Recent viewings

[Leah]

Dangerous Liaisons- a nice movie, better than Luther by a long stretch, but not as good as Dr. Zhivago. 4.69/5

[Hammock Rider]

I just finished Tarkan vs the Vikings last night. Andrew's review is spot on. It revels in its crapulence. I can't recommend it enough. One of my favorite bits of dialogue takes place between the evil viking Toro and the Viking King.

Toro: I've kidnapped Attila's daughter!
Viking King: What! You've angered the Turks!? We've had it! Thats it, the Vikings are finished!"

  There's plenty of unintentionally hilarious nationalism in this one. You can't go wrong with it.

[Doggett]

Repo Chick

I didn't really understand the plot. At all. And the chick in question was annoying, not cool.

Just don't. Its a bad CGI nightmare.
This film is like Circus' worst nightmare.

1.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Barbarians at the Gates (1993) - If you don't watch CNBC or follow Wall Street I don't think you'll be into this at all but if you do it's really good. In fact, it's good in no small part because it's so uncompromising in it's decision to tell the story with at least some implied understanding by the audience of all this stuff.  Not trying to sound like an a***ole, it's just purposely not super accesible to the casual viewer but if you liked all the money talk in like Wall Street or even Trading Places you might like it.

RJR Nabisco makes cigarettes and cookies. It's an old fashioned company that has a steady if uneventful stock performance. The 80's happen and soon it's being targeted for an LBO or leveraged buy out, meaning some wall street types are going to borrow a ton of money to pay an obscene price for it. The president, our main character, is sort of in both worlds, he's old school but also a sick businessman who knows the wave of the future is in LBO's so he's like what the heck.

The heated negotiations take up most of the movie. The script is a little too full of quips and whatnot to be called "natural" but it's solid.  It's the other side of the coin of Wall Street, the stuff that goes on in the boardroom rather than the human drama and nightlife and whatnot. based on the true story of this deal /era.

4.5/5

[Pilgermann]

Shock Corridor (1963) - A journalist schemes to solve a murder at a mental institution by posing as mentally ill and getting institutionalized in hopes of writing a Pulitzer Prize winning article on the experience.  This is the first Samuel Fuller film I've seen and I was aware that he isn't known for subtlety, and for the most part it's pretty blunt I suppose.  The acting is kinda over the top and a lot of it is downright goofy, but it somehow works.  I was kind of unsure about it afterwards but the more I thought about it the more I liked it.  The scene where Constance Towers is doing her strip tease sort of looked like something from a David Lynch movie.  I look forward to more of Fuller's films.  8/10

Cage II (1994) - Although not as good as the wonderful Cage, it's still entertaining.  In the first film, Billy (Lou Ferrigno) and Scott (Reb Brown) are buddies who served in Vietnam, and Billy was wounded while saving Scott and suffered permanent brain damage as a result.  Through a certain chain of events Billy was forced to fight in undergound cage matches led by a guy named Tin Lum Yin, who was seemeingly killed at the end of Cage but has returned and has an even bigger cage match deal going on that's broadcast worldwide on Pay Per View.  Billy's kidnapped and tricked into thinking Scott's dead, and he's given drugs to make him more cooperative and aggressive.  For no good reason, Billy's less retarded this time around to put it crudely.

There are a lot of good bloody cage matches, a cool little martial arts master who doesn't speak and kicks everyone's butts (and has a nice surprise in a duffle bag that he carries around), and Reb Brown joins in the cage matches with a disguise consisting of a long black wig and fake facial hair.  It's a fun film, but lacks the goofy charm and great tasteless dialogue of the first, and Reb Brown screams and curses a lot less which is unfortunate.  Too many generic sound effects, too.  8/10

Here's the beginning of the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ml31m4UHIc

[FatFreddysCat]

Last movie I saw was "Insidious" -- a fairly entertaining modern riff on "Poltergeist." A family moves into a new house, their kid falls into a mysterious coma-like state, and weird sh*t starts happening around the house. Paranormal investigators are called in and they determine that something "on the other side" has nefarious plans for their son.

It kinda fell apart in the last half hour but up till then, the first hour of build-up was surprisingly creepy. During one pivotal scene my wife actually screamed like a teenybopper at a Justin Bieber concert, she had to put her hand over her mouth cuz she was afraid she'd wake the kids. Haha.

