Dumb. And not "good" dumb.
What the hell... A mess.
Boring fight scenes with stiff choreography and a pretty graphic rape scene. Lots of women get tortured. The acting was hilariously bad. I think the only thing this had going for it was how absurdly awful some of the outfits were.
So... here's where I possibly lose all future credibility regarding movie ratings... Watched with the guys last night, they were sick of the usual B-movie crap we've been watching so decided to watch this instead.
Yeah, it was a really fun watch for how terrible it was. The acting, the script, the plot, the choreography, the editing... all were painfully bad in the funniest possible ways, it constantly had that "I can't tell if they're being serious or not" absurdity... So many scenes that don't make any sense. So many hilariously bad lines delivered with cringe inducing acting. "Serious" things will happen to a character and then suddenly they're going into another song and dance routine that doesn't match the mood at ALL. Added to all this are SO many of the typical cliches from a (PG rated) "spring breakers" plot.
I could see this movie being some group's "we've watched this more times than we're willing to admit" movie. One of the groups I hung out with in high school watched a lot of... "Pumpkinhead". Nothing going on tonight? Lets put on some "Pumpkinhead" and space out... Before my wife and I had kids, that movie was "Glitter". "Glitter" is stupid and horrible, but in a way that is really fun to laugh at. I have no idea how many times we watched that... I could see "From Justin to Kelly" being some group's "Glitter".
A couple random other comments... There were multiple filming/editing "errors" that always make this kind of movie fun... several times where someone was singing in a previous shot and should probably be singing in this shot, but they're obviously not. They're in frame, in focus, you can hear their voice, but they're definitely not singing. There were even a few times where a character would start speaking over their own singing, then go back to singing. A little trippy.
There's also a bunch of huge choreographed numbers with some pretty crazy dance moves... I don't know if they were just rushing takes, but wow were there a lot of screw ups in some of the dances, and not always in the background... And not always little thing, but stuff like seeing a girl get dropped or whipped around WAY harder than any of the others... Or seeing Kelly just kinda bopping around only kinda dancing while everyone around her is dancing crazy bananas. Choreography wasn't very tight.
So yeah, not a good movie. At all. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to laugh at.
One final comment... [i]They got in a Sideshow Bob reference!!![/i]
I like this one. "Kiddie" enough that I can watch with the youngest, but with a bunch of older humor to still be pretty fun. And I always forget how dark this can be at times... Kids die! And early! I think this does really well at ratcheting up the tension quick (these kids could die too!) while being able to present the witches in a "fun" way to kids... but man, that opening is dark for a kids movie.
I love the scenes with the witches wandering around on the kid packed streets of Halloween. The scenes with the Marshalls gets me everytime, "Master" dancing in the dining room with Sarah Jessica Parker ("THEY call me Master!"). Mom dressed as Madonna and the parents joking about parties in L.A... Watching Sarah Jessica Parker soooo wanting to "play with" all the non-witches. "ICE". Yeah, the non-Bette witches themselves can be a little too idiotic / annoying at times, but overall I think the movie does a good job blending together a bunch of different fun moments.
Watched with the guys...
I've wanted to see this classic for awhile now, though I think I might need to give it another watch to give it a "final" rating. I feel like the movie demands a full attention while we had a lot of talking (and laughing) over the movie...
There's a lot going on here. Right from the get go you realize this is going to be some kind of "grand allegory" type trip. It didn't disappoint on that front, though the intro / narration kinda ruins some of the fun involved with "grand allegory" movies... Explained a little too much.
The trip was fun though! So many crazy, funny outfits, absurd scenes that make little sense (felt a strong influence on Gilliam from a few scenes, the renegades especially), and a ton of hilarious quotes. I tried convincing the crew that we should go as a group of executioners for Halloween this year, but they wouldn't have it...
We've found that when some combination of a movie's writer, director, and producer happen to be the same person, the movie has a STRONG chance of going on a little too long... Sometimes way too long. Heaven forbid anything end up on the cutting room floor. This movie reinforced that trend, though not horribly so.
We also found it interesting that the writer/director/producer (John Boorman) directed and produced Deliverance right before this and "Exorcist II: The Heretic" right after. There seems to be a trajectory there...
Overall a fun time and would definitely recommend. I want to give it a re-watch.
