Recent viewings

[God the Worms]

Splatter Farm- Nearly zero budget SOV classic from the Polonia Bros. It still holds up in presentation, of course the quality is grainy, but the sound improved a little bit (I got the Camp Motion Pictures DVD, REALLY want the VHS). Overall worth seeing at least once, because as far as this Texas Chainsaw Massacre love letter goes, it get a 8/10 for the labor of love from it auteur directors. Some describe it as extremely depraved, but I  found it fairly tame (the poop is obviously cocoa, and the necrophilia is just comical in this). Give it a rent at least 

Gummo- Words can barely describe, it certainly leaves an impression, I do not like giving too much away, I also recommend this to you netflickers.

[claws]

Splatter Farm- Nearly zero budget SOV classic from the Polonia Bros. It still holds up in presentation, of course the quality is grainy, but the sound improved a little bit (I got the Camp Motion Pictures DVD, REALLY want the VHS). Overall worth seeing at least once, because as far as this Texas Chainsaw Massacre love letter goes, it get a 8/10 for the labor of love from it auteur directors. Some describe it as extremely depraved, but I  found it fairly tame (the poop is obviously cocoa, and the necrophilia is just comical in this). Give it a rent at least 

Splatter Farm is surprisingly 'easy on the eyes' so to speak, and one will notice that some effort went into it. Polonias 'best' movie in my opinion.

[3mnkids]

Under the salt(Bajo la sal )~ A small Mexican town has several young women missing and bodies start turning up in the local salt mine.

The good~ The performances by the entire cast and it looks great.

The Bad~ At 2 hours it dragged. Its got this slow pace throughout the movie and it kinda exhausted me     I'm so tired now. I really didn't care about any of the characters and if they found the killer, great. If they didn't, I was alright with that too.

Its not a bad movie by any stretch just too long. Its worth a watch if you're a mystery fan or like foreign films, just keep a cup of coffee nearby.

[Rev. Powell]

THE FATAL HOUR (1940): "Chinese copper" Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) follows the trail of a dead cop and uncovers a smuggling ring in San Francisco.  Drained of personality, Karloff stars (?) as a Chinese (?) detective with minimal deductive powers; fortunately, he's given a generic mystery to solve in this insulting 3rd generation Charlie Chan ripoff. 1.5/5.

[Doggett]

The Changeling.

A man moves into a house and its haunted. 'Nuff said.

This was a pleasant surprise.
Its creepy and atmospheric similar to the likes of The Others and with the detective elements of The Ring. There were a few moments when I did wonder how exactly the main character came to certain conclusions. Sometime he just seemed to know things that weren't explained to the viewer.

How did he know the ***** were hidden there ? An entire ex-ranch and he happens just to know the exact place?
Maybe I wasn't paying attention enough.

Still, it was spooky and atmospheric and I really enjoyed it.


3.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE (1966): A nuclear detonation awakens a giant fire-eating turtle who proceeds to stomp Tokyo.  This first Gamera movie plays straight, which doesn't work with such a silly monster, but it has its moments of destruction and the English language footage is campy and comic. This is the Americanized version of "Daikaijû Gamera"; like the Raymond Burr version of GODZILLA, extra footage was filmed with American actors to replace some of the Japanese exposition.  The extra "M" in Gamera's name doesn't help anything.  2.5/5.

LESSON LEARNED: Le Monde prints its headlines in English.

[lester1/2jr]

The Thin Blue Line (1988) - This is like Capturing the Friedmans or Paradise Lost, a feature length documentary showing a fairly obvious miscarriage of justice. Probably closer to latter, it also takes place in the south and it deals with a murder that is, as Tom Waits would say, "pinned on a drifter" instead of the local boy who actually did it. It's not a big mystery, theres never really much question. The focus of the movie is on the prosecution of Randall Adams who made the fatal mistake of hanging out with a 16 year old guy who had given him a a ride when his car broke down. At some point after he went home, the kid shot and killed a cop in cold blood and eventually named Adams as the killer.

