Recent viewings

[Joe the Destroyer]

Evil Dead Trap- Good old fashion Japanese nonsense.  I really wish I could talk about the more ridiculous aspects of this movie, but I don't want to ruin anything.  Very unique death scenes, but my only complaint is it blows its load way too early.  Before the movie is even halfway through, all of the red shirts are dead.   

Aberration- Another fun flick with mutant lizards and Evil Deadish silliness.  There were a few eye roll worthy lines, though (like, "I'm about to evolve my ass to the car," or something like that  ).  Still worth watching for a good laugh and some nice b-flick thrills.   

Tangled- A very good flick that I feel was snubbed for best animated picture by the Academy.  Even if it wouldn't have beaten Toy Story 3, it still would have been nice to get the recognition.   

[Kaseykockroach]

The King of Comedy-
Fantastically underrated film (I love it even more than Taxi Driver). Shame it's so 'misunderstood' (for lack of a better term).

[Hammock Rider]

The King of Comedy-
Fantastically underrated film (I love it even more than Taxi Driver). Shame it's so 'misunderstood' (for lack of a better term).

  I agree. It was way ahead of it's time. Tell me it didn't predict exactly what's happening in society today.


  I just watched Mesa of the Lost Women for the first time.For those of you who don't know, it's about a varied group of travelers who happen upon a mad scientist who is using gene therapy to change spiders into malevolent male dwarves and exotic, sexy deadly women. It takes itself way to seriously and features a melodramatic narration and some god awful flamenco guitar as the sound track. Someone on IMDB described it as painfully painful and that's a good description. One of the highlights is the "Spider dance" of Tarentella, the Head Spider Woman. She tries to come across as deadly, sexy and aloof, but instead just seems ticked off, like you just pinched her parking spot. Still I'd recommend it. It's interestingly terrible and you don't want to miss that spider dance.

[lester1/2jr]

agree about both King of Comedy and Mesa of Lost Woman.


Legendary Weapons of CHina (1982) - This is kind of crazy but really good. This review is a little bit of a struggle ( to write not just to read)  because this is a kind of great / kind of odd in some ways movie. Pretty much all the big Shaw Brothers stars are in it. The kung fu is great. There is an interesting theme too: how do martial artists deal with the rise of the gun? answer: not to well apparently.

It's an odd theme for a kung fu movie to take because it sort of puts the whole thing in question. It makes all the kung fu guys in the movie look kind of like losers. It's not unworkable, just requires some panache to pull off and they do it.

Probably the first thing that will bug people is the extended slapstick segment starring the great Alexander Fu Sheng as a phony "spiritual boxer".  The theme of the main guy being willing to quit this kung fu clan because of the rise of weapons is so strong, you kind of don't want to see the thing veer off course.

There are other slapstick things with varying degrees of success. Despite this I still really liked the movie and imagine I will watch it once again in the future.

4.75 /5

[JaseSF]

The Trigger Effect (1996): Matthew and Annie Kay (Kyle MacLachlan & Elisabeth Shue) alongside their mutual friend Joe (Dermot Mulroney) come face to face with how thin the veil of civilization really is when a mysterious and unexplained power blackout grips their lives and that of all those around them.

This film very much in the vein of Panic in Year Zero with a small dash of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" explores how easy it is for latent tensions already under the surface in people can grow and boil over in the face of the unexplained and when their suddenly routine lives and reliance on everyday technology is interrupted. It makes for some fascinating viewing especially during the film's first two-thirds. Things falter towards the end and the film seemingly failing to deliver in some ways upon expectation (yet I guess one could argue that its ending defies expectation in an interesting way only it doesn't quite seem to work as well as it should and we're left with a feeling of things unresolved). Still it was an enjoyable ride for the most part featuring some fine actors. I really liked MacLachlan here as a normally quiet and passive man here unwillingly pushed into taking action to defend his family and Shue does a fine job too, and is certainly not hard on the eyes either, as his wife. Also look for Michael Rooker in a small but very memorable part as a man desperately seeking a ride. Not bad but could have been even better. *** out of ***** stars.

