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[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Alien Romulus

Dreadful. The worst film I’ve seen in a considerable time. It was obvious within the first five minutes that Rain, the young girl wronged by the corporation, would survive everything the film had to throw at her and prove herself to be a badass girl boss along the way; and that Andy, the ‘downsy’ looking synthetic we see being picked on by children, would prove himself to be a hero, most likely saving humans who have themself disrespected him.

I didn’t have high expectations going in but was still surprised how bad this was, how much it lifted from the first three alien films (with maybe a dash of It’s Alive). At least Prometheus, which is not a film I remember well or feel the need to revisit, tried something different. This was like a bad cover version of an Alien movie, probably written by committee but looking for all the world like it was written by AI.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Arrow Video Blu-Ray: It took me three days to get through all of the special features in this enormous set. It comes with all of the special features from the previous editions, including the Scream Factory and Vinegar Syndrome releases, and also had a couple of features all its own, including an uncut interview with Tobe Hooper from the Electric Boogaloo documentary about Cannon. a third audio commentary with some members of the crew (not the best commentary but I'd listened to the past ones), and one of those great booklets that Arrow Video usually bundles with its releases. If you're a fan of this flick, this is definitely the best release to get.

[Johnny Stickman Way Out Hep Cat Find all posts View Profile Close Johnny Stickman]

They Call Her Cleopatra Wong - A very cool title, but just a lukewarm flick for me.
Lascars - Really cool French cartoon for adults. I didn't like the CG much, but that's an inevitable thing you'll find in modern movies.
Animation Outlaws - A short doc about the Spike & Mike animation festivals. Like I said, it's too short, but it was a good watch anyway.
Cinderfella - Frank Tashlin and Jerry Lewis is always a good time. Even if you're not a fan of Lewis, you have to admire his physical acting. Visual, physical comedy doesn't really exist anymore. When was the last time we had a comedy actor who could pull that off? Jim Carrey and Chirs Farley, I think.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Mallrats TV Cut-Arrow Blu ray

No clue why this wasn't also on the 4k release from Arrow. Still fun seeing all that was cut or changed.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

Mallrats TV Cut-Arrow Blu ray

No clue why this wasn't also on the 4k release from Arrow. Still fun seeing all that was cut or changed.

At least they released in in a way people can buy it once their overpriced Limited Edition sold out, unlike RoboCop and Waterworld.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

The Blair Witch Project Second Sight Blu-Ray: Another release that I spent the last few days going over, as it was incredibly packed. It had two different versions of the movie itself, with the other being the Festival Cut, with slightly different moments than the theatrical, and two commentaries, one with the filmmakers, which I've never listened to, and the other with a couple of historians, which I did listen to and found rather interesting. The main special feature, the documentary, was two-and-a-half hours long, which I wasn't expecting at all; nearly two hours' worth of deleted footage; a few alternate endings; an interesting visual essay and a Cannes interview with the directors; and the Curse of the Blair Witch mockumentary.

My only disappointment is that none of the actors were involved with the special features. Obviously, the documentary was long enough without them, but they could've easily had their own feature. Even though I saw all three of them at Scarefest last year and they seemed happy to be there (I talked with Heather Donahue for a while and she was really cool), I guess the backlash and the fall-out still kind of stings.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Get Back

i appreciate I’m very late to the party but have been reluctant to subscribe to Disney Plus. This is absolutely riveting though - I can barely take my eyes off it. The dynamics between the four, particularly John and Paul, the gestation of those incredible songs. It really is priceless.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Act of Vengeance

This isn’t a film I really know anything about. I had once considered buying it on disk but, for whatever reason, never got around to it. It’s probably just as well.

This is a rape / revenge film in which a number of victims band together to form a vigilante gang, beating a handful of men before the final showdown with the masked maniac whose attacks prompted them to take up arms.

I can’t really recommend this on any level. It has all the style of a tv movie and the rape scenes, despite not being convincing in any way, have a slightly leering quality that has not aged well.

