Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984): A nerdy young janitor is tormented by his serial killer peers, but gets revenge when a fall into a vat of toxic waste mutates him into an avenging, mop-wielding superhero. Goofy, offensive and gory.  Watchable enough, and I know many people consider it a classic, but my problem is (like most Troma films) it just didn't make me laugh very much.  Lots of creative kills.  3/5.

ERASERHEAD (1977):  Bizarrely coiffed Henry takes responsibility for raising his mutant baby in an urban wasteland, all the while gazing into his radiator at an oatmeal-cheeked woman who sings about the delights of heaven. A measured pace which forces the viewer to notice disquieting, surreal details, remarkable black and white cinematography, and a frightening industrial soundscape add up to this David Lynch's best work and the most effective evocation of a nightmare ever put on film. 5/5.

[RCMerchant]

ERASERHEAD (1977):  Bizarrely coiffed Henry takes responsibility for raising his mutant baby in an urban wasteland, all the while gazing into his radiator at an oatmeal-cheeked woman who sings about the delights of heaven. A measured pace which forces the viewer to notice disquieting, surreal details, remarkable black and white cinematography, and a frightening industrial soundscape add up to this David Lynch's best work and the most effective evocation of a nightmare ever put on film. 5/5.

I watched this last night for the second time after 17 years or so. Still a very weird film. The Radiator Girl is one of the creepiest beings I have ever seen on film.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Dark Water (US remake)- I'm on the fence on this one.  I liked the dramatic aspect of the movie, but didn't like the horror aspect of it.  The dramatic aspect was well acted and well directed.  Instead of feeling like a good dramatic thriller, it felt like a good psychological drama with a lame horror storyline tacked on.  I've heard that this is all based on a novel written by the same guy who wrote Ringu, and it shows.  Honestly, I think instead of remaking the movie, they should have done a drama flick "inspired by" Dark Water, cut all the tacked on ghost nonsense out (which honestly, what little horror there is in the movie isn't scary at all), and turn this into a fullblown drama.  [thumb in the middle]

I'm probably not going to watch anything tonight.  I'm trying to keep my movie backlog alive for a while.  Since I'm saving up for a wedding on limited money, I probably won't be going on very many movie splurges in the future.  Apart from a few animes that I have to watch, the only movies left in my backlog are Boiler Room, Diary of the Dead, and the last two movies on the Horrorlicious collection.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K -- OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK: The experiment is a PBS-funded science fiction misfire with soap opera production values and Raul Julia.  Watch to see how they bungled Fingal's doppel.  In the host segments, Pearl tries to get on in the PBS fund drive scam and sings "When Loving Lovers Love" with Brain Guy.  An above average SciFi channel episode.  4/5.

THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988):  A phantasmagorical and deliberately overblown tale of pagan snake worshippers in modern Britain. Ken Russel's least self-important film, and also his most fun outing.  Featuring a super-slinky Amanda Donohoe and impaled nuns.  4/5. 

[Psycho Circus]

Hudson Hawk (1991) Turned it off after 10mins, still never watched this film all the way though. Garbage. 1/5.

Alien vs Predator (2004) Turned it off after 5mins, even worse than Hudson Hawk. Calling this garbage would be a compliment. I have tried to watch this twice now, but I don't want to ever see it again. A complete insult to two great Sci-Fi Franchises. -1,00000/5

[Doggett]

Alien vs Predator (2004) Turned it off after 5mins, even worse than Hudson Hawk. Calling this garbage would be a compliment. I have tried to watch this twice now, but I don't want to ever see it again. A complete insult to two great Sci-Fi Franchises. -1,00000/5

Watch AVP:R...then you'll think the first one is genius. You honesty wouldn't believe how bad the second one is.

[Psycho Circus]

Alien vs Predator (2004) Turned it off after 5mins, even worse than Hudson Hawk. Calling this garbage would be a compliment. I have tried to watch this twice now, but I don't want to ever see it again. A complete insult to two great Sci-Fi Franchises. -1,00000/5

Watch AVP:R...then you'll think the first one is genius. You honesty wouldn't believe how bad the second one is.

What is it with all these sequels subtitled with R's?? Requiem, Resurrection, Revenge, Return....Jesus H. Christ on a marshmallow! 

[JaseSF]

Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914): First full length film featuring Charlie Chaplin, although not in his more familiar Tramp character, has Chaplin instead a scheming small-time scoundrel looking to scam a farmer's daughter Tillie (Marie Dressler) into marrying her to get at her family's fortunes. Aiding him in his plans is Mabel Normand, his real main squeeze. While there are laughs here and there, especially focused upon the bumbling clumsiness of all the characters involved particularly "the built like a battleship" Dressler trying to dance daintily, they are basically all the same. This repeated slapstick bumbling style comedy just doesn't work well at the running length this goes and feels very overlong and even more repetitive at close to 70 minutes. Honestly more a bore than funny but does feature a somewhat fun Keystone Kops like closing effort towards the end. ** out of *****

A Burlesque on Carmen (1915): Chaplin directed this effort, an adaptation of the Carmen story in which Carmen (Edna Purviance), a gyspy seductress is sent to sway influence over a goofy officer Don Jose (Chaplin) so that the gyspies can succeed in their planned smuggling run. Carmen is soon the eye of the apple of many other men too, including a bull fighter named Escamillo (John Rand) and a fellow officer under Don Jose's  command, to the shagrin of Don Jose. Chaos soon ensues as the various suitors do battle. Finally a tragic ending befalls our ill-fated lovers, or does it? This is funny in spurts and really what causes the humor is the various suitors pursuing their different love interests in the film, some that seem to change like the wind at times, especially when the delectable Carmen comes upon a scene shortly after frumpy Frasquita (May White) makes an appearance. It also though proves a bit confusing and difficult to follow at times. **1/2 out of *****

[Torgo]

THE SPIRIT  *** out of ****.    I was expecting a disaster but ended up enjoying this film by comic book legend Frank Miller based on the pulp comics by Will Eisner.  The movie gives new meaning to the words over the top & highly stylized. Watch it with an open mind.

