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Recent viewings

Started by trekgeezer, August 17, 2007, 06:42:25 PM

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lester1/2jr

Torchy Blane in Chinatown - Torchy Blane is a somewhat pretty but mostly annoying and foppish reporter who has a crush on the not at all impressive police sergant, who is like Boston Mayor Marty Walsh with even less charisma. In this one they're after some allegedly Chinese hoods who do some sort of scam I can't really remember what it was, except they keep threatening to kill people at midnight. I was so bored I watched it, that kind of thing

2.75/ 5

indianasmith

ATTACK OF THE KILLER DONUTS (2016)

About as dumb as the title sounds.  Goofy fun!  3.5/5
"I shall smite you in the nostrils with a rod of iron, and wax your spleen with Efferdent!!"

lester1/2jr

Devil's Pass (2013) - I liked most of this found footage horror movie from Renny harlin, particularly the likeable and believable cast. The resolution was problematic and the idea could have been more thoroughly explored yadda yadda, but it's not John Carpenter we're talking about here. worth seeing

3.75 /5

FatFreddysCat

"Baron Blood" (1972)
A young American comes to Austria to visit a castle belonging to his infamous ancestor, "Baron Blood" - a medieval Vlad the Impaler-style homicidal torture fiend. Like an idiot, he reads a magic incantation that ends up bringing the old boy back from the dead and sets him off on a new killing spree. Can he figure out how to send his great-great-great grandpappy back to hell?
Mario "Black Sabbath" Bava directed this Gothic Euro-horror entry which started out promising but turned into a slog by the halfway point. It's got some nice scenery and set design but everyone in the cast over-acts to the point of pure ham. Thankfully, '60s/'70s Euro-hottie Elke Sommer provides ample eye candy in a variety of tight sweaters and short skirts.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

lester1/2jr

#11074
fast freddys cat - fun fact about Baron Blood: there is an infamous youtube of "the sounds of hell " that is alleged to be from a cave in russia where a microphone captured center earth Hell Sounds. in fact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_to_Hell_hoax


"the recording was later found to be looped together from various sound effects, sometimes identified as the soundtrack of the 1972 movie Baron Blood.[1]"

http://youtu.be/uU2HFFCr71k


BoyScoutKevin

England's Forgotten Queen, part 3
Again hosted by historian Helen Castor
And again my thoughts on it.

Finally
Ye-es! Things would have been different. Not only would they have brought in a better government than the one that occurred, as he, even as a teenager had enough interest in good government to chair his wife's privy council, while she still had a privy council. They were young enough, unlike Mary and Elizabeth, to produce heirs to the throne. Jane, only 16, when she died, and Guildford, no more than 19, when he died, and he may have been as young as 15 years and 11 months, when he died.

And in 2013, they tested the paint. They tested the wood upon which the paint was used, and both date back to the time of Jane, which is why, with a surety of 80%, they believe that is a portrait of Lady Jane Grey. Which is 1 more portrait than we have of her husband Lord Guildford Dudley. (More on this next time.)

Next time: if one wants to continue with the subject, a bibliography of books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the subject.


FatFreddysCat

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
! No longer available
Cool documentary about the rise and fall of the all-girl '90s punk band, who were never quite able to make a mainstream breakthrough despite being buddies with grunge royalty like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, etc.  Packed with lotsa cool vintage live clips and gross-but-hilarious road stories, these gals were (and still are) badass.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

FatFreddysCat

After the L7 documentary reviewed above, Amazon Prime recommended this one:

"Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures" (2006)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5xGkkSVeXw
...another engrossing doc about a bad-ass all-girl rock band! This flick tells the chaotic story of L.A.'s Betty Blowtorch, a late '90s punk/metal combo who were just starting to turn heads with their sleazy tunes and in-your-face 'tudes. Unfortunately their career was cut short when lead singer and ring leader Bianca Halstead (aka "Bianca Butthole") was killed in an auto accident while on tour in late 2001. 
I didn't get hip to B.B. till several years after their breakup (their Are You Man Enough? album is a stone cold classic, by the way) but this doc's mix of interview footage and clips of the gals throwin' down on stage and off filled me in on what I missed. Weep for what might have been cuz Betty Blowtorch were well on their way to being one hell of a band....
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

lester1/2jr

#11078
The monitor - foreign horror movie goes for Fincher like twist complexity but just ends up confusing 2.75 /5

