Atrocious (2010)


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Pretty average "found footage" film. Since these types of movies really do it for me, I probably enjoyed this more than your average horror fan (the boyfriend thought it was stupid). Doesn't do anything new for the horror genre, or the "found footage" style, but I enjoyed it. Made me jump at the right times, though they do spend a bit too long just running around in the woods (which was my boyfriend's main complaint). Also, when you start to dissect the end, it's really really silly.

Regardless, I enjoyed it. Solid little average flick.

3/5.

Me too......because he dies.

AVADA KEDAVRA!!!

A day of Pirate adventure for me:

1) "Swashbuckler" (1976)
-Robert Shaw, James Earl Jones

Plot: IMDB
A pirate and a hot-tempered noblewoman join forces to protect Jamaica from a tyrant.

Phantom's Review: I remember seeing this movie in theaters back in '76 and thinking it was a blast, having not seen it in a while I decided to put it on today and much to my surprise, it's still a blast Plenty of pirate action and adventure. Entertaining story and a fine cast. Robert Shaw seems to be having the time of his life. Watch for a very young Angelica Huston in a totally dialog free role as a mysterious woman in the Governors mansion and, also watch for Horror fave Sid Haig as one the pirates. (the role suits him well) A very enjoyable film.

2) "Cutthroat Island" (1995)
-Geena Davis
Plot: IMDB
Morgan Adams and her slave, William Shaw, are on a quest to recover the three portions of a treasure map. Unfortunately, the final portion is held by her murderous uncle, Dawg. Her crew is skeptical of her leadership abilities, so she must complete her quest before they mutiny against her. This is made yet more difficult by the efforts of the British crown to end her piratical raids.

Phantom's Review: Like the previous film, I also saw this one in the theaters and apparently I was one of the very few. One of the biggest flops in film history, i found this film to be plenty of fun. Geena Davis is not a great actress, but does a credible job as the pirate captain. The best part is watching Frank Langella as her evil uncle "Dawg" Brown. He's chewing every scene he's in. Some exciting stunts, huge sets and plenty of action. A fun movie.
--

Paranormal Activity 2. I liked the first one much better.

Insidious. I was pleasantly surprised with the decent acting and storyline. The woman with the gun is my favorite character.

Watched this a while back, gotta agree with your boyfriend, had trouble even getting through it, and damn they drag out the running around the maze...

I just watched this today, as well. I'm pretty much with you. It was really a lot of fun, but I think it lacked that epic feel that it should have had, like they just didn't have enough material to round out a feature-length. But even still, I did have a good time watching it. The kid that plays Pietari was really great. I'd definitely throw it in every Christmas season.

The Devil's Double (2011)

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>>: B

BBC Four's Ghost Stories for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester (1971) & Lost Hearts (1973)

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Followed the success of Whistle & I'll come to You and A Warning to the Curious, this two are another shinning examples of translating the brand of chilling, heavily suggestive subtlety which characteristics M.R. James' short stories into the medium of television. Elegantly produced, beautifully acted and filled with strong and unrelenting atmosphere of unease and creeping dread, both are highly effective televisual adaptations that's highly recommendable for the fans of great old school ghost stories.

>>: A-

I haven't been able to find The Stalls Of Barchester or Lost Hearts.:(

I saw The Signalman and Stigma, the 1976 and 1977 entries. They were both excellent.

Just watched White Noise (2005) last night. 7.5/10.

Watched a few obscure 70s-80s horror titles I picked up on my trip, over the past few days:

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Santa Claus Conquers The Martians
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This is a silly and fun movie and i loved it. I'm definitely gonna watch this every year.

Looks groovy!

I got 'Frightmare' on netflix right now lol. I've seen it before, but wanted something I could put on and half watch, while I surf. It's not too bad.

Frightmare is excellent - I am a big Pete Walker fan.

That 'Fiend' is an aweful film. Dull as shit..

