Recent viewings

[bob]

I haven't seen this since I was a kid. This movie has something for everyone: a love story, action, revenge, Andre the Giant, sword play

5/5

[The Burgomaster]

Small Time Crooks (2000)

I'm one of the 5 people who actually saw this in the theater.  And I enjoyed it very much.

[Jack]

The Dead Hate the Living (2000) - A group of young people are filming a cheesy horror movie in an abandoned building.  Turns out it's not so abandoned, there are zombie/ghoul type creatures running about.  This was pretty good.  The characters were very likable and well developed.  I was especially impressed with Jamie Donahue's character



You know, purely because of her acting abilities.  It was a nice cheesy fun scary time, but it did go a little overboard with its attempts at humor in spots.  Even a B movie needs to take itself a bit more seriously than that.  3.5/5.

[InformationGeek]

Standing Ovation (2010): Possibly the worst musical ever made and one of the worst kid's film in general.  It's about 5 girls called the Ovations trying to become the next big hit in music industry, but also facing down their rivals, The Wiggies, who take amatuer pop singing way too seriously.  Bad acting, stupid writing, inapporiate singing & dancing from minors, and a horrible ending really make this one of the worst experiences I have with a film as of recently.  I give it a 1.5 out of 5, but only because there was one song I actually liked and two jokes that worked for me.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003): On the flipside of musicals (though this is just a film where one of Daft Punk's album plays over the entire film), this was a far better experience for me and I should have seriously started with this film first to ease the pain of SO.  An alien band is kidnapped by a mysterious Dr. Wily looking figure from Earth to make music and become famous.  It's very enjoyable and unique experience, something I don't often have in films due to their predictablity.  Outside of the silly jumps in logic and the hilarous villian plan, this was solid movie that I plan on watching again at some point.  I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

[claws]

Chickboxer (1992)

A high school girl becomes a unlikely hero by finding inspiration from a TV series called "Chickboxer" and starts kicking some butt.
J.R. Bookwalter, Indie Filmmaker from Ohio, can be held responsible for Chickboxer which was released on his short-lived Bad Movie Police DVD series in 2003.



Shot on SVHS this silly abomination actually makes for a fun watch. It's oozing with no budget cheese, fugly actors and poorly staged fight scenes. 4.5 Cheese

[Jack]

Chickboxer (1992)

A high school girl becomes a unlikely hero by finding inspiration from a TV series called "Chickboxer" and starts kicking some butt.
J.R. Bookwalter, Indie Filmmaker from Ohio, can be held responsible for Chickboxer which was released on his short-lived Bad Movie Police DVD series in 2003.



Shot on SVHS this silly abomination actually makes for a fun watch. It's oozing with no budget cheese, fugly actors and poorly staged fight scenes. 4.5 Cheese

Just bought this based on your sterling recommendation     Ah heck, it was 80 cents brand new   

[Flick James]

Cloverfield (2008) - I just got around to watching it last night. What can I say? Hmmm. Mixed feelings. The shaky camera/real footage premise has a number of problems for me. There always has to be a justification for so much use of the camera, some person who has a motivation to tape what's going on rather than "get the f*** out of here." It doesn't always work. In this case, it just didn't work that well for me. I was periodically distracted from the action with thoughts of "why in the hell is he taping this?" I understand that, in order to have some story continuity, there has to be footage of stuff that realistically wouldn't be taped. Perhaps I'm being overly-critical, but it was difficult for me to escape. The justification in The Blair Witch Project was that they were making a documentary and you had this girl who was obsessed with documenting everything that was happening. It was the same thing with REC, where she was in the process of professionally documenting something, so she kept on doing it. This is fine, but it only goes so far. Personally, I think the best use of the justification of the camera recording everything was Paranormal Activity. Anyway, in Cloverfield, it was just some guy taping well wishes for his friend's going-away party and taking the camera along while New York City is being destroyed instead of doing what a normal person would do: drop the camera and run for your freaking life. I couldn't help but be distracted by that.

Despite that Wyrewizard-esque rant, I did enjoy the movie. It was a satisfying monster movie on most levels and good fun. I looked the movie up today and saw that there was something that was supposed to have been seen in the background in the very last shot that I missed (didn't want to provide a spoiler). I'm going to have to pop the disc in again to see that final shot.

4/5

[claws]

Chickboxer (1992)

A high school girl becomes a unlikely hero by finding inspiration from a TV series called "Chickboxer" and starts kicking some butt.
J.R. Bookwalter, Indie Filmmaker from Ohio, can be held responsible for Chickboxer which was released on his short-lived Bad Movie Police DVD series in 2003.



Shot on SVHS this silly abomination actually makes for a fun watch. It's oozing with no budget cheese, fugly actors and poorly staged fight scenes. 4.5 Cheese

Just bought this based on your sterling recommendation     Ah heck, it was 80 cents brand new   

Forgot to mention, Chickboxer is supposed to be a comedy of some sorts so I'm not sure how you will handle it. But hey, 80 cents? That's basically for free :)

[FatFreddysCat]

Last night I was in the mood for some vintage Japanese rubber-monster nonsense so I watched "Monster From a Prehistoric Planet," aka "Gappa the Tri-Phibious Monster" or plain ol' "Gappa."

