Recent viewings

[JaseSF]

Recently rewatched A Christmas Story (1983) and The Bishop's Wife (1947). I'd give both films 5/5 ratings especially at Christmas time. A Christmas Story (1983) has a sort of realistic whimsical reminscent edge going for it as well as being really funny while The Bishop's Wife promotes a great message of fellowship between people and people treating each other right, just with the littlest recognitions meaning so very much.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Moonraker" (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQFJxJxHIfM

James Bond cashes in on the late 70s "Star Wars" craze in this totally ridiculous, but still enjoyable, adventure. While investigating the disappearance of a space shuttle, 007 visits California, Venice, Brazil, and finally outer space, where crazed industrialist Hugo Drax plans to wipe out all of humanity from his private space station and then re-populate Earth with his hand-picked "master race." The climactic laser-gun battle between the bad guys and the U.S. Space Marines (?) aboard Drax's Death Star is a total hoot.

This flick is silly as hell, but it's a sentimental favorite of mine because it was the first James Bond movie I saw as a kid (I even had a bunch of the "Moonraker" trading cards from Topps!) and I've been a 007 fan ever since. 

[indianasmith]

Last night the wife and I watched STOLEN, a new heist movie with Nick Cage. 
Cage is a master bank robber who did 8 years hard time after getting caught breaking into a bank vault.
Now he is out, and his former partner has kidnapped his daughter, demanding that cage pay out the $10 million
he hid just before being arrested - problem is, Cage actually destroyed the money, knowing that he would do less
time if it were never found.  So now he has 12 hours to pull of a $10 million dollar heist and rescue his daughter -
with the FBI trailing him the whole time!
This was a pretty fun film and better than the last few Cage vehicles I've watched.

[Jack]

Hideous! (1997) - two collectors of "biological oddities" argue over who owns a particular specimen, while unbeknownst to them several of the little critters have come to life and...oh-oh! Fun and supremely silly Full Moon movie. 4/5.

Howling V: The Rebirth (1989) - a group of people go to a Hungarian castle and well...it's a Howling film, you might guess what problem they encounter. I love the atmosphere of this thing - a blizzard rages outside while inside the castle everything's nice and cozy. Until they go down into the tunnels under the castle. Good characters overall, very lazy plot though. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Cheech & Chong: Still Smokin'" (1983)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-GWRZMTLo

Filmdom's favorite stoners are off to Amsterdam for a film festival... unfortunately, the Duth organizers were expecting Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. While the boys sample the various delights of Holland, they organize an old-school performance of their stand-up bits to save the festival from financial ruin.

...so in other words, this is more or less a C&C concert film with a bunch of random stuff padded around it to frame the action. Not their best flick, but it's worth a look just to see some of their classic routines like "Ralph and Herbie" and "Blind Melon Chitlin'."

[Rev. Powell]

FLIGHT (2012): A functional polydrug abusing pilot becomes a hero when he miraculously lands a malfunctioning plane, then turns into a villain when it's discovered he was drunk at the time. It's essentially a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous. 2.5/5.

[fulci420]

FLIGHT (2012): A functional polydrug abusing pilot becomes a hero when he miraculously lands a malfunctioning plane, then turns into a villain when it's discovered he was drunk at the time. It's essentially a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous. 2.5/5.

I just finished watching this and while I would rate it slightly higher than you I still feel it has some problems most notably the excessive length. There is some truly great performance's here but there was not enough plot to justify stretching it out so much. Denzel's potrait of alcoholism was very good imo and shows why he is among the greatest actors working today. I got teary at the end so in that sense the drama worked for me, but I do not consider it one of my favorites of 2012.

[Rev. Powell]

FLIGHT (2012): A functional polydrug abusing pilot becomes a hero when he miraculously lands a malfunctioning plane, then turns into a villain when it's discovered he was drunk at the time. It's essentially a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous. 2.5/5.

I just finished watching this and while I would rate it slightly higher than you I still feel it has some problems most notably the excessive length. There is some truly great performance's here but there was not enough plot to justify stretching it out so much. Denzel's potrait of alcoholism was very good imo and shows why he is among the greatest actors working today. I got teary at the end so in that sense the drama worked for me, but I do not consider it one of my favorites of 2012.

