What are you watching?

[Cody Layne]

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.

[f.ramses]

Slayers - In spite of the flashy editing this movie plays like a dull, rambling story that the teller just won’t get to the end of. Lots of cutaways to explain things that don’t really need explaining and really not much action for a very long time. The RV owning main character reminds me of Ash vs Evil Dead and I assume they were going for low budget Ash vs vampires even though a lot of the movie is annoying social media people talking to vampires.

Come True – At one point there’s a shot of the two main characters in a car stopped at a green light, I feel like it’s a pretty apt shot to describe this film with. So many scenes where it just feels like nothing is happening… A perpetually moody woman joins a sleep study and weird things start happening. I did sort of like the ending despite how unsatisfyng and random it seemed though.

Macabre (1980) – Always kind of hated this one because the whole thing just seemed boring and stupid to me but my random revisit today really paid off. There’s a lot to like here between the crazy daughter and the bitch mom and I’m not sure why this is the only time I ever got any enjoyment out of it. It’s not boring like I remembered and it’s only really stupid in an enjoyable way to me now. Now I gotta upgrade it to BD...

[Jason C]

I just noticed today that I'm really losing my taste for new films. When I look at the number of films released from 2020-2024 in my watch log, the number is far lower than any single year going back to the early 60's. I'd assume its due to less films being made because of Covid and the writers strike, but also the wokeness is turning me off. It will be interesting to see if things change again any time soon. Turning into a grumpy old man is weird. I made the comment in my log about "The Crow" being worth a revisit no more than once a decade. Then I thought how funny that idea is. Me in my 80's watching "The Crow" and all the other insane garbage I watch. My physical media collection is certainly large enough to satisfy me for the years I have left on this Earth. Its weird to feel like I may not have any interest in adding to it, other upgrades of films I already own.

[f.ramses]

Medea (1988) - What a surprise, a Lars Von Trier movie that I enjoyed instead of hated; had I had any inkling of this I'd have not waited around 15 years to get to this DVD. It is the story of Medea and Jason; Jason gets chosen to be the next King and given the hand of the princess in marriage but he has to divorce his wife Medea and banish her and their children from the country and the story follows how Medea handles this. What an ending! It's a good looking movie in terms of the locations and camerawork but it's also a crappy looking movie because of the video quality, at least on the old Raro DVD; it looks like the DVD was made by filming the movie playing on a CRT or something.

Kiss of the Tarantula - What a find this one was, I've seen it several times in the few years since discovering it and it never gets old. Very surprising, especially compared to my expectations. It's a shame I've never thought to make it a double feature with Julie Darling.

Poor Pretty Eddie - About as dull as I remember but there is some amusing backwoods dialog and then, of course, the ending that makes it all worthwhile. Not a bad revisit after a decade or so.

Burnt Offerings - Dub Taylor in Poor Pretty Eddie got me thinking about this one and it's great cast so I figured it was time for a revisit. There's a lot to like but what gets me is the near constant sense of dread the very ordinary setting inspires even on the first viewing where you don't know anything about what is going to happen. A top-tier movie that has been unforgettable ever since the first time I saw it around 30 years ago and one I think is one of the best haunted house movies I've ever seen. It's right up there with The Haunting and The Shining, the latter of which was probably inspired by the Marasco's book. If I had to pick one I'm not sure where I'd stay but I feel like I'd be somewhat less afraid of The Overlook than the Allardyce house for some reason...

[Jason C]

Road House (USA, 2024) 3/10 **
The things I don’t like about 2024’s Road House, I vehemently hate and it makes me nervous for the future of action films. The way the camera swings around during fights looks unnatural. It adds to some of the worst CGI I’ve seen big budget mainstream film in some time. Admittedly I don’t watch Marvel or DC movies so perhaps horrendous CGI has become the norm in recent years. There are some fun moments and characters. I especially enjoyed the nice thug with the broken arm. Gyllenhaal’s Dalton is funny and has an intriguing mysteriousness that Gyllenhaal is perfect for. But all of that is ruined by unbelievable choices and actions many characters take. Like when Dalton allows himself to be stabbed or how he quickly intervenes the first time he visits the Road House, but later in the film he allows Conor McGregor to severely injure numerous people before stepping in. There are also characters like the young girl at the bookstore who is super chatty with Dalton the point where it feels forced. I’m not sure how I feel about Conor McGregor. He was believable as a cartoonish brawling psychopath. He can fight and act insane so the scriptwriters did well not to give him too much screentime or dialogue. He doesn’t even show up until an hour into the film. The scriptwriters did right by the love interest, Daniela Melchior, as well. She clearly can’t act and doesn’t have much screen presence, so she doesn’t get much to do and isn’t even relevant until over an hour into the film. There are some amazing fight scenes, the few times they are meant to be quick, but the big set-piece fights are ruined by horrendous CGI and camera that moves too much. There are also many moments where the CGI is what you’d expect in a Jim Wynorski “Dinocroc vs. Supergator” sequel. These moments are, boat chases, cars being hit by trains, and when the fights go into Marvel superhero territory. This level of sloppiness with CGI would keep me from enjoying any action film because its not necessary. This is the type of movie that makes me nervous because I much prefer more ground fights like you’d see in Jack Reacher or the first John Wick. We don’t need small scale brawlers to emulate Superhero films. The film is not trying to be a shot-for-shot remake of the original which is nice, but most of the references to the original feel forced and out-of-place. A lot of the dialogue makes no sense and I had a hard time reconciling the motivations of many of the characters. Gyllenhaal is bright spot of the film and he takes up almost every minute of the film. They would have been smarter to cut 20 minutes since its not a good, but at least they knew the strengths and leaned into them. I sure hope someone makes a no special effects actioner that fans embrace soon. Amazon Prime’s 2024 stream looks and sounds really good. As much as I hate Amazon’s interface, the movies sounds much better than Disney and Paramount’s streaming services.

