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Post by Shadow Master on Jul 24, 2022 16:41:48 GMT
Saw Black Phone recently. It's about a boy who gets kidnapped by a serial killer.
The boy is imprisoned in a dingy, soundproof basement with a vaulted door. Ominously, there is a black phone hanging from the wall
of the basement (but the killer assures the boy that the phone doesn't work).
Soon enough, the phone starts ringing and the boy begins to hear strange voices on the other end. All of which are former victims of the killer
who offer tips to try and help the current capture escape.
Without ruining too much of the movie for you guys, The killer (also known as "The Grabber") wears a creepy devil mask that keeps changing
(depending on The Grabber's personality at the moment). To give everyone an example, when the capture asks The Grabber if he was responsible
for the other missing boys in the neighbourhood, The Grabber responds "that wasn't me. That was someone else".
While not based on a true story, Black Phone is set in the late 1970's. Some say it's a ghost flick, other's say Black Phone is a psychological affair
to some degree. I recommend it.
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Post by TheDenizen on Jul 24, 2022 17:25:29 GMT
Snatchers - A teenage girl has sex for the first time and gives birth to a freaky monster the next day, hilarity ensues. It's a super low budget girly gorefest that hits the right spot if you're in the mood for something stupid and funny. There's definitely a Troma-like feel to the proceedings if that's your thing. 6/10
Brightburn - A dark and gruesome exploration of the idea "what if Superman was an evil teenager?" It would definitely be better with a longer run time and deeper examinations of its themes, but there's plenty of weird to enjoy here. The moment that the kid realizes that he doesn't have to do what his parents tell him any more is great, as he comes to understand that there can be no real consequences for his actions. Movies that deconstruct the standard super hero tropes are always welcome in my book. 7/10
Metal Lords - A pair of goofy teens decide that forming a metal band is their ticket to coolness in this weak, formulaic comedy. The kids are both jerks, the music is uniformly lame and it all plays out more or less exactly how you expect it to. Tries really hard but mostly falls on its face. Big, fat meh. 5/10
Willy's Wonderland - It's Nic Cage playing a mute drifter kicking the piss out of a gang of Satanic Chuck E. Cheese wannabes. What's not to adore? Does not take itself seriously for one second and revels in cheap gore and 80's nostalgia. Yes, please. 8/10
Everything Everywhere All At Once - A middle aged woman gets sucked into an alternate-universe hopping maelstrom of insanity during an IRS audit of her laundry business. It's the role of a lifetime for Michelle Yeoh, who convincingly plays many different multiverse versions of herself, from elegant movie star to frazzled mom to kung fu badass. Gets overly melodramatic in the final 20 minutes, but it's deserving of serious respect for how stunningly original and daring it is. An absolute blast. 8/10
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Post by BakFu on Aug 7, 2022 6:11:07 GMT
I just watched the latest Predator movie Prey, I thought I’d have to wait a year or more to see it, but ta da, there it was on Disney Plus in Canada!
Set in the early 1700’s in Comanche territory, the main character is a young woman, Naru, looking to be accepted as a hunter/warrior by her group. When on hunts with the group, she finds clues that there is a new apex predator (pun intended) in their back yard, and the plot progresses as Naru’s group and the alien collide. I’m purposely not going into detail to avoid spoilers.
I remember reading about this film and thinking “what a cool idea!”, and I think the group that put it together did an amazing job! The scenery and lighting is amazing, and as I watched it thought “did they shoot this in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies in southern Alberta? Yes they did, Kananaskis and the outskirts of Calgary. It really felt like they respected the culture represented here, too, and that was really cool to see.
Fight choreography was great, the predator design was a bit more primitive than previous entries which was cool, and the lead actress, Amber Midthunder is captivating and delivers a great performance.
Prey is really interesting, and it seems like a novel idea to put the predator that we all love watching eviscerate mercenaries into an early 1700s North America setting. Don’t sleep on this if you’re a predator fan, this is a cool film!
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Post by OrochiGeese on Aug 9, 2022 9:23:13 GMT
That sounds awesome. The setting, time period, and predator clash makes me want to watch that! 😎
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Post by BakFu on Aug 23, 2022 16:22:22 GMT
Not a movie, but a trailer for a movie that criminally was never brought into glorious existence. 😂
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Post by TheDenizen on Aug 26, 2022 14:43:08 GMT
The Bio Cop trailer is hilarious, I'd love to see a full length version some day.
