The hype for this movie is through the roof. You're the first person I've heard give anything but a glowing review.

Just watched Black Panther too. While it was entertaining, it almost felt like they were ripping off Iron Man/Batman, as far as using technology/gadgets.

That wasn't my issue with it, and I think it's refreshing to see a black hero who isn't of the Luke Cage/Blade "from the ghetto" variety. My issues come from the generic writing, poor tempo, and horribly filmed action scenes.

When you have one of the fight choreographers from John Wick and you still abuse CG and shaky cam? When you have a cast this exceptional and don't give their words or actions depth beyond lip service? When the most important message being relayed is through a villain that is barely even in half of the movie? I call foul.

It's not terrible, I give it a 6.5/10, but it's not anything close to what it's been hyped as.

Infinity War falls victim to many of the same trappings as other MCU fare - rushed character development in favor of action sequences, one liners undercutting palpable dramatic tension, a general feeling of status quo over risk - but rises above it by tying all of the intersecting arcs and characters together in a way no other MCU entry has since the first Avengers. This was a long-term plan and, unlike most of Phase II or Phase III?

It worked.

This movie took guts. We all know Infinity War 2 is coming down the line, that was known from the get go, but that this movie stacks the odds so heavily in the antagonist's is such a breath of fresh air after so many disappointing villains. I didn't even care for half of the casualties as characters and their collective demise was still a gut punch.

7.5/10

Just watched a newer slasher flick from 2016 called Terrifier. Evil clown chases girl(s) through an abandoned apartment's basement and lots of death and gory stuff happens along the way. This movie is 100% carried by its villain, Art the Clown. Whoever played this character deserves some kind of award, because Art's body language and facial expressions were on point, freaky as hell, and, most importantly, legit scary a lot of the time. He's a slasher villain with a clear personality, and he's entertaining as hell to watch while also wishing you never end up in a room alone with him, and the gore in the movie is a testament to that. It's all practical effects, and there's just as much blood and guts and dismemberment and faces being caved in and people being cut in half with a hacksaw while still alive and women being flayed, scalped, and having the skin of their chests worn like a shirt as you'd want in one of these types of movies. It also has a fairly interesting visual style for a slasher movie, as it's very clear the director was inspired by the ultra digital, neon saturation of films like Drive and The Neon Demon. It's not totally that way all the time, as the stuff in the basement is definitely darker and grittier than the scenes above ground, but it's still obviously going for that Nicolas Refn look even in the basement.

All that good being said, however, I must say that the characters that aren't Art are all complete boneheads who do some of the dumbest, most illogical things I've seen slasher film characters do. Without really giving anything away, at least three characters throughout the movie have several open, obvious instakill spots on Art, and instead of stabbing him in the head or beating him to death with a wooden chair armrest, they just hit him once and run away. Also, one character decides to hide behind the side of a car while Art is chasing her, despite the fact that she's small enough to hide under the car, or she could, I dunno, run into one of the many storage lockers the room this scene takes place in has. Exactly one character does one smart thing in this movie during all the chasing and running and hiding, but even then this character was one of the ones that could have killed Art at least once or twice, but chose not to. There's also some pretty spotty acting throughout, mainly in the form of some really awkward line reads at times. Really the only character in the whole movie that delivers a good performance all the way through is Art, and he doesn't even say a word the whole time.

Overall, it was a pretty good slasher movie, even with its flaws, but part of me wants to think that stuff like the characters being total idiots was intentional, since it's clear that Terrifier is very much inspired by the slasher films of yesteryear, just with a modern, cleaner look and a higher effects budget (they at least got a severed head to not look like a papier-mâché art class project). After a point in the history of slasher films, having relatable, more-than-rocks-in-their-heads characters became much less of a priority over the bad guy being the star of the show, and in Terrifier, the bad guy is without a doubt the star of the show in every possible way. Give it a watch.

7/10

Blade Runner 2049 - I've given the original Blade Runner at least a couple chances, and for me it's a visually impressive movie where I have a difficult time caring about anything that's happening. The sequel produced a similar reaction, and at over 2.5 hours felt drawn out and dull. It's long in the way Tarantino movies are at their worst: full of individual scenes that feel like they needed serious editing. It's probably not a coincidence that Sicario is the least "cerebral" movie I've seen by this director, and the one I enjoyed the most.

I love that movie........whaaa?