Yes I absolutely love that film-thank you for reminding me :) I'm going to buy that on dvd see if I can get it cheap with vouchers in the Jan sales-at least that has some genuine emotional weight behind it-you actually CARE when you watch that whereas in The Lovely Bones you don't care at all.

Thanks for your rec a while back ferox-Frightmare was indeed excellent throroughly enjoyable film. I'd forgot that I saw The House of Whipcord a few years ago without realising it was a Pete Walker film. I need to see more I'll check out House of Mortal Sin soon.

Few months back downloaded a pack of 10 BBC's adaptations of MR JAMES' Ghost Stories. Long Live, Torrents!:D

Hotel (2004)

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>>: C

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)

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>>: B

Puncture (2011)

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>>: B+

Dead Man (1995)

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>>: B-

The Smurfs (2011)

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>>: B-

Insidious: Light on atmosphere and any genuine tension. Some nice scares and jumps along the way, but not enough to keep it interesting and certainly nothing creative. Anyone who has seen Paranormal Activity will recognise the characters (step forward open minded wife and sceptical husband). Movie starts out solid, but as each minuite passes it gets a little worse. Plenty of loose-ends and dumb character choices/ oversites to allow the story to flow, which just frustrated me more. There are a few nice scenes and the ghosts are kinda fun, but overall I was disappointed.

Frightmare is a blast. I saw it on VHS many years ago under it's original title "The Horror Star" and didn't remember much of it till I watched it couple days back. Cheesy entertainment.

I recommend "Eye of the Spider" as well. A pretty interesting gothic piece.

It's a veeeeery slow burner. By the time they show something good half the audience would be asleep. Picked it up by seeing it's cover and thought it would be a half-decent zombie film. I was wrong.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
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Just as good as the first but much more epic. The cinematography is amazing and i thought Moriarty was a great villain. A perfect challenge for Sherlock Holmes once again played brilliantly by Robert Downey Jr. I really hope there will be a third.

It's A Wonderful Life
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I watch this every Christmas Eve. It's a family tradition of mine. I still love it.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
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The best Christmas Horror movie in my opinion. A great story and genuinely creepy atmosphere.

SPOILERS:The only thing i dont like is that you dont get to see giant evil Santa but it's okay because its more of a "Stop the evil from rising" sort of movie instead of a "Stop the evil after it's already risen" kind of movie.

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Very, VERY impressed.

I have always been a huge Apes fan and this fantastic prequel to the whole saga adds a whole new dimension to the vast storyline. I loved how the makers used a superbly original idea and expanded on it to give us a perfect beginning to this premise. They could easily have called it Planet of the Apes: The Beginning or Planet of the Apes: Caesar's Story, but the title itself is very catchy as well. Die-hard fans will appreciate the wonderful use of CGI blended with Andy Serkis's superb portrayal of Caesar, plus they get to hear that infamous dialogue from the original as well. And the whole revolution of the apes culminating in that wonderful sequence at THE Bridge of all Bridges in the world. Hats off to the effects/production guys - you did yourselves proud.

My only gripe - the two leads. They could have done much better than get James Franco and Frieda Pinto to portray them. Someone like Michael Fassbender could have been more apt. John Lithgow and Brian Cox easily steal the show in the acting department. If only the leads did a bit more, this could have been the best film of 2011. Period.

As it stands, it gets a very high recommendation from me, despite being loaded with CGI and average performances by Franco & Pinto. Watch it for the intense portrayal of Serkis, and the jaw-dropping immensely vast use of perfect CGI to convey emotions as well as magnitude of effects made for the big screen. If you HAVE to see ONE film with CGI this year, make it this one. I promise you, you will leave impressed when the end credits roll.

Zero, this one's for you, buddy.


Rated - * * * * stars

Not seen this but sounds intriguing-added to "To watch" list.

By the way which adaptations did you see? As far as I know Stigma is the only one I haven't seen that is available.

Let me know what you think.

The Host: Awesome monster movie, never have anything negative to say about this one.

Leprechaun: 90 mins of stupid, but I love it...

