Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

Captain Kidd (1945): Fictionalized account of Captain Kidd has him looking to gain entry into favored English society after tricking the king to commission him as escort to a ship coming from India loaded with treasure. Of course, Kidd (here played with gusto by Charles Laughton) has his eyes set firmly on gaining much of said treasure for himself without the king even realizing what's he done.

Despite Laughton's best efforts and boisterous acting performance and an all star cast including Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, John Carradine and even Henry Daniell in a short role as the King, this never rises above being just average at best. In terms of a swashbuckler, this has one sword fight that's much too short. In terms of action of the high seas, the sea battles prove all too brief. Mostly this features talking between characters to further advance the plot. In short, there's way too much posturing and talk and nowhere near enough action. Overall, it's surprisingly dull.  ** out of ***** stars.

[Oldskool138]

30 Days of Night ***1/2 out of *****

An enjoyable vampire flick.  Lots of blood and an interesting take on the vampire myth...although the plan to kill all the vamps at the end was kind of a cop-out but in a movie like this you have to shrug your shoulders and go with it.  There are homages to movies like Evil Dead/Army of Darkness and The Thing (among others) but they aren't in your face.  A student of horror movies should be able to pick them out.     Props to Ben Foster as the Renfield character.  (The head vampire looked like my step-dad when I was a kid...minus the fangs, black eyes and bloodlust.  So that was kind of weird for me on a personal level).

Total Recall (Blu-ray) ***1/2 out of *****

Yes, the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi opus...in HD!  HD is great, IMO but some movies (usually older FX heavy ones) suffer because you can see how they accomplished each stunt/effect.  Total Recall has/had some great effects shots but 99% of them are animitronic and you can tell...really good animitronics but animitronics nonetheless.

It's kind of dated as well.  It's the future as it would be if the 80's never ended...which is both cool and lame at the same time.

But despite most of it's "flaws", it stands as a rollicking sci-fi piece of it's era.  The makeup work by Brian "The Thing" Bottin is top-notch.  The plot is rather cool if you think about it.  Matter of fact, the entire movie itself plays out like a memory implant.  It seems like kind of a high minded concept for a movie that features Arnold stabbing people in the neck with part of a chair he was tied to.  Recall features my favorite Arnold one-liner:  "See you at the party, Richter!"

[HappyGilmore]

Chasing Amy- ***.  Guy likes girl, girl likes girls, what to do here?  Then we find out about a hidden past, the obligatory Jay and Silent Bob cameo, and a great performance by Jason Lee.

[Killer Bees]

Epic Movie - Unrated

This had some really funny bits and really lame bits.  But it was a relaxing waste of a couple of hours and great way to unwind after the hassles of the work day.

Jayma Mays played the ditzy Lucy so well and was a pleasure to watch.

[Jack]

Robot Jox - hadn't watched this in years, I'd forgotten how fun it is.  In the future, "war has been outlawed", and they instead have guys pilot these gigantic robots and fight each other.  The robots are just cool as hell, and the story is interesting and filled with little subplots.  I'd heartily recommend this one to everybody here.

Grim - now here's a great cure for insomnia.  A monster lives in a cave.  No explanation whatsoever is given for it.  Some people go into the cave.  They spend a good hour talking about stuff that doesn't advance the plot one iota.  Despite all this talking, no character develops even the slightest bit of personality.  Eventually the monster grabs one of them.  We get about ten minutes of the monster looking menacingly at his victim, then dragging her through the caves.  Lots of red tinted POV shots, occasionally even with a fish-eye lens.  The other people don't realize a monster has carried off one of their party, they think she just wandered off.  So the prattle continues unchanged.  I can't believe I stayed awake until the end.

[asimpson2006]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ** out of ****

I wasn't expecting much going into this film since it's Power Rangers and I stopped watching that show like 10 to 13 years ago.  It was an ok film, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was little kid again, but alas I am not a kid anymore.  It was corny as ever which I didn't like too much, for this film.  I finished it, but I don't think I could watch it again.
 