[bob]

Disaster Movie -  0/5 one of the worst of all time. there is nothing funny or original in this laugh free comedy

[Couchtr26]

The Omega Man - Why did I wait to see this?

Rubber - Interesting but odd movie.

Taoism Drunkard - This was rather humorous.  I was happy to have a nice laugh. 

Black Death - Interesting but not the best execution. 

[claws]

Disaster Movie -  0/5 one of the worst of all time. there is nothing funny or original in this laugh free comedy

I hope Disaster Movie wasn't recommended in your "recommend bob some movies" thread 

[Jack]

Days of Darkness (2007) - A comet crashes to earth and causes the vast majority of people to turn into zombies.  A small group of survivors takes shelter in an abandoned bunker, and a clash of personalities ensues.  This was actually pretty darned good!  I thought the characters were really well done - the main characters are a young couple;  the girl was saving herself for marriage, but then it turns out she's pregnant.  This does NOT sit well with her boyfriend.  Then you've got your loudmouth a-hole with the gun, but he's really not too bad either.  You can pretty much see where he's coming from - he doesn't want to get killed and he's not going to worry about politeness.  There's a buff military babe, but she's not your typical cliche either, she's just a capable and intelligent female who used to be in the military.  Then there's a religious fanatic who's spouting Bible verses and annoying the hell out of everybody.  Even the minor characters are developed enough to give them a personality.  And it's not a "zombie" movie per se either, it's more an alien infection type plot, and that story is actually developed pretty well throughout the runtime.

Maybe I was in a weird mood or something, but this little zero budget thing really worked for me.  4/5.

[Flick James]

The King's Speech (2010) - I finally got around to seeing it last night when the NetFlix disc arrived. I enjoyed it, it was a powerful film. I don't know if it deserved Best Picture, but it was definately a meaningful film. There were certain things about it that struck me, and typical of an American take on the film. I couldn't escape thinking about royal inbreeding throughout the film. This is a real thing. There have been some issues with kings and other royalty throughout Europe that are at the very least related to the fact that the they're all related. I kept wondering if King George VI's speech impediment was at least influenced by all that inbreeding. That's not meant to detract from the overall message, and I certainly appreciate George VI's struggles and his determination to overcome them. I just couldn't keep the idea of royal inbreeding out of my mind the entire time.

Anyway, I give it a solid 4/5. Trevor, I know you're not a fan of the director for you own reasons that I appreciate, but you might want to give it a shot.

[Vik]

kung Fu Panda
Eh, everything was completely predictable, most of the jokes weren't that funny, though some made me chuckle. It was okay, basically.

[venomx]

Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs (2005)

[Psycho Circus]

Disaster Movie -  0/5 one of the worst of all time. there is nothing funny or original in this laugh free comedy

I hope Disaster Movie wasn't recommended in your "recommend bob some movies" thread 

Oh yeah, that's just cruel!

[Rev. Powell]

LUNACY (2005): A mentally unstable man meets a modern day Marquis de Sade who holds blasphemous rituals in his basement and convinces his guest to commit himself to an insane asylum run by the inmates.  In between scenes we see clips of steaks and disembodied tongues slithering about.  It's bizarre, but not the strangest from surrealist animator Svankmejer; if you squint hard, it even looks like an ordinary horror movie.  The tag line says it best: "Edgar Allen Poe + the Marquis de Sade + Jan Svankmejer = Lunacy."  3.5/5. 

[bob]

Disaster Movie -   0/5 one of the worst of all time. there is nothing funny or original in this laugh free comedy

I hope Disaster Movie wasn't recommended in your "recommend bob some movies" thread  

Oh yeah, that's just cruel!

I needed to watch it for one of my movies books I'm working on......it was kinda odd as if there was a sign for me to not watch it. I put in my DVD slot on my comptuer and it started violently shaking and making noise. And the copy I rented crapped out with 10-20 minutes left because of sctratches, but not before having multiple skipping issues.