What was the last movie you saw?

[KGeo777]

NOTHING UNDERNEATH - 1985 - Another rewatch. This is an interesting later giallo concerning murder in the fashion industry of Milan. As Donald Pleasence says while eating spaghetti in a Wendy's, fashion is seasonal, murder is year round.

 

[Judderman]

Watching through some horror movies I have seen before but not for several years or more.

The Grudge (2004). This is the US version. Although it is set in Japan with plenty of Japanese actors and characters. The key family and supporting roles except for the detective are Americans. Maybe not as creepy as the original but I think this remake is arguably very close. A few scares that may make you jump.

Mirrors (2008). I enjoyed this one. Has modest reviews but is entertaining and creepy. Kept me interested. Kiefer Sutherland acts very similar to in 24 as Jack Bauer which was on at the same time. There was a couple of scenes I didn't like such as someone being killed without looking in the reflection, which was off from other killings.
They perhaps overdo Paula Patton's cleavage display with her even wearing a near transparent top once the apartment is flooding..

 

[AE35Unit]

Duel is a great movie. Possibly the grsatest made for tv movie. Tbh I would compare it more closely with The Hitcher than Jaws though.

Its quite like the 1973 book Shattered by Dean Koontz

 

[AE35Unit]

Hannibal Rising(2007)
Enjoyed that one

 

[KGeo777]

BLOOD CASTLE 1970

Woman doctor goes to a castle to work for a sinister baron who is suspected of murdering women. This gal does not phase easily. She goes to the castle after hearing about its reputation---she narrowly avoids being raped by a coachman outside-then she is offended that the baron won't hire her. Even after he is willing to give her three months pay to leave. Then he decides to let her stay-and she is offended. But after he shows her his lab--and his experiment to revive a burnt corpse in a vat of black liquid--she agrees to stay on. Then she has all-too-real dreams of being tortured naked by someone with a burned hand. The baron tells her the hallucinations are caused by the vapors of the vat and gives her a 19th century covid mask but she refuses. I was amused by the resilience of the damsel in distress--despite all the weird happenings--she investigates the matter and believes that he has a split personality, the other being responsible for a dozen murders, and she wants to cure him. But it turns out not to be what she thinks. It is weird but I would probably watch it again.

 

[Parson]

NOTHING UNDERNEATH - 1985

Talk about a provocative title for a movie set in the fashion industry!

 

[KGeo777]

Talk about a provocative title for a movie set in the fashion industry!

It is more cerebral and sinister because the phrase is used in the movie by a photographer to indicate that models are only expected to look and act a certain way and "nothing underneath," meaning no personality. As a backdrop for a murder spree--it's kind of interesting.

 

[Jeffbert]

Queen of Outer Space (1958) An expedition from Earth to a space station is interrupted by death rays destroying the station. Fleeing the approach of the ray, which is sweeping through an arc, the Earthlings go full throttle in any direction away from the ray. All are knocked unconscious, and come-to, only to find they have crash landed on some planet. relying on the force of gravity as an indicator, the scientist among them determines they are on Venus. But, how can this be? Venus was though incapable of sustaining life, etc.

So, they determine the atmosphere is o.k., & go exploring. Eventually, they are captured by women bearing weapons, and taken before the leader; a queen who wears a mask covering her entire face. She accuses them of hostility, etc., & condemns them to death, but not until torture! Certain of the Venusian women free them, & their head scientist Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) explains the lack of Venusian men. There was a war between Venus & the planet Mordo, which devastated Venusian cities, etc. The woman who became queen blamed all the destruction on the Venusian men, & sent them to a moon of Venus.

Eventually the rebels take the Earthmen to the jungle, then into a cave. One man strays into a side area, & a giant spider leaps (is shoved) off a ledge onto the man, who struggles to keep its fangs from piercing his throat.

This still shot just does not do justice to the cheapness of this spider. The scene reminds me of a certain MPFC sketch where a real lion leaps toward the viewer, then an obviously intended to be fake lion is tossed on to the guy, who pretends to struggle.


8/10; unintentionally funny!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

It is more cerebral and sinister because the phrase is used in the movie by a photographer to indicate that models are only expected to look and act a certain way and "nothing underneath," meaning no personality. As a backdrop for a murder spree--it's kind of interesting.