[HappyGilmore]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ** out of ****

I wasn't expecting much going into this film since it's Power Rangers and I stopped watching that show like 10 to 13 years ago.  It was an ok film, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was little kid again, but alas I am not a kid anymore.  It was corny as ever which I didn't like too much, for this film.  I finished it, but I don't think I could watch it again.
 

I felt it was a 4 star movie, personally.  Only thing that would've made it better was if the zord fight at the end of the flick was a person in a costume like the show as opposed to badly drawn CGI.  But the pink ranger was hot.

[asimpson2006]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ** out of ****

I wasn't expecting much going into this film since it's Power Rangers and I stopped watching that show like 10 to 13 years ago.  It was an ok film, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was little kid again, but alas I am not a kid anymore.  It was corny as ever which I didn't like too much, for this film.  I finished it, but I don't think I could watch it again.
 

I felt it was a 4 star movie, personally.  Only thing that would've made it better was if the zord fight at the end of the flick was a person in a costume like the show as opposed to badly drawn CGI.  But the pink ranger was hot.

I'll agree with you on the ending on that one.  Your right the Pink Ranger was hot.

[JaseSF]

The Time of Your Life (1948): Nick's Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace sure attracts some strange and eccentric characters, some looking for employment but many just looking for entertaining ways to pass away their day.

This film proves surprisingly charming and endearing most likely because it rings true. The bizarre set of characters that occupy Nick's dive seem all too plausible in some weird fashion. Maybe it's because so many eccentric characters seem to populate our world today that makes me think this one ahead of its time. James Cagney steals the show here as Joe, a man whose hobby is people but really it's the interaction between all these different slices of life that grabs the viewer's interest. *** out of ***** stars.

A Farewell To Arms (1932): Gary Cooper stars as Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army during World War I. There he meets and falls in love with a nurse named Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes) but the war looms heavy over the couple's chances for happiness.

While this movie feels a bit dated and the war scenes go on too long and seem to be too darkly lit, this is epic romance that ultimately proves hard to take one's eyes off. You root for the characters and want to overcome the odds despite all that stands in their way making the final reality of what ultimately happens all the more potent. A real tear-jerker for the soft hearted this one. Great romance! Let's love tonight for we may not have tomorrow...the harsh reality of war. *** out of ***** stars.

I should note that the version of A Farewell to Arms (1932) included in the Family Classics 50 Pack from Treeline is the edited 79 minute version. Really would like to see the original in its time quite controversial original 89 minute version of that one.

[Jack]

The Flesh Eaters (1964) - three people have to make an emergency landing at a remote island, and encounter a scientist who is conducting some sort of research.  There's some glowing, flesh-eating stuff out in the water, and maybe the scientist is involved with this stuff in some way?  This was a really enjoyable film.  I love the characters, they've got a drunken Hollywood starlet, her secretary (ooh what a body!) and the no-nonsense pilot.  Just a good fun drive in feature, luckily there's an excellent DVD of it available that I plan on picking up very soon.

Dangerous Worry Dolls - this is Full Moon's latest movie, I give it a bit "meh".  A women in prison flick with very little nudity (the trailer made it look really sexy, but of course ALL the sexy bits are in the trailer), it's got the typical nice girl being abused by her fellow inmates, raped by one of the guards, and treated badly by the warden.  Her daughter comes to visit and gives her some "worry dolls", she's supposed to tell them her worries, put them under her pillow, and when she wakes up in the morning all her worries will be gone.  Well, one of them crawls in her ear and sets up housekeeping in her forehead, creating a great big zit.  She takes revenge on everyone who wronged her.  In addition to the lack of anything sexy that I hadn't already seen in the trailer, the movie really lacks an ending (the big fight between our lead girl and the nasty inmate takes place off camera).  Might be good for a rent, but don't even consider paying full price for the DVD like I did.

[Andrew]

The Flesh Eaters (1964) - three people have to make an emergency landing at a remote island, and encounter a scientist who is conducting some sort of research.  There's some glowing, flesh-eating stuff out in the water, and maybe the scientist is involved with this stuff in some way?  This was a really enjoyable film.  I love the characters, they've got a drunken Hollywood starlet, her secretary (ooh what a body!) and the no-nonsense pilot.  Just a good fun drive in feature, luckily there's an excellent DVD of it available that I plan on picking up very soon.

