Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

Night of the Hunter - A corrupt preacher learns that his cell mate has $10,000 stashed away and seeks to extract the truth of it whereabouts from the man's children. He uses all his phony charm to involve himself in their lives and no surprise in soon turns into a very overt battle. It's obviously a great movie, I especially liked the shots on the river barge thing. it shows its age in a couple places and the writer was probably some kind of commie but I'll still give it 5/5

Repo Man - probably my favorite movie of all time. A teenager (emilio Estevez) with no hope for a future accidentally becomes a car reposesser. He initially is very turned off by the job, as it is kind of like being a cop or an IRS agent or something, but after a while he doesn't really care.

Plus, there's a car going around with alien bodies in it that is attracting a massive reward, so the race is on to find that. It's the slice of life thing with the job and the alien thing as a delightful side thing.

"let's get sushi and not pay" generic beer, ridiculous punk soundtrack its got it all. now on tubi

5/5 highest possible rec

[Rev. Powell]

Night of the Hunter - A corrupt preacher learns that his cell mate has $10,000 stashed away and seeks to extract the truth of it whereabouts from the man's children. He uses all his phony charm to involve himself in their lives and no surprise in soon turns into a very overt battle. It's obviously a great movie, I especially liked the shots on the river barge thing. it shows its age in a couple places and the writer was probably some kind of commie but I'll still give it 5/5

Repo Man - probably my favorite movie of all time. A teenagers (emilio Estevez) with no hope for a future accidentally becomes a car reposesser. He initially is very turned off by the job, as it is kind of like being a cop or an IRS agent or something, but after a while he doesn't really care.

Plus, there's a car going around with alien bodies in it that is attracting a massive reward, so the race is on to find that. It's the slice of life thing with the job and the alien thing as a delightful side thing.

"let's get sushi and not pay" generic beer, ridiculous punk soundtrack its got it all. now on tubi

5/5 highest possible rec

Kind of funny you said the writer of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER was probably a commie when the writer of REPO MAN is a huge commie. Great double feature, though.

[lester1/2jr]

I think you being named after the Night of the Hunter guy effected my rating. It wasn't crazy enough I liked Nightmare Alley a bit better

[FatFreddysCat]

"42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street" (2015)
A look back at the grimy glory days of New York's 42nd Street, once dubbed the "World's Greatest Movie Center" due to the large number of movie theaters contained within just a few blocks. The documentary's main focus is the "grindhouse" era of the '60s and '70s, with comments and stories from B-filmmakers and movie buffs like Joe "Gremlins" Dante, Greydon "Joysticks" Clark, porn queen Veronica Hart, Lloyd (Troma) Kaufmann, and more, plus plenty of groovy, gory clips from long forgotten horror/splatter/exploitation flicks. Lots of fun!

"Nightmare" (aka "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain," 1981)
A dangerous psychotic, troubled by recurring dreams of murder and mayhem, escapes from a treatment facility in New York and heads down to Florida, where he plans to pay a lethal visit to his ex-wife and kids. Naturally he murders anyone who's unlucky enough to cross his path along the way.
There's not much plot in this semi-legendary Video Nasty sickie but there is plenty of sleaze and gore. The guy playing the killer is effectively creepy in a bug eyed sort of way, and the splatter flows hot n' heavy. Not an essential watch by any means, but slasher completists will get a few sick thrills out of it.

[lester1/2jr]

Bible Quiz (2013) - This was 5 miles down in the very deep tubi documentary page. Folks, it was beautiful. A misfit sort of girl escapes her troubled home life by becoming super competitive in Bible quizzing. Its a church based activity where you pretty much memorize all of the New Testament. When you give an answer, for some reason everyone reads it back super fast? Never got an explanation for that. I guess it's to save time.

Soon enough, she develops an interest in her team mate JP. None of these guys ever get laid or drink or even hug a girl so they seem sort of gay, but she still likes him. The team makes their way to the final stages of the comp. Will they become quiz royalty? or will Mikayla (the girl) totally blow it?

5/5 really nice and the indy director clearly respects the lifestyle choices of the kids

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Horror of Party Beach" (1964)
Radioactive waste dumped in the ocean creates mutant sea monsters that crash a teen beach party. Hilarity ensues.
An utterly bizarro black & white mash up of the bikini-beach and horror genres, with cheap looking creatures, a ridiculous plot and sub-par acting. Cheezy but watchable vintage drive-in junk.
Fun fact: The film features several songs by "The Del-Aires," a rock band from Paterson, New Jersey. Aside from appearing in this movie, their only other major claim to fame is that they happened to be playing a nightclub in Lodi, NJ one night in 1963 when a particularly nasty gangland slaying took the lives of two police officers:
https://www.theaquarian.com/2011/01/19/weird-nj-paterson-nj-and-the-weird-atomic-beasts-who-live-off-human-blood/

"Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" (1979)
A foxy young reporter (Jane Seymour) is assigned to do an expose on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders from the inside, by auditioning and landing a spot on the squad. During the process she gets caught up in the lives and loves of her fellow cheer hopefuls, including a housewife, a girl escaping a bad relationship, and a stuck-up gal who wants to use the DCC's as a stepping stone to Hollywood.
Silly, made-for-TV soap opera fluff with plenty of jiggle, produced at the height of late '70s Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader mania. In addition to Seymour, the cast also includes Lauren ("Love Boat") Tewes, Bert Convy, and even former NY Yankee great Bucky Dent (!), who has the acting chops of a plank of wood.
Followed by a 1980 sequel, which I could almost swear starred Lynda "Wonder Woman" Carter, but that may just be wishful thinking on the part of ten-year-old me.

