Recent viewings

[Doggett]

Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

1- 4/5
2 - 4/5
3 - 3/5

[JaseSF]

A sleazy double-feature

Beyond Obsession (1982): While visiting exotic Morocco, an American businessman named Matthew Jackson (Tom Berenger) tries to rescue a young woman named Nina (Eleonora Giorgi) from a bizarre relationship she's ensnarled in with an older ex-diplomat named Enrico Sommi (Marcello Mastroianni) who now finds himself a pampered prisoner largely due to Nina's machinations. Things get more and more bizarre as we learn Nina stole Enrico as a young teenage girl from her own mother?! and they (Nina and Enrico) may be connected in even more ways than originally meets the eye.

This unusual film directed by Liliana Cavani just gets more and more startling as it unfolds. Unfortunately it also tends to get more and more confusing. It's largely a jumbled mess starting off in the present and suddenly moving into the past with any flashback transition or anything...instead it just suddenly moves from present day to the past and back again to the present at the very end. It goes for the shocks alright and there it delivers but it's mostly stuff we hear about after the fact which is definitely for the best when the subject matter includes underage sex and possible incest. The shocking twist ending does deliver the intended impact because most viewers by that time if they've actually stuck this out that long will have either given up in utter confusion or be so overwhelmed by one shocking revelation after another that the ending won't seem nearly as out of the ordinary as it really should. *1/2 out of *****

Lethal Victims (1987): When the alternate titles of a film are W.A.R.: Women Against Rape, Death Blow: A Cry For Justice and I Will Dance on Your Grave: Lethal Victims, that's usually not a very good sign and indeed this movie really isn't very good. It's supposed to be about a vigilante force of former female rape victims banding together to fight back against rapists taking extreme measures and indeed that element is presented here in a way that just has to be seen to be believed...let's just say it involves a branding iron. Overall this is a very amaterurish effort and it shows, the actors cannot act aside from a slumming Martin Landau who shouldn't have been anywhere near this wannabe rape exploitation or is that feminist exploiting rapist film? They can't seem to make up their minds. Whatever you call it, it's about as bad as you can get. Arguably a must see [when you can see it that is, often it's too dark to make out anything] for bad-movie fanatics though. *1/2 out of *****

[Pilgermann]

The Burning - Almost completely stupid.

[JaseSF]

Africa Screams (1949): Lesser Abbott and Costello effort has them as a pair of bumbling booksellers turned wannabe jungle adventurers. Abbott's Buzz Johnson wants only fame and fortune and goes gaga when he hears talk of a fortune in diamonds to be found in Africa while Costello's Stan Livington is a cowardly sort who wants nothing more than to overcome his fears and be seen as a brave and courageous fellow. Together they get a chance to fulfill their wishes when a woman named Diana Emerson mistakenly believes Livington has in his mind memory of a map leading to a fortune in hidden diamonds in Africa. What ensues is chaos and chases galore as A & C run across lions, "gorillas", cannibals and even more!

This is really good fun and benefits a lot from its guest cast including Max and Buddy Baer as Diana Emerson's heavy henchmen, Shemp Howard as Gunner - a blind as a bat expert gunsman, Joe Besser as much too put-upon servant Harry and Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck playing themselves as the real life adventurers they really were. There are a lot of great skit like comedy segments here featuring A&C interracting with the different guest stars. The best bits feature Livington (Costello) in a cage with a lion he mistakenly thinks is Johnson (Abbott) in a lion suit, Costello on the run from cannibals who think he looks mighty tasty, plus a scene of Abbott's Johnson mourning what he thinks is a lost Livington. There are also some fantastic elements here that move this beyond the comedy genre and into the realm of fantasy, including a huge surprise at one point. Unfortunately it seems the budget suffered at times, probably as a result of all the name stars involved, as the effects are often far from convincing. Still this is fine A&C fun, if not one of their film greats. *** out of *****

At War With the Army (1950): A bumbling army private named Alvin Corwin (Jerry Lewis) must contend with many obstacles when he wants to get a leave to visit his wife who's about to have his baby. One of his biggest is actually his headstrong bestest friend/acting 1st Sergeant Vic Puccinelli (Dean Martin), who has his own problems trying to get shipped overseas and dodging different ladies who each seem to want his sole attention.

