Unfortunuately, work and real life obligations have been cutting into my movie time, so I haven;t too much time to spend on movies lately. Luckily, things will be slowing down soon, so I will be back in action soon enough. Until then...
Bad Girls Dormitory
This opens with a few scenes of various girls getting set up and arrested for prostitution and drugs. I thought those scenes were well done, but the movie quickly loses steam. The girls are sent to a juvenile detention center, where they fight, shower, eat and have sex with the guards. There is a whole lot of nothing going on in this movie. The acting is prety bad, but not unwatchably bad, if that makes sense. Some of the guards suck too. The guards in other women-in-prison movies are tough or memorable. The ones here really can't even be convincingly creepy. There is an eventual shoot out that end the movie, but it's a long wait for little to no pay off. Pass on this and get director Tim Kincaid's far superior Riot On 42nd Street.
Scream 4
The newest sequel of one of the most annoying and "hip" horror franchises. Many years after the fact, the main character from the other movies returns home for a book signing and before you know it, someone is dressed up as the killer and killing off the cast. I hated the others in this series and didn't care to see this, but it was playing at the drive in and if I was going to see it, it would certainly have to be at the drive in. This was a pretty average movie. There is no suspense and zero concern as to wether or not certain characters die. I thought slasher movies were supposed to have cool gore set pieces, but apparently not. We get run of the mill stabbing scenes and a brief glimpse of a dismeboweled person, but it's not enough to save this movie. I hated how they go out of the way to use modern devices like webcams and texting. What if she didn't reply to a text from the killer? The movie would have ended 10 minutes in. I wish she hadn't answered that text.
Btw, Macauly Culkin's other brother looks creepy and someone should cast him in better roles than this.
He Knows You're Alone
Very early entry slasher movie about someone who is killing off soon to be married women. Unlike the movies that soon followed, this one focuses more on suspense and wonder than gore. I say it work, as the movie was fast paces and creepy throughout. This is very well acted. Also, the ending wasn't a let down at all. A slasher classic well worth seeking out.
Great White
This infamous Italian Jaws clone is definitely worth seeking out. By Jaws clone, I mean the closet possible thing to remaking Jaws, even stealing lines, character motivations, scenes and ideas. Upon release, the makers of Great White were promptly sued by Universal, assuring that this would never ever be released or distributed stateside. The plot is almost exactly the same as Jaws, but despite being a shameless rip off, this is a very watchable movie. The acting here is suprisingly adept and the pace is fast, with enough shark action to please fans of this type of movie. The shark effects are pretty shoddy and lame but it doens't ruin the movie. Worth a look!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Update and some quick reviews...
Well, the last month or so has been incredibly busy and I haven't got to watch nearly as many movies as I would have liked to. Luckily, last week slowed down a lot and I got to catch up, so you can read about that in a bit. But first...
Cinema Wasteland was last weekend. As usual, it was a great time. They had a Cannibal Holocaust cast reunion, which was a big deal to many. Stupid Robert Kerman was a cancel though. William Forsythe was supposed to be there but he got casted in Boardwalk Empire, so he wasn't either. That guy is a blast and I hope he shows up at future shows.
I did pick up a lot of new movies. You will be able to read about some of them in this update and in future updates.
Nothing beats spending a weekend with like-minded individuals. I am already looking forward to the next show, this coming fall.
As I mentioned, I did pick up a lot of new titles at Cinema Wasteland. There will be full reviews for select titles but for now...
Deadly Eyes- aka The Rats- this is a Canadian made movie about giant rats. You see, a health inspector discovers that a corn shipment has been laced with steroids. She demands that it be destroyed. It does get destroyed, but not before rats eat it and grow to giant proportions! The movie is off to a quick start with a baby being eaten by rats and other random peoeple being attacked. About halfway through, the pace slows way down and the plot develops. Just as things start to get boring, there are two fantastic set pieces that comprise the end, where the rats attack a movie theater packed with people and a subway station. This was highly enjoyable and I recommend that you check it out.
Blood Diner- a blend of dark humor and gore about two weirdo brothers who revive their dead uncle and open a diner where they kill people and collect parts of their victims and serve the left over peices to their customers. This is one of the more well known, and remembered, late 80's gore comedies. The plotline is completely ridiculous and the acting is terrible, but the movie has a lot of memorable gore and general wackiness that has helped it build a large following over the years. I watched this numerous times on VHS long ago, but it didn't hold up to my memories of it. It wasn't great, but is still worth a look if you haven't seen it.
