El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Mar 5, 2012 23:17:33 GMT -5
"GUN"50 Cent is Rich, a ruthless gun dealer in the inner city, one who has no qualms about taking out the competition, and one with a direct line to top-notch weapons. Val Kilmer is Angel, an old friend of Richard who just got out and needs a job. Not an action movie, or even a crime thriller... more of a crime sleeper. For all of the potential of the story, it never feels like a lot happens. A lot of it is Fiddy talking to his crew, Fiddy talking to Angel, Fiddy hooking up with his gun connection (a very hot looking AnnaLynne McCord), with the occasional scene of the detective heading the investigation slamming his hand on a table/against a wall in frustration. There's one gang ambush at the beginning, one in the middle (featuring Danny Trejo) and the requisite shootout at the end. And the end shootout has Fiddy using the most ridiculously huge gun available... like he's trying to over-compensate for something... As for the actors, Fiddy appears to be made out of cardboard. He has no charisma in this at all. Kilmer looks like he's trying to fit in but he's a square peg trying to hammer himself into a round hole. It's like he's still being punished for letting Clooney be Batman... The only decent performance comes from James Remar as the police detective, doing the best with what little he was given. I guess there's supposed to be come kind of message behind it, but the producer (50 Cent) doesn't want the star (50 Cent) to look too much like a bad guy, even though he is. Instead, it makes the informer look like a sellout and a snitch. Also, by letting the REAL bad guy (the gun manufacturer) just walk away at the end, it makes the movie's message seem to be "guns are cool, the rich get richer on the back of the poor and if you're black, you will end up paying for it!" Avoid. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "HANNA"A 16-year old girl, who was raised in the remote woods by her father to be the perfect killer, leaves home to find the woman who killed her mother, and finds the truth about herself. Stylish, beautifully filmed action/chase movie. Very strong performance by Saoirse Ronan as Hanna, and a pretty good one from Cate Blanchett as the woman trying to stop her. BUT, I felt that the story kind of peters out towards the end. It's like the story ran out of energy around the hour and a half mark. The final battle didn't have the same impact or style as the earlier parts of the film, and the ending just feels flat to me. Plus, they introduced a character (a German hitman) that seemed to have a ton of potential as a character... and do nothing with him. He's just a face during the chase. It's good, but it didn't blow me away. Mild recommendation.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Mar 12, 2012 23:14:39 GMT -5
"NIGHTMARE IN WAX"Disc 5, Side 2, Movie 2 of the "Chilling Classics" 50 DVD set. Story: deranged wax museum owner is behind a series of disappearing movie stars, all from the same studio. This is because he was disfigured by the owner of the studio when he and his girlfriend (who was the studio's biggest star) tried to get married. He's been kidnapping them and drugging them into suspended animation, then using them in his museum. Now he has a plan to get back at his former girlfriend, the studio boss and everyone who wronged him... even if they didn't. 1) Much like many of the other movies in this set, it was made in the 70's (well, 1969 actually) but the story feels like it was meant for the 50's. It didn't feel like that there was any attempt to update the script or do anything to make the movie feel more like it belonged in the time/setting that it was, which makes the movie feel... awkward. 2) Main character is played by Cameron Mitchell. Jebus, has this guy been in ANY good movies? Here, I believe him as the psycho wax museum owner, but it's like he's not playing that kind of character. It may sound a little strange but the scenes of Mitchell 'over the edge' looked like they belonged in a cheap gangster movie and not a cheap horror movie. I believe that the producers/director/writers let him improvise his lines, and he sounds like a nutjob hitman and not a wronged lover. 3) The ex-lover still loves him, but has been engaged to four other men since the accident? An accident that happened (if I remember correctly) only three years before the movie started? Plus, the actress (Anne Helm) looks too much like Mary Ann to be taken as a Hollywood starlet. 4) There's a go-go dancer/budding Hollywood starlet that Mitchell is making a model of (as part of the plan to ge tto the studio boss) who is the DEFINITION of a bubble-headed bimbo, and it takes WAY too long for Mitchell to chase her hysterically-screaming self down and kill. 5) OK, I can accept that the movie stars are drugged into suspended animation and used as wax dummies. What I can't accept is that Mitchell can just use 'hypnotic suggestion' to control them and order them to move around. Their muscles would have atrophied and they would just collapse. I'm sorry, but the movie went too far in this. 6) Sad attempt at a trippy ending. BUT, a nice go-go dancing scene. The movie isn't badly filmed, and the actors treat the story with more seriousness than it deserved, but the movie just doesn't play well. It tries but falls flat. Verdict: meh. Good: 5 Meh: 8 Trash: 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A PASSENGER TO BALI"Disc 6, Side 1, Movie 1 of the "Chilling Classics" 50 DVD set. Not a full movie, but an one hour episode of the 1950's "Studio One" television drama, presented by Westinghouse and broadcast live on CBS. Story: a cargo freighter takes on a passenger headed for Bali. They learn that the passenger is a revolutionary and no port will take him, leaving the captain to decide what to do with him. Actually a very interesting story. It's not explained very well WHY Mr. Walkes is not allowed to land in any country (not just Bali), but just that he is not welcome... and it is suggested (by the British Consolate in Hong Kong, no less) that if he were to just 'disappear' (ie. fall off the boat and get lost at sea), no one will miss him. It is implied that he is spreading some kind of doctrine (possibly Communism) and in one scene he tries to through pamphlets in his luggage to the crowd gathered on the docks. The actor playing Mr. Walkes, Berry Kroeger, is fantastic. He is charming, funny, threatening, devious and hypnotic. Physically, he reminds me of both Kelsey Grammer and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, so if you can picture either one of them in a performance of Shakespeare's anything, then you'll get a good idea of the level of Kroeger's performance. Easily the best acting not just in this show, but probably in