Watched with the guys this week, this was my pick... And I don't think the guys will give me another pick for a long while. Whoo boy... Not sure I deserve one after this.
80s sexploitation horror that's WAY heavy on the nudity and much lighter on pretty much everything else: horror, special effects, acting, editing, common sense...
This could have very easily been a half-hour episode of some horror show or part of an anthology. Instead, every scene drags on waaaay too long... In one early scene, one of the girls is going through all the stuff she picked up at a flea market: they go through near every item in her box of stuff before getting to the (evil somehow) crystal ball that's been sitting on top of the pile the ENTIRE TIME. But yeah, lets give a few minutes to talking about the salt shakers she picked up... All to pad the run time, get it near that 1:30 mark (only hits 1:23, but feels longer).
High points: they knew they were making a shit movie and it shows... at one point someone throws a bag of "herbs" at the demon/mannequin/final-bad-girl. The sound effect when it hits is literally a mouth fart. Lots of little things like that throughout the movie.
Low points: nearly EVERYTHING else. Pretty much every horrible aspect of the 80s you'd wish would disappear from memory, congratz! Here's your reminder. So much casual homophobia, racism, sexism... We've watched some pretty horrible movies where we've been able to laugh at how dumb and awful they were... This is the first where I actually wanted to stop watching.
We always rate movies after we watch them, one of the guys keeps stats on our movies: this is the lowest rated we've seen.
Watched with the guys, this was not good... and unfortunately it was my pick this week.
The trailer made us think it could be fun but wow did it oversell the movie. Post apocalyptic gun porn with a bit of Mad Max thrown in. There were a few laughable moments, but mostly it was one pointlessly long gun fight after another. Shot after shot after shot of guys hiding behind rocks and firing guns. Not exciting at all and I think Storm Troopers had better aim than pretty much everybody in this movie... The few deaths that were in the movie and that should have been meaningful were incredibly anti-climactic.
A couple of "high" points: Robert Patrick (aka the T-1000) plays a baddie wearing a partial confederate (?) outfit for some reason... so of course there were lots of "Hey man, nice shot" references... At one point the baddie leaders are going over strategy while using a map of what is clearly eastern Asia. Meanwhile several actors tried super hard (and failed) to "American-ize" what I think were Australian accents while at other times they didn't try to hide their accents at all. There were quite a few times where, when someone did get shot they would gently ease themselves to the ground and lie down like they were going to take a nap.
Sounds like typical "good" bad movie stuff, but honestly none of it was enough to make me suggest watching this movie... much better ways to spend your time.
Watched with the youngest. She's seen this many times, though it was the first time I'd sat and watched the whole thing in well over a decade. Such a great story.
Watched with the guys, I liked this. We made a lot of "Raid" jokes early on (the premise is super close), but it was different enough... Definitely not great, but it was a lot of fun. I didn't really know anything about the Judge Dredd universe and this has me searching out graphic novels / collections. Loved the gritty "used future" style. Would be interested to hear suggestions on storylines or anything to search out or stay away from... there's a TON out there.
Imagine they made a Batman movie where Batman is constantly whining/pouting about his lot in life and all the fight scenes were over-layed with nu-metal... That's this but for Hellboy. Hellboy is supposed to be dark and gritty (think Nolan/Bale's Batman) with a very dry sense of humor... While that definitely wasn't the case here, the fight scenes were fun and it was great to see Gruagach and Daimio (though Daimio's CGI was.. not nearly as good as anybody elses?). Glad to have seen it, but still waiting for an actual Hellboy movie. Something more along the lines of what Nolan did with Batman.
A family classic. All of my girls have been into mermaids and the older girls wanted to introduce this movie to the youngest. We had fun laughing with the movie, and sometimes at the movie. I think the older girls realized that this "classic" they love isn't really "good", but could still be fun to watch.
Watched with the guys. Late 80s sci-fi exploitation movie. Had to have been made on a shoestring budget... we had fun laughing at the special effects, set pieces, and "costumes". Not horrible.
Catching up... Was really fun and I liked it as part of the MCU, but doesn't hold up to Into the Spider-verse. I need to see Birdman as Keaton is just great.
I'm a sucker for Paul Rudd and this was a lot of fun.
Holds up. Watched with the family, less the youngest and oldest, as the middles wanted a scary movie for Friday the 13th. Definitely rewards a re-watch. If you haven't seen this yet then don't read anything about it... highly suggested.
