Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

Prisoners of the Ghostland.

Nic Cage is wired up to an explosive suit by Bill Mosely and sent into a radioactive hellhole to rescue his escaped sex slave/adopted granddaughter while confronting the ghosts of his criminal past. It is a lot weirder than I've made it sound. There is a lot going on in this movie. How much you get out of it very much depends on if you find it a bit out there, or merely pretentious. I found it interesting enough to give a second watch.

It is the strangest thing I've seen Nic Cage in.

Have you seen Color Out of Space, Alex?

Yes.

Mandy?

[Alex]

Prisoners of the Ghostland.

Nic Cage is wired up to an explosive suit by Bill Mosely and sent into a radioactive hellhole to rescue his escaped sex slave/adopted granddaughter while confronting the ghosts of his criminal past. It is a lot weirder than I've made it sound. There is a lot going on in this movie. How much you get out of it very much depends on if you find it a bit out there, or merely pretentious. I found it interesting enough to give a second watch.

It is the strangest thing I've seen Nic Cage in.

Have you seen Color Out of Space, Alex?

Yes.

Mandy?

Also yes.

[Rev. Powell]

Prisoners of the Ghostland.

Nic Cage is wired up to an explosive suit by Bill Mosely and sent into a radioactive hellhole to rescue his escaped sex slave/adopted granddaughter while confronting the ghosts of his criminal past. It is a lot weirder than I've made it sound. There is a lot going on in this movie. How much you get out of it very much depends on if you find it a bit out there, or merely pretentious. I found it interesting enough to give a second watch.

It is the strangest thing I've seen Nic Cage in.

Have you seen Color Out of Space, Alex?

Yes.

Mandy?

Also yes.

One more: Wild at Heart? (I don't know, GHOSTLAND may be the strangest thing Nic Cage has been in, but something in me resists the notion... maybe only because I thought GHOSTLAND was a disappointment, while those other movies were entertaining.)

[RCMerchant]

^ I'm sure you've seen VAMPIRE'S KISS (1988)?



I like most of his offbeat movies. His action junk...not so much.

[Alex]

Yes to both. I just found this one odder and stranger than any of his other films I've seen.

Put it down to personal taste.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dick Tracy" (1990)
Warren Beatty (who also directed) stars as the two fisted 1930s police detective from Chester Gould's long running comic strip, facing off against a variety of mobsters and villains, romancing a nightclub singer (Madonna), and taking an orphaned kid under his wing.
Disney/Touchstone apparently hoped this movie would become the next big comic inspired franchise ala "Batman," but they didn't seem to realize that the last time Dick Tracy was popular was during the Eisenhower era. 1990s audiences were like, "Dick who?"
It's a nice looking movie, but it's all style, no substance. The story is a confused muddle, Beatty's too old to be playing the hero,  Madonna looks great but can't act her way out of a paper bag, and an absolutely amazing cast of bad guys (Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, James Caan, and more!) are all unrecognizable under tons of distractingly ugly make up.
This expensive turkey is somewhat watchable in a train wreck sort of way, but its entertainment value is zilch. AVOID.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Transporter" (2002)
An ex-mercenary (Jason Statham) is living comfortably on the Riviera, working as a "transporter" -- someone who makes high stakes "deliveries," no questions asked. However, when one of his "packages" turns out to be a woman caught up in a human trafficking ring, it makes him the target of some very bad people.
A decent butt kicker with a European flair from Luc ("The Fifth Element," "La Femme Nikita") Besson. The stunt work is impressive and lotsa stuff crashes and blows up. Therefore I was entertained. Followed by at least two sequels and a short lived TV series.

[Jim H]

Skinless, AKA the Ballad of Skinless Pete.  2013. 

This is a micro, MICRO budget horror film.  $2000 budget.  And it's partially a remake of Cronenberg's version of the Fly.  With the exception of one brief shot, it's filmed ENTIRELY in the director's own house.  It only has four actors, and relies HEAVILY on two of them with many long character scenes.  The audio quality is weak. 

Experienced B-movie fans know this sounds like a boring disaster of a film, the kind of crap you'll get on a 4 movie pack at Walmart and turn off 10 minutes in.  But what a shocker - this is legitimately a pretty good movie. 

Basic plot, two doctors/scientists (a man and a woman) are trying to find a cure for cancer.  Due to funding cuts, they have to do some work in the one doctor's house.  They think they have something with a south American parasite.  Their patron tells them to conduct an off-book experiment, and the male doctor reveals he has a cancer - he injects himself.  There are unfortunate side effects and body horror begins. 

The two leads are good, the story is good, the make-up effects are good and shot well around their weaknesses.  The storyline works.  The pacing is solid.  I was invested.  It's only 80 minutes.  I wish we'd gotten a bit more gradual breakdown of what happens to the main character, the middle act is a bit weaker because of that, but this a surprisingly competent, occasionally even emotionally affecting, work for such limited means.  I wish more micro budget horror got to this level. 

Definite recommend, and I will seek out more of director/writer/editor/composer Dustin Mills filmography.  It's also free on Tubi.

