What are you watching?

[Matt H.]

I Saw the TV Glow - This is a very strange new drama with an interesting LGBTQ theme. It's about a couple of lonely kids in the late '90s who become obsessed with a BUFFY-like horror show and the effect it has on their lives. It's absolutely not for everyone, but if you get into it, it's a rewarding watch. It's obviously very personal, quite depressing and serious, a bit pretentious, but it has a wonderful surreal atmosphere (it reminded me of the fairly recent KNIFE+HEART) and what is surely one of my favourite horror segments of the year. The horror elements are subtle, but this one sequence is really creepy; once you see Mr. Melancholy, you'll never forget him. Cool new original film.

[Newt Cox]

Deadpool and Wolverine-Theater

She wanted to go see it,the plan was it would still be playing on her next day off and goto the big theater near her. Drop 30 bucks for 2 tickets then another 30 for snacks.

Learned that maybe an hour East then south of me is a tiny ass indie theater. 2 screening roooms each holds 80 tops. Only get big stuff. But has Tuesdays are 5 for a ticket and 5 gets ya a small popcorn and small drink.

Ended up being 4 of us going. 20 for tickets 20 for snacks and the sound was good picture was decent.

The movie...fucking good. I know I missed piles of easter eggs. Knew going in that a Rob Liefeld joke is made. Then was the only one out of the 20 of us in there to get it.

Was lost on some stuff,still haven't bothered watching most of the Marvel Disney+ stuff.

Odd in comics never gave a shit about Deadpool. But the films he works for me.

[Cody Layne]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. I saw this back when it was in theaters and had a lot of fun with it. I recently got the Blu-Ray so I could watch it with my dad and he had a good time with it as well. The extras on the Blu-Ray, despite being fairly numerous, are the usual fluff with recent releases but I didn't expect much else.

Konga: This is another one I've seen a fair number of times before. It's definitely schlock but entertaining, with Michael Gough absolutely chewing the scenery. Ironically, the climax, where Konga grows to giant size and "rampages" through London is probably the weakest aspect, as there's hardly any excitement to it and the special effects are really bad. Also, this Kino Lorber Blu-Ray has nothing to it, save for a trailer and radio spot. You would hope they would at least have a commentary.

[Cody Layne]

The Giant Behemoth: This is a 50's monster movie I've seen a good number of times, as I had it on video for a while. This time, I listened to the audio commentary, which was by visual effects artists Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett. Not the best commentary, I have to say, as the two of them were clearly only interested in the visual effects, and were just marking time until we finally get to the Behemoth, which doesn't really happen until the third act. They were also wrong about a number of things, which makes me wish they'd gotten a film historian like Tom Weaver or someone who could tell us about the actors and the production to do the commentary. I say Weaver specifically because, before I got this Blu-Ray, I had The Giant Behemoth in a DVD set with Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Queen of Outer Space, and Weaver did commentaries for both of those movies and they flat-out suck, whereas The Giant Behemoth is okay, if nothing else.

[Matt H.]

Call Me (Sollace Mitchell, 1988). Obscene phone call thriller with 80s Manhattan slick & gritty vibe. Not as dirty as it wants to be, but not bad. Patricia Charbonneau, Stephen McHattie, Steve Buscemi, Patti D'Arbanville. Ephemera that doesn't seem to have had a physical release; glad it's hit tubi & itunes.

Thanks for the heads up. I really like Patricia Charbonneau and the fact that she's the lead here is very intriguing. I rented it on YouTube and will be watching soon.

[Barry M]

Harry in Your Pocket (Bruce Geller, 1973). James Coburn, Walter Pidgeon, Trish Van Devere, Michael Sarrazin. Need more pickpocket gang movies. A+

[Barry M]

Call Me (Sollace Mitchell, 1988). Obscene phone call thriller with 80s Manhattan slick & gritty vibe. Not as dirty as it wants to be, but not bad. Patricia Charbonneau, Stephen McHattie, Steve Buscemi, Patti D'Arbanville. Ephemera that doesn't seem to have had a physical release; glad it's hit tubi & itunes.

[Newt Cox]

Talk Radio

Saw this back in the late 80s then just forgot about it. Found the DVD cheap. Damn this is good. Talk Radio host in Dallas is about to go national. And it just keeps ramping up until that ending.

[Cody Layne]

Rats: Night of Terror: Like Hell of the Living Dead, I'd also seen this flick once before. Also like that movie, this one is just mindless and irrational, with bad acting and dialogue, and goes on a lot longer than it should. It has some memorably gross, gory moments, and the ending, as ridiculous as it is, is definitely not something you're likely to forget, but man, some of these Italian flicks are wild.