This is Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's first film together as a comedy duo. Unfortunately though most of this film actually does NOT see them interracting together which will no doubt disappoint some. In fact their best moment together involves then performing a musical and comedy skit routine which eventually sees them do a spot-on imitation of Bing Cosby and Barry Fitzgerald from "Going My Way". This film does have some great moments though that are quite funny and amusing. Some of the best running gags involve a stubborn soda machine that seemingly never wants to give out a 5 cent soda, a Colonel who insists on conserving electricity, and Sgt. Vic Punicelli going to great lengths to avoid a seemingly non-persistant girlfriend. Also there's a great scene with Lewis in drag turning shocked heads at a bar, a fun scene in which Lewis must contend with the army obstacle course and several fun songs including Lewis singing "Beans, Beans, Beans!", Martin singing "Tona Wanda Hoy" and Martin singing "You and Your Beautiful Eyes" to newcomer Polly Bergen. Also it's surprising how accurate they are in terms of portraying army structure. The biggest problem here however is how nasty Martin's character is...in fact there's very little likable about him as he lords his power over Lewis's Corwin and others and treats his ladies rather shabbily if you really stop to think about it. The next biggest problem is the film feels largely stagebound and is too much like a series of variety show skits thrown together. **1/2 out of *****

The Flying Deuces (1939): Ollie, very upset to have his love advances rejected by a young lady decides to join the French Foreign Legion hoping to forget about her. Of course, Stan gets dragged into service along with him. There they find things much, much tougher than they ever expected, in fact it's much too difficult for their "delicate sensibilities" and soon try and get out of the service which proves much, much more difficult and deadly, as deserters are shot, than they ever expected. This Oliver and Hardy picture had me busting my gut in laughter. Aside from their terrific physical comedy and prop scenes, they provide us with some fantastic chase sequences including one involving a Laurel and Hardy on a runaway airplane they have no clue how to operate. What really helps here is that Charles Middleton and Reginald Gardiner plays their parts as Commandant and Francois, in service of the French Foreign Legion, very straight and serious. Just great, great fun. Highly recommended. ****1/2 out of *****

[Doggett]

Poltergeist III




Don't waste your time.

[Jim H]

Just saw Targets, the very late Boris Karloff film.  It's pretty good.  I do have to say the final confrontation, evidently what the whole film builds to, is awfully quick and then the movie just ends.  That was part of the point, I think, but it still felt a little blah to me.

Worth a view though.  7/10.

[lester1/2jr]

Monsters, Marriage, and Murder in Manchvegas (2009) - This is definately an underground movie in the sense that it seems pretty well oblivious to whatever is going on right now. A good starting point would be Chris Elliots "Get a Life", it not only has the same sort of set up of a young guy, here young people, who have a paper route and in general don't want to grow up, it similarly makes use of pg rated dorky humor in a kind of parody of it, if that makes sense. Except it is so mind numbingly dorky I don't even know if it is a parody.  Pee Wee herman might be another sort of touchstone.  Maybe a touch of Sarah Silverman Show in it's cleaner moments. What's bizarre is in the commentary these guys appear obsessed with rare early 80's horror movies which it must be said this really bears very little resemblence too in any way.  really baffling stuff. I liked it, but it needed to a. be funnier and b, mess with the formula a little more. I like the conventional sort of dialogue but without a Chris Elliot or someone steering the ship it begins to resemble a Scooby Doo episode or something which, again, may well be what these maniacs were going for.   3.5/5

[Cthulhu]

Crank-F*ck yeah!

[Doggett]

High School Musical.





Look, there was nuthin' else on alright !
Leave me alone !!!!

[JaseSF]

Gone to the Dogs.

The Painted Hills (1951): While this is billed as a Lassie movie, it's actually an adaptation of a story entitled "Shep of the Painted Hills" and indeed the lead dog here is named Shep (played by Pal who gets top billing as "Lassie"). This film actually seems pretty far removed from your typical Lassie film which will definitely disappoint those hoping for family friendly fun. What we get instead is a dark revenge driven film in which our heroic dog Shep attempts to extract a measure of revenge when his owner, a gold prospector named Jonathan (Paul Kelly), is murdered by his unscrupulous partner Lin (Bruce Cowling) whose gone a bit gold crazy in the head. This is almost the Lassie equivalent of a Bruce Lee revenge film which makes for some pretty strange viewing including an intense showdown between Shep and Lin right at the very end. ** out of *****