The Mutilator- another 80's slasher movie about a disgrunutled man who kills off a group of kids on their Fall Break. There are some fantastic splatter setpieces here. Someone is killed with an outboard motor, with blood spraying all over the place. Someone else is killed with a pitchfork and pinned to a door. And in a scene that makes women cringe, a woman is killed with a fishing gaffe up her... well, you know! Haha! The acting is pretty weak, but I think the actors did an OK job with what they had to work with. There is minimal suspense too. By the time this one came out, a lot of the suspense and mystery of the slasher genre had been completely replaced by out of control gore, which was good and bad (depends who you ask, I guess). Eventually, we find out who the killer is and the final minutes are a full force assault of blood and gore, as the killer and the survivors battle it out. The Mutilator was often remembered for it's VHS artwork and it's gore, and those are the two things that I would say to check it out for.
The Creature From Black Lake- this is a great, mostly forgotten Bigfoot based movie from 1976. Two students convince their anthropology professor to take them to the south to search for a Bigfoot. The professor makes a point in saying how there is no record of a Bigfoot attacking a human being. Well, that little speech of his is intercut with a scene of a Bigfoot attacking two trappers on a boat. Haha! Eventually the boys head south and meet up with people who have seen the Bigfoot. This is a great movie. It is rated PG, so don't come in expecting Night Of The Demon levels of Bigfoot gore. There are some suspenseful moments of the Bigfoot watching people as they wander closer to him. The acting is also solid, with all of the characters being believeable. Even the actors who play the hillbillies are good, which is rare, because hillbillies are always over acted to the point of them being cartoonish. Likeable characters and some solid suspense make this a definite recommend.
More soon...
Cinema Wasteland was last weekend. As usual, it was a great time. They had a Cannibal Holocaust cast reunion, which was a big deal to many. Stupid Robert Kerman was a cancel though. William Forsythe was supposed to be there but he got casted in Boardwalk Empire, so he wasn't either. That guy is a blast and I hope he shows up at future shows.
I did pick up a lot of new movies. You will be able to read about some of them in this update and in future updates.
Nothing beats spending a weekend with like-minded individuals. I am already looking forward to the next show, this coming fall.
As I mentioned, I did pick up a lot of new titles at Cinema Wasteland. There will be full reviews for select titles but for now...
Deadly Eyes- aka The Rats- this is a Canadian made movie about giant rats. You see, a health inspector discovers that a corn shipment has been laced with steroids. She demands that it be destroyed. It does get destroyed, but not before rats eat it and grow to giant proportions! The movie is off to a quick start with a baby being eaten by rats and other random peoeple being attacked. About halfway through, the pace slows way down and the plot develops. Just as things start to get boring, there are two fantastic set pieces that comprise the end, where the rats attack a movie theater packed with people and a subway station. This was highly enjoyable and I recommend that you check it out.
Blood Diner- a blend of dark humor and gore about two weirdo brothers who revive their dead uncle and open a diner where they kill people and collect parts of their victims and serve the left over peices to their customers. This is one of the more well known, and remembered, late 80's gore comedies. The plotline is completely ridiculous and the acting is terrible, but the movie has a lot of memorable gore and general wackiness that has helped it build a large following over the years. I watched this numerous times on VHS long ago, but it didn't hold up to my memories of it. It wasn't great, but is still worth a look if you haven't seen it.
The Mutilator- another 80's slasher movie about a disgrunutled man who kills off a group of kids on their Fall Break. There are some fantastic splatter setpieces here. Someone is killed with an outboard motor, with blood spraying all over the place. Someone else is killed with a pitchfork and pinned to a door. And in a scene that makes women cringe, a woman is killed with a fishing gaffe up her... well, you know! Haha! The acting is pretty weak, but I think the actors did an OK job with what they had to work with. There is minimal suspense too. By the time this one came out, a lot of the suspense and mystery of the slasher genre had been completely replaced by out of control gore, which was good and bad (depends who you ask, I guess). Eventually, we find out who the killer is and the final minutes are a full force assault of blood and gore, as the killer and the survivors battle it out. The Mutilator was often remembered for it's VHS artwork and it's gore, and those are the two things that I would say to check it out for.
The Creature From Black Lake- this is a great, mostly forgotten Bigfoot based movie from 1976. Two students convince their anthropology professor to take them to the south to search for a Bigfoot. The professor makes a point in saying how there is no record of a Bigfoot attacking a human being. Well, that little speech of his is intercut with a scene of a Bigfoot attacking two trappers on a boat. Haha! Eventually the boys head south and meet up with people who have seen the Bigfoot. This is a great movie. It is rated PG, so don't come in expecting Night Of The Demon levels of Bigfoot gore. There are some suspenseful moments of the Bigfoot watching people as they wander closer to him. The acting is also solid, with all of the characters being believeable. Even the actors who play the hillbillies are good, which is rare, because hillbillies are always over acted to the point of them being cartoonish. Likeable characters and some solid suspense make this a definite recommend.
More soon...
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