Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

Bodom (2014) - This is the first ever Hungarian found footage horror film so congratulations to those guys, or condolences depending on your viewpoint. There's a death metal band called Children of Bodom, so I figured it was some kind of Satanic ritual thing but Bodom is actually a lake in Finland where some horrible event happened. A guy and a girl go there to interview people and get footage and so forth and are visited upon by unforeseen circumstances.

The main woman is kind of chunky but attractive. It has a spooky vibe, but not any kind of amazing moment/ resolution like Horror in the High Desert or villain creativity like Digging Up the Marrow. In other words, it's another okay found footage horror movie of which there can never be too many.

3.75 /5

[pacman000]

Aladdin (1992)

Fun songs & great animation. Disney was just hitting their mid-90's stride.

[Rev. Powell]

SWEET DREAMS (2023): A 19th century industrialist wills his entire estate, including the sugar factory, to his illegitimate, half-Indonesian son, distressing his Dutch family. No one gets a happy ending in this bitter elegy for a particular corner of colonialism. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

My October horror-thon got off to a poor start with...

"Cutting Class" (1989)
A dull high school slasher flick starring a young Brad Pitt in an early role as one of two teen boys who may be responsible for a series of murders on campus. Cutie-pie scream queen Jill Schoelen is the girl caught in the middle of the mayhem.
There are worse slashers out there, but this slow moving slog is easily skippable unless you're a Jill Schoelen fanboy or a Brad Pitt completist.

[zombie no.one]

My October horror-thon got off to a poor start with...

"Cutting Class" (1989)
A dull high school slasher flick starring a young Brad Pitt in an early role as one of two teen boys who may be responsible for a series of murders on campus. Cutie-pie scream queen Jill Schoelen is the girl caught in the middle of the mayhem.
There are worse slashers out there, but this slow moving slog is easily skippable unless you're a Jill Schoelen fanboy or a Brad Pitt completist.

quite a long time since I watched it, but my recollection is that it plays it too much for 'laughs' (not of the amusing variety tho)

[Rev. Powell]

THE PEOPLE'S JOKER (2022): In an alternate comic book reality, a trans kid (its not really a metaphor because director/star Vera explicitly states she's trans throughout) moves to Gotham City to try to make it as a comedian and ends up becoming anti-comedian Harlequin the Joker. I hate to be rough on a movie this personal, but it's a bit confusing in execution, the acting isn't always up to the job, most of the attempted comedy falls flat, and the multiple stylistic shifts from animation to green screen can be unpleasantly garish. Still a noble effort. The film is notorious for being pulled from film festival lineups by litigious corporate entities who later thought better of it.2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

"Cutting Class" (1989)
There are worse slashers out there, but this slow moving slog is easily skippable unless you're a Jill Schoelen fanboy or a Brad Pitt completist.

Or a Donovan Leitch apostle! His character is the best thing about this movie... until the final ten minutes.  I always thought he did a great job in the first 20 minutes of THE BLOB remake, too. Poor Donovan Jr. just never got the respect he was due. No wonder he disappeared from the big screen...

[FatFreddysCat]

"Meth Gator" (2024)
On a small island in the Florida Evergladse, a DEA agent leads the local cops and some assorted rednecks on a hunt to destroy a massive gator that ate a stash of crystal meth and is now an unstoppable killing machine.
In case it wasn't immediately obvious, this is The Asylum's belated knock-off of "Cocaine Bear." It's not a great movie by any means, but it's a better than average Asylum entry, with the usual dumb characters doing stupid things that lead to lots of gory alligator chompings. Don't expect Shakespeare. just turn off your brain and enjoy the creature carnage.

[Rev. Powell]

KATERNICA (2023): A grad student finds an ancient, possibly cursed one-act play called "Katernica," and five theater-types go through auditions and live births which may or not actually be related plays. A talky and highly experimental work set in the theater world, it has smart moments but will lose most audiences early on; it does end on a pretty psychedelic trip, though. 2.5/5.

[Dr. Whom]

NiNoKuni (2019)

The Netflix algorithm threw this in my direction saying that it would soon leave, and as it was anime I gave it a go.

This is apparently an adaptation of a computer game, of which I know nothing. Two school friends are transported into a magical dimension and discover that the happenings there influence our world and vice versa. In order to save the life of the girl they're both in love with, they have to save the princess in the magical universe.

Of all the wannabe Miyazakis I've seen, this is the most Miyazaki. This is not surprising since the director used to work for Studio Ghibli, and boy, does it show. The problem is that the story is largely by the numbers. It reminded me of Goro Miyazaki's movies: well made, visually stunning in places but lacking the spark to make it interesting.
That being said, if you want to watch something pretty and not too taxing, this will do fine.

