Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Below" (2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeLUGhCLQkc

Claustrophobic lil' thriller set on a World War II submarine. When a Navy sub picks up three survivors of a mysterious boat disaster, strange things begin to happen onboard. Kinda like a mish mash of "Poltergeist" and "Hunt for Red October," pretty good stuff. 

[Rev. Powell]

CINEMA 16: EUROPEAN SHORT FILMS (2007): A collection of recent award winning short films made by Europeans (mostly Brits).  A mix of dramas, comedies and experimental films; like any collection there's something to please everyone, and something to bore everyone, but the quality is excellent overall.  Contains early films by Christopher Nolan, Jan Svankmejer, Ridley Scott, etc.  The best pieces are "Rabbit," an animated movie about two greedy children who find a magical idol in a rabbit's belly, and "Sic Shooter," about a man who loses his wife and then has to share a train ride home with the most obnoxious passenger imaginable.  4/5.

[Jack]

Top Line (1988) - low budget Italian sci-fi about a drunken author in Panama who finds a cave with a UFO in it.  Suddenly every organization from the government on down is after him.  The entire middle third of the movie is a never ending chase scene, to the point where we were wondering if people would start asking to see his passport as he entered other countries.  The editing is just bizarre.  For instance in one scene our characters are watching some news footage from Russia, and interspersed with that is some other footage of guys in white suits walking around a building.  For one thing, it makes it look as if the guys are part of the news footage, but since that wouldn't make any sense, they must be outside the main character's house, perhaps getting ready to ambush him.  But then in the next scene our main characters are driving in their car.  Huh?  The ending is especially amusing.  Real Troll 2 type stuff.  3/5 for unintentional laughs and nearly limitless MST3K potential. 

[Pilgermann]

Hanna (2011) - If it weren't for The Tree of Life this would be my favorite movie of 2011.  It's about a young girl raised by her ex-CIA father in the remote wilderness, but she's been trained to kill a particular woman whom her father once worked with.  The basic goings-on in the movie seem like familiar action movie territory but it's all executed very stylishly and the cast, especially young Saoirse Ronan who has a hypnotic screen presence, elevate it to something better.  Plus it doesn't have the modern incoherent and rapidly cut fight scenes and CGI junk; you actually get to see people throwing punches at each other.  There's one particularly cool single cut scene (or very cleverly cut) that leads to a brief but excellent fight.  I also really liked the music that the Chemical Brothers made for the film. 

9/10

[alandhopewell]

I watched LEPRECHAUN 2 - BACK 2 THA HOOD this week.  Pretty funny, esp. when the leprechaun joins a stoner character in smoking a bong!

Last night I saw a Frank Montag film called SLASHER.  Pretty gonzo, over-the-top German slasher flick, with blood and boobs a-plenty, and a decent twist ending.  Tried to watch  Brain Damage Films'  THE LEGEND OF SORROW CREEK but I was too sleepy.

     I watched LEGEND OF SORROW CREEK a bit ago, and I was pleasantly suprised. The film reminded me a lot of those atmospheric indie horror films of the very early 70's, like LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH or LEMORA, not really crystal-clear as to what's going on at times, but well-done, the characters weren't brain-dead teenspam, nor was the picture a gorefest.

     It's an 8, perhaps an 8.5.

[lester1/2jr]

American Hardcore- If you like old school hardcore you have likely already seen this if not your should. I don't know how much appeal it would have beyond that. Theres not  ton of analysis its just a general history of the era from the people involved and not enough Negative Approach and a little too much Henry rollins. I wish instead of "we were p**sed of at society and ronald reagan!" they had shown the moral formal roots of the style, which was basically just faster punk rock. This is what has made Metal Evolution on Vh1 so compelling to me. Still I liked the movie alot and there were funny stories in the extras 4/5

Warrior of the lost World (MST3K) classic joel episode. lousy Italian future istic (yeah right) motorcycle-western variation. Kind of a cross between Space mutiny and that Canadian one where they fight the goons in the forest. I like how they kept going to the end of the credits. Not as great as, say, Pod People or that ET rip off one but entertaining. the extra was an actually pretty cool interview with the director who loved his film being on the show and also didn't care that it was lousy.  Also, there was a Dondi reference. 4/5

[HappyGilmore]

Toy Story 3- Pixar strikes again, with yet another GREAT movie. I usually find Pixar hit-and-miss, with one or two great films, and one or two so-so movies. They've yet to make a "bad" film, just some that are better.

