Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Zombie 3" (1988)
Yet another schlocky, in-name-only sequel to Lucio Fulci's gore classic "Zombi." This time an experiment gone wrong releases a virus into the atmosphere over a tropical island that re-animates the dead and turns them into ravenous flesh eaters. An RV full of co-eds on holiday and a group of soldiers on a weekend pass must band together to survive the onslaught. Not much plot, cardboard characters, lots of terrible acting, cheap gore, and ridiculously awkward dialogue ensue.
This flick was shot on the cheap in the Philippines, and it shows. Reportedly, director Lucio Fulci had to leave this movie in mid-production due to medical issues, and left the rest to be cobbled together by fellow Italian schlock maestros Claudio "Troll 2" Fragasso and Bruno "Robowar" Mattei. The result is a movie that feels like it was made up as it went along, which probably isn't very far from the truth.
AVOID!

[Rev. Powell]

THE INNOCENTS (2021): Ida and her autistic sister move to a new town; she finds two new playmates, both of whom have psychic powers, and one of whom has serious issues. Really good acting from the four kids here in a parable about childhood cruelty and the slow development of empathy; the script is not packed with action and thrills (or explanations), but there's enough to keep you engaged to the end. Swedish. 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

THE MUNSTERS (2022): The story of how Herman Munster met Lilly and moved the family from Transylvania to Los Angeles. The green-lit, tilted-camera look seems more like a macabre twist on "Batman" than the original Munsters. Who knew Rob Zombie had no touch with comedy? That said, it's probably as funny as an overlong episode of the original series, and fans may want to rank it higher. 2/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Skaterdater (1965) - One of the coolest things I've ever seen. Claims to be the "first skateboard movie" and probably is. A badass skate crew who look to be all around 11 or so tear up the streets of some place in California. One of them starts going through puberty before all the others and they have to deal with the internal group disruption this causes. Namely, by having a skate duel that pre dates the one in Thrashin (1986) by 20 years. They all wear team jackets and no shoes. skaters still act and hang out like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhgrkjSyrJU 17 minutes restored and uploaded to yt pristine copy

I'm biased but... highest possible rec 5/5

[Dr. Whom]

Terrorizers (1986)

It is about the intersecting lives of a number of people in 80s Taipei: a doctor who is stuck in his job and wants to get ahead, his wife, an author struggling with writer's block and decides to leave her husband for another man, a son of a rich family who wants to be a street photographer (with some impressive gear) and who gets obsessed with a girl who is a small time grifter.

This reminded me a lot of Wong Kar-Wai. You have similar themes of chasing dreams and ambitions, difficulties of communication, resignation and loss. Visually as well, there is use of negative space, long shots of empty sets or details. I am not familiar with Taiwanese cinema, so I don't know whether that is a personal preference or a local style. If you don't mind bleak movies and indirect storytelling, well worth a look.

Not sure why it is called 'Terrorizers', though.

[Morpheus, the unwoke.]

Batman the long halloween.

This is a two part movie but I'm just reviewing the whole 3 hour movie.

All in all I'd say this might be the best  batman movie ever made. Period. Sure at 3hrs it has time to get good but it's still a damn good movie.  The animation is good and very dark, with some cgi thrown in, it does the job just fine.

This is  a pg13 movie and has some 4 letter words in it, it manages to combine the absurdity of superhero movies with more mature elements fairly well, but it does give suspension of disbelief a work-out.  While being fairly realsitic on violence in a lot of cases, complete with copious bloodshed, you do end up wondering how a bunch of psychos in costumes mostly with no magic super powers can terrorize an entire city when most of them could be dropped with one bullet to the head or how batman's gadgets could really work.

But you can let it go as the movie itself is so superb in it's mixing of the two extremes. It even makes the main 'villain' a character called Holiday, relatable and gives this 'special guest villain' an understandable motive.

The voice acting is great generally, with the actor doing the joker imitating Mark Hamil so perfectly you'd swear he was mark hamil.

All in all the long Halloween is a long movie that does a great job blending realism and characters with comic book fantasy so well it's worth the 3 hour runtime.

[lester1/2jr]

Terrorizers (1986)

It is about the intersecting lives of a number of people in 80s Taipei: a doctor who is stuck in his job and wants to get ahead, his wife, an author struggling with writer's block and decides to leave her husband for another man, a son of a rich family who wants to be a street photographer (with some impressive gear) and who gets obsessed with a girl who is a small time grifter.

This reminded me a lot of Wong Kar-Wai. You have similar themes of chasing dreams and ambitions, difficulties of communication, resignation and loss. Visually as well, there is use of negative space, long shots of empty sets or details. I am not familiar with Taiwanese cinema, so I don't know whether that is a personal preference or a local style. If you don't mind bleak movies and indirect storytelling, well worth a look.