When scientists on a South Seas expedition bring a newly-hatched prehistoric bird/lizard creature back to Japan, they're followed by the lil' critter's Mom and Pop who proceed to do the Monster Mash all over the countryside.

This flick features average man-in-suit-stomping-on-miniature-city special effects and one of the least threatening looking monsters in Kaiju. Mom and Poppa Gappa resemble giant scaly parrots.

[Pilgermann]

The Thing (1982) - Still one of my favorite horror flicks, and one of the creepiest.  I'm still amazed by the special effects.  They're goopy 'n' gory but beautiful in their own way. 10/10

The Night of the Hunter (1955) - I enjoyed this when I first saw it but after watching it again I really love it.  It may not to be everyone's liking but I think everyone should see it.  Preacher Powell is such a great character; frightening and buffoonish at the same time.  The scene where the children are fleeing in the boat and evade Powell is amazing.  He just lets out this absolutely perfect howl of frustration and rage and then it transitions into a gorgeous dreamlike trip down the river. 10/10

[JaseSF]

Happy Times (2000): An aging bachelor named Zhao (Benshan Zhao) desperately seeking a fat and chubby wife to keep him warm at night hopes to impress her by finding a job for her blind stepdaughter Wu Ying (Jie Dong) at the Happy Times Hotel he claims to run but in reality Zhao is a phoney who doesn't have anything so along with his friends, he plans an elaborate deception not realizing the stepmother in fact just wanted to be rid of the girl and is just looking for a sugar daddy.

This was a surprisingly sweet little film. There are moments of humor but overall this is far more sad and tragic than it is humorous although at times it also feels a little inspirational as well. A beautiful and moving story of a man who unexpectedly  comes to love an unwanted girl as though she were in fact his own daughter. The ending though feels most unsatisfying leaving so many things left unresolved. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched the new version of WARRIORS OF THE APOCALYPSE (2009).  While it bills itself as "Sucker Punch on Steroids!", a more accurate description might be "Low-Budget SUCKER PUNCH Ripoff on Meth!!".  It featured  an incomprehensible plot, incredibly cheap special effects (everything - blood spatters, explosions, even the gunfire - are rendered in 1990's video game quality CGI), and lots of nudity by rather unattractive women (with the exception of Dariann Caine).  This one is just really pretty awful - basic plot is a gang of girls are fighting their way across the post-apocalyptic Pennsylvania countryside in order to get to "the city" where a cruel dictator rules.  Awful stuff.

[Jack]

Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) - Jessica's spent a bit of time in the mental hospital, but now she's better and along with her husband and another friend, they move into a spooky house out in the country.  They find some homeless woman living there and, being somewhat hippie-ish, decide to let her stay with them.  But Jessica may not be cured - she keeps seeing dead bodies.  This was pretty good.  Jessica spends the movie not knowing if what she sees is real or not, and the actress, Zohra Lampert, does a fantastic job with the part.  Trying to enjoy her life and make the best of everything, while constantly questioning what she perceives and worrying what others will think of her - she makes for an extremely sympathetic character.  It's a moody piece with a fairly dream-like atmosphere about it.  3.75/5.

[Flick James]

Last night I watched the new version of WARRIORS OF THE APOCALYPSE (2009).  While it bills itself as "Sucker Punch on Steroids!", a more accurate description might be "Low-Budget SUCKER PUNCH Ripoff on Meth!!".  It featured  an incomprehensible plot, incredibly cheap special effects (everything - blood spatters, explosions, even the gunfire - are rendered in 1990's video game quality CGI), and lots of nudity by rather unattractive women (with the exception of Dariann Caine).  This one is just really pretty awful - basic plot is a gang of girls are fighting their way across the post-apocalyptic Pennsylvania countryside in order to get to "the city" where a cruel dictator rules.  Awful stuff.

Well, that is impressive. A film that can claim to be the steroid version of a film that will be released two years later is a film I have got to see.

[FatFreddysCat]

My wife took the kids to the library yesterday and came home with the second "Twilight" flick, "New Moon," for us to watch. My reaction was "Awwww sh*t, do I have to?" But Lord knows she's sat thru dozens of my dollar store craptaculars without complaint, so I figured I owed her one and bit the bullet.

In this second installment, the whiny, depressed, totally emo heroine "Bella" spends the first half of the movie wallowing in misery cuz her beloved sparkly vampire boyfriend "Edward" breaks up with her. Eventually she rebounds with the hunky Jacob, who she learns is a werewolf. (What are the odds?) Unfortunately, vampires 'n' werewolves hate each other, so she spends the rest of the movie wallowing in even more misery trying to decide which one she loves more.

As for me, I was wishing someone would just hit Bella upside the head with a shovel and end the pain for both her, and for me.

I seriously don't get what all the whoop-de-doo is about this series. Must be a chick thing.