Recent viewings

[3mnkids]

The other side(2006)~ Samuel is waiting for his girlfriend at their special place when he is killed. He goes to hell. There is some kind of breach and a bunch of people escape, including Samuel.  He wakes up in the hospital and finds out his girlfriend is missing so he must find her. Complicating this are the reapers sent from hell to bring him and the others back.

With a reported budget of only 15K its impressive. I liked it a lot.

[Jack]

The Eye Creatures (1965) - some really stupid looking aliens come to earth, and some really stupid kids see them, but the stupid cops won't believe them.  And don't even get me started on the stupid military.  Ugh.  It took a fair amount of willpower to make it to the end of this thing.  The whole movie is supposedly taking place at night, but two-thirds of it is obviously filmed in broad daylight.  There are a couple of military guys who are supposed to be monitoring the infra-red scanner, but they use it (throughout the whole movie) to watch teenagers at the local make-out spot.  These guys are straight out of Gomer Pyle.  Probably the funniest part is when three kids are sitting in a convertible, and the aliens are shuffling their way towards them at about 1/2 mph (their top speed).  The kids just sit there, accepting their fate I guess.  1.5/5.

[claws]

You are a real trooper, Jack 
There was a time I would watch movies people wouldn't touch with a ten feet pole for good reason. I have since restrained myself in hopes of finding undiscovered fun entertainment while sifting through obvious crap. Nowadays I mostly let others do the job. They will point out the good stuff eventually.
Saves me time, money and doesn't damage the brain 

[Jack]

You are a real trooper, Jack 
There was a time I would watch movies people wouldn't touch with a ten feet pole for good reason. I have since restrained myself in hopes of finding undiscovered fun entertainment while sifting through obvious crap. Nowadays I mostly let others do the job. They will point out the good stuff eventually.
Saves me time, money and doesn't damage the brain 

Sometimes I wonder if Netflix streaming is really such a great idea.  If I'm going to pay money for a movie, I'll usually at least watch the trailer on Youtube or something.  But with Netflix, it's like "Oh, an alien invasion movie form the '60s - I'll just add it to the queue!"

It can result in some pretty painful experiences.

[InformationGeek]

Bug (1975): Based of the novel, an earthquake hits a small town which releases a bunch of firebugs from the earth.  It's pretty average movie with some interesting killer bugs.  The bugs are sort of underused disappointly.  I reviewed so I won't go into more details here.

[Doggett]

Mumford (1999)
2/5

You Can Count On Me (2000)
2/5

Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
2.5/5

I can't even be bothered to talk about them. DULL.

Weather Girl (2009)
Okay, I'll talk about this.
A weather girl flips her lid on morning television about her cheating parnter, who is the co-host of the show. She then loses her job and has move in with her brother.

I really liked this !

After the rubbish I've been watching it was a relief to find something this good. The performances are top notch, I've never seen this actress before but she was great. Very funny and quick witted. She's also a little too old to be considered 'girl' of which she does point out. Her brother and his best friend I though were really well written, they behave like normal best friends, not a silly cliche of 'buddies' that you see in hollywood flicks.

This is a warm hearted comedy/drama thast I would recommend.
Its nothing special, but a nice, cosy night in.
3.75/5

It vanished without a trace in the US. It isn't even avaliable to buy on DVD in the UK. Please go see it !!! It needs your love !

[lester1/2jr]

Fitzcaraldo- If you've seen Aquirre: the wrath of god and haven't seen this you are likely to be a little confused. It's another film with Klaus Kinski as a guy determined to get down the amazon!  this time he is in the early 20th instead of 15th or whatever century but he is still dodging indian arrows and ...its really awfully similar in many ways.

It's also 2 and a half hours long.  it's pretty slow going up till the 1:30 mark where it gets more interesting when he meets up w/ the indians.  don't though get me wrong it's another great herzog movie, it's just alot of this was said in Aquirre and that's shorter and came first 4.5/5

[JaseSF]

Paranormal Activity (2007): Upon acquiring an high-tech camera and despite a warning from a psychic that it could make things worse, a young man named Micah becomes obsessed with filming what they suspect might be a demon that has been haunting his terrified girlfriend Katie since she was eight years old.

While the ending here hardly seems original these days, I quite enjoyed this one. It really pulls the viewer in and gradually builds up the tension and suspense hinting just a little bit early on as to what's really going on and then giving us more and more hints as we go along. It frightens in small ways - using sounds and what's not seen, or what's just quickly glimpsed, to frighten us more than perhaps what is. That said, it's hard to feel sympathetic to Micah because he comes across as a bit of selfish jerk throughout a lot of this but this is still quite good and feels surprisingly realistic in its portrayal of life and paranormal events. *** out of ***** stars.

Friday the 13th (2009): Groups of brainless youth trot up to Camp Crystal Lake and inevitably manage to run across and/or offend/P.O. the monstrous Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears), who hunts them down without mercy as he does anyone else who trespasses on his Crystal Lake killing ground. Of particular focus here is a young man named Clay (Jared Padalecki) who's searching for his missing sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti).