Not sure why it is called 'Terrorizers', though.

hahaha imagine if Kramer vs kramer had been called flying hellblade master more people might see it

[indianasmith]

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (2022) - Nick Cage is a veteran actor struggling with a succession of box office flops.  After losing his bid to act in an upcoming "serious" film, he decides that he's quitting from acting once and for all.  But then he gets an odd offer - $1 million to spend a single day with a millionaire superfan named Javi who adores him.  Madcap hijinks ensue.
   This movie is a perfect vehicle for Nick Cage's over-the-top acting and love of self-parody, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Great supporting cast, beautiful location, and a marvelous, tongue-in-cheek plotline make this one thoroughly entertaining.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Deadpool" (2016)
Ryan Reynolds brings Marvel Comics' foul mouthed, butt kicking, fourth wall breaking anti-hero to ultra violent life in this balls-to-the-wall, laugh out loud action comedy that has held up very well to repeated viewings. Still a stone cold hoot.

"The Million Eyes of Sumuru" (1967)
Two bumbling CIA agents are sent to Hong Kong to investigate a plot by the lovely femme fatale named "Sumuru," who aims to take over the world via an all-girl army of assassins. This goofy but enjoyable spy spoof (based on a character from a series of pulp novels by "Fu Manchu" creator Sax Rohmer) has lots of exotic Far East scenery and plenty of female eye candy. Frankie Avalon is one of the agents and Shirley Eaton (aka the "Golden Girl" from Goldfinger) plays the villainess Sumuru, a role she would reprise in 1969's sequel "The Girl From Rio." Not a classic by any means but an OK time waster.

[lester1/2jr]

"The Live" (1985) - kind of an understatement to say this has aged well, isn't it? The issues in this movie have grown at such an astounding rate over the years, it's almost like someone telling you to buy google stock in 2000 or something in its perception of what was to come.

I'm going to guess everyone here has seen this so I won't go into the plot. I recently read that Carpenter saw They Live as a warning to the world about a future if 80's style unbridled capitalism continued. With all due respect, that is NOT what I got from this movie and I don't think most other people did either, though money and unequal wealth and so forth is certainly a part of it.

Who are the aliens? They are us of course. "everyone sells out all the time" says one cynical character. That's one level. Just as important though, are the people who specifically benefit from some people being denied the fruits of modern life while others have more than they need. This is where They Live becomes more than a Hollywood friendly moderate democratic politics sort of experience. How is it that people on Wall Street can create nothing yet have more money than thousands of hard working productive people put together? Where did all that money come from? What kind of economy is it when people have no use for or interest in the well being of their close neighbors? and on and on

It's a low budget feature and obviously some of the acting and action scenes aren't quite up to snuff. This of course excludes the famous 6 minute "put on the f**king glasses" fight sequence. The world needs a sequel to this one.

5/5

[Dr. Whom]

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

While at conference in Istanbul, a literature scholar (Tilda Swinton) buys a glass bottle that contains a djinn (Idris Elba) and gets three wishes.

A sweet feelgood fairytale about love. How you will like it, will depend on whether you are in the mood for a sweet feelgood fairytale about love. It did make me want to return to Istanbul, though. 

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: THE MASK: MST3K's first Halloween special. Jonah teaches Tom and Crow about Halloween while they watch THE MASK, a 3D feature about a mask that possesses its wearer. The movie is perfunctory exposition wrapped around the three frankly amazing surreal 3D hallucination sequences that are so good they must have been the work of a completely different director. The episode is not especially funny but the novelty of 3D + Halloween + crazy movie will make this one of the more memorable Season 13 installments. 3/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" (2022)
The Roku Channel's first "Original Movie" stars Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe as the prince of pop music parody, tracing his rise from suburban obscurity to multi-platinum success. The movie reveals his torrid love affair with Madonna, that Michael Jackson ripped off Al's original song "Eat It," and shows how Al single handedly destroyed the Escobar drug cartel.
...if any of that made you say "wait, what?" that's because this is a NOT a real "rock bio" movie, but a dead-pan parody of the genre, inspired by a "fake trailer" from the Funny Or Die web site and co-written by Al himself. (As Al says, his career and life have been so normal and devoid of controversy that they had to make stuff up for the movie. Laughing very hard ) Funny stuff!

"Deadpool 2" (2018)
Ryan Reynolds returns as Marvel's wise cracking mercenary, this time assembling a new team to help protect a teenage mutant from Cable, a cyborg killing machine from the future. Just as much fun as the first movie, the bullets and one liners fly fast and furious.

[lester1/2jr]

Dead Residence - bottom of the barrel found footage deal. Just no tension or complexity at all. My favorite part was when the neighbors come over and the one neighbor looks at the husband and goes "a black man!" who would do that?

1.5/ 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Hellraiser" (2022)
In this Hulu exclusive "reboot" of the long running horror franchise, a troubled young woman comes into possession of the dreaded puzzle box and inadvertently ends up involving her brother and friends in a battle for their lives against the Cenobites and their leader, Pinhead (who's played by a woman this time!).
I kept my expectations low for this one (especially with no Doug Bradley as Pinhead), but it's better than pretty much any of the endless direct-to-video sequels that came after Hellraiser IV (aka Bloodlines). It's got the proper gothic feel, some truly disturbing visuals, and suitably gross bloodletting. At just a hair under two hours, it runs a little longer than it needs to but otherwise this flick does a nice job of righting the Hellraiser ship.