What are you watching?

[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.

[Cody Layne]

Chucky Season Two: Yeah, I was right. This season was really wacky, and was another example of Don Mancini indulging in his love for farce and broad comedy, not unlike Seed of Chucky. That just happens to be my least favorite movie in the franchise, and while I didn't hate it, I found this season to be a step down from the first. Besides its silliness, it felt like there were too many plot-lines going on at once, and yet, the main story felt disjointed and without point. It also got way too meta for its own good, with Jennifer Tilly being both an actual actor and character in this series (apparently, the past Chucky movies also exist as movies in this world, according to this show), and the season finale, which is a Christmas episode, ends with a major WTF moment. I haven't seen Season Three at all and, while I heard it was a bit more serious, it's still really out there.

[Cody Layne]

Chucky Season One: I've always had a soft spot for the Chuckster and so, when I heard he was getting his own TV series, I was both curious but also a bit cynical, as I wasn't sure that could work. But, like my doubts about the series going direct-to-video with Curse of Chucky, this TV show turned out to be really good. I first saw it when it originally aired, so I already knew what I was getting when I watched this Blu-Ray set and I still think this first season is quite good. It's not perfect, as I think the show tries way too hard to make you sympathize with characters who are utterly despicable, with said characters being too easily forgiven, and the messing around with the mythology is brain-twisting. But on the whole, I thought this was a good season. However, while I only saw the first half of Season Two, I remember it getting really silly there.

[Newt Cox]

So couldn't sleep last night and did a double feature

Terminator-MGM BLU Ray

Been a couple of years since i watched this and yea this is Cameron's best movie.

Then when that was over still not sleepy

Airheads-DVD

Dumb and fun and one that I hated when I saw it in a theater and came to love when Comedy Central was airing it every week.

Today with it storming and DISH out most of the day.

Amazon Women on the Moon-Kino Lober Blu ray

still a pile of fun and loaded with extras.

The Chicken Chronicles-Kino Lober Blu Ray

Steven Guttenberg is a dork in the late 60s trying to get laid.

[Newt Cox]

Creepy Koffee Movie Time airing of Women of Devil's Island

Guessing this early 60s WIP movie is Public domain or thought to be. Mostly since all that CKMT aired was PD stuff. Crap movie that is made watchable by the host segments. Take a drunk zombie and a drunk gargoyle. Surround them with scantly dressed women and add in appearances from Porn Star Annie Cruz and it is for me the perfect horror host show.

[bgart13]

Saw my first Neil Breen movie last and WOW ????

[Cody Layne]

I didn't realize that there was more than one version of this movie and while I don't think that any version will actually be good I'm considering this BD now because of it containing 2 versions. Thanks for that... lol
Whatever version I watched back in the day was some kind of workprint iirc.

From what I can tell, the only major difference between the two is a moment at the beginning where Renee Zellweger's stepfather sexually harasses her, and maybe some extra seconds here and there.

[Darcy Parker]

I didn't realize that there was more than one version of this movie and while I don't think that any version will actually be good I'm considering this BD now because of it containing 2 versions. Thanks for that... lol
Whatever version I watched back in the day was some kind of workprint iirc.

The workprint is pretty close to the Return version. I saw Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on an imported Japanese laserdisc when it was in release limbo in North America, and it was one big pile of WTF. I can't imagine a cut-down version being an improvement in any way.

[f.ramses]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation Scream Factory Blu-Ray: Like I said when I got this, I only picked it up for something I'm doing for my blog in October, as I absolutely hate this movie. It's just so bad that it makes my brain go numb. Still, I figured this would save me from having to watch it online, and the extras might be interesting to see. They are, as the participants, which include cinematographer Levie Isaacks, actor Tyler Cone, and the makeup effects creator and prop master, do seem to have affection for the movie and those involved, and good on them. The transfer is also a lot better than the older DVD, and comes with the original version, called The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I've never seen, so at least I can comment on that now. Don't know if it was worth the $25, but I can live with it.

I didn't realize that there was more than one version of this movie and while I don't think that any version will actually be good I'm considering this BD now because of it containing 2 versions. Thanks for that... lol
Whatever version I watched back in the day was some kind of workprint iirc.

[f.ramses]

The Abyss (theatrical version) – Really love it when we get multiple versions of a movie in a release but often feel like the unfamiliar version(s) are wasted on me because I can seldom notice many differences, if any. With this version the only thing I noticed aside from the run time was that a scene at the very end was a bit shorter and I think I prefer it that way, so there’s that. It’s a fun, terrifying ride regardless of the version though!

Sleepaway Camp – It’s not summer until I go to Sleepaway Camp! To me this is the best summer and/or summer camp horror movie out there and I look forward to seeing it again every year as the summer solstice approaches, it’s so good that out of the thousands of discs I own it’s one of a very small number that I’ve even watched extras from because sometimes I just want more when it’s over. The two sequels, which I also did, were alright but none live up to the original, I find them somewhat cartoonish in comparison. Honestly can't think of one thing to complain about with this movie except older releases being cut. Surely everyone is familiar with this one but if not then don't read anything about it or the sequels (may ruin the ending) before treating yourself to this movie.

Return to Sleepaway Camp – This movie is so terrible, unfinished-feeling, and strange but at the same time it’s hard for me to hate it. It’s barely a Sleepaway Camp movie story-wise and instead focuses a lot on the tantrums of a lonely, unlikable weirdo named Alan. You can tell they were trying to go for the feel of the original in a more modern setting and I like how a lot of the original cast was brought back and that this is directed by the director of the original, Robert Hiltzik (the only other movie he directed) but it fails pretty hard overall. Despite this I felt a little bad about how I had written off and ignored this movie, when the DVD came out I just assumed it was a shitty cash-in and ignored it but had I been aware of the connection to the original I would have bought it anyway. It's feels like a poorly written love letter to the original both literally and figuratively.