorable cast. These teens aren't always likable but they do come across at times like real flawed human beings tackling and discussing issues that face the young as they come of age. It also gives us a great glimpse of the 1980s. You gotta dig the soundtrack for this one.  ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

[fulci420]

The Raid Redemption- (2011) I've been hearing great things about this movie since it was released, I saw it cheap on blu ray so I decided to check it out. Basically this movie delivers exactly what it promises 100 minutes of almost nonstop action. This manages to be both a positive and a negative for me. On the positive side the action is excellent, up and coming director Gareth Evans obviously has a gift for shooting hand to hand fighting and we get some great set pieces here. On the negative side there can be too much of a good thing and ultimately in the face of all this action I found myself somewhat disengaged and uninterested in who exactly was fighting who. In my opinion the gold standard for action movies would be John Woo's Hong Kong films (ie The Killer, Hard Boiled) while those films are packed with action they still have great characterization and relationships between the characters. Gareth Evans has the action side of it down but if he is going to really deliver up to the hype he's been getting he needs to learn a lesson from Woo and get some more engaging plot going on. Still as I said this delivers exactly what it promised, and will definitely check out The Raid 2 when it comes out.

[Jack]

Witchouse 3: Demon Fire (2001) - a girl who got punched by her boyfriend moves in with two friends who are filming a documentary on witchcraft. They perform a ceremony and maybe they've summoned an evil force? Or maybe it's something else. Tanya Dempsey is okay in the role of the girl with the mean boyfriend, but the other two girls aren't really likable and seem to spend the entire movie yelling at each other. This had the stupidest ending I've seen in a long time. In fact they could have left out the whole witchcraft angle and it wouldn't have changed the movie much at all. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953): A mad scientist turns spiders into women on a mesa in Mexico. Bizarre and incoherent storytelling in the Ed Wood Jr. tradition. Ron Ormond re-shot footage from an unfinished movie to make this mess, changing some of the characters in the process (a homicidal maniac turns into a professor, a cabaret dancer turns into a spider-woman). Not a good movie (obviously) but bad movie fans will want to check it out (obviously). 3.5/5 (on a bad movie scale, obviously).

[JaseSF]

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009): A shopping addict named Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) accidentally stumbles into a job as an economic advice columnist where she unexpectedly finds success. However hot on her trail is a debt collection agency worker from hell.

This was alright. It has some flaws in logic and seriously stretches credibility at times but it was an alright, relatively harmless piece of romcom fluff.  There's some decent laughs here and there and Fisher proves a likable enough lead despite her character seeming somewhat shallow and superficial at the start. Also on hand are a number of familiar faces including John Goodman, Joan Cusack as Bloomwood's quirky money saving parents and Krysten Ritter as Bloomwood's best friend/roommate Suze, her # 1 supporter. Also look for John Lithgow, Lynn Redgrave, and Wendie Malick in amusing bit parts. *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Chawz (2009) - Korean movie about a giant man-eating boar that's loose in the mountains, and the quirky residents^TM of a village who have to deal with it. The sarcastic humor doesn't really come across very well via subtitles as I couldn't tell if they were being funny or just rude (until I figured out they were always being funny), but there were a few chuckles to be had. The boar was done with practical effects in the close shots and CGI in the action shots. The CGI was fair. Action moved along well enough. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (1964): Brazilian undertaker "Coffin Joe" eats meat on Friday, terrorizes the townspeople, and plots to steal his best friend's fiancee; a gypsy witch is the only person in town who dares to defy him. Like Alex in CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but smarter, Coffin Joe is a terrifying villain because he freely chooses evil---and because he gets such pure pleasure out of other people's suffering. 3.5/5.

[Jack]

Star Pilot (1966) - Italian sci-fi schlock about some people who find an alien spaceship, and then the crew of the ship forces them to help fly it around the universe. Pretty amusing spacewwalk scenes obviously made using wires and a trampoline. The characters really weren't bad. Plot was threadbare and didn't matter anyway really. A moderately enjoyable waste of 90 minutes. 2.75/5.

[Rev. Powell]

DAY OF THE PANTHER (1988): A martial arts expert goes undercover in a drug-dealing gang in Perth, Australia. This will probably be the best Australian beefcake kung-fu picture with a Miami Vice soundtrack you've ever seen. In the Mill Creek Martial Arts pack. 2/5.

[alandhopewell]

     I AM NUMBER FOUR (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5djHG3hPu0

     I went into this with both eyes open, so I can't complain; it is what it is.  WHAT it is is a teenage movie about a teenage alien, hiding on Earth with an adult guardian, fleeing from badguy aliens who want to kill him (and several others like him....) seems they're The Hope Of The Future.

     No real suprises here; if you can channel a fifteen year-old for an hour and change, then this tale of adolescent tsurris masquerading as science fiction might rev your SSP wheel.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hit & Run" (2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FyKg1w23Rc

Quirky car-chase comedy about a former getaway driver (Dax Shepard) who jeopardizes his position in the Witness Protection Program by agreeing to drive his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) to L.A. for a job interview. Pursuing them along the way are his former partners in crime looking for a bit of payback, and a determined Federal Marshal (Tom Arnold), to name just a few. Funny stuff, with lots of snappy dialogue and cool stunt driving.