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Recent Viewings, Part 2

Started by Rev. Powell, February 15, 2020, 10:36:26 PM

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FatFreddysCat

"Salt and Pepper" (1968)
"Mr. Salt" (Sammy Davis Jr.) and "Mr. Pepper" (Peter Lawford) are the swingin' owners of the hottest nightclub in London. When a mysterious woman is found murdered in their establishment, the pair suddenly find themselves mixed up in a revolutionary plot to overthrow the British government.
This campy cloak-and-dagger comedy hasn't aged very well, but Lawford and Davis make an appealing team and there are a few decent laughs. Followed by a 1970 sequel, "One More Time."
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

FatFreddysCat

"Humanoids from the Deep" (aka "Monster," 1980)
The residents of a Pacific Northwest fishing village come under siege from a horde of sea monsters, the result of an unsuccessful gene-splicing experiment intended to increase the growth of salmon. These critters don't just want to maim and kill humans -- they want to mate with our females! YIKES!
...a gloriously tasteless cult classic from Roger Corman's New World Pictures, "Humanoids" is a surprisingly well made slab o' sleaze, with some cool looking creatures, lots of gore, and a healthy dose of T&A. You'll never look at seafood the same way again.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

indianasmith

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on January 11, 2025, 09:50:23 PM"Humanoids from the Deep" (aka "Monster," 1980)
The residents of a Pacific Northwest fishing village come under siege from a horde of sea monsters, the result of an unsuccessful gene-splicing experiment intended to increase the growth of salmon. These critters don't just want to maim and kill humans -- they want to mate with our females! YIKES!
...a gloriously tasteless cult classic from Roger Corman's New World Pictures, "Humanoids" is a surprisingly well made slab o' sleaze, with some cool looking creatures, lots of gore, and a healthy dose of T&A. You'll never look at seafood the same way again.

That was one of the very first R-rated movies I ever watched, when I was 16.  Monsters and boobs . . . I was never the same after that! LOL
"I shall smite you in the nostrils with a rod of iron, and wax your spleen with Efferdent!!"

M.10rda

WOULD YOU RATHER (2012):
Although I think the 15-20 minute prologue and the O. Henry-ish epilogue are entirely unnecessary, I'll still recommend this for a taut 65-minute single-location dose of unpleasantness that would make for a great one-act play, if theatergoers liked paying $40-$300 to watch torture onstage, which - Antonin Artaud (literally) and Jez Butterworth/Neal LaBute plays (figruatively) notwithstanding - they generally don't. I dislike most of the SAW films and I avoid torture porn as a rule, but I checked this out anyway for Jeffrey Combs, and - indeed, Jeffrey Combs as the sadistic millionaire torture-master makes all the difference!

Originally a theatre actor in Chicago, Combs broke into movies with performances aimed at the balcony (so to speak) in Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND. He went on to give what might be one of the best over-performances in cinema history in Peter Jackson's THE FRIGHTENERS and has even managed to be restrained and realistic at times. By the time WOULD YOU RATHER begins in earnest, it was clear that Combs had shown up in full eyeball-popping, scenery-gashing camp resplendence... and I wasn't feeling it. I like some gonzo overacting now and then, but generally I prefer understatement, and I was looking forward to seeing what Combs could do when he dialed down and played a drawing-room drama in all close-ups. Instead, Combs is still pitching it to the cheap sears. It's too much at first.

But then, within a few minutes, it's clear that WOULD YOU RATHER is a film about a maniac inflicting real suffering on real human beings. It's not cartoonish - Combs isn't playing Freddy Krueger. His guests-slash-victims all give more-or-less credible performances. (Only three of them are played by recognizable actors - Britany Snow, Sasha Grey, and the late John Heard, who is very good here.) The action is all staged and shot in a flat fashion, ala a pedestrian TV drama, mostly in MW and with no forced perspectives. This seems like a liability at first, but as the proceedings grow more baroque, it actually helps to maintain the viewer's distance from some unpleasantness. And, of course, it provides Combs with a more theatrical playing distance for his outsized performance.

