Recent viewings

[asimpson2006]

Once upon a time in the West ** 1/2 out of ****

I'm not super crazy for Westerns but I did enjoy this film.  The reason for the so so score?  The pace was so slow.  I didn't think it was needed to focus on two characters on the screen for 3 minutes before something happened.

[Killer Bees]

I started watching Season 2 of Father Ted last night.

I'd forgotten how funny Irish priests can be.  If you haven't seen this show, I highly recommend it.

[lester1/2jr]

abdul the damned-  unique historically accurate but not very interesting.  from 1935, based on the fall of the sultan of turkey.  too talky, some phoned in art deco sets and weak busby berkely harem dancing

[Rev. Powell]

THE GENERAL (1927):  Buster Keaton's train chase movie.  More an adventure than a comedy.  I'm not sure this holds up as well as other classic silent movies, but it's exciting enough to keep most folks watching.  3/5, 4/5 if you have a love of silent films and stuntwork.

CLAVAIRE (2006):  Weird surrealistic French horror flick with serious pacing problems.  Some very nice scenes but overall tedious and queasy.  2/5 (though many consider it a skull).

SILK (2006): Taiwanese story about scientists investigating ghosts.  Turns out ghosts are created by burying disturbed kids in strong magnetic fields.  Promising at first but gets tedious as it goes on.  Some nice images.  2/5.   

THE PRODUCERS (1968): Classic Mel Brooks farce starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder about two men deliberately producing a flop Broadway play (a musical about the life of Hitler) to bilk old ladies out of their investments.  Everyone should see this.  The play's director is a transvestite (shades of Ed Wood?) 5/5.

[Killer Bees]

Frailty

Bill Paxton starred in and directed this one.  I'd heard lots of good things about it but it took me a while to actually see it.  Now I'm glad I did.  It was a great movie.

Paxton plays a single dad of two young boys who gets a vision from an angel telling him there are demons among us dressed as humans and they must be destroyed.  The emotional impact it has on his kids and himself is very real.  Paxton's directing hand is just right in this one.  It wasn't melodramatic and the sense of unease and dread builds subtly and you feel like you're sliding into madness along with the characters.

4/5 stars.

[JJ80]

"Bandolero!" (1968) - James Stewart and Dean Martin play the Mace Brothers who are reunited after serving on different sides during the American Civil War. A passable western from Andrew V McLaglen with semi-interesting characters, picturesque desert scenery, and plenty of action including a massive shootout with a gang of Mexican bandits in the finale. However, the two attempted rape scenes on Raquel Welsh's character leave a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth. Andrew's old pal George Kennedy plays a decent but limited sheriff who chases the brothers and their gang after their failed bank robbery/near execution.

[Torgo]

SHOWGIRLS  (NC-17 version)   *1/2 out of ****.

On a rating scale in terms of unintentional comedy, I would have to rate this movie a 3 1/2 though. Don't quite know what was going through director Paul Verhoeven's head when he decided to follow up his guilty pleasure Basic Instinct with this turkey.   So hard to take seriously, I can now only hope to think that they weren't really taking this as seriously as people thought that they were when making it.  Gina Gershon seems to be the only one in on the joke however as she gives a tongue in cheek performance that is quite fun and others should have taken a cue from while also looking absolutely ravishing (as usual). And say what you want about Elizabeth Berkley, but while miscast, dang it if she did look super hot IMO.





Watch at your own risk!

[asimpson2006]

SHOWGIRLS  (NC-17 version)   *1/2 out of ****.

On a rating scale in terms of unintentional comedy, I would have to rate this movie a 3 1/2 though. Don't quite know what was going through director Paul Verhoeven's head when he decided to follow up his guilty please Basic Instinct with this turkey.   So hard to take seriously, I can now only hope to think that they weren't really taking this as seriously as people thought that they were when making it.  Gina Gershon seems to be the only one in on the joke however as she gives a tongue in cheek performance that is quite fun and others should have taken a cue from while also looking absolutely ravishing (as usual). And say what you want about Elizabeth Berkley, but while miscast, dang it if she didn't look hot IMO.



Watch at your own risk!

