Topic: The Movie Thread

Why is the old 1980s Beast Within movie so damn hard to find for blu ray? Not everyone can afford a Region B blu ray player or whatever for cripes sake

Weekend movies (just copied my Letterboxd reviews). Starting up on some spooky stuff for the season.

End of Evangelion (Blu-Ray)

Disappointed that I couldn't give it as high a score as the series, but I ultimately don't think it's a satisfying end to the story.

From what I can gather this takes place during the events of the last two episodes of the series (which took place inside protagonist Shinji's head in a more abstract form as the studio depleted their budget), with the movie showing what's going on in the actual physical world during the events.

Without getting into too much spoilery territory, the first half is fairly strong and features a tense, large scale military assault with with some cool (& sometimes greusome) action with the protagonists on the ropes. The second half features some stunning animation with a lot of trippy (& outright weird) moments, but it ultimately doesn't tell you anything that the series doesn't, IMO. We still get the general gist of what Shinji chooses, but there's absolutely no followup to show how or if the extended cast/world at large is able to move on (which I thought was sort of supposed to be the point). Honestly the world still ends up looking more f***** than at any other point in the series (I think I actually prefer the seemingly more open ended finale of the series).

Trailer:

The Slumber Party Massacre (Tubi)

Teen slasher flick that sees a wild eyed psychopath dressed head to toe in denim terrorize a group of high school girls with a foot long power drill.

First watched it last October & remember enjoying it, so decided to seek it out again and it was just as good the second time around. It doesn't seem to do anything particularly fresh (in fact some shots seem directly "inspired" by Halloween), but it does a great job of hitting all the typical notes well (very gratuitous nudity, brutal slayings, fun fakeouts, etc.) all in a brisk runtime if under 90 minutes. Will definitely become a yearly regular for me.

Trailer (couldn't find an HD one):

Watched The Boogens, The Fog, and The Mummy Returns this weekend.

King Richard

Great story of the beginnings of Serena and Venus Williams tennis careers conducted by their deeply religious father Richard. Both girls who play Serena and Venus as well as Will smith are great.
9/10

tonight im watching Puppet Master 1 and Tom Savini's Night of the Living Dead remake

@XandertheWise puppet master is awesome

@VisitingComet1 yeah Puppet Master 1-5 are still the best.

but at the same time, Leech Woman grosses me out at times lol

@XandertheWise ya the leech lady is gross where did you find the puppet master movies? I would love to watch them again

@VisitingComet1 I got those Midnight Madness DVD collections of the original first 5 Puppet Master movies from Kmart or Walmart like 5 or 6 years ago or whenever Kmart was around at the time back then.

Leech Woman's moment in Puppet Master 1 was silly but got a little gross too with the first leech coming out of her mouth

@XandertheWise I found the whole puppet master series on peacock

Hellraiser (2022)

A decent remake of the 1987 original based on the Clive Barker novel. Gets unsettling once the cenobites appear. If you seen the original, this is worth checking out. On Hulu, but that's not available in continents outside the US. Only saw this as the cable TV provider in Australia (Foxtel / Binge) showed it on their movie channel.

7 / 10

continuing my horror movie watch a thon this weekend. just finished watching Poltergeist II and III earlier tonight. just started rewatching The Djinn

then tomorrow and this coming week im going to be watching these

Black Cauldron
Parnormal Activity Next of Kin
Critters 1 and 2
The Vigil
Fear the Walking Dead Season 6
rewatching The Fog with the Tommy Wallace commentary track
Return of the Living Dead. rewatching it with the Thom Matthews commentary track from the new recent 4K blu ray release

Movies I watched a couple weeks ago. Just got a PS5 in so my movie intake will probably slow down a bit from now on.

Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo (Blu-Ray)

Very first film in the Lupin III franchise, which sees the the thief's gang mixed up in the machinations of a seemingly immortal wealthy eccentric (the titular Mamo) who aims to burn down & restart civilization with a hand selected group of "superior" individuals.

It's definitely rough around the edges, especially narratively, but I still had a lot of fun with it. It's not as lusciously animated as it's followup (Castle of Cagliostro), however it does do a lot of interesting things with a lot of surreal imagery that really only works in animation, and I think the cast has a bit more personality than they did in the more famous follow up.

