RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[zombie no.one]

BASKET CASE (1981)

question: how have I been a badmovie fan since forever, especially bad movies that lean towards horror, especially ones from the late 70s / early 80s... and yet somehow I had never seen this? never even seen the trailer.

I was aware of this film's existence back in primary school!

 anyway finally watched... vaguely as expected, kind of has a bit of Troma style atmosphere but thankfully is not too heavy on the OTT comedy / wacky stuff....

it really suffers in terms of pacing though... a lot of not much goes on from scene to scene  sometimes... a contemplative meditation piece then, clearly outside my wheelhouse.

2.75/5... glad I saw it at last but won't be watching again.

[Senor Citizen]

The Concorde... Airport '79

I give up, couldn't make it to the end.
I just watched 3 Airplane-movies first time ever and, my god, it was a chore.

Now it`s time for Die Hard 2-laserdisc. Don`t want to brag but.....

[M.10rda]

A laserdisc collection is brag-worthy. 

[M.10rda]

ANYBODY'S WOMAN aka THE BETTER WIFE? (1930):
This was part one of a recent Ruth Chatterton double feature. It's so early in the Sound era that it often looks and sounds like an ancient transmission from another dimension or something. Some of the dialogue is a little hard to decipher at times but most is coherent and dated and sometimes clever and mostly ideologically outre.

A millionaire who is also a profound alcoholic sits around a hotel room bemoaning that his wife just left him for a much wealthier man. He and his buddy grow aware of two cute dames in the hotel room directly across from theirs and invite them over to party with them. One of them is depressed, demoralized-by-men Chatterton, and even though the millionaire is an even more depressed (and depressing) sloppy drunk, this is a pre-code "comedy", so in no time he and Chatterton are hitched. (He actually wakes up from the bender and doesn't even realize he's said 'I Do'...)

Hungarian Paul Lukas plays the millionaire's attorney (or something) who falls in love w/ Chatterton and is really nice to her. Lukas' performance is pretty decent/charming but his accent just makes me wish his character was played by Bela Lugosi, who was probably more dashing circa '30 than Lukas. Clive Brook plays the millionaire in the most broad way imaginable and in spite of his serious dependency on liquor I couldn't feel much sympathy or warmth for him. This makes the sincere yet rather counterintuitive denouement come off as entirely tone deaf... like PRETTY IN PINK/SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL ending tone deaf, but probably worse.

A'S W/TBW? was written by two women (though adapted from a novel by a man) and directed by a woman, but it still stinks a bit of early 30s misogyny and unenlightened attitudes about women. (Maybe the distaff authors just couldn't overcome the source material or the era they lived within.) Chatterton is sharp at comedy and formidable at drama, but the material is mostly too glib to be earnest and too bleak to be funny. (I did laugh once at an early Chatterton line.)

2.5/5    Other reviewers have acknowledged director Dorothy Arzner's uncertain tone here. Arzner was likely the primary inspiration for "Ruth Adler", the character played (very well) by Olivia Hamilton in her husband Damien Chazelle's 2022 film BABYLON. I wish I could find a better Dorothy Arzner movie than this one to watch.

[Dr. Whom]

Bunny The Killer Thing (2015)

A bunch of Finnish twenty somethings mixed up with some British gangsters being chased by a giant mutant bunny with comically large genitals, sounds like fun.

It isn't. The whole thing is played as a slapstick, with the gore being on Monty Python level, but it is dreadfully unfunny. Performances are poor and the humour doesn't rise above juvenile dirty jokes where waving genitals about counts as the hight of sophistication. In fairness, there are a couple of good ideas, but nowhere near enough to save the movie. Avoid.

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
The Aftermath(1982)
https://youtu.be/WMvEgm_DRqQ?si=FDD7mLhwgNJpuDML

A group of astronauts on their way back home can't get in touch with mission control... Cut to a bombed out earth, where Sid Haig runs a gang that kills men & keeps all the women as slaves....
The astronauts decide to ditch their spaceship in the ocean off the coast of California for best visibility, but only two survive, & no one notices... Later that night, the pair gets attacked by mutants, & the next day, they find Los Angeles destroyed; WW3 happened while they were gone....
They find a mansion & settle in, & later one of them changes into some army fatigues & goes out to see if anyone's left... In a museum, he finds a dying curator who leaves him with a young boy...
Meanwhile, one of Haig's slave girls escapes...

Feels pretty long & meandering, driven by the one astronaut's superfluous narrative.... The first hour is mostly set up before getting in a feud with Haig's gang, leading to a painfully long showdown....
Sorta plays out like like the pilot for a Canadian TV show, even with the sex & violence, all of which is blurred out, & the film turns to black & white every time there's blood in the scene...