How many giallo films have this for a background? Blood and Black Lace, of course, but apparently the early proto-giallo Mannequin in Red (way back in 1958!) has a similar setting. It has the advantage of offering beautiful women along with the shocks.

 

[KGeo777]

VAN HELSING 2004 - Oh boy is this a bad movie. And it is a shame because the idea is good, the cast is mostly fine, but so many bad decisions. The director has never met a CGI effect he didn't like. That was evident with DEEP RISING. And then THE MUMMY RETURNS, the first movie where I felt completely overwhelmed by CGI. This movie is overloaded with CGI and some really busy confusing visuals. It's a literal eyesore. The cinematography is ugly ugly ugly. The script is not good either although it has some cute lines--especially when Dracula chides Igor for torturing a werewolf and says "'do unto others Igor..?'" and Igor replies "before they do unto me!" Unfortunately Kevin J O'Connor, who is a good character actor--is buried under awful makeup which is too close to the Frankenstein monster's. The guy playing Frankie manages a decent performance amid the digital chaos. Elena Anaya memorably chews the scenery to extremes as the head bride. The one big dud is Dracula--who I consider the worst post-2000 after the pimp street thug version of Blade 3. Roxburgh tries for a Lugosi impersonation at times but he lacks the physique to be imposing and comes across as a parody of Gary Oldman. Maybe it was deliberate but it doesn't work.
The vampire ball and the werewolf vs Dracula demon fight should have been great sequences--but overly busy action and the sped up video game physics completely ruins them. This could have been a pretty ambitious monster mash film if they just slowed it down, anchored the camera more, dialed down the computerized gymnastics and backdrops. What a testament to the failure of digital era filmmaking.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Sin You Sinners (1963)

Odd little ultra-cheap exploitation sleazefest. Young woman’s Mom is a stripper/hypnotist/fortune teller/etc. who has a medallion that, apparently, gives her control over young men. Daughter is also interested in Mom’s latest boy toy. Suffice to say that when daughter steals the medallion, Mom gets booed off the stage during her strip act while daughter does a similar dancing-in-underwear act for some guys in her house. Mom gets runs over by a car.

Sounds weird enough, doesn’t it? And yet most of it is just folks in cheap sets talking. Not anywhere near as much campy fun as it should be. Most notable for lots of very serious kissing. These people really smash their lips together.

 

[KGeo777]

How many giallo films have this for a background? Blood and Black Lace, of course, but apparently the early proto-giallo Mannequin in Red (way back in 1958!) has a similar setting. It has the advantage of offering beautiful women along with the shocks.

I remember a krimi that focused on dancing girls. In this case I was thinking about it being at the time when there was a media interest in fashion models--the mid 1980s. Renee Simonsen I had heard of, somewhere in the news. This seemed to have a bigger scope than what I remember of Blood and Black Lace. This one is focused only on the models themselves rather than bringing in an angle about clothing designers (though they have a scene that takes place during an outdoor fashion event).

 

[Judderman]

Hannibal Rising(2007)
Enjoyed that one

I watched this recently too. Pretty good. Better than expected.

 

[hitmouse]

Robocop (2014) Remake of the 1987 classic, with a cast including Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, and Samuel L Jackson.
This lacks the wit, subversiveness, and comic violence of the original, and as a result largely misses the point. Very poor.

 

[KGeo777]

DEMONS - 1985 - Italian Evil Dead film about people trapped in a haunted movie theater. Gory with not much characterization or plot but entertaining anyway. The usherette of the theater reminded me of the creepy kid from Baron Blood and some other early 70s euro horror. Checked the credits--and it was her in fact.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Trick or Treats (1982)

Cheap, lousy slasher that can't decide if it's a comedy or not. Starts with hubby and wife at the breakfast table, hubby ignoring wife as he reads The Wall Street Journal. Two men in white coats show up, getting into a knockdown drag out fight with hubby, all three of them falling into the swimming pool before they put him in a straitjacket and haul him off to the loony bin. (Apparently you can just call the men in the white coats to take somebody away, as wife seemingly did.)

Years later, woman babysits a really rotten brat (the director's son) on Hallowe'en. He plays a bunch of nasty pranks on her; pretending to be bleeding to death, etc. Meanwhile, hubby escapes from the loony bin in extremely bad drag; the kind that fools everybody, even though it's really, really obvious he's a man. An hour of this nonsense goes by before hubby shows up and kills a completely innocent woman who showed up at his house. He stupidly mistakes her for his former wife, now remarried (to Special Guest Star David Carradine, completely wasted,) on whom he sought revenge.

