Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Last Seduction" (1994)
http://youtu.be/jj2hpVz1NlU

Noir-inspired drama/thriller about a tough-as-nails New York woman (Linda Fiorentino) who takes off with a suitcase full of her drug-dealing husband's cash. She then settles in a small town under an assumed name, begins an affair with a local yokel and manipulates him into finishing her dirty work for her.

Linda Fiorentino's excellent performance is the main reason to watch this movie - not only is she smokin' hot but you kinda end up rooting for her even though she's a totally cold-as-ice, amoral beeyotch.

[Rev. Powell]

"The Last Seduction" (1994)
http://youtu.be/jj2hpVz1NlU

Noir-inspired drama/thriller about a tough-as-nails New York woman (Linda Fiorentino) who takes off with a suitcase full of her drug-dealing husband's cash. She then settles in a small town under an assumed name, begins an affair with a local yokel and manipulates him into finishing her dirty work for her.

Linda Fiorentino's excellent performance is the main reason to watch this movie - not only is she smokin' hot but you kinda end up rooting for her even though she's a totally cold-as-ice, amoral beeyotch.

Great movie, great villain. Fiorentino should have won the Oscar for that.

VALENTINO (1977): The life and times of Rudolph Valentino (portrayed by ballet dancer Rudolf Nuryev) as directed by Ken Russell in his typical excessive style. It turns out Nuryev couldn't act and the script provides no insight into Valentino beyond the what you could find in the scandal sheets of the day, but the prison rape scene, at least, is classic Russellmania. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

I remember seeing the Last Seduction 2 in the video store and thinking that sounded ridiculous. you can't have another last thing


Sister (2012) - This is set at a ski resort but has very little in common with Ski School or Hot Dog: The Movie

A kid steals skis at a French ski resort to pay for food and shelter for him and his ner do well but hot sister. It doesn't seem like that could have a lot of long term potential but they manage to manage somehow. The sister mostly smokes, acts rude to her breadwinning brother and goes out with dumb seeming men. This goes on for a while then a pretty serious conflict between the two of them threatens to tear them apart.

It deals with the lives of the poor and feels very rural and American in some places. It is, of course, French though, so the brother and sister look at each other like they want to have sex. They never get tired of that over there. A little slow in the beginning but ultimately the elements come together to create something that leaves a lasting impression. Always watch your stuff when you ski 4.5 /5

Gillian Anderson of all people has a small role

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Babadook" (2014)
http://youtu.be/szaLnKNWC-U

A still-grieving widow and her young son are victimized by an evil spirit that enters their home through a sinister children's book.
This unusual, arty Aussie psychological horror sets a properly bleak, depressing mood and has some spooky bits but overall it didn't really "click" with me. I was expecting better/scarier from all the critical love and hype it received. I didn't really see what all the whoop-de-doo was about. (shrugs)

[FatFreddysCat]

"Secret Agent Fireball" (1966, aka "The Spies Kill in Beirut")


Another cheap n' cheesy, enjoyably silly James Bond knockoff from Italy, this one starring American actor Richard Harrison as Bob Fleming, aka "Agent X-117," who travels across Europe romancing hot Euro babes and tangling with Russian agents in search of a stolen microfilm. Nice work if you can get it.

[Rev. Powell]

BOLERO (1984): The plot is: Bo Derek is an 18-year old heiress traveling the world to find someone willing to take her virginity (!), but when she finally does, the guy gets gored in the business by a bull. SPOILER: If you make it to the end you'll see Bo at the wedding altar, and you'll understand that this is truly a Bo-ring movie. 1/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Botched - marginally entertaining horror comedy with Stephen Dorf doing battle with a pair of insane Russian twins while trying to rob their apartment (in Russia). It's never as funny or weird as it wants to be but it works in a dumb way. The russian girl he flirts with is decent looking but not beautiful and she doesn't really act very sexy or wear anything revealing which is a good analogy for the whole thing I think. It's okay but you wanted a little more

a charitable 3/5 at least it tries to be original, prob would have been more fun as a low budget Troma type goof

[lester1/2jr]

P2 (2007) - I really liked this. A guy and a girl face off in a parking garage. he wants to be friends, she doesn't so he chases her around the garage. It's like that Seinfeld episode where they walk around the garage the whole time except a horror/ thriller. The girl is pretty and well proportioned if not the all time greatest actress. She does fine it's not super inspired, but she makes up for it with gratuitous cleavage. Other people might nitpick or look down their nose at it because Jodie Foster and Shia leabouf or whoever is the big star of the day isn't in it but it's entertaining and well done, if a bit of a b movie.

