TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2019

tohostudios wrote:

Tonight when I get tired of the Cardinals flailing and missing I'll probably watch that Halloween Tales anthology.

Ooh, I think you'll like that one. Tons o' fun.

2-0 Nats with one out in the first already. Streaming time...

Watched Tales Of Halloween

As usual with these anthology movies, some stories work really well, some are okay and some are just stupid and make no sense.

I thought this one started pretty strong with the first two stories then sort of fizzled out until the story with the neighbors and their dueling Halloween displays and from there until the end I enjoyed the stories. Not surprisingly my favorite story is the last one about killer jack-o-lanterns directed by Neil "Dog Soldiers" Marshall.  

Overall I'd rate this the same way I rate the ABCs of Death or any other flick that crams a bunch of stories into an hour and a half (give or take).  Some stories are great and you wish were longer, some are just about the right length without overstaying their welcome and some you wish weren't there at all.  But regardless of your opinion of one particular entry, if you watch the whole thing eventually you'll find another entry you like and at least it's not a long wait.

Re-Animator (1985)



Jeffrey Combs stars as the brilliant but unhinged Herbert West, who has invented a serum capable of re-animating the dead. He. along with med student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), begin experimenting on dead bodies at good old Miskatonic University. However, a professor at the university (David Gale) lusts after Cain's girlfriend (the beautiful Barbara Crampton) and wants West's invention for himself. Things begin to spiral out of control at that point. What a great movie! Good gore, some funny moments mixed in, and a great performance by Jeffrey Combs as West. I also had to laugh about the name of the first person to be injected by the re-agent at the beginning of the movie : Hans Gruber.

^^I'm pulling Re-Animator back out this Halloween. It's been too long, time to revisit an old friend. Speaking of which...

Got to see Alien in the theater for a 40th anniversary re-release. First time seeing it on the big screen. I know this movie like the back of my hand, but that's the most tense it's felt since I first saw it at 9 years old.

"Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks" (1976)

Dyanne Thorne returns as the blonde, stacked-n-sexy sadist in this pseudo-sequel to "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS," which takes place in an unnamed Middle Eastern country in the '70s present day. (How Ilsa wound up in this part of the world, apparently without aging a day, is never explained. Perhaps she got hold of some of Nick Fury's Regeneration Serum?)
...anyway, this time Ilsa's in charge of the harem girls in the palace of a ruthless sheik. She keeps them in line with regular beatings and torture while dabbling in a little human trafficking on the side. However, her loyalty is put to the test when a studly envoy from the U.S. arrives -- supposedly to discuss oil rights with the sheik, but he's really there to bring about a regime change.
This one's not quite as horrifically sick as the original "Ilsa" -- you (probably) won't feel like you need a shower when it's over -- but there's still plenty of over the top scenes of violence and gore, nudity, humiliation and sleaze.
The people who made the "Ilsa" movies definitely had some issues, but hey, I watched it, so I guess I have issues too. (Shrugs)

"Beware of Mr. Baker" (2012)

The recent passing of Cream/Blind Faith drum legend Ginger Baker led me to check out this 2012 documentary about him, which details his long and interesting career as one of the most influential and in-demand rock and jazz drummers of his generation... even though by all accounts he was a completely miserable bastard to pretty much everyone he ever came into contact with. Lots of cool stories and comments from friends and fans like Eric Clapton, Lars Ulrich, Neil Peart, Jack Bruce, and many more. An interesting profile of a unique individual.

Monday Night Raw

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks" (1976)

Dyanne Thorne returns as the blonde, stacked-n-sexy sadist in this pseudo-sequel to "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS," which takes place in an unnamed Middle Eastern country in the '70s present day. (How Ilsa wound up in this part of the world, apparently without aging a day, is never explained. Perhaps she got hold of some of Nick Fury's Regeneration Serum?)
...anyway, this time Ilsa's in charge of the harem girls in the palace of a ruthless sheik. She keeps them in line with regular beatings and torture while dabbling in a little human trafficking on the side. However, her loyalty is put to the test when a studly envoy from the U.S. arrives -- supposedly to discuss oil rights with the sheik, but he's really there to bring about a regime change.
This one's not quite as horrifically sick as the original "Ilsa" -- you (probably) won't feel like you need a shower when it's over -- but there's still plenty of over the top scenes of violence and gore, nudity, humiliation and sleaze.
The people who made the "Ilsa" movies definitely had some issues, but hey, I watched it, so I guess I have issues too. (Shrugs)

The original Ilsa flick is sick and sleazy even by my standards.

So of course I own it. Along with just about every other notoriously sick and sleazy flick.

Since we're talking about Ilsa, I just need to make sure all the sadist filmwatchers around here have seen the infamous Salo or 120 Days of Sodom. For me Ilsa takes the #2 spot in terms of disgust and shock.

Salo has been my #1 and I doubt it'll ever be moved from that spot. Genuinely an unnervingly (and well-directed!) journey through shame and cruelty with no purpose to serve, all with an arthouse flavor. It deserves its recognition in exploitation cinema (hell, if you wanna even call it that).

corplhicks wrote:

Since we're talking about Ilsa, I just need to make sure all the sadist filmwatchers around here have seen the infamous Salo or 120 Days of Sodom. For me Ilsa takes the #2 spot in terms of disgust and shock.