I'm a sucker for "big monster" movies when in the right frame of mind (I enjoyed Rampage). There was some cringy writing here that really bugged me, but overall it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to the inevitable Kong versus Godzilla... Curious if we'll ever see a Mecha-Godzilla in this cinematic universe.
Lucio Fulci does Conan... If Conan wielded a laser bow and slightly phallic nunchucks. This wasn't good. Had a bunch of the Fulci signature gore with people getting either ripped apart in various ways or sliced up.... I'm pretty sure the "Beastmen" were wearing discount Chewbacca costumes. Fulci tried to hide these "special effects" behind heavily-vasolined lenses and/or TONS of fog. Seriously, I constantly thought my glasses were dirty or found myself squinting. Hard pass, would not suggest.
Watched on dudes night this week, it was my pick...
This is a favorite of mine that I hadn't watched in a really long time. After watching again it keeps it spot as a favorite, I thought it held up really well. The other guys... Did not like it at all. This was mostly due to there being nearly no plot: the movie is essentially a ride following a bunch of characters around as they get into trouble and weird crap happens to them. I don't think the other guys were prepared for this.
Love the style of the movie. It's this absurd snapshot of the mid to early eighties told through a kind of punk-style lense that rewards multiple watches. So many little screwed up details to be missed. You'll catch some little detail that seems weird at the time only to have a character call it out later. Some are never explained (or maybe I just don't get it) but are hilarious to spot. Tons are recurring. Also: title track by Iggy Pop, with songs from Black Flag, Fear, and Suicidal Tendencies making appearances. Hell yeah. There's even a cameo by the Circle Jerks playing as a lounge band, funny get-ups and all. If you don't like this style, you're probably not going to like this movie.
This was written and directed by Alex Cox who would go on to write the screenplays for Sid & Nancy and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (just now seeing that one). I need to see more of his stuff. Esteves does great bouncing around through all this mess with a shit-eating grin on his face: he's not a super likable character, but he (usually) looks like he's enjoying the chaos going on around him. Harry Dean Stanton was also great as Molly Ringwald's dad, and we all got a kick out of Jack Nicholson's henchman sidekick from Batman getting what amounts to a leading role here...
I think the big key to everything working together is that the movie doesn't take itself seriously. AT ALL. They know the plot is meaningless and doesn't matter. They call this out over and over again either making fun of how ridiculous some plot point is ("You eat a lot of acid Miller? In the hippy days?") or insulting the viewer for thinking that some element should even be cared about ("What about our relationship?!?", "What? Fuck that!"). But really, who cares about plot when the ride is this fun.
Watched on Dude's Night, this movie is not good. It takes forever to get started, has awful dialog, bad special effects, horrible editing, and poor action scenes. Apparently the screenwriter completely disowned the movie after seeing the final cut...
Scenes go from daylight to pitch-black-night as someone gets out of their car... There's a "two-way mirror" that looks like it was made using construction paper and tinfoil... Even the action scenes were horrible. Sooo many issues. So unintentionally absurd.
The guy that picked this movie had read about how god-awful this was and thought it'd be fun to laugh at. He wasn't wrong. While this is definitely not a "good" movie, it deserves whatever cult status it has as a bad one.
Watched Saturday night with the family...
I have no prior knowledge of Paddington Bear, never read or heard the stories or even seen the first movie (the kids had). I found this to be a fun movie: heartwarming with an incredible cast. I was surprised at how many stars they stuffed into this movie... I'm guessing Paddington Bear is a lot bigger in the UK? I especially enjoyed the performances by the Hughs: Bonneville and Grant... And The Doctor! Of course he plays a gruff old man. It's great to see these big name actors not taking themselves seriously. Lots of humor aimed squarely at the adults in the audience.
Some of the the plot points were pretty weak, really just set up for gags, but this is a movie about a talking bear living in London. You've got to go in expecting some of this...
The kids seemed to like it alright, there was a lot of laughter. My wife LOVED it. Me? It was fun.
Somewhat Disneyfied documentary following the story of young chimp Oscar, narrated by Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor/Allen. If you watch the trailer a significant plot point in Oscar's story will be completely spoiled, but it's really no matter... Watching the story unfold was great.
The whole movie was beautifully shot, they catch some incredibly touching scenes. If you watch, stay for the credits as there's some great behind the scenes footage of, and commentary by, the film makers. I'm thankful there are folks willing to go through everything these folks had to go through to show us these images and tell these stories...
