242 Room 237 2012

★★★½


Nominally about The Shining/Kubrick, but actually about the delusions, wishful thinking and how some people can invest so much time on energy on a fleeting fancy. We have a number of different theories, expressed by disembodied voices of real people, about what The Shining is really about. We go through native American genocide, faked moon landings, the Holocaust, the minotaur, Kubrick's obsession with subliminal sex messages, the "impossible window", how Kubrick has planted imagery and messages about a variety of things (rich vs poor, hexagon closing around Danny etc), and whilst this is fun to watch, a lot of the marvelling is about how can these people spend so much time and energy on such a slight set of evidence.

I laughed to myself when one voice talked about how Danny walking towards room 237 was symbolic of going to the moon, as the Keyfob had on it "ROOM No 237", and he said the only words you can make out of the upper case letters "R-O-O-M-N' are "moon" and "room" suggesting this is the "moon room". It occurred to me, you can also make the word "MORON".

243 Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster 1964

★★★½


Very enjoyable Kaiju with some fun fights between Godzilla and Rodan firstly, then a threeway between them and Mothra (in caterpillar form), and finally the real smackdown begins when Ghodirah lumps in.

This was very enjoyable, especially the first section of Ghidorah levelling buildings. The Ghidorah outfit looked pretty good and the effects seemed better than usual, but there was the usual goofy fights too. And as ever with these kaijus, they test your patience somewhat while you wait for the monsters.

whoops I haven't updated this in 20+ movies... I'll post them all together shortly.

Hardware 1990

★★★


Acceptable post-apocalypse story mashup of Blade Runner, Terminator with a touch of Alien (and, unfortunately, a touch of Johnny 5 when we see the robot in midshot rather than bits of it), I enjoyed it well enough for its energy, and the world it was recreating was somewhat Dredd-like. Not very scary and a little incoherent in places, but fine enough for the running time.


Planet of the Apes 1968

★★★★★


Wow, watching this film again, I'm blown away again. It really shouldn't work, it should be laughable and cornball, but this nails it.

If any film was made that suggests, even impels you to wonder on, a mythology that needs further exploration and expansion, it's this one.

Charlton Heston is so damn magnificent it makes you want to cry.


What's Up, Tiger Lily? 1966

★★½


This used to be funnier, but time makes it look really goofy and corny in places, though there's enough Allen wit to keep your interest. He even had to do inserts of himself sometimes commenting on the movie, or dropping in sections with The Lovin Spoonful playing, and a strip tease at the end.

Marginally funny, was funnier in the 70s and 80s.


Beneath the Planet of the Apes 1970

★★★½


I vacillate between thinking this is the worst in the original series because it's through and through stupid, to thinking it might be top 2 because it's so insanely trippy, with more ideas than the average 5 season TV series, it's so dementedly terrific, with James Franciscus being a Heston mini-me and the ultraviolence and mad imagery of crucified upside down apes and a giant bleeding statue, not to mention graphic machine gunning dead of various actors, all in a PG certificate movie. And what about ghastly mutants who worship an atomic bomb as their god, and pull their faces off during that worship. In a PG movie. And the black guy (charmingly credited as 'negro') being impaled on spiked bars. In a PG movie.

And that view can change night to night.

I don't feel godlike enough to rate this movie properly , to be honest. So I'll go with a wishy-washy 3.5

Escape from the Planet of the Apes 1971

★★★½


Despite the low production values and holey plot (the equivalent to Guantanamo Bay in this movie is guarded by two old, inept guards), I enjoyed this movie. I liked the flipping of the coin in this entry of making the apes the fish out of water in this one, and the first half of the movie is played for laughs. The second half is much, much grimmer, but what helps to make this film really work are the great performances from Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall. You just like these two characters.

But, you know, you just wish Zira would stop blabbing so much.


Conquest of the Planet of the Apes 1972

★★★★


A grim and brutal movie, with extremely graphic sequences of beatings, torture, men burning alive, and people being beaten to death...and this was a PG... oh, those kooky 70s....

Very enjoyable and thrilling movie, despite the fact they seem to have about 2 external shooting locations. It maintains a certain style that you may not notice at first...every ape (except Caesar at the very beginning) is in a uniform set of clothes, every human in wearing nothing but black, and the world is a brutal, fascist place. The violence and sheer pace of the movie helps it nurse its tiny budget well, and it does have a grand central performance by Roddy McDowell.

