Recent viewings

[claws]

Cold Prey III (2010) Blu-ray

Norway, 1988: six friends camping are hunted by a parka wearing maniac. As it turns out the psychopath used to be a missing boy who killed his parents 12 years ago in a secluded ski hotel in the mountains.

Decent Cold Prey 1 + 2 prequel that could have done without the obvious Wrong Turn backwoods-isms. Great setting nonetheless. Norway's outdoors look absolutely gorgeous and quite stunning in HD. 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

LIPS OF BLOOD (1975): Sparked by an image he sees on a postcard, a man starts having visions of a girl he met and fell in love with when he was 12; mysterious people try to stop him from finding the castle in the photograph, while twin vampires in see-through nighties help him from afar. Slow-moving atmospheric horror drama with lots of sex and nudity (that's the Jean Rollin way), but it drags at times and the ending has little payoff. 2.5/5 (counting an extra half-star for nudity).

[JaseSF]

Nobody Knows Anything! (2003): A parody/send-up of the Hollywood industry in which we see fresh out of film school young director Sarah Wilder (Alanna Ubach) trying to get her first film made detailing the story of how her stupid cousin and his idiot friend decided to rob a grocery store and ended up getting caught and the roadblocks she runs into along the way.

This was pretty tough slugging to get through. It tries to be clever, inventive and something different but mostly it just ends up being boring and more groan inducing than funny. Numerous popular comedy stars appear in cameos and bit roles including the likes of Mike Myers (who wears awful eye make-up), Ben Stiller (as a celebrity cast peach expert), Jeneane Garofalo (as the idiot friend's hook-up), Kristen Johnson (as the cousin's wife) and Michael Lerner as Sarah's washed out screenwriter uncle but they can't save  this one which actually does feel like an arty student film and not a particularly good one at that. *1/2 out of ***** stars.

[indianasmith]

Watched the political potboiler IDES OF MARCH tonight, starring and directed by George Clooney as a (supposedly) idealistic liberal governor running in a neck and neck primary battle for President.  Not only did I disagree with virtually every political statement made in the movie, but there was not a single character in the film that was not a slimeball, except the grumpy old campaign manager who got fired.  All the rest were hypocrites or scumbags, including (surprisingly enough) Clooney's character.  But, the movie is pretty fascinating, and illustrates a lot of what is wrong with our system of government.

[Jackson]

Did see the 'Girl with dragon tattoo' 2011, new version, after that checked the original swedish version which was also really good.
Now im starting to watch 'Girl who played with fire' which was made in 2009, part of the same series.

After that iám going to see 'girl who kicked the hornets nest' , really looking forward to see these movies.

I think the character of Lisbeth is compelling in 'both'  movies, even tho a bit more 'raw' in 2011 Us version. That being said i have only seen ' a girl with dragon tattoo' movies and dont know what to expect from older movies.

Also saw ' In time'  Sci-fi movie couple days ago and was highly impressed for some reason, critique of, what i see as a modern capitalism in this movie was done in a  extreme and compelling way. It is hard to not to make that  connection between  our own society and the movie.
However i did not feel that movie was preaching to me or anything,  one can see it as a normal sci-fi movie or read some messages into it, i did the latter and i´m 'happy' about it.


Regards
Jack

[Jack]

Children of Dune (2003) - repeat viewing. This is a mini-series that picks up years after the events of the first movie. The main guy in the first movie is now emperor of the galaxy, and he's turned out to be worse than the previous rulers. He's carrying out a campaign of slaughter against not only those he wishes to conquer, but every last person who refuses to worship him as a god. So everybody's conspiring against him, and in the meantime his wife has a couple of kids. She dies in childbirth, but I guess she was more of a concubine, and his "official" wife takes over the duties of raising the kids. Meanwhile the main guy wanders off into the desert and dies I guess. His sister takes over as emperor, but she's all whacked out on drugs. That's the end of the first of three parts.

I'm about halfway through the second part now, as the kids are growing up and everybody in the galaxy is still conspiring against them. It's a fairly good show, with good acting and a moderately interesting plot. Definitely nothing exceptional with the story though. It's visually beautiful, though the CGI is occasionally terrible. Good for the most part though.

Probably be a couple of days before I finish this thing. It is long.

[Rev. Powell]

STRINGS (2004): In a kingdom where everyone is a marionette, a prince disguises himself as a commoner and sets out to find his father's killer. The save-the-kingdom plot is at the same time derivative and confusing (with too many characters and factions), but the curious explorations of mythical marionette culture (they keep slaves for spare body parts, babies are carved out of wood and born when they're attached to strings that descend from the heavens, etc.) should be enough to keep you watching. 2.5/5.