For what it's worth, I didn't actually care all that much for the original. Sure, it was highly original, but for me it just seems to drag on forever before it gets intense. And intensity is kinda the only reason I enjoy slasher movies (well, that and the distinctive, endearing camp style the best ones had). At least the remake had that whole "Michael-doing-fucked-up-things-as-a-kid" angle to spice up the first half.

Also, TCM 2 was pure shit, but then the first one is a pretty damn tough act to follow (same also applies to Halloween 2). In this instance, I do happen to think the first one is one of the best horror movies of all time.

Star Trek Beyond - Not being much of a Trek fan, I thought this was OK for the first half. Then at the point when the script got to its "heroes stop reacting, and start ACTING" stage, that Beastie Boys song started playing and the movie completely lost me. I never regained interest. Too bad, because this had some cool looking alien designs.


Re: Halloween II, I don't like the 1978 original much either, and even going into the sequel with low expectations I was surprised how lazy and weak it was. It only managed to be entertaining when it was unintentionally funny, like Loomis' hammy delivery of I shot him six times! or the climax with


IIRC Laurie spends about 2 / 3 of the movie in the hospital bed, and none of the other characters really step up and become a worthy protagonist. Maybe you could argue Loomis is the main character (I haven't watched it in a while so it might play out that way), but that doesn't work for me. I honestly like Malcolm McDowell better in the role, although Rob Zombie's Halloween II sucks for its own reasons.

You want an even worse cut of Rob Zombie's Halloween II? Watch the director's cut. It's got more gore, yeah, but there's also a shitload more cursing (and the original cut was one of the most pointlessly vulgar movies ever made), adds scenes that actually ruin some of the okay stuff in the theatrical version, adds too much more of originally-hilarious-but-now-just-annoying prick Dr. Loomis cashing in on Michael's infamy (and Malcolm McDowell was the only consistently good thing about this crappy movie, but that was in the original cut before they added more stuff to it), there's a lot more of , and the new ending is just complete nonsense, as

It's such a ludicrous, incomprehensible movie that only Rob Zombie could have made it.

At least it's intentionally awful. Zombie didn't want to do it in the first place but was contractually bound, so he made it as lousy as he could.

Actually, I think Rob Zombie is underrated as a director. His version of Halloween got far too much crap from critics, and The Devil's Rejects is a great movie.

I agree. Lords of Salem is actually one hell of a movie...if you edit some scenes a little shorter and get rid of the music video bullshit toward the end.

It's the hipster-ish thing to say, but I truly believe Rob Zombie's first three movies are much better than his last three. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he deliberately made H-II suck. Still, his first two are more enjoyable to me than his last two. I doubt I'll ever re-watch 31, and Lords of Salem's highlights are the radio show comedy bits, which is not a good sign for a moody horror movie.

I loved his Kubrick worship and how well the visuals matched John 5's incredible (and horribly underrated) score.

Just watched Operation Red Sea. It's a very bloody high budget war film. Definetely going to check out the directors other films.

I'll admit I haven't seen 31 yet, though from what I remember Lords of Salem was a good movie. Pumped for 3 from Hell though.

Rob Zombie isn't my kind of director. He references way too many of his favorite movies instead of creating something new. 31 was an entertaining b-movie though. I grabbed it for six bucks at a second-hand shop and that's exactly what it's worth. To my surprise, I liked his first Halloween movie. His worst offender is probably House of Thousand Corpses, one of the worst movies I have watched in my life.

Watched Scanners for the first time tonight. Fucking looooved it. One of the main guys had the worst delivery but everything else was satisfying as fuck.

Also watched the Cube. Also great! The final lesson as always is don't trust a cop.

The people walking out of The House that Jack Built yesterday at Cannes and the Twitter rage only make me want to see it more.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/mov ... 609972002/

It's a von Trier film. You'd think any critic who has seen any of von Trier's films wouldn't be too shocked by this, so I'm surprised about the opposition this one is getting. I mean, have they fucking seen Antichrist?

Article says those who stayed gave a standing ovation. I have no idea what this film is about it sounds like torture porn but I can't see that getting such applause at Cannes?

Generally not a fan of Lars von Trier, but that movie actually looks kind of cool based on the trailer. I read a review which made the movie sound like some kind of August Underground edgelord cringefest, but judging from the trailer it's more like Man Bites Dog, which I could get behind. My main issue is the pseudo-intellectual monologues from the killer...kind of ruins it for me, definitely less "Edmund Kemper" and more "John Hughes" if you catch my drift. It just feels very tryhard to me - which makes it hard for me to feel 'scared'...plus, it goes without saying I've heard more poignant musings on murder in Autopsy, Cryptopsy, and Cannibal Corpse songs...without any of the "first year of philosophy" horseshit to boot .

quite liked A Quiet Place. the atmosphere and tension were good, though of course plot turns don't make much sense afterwards it's also basically a silent film, there's like one dialogue and half a Neil Young song in it...