5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Agent 505: Death Trap Beirut" (aka "From Beirut With Love," 1966)


More swingin' 60s Eurospy fun. A smooth Interpol agent (Frederick Stafford) stationed in Beirut romances a lovely lady photographer (French beauty Genevieve Cluny) while tracking a super-villain known only as "The Sheik," who plans to unleash a new kind of chemical weapon on the world.
The story in this German/Italian Bond knockoff was a hopeless muddle but there were lots 'n' lots of pretty girls in it, therefore I was entertained.

[claws]

Punch-Out!! (2008)

A kid named Little Mac is questioning his boxing skills but finds new inspiration and motivation from coach Doc Luis.

Student Fan / Short Film based on the 1987 NES game. Made as a Rocky-ish drama, with amusing 1980s bits of arcade game nostalgia (they incorporated audio and on screen text from the game). The actors resembling the game characters are more miss than hit, and the fight scenes are kept rather short, though they still have a comic video game feel to them. Fan films these days seem to have much better production values, and are usually shot in high-def. Punch-Out!! doesn't have any of that but the grainy super-8 style and low budget gives it a certain old school charm. 3.5/5

[indianasmith]

I haven't watched as many movies this month,  so I decided to play catch-up this weekend.  Friday I watched
BRIDGE OF SPIES - brilliant Cold War drama, well acted, richly deserving the Best Picture nod it got.  Tom Hanks is well cast as the American attorney who was chosen to negotiate for the freedom of Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers.  Is it just me, or is he coming to resemble Richard Nixon in his old age? 5/5

CURVE was a really good revenge flick about a bride traveling cross country who picks up a psychotic hitchhiker who of course is a serial killer.  She deliberately wrecks her jeep trying to escape from him, winds up pinned upside down in the thing while he is thrown clear and unhurt.  He torments her for days as she struggles to free her pinned foot and tries to find food and water.
4/5
Last night I added THE BONE TOMAHAWK, a great Western with Kurt Russell and Jason Patrick.  A deputy and a young bride are kidnapped by a reclusive tribe of cannibal Indians in the late 1800's, and the sheriff leads a posse deep into the mountains to try and rescue them.  Jason Patrick is the woman's husband and has a broken leg that's trying to mend, but he goes along anyway.  SUPER gory, well acted, and the mutant Indians are creepy to the extreme.  Almost like THE HILLS HAVE EYES goes west!  4.5/5

[Rev. Powell]

"World of Tomorrow" (2015): The third generation clone of a little girl time travels to the present to deliver advice on dealing with the World of Tomorrow. Psychedelic stick figure animation that packs a melancholy wallop. Oscar nominated, only 17 minutes long and currently streaming on Netflix. 5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Deepstar Six" (1989)
http://youtu.be/pouTM3jqZCM

The crew of an undersea research station is menaced by a giant, hungry something-or-other in Sean "Friday the 13th" Cunningham's cheap looking but entertaining aquatic "Alien" variant which was one of several underwater horror flicks that tried to beat James Cameron's "The Abyss" to the punch in 1989.

[indianasmith]

Tonight I watched CUT HER OUT, a low-budget thriller from Midnight Releasing.

A psychologist, treating a patient who had endured severe abuse as a child at a remote country house, takes her back to that house to help draw out her repressed memories and help her overcome her neuroses.  When they get there, they discover a feral boy living in the same room where she was once imprisoned and tortured.  Her memories begin to emerge, and things take a darker and darker turn as the story goes on.

This one wasn't terrible, but not great either.  2.5/5

[claws]

Retribution (1987)

On Halloween depressed artist George tries to commit suicide by jumping off the apartment building he lives in. He survives heavily injured and is released from the hospital three months later. Everyone is happy when George returns home but George is plagued by horrifying nightmares: in those dreams he brutally kills people he doesn't know but seems connected with. When newspapers report about the murders George is convinced that he is the killer. His psychiatrist is trying her best to help and soon realizes that George might be possessed by a supernatural force seeking revenge.

Retribution is the kind of movie that borrows ideas and scenes from other popular horror movies yet still manages to come off as original. For example, the limping George character is pretty much a copy of Christopher Walken's The Dead Zone (1983) character, right down to the eyeglasses, knit vest, walking stick and short bangs.
Acting is above average (except for cutie Suzanne Snyder's annoying overacting as the "prostitute Angel" - yep, another reference) with colorful and sympathetic characters. I liked the seedy downtown urban setting including unusual spots and hang outs, and the fact that director Guy Magar tinted several scenes in bright neon. That was kinda different. Rating: 4/5