There are a few definitions of the term "generous" actor or performer, when applied as a compliment. One of these fits Combs here: instead of giving the performance that might make sense to an actor reading a role off the page, Combs instead gives the performance that was necessary to make WOULD YOU RATHER successful or maybe even watchable. The mechanics of the plot become predictable at points, and at all turns the audience is made to watch characters suffer various humiliations, debasements, and physical inflictions - at one point there is some injury-to-eyeball business that I had to fast-forward. None of this would really be worth sitting through, or perhaps possible to tolerate, except that Combs' juicy clowning fabricates its own entirely new dimension of aesthetic distance to shield the viewer from the ugliness. There is no discernible humor in the bleak screenplay, yet I found myself chuckling on several occasions at novel ways that Combs had managed to spin a few syllables to allow for some comedy. He also receives some appreciable support from a bald-pated British heavy named Johnny Coyne, who plays his chief henchman with an equal degree of monosyllabic joie de vivre. The two of them are truly generous in their performances... to the project, and to the audience. They transform what would otherwise just be an ugly, unnecessary freak show into something of an event.

3/5
Don't get smart - always pick 2 minutes in the barrel!

indianasmith

MONGOLIAN DEATH WORMS (2010) My wife and I were looking for something stupid to watch and spotted this on Prime.  I watched it long ago, back in the day of renting DVD's from Hastings, and it hasn't improved with age.  An oil company drilling in Mongolia has found the tomb of Genghis Khan and awakened the giant "death worms" that guard it, and they are wreaking havoc all over the place.  This one straddles the nebulous border between "so bad it's funny" and "just plain bad," mostly tipping to the latter.   Bad CGI monster fans will like this, maybe. 2.5/5
"I shall smite you in the nostrils with a rod of iron, and wax your spleen with Efferdent!!"

lester1/2jr

#4355
Watch Us Kill (2024) - I hereby bequeath upon the world the first review ever for this movie. It's a bit of a fail, but an interesting one. I liked a lot of the actors, but whoever was in charge of the plot left to go get donuts and never came back. This is after setting up a pretty complex scenario involving multiple parties maybe being who they say they are or perhaps not. loose ends galore

Is this a tax shelter or cult classic?

A reporter receives what appears to be a snuff film and tries to find out what's going on. She gets drawn into the world of the directors and all this is told found footage style, via some sort of documentary/ assemblage.

If they made this up on the spot I would be impressed, but I probably wouldn't release it until there was a lot more clarity.

3.5/ 5 watched in one night. interesting to study, but a normal person watching this would probably be p**sed off






FatFreddysCat

#4356
"C.H.U.D." (1984)
A photographer, a cop, and a street activist discover that radioactive waste dumped in the sewers of NYC has turned the local homeless population into Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, who are now coming to the surface to snack on Greenwich Village residents.
This cult classic features a witty script and fine performances by two future "Home Alone" cast members (Daniel Stern and John Heard) as well as a cameo by a young John Goodman! Cool, cheesy '80s horror fun.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

lester1/2jr

#4357
The Bat Whispers (1930) - This was filmed in 65 millimeter, which didn't catch on but which does give it a distinct look. Unfortunately, wacky murder mysteries of this era are a lot better at 60 rather than 90 minutes. They run out of gags pretty fast and the mystery is dragged on too long. The titular figure was apparently an influence on Batman but Batman is a lot better. It is kind of cool when they show The Bat's shadow lurking, though.

The print was thought lost but found in Mary Pickford's private collection when she died. The remastering job is extremely nice. It's also pretty early for a talkie, so if all the historical aspects are of interest to you it's certainly worth checking out.

3/5

M.10rda

LONG WEEKEND (1978):
Another film I read a lot/too much about in my youth and thus avoided for a long while, but some more contemporaneous celebration of it (including in the rollicking doc NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, which I watched a couple years back) made me try it out. I get the admiration for it. Beautifully shot and w/ some really effective sound mixing, the film maximizes all possible dread from its ostensibly pleasant-looking environments for about as long as anyone could expect and then some, Inevitably though it has to resort to relationship dysfunction and psychodrama in order to extend its run time, which is a little unfortunate, as I didn't enjoy spending time w/ the two miserable lead characters and didn't even particularly relish counting the 100 minutes that tick by as I waited for nature to catch up to and have its way w/ them. But to the extent that I could abstract from these specific jerks and experience the menace vicariously, I enjoyed myself. The night scenes, particularly, are nerve-wracking. This would likely be a treat to see on the big screen, in a nice print, and seeing it with an audience would likely provide a few extra jolts and chuckles.

