Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Burn" (2019)
A withdrawn young woman working the graveyard shift at a gas station convenience store has an unusual encounter with an armed robber, and the situation quickly spirals out of control. A decent low budget suspense thriller which goes off in some unexpected directions.

[lester1/2jr]

Horror in the High desert 2: Minerva

This was not a success, but it's somehow still watchable. Basically, everyone did their job but the script just doesn't go anywhere. They seem to abandon the titular character Minerva 3/4 of the way through and try for something else. what happened?

If you saw and liked the first one you may want to see this just to re capture some of that vibe, but it's too poorly put together to be scary or memorable.

2.75/5

[Alex]

Epic Tails.

A French animated movie. I got the impression that whoever translated the script didn't have English as their first language as the language was a tad awkward. Terrible songs, but a cute film for kids. Ash seemed to enjoy it.

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: A NIGHT OF SHORTS XI: Frank and Trace riff four long-ish shorts: a grocery store management guide, a capitalism 101 Lego-type stop motion animation, an industrial musical by General Motors (think "Design for Dreaming"), and a Mylar promotional short by DuPont that was originally riffed by MST3K for a CD-ROM project that got abandoned (and the original somehow lost). The after-show guest is film critic Walter Chaw, who may be the most intellectual guest they've ever had but can still talk about Bert I. Gordon movies with the best of them. This is a funny show that would be a good introduction to the series (most of the shorts compilations make better watches than the movies). 3.5/5.

[Dr. Whom]

Furie/Hai Phuong (2019)

Turns out the movie that was at the basis of Furies/Thanh Soi was also on Netflix, so I had to see it.

Hai Phuong (Veronica Ngo) is an ex gangster who is laying low in the countryside trying to raise her daughter. When her daughter is kidnapped, she goes on a relentless chase to rescue her;

This is a far superior movie to the spinoff/sequel. For one thing, Veronica Ngo is a much better protagonist of a martial arts movie, with many and varied action scenes. Pacing is very tight: she has to rescue her daughter before the villains can get away, so there is an urgency to the action. It is also supremely focused: there is no romance (not even with the handsome police officers who helps her), no side plots, no comic relief, just Veronica Ngo beating up everyone who is standing in her way. And she has to do it alone. When she tries to renew her old contacts in Saigon, everyone is like 'you bailed on us ten years ago, and now you're back, asking for help? Fxxk off', which I thought was a nice twist.

It is what it is, but if you want a tight martial action movie (and a story of persistence in an uncaring universe), well worth watching.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Cocaine Bear" (2023)
A drug smuggling plane crashes in Tennessee, spilling a payload of cocaine bundles across a national forest. When a black bear laps up the dope it turns into a coked out, jacked up killing machine and a whole bunch of stupid human characters get mangled during its rampage. This tongue-in-cheek horror comedy is loosely based on a true event that happened in 1985. "Cocaine Bear" is certainly not a masterpiece, but it's fast moving, gory, and funny as hell. Two paws up.

"R.I.P.D." (2013)
A recently-deceased Boston cop (Ryan Reynolds) is drafted into an afterlife police force called the Rest In Peace Dept., whose job is to track down criminal souls and dispatch them "downstairs." On his first day on the job, Reynolds and his new partner (Jeff Bridges) stumble across a conspiracy that will allow the Undead to return to Earth, which leads to much blasting and zapping.
Reynolds and Bridges make a good team and the special effects are passable in this way-too-obvious combo of "Men In Black" and "Ghostbusters." Not original in the slightest, but an OK time waster.

[lester1/2jr]

found footage movie that was so nondescript I can't remember the title  -  A young woman from California moves to an east coast city and starts having paranormal experiences in her new apartment, while also exhibiting weird behavior. A murder apparently happened there and the spirit is trying to reach her by moving a glass across a table and, surprise surprise, communicating via ouija board. The main actress was well cast but the acting and writing in general isn't too sharp, it's not that scary, and it ultimately doesn't do anything to distinguish itself. Proof: I don't remember what it was called. and yet, I did sit through it

2.75 /5

[indianasmith]

RENFIELD (2023) - Every bit as awesome as the trailer made it look, maybe better!  My favorite vampire movie since the original FRIGHT NIGHT.
5/5 

GO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RCMerchant]

^I really want to. 

