Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" (2016)

Following a series of clues left behind by his late grandfather, a teen travels to Wales, discovers a secret "school" on a hidden island for kids with strange abilities, and helps them battle some monstrous villains.

Tim Burton's elaborate fantasy flick (based on a young-adult novel series) is kinda like a steampunk mash up of "Harry Potter" and "X-Men." I enjoyed it but my son, who'd just finished the book for his summer reading program, nit-picked endlessly about all the stuff the movie did differently, so your mileage may vary.

[indianasmith]

The Lure:

"They only touch the fish tail vagina once. Why set it up like that and not use it again??" - My friend complaining at the end of this movie.

Polish Vampire Mermaid musical. Yup that's right.

It's an incomprehensible mess (but the good kind) and some of the songs are pretty catchy even if the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean nobody seems particularly worried about mermaids existing and the Polish nightclub/strip club scene is very different to the ones I'm familiar with here. The key being the working kitchen, cabaret level productions, house band and an average age of about 50 as the clientele. Either way though they seem like a ton of fun.

Worth a watch with some friends and an open mind about plot structure. 3.5/5

! No longer available

I think I am on board for this one!!  Poland might, with a few more films like this, come to rival Japan for sheer weirdness.

[Rev. Powell]

The Lure:

"They only touch the fish tail vagina once. Why set it up like that and not use it again??" - My friend complaining at the end of this movie.

Polish Vampire Mermaid musical. Yup that's right.

It's an incomprehensible mess (but the good kind) and some of the songs are pretty catchy even if the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean nobody seems particularly worried about mermaids existing and the Polish nightclub/strip club scene is very different to the ones I'm familiar with here. The key being the working kitchen, cabaret level productions, house band and an average age of about 50 as the clientele. Either way though they seem like a ton of fun.

Worth a watch with some friends and an open mind about plot structure. 3.5/5

! No longer available

I think I am on board for this one!!  Poland might, with a few more films like this, come to rival Japan for sheer weirdness.

We've got a couple of reviews of THE LURE on 366weirdmovies, with one more coming when the Criterion disc comes out in October.

Plus Indy, we have an interview with the director of HELLDRIVER: http://366weirdmovies.com/a-quick-chat-with-gore-maestro-yoshihiro-nishimura-2017/. I didn't go to the Fantasia Festival this year because someone else volunteered to go, and my biggest regret was not getting the chance to meet this guy.

[Rev. Powell]

TAIPEI STORY (1985): A liberated businesswoman and her ex-baseball star boyfriend flounder through changing times in 1985 Taipei. A stately but not exactly gripping social drama about urban ugliness and alienation, generational clashes, and so on. 2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

The Lure:

"They only touch the fish tail vagina once. Why set it up like that and not use it again??" - My friend complaining at the end of this movie.

Polish Vampire Mermaid musical. Yup that's right.

It's an incomprehensible mess (but the good kind) and some of the songs are pretty catchy even if the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean nobody seems particularly worried about mermaids existing and the Polish nightclub/strip club scene is very different to the ones I'm familiar with here. The key being the working kitchen, cabaret level productions, house band and an average age of about 50 as the clientele. Either way though they seem like a ton of fun.

Worth a watch with some friends and an open mind about plot structure. 3.5/5

! No longer available

I think I am on board for this one!!  Poland might, with a few more films like this, come to rival Japan for sheer weirdness.

We've got a couple of reviews of THE LURE on 366weirdmovies, with one more coming when the Criterion disc comes out in October.

Plus Indy, we have an interview with the director of HELLDRIVER: http://366weirdmovies.com/a-quick-chat-with-gore-maestro-yoshihiro-nishimura-2017/. I didn't go to the Fantasia Festival this year because someone else volunteered to go, and my biggest regret was not getting the chance to meet this guy.

Anybody who actually comes out and says on the DVD that his movie is best enjoyed under the influence of adult beverages is a minor hero to me!! LOL

[FatFreddysCat]

Family Double Feature Night:

"Garfield: The Movie" (2004)
The comic strip cat makes his live action film debut (in weirdly CGI-animated form), voiced by Bill Murray, no less, in this disappointing kid flick. When Garfield's canine pal Odie is kidnapped, the big G must brave the big city to rescue him from life as a circus dog. By the midway point I was thanking God that Jennifer Love Hewitt was in this movie, because her short skirts were the only thing making it watchable.

