Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING (2012): Simon Pegg stars as a neurotic writer who's afraid of everything, but particularly of laundrettes; when he has an important meeting he decides to face his fear and wash his socks. If this sounds like tough material to make a comedy out of, you'd be right, although the offbeat script does the best it can and ends up scoring a few laughs. 2.5/5.

[JaseSF]

The military plots and plans ways to destroy the two menaces  but that proves rather difficult as the two continue to engage in battle and cause mass destruction along the way.

The biggest problem was that the creatures were CGI and therefore invulnerable to any and all weaponry 

Yep, and completely unconvincing CGI at that. I think I'd like these movies a bit more if the FX were halfway convincing.

[lester1/2jr]

claws- that was a cool movie. but how many movies can they make with a kid floating above their bed? Why not under it that would be even scarier

[FatFreddysCat]

"Machete Kills" (2013) Danny Trejo returns as the "Grindhouse" inspired badass, whose latest mission pits him against a Mexican drug cartel and a supervillain bent on world domination. An ultra violent hoot with an all star cast and plenty of blood and babes.

[Rev. Powell]

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972): A vampire rapes a woman in a cemetery; years later, her half-vampire son searches for his fangy dad, now a night school professor of occult studies (!) A promising, if fairly ridiculous, premise is wasted in this lifeless, talky movie. 1.5/5.

[JaseSF]

The Mandarin Mystery (1936): Mystery writer Ellery Queen (Eddie Quillan) works to solve a mysterious murder that seemingly took place in a locked room. The murder is entwined with the theft of a very valuable rare stamp named "The Mandarin". Queen is drawn into the investigation when his latest romantic interest Josephine Temple (Charlotte Henry), who brought the stamp to America, ends up in the center of his father Inspector Queen (Wade Boteler)'s murder investigation.

While Quillan hardly seems true to the Ellery Queen character, his portrayal does prove fun even if Quillan was arguably somewhat miscast playing Queen more for light comedy and romance although this element does throw off suspects who probably think him more foolish than he actually is. Boteler is a good foil for Quillan here playing his character as a straight, no-nonsense gruff detective to Quillan's seemingly much less serious character portrayal of Inspector Queen's son Ellery. This was enjoyable even if not really true to its source material, just a fun little murder mystery and a story filled with quirky characters. Easy way to pass away an hour. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Salt" (2010) Angelina Jolie as a CIA agent who goes on the run when she's accused of being a deep-cover Russian operative. Fast paced shoot'em up spy action with lots of twists and turns, good stuff.

[lester1/2jr]

Torremolinos 73 (2003) - This was pretty good but I didn't care for the cutesy sort of "we're normal people now involved with making pornos" tone. No one that dorky is going to get involved in making adult films and who wants to see people like that anyway?

Encyclopedia sales are dropping so the company decides to make "scientific/ educational" porn movies, probably meant to dodge censors. They don't want their few remaining salesmen to sell them, they want them to make them! Heavily in debt the main character and his cute if not wildly sensous wife give it a go.

The dorky tone takes some of the trashy fun away but it's still good. The title refers to the husbands ridiculous "masterpiece" movie he tries to make when he gets carried away with his own film making talents a la Seinfeld in that bootleg video episode. Spanish/ Dutch co production mostly the former

4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" (2013) the fairy tale siblings are all grown up and they're kicking major amounts of witchy ass in this cartoonishly violent action/fantasy mash up from Tommy "Dead Snow" Wirkola. Goofy as hell but fun.

[claws]

claws- that was a cool movie. but how many movies can they make with a kid floating above their bed? Why not under it that would be even scarier

Not spoiling but check out The Pact (2012). When you see it you'll freak out 

[JaseSF]

Category 7: End of the World (2005): Something is causing climate change to spin out of control and more and more monster storms are the result. New FEMA director Judith Carr (Gina Gershon) looks up old boyfriend Ross Duffy (Cameron Daddo) who's a weather expert who puts together a team to try and run down the root cause of the growth of these storms. There's Tornado Tommy (Randy Quaid, perhaps best remembered as Cousin Eddie from the Vacation films) and weather rocket launch girl Faith Clavell (Shannen Doherty) on the ground with Tom Skerritt as head pilot Colonel Mike Davis in the air. What follows is lots of CGI destruction with some seeming real weather footage thrown in not to mention a wild kidnapping plot circling around a religious fanatic who's taken his devotion to God to a new extreme.

Actually while I wouldn't say this was good, it did feel very much like an old-school disaster flick, what with all the familiar faces on board including John Kapelos (of Forever Knight fame), Swoosie Kurtz, Kenneth Welsh (a long timer Canadian character actor very familiar from TV and films), Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart), James Brolin, Nicholas Lea. It's actually a 2-part TV thriller and it has some fun moments here and there and I have to say I liked most of the characters more than I expected too. The problem is that the plot doesn't seem particularly credible and the kidnapping subplot seems oddly out of place although having it as an element probably gave the film enough extra suspense and edge to carry it to two parts. While not necessarily credible in terms of its solution, it's nevertheless an enjoyable escapist disaster movie romp. *** out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Get Thrashed" (2008) Entertaining documentary that traces the rise, fall and continued influence of Thrash Metal, told through lots of vintage photos and video clips, as well as interviews with members of Metallica, Slayer, Kreator, Overkill, Exodus and many more. Longtime Thrash aficionados won't learn anything new but it's a nice trip down memory lane.

[claws]

Devil's Pass (2013)

Five American students travel to Russia to "investigate" the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident...
Director Renny Harlin's fictional big reveal has a few interesting aspects but yeah well, it won't knock you off your feet. Found footage horror drifting into Sci-Fi with a long (but not boring) set up. Acting was surprisingly good, some of the CGI not. Could have used a little more suspense. 3.25/5

We Are What We Are (2013)

Religious family fasting over the weekend must deal with the sudden accidental death of their mother. Things get complicated when rainstorms bring on flooding washing up human bones. The local police start digging around at the family's home, and a coroner makes a disturbing discovery during the autopsy of the dead mother.
Artsy melancholic Horror-Drama (colors are toned down) with a bit coming-of-age. Think Ravenous meets Stoker. This had a mild buzz when playing Theaters. It was alright but don't go in with high expectations. 3.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" (2013) Disappointing slasher flick stars Amber Heard (yum!) as a virginal teen who joins some friends for a weekend retreat, which naturally gets interrupted by a psycho.
This movie took for-EVER to get going and even when it finally did, my wife and I predicted  the "twist" ending before it was half over.
My advice: don't bother!

[Pilgermann]

Nightmares (1983) - This horror anthology is comprised of segments that were shot as episodes of a short-lived TV series called The Dark Room, which would've made for some impressive television viewing if you ask me.  I used to catch this on TV late at night when I was a kid and the story called The Bishop of Battle, about a kid (Emilio Estevez) obsessed with reaching the 13th level of a near-impossible arcade game always weirded me out for some reason.  The stories may be lacking a little originality but they're pulled off very well, with appropriate atmosphere and some cool effects like a killer truck bursting up from underneath the earth.  If you enjoy anthology films I'd recommend this one, and it's not a bad starting point, especially for younger viewers.  It's rated R but the most gruesome scene is one at the very beginning that was shot just for the movie while the rest is pretty tame compared to stuff you'd find on broadcast television.  I give it an 8/10.