That movie was blood-chilling to me as a child.  The flesh eaters turn people into skeletons!  I still remember being terrified when the silly beatnik was almost eaten (though the organisms only get his sandals).  Wrote a review for this one a while back.  The DVD is, as you said, excellent for an old b-movie.

[HappyGilmore]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ** out of ****

I wasn't expecting much going into this film since it's Power Rangers and I stopped watching that show like 10 to 13 years ago.  It was an ok film, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was little kid again, but alas I am not a kid anymore.  It was corny as ever which I didn't like too much, for this film.  I finished it, but I don't think I could watch it again.
 

I felt it was a 4 star movie, personally.  Only thing that would've made it better was if the zord fight at the end of the flick was a person in a costume like the show as opposed to badly drawn CGI.  But the pink ranger was hot.

I'll agree with you on the ending on that one.  Your right the Pink Ranger was hot.

Apparently the director felt a guy in a suit was cheesy and would've detracted from the flick.  The CGI wasn't done well.  Part of the camp factor of the show was the costumes, effects, etc.  As for the pink ranger, she was hot, but I'm not sure if I like her or her blonde replacement better.  If you haven't seen her look her up.

[Rev. Powell]

BARTON FINK (1991):  After one successful Broadway hit, pretentious playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) moves to Hollywood and is assigned to write a wrestling picture for Wallace Beery.  He holes up in an eerie art deco hotel with bellhop Steve Buscemi and boisterous next door neighbor John Goodman.  Fink encounters Hollywood phonies and drunken Southern novelists as he suffers an increasingly severe case of writer's block, and things start to head into ERASERHEAD territory halfway through the movie.  This thing reverberates with anyone who's ever suffered writer's block or artistic self doubt.  It's my favorite Coen Bros. film, pending viewing THE BIG LEBOWSKI and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.  5/5 slimes.

DEADLY PAST (1995):  This is a movie that asks the question "can you build an entire 90 minute plot around fashion model Carol Alt's hooters?," but gets an incomplete for using stunt breasts.  All these made-for-late-night-pay-cable erotic thrillers were horrifyingly predictable and dull and usually promised lots more sex than they delivered.  This one is no exception.  There's one laugh out loud moment as the "heroes" make their "thrilling" escape across a border guarded only by an English billboard proclaiming "Welcome to Mexico!"  1/5 slimes.   

13 TZAMETI (2005): This is a very worthwhile, intense thriller, about which the less you know going in, the better.  The trailer gave away too much.  Suffice it to say it's about a desperate, poor Georgian immigrant in France who takes a bad gamble and finds himself in a very bad place at a very bad time.  A bit slow to start and lacks a "goctha!" stinger ending, but the middle section is about as tense as you'll find.  4/5 slimes.

[asimpson2006]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ** out of ****

I wasn't expecting much going into this film since it's Power Rangers and I stopped watching that show like 10 to 13 years ago.  It was an ok film, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was little kid again, but alas I am not a kid anymore.  It was corny as ever which I didn't like too much, for this film.  I finished it, but I don't think I could watch it again.
 

I felt it was a 4 star movie, personally.  Only thing that would've made it better was if the zord fight at the end of the flick was a person in a costume like the show as opposed to badly drawn CGI.  But the pink ranger was hot.

I'll agree with you on the ending on that one.  Your right the Pink Ranger was hot.

Apparently the director felt a guy in a suit was cheesy and would've detracted from the flick.  The CGI wasn't done well.  Part of the camp factor of the show was the costumes, effects, etc.  As for the pink ranger, she was hot, but I'm not sure if I like her or her blonde replacement better.  If you haven't seen her look her up.

Hmm, I don't remember her blond replacement for the pink ranger.  That is something I will have to research to find out.

Edit:

After some research I found who you were talking about.  Her blonde replacement was Catherine Sutherland.  She is quite attractive IMO.

[HappyGilmore]

She's blonde and Austrailian, and I like that.