[Jim H]

Love Hard - Cutesy romantic comedy sums it up.  A girl meets a guy on a dating site, they talk a lot online.  She flies to meet him for Christmas without telling him- turns out he catfished her (for reasons that are only quasi explained), with his profile pics being a local friend of his.  Guy tells girl he'll help her get the guy from the pictures if she pretends to be his girlfriend over Christmas.  This plotline sounds almost exactly like a few other romantic comedies, to the point I was wondering if it was a remake.  It's pretty paint by numbers, but sometimes that's what you want.  It's fairly funny, two adequate lead performances, and nothing overly crude.  James Saito, who will forever be the live action Shredder to me, plays the guy's father.  6/10.

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: OUTLAW (OF GOR): The experiment involves a college professor being transported back (it's a sequel) to Gor, a medieval world of scantily clad women, to battle an evil queen. In Deep 13, Dr. F and Frank have "invented" a time machine. I always like Conan ripoffs as MST3K experiments, and this one has the memorable song "Tubular Boobular Joy," so it's an above-average episode. 3.5/5.

[Trevor]

MST3K: OUTLAW (OF GOR): The experiment involves a college professor being transported back (it's a sequel) to Gor, a medieval world of scantily clad women, to battle an evil queen. In Deep 13, Dr. F and Frank have "invented" a time machine. I always like Conan ripoffs as MST3K experiments, and this one has the memorable song "Tubular Boobular Joy," so it's an above-average episode. 3.5/5.

I know quite a few people who worked on that and Gor.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Black Christmas" (2006)
Stuck-up sorority sisters and their house mother suffer the consequences when an escaped psychopath who once lived in their house comes "home"  for the holidays.
This splattery 21st century remake of Bob Clark's Yuletide slasher classic has a WAY bigger mean streak than the original (Incest! Cannibalism! Eyeballs as Christmas tree trimmings!) and some primo eye candy via the casting of Michelle ("Buffy") Trachtenberg, Lacey ("Party of Five") Chabert and Mary Elizabeth ("Scott Pilgrim") Winstead. Don't get me wrong, this is not a great movie by any means, but I have never really warmed to the 1974 original, so I kinda dig this version.
I have yet to see the second "Black Christmas" remake attempt from 2019, but if the reviews I've read are any indication, it makes this one look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.

[jimpickens]

A Few Dollars Less a zany send up of spaghetti westerns.

[RCMerchant]

"The Horror of Party Beach" (1964)
Radioactive waste dumped in the ocean creates mutant sea monsters that crash a teen beach party. Hilarity ensues.
An utterly bizarro black & white mash up of the bikini-beach and horror genres, with cheap looking creatures, a ridiculous plot and sub-par acting. Cheezy but watchable vintage drive-in junk.
Fun fact: The film features several songs by "The Del-Aires," a rock band from Paterson, New Jersey. Aside from appearing in this movie, their only other major claim to fame is that they happened to be playing a nightclub in Lodi, NJ one night in 1963 when a particularly nasty gangland slaying took the lives of two police officers:
https://www.theaquarian.com/2011/01/19/weird-nj-paterson-nj-and-the-weird-atomic-beasts-who-live-off-human-blood/

It was filmed in Stamford Conn.Being from NYC- yeah NJ. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE FEAST (2021): A teenage girl is hired to help prepare and serve a three course meal for a Welsh politician and his wife to entertain his neighbors (and conduct business at the same time). THE FEAST ends on a bloody bacchanalia, but the beginning is brutally slow; the film would be stronger if it were 15 minutes shorter. As it is, its main importance is being one of very few movies filmed in the Welsh language (IMDB says only 26 movies have ever been released in Welsh). 2.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"RoboCop 2" (1990)
Officer Murphy aka RoboCop may have met his match, as those fine folks at OCP have developed the next generation of crime fighting cyborgs - a hulking death machine powered by the brain of a dead drug dealer/cult leader. Yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong with that idea...
Action packed sequel (scripted by comics writer/artist Frank Miller of "The Dark Knight" and "Daredevil" fame) isn't quite as balls-to-the-wall as the original, but there's still plenty of tongue in cheek satire and ultra-violent metal mayhem. Tons of destructive fun.

"Doctor Mordrid" (1992)
A sorcerer (Jeffrey "Re-Animator" Combs) has spent 100 years waiting for his arch-enemy to break down the barriers between dimensions and attempt to bring his evil  to earth, and now the battle royale is about to begin.
... if this sounds familiar, it's because this Full Moon Studios production started out as an adaptation of Marvel's "Doctor Strange" ... until they lost their rights to use the character. In true Full Moon style, they merely tweaked the script, changed a few character names, and voila! "Doctor Strange? Who? Nah, never heard of him."
In spite of the overall off-brand feel, this is actually one of Full Moon's better movies, with decent performances and cheap but charming special effects that have helped it achieve cult status. Worth checking out.

[Rev. Powell]

JOHN AND THE HOLE (2021): Without giving an explanation, thirteen-year old John traps his parents and sister in a submerged open-air bunker. Trapped between enigmatic realism and magical realism, the plot digs itself a nice hole, but doesn't know how to fill it. 2.5/5.