3.5/5
Director Colin Eggleston directed an entirely different and very odd outback horror movie called THE WICKED in the late 80s, iirc. I reviewed a US video release for Joe Bob Briggs in the early 90s and have often wanted to watch it again, but haven't had luck tracking it down...

zombie no.one

^^ one of my all time fav movies. 

Quote from: M.10rda on January 15, 2025, 07:36:02 PMI didn't enjoy spending time w/ the two miserable lead characters and didn't even particularly relish counting the 100 minutes that tick by as I waited for nature to catch up to and have its way w/ them.

totally get this take, and yet for me the fact that they both tend to b***h at each other throughout the movie just heightens the tension and unease in a compelling way...

weirdly, in possibly the closest movie comparison I can think of (OPEN WATER), I did not like the drama / arguments between the couple.

M.10rda

I think LONG WEEKEND works much better than OPEN WATER.

And it still works in spite of me finding the married couple insufferable. I've watched POSSESSION close to two dozen times and have great affection for that married couple  :bouncegiggle: so everything's subjective.

FatFreddysCat

"Starcrash" (1978)
The Emperor of the Universe (Christopher Plummer) sends sexy space pirate Stella Star (former Hammer horror babe and one time Bond girl Caroline Munro) on a deep-space mission to locate the planet which conceals the super weapon of the evil Zarth Arn (Joe "Maniac" Spinell) in this dizzying Italian "Star Wars" knock-off. The story is gibberish, the dialogue is unintentionally hilarious, the acting is over-the-top, and the special effects and set designs are charmingly cheesy and colorful. Oh, and did I mention this flick features David FREAKIN Hasselhoff in one of his earliest acting roles? This one's a sentimental fave of mine because it was my introduction to the wild, wacky world of low budget European B-movies when I was a kid.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

FatFreddysCat

"Vigilante" (1982)
After his family is brutalized by street thugs, a working-class New Yorker (Robert Forster) joins up with a neighborhood group of tough guys led by Fred "The Hammer" Williamson who are on a mission to take back the streets from the pimps, dealers, and muggers. Much bad-guy butt is kicked in this effective "Death Wish" variant directed by William Lustig, later of "Maniac Cop" fame.

"Five Nights at Freddy's" (2023)
A troubled young man (Josh Hutcherson) is hired as the overnight security guard at a long shuttered, Chuck E. Cheese style kids' pizza restaurant known for its animatronic mascots. Eventually he learns that the robo-critters are haunted and have nefarious plans for his younger sister.
Blumhouse's adaptation of the popular horror video game series (with which I have only the most basic knowledge of, via my kids) has a promising premise but it fumbles the ball at nearly every opportunity, spending WAY too much time on the main character's tragic back story and not nearly enough on the animatronic-critter carnage which is supposed to be the movie's main selling point.
"FNAF" spent so much time stuck in Development Hell that two similarly themed knock-offs from rival studios beat it to the marketplace over the past couple of years (Willy's Wonderland with Nicolas Cage and The Banana Splits Movie), and truthfully I liked both of those better than this overlong slog. AVOID.
"If you're a false, don't entry, because you'll be burned and died!"

lester1/2jr

The Gingerweed Man (2021) - I have never seen the Evil Bong series so I didn't know what to expect other than not very much. It makes no sense that it's a gingerbread man who is also made out of weed. Is it a weed cookie? A scientist makes it then another scientist tries to steal it, along with some women.

I liked that he/ it had a British accent for no reason and also liked that this was just 45 minutes long. There was even a little bit of nudity with boobs that hadn't been aerobicized into oblivion. I didn't like the 80's cartoon style "cute" sidekick weed doll thing that turned up or feeling like a juggalo as I watched this.

Fair's fair though, it was entertaining

4/5

RCMerchant

Quote from: lester1/2jr on January 18, 2025, 06:56:04 PMIt makes no sense that it's a gingerbread man who is also made out of weed. Is it a weed cookie? A scientist
4/5

You never heard of a weed cookie? Hash Brownies? Edibles?
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