Jeckyll and Hyde (1932) - always liked this version "champagne ivy is meh naaaame" bad song, hot girl 5/5

RCMerchant

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on June 02, 2018, 06:44:15 AM
"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
! No longer available
Cool documentary about the rise and fall of the all-girl '90s punk band, who were never quite able to make a mainstream breakthrough despite being buddies with grunge royalty like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, etc.  Packed with lotsa cool vintage live clips and gross-but-hilarious road stories, these gals were (and still are) badass.

I need to see that.
I just watched a documentary about the GITS (2005)
Great movie. The lead singer Mia Zapata was murdered.

http://youtu.be/n_ozOebxj7c
Supernatural?...perhaps. Baloney?...Perhaps not!" Bela Lugosi-the BLACK CAT (1934)
Interviewer-"Does Dracula ever end for you?
Lugosi-"No. Dracula-never ends."
Slobber, Drool, Drip!
https://www.tumblr.com/ronmerchant

lester1/2jr

#11080
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - well it's not They Live or The Thing but it is John Carpenter so I wanted to see it. It's interesting, but ultimately the plot just wasn't that good of an idea: A horror writer is so good that his books make people go crazy and kill people. or is something even more sinister afoot? A detective guy and someone from his book company go to some town somewhere to try and find him (he mails all the things in). It could have been a decent one of those Masters of horror thingies.

I liked the assistant book publisher lady played by Julie Carmen (who appears to be mostly a tv actress otherwise). Charlton Heston of all people is her boss. This got very high ratings on IMDB but while I did watch it all the way through, it got the "vibe" right if not the actual movie, I wouldn't recommend it.

3/5

indianasmith

EVILS OF THE NIGHT (1985)  A group of space aliens (played by Julie Newmar, Tina Louise, and John Carradine) come to a college town to steal blood platelets from horny teenagers with the assistance of a pair of inept middle-aged mechanics.  A big old slice of 80's cheese, complete with tons of gratuitous nudity, bad acting, and cheesy special effects.  Most classic "bad movie" I've watched in a long time!  4/5
"I shall smite you in the nostrils with a rod of iron, and wax your spleen with Efferdent!!"

BoyScoutKevin

England's Forgotten Queen, part 3
Again hosted by historian Helen Castor

If one has seen the documentary, and wants something to read, then here are the books I recommend on the subject, both non-fiction and fiction. With the reasons to read them.

Non-fiction
Christine Hartwig
John Dudley
1. Probably one of the few books on one of the major figures in all this.
2. She brings up an alternative theory as to why he converted to Catholicism. Not to save his own life, but to save the lives of his 5 sons. Not that it did him or them much good. The middle son was still executed along with the boy's wife. The eldest was released from jail, but his health was so shattered, he died soon after release. And the youngest and the baby in the family was killed the next year, while fighting in France. With the two who survived all this, probably saw him being killed.


Eric Ives
Lady Jane Grey : a Tudor Mystery
1. That rarity. Male author. Female subject.
2. Thus, a different slant on the subject.
3. He is often a source used by the others mentioned.


Leanda de Lisle
Tudor : Passion, Manipulation, Murder
1. She is either Catholic or comes across as being Catholic.
2. Thus, another different slant on the story.


Fiction
A. C. H. Smith
1. Another male author. Female subject.
2. The novelization of the film Lady Jane, which I also recommend seeing.