White Fang to the Rescue (1974): O.K., it's remarkable just how similar this film is to THE PAINTED HILLS only here our lead dog is White Fang (whose actually more prone to take part in these revenge driven films as a character seems to me).  Here White Fang seeks to avenge his original master's death by teaming up with his old master's best friend (Maurizio Merli) to find said master's murderers, avenge said death and insure his gold claim gets recognized which will benefit his son Kim, whom the friend Merli comes to adopt as his own. Actually he even assumes his friend's very identity as the boy never ever really knew his real father. This film, directed by Tonino Ricci, is in many ways a disguised Spaghetti Western only it also involves a very determined dog. It at times is quite involving and engrossing and moves along pretty quickly. The lead villain is played with gusto by Henry Silva and the dog White Fang (played by Saccha) performs many startling stunts and pulls off some neat tricks sure to delight viewers. Of course at other times, things move beyond the realm of the believable especially with regards to the ending revelation involving White Fang. The biggest and most disturbing element here is that the animals do seem to have been exploited especially a bear used to fight with White Fang in one scene. It here seems to have been abused making for some disturbing viewing if one is an animal lover. Still a surprisingly entertaining film one can find on a dollar DVD. **1/2 out of *****

[3mnkids]

Frequently asked questions about time travel~ A quirky British film about 3 friends who end up in a time "leak".. I loved it, It was funny and very entertaining. Well acted by all except Anna Faris. I don't like her, She does those stupid scary movie's..And she was sooo wrong for this movie IMO. Apparently, everyone in the future is American     so I get they needed an American but she was the wrong choice.

It doesn't get all "technical" with the time travel stuff which I liked, it was more about the 3 friends and what was happening to them. I really enjoyed it and will be buying it as soon as it becomes available. 

[Psycho Circus]

Ugh! 

Red Cliff (2008)

Really, really dull film which was completely incoherent for at least the first hour. Far too many characters introduced and introduced in the manner of some sort of video game opening sequence. John Woo's direction in the first half is a complete mess, made all the more hard to follow as the film is subtitled during fade-ins and cut aways to all sorts of nonsense. The story is of a would-be emperor* who starts a war over a woman who makes tea. That's it. The films saving grace, barring people "flying" around like "hidden tigers" or whatever, is the epic battle towards the end. It's a constant barrage of thousands of troops trying to dismember and burn each other. I would have like that part even more if it hadn't of been for CGI fire, CGI water.....Yes, CGI water!!  2/5

*Oh, btw. The dude at the end is defeated when his hair gets untied!! 


Blues Brothers (1980)

I'm sure many people would disagree with me, but apart from all the car stunts and John Belushi's face, I found this film to be completely unfunny and overrated. I think I chuckled about 3 times throughout the whole flick. I actually thought there was alot of good dialogue and jokes that weren't hit upon. Plus, the Blues brothers aren't really that bluesy? I'd give the soundtrack a ten, but for the film... 2/5

[3mnkids]

In Bruges~ Im not a huge fan of Colin Farrell but he was brilliant in this.  The F word is used liberally   

Death Sentence~ Its completely unbelievable but Garrett Hedlund looks so good in this I have to watch it. Bald head, tattoos, bad attitude..   

[lester1/2jr]

Rockers (1978) -  the reggae movie that's not "the harder they come".  This is a little slow but I liked it.  Alot of it is these guys saying "jah rasta" to each other and generally greeting each other and asking each other "  whatya hom I and I dowen"  or something, there are subtitles thankfully.  If you are a fan of not just Bob Marley reggae from this era you will recognize most of the soundtrack.  There is a light but solid plot:  Horsemouth the main character wants to buy a motorcycle so he can make money delivering records to stores.  It's going good but the bike gets stolen by these mafia types.  It's the most laid back stoned revenge ever as he and half of jamaica unite to take on the gangsters, one of whom is the father of horsemouths love interest Sunshine. the live performances by Gregory Isaacs and Peter Tosh (who are also members of Horsemouths marijuana fueled peoples army) are kind of lackluster but there is a lot of great music and atmosphere.  I've had good luck with jamaican movies: shottas, Orange smile, Dance hall Queen and now this.  As long as they keep providing subtitles I'll keep watching them  4/5

[Doggett]

Saw III

2.5/5

T'is okay. It's not too bad, not too good. Very middle of the road. Mediocre. Average. The end twist isn't as samrt as it thinks it is. I figured it out and I'm not too bright.