Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975)
Recently-engaged innocents Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) have car trouble on a dark n' stormy night and find themselves trapped at the castle of Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry) and his crew of outer-space transvestites. Hilarity ensues.
This film version of Richard O' Brien's horror/comedy spoof stage musical went on to become the ultimate cult classic midnight movie that still plays every weekend somewhere in the world. Long may it's freak flag fly, and R.I.P. Mr. Curry.

[M.10rda]

to Tim Curry, cinema's best Joker. (Fun Fact: He actually started recording lines for "The Animated Series", then they replaced him mid-episode with Mark Hamill. I guess Tim Curry was too terrifying or too sexy for weekday afternoon syndication!)

I agree ZODIAC is a 5/5. I cannot explain exactly why the stone-cold docudrama approach works so well, but that film stressed me out even in many scenes where no one is being murdered. Fincher has an expert grasp on tension. Also why is the calendar wrong in Gyllenhaal's last scene???

[Rev. Powell]

MOVIES ARE DUMB: STAR ODYSSEY: A movie riffing project from Chris Gersback (producer and host of "The Mads Are Back") that is not quite amateur, but not as polished as the MST3K folks. The movie is an extremely goofy Italian STAR WARS ripoff about aliens enslaving earthlings with an insane array of mustaches that really would have been perfect for MST3K, but which they probably wouldn't pick today because of the poor-quality print. It might work as a standalone bad movie, though it might be just annoying as hell. The riffing is uneven but OK. I laughed several times, but it is more rapid-fire than usual (often covering up dialogue, making the movie even more confusing) and there are a lot more notable duds. It was nice enough to hear some new younger folks enter the game, but without knowing their underlying personalities (or even who was speaking most of the time), it loses something. Since they volunteered this as a freebie for backers of the latest MST3K Kickstarter, this is the offering they're proudest of. 2.5/5.