[Pilgermann]

Insidious had a promising build-up but definitely became less effective and kinda silly by the end.  The scene where your wife screamed, did it happen to be during a certain scene in a kitchen?  That one made me jump.

Ghost Rider (2007) - I know this is a generally hated film, but I watched it fully expecting to somehow enjoy it, but you know what?  It does suck.  Bad.  I played the last 30 minutes on 2x speed (my player still has sound at that speed, it's just sped up, yay) because I do like finishing a film when I start it.  Overall it was just too boring and the characters were super-lame.  Cage had a few fun moments of craziness and Eve Mendes is nice lookin', but I can't recommend this to anyone.  3/10

Reform School Girl (1957) - A teenage girl named Donna who lives with her aunt and pervert uncle goes out one night with some friends.  The girl's date, Vince, happens to be driving a car he stole earlier, and after dumping the other couple who aren't up for crashing a party, they head off together.  Donna soon realizes that its a stolen car, and after an arguement, Vince starts speeding and is soon pursued by police.  During this reckless driving episode he accidentally runs over and kills a pedestrian.  He bails and leaves Donna by herself.  She refuses to identify him in court because he very seriously threatened to murder her and her aunt and uncle, so she's sent off to reform school.  More stuff happens from there.

This is a pretty nice and entertaining picture, almost like a women in prison flick.  I was drawn to it because Luana Anders is in it, I love her to death, although she's kind of an evil b**** in this.  Watch it if you can.  6/10

[Jack]

Molly and the Ghost (1991) - some whore wants to shack up with her sister's husband, so she hires a hitman to kill her sister.  Things get a little mixed up and he kills the whore who hired him instead, so she comes back as a ghost and bothers her sister and her husband.  Yawn.  The characters weren't acted too badly - that's the one good thing I'll say about this.  It was like a Cinemax After Dark movie, except with only 1/10th enough skin to carry something like that.  So you're left with characters and story.  Oh dear.  It would be right at home as movie #20 in a Mill Creek 50 pack.  Watchable, and that's about the highest compliment it's likely to get.  2.25/5.

[Rev. Powell]

PASSION PLAY (2010): A trumpet player discovers a woman with wings at a freak show while hiding out from a gangster who wants him dead.  A potentially interesting premise wrecked by an awful script that begs us to care whether angelic Megan Fox will choose old, creepy, poor Mickey Rourke or old, creepy, rich Bill Murray.  1.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

Insidious had a promising build-up but definitely became less effective and kinda silly by the end.  The scene where your wife screamed, did it happen to be during a certain scene in a kitchen?  That one made me jump.

Yep, that be the one. It got me too, I jumped, and I NEVER do that. I was so ashamed of myself. Haha.

Anyways, last film seen..."Big Trouble in Little China" (1986)... believe it or not this was the first time I've ever seen this cult classic. Chop-socky, comic book fun from John Carpenter. Kurt Russell is a truck driver who gets caught up in a battle against an ancient Chinese wizard beneath the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. I swear this movie had to have been made up as they went along, but boy was it fun to watch!

[Pilgermann]

Freaked (1993) - Smug movie star Ricky Coogan (Alex Winter) is sent as a spokesman to improve the image of a big corporation using controversial chemicals in South America.  He has a run-in with the owner of a freakshow (Randy Quaid) who turns him and his friends into freaks and imprisons them with other freaks he's made. 

This is a fun movie, lots of rude and gross-out humor, but it's got a nice spoofy-vibe and features a lot of cool makeup effects.  Plus Mr. T is the bearded lady.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfxCGAKhgQ

[Vik]

Manhattan
First Woody Allen film I've seen. Liked it a lot. Except, at the end, I thought Isaac was a selfish as***le, and I'm not sure if that's intentional.

[claws]

Prophecy (1979)

Essential summer viewing for me as I'm a sucker for movies with outdoors setting. Prophecy delivers - has a nice set up, solid acting, fun monsters and excessive PG blood & gore. The tunnel, driving-by-night and the lake scenes are some of my fave suspense moments ever. 4/5

[wuatenigenu]

I've been enjoying the tv show Weeds. Haven't been that much into a tv series since.. maybe Malcolm in the Middle. What a great cast, great writing and character development 

[Jack]

Dark Star (1974) - Four guys on a spaceship do absolutely nothing for 83 minutes.  This was as boring and stupid as it gets.  1/5.