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Post by ArcLight on Jan 25, 2020 22:27:01 GMT -5
Daughter of the Wolf (2019) The movie opens with a mom bringing ransom money to a meet to get her son back. Unfortunately for her, the kidnappers have no plans of giving her back the kid or letting her leave alive. Unfortunately for the kidnappers, the mom is played by former Muay Thai and MMA champion Gina Carano. The rest of the movie is her working on getting her son back from the rednecky band of kidnappers led by the mildly insane 'Father,' played by Richard Dreyfuss. A pretty middle-of-the-road affair, elevated mainly by the snow-covered Canadian wilderness that serves as the location, and some nice shots of wolves. Available to stream for free (with ads) from Vudu: www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Daughter-of-the-Wolf/1113207 |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 26, 2020 13:21:04 GMT -5
Eerie (2019)
Filipino (Tagalog), English subtitles available
Ghost story in a Catholic girls school. Nothing new in the genre, slow paced, reasonably spooky, decent plot and pretty good ending. Not bad.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 26, 2020 18:43:02 GMT -5
Rage of the Mummy (2018) Kharis meets Creepshow. (Khareepshow?) Wonderfully deliberately cheesy tale of magical artifacts stolen from a mummy's tomb and his quest to recover them and of course killing those who have them. Cheap looking mummy (guy in a suit that looks like wrappings which sometimes flap revealingly), cheap sets, acting and dialog no better than the movie needs. But the saving grace is the frequent transitions back and forth between live action and comic book pages, which most of the time works nicely. What does not work well is the occasional interludes with the (live action) fire goddess dancing. No bad and/or overwhelming CGI mixed into live action, which to me is a great relief. Too many movies these days are just CGI showcases. This is clearly a homage to the old Universal Kharis mummy movies and if considered as one of them, it is not the worst of the lot. Or the cheapest looking of them either. This mummy walks normally unlike the semi-crippled Kharis. How did he manage to catch people? There is enough variety in the various killing scenes to not get boring. (There are 13 artifacts, each in the hands of another person.) Enough little bits of comic relief along the way to keep the movie afloat. A mostly fun hour and a half if you keep expectations reined in. I love the scenes where the mummy is dragging his sarcophagus across the desert. How does he get from Egypt to Denver and back again with that? Love the ending. But how did he get all the heads out of police custody. Shhh! Don't ask questions like that. |
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Post by ArcLight on Jan 27, 2020 2:15:51 GMT -5
Rage of the Mummy (2018) Kharis meets Creepshow. (Khareepshow?) Wonderfully deliberately cheesy tale of magical artifacts stolen from a mummy's tomb and his quest to recover them and of course killing those who have them. Cheap looking mummy (guy in a suit that looks like wrappings which sometimes flap revealingly), cheap sets, acting and dialog no better than the movie needs. But the saving grace is the frequent transitions back and forth between live action and comic book pages, which most of the time works nicely. What does not work well is the occasional interludes with the (live action) fire goddess dancing. No bad and/or overwhelming CGI mixed into live action, which to me is a great relief. Too many movies these days are just CGI showcases. This is clearly a homage to the old Universal Kharis mummy movies and if considered as one of them, it is not the worst of the lot. Or the cheapest looking of them either. This mummy walks normally unlike the semi-crippled Kharis. How did he manage to catch people? There is enough variety in the various killing scenes to not get boring. (There are 13 artifacts, each in the hands of another person.) Enough little bits of comic relief along the way to keep the movie afloat. A mostly fun hour and a half if you keep expectations reined in. I love the scenes where the mummy is dragging his sarcophagus across the desert. How does he get from Egypt to Denver and back again with that? Love the ending. But how did he get all the heads out of police custody. Shhh! Don't ask questions like that. Sounds like something to look for. In my 'pulp epic' I've been planning in my head while at work for a while, there's going to be a mummy involved (as well as every other trope/situation from the pulp and serial days as I can squeeze in) and I've been thinking of naming the mummy something like Im-Pa-Shent or In-Po-Tehnt. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 27, 2020 10:12:42 GMT -5
Sounds like something to look for. In my 'pulp epic' I've been planning in my head while at work for a while, there's going to be a mummy involved (as well as every other trope/situation from the pulp and serial days as I can squeeze in) and I've been thinking of naming the mummy something like Im-Pa-Shent or In-Po-Tehnt. Im-Ba-Sil In-Kas-Ket
And be sure to include cliffhangers that are resolved in the next episode by something they did not show you. The hero falls into a bottomless pit. Oh but there is a shelf near the top where he lands. How is that for an overused pulp trope?  |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 27, 2020 19:21:35 GMT -5
Braindead (1992) US Title Dead-Alive Outrageous gory horror comedy directed by Peter Jackson! Rat-monkey captured on Skull Island (!) bites woman who becomes zombified and spreads the condition. Hugely funny with much of the humor being gore related. And speaking of gore this movie has as much of it and other disgusting stuff as any 20 slasher films. Or three episodes of The Walking Dead.  (Did TWD ewer have a zombie baby?) Highlights: The zombie getting pissed off because her headstone was pissed on. The Kung Fu priest. The lawnmower. And, yes, the zombie baby. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 28, 2020 14:20:49 GMT -5
One Cut of the Dead (2019)
Japanese with English subtitles
While making a zombie film, real zombies show up and start munching on people but crazy director keeps shooting.
