Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

FIVE EASY PIECES (1970): A hard-living roustabout reveals that there's more to his character than meets the eye when he returns to his family homestead to visit his estranged father, now paralyzed by a stroke. A nuanced character study reminding us that talent and intelligence can be obstacles to happiness. Arguably Jack Nicholson's greatest performance, definitely Karen Black's. Part of Criterion's "BBS" set. 4.5/5.

[RCMerchant]

FIVE EASY PIECES (1970): A hard-living roustabout reveals that there's more to his character than meets the eye when he returns to his family homestead to visit his estranged father, now paralyzed by a stroke. A nuanced character study reminding us that talent and intelligence can be obstacles to happiness. Arguably Jack Nicholson's greatest performance, definitely Karen Black's. Part of Criterion's "BBS" set. 4.5/5.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Death By Metal" (2016)
A cool documentary examining the life and career of extreme metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner of Death fame, whose early records put death metal on the map while his later work pushed the boundaries of the genre's often-rigid "rules." Sadly, his battle with an aggressive cancer took his life just as he was poised to make a new breakthrough with his Control Denied project. Commentary by former band mates and associates incl. Gene Hoglan, Rick Rozz, Chris Reifert, Jim Morris and many others is surrounded by lots of vintage live clips and photos A cool trip down memory lane for Death fans and metal trivia nerds in general.

[Rev. Powell]

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS [RIFFTRAX]: Giant rabbits rampage! In slow motion! Familiar faces at low points in their careers (Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelly) try to stop them! Terrible movie, mostly dull, occasionally ridiculous. The Rifftrax jokes helped and provided several chuckles, but honestly I had trouble getting into it. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Fat Freddy - I will definitely be checking that out. They were the Beatles of Death Metal and Chuck was John lennon and Paul mcCartney


Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003) - I'm not from California so I've never heard Rodney Bingenheimer's influential radio show, but I knew what it was through general music/ pop culture. There are "brands" like that: Thrasher, Soul Train, Rodney on the ROQ you know what they are even if you've never seen or heard or read them.

Rodney reminds one most immediately of Andy Warhol. He isn't deep,  but upbeat and especially fascinated by celebrities. He's met and knows a lot of them from Elvis to whatsher name from No Doubt (showing my age a little here). David Bowie and Cher stop by, these aren't small timers here. We also meet Kim Fowley who is kind of his evil twin.

The ending is kind of sad because radio is sort of coming to an end and, it could be argued, so is most good music. Through all this, Rodney never made much money. He did get to bang a lot of girls especially in the 60's and 70's though so good for him.

4/5

[Rev. Powell]

POSSUM (2018): A loner with a perpetual frown skulks around like a sex offender and tries to dispose of his demonic spider puppet, which returns to his room every morning. Many people will think this is too slow and uneventful---essentially the same scenario repeats, with hallucinatory variations, for the first hour---but it has a real creepiness to it, and gives you an icy feeling like you've spent time living inside a genuine madman's skull. 3.5/5.

[Gabriel Knight]

INSTINCT (1999)
When a noted anthropologist who left society to live in the jungle is imprisoned for murder, it's up to a young psychiatrist to get through to him.

While the performance of Anthony Hopkins is great, Cuba Gooding Jr. sucks as a psychiatrist, although personally I believe he sucks as an actor overall. I felt no sympathy for his character, whom only did what he did for personal gain, trying to fool the viewer into believing he was some kind of altruist doctor - which he is not. It had this stupid Robin Williams attitude of coming to a place with crappy budget and believing magic solutions exist.
The movie has a weird portrayal of psycopath killers, showing them as good natured fellas with good manners who only get bullied. The "bad guards" cliché is present, and it makes no sense. Just awful.

Overall, a pretty bad movie. The only good moments were when Hopkins goes crazy and gives his "freedom" and "control" speeches. Funny enough, if you try to find any form of trailer, you will always be greeted with the scene in which Dr. Powell grabs Dr. Caulder around his neck, leading you to believe it is some kind of thriller. It is not. At all.

The music by Danny Elfman is good but totally out of place in this movie. It actually sounds generic, which is quite a feat.

Just avoid it, it's not worth the two hours. 2/5

[indianasmith]

TRANCE (2010) - Some girls go to a rave and take a drug that turns them into psycho killers, taking out all the guys at the party.
Decent gore, no nudity (close, though), plot is a bit slow to build, acting mediocre.  2.5/5

[Trevor]

INSTINCT (1999)
When a noted anthropologist who left society to live in the jungle is imprisoned for murder, it's up to a young psychiatrist to get through to him.

