WestRider Posted March 21, 2020 Report Share Posted March 21, 2020 "Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world." Really, Eibon? I thought opening a gateway to hell gave everyone rainbows and ice cream and unicorns </sarcasm> The Beyond (1981): Wonderfully atmospheric and surreal and creepy. The gorier scenes feature some very impressive special effects for the era as well, and even the music holds up better than I would have expected. The acting isn't great, but that isn't really the point. Also, Dr. John McCabe is the worst shot ever to face off against slowly shambling zombies at barely more than arm's length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 I'm slacking y'all Oliver & Company - great nostalgia. Aristcrats are next Frozen 2 - that was fun. Shocked with ending Newsies - great movie, had a blast chasing faces and where I knew them from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfestedKerrigan Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Cats 1/5 If they would have given them cat noses/faces, I'd give it 3/5 for a musical done on screen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfestedKerrigan Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Standalone 2/5 Part of series 3/5 Largely for same things Ish covered. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted April 11, 2020 Report Share Posted April 11, 2020 Dark Light: Mixed. The lead and the Sheriff are really good, but the way the Sheriff gets taken out felt like a cheap shot. The ex-husband is a total douchebag. The monsters look pretty cool, but I feel like I've seen something very similar elsewhere, and the way they're supposed to operate (and frankly, most of the details of the plot itself) don't hold up to any real scrutiny. Nicely atmospheric and good overall vibe, along with a couple of decent jump scares, but the soundtrack is trying way too hard. So yeah, mixed. I wouldn't have paid money specifically for it, but I don't feel like I wasted my time catching it on Netflix. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 AristoCats - fun fun movie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munkie Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 Finally got around to American Ultra (2015) If you're the type of person that can stomach Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, keep reading. If not, best avoid this one, because the neuroticism of the former and the glassy-eyed vapidness of the latter are cranked up in this flick. That said, they both turn in good performances and are, in fact, perfectly cast because the whole thing is a very self-aware ultra-violent romp. Pretty fun time if you don't take it too seriously. It's not a must watch, but if ever there's a random reason you're stuck at home for hour after endless hour, there's worse ways to carve a tally and a half out. 6/10 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted April 12, 2020 Report Share Posted April 12, 2020 The Girl with All the Gifts: Finally landed on Netflix. Worth the wait. Excellent movie. Atomic Shark: The opposite. Even by the standards of SyFy shark movies, this one is pretty bad. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfestedKerrigan Posted April 14, 2020 Report Share Posted April 14, 2020 On 4/12/2020 at 2:47 PM, WestRider said: The Girl with All the Gifts: Finally landed on Netflix. Worth the wait. Excellent movie. What little I read made it look like Kite, Battle Angel, Hanna, etc. Still, we watched it last night in home quarantine. The Girl with all the Gifts - 4/5 One of the best movies in its genre, in my opinion. Worth rewatching. Some things in the budget could have had more money dumped into it, but honestly, it is less distracting than the nose thing in Cats. The story is compelling. I daresay, there aren't any heroes in the film, anti-heroes, sure, but no singular individual; and I love that about the film. It adds a level of realism, I feel, to the film, so much more like life. Side note: my displeasure with Cats has zero to do with uncanny valley, and everything to do with artistic choice. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfestedKerrigan Posted April 14, 2020 Report Share Posted April 14, 2020 Hanna 3.5/5 action film 5/5 bubblegum film The original (modern) hulk is raising a child in the wastelands north of Moscow. As said above, similar to Battle Angel, Kite, that one I can't remember the name of with the women in the mental hospital. [big bad swear word]ing. Amazing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonVilkee Posted April 15, 2020 Report Share Posted April 15, 2020 9 hours ago, InfestedKerrigan said: ...the one I can't remember the name of with the women in the mental hospital. Sucker punch 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munkie Posted April 15, 2020 Report Share Posted April 15, 2020 10 hours ago, VonVilkee said: Sucker punch Girl Interrupted! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted April 16, 2020 Report Share Posted April 16, 2020 Live action Dumbo - cute, we enjoyed it Love seeing some old faces getting screen time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted April 18, 2020 Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 Rogue: Very well-done Creature Feature. Good cast, some amazing establishing shots done on location, great effects, pretty much the total package. Only negative is that the dog gets killed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted April 28, 2020 Report Share Posted April 28, 2020 The nightmare before Christmas - Wow... fun to see all over again Escape to Witch Mountain - Dude, if they high pitch that @#$@#$ I'm going deaf, yuck Return from Witch Mountain - Fun fun, but their still as stupid as they were in '75... clearly they didn't learn anything in 3 years upon returning 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted May 8, 2020 Report Share Posted May 8, 2020 Wildling: Good stuff. Basically, it's Call of the Wild, but everyone is human, or some subspecies thereof. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted May 9, 2020 Report Share Posted May 9, 2020 1917 - 9.5/10 - Wow, very impressive movie. Loved the back story on it... how it was built around the stories Mendes' GPA, WWI survivor, told him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raindog Posted May 17, 2020 Report Share Posted May 17, 2020 Knives Out: 8:5 - Great Cast and a fun story. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romans832 Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 Birds of Prey - 7/10 - I expected more. I felt like they half @$$'d it too obviously... I spent the time wishing for more 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarbicus Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 14 hours ago, Romans832 said: Birds of Prey - 7/10 - I expected more. I felt like they half @$$'d it too obviously... I spent the time wishing for more That's pretty much how I feel about every movie in the SnyderVerse. It all looks pretty is so empty and unsatisfying. Kinda like eating an entire bag of gummi bears in one sitting. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ish Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 The only DC live action films in their half-hearted attempt at a cinematic universe that I’ve enjoyed were Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Captain Marvel Shazam... ...and comparing them to their MCU competition, all three of them are solidly “middle of the pack” in quality. At best. (And I say all this as a dyed in the wool DC Comics fanboy.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted June 23, 2020 Report Share Posted June 23, 2020 The Darkness: It worked for what I wanted, which was just something mildly creepy to have on in the background. Can't recommend it beyond that, tho. The acting is very uneven, the characters are all incredibly one-dimensional (Cheating Dad, Alcoholic Mom, Bulimic Daughter, Autistic Son. None of them have any real personality traits beyond that), and it just generally doesn't hold together very well. Scanners: Good stuff. It feels older than '81, tho. More like Scream and Scream Again or Invasion of the Body Snatchers than, say, The Final Conflict. I think it's mostly due to much of the costuming and acting being highly stylized, for example, Vale's clothing at the start of the movie is of a suitable type for a vagrant, but it's all far too clean and new. More symbolizing his station in life than depicting it. Dr. Ruth often comes across like he's performing on stage, the way he enunciates and gestures and directs his gaze. Not a bad thing by any means, but it is a style that tended to fade as time went by and tech got better and budgets got bigger and on-screen depictions could more often be more realistic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted June 30, 2020 Report Share Posted June 30, 2020 Island Zero: Much better than it had any right to be. Don't get me wrong, it has plenty of flaws (mostly budget-related), but there's also some really good character development that made me actually care about these folks, and the director maintains and ramps up tension very well. It stumbles a bit when it tries to go into detail with the monsters, but when it just lets them be a poorly understood threat, it's fantastic. Most of the cast are apparently local amateurs, which means some of the performances are a bit shaky, but the folks other than the handful of main characters (who are all from various other places) all have proper Maine accents, and don't really need to stretch to get into character. Given the budget, some of the effects are fairly impressive as well, even if they are still noticeable as such. They still do their job. As a final note, the music is pretty cool. Rather than the Civil War documentary style soundtracks so many horror flicks seem to use these days, this one is synth-heavy, reminiscent of some of John Carpenter's stuff, like Prince of Darkness. Also, a note I forgot about Scanners: Given that the main antagonist is named Revok, I felt like it was a serious missed opportunity that no action at any point in the film was referred to as "irrevocable" 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ish Posted June 30, 2020 Report Share Posted June 30, 2020 The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story documentary on Netflix. I flipped it on mostly to have as background noise while building miniatures, but I got sucked in. I’ve been a classic rock / prog rock fan since I was in utero thanks to my dad having Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, and so for on the stereo 24/7 for my entire childhood. But my personal favorite always was and always will be Queen. The band stopped touring when I was still in kindergarten and I never got to see them live... and Freddie Mercury passed away when I was ten (tragically/ironically, Wayne’s World would introduce them to the rest of my generation shortly afterward). When Brian May and Roger Taylor started teaming up with guest artists, I was distinctly underwhelmed. So I pretty much avoided listening to anything they ever did with Adam Lambert... Oh man, was I wrong. Very wrong. The Show Must Go On documentary takes great care to let May and Taylor explain why they choose to continue touring, how reluctant they were to replace Freddie, and just how impressed they were when they first met Lambert. It also let’s Lambert have ample time to explain that he knows he cannot (and isn’t trying) to be the new Freddie Mercury... But, honestly, he’s probably the next best thing (or rather the best next thing) because he although he doesn’t have Mercury’s voice, he’s definitely got Mercury’s soul. And his voice is equally phenomenal. I’m still not crazy about Lambert’s solo stuff (too pop, too dance, not enough rock) but I’ve 180° reversed my opinion of his partnership with Queen. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestRider Posted July 1, 2020 Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 The Lake on Clinton Road: It manages a couple of semi-effective jump scares, but that's it. Not worth it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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