What are you watching?

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Dial: Help (Ruggero Deodato, 1988) - All the smug reviews on IMDb can go eat polar bear dick, this movie is awesome. Of course the premise is absurd, its what makes this such a blast. Embrace ridiculousness and just go with it. I guarantee you you've never seen a film where a would-be rapist is killed by quarters being spat out of a pay phone at high speed or Charlotte Lewis,. who by the way is indescribably gorgeous, writes around in a bath tub while under the hypnotic influence of a phone! Makes for a nice time capsule too. 80's as fuck!

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Been on a shitty slasher movie binge the last week with: Blood Beat, Berserker, Graduation Day, Evil Laugh, Cutting Class, Fatal Games, and Blood Frenzy.

I never want to watch another Slasher as long as I live.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Angels With Burnt Wings (Zbynek Brynych, 1970) - Utterly loopy Euro cult gem that really needs a bigger fan base just like the other 2 German films Brynych did the same year, O Happy Day and Femmine Carnivore. Loaded with 70's kitsch, every other character acts like a mental patient and the developing love story between two homicidal youths is quite adorable. Nadja Tiller is a stone cold FOX.

[paul h. woly boly Find all posts View Profile Close paul h.]

Planet of the Vampires the new Kino/Scorpion blu-ray looks fabulous, though I've always been stumped by the out of focus planet shots. It is what it is and this is the best version so far, beautiful colors. Prometheus I've now lowered my expectations to the point where I can enjoy it as an overblown, over budgeted drive-in movie, which is really what Ridley Scott does, if you think about it. Guardians of the Galaxy it's like Star Wars, if all the characters were Han Solo (except for the tree man Groot, who is the Chewbacca stand-in), and entire tone is cynical and sarcastic. Latitude Zero could not hold my interest for long, but Joseph Cotton's wardrobe was pretty silly. Four Flies On Grey Velvet loose and crazy.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

The Go-Go Boys the first of two documentaries on Golan-Globus from last year. This one was just released on a streaming site I only subscribe to because of football games. It skipped DVD/VOD completely here it seems. And lets face it, any film on the subject of Golan-Globus is a must watch for mer.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Balls of Fury a pingpong based comedy with Christopher Walken as a chinese man.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

I watched Red Desert again making it the second viewing in about 3 weeks. I think I've seen it 7 times overall now and I get more out of it with each viewing. This last time I really felt it. The more I see it, the more normal Monica Vitti's character seems. Perhaps that says more about my current mindset than the actual film but I've wanted to say that for a while now

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Mysteria
Robert Miano, whom I like, stars as an over the hill screen writer struggling with writer's block and an impending deadline. Weird shit happens and competent co-stars (Billy Zane, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker and Martin Landau) slum for paychecks. Hmm... this is an odd duck. Not good but not really bad either. The cast is good and perform in their usual solid ways. There is one chick who cannot act her way off of the casting couch but the rest are good. This wants to be Lynch-ian and obtuse and obtuse it is. Just not in a very interesting or exciting way. It's nicely shot and mercifully short. Very "...Meh".

Stand Up Guys
Now this is a movie! I loved this one. Then again, 3 acting legends (Pacino, Arkin, Walken) usually make for good viewing. Hilarious, touching, sad and entertaining all the way through. Good stuff!

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

American Sniper - A good Clint Eastwood film. I'm surprised that there isn't a thread for it here.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic - A comedy legend receives the documentary he deserves. It's fantastic and goes more into the personal problems he had in his life, plus some other tidbits I knew nothing about him.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Starred Up A Brittish prison film in which every third word uttered is the f word or worse. Violent to. I liked it!

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Gestapo's Last Orgy
Man, if this isn't the most fucked up of the nazi sickies out there. Extremely scuzzy movie starring the gorgeous Daniela Poggi in a corageous performance. It's pretty well made too and harbors Salo-esque ambitions. The banquet scene had me lost for words. I can't believe they went there, hahaha. Super sleazy and supremely disturbing. Easily the best nazisploitation film I've seen so far. I hope they put out a good Blu-Ray at some point. A genre classic.

Exterminator 2
What the hell's up with all the freaking dance numbers in this thing? I know one of the characters is a dancer but 4-5 dance numbers in a movie about a vigilante torching scum with a flame thrower? It's worse than the first film but still extremely entertaining. Would've been interesting to see the first cut before they doctored it to what it is now. Mario Van Peebles character is awesome looking and the scene with the crucifixion in the subway is genuinely unsettling. Same with the forced heroin injection. I feel this movie should really have a standalone Blu-Ray release with some in depth contextual extras to go along with it.

