Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"You Only Live Twice" (1967)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21poI4ZmIRU

Sean Connery's fifth go-round as James Bond sends 007 to Japan, where a crooked industrialist working with the evil SPECTRE is stealing U.S. and Russian space capsules right out of the sky, in the hopes of starting a war between both superpowers.

This one features ninjas, mini-copters, lotsa stuff blowin' up, tons of hot Japanese babes, and one of the coolest "villain's lairs" (a rocket launch base hidden inside a dormant volcano) of the entire Bond series.

Connery intended this to be his last Bond film; he was briefily replaced by the ill-fated George Lazenby in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," but then he was briefly lured back to the role (by a huge paycheck) for 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever."

[Rev. Powell]

REALITY (2012): A fishmonger from Naples loses his grip on reality as he waits to hear back from his audition for the Italian version of the "Big Brother" TV show. Slow but rich, with layers of satire and allegory. 4/5.

[Jack]

Spare Parts (1979) - a young couple go to a hotel, bu the husband is kidnapped by some bad guys who drive an ambulance. The girl escapes by hiding in a ditch.  After that she hitches a ride with a trucker and they drive a long ways. They decide there's no point in calling the cops and instead devise a plan to get kidnapped themselves so as to expose the whole crime ring. It actually gets somewhat suspenseful towards the end; they did a good job of keeping you guessing what would happen next. But it's starts out extremely slow, with the first half of the movie just being the girl and her husband at the hotel and then the girl riding in the truck. I'd say the lead actress is nice to look at but with the video quality of these Mill Creek 50 packs it's hard to tell really. 3.25/5.

[Rev. Powell]

GARDEN STATE (2004): A small-time actor (Zach Braff), doped up on high doses of antidepressants, returns home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral and finds love with a quirky lady (Natalie Portman) while working through his family issues. The first half hour is an excellent, deadpan comedy of alienation that feels like a 21st century riff on THE GRADUATE; momentum fades away when the script yields originality to the conventions of the romantic comedy genre. 3.5/5.

[Jack]

A Haunting at Silver Falls (2013) - a girl moves in with her aunt and uncle and then meets a boy who takes her to a party in a neighboring town. He tells her the story of how that town is supposedly haunted and sure enough, next thing you know she's got a creepy looking ghost girl following her wherever she goes. The aunt and uncle take her to a psychiatrist, while the ghost girl seems to want her to contact the death row inmate who's accused of killing her. Etc. Decent enough plot, and then they throw a big twist ending at you - I didn't see it coming at all. One of those twists that kind of make you wonder if anything that happened previously in the movie makes much sense anymore. Pretty decent movie overall; the characters were good-not-great and the plot moved along well enough. Creepy ghost girl wasn't very scary though. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Westworld" (1973)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcL3eP0Hfy4

Visitors at a Western style theme park come under fire from the park's lifelike humanoid robots when a computer failure causes the androids to run amok.

This 70s sci-fi flick was the directorial debut of Michael Crichton, who would later write "Jurassic Park," and it features a lot of ideas and plot points that would later re-surface (with a much bigger special effects budget) in "JP."

Charming in a retro sort of way.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched THE BATES HAUNING, a fairly predictable slasher film set at a haunted hayride run by a family named Bates.  One year ago, an actress in the hayride's "Dragon Sacrifice" tableaux was burned to death by a mechanical malfunction - now her best friend Agnes is going to work at the Bates Haunted Hayride, determined to find out what happened.  Then workers start dying, and stuff happens . . . this was a pleasant way to waste an hour and a half, if you can catch it for a cheap rental fee.

[claws]

Eyes of a Stranger (1981)

Guilt-ridden TV News reporter is taking care of her traumatized blind and deaf Sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) after she was sexually molested as a child. Meanwhile a brutal rapist is killing its victims and the reporter suspects the killer is her neighbor who lives in a high rise building right next to hers. Soon enough the reporter turns the tables on the murderer threatening him with anonymous phone calls, but accidentally reveals her identity on TV to the psychopath ...

Effective Shock-Slasher and Quentin Tarantino fave thanks to above average performance by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Her final ten minutes are Oscar worthy. 4/5

[indianasmith]

I think I remember this one from years ago.  Doesn't she spend like the last half hour of the movie running from the guy in nothing but her panties?

[claws]

I think I remember this one from years ago.  Doesn't she spend like the last half hour of the movie running from the guy in nothing but her panties?

Nope, but it sounds like you are remembering The Demon (1979).

[Jack]

I think I remember this one from years ago.  Doesn't she spend like the last half hour of the movie running from the guy in nothing but her panties?

Nope, but it sounds like you are remembering The Demon (1979).

I've got that DVD but I never made it to the last half hour.  I suppose I better give it the ol' college try 

Night Train to Terror (1985) - so there's this train and God and Satan are onboard, having a chat about who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. They watch several vignettes showing the stories of various evil people. There's also an '80s pop band in another car that plays the same song over and over. Unfortunately the first story we see wasn't even made to be in this film - it's an unreleased movie with 75% of it edited out. It's almost comical watching one unrelated scene after another, just to catch that bit of dialogue here and there that might allow the viewer to get some sense of what's going on. The other two aren't much better really, though the last one was at least a little bit interesting. Ridiculously cheap and laughably bad; I'll probably watch it again to see if its badness grows on me. For right now though I'll have to say it's so bad it's just bad. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

Double Feature Saturday Night:

"Tourist Trap" (1979)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpxEdIxxg4

In this cult 70s horror flick, a group of stranded travelers find themselves at a run-down roadside wax museum known for its extremely lifelike mannequins. One by one they start to disappear before the secret behind those mannequins (which you'll figure out way before the characters do) is revealed. The movie starts off strong with some decent creepy atmosphere but falls apart as it goes along.  This is the sort of movie where the main characters are such complete idiots that they deserve everything that happens to them.
Side note: one of the unlucky travelers is played by a young, pre-"Charlie's Angels" Tanya Roberts, and she looks absolutely SMOKIN' throughout.


"The Last Stand" (2013)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6oi5O8PWP0

A Mexican drug kingpin escapes from U.S. Marshals in Las Vegas and heads for the border in a souped up sports car. Unfortunately for him, his path to freedom takes him right through a small Arizona border town where Arnold Schwarzenegger is the sheriff, and he and his small crew of deputies are not about to let the guy slip through.

This formulaic but fun shoot-em-up was supposed to be Ahh-nuld's big comeback flick following his foray into politics. It didn't do very well at the box office but I enjoyed it. Arnold's looking kinda leathery nowadays, maybe that's why the younger characters in this one do the bulk of the heavy lifting.

[lester1/2jr]

I really liked Tourist Trap.

[Rev. Powell]

THE PAINTING (2011): Figures leave the painting they live in and go searching for the Painter, trying to find out why he left the canvas they live in incomplete. If the story had been sketched out with as much loving detail as the beautiful Impressionist-style artwork, this might have been a masterpiece, rather than something that's just nice to look at. 3/5.

KARATE KIDS USA [AKA LITTLE DRAGONS] (1979): Central casting hillbillies kidnap a little girl, only to find their plans foiled by two young brothers who don't own any clothes other than their karate uniforms. A misguided attempt at a PG-rated kid's adventure/comedy, this is actually unsuitable for children, since watching this witless tripe may cause them to hate movies forever. 0.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

I really liked Tourist Trap.

It was fun. I saw it when I was a kid and of course it scared the crap outta me way back then, haha!!