And speaking of unwatchable.. we followed that up with:

"Independence Day: Resurgence" (2016)
Years-too-late sequel to the 1996 hit brings back some old faces (Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner, Bill Pullman) and introduces a bunch of new ones when those nasty ol' aliens return in an even bigger and badder mothership to try and wipe out what's left of the human race. The fancy special FX are nice to look at for a while but it all gets old pretty quick. Let's be honest, the original "ID4" was no great shakes either but compared to "Resurgence" it was practically the Royal Shakespeare Company. Will Smith was smart to sit this one out...

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Second Best Secret Agent In The Whole Wide World" (aka "Licensed To Kill," 1965)

First in a series of three cheaply made James Bond knockoffs starring Tom Adams as suave British agent Charles Vine, who protects a scientist and his plans for an anti-gravity device from a variety of enemy agents, double crossers and femme fatales. Fairly standard Eurospy nonsense; I've seen better but I've also seen lots worse.

[A_Dubya]

I watched Little Boxes and Open Windows. I enjoyed both. Nobody cares, so whatever. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Chopping Mall" (aka "Killbots," 1986)
A gang of teenage mall employees want to have an overnight drunk-n-horny party after the stores close, but their bash is rudely interrupted by the mall's three hi-tech security robots, who turn homicidal after lightning shorts out their central computer.

...it doesn't get much more "'80s" than that premise, folks!

Jim Wynorski's sci-fi/horror/T&A cult classic is a dumb, fun time capsule that will bring back memories of leg warmers, VHS cassettes and "USA's Up All Night."

[claws]

It (1990)

Seven kids encounter a recurring evil force manifesting as a clown. IT kills and triggers personal fears but the kids strong bonding leads to IT's demise, or so they think. Thirthy years later IT emerges again and the kids, now all grown up, must face and fight evil once again.

Epic mini series based on Stephen King novel. Even though most of the f/x aren't up to today's standards (they are unintentionally hilarious actually) with a confusing plot all over the place, IT is still quite effective thanks to Tim Curry's excellent performance as the creepy clown IT. This was a fun and nostalgic trip down memory lane. Thought I'd revisit before the remake hits theaters in September. 3.5/5 (very good)

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Visit" (2015)

Two teens spend a week at the home of their estranged grandparents, and slowly begin to realize that there's something odd about the old folks...

M. Night Shyamalan's "comeback" film starts off on the slow side (and the younger brother is one of the most irritating movie kids I've seen in ages), but once the trademark M. Night "twist" kicks in, everything suddenly snaps into place and it turns into a pretty decent thriller. Better than I expected.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Conjuring" (2013)
Creepy-cool haunted house flick based on a case file from Ed & Lorraine Warren, the real life paranormal experts best known for their investigation  of "The Amityville Horror." Scared the crap out of my 14 year old. :D

[FatFreddysCat]

"Never Too Young To Die" (1986)

A secret agent (one-shot 007 George Lazenby) is killed in action, so "the company" drafts his estranged high-school gymnast son (John Stamos) to help Dad's former partner (Prince protege' Vanity) stop a hermaphrodite terrorist (Gene Simmons!) who wants to poison California's water supply with radioactive waste...for some reason. Lots of butts get kicked, stuff blows up frequently, Simmons overacts painfully, and Vanity takes her clothes off, all set to an oh-so-80s synth-heavy soundtrack.

Good Lord! How have I NEVER seen this trash classic before today?? I should've been all over this movie ages ago based on the casting alone. This ultra-bizarre movie mashes up James Bond spy hijinks, adds some "Rocky Horror" drag show elements and "Road Warrior" ultra-violence and the result may be the most "Eighties" movie EVER!

Anyone who sez "Howard The Duck" was the worst movie of 1986 has obviously never seen "Never Too Young To Die!"

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Conjuring 2" (2016)

Sequel to the 2013 hit sends real-life ghost busters Ed and Lorraine Warren to London, where a single Mom and her family are experiencing a haunting that may have roots in one of the Warrens' most famous cases.
Not quite as spooky as the original but still a satisfying creep show.

[indianasmith]

ZOMBIE HUNTER RIKA 

    Another exercise in Japanese zombie silliness, replete with epic swordfights, gratuitous nudity, blood spurting everywhere, and body parts flying.  Rika is a school girl who tries to rescue her grandfather, a samurai neurosurgeon, during the zombie apocalypse.  When she is bitten he cuts off the infected arm and replaces it with the arm of a famous zombie killer.  Now it's up to Rika to kill the Zombie Lord and cause all his victims to revert to normal.  This is a glorious shovelful of steamy B-movie cheese!  4/5