The comedy isn't funny (folks acting up in the loony bin, a film-within-the-film spoof of Dracula/Frankenstein stuff) and the slasher aspects of the plot aren't scary or suspenseful. There's a really stupid twist ending, too, which I'll spoil because the movie is so bad. Freeze frame at the very end shows the rotten brat about to stab the babysitter for real.

Avoid.

 

[CupofJoe]

Asteroid City [2023 Wes Anderson]
I loved the set-up of a play within a film and the film then being broken into acts and scenes.
You can't fault it for the names that appear, everyone from Bryan Cranston to Margo Robbie. There were even a couple of sneaky cameos that I had to check to make sure I was right.
It was enjoyable enough but I can't say I liked it. It was a little too whimsical and self-knowing.
If you like Wes Anderson films, I'm pretty sure you will like this.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Island of Lost Women (1959)



Reporter and pilot in a damaged plane blown off course by a typhoon are forced to land on an uncharted island, even though a voice somehow projected into the interior of their aircraft warns them away. The place is inhabited by an atomic scientist who left civilization out of disgust with the Bomb. Also present are his three nubile daughters in minidresses. Their names are Mercuria, Venus, and Urana, and they've never seen men before. Plenty of cheesecake and (given the guys' tendency to whip off their shirts) beefcake on display.



Reporter refuses to promise that he won't tell the world where the scientist is. He could have just lied, I guess. Scientist blows up the plane with a Luger pistol somehow jury-rigged into a tiny flamethrower. On film, it looks like a ray gun. The two guys try to build a raft, romance blooms. Scientist has his own atomic power plant, so guess what blows up.



Silly low budget borderline science fiction adventure movie. Since the scientist is played by Alan Napier (Alfred on the 1960's Batman series,) it's ripe for riffing.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Lost Empire (1984)

Takes everything about trashy B movies and blends them into an outrageously tasty stew of guilty pleasures.

The action never stops, so I'd be hard pressed to offer a coherent synopsis. Suffice to say that three very top-heavy women join forces to oppose a cult leader in search of two magic jewels. One is a cop named Angel Wolfe, one is a Native American named Whitestar, one is a convict who, oddly, has a normal name.

A lot goes on. Martial arts, gladiatorial combat, immortal supervillain, Star Trek's Angelique Pettyjohn in dominatrix gear getting into a catfight that turns into mud wrestling (the character is named Whiplash and, yes, fights with a bullwhip), tons of voluptuous young women in minimal costumes, guy in a gorilla suit, island headquarters that blow up, etc. It's very self-aware and there's a lot of deliberate humor. Begins with a close-up of a minor character's truly remarkable cleavage, so you know what you're in for.

Not a good film in any normal sense of the word, but hard to watch without a grin on your face.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Frankenstein vs the Creature From Blood Cove (2005)

So the deadly amphibious creature you created escapes into the ocean; what do you do? Dig up the Frankenstein monster and revive it, of course! Makes as much sense as the fact that you think both of them can be used to fight terrorism.

Pastiche of both Universal monster rallies of the 1940's and beach monster movies of the 1960's (not to mention quite a bit of 1954's Creature From the Black Lagoon) is very much a mixed bag. Works when it sticks to its inspirations, not so much when it goes for comedy or throws in modern stuff. In particular, the comedy relief character, an incredibly stereotyped gay man, is not only offensive but extremely unfunny.

Anyway, throw in a wolfman and the ghost of Victor Frankenstein, both very briefly. I'm surprised Dracula doesn't show up.

First monster battle: Blood Cove creature defeats Frankenstein monster easily via its venom.

Second monster battle: Frankenstein monster triumphs. That's hardly the end of the film, however.

Interesting flashbacks on the part of the Frankenstein monster to its "bride," which it associates with the female assistant of the photographer whose bikini-clad model is one of the Blood Cove creature's victims. (The models' extremely skimpy swimsuits, along with a scene in a strip club and some cussing, are part of the modern stuff that doesn't work.)

Look for writer David Gerrold in a tiny part (his one line is "Whatever"), as well as adult film legend Ron Jeremy as a strip club patron.

Very much a curate's egg.