Recently watched movies!

[Benjamin Haines]

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

^ i just wished they reigned in the third act of these Marvel films, both GotG2 and Black Panther lost points for me by turning into a cartoon for the climax, which ultimately loses dramatic steam. Why have Any of those set pieces would have allowed them to still have a well choreographed finale without going so over the top that it divorces itself from the dramatic world building

[Dr Kain]

Game Night - That was actually a lot of fun. Some of it was down right stupid, but it worked with how ridiculous it was. I'm going to give this one an enjoyable 8/10.

[canofhumdingers]

Solo - I saw this once in theaters and I thought it was okay but not great. Watched the Blu-ray the other night and I have to say, on my second viewing I really enjoyed it. It’s still a little slow to start, and the ending cameo is still incredibly stupid. But over all the film is quite fun. Han and Lando are both great fun (and I personally think they did a really nice job recasting these iconic characters), enfys nest is very cool and I hope we see more of her, and Chewbacca is flipping awesome. Really every moment Chewie is onscreen is pure gold.

I think the film’s biggest problem is it’s just not a story that really *needed* telling. But as a Star Wars fan who enjoys the occasional novel or comic book to have further adventures with my favorite characters, this felt like more Star Wars comfort food and I totally dig it.

[Dr Kain]

Halloween 6 Producer's Cut - Terrible movie, but better than 5. 6/10.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 78 - 9/10

[Dr Kain]

Friday the 13th Jason Takes a Cruise - Awful, just awful. 4/10

[jellydonut25]

I've been watching BUTTLOADS of TV lately...

Bobcat Goldthwait's Misfits and Monsters - This is a show on TruTV and you can stream the whole series by just googling it and going to the TruTV website. Each episode is only 20 minutes and there are only 8 of them...and that's maybe the biggest positive and only reason I'd even give it a light recommendation. There are two good episodes (one where a cartoon bear comes to life and another where a singer sold his soul to the devil) a few middling episodes, and then a few crap episodes. It's a VERY mixed bag. You could do worse...but I'd only recommend the bear episode as one to actively seek out.

Lost in Space - It got better as it went along. Better. It's mostly production value. The characters are never fully fleshed out all that great, and the story occasionally falls back into that trap of the first episode of just becoming ridiculous with "and then this problem and then that problem and then another problem". Overall, it was a perfectly cromulent show. Not really clamoring for another season though.

Channel Zero - It's an "anthology series" where each season is a story but the seasons don't connect or anything (so like, American Horror Story). Season 1 is called Candle Cove and personally, I'd skip it. Season 2 is No End House and it's a pretty cool haunted house thing. Season 3 is Butcher's Block with Rutger Hauer as a cannibalistic evangelical maniac. Need I say more about season 3? 6 episodes each season. I'd pretty highly recommend seasons 2 and 3, especially around this time of year, and season 4 premiers at the end of the month on SyFy with a 6-day marathon. I'll be tuning in for sure.

Penny Dreadful - Just starting this but....I love the Frankenstein and The Monster stuff and the rest of the show can go in the trash bin. Not feeling drawn to anything else here.

[lhb412]

Starting my Halloween viewing with the SIHSI ('Somehow I Haven't Seen It') classic, Re-Animator.

I remember in the early 2000s when there was quite a bit of controversy over fast zombies and whether they were truthful to the proper spirit of Romero zombies... and now that I watch more films from the 70s and 80s I see that there was absolutely no consistency with Romero zombies even after the tremendous success of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. The zombies here in Re-Animator are certainly different; animalistic and violent but not bitey.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

^ I think 'ghouls' is a good catch-all term, as is the simple 'undead,' but I think trying to put the zombie genie back in the bottle is hopeless. I'd like for the term to only refer to proper, voodoo zombies.

Also: lotta great performances in Re-Animator. Forgot to mention that!

[eabaker]

[Dr Kain]

It always disappointed me that they never did the WWI section of The Reanimator in the movies. That was my favorite segment of the book.

[jellydonut25]

I like all three Re-Animator movies. Beyond just finally hit blu this year. It's something I'm definitely gonna get when I get a chance (I know it's out already but it's a Vestron release which means it ain't cheap).

[O.Supreme]

Finally saw Ant-Man & The Wasp. It was a fun film to be sure, lots of laughs, but kind of like GotG 2, pretty forgettable. Admittedly it has been 6 days since I saw it, but for the life of me, I cannot tell you why Mike Pena or his cohorts were in the movie. Other than "The Ghost", I cant tell you who any of the other antagonists were. I knew about the Egghead east Egg (man that sounds weird) going in, so that resonates for some reason. Basically Hank Pym was a jerk to everyone he ever worked with, so they are all out to get him. Scott is his lovably goofy self, and there's an ant with a house arrest bracelet...yeah, I'll have to buy this on Blu ray when it goes on sale and watch it a few more times. I know I laughed, but cant remember why...