I'm not exactly sure why they wanted to convict Adams. I read one thing that said that it was because the kid was too young to be tried for the death penalty and they wanted to give someone the death penalty for the killing of a cop. Maybe they thought he did it then realized he probably didn't but by that point they would have lost face if they admitted they were wrong. At any rate, the movie is extremely methodical in outlining the facts of the case without being at all dull. It's a really remarkable piece of investigative journalism. It's not quite as colorful as the afforementioned documentaries, it's more like a really good episode of Dateline NBC without the "from the outside it looked like they had the perfect suburban family" nararrator guy.

5/5

God Told Me To (1974) - This low budget thriller wasn't perfect but it was engrossing. It's combination of suspense and weirdness reminded me alot of  "Demon Seed" though cinema snobs would probably scoff at that "scoff scoff". It's the conspiracy plot where all the sudden people are going nuts and killing people for no apparant reason. When asked they say "God told me too". The main character is the detective trying to find the who the God who is telling people to do these murders is. It has some very unexpected twists and turns and is a must see for fans of weird 70's movies.

Some of it was a little confusing. Also,  the dialogue was mixed quiet relative to the the music in some scenes, I had to turn up the sound sometimes. Also didn't like the female lead, she looked like Bailey Quarters from WKRP (the girl who wasn't Loni Anderson) and every scene she is in seems to just die (lol sorry lady). The rough edges detract a little but I liked it alot.
4.5/5


the Black Room (1935)- I liked this Boris Karloff horror set in a Bavarian village or something. He's the baron of it and he's an a***ole who everyone hates. His nicer brother ,who is fated to kill him in the houses "Black Room", comes for a visit and this role is also played by Karloff. They do about as good a job as people who try this do today with the stand in with their back to the camera and so forth. Karloff isn't the most charismatic actor ever, he does not quite have that Lugosi presence and the movie doesn't have the amazing cinematography with crazy shots of castles at night or the unforgettable images of a Frankenstein but it is still diabolical. Waifish blonde Marian Marsh is cute as a button. solid and entertaining

4/5

[ChaosTheory]

The Changeling.

A man moves into a house and its haunted. 'Nuff said.

This was a pleasant surprise.
Its creepy and atmospheric similar to the likes of The Others and with the detective elements of The Ring. There were a few moments when I did wonder how exactly the main character came to certain conclusions. Sometime he just seemed to know things that weren't explained to the viewer.

How did he know the ***** were hidden there ? An entire ex-ranch and he happens just to know the exact place?
Maybe I wasn't paying attention enough.

Still, it was spooky and atmospheric and I really enjoyed it.


3.5/5

I could be remembering wrong but I thought the ghost gave him some clues.  Or, maybe he just has superpowers because he's George C. Scott    Good movie, it was a pleasant surprise to me too.

[3mnkids]

5150 Elm's way(5150, Rue des Ormes)~ Yannick has a bicycle accident on the wrong street. He sees someone outside and asks for help. Unfortunately for poor Yannick the family is psychotic. The father/husband is a religious nut who thinks he is doing good work by killing the unrighteous. The only thing keeping him from killing Yannick is his belief that violence is wrong against the righteous and Yannick isn't unrighteous so what to do, what to do.. .After weeks of confinement he decides that if Yannick can beat him at chess he will let him go.


What a weird movie. The acting is very good and it has some really tense moments. Some of the stuff Yannick does doesn't make sense and  the plot is bizarre with the chess thing(like omg wtf bizarre) but overall I enjoyed it.


