Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

Break (2019) - this is better than Frozen, the similarly themed American one. I don't see many Russian movies so this was interesting for that reason too. There is no sex or nudity or innuendo I think they are lucky they get to make movies at all over there. Ironically, it is well known that Russia has the greatest whores in the world. One good quality it had was cognition of the internet and the fact that kids use it 24 hours a day.

As they get into a creaky chair lift in the middle of the night, of course no one says anything like "I hope we don't get stuck, that would be bad." 

plot: Youths including a comic relief fat guy are going to party at the top of a mountain but get stuck in the trolley thing. The situation becomes more and more grim as they struggle to keep it together and personal issues rise to the surface and yadda yadda

More care than usual put into this. The thing you are pretty sure is going to happen doesn't a few times, in other words.

4.25/ 5  enjoyable if not wildly unique or original

[Rev. Powell]

VARIETY LIGHTS (1950): Fellini's first movie. A pretty, ambitious country girl worms her way into a fleabag traveling variety show, whose self-appointed star is immediately smitten with her. This gentle satire knows its showbiz characters inside-out, but while it's fun enough, it barely gives an inkling of what the director is capable of. 3/5.



Carla Del Poggio is really hot.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hallowed Be Thy Name" (2020)
Small town Louisiana teens p**s off a legendary demon that lives in a cave outside of town. Hilarity does not ensue. Cheap, poorly acted, talky indie horror crap with no likeable characters, no decent scares and a cop-out ending.
AVOID.

[Rev. Powell]

THE WHITE SHEIK (1952): A young bride sneaks away on her honeymoon to see the actor who plays her favorite serial character, "The White Sheik."  Fellini's first film as solo director is an Italian screwball comedy, and a funny one: Leopold Trieste's facial expressions as he tries to stall the family who's demanding to meet his missing bride are priceless, and there's a laugh-out-loud suicide attempt. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

The Hunt (2012) - This has some pretty high ratings on IMDB, probably due to its subject matter: a man wrongly (we think) accused of child molestation. The filmmakers deserve credit for taking on this topic, but the movie falls short in a couple ways, though it does have more depth than most of my recent viewings.

A guy is in his forties and still works as an assistant at a kindergarten. He should probably be doing something more substantial with his life. Why he has this job is not really explored. At any rate the kids like him, one kid in particular a little too much, probably due to being neglected at home. This leads to her saying that he exposed himself to her and the town is soon in an uproar and he gets beaten up when he goes to the supermarket and so forth.

The script badly needed going over. The school principal decides way too fast that he is totally guilty, the English speaking co worker who instantly falls in love with him makes no sense and we wait and wait to learn what if anything DID happen etc

At the same time the main guys performance is good and the scenes where he accepts that he is a pariah but tries to navigate life in purgatory are compelling.  The focus on the families and community in this small Denmark town makes it relatable.

4/5 Some good stuff and some stuff that should have been fixed. 2 hour plus heavy drama if you're in the mood

[Rev. Powell]

I VITELLONI (1953): The friendship of five layabouts ("vitelloni," i.e. slackers) is tested when the womanizer of the group marries the youngest friend's sister. Well-made but rather pointless infidelity drama; the thing that stands out to me most is Nino Rota's score, and the fact that lead Franco Interlenghi looks an awful lot like Marcello Mastroianni (whose character in LA DOLCE VITA has a similar name and may well be meant to be the same character at a later stage of life). 2.5/5.

[indianasmith]

FORBIDDEN EMPIRE (2014) This was a badly dubbed Russian fantasy film set in 1701.  To be honest, the plot was darned hard to follow - not sure if bad screewriting or bad translation was to blame.  An English scientist comes to a remote kingdom in Eastern Europe beset by witches and beasts and tries to help the local lord solve the mystery surrounding his daughter's death.  Cool special effects, complex plot, bad dubbing - I wanted to like this one, but it wound up being a slog in places.  3/5

[Rev. Powell]

