Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

PAST LIVES (2023): A Korean woman immigrates to the US as a twelve-year old child; a decade later, she reconnects with her childhood sweetheart across the sea, and after another decade he comes to visit New York. Intelligent, reflective, and mature romantic movie; not my favorite genre, but it's undoubtedly a superior offering for those who enjoy this kind of thing. 3.5/5.

[RCMerchant]

BEYOND THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

Starring Paul Naschy!

This movie is one of the Spanish Lon Chaney's sickest. Paul plays a necrophilic grave digger, with a mad doctor re-animating dead bodies.  With real surgery footage! One sick puppy- only rivaled by Naschy's HUNCHBACK OF THE RUE MORGUE (1973).

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Unnamable" (1988)
College students poke around in an abandoned house with a dark past, and one by one they fall victim to the deformed, homicidal something-or-other that dwells within. Yes, that's the entire plot.
Cheap, bloody haunted-house junk adapted (loosely, I assume) from an H.P. Lovecraft story. The gore and creature effects are decent but the set designs, pacing, dialogue, and acting are pure junk. Followed by a sequel from the same director, which I will be sure to avoid. I suggest you do the same!

[RCMerchant]

^ I seen that one. I wasn't real impressed.

[Rev. Powell]

THREE... EXTREMES (2004): Three short (forty minutes each) "extreme" horror films from Hong Kong's Fruit Chan, Korea's Chan-wook Park, and Japan's Takashi Miike, concerning Faustian dumplings, a director tormented by an extra, and an ex-circus performer with a guilty conscience. Chan's "Dumplings" is predictable but squirmy, Park's "Cut" is flawed but brutal, and Miike's "Box" is another surreal horror gem. 3.5/5 overall.
-

[Trevor]

"The Unnamable" (1988)
College students poke around in an abandoned house with a dark past, and one by one they fall victim to the deformed, homicidal something-or-other that dwells within. Yes, that's the entire plot.
Cheap, bloody haunted-house junk adapted (loosely, I assume) from an H.P. Lovecraft story. The gore and creature effects are decent but the set designs, pacing, dialogue, and acting are pure junk. Followed by a sequel from the same director, which I will be sure to avoid. I suggest you do the same!

I think these people were poking around in my old college residence 

[Alex]

"The Unnamable" (1988)
College students poke around in an abandoned house with a dark past, and one by one they fall victim to the deformed, homicidal something-or-other that dwells within. Yes, that's the entire plot.
Cheap, bloody haunted-house junk adapted (loosely, I assume) from an H.P. Lovecraft story. The gore and creature effects are decent but the set designs, pacing, dialogue, and acting are pure junk. Followed by a sequel from the same director, which I will be sure to avoid. I suggest you do the same!

The sequel is better made (although I am not going as far as to say it is good).

[Rev. Powell]

FREAKS VS. THE REICH [AKA FEREAKS OUT] (2021): A twelve-fingered, ether-addicted psychic Nazi searches for four circus freaks with superpowers in WWII Italy, believing he can enslave them to form a squadron that will save the Third Reich from defeat. A unique premise that leads to an entertaining adventure with lots of dead Nazis along the way. In Italian. 3.5/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: SHE SHOULDA SAID NO: Anti-weed scare film in which a puff of wacky tobacky sends our heroine into a whirlwind of degradation involving hallucinations, suicide, and organized crime. The hysterical setup makes riffing this one like shooting fish in a barrel for Frank and Trace, resulting in what I think is their best episode ever. It's a rare MST3K-quality film that hasn't been taken on yet. Some trivia: lead actress Lila Leeds was unofficially blacklisted after being caught in the famous pot bust with Robert Mitchum, and took this role because no one else would hire her. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

STREET TRASH (1987)

This is a bad movie. Not in a good way. No name actors play scummy "street trash' in a film that has no redeeming value. Scenes of necrophilia, rape, and playing football with a severed penis are played for laughs. Not one likeable character in the whole film. On occasion a bum drinks some toxic booze called Viper which makes them melt in sub-par F/X. Only for fans of masochism. I have no idea who the target audiance for this drek is.