Eye Of The Tiger
Gary Busey in a shitty action flick before he went koo-koo-kachoo. He's good in the part but the movie just isn't all that. The bike gang looks ridiculous. Who can ever take a gang riding dirt bikes seriously??? Also the title song never works outside of Rocky. It just doesn't. The whole thing is just strangely unexciting, despite some deliciously dark flourishes like the exhumed coffin and the lubed up stick-o-dynomite. Oh, how I laughed until I caught myself thinking: "Hey, wait a minute. That's actually pretty fucked up!".

Alienator
I like Fred Olen Ray, I really do. Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is a freaking masterpiece and Bikini Airways likewise. I've always preferred his colleague Jim Wynorski's movies though. This film however is pretty dull and uneventful. The Alienator is stiffer than a block of iron and looks pathetic. Danger Diabolik-dude takes the thing seriously and provides good acting for what this is. Jan Michael Vincent looks sketchy (was he drunk during all his takes?). I'll probably never watch this film again. It's poorly paced and ultimately boring.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Had an Alien double feature with:

Mutant AKA Forbidden World: has good production values and some pretty good acting. I kinda' like some of the ideas it has such as the origin of the mutant and how they actually kill the mutant (brilliant idea I think) and there's some good gore effects and agreeable nudity. Fun flick worth checking out if you like Alien ripoffs.

Nightbeast: finally finished watching this one. Don Dohler remakes Galaxy Invader but this time he had enough money to afford some T&A and low rent gore. Not as charming as Galaxy Invader in its ineptitude but still slightly entertaining.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Finally watched Heathers. Very interesting film, especially when you look at the era it came from. You would NEVER see a movie like this today unless it's an Indie or made over seas. A lot of genuinely funny moments. Reminded me a lot of The River's Edge. Hard to believe the same screenwriter went on to write Demolition Man and some Harry Potter ripoff with vampires.

Also, I think the parents of Winona Ryder's character were the basis for Jay Sherman's parents in The Critic.

[paul h. woly boly Find all posts View Profile Close paul h.]

Watched NIGHTCRAWLER for a second time. Actually paid attention and noticed many things that I missed the first time through. I really appreciate it now and the whole sociopathic Horatio Algers slant is pretty slick.

[llj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close llj]

LOVE STREAMS: My knowledge of Cassavetes is sorely lacking, having only seen KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE and A WOMEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE prior to this. But already I can tell this is a very different film than Cassavetes' usual output, which usually seems far more grounded in "reality" (or at least, a gritty impression of reality). Love Streams is more surreal; one of those films you have to just go with on a scene to scene basis, with only character development as the connecting thread throughout the film. Although put like that, maybe Love Streams isn't that different from most Cassavetes films after all.

HORUS PRINCE OF THE SUN: Classic anime with a huge reputation as one of the seminal films in anime history. Very interesting subversion of the heroic fantasy formula with the hero of the film basically being bumped to secondary star by the main female lead halfway through the film. From a technical standpoint, it isn't the *greatest* display of animation you've ever seen; the animation is very rough at times and the character designs are streamlined to the point of being almost crude-looking. Colors are very muted, giving the film an almost utilitarian aesthetic. The production problems surrounding the film is well documented, and one can't ignore that it really does show onscreen.

MAGIC BOY: I actually kinda loved this. The first feature-length anime to screen in U.S. theatres (1961, though it was released in Japan in 1959). It's got some wannabe-Disney touches like cute animals and the like, but not as much as I'd expected and it's actually kind of an early blueprint of a hardcore action anime in a way. There are a lot more swordfights, magical action, and death-defying character "stunts" here compared to any animated feature film I've seen made prior to this. There's actually a pretty decent body count here for what is basically still a "children's" film, though there is no blood (minor disposable characters get stabbed and slashed but they fall down and die in classic bloodless chanbara style deaths.) The artwork is really awesome at times, bursting with deep colors and hues and the final magic/ninjitsu showdown between Sasuke and Yakusha the Evil Witch is really something else visually, with great gothically surreal visual touches, and various weather elements contributing to the grandness of the Final Battle.

Contributing to my argument that this is actually an early example of an action anime is the straightforward-as-hell revenge storyline and the rather minimal dialogue. HAY it's John Wick...for kids!