I have no idea who the rapist was btw. We see him surveilling his victims and he even refers to them by name during the attacks, which might suggest they are known to him. I don’t think there’s any such explanation / reveal though, and I’m not going to watch it again on the off chance I missed an important plot point. I suspect I did not.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Dario Argento's Opera: I hadn't watched this movie in quite a while, but I recently got that Severin Blu-Ray release. First off, the movie looks amazing on this. Before, I only had the Anchor Bay DVD and this is a significant visual upgrade. It also has plenty of special features, like three audio commentaries and a number of interviews and featurettes, including the one from that old DVD. The only thing is, I hadn't watched an Argento movie in a while and, man, I'd forgotten just how nonsensical his stuff can be. This isn't as egregious in that respect as something like Inferno, The Mother of Tears, or even Tenebre, but, man.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Frankenfish-2000s era creature feature set in the LA Swamps. Snakehead fish mutate and become giant. Bunch of swamp folk are trapped. I guess Swamp Thing was busy that night,cause this is happening near Houma.

Decent cast,decent acting and the creatures look decent.

Piranha II the Spawning-The worst film in this 5 entry franchise. Just flat out boring. MIght be Cameron's worst film.

Lake PLacid 3-Made for SYFY original. Got the Maytag repairman/Sheriff from Eurkeea as our lead. Crap creature effects. Yancy Butler appears to be drunk.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Dead of Night: I only recently learned of this British anthology movie from 1945 and was interested enough to check out the Kino Lorber Blu-Ray. It was pretty interesting. As with most anthology movies, not all of the stories were bangers, but the film did hold my interest for the duration and, as many have said, the last story, about the ventriloquist dummy, was the best. I also thought the ending, while a tad predictable, was still nicely done.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Murderock, which was selected with the aid of an online, random number generator.

This is obviously not at the same level of Fulci’s seventies gialli, but there’s still plenty to like about it. The cinematography is great, the cast is a nice mix of familiar faces and nubile starlets, and I think there’s a real period charm to it. I even quite enjoy the dance numbers, well, aside from the breakdancing, which looks as ridiculous now as it did in the eighties.

This isn’t a film I have a long history with. In fact, the Scorpion blu ray is the only edition I’ve ever owned. I know it - the film - has a pretty mixed reputation, which might be a factor. I don’t remember many releases over the years though, either analogue or digital.

I think the Scorpion release holds up well, btw. I know Vinegar Syndrome are releasing this on 4k soon but doubt I’ll be upgrading. Now, if it was Perversion Story or Lizard in a Woman’s Skin . . .

We also watched Satan’s Blood this week btw, courtesy of the new Film Treasures release. I really like the film and think it’s a shame that it’s not more widely known.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Paranoiac: I'd seen this little Hammer thriller quite a few times before. Not one of my absolute favorite of their movies, but it benefits greatly from Oliver Reed, who's really off the well, playing a severely alcoholic psychopath (something he himself was no stranger to). That Scream Factory Blu-Ray came with some pretty interesting special features, including an audio commentary and a few informative featurettes about the movie, with people like Kim Newman and Jonathan Rigby.

[s.chivers Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close s.chivers]

Videodrome and Scanners. Two Cronenberg’s in one week.

We watched the old Criterion dvd of Videodrome over two nights while listening to a very engaging commentary stitched together from separate tracks with Cronenberg and Director of Photography Mark Irwin. I hadn’t seen the film for years, probably since that edition was released, and enjoyed it so much I pulled the trigger on the new Second Sight release of Scanners.

Again, I can’t imagine when I would have last seen this. I dread to think. Anyway, watching it again last night I was stuck by how action packed it is, how menacing Michael Ironside is, and how well the practical effects have held up. I thought the climactic psychic dual was particularly striking, both in terms of conception and execution.

The Second Sight 4k looked very good to my eyes, btw. I might pick up their release of The Brood somewhere down the line, though that was the one earlier Cronenberg I never really warmed to

[Gary Banks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gary Banks]

Wading my way through every shitty horror movie that Tubi has to offer. I watched 10 movies in 2 days and Meat Cleaver Massacre was the best of them. MCM had no opening titles and no Christopher Lee. For that I would have to have picked Hollywood Meat Cleaver Massacre. (No Meat Cleavers were used in the film).