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Ghost Planet

Low budget sci-fi flick on Amazon Prime.

Mankind has interstellar travel having discovered ships left over by a seemingly vanished civilisation which can do the job.

However, limited control and understanding means it’s a pretty Orky “get in the cockpit, press go, end up where you end up”. Until…one day….

Anyways, this is actually alright. Very CGI heavy, and whilst obvious, it’s not lazy. A limit of budget, not ambition.

The look of it is very cool despite said limitations. Earth is very Megacity-1, and despite an odd weightlessness to the ships and that it’s clear a genuine effort has been made to make this look as good as the budget would possibly allow. Think early 2000’s Sy-Fy Channel, but with more care and attention to detail.

The acting is fine, and the plot is at least intriguing.

I’d say this is worth a watch, me. It’s not prime time fodder, but if you’ve a loose afternoon and nowt better to do, this might just fill your schedule nicely.

 LordofHats wrote:
Spider-Man Marathon

I'm rewatching the OG Toby trilogy. Still a solid set of movies imo. Good entertainment and the start of the age of comic movies.

But just to voice something that struck me; you ever notice how fethed up the 2nd movie presents 'doing the right thing?'

Like, Peter quits being Spider-Man but oh no. That man is getting mugged. Damn. Too bad Spider-Man doesn't exist tot do something about it; bitch you're there XD You could do something about it. Peter Parker! It's just a mugger not a supervillain come on if you really wanted to do something you could try!

And then like, total mood whiplash right after that scene where Peter is fessing up the Aunt May all 'Uncle Ben died because he was the only one willing to do the right thing' but it sure sounds like Uncle Ben died because a guy with a gun said give me your car and he was like 'what are you going to do if I say no? Shoot me?' Like yeah, Peter could have stopped that guy too but how is choosing to die over a car the 'right thing to do?' It's a car man. And at least in these movies the guy was just a thief up to that point. Money and cars can be replaced. A life can't.

And then it's just 'wait, was Uncle Ben just a stupid old man who died for nothing?'

Hits different when you're older XD

EDIT: Also MJ knows you're spider-man Peter and she's still being kind of a unreasonable friend. The sweet Russian girl has cake! Come on man there's potential there and MJ's just kind of a lot of work for a kind of vapid girl. Chose the cake Peter! She's into you! Go for it!

My big issue is that Harry Osborn should have become Hobgoblin, not bloody Emo-Surfer-AntiHero-KnockOff-Goblin...

The Salem Witch Doll

An alleged horror film, though there’s nothing creepy, Spoopy or scary going on here.

And it’s not even set in Salem. But the UK. Come to think of it, there’s no doll so far and there’s only 15 minutes left.

But hey. Student returns to UK to see her family. Her Mum is dead. And she’s set to learn some scary things about her family. Mostly that her Uncle wants to do something that’s vile. Oh, and her entire family……are terrible actors!

Oh yeah and she was tricked into smoking a reefer spiced with Acid (the trippy kind, not the melty facey kind).

Normally low budget British Horror can be a trove of unexpected treasures. But this is just duff.

One of her…cousins, I guess? Is either just addicted to his phone, or meant to be on the spectrum. And he’s either dead….or gone to the Planetarium. No. Really. I’m not being facetious with that one.

10 minutes left not including credits, and the Doll has shown up. Seems it likes to drag people into cupboards.

By the Sword - 1991

I'd never heard of this before Youtube served me some clips, I was interested to see more. The full movie is there.

It's a story about a guy who used to fence with a dark past who wants to teach fencing at the same school he used to attend, everything unfolds from there. I enjoyed it.

Kung Fury

Yeah we need some, yeah we need some ACTION
if we’re gonna make it as a True Survivor!


This is a 30 minute comedy-action film available free on YouTube. You’ll know whether or not you’ll like it in the first minute. It’s a throwback to 80’s movies and video games with simultaneously an extremely low budget and very slick production. If you want to see a ridiculous video game protagonist wreck his way through an army of Nazis, this if the film for you.

Also, the music video with David Hasslehoff is required viewing.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ghost Planet

Low budget sci-fi flick on Amazon Prime.

Mankind has interstellar travel having discovered ships left over by a seemingly vanished civilisation which can do the job.

