Recent viewings

[mahoney]

44 INCH CHEST (2009): Four men (presumably gangsters, though it's never made explicit) kidnap the lover of a cuckolded mate's wife and try to goad the bereaved man into killing him for revenge.  A talky, dry satire on mob masculinity that feels like a one-act play with each character getting a moment in the spotlight; great performances by the principal cast but the script loses its way, and the ending won't satisfy anyone.  Possibly worth it just for the brief glance of John Hurt in a black cocktail dress.  2.5/5.

Just watched this & I have to agree with you. A very strong cast but the script is a real let down

Other recent watches

One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Always tend to find Hammer films hit or miss, this was definitely a miss. Harryhausen's stop-motion effects still hold up to this day, I'd still rather see that than bad CGI in a modern film. Unfortunately I found the film very uninteresting.
**

El Mariachi (1992)
A decent film which I enjoyed but I immediately watched it again with the directors commentary & it was a fascinating listen. Sure it's a million miles away from being a great film but when you think it was made with just a few thousand dollars it's a pretty remarkable achievement in low-budget film making
***

Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
A true masterpiece in film making in every aspect.
*****

The Wolfman (2010)
I'd seen alot of real negative reviews regarding this one. I personally thought it was a real noble attempt at a werewolf movie. Cast was decent, pacing of the story was just about right & they didn't go overboard on the CGI which was my main concern going into the film. Sure I'll still take Silver Bullet or An American Werewolf In London anyday over this but in terms of a modern werewolf movie I think this was a pretty solid attempt
***.

[claws]

The House of the Devil (2009)

I really wanted to like this film.The feel of it was good, I liked the retro thing and it worked, and it felt genuine. I also liked the slow build. The only problem is the film never delivered on the high expectations is seemed to set for itself. I was hopeful when the main character's best friend was killed, as that was a creepy scene. I thought "okay, now we're getting started." But it never really improved. There was too much slow build up and not enough delivery. A movie that could have been great but turned out a bit flat in my opinion, and that's from someone who appreciates slow tension build-up. 2.8/5.

Yeah, that seems to be the main complaint about the movie, no huge pay off for the 'slow build up'.

Which makes me wonder what kind of pay off people were expecting. The ID4 apocalypse? I pretty much had an idea where this movie was heading with all the hints, clues and the opening blurb. Considering what this movie was about what else was there to expect? The ending was perfectly fine for me and what's even more important, the journey there was even better.

And one thing did lead to another 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F913LrBAMSg

[Jack]

Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster (1965) - NASA decides to send an android to Mars for the first "manned" landing, but as luck would have it there are some aliens in orbit around Earth, and they mistake our Mars mission for an attack against them and shoot down our rocket.  So the android is horribly disfigured and therefore becomes "Frankenstein".  The aliens are here because they've had a nuclear war and all their women are dead, so they raid a pool party and abduct all the chickies.  They've also got a monster on their ship, because...because the plot requires it.  So the Army and Air Force team up to defeat the aliens, while the disfigured android takes on the space monster.  This is real Plan 9 stuff - but not quite as entertaining.  Every line of dialogue is ripe for mockery - if you wanted to have some friends over and to do an MST3K routine on something, this would be a perfect choice.  My favorite parts are where the astronaut is getting in his space capsule, or the fighter pilots are running out to their planes, and they're playing groovy upbeat '60s music over it.  Talk about inappropriate    2.5/5.  If I was drinking (a lot of) beer it might have been a 4/5. 

[Leah]

Inception- one word- PSYCHOLOGICAL! it is a master piece since the Dark Knight, it is currently number 3 on the top 250 on IMDb. man it's nice when you see an original idea become so insanely awesome. 120/5

[lester1/2jr]

Midnight Movies (2007) - documentary. The term midnight movies gets thrown around so much, I didn't realize there was actually a small group of movies that were CALLED midnight movies and showed at midnight for a certain period in america. I think like, Dr Gold foot and the bikini machine is a midnight movie. Actually, they are all movies made by CHarles Midnight. No I'm kidding, but they are all specifically  a bunch of movies  that couldn't get into or didn't do well in daylight but made a ton and ran forever at midnight for some reason in the 70's

The movies they discuss are El Topo, Pink Flamingos Night of the Living Dead, Refer Madness, Rocky Horror, Harder They come and Eraserhead.  If you haven't seen any of these it doesn't really matter.  There are a few spoilers but the focus is on the phenom itself. If you aren't familiar with those know they are an amazingly diverse group of films. El Topo is mexican fantasy western, Harder they Come is Jamaican and features alot of reggae then very unfamiliar to most americans, Rocky Horror and Flaimigoes have gay/camp elements, refer madness is an infamous early scare film which is sort of inherently campy.  The thing that drew all these films together was pot smoking and the desire of poeple do to this activity late at night while watching strange s**t.

All the directors are present as well as the theatre owners and some of the audience members. Roger Ebert discusses seeing Night Of the Living Dead in a theatre full of terrified young children. Some of the discussion is a little airy and repetitive (especially during El Topo for some reason) but in general it's interesting. of course with the advent of home video the midnight movie phenom as major thing died though there are still pockets of it in some places that have weird movies at midnight. Efforts to show that midnight movies sensiblities have become part of the mainstream via Tarantino and others were not really succesful. Though mad ein the 60's they were borne of the 60's and vietnam newsreel footage and charles manson trial stuff seeps into alot of them one way or another.

