Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: REVENGE OF THE CREATURE: Mike and the bots are called back to the Satellite of Love, which is now orbiting the planet of the apes, in the opening of the Sci-fi Channel reboot. Crow is "different" and doesn't remember Mike. The movie, the first sequel to CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON, is a bad start: it's competent but dull, which doesn't give them a lot to work with. Most of the host segments are devoted to setting up the premise. Not a promising start, but they would really get rolling about the middle of the season and produce some of the best MST3Ks ever. 3/5

[Rev. Powell]

A NEW OLD PLAY (2021): A Chinese clown reflects on five decades of life in an opera troupe, which lasted from WWII resistance until Maoism, as two demons escort him to the afterlife. Simultaneously comic and epic, surreal and naturalistic, nostalgic and irreverent, Qiu Jiongjiong's 3-hour theatrical elegy plays out like the work of a Chinese Fellini. 3.5/5.

[chefzombie]

A NEW OLD PLAY (2021): A Chinese clown reflects on five decades of life in an opera troupe, which lasted from WWII resistance until Maoism, as two demons escort him to the afterlife. Simultaneously comic and epic, surreal and naturalistic, nostalgic and irreverent, Qiu Jiongjiong's 3-hour theatrical elegy plays out like the work of a Chinese Fellini. 3.5/5.

before i do  a mad search, where can i find this one, rev? i'm interested!

[Rev. Powell]

A NEW OLD PLAY (2021): A Chinese clown reflects on five decades of life in an opera troupe, which lasted from WWII resistance until Maoism, as two demons escort him to the afterlife. Simultaneously comic and epic, surreal and naturalistic, nostalgic and irreverent, Qiu Jiongjiong's 3-hour theatrical elegy plays out like the work of a Chinese Fellini. 3.5/5.

before i do  a mad search, where can i find this one, rev? i'm interested!

This site is good for investigating your streaming options: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/a-new-old-play

Unfortunately not a lot of choices for this one.

[Rev. Powell]

EXCISION (2012): A delusional high-school senior "weird girl" has fantasies about surgery and necrophilia, which eventually spill over into real life. Richard Bates Jr. assembled a remarkable cast for this odd horror film: a major part for Traci Lords (who isn't bad) as the strident mother, and cameos from Ray Wise, Malcolm McDonald, Marlee Matlin, and John Waters (as a clergyman). Bates never realized the promise of this debut, which felt like an announcement of greater things to come but wound up as the highlight of his career (so far, at least). 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

The Barrens (2012) - MST3K ready forest horror thing that's worth watching mainly for how ridiculous the Dad is. A British guy with an American family goes with them on a camping trip where he had a traumatic run in with the Jersey Devil when he was a kid (with a British accent??). Is the Jersey Devil stalking them or is it ALL IN HIS MIND?? Normal families would have ditched this guy in 2 seconds, but milking it probably made the cast feel more like they were in a movie that was smarter than a cheap Syfy type animal horror. They weren't.

2/5

[chefzombie]

A NEW OLD PLAY (2021): A Chinese clown reflects on five decades of life in an opera troupe, which lasted from WWII resistance until Maoism, as two demons escort him to the afterlife. Simultaneously comic and epic, surreal and naturalistic, nostalgic and irreverent, Qiu Jiongjiong's 3-hour theatrical elegy plays out like the work of a Chinese Fellini. 3.5/5.

before i do  a mad search, where can i find this one, rev? i'm interested!

  thanks rev, i think i'll put this on my amazon prime rental list.
This site is good for investigating your streaming options: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/a-new-old-play

Unfortunately not a lot of choices for this one.

[Rev. Powell]

WILL-O'-THE-WISP (2022): Concerned about the environment, the prince of Portugal chooses to become a volunteer fireman and falls in love with a co-worker. A boring gay art-drama (and purported musical, though there are only three numbers) that, with its numerous phallus shots and one pretty darn explicit love scene, teeters towards boring gay art-porn; at just over an hour, it's a true wisp of a movie. Its intended niche audience may find enjoyment here, but it's far from a crossover threat. 2/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

I've been slackin' on the movie watching of late. Gotta get back in the groove!