Should note that while mine and my wife's attentions were thoroughly engrossed, and although this is a short movie at only an hour and eighteen minutes, my middle kids' (mid- to pre-teens) attentions were lost pretty quick. My youngest (5yo) seemed to really like it though.
I'd suggest it if you're looking for something similar to Planet Earth, but with a little more emotion.
Creepy psychological art horror, a failed "puppeteer" is forced to confront trauma. This was an uncomfortable watch. Not blood and guts uncomfortable, but mold, decay, and what-the-hell-is-going-on uncomfortable with a rather disturbing spider "puppet" (see poster) along for the ride. Incredible acting, though the ridiculousness of how dour the main character's face is throughout most of the movie verges on the absurd.
I didn't enjoy watching this movie, but it's a good movie and I'll probably think about for a long while. And because of that, I'd probably watch again. Suggested.
Typical late 80's early 90's buddy cop action movie mixing in karate and the Yakuza. This movie is squarely in the "so bad it's funny" camp. The other guys LOVED this one, I just didn't really care for it. We did laugh a lot.
Dolph Lundgren had some crazy ridiculous outfits and Brandon Lee has some lines that are so awful I felt bad for him... Also had Tia Carrere pre-Wayne's World and Al Leong as... another henchman (really want to see the documentary on Al, aptly titled "Henchman").
For a movie with both Dolph and Brandon Lee though, I thought the fight scenes were surprisingly mediocre.
Had some fun scenes and the cyberpunk universe is neat. Overall pretty "meh" though given the groan inducing dialog and the more emotional parts of the plot line falling completely flat. Visually though: hell yeah.
Crazy some of the big names they got. Christoph Waltz was great as was Mahershala Ali. Jennifer Connelly, though in the trailers was a surprise to me (didn't realize that was her). Also a surprise was REDACTED.
Be warned, I've read a few reviews from people really annoyed at not knowing this, but this is only part 1 of X. Related, this chapter ends on a fairly unsatisfactory note. You're left feeling like the real movie, the plot that's somewhat obvious from fairly early on, is just getting started...
I had fun. I'd watch the next in the series, though probably not in the theater.
Watched with the youngest middle kid, T. Fun. Nothing special, but fun. We'd watched the original awhile ago and T really enjoyed it, despite the aged computer generated special effects.
I'd seen only bits of the plot to this in trailers and didn't know much beyond that the stars (from the poster) were in it. I was confused when the focus seemed to be on a bunch of kids... All got resolved hilariously, I really liked this bit.
I'm pretty "meh" when it comes to Jack Black (loved High Fidelity, liked School of Rock, HATED Nacho Libre), but he was perfect in this. Also really enjoyed the play between Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart (Weakness: Cake). It's still weird but great to see Karen Gillan in movies as she will forever be Amy Pond. I'm glad she's not being typecast (her roll in the MCU is awesome). My daughter laughed her butt off at one particular cameo...
We had a lot of fun watching this.
One of the lesser talked about Pixar movies, we watched for a family movie night as my wife and youngest hadn't seen it yet. I had taken the middles to see it when it was in the theater.
I really like this movie and its smartly done commentary on the importance of emotions. Fun enough for the youngest to stay involved, but with an interesting enough metaphor to keep parents humored. LOVED seeing inside the parents' heads. Be warned though, and this seems weirdly obvious to say, but like a lot of Pixar movies this gets pretty emotional at times.
Also loved some of the casting choices. Amy Poehler as "Joy" and Louis Black as "Anger" were especially great.
Just godawful. Casual racism, homophobia, and transphobia mixed with brutal scenes of rape.
Watched with the whole family less the oldest (who was at work). We all loved it. I really like how it just picks right up after the end of the first movie. Liked the dive into Dad's relationship with his kids while trying to "keep it together" so Mom could do her thing. Edna and Jack-Jack were hits as well.
Decent Grindhouse horror. Exactly what you'd expect from the genre, though there's a lot better out there. Fun to watch with a group expecting the horrible. An unexpected "highlight" was the two hair-metal bands that made an appearance in the movie. The dream sequence by "D.C. Lacroix" was especially awesome (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X8PC6Tojf0 nsfw but not horribly so). The other band... not so awesome.
