Recent viewings

[major jay]

SKI PATROL
I just caught this on THIS TV.

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[claws]

Incubus (1982)

Women are brutally raped in a small town. A local Doctor and a reporter are investigating, but the serial rapist might not be human after all.
Tense little shocker that works as a slasher as well. Great ending and Kerrie Keane with one of my favorite movie performances ever. 4/5

[Jack]

The Unnamable (1988) - There's this spooky house, so some frat boys get a couple girls to go there with them, hoping to get a little action.  A nerd disappeared there earlier, so his nerd buddies also show up to look for him.  Turns out there's a monster lurking about.  This was okay.  Kind of a "made for TV" vibe through most of it, not really trying very hard at all to establish any suspense or tension.  The monster was pretty cool looking when we finally saw him at the end, but I was too busy chuckling at how he lost 90% of his strength when fighting a main character     3/5.

[Silverlady]

"Bug Movies" began at 8:00 last night on TCM. It started with THEM, then COSMIC MONSTERS, TARANTULA, (saw half of) THE BLACK SCORPION, etc ... unfortunately that's as far as I got   

Why can't TCM run movies like this on a Saturday nite instead of during the week? 

[lester1/2jr]

Vision (2008)- pretty dissapointing. I love the music of Hildegaard Von Binger. I can't count how many times I've listened to Gothic Voices or Voices of the Blood. I was hoping this movie would at least ttempt to capture that beauty but it's just a straightforward biogrpahy of the woman whose life wasn't actually all that interesting. It's what she created that is her legacy, not any quasi feminist politicking she did to have her owen cloister. SOmeone like Werner Herzog or even Ken Russel or something she have done this. It should have been full of dazzling imagery and the old churches instead it's lke a high school play. 2.5/5

[Jack]

Battle of Los Angeles (2011) - Notice the "of" in the title - this is the Asylum knockoff.  I haven't seen Battle Los Angeles, but it doesn't matter anyway because this is a ripoff of Independence Day.  Except with a Ninja chick who can destroy alien spaceshps by jumping off a 5 story building and plunging her katana into them.  No seriously!   Aliens attack LA, in the same type of spaceship and using the same type of weapon as in Independence Day.  Even for a SyFy Channel Original, the special effects are just abysmal.  It looks like they took a two-dimensional drawing of a ship and superimposed stuff on top of it.  Anyhow, a small band of survivors eventually makes their way to the underground base where the alien from some previous encounter is being held.  Then they get in the alien's old ship and use it to attack the mother ship.  This MUST have been written by an elementary school kid.  I mean, you've got jet fighters stationed around LA - on a dirt runway?  And then one of them chases down and destroys several ICBM's.  One plane crashes and we see it jammed into the top of a building like a lawn dart.  It would take a good half hour just to point out all the ridiculous nonsense I noticed in one viewing. 

It's a hard one to rate.  I thought it was incredibly stupid when I was on my first and second beers, but by the time I hit beer #3 I was starting to enjoy it.  Soooooo...3.5/5.

[Jack]

The Dark Lurking (2010) - Some people in an underground lab on another planet (I guess?) create some monsters and a group of overly macho military guys are sent in to rescue them.  They climb through lots and lots of ventilation ducts.  Yup, that's pretty much it.  Characters are marginally developed, plot is marginally developed.  There's lots of shooting.  2.5/5.

[venomx]

Eddie Murphy Delirious (1983)

[major jay]

THE STICKS OF DEATH
I caught this on THIS TV. It's the best "bad movie" I've seen in a long time.
The dubbing is awesome. 5/5
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[Rev. Powell]

TRAILERS FROM HELL, VOL. 2 (2011): "Trailers from Hell" is Joe Dante's pet project; he and a series of guest directors and screenwriters show trailers, and comment on them.  It's like those old trailer compilations we sometimes used to watch, but with commentary about the movies.  Some of the directors involved this time are Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Jack Hill, Lloyd Kaufman and Roger Corman; they cover 20 different generally obscure genre movies, from Hammer productions to Argento's DEEP RED, JAWS to FLESH GORDON.  You almost always learn something about the films.  It runs about 50 minutes, covering 20 films.  You can see other trailers done in this style on their website of the same name.  The flip side of the disc contains a remastered "anamorphic" version of the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.  You might consider LITTLE SHOP the feature presentation and the trailers the extra, or the other way around.  This goes on sale 7/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Major Jay- I'm watching that too. It's pretty good. That girl is hot.