Probably the best one since the first one, depending on how you feel towards beneath...


Battle for the Planet of the Apes 1973

★★½


By far the least interesting and exciting of the sequels, nevertheless it still has some points of interest. Roddy McDowell excels as Caesar, and I thought the characters played by Paul Williams and Austin Stoker were very watchable, but the script is lacklustre and mundane, and the whole thing lacks the energy of the others. The last 15 minutes - the climax of the battle and Caesar dealing with Aldo - are very nice with some proper cinematic elements (the chanting 'ape has killed ape' and the tree-confrontation in particular), but the proceeding 70 minutes don't really spark, other than setting up the proto future civilisation.


The Devils 1971

★★★★★


PURE UNCUT CINEMA.

Amazing, enthralling, sickening, redemptive.

The Devils is an absolute masterpiece of pure cinema, and Ken Russell's crowning glory. When I hear people complementing Jodowosky (praise he deserves for a few movies, mind you), I think 'ah, his stuff is almost as good as The Devils', and I think that's a compliment.

Reed was never more masculine and outstanding, as the vain, sinning Grandier who becomes the righteous, noble and pure whilst the ridiculous circus is played out around him.

And the cast...Vanessa Redgrave and Dudley Sutton are particularly outstanding.

A glorious movie that does not age a day.


Gamera 1965

★★½


A retread of Godzilla in the main, but a lot of focus on a kid called Kenny, and Gamera seems more oriented to being kiddy-friendly. Some of it was fun, but it had very long stretches of nothing happening.


The Man from Earth 2007

★★★


A simple tale that actually plays more like a play than a movie - a set of characters talking in one place. Sometimes it has a feel of a Twilight Zone episode, probably because the writer Jerome Bixby wrote for TZ, and there's some in jokes as well when they talk about Star Trek - Bixby wrote an episode of Star Trek about an immortal, and apparently the story was so appealing to him, it eventually lead to this film.

Sometimes a bit platitudinous, but worth a single watch.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure 1985

★★★★½


Burton and Paul Reubens ts it out of the park with this one, and the great thing about it is it doesn't pander. Pee Wee is often a bit of a dick, and there are jokes riffing on Pee Wee as a woman, Hitchcockian thriller elements (the horror of Pee Wee why he first finds his bike stolen and his initial obsession about finding it feeling a bit like Vertigo; large Marge), witty jokes about Texas and the Alamo, and Pee Wees speech about being a loner, a rebel.

FANTASTIC.


Hot Fuzz 2007

★★★½

Very fun. Not quite as good as Shaun if the Dead, but close.


Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011

★★★★

Rather fine blockbuster, with some great plotting (with enormous plot holes, admittedly) and an impelling central performance from Serkis. Packs in a solid storyline, action, and emotion, and the story continues in a significant way during the end credits.

Hot Shots! 1991

★★★★

Fun comedy with so many jokes you just don't mind the few duds. Sheen and Lloyd Bridges are particularly fine, and no joke is milked too much. Favourite part: Topper's landing at the end.

Hot Shots! Part Deux 1993

★★★★

Very solid comedy, this time making fun of Rambo, by way of Apocalpyse Now, Star Wars, T2 and Wizard of Oz. Favourite moment: Miguel Ferrer, telling us "War. It's fantastic!"

A fine piece of entertainment.


Flash Gordon 1980

★★★★


This is just a hell of a lot of fun, forget logic or sensible plotting, this is pulp scifi at its finest, with some excellent turns from Max Von Sydow, Brian Blessed, Timothy Dalton, and, yes, Sam J Jones.

And Queen.


The War of the Gargantuas 1966

★★★½

Fun Kaiju that does take a bit of time to get going, but benefits from the monsters have less constraining than usual costumes, giving the action a bit more zip. Very colourful, with some nice musical cues, would watch again.

Eight Legged Freaks 2002

★★★½

Very fun B-movie monster flick, channelling old monster movies like THEM! And TARANTULA through the filter of GREMLINS and TREMORS. The cgi has dated some, but the wit and energy have not.


Planet of the Apes 2001

★

Ah, Damn you. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!