.......Me!
Saw this on VHS in the early 90s, have watched it several times since at home, and once on the big screen w/ the writer/producer Roy Frumkes in attendance.
IMHO there are 2-3 entirely sympathetic characters and another several who have at least some redeeming values. (Also several complete pieces of human crap.)
I think the "no-name" actors are extremely committed and mostly convincing, and there are three actors w/ good resumes in the film... Pat Ryan, Tony Darrow, and the great James Lorinz... the latter two of whom completely own it in their beautifully written and performed scenes together.
The "sub-par" FX always impress me. Whatever they cost, it wasn't much, and they might not be uhhh convincing (I don't know what a melting man actually looks like tbh) but they're gooey and cool.
There's also some practical stuff happening in this film that... just deserves some props. Burt's escape from the supermarket while shoplifting always earns my respect.
And there is a lot, a lot, of well-executed and even lovely cinematography in this film (much of it mobile).

When I first saw STREET TRASH, I thought, "Hey, I could do THIS..." And I didn't mean that in a way that was condescending to the filmmakers. They make it look possible to achieve something complex on a tiny budget.

When I was a real film snob in the 90s, I would tell other snobs that I preferred STREET TRASH to Bunuel's LOS OLIVADOS and Kurosawa's DODES KA-DEN. Both are great movies.

I still prefer STREET TRASH!

[FatFreddysCat]

"Idle Hands" (1999)
The right hand of a teenage slacker (Devon Sawa of "Final Destination") develops a murderous mind of its own, and after he severs the offending limb he must find a way to stop it once and for all before it can cause chaos at the  annual Halloween dance.
A goofy, gory 90s horror comedy that's kinda like a cross between "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Evil Dead 2," with a great cast (Seth Green, Vivica A. Fox, Jessica Alba) and some nasty gore effects. I missed out on this one when it was current but I got a big kick out of it all these years later.

[indianasmith]

THE BEING (1983) - A small town in Iowa is terrorized by radioactive humanoid monsters because some evil corporation dumped radioactive waste in the groundwater.  I'll be honest, this one was cheesy and the plot didn't make a lot of sense; the main monster had a cool makeup design, though.  Ruth Buzzi had a minor role, and Martin Landau played the corporate scientist trying to cover up the murders.  A decent 80's cheese-fest.  3.5/5

[lester1/2jr]

I think Jessica Alba was 17 when they made that.

[RCMerchant]

STREET TRASH (1987)

This is a bad movie. Not in a good way. No name actors play scummy "street trash' in a film that has no redeeming value. Scenes of necrophilia, rape, and playing football with a severed penis are played for laughs. Not one likeable character in the whole film. On occasion a bum drinks some toxic booze called Viper which makes them melt in sub-par F/X. Only for fans of masochism. I have no idea who the target audiance for this drek is.

.......Me!
Saw this on VHS in the early 90s, have watched it several times since at home, and once on the big screen w/ the writer/producer Roy Frumkes in attendance.
IMHO there are 2-3 entirely sympathetic characters and another several who have at least some redeeming values. (Also several complete pieces of human crap.)
I think the "no-name" actors are extremely committed and mostly convincing, and there are three actors w/ good resumes in the film... Pat Ryan, Tony Darrow, and the great James Lorinz... the latter two of whom completely own it in their beautifully written and performed scenes together.
The "sub-par" FX always impress me. Whatever they cost, it wasn't much, and they might not be uhhh convincing (I don't know what a melting man actually looks like tbh) but they're gooey and cool.
There's also some practical stuff happening in this film that... just deserves some props. Burt's escape from the supermarket while shoplifting always earns my respect.
And there is a lot, a lot, of well-executed and even lovely cinematography in this film (much of it mobile).

When I first saw STREET TRASH, I thought, "Hey, I could do THIS..." And I didn't mean that in a way that was condescending to the filmmakers. They make it look possible to achieve something complex on a tiny budget.

When I was a real film snob in the 90s, I would tell other snobs that I preferred STREET TRASH to Bunuel's LOS OLIVADOS and Kurosawa's DODES KA-DEN. Both are great movies.

I still prefer STREET TRASH!

I am aware it has a cult following. I get it. I just thought it was meandering bulls**t. Not fun even as a bad movie. If the same script had been directed by some one of who had a fingernail of talent- ah f**k. It's s**t. I'm happy this tripe made someone happy.

[Dr. Whom]

Asteroid City

I went into this with a lot of misgivings, as I found The French Dispatch very disappointing. Yet I was completely blown away. Again he turns up his quirks and sense of whimsy up to eleven, but the whole thing is done with so much style and the delivery is so deadpan that it works. If you want to see Wes Anderson reach Jodorowski levels of crazy, this is your movie.

A very pretentious movie too, but I don't mind if it delivers