#362 Dead Snow 2 2014

★★★½

I felt a bit antithetical to this at first, as the first was a blast, and the opening looked like they were trying to force the world it created to expand in silly ways...but hell did I enjoy it. The action was silly, intense, fun and overall, I had a blast with it.

Disengage brain, and enjoy.

#363 At The Earth's Core 1976

★★★

A goofy fun movie with dodgy rubber monsters including psychic bird/reptiles who fly just like an overweight bloke on a rope, a fire-breathing giant from with fangs that explodes when it lands after a fall, and Peter Cushing with a bow and arrow.

Rather fun though cheap Rice Burroughs mayhem, that clearly earns at least 2 or its 3 points for Caroline Munro's magnificent sweat-drenched cleavage, Peter Cushing delivering the line "You can't mesmerize me, I'm Brittish!" and the end shot. I also liked the way they conveyed the power of the psychic birdmen with a tone and a blink, though it was a little overused

Though i don't think the productions were connected, the subhuman slaves of the Birdmen looked just like the bad guys in Battle Beyond the Stars.

Fun.

#364 Halloween III: Season of the Witch 1982

★★

I remembered this film fondly but haven't seen it since the mid eighties, this was a bit of a disappointment. The good thing about it was the crazy ideas, the main bad guy and some of the special effects, but the film was flat, dreary and protracted. It was very meta to see the original Halloween movie on the TV.

This must have been a hell of a shock to those expecting more Michael Myers.

#365 American Graffiti 1973

★★★½

This must have blown their minds in the 70s with its stunning recreation of the 50s - I have no doubt this would have made some people sick with nostalgia.

It's a fun movie, that meanders a long and keeps a loving eye on the cars, the clothes and the sounds of that era, in a really vivid and vibrant way, helped my the great characters and always-moving backdrops.

On the downside, the movie is a little overlong, and I was flagging in the last 20 minutes or so, but overall it was a nice movie to revisit - every 10 years or so.

#366 Godzilla's Revenge 1969

★★★

Well, I've read a lot of complaints about how it's just recycling endless footage of old Godzilla movies, but hell, I enjoyed it. The whole 'it's a dream' aspect was very goofy, and was everything involving Godzilla's offspring (which was most of the movie) but I enjoyed it anyway, even though I'd seen an awful lot of the footage elsewhere.

The kid was annoying and also there was a section where the kid was tied up by crooks where his shorts looked like hotpants(!), but it cracked along at a fair pace, and didn't outstay its welcome.

I did see a not suggesting this was perhaps the worst Godzilla movie, which made me smile...if that's the case, I reckon the worst Godzilla movie is better than the best Gamera movie.

#367 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 1988

★★½

Seemed very mundane in the first 2 acts, and the storyline was very, very contrived. There was some good shots, scene composition and use of music.

However, it really started to pick up an hour in, and the last act was pretty solid. The little girl actress was very, very good, and the faceoff between The Shape and The Law was good. The ending ending was goofy.

#368 Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers 1989

★★★

A very weak first half with goofy cops and associated silly music, unlikeable female friends and their unspeakable boyfriends, and some rather convoluted plotting make it all very flat, but the second half picks up significantly, and is much more engaging, helpled a lot by the strong performance of the little girl giving a feeling of real peril.

#369 The Land Before Time 1988

★★★★

Charming animated movie that engages the emotions and has a very sweet and satisfying ending.

#370 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers 1995

★½

Yeah, this is really pretty poor, with only the mad ideas throughout making it even worth watching. Some parts are just hard to follow, and it's just perplexing what happened in the film series timeline between the end of 5 and the start of this one (more detail would mean a spoiler)

Donald Pleasance is obviously finding this very hard going (he's trying, but you can tell his energy has gone), and it just feels incoherent.

There was a few nice shots framed and set up is about the best I can say about it, and the music worked okay. Some scenes were good, but overall it's an incoherent mess.

#371 Attack of the Monsters 1969

★★

aka Gamera vs Gurion, this is probably better than all the Gamera movies that came before it, but that's not saying much.

The knife-headed monster is cool, the attack of the knife-headed monster on the flying laser-breath monster at the beginning is very entertaining and brutal, and the action scenes are probably as good as Gamera movies get at this point.

The really, really terrible dubbing was ridiculously bad though, and the weird cute alien girls with light-swirling belts and antenna was very goofy. I nearly made it through a whole hour without getting bored!

#372 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later 1998

★★★½

Rock solid entry into the Halloween series, and in my opinion the second best in the series to this point. Competent, tense, exciting, and ringing true, the whole PTSD thing with Laurie feels right and something not often explored in Horror movies - The Aftermath.

They made the right decision to just jettison everything from 4,5 and 6, and just jump from 2 to this for Laurie Strode, and was fully engaging - though not as outright bonkers as 3,4,5 and 6.

#373 Halloween: Resurrection 2002

★★½

Well, it started pretty well, with a Flash Gordon-style bit of revisionism recutting the end of the previous one to make this bit of required continuity work, but nonetheless I liked the extended prologue that resolved the long-standing relationship between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie is pretty terrible. Katee Sackhoff shines but most of the rest of the movie is quite dire. There's plenty of annoying choppy video a la Blair Witch, dismal lighting, annoying nerd types that really, really need to die by Michael's hands who seem to end up as observers, and various other annoying setups and characters.

