Recent viewings

Jack · September 05, 2009, 07:16:25 AM

The Killer Shrews (1959) - watched the colorized version on the Genius Entertainment DVD. Supposedly this is fabulously restored and all that stuff - I was fairly disappointed with the overall quality of the print, it was very, very worn. Maybe they cleaned it up as best they could, but it was certainly not in good shape. The colorization was done fairly well for the most part. My favorite bit is where the lead actress is wearing a lavender colored shirt, then suddenly she'd back in her black skintight thing, then suddenly it's back to the lavender shirt. The shrews actually looked kind of cool colorized, they were too red in my opinion, but you could see the throw rugs they were wearing as costumes a bit better. 3.5/5.

violntshags · September 05, 2009, 09:02:39 AM

THE ASTRO ZOMBIES-1968
Not really a zombie movie. Basically a scientist creates 1, that's right 1 zombie from a dead body of a psychopath, and it kills people,obviously. lots of beeping and booping and other strange noises they used for the machine sounds back in the day. really boring. unless you want to fall asleep dont watch it.

lester1/2jr · September 05, 2009, 12:29:12 PM

jack- I've noticed about 3 or 4 people out of the several billion on earth who are kind of obsessed with that movie. is it the escape scene, the shrews or juist the whole thing of it?

Winterbeast- The firs thing you notice is that it is filmed in 8 millimeter like a home movie. It does give it a unique look among horror movies but it's an extremely cheap look. I think the only other 8 millimeter movie I've seen on DVD is "the deadly art of fighting" and I'll say this is a step ahead of this techincally, mainly because they somehow manage to make the loud sound of the camera slightly less loud than in that Charles Ahern pre Wild Style rarity. I guess they saved whatever budget there was for the clash of the titans , or cmore realitically "equinox", style latex stop motion animation. The figures themselves are very weird but impressive in their own way. As always it's the "Jaws" / disaster plot with the guy who runs the inn not wanting to put up signs telling his guests to stay off the mountain because he'll lose business and the ranger hero guy is like "but but but..". I liked the Boston accents and there is some unpredictable stuff which is really important in a genre where it's so easy to just follow the formula. not for normal people 4.5/ 5

Jack · September 05, 2009, 01:32:03 PM

Quote from: lester1/2jr on September 05, 2009, 12:29:12 PM
jack- I've noticed about 3 or 4 people out of the several billion on earth who are kind of obsessed with that movie. is it the escape scene, the shrews or juist the whole thing of it?

Well, for me it's the chick in the skintight black top with some sort of bullet-bra (?), I don't know what it is actually. I'm just fascinated by it. All the characters are quite entertaining, and I get a kick out of the way they're pounding down martinis and chain smoking while surrounded by dogs with throw rugs attached to their backs. The guy with his "Please give me a gun to defend myself, even though you just took my last gun away because I was going to shoot you with it" is worth a chuckle. I dunno, it's amusingly bad and just a fun time.

Rev. Powell · September 06, 2009, 06:12:30 PM

NINJA CHAMPION (1985): A woman and her estranged Interpol agent ex-fiance seek revenge for her rape by a gang of diamond smugglers, and a ninja wanders around in a parallel "plot" (shot at completely different time with English-speaking actors). Incompetent, continuity-free fun from Godfrey Ho, the Asian Ed Wood. 4/5 for bad movie lovers.

TIME BANDITS (1981):A young boy boy travels through time and reality in the company of six thieving dwarfs who have stolen a map of the universe belonging to the Supreme Being. A few segments drag and the tone shifts radically at the end, but this blend of history, fantasy, comedy and theology is whimsical, unique and highly quotable. 4/5.

PI (1998): A reclusive mathematics genius suffering from crippling migraines is on the brink of discovering a mystical number sequence sought after by a multinational corporation and a sect of Kabbalahists. The script wanders into an apocalyptic corner that it can't write it's way out of, but the film gets a ton of style points for the beautifully grainy, high-contrast black and white cinematography and the pulsing electronica soundtrack. 4/5.

SkullBat308 · September 07, 2009, 03:37:15 AM

Wishing Stairs
Ebola Syndrome

indianasmith · September 07, 2009, 08:39:20 AM

A VIKING SAGA: SON OF THOR

BORING beyond words!!! Avoid this pile of cinematic excrescence at all costs!!!!!!!

lester1/2jr · September 07, 2009, 09:22:31 AM

The Bible (1966)- the guide thing gave this 1 1/2 stars so i was expecting a real turkey but I don't see why they gave it that, it was good. It was "only" the book of Genesis but it was a faithful adaption and there was even a little humor here and there. I'm not goona try and "review" the story, well....okay why do we have the story of Noah AND sodom and gomoroh? don't they kind of say the same thing? and if God dictated that "thou shall not steal" why would he give the land of canaan to some people from mesopatamia? Don't the canaanites at least deserve some sort of consolation prize?

and when people say "am I brothers keeper" are they aware they are misusing this phrase? God asks Cain where abel is and Cain is like "I don't know, what am I my brothers keeper?" that's what i took it to mean.

I know what sodomy is but what is gomorahy? it must be even worse

Eyesore · September 07, 2009, 08:42:27 PM

Midnight Meat Train I'm not a gore hound, but this wasn't the usual "cover up the bad production values with buckets of blood" movie that I thought it might be. I had read the short story a long time ago, and this is a pretty fair rendition. Worth a look!

Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer Always creepy!

Resurrection Mary Worth seeing, possible proof that Joe Estevez is older than Martin Sheen...

Rev. Powell · September 07, 2009, 08:50:07 PM

WHITE ZOMBIE (1932): A rewatch. It was as dreamy and eerie as I remembered. I love the early talkie look and feel, the dramatic overracting, the scratchy prints, the sound that drops in and out---it just creates an otherworldly late-night drifting off to nightmareland atmosphere. Plus its got Bela and his eyes. 4/5.

RCMerchant · September 09, 2009, 06:50:16 PM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on September 07, 2009, 08:50:07 PM
WHITE ZOMBIE (1932): A rewatch. It was as dreamy and eerie as I remembered. I love the early talkie look and feel, the dramatic overracting, the scratchy prints, the sound that drops in and out---it just creates an otherworldly late-night drifting off to nightmareland atmosphere. Plus its got Bela and his eyes. 4/5.

And the creepy music! The spirtual song-"Listen to the Lambs" is quite old.
Lugosi reportedly did much of the actual direction for the film-the director got teed and took off...and Bela himself did much of the (uncredited) direction. Which may explain it's silent film/stage theatrics. A classic,and one of my top Bela movies!

Recent veiwings-

DEATHSPORT -David Carradine and Claudia Jennings spout metaphisical nonsense while fighting Richard Lynch and his team of goons ridding Death Machines (dirt bikes with sheet metal guards on them.) Lotsa stuff blowing up and people on fire. The dumb dialouge kills it.

2/5

lester1/2jr · September 11, 2009, 10:29:36 AM

Tashan (2008)- here we are in Bollywood with "tashan" featuring Ashkay Kumar who is like the Chow yun Fat of India kind of, like the coolest guy. It's clearly marketed toward a more mature demographic than alot of the disney-ish stuff I've seen from this rising superpower lately. I wouldn't say it is alot like Tarantino, but it does work a similar combination of comedy and action. I really enjoyed the first half and was toying with giving it 5 stars, but the second half brought some unwanted add ons, namely some ang lee type wire aided action scenes (when did they become martial artists?) and an unfathomable plot twist that took it out of gold medal contention. The songs were pretty mediocre as well, but all in all it was fun and clever and has an interesting sort of Survivor (tv show) morality to it that is cynical but realistic I think. 2 1/2 hours long though I still don't know quite how to pace myself for these things. 3.75/ 5

Black Christmas- So it's a pioneering early horror movie so what. is it any good? Well, yes. WOuld others come along and do it better? probably I'm no expert. I thought some of the "character devlopment", namely the alcoholic played by Margot Kidder, was sort of besides the point and pretnetious in places, like a mediocre off broadway play that's so "shocking" ooh. It's basically a murder mystery though and it does have a good deal of tension in places. You might not like it so much you start a website about it but it's solid and entertaining. I liked especially the demented harassing phone calls from the murderer guy. 4/5

InformationGeek · September 11, 2009, 09:48:21 PM

Alien Trepress:
I just sat through the movie just a little bit ago and I really enjoyed it. It was loaded and stacked to the brim with every b-movie sci-fi 50s flick cliche known to man. The setting, the characters, the story, the special effects, and even the ending credits were a throw back to the original era. If I had to judge this movie by self and not as a tribute to the old films, I was say it was pretty average and a nice b-film. As a tribute though, it was incredible and done masterfully.

The only part I didn't like was that the alien ate that little girl. It seemed a bit cruel, even for a sci-fi film of that time period. Still, if you like these genre, the old b-movies, or just wanted to see something cheesy, this is the best movie to see.

Also, in my English Class, we have just finished reading The Birds, so we are actually watching the movie in class. I'll bring it up again after I see the whole thing.

Rev. Powell · September 12, 2009, 06:31:08 PM

DEATH NOTE (2006, Japanese live-action): A law student finds a notebook deliberately dropped by the God of Death which allows him to kill anyone whose name he writes in it; soon, criminals across the world start dropping dead, while the police race to stop him with the aid of superdetective "L." Goes about its time setting up its premise, but just when you're ready to give up it turns into a clever cat-and-mouse game reminiscent of a battle between a mystical Moriarity and a high-tech Holmes. The God of Death looks like Heath Ledger's Joker with bat wings animated by a bad video game designer, but he's an intriguing character and you get used to him. 3.5/5

THE WASP WOMAN (1959): A female cosmetics mogul injects herself with wasp jelly in an attempt to stay eternally young, with predictable results. It's a parable about... aw, who am I kidding, it's another talky Roger Corman cheapie with a few seconds of Susan Cabot wearing pipe-cleaner antennae. Not a so-bad-it's-good movie. 1.5/5.

indianasmith · September 12, 2009, 07:07:47 PM

I watched RISE OF THE GARGOYLES last night - I'm guessing it was a SyFy original, although it did not have the network's name or logo anywhere on the box. Architectural historian finds pre-Christian gargoyle sculptures in the basement of a condemned church, and releases a real, living gargoyle which slashes its way through the population of Paris, France. Pretty draggy - I kept falling asleep while it was on!