I love The Host. One of my favorite Monster movies.

Hugo (2011)

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Finally got to see this. I really loved it. Being as it was a grand love song to cinema, and especially dealing with Georges Méliès, it wasn't hard to get immediately sucked into and lulled away by it. It was perfect to see on the big screen, with its wistful look at the magic of film, and a call to keep it alive. The 3D wasn't bad, either; not too intrusive, but enough to garnish the visuals for the most part. Sacha Baron Cohen was very funny, too, and Ben Kingsley turns in another amazing performance. Plus, in Hugo, his resemblance to the real Méliès is pretty uncanny:

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50/50
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This is an emotional movie that is also really funny. I didnt think that would be possible given the serious subject matter but they pull it off. Joseph Gordon Levitt is great in the lead role. He's really rising as an actor. Seth Rogen was great as the funny best friend, a perfect role for him. I really enjoyed this and recommend it.

Stigma isn't there, I need to hunt that down.

A Lonely Place to Die (2011)

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Decent story, good direction but the ending was quite ordinary.

>>: B

Desperate Hours (1990)

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>>: B

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

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Back to back...for the very first time!

>>: A

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Low-brow, campy stuff which is actually quite entertaining. Combine that with the immensely hot Heather Thomas and you can't go wrong with an 80s actioner.

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What say, guys? ;)


* * *

Daaaaaayyyyyuuuuuummmmm :eek: :p

Looks like a good watch will have to check it out.

Aweekend of holiday cheer:

"The Polar Express" (2004)
"A Christmas Carol" (1984, George C. Scott . My personal favorite version of the Dickens classic)

Watched 'Attack the Block' for the first time after I went in theatres. My family seemed pretty bored by it, but I like it.

I would've liked the make-up of the group to not be kids, as I can't help but think the main reason for the low body count is that they didn't want to show a bunch of kids getting killed lol. Also, I wished the aliens had a little more screentime, but all in all, I like it.

Plus, anything the 'Spaced' crew touches is, generally, solid gold.

Gentlemen Broncos (2009)

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Weird, quirky little comedy. While it definitely imitates the midwest slack-jawed, deadpan humor of Napoleon Dynamite at times, which was a little distracting, but with great characters and great actors and a fantastically bizarre and hilarious parallel pulp scifi story, this turned out to be a really fun movie to watch. I think that if you were ever a fan of scifi pulp novels, you'll like it especially (my boyfriend was and he did).

Not a perfect movie and I do think that it ran a little long, but I really enjoyed it.

Recommended, especially if you're looking for a quirky character piece with a bizarre scifi pulp edge.

3.5/5.


...


Night of the Comet (1984)


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This has got to be one of my absolute favorite post-apocalyptic horror movies. I love the humor, I love the fact that you have one seriously badass female lead (played by the gorgeous Catherine Mary Stewart).

If you're a horror fan and haven't seen this movie yet, you really need to.


4/5.


...


Hot Fuzz (2007)

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I absolutely love this Simon Pegg/Nick Frost homage to the buddy cop genre. Just as with Shaun of the Dead, I think that this was excellent directed, written, and acted. It's hilarious, smart, and also had some really great action sequences. Definitely a movie I can watch over and over again... And have.

One of my absolute favorites.


4.5/5.


...


Bagdad Cafe (1987)

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Wonderfully weird and charming character piece. I had seen it YEARS ago and didn't really remember much of it other than that I liked it. Glad I watched it again - Cute, odd, little movie about love, friendship, magic, and a roadside cafe.

3/5.

I'll be getting a hold of that tonight then.

i know it's cheesy but i watched saturday night fever, and still like this movie very much :)

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:D

Don't Look Now.

That ending still disturbs me greatly...as does nude 1970's Donald Sutherland. It's a brilliant horror-mystery though and shows just what can happen when Europe's two most prolific countries when it comes to horror films (Britain and Italy) can accomplish when combined.

i love bagdad cafe, great little movie.