Recently watched movies!

[Joseph Goodman]

[Joseph Goodman]

[jellydonut25]

The Omen.

I for one don't find it to be all that scary, but it is pretty good and just one more good Halloween flick.

[MekaGojira3k]

[canofhumdingers]

[MouthForWar]

Misery- One of the best Stephen King adaptations, and very suspenseful. I always liked this movie.

Targets- Boris Karloff's last GREAT role. I first saw this movie about a year ago and since got the DVD. This is still the first movie I've seen in a long time to truly give me chills. It works on several levels. 1. A meditation on the death of the gothic horror/monster movie due to real life being much scarier. 2. Its approach towards gun violence. 3. A psychologically suspenseful movie. 4. Karloff basically playing himself in a role that's the summation of his career as an actor. Can't recommend this film enough. And Boris is simply a bad ass at the end.

Raptor- An unofficial sequel to Carnosaur with Eric Roberts... and TONS of stock footage from Carnosaur. Roger Corman + Eric Roberts + Dinosaurs + horribly incorporated stock footage = A great time for all the wrong reasons.

Martin- I love this movie... as I've said a hunderd times, one of Romero's best and most criminally overlooked films.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a FLOOD of Hammer Horror films on my DVR that has been accumulating over the last two weeks thanks to the fine folks at TCM. Time to get crackin on that.

[jellydonut25]

I enjoy Misery. IMHO it's one of the few adaptations of a King novel that does justice to the original story.
Others worth mentioning are:
Creepshow (though to be fair, it's hard to butcher something that he wroter specifically for the screen)
Storm of the Century (see above comment)
Silver Bullet (based off Cycle of the Werewolf)
Stand By Me (based off The Body)
The Shawshank Redemption (which differs in only in some unimportant details)
The Stand (when I watch this, I tend to think how AMAZING it would have been if made today as an HBO miniseries...)
Dolores Claiborne (though I'm not a fan of the story itself)
Apt Pupil
The Green Mile (actually much less boring than the books)
Secret Window (vastly different ending aside)
The Mist (vastly different ending aside)

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention The Shining, but a faithful adaptation of the novel it is not...


Also, Carrie, Salem's Lot, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine, Firestarter, Pet Sematary, and 1408 are King adaptations that don't suck.

And The Running Man, Maximum Overdrive, It, and Sleepwalkers are worth seeing for camp-value

I don't remember enough about whether Thinner is worthwhile as a film...it certainly is a cool novel.

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

[armandv]

With thunder, lightning and heavy rains outside, I holed up at home and watched 3 DVDs I bought today:

The Godfather - Part III

Elvis On Tour

Star Trek

Each reviewed:

http://armandsrancho.blogspot.com/2010/ ... night.html

[jellydonut25]

[Reaper G]

Internal Affairs, the Hong Kong crime drama that was remade as The Departed. Great stuff.

[jellydonut25]

Ghoulies - and now I'm sitting here trying to think of series where I like a sequel better than the original because I'm pretty sure Ghoulies II outshines this in every way imaginable...

[DannyBeane]

The H-man and Survival of the Dead. Both good horror flicks.

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

[MouthForWar]

[canofhumdingers]

[lhb412]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

It Came From Outer Space- The first part of a Universal double feature for Halloween at an old school movie palace in 50's style 3-D. The film itself is alright. Not the best I've seen from Jack Arnold (Its no Creature From the Black Lagoon or Incredible Shrinking Man), but its one of the first "friendly alien" films. The old red and blue 3-D system from back then is actually pretty impressive to this day. Aside from getting rid of the two color system, it doesn't look much worse than current 3-D. Both are still really dark and blurry at times.

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein- This was the second part of the Universal Halloween double feature at the old Redford Theatre. This movie still holds up, IMO. Some parts are just hilarious and its great to have Lugosi back as Dracula. Its a shame that Karloff turned down the role of the Monster (which he later expressed regret over), but Glenn Strange is a decent replacement (he certainly makes a better Monster than Lon Chaney Jr and Bela Lugosi did).

Frozen- A huge disappointment. What could have been a great Hitchcockian thrill ride is ruined by becoming a cartoony killer wolf movie. If it was just the characters against the elements, kind of like Deliverance, it would have been great, but the wolves ruin everything. I WANT to like Adam Green's films... horror fans love them and he seems like a cool, smart dude. Although he shows a lot of growth as a filmmaker here, it still feels sub par. I'm still optimistic about Hatchet II (even though I didn't care for the first film, I hope for a fun slasher).

The Bird People in China- I'm a BIG Takashi Miike fan and after hearing for years how this is one of his best films, I was left bored and unimpressed. It took me several times to finish because I just couldn't stay awake during this. And its not because its a more grounded drama... its because its boring.

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter- A weird, boring, ludicrous western/horror. Nothing happens in this movie until the end, but its so dumb in some parts that you can't help but be mildly entertained.

Prehistoric Bimbos In Armageddon City- This is the worst thing I've ever seen... ever.

Invasion of the Bee Girls- Bee girls from another planet come to earth and f*ck men to death. Not nearly as cool as it sounds, but the black eyes of the bee girls are creepy. I didn't know what was happening in this due to the crappy VHS transfer that Mill Creek released (thanks, guys). If this was remade with a less dumb title and a weird body snatchers/Cronenbergian body horror thing going, it could actually be pretty spooky.

And now, the Hammer horror-thon begins!

Let Me In- Probably the best American remake of a foreign horror movie that I've ever seen. True to the original, yet totally different in tone. This one has more of a sense of dread and horror to it as opposed to the fairy tale of the Swedish version. A great return from a great studio.

The Mummy- Hammer's version of the Mummy is a remake of the first 2 Universal sequels and while its better than those films, its not as good as the Karloff original. Still, its a more than worthy entry in the Hammer canon. Cushing is great as the hero and Christopher Lee brings a good amount of emotion to such a bland monster (its all in the eyes).

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb- Generally the same thing as the last movie, only more boring. There are some interesting characters here and there but it takes way too long to get going and when it does pick up it merely rehashes the first film. And the ending is nonsensical and abrupt even for a Hammer film.

The Mummy's Shroud- The third Hammer Mummy movie is more of the same "people desocrate tomb, mummy is brought back to kill them" story... these Mummy movies are exactly the same, I swear. Only this one is by far the most boring. It takes 45 minutes just for them to get to the damn tomb! And by the time it picks up and the Mummy starts killing people, its too little too late. This snooze fest was so sleep inducingly boring that it took me a couple days to make it through the whole thing.

Blood From The Mummy's Tomb- The best Hammer Mummy film since the original. It doesn't rehash the same plot (its barely even a Mummy movie). This guy's daughter is going to be replaced by a resurrected dead evil Queen on her birthday. Its got a cool dreadful mood and an awesome ending. It moves along at a snail's pace but keeps you engrossed the whole time. Really dug this one!

Now to check out this past Friday's batch of TCM's Hammer goodies on the DVR!