5/5

[3mnkids]

The experiment(Das experiment)~ A group of 20 men take part in an experiment where for two weeks they will either play guards of a prison or a prisoner. They are told that if they are randomly picked to be a prisoner they will have no privacy and no civil rights. The guards are told they can not resort to violence or the experiment will end...

Towards the end of the movie I was wanting Berus to get his ass beat.   I was sitting on the edge of my seat watching this. 

[Jack]

Alien 51 (2004) - Watched this again.  There's an alien at Area 51 and it starts killing people in the area.  They hired Heidi Fleiss to "star" in this, unfortunately they didn't really have anything for her to do.  So she's in charge of a circus freak show sort of thing and she wants the alien baby to display.  Judging by the size of her show, this might net her upwards of $30 a week.  Mostly her and some other guy ride around in a limo.  You've got your obligatory babe scientist who was the head of the alien project at Area 51 who teams up with the local sheriff to track the critter down.  The alien is pretty funny, just a guy in a mask.  The movie's stupid and occasionally approaches being humorous.  Not too close though.  Mostly just and excuse to get some attractive women on screen.  2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

I watched LAKE DEAD the other night.  A pretty decent installment in the Afterdark Horrorfest series.   Three sisters find out a grandfather they never knew has died and that they have inherited his hotel.  The foulmouth, drunk sister arrives first and is brutally murdered by two Cannibal Mutant Hillbillies in coveralls.  Then the rest show up - two sisters, one boyfriend, one best friend, and a slutty roommate/friend who immediately begins making a play for the best friend's boyfriend.  One by one, everyone but the two sisters are eliminated, as it becomes apparent that there is a bizarre link between the little old lady that runs the hotel, the two CMH's, and the local sheriff.

Overall, pretty well done with some effective kills and some very attractive young women.  Definitely worth the 49 cent rental!

[3mnkids]

Love Object~ Kenneth is a very lonely instruction manual writer(He sits in his closet and listens to his neighbor having sex) one day his coworkers tell him about Nikki the sex doll and his whole life changes. Lisa is a new co worker and he kinda has a thing for her but is too insecure to do anything about it so he customizes Nikki to look like her. He really likes Lisa and starts spending a lot of time with her. This makes Nikki very angry... yes, the sex doll. 

It had some pretty funny moments but would have worked better as a short story I think. It has a decent cast. Rip Torn and Udo Kier give somewhat subdued performances(for them anyway) and Desmond Harrington is believable as an awkward weirdo.

This was another recommendation from Netflix for me... Hm, wonder what that says about me. 

[Jack]

The foulmouth, drunk sister arrives first and is brutally murdered by two Cannibal Mutant Hillbillies in coveralls. 

She was my favorite one 

[JaseSF]

Zombieland (2009): the world of tomorrow is overrun with a zombie plague but a young man nicknamed Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has a plan and list of rules he uses and adheres to constantly in order to survive. Eventually the lonely Columbus meets and teams with the older Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who isn't so much for rules but is a badass with a real talent for killing zombies although he does have a major weakness when it comes to Twinkies. Along the way they meet up with a young woman nicknamed Wichita (Emma Stone) and her younger 12 year old sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), unlikely survivors who use their cunning and wile to their advantage in a world overrun by zombies. But can they, will they survive until the movie's end?

I really liked this. It was very much a fun movie, that's  surprisingly as much about finding one's place in the world as it is about gut-munching zombies, and one I suspect will become a cult favourite in time with some lines that I suspect will likely prove quite quotable to fans for generations to come. It's also very, very funny and amusing albeit mostly in a dark humor fashion. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of Shaun of the Dead but unlike that movie which I feel eventually descended into usual zombie fare, this movie I felt kept the humor and fun feel going much longer. **** out of *****

"I could tell she knew what I was feeling, we all are orphans in Zombieland"

" Time to nut up or shut up! "

"It's amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total s**t storm. "

"You see, that why i don't let people close, you only get burned"

[Jack]

The Fear Chamber (1968) - another repeat viewing.  Some scientists find a living rock deep within the earth, and bring it to the surface to study it.  It offers to provide them great knowledge, but actually it just wants to take over the world.  It requires blood taken from women in extreme terror to grow, so the lead scientist, Boris Karloff (in one of his last roles), sets up a "fear chamber" where unsuspecting women are driven to terror in very cheesy and exploitative ways.  Pretty entertaining overall.  Karloff puts in a good performance, and the whole thing is so nutty and silly that I had to enjoy it.  3.5/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched a Bruce Willis comedy named COP OUT.  It had a few 'chuckle moments," but overall, was pretty weak.  Two suspended cops are frantically trying to recover a stolen baseball card, so the older one (Willis) can pay for his daughter's wedding.  And in the process, they bring down an enormous Mexican drug gang and rescue a beautiful Latina.

[Rev. Powell]

BRANDED TO KILL (1964): Hamada, the #3 killer with the rice-sniffing fetish, finds himself in trouble with the Organization after he falls in love with a woman with a death wish.  BRANDED drips with 60s cool and is a near-perfect work of neo-surrealism in that, although the details often don't make sense, the big picture always does.  Contains the memorable scenes of Hamada assassinating a man by shooting up the drainpipe and botching a hit when a butterfly lands on his gun barrel.  4.5/5.   

[Hammock Rider]

TESLA: MASTER OF LIGHTENING.
   I've been interested in Tesla since The Prestige and this documentary really fed my Tesla Jones. Wow this was an amazing guy. I wonder if a huge Tesla Coil sits under the huge dome of the Capitol Building andwhat really happened to all his papers after he died?