I've recently heard that Cagliostro is the best Lupin film for those who don't like Lupin, while Mamo is the best amongst the fan base, but as someone who has only recently watched them both, I enjoy what each of them brings to the table.

Trailer:

Slumber Party Massacre II (Tubi)

Follow up to "the Slumber Party Massacre" that sees the Courtney, the younger sister of that film's MC (Valerie) trying to survive her own, well, slumber party massacre.

I'll give it props for being a much more disturbing film than the first (at least in the buildup to the climax, whether or not there is really a threat or if she's just paranoid) with some really greusome imagery. Plus, the killer's guitar drill is a pretty cool prop.

However I think there's a simplicity to the first film that just works in a way this one doesn't. The very supernatural nature of the threat is completely at odds with the world the first movie seemed to take place in, & there's not even a token reason as to why (he's not the vengeful spirit of the first film's killer, & it's not indicated that her friend's new house is haunted, he just exists, and seems fixated on Courtney for no specific reason). Heck, even the cheesecake on display before stuff goes down is vastly inferior to what the first film offered.

There is a potential twist at the end that makes a lot of this make more sense, although also a lot more pointless.

Trailer:

Got the 90's Fatal Fury OVAs on Blu-Ray recently.

Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf (Blu-Ray)

First saw this online sometime about 10 years ago, and decided to pick up the OVA double pack on Blu-Ray once I noticed it was available.

Based upon the fighting video game of the same name (a big competitor of Street Fighter in it's time), it very much feels like the standard martial arts flick of the time (although anime'd up a bit, obviously). Not that that's a bad thing, as while it's not the deepest story, it's good cheesy fun (I especially liked the faux "Arnie" German accent the big bad had, a theme that carries over to the followup as well). Only thing holding it up is that there's no Mai yet, lol.

Fatal Fury 2: the New Battle (Blu-Ray)

Watched on the Blu-Ray double pack (with the first OVA).

I feel about this one a lot like how I felt about the first. It's no masterpiece, but good cheesy anime martial arts fun. I don't think the core story is quite as tight as it was in it's predecessor (though that's not terribly important for a film like this), however I'll rate it a tad higher as I believe the art/animation seems to be slightly improved (and because Mai makes her appearance, naturally).

Trailer for both (couldn't find a remastered one):

Saw Wyrmwood Road Of The Dead. A low-budget 2014 Aussie zombie comedy gorefest that's well worth watching. Apparently took 4yrs to make as was filmed only on weekends. The sequel Wyrmwood Apocalypse has recently been released. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2535470/

Ambulance (2022)

The usual Michael Bay bombastic action / chase film with the added bonus of overusing a drone camera. Still, its worth watching due to Jake Gyllenhaal.

7 / 10

Terrifier 2.

Now this is what horror films should be all about.

Art The Clown is the new Freddy Kruger but nastier.

10/10

@RR529 80`s easily best decade for totally mad films.

Wasn't feeling too well last night (well, all week long TBH), so I sat back and watched Mickey: the Story of a Mouse on Disney+.

Pretty much a light hearted documentary on the evolution of Mickey Mouse & his affect on pop culture (though they did manage to reflect a bit on Walt's outdated/racist elements that worked their way into the older cartoons too, so it wasn't entirely patting themselves on the back).

It was actually pretty interesting, though they acted like my era of Mickey & Co. didn't even exist. From the perspective of the documentary you had Mickey's Christmas Carol in the mid 80's, then a few decades of being nothing more than a corporate icon until he was revived by the modern shorts.

This of course completely ignores Mickey's House of Mouse (which was my go to Saturday morning cartoon for a few years), arguably the entirety of the Goof Troop/Goofy Movie continuity, and his transition to video games (Castle of Illusion, Epic Mickey, and of course the titan that is Kingdom Hearts) to make it's case.

It's really good until then though.

Thor Love and Thunder

A big stepdown from the excellent Thor Ragnarok, as it tried too hard to deliver on the "jokes".

4 / 10