Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Trevor]

Capricorn One - If this were remade today it would have more bells and whistles and less "suspend your disbelief please" type escape plans but it would still be the same basic script. I liked it better the second time around, even Elliot Gould didn't annoy me too much. OJ Simpson as one of the astronauts though, really seals the deal. Whatever happened to that guy anyway? It is seriously weird how few lines he has a relatively major character though.

A classic, classic conspiracy movie and you gotta love it because it plays a faked moon landing type scenario as totally straight as it can be played.

5/5 that's right. I said it

That was a really good movie 

[lester1/2jr]

^ conspiracy movies are being replaced by rabbit hole movies, where the main character goes online and gets sucked into some sort of ongoing illuminati thingy. or maybe they are the same thing

speaking of which

Zenith (2010) - standard rabbit hole experience but a good one. In the future a guy makes a living selling expired medication. The side effects make people feel BAD, which is what they want because in the future there is no pain or something. Doesn't PCP do that too? Anyway, he begins search for answers for the way things are in the world, mainly via his late fathers strange body of work chronicling a shadowy mega corp called Zenith. Apparently they were lizard people while also making black and white tvs that we had in my house in the 1980's.

It's not as original as it thinks it is, but it works. Where are the "sexy nightclubs" they have in these movies? Every time I try to find one it's s**tfaced college girls or extremely loud garage bands

4/5


Awake (2007) - The hook here is some sort of real life phenomena where people who are put under for surgery don't actually fall asleep and are instead awake and unable to move for the entirety of the thing.

That happens to this guy whose new wife is Jessica Alba... or is she actually an alien or something??? It's a case where the various elements don't combine to make a masterpiece but do combine to make a functioning piece of cinema that is watcheable and not embarrassing. I'm going to be charitable and guess that the writer read about the thing of people being awake for their surgeries and built the story around the possibilities of that. It's a cool idea

4.25 I really liked it but didn't quite love it. the lead guy was too squishy and it didn't show off Alba correctly. movies should feel like you are on vacation or at a party

[FatFreddysCat]

Finished out 2021's "War on Christmas" with these two:

"Better Watch Out" (2017)
A college girl takes a Christmas Eve babysitting gig, and as soon as the kid's parents are gone, someone starts banging on the windows and trying to break down the front door. She thinks it's a home-invasion robbery but eventually learns that there's something far more sinister going on.
A pretty cool holiday psycho-thriller. I saw the mid-film twist coming from a mile away so it wasn't a big surprise, but the movie is well acted (esp. the two young leads, who also played brother and sister in M. Night Shamalan's "The Visit") and has a nice Christmasy feel amidst all the mayhem. Worth a look.

"A Christmas Horror Story" (2015)
Cool "Trick r' Treat" style anthology of creepy Christmas stories that all take place in or around the same small town on Christmas Eve: teenage paranormal investigators are trapped in a haunted school; a bickering family has a Krampus encounter; a trip to cut down a Christmas tree brings home something evil; and at the North Pole, a badass Santa has to deal with a Zombie outbreak amongst his elves. William Shatner (!) plays a drunken radio DJ whose running commentary between segments (think Adrienne Barbeau from "The Fog") ties the whole thing together. This one is lots of tongue in cheek fun and deserves to be a cult classic!

[Rev. Powell]

THE MADS ARE BACK: SANTA CLAUS VS. THE DEVIL: Don't be fooled by the title, it's another re-riff of SANTA CLAUS (1950) (at least the third take; I think Rifftrax may have done it twice?) I still laughed out loud a couple times, and the movie is fun to watch even without jokes. After-show guests were J. Elvis Weinstein and Andy Kindler, who have a podcast together. I recognized Kindler but didn't know him real well; he's funny. 3/5.

[indianasmith]

THE KING'S MAN (2021)  I went to see this on Christmas Eve and was thoroughly entertained from start to finish.  I enjoyed both KINGSMAN movies, but this one leaves the other two in the dust.  Spanning the years 1902-1918, the movie shows one family's involvement in the shadow world of European espionage preceding and during the Great War.  The whole sequence with Rasputin is the high point of the movie, but overall, the entire film is a wonderful romp through history.  Highly recommended!   5/5

[Rev. Powell]

HIVE (2021): Against the wishes of their conservative society, a group of Kosovan war widows form a collective to sell homemade ajvar. Inspirational "based on a true story" formula pic notable for its depiction of patriarchal post-war Kosovo in the 2000s. 2.5/5.

THE SUMMIT OF THE GODS (2021): A journalist follows the trail of an off-the-grid mountain climber who he thinks holds proof that George Mallory may have reached the summit of Mount Everest decades before Edmund Hillary. This animated mountain climbing adventure/mystery is made from an odd combination of elements, but keeps you entertained.  On Netflix. 3.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Clerks" (1994)
...yup, again. Kevin Smith's micro-budget indie comedy about two New Jersey slackers trapped in a low-end retail job hell of their own making will never get old for me.