the whole DVD set. A must-see. Colin Keith-Johnston handles himself quite well as the ship's captain, guided by his priciples in a battle of wills against this strange opponent. The rest of the cast is lightly sketched characatures, including a couple of Americans playing Chinese houseboys with some very bad accents. Now, the negative. This set is supposed to be a set of horror and thriller movies, and this is neither. It was filmed on TV in the early 50's, so it is blurry and some of the dialogue is difficult to hear. Some of the camera angles show the back of the actor speaking, so they hadn't quite figured out how to film this type of show yet. There's also the novelty of having the show/play interrupted every twenty minutes by a live commercial for the newest Westinghouse home appliances (a round-screen black-and-white television with AM and FM radio AND a phonograph player!). But one performance makes this worth watching. Verdict: good. Good: 6 Meh: 8 Trash: 7 (Note: I just noticed that Berry Kroeger also appears as the studio head in "Nightmare in Wax". He wasn't bad in "NiW" but his performance is so much stronger in "APtB".)
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Mar 19, 2012 22:35:24 GMT -5
"PANDORUM"Story: two men who are part of the crew of an interstellar starship awake out of hypersleep without memories of who they are and why they are there. They manage to piece together fragments of memories triggered by evidence on the ship, and realize that they are on their way to bring settlers to a new planet. They also find some kind of alien hunters that now live on the ship. They also figure out that the ship will self-destruct rather quickly if they don't start up the engines. AND, one (or both) of them might be suffering from 'pandorum', a form of 'space madness'... Not bad, but not great, either. A lot of the plot depends on the fact that the main characters (a grizzled Dennis Quaid and an over-intense Ben Foster) have no memory of their situation, and yet it seems that they spontaniously 'remember' anything when it becomes important... I didn't get the feeling that they were actually figuring stuff out, just that they didn't know and now they know. It is nicely filmed. There are a few scenes where you can almost feel the walls closing in around you, helping build up suspense. It did remind me a lot of the "Alien" films in regards to the set. Unfortunately, whenever there's any action happening, it becomes a collection of quick cuts that makes it confusing to figure out what's going on. The alien hunters worked about half the time. Sometimes they are actors in costumes and they look great that way. Other times they are either CGI (or what appears to be stop-motion) creations and then they look choppy, unconvincing... they just look like they don't belong in the scene, more like they were just 'dropped' in like a badly photoshopped image. Cung Le kicks ass as another survivor, a Vietnamese farmer who doesn't speak English. There are a few twists and turns, but I was never really involved enough in the movie for the revelations to have any weight. I almost feel that this would have worked better as a video game and not a movie. I'm ambivalent... it didn't suck enough for me to hate but it didn't do enough for me to recommend anyone to see it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "RARE EXPORTS"Story: on the border between Finland and Russia, an excavation team is digging up an ancient burial site. What they find will change how you feel about Christmas. Very well-made horror/comedy from Finland. The story centers around a young boy who uncovers the dark history of Santa Claus. He believes the local myth about the mountain being the site of the evil Santa's entrapment and none of the adults around him believe when the reindeer herd turns up slaughtered... then other strange things start happening. All the actors are very believable, with a great performance by the young boy. It is tough for a kid his age to really carry a movie but he does and does well. The DVD also included the two original "Rare Exports" short films. Now, the movie isn't an extension of the originals, but it takes the idea and 'reboots' it to make a fresh new story. I do like that they used the same actors as well. To sum it up in one easy-to-describe term, imagine "A Christmas Story" mixed with "Army of Darkness". HIGHLY recommended. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "DEVIL TIMES FIVE" (also known as "Peopletoys", "Tantrums" and "The Horrible House on the Hill") Disc 6, Side 1, Movie 2 of the "Chilling Classics" 50 DVD set. This movie is the main reason I picked up this DVD set, because I watched the ending of it when I was very young and it haunted me for years. Story: a working weekend at "the boss' cabin in the mountains" turns into a nightmare when a group of five young children appear at the house... and bodies start piling up. The adults are pretty much out of a "Dynasty"-esque soap opera: the gruff and driven boss, his slutty trophy second wife, his daughter (from his first marriage) and her husband, the boss' spineless advisor and his drunk wife, the 'slow' caretaker of the cabin. The first half of the movie is pretty much setting out the characters' relationships and the games they play, before the kids show up... The kids. While they look cute and vulnerable and weak, they are cold and soulless and just little monsters. What they do isn't as disturbing as how they do it. Performance-wise, all of the adults fill their roles quite well, especially Sorrell Booke (the future Boss Hogg of TV's "The Dukes of Hazard") as the boss' advisor who grows a spine during the movie, and a lovely Carolyn Stellar as the slutty trophy wife. For the kids, the real stand-out is future pop star Leif Garrett as David, a know-it-all with what appears to be multiple personalities (and a cross-dressing fetish). (Note: Carolyn Stellar is mother to Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn, who played the pyro of the kids.) It is a low-budget 70's movie, so it does look a little cheap, but damn the movie works. There is a very uncomfortable scene where the trophy wife tries to seduce the 'slow' handyman for laughs... I'm not sure why the would include that in the movie but it seemed just... icky. And the ending? The very ending of this movie is just as messes up as it was when I first saw it. No Hollywood movie would do this now. Verdict: good Good: 7 Meh: 8 Trash: 7
|
|
bob
Backup Wench
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 80,591
|
Post by bob on Mar 23, 2012 20:43:39 GMT -5
{Spoiler}
Saw 3-D is a film in the Saw series in name only. During the opening credits we see Dr. Gordon from the original Saw film after he sawed off his foot, which immediately gave away the so-called big swerve at the end.
