Change Your Image
Otter1107
Reviews
He's Out There (2018)
Fantastic, immersive atmospheric horror film with bite!
My wife watched this on a whim yesterday. We liked Yvonne Strahovski from CHUCK and gave it a try. From the beginning, it drew you in with its hypnotic cinematography and musical score. The children acted like REAL children would act, as would Ms.Strahovski as the mother. The masked killer was almost superhuman but still psychotically sympathetic. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for a cool Fall night!
Yang Zi Jiang te yi hao (1971)
Not what you'd expect from a "secret agent" movie...
Since I am a fan of spy & secret agent movies, I heard about this one and found the DVD rather inexpensively online. The American title for this was "Secret Agent Chungking 001" and it looked like it might be good. I was expecting a fast moving, taut and full of shooting and gadgets spy movie along the lines of the "Key Of Keys" Japanese spy movies with lots of shootouts, double crosses, fancy gadgets and sexy women. What I got was completely the antithesis of a "secret agent" movie.
The film starts out with the assassination of a Japanese general, and you come to find out that this film takes place during World War II in a small village with some freedom fighters who are trying to overthrow their Japanese overlords. This film is very slow, and there's very little action in the film. There's even a moment that could have had some serious martial arts action, but the actors did not seem to be trained in it and just kicked and punched at each other randomly with no rhyme or reason. It's more of an anti-Japanese propaganda film than a "secret agent" film. The DVD also has English subtitles burned into the film, which is very distracting when the white subtitles are projected against a white or light background. Another infuriating thing about the subtitles is that the are only on the screen for a split second, so sometimes it's very difficult to make out the translation of the dialogue. The letterbox format is also very tight, and there's no way to adjust the zoom without cutting off some of the dialogue.
As far as the "gadgets", there is a trapdoor, a hidden wall, and an alarm panel that almost looks ahead of its time for the 1940's. The acting is fair to melodramatic at times, and it's really more of a human interest drama than a spy film, even though one of the "agents" calls himself "Chungking 007".
All in all, it's definitely a pass to buy, and not even worth a look on YouTube.
Murder University (2012)
Murda Cum Laude !
I got to see this movie at its premiere in Rhode Island. I've seen several of Griffin's films and thought they were above average at best, but since seeing ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION, EXHUMED and MURDER UNIVERSITY I can happily say that this director has approached his apex.
MURDER U starts off in a sleepy little Rhode Island town, but soon the blood begins to flow. Josh (Jamie Dufault) starts classes at this college, but try as he may, he just doesn't fit in and cannot find his niche among the student body. Even his teachers bully him mercilessly.
Eventually, Josh gets embroiled in a murder cult, and coeds end up becoming co-DEADS. A detective who once was involved in investigating this cult shows up on the scene, along with his fetching daughter. No one is safe from this cult, whether it be student or administration at the school.
Jamie Dufault plays the wide-eyed naive student Josh with believability and sincerity, and you feel like you are in his shoes when he is confronted with the brutality going on everywhere around him. Michael Thurber is the weary-worn jaded detective "Forrester" who teams up with Josh to try to stop this cult. Samantha Acampora plays Forrester's daughter Meg, who rounds out this "Massacre, Inc" group of crime solvers with a perfect balance of smarts, snarks, and grace.
The pace of this film is as fast and panicked pulse, and will grab you out of nowhere and shake you. This film is a perfect homage to the plastic clam-shelled VHS horror/slasher films from the 1980's and would be a perfect addition to any horror fan's collection.
The Green Hornet (2011)
What a steaming pile of celluloid dung: The Green Horsesh*t.
I'm cleansing my palate right now by watching my DVDs of the original series.*cleans his front teeth with his tongue*
Originally, I had decided not to see this movie, but I was drawn to the movie theater after a bad day, and saw a good friend of mine (who's a big Green Hornet and Batman fan) taking his son to see it, and I thought it must be fate: so, I decided to go into it expecting the worse and hope that it would get better.
I knew that Britt Reid is supposed to be a party boy until his father died, but then had a revelation to straight his life out and fight crime. The thing is, he DIDN'T straighten out his life; he just did this as a adrenaline rush and to have fun. The character did not GROW through the film, except to GROW more annoying through the entire film.
The ONLY saving grace was Jay Chou, who played Kato and The Black Beauty. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!)They ACTUALLY made District Attorney Frank Scanlon a VILLAIN!!!!! He's supposed to be one of the GOOD guys!
Now, people know I'm a Green Hornet purist, and I wouldn't have minded if it was a TRUE action comedy, but it wasn't even truly a comedy. Seth Rogen's portrayal of Britt Reid was an egotistic, immature, inadequate, loudmouthed,ungrateful,lecherous crybaby. He was EXTREMELY unlikeable, as much as I really tried to like him. He didn't grow or mature through the entire movie, until one scene in the movie, and then he went back to his dopey persona. I hope that Columbia dismisses him from the sequel entirely so they can have a fresh start with the character and "smarten him up" a lot more.
Yilmayan Seytan (1972)
Yilmayan Seytan? It's the Turkish Remake of the serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan from the 1940's
A friend of mine gave this to me recently, and he said it was like a Turkish Santo movie. When I started watching it, I was very happy to see it was a shot for shot remake (mostly) of the Republic serial, "The Mysterious Dr. Satan. Now, that serial is absolutely one of my favorites, because of the characters involved. Sure, there's no Sherlock Holmes goofy wannabe, or sexy topless women, but mostly, the Turkish remake was some goofy fun. There were some scenes that were copied almost EXACTLY from the serial, DOWN to even stealing some music and SCENES from the original as inserts on TV screens that the characters are watching! All in all, a good silly movie you can put on to entertain your drunk friends at a party.
Maciste contro i Mongoli (1963)
It's not Hercules, it's Maciste...
Or as the Mystery Science Theater guys say, "Ma-cheese-steak". To cash in on the Hercules phenomenon, there were several offshoots that were called "The Sons Of Hercules", most notably being Maciste. Maciste even showed up during the witch trial in England during "The Witch's Curse", which also starred Mark Forest. A few years ago, TNT showed a 12 hour "Herc-A-Thon", and a lot of these "Sons of Hercules" movies were shown during it. If you like campy Muscleman/Sword and Sandal/Gladiator/Conan type movies, then these are a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon trying to create drinking games and making fun of the Styrofoam tree trunks and boulders. Check this site for more Maciste and Son of Hercules movies!
L'anticristo (1974)
The BEST of the Euro-Trash Exorcism flicks !
The Tempter is a great cheesy devil flick; it rates right up there with The Eerie Midnight Horror Show and House of Exorcism ! Cheesy effect, but some great shock value ! The mix of out of work American actors, funky clothes, and some great gross out effects make this one worthwhile. Most of the Italian Horror flicks of the time were cheesy, but worth some great laughs. There are some great creepy and blasphemous scenes in this flick, including some nudity and crazy stuff! A lot of these flicks were very melodramatic and I think added to the movie. Some great visuals and interesting symbolism make this movie a great one to throw on at parties and yuk it up! Highly recommended !