[claws]

Up from the Depths (1979)

Prehistoric fishie terrorizes resort in Hawaii. Budget Jaws rip off with intentional comedy that isn't funny at all. As usual I ended up laughing at the movie instead of laughing with the movie. Love the DVD btw. First time 16x9 widescreen viewing. 4/5 Cheese

Time Walker (1982)

Mummified alien terrorizes college campus with deadly fungus. Bad, but not as bad as its always made out to be. Plot had potential and I enjoyed the cliffhanger ending. 3/5 Cheese

Demon of Paradise (1987)

Humanoid Lizardman terrorizes resort in Hawaii. Except, this was shot in the Philippines. Solid C-Monster action without gore but plenty of boobs. Fave line: "Take a hike, spaz-ass". 3/5 Cheese

[Jack]

Finished Children of Dune. Ending was a mess. So you've got this emperor of the galaxy, and he rules with an iron fist, enacts various policies, has some kids, and then disappears into the desert, spouting a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo about destiny and all that crap. He supposedly dies, but then it turns out he didn't - now he's back as some blind mystic acting all self-righteously indignant about how the government's being run. Um, Mr. Idiot Man, these are your policies - nothing has changed. If you don't like it, why don't you issue a decree changing things - you're the emperor. Same with his kids. The emperor's sister, who's running things since he's assumed to be dead, asks his kids for their input on how things should be run, since they'll be taking over when they're old enough. But they just laugh, prattle on about destiny, and shirk their responsibilities completely. Then later on they too are self-righteously indignant about how the government is being run. Oh good grief   

There are a whole ton of subplots that have been simmering for the entire 4 1/2 runtime of this thing, and all of them add up to...nothing. None have any material effect on how things turn out. A big insurrection is mounting - they all turn around and go home. The ruler of another planet is plotting against the empire - they just toss her in prison. And the same with all the rest. Maybe all this stuff made sense in the books, but it comes off as nothing but nonsense here. If you want to spend 50 hours reading a series of books in order to make sense of the last 90 minutes of a TV miniseries, be my guest. 2.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

Finished Children of Dune. Ending was a mess. So you've got this emperor of the galaxy, and he rules with an iron fist, enacts various policies, has some kids, and then disappears into the desert, spouting a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo about destiny and all that crap. He supposedly dies, but then it turns out he didn't - now he's back as some blind mystic acting all self-righteously indignant about how the government's being run. Um, Mr. Idiot Man, these are your policies - nothing has changed. If you don't like it, why don't you issue a decree changing things - you're the emperor. Same with his kids. The emperor's sister, who's running things since he's assumed to be dead, asks his kids for their input on how things should be run, since they'll be taking over when they're old enough. But they just laugh, prattle on about destiny, and shirk their responsibilities completely. Then later on they too are self-righteously indignant about how the government is being run. Oh good grief   

There are a whole ton of subplots that have been simmering for the entire 4 1/2 runtime of this thing, and all of them add up to...nothing. None have any material effect on how things turn out. A big insurrection is mounting - they all turn around and go home. The ruler of another planet is plotting against the empire - they just toss her in prison. And the same with all the rest. Maybe all this stuff made sense in the books, but it comes off as nothing but nonsense here. If you want to spend 50 hours reading a series of books in order to make sense of the last 90 minutes of a TV miniseries, be my guest. 2.5/5.

Actually as I recall the book was a huge disappointment. Sounds like this was an accurate adaptation.

[alandhopewell]

     We watched this this morning....



     Better than AM DALLAS, by a long shot.

[claws]

The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985) Blu-ray

Bikers + blind chick want to test special kind of fuel in the desert but cannibalistic "mutants" won't have any of that. Silly sequel with atmospheric slasher moments. The dog's flashback remains ... amazing  3.5/5 Cheese

The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)

David Carradine plays the dark stranger causing even more trouble between two rivaling warlords. Nudity galore (chick with four breasts), rubber monsters and Conan off-ripping. Carradine was cool, the rest too serious and partly dull. 2.5/5 Cheese

[lester1/2jr]

Down to the Bone (2004) - this was the first movie by the team who ended up doing Winter's Bone. It's good, but not as good as Winter's Bone but if you liked Winter's Bone check it out. An attractive woman has a dead end job/ life and a loveless marriage. She and everyone she knows casually abuse drugs. She meets a guy at rehab and they hook up, not really a spoiler it's pretty obvious what's gonna happen.

I liked this but it was a little relentless in it's misery. 4/5

[fulci420]

Watched Peckinpahs final movie "The Osterman Weekend" the other day. Had read a lot of bad reviews of this saying it was a mess/didnt make sense but was pleasently surprised. Great cast (Rutger Hauer, Dennis Hopper, Craig T Nelson among others) star in a paranoid story about the misleading powers of videotape. The slow motion crossbow showdown does not dissapoint and neither do the actors involved. 4/5 The 2 disc dvd set is also well worth picking up as it comes with an hour plus documentary on the making of it as well as deleted scenes.

[Flick James]

Watched Peckinpahs final movie "The Osterman Weekend" the other day. Had read a lot of bad reviews of this saying it was a mess/didnt make sense but was pleasently surprised. Great cast (Rutger Hauer, Dennis Hopper, Craig T Nelson among others) star in a paranoid story about the misleading powers of videotape. The slow motion crossbow showdown does not dissapoint and neither do the actors involved. 4/5 The 2 disc dvd set is also well worth picking up as it comes with an hour plus documentary on the making of it as well as deleted scenes.

fulci420 ay? I think I know of two things you are into.

I haven't seen that movie since the 80's. I remember liking it, but then I've always love Rutger Hauer.