Recent viewings

[Kooshmeister]

The Killing Joke, which, while, well, flawed as all heck, was still quite good.

[Rev. Powell]

VAMPYRES (2015): Remake of the 1973 lesbian vampire classic by José Ramón Larraz. Campers in the woods encounter two beautiful women who seduce them and then drink their blood. The imagery is good---it's hard to mess up naked women making out while blood drips on them---but the cliched "cabin in the woods" dialogue and dead-eyed acting do no honor to Larraz's memorable original. 2/5.

[Mofo Rising]

Baskin (2015)

Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

A Turkish horror movie about five police officers on an about to turn very unaverage night. Basically, some not-so-nice police are relaxing until they are called in on an emergency call. Along the way there are some indications that all is not quite right with reality. They then arrive at an abandoned police stations where things really start to go downhill.

I was quite impressed with this movie. It's low budget, and the characters are not very likable. But it committed to it's idea, and the climax is way, way more messed up than I was expecting. Lovecraft by way of Silent Hill.

It ain't going to change your life, but if you have 90 minutes to spare for the depraved, check it out. 4 out of 5 stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Fuller Report" (1968)
http://youtu.be/I2q6zeO2rWg
More enjoyably silly Eurospy nonsense starring American beefcake Ken Clark (aka the Budget Price Bond), as a race car driver who gets mixed up with spies, a defecting Russian ballerina, and the hunt for a top secret file during a visit to Stockholm. As usual, the story quickly turns into a hopeless muddle, but the swingin' 60s European scenery and lotsa female eye candy (especially the leading lady, Serbian/Italian hottie Beba Loncar - meee-yow!) held my interest. I've watched a whole lot of these cheap spy flicks over the past year, and this one was a little bit better than average.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000: The movie involves a pseudoscientific plot to use a time machine to unknowingly import terror to our time (from the year 5000, or thereabouts). Host segments are excellent, and include the Observers forcing Pearl and Bobo to battle to the death, and demonstrating their traditional 1930s-type ballad, "When I Held Your Brain in My Arms." Many fans disagree, but I think this is the episode where the new Season 8 crew got their feet under them, with the writing finally returning to where it left off before the relocation to the SciFi channel; too bad the movie's such a mediocrity, though. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"All Things Must Pass" (2015)
http://youtu.be/ozCbrweRubY

This engrossing and bittersweet documentary about the rise and fall of the iconic Tower Records chain isn't just the story of a record store - it's a history lesson on 40 years of change in the music biz. The vintage clips of the first Tower store in NYC (4th and Broadway) brought back lotsa warm n fuzzy memories of the time I spent there during my collegiate music-scrounging days.
(sigh) Damn, I miss Tower Records.

[Rev. Powell]

COUNTER CLOCKWISE (2016): A scientist accidentally creates a time machine, travels a few weeks into the future, finds himself accused of murdering his wife, and tries to unravel the mystery. The sporadically interesting mystery and general sense of low-budget pluckiness almost overcome the suspect casting (the "renowned scientist" with the improbably hot wife looks more like an aging hipster) and the occasional stumbles over time travel movie cliches---almost. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Android Cop" (2014)
http://youtu.be/7AgZebTmtiY

The Asylum's attempt to bite off of the "RoboCop" remake looks cheaper than usual, even for them.
Set in post-apocalypse L.A., a tough police officer (Michael Jai "Spawn" White) is assigned a new robotic partner and then sent off to find the mayor's missing daughter, who's somewhere in the radioactive "outer zones" that surround the city. The man-and-machine pair soon figure out that this assignment was supposed to be a one-way mission as they come under fire from mutant gangs and corrupt cops alike. Barely watchable shoot'em up nonsense.

[Rev. Powell]

NOROI: THE CURSE (2005): A documentary filmmaker explores a series of paranormal events and discovers killings, possessions, a psychic encased in tin foil, and "ectoplasmic worms." J-horror meets the found footage genre; a bit slow, but there are enough scattered scares to keep you watching to the end. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO (1961): An orphaned hoodlum swears revenge on those responsible for sending the brother who raised him to the electric chair. This is a relentlessly competent and average movie with few virtues, but whose only real sin is to that it's a juvenile delinquency flick shamelessly titled to try to cash in on PSYCHO brand. 2.5/5.

[Jim H]

Skin Trade - Dolph Lundgren wrote and stars in this R rated straight to video action flick. Also has Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman and Peter Weller.

It's a bit of a mixed bag. Character motivation and development are weak and the plot is thin, but the pacing is solid and the fight scenes are good. Notice I said fight scenes - there are shootouts and chases, and these are awkwardly shot and edited. Still, was worth a watch just to see Jai White, Lundgren and Jaa be on screen together and fight. 5/10

[dean]

High Rise: Ben Wheatley has given us a lush series of visuals with a killelr soundtrack, but it seems apparent the extra budget means that either the studio didn't let him go crazy enough [see A field in England for an example of his crazy working well] or didn't reel him in enough leaving it kind of a mess narratively. I want to like it, but its just all over the place. I'd describe that as watching a film which plays like crucial scenes have been deleted and all of a sudden characters are doing things with no explanation as if you should know what the hell is happening, and not in the good trippy surreal way... 2/5

[FatFreddysCat]

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016)

Angered by the destruction and human casualties caused by Superman's battle with Zod (in "Man of Steel"), Batman decides that the Kryptonian is Public Enemy #1. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is working on a plan to get rid of them both. Oh, and Wonder Woman and Doomsday are also shoehorned in for no apparent reason.
Zack Snyder's wanna-be epic is WAY too long and overstuffed with subplots but the big splashy CGI action sequences are impressive. I'm still not sold on Henry Cavill as Superman (dude is a stiff) but I thought Ben Affleck was a great Batman. In fact, I would've rather watched Affleck in a solo Batman flick.
In the end this hero mashup is entertaining enough in an empty headed sort of way, as long as you keep your expectations low. It's no masterpiece, but it wasn't the train wreck I'd been expecting after reading so much fanboy hate either.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Stone Cold" (1991)

Former NFL footballer Brian Bosworth made a legit stab at becoming an action hero in this entertaining, ultra-violent shoot-em-up. Bos is a tough Alabama cop who goes undercover inside "The Brotherhood," a murderous biker gang who make the Sons of Anarchy look like the Care Bears. Lots of bullets fly, stuff blows up, shirtless guys with bad mullets beat the crap out of each other and the always dependable Lance Henriksen (as the gang's crazed leader) chews the scenery for all he's worth. Tons of fun!

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE SHE CREATURE: The movie is a boring hypnotism-based story about a mad psychic who keeps a hot babe in thrall and occasionally summons a sea monster to kill people for reasons I could never figure out. The host segments, on the other hand, are memorable: this is the episode where Mike accidentally destroys the Observers' home planet, and Pearl escapes with Bobo and Brain Guy, creating the team of Mads that will carry the Sci-Fi years. Another in a relatively weak run on Season 8 opening episodes, but things are going to take off soon. 3/5.