Recent viewings

[InformationGeek]

"Quarantine 2: Terminal" (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_QXWQHHr7c

That pesky virus that turned everyone in an apartment building into rabid killers in the first "Quarantine" has made it onto an airplane, necessitating an emergency landing and then a lockdown of the plane's passengers in the terminal building. The usual mayhem ensues. Nothing you haven't seen before but still, a decent night's infected zombie fun.

Wait a minute!  There was a sequel?!  How the hell did this fly under my radar (no pun intended)?

[JaseSF]

Went to Coney Island on a Mission From God...Be Back By Five (1998): Two childhood chums, the more reserved and generally reliable Daniel (Jon Cryer) and the more live for the day, alcoholic Stan (Rick Stear), go off on an unlikely adventure to Coney Island in search of their long since disappeared third chum Richie (Rafael Báez) who they've heard might now be a confused bum wandering the Coney Island boardwalk.

There a certain level of realism to this film one rarely gets. The characters all each seem to have their own story and in the case of most, it's like here they've been trying to find their way through an adult world still feeling very much the same they did during their childhood days each in their way trying to run and escape everyday adult responsibilities. Even the smaller throwaway characters here seem to have a story. There's also a certain level of symbolism to the choice of location here, a rundown amusemark park which was once really something just as in a sense some of our characters felt as kids to be really something but as adults they're all struggling day to day to survive and remain relevant. Dealt with here in a realistic fashion are struggles with alcoholism, identity (finding one's place in the world), tragic loss, mental illness, disillusionment and even more. It doesn't always fully work and has some little everyday moments that perhaps were a bit unnecessary in places yet overall there's a rare level of realism here especially as it involves friendship and the emotional turmoil of becoming a responsible adult (or not depending upon the choices one makes). *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

Deathstalker (1983) - Sort of like Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon, except as an uber-cheesy sword and sorcery flick.  Back in medieval times, A guy named Deathstalker (and people complain about parents giving their kids weird names  ) sets out to win some fighting tournament, and save the princess and defeat the forces of evil.  Except he's really not all that good of a guy - when we first meet him he kills a guy just so he can rape his slave girl.  Oh well, he's the best hero we've got I guess.  The movie wasn't a comedy really, it was just extremely silly;  you couldn't tell where the unintentional goofiness ended and the intentional stuff began.  Lana Clarkson spent most of the movie not noticing that her shirt was wide open, and for that matter, most of the babes in this movie weren't the least bit shy.  Ah, a good time was had by all     4/5.

This is a definite guilty pleasure movie.  Did you see it as part of "Roger Corman's Cult Classics Sword and Sorcery Collection," by any chance?  I'm eying that one.

Yup, sure did.  It's the first time I've seen the movie, so I can't compare the video quality to any previous releases, but considering the age and budget of the film, it looked quite nice.

I haven't watched the other three in that set yet, but I'm thinking Barbarian Queen might make for some good viewing tonight 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Quarantine 2: Terminal" (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_QXWQHHr7c

That pesky virus that turned everyone in an apartment building into rabid killers in the first "Quarantine" has made it onto an airplane, necessitating an emergency landing and then a lockdown of the plane's passengers in the terminal building. The usual mayhem ensues. Nothing you haven't seen before but still, a decent night's infected zombie fun.

Wait a minute!  There was a sequel?!  How the hell did this fly under my radar (no pun intended)?

It's a direct to video sequel, I believe it was released earlier this month. My local RedBox machine had it.

[Jack]

Barbarian Queen (1985) - Sort of like Conan the Barbarian, except with Lana Clarkson instead of Arnie.  Hey, you'd barely notice the difference!  So Lana's village is attacked by some evil king and his minions.  Those who aren't killed are taken away as slaves;  only Lana and a few other babes with big '80s hair manage to escape.  Lana vows to take revenge on the big a-hole and free her people.  Of course it's not quite so straightforward as that.  This was fun, lots of swordfights that are just like what you'd see a couple of 9-year-old's doing in the backyard with a couple of tree branches.  Lots of nudity (oh, these movies never disappoint, do they?).   Overall it wasn't nearly as silly as Deathstalker.  It, um...fell a few notches short of Conan though     4/5.

[Rev. Powell]

Barbarian Queen (1985) - Sort of like Conan the Barbarian, except with Lana Clarkson instead of Arnie.  Hey, you'd barely notice the difference! 