Salo has been my #1 and I doubt it'll ever be moved from that spot. Genuinely an unnervingly (and well-directed!) journey through shame and cruelty with no purpose to serve, all with an arthouse flavor. It deserves its recognition in exploitation cinema (hell, if you wanna even call it that).

Yep!  I own that one too!  The Criterion version no less.

And before anyone asks, yes I also own the director's cut of "A Serbian Film".

I've read enough about "Salo" and "Serbian Film" over the years to know that I want nothin' to do with either one. I watch movies to be entertained, not scarred for life... haha

Anywho, on topic:
"The Rig" (2010)

While the crew of an offshore oil rig deals with a raging tropical storm outside, they're being picked off one by one by a pissed off undersea carnivore that was disturbed by their drilling.
This monster flick has a promising (though not terribly original) premise and a cool setting, but it's slow moving, talky and the creature FX are unimpressive at best.
AVOID.

Survival of the Dead(2009)-George Romero's sixth and last installment of his Dead series has a small group of National Guardsmen traveling to a small island off the coast of Delaware in order to try to get away from the zombie outbreak. Upon arriving, they discover that two families that live on the island are at war over the zombies-one wanting to destroy them and the other wanting to protect them because they believe the zombies are of God's will. With a mixture of undead horror and some minor humor, this film comes no where near the greatness of the early Romero zombie films, some of which are some of my all time favorite movies. As a film that was made late into Romero's career and life I found the movie to be watchable, but little more than that as I felt the series had run out of gas at this point. I'll be kind and give it 2 out of 5.

Barney Miller

Smackdown

Parks And Recreation
The Office

Required Fields wrote:

Second time? You must like it. I really want to see that flick but I'll wait until it's available on blu ray.

tohostudios wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Since we're talking about Ilsa, I just need to make sure all the sadist filmwatchers around here have seen the infamous Salo or 120 Days of Sodom. For me Ilsa takes the #2 spot in terms of disgust and shock.

Salo has been my #1 and I doubt it'll ever be moved from that spot. Genuinely an unnervingly (and well-directed!) journey through shame and cruelty with no purpose to serve, all with an arthouse flavor. It deserves its recognition in exploitation cinema (hell, if you wanna even call it that).

Yep!  I own that one too!  The Criterion version no less.

And before anyone asks, yes I also own the director's cut of "A Serbian Film".

Fat Freddy wrote:

I've read enough about "Salo" and "Serbian Film" over the years to know that I want nothin' to do with either one. I watch movies to be entertained, not scarred for life... haha

I dunno about Serbian Film--the subject matter is abhorrent but the way they film it is so slick and polished that all the shock is kind of zapped out of it. I mean, it's gross--but not soul-sulking gross like Salo. Salo is just fucked up.

Salo is just too artsy-fartsy for me.  It's gross but there's so much time spent on trying to justify the grossness that I get bored with it.  

I've only watched it twice and the last time was a long time ago so maybe I need to watch it again to see if my opinion will change

And I agree with your assessment of A Serbian Film; the cinematography is outstanding and to me that makes what I'm watching even more horrific.

Been watching the final season of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

"Madison County" (2012)

College kids researching for their senior thesis visit a small, backwoods town famed for an unsolved murder years before. When they start poking into the mystery, they encounter unfriendly locals and eventually meet an axe-wielding slasher in a pig mask.
Predictable hillbilly horror that takes forever to get anywhere and doesn't have a single original idea.
AVOID.

Uninvited (1988)



A mutant cat escapes from a laboratory and makes its way aboard a criminal's yacht on it's way to the Cayman islands in this stinker. Laughable creature effects and toward the end of the film the yacht is clearly a toy. Somehow they got George Kennedy, Alex Ford and Clu Gulager to play in this. Saving grace is the 2 hot babes scantily clad throughout the picture.

"Time Bandits" (1981)

A bored English school kid joins a troop of time traveling dwarves who've stolen a map of "holes" in the fabric of the universe -- and are using them to grab valuables from throughout history. In their travels they meet Napoleon, Robin Hood, King Agamemnon, and eventually the Supreme Evil, who of course has his own nefarious plans for the map.
Terry (Monty Python) Gilliam's imaginative fantasy flick is very strange, but it's certainly never dull, with lots of charming old-school special effects and loaded with Gilliam's trademark cool/bizarre visuals and set designs. I hadn't seen this flick since I was a kid and I had loads of fun revisiting it.

"The Banana Splits Movie" (2019)


The vaguely-creepy late 60s Saturday morning kids' show gets an appropriately horrific 21st century reboot courtesy of SyFy.

In honor of their youngest son's birthday, a dysfunctional family attends a live taping of the long running "Banana Splits Show." Unbeknownst to the studio audience, however, the program is about to be cancelled...which overloads the animatronic "Splits" characters' prime directive ("the show must go on") and pushes them into murderous overdrive. Predictable, silly mayhem ensues.

...our pal Toho didn't dig this one at all, but I thought it was dumb, gory fun. For best results, keep your expectations low and watch it with a few beers in you.