[Joe the Destroyer]

The Night She Arose From the Tomb- Awesomely bad.  It's by no neans a good film, but it's pretty fun to watch.  Plenty of nudity and camp, plus the death scene involving the caged foxes is nice. 

Boiler Room- I went into this movie hating it, but came out liking it.  It's not half bad.  The only thing that still bothers me is the out of place hip hop in the movie.  It makes it feel less like you're watching a movie in vein of Wall Street, and more like you're something like Get Rich or Die Trying.  Still, 

[Joe the Destroyer]

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe- Seen it before, rewatched it because it's fantastic!  The only thing I don't like is how ADV kind of butchered the region 1 version by blocking out most of the Japanese credits and captions, not to mention using cheap CGI for the title and "the end."  Still a great flick. 

Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion- Also badass like the last one, and also a rewatch.  Although, I do have to ask what's up with the one guy's tacky magenta coat? 

City of the Living Dead- Yet another rewatch.  This was the first Fulci film I've ever seen, and it really turned me on to Italian horror as a whole (this and Burial Ground).   

I also tried to finish watching the My-HiME box set, but whoever designed the case for this obviously wanted someone to break a disc in it, as I did with disc 6.  And I was just getting to the really good part of the series!  Argh!  At first, I thought about buying volume 6 on Amazon, especially since these are the same discs used for the individual volumes sold before the box set, and replacing it in there.  However, I'm thinking of trying to get a hold of Bandai and demanding a replacement disc since I broke the thing on their damn case.  Argh... But that will take longer. 

[lester1/2jr]

theres an online  mst3k episode guide that referred to overdrawn at mememory bank as the most depressing of all the movies ever featured which is really saying something.


Private Property (2006) -  The movie opens with a middle aged french woman taking a shower with her teen age son brushing his teeth in the same bathroom in full view of her.  I almost turned it off right there, not another one of these french things.  I didn't and I'm glad because despite the jarring opening this wasn't one of these french things and was actually a mature if kind of hum drum drama about a woman who is decding wether to sell her (massive, awesome) house to start a bed and breakfast with her new boyfriend or not.  Her two kids kind of steal the show:  twins living an extended childhood into their late teens riding motorbikes, shooting rats with pellet guns and generally acting like immature idiots whenever possible.   If they were looking for a goal in life slapstick comedy would have been a worthwhile pursuit.  Ending was a little cliche if you've seen recent movies from this region.   The boyfriend guy tells one of the worst jokes I've ever heard to break the ice on meeting the kids and i laughed very very hard about it.  Sometimes you can add ice with those.

[Jim H]

I just sort of watched The Inspector Wears Skirts II.  It's a police training film with an action sequence at the end.  Kind of like Full Metal Jacket, minus the heavy drama and plus kung fu.  The fight choreography in it is merely competent, though there is some very good stunt work.  I liked when one character gets uppercutted and does a horizontal back flip and lands on their stomach from it.

A big part of the reason I rented it from NetFlix is that Jeffery Falcon is in it.  Many here would probably know him as Buddy in Six-String Samurai.  Sadly, his part was truly tiny.  Maybe 1 minute of screen time.

Amy Yip is also in it, and we get the usual boob jokes there.  No semi-nudity though.

Overall though, the storyline is weak and there is not nearly enough action in the film.  A lot of the characters are more annoying than endearing.

4/10.

[Pilgermann]

The Toxic Avenger -- I was hoping to like this, but it struck me as idiotic and I only found a few bits funny.  I think I'll skip the next 2 sequels and watch Citizen Toxie, though.

I caught this on Fearnet's free On Demand films and for some reason a lot of the gore is edited out!  I was thinking that some of the cuts from scene to scene seemed funky, and sure enough I found a YouTube clip with all the stuff that I didn't see.

Not safe for work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fGt_hwf_4A

[Rev. Powell]

The Toxic Avenger -- I was hoping to like this, but it struck me as idiotic and I only found a few bits funny.  I think I'll skip the next 2 sequels and watch Citizen Toxie, though.

I caught this on Fearnet's free On Demand films and for some reason a lot of the gore is edited out!  I was thinking that some of the cuts from scene to scene seemed funky, and sure enough I found a YouTube clip with all the stuff that I didn't see.

I'm glad someone agrees with me about the original TOXIC AVENGER.  I didn't think it was very funny, and didn't see where its reputation came from.  Probably because it was the first of its kind.

I think the extra gore was edited out to please the MPAA in the original release.  It was restored in a "director's cut" type thing.  Although I admit I could be wrong.