Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

Jack - I saw Zeta One in the haze of my post college years along with Spermula, neither of which I remember one thing about

[Rev. Powell]

ZETA ONE has the strip poker game that goes on forever. It's terrible! I can see why Jack likes it. 

[indianasmith]

This weekend's triple feature included:

BLOOD SHED (2013) - Not to be confused with 2007's abysmal THE BLOOD SHED, this is a story of homeless people who live in a Los Angeles self-storage facility, and the ghost who haunts them there.  A young man with mental problems inherits the key to his parent's self storage unit, and discovers a bizarre link between his past and the vengeful ghost of a young woman who haunts the place, and kills the occupants.  Not great, but not bad either.

HERE COMES THE DEVIL (2012) - An interesting Mexican horror film. Two children wander off to explore a hill outside Tijuana after spending a day at the beach with their parents.  They vanish, and are gone overnight.  When they are found the next morning, the parents notice subtle changes in their behavior that start as odd and quickly escalate to terrifying.  Eventually they discover that what came back from that hill was not exactly the children who wandered up it . . . this was creepy, gritty, and exploitatively cheesy all at the same time.  Quite a bit of gratuitous nudity (apparently whatever demon possesses the children will stop its diabolical manipulation long enough to rip the top off any woman who gets near), some gruesome violence,  and a very dark storyline made this one hard to look away from.

THE JUNGLE (2013) - Found footage horror films are hit or miss, as everyone knows. Some of them can be very well done and creepy, others can be badly acted, CGI-ridden pieces of dreck.  This one actually felt like what it claimed to be - the lost footage of a wildlife expedition searching for evidence of the elusive Javan leopard.   They manage to capture one of the big cats on film, but then they realize that there is another predator out there - something faster, bigger, and more dangerous than any leopard.  The last five minutes or so are excellent!  Build up is a bit slow, but the characters are fairly interesting.  If you like "found footage" this is a good movie.

[Jack]

ZETA ONE has the strip poker game that goes on forever. It's terrible! I can see why Jack likes it. 

Oh it's only 10 minutes, maybe 15 tops   

Prisoners of the Sun (2013) - back in ancient Egyptian times aliens came to earth and set up quite a civilization there - big fancy buildings and stuff that are now lost to the sands of time. In the present day, with a big sandstorm uncovering a pyramid in which the aliens are supposedly entombed, a group of explorers set out to find them. Sounds like an awesome premise eh? Too bad the prologue is the best part of the whole movie. The first half is spent meeting our characters and other than John Rhys-Davies doing his usual John Rhys-Davies schtick, everyone else in instantly forgettable. The second half is these folks making their way through the pyramid and encountering a bunch of traps. It's a bit too cheesy to create any drama. I thought the "climax" was a huge letdown too. But it wasn't terrible and the pyramid exploration was at least a little bit cool. The special effects weren't too bad considering this isn't exactly a big budget Hollywood production. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Bullet to the Head" (2013) old school action flick with Stallone as an aging hitman who helps a cop uncover corruption in New Orleans. Bullets fly, stuff blows up, heads get busted. There's so much testosterone in this movie that my DVD player grew hair on it!

[VenomX73]

"Bullet to the Head" (2013) old school action flick with Stallone as an aging hitman who helps a cop uncover corruption in New Orleans. Bullets fly, stuff blows up, heads get busted. There's so much testosterone in this movie that my DVD player grew hair on it!

I enjoyed the axe fight...



Sly: "What are we, vikings?"

[FatFreddysCat]

I enjoyed the axe fight...



Sly: "What are we, vikings?"

That "vikings" gag was my favorite line in the whole movie. :)

Sly was really quite funny in this one; very dry. I'd read some absolutely scathing reviews of it so my expectations weren't very high, but I was leasantly surprised. I dug it a lot.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Airplane II: The Sequel!" (1982) Ted and Elaine are back and this time they've got to stop the first commuter space shuttle from crashing into the sun ("The sun? What is it?" "It's a giant fiery ball in the center of our solar system, but that's not important right now!").
William Shatner absolutely steals the movie when he shows up as a crazed Lunar Base commander at the three quarter mark.

[carchase]

dvd player grew hair on it

now that's funny

[Jack]

Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin' (2013) - good documentary about Jimi, following him from his early guitar playing days as a kid up through his military service, being discovered by a record producer and going to London where he gained his initial fame, and coming back to America where he became a superstar. Has plenty of interviews with everyone who knew him and plenty of clips of live performances. Lots of interesting stuff in here like how his two loves in life were guitar and women, how he didn't care about fame, only about how good he was at guitar and his never-ending ambition to get better, and how he took a guitar absolutely everywhere he went; always practicing and jamming with every musician he met or could find. Makes him out to be a real humble and shy guy who only became a showman when he was on stage. 4/5.

Doomsday (2008) - watched this again. Like Escape from New York crossed with The Road Warrior. Rhona Mitra does a good job in the lead and looks good doing it,  and lots and lots of stuff blows up. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ABNORMAL: THE SINEMA OF NICK ZEDD: A collection of underground films from "Cinema of Transgression" founder Nick Zedd. Usually pornographic and juvenile, frequently tedious, with occasional moments of grotesque beauty.

[claws]

Haunter (2013)

15 year old girl is re-living the same day over and over. Her parents won't believe her, and she can't escape the house because of intense fog outside. One day there appears to be a slight change in behavior of her parents, and the girl starts some serious investigating with disturbing results...
It's Groundhog Day set in the year 1985 for some reason, but this paranormal loop didn't do much for me. Actually, I fell asleep three or four times. The plot is layered with alternate places/personalities yet everything seems like done a million times before. Verdict: kind of boring. 2.5/5

Magic Magic (2013)

Girl from Cali on vacation in Chile thinks the friends of her cousin are a weird bunch. Soon enough things escalate and spin out of control.
Neat little Psychological Thriller with exotic location. I thought the trailer made the film look pretty bad but its not. However, I can see people disliking this movie mainly because of the ending. 3.5/5

[JaseSF]

Charlie Chan in Rio (1941): Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler), along with # 2 son Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung), is hot on the trail of a suspected murderer, a nightclub singer named Lola Dean (Jacqueline Dalya) but before he can make the arrest, he finds her murdered and there's a long list of potential suspects who wanted to do her in.

This brisk paced mystery is a lot of fun with wonderful moments of humor (particularly between Toler and Sen Yung) and a good, entertaining murder mystery that will leave you guessing. Victor Jory is memorable here as a mind-reading swami type. Cobina Wright and Mary Beth Hughes make for entertaining adversaries of Lola and each other in this film as well. Iris Wong also proves memorable as Lola's maid Lily and a potential romantic interest for Jimmy. Just a lot of fun if nothing particularly new from the series. ***3/4 out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Killdozer" (1974) a construction crew uncovers a meteorite which gives their bulldozer a mind of its own - and a taste for blood - in this semi classic made for TV z-movie. Unintentional laughs abound!

[indianasmith]

This weekend I watched DARK ISLAND,  a chiller original about medical experiments gone awry on a tropical island.  A team of specialists is sent in to find survivors and retrieve the data, and winds up being chased around the island by a sentient black cloud of CGI evil.

Then tonight I watched STALLED, the story of a hapless janitor trapped in a stall in the ladies' room during the zombie apocalypse.  Funny at times, gross at others, it wasn't great but it wasn't bad either.