While the performance of Anthony Hopkins is great, Cuba Gooding Jr. sucks as a psychiatrist, although personally I believe he sucks as an actor overall. I felt no sympathy for his character, whom only did what he did for personal gain, trying to fool the viewer into believing he was some kind of altruist doctor - which he is not. It had this stupid Robin Williams attitude of coming to a place with crappy budget and believing magic solutions exist.
The movie has a weird portrayal of psycopath killers, showing them as good natured fellas with good manners who only get bullied. The "bad guards" cliché is present, and it makes no sense. Just awful.

Overall, a pretty bad movie. The only good moments were when Hopkins goes crazy and gives his "freedom" and "control" speeches. Funny enough, if you try to find any form of trailer, you will always be greeted with the scene in which Dr. Powell grabs Dr. Caulder around his neck, leading you to believe it is some kind of thriller. It is not. At all.

The music by Danny Elfman is good but totally out of place in this movie. It actually sounds generic, which is quite a feat.

Just avoid it, it's not worth the two hours. 2/5

This film unsettled me for a long time: there is one funny scene where Sir Anthony Hopkins has his arm around Cuba Gooding's neck, I thought that Sir Anthony was going to kill him and then he kisses Cuba. 

[Gabriel Knight]

INSTINCT (1999)
When a noted anthropologist who left society to live in the jungle is imprisoned for murder, it's up to a young psychiatrist to get through to him.

While the performance of Anthony Hopkins is great, Cuba Gooding Jr. sucks as a psychiatrist, although personally I believe he sucks as an actor overall. I felt no sympathy for his character, whom only did what he did for personal gain, trying to fool the viewer into believing he was some kind of altruist doctor - which he is not. It had this stupid Robin Williams attitude of coming to a place with crappy budget and believing magic solutions exist.
The movie has a weird portrayal of psycopath killers, showing them as good natured fellas with good manners who only get bullied. The "bad guards" cliché is present, and it makes no sense. Just awful.

Overall, a pretty bad movie. The only good moments were when Hopkins goes crazy and gives his "freedom" and "control" speeches. Funny enough, if you try to find any form of trailer, you will always be greeted with the scene in which Dr. Powell grabs Dr. Caulder around his neck, leading you to believe it is some kind of thriller. It is not. At all.

The music by Danny Elfman is good but totally out of place in this movie. It actually sounds generic, which is quite a feat.

Just avoid it, it's not worth the two hours. 2/5

This film unsettled me for a long time: there is one funny scene where Sir Anthony Hopkins has his arm around Cuba Gooding's neck, I thought that Sir Anthony was going to kill him and then he kisses Cuba. 

Yeah, that's the scene that you'll see in every movie board to lure you in. Sadly, Cuba Gooding survived that ordeal. I was kind hoping his neck snapped.

[FatFreddysCat]

Fat Freddy - I will definitely be checking that out. They were the Beatles of Death Metal and Chuck was John lennon and Paul mcCartney

It was a cool documentary but Chuck S. does come off as a bit of a flake at times. He went through so many band members over the course of his relatively short career that you could probably argue that he was all four Beatles rolled up in one guy. :D

[Allhallowsday]

THE WILD COUNTRY (1970) 



STEVE FORREST and VERA MILES take there sons RON HOWARD  CLINT HOWARD from Pittsburgh to wild Montana 1880 style.  I liked it.   

[Alex]

Bohemian Rhapsody: A well acted, but decidedly underwhelming movie. About the hour point, Kristi said she wasn't really getting into the film either and we discussed putting it off, but I decided to push on through. For me, it really only kicked into gear when it got to Live Aid. Disappointing as from all the hype I was expecting a much better movie. Oh well, it would be a boring world if everyone had the same tastes in entertainment.

[Rev. Powell]

TERROR 5 (2016): An anthology of horror stories in an Argentinian town told over a single night, involving revenge, zombie-like creatures, and snuff films. Often incoherent and badly-assembled sleaze with little terror payoff. Not entertainingly bad; there's a little nudity and gore, and even less sense. 1/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Rev- Have you ever seen Sadomaster? it was for a while the lowest rated movie on netflix instant. also from Argentina. good working definition of a 1/5

http://youtu.be/uf2-VMNvWl8