Granted, I figured out that eventually he would be a Saw follower for lack of a better word, but to give it away literally seconds into the film is bulls*** and angered me immensely.
The lack of Jigsaw perplexed me given how prominent he was in the other films, especially after he died in 3.
Unless I'm mistaken Jigsaw was in the film for only 3 scenes for a total of 3 minutes at the most.
Most of the film was "cat and mouse" between Hoffman and Jill, now granted I thought it was a pretty cool swerve that Hoffman ended up being in the coroners bag to sneak into the police headquarters undetected.
Aside from that the film was predictable. There are no smooth transitions from scenes to what is more like "oh look someone is about to die" in the "games" before the main one following the fake survivor and even then the final "test" was predictable.
Honestly, this movie was a massive gorefest with none of the philosophy that was in previous Saw films.
I gave this one another shot recently....it's still shit review above still describes my thoughts on it
|
|
agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,869
|
Post by agent817 on Mar 31, 2012 12:34:27 GMT -5
I did a double feature recently of two movies that share a title, though the plots are different. The Hunted (1995)Plot: Paul is on one of his many business trips to Tokyo, as a computer-chip executive from New York, when he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman. Later, he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, inadvertently interrupting an assassination by a feared Ninja-cult. As he is now the only man to have seen the face of the cult's warrior-leader and lived, he soon realizes that he is facing a markedly foreshortened life-expectancy. Teaming up with a friendly samurai couple, on a two-centuries-old blood-feud with the Ninja, he struggles to survive. Finally, recuperating on an island-fortress, he learns swordsmanship, and perhaps, a little about courage, honor, love, and loyalty. The requisite final confrontation is rife with bloody swordplay and spectacular martial-arts action sequences. Verdict: It was the second time that I have seen this and it's been a few years since I have first watched it. I have to say, it's decent in some areas. I like the sword fight sequences and I did think that the final fight scenes were done well. Not just with the main ninja and the samurai descendent but also the underlings like the teacher/samurai descendant's students, as well as the main ninja's fellow ninjas. Also, the train scene was good. I can very well see that this movie was not the best but it delivered for what it was. I recommend it. The Hunted (2003)Plot: In the green woods of Silver Falls, Oregon, Aaron Hallam, a trained assassin AWOL from the Special Forces, keeps his own brand of wildlife vigil. After Hallam brutally slew four deer hunters in the area, FBI Special Agent Abby Durrell turns to L.T. Bonham-- the one man who may be able to stop him. At first L.T. resists the mission. Snug in retirement, he's closed off to his past, the years he spent in the Special Forces training soldiers to become skilled murderers. But when he realizes that these recent slaying is the work of a man he trained, he feels obligated to stop him. Accepting the assignment under the condition that he works alone, L.T. enters the woods, unarmed--plagued by memories of his best student and riddled with guilt for not responding to Aaron's tortured letters to him as he began to slip over the edge of sanity. Furious as he is with his former mentor for ignoring his pleas for help, Aaron knows that he and L.T. share a tragic bond that is unbreakable. And, even as they go into their final combat against each other, neither can say with certainty who is the hunted and who is the hunter. Verdict: I will say this, I didn't quite get the plot much until I reread it, and I didn't really focus much on some things like the whole letter and not helping bits. However, I did think the action scenes were decent. I liked the fight scene at the end with BDT and TLJ. Also, the prolonged chase sequence, from the sewers, to the train, to the park and so forth. However, the movie was still anything but great. I can say that the action sequences sort of made up for anything that I didn't quite get, but in some ways, I prefer the 1995 film of the same name to the 2003 film. Like I said, I enjoyed the action sequences, but I still didn't quite get it.
|
|
|
Post by Cela on Mar 31, 2012 12:40:34 GMT -5
Wrath of the Titans:
Not a lot of Wrath. Not a lot of Titans.
