Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

TRIANGLE (2009): Psychological horror about a waitress with an autistic son goes on a yachting cruise; a sudden electrical storm capsizes the boat, and the party is "rescued" by an abandoned cruise ship.  Extremely strange events follow.  Good atmosphere and you're extremely unlikely to figure out what's happening until the midpoint of the film, but it steals shamelessly from TIMECRIMES, and more than anything the muddled script makes you appreciate how brilliantly that independent Spanish production was plotted.  3.5/5.

[Jack]

Doctor X (1932) - Saw the colorized version of this.  Every full moon, a person is murdered.  The perpetrator is traced to one of five scientists who work at a highly respected research institute.  They go to a spooky house to conduct some scientific experiments to determine who the killer is.  That's all well and good, but unfortunately a nosy reported also tags along, and he does everything in his power to turn the movie into some sort of Abbott and Costello routine.  It was kind of cute for the first 15 minutes, but then you realize that half the movie is this goof doing his dopey jokes.  Sigh...  It did finally get better towards the end.  2.5/5.

[Sleepyskull]

Last night I finished watching Spoorloos or in English: The Vanishing (1988)

It was not nearly as good as I had heard, but then again, I knew the whole story ahead of time, so that might have spoiled it a little.

The second half was much better than the first half and I really liked the evil guy. 

I give it 6.8 out of 13 stars.

[Vik]

Spoorloos ? Are you dutch ?

[Sleepyskull]

Spoorloos ? Are you dutch ?

No, I just heard about it a long time ago on this forum and it looked good. I had to use English subtitles.

[metalmonster]

PRIME EVIL

It's About A Group Of Devil Worshipers Who Have Been Keeping Themselves Alive Through Black Magic Since The Time Of The Plague , And They Begin Looking For Another Human Sacrifice In 1980's New York City

[JaseSF]

No Blade of Grass (1970): The world's grain gets infested and becomes inedible and it spreads throughout the planet causing worldwide starvation. The world, including the so-called civilized portion, soon descends into chaos as the laws and rules of society break down and the world becomes something of a battlefield for survival of the fittest. Here we focus on one British family, the Custances, who are trying to work their way lead by Dad John (Nigel Davenport) to an isolated, fortified farm out in the English countryside. It proves far more difficult than they, or we as viewers, could ever have imagined.

There are times this film is very thought provoking and downright disturbing, other times it's dull as dirt as we watch people walk and walk some more through the now ravaged countryside. At times it's a bit too preachy with its message while at other times it feels more like a twisted rape exploitation film with a message tacked on. It's a bit a Sci-Fi dystopia in a vein similar to Panic in Year Zero, a bit biker flick, a bit arty. I certainly didn't care for the brief glimpses into future events that are interspersed throughout the film but I understand why they did it - to break up the monotony of all that walking and to let viewers know that indeed eventually the film will deliver on exploitative thrills and chills. Yet it still tries for a message too. A mixed bag from director Cornel Wilde. **1/2 out of *****

[spongekryst]

PRIME EVIL

It's About A Group Of Devil Worshipers Who Have Been Keeping Themselves Alive Through Black Magic Since The Time Of The Plague , And They Begin Looking For Another Human Sacrifice In 1980's New York City

This movie was hilarious, Ever seen Tromeo and Juliet? Same dude who is the satanic preacher is Juliet's dad in that.

[claws]

The Contract (2006) - A contract killer (Morgan Freeman) cuffed and on the run from the law encounters a hiking father (John Cusack) and his son on a camping trip in the great outdoors. In order to hand the killer to authorities the Father, his son and their prisoner must travel a great distance and overcome many obstacles before reaching civilization. The Contract looks like multi-million bucks but the content is quite shallow. Director Bruce Beresford got the action right but the rest is wretched, silly and dull. However, we get to see Freeman beating the crap out of Cusack so that was a plus. More or less. 2.5/5

Dying Breed (2008) - This exotic backwoods bleeder tells the enchanting story of four friends on a hunt for Tasmanian Tigers in Tasmania, of course. What they find are inbred cannibals with a huge appetite. Bloody, fierce and well-shot terror with an interesting location and neat special effects. 4/5

[Jack]