"Slave To The Grind" (2018)
No, it's not a documentary about the Skid Row album -- it's about grindcore, the bastard child of hardcore punk and death metal that came roaring out of the underground in the mid 80s and still has a healthy following today. Features lots of interviews and clips with members of the genre's heavy hitters like Repulsion, Terrorizer, Napalm Death, Nasum, Agathocles, Rotten Sound, and many more. I'm not even a grind guy and I enjoyed this fast moving, entertaining doc.

"Judgment Night" (1993)
Four friends on a "Boy's Night Out" trip to a boxing match in Chicago take an unfortunate detour that lands them in the bad side of town, where they witness a gangland murder and spend the rest of the movie on the run from the criminals responsible. Stephen ("Predator 2") Hopkins' urban suspense thriller is probably better remembered today for its groundbreaking rap/rock soundtrack, but the movie is action packed fun in its own right, with a stellar cast that includes Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., and  Denis Leary, who's awesomely evil as the main bad guy.

[RCMerchant]

DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE (1979)

A pyromaniac who screams at his dead mother kidnaps young woman and burns them alive with a blow torch.
He also goes to a disco and sets a woman's hair on fire, torches a priest, has terrifying nightmares, and keeps the burnt corpses of his victims in his den. Creepy, downbeat, and quite surreal forgotten low budget slasher that deserves a look.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Rage Of Honor" (1987)
After his partner is killed by a drug cartel, a Japanese/American DEA agent (Sho "Revenge of the Ninja" Kosugi) embarks on a personal mission to avenge his friend, taking his one-man War On Drugs to the South American source. Naturally many butts are kicked.
This was a pretty standard low budget '80s action flick. Kosugi never could speak English worth a damn, so his attempts at dialogue are unintentionally hilarious, but his martial arts moves are on point as he chops, kicks, and punches his way through a seemingly endless army of henchmen on his way to his final battle with the Big Boss.
Directed by Gordon "KISS Meets The Phantom of the Park" Hessler!

[Gabriel Knight]

DEADLY ILLUSIONS (2021)

After a bestselling novelist suffering from writer's block hires a new nanny for her children, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur.

I'm not going to waste any words on this piece of garbage, the other reviewers on IMDb covered just fine. Watch it only if you want to get horny looking at two women having sex, it kinda works that way.

2/10 Trash

[Rev. Powell]

LEDA (2021): A woman who grows up in an isolated manor house has a strange and disturbing encounter with a large bird. Black-and-white and dialogue-free, this abstract adaptation of the myth of Leda and the swan is every bit the experimental art-house experience you'd expect from that description; if you're down for that challenge, it's well-made and rewarding. In 3-D where available. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Wishmaster" (1997)
An evil spirit known as a "Djinn," which has the power to grant wishes (for a steep price) is freed from his gemstone prison after a thousand years, and only the antiquities dealer who accidentally freed him has the power to put him back.
Wes Craven "presented" this entertaining low budget horror flick which has a cool villain and some impressively gory old-school practical effects. Sharp eyed horror nerds will also get a kick out of the cameos by Kane "Jason" Hodder, Robert "Freddy" Englund and Tony "Candyman" Todd, among others. Followed by at least three sequels, last I checked.

[indianasmith]

THE BLACK DEMON (2023) - A malfunctioning, decrepit oil rig is being attacked by a giant Megalodon, but it's actually a demon of vengeance summoned by the locals to punish the oil company for polluting their waters and ruining their village. An oil exec comes out to do an inspection, leaving his wife and kids at a beach cafe. But when a gang of locals start harassing them, they catch a motorboat out to the rig and they all wind up stranded together.
Shark effects were decent, character development OK, plot was meandering and didn't make a lot of sense.  As giant shark movies go, it was way better than SHARKS OF THE CORN or (obviously) NOAH'S SHARK, but nowhere near as much fun as THE MEG or even SHARKTOPUS. 2.5/5