Encounters at the End of the World (2007)- It's another great movie from Werner Herzog. This is one of his more accesible ones and a worthy though slightly less crazy or more subtle about it follow up to Grizzly Man. He goes to Antarctica and films the scientists and the various sciences they are doing. I guess you'd have to say it's somewhat sciencey. Herzog clearly has other more expansive/ human issues he's interested in though. His narration and interviews are clever and simple, not too labored. He sounds like a guy whose made a ton of movies and seen alot in life basically.

There are some unforgettable images of weird underwater creatures, volcanoes, and vast ice vastness.  The scientiest themselves are not quite as fascinating but colorful in their own way. They are generally of an adventurous and eccentric sort and seem quite happy about being where they are relative to other places, though highly concerned about global warming and pretty cynical about man's future.   5/5

[JaseSF]

Closure (2007) (AKA: Straightheads (2007)): After a vicious gang beating and rape attack, a businesswoman named Alice (Gillian Anderson) and her younger 23 year old boyfriend Adam (Danny Dyer) plot revenge and plan to murder their attackers but both feel conflicted when faced with the bitter reality of carrying their plans through.

This film goes to some dark places but honestly despite the severity of the material covered and the actions taken by many of the characters, it somewhat lacks the bite that other films of this type that proceeded it had and somehow seems almost tame next to similiar fare from the 60s and 70s. Still there's really little here to recommend this one, unless you're looking for some Gillian Anderson nude scenes (there's a couple here) and I was a bit disturbed that practically all the male characters involved here seem to take pleasure in victimizing others. Overall tad bit predictable and disappointing and I saw the twist ending coming a mile away. **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Zombie Campout (2002) - Some kids go camping in the woods, but as luck would have it, a meteor shower causes all the dead at a nearby cemetery to come back to life.  Total z-grade all the way, I'd be surprised if the budget was much over $10,000.  Don't know if I was in a weird mood or what, but I had a fun time.  It's just so unpretentious and silly, like everybody made up their lines before the scene began, but tried really hard to do a good job.  It made me chuckle quite a few times, like when a girl gets both arms ripped off by zombies, tries to run away, but trips over one of her arms.  Hate it when that happens     The characters were quite  well developed and likable.  And not at all bad to look at either.  4/5.

[claws]

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

Down on luck crew get first salvage dips on the Poseidon but the hunt for fortune turns into a deadly trip through the capsized ship.
Unnecessary sequel pretty much doing what the original did, only worse. Interesting cast but mediocre characters. Only Sally Field was really good, and funny. 3/5

[Pilgermann]

The Gunfighter (1950) - Gregory Peck stars as Johnny Ringo, renowned for his quick-draw skills and body count.  Early in the film a cocky young punk stirs up trouble when Ringo is minding his own business at a saloon, and tries to shoot Ringo but winds up dead.  Turns out he has three brothers who end up pursuing Ringo.  The gunfighter leaves for a nearby town to try to find and reconnect with his wife and child that he abandoned years ago to pursue his life of crime, but he's sort of reformed himself and is trying to leave the past behind. 

This is an excellent movie, and a precursor to a ton of other Westerns with similar themes.

Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Famous for R. Lee Ermey's portrayal of the DI, and it should be, but I thought that the Vietnam scenes were very engaging and full of nice unsettling touches like the guy shouting, "Get some, get some," as he mows down innocent civilians from a helicopter.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Not great, but very funny and oddly charming.  Notorious for multiple shots of Jason Segal's penis.

The Shining (1980) - I like this more every time I see it.  It's as scary as a movie can get, and everything about it is so well-crafted that it blows me away.  At this point I really don't understand why Shelly Duvall is criticized for her performance; I think it's impressive.  I can hardly think of another film where an actor is so convicingly terrified and exhausted, and this is partly due to her actual exhaustion while making the film.  Even before the scenes of terror I think she's very good and very vulnerable.

I never realized that the interiors and hedge maze were all sets that were constructed.  Wow!