But loads of Daddy issues.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Apr 2, 2012 23:36:37 GMT -5
"DIAL M FOR MURDER"Story: after discovering that his wife is having an affair, Tony hatches a plan to have his wife killed. She survives, killing her attacker, but Tony has a back-up plan to make it look like she is guilty of cold-blooded murder. Can someone figure out the truth before she is executed? Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. Adapted from a stage play in 1954, and it does show... most of the 'action' takes place in the main room of the couple's apartment, giving it the feel of a one-set play. However, it never feels like a weak point. The performances most involved are outstanding. Ray Milland (as Tony) is fantastic, both being able to appear as both trustworthy and menacing, sometimes within the same minute. Grace Kelly is stunning as the wife. But my favorite is John Williams as Inspector Hubbard, the man whose hunch about the motives of the original crime leads him to the truth. Robert Cummings is simply all right as the lover, a novelist who tries to convince Milland to take the fall and save his wife by coming up with a scheme that is close to the truth... which lead to my favorite bit of the movie, where Inspector Hubbard bemoans his station as a poor dumb policeman, and 'thank God for the gifted amateur detective'. That's one thing that I really like about this movie: the main representative of the law isn't an idiot, or forced/chooses to overlook the truth because it's not 'by the book' or it's too much work or other Hollywood-isms. It's nice to see a movie where the smartest person involved in the crime is the inspector who solved it. So, not really a 'whodunnit' but a 'howtheygonnagethim', and a mesmerising experience. Highly recommended. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "RAPID FIRE"Story: Jake Lo, a Chinese-American college student, sees a mob hit and can identify the killer, and is sent to Chicago under protective custody. The mob boss tries to have him killed, and Jake has to hide with a rough cop named Mace Ryan, who's trying to nail a drug smuggler at war with the mob boss... and is willing to use Jake as bait. First off, this was Brandon Lee's first big movie (in North America), and his charisma is what makes this movie work in spite of itself. He has this easy charm that lightens the mood of the movie, where anyone else in that role would have tried to play it too seriously and then the movie would be unwatchable. The story is a bit of a mess. It's mob boss versus asian gang versus cops (who, by the way, are NOT underarmed in this movie) with poor Jake Lo caught in the middle... it's just a good thing that Jake knows more about martial arts than anyone else in the city. It's just a lightly sketched plot to string together a series of fight scenes. There's also a bunch of references to the Tiananmen Square protests (where Jake's father was killed), which were meant to come across as relevent and giving depth to Jake's character... but felt more like they were just thrown in at random. The fight scenes were all very nicely choreographed (by Lee himself, with an assistant). While the rest of the movie is pure Hollywood B-action movie schlock, the fights were grade-A Hong Kong scenes. See the movie for these and these alone. (Note: when I say grade-A HK fights, I mean it... the first fight scene is almost a complete steal from Brandon Lee's 1986 HK film "Legacy of Rage", with a motorcycle bit swiped from Jackie Chan's 1985 "Police Story" thrown in for good measure. Still, stolen scenes from these movies are still twice as good as anything Hollywood was producing at that time) As for other performances, Nick Mancuso chews the scenery as the mob boss, Tony Longo is menacing as his bodyguard, Powers Boothe is Tommy Lee Jones Mace Ryan, over-intense super cop, and Kate Hodge is the hot lady cop that Lee gets to nail. Al Leong (aka that one Asian guy who appears in EVERY martial arts movie made in Hollywood because he's the only guy who seems to know what he's doing) also appears and has a great fight scene against Lee near the end. Lots of fun. Watch for the fights and not the story. Recommended.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Apr 9, 2012 19:00:41 GMT -5
"NETWORK"Story: UBS news anchor Howard Beale has announced that he is being fired because the newscast has poor ratings. Howard has also just announced that he will commit suicide. Live on television. What this turns in to is a straight-faced and sharp-edged satire on the intrusion of the quest for ratings into the broadcasting of the news. Because of his rant, the networks' new exec in charge of programming (played by an incredibly icy Faye Dunaway) decides to focus on Howard, eventually taking over the news department and giving Howard his own television show where he can rant about the failings of the world and the viewers (a TV show that also includes a psychic predicting the news). This, of course, leads to greater ratings and more freedom for her to program the network in a fashion she believes the viewers want (including a prime-time show dedicated to a [fictional] terrorist group, allowing them to bring their anti-American message to the people). But when Howard says something the network owners don't want him to say... The movie actually feels like a mid-70's made-for-TV docu-drama, the ones with actors playing 'fictionalized' versions of real people (if anyone reading this has seen the Charles Manson story "Helter Skelter", that's along the same lines), along with a narrator who is outlining the broader events as the story moves along. There is what appears to be a sub-plot about Dunaway and her affair with the former news director (played wonderfully by William Holden), but it doesn't feel tacked on, it gives more insight about the kind of person she is. Fantastic performances all around. Dunaway nails it as someone who is incappable of human feelings, Holden is great as the gruff former newsman who tries to love her, Robert Duvall as the corporate suit trying to get ahead by making the network a winner, but the movie belongs to Peter Finch as Howard Beale, the anchor who loses his mind and becomes the prophet of the airwaves. Stunning performance. (There's also a few familiar faces in the background... Conchata Ferrell (Berta from "Two and a Half Men") appears as one of Dunaway's assistants, Lance Henriksen ("Aliens") as a lawyer and I swear there's someone that looks like Dustin Hoffman running from room to room at the very beginning of the movie.) For a movie made in 1976, it's message is still relevant. Even more so, considering what passes for news or 'infotainment' today. Highly recommended.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Apr 22, 2012 23:08:24 GMT -5
"THE CABIN IN THE WOODS"Story: five college students go into the remote woods to a cabin and... stuff happens. Other stuff happens as well. Okay, I'm not going to spoil it, but I did get to see this and it is damn good. Highly recommended. EDIT: Okay, I'm gonna say one thing... {Spoiler}... the bit with the frog? Hilarious!
