Ha, no definitely not a 5 out of 5 for me.Originally Posted by mozo-pg
Ha, no definitely not a 5 out of 5 for me.
Zappa on YT. I have a couple of the Zappa dvds, and seen many of the others. I hadn't seen this one though and enjoyed it quite a bit although there's overlap info from all the other Zappa/Mothers vids. You probably aren't going learn anything new, but I found it entertaining enough.
D.A.R.Y.L. ('85)
I have a soft spot for these old 80's sci-fi, kids adventure type flicks as they always take me back to more innocent times. An abandoned boy (Daryl) is found in the woods and fostered by a couple. He makes friends, adjusts to new life until it becomes clear he's not normal with his intellect and ability to do everything. Turns out he's not a child, but a lifeform created in a lab as a military experiment. Then the chase is on!This was a fun one to revisit and I feel still holds up well despite the typical 80's corn.
6.7 out of 10 Turtles
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse. I was in the mood for something silly and this fit the bill. It's not particularly great but it was enjoyable.
It's about three high school scouts who get caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with a cocktail waitress from a strip bar.
Most of the humor I didn't particularly find humorous but there were some real LOL moments, usually in the form of dialogue from one of the main characters (Carter) or some of the particularly gruesome deaths, of which there are plenty. One of the funnier moments involves Carter and the old lady next door, played by the incomparable Cloris Leachman.
6 of 10 explosions of blood.
Klonk, I think you might like this one.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Ferrari.
I am biased towards Michael Manns movies, and am the first to admit he does not always hit the mark.
But I liked this more than I expected. It had a very minimal cinema release, and seemed to take ages to hit blu ray.
I liked Driver as Ferrari. I have always found him slightly awkward and gawky in other roles, but here he seemed more at ease with his character. Penelope Cruz was excellent as his wife.
And Mann uses that beautiful Italian scenery extremely well during the race sequences.
Some people bemoaned the lack of driving sequences, but it is a film about the man...its not a race movie. And yet I thought there were a decent number of driving scenes anyway, and Mann knows how to make those beautiful cars pop on screen.
And that crash sequence...even with the obvious CGI it was still horrific.
I love Noir films. This list was sent to me:
The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time
Frog in boiling water
Maxxxine: This is the third movie in the trilogy of “X” and “Pearl” written and directed by Ti West and staring Mia Goth. Of the 3 I think I may have liked this one the least, but it is still worth seeing if you are a fan of the other two films. This one takes place a few years after the events in “X” in the mid 1980’s. Maxxine is now a well-known adult film actress living in L.A. and trying to make it as a legit movie star, but her past comes back to haunt her. Mia Goth is once again amazing in her role. I honestly think she is one of the best young actresses out there today. The whole cast is good. The story is intriguing although I have to say that it kind of got a bit out there towards the end. Of the 3 films I liked “Pearl” the best with “X” a close second and this one 3rd, but it is still worth seeing. Apparently West has an idea for a 4th film in the series, but at this time it has not been greenlit.
3.5 out of 5 Stars.
Last edited by SteveSly; 07-09-2024 at 02:05 PM.
I wanted to see that when it was in the theater, but it came and went so fast I did not make it.
Good to know. I like the series, but so far have only seen X and Pearl, and only own X. Every copy of X I have seen just has the one "X" and not three. But I'm not particular about it; I know the trilogy of which you speak. I do want to see Maxxxine because I am a Mia Goth fan. She was on Kimmel's show last night.
Frog in boiling water
I had the title of the first movie wrong. It is just "X" and not "XXX". Thanks for posting that interview. I had no idea Mia had a British accent. That makes her portrayal of Maxxine / Pearl even more remarkable.
Pearl
Having loved X and with Maxxxine out now, I finally got around to this one last night. Beautiful to look at and a good 'decent into madness' flick, but it really dragged in parts. A necessary prequel I'd say. Definitely prefer X. Still pretty cool though and Mia Goth was so good in it. Her monologue with the sister in law was tremendous!
6.3 out of 10 pet alligators
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
The Prestige - Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johanson, and Chrisopher Bail (and David Bowie). Very cool story that keep my interest throughout. 8/10
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Fifty Two Pickup (1986)
Gritty & sleazy neo noir adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel starring Roy Scheider, Ann Margaret, John Glover, Clrence Williams III, Vanity and a big batch of 80s porn stars.
Would make a great double feature with Freidkins To LIve Or Die In LA (1985)
An underappreciated gem with an outstanding cast and direction by John Frankenheimer
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Agreed, one of Cannon's better movies.
I love the portrayal of the villains, and the back and forth double crossing and negotiation between Glover and Scheider. And a decent score too.
I saw MaXXXine at my local rep cinema last night (love, love, love that place as I always say, ha). Mia Goth is excellent again, and there were some interesting parts and characters. Kevin Bacon is amazing and hardly recognizable in his role. The fact that some of it takes place on a studio back lot (presumably Universal, with the Psycho house and motel on display) is a nice bonus. It's also very well shot, with a nice grimy 80s LA feel and looks great.
I'd have to agree with Steve though, in that in may drag in a few places and it also just wasn't as disturbing as the previous entry X, which was really creepy and filled with dread. Still, well worth a watch.
Neil
Watched the last third of Trading Places, the other day, and who do I see as the stationmaster? Stephen Stucker, best known for playing "Johnny" in Airplane!
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
This one definitely had a different feel to the other two films.