[eabaker]

[Dr Kain]

Ant-Man 2 suffered from having too many antagonists. You had Ghost, you had the gangsters, and then the FBI. It should have focused on just one of them.

Anyway,

The Omega Man - A good movie despite it not even trying to adapt the book one bit. I don't even know why they bothered to even credit him when it could have just been any post-apocalyptic plot out there. Neverthless, Heston is brillaint in his performance (as he always is) from the quips when he is pretending to be talking to someone to the moments when he flat out admits to be talking to himself. It is a good time, but it does slow down quite a bit in the middle and some parts of the story just don't make a lick of sense. A 7/10.

[canofhumdingers]

War for the Planet of the Apes - I wanted to see this in theaters but it just never worked out. But WOW. What an incredible movie. I don’t know why it surprised me since it is literally (correct usage of that word!) right there in the title, but this is truly a war movie. And like all good war movies, it’s really an anti war movie. It doesn’t pull any punches and it does a masterful job showing the horror, brutality, and utter loss and devastation that is war. Any victories achieved come at tremendous, near-immeasurable loss.

It’s also a beautiful film. The locations, cinematography, lighting, staging, everything. It’s gorgeous. And that includes the effects. Holy carp the special effects! Mind blowing cgi work here. The apes looked like real creatures. Completely convincing.

The writing, casting, and acting are also superb. I mean A-level, Oscar-winning superb. (Did this film win any oscars? It should have. And if it was only up for SFX the academy should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.) Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis deliver possibly (probably?) the best performances of their careers here. Flipping fantastic.

I did have one small gripe in that during battles Caesar seemed a bit unbelievably impervious. How many times can you stand within the blast cloud of a grenade, missle, etc. and come out unscathed? They definitely stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far a few times with stuff like that.

But even so, that’s a minor complaint. This is easily the best film of 2017. Maybe not my personal favorite (it is an emotionally-challenging war film that ends on a very bittersweet note, after all), but easily the best.

[klen7]

Murder Party - I have wanted to see this for a long time, and now its on Netflix. I really enjoyed the dark humor and expect this will make its way into my annual Halloween viewing in years to come. It's also fascinating to see this is where both Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room) and Macon Blair (I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore) got their starts. In a lot of ways this movie brings me back to the 90s when indies were blowing up big like Reservoir Dogs or El Mariachi, and for me thats a good thing

Smallfoot - Theres a twist in the middle of this movie that is way better than the movie deserves, but as a kids film it doesn't capitalize on it much. Bonus points for the twist and generally being subversive, which when you factor in the awkward musical numbers drops this back into the territory of movies like Storks

Animal World - I had actually seen the previous live action adaption of Kaiji the Gambler years ago - this director thought that a movie about high stakes card counting wouldn't be interesting enough so he added insane action sequences of a clown murdering monsters throughout the film... kind of like Suckerpunch, but not awful. It's hard to say how i'd judge this movie if I hadnt seen Kaiji before but its interesting enough that its worth a watch if you are in the mood for something different. Also Michael Douglas is in it.

[lhb412]

... there's a Kaji movie with Michael Douglas in it?

[Dr Kain]

Dr Terror's House of Horrors - A really enjoyable anthology film that has a Tales from the Crypt feel despite not being Tales from the Crypt. All of the actors do a great job and as I have said before, god damn Donald Sutherland looked like Keifer when he was young (obviously it's the opposite). My favorite story is Voodoo. Overall, a great movie, though it does have a couple slow moving parts. An 8/10.

[Dr Kain]

The Strangers 2 - I kind of liked the first one that came out ten years ago, so I was kind of hoping this would be good too. Granted, the first one was not the greatest horror movie ever, but it did have some really good moments to it and an interesting idea. This, however, is just a complete waste of time. No, it isn't down right terrible, but it has got to be one of the longest 77 minute movies (before credits) I have ever sat through. It took FOREVER for something to happen. Now that could have been fine as that meant we should have grown to like the characters. Unfortunately, the family was not even remotely interesting and their deaths just felt uninspiring. Also, the killers have no backstory, no development at all, which means this movie pretty much just copies its idea from the first film and does nothing to expand on it. Though, I do remember the killers at least being interesting. None of that is here. I guess if there is anything positive to say about it it is that it did have some atmospheric scenes thanks to the giant trailer park/camp/resort/whatever it was. I give it a 4/10.

[Dr Kain]

Abominable Dr Phibes - Even better than the first time I watched it. If I have any complaints it's really just that it does move at a slow pace, but other than that, it's fantastic. 10/10.

[lhb412]

Getting my horror movie viewing on in earnest by watching Joe Bob Briggs new movie hosting show on Shudder. First up is Tourist Trap, a 1979 movie that combines the slasher, haunted wax museum, and Carrie-style psychic powers movie into one movie. It stars former cowboy star (who I'm actually kind of named after) Chuck Connors in a really terrific horror performance. I mean, it's a shame he didn't do a bunch more horror films, he's great!

[jellydonut25]