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on May 8, 2012 0:22:26 GMT -5
"HAYWIRE"Story: agent Mallory Kane is sent to Ireland on an easy mission, only to find that she's been betrayed and someone wants her dead. Now she has to find who, and why. At first, I thought that this was going to be a straight-up martial arts kick-ass flick... at least, that's how I felt the trailers made it look. The ads focused on the main star, MMA fighter Gina Carano, breaking bones and kicking men in the head. And just like the guys in this movie who underestimated Kane, I underestimated this movie. This is a spy thriller, and a pretty damn good one at that. Admitedly, the whole plot is fairly basic, but I found it worked because it's being told from Kane's viewpoint and you get the 'ah-hah' moments along with her (as well as the 'oh s***' moments). And as good as the action scenes are (and they are fan-freaking-tastic), they never overwhelm the rest of the movie. However, the action scenes are must-see. Not only are they finely choreographed but they are some of the best filmed scenes of recent mind. One of my biggest peeves of action movies is that the action scenes are cut/cut/close-up/cut/close-up editing mish-mashes but here you can see what is happening! And yes, they do incorporate some of Carano's MMA moves into the fights but I felt it never felt 'hammered' in, and they tended to focus more on her Muay Thai skills. And yes, she can act! I never found a scene where I felt she was lost or confused or didn't know what her character was supposed to be doing. She is solid as an actor here. The rest of the cast is damn good as well, except for Channing Tatum as Aaron, who comes across as a lunkhead with a hangover... I'm not sure if he was acting... Also, beautiful cinematography. Incredible looking movie, but I shouldn't have been surprised because it was made by Stephen Soderbergh, who made the "Ocean's Eleven" movies and "Erin Brockovich". I understand that this got great reviews from critics and lousy reviews from the viewing audience, and the only explanation that I have for that is that they pushed the movie as a big dumb loud action flick and really, it's not... much of the movie is quiet and subtle and nuanced, and there's a lot of times where there isn't ANY music in the background. There's no 'Top 100' heavy music rocking the speakers while the action crashes across the screen. I whole-heartedly recommend this movie, but I do warn you that it ain't a balls-to-the-wall dumb action flick, it's much much more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "CANDY STRIPE NURSES"From the Roger Corman collection... {Spoiler} ... is this, the first of the 'series'. A blonde nurse tries to get close to a rock star who has a problem 'functioning', a smart nurse falls for an athlete who is being drugged by his team's doctor, an ethnic nurse fights to prove a man innocent. They also get nekkid. Bad, but kinda fun. No one in this looks like they can really act (except for the guy who plays the rock star... he looks like he's having fun), but they tried and it's harmless fun. Classic Corman. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "BIGFOOT"A Bigfoot creature kidnaps two women (one a pilot who's plane crashed in the woods, the other a girlfriend of a biker) and a group led by John Carradine try to find them. Bad movie. The only actors who look like they have ANY kind of experience are John Carradine (who looks old, tired and possibly drunk) and John (brother of Robert) Mitchum. The women look pretty but can barely remember their lines, the bikers are all trying to be Brando (including Chris Mitchum, Robert's son). The sets look like they were made for an early 60's TV western show. The monster suits look like bear rugs with plastic faces. It's all bad. But the story... goes beyond ridiculous. It starts as a bad 'monster' movie and morphs into a VERY bad "King Kong" copy. It even has the line "it was baty that killed the beast"! And the probem is that it's so bad that it isn't even enjoyable as a bad movie. It's more just pathetic. Avoid!
