Recent viewings

[Ash]

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL  ***1/2 out of ****.  Took me awhile to see this one but it is one of the funniest films that I've seen in a while. Great performances, clever writing and a fearless attitude combine for a terrific R-rated comedy.

UGH!
I hated, hated, hated this movie!

It took everything I had to finish it.
Unlikable characters, bad writing, bad everything.
The guy who plays the lead is not a likable person.  At least not to me.  He's not leading man material and should only play the friend like he did in Knocked Up.

I give Forgetting Sarah Marshall a half a star out of 4.

[schmendrik]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. Directed by Billy Wilder, who also wrote the screenplay. Finally got around to seeing this classic noir, which I've been meaning to see forever. It's everything people say it is. Nice reversal of types with normally nice-guy Fred MacMurray playing the amoral murderer and frequent-gangster Edward G. Robinson playing the straight-arrow investigator who slowly, slowly tightens the noose. Without ever realizing till the end he's tightening the noose around one of his closest friends. 4.5/5.

Interesting that you would give this 4.5/5, I did the same.  I fully expected it to be a 5/5, being the prototypical film noir and all, but it seemed to me to fall just a little short of perfection for reasons I couldn't fully express.  Maybe it's because we've seen these cliches used so many times in movies since, we can't appreciate how original it was in 1944?

Hard to say. I think I just want to leave room at the top in case I ever run into a 5/5. But I'm with you, if I'm going to name the perfect movie, this one falls ever so slightly short for reasons I can't put my finger on, so I don't want to use my 5/5 on this one.

I think it bothered me just a little that MacMurray talked and acted like one of Raymond Chandler's tough guys. It didn't seem to quite fit an insurance salesman.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Xtro- So awful it's great!  I can't remember the last time I said WTF so often watching a movie.   

Diary of the Dead- God, I wanted to like this movie so much, but there was something about it that forbade me.  I think it was the approach, because there were so many neat scenes in the movie, and such an interesting premise and theme that I thought the movie would go over well.  What I think killed it was that it just didn't seem natural like some movies of the same style do.   

[Cthulhu]

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny- It was pretty funny. Check it out!

[Doggett]

The Stepford Wives (2004)

1.5/5
SPOILERS

I think I laughed 4 times. Weak. I've laughed more in a Police Academy film.
This film actually angers me. Killing your wife and replacing her with a robot just isn't funny. Trying to make the men seem funny and geeky just makes it even worse...because they're murders !
Or are they ?
You see a robot and some of the action the wives get up to is robotic but we get told that all they have are chips inserted into their head, they not robots at all. Not even the screenplay knows what to do !
The character of Bobby really bothers me. In the original, she's very funny and cool but she's also scared and aware that something sinister is going on and it shouldn't be laughed at. In the re-make, she just really annoying. Really.
How can so many talented people make such rubbish ?

[Hammock Rider]

Whoever slew Auntie Roo?..............Weak, even by Shelly Winters' standards.

[lester1/2jr]

Simon King of the Witches-  I recognized a few guys from "The Gay Deceivers" the other kessler movie i've seen.  This one has that distinct  sort of  sit com feel that his movies have,   with a hippie sploitation meets twilight zone sort of plot about a witch who lives ion a storm drain who has tension with the authorities and establishment of a town.   It would have been better if it was more grindhousey and crazy instead of straightforward the way it is.  the plot is interesting but  his style is a little subdued for the weird subject matter though he tries to sorta "go for it" .  and there is way too much of simon himself you just get sick of him.   intersting but you can see why it wasn't a big hit.  Tarantino should do a remake 3.5/5


The Intruder-  not hard to believe this one would turn up on an internet message board!!  early  low budget horror with sam raimi and bruce cambell helping out.  Jaws was beaches,  chopping mall was shopping malls,  The Intruder is supermarkets.  Andy Warhol would have liked this movie,  or anyone who appreciates product plaement.  everything on your shopping list makes an appearence:  frosted flakes,  meister brau, wheat german you name it.    kind of phoned in but passable agatha christy type "who is the killer is it that one, no he was in the room wehen so and so was killed" type guessing game plot.  lead actress is beautiful and charismatic,  always a big plus.  you've probbaly seen this already but if you haven't i recommend it highly 5/5

[Rev. Powell]

NOLSTALGHIA (1983):  A homseick Russian poet touring Italy with a beautiful translator, researching a biography of a Russian composer, grows homesick and meets a madman in this nearly plotless, dreamlike, visually stunning film.  Very slow, but very rewarding.  4/5

[Joe the Destroyer]

Xtro 2- Where the first one was original and featured plenty of WTF for your buck, this one is just a lame Alien knock off.  The only cool thing is the creature.  Besides that, the movie is boring.  There's little about the movie that screams, "Watch me instead of Alien!"   

