What are you watching?

[Matt H.]

Baja - This is a pretty typical mid-90s crime thriller that has one must-see element: the absolute BEST Lance Henriksen performance I've seen to date. He plays a sleazy hitman and he's incredible; chewing the scenery, insulting everyone, mistreating a hooker and laughing his ass off the whole movie. There's a cheap double feature DVD (with another, inferior film by the same director) that is worth picking up just to see Henriksen cut loose like never before.

[Newt Cox]

Stuart Gordon Presents Deathbed-Crap boring modern FullMoon tripe. But hey one of the extras is Gordon's Castle Freak so that is nice.

BTK-The Kane Hodder Dennis Radley Serial Killer movie. Way way better than I expected.

[Cody Layne]

[REC] 4: While certainly not great, I liked this more than the third movie, as this is an actual continuation of the story from the first two. Save for instances where people are watching CCTV cameras to see where everyone is and what's going on, the found footage approach is abandoned here, but this story didn't require it, and it takes place aboard a ship, making for an even more claustrophobic setting. It takes a while to really get going, but when it does, it is entertaining.

[f.ramses]

The Hooked Generation – I couldn’t remember if I’d seen this before and I can really see why, this was so incredibly boring and stupid. Really the only notable thing about this aside from that was William Kerwin in the small role of FBI Man #1.

High-Rise – I really don’t think that I liked anything about this movie other than it eventually being over and the fact that I could so accurately predict how it would be. Gotta stop checking out stuff from this guy based on how much I liked Kill List because this is like the third time I’ve been burned like this...

[Newt Cox]

[REC] 3: Genesis: Well, that was certainly different. I knew this one took place at a wedding, but I didn't know that it, one, dropped the found footage approach after the first thirty minutes, and two, basically goes into over-the-top self-parody and splatter. Definitely wise to change things up, so it wouldn't get stale, but I don't think it was entirely effective here. It gets so silly and yet, ends on a real downer of an ending, which was a really jarring clash.

Pretty sure a few weeks back I mentioned on of them hhappened at a Wedding.

[Cody Layne]

[REC] 3: Genesis: Well, that was certainly different. I knew this one took place at a wedding, but I didn't know that it, one, dropped the found footage approach after the first thirty minutes, and two, basically goes into over-the-top self-parody and splatter. Definitely wise to change things up, so it wouldn't get stale, but I don't think it was entirely effective here. It gets so silly and yet, ends on a real downer of an ending, which was a really jarring clash.

[Cody Layne]

[REC] 2: Finally getting around to the other movies in that box-set. This was an interesting approach, as it starts immediately after the first movie ends, with a SWAT team entering the building and dealing with the possessed tenants, while a priest who's leading them tries to find a way to destroy the "virus." It delves much more into the supernatural this time around, but still has a scientific slant to it. It also goes back and forth, switching from the SWAT team's POV to that of a group of dumb kids who sneak into the building and become trapped there. Not as good as the first, but an interesting follow-up, nevertheless.

[f.ramses]

Evil in the Woods – Going in this seemed like something I was going to like but it quickly became a dull, confusing mess. To top it all off problems with the brand new disc made watching it even more of a chore.

Addio Zio Tom – Despite owning it on DVD for ages it really seemed like this was my first time seeing this version and while Goodbye Uncle Tom isn’t exactly fresh in my mind it does unsurprisingly seem to be the better version I ‘remembered’ it as. I wish I had the patience to watch different versions of movies back to back but I usually don’t, it would have been cool to see the differences more closely had I this Saturday though. There’s definitely a lot more then-current stuff but I wonder if some of the old south segments were longer and if maybe there were additional ones in addition to them being re-arranged. In any event I’m glad I finally got around to seeing this and that it was the arrival of this nice new edition that got me to do so.

Traces of Death – The original Faces of Death aside I really never thought of movies like this as ones to revisit but finding my old copies decades later has gotten me to have another look at some of them. It’s crazy to me how my current reaction to them, squirming through the more graphic stuff like autopsy and surgery footage and being fascinated by stuff like the car crash footage, is like the opposite of when I was a lot younger. Still, it packs a punch and makes you think even though it is just a cheap exploitation film. I like how they went with a metal soundtrack and played up Brain Damage, the narrator, more in the sequels.

[Cody Layne]

[REC]: I'd seen this a couple of times before, but this was me watching it as part of the Scream Factory Blu-Ray set of all four of these movies. I haven't seen the sequels, but I don't see any of them outdoing the effective simplicity of this first one. This is a really well done, found footage horror flick, especially the ending in the penthouse atop the building. Man, is that scene nightmare fuel.

[Newt Cox]

Akira off the US Blu. Did the 1988 dub cause I don't think I have heard it before.

Looks great,sounds good. Good cheap buy.Might check out the extras later on.

[Randy G]

Rabid Grannies: The wonky dub here is pretty amusing, the 16mm looks great on blu and once the gore kicks in it's quite fun.

[Cody Layne]

Tremors 2: Aftershocks Arrow Video Blu-Ray. I love the Tremors movies, especially the first two, and was glad to see them get new home media releases. Unfortunately, while it's great to see Tremors 2 in HD, this release isn't nearly as stacked as Arrow Video's release of the first one. It has two commentaries, one by the director, S.S. Wilson, and another by the author of a book on the franchise, and both of them were pretty informative. However, the one really long interview is okay but nothing amazing, and there's an eight-minute one with Phil Tippet, which was disappointing, as he admits that he remembers very little about the movie. There's also a little making of from the time of its release and some outtakes. If you're a fan, I'd say get it, but don't expect anything like the first one.

[Matt H.]

Firewalker – Though still enjoyable this was a lot sillier than I remembered it being, despite that I kind of want to get it on BD now…

It's obvious that everyone was too afraid to tell Chuck he isn't funny.

[f.ramses]

Firewalker – Though still enjoyable this was a lot sillier than I remembered it being, despite that I kind of want to get it on BD now…

Massacre Mafia Style – Tons of fun every time and this time also a random but timely revisit as part of the movie apparently takes place on Easter.

Satan’s Blood – For the most part this is not very original and you know exactly where everything is going but it also manages to not be boring in doing this, a great revisit of a title I had forgotten. One guy in this bears a strange resemblance to Boyd Rice in almost every shot he’s in.

Red Sonja – Kind of on par with Firewalker in terms of being a silly and PG/PG-13 action/adventure movie but one I always wanted to see. It’s an old school PG-13 too as there’s a scene with a topless dancer. Seeing this once was probably enough though. Someone I know once referred to this as being a Conan movie (it isn’t…) but it is on par with a Conan movie, it’s just unfortunate that it’s Conan: The Destroyer and not closer to Conan: The Barbarian.

My Pet Monster – It was shocking just how many things I specifically remembered as I saw them in this movie for something I’ve probably seen twice long ago. This was surprisingly fun and the animation in the opening was really cool.

[Barry M]

The Devils. Happy Easter.