[Rev. Powell]

SOMETHING WEIRD (1967): An electrician develops ESP after an accident with a live wire, turns into a huge jerk, meets a witch, travels to a small town to solve a murder, and takes LSD. With all that going on, H.G. Lewis still makes this incredibly cheap-looking, badly acted film crawl at a snail's pace. True cinema garbage, without any gore or nudity. The only professionally-done part of this mess is the psychedelic guitar score, which the Something Weird video company adopted as its theme song. This movie has "RC Merchant" written all over it! 2/5.

[RCMerchant]

^ I seen it. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut" (1999)
The U.S. declares war on Canada due to smutty Canuck comics Terrance & Philip's undue influence on the children of South Park, while Satan and his gay lover Saddam Hussein wait in the wings to take over the world. Can Kyle, Cartman, Stan and the gang save their heroes and stop the apocalypse before it's too late? This feature length cartoon adventure is definitely not for the kiddies, but it is funny as hell.

"Orion: The Man Who Would Be King" (2015)
The strange story of country singer Jimmy Ellis, aka "Orion." After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, some unscrupulous record execs plucked Jimmy from obscurity and parlayed his uncanny vocal resemblance to the King into a series of records and concert tours in which he sported Elvis' jumpsuit and pompadour hair, but hid his face behind a Lone Ranger style mask, leading some fans to believe he really was Elvis reborn. I've seen this guy's records in thrift shops over the years but never knew much about his mostly-sad story until this bizarrely entertaining in-depth doc.

[Dr. Whom]

Love after Love (2020)

In the 1930s Hong Kong, a young girl from Shanghai seeks refuge by her aunt. She ends up marrying a playboy to avert scandal, and replaces her aunt as the mistress of an older rich businessman.

This is another one of those slow, meandering beautifully shot stories about the impossibility of meaningful relationships and the influence of mercenary motives on human interaction. There is a lot of indirect narration. Everybody is immensely stylish as well.

Fans of Wong Kar Wai (count me in) will like this. I've seen a number of films from Hong Kong and Taiwan like this, which raises the question: is this really representative of the production over there, or is this just the kind of movie that tends to get distributed in the West?

[FatFreddysCat]

"Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero" (1998)
The villainous Mr. Freeze returns to Gotham City, seeking an organ donor to save his dying wife. As it turns out, Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon is a perfect match...but she won't survive the experience unless the Dynamic Duo can rescue her in time. A cool (pun not intended) feature-length spinoff from Batman: The Animated Series, with lots of cool cartoon action and fine voice work.  

"Batman and Bill" (2017)
For nearly 70 years, every piece of Batman media included the credit line "Batman Created By Bob Kane" -- because Kane screwed over his writing partner and co-creator Bill Finger, who came up with the majority of the Dark Knight mythos, back in the '30s. Bill Finger died penniless in the 1970s while the now-very-wealthy Kane stuck to the myth that he was Batman's sole creator. This documentary follows the grass roots movement by a group of comic historians and Bill's surviving family members to restore Bill's name to the Batman masthead. After years of denials, DC Comics finally did the right thing and as of 2015's "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice," the creator credit now reads "Batman Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger." This deep dive into one of the comics industry's most notorious, longest-running controversies is an important history lesson and essential viewing for Bat-fans.

[M.10rda]

Horror in the High desert 2: Minerva

If you saw and liked the first one you may want to see this just to re capture some of that vibe, but it's too poorly put together to be scary or memorable.

Discouraging news! I did like the first one and hoped the filmmakers could progress and achieve something even more impressive the next time around, instead of backsliding.