If you like this kind of stuff, check out "Manborg", a full feature by the same writer/director.
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Post by BakFu on Aug 26, 2022 16:18:37 GMT
The Bio Cop trailer is hilarious, I'd love to see a full length version some day. If you like this kind of stuff, check out "Manborg", a full feature by the same writer/director. Manborg is where I originally saw the trailer for Biocop! It was in the special features or something, but this trailer is longer than the one on the DVD! Another manborg fan, what a great day! 😂 Let’s keep this rally going, have you seen this manborg like offering from the frozen north that features Michael Ironside? |
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Post by TheDenizen on Aug 26, 2022 18:33:28 GMT
I sure have seen Turbo Kid.
for shits and giggles, here's my reviews:
Manborg - In a dystopian future where the world is ruled by the armies of Hell and their leader, the demonic vampire Count Draculon, humanity cries out for a hero...and that hero is Manborg. Shot almost entirely in front a green screen, this micro budget Canadian feature is ridiculously bad but has tongue firmly planted in cheek throughout, making it a heck of a lot of cheesy fun. Picture Edward Scissorhands mixed with Tokyo Gore Police, with bits of cheap animation spliced in. It's lovely. 8/10
Turbo Kid - A comics-obsessed teen in a post apocalyptic wasteland adopts the persona of bike riding hero Turbo Kid to rescue his girlfriend from an evil warlord. An eclectic movie that revels in 80's nostalgia and presents a sweet, innocent romance butted up against scenes of over the top gore and cheesy laser effects. To the film's credit, these rapid tonal shifts never feel jarring or unnatural. Fun bad guys, great music and some sweet BMX jumps. Recommended. 8/10
The guy behind Manborg/Bio-Cop (Steven Kostanski) also directed a film in 2020 called Psycho Goreman. I've had my eyes open for a copy of that one forever.
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Post by BakFu on Aug 28, 2022 2:29:09 GMT
I can’t wait to see Psycho Goreman go on the attack, but another film I MUST see, is The Outlaw Johnny Black! 🤠
I love the Josh Barnett cameo! 🤩
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Post by TheDenizen on Sept 2, 2022 3:22:23 GMT
The Stand (2020 TV miniseries) - Inexplicably starts in the middle and then tells the first half of the story in flashbacks....for no real reason. The only thing this achieves is completely robbing all of the flashback scenes of any sense of danger or urgency. Kudos to the casting director who made some fine choices here, but the writers cut themselves off at the knees in the first episode and never recovered. At least the 1994 version told the story in the only order that makes sense. 4/10
The Northman - An exiled Viking prince becomes willingly enslaved in order to gain access to the household of his enemy in this epic revenge yarn. Essentially a retelling of Conan through the lens of copious amounts of psilocybe mushrooms, this gets pretty trippy in places. It also has a dude getting bitchslapped with a handful of menstrual blood. Gritty and violent as fuck, with a couple of nasty surprises along the way, this about as much fun as you can have splattered from head to toe in mud and gore. 8.5/10
Day Shift - A dude who hunts vampires for a secret mysterious Union of vampire hunters has to hunt vampires to earn money and save his family. This is total dogshit. Sure it's got plenty of scrub vampires getting shotgunned in the face by a smug Jamie Foxx, but it's utterly insipid, obnoxious, and painful to watch. Everyone involved clearly put the bare minimum amount of effort into this straight to Netflix abomination...and it's almost 2 hours long. Avoid. 2/10
Freaks of Nature - In a town where humans, vampires and zombies all co-exist in some kind of uneasy truce, all hell breaks loose when aliens invade. It's dumb but at least it doesn't try to take itself seriously at all, and actually has a couple of funny bits. Annoyingly doesn't make any attempt to explain its ridiculous set up, but at least the vampire girl is reasonably cute, and the nonsense all moves along at a decent clip. 5/10
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Post by Nth on Sept 5, 2022 4:22:34 GMT
This looks hilarious, a parody biopic of Weird Al's life story.
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Post by BakFu on Sept 10, 2022 1:30:56 GMT
I was so stoked to finally see Thor: Love and Thunder since I really enjoyed Ragnarock and like Taika Watiti, but this thing was a bummer. There was a good balance of humour and action in ragnarock, love and thunder spent the entire film next to me, over here on this side of the fourth wall, a bit too much for me. There were some decent parts, but overall, just a bit too goofy this time. I think Watiti is drinking his own koolaid now, I hate when this happens to directors I like (Guy Ritchie, I’m looking at you!), hopefully he takes a step back and gets on track again.