|
|
The Sam
El Dandy
The Brainiest Sam of all
Posts: 8,423
|
Post by The Sam on May 8, 2012 1:09:00 GMT -5
College (1927) Buster Keaton stars as "Ronald", a bookworm who hates sports. However in order to win the heart of his sweet heart Mary (Anne Cornwall) Ronald must become an athlete. It's ok. It's not Keaton's best work but it has some funny moments and some painful looking stunts. If you see it for cheap, give it a watch.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on May 14, 2012 23:55:30 GMT -5
"NIGHT CALL NURSES"Three nurses who work in a psychiatric hospital... experience stories. The brunette deals with a therapist who uses sex as a tool, AND a stalker. The blonde falls for a trucker cowboy on speed. The ethnic one (an African-American) helps an activist escape prison. Second of the Corman "Nurses" series, and DEFINITELY worse than the first. The actors are actually better at acting, but the story is incomplete. Literally. {Spoiler}The storyline with the brunette just ends with the stalker knocking out the sex therapist and the brunette talking the stalker into helping him... no resolution as to WHY she's being stalked. The blonde uses the trucker to help the activist escape, but he's still on speed WHEN THE ESCAPE HAPPENS, so there's no resolution in THAT story.
THE MOVIE ENDS WITH A PHOTO SHOOT OF THE ETHNIC NURSE HUGGING THE OTHERS AND WALKING AWAY. That would the perfect time to try to tie story lines up with a freakin VOICE-OVER, but there's nothing but music. You may also notice that there's four women on the poster... that's because the blonde on the far left that was fired before shooting started! Historica note: this is the first film by director Jonathan Kaplan, who went on to direct "The Accused". Not even fun. Avoid! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE"Doc Savage and his friends the Fabulous Five journey to the South American country of Hidalgo to find how and why Doc's father died, and uncover a hidden tribe, an evil adventurer and a pool of gold. It's hard to believe that this movie was supposed to be a serious adventure movie. It's campy, it's funny, it's unashamedly patriotic... and it's still a bunch of fun. Ron Ely plays Doc like he's Adam West playing Superman, the villains are over-the-top villainous, the fights are 60's Batman-esque, the dialogue is clunky... it's just a bad movie. But it's fun. There's little bits and pieces of fun all over the place here. One of the villains (Don Rubio Gorro, played by Don Corso) sleeps in a giant baby cradle... for no apparent reason. Actress Robyn Hilton is a laugh as one of the main villain's women, a bimbo trying to be high-class (even when she's been 'rehabilitated' and volunteering for the Salvation Army at the end of the movie). But the most fun is the fact that it's supposed to be serious... campy fun. Also, the music... it's the music of John Philip Sousa with new lyrics so campy that I almost expected to see the names Trey Parker and Matt Stone in the credits. Campy fun and damn worth finding a copy.
|
|
|
Post by BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps on May 19, 2012 16:59:54 GMT -5
"WE'RE BACK! A DINOSAUR'S STORY"Four dinosaurs are given human level intelligence and then transported from the Jurassic age to New York City circa 1993 by a time travellng scientist, seeking to bring joy to dinosaur-loving modern day children. I loved this as a kid, but as an adult I can see it's a rather juvenile film, mostly because of its villain. Why does the blame lie primarily with Professor ScrewEyes? Well, on its own it's a novel concept, the animation's fine and the dinosaurs and the two kids are pretty likable. A million funny and interesting things could be done with four chatty dinos running around New York, and Louie and Cecilia's backstories should have carried the movie a lot more. But because of the goofy "evil brother/circus" subplot, the flow of the story gets dumbed down quite a bit. Recommended only if you need something to keep the young'uns occupied.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on May 21, 2012 22:43:19 GMT -5
"CHRONICLE"Three high-school seniors find a... something... that gives them the power to move things with their minds. One of them is an abused loner, and his powers end up driving him over the edge... Fantastic film. A predictable plot that was made much more interesting with the 'found footage' format. It gave it a way to really focus on the problems of the abused kid, who I really felt for at the beginning. Great actors for the three main stars, and very convincing effects, and just a damn great movie. Note to the people who are trying to get a live-action "Akira" movie: Stop. You can't top this. Save your money and go home. Highly recommended. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "PRIVATE DUTY NURSES"Three nurses start working at a hospital in a California beach community. The brunette has to deal with her leacherous landlord while helping a handsome doctor deal with polution, the blonde tries to help a Vietnam vet with a plate in his head and a bit of a death with, and the black nurse helps a black doctor working 'in the ghetto' get the hospital to hire a black doctor. Bad acting for the most part, with a few good actors here and there (one recognisable face is Paul Gleason, who was the crooked courier in "Trading Places"... the guy who said "I'll rip off your head and shit down your neck!"). At least in this one, the stories ended. Not all the stories have happy endings, however. Bad but not as bad as "Night Call Nurses". Avoid. Note: apparently, the movies in the set are not in chronological order but in alphabetical order. The order they should be in is 1) "Private Duty Nurses", 2) "Night Call Nurses", 3) "The Young Nurses" and 4) "Candy Stripe Nurses". They are also sequels to an earlier film from 1970 "The Student Nurses" (which is not in the set).