[M.10rda]

THE PEOPLE'S JOKER (2022):  The film is notorious for being pulled from film festival lineups by litigious corporate entities who later thought better of it.2.5/5.

How'd you see this/does your closing line signal that the injunction has been lifted and this is being legitimately distributed somewhere?

The Important Cinema Club podcast touted this one in a major way, though perhaps just to brag that they'd seen it and their listeners couldn't....... 

[Rev. Powell]

THE PEOPLE'S JOKER (2022):  The film is notorious for being pulled from film festival lineups by litigious corporate entities who later thought better of it.2.5/5.

How'd you see this/does your closing line signal that the injunction has been lifted and this is being legitimately distributed somewhere?

The Important Cinema Club podcast touted this one in a major way, though perhaps just to brag that they'd seen it and their listeners couldn't....... 

Yes, it's all over the place. I saw it on Amazon Prime. I, too, loudly told people that this would never be released, only to be proven wrong (just like ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW).

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-peoples-joker

[FatFreddysCat]

"Night Shift" (1982)
Two NYC morgue workers - uptight Henry Winkler and his wild n' crazy new partner Michael Keaton - discover a unique side hustle to while away the dull night shifts by starting a successful prostitution ring out of their office. Wacky hijinks ensue.
Winkler is great as the nervous-nerd half of the team and the young Keaton seems to be channeling Bill Murray. Funny stuff with a cool New York vibe, this was the first big studio picture for director Ron Howard.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Trenches of Rock" (2019)
Nicely-done documentary on the Christian metal legends Bloodgood, tracing their long and sometimes bumpy history via extensive interviews with band members and associates and tons of amazing vintage footage of the boys doin' their thing on stage in the USA, Europe, and even Russia.
I was aware of Bloodgood during their heyday back in the '80s, but for whatever reason, I never paid much attention to 'em at the time. I've re-discovered their music over the past couple of years, though, so this doc did a nice job of filling in the blanks in my knowledge about them. Long time fans should probably dig it as well. Cool stuff, highly recommended.

[M.10rda]

DEMON WIND (1990):
I wanted to officially start Halloctober off proper but instead I watched this ridiculous thing that I thought at a glance was the one where George Kennedy fights a Bigfoot demon. (It isn't.) I tried to watch DEMON WIND almost 30 years ago during college but I couldn't make it more than halfway. It has aged well, I admit, in that it is a perfectly cheesy reflection of the 80s, which no one could've appreciated in the 90s.

A slow 1931 open abruptly goes gooey and berserk and then a house explodes. Cut to six decades later and no-budget Emilio Estevez drives through a picturesque landscape and ends up at a run-down diner with his friends low-rent James Spader, cut-rate Jennifer Beals, the actual Brian Bosworth (okay, not really), and two other random eighties chicks. Bargain basement Kevin McCarthy appears to yell at them to get off his diner's front lawn and that the place has a death curse, they'll die if they stay there, you know the drill. Nevertheless they keep driving and they arrive at dimestore Emilio's grandmother's house, which exploded in the first scene yet is still intact in 1990 and also the chicken she cooked for dinner is perfectly preserved on the kitchen table.

But wait! There's more! A cool car drives up and inside are discount bin Val Kilmer and wholesale liquidation Patrick Swayze as badass magicians. Seriously, their introduction makes it clear that they are supposed to be a Siegfried and Roy pair of (life?) partners... but penny-candy Swayze does kung fu and both of them are packing heat. I couldn't make this stuff up. 

DEMON WIND is a goofy ride w/ some huge laughs (some of them even intentional). It has nice photography and lots of splattery effects, and it goes some weird places. (I couldn't possibly explain Emilio's transformation near the end if you paid me.) Unfortunately it wants to be a Sam Raimi picture w/o Raimi's authentically manic energy, and it runs out of its own steam about halfway through its 97 minute runtime. By the point everything-must-go Aidan Quinn and his beret-wearing girlfriend show up, you realize the filmmakers don't really know what they're doing.

Also, Siegfried & Roy peak too soon - the movie seems to forget they're magicians and they start acting like the Winchester Brothers, which is fine (and could probably inspire some DEMON WIND slash fiction, if that's what you're into)... except even then the film doesn't know what to do w/ them. An entire horror film could revolve around these hilarious clowns... actually, an entire  horror film does revolve around two such ridiculous brosephs, it's called DEAD HEAT starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo, and as I recall it's a lot more fun.

However, DEMON WIND is at least a little fun.

3/5