This movie is basically a sped up retelling of the first 3 1980s films, with perhaps a few elements of 4, in a more modern setting. There's nothing original or even all that surprising here. Unfortunately this even lacks any real significant amount of suspense and rarely even manages to surprise with false scares. There's little here to make one jump and is perhaps only slightly memorable for some of its more brutal kills. Not one character is truly sympathetic and there's really no effort made to make you like or care for any of the characters. You pretty much know what's going to happen before it does and how everything here will play out especially if you've seen the earlier films. Basically there's no real suspense. It just goes through its predictable motions until we get to the end. At least the 80s films had a sense of fun and cheesiness about them. This doesn't even have that. It is however a bit more faithful to the original Jason Vorhees character than I expected it to be and for that reason I give it ** out of ***** stars.

[3mnkids]

District B13(Banlieue 13)~Set in a Paris ghetto that has been walled off by the government. Somehow a bomb ends up in B13 and its up to a cop and a recently jailed resident of B13 to stop it from going off. Of course it rips off other movies but I didn't care. The plot is silly but the action sequences are what this movie is all about. I loved it.    Martial art movie fans should definitely check this one out.

[Rev. Powell]

TNT JACKSON (1974): A streetwise, kung fu trained black woman travels into the Hong Kong underground searching for her missing brother and immediately hooks up with the heroin-smuggling organization that murdered him in this martial arts/blaxploitation hybrid.  Fast paced, poorly plotted fun; former Playboy Playmate Jeanne Bell is too sweet looking and can't kick butt, so to distract the audience from her lack of prowess she does a long combat scene topless!  A good watch, you might rate this one as high as 3.5/5. 

[Raffine]

Fitzcaraldo- If you've seen Aquirre: the wrath of god and haven't seen this you are likely to be a little confused. It's another film with Klaus Kinski as a guy determined to get down the amazon!  this time he is in the early 20th instead of 15th or whatever century but he is still dodging indian arrows and ...its really awfully similar in many ways.

It's also 2 and a half hours long.  it's pretty slow going up till the 1:30 mark where it gets more interesting when he meets up w/ the indians.  don't though get me wrong it's another great herzog movie, it's just alot of this was said in Aquirre and that's shorter and came first 4.5/5

Here's a fascinating look at how FITZCARRALDO might have been if Jason Robards and Mick Jagger didn't drop out of the project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTgDXu_Nhys

"Yippee! Let's build an opera house! Weee! vs. "I VANT MEIN OPERA HAUS!!! AAARGGH!"

[indianasmith]

Last night I tried to watch a movie from Maverick Entertainment called SPIKE. Four people driving through the wilderness in a van run offroad and get stuck.  A hideous humanoid creature covered with spikes all over its body is stalking them and carries off one girl after mortally wounding her boyfriend, leaving the lesbian couple to try and rescue her.

Sounds like a cool premise, but then the Spike creature starts whining like a lovelorn teenager about how he and this girl were best friends as kids, and she's the only woman he ever loved, and how could he ditch her for this other guy . . .

and I fell asleep.

What a lame movie!  What makes me mad is the cover art made it look like SUCH a cool idea!!!  And the costume was awesome.  But even when I woke back up a few times, it just never got any better.  And the end was a total downer.

[3mnkids]

Soft for digging~ An old man lives alone in the mountains with his cat. One day while searching the woods for his runaway cat he witnesses the murder of a little girl, or does he? The police cant find a body and no one believes him. He starts to think he may be crazy when he starts having visions and nightmares of the little girl...

There are maybe 6 words spoken in the first 60 minutes and maybe a total of 20 through out this hour and 14 minute movie. After certain scenes it goes black with a screen that reads chapter I,II ..etc. With a description of whats upcoming.    The ending was not what I was expecting at all but damn, this was painful to watch.

[claws]

Soft for digging~ An old man lives alone in the mountains with his cat. One day while searching the woods for his runaway cat he witnesses the murder of a little girl, or does he? The police cant find a body and no one believes him. He starts to think he may be crazy when he starts having visions and nightmares of the little girl...

There are maybe 6 words spoken in the first 60 minutes and maybe a total of 20 through out this hour and 14 minute movie. After certain scenes it goes black with a screen that reads chapter I,II ..etc. With a description of whats upcoming.    The ending was not what I was expecting at all but damn, this was painful to watch.

I thought it was refreshing different for a Indie movie. Odd movie no doubt.

[Jack]

Laserblast (1978) - Watched the MST3K version of this.  Some young guy finds a dopey looking laser gun out in the desert, along with an amulet which must be worn in order for the gun to fire.  But the amulet starts turning him evil.  Most of the movie is filler - he talks to his girlfriend and, well, talks to her some more.  There are a couple of obnoxious dorks in town who give him some trouble.  He laserbalsts them!  Eventually.  There are also some claymation aliens who show up from time to time.  They're kind of cool looking.  The whole thing moves at a glacial pace and the girlfriend is the only spot of energy that kept me from dozing off.  The MST3K guys get off to a really slow start, but as the end of the movie approaches, they made me chuckle about 10 times.  Maybe my mood was just improving as the end was in sight.  3/5.