LA STRADA (1954): The brutish Zampanò buys a simple-minded girl for 10,000 lira to be his assistant in his traveling strongman act. Anthony Quinn makes for one of the screen's all-time detestable villains, but Fellini's ruthless but empathetic script makes us feel for even him---just barely. 5/5. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Killer Crocodile" (1989)
Environmentalists investigating pollution in a tropical swamp discover that radioactive waste has caused a local croc to grow to immense size and develop a taste for humans.
This cheap, cheesy-but-fun Italian creature feature wears its obvious "Jaws" influence like a neon sign -- even the monster's "attack music" is a thinly veiled ripoff of the Jaws theme! The giant croc puppet is good for a few laughs and there's a whole bunch of gory deaths, so at least the movie lived up to its title. Entertaining junk.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Aenigma" (1987)
A prank on a nerdy college girl goes wrong and puts her into a coma, but she gets revenge on her tormentors from her hospital bed via telekinetic powers.
A couple of cute girls and some decent gory death scenes can't quite save this klutzy Italian flick which is bolted together from bits of "Carrie," "Phenomena," and "Patrick." A late-career swing and miss from the usually-dependable Spaghetti horror maven Lucio "Zombie" Fulci.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Moonshine County Express" (1977)
A Southern moonshine maker is shot dead by members of a rival organization, and his three lovely daughters decide to take over Daddy's business. Obviously the bad guys are not pleased to learn of their new competition, which leads to lots of car chases, explosions, and general mayhem.  
This fun, fast paced Hick-sploitation action comedy in the "Dukes of Hazzard" vein features some impressive stunt driving and a cast full of familiar faces, incl. former Playmate Claudia Jennings, Maureen "Marcia Brady" McCormick, John Saxon, and William Conrad.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Concrete Blondes" (2013)
Three ditzy female roommates stumble into the site of a gangland slaying, and discover a giant bag full of cash. They think their financial prayers have been answered, until they have to keep that money out of the hands of the thugs, low lifes and double-crossers who are looking for it.
An uneven flick that can't quite decide if it's a dark slapstick comedy or a straight up Tarantino-style ultra violent crime flick, but it's enjoyable enough thanks to the charm of the three female leads, who work well together (and are cute too).
No connection to the similarly-titled spy movie starring Charlize Theron.

[Rev. Powell]

MAN UNDER TABLE (2021): A nameless screenwriter tries to write a movie (the movie we're watching), while his peers' careers seem to be taking off faster than his. Meta-movies where the screenwriter is also a (usually neurotic) character aren't totally original, but nor is the subgenre tapped out yet; although it can't exactly figure out how to end itself, MAN UNDER TABLE largely succeeds through its knowing satire of pretentious indie filmmakers working at the fringes of an industry that is itself on the fringes of Hollywood. 3/5.

[RCMerchant]

DUNGEON OF HARROW (1962)

Possibly the worst horror film ever made.
This was made by mediocre comic book artist and writer Pat Boyette. He should have stuck to drawing s**t comic books.

Senseless drivel involving some morons stranded on an isolated island held captive in an old castle (why a castle is in the middle of Buttf**k, Nowhere, is never explained) by some old nutjob haunted by his dead wife?
I don't even care.
I'm amazed this was never on  that Mystery Science Theater 3000- because this is s**t.
I actually have seen this 3 times. Don't ask why- because I don't know. I blame it on drug and booze abuse compounded by maniac depression. That's the only excuse I have.

http://youtu.be/1sMhMaPL9SY

[Alex]

Death Fest: A teenager whose mother was murdered by a psycho grows up obsessed with horror movies and plans on attending a horror con which turns out to be a real horror story when the staff start killing the attendees.

I didn't have much in the way of high expectations going into this one, but it was somewhat better than expected. If you've got an hour and a half to spare there are worse things you could watch. The effects could be better, but the acting is mostly good enough for you to suspend disbelief and root for the heroes as they try to escape this 700-acre death trap.


Bill & Ted Face The Music. Many years after the last movie, Bill and Ted return wondering why they have still not fulfilled their destiny. Kristi enjoyed this one and thought it was fun-filled. I thought there were too many plot threads woven into the movie and none of them had enough time to develop them properly. You could have dumped the rehashed plotlines from the previous movies (collecting figures from history, visiting Hell, robot out to kill them) and just developed some of the other ones and for my money anyway, made a much better film. Not terrible, but could have been so much better.