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
The Humanoid(1979)
https://youtu.be/vq4V0L1OLMM?si=VrCSsCxE4yvyuuZs

In the distant future, Earth is renamed & under some sort of monarchy... The evil brother of the leader (a cheap knock off or Darth vader, with a mask that look like he got it a a bondage shop) has raised an army & has returned from exile to steal a bioweapon & kill a female scientist (Corinne Cléry)..... Clery's gets a call from an Asian kid she's taking care of, who has psychic powers, who tells her to come home, so the bad guys miss her....
Meanwhile, somewhere in deep space, a pilot (Richard Kiel, with a beard) is stuck on an outdated ship that just blew it's navigation & communication systems... He sees the bad guy's ship & decides to follow it....
The bad guy gets back to his base, run by an evil queen (Barbara Bach), & give the bioweapon to a scientist, who captures the pilot & turns him into Richard Kiel, without a beard, who is now laser proof with super human strength.....
They bad guys send him back to Earth, where he grabs guards & throws them around, but the Asian kid uses his psychic powers to turn him back into a good guy....

An awful lot is packed into this movie, so it never gets dull (for me at least)... The sets & miniatures are pretty impressive... Many references to Star Wars... Manages to stay pretty goofy...

[LordGraal]

Tonight's Stinker
The Humanoid(1979)
https://youtu.be/vq4V0L1OLMM?si=VrCSsCxE4yvyuuZs

In the distant future, Earth is renamed & under some sort of monarchy... The evil brother of the leader (a cheap knock off or Darth vader, with a mask that look like he got it a a bondage shop) has raised an army & has returned from exile to steal a bioweapon & kill a female scientist (Corinne Cléry)..... Clery's gets a call from an Asian kid she's taking care of, who has psychic powers, who tells her to come home, so the bad guys miss her....
Meanwhile, somewhere in deep space, a pilot (Richard Kiel, with a beard) is stuck on an outdated ship that just blew it's navigation & communication systems... He sees the bad guy's ship & decides to follow it....
The bad guy gets back to his base, run by an evil queen (Barbara Bach), & give the bioweapon to a scientist, who captures the pilot & turns him into Richard Kiel, without a beard, who is now laser proof with super human strength.....
They bad guys send him back to Earth, where he grabs guards & throws them around, but the Asian kid uses his psychic powers to turn him back into a good guy....

An awful lot is packed into this movie, so it never gets dull (for me at least)... The sets & miniatures are pretty impressive... Many references to Star Wars... Manages to stay pretty goofy...

I think it's the biggest budget Star Wars cash-in the Italians made at the time. Agree about the sets and some of the miniatures but I also like the locations as well.  And give me black stormtroopers over white one's anyday.  It had a cinema release in the UK and it certainly made an impression as I bought the cinema poster and lobby cards (still got the the cards).

Not saying it's a good film, some of it is laughable and the dubbing doesn't help - but it has some charm for me.

[M.10rda]

JOURNAL OF A CRIME (1934):
No one suffered like Ruth Chatterton, according to one Letterboxd user. I know they meant to compliment her ability to play tortured/tormented/tragically wronged women in '30s potboilers, but the statement also serves to underline a likely reality about the actress herself. Short of FEMALE (a weirdo masterpiece) and DODSWORTH (solid if unremarkable), I am beginning to suspect that every other Ruth Chatterton movie is complete tripe. Most of them have nearly identical plots, too. JOURNAL OF A CRIME is supposedly an oddball in the Chatterton oeuvre, in terms of plot - but it still suuucks.

In a lengthy opening sequence, Chatterton hides in the shadows outside a Paris theatre and discovers that her husband is having an affair. The cool shots of a semi-obscured Chatterton are nearly expressionistic, but the sequence goes on for an eternity, w/ Chatterton motionless, listening, while exposition happens around her. This really tests the colloquialism "I'd watch [INSERT ACTOR HERE] read the phonebook." I like Chatterton and all, but she literally just stands silently and listens for a loooooong time. 

Her husband is Adolphe Menjou, a real unpleasant guy to watch onscreen and reputedly just as nasty offscreen. His mistress is no peach herself and when ***SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE MOVIE*** Chatterton murders the mistress forty-ish minutes into the movie, Menjou is frankly relieved! Another guy is accused, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder; Chatterton is guilt-stricken; yet it turns out the innocent dude is happy to get hung, so Chatterton's still off the hook! But she still feels real guilty, and eventually seems to be literally dying slowly of guilt. (Hollywood melodrama, amiright?) Menjou urges her to confess and clear her conscience, but on the way to the police Chatterton gets run over by a truck (!) and suffers total and permanent amnesia.  When she regains consciousness, she feels no guilt and Menjou of course can once again pretend to be a loyal husband. The End! 

What a movie... a bad, bad, dumb movie. The "journal" in the title features prominently in the (slow, dull) storyline, yet in a way that makes very little sense and doesn't impact the outcome in any real way. Why do I do this to myself?    1.5/5     

[zombie no.one]

you really have to start watching bad movies you actually enjoy 

...and by that I mean you have to become psychic and know you're gonna enjoy them before watching, of course 

[M.10rda]

Right... but then they'd be posted in the "Good Movies" Board!

I admit my OCD extends to watching things I potentially might enjoy (for instance because they star a performer I like, ex. Ruth Chatterton) even though critical thinking should probably persuade me to err on the side of caution. Also my OCD extends to reviewing things I didn't enjoy, when I should just save time and energy. (I have started reviewing Bad Movies during down time at work, instead of staring at students who are working or ostensibly working, which at least frees up time after work to watch....... more Bad Movies.)