Margaret Mullally
A Crown in Darkness


Susan Higginbotham
Her Highness, the Traitor
1. One of the few female writers that I have found who truly understands the male psyche.
a. Brother to brother
b. Man to man.
c. Son to parent.
2. And till we get more info on Lord Guildford Dudley, probably the best portrayal of him yet, fiction or non-fiction.
3. Though she has him (IMHO) too passive. If one looks that the portrait most used to portray him, because it never has been identified with anyone else, who ever the young man is, he's not passive. The question is he a hard nut all the way thru or soft and chewy inside. I go with soft and chewy.


Suzannah Dunn
1. For the best 2-word description I have ever heard of Lord Guildford Dudley: Baby Hubby.


The 3 Janes
My Lady Jane
1. For a fictional work, surprisingly factual in some ways, especially the 1st half.
2. To be a motion picture. At least, the option for a movie from the book, was picked up by a film production company.

Chainsawmidget

Quote from: lester1/2jr on June 05, 2018, 09:39:01 PM
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) - well it's not They Live or The Thing but it is John Carpenter so I wanted to see it. It's interesting, but ultimately the plot just wasn't that good of an idea: A horror writer is so good that his books make people go crazy and kill people. or is something even more sinister afoot? A detective guy and someone from his book company go to some town somewhere to try and find him (he mails all the things in). It could have been a decent one of those Masters of horror thingies.

I liked the assistant book publisher lady played by Julie Carmen (who appears to be mostly a tv actress otherwise). Charlton Heston of all people is her boss. This got very high ratings on IMDB but while I did watch it all the way through, it got the "vibe" right if not the actual movie, I wouldn't recommend it.

3/5
I, on the other hand would definitely recommend it as it captured the atmosphere and themes of Lovecraft's works better than any other movie that's tried so far. 

The entire cast gives great performances and the ending is suitably chilling.   

Gene Worm

#11084
Ultraman Story (1984): Certainly fits the bill for a bad movie. Mostly focuses around Ultraman Taro who's being trained throughout his life to become a "super" Ultra fighter so he can take down the evil "Juda" and his evil monster subordinates. Honestly, only the end of the movie is really worth watching because of the Ultra Brothers' climactic fight with "Grand King". The rest of the movie is mostly reused footage from previous shows that are badly re-dubbed to sort of fit the plot of the movie as well as very long and often cheesy segments of Taro being trained by the Father of Ultra.

(TV series) Ultraman Ace (1972): I just started watching through the full series and I have very mixed feelings about it. The show is entertaining, and its monsters often don't disappoint, however, out of the Ultra shows where I've seen their full episodes, it seems to have the most inconsistent plot development out of any of them. Characters suddenly know what's going on without any reason or much analysis, and occasionally the characters will make a decision that just doesn't make any logical sense.

The show can also get pretty dark and intense at completely random times, which I'm not too huge a fan of when I'm just trying to enjoy silly sci-fi and dumb rubber kaiju fighting each other. In one of the earlier episodes, it's even implied (although inconclusive) that a character gets raped after being drugged, although all you really saw was her bent over a window as the attacker who drugged her approaches, and then the scene fades out. Afterwards, you see her later just tied up in the attic (it's never revealed what happened between then and the last scene with her) while the creepy guy is going on about how he wants to use his telepathic abilities to force her to marry him. Even though nothing on that level is revealed, I still can't help but find just the mere implication to be a be a bit unnecessarily shocking for a kids' show.

They also don't seem to hold back much on the gore effects for when each of the monsters get defeated. I often find it comical, just because of how cheesy the effects are for it, although, I do still wonder where they draw the line in Japan for what's supposed to be a family friendly television program. Honestly, I'd say the fight scenes are really the only parts I've enjoyed about this show so far. The rest of the story seems confusing and can sometimes be a little discomforting, especially when I expected something a lot sillier and just goofy. Out of the Ultra shows where I've seen all of their full episodes so far, I think Ultraseven (1967) still wins me over, because it both had a fun and consistent plot as well as of course good fight scenes and monsters.
"Listen, you've got to get down below. There's something coming through, and it's the nastiest looking thing yet! Some of your buddies went down there a while ago, and I haven't seen them since."