Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

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.

Really? Personally I found it laugh out loud funny and thought it a clever parody but it has been years since I last saw it.

[Leah]

Cowboys and Aliens- eh, a decent flick. Nothing to pay to go see at the movies, but a viewing when it comes on. 3.5/ 5

[indianasmith]

I watched SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE last night - not bad for a SYFY original.  Tonight I tried to watch something called HALF  MOON.  It was a pretty dreadful werewolf flick, starring some porn star trying to break into mainstream films.  But she played a hooker, of course, so I guess it wasn't an enormous leap.

[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.

Really? Personally I found it laugh out loud funny and thought it a clever parody but it has been years since I last saw it.

I guess humor is a very subjective thing, and it wasn't the type of humor that I found funny at all.  I have to admit I did like bomb #20 though - "Let there be light."  Thank you Mr. Bomb, you just caused the credits to roll   

[FatFreddysCat]

Re-watch: "Hell Night" (1981)

Yet another entry in the post-Halloween slasher craze, starring Linda Blair of "Exorcist" fame (who, it must be noted, was all grown up 'n' quite busty by this time!) as one of a group of fraternity/sorority pledges who must spend a night in a supposedly-haunted mansion in order to gain entrance to the frat. When they arrive at the house and get down to partying/fornicating, a hulking mongoloid that lives beneath the house starts pickin' em off one by one.

Nothin' you haven't seen before in a zillion other movies but still a fun retro slasher romp.

[Vik]

The Last Airbender
Title speaks for itself 

[Pilgermann]

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.

Man, I love that movie.  Sure it's cheap and amateurish, but I thought that it has a lot of atmosphere and goofy charm.  I thought the beachball alien was hysterical!  Plus the ending was a fun mix of HAL from 2001 and the ending of Ray Bradbury's short story Kaleidoscope.  And I dig the theme song:

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

Ah well, to each his own and all that.

[Psycho Circus]

Yet another entry in the post-Halloween slasher craze, starring Linda Blair of "Exorcist" fame (who, it must be noted, was all grown up 'n' quite busty by this time!)

The reason why my dvd collection is giving me hand/wrist cramps 

[The Burgomaster]

THE SWITCH - How many times can Jennifer Aniston play essentially the same character?  She's quickly gaining ground on Sandra Bullock for that dubious honor . . .

[Flick James]

THE SWITCH - How many times can Jennifer Aniston play essentially the same character?  She's quickly gaining ground on Sandra Bullock for that dubious honor . . .

I can still manage to stomache Jennifer longer than I can Sandra, but you've got a point.

[Doggett]

Hercules

Saw it three time when it came out and loved it. Its a classic story with a few Disney leaps of the source material but James Woods is great and the gospel songs are fantistic. In fact, it's my fave movie when it comes to Disney songs.

4/5


Beauty and the Beast

Great animation and songs for a classic tale and I can see why it's become so popular

4/5


Hannibal

There's no real momentum in this film, the lead good guy (girl) spends most of her time hunting for Lecter in her office and by her computer and phone... Its not exactly a thrilling chase.
But the stuff in Florence with the detective trying to claim the reward is rather enjoyable. It is a bit fo a go nowhere film, but one that I could accept and enjoy.

3/5

[Flick James]

Hannibal

There's no real momentum in this film, the lead good guy (girl) spends most of her time hunting for Lecter in her office and by her computer and phone... Its not exactly a thrilling chase.
But the stuff in Florence with the detective trying to claim the reward is rather enjoyable. It is a bit fo a go nowhere film, but one that I could accept and enjoy.

3/5

The book is considerably better/more interesting. The stuff about the detective in Florence is the only part that worked, and matched the book weel.

[Doggett]

Hannibal

There's no real momentum in this film, the lead good guy (girl) spends most of her time hunting for Lecter in her office and by her computer and phone... Its not exactly a thrilling chase.
But the stuff in Florence with the detective trying to claim the reward is rather enjoyable. It is a bit fo a go nowhere film, but one that I could accept and enjoy.

3/5

The book is considerably better/more interesting. The stuff about the detective in Florence is the only part that worked, and matched the book weel.

I did read it but never finished the end.

And who feeds a man to a bunch of pigs???


Not even James Bond villians do that... 

[Jack]

Day of the Dead (2008) - There's a zombie outbreak in a small town and the National Guard are sent in.  Our main character is a very attractive National Guard girl who grew up in the town, and we watch the story unfold from her perspective.  This...I dunno.  For a while it would seem like a serious zombie movie, then it would switch gears to a cheesy SyFy Original type thing with some humor thrown in.  And back and forth.  WTF?  Although our lead actress is great, the co-star is some urban black dude who's calling other guys "b***h" and is horribly unlikable - Jeez     He pretty much single-handedly ruined what could have been a halfway decent B movie.  It  completely lacked the quasi-epic feel of any of the Romero movies and went straight for SyFy Original big-explosion-at-the-end nonsense.  Well I haven't actually seen the last 10 minutes because Netflix streaming crapped out on me last night, but they were preparing the tanks full of explosive gas and the ignition device.

'Fraid I can't give it more than a 2.75/5.

[Flick James]

Small Time Crooks (2000) - I've seen bits and pieced of this film over the last 10 years, but never really sat down and watched it until this weekend. It's one of those I've always been interested in because the prospect of Tracey Ullman in a Woody Allen film seems appealing, just never got around to it.

Woody Allen and Tracey Ullman play Ray and Frenchy respectively, a married couple from North Jersey. They are typical low-brow, blue collar people with an accompanying lack of education or culture. Ray is a bumbling crook with equally bumbling friends who are always cooking up heists. The problem is they are horribly inept. The only real talent contained among them is that Frenchy bakes incredible cookies.

One day Ray convinces Frenchy that they should lease an old restaurant, having Frenchy sell cookies as a front, while he and his friends tunnel from the basement to a nearby vault. The robbery endeavor is a miserable failure, as expected. What's unexpected is that people are coming in to buy Frenchy's cookies in droves. This makes them a virtual overnight success, leading to a successful franchise business that makes them rich.

In walks David (Hugh Grant), a smooth and cultured man whom Frenchy asks to help her become sophisticated after she realizes that she's being made fun of for her still tacky taste. While she spends most of her time being charmed by David's charm and good looks, Ray is meanwhile bored to death with their new cultured life and leaves her, choosing to return to being a crook, which of course he fails at miserably, having stolen what he thinks is a valuable necklace turns out to be a fake.

David turns out to be a high-class swindler who is simply using Frenchy to get her to finance his art projects. Once Frenchy finds out that her accountants have defrauded her and she has lost everything, David quickly dumps her. Ray learn of her fate and returns to her, presenting her with the supposedly valuable necklace he stole. With her newfound culture, she recognizes it as a fake, but the two realize that they are more alike than either of them realize and they reconcile.

This is a funny movie and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It operates under a simple fish-out-of-water premise that works, and in the end, the two main characters realize that, at least in their case, you can take the man out of the small time, but you can't take the small time out of the man. Allen and Ullman are both funny, but the supporting cast are equally strong. Occasionally Woody Allen makes a comedy that can entertain Woody and non-Woody fans alike, and Small Time Crooks is one of those examples. Ultimately it is an immensely easy film to watch.

4.5/5