And that is just the beginning.
Good gore, good switcheroos, good fun!
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Post by silverbullet63 on Jan 28, 2020 17:56:11 GMT -5
Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
The Return of Count Yorga (1971)
The Zombies of Sugar Hill (1974)
I think the late Robert Quarry was quite Underappreciated.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 28, 2020 19:32:20 GMT -5
Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) The Return of Count Yorga (1971) The Zombies of Sugar Hill (1974) I think the late Robert Quarry was quite Underappreciated. Quarry played Yorga and the mob boss in Sugar Hill, which for the uninitiated is a person not a place. Quarry's movie career spanned over half a century from his teens to his seventies, with a couple of non-acting interludes. From what I have seen, he always delivered a competent professional performance attuned to the part rather than his own character. This is in contrast to someone like Vincent Price who was always Vincent Price. Price and Quarry were rather less than appreciative of each other's style, as Quarry commented once in an interview and Price said to Quarry's face while filming Dr. Phibes Rises Again. I suspect that, except for the two Yorga’s and Phibes, that because of his style Quarry simply never stood out. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 28, 2020 20:08:57 GMT -5
Luz (2018)
German and Spanish with English subtitles
I am of the opinion that professional critics, when faced with something 'artsy' that has an incomprehensible plot and exotic imagery, automatically heap praise on it to appear 'hip' and avoid being accused of being too lowbrow to 'get it'. While not exactly a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, IMO Luz is not worthy of the grandiose accolades it has received. Camera work is highly competent. Some of the imagery is striking and the hypnosis sequence is very interesting. But the story is both threadbare and mostly unintelligible. And for the most part, the pace is excruciatingly slow, despite the movie being a mere 70 minutes. On the plus side, the titular character (Luz) is played very well by Luana Velis in only her first full length movie. Everyone else, not so well.
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Post by silverbullet63 on Jan 28, 2020 23:38:49 GMT -5
Into the Storm (2014)
Richard Armitage battling to save and protect his Sons.
While multiple tornadoes strike his town.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 29, 2020 20:49:01 GMT -5
Little Evil (2017)
The Omen re-imagined as a comedy. Clever and fun with a very satisfactory ending.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 30, 2020 20:13:47 GMT -5
House of Ghosts (2012)
A B+W 'tribute' to William Castle, this movie is really bad. The plot, dialog, acting, sets, camera work and FX are all bad. Especially the FX. The budget probably totaled around $17.03. The exposition by the director at the beginning of how this movie is going to scare people to death and you need a Fear Shield goes on for three full minutes. I presume this was supposed to echo Castle's penchant for gimmicks like Emergo and Percepto. To me, beyond the first chuckle the exposition stopped being anything but boring. The switcheroo ending is dragged out for six minutes. The 63 minutes in between are mostly too silly to be scary. If you want to make a tribute to William Castle, should it not be at least half way as good as Castle? Instead House of Ghosts comes across as belittling and making fun of Castle.
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Post by someoldguy on Feb 1, 2020 18:51:48 GMT -5
VelociPastor (2019) On Prime, no extra fee. A priest gets infected (or something) in China with the ability to become a dinosaur when angry. He then kills bad guys, especially those church members (and ninjas) plotting to ... Oh you have to see that part for yourself. You would not believe me if I told you. The film is as silly as it sounds and wonderfully deliberately so. How to describe this movie? A send up of a spoof of bad movies that try to be serious? Very funny throughout the whole thing. Among many other things, the old standby of flashback scenes is lampooned mercilessly. Acting is quite good in the sense that everyone does exactly what they should, having fun with their parts while remaining totally serious about it. You cheer for the good guys and boo the bad guys. The person who convinces the priest to use his powers for good and is later his sidekick is a hooker who knows martial arts. She is only a hooker to pay for her college tuition. Her major? Pre-med law. Likewise, the plot is well crafted and hole free if one accepts the absurd premises. Sets and FX are of course cheap but used rather well. Camera work is also good. The backstory to the dinosaur thing is simultaneously ludicrous and logical. To be honest FX are terrible and they intend them to be. You never see the burning car, just the empty place where it had been parked and a VFX (virtual FX) label on the screen saying that the car is burning. When the ripped off head is laying on the ground, the camera lingers on it so you can clearly see it is a mannequin head made up to sort of look like the character. There is lots of gore, mostly tomato juice or paste. The dinosaur, which looks more like a man-sized T-Rex than a Raptor, is wisely not fully revealed until the big fight near the end. It is hilarious but would not age well if seen too often. A bad movie done well, unlike House of Ghosts I mentioned earlier. So you read the spoilers before seeing the movie, eh? Take my word for it, there is a lot more to the movie than I gave away. |
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Post by silverbullet63 on Feb 1, 2020 19:35:47 GMT -5
Death Comes to Pemberley (2014)
JC's The Fog (1980)
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Le Loup-Garou Qui Rit
(Did TWD ewer have a zombie baby?)