Recent viewings

[indianasmith]

Last  night I watched an Irish horror film called GRABBERS.  The cover featured a giant ball of tentacles surrounding a huge, toothy maw perched on top of a farm house - I knew I had to see it at that moment!

A meteor strikes the sea and releases tentacle alien monsters that threaten to wreak havoc on a small island town of the coast of the Emerald Isle.  But wait!  After substantial mayhem, the local marine biologist realizes the creature is allergic to alcohol.  So the townsfolk throw a major shindig, and the alien beast gets a major case of indigestion.

All in all, a fairly entertaining little slice of B-movie cheese!

[Rev. Powell]

TOUCHY FEELY (2013): A successful massage therapist suddenly develops an aversion to the human body; simultaneously her struggling dentist brother gains an unexplained power to heal his patient's jaw pain. Well-acted but never following through on its central premise, this New Age-y trifle needs to have its chakras realigned. 2/5.

[Jack]

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) - some people find some giant birds on one of the Japanese islands, and it's not long before that giant rocket powered turtle shows up as well. This was decent, nothing special IMO. The cast was okay and the story was moderately interesting. I'm afraid I fell sound asleep during the part where the toy tanks were blasting the guys in the rubber suits Oh well we got to see Gamera and Gyaos demolish a nice chunk of Tokyo in the end, which is always fun. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

The Cottage (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxRqI5zxW-c

Dreary suburban thriller in which a family rents out their backyard cottage to a guy who seems nice at first, of course, but eventually turns out to be a psycho looking to add their daughter to his Charles Manson-style 'harem' of 'wives.' Predictable mayhem follows. Not good, not particularly bad, just bland. The DVD cover promised something more horror-based than the movie delivered. This flick is suitable for the Lifetime channel.

[claws]

Sophie's Choice (1982) (Blu-ray)

Brooklyn, 1947: young writer named Stingo rents a room where he meets Sophie, who happens to live in the same house. Sophie is Polish and engaged to a guy named Nathan who is of Jewish descent, and has a habit of treating Sophie in the worst way possible. Soon enough the three become best friends and Sophie opens her heart to Stingo: she survived the Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany ...

Haunting romantic drama that will stay for you for hours. I watched this yesterday and its still stuck in my mind. Meryl Streep gives a lifetime performance and all I can say is WOW. This woman is AMAZING. I always wanted to see Sophie's Choice and I finally did thanks to the European Blu-ray release. 5/5

[lester1/2jr]

Play Misty For Me (1971) - This Clint Eastwood directed/ starring effort is entertaining enough but also kind of a joke. It combines a swank 70's California beach romance with some proto grindhouse type early slasher movie things. The former is cheesy but believable enough, the second is way off.  Fatal Attraction would eventually come a long and do this much better.

Eastwood is a DJ who has a groupie who becomes attached to him. Unlike Glenn Close, she's not all that interesting or sexy. It doesn't seem like it would take much just to tell her to get lost but he never seems to fully do so. One thing I liked is how she makes a scene then tells people who are looking at her "Shut Up a***ole!" or something similar. She does it a couple of times.  

Note: When I watched this I though it was made in 81 which in retrospect makes no sense.



A decent drive in style movie with less camp and better acting. 3.75/5

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE MOLE PEOPLE: The movie starts out a bit dull, with lots of archeological exposition by the dull John Agar, but picks up once the Mole People show up. That's good because the movie itself sort of carries this early Sci-Fi channel episode, where the cast is still trying to get their footing and settle in on their new roles, especially Bill Corbett as Crow. Nothing quite works in the host segments and the riffing is below-average, but it's still worthy of a 3/5.

[Jack]

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - the Nazis are after the Ark of the Covenant and it's up to Indiana Jones to find it before they do. What can I say that hasn't been said a hundred times before?    Good characters, lots of action, plenty of humor. Great for our family movie night and it looks fantastic on Blu ray. 4.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

Teen Wolf (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNQDJZbtjqw

Silly teen comedy starring Michael J. Fox as a high school nerd who discovers a quick path to popularity and basketball stardom... by letting his inner werewolf out.

My kids found this on Netflix this afternoon and asked to watch it because "the Back to the Future Guy is in it." I hadn't seen "Teen Wolf" since its original HBO run in the mid 80s, and I didn't remember it being very good even back then. Let's just say it hasn't improved with age.

Michael J. Fox should thank his lucky stars that "Back to the Future" was released before this flick in the summer of '85, otherwise his movie career might never have gotten off the ground!!