Having said that, it has its moments. I particularly like the fake Michael Myers getting cross with the real Michael Myers, the kung fu battling, and Myers emerging through a mirror/window reflection to pull a guy in.

Otherwise, nah.

#374 Godzilla vs. Hedorah 1971

★★★★

I haven't seen this in many years, but I remember it being okay-ish.

I was wrong, I think this is possibly my favourite Toho Godzilla movie so far in the series with the exception of King Kong Vs Godzilla. It was whacky, psychodelic, and just mad in places, but it was also good fun. The cinematography was pretty good, and the monster designs have really got good at this point. I also enjoyed the music.

Highlight: Godzilla flying, and then completely ripping apart Hedorah.

#375 Top Gun 1986

★★★★

It's shallow, corny, trite and supremely superficial, but hell it's terrific. It's got that 80s brashness that shines through and sticks in the memory, plus some great fighter-plane porn, and these stick in the memory much much longer than the tedious sections full of angst and emo, thank goodness.

A great movie that is so great is makes its gaping flaws seem little in comparison

#376 Halloween 2007

★★★

An interesting attempt to redo the original Halloween with some decent acting, though it doesn't start promisingly. The Myers family are the most unloveable bunch you could meet. The only trouble is the material isn't suited to 2 hours, it's suited to 90 minutes tops, and it wore out its entertainment quota well before the end.

Not entirely without merit, but would have worked way better with 30 minutes taken out.

#377 The Stand 1994

★★★½

A 6 hour walk through Stephen King's The Stand, and even at that length, it feels like a rush-through.

It does suffer from TV cheesiness - some of the acting feels more TV than movie, and this story is epic enough to be a movie - and some of the scenes really only have dialogue that is functional, and nothing else because they are cramming in so much and have a lot to get through I guess.

However, what really helps it is the casting. A lot of the main characters are faultless casting - so much so, that I'll just mention the ones that weren't well cast... Larry, Randall Flagg, and Harold - and even these weren't bad, just not quite right. Harold in particular wasn't written right in my opinion, changing him to a very smart guy with people issues into a nerd in essence, and his journey didn't seem convincing - whereas in the book, he's probably the most interesting character.

I will mention that the best casting of all in this was Gary Sinese as Stu Redman - he was superb, but like I said, many of the cast were particularly good.

It was interesting how the last half had a very maudlin feel, rather than horror, but it worked quite well.

#378 Halloween II 2009

★

Oh, this was grim.

The film was a slog. It was graphic and bloody, but had virtually no tension, no likeable characters except the sheriff, and a bizarro story that severely undercut Rob Zombies first Halloween movie which focussed on psychological factors being the creator of Michael Myers the monster (not very well, but hey it was an attempt), whilst this seems to be driven by the tone of the fantastic/paranormal/supernatural.

Horrible.

#379 Witchfinder General 1968

★★★★

A movie absolutely laden with doom, where a man and his partner wander through wartorn England, being paid to torture and kill by town officials... dark, depressing, but electric. We totally understand the young soldier's rage by the end, and see how the banality of evil can grow and prosper in a society that is fundamentally flawed and backward.

A terrific piece of movie-making.

Just don't watch it to lighten your mood.

#380 Young Frankenstein

★★★★★

Superbly classy comedy from Brooks, with Wilder and Feldman in particularly fine form.

Hilarious, charming and timeless.

#381 Congo 1995

★★★½

Been meaning to watch this for many years (I read the book when it came out), and finally got to it.

Okay it has problems. It doesn't know how to a be an action drama, comedy, or any of the other genres it's flirting with, but it sheer bonkers-ness makes it quite endearing. I enjoyed Ernie Hudson and his British accent, the monkey suit/model that was so close to life-like that it felt creepy to look at, Tim Curry trying on every accent available from Eastern Europe and beyond, Bruce Campbell's a little-too-realistic rotting corpse, the gorilla scaring away the big bad monsters with a 7 year old girl's voice, and the laser attack.

Call me easily pleased, I enjoyed it a lot.

#382 Rosemary’s Baby 1968

★★★★★

Stone-cold classic, with Polanski showing a masterful orchestration of isolation, (appropriate) paranoia and tension.

Everything grows slowly, grinding into your consciousness, and you feel what Rosemary feels - and each thing we work out as an audience mostly coincides exactly with Rosemary's realisation, lending her character greater empathy with the audience than if we were privy to things before she realised.

Supreme movie, and to my mind, the archetypal nightmare movie for an attached woman or pregnant woman.

It's been quite a while since I've watched it, but I remember enjoying the heck out of Congo, and for whatever reason I've never forgotten "Amy. want. green-drop. drink"

This has been sitting in my Netflix DVD Queue all year, going to finally move it up the list.

#383 Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby 1976

½

Quite dreadful and so terrible that it makes you truly realise how much about decent film-making is talent.

The lead did have a very Rutger Hauer vibe.

#384 Big Ass Spider! 2013

★★★

A nice, charming B-movie, with a good lead played by that guy that was good in Alias and Heroes, and a nice relationship set up between him and a little Mexican dude whilst battling the large spider.

The CGI was pretty ropey, though at times looked a little Harryhausen (a good thing), and it was wise enough to get through its story fast and not outstay its welcome.

#385 30 Days of Night 2007

★★★½

Solid vampire flick, with the vampires thankfully being nasty, merciless beasts. It scores points for not wasting our time with explanations, and whilst 110 minutes is long for this kind of movie, it fills its time well and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Recommended.