Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

there are a couple All Hallows eves is it this one? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2900624/

it doesn't sound like it

[FatFreddysCat]

"Easy Rider" (1969)
Easy Rider - Official Trailer ( 1969 )

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (who also directed) star as two hippie motorcyclists who have numerous strange encounters while on a road trip across America. This counterculture classic obviously packed a bigger wallop in 1969 than it does now, but it's still an entertaining time capsule.

[lester1/2jr]

Death By Popcorn: the Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets (2006) - watched on youtube.

This is a documentary about how the Winnpeg Jets struggled and eventually left Winnipeg for Phoenix, of all places.

formally speaking DBP's art school type editing tricks might alienate sports fans and the subject matter, a depressing tale of a hockey team leaving a small Canadian city with not much else going for it, isn't exactly art house material. Yet, by cancelling out it's 2 possible audiences it really did appeal to me a curmudgeon who has never watched hockey for more than 14 seconds.

DBP relies heavily on clips from hokey local shows and commercials, hokey is almost hockey as they say. The popcorn in the title refers to an incident in which the Jets were playing the Oilers, who is the only team they seem to ever play, and someone threw popcorn on the ice destroying their momentum a la that guy at that Cubs game. He's interviewed here but I don't think it's real. It's funny, but it just can't be him he's like insane.

4/5

If I ever make a sequel to my "5 documentaries to see with some guy" article I will surely include this

[FatFreddysCat]

"Godzilla" (2014)
Godzilla - Asia Trailer [HD]

Mega-budget 21st century re-boot of the Big Green Guy focuses less on monster mashin' chaos and more on the plight of the puny humans caught in the midst of it, but it still manages to be a fun ride... certainly better than the P.O.S. 1998 attempt by the "Independence Day" crew anyway.

[etmoviesb]

"Godzilla" (2014)

I did not see it yet, but if you did not I strongly suggest to see the original of the 1954. There is a reason why that movies spawned a multigenerational mythos...


I saw Taken 2 [2012]; it is nice. But not as good as the first.

[indianasmith]

there are a couple All Hallows eves is it this one? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2900624/

it doesn't sound like it

I got the title wrong!  (I told you it was a very forgettable film!)  Here is the one that I just watched - ALL SAINTS EVE:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2286506/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

ALL HALLOWS EVE was a MUCH better film.

[indianasmith]

Last night I finally got to see FURY.
I'll be honest - it was a bit disappointing.  A lot of my students raved about it, but I found the dialogue hard to follow
(especially in the first half hour), the characters remarkably unlikable, the plot improbable, and the presentation of the war questionable.
That being said, the actual tank duels were pretty exciting to watch, and Brad Pitt's performance was impressive.  I guess I'll give
it a 3.5/5 - it wasn't bad, just not as good as I had hoped.  SAVING PRIVATE RYAN remains the standard by which I judge all WW2 movies.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Zombieland" (2009)
Zombieland Trailer(HD)

NUT UP OR SHUT UP!
After the zombie apocalypse, a loner, a redneck and two sisters travel across the country to a California amusement park (?), having various goofy adventures along the way. This hilarious zom-com is kinda like America's answer to "Shaun of the Dead." Woody Harrelson absolutely steals the movie as "Tallahasee." 

[Rev. Powell]

Death By Popcorn: the Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets (2006) - watched on youtube.

By coincidence, my latest viewing mentions the Winnipeg Jets prominently, too.

MY WINNIPEG (2007): Using the retro film aesthetics he's noted for, Guy Maddin's surreal ode to his hometown exposes Winnipeg's problems with sleepwalkers and horses frozen in the ice of the river, among other curiosities. A fascinating and dryly hilarious Freudian mockumentary in which Maddin's hometown stands for his own psyche.  4.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

that's a pretty serious coincidence are you sure you're not stalking me?

[Jack]

Raiders of the Sun (1992) - in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two factions vie for power: the good guys are a large army of semi-competent troops and the bad guys are a much smaller army of Keystone Cops. So the bad guys kidnap the wife of one of the good guys, and meanwhile they also attack a peaceful village and kill the cute babe that another one of the good guys was recently getting jiggy with. Looks like there's gonna be a showdown! This was actually pretty entertaining, with hundreds of pyrotechnic explosions to keep the action moving. Plenty of post-apocalyptic silliness as well. My favorite scene was when one of the good guys comes face to face with about 8 bad guys, all pointing guns at each other, and the good guy tells them to lower their weapons. They do  and then a fight breaks out, with all the bad guys forgetting they're still holding their guns, and using their fists instead    4/5.

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched V/H/S VIRAL, the latest installation in this horror vignette series.
A car chase in L.A. provided the backdrop for a series of interesting stories, several of which were quite creepy.
I think this was my favorite out of the whole series.  The one about the guy who opened up a portal to a parallel
universe and met his parallel self was probably the most interesting.  4.5/5

[indianasmith]

Stuck home on  a snow day, I just finished watching a Roman-era costume drama called LOST LEGION.
It struck me as a low-budget attempt to cash in on the success of SPARTACUS and 300.  Set in the year 475, it
pits the wits of a Roman dux named Maximus against his scheming wife and her lover centurion as she
attempts to place her simpering 15 year old son on the Imperial throne, with a subplot about a leader of
the Suebi people who is unjustly imprisoned and has his wife stolen from him.  The dialogue is stilted, but
there was some halfway decent combat (with the obligatory CGI bloodspurts) and enough nudity to keep
Jack smiling for a week.  It was fairly entertaining, if nowhere near the level of the shows it strove to imitate.
I'll give it a 3.5/5.

[Jack]

Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1988) - third movie in the Deathstalker series. There's this crystal that's in three parts and some evil wizard is trying to get them all so he'll be invincible or something. Of course Deathstalker has one of the pieces and isn't too anxious to give it up. And then there's the princess who's travelling to marry the wizard so his forces will quit attacking her people and Deathstalker joins up with her. This was kind of weak, the guy who plays Deathstalker was just kind of a silly goof and overall it needed more comedy, or more drama, or at the very least more exploitation. But it was okay I guess. 3/5.

Toxin (2014) - an airplane crashes in the ocean and the survivors make their way to a nearby island. An island where the military is conducting some experiments with a biological warfare agent that turns people into mutant psycho killers. Yup, sucks to be them. The characters in this weren't very likable or sympathetic but I guess the plot was okay. Plenty of high-adrenaline fights with the people tying to defend themselves from the psychos. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Out of the Furnace (2013) - various big names like Ridley Scott, Leo Dicaprio, Woody Harrelson, Christian Bale and others get together to make this okay blue collar revenge tale that could have used a few giant alien rats.

Christian Bale and Casey Affleck are brothers in New Jersey or something. One works at a mill and the other does tours in Iraq. Tey get into it with some backwoods meth dealing hicks led by Woody Harrelson. Besides being a druggie they stage bare knuckle boxing fights. There are some fights but it's not a Rocky type situation.

The pace is a little odd. After watching for 45 minutes I felt like I was still waitign for it to start. the acting and dialogue were good it just needed more excitement. I wanted to see Harrelson hanging from the trees like a monkey while house music played and Snooki from Jersey Shore had a cameo. Instead it was just dour dour dour, like when you eat really healthy for a few days then admit you're bored and go to Hooters.

All in all it was very healthy and nutritious but not super exciting. 3/5