Saw the horror movie Long Legs (2024) last night starring Maika Monroe,Nicolas Cage and directed by Osgood Perkins, son of the late Anthony Perkins.
A serial murder mystery set in the 90s with flashbacks to the 70s.
The look and tone of this dread laden movie is fantastic.
I don't want to say anything else as I might spoil it.
If you saw Perkins The Blackcoats Daughter (2015), then you'll know somewhat what to expect
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Thanks for the review. I saw the trailer for Longlegs last week and was curious about it.
Yeah this one's getting a lot of buzz in the horror community. I have been avoiding trailers (which I do for most stuff these days as they give away too much) and will hit this one as soon as I can rent it on Prime.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Excellent list! I've seen most of the black and white ones and a few of the color ones. Detour and Gun Crazy are a couple of my favorites. I was surprised at the number one pick, but it still is a great movie
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Oz Perkins also directed I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, a gothic horror that is one of the most unusual movies I've ever seen. I recommended it when I posted about it a few years ago, but I came away not knowing how to rate it. It's an atmospheric slow burn with a subtle creepiness that pervades the entire movie, from what I recall. I also seem to remember that it takes place almost entirely during the day which, given the atmosphere, is quite the accomplishment from Perkins. I also seem to remember there's a lot of internal dialogue.
I know it got mixed reviews but April Wolfe of The Village Voice described it as "the most atmospherically faithful adaptation ever of a Shirley Jackson book that never existed" and concluded that the film was "the very best of gothic horror." (Wikipedia)
Regardless of what you ultimately think of it, it will stay with you for days. It did for me.
“The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
Krull (1983). It was ... not as bad as I'd expected. Sort of "enjoyably bad." The main character, Colwyn (played by Ken Marshall[?]), struck me as a cheesier, more stilted version of Carey Elwes's Westley in The Princess Bride. The whole thing seemed to me like someone had watched Star Wars too many times and thought "A fantasy film set in space. Of course!"
Well, not of course. The effects are laughable, even for 1983 (except for one stop-motion giant spider, which is reasonably creepy), and the acting ranges from overacting to stiff, with a few exceptions -- probably the most significant of which would be Bernard Bresslaw, who, despite wearing a rather immobile Cyclops mask, pulls off the part with considerable dignity. There are also early appearances from Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane as members of a bandit gang who wind up supporting Colwyn.
What it's about? Well, humans have fully inhabited some Galaxy (ours? Is this supposed to be our future, or A Long Time Ago, or...?), a gigantic spaceship called "The Black Fortress," apparantely made of basalt, lands on Krull, a planet with two suns and at least two moons.
The Fortress begins spewing forth an army of "Slayers," humannoids in weird helmets and armor, carrying energy weapons strangely resembling spears or staves. They have a weird trick of disappearing into the ground when killed. Anyway, they begin slaughtering people in the service of "The Beast," a creature we are kept from seeing for quite an while, and which turns out to be really bad creature makeup when we finally see it -- so bad that they deliberately blur it almost every time it is seen (but there's a clear shot on the box, and it's pretty dire).
Colwyn, crown prince of Country A on the planet Krull, is getting married to Lyssa, crown princess of Country B, so as to forge a single, much stronger country, to fight the Slayers -- who come riding in to interrupt the wedding and carry off Lyssa, whom the Beast has chosen as his bride.
So Colwyn, who miraculously survives the slaughter and is now King of both countries, sets out with a weird old wise man named Ynyr (Freddie Jones) on a rather blatant hero's quest, seeking the knowledge, companions, and plot tokens that will let him get to the Dark Fortress -- which apparently teleports to a different random point on the planet every time dawn happens to arrive wherever it happens to be at the time. (Whatever "dawn" means on a planet with two suns.) Aside from the aforementioned cyclops, weird old wise man, and bandits, the main companion are a rather incompetent and cowardly magician (but he gets better) and a young boy who is the servant of an even weirder and older wise man until said w.a.o.w.m. gets killed. Then the first w.o.w.m gets killed, because the hero's mentor has to die, don't'cha know.
Meanwhile, we get occasional scenes of Lyssa fleeing through the Dark Fortress to escape the Beast, but not managing it. The interior of the Dark Fortress is very, very strange; it looks like a sort of cross between a more drug-addled Roger Dean and a less dark H.R. Giger: kind of organic, kind of weirdly curved, and kind of nonsensical.
Anyway, they manage to get to the Dark Fortress by means of a couple of convenient plot devices, and then to get into it by means of a Noble Self-Sacrifice. They search for Lyssa, managing to get separated along the way.
Most of the bandits get killed along the way, but they were mostly one-joke characters anyway. Corwyn manages to free Lyssa and defeat the Beast, making excellent use of (a) the main Plot Token, which he shows remarkable skill with considering he's never used it before, and (b) a mysterious superpower that has not appeared before but comes from completing the interrupted marriage ceremony. If this is not making sense, don't be dismayed, it doesn't make sense on the screen, either.
The survivors head off into the sunset. Or sunrise. Or something. Two suns.
Three out of five blades on a five-bladed whateverthehellitis, and that's being generous.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Watched Beverly Hills Cop reboot on Netflix last night. I got up and left the room after 40 minutes . The wife stuck it out. She says after it got moving it was OK. Lots of 80s faces. The sound track repeats the original theme over and over and over and over. My feelings expressed by leaving the room.
I picked up Problemista from the DVD store today.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
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