Pitch Black (2000) - Watched this again.  It improves somewhat on repeat viewings, as I was actually expecting an excellent movie the first time I watched it.  Once my expectations were lowered, it became more enjoyable.  A group of people crash their spaceship on a planet, and after a while it gets dark and the monsters come out to play.  Our group of survivors endure a desperate trek through the monster-infested desert, trying to reach a spaceship that they can use to escape the planet.  The characters in this were very good, and the acting was excellent - for the most part.  It actually gets too bogged down in the characters, at the expense of the plot and the whole horror aspect of it.  You've got the captain of the ship, who tried to jettison the passengers in order to save herself.  Now she's having major guilt issues, as everyone is alive only because her efforts to the contrary failed.  Then there's the morphine addicted bounty hunter.  and the girl who's pretending to be a boy.  And then of course there's Vin Diesel, injecting a large amount of comic book super-anti-hero into a movie that doesn't really need it at all.  He's supposed to be bad - really really bad - we're told.  Yeah right, it's Vin Diesel, he doesn't play bad guys, he plays "bad" guys, you know, the ones who are actually good.  The whole "Ooh, he's so scary" thing at the beginning of the movie was a total waste of time.    Anyhow, it was moderately enjoyable overall.  3.5/5.

[Flick James]

Pitch Black (2000) - Watched this again.  It improves somewhat on repeat viewings, as I was actually expecting an excellent movie the first time I watched it.  Once my expectations were lowered, it became more enjoyable.  A group of people crash their spaceship on a planet, and after a while it gets dark and the monsters come out to play.  Our group of survivors endure a desperate trek through the monster-infested desert, trying to reach a spaceship that they can use to escape the planet.  The characters in this were very good, and the acting was excellent - for the most part.  It actually gets too bogged down in the characters, at the expense of the plot and the whole horror aspect of it.  You've got the captain of the ship, who tried to jettison the passengers in order to save herself.  Now she's having major guilt issues, as everyone is alive only because her efforts to the contrary failed.  Then there's the morphine addicted bounty hunter.  and the girl who's pretending to be a boy.  And then of course there's Vin Diesel, injecting a large amount of comic book super-anti-hero into a movie that doesn't really need it at all.  He's supposed to be bad - really really bad - we're told.  Yeah right, it's Vin Diesel, he doesn't play bad guys, he plays "bad" guys, you know, the ones who are actually good.  The whole "Ooh, he's so scary" thing at the beginning of the movie was a total waste of time.    Anyhow, it was moderately enjoyable overall.  3.5/5.

Not a bad movie. I actually experienced the opposite with this one than you did. I liked it back in 2000 when I first saw it and liked it less on a viewing a year ago or so. I think it's because of the CGI aspect. It looked more impressive then than it does now after years of CGI saturation and my cynical take on it. Overall not a bad movie though.

[Cthulhu]

PRIME EVIL

It's About A Group Of Devil Worshipers Who Have Been Keeping Themselves Alive Through Black Magic Since The Time Of The Plague , And They Begin Looking For Another Human Sacrifice In 1980's New York City

This movie was hilarious, Ever seen Tromeo and Juliet? Same dude who is the satanic preacher is Juliet's dad in that.

Prime evil is hilarious.
The director only made porn movies before this.

[spongekryst]

Just watched Hardware and LOVED it. I read a review that said it was a huge Terminator rip-off, I don't think the reviewer and I saw the same movie. The only part I noticed was the close ups on the machine's eyes. It was actually a lot scarier and the world is a semi-post-apocalyptic desert! What a dumbsh*t.

[Psycho Circus]

Just watched Hardware and LOVED it. I read a review that said it was a huge Terminator rip-off, I don't think the reviewer and I saw the same movie. The only part I noticed was the close ups on the machine's eyes. It was actually a lot scarier and the world is a semi-post-apocalyptic desert! What a dumbsh*t.

Hardware is great. It does take a while to get into gear, but it delivers with good atmosphere and I feel, a decent chunk of originality.

[Jim H]

I just saw Vera Cruz.  It was OK.  I liked Burt Lancaster's performance, who amazingly was much better than Gary Cooper - who was flat and uninteresting.  Nicely shot, for the most part.  Good supporting performances too.

A 6/10.