|
|
agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,869
|
Post by agent817 on May 21, 2012 23:26:22 GMT -5
Plot: Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, who are part of the Miami PD's Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), still don't always get along, and now they're keeping secrets from each other. Mike's secret is that he's been seeing Marcus' sister, Sydney "Syd" Burnett, a reported paper pusher for the DEA's New York office. Marcus's secret is that he has asked for a transfer, because he wants to spend more time with his family, and less time with Mike. That's all set aside when their boss, Captain Howard, assigns them to stop the flow of record amounts of ecstasy into the city. This puts Mike and Marcus on the trail of the most dangerous enemy that they have ever faced...Cuban drug kingpin Hector Juan Carlos "Johnny" Tapia, who wants to take control of the entire ecstasy trade in the USA, and is working with local dealers and club owners such as Russian mafia boss Alexei. Every time the Miami PD has ever arrested Tapia, Tapia has sued the Miami PD for false arrest, and won millions of dollars. This has caused the department to back off and not go after Tapia. Well, everyone has backed off except for Mike and Marcus, who have never faced Tapia before. Now, it seems that Tapia is using a mortuary as a cover for his operations, smuggling ecstacy hidden inside dead bodies, while sending his money to Cuba in hidden compartments in the coffins. While Mike and Marcus try to bring Tapia down, they also deal with the discovery that Syd is actually working undercover for the DEA to bring down a money laundering operation run by Alexei, and as part of her undercover job, Syd is in deep with Tapia. When Haitian gangsters try to steal Tapia's money and kill Syd, the two investigations cross paths. Syd's cover is later blown, and she is kidnapped by Tapia, who takes her to his compound in Cuba. With the unofficial help of people from the CIA, the Miami PD, and anti-Castro forces in Cuba, Mike and Marcus head out to rescue Syd, and bring Tapia down. How far will Tapia go to keep his drug empire? And how far will Marcus and Mike go to rescue Syd? Verdict: I have seen this movie before and this was the most recent movie that I have watched, so I'll give my take. I enjoy this movie a lot, though I can really see why some others complain about this movie. The movie went past beyond the means of good taste in some areas, like the electronics store scene (A conversation between the two main characters being misconstrued as a conversation between a gay couple), the rats mating, the part when Mike and Marcus harass a teenage boy, also the scenes with corpses involved. Anyway, the action scenes were very over the top and went on a little too long, like the chases for instance, same with the climax in Cuba. I remember the first time I watched this when I was 17, I thought it was funny and action packed. Still think that way now, but there are times when I prefer the first movie over the second one. Also, I thought that the movie was a little longer than it needed to be. All I can say is that it's a movie you either like or not. People can bash Michael Bay all they want, but this is actually one of my favorites from him.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 5, 2012 0:44:29 GMT -5
"CONAN THE BARBARIAN"Story: the origin of Conan, from his childhood (his village destroyed, sold into slavery, trained as a pit warrior, earning his freedom), to finding love, to getting revenge on the man destroyed his village, cult leader Thulsa Doom. Still a fantastic movie, just as good as the day it hit theaters. Arnold's performance is amazing in this... probably his greatest film. His presence on screen is so powerful, he doesn't have to speak to be able to convey what he is thinking. No false notes in any of the acting, the action is top-notch (and pulls no punches), even the music fits. Highly recommended. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AMERICAN"Story: puny Steve Rogers is chosen by a scientist for an experiment to create an American super-soldier... it succeeds, but the scientist is killed before it can be replicated. Now Steve Rogers is Captain America, doing his best to help the WW2 war effort, but what he wants to do is fight for his country. And he has found an enemy to strike out against... the Red Skull. Incredible movie. Beautifully filmed, wonderfully scored, fantastically acted (again, no one comes across as out of their league or not suited for their role). I have to commend this movie for doing the one thing that I never really got from any (ANY) comic: I finally got a real hold of who the character of Steve Rogers was. Highly recommended.
|
|
bob
Backup Wench
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 80,591
|
Post by bob on Jun 5, 2012 0:57:22 GMT -5
{Spoiler}
A fantastic visual achievement and nothing else but incredible special effects. It’s like a video game that has excellent graphics and nothing else. It's dull. Additionally, it was lulling me to sleep.
1.5 out of 5 stars.
That was from the very first time I saw 2001. 2001 is one of those you have to watch more than once to get it. After my third time I finally got it....and I loved it to the point where I bought it in bluray. Since then it has become my favorite movie of all time.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 10, 2012 3:47:43 GMT -5
"THE YOUNG NURSES"Last of the Roger Corman Collection Nurses series... {Spoiler} That is, last in the set, but fourth in the series. Blonde nurse rescues boating son of rich domineering father, tries to help him get out from father's thumb. Brunette nurse fights system by taking on minor 'doctor' duties at hospital and helping at women's free clinic. Black nurse tries to find source of killer drug, trail leads to old doctor friend and an old lover. Fourth nurse on poster does not appear in movie. Again, bad but not completely terrible, some nice nudity and a few action scenes to keep the pace moving along, mixed with 'social conscious' messages. The main actors try but aren't great at acting. A few familiar faces appear in smaller roles ( Alan Arbush, most recognizable at Dr. Friedman from the TV series "M*A*S*H*, and movie director Samuel Fuller ("The Big Red One") as a doctor). Harmless fun, but unless you're already a fan of these movies I can't really recommend getting the set.