[indianasmith]

OK, since last notation I have watched a really great, atmospheric horror flick called THE HAUNTING OF HELENA, the surprisingly good Superman film MAN OF STEEL (a Superman movie that ISN"T lame! Wow!!!), an incredibly bad zombie movie called ZOMBIE EX'S, in which all of the main character's ex-girlfriends get turned into zombies, and finally a chilling (I mean literally chilling, the whole story takes place during a blizzard!) slasher film called BLOOD RUNS COLD.  All in all,  a pretty entertaining movie weekend!

[lester1/2jr]

I see a "cold movies" thread on the horizon.

Satans Little Helper (2004) - decent but underwhelming Jeff Liebman movie. I liked Blue Sunshine and Just Before Dawn but this isn't quite up to par. Good to see that he's still working and keeping with the times though.

A kid somehow meets up with Satan on Halloween and they cause havoc together. He brings Satan home and ...man this plot is kind of hard to describe. Anyway, the acting and writing are pretty bad especially in the first half. The main reason to hang around is the hot home from college daughter who wears a not all that revealing wench costume that she nevertheless looks fantastic in.

There's a couple of gruesome/ comic deaths and bargain basement made for cable type comedy.



The second half things pick up a bit. The Mom gets kidnapped and peoples guts are pulled out "Cigarette Burns" style. The evil and calm brutality of the killer guy and again, the hotness of the blonde are the high points. The humor and plot movements might strike some as really wacky and out there but it's mostly just not that good. For something they I hope wrote and made really really fast it's above average.  
3.75 /5

[claws]

Manhunter (1986) (Blu-ray)

Retired FBI Profiler returns to track down a serial killer nick named "tooth fairy" and must seek help from another serial killer, Hannibal Lecter.
Stylish slow burning forensic thriller. Manhunter was a box office flop and critics didn't like it. It became a cult favorite showered with praise over the years.
Great 80s time capsule, the bad hair on most of the male cast made my sister and me giggle. 4.5/5

[Jack]

The Ugly Truth (2009) - Kathy Heigl stars as an uptight TV producer who's having bad luck with romance. Her station hires Gerard Butler who's a sort of macho man relationship counselor (think Jimmy Kimmel from "The Man Show"). So of course they're polar opposites and Heigl absolutely hates Butler, but his advice works and soon she's going out with the man of her dreams. Then Butler falls in love with Heigl and maybe realizes that relationships aren't as terrible as he's always believed; will Heigl dump the man of her dreams and get together with Butler in the end? Well yeah of course. This was good for a few chuckles but I think the vast majority of the jokes fell flat. The main problem is that it's trying to be an adult romantic comedy but it was written by a complete adolescent.  Stuff that makes teenagers laugh makes adults roll their eyes. Our two leads were both good - not great - in their roles. Pretty typical romcom affair, a pleasant enough waste of 90 minutes and that's about it. 3/5.

Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (1996) - our rocket powered turtle goes up against Legion, a metal crab type thingie that's accompanied by a swarm of oversized insects. For some reason these two skyscraper-sized plants start growing in a couple of cities (so Legion can spread it's seed to outer space maybe?) and Gamera destroys both of them, with the second blowing up like a nuke and taking out a whole city. Will Gamera recover in time to save Tokyo?  Maybe the love of the children will strengthen him This was a good one with tons of action. The human cast actually made the story kind of interesting in the first half.  A good fun time overall. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

I'm home with a sick six year old today, so he got to pick this morning's movie:

Super Buddies (2013)

http://www.youtube.com/v/b2ZxYH6WyLo

Seventh (!) installment of the Disney series starring a quintet of talking Golden Retriever puppies hops on the superhero-movie band wagon, as the five so-adorable-it's-sickening 'Buddies' gain super powers from a set of mysterious rings... just in time to defend their town from an alien invader bent on world domination. Grown ups will roll their eyes at the cheap special effects and dorky humor but if you have young'uns 8-and-under, they'll dig this harmless, family friendly fluff.

[FatFreddysCat]

"With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story" (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS6R131MbL0

Entertaining documentary about the life and amazing career of Stan Lee, architect of the Marvel Universe, creator of countless classic comic book characters, and overlord of all things Geek, with commentary not only from dozens of Stan's fellow comic professionals but also famous fans like Nicolas Cage, Kevin Smith, and Tobey "Spider-Man" Maguire, to name just a few. A cool trip down memory lane for comic book geeks!