I also noticed WW84 on Netflix, I remember it getting shit canned by critics, which made me sad since I liked the debut film and Gal Gadot really surprised me in the role even though I was a skeptic of her being cast, AND I’m a fan of Kristen Wiig. I checked it out anyway, and sure, it was a bit corny, but it is a superhero movie, but overall, I enjoyed it more than my opinion dispensing overlords would have liked me to. Pedro Pascal being in the film was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Kristen wiig did a great job as usual and stepped her game up for some really good action sequences. A bit corny, as I said, but DC superheros are by nature pretty corny, so this overall wasn’t bad, definitely a better movie than the latest Thor offering.
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Post by gotchism4life on Sept 10, 2022 11:58:49 GMT
I was so stoked to finally see Thor: Love and Thunder since I really enjoyed Ragnarock and like Taika Watiti, but this thing was a bummer. There was a good balance of humour and action in ragnarock, love and thunder spent the entire film next to me, over here on this side of the fourth wall, a bit too much for me. There were some decent parts, but overall, just a bit too goofy this time. I think Watiti is drinking his own koolaid now, I hate when this happens to directors I like (Guy Ritchie, I’m looking at you!), hopefully he takes a step back and gets on track again. I also noticed WW84 on Netflix, I remember it getting shit canned by critics, which made me sad since I liked the debut film and Gal Gadot really surprised me in the role even though I was a skeptic of her being cast, AND I’m a fan of Kristen Wiig. I checked it out anyway, and sure, it was a bit corny, but it is a superhero movie, but overall, I enjoyed it more than my opinion dispensing overlords would have liked me to. Pedro Pascal being in the film was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Kristen wiig did a great job as usual and stepped her game up for some really good action sequences. A bit corny, as I said, but DC superheros are by nature pretty corny, so this overall wasn’t bad, definitely a better movie than the latest Thor offering. Yeah, my wife and I watched the newest Thor last night. It was meh.
I liked both Wonder Woman movies, the first one was better, even if it was similar to Captain America: The First Avenger.
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Post by BakFu on Sept 18, 2022 13:32:34 GMT
I finally got around to watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife this weekend. Once again, miserable critics panned this film for some reason, but I really enjoyed it. To keep things spoiler free, the story is about a cash strapped mom and her two kids inheriting a seemingly derelict farm property from her estranged father. The main focus is on the youngest child, a very intelligent, introverted young lady who is seems perfectly okay to be that way (nice change for this type of personality in film instead of the usual wishing to be the popular, pretty person, nice job!), and her discoveries about the significance of the owner of house and how she fits in. The older boy, her brother, is a bit more eager to be out there, and on his journey, also finds things out in the house about his grandfathers seemingly odd endeavours, and hears information from interactions with locals. Finally, the mom, who has daddy issues due to feeling abandoned by her father for his interests and work, also begins to put things together, partially guided by a romantic interest that develops between the daughters summer-school teacher and his markish attitude about science and especially the long since dissolved ghostbusters.
All of the story lines converge, and the backstory of the 1984 original is fleshed out. I feel like it completes the “story”, and also potentially sets up for new tales to be told in the world of Ghostbusters lore. There’s enough nostalgia here for fans of the original movies to enjoy, but refreshingly, it for once doesn’t feel like a cash grab like most films with a recognizable old franchise attached to them, but the references to the old stuff feel like they serve the purpose of letting a family learn who their estranged relative was and the significance of his work, as well as creating an opening for telling more stories in the future. Great casting (and a very quick couple of shots of a local girl from my neck of the woods making it big, Reservation Dogs’ Paulina Alexis!), gorgeous cinematics, great mix of practical and CGI effects, great musical score with a nice mix of old and new, if you missed this one or were sitting in the fence about it, in my opinion, it’s worth checking out! 👻
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Post by OrochiGeese on Sept 19, 2022 6:42:53 GMT
I've wanted to see this for a while and I think it's finally available to me.
Big fan of the first two Ghostbusters movies (and the excellent TV series) and am looking forward to seeing how the legacy was carried on in this movie. I hear there's a sequel coming of it too.
That is really cool 😎
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