|
|
El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,896
|
Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 11, 2012 2:04:56 GMT -5
"DOG DAY AFTERNOON"Sonny and Sal try to rob a bank. It quickly turns into a circus, with Sonny winning the assembled crowd to his favour, only to lose them when the 'why' behind his crime is revealed... Based on a true story, and winner of the 1975 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Wonderful performance by Al Pacino as Sonny, the brain behind the robbery. You see him come to life as he becomes the centre of the circus, and you see him really start to fall apart when you see the pressures he was under leading up to the crime. Very intense performance by John Cazale as Sal, who comes across as a calm, measured nut who's just looking for an excuse to snap, yet able to seem a little innocent at times. Lots of great supporting actors as well, including Charles Durning as the police detective who initially takes charge of the crime scene, Sully Boyar as the bank manager, and especially Chris Sarandon (Prince Humperdink in "The Princess Bride") as Sonny's wife. You also see a young Lance Henriksen ("Aliens") in a very important role as a cop, and Carol Kane as a bank teller. Highly recommended. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "FUNERAL HOME"Disc 6, Side 2, Movie 1 of the "Chilling Classics" 50 DVD set. Young, innocent and braless teen goes to live with her grandmother and help her turn the family funeral home into a bed-and-breakfast. People have been disappearing aroudn the small town for a while, including the grandfather. Young teen falls in love, snoops around and finds the truth behind the disappearances. Not a badly made film, but a very poor script. Well, actually, it isn't a bad script either... it just lifts major bits from other movies. Mainly "Psycho". Picture "Psycho" if there was a Scooby-Doo-esque detective teen poking around and you'd get this movie. Throw in a rookie cop who behaves like he was trained by Barney Fyfe, and a mentally 'slow' handyman that is a rquired red herring in all of these movies, plus a travelling couple that you are just begging to see killed, and there it is. The actors who play the adults aren't bad, but they don't have a lot to do. Barry Morse (the scientist from "Space: 1999") tries to play it serious as a man with a hidden agenda (looking for his missing wife), and Kay Hawtrey plays the Grandmother well, in her 'good' scenes. You also recognize Harvey Atkin (Morty from "Meatballs") as an ill-fated travelling salesman. The story unfolds very slowly, as well. It takes a good 30 minutes for the first on-screen death, and another 30 for the next. The deaths are also very bloodless, like they didn't have the budget for the special effects or something. It's all talking, listening in on conversations, bad comedy with the rookie cop... it's a turtle's pace with this film. Too well done to be trash, but not good enough to be worth seeing again. Verdict: Meh. Good: 7 Meh: 9 Trash: 7
|
|
agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,869
|
Post by agent817 on Jun 23, 2012 22:29:23 GMT -5
NEVER BACK DOWN 2: THE BEATDOWNPlot: Ex-boxer Zack (Alex Meraz), talented MMA fighter Tim (Todd Duffee), bullied record store clerk Justin (Scott Epstein), and wrestler Mike (Dean Geyer) come from various backgrounds, but they all share one thing in common: a passion for the "savage science" and quickly become loyal to their unorthodox trainer, Case (Michael Jai White), a brilliant ex-UFC Champion down on his own luck. Teaching them about much more than fighting, Case prepares the young men for a competition called the Beatdown, run by local college kid and fight impresario Max (Evan Peters). When their mentor gets set-up by some bad cops, the young men band together to root out a traitor in their midst. Commentary: Okay, some insight here. I had bought this movie at a Blockbuster that was closing. I'll admit that I have a love/hate relationship with the first movie (Though it has changed into a "I can enjoy this despite how cheesy it is" kind of thing), however, I was really curious about checking this out. However, I was skimming through scenes a couple of months ago (Yes, back in April) and totally thrown off by some cringeworthy scenes. I had tried telling myself to watch it for these past couple of months but kept on putting it off because I didn't want to withstand a start-to-finish viewing of it just yet. However, I managed to do it tonight and found that it wasn't all that bad. Okay, the movie itself still has some cheesiness that the first one had. It is totally R-rated compared to the first as F-bombs galore and there was a lot more sexual content in this one. Sure, some could say that various women in bikinis and hot girls made for that kind of content in the first film, but this one had a couple of sex scenes which I felt were gratuitous (Especially the strip club one *shudder*). Also, the love story felt too contrived, not to mention changing one of the four martial arts students into a villain more than halfway through the movie and trying to make us believe that he is a threat. Plus, this movie still had a similar formula that the first film had as it showed women getting all wet for these fighters and that the nerdyguy gets blown off by some girl who was also nerdy yet hot. On the plus side, the fight scenes were interesting. Plus, I liked some of the scenes with Michael Jai White, who also directed this movie. He did have some good fight scenes, like the one with him and the cops. Plus, the tournament fights were good. All in all, I guess I didn't really hate this movie as much as I thought that I would have, but I still didn't think it was that good. Not horrible, but definitely not great either. I personally wouldn't really recommend it, but if you're up to checking it out, it's all on you.
|
|