"Lana Clarkson has a couple of Faber No. 2 pencils for arms, but that's OK because all the beef is concentrated somewhere else if you know what I mean and I think that you do."--Joe Bob Briggs

[claws]

Suburban Sasquatch (2004)

Bigfoot is shredding people in the 'burbs and a young native american woman armed with bow & arrows is on a mystical quest to stop the beast.
Z-Film that gives a new meaning to the word "cheap". Haven't giggled that much during a movie in some time 5/5 Cheese.

[Rev. Powell]

THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE (2006): After her boyfriend goes missing a pregnant woman with dozens of sisters all from different mothers enters a demolition derby against her Guatemalan father... and that's just one of many plotlines running concurrently in this bizarre rural community.  How to describe this unique movie: maybe it's like what would happen if Wes Anderson rewrote GUMMO as a quirky comedy?  3/5.

[Vik]

The Big Lebowski
This is the greatest thing ever created by a human being.

[lester1/2jr]

Big Wednesday (1978 whoah I thought it was earlier )- cool , professional/ not Roger Corman  type movie about a bunch of surfers living the life of Riley, whoever Riley was, surfing out in California then they all get called up for the draft. One of them is Gary Busey. Gary Busey is awesome. What was kind of freaky was the draft office and everyone going in of their own volition. I can't imagine that happening today, say what you will of that. The title refers to a legendary day when some sick swells came.  4.5/5

little rusty here sorry

Godzilla vs King Kong- I was in and out of consiousness for this one but the fights were pretty cool. 3/5

T- Men (1947) - reallly good and compelling cheap ish noir about counterfeiting. The two undercover guys like do all their homework so they are real authentic, but the crooks are wise too so its like chess play sort of thing. I had seen this a long time ago but didn't recall it being quite this good.  5/5

[Flick James]

Please don't make fun of me, but I watched Burlesque on Saturday night. My wife put it in the queue and it arrived from NetFlix. I guess my wife expected something different. I was pleased that she thought it was just as bad as I did. She finished the whole thing. I think it was a chick version of a b-movie for her.

Oh my God that movie blows!

It is so bad on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. To say that it is full of cliche is like saying the Himalayas are famous for being tall. Stanley Tucci, who can be very good at times, couldn't even step in to provide some relief from the constant onslaught against the psyche. He was exactly the same character he played in The Devil Wears Prada, except with the worst dialogue you could possibly imagine.

The best way I can describe this POS is "Moulin Rouge meets Coyote Ugly."

I guess there are a few laughs here and there at the inanity of it all, but otherwise similar to having your gums scraped.

1.5/5

[Jack]

Deathstalker II (1987) - So Deathstalker (a totally different Deathstalker than the first movie) meets this hot chick who's a princess, but some evil dude has made a clone of her and put the clone on the throne (hey that rhymes!).  So Mr. 'Stalker goes through various adventures in his quest to help the princess regain her position, and hopefully get some money out of the deal.  This was SOOOOO silly.  I loved it     The characters were great, in a very amusing way.  The plot was entertaining and things rarely if ever got slow.  I just started listening to the commentary track with director Jim Wynorski and two of the actors - it's quite funny as well.  Why are these guys wearing masks?  Because we only had three guys but we wanted to make it look like there were 12 of them.  And it makes it much easier to dub the dialogue since they didn't speak English.  4.25/5.

[claws]

Duel (1971)

Spielberg turned a simple plot into a nail-biting thriller. Simply amazing. 5/5

[Vik]

The Crazies
Decent, but forgetable.

[JaseSF]

Hercules and Xena: The Animated Movie: The Battle For Mount Olympus (1997): Hercules and Xena, along with Iolaus and Gabrielle, get reluctantly dragged into a showdown between the gods of Olympus (Zeus, Ares, Artemis and Aphrodite) and the Titans (Porphyrion, Crius, Tethys & Mnemosyne) who are being aided by a jealous [since Zeus has just brought Hercules' mother Alcmene to Olympus] and vengeful Hera who's gotten her hands on the powerful Chronos Stone.

This direct to video animated film has subpar animation, subpar story and subpar and rather unnecessary songs (although "The Titans Song" is good for a laugh or two IMO) but it does have the actors from the Hercules and Xena series providing the voicework so if you're a completist fan of the series, it may be of interest. It also has some moments of goofy fun going for it even though it feels rather like a subpar two-part episode of the Hercules series, one which could not have been achieved via live-action so this poorly animated film was churned out perhaps as well to try and make some money from the Hercules name around the same time as the Disney film. Still as a fan of the show, I give it **1/2 out of ***** stars which is perhaps a bit generous just for having the actual actors doing the character voices and it gives some idea what an animated series, albeit a poorly animated one, might have looked like.