It's piqued my interest enough to where I will see it in theaters.

Blumhouse films continue to hook me. The Visit is tense and weird and satisfying.

Man what the fuck! I'm mad at how good Unfriended is. It has no right! Jason Blum exec produced. He really seems to understand how to play with modern themes and keep the creep factor. I was glued.

I understand that he didn't like...write, direct, whatever. I'm only shocked at how consistently movies tied to his brand tickle me.

Deadpool 2 may be the best superhero sequel...besides TDK. It improves on everything from the first and even has a few moments that are downright heartwarming. 8.5/10

Tonight She Comes - Starts out like it's another slasher flick about dumb young people who only exist to get killed one at a time by some possibly supernatural threat. Around the halfway point, it turns into something else that I never expected, but sort of enjoyed.

This is the type of movie where any attempt at an objective evaluation leads me to believe I should have hated it. It's undeniably sleazy (one actress spends almost all her screentime naked), disgusting even by horror movie standards, and juvenile in both its sense of humor and its use of gore effects. Yet the point where these iffy elements were amped up was the point where the movie went from barely passable to surprisingly fun for me. And it mostly kept that momentum all the way to what I thought was a pretty cool ending.

6 / 10 on my scale, which is enough for a mild recommendation, with a huge asterisk. Its IMDB rating is only 3.8, even lower than the Prom Night remake, which was one of the worst horror movies I've seen in years. YMMV applies more than usual here.

I recall reviews referring to House of a Thousand Corpses as a "music video stretched to feature film length," which is pretty much 100% accurate. That does not a good movie make. That movie doesn't need to be seen more than once for most people. For the rest, zero times will suffice.


At any rate, we finally watched Infinity War and I was generally pleased with it. Far better than Age of Ultron which peaked with James Spader voicing Ultron, and was then little more than actors punching CG characters for two more hours.

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Night of the Comet springs instantly to mind. Equal parts The Omega Man and anything John Hughes did in the 80's. I would also recommend the 80's remake of The Blob, which is pretty awesome. Oh, and not sure if you saw when I posted this one last year, but Death Spa, I will note once again. It. Is. Amazing.

I also have to say, CHUD and Night of the Creeps are both really fucking good movies. They get looked back on as if they're cheesy, laughable movies way too often, when they're really solid films overall. Everyone in CHUD plays really well (John Heard was great, my favorite Daniel Stern role ever), and the characters are quite strong. Night of the Creeps combines the best of 80's suburban horror with a spattering love of 50's horror cinema. I'm forgetting his name in the movie, but the crippled kid is one of my favorite characters in any horror movie, particularly where college kids are represented. He's such a great fucking character.

There's a scene I really liked

but as a whole I can see why they wouldn't wanna do a third, cause most of this movie had already been done.

I still need to see Chopping Mall. Blood Rage is another movie in this ilk, but personally I did not enjoy it.

Check out Humanoids from the Deep-its on amazon. It's 50s monster movie done 80s slasher/zombie style.

The Blob's been coming up repeatedly for me lately so I'll give it a go, thanks.

I watched it last summer and had to look it up just now.

Is anyone into Godfrey Ho movies here? They've had some on Prime for awhile.

Oh man, check out BadMovies.org. It hasn't been updated in a long time but there's an impressive backlog of schlock reviews which make for great suggested viewings.

I actually put Humanoids from the Deep on my Amazon watchlist a couple weeks ago saying "there's no way this is a bad movie."

Thing is, I think I've seen it before, but don't remember it ha ha.

I really appreciated Deadpool 2 as well. I went to the cinema with a few friends of mine and the whole room was laughing loud for the rest of the movie. I didn't get all the jokes since you have to know a bit about superheroes universe (which I don't) but I definitely had a good time.

Yeah, I loved Devil's Rejects but House of 1000 Corpses just sucked. I mean the nightmarish visuals in the Firefly house were actually pretty cool, but everything else wasn't really there I'm afraid.

Devil's Rejects is a really solid film. Arguably his best film.

Correction: Easily his best film. Nothing he's ever done comes even close to The Devil's Rejects, with the exception of maybe his Halloween remake.