"Bay Area Godfathers" (2020)
Latest installment of the "Inside Metal" documentary series zooms in on the San Francisco Bay Area hard rock and metal scene, which contrary to popular belief was thriving long before Metallica first came to town. Lots of pix/video and info on long forgotten bands like Steele, Dammaj, Stone Vengeance, and Harvey (?), as well as interviews with many of the later scene's major playas like Eric Peterson (Testament), Rocky George (Suicidal Tendencies), Craig Locicero (Forbidden), Steve "Zetro" Souza (Exodus), Dave Meniketti (Y&T) and some guy named Lars Ulrich (whatever happened to him, anyway?). A treasure trove of metal nerd trivia, followed by a part II which is next on my watch list.

[lester1/2jr]

Miracle Mile (1988) - Awesome   I'd never seen this but it's an 80's classic, not as elaborate as Pee Wee's Big adventure or Killer Klowns but similar vibe. If I had watched this at one of the weekly movie nights we had in 1989 at my friend Gabes house I would have ....I don't know. It would have been a lasting memory!

A guy meets a girl, has an amazing day with her, then he picks up a pay phone and the guy at the other end tells him there is going to be a nuclear war within the hour. The rest of the movie is him coming to terms with this while trying to find his new girlfriend and get out of town. What good will that do in a nuclear war??  I don't know he's just trying to move to higher ground or something.

My favorite part was when they secure a helicopter but can't find someone to fly it. He has to just go down the streets of LA and ask random people if they can do it. bonus: Sci Fi legend John agar has a small role

5/5 highly recommended

Kidnapped for Christ (2013) - There are lots of these sort of troubled kids camps that are cash cows for the people who run them and unregulated by the government. The kids in this movie aren't whipped and beaten like slaves, but they have a really bad time and seem to really learn no valuable life skills other than becoming a basket case.

Being gay is one thing that will get you sent to places like this. The main character David seems to be a normal kid who gets good grades and has friends, but his parents decided the best thing to was send him to the Dominican Republic to spend all day folding clothes perfectly and getting megachurch type "living your life" advice. The kids follow rules all day and have to ask to enter or leave rooms and are constantly being ordered to do push ups and so forth. This is all done in the name of Jesus, who probably would have done a "this is my fathers house!" esque rampage if he'd seen this crap.

The movie is mostly about David and the attempts to free him. Even after his 18th birthday he somehow can't leave. Film maker was an Evangelical Christian hoping to make an uplifting story about kids getting help and then returning to their lives. Some reviewers were mad it didn't "show both sides" but it doesn't claim to do that and would have been besides the point I think.

4.25/ 5 I watched it in one sitting after already watching the end of Miracle Mile

[Alex]

Miracle Mile (1988) - Awesome   I'd never seen this but it's an 80's classic, not as elaborate as Pee Wee's Big adventure or Killer Klowns but similar vibe. If I had watched this at one of the weekly movie nights we had in 1989 at my friend Gabes house I would have ....I don't know. It would have been a lasting memory!

A guy meets a girl, has an amazing day with her, then he picks up a pay phone and the guy at the other end tells him there is going to be a nuclear war within the hour. The rest of the movie is him coming to terms with this while trying to find his new girlfriend and get out of town. What good will that do in a nuclear war??  I don't know he's just trying to move to higher ground or something.

My favorite part was when they secure a helicopter but can't find someone to fly it. He has to just go down the streets of LA and ask random people if they can do it. bonus: Sci Fi legend John agar has a small role

5/5 highly recommended

That was one I remember wanting to see when it first came out and never finding a copy of it. I'd forgotten about it in the years since. Maybe I'll look it up again now.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Bay Area Godfathers II" (2020)
Metallica moves to Frisco and the whole Bay Area scene goes thrash crazy in the second half of this in-depth "Inside Metal" documentary which also devotes a fair amount of time to Exodus, Laaz Rockit, Vicious Rumors, and more. Just as much fun as the first installment.

[lester1/2jr]

Alex - it is free on tubitv

[Alex]

Alex - it is free on tubitv

Thanks, I'll give it a watch while I am stuck away from home.

[Rev. Powell]

Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Water (2021): The story of a modern dance piece written in response to the 80s AIDS crisis, alternating interviews and footage of the original performance with scenes of college students preparing for a contemporary revival. Bill T. Jones has artistic charisma and this documentary does a good job of making this specialized subject matter interesting to the average viewer; dance fans will probably go nuts for it. 3/5.

[Jim H]

Matrix Resurrections - It's... Okayish, I guess.  I had extremely low expectations starting this up, and I found the first third of this somewhat interesting, the middle introduced a few interesting ideas, and then the end is a mush of bad execution and weak writing.  Very easy to spoil too, so I won't say much more directly that that.  In the end, think we'd have been better off if they'd stopped at The Matrix.  I guess...  5/10?  I dunno.

[lester1/2jr]

lol