[Jason C]

Benny Loves You (UK, 2019) 4/10 **
I tried not to get too excited about this film based on the very funny and compelling trailer. Unfortunately all of the good parts are in the trailer. Its shocking how tedious the film felt as I watched. It was so close to being “Shaun of the Dead” but it just fell flat on its face time and time again. It’s a great idea, and there are numerous cool and funny moments, but they were all spoiled in the trailer. I’m truly perplexed because in my head I can replay a lot of cool moments, but it was absolute chore to finish. The Amazon Prime stream looked and sounded fine.

[Dom D]

Magic: you know I've seen this movie half a dozen times and it never occurred to me how much it is riffing on Psycho. The isolated hotel, the inanimate object channeling the madness, the psycho central character. It ain't subtle but it was somehow bypassing me. Possibly because I'm so familiar with the book and that gives a bit of separation from Hitchs film.

It's a minor film but it's a very comfortable watch. The most interesting thing to me is how the tensest and best directed scenes are all psychological moments. Corky tricking the girl with card tricks, Corky trying to not use Fats for 5 minutes etc. The actual killings, the moments that should be the tensest points, are largely afterthoughts. It's a shame on that point because if they'd nailed those scenes as well this could have been an all timer.

[Newt Cox]

IP Man 2 Well GO USA DVD

Was her choice for the after dinner movie last night. Neither of us have seen the first film.

Good fights decent dubbing and a story that isn't slow.

[Cody Layne]

Sailor Moon R (Sailor Moon Season Two). Watched this over the course of the last week. Like I said before, watching this Viz Media dub, with all of the episodes and completely uncut, was like watching it for the first time. Although, maybe it's just me, but it felt like this set had some sound mixing issues, with the music sometimes being louder than the dialogue. Has anybody else who's watched this set noticed that, or am I just hearing things?

[Matt H.]

What do you think about Lone Star? That's some end revelation!

That was one of a handful I had seen before and I still think it's his best. Yeah, great ending, beautifully played by Cooper and Pena and, like the rest of the film, wonderfully understated.

[agent999]

I've been going through John Sayles' filmography. So far my favourites have been CITY OF HOPE, PASSION FISH and MATEWAN. The only one I didn't like so far is THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH.

What do you think about Lone Star? That's some end revelation!

[Matt H.]

I've been going through John Sayles' filmography. So far my favourites have been CITY OF HOPE, PASSION FISH and MATEWAN. The only one I didn't like so far is THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH.

[Darcy Parker]

Caught up on my recent 4K disc purchases last night, so I watched:
Ghostbusters (1984) - Amazing picture quality that shows a ton of detail and makes the effects really sing. More of a step up from the 4k-mastered blu than I was expecting.

The Crow (1994) - Looked even better than when I saw it in the theatre in the first week of release, but sadly not really taking advantage of HDR as much as it could have. Still, the last copy of it I owned was on VHS, so it was worth it.

Dredd - I believe this was shot in HDR, and it is a major showcase for the technology. The SloMo sequences are brain-blistering in their use of HDR effects, and the rest of the movie really uses it well for things like neon signs, fire and other bright stuff, and the shadow details are perfect.

[f.ramses]

+1 / Party Invaders - A group of teens have a party and then start noticing identical copies of themselves walking around the party and the movie follows how they deal with this and even how one person tries to take advantage of it. It's not a perfect movie as there are some things you have to just go with but overall I found this very memorable and somewhat thought provoking, also fairly dark. Wasn't sure how much I would enjoy revisiting this one knowing the ending but it was at least as good as the first time I saw it. What would you do if you met an exact copy of yourself?

Streamed this as +1 and almost bought it on DVD under that title but in Germany this was apparently called Party Invaders as that's what the German BD I wound up buying was titled...

[f.ramses]

Karateci Kiz – This started out seeming like it would be the fun revenge flick I was hoping for but things never really seemed to get on track until the very end and even then it was a bit disappointing. Not among the better of the few Turkish movies I’ve seen but not too bad. The soundtrack had me thinking of The House with the Laughing Windows a bit at times.

Yilmayan Seytan – Just couldn’t get into this one; the comic relief character was just too goofy for his own good, everything was a bit cheaper than I expected it to be, and the story just seemed repetitive and boring.

Seytan – I found this to be exactly as described, a Turkish ripoff of The Exorcist. It hits most of the main scenes and is decently done, really there’s not much more for me to say about it except that I liked it enough that I think I may give it another watch soon.

Phantoms - Glad the new UHD announcement got me to give this one another shot because all I remembered was not liking it but this time around it was alright even if it didn't leave me wanting the new release.