Big Trouble in Little China 1986

★★★★

A big, fun genre mashup that feels partly a parody of, partly a homage to, Indiana Jones, that's lively, funny, witty and silly. Kurt Russell delivers some great B movie lines like a champ.



#264. The Wild Geese 1978

★★★

Boys own mission movie that has too many non-mission subplots and takes a little too long to start the training and mission in Africa (ie the good stuff), but is very fun when it gets to Africa (if you don't mind the vaguely racist tone and sledgehammered political message crowbarred in), but it's fun to see more heavyweight actors of all kind machine gunning bad guys by the droves.

I was hoping you wouldn't give up this blog!

Jack Burton: When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

Are you ready, Jack?

I was born ready.

265 The Borderlands 2013

★★★½ Watched 22 Jul, 2014


Rather good found-footage movie, trading quite well on that strain of British horror that evokes the pagan/countryside motifs and sensibilities, as seen in the recent Ben Wheatley movies Kill List and A Field in England. There's even a joke about the original Wicker Man, when a disgruntled Gray says to a silent and odd old man who won't give them directions 'Well, have fun with Edward Woodward!'

This works well because 2 of the main characters, Gray and Deacon, are shown at first being antagonistic, but slowly becoming friends during the course of the movie. It has its creepy moments, but isn't very scary, but its this central friendship that engages you most.

Not sure I like the ending, but I do think at least it stayed within the framework of the movie and didn't cop out in that respect.

266 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014

★★★★


Rather fine blockbuster, which is riveting whenever apes are on screen, and merely diverting when it's just humans.

The plot is way less packed with story than Rise, but that's not to say it lacks a story narrative drive or direction - you know the inevitable will happen long before it does, because at least one major character can never be happy with peace between apes and humans.

There's some nice callbacks to the initial series (this movie borrows a lot from Conquest and Battle, but there are also references or hints from Beneath and Escape, too), and some of the CGI is breathtakingly good - but some will clearly not age well (the baby chimp is particularly flawed, but there are some action scenes that just look weightless and wrong too), but otherwise the drama and action work well and counterpoint each other well.

Am looking forward to number 3 in this run of POTA.

267 Grave Encounters 2011

★★


The first half engaged me quite a bit, I was caught up in it, because the acting and premise was pretty solid. I also occasionally watch these ghosthunting TV shows it was playing off against, and it was amusing to see the psychic being obviously an act. The first half was a solid 7 for me.

However, when it got properly supernatural, and a little Silent Hill-lite, it really lost me, and I did find myself wishing it would just hurry up and finish by the end.

It was a shame, cos the cast was wasted - like I said, I thought the acting of the groundcrew (not so much the big cheese at base, the gardener, the caretaker etc) was very nice, and these characters were cast and played well.

Shame it just got stupid for the last half.

268 We're the Millers 2013

★★★


A decent enough movie that was written with some heart, but not a huge number of laughs. I rather liked all the members of the family, and the whole dynamic built and built nicely to the end, with some extraneous plotting (Jennifer Aniston doing a flashdance-type strip to prove to a killer she's a stripper, anyone?), but also some rather funny parts involving the other RV family and their sexual boredom/yearning to try new things.

269 Heartbreak Ridge 1986

★★★


This is not a great film. Most of the dialogue is poor, the characters are clichéd and crudely drawn, and the plotting is appallingly obvious. Even the action scenes aren't great in the last act.

But hell, Clintwood kicks ass as Gunny Highway. He's great to watch as he growls through the dialogue, and gets his terrible soldiers into decent shape, and not taking **** from pencil-necked officers. The film 1 give 1/5 as it is, but Eastwood adds 2 more all by himself.

270 Mad Max 1979

★★★★


This movie is not one to visit after Road Warrior, try and see it before. It contains long stretches of slightly inept character development and human drama, and can feel a little slow and contrived with some overbearing music cues, but hell the exploitation elements are great. This (and its more famous sequel Road Warrior) is in many ways almost as inspirational a movie as Night of the Living Dead, in that so much post-apocalypse movie material and indeed carsploitation is very heavily influenced by it.

George Miller lacks a little in his directing of humans in this (he does get better at that), but man can this guy direct action, especially car-based action.