[Trevor]

"Dick Tracy" (1990)
Warren Beatty (who also directed) stars as the two fisted 1930s police detective from Chester Gould's long running comic strip, facing off against a variety of mobsters and villains, romancing a nightclub singer (Madonna), and taking an orphaned kid under his wing.
Disney/Touchstone apparently hoped this movie would become the next big comic inspired franchise ala "Batman," but they didn't seem to realize that the last time Dick Tracy was popular was during the Eisenhower era. 1990s audiences were like, "Dick who?"
It's a nice looking movie, but it's all style, no substance. The story is a confused muddle, Beatty's too old to be playing the hero,  Madonna looks great but can't act her way out of a paper bag, and an absolutely amazing cast of bad guys (Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, James Caan, and more!) are all unrecognizable under tons of distractingly ugly make up.
This expensive turkey is somewhat watchable in a train wreck sort of way, but its entertainment value is zilch. AVOID.

I remember seeing this thing when it came out and going "WTF was that?" when I left the cinema 

[Rev. Powell]

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995): Dawn is the least popular kid in her middle school, bullied and harassed by her schoolmates and underappreciated by her family. The film's deadpan cruelty was fresh and made it a big indie hit when it was released, but I don't think it holds up as well as Solondz's gut-punch followup, HAPPINESS; it's too paranoid, too painful, too detached from reality, and the comedy element of "black comedy" is too submerged. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Jim - that is intriguing 

watching Umbre https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4269716/reviews?ref_=tt_urv A romanian tv series. It's gangster stuff with comedy a la tarantino which isn't usually my bag but it's interesting to see about Romania, a place I know nothing about

[Jim H]

Blood Harvest - Forever known as the horror film with Tiny Tim.  This is actually better than I expected.  I wouldn't call it a good movie, but it's a lot better than the Giant Spider Invasion or Monster a Go Go, the other Rebane films I've seen.  Even manages a few bits of creepy atmosphere.  The few bits of gore are actually surprisingly effective too.  Tiny Tim is a weird and memorable character and his performance isn't bad considering it's his only film performance (I love how he got hired, the director saw him perform at a Wisconsin beer festival and asked him if he wanted to be in his film), and clearly the highlight of the film.  Some of the writing and scene changes are confusing and it's poorly written and often poorly made, it is a Rebane film after all, but it remains watchable and is worth a watch for horror fans.  Oh, and it has a LOT of nudity. 

On a personal note, I saw Tiny Tim as a very young child in a very small venue in my home town, with an audience of just a couple dozen children.  Technically the first concert, if it qualifies, I ever went to.  I wish I remembered it or had a photo, but I was only 4 or 5.

Jim - that is intriguing 

watching Umbre https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4269716/reviews?ref_=tt_urv A romanian tv series. It's gangster stuff with comedy a la tarantino which isn't usually my bag but it's interesting to see about Romania, a place I know nothing about

Reminds me, Hulu has the Hindi version of the Office now, and I watched some of it subtitled in English.  Since it's a workplace comedy with some improv moments, it is wildly specific to the language, culture, and geography of India and many of the jokes and references are EXTREMELY mystifying, just utterly incomprehensible.  Like I watch a lot of Hong Kong films, and they often have Cantonese word play, local jokes, historical references, etc, but I can rarely recall being that lost in them.  It was kind of neat actually. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"Up The Creek" (1984)
The three worst students at America's worst college are offered automatic degrees if they can win a collegiate white water rafting race and bring their school some much needed recognition. Their competition includes yuppies from an Ivy League school, a gung ho military-academy team, and of course, a crew of hot babes from an all women's college, all of whom are trying to cheat their way to the finish line.
This dumb but fun slobs-versus-snobs college comedy was an HBO staple in the early 80s. It stars two "Animal House" alums (Tim "Otter" Matheson and Stephen "Flounder" Furst) and Dan "Pee Wee" Monahan of "Porky's" fame as our three slovenly heroes, and the result is a cut above most of the low budget sex comedies of the era. Great theme song by Cheap Trick, too!

"The Hangover" (2009)
Four friends head to Vegas for a bachelor party getaway... and when they wake up the next morning, one of them is missing and the other three have no memory of what happened the night before. As they try to fill in the blanks and re-trace their steps to find their pal, mayhem follows them wherever they go. Todd "Joker" Philips' raunchy slapstick hit produced two sequels and made Zach Galifinakis (who steals the movie) and Ken Jeong into legit stars.

[lester1/2jr]

Deadware (2019) - I liked this low budget horror short ( or sort of short, like 70 mins) though at times it seemed like an acting and or /screenwriting class.

In 1999, two friends, one in San Fran and one in San Antonio, go online and start playing a choose your own adventure sort of game. Some of the technology aspects seem off? The quality of the videos and of their own respective screen seem a lot better than I remember video being at that time, and most people didn't have facetime capability till at least 10 years later if not more. Then again, it wouldn't much of a movie is the whole thing was in 144p and had to reboot every ten minutes. (or maybe it would be better?)

The suspense is predictable but good. The ending didn't quite deliver the goods which is really the hallmark of young horror people and their creative struggles.

3.75/ 5 moves quickly enough, worth checking out

[FatFreddysCat]

"Scream" (aka "Scream 5," 2022)
Yet another nut job in a "Ghostface" mask is on the loose in Woodsboro, and some of the surviving characters from Wes Craven's O.G. classic return to help the new class of would-be victims stop the killing spree and uncover the slasher's identity. In other words, same s**t, different decade.
It's nice to see Neve "Sydney" Campbell, David "Dewey" Arquette, and Courtney "Gail Weathers" Cox back in action again, of course, and the body count is impressive, but by this point the "Scream" movies have become inter-changeable and forgettable. I had fun watching this, but a few months from now I doubt I'll be able to tell you what the hell went on in it.