[lester1/2jr]

white dog (1982)-  I can't recall the exact story behind this one but it was I think not released and was very controversial when it was being made.  It's about a dog that is trained to attack black people aka a "white dog".  Though from the early 80's it stars 70's superstar Kristy McNichol as the girl who finds the nazi-esque pooch and it has a touch of the 70's conspiracy movie vibe ,  the dog was "brainwashed" in a way after all.  McNichol is pretty good but then it's a very sympathetic character.  I'd recommend it but it's the type of story where if they aren't plot holes they are ...concave sort of plot areas that don't make perfect sense to put it charitably.  There are a number of these and I wonder if it might have been changed up a little had it been more widely released.  If I were less charitable I might say certain sometimes large plot elements are simply unfathomable.   I loved the dog and wouldn't have been dissapointed if it was just a pleasant made for tv movie about it and McNichol but then again I'm a total cheeseball.

[3mnkids]

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane ~ yeah, its about zombies on a plan.  I guess this was supposed to be a dark comedy?  It wasn't really dark and certainly wasn't a comedy. It was however excruciatingly boring. I had to fight just to keep my eyes open.   

[Monster Jungle X-Ray]

The Intruder-  not hard to believe this one would turn up on an internet message board!!  early  low budget horror with sam raimi and bruce cambell helping out.  Jaws was beaches,  chopping mall was shopping malls,  The Intruder is supermarkets.  Andy Warhol would have liked this movie,  or anyone who appreciates product plaement.  everything on your shopping list makes an appearence:  frosted flakes,  meister brau, wheat german you name it.    kind of phoned in but passable agatha christy type "who is the killer is it that one, no he was in the room wehen so and so was killed" type guessing game plot.  lead actress is beautiful and charismatic,  always a big plus.  you've probbaly seen this already but if you haven't i recommend it highly 5/5

I love this film, it was directed by Scott Spiegel one of Raimi's crew, and was also a Fake Shemp in Evil Dead I & II. I think the first I saw mention of it were behind the scenes footage on one of the episodes of Incredibly Strange Film Show, probably the one about Sam Raimi. It has those great camera angles.

[Doggett]

Die Hard 2: Die Harder

5/5
John McClane is at an airport at Christmas eve, waiting for his wife.When a bunch of villians hijack the airport so they could free some war criminal. It's awesome.
The original was classic, there aren't many action films that take place in one location but this takes it further. The fact that it's an airport means McClane has a ticking clock, stop the baddies before the aeroplanes fall from the sky. There's a nice little twist involving some army guys sent to take down the baddies and some great lines.

"How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice"

[3mnkids]

The steam experiment~ a crazy guy(kilmer) says he has 6 people locked in a steam room and will let them all die if a newspaper doesn't publish his story on global warming..     yeah, I should have known by the description that it would be lame as hell but thought eh, kilmer can be good(felon, kiss kiss bang bang, tombstone) but he can also be horrible( batman forever, at first sight and many more). It wasn't just kilmer that killed the movie Eric Roberts is in it too.     

It was so boring and really, global warming? that was the best idea they could come up. It was so stupid. oh, I forgot to add, it was about 2012 as well.

[Dennis]

Yesterday afternoon I watched "Invisible Invaders" and "Journey to the Seventh Planet", I remember seeing both at the local theater as a youngster (8 - 12 years old) and thinking that one was kind of scary, and the other was a pretty good space adventure. I find that the scary parts, invisible aliens, the creepy breathing noise they make, and the space adventure, flying to another planet in a day and a half have changed a lot when watched by my self and my wife.
Sample conversation for the first film:
wife "what's that snoring noise?"
me   "one of the invisible invaders"
wife "that's supposed to be scary, it's really just stupid"
me   "it scared me a little the first time I saw this movie"
wife "well you were a little stupid as a child then weren't you"

Sample conversation for the second film:
wife "where'd that woman come from?"
me   "that guy's mind"
wife "that explains the see thru nightie she's wearing"
me   "it's part of the storyline"
wife "it's a real dumb part"
I must admit that watching the movies I enjoyed as a boy with my wife as an adult can be very entertaining.