Toy Story seems like the final film of a trilogy, but there's talk of a potential 4th film. If there is a fourth, it better hold up.

[Rev. Powell]

THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT (2001): A space pilot transports the Boy Who Saw a Woman's Breast from Jupiter to Venus to obtain a bounty in this surrealistic space-western musical.  I was underwhelmed by this minor cult film; it has some great moments of absurd humor but often drags with sequences of inconsequential nonsense.  2.5/5.

[Jack]

Night Fright (1967) - A meteorite falls someplace in the woods, and before you know it there's a malformed bigfoot from space wandering about, knocking off the random teenager out at lover's lane.  The small town sheriff investigates, but of course the local kids are determined to go out to the dangerous area to do some dancing and some nekkin'.  I just love the innocence of movies like this.  Back when getting in REALLY big trouble meant staying out 'till 11 when dad wanted you home by 10:30.  The characters were a likable bunch, the plot dragged along like molasses and the theme music...oh boy.  Every square inch of this is covered in massively over dramatic, syrupy slop.  I'll still give it a 3.75/5, just because it took me back to a simpler time.

[lester1/2jr]

Welcome to the End of the Century - This was some sort of public access cable show created by Dame Darcy, who was a co hort of fanzine legend Lisa carver (Rollerderby). Her illustrations were ubiquitus during that zines run and the same style but this is not remotely as entertaining as reading Rollerderby. Most of it is just her and her friends being silly and dressing in old fashioned costumes and the whle thing is filmed in Sepia. Courtney Love of all people shows up at one point. there were a couple things I liked: Her cartoons, her traditionalist banjo playing and singing (she plays it straight it's not some hipster waif pretending to be authentic), and also towards the end there was one segment that was like a silent movie parody thing. Cannot reccomend thuogh 2/5

[bob]

I never saw any Harry Potter movie before this one

I never read any of of the books

but I have to say, I really enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would

this is a fun, enjoyable movie

there is a lot packed into this film, which I'm sure will set the tone for the rest of the Harry Potter films

4/5

[Jack]

Slipstream (1989) - In a post-apocalyptic future, a pair of bounty hunters have captured an android who's wanted for murder.  Bill Paxton, a sort of affable idiot dude, manages to grab the android so he can claim the reward for himself, and of course the bounty hunters chase them around for the rest of the movie.  The plot wasn't exactly fast-paced to start with, but two-thirds of the way through they take refuge at a human settlement and man oh man, the whole thing stops dead in its tracks right there.  The ending was pretty good, about as good as you could expect for something like this.  It was filmed in  Cappadoccia Turkey, which provided some bleak and rather surreal scenery.  3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

PULSE (2001): A plague of ghosts abduct the living, leaving Tokyo and the world nearly deserted.  Confusing and often very creepy little J-horror that tries to say something about modern loneliness.  3/5. 

[HappyGilmore]

8 Mile.

Rapper Eminem, essentially playing himself, is a down on his luck auto worker in Detroit. He lives in a trailer with his mom, toddler sister, and his schoolmate who now dates his mom. He attends local 'rap battles' at underground clubs, honing his skills hoping to succeed.

Great movie, great performance by Eminem. But, when you essentially play yourself, guess it can't be that hard.

[ChaosTheory]

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS - a writer (Owen Wilson) visiting France gets a very unusual tour.  I wasn't expecting much from this, but it's one of the most charming, mood-lifting movies I've seen in a long time, with a great cast.  Out of the movies I've seen from 2011, it makes my top five.  8/10