They could have cut out the romantic subplot--it seems like her only purpose in the story was to take him to his first AA meeting. It wasn't as preachy as it could have been, I will give it that. I went back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars, but finally decided to go with the under. Denzel was good, playing slightly against type (he was still the noble guy in the end, but at least he got a chance to do a few nasty things for a change).

[fulci420]

FLIGHT (2012): A functional polydrug abusing pilot becomes a hero when he miraculously lands a malfunctioning plane, then turns into a villain when it's discovered he was drunk at the time. It's essentially a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous. 2.5/5.

I just finished watching this and while I would rate it slightly higher than you I still feel it has some problems most notably the excessive length. There is some truly great performance's here but there was not enough plot to justify stretching it out so much. Denzel's potrait of alcoholism was very good imo and shows why he is among the greatest actors working today. I got teary at the end so in that sense the drama worked for me, but I do not consider it one of my favorites of 2012.

They could have cut out the romantic subplot--it seems like her only purpose in the story was to take him to his first AA meeting. It wasn't as preachy as it could have been, I will give it that. I went back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars, but finally decided to go with the under. Denzel was good, playing slightly against type (he was still the noble guy in the end, but at least he got a chance to do a few nasty things for a change).

Agreed that the romantic subplot was largely pointless. I did think the minimal interactions between Denzel and his estranged son were very strong and felt the film would be stronger if it focused on that more rather than his relationship with that women.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Battleship" (2012)

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

Expensive turkey supposedly based on the classic Hasbro board game (?) starts out as a glossy, gung-ho military-recruiting porn ala "Top Gun" and then suddenly turns on a dime into a mish mash of "Independence Day," "Armageddon" and "Transformers" as alien invaders crash land in the Pacific and the U.S. Navy has to roar to the rescue. Lots 'n' lots of big explosions ensue, so at least I wasn't bored. 

Dumb as a box of rocks, but I still found it entertaining enough in a fast-food kinda way.

[Jack]

I'll have to check out Battleship sometime. I enjoyed the Asylum's ripoff, American Warship, so what the heck 

Shrieker (1998) - some college kids are living in an abandoned hospital (since they can't afford the dorms). There's also a mysterious guy living in the basement, and legend has it that many years earlier some shrieking monster killed a bunch of people there. Yeah...no wonder the rent is so cheap This is an old favorite of mine with fun characters, cheesy suspense, entertaining plot - just a good time overall. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

I'll have to check out Battleship sometime. I enjoyed the Asylum's ripoff, American Warship, so what the heck  

I was honestly expecting "Battleship" to be a lot worse considering the toxic reception it got. It's silly as hell but it's competently done, if you don't mind that "stamped out on an assembly line" feel that so many modern big-budget wanna-be blockbusters have.  

I kinda felt like I was watching Peter Berg (director's) demo reel, like he was hoping to catch DreamWorks' attention with this flick in the hopes of getting the director gig on the next Transformers sequel. "Oooh! Oooh! Pick ME, Mister Bay! Pick ME!"  

I haven't seen the Asylum version yet but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually. I have a sickness where their films are concerned. Once I see the "real" movie I am compelled to view their ripoff too! :D

[indianasmith]

I watched the new TOTAL RECALL last night.  It was pretty enjoyable.

[claws]

Damned by Dawn (2009)

Young woman and her boyfriend visit her family at a rural farm. Her Irish Grandmother fears she might die soon and warns her Grandchild not to interfere when a Banshee shows up to collect her soul. The young woman does indeed interfere causing a supernatural massacre ...

No budget aussie horror homage to Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. The heart was certainly at the right place but the movie remains uninspired and generally lacking. Bonus points for creepy Evil Dead-ish atmosphere and partially decent f/x. 3/5

[dean]

I watched the new TOTAL RECALL last night.  It was pretty enjoyable.

This is one of those "if it wasn't a remake I'd have enjoyed it more" movies: it was entertaining on it's own, but it did annoy me how different it was to the original movie [not sure how it compares to the book though]

One major problem I had: I didn't know anyone's names other than Hauser for pretty much the whole movie.  Its like they never even bothered to give people names.  I honestly can't remember Beil's character at all and only knew his 'wifes' name right near the end.