Then movie also has some great-named characters: Bubba Zunetti, The Toecutter, and Knightrider.

271 House 1986

★½


A bit of a mess, not scary enough to be horror, not funny enough to be comedy. You could almost watch it alongside Evil Dead 2 to see a 'how not to do it' and 'how to do it' for schooling in 'comedy-horror in a possessed house' class.

To be honest, I wanted to see House 2 again, and thought I'd check the first one out before I revisited that one.

272 Godzilla vs. Monster Zero 1965

★★★½


King Ghidorah, aliens that look like a cross between the guys in Planet of the Vampires and Agent Smith, Godzilla and Rodan being dragged through space in plasma-eggs, Godzilla doing a jig, evil laughs, water shortage, goofy flying saucers, and some nice modelwork.

What the hell do you want more from a movie?

273 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 1992 - DELETED/EXTENDED SCENES

★★★★


THIS IS NOT A REVIEW OF FIRE WALK WITH ME, but rather a review of the extra scenes of deleted/extended elements from the movie that are part of the new boxset 'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery'. This is 91 minutes of extra material.

There are some scenes in here that are of interest only because Lynch directed them, and Lynch has a wonderful eye. Examples are David Bowie appearing in the FBI offices, Chris Isaac fistfighting a surly sheriff, and Laura and Donna talking. Others step it up a notch and are more impactful and memorable... Donna and Laura driving in night with two guys, Chris Isaac interrogating an old guy while weird electrical discharges disrupt the sight and hearing... then there is a level of the real interesting stuff. More scenes in the Black Lodge, some details about Annie, and most impactful of all, a scene that means everything or nothing to a Twin Peaks fan, but probably the most memorable element of this set - Laura losing herself as she looks up at a rotating ceiling fan.

Try and see this soon if you're a TP fan.

274 Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 1981

★★★★★


Superbly put together white-heat blast of a movie, with so much action, wit, excitement, action, cool shots, fine bookending monologues/montages, action, and action it makes almost everything else look tame. The inspiration for dozens of Italian ripoffs and computer games, and even with all that, pretty much peerless.

It is so long since I saw either of the Mad Max's you have previewed.
How do you think Road Warrior stacks up as a dsytopian vision vs say Blade Runner?

Oh, I think Road Warrior is more influential that Blade Runner. Blade Runner influences many. many movies and books. Whilst Road Warrior influences movies, books, video games, TV. See the recent TV series Dominion, for example, or the Fallout games, or Borderlands games.

275 House 2: The Second Story

★★★½

Very goofy comedy-horror involving a crystal skull (don't be put off by that, it's better than the *other* Crystal Skull movie), time portals, zombie cowboys, pterodactyls, douchebag music exec, and the cutest dog/caterpillar hybrid you've ever seen.

A horror movie for kids, fun, with a Bill and Ted vibe.

276 A Hard Day's Night 1964

★★★★½

Dynamic, fun, inventive, and showing the Beatles at their charming best.
A groundbreaking film.

277 Hercules 2014

★★★½

About as good as you can expect, with some rollicking adventures with the Rock doing a good Hercules. Nice action, story, characterisation, with a slightly more polished script than you often get in these types of movies.

The last act was pure Conan, which makes me hope they make a solid blood and guts Conan movie with The Rock, rather than that uncharismatic guy they used for the last Conan movie.

278 Graveyard Shift 1990

★★½


Not a great monster movie, as the characters aren't very likeable or memorable, the lighting and direction are pedestrian, and the creature isn't very scary. However, there's a few notable things:

The main foreman comes across like a kind of cut-price Clancey Brown (not a bad thing in and of itself), who has the oddest accent. I thought he was going for Cajun at first, then a very strong Maine accent, but New York kept in too. Still no idea.

Creature effects were gooey, but not great.

Best thing was Brad Dourif as an obsessed exterminator, coming across like the Quint from Jaws equivalent for rats. That was fun.

279 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 1985

★★★½


Whilst the middle section of the movie involving the tribe of kids really drags down the pace, the first and third act are pretty fine. The first section in Bartertown in particular stands out as the best part of the movie, with impressive costuming, music, characterisation and general world-building. Tina Turner and the guy playing ironbar are particular standouts.

It's just nowhere near as great as Max Max or Road Warrior.