Clownstrophobia~ A psychologist has a therapy session for juvenile delinquents(who fear clowns) in her home the same night her brother(snuffles, the killer clown) escapes from a mental hospital and returns home.... muhahaha      

This had a cheesy porno vibe to it, minus the good stuff, sex.. The dialogue is overacted and cheesy, its hilarious. Id be willing to bet that everyone involved in this movie has worked in the porn industry... call it a hunch.     And snuffles? Really? That name doesn't exactly yell be afraid! be very afraid! The kills weren't that good either. That being said, its worth a watch for sure, just don't be surprised if you start saying bow chicka bow wow over and over again in your head.

[Jack]

Naked Fear (2007) - A girl from a small town in Texas moves to slightly less small town in New Mexico, where she's been promised a job as a dancer.  Turns out the job is for a stripper, but she's broke and can't get home, so she has little choice but to go along with it.  Her roommate suggests she take up prostitution to earn extra cash, but unfortunately her first john turns out to be a serial killer.  He likes to take his victims out to the middle of the New Mexico wilderness and hunt them, but this girl turns out to be a bit more resourceful than most.  A very well done movie overall, with sympathetic, well developed characters and plenty of believable drama.  It drew me into its story pretty well.  My only complaint is they cheeseball epilogue they tacked on to the end, which seemed like it belonged on a different movie entirely.  Oh, and it definitely delivers on the "naked" part of Naked Fear.  4/5.

[Doggett]

Orphan (2009)

A couple adopt a little girl...

More of a thriller than a horror, but good fun. Great performances by all.
One of those flicks where you watch someone twisting others around thier little finger.

3.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

5150 Elm's way(5150, Rue des Ormes)~

What a weird movie.

Thanks for another recommendation---though if you liked it, it may not be weird enough for me. 

[3mnkids]

5150 Elm's way(5150, Rue des Ormes)~

What a weird movie.

Thanks for another recommendation---though if you liked it, it may not be weird enough for me. 

  It probably wont be weird enough for you but its worth watching. Id be interested in reading your review of it.

[Doggett]

Cracks.

The charasmatic swimming teacher, 'Miss G', of a 1930's English boarding school starts to have an unhealthy intrest in one of her girls, Fiamma...

There's a intresting dynamic between how miss G manipulates her girls into liking her and how Fammia can can see right through her. Miss G see's Fiamma as someone dangerous and fascinating at the same time.


Eva Green is brilliant in this. She starts off so cool and trendy and slowly falls into obsession and delusion.
The students act great too. It does feel a little unfulfilling at the end and you do wish there was more Miss G as she's a intresting character, but theres a lot of time spent between the new girl and the leader of a group of girls, Di, who share a room.

There were a few moments where I felt a little uncomfortable watching.

4/5

[InformationGeek]

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009):

Based sort of around the kid's book of the same name, a young inventor creates a machine that can turn water into food, which can make it rain food.  The machine works great and gets the town famous, but unfortantely, the food tends to get much bigger and much more destructive as the story goes on until... well... a Las Vegas Buffet perfect storm as it is put.

The animation is very silly looking, but nicely down and it goes well with the overall goofy feeling the movie is.  The story is sort of based around the kid's book, but not completely.  The idea of food raining on a small island town and a couple of similiar elements from the book are still there, but this expands more on the simple story by explaining why it rains food, how it helps the town, etc.  This is a good thing though.

Voice acting is great and quite amusing too.  There is a monkey voiced by Neil Patrick Harris who has an obession with gummi bears, the evil town mayor voiced by Bruce Campbell (Yes, that Bruce), and even Mr. T as a police officier.  To answer questions, yes, the character is just as awesome as he is in real life and in all his other roles.

Finally, the comedy.  It is great and there are a lot of jokes that work perfectly.  I laughed a lot and my mom is normally not into this kind of comedy was having a blast with this show.  There are good kids jokes and a couple of sutble adult jokes to keep everyone happy.

In the end, this is great film for the whole family to see and I highly recommend to anyone looking for a fun CGI film that isn't Pixar or Dreamworks.  Sony Pictures Animation has come along way since Open Season.  Not as good as Toy Story 3 was recently, but this is a must see for the whole family.