This is one of those films that if you take seriously you will miss just how funny it can be and it's not even trying.  I do agree with you about Gina Gershon being in on the joke, it just seems like she always had some kind of smirk on her face like she knew this film would be a big old turkey.  This film really deserves the MST3K treatment to probably enjoy it so much more. 

[indianasmith]

You know, when they show that one on TNT or USA, it is about 45 minutes shorter than in its theatrical version . . . and they STILL have to blur parts of some scenes!

[RCMerchant]

LEPERCHAUN  3- This is the first time I have ever seen a Leperchaun movie. I didn't know whether to life or cry in anguish. My emotions ran the gamut of"Whatta pile of sh!t" to " gee-that's funny as hell...for some duma$$ reason!"

[Torgo]

LEPERCHAUN  3- This is the first time I have ever seen a Leprechaun movie. I didn't know whether to life or cry in anguish. My emotions ran the gamut of"Whatta pile of sh!t" to " gee-that's funny as hell...for some duma$$ reason!"

There's a 3 pack you can get for only 9.99 of the 1st 3 Leprechaun movies. I have thought about picking them up as they work wonders as unintentional comedy.

[Torgo]

Dawn of the Dead  (2004 unrated version) *** out of ****.

This movie should have been a complete disaster but it managed to be a quite fun zombie romp that really has not much to do with the Romero original other than the mall setting, zombies (of course) and the title.    The uber cute Sarah Polley shines in the title role and Ving Rhames is his usual badass self. The running zombies are much more of an immediate threat but they lack much of the creepiness of the slow moving Romero zombies.  The gore is quite plentiful (more so in the unrated version) and there is even some female nudity thrown in to quench horror fans' demands.  The movie starts to  lose some punch a bit once they leave the mall, but still, this is a lot of fun for horror/zombie fans.

[Rev. Powell]

GULLIVERS'S TRAVELS (1996): Made for TV miniseries with Ted Danson as Gulliver.  Pretty entertaining, with good sepcial effects, and they say it's the most faithful adaptation of the book ever filmed.  4/5

AUDITION (1999): I finally got around to seeing this one.  Every bit as disturbing as I had been told.  Not perfect because of the (deliberately) slow start, but still lingers in the memory.  5/5 (for horror fans).

QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS (1947):  A "white goddess" movie: a group of civilized Europeans heads into the jungle to track down a missing Caucasian, who as it turns out is living happily in an all-female society of white female shipwreck victims.  Rudimentary storytelling arranged around avaiable stock footage.  Would have been prime MST3K material. 1/5, though the lame action scenes are stupid enough to provide some amusement.

MOON OF THE WOLF (1972):  This made-for-TV talkfest set in the Louisiana bayous has to be one of the most boring movies ever made.  The werewolf makeup is horrible, but only visible for about 30 seconds.  This is devoid of entertainment value.  Skull.

[Pilgermann]

Man, I haven't watched anything in a while.  The last movie I watched was The 'Burbs and that was over a week ago, and before that it was Iron Man when it first opened.

[Killer Bees]

Beowulf
Surprisingly, not as crappy as I expected.  The animation didn't hurt my eyes like A Scanner Darkly did and the story was fast paced enough that I didn't get bored.  I thought overall the story was a bit thin, but then I didn't expect miracles when I started watching it.

Overall, an okay kind of movie, but not good enough to purchase.



The Mothman Prophesies
This was on sale for $9 so I thought what the hell.  I had seen it before, but it was ages ago and I'd forgotten what happened.  I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely and it was well worth the money.  I like Richard Gere as an actor.  He does the emotional everyman thing very well and when he's tortured you can believe it.  It's made me want the buy the book even more than I did before.


Cloverfield
My son saw this in the cinema and raved about it.  I thought I'd hate it with the jerky camera thing that is inexplicably popular these days.  My tv is only 52 cm (20") as well, so I thought it would lose something.

I liked this movie a lot.  It wasn't as scary as it would have been on the big screen but that didn't detract from it.  Also, the jerky camera thing didn't bother me at all.  I thought the story was solid and the special effects amazing.  And the characters didn't do anything overtly stupid which was a refreshing change.  But I thought that everyone going onto the bridge to get out of the place was kind of dumb.  I've never been to New York so I don't know how the geography works, but it just seems common sense to keep away from any structure that's not stable and can kill you if it gets destroyed.

Overall 4/5 stars.