[Jason C]

The Voices (USA-Germany, 2014) [Vudu Rental] 8/10 **

Coming across the German trailer for “The Voices” (on the German “Electric Boogaloo” blu-ray) sent my jaw to the floor. I was mystified how this movie could exist without me knowing about it. How had I not tracked down a decade’s old film starring Ryan Reynolds and Gemma Arterton sooner. The trailer is mind blowing enough, but seeing it in German a few times is even crazier. The film didn’t disappoint either. Its bonkers. Its not consistently hilarious. Much of the dark humor is exquisite, but its also disturbing and often sad. Those moments when the film is heartbreaking take away from of the re-watchability, as it brings the fun vibes to a screeching halt. That’s not a bad thing as it made the first watch incredibly compelling. It gave the whole film an unsettling feeling even during the humorous moments because you never knew when things were going to go off the rails. The tonal shifts in the film are jarring, which I enjoyed. This is another film that shows how good Ryan Reynolds can be. Gemma Arterton was a lot of fun as well. The surroundings have a strange character/charm to them that enhanced the look of the film. I so want to go to the chinese buffet with the Bruce Lee and Asian Elvis impersonators. I love that the cat surprised me with a Scottish accent (its German in the German trailer). The finale is justifiably strange, but I torn as to whether or not its satisfying. The 2024 Vudu looked and sounded fine.

[Newt Cox]

PALS

Made for tv in 1987. We get Don Ameche and George C Scott as two retired guys living in a trailer park. Scott's mom needs them to drive and pick up a COLOR TV,one of those huge ass 70s console tvs that are 200lbs each.

On the trip there they find an abandoned car. In the trunk is a pile of money. Which they take.

It is of course Mob money. With people after them they create new identities and semi hide. With Scott's mom and this runaway teen that stole their car.

Could have been pretty good with this cast. Not sure if it being made for TV or what caused this to just not work well. The jokes are mostly flat.

Don and George try hard,along with the lady play's Scott's mom. The dialogue feels fake. Like it is full of odd phrasing and pauses that make it feel like Ameche and Scott are ESL.

The last 10 minutes almost make up for the rest of the ffilm. Head mobster tracks them down. Is holding Don and George at gunpoint. The mother aims the TV remote at the mobster hits the power button and it causes his pacemaker to shut off.

No clue how that would work. But it really feels like the writer/writers remembering last minute the mother's rant early on about tv's with remote controls

The DVD was cheap. And oddly for a TV movie it was 16:9 on my screen and not stretched. Sound was not great,simple 2 channel stereo.

[f.ramses]

The Quake – I remember liking The Wave and this is a sort of sequel so this seemed like it couldn’t miss but wow did it ever. The whole thing is just tedious and barely feels like a disaster movie but rather a disaster of a movie as we follow the character from the first movie, Kristian, as he continues to not cope well with the events of the first movie 3 years after the fact. So, right off the rip the main character kinda sucks. We gotta sit through 70 minutes of mostly his bs before the 2 minute quake happens. Following that we should have some exciting escape the collapsing building stuff but even that is kind of tedious with an elevator/elevator shaft scene that feels like it’s never going to end and a predictable “the building is falling down so the floor becomes a slide out the window” scene that I feel like I’ve seen a bunch of times already, there’s even a scene more or less copied from Jurassic Park 2. There were some cool destruction effects but aside from the handful of seconds that those comprise this movie doesn’t have much going for it otherwise.

I enjoyed doing this complainey write-up more than I enjoyed watching the movie and really wonder if I’m remembering enjoying The Wave more than I actually did now; The Wave was at least decent though.

[agent999]

Hell of the Living Dead: I'd seen this once before. Pretty much a mindless Dawn of the Dead/Zombie ripoff, with lots of bad acting and hokey dubbing, as well as plenty of gore. It is entertaining in a trashy way, although I hate when these Italian horror films use nasty and disturbing stock footage, as that's just not something I care to see, regardless of it being a horror film.

Kind of legendary in the UK (as Zombie Creeping Flesh) due to its video nasty status and awesome UK poster art. Proud owner of the 88 Films UHD (they got it right the second time). Some days only Bruno Mattei/Claudio Fragasso can hit that spot.

[Cody Layne]

Hell of the Living Dead: I'd seen this once before. Pretty much a mindless Dawn of the Dead/Zombie ripoff, with lots of bad acting and hokey dubbing, as well as plenty of gore. It is entertaining in a trashy way, although I hate when these Italian horror films use nasty and disturbing stock footage, as that's just not something I care to see, regardless of it being a horror film.

[Dom D]

Challengers: the frustrating tale of a throuple who never throup.