However, limited control and understanding means it’s a pretty Orky “get in the cockpit, press go, end up where you end up”. Until…one day….

Anyways, this is actually alright. Very CGI heavy, and whilst obvious, it’s not lazy. A limit of budget, not ambition.

The look of it is very cool despite said limitations. Earth is very Megacity-1, and despite an odd weightlessness to the ships and that it’s clear a genuine effort has been made to make this look as good as the budget would possibly allow. Think early 2000’s Sy-Fy Channel, but with more care and attention to detail.

The acting is fine, and the plot is at least intriguing.

I’d say this is worth a watch, me. It’s not prime time fodder, but if you’ve a loose afternoon and nowt better to do, this might just fill your schedule nicely.

Sounds a lot like the game Across a thousand dead worlds

A rather cool hard sci fi single player RPG that tells some interesting stories

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Kung Fury

Yeah we need some, yeah we need some ACTION
if we’re gonna make it as a True Survivor!


This is a 30 minute comedy-action film available free on YouTube. You’ll know whether or not you’ll like it in the first minute. It’s a throwback to 80’s movies and video games with simultaneously an extremely low budget and very slick production. If you want to see a ridiculous video game protagonist wreck his way through an army of Nazis, this if the film for you.

Also, the music video with David Hasslehoff is required viewing.

I have a copy of that and the soundtrack. I'd only been into new retro wave stuff for a few years when Kung Fury dropped. (It has a huge influence on a Necron army I was painting at the time.) I need to add that True survivor song to my playlist to go with the love song he did for from Euro trip. (It makes me laugh.)
If you liked that you might look for Blood Machines. It's a movie/long form music video. It's quite cool. I enjoy Carpenter Brut's music videos, he does a few that are like B horror movies.

Trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX0aS_zJq3Q

13 Assassins

A samurai film.... no, not THAT Samurai film..... a different one.... but telling the same story..... but with a different crew..... but....... made in 1990..... which is a remake of the 1963 film.... which is based on historical events..... which..... oh never mind.

It is solid for what it is. I think the guy playing Shinza and the one playing Lord Hanbei are both very strong in their roles.

Watch it yourself if you wish.....

Blood Machines looks awesome. Thanks for the recommendation. I’m also going to have to watch some of Brut’s videos.

Crispy78 wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Spider-Man Marathon

I'm rewatching the OG Toby trilogy. Still a solid set of movies imo. Good entertainment and the start of the age of comic movies.

But just to voice something that struck me; you ever notice how fethed up the 2nd movie presents 'doing the right thing?'

Like, Peter quits being Spider-Man but oh no. That man is getting mugged. Damn. Too bad Spider-Man doesn't exist tot do something about it; bitch you're there XD You could do something about it. Peter Parker! It's just a mugger not a supervillain come on if you really wanted to do something you could try!

And then like, total mood whiplash right after that scene where Peter is fessing up the Aunt May all 'Uncle Ben died because he was the only one willing to do the right thing' but it sure sounds like Uncle Ben died because a guy with a gun said give me your car and he was like 'what are you going to do if I say no? Shoot me?' Like yeah, Peter could have stopped that guy too but how is choosing to die over a car the 'right thing to do?' It's a car man. And at least in these movies the guy was just a thief up to that point. Money and cars can be replaced. A life can't.

And then it's just 'wait, was Uncle Ben just a stupid old man who died for nothing?'

Hits different when you're older XD

EDIT: Also MJ knows you're spider-man Peter and she's still being kind of a unreasonable friend. The sweet Russian girl has cake! Come on man there's potential there and MJ's just kind of a lot of work for a kind of vapid girl. Chose the cake Peter! She's into you! Go for it!

My big issue is that Harry Osborn should have become Hobgoblin, not bloody Emo-Surfer-AntiHero-KnockOff-Goblin...

My issue is that Spider Man II has an El Train in the middle of Manhattan which does not exist!

Human-spider hybrids who can climb walls? Fine. People turning into sand? Why not.

But somehow the continued existence of the 2nd Avenue El destroys my suspension of disbelief!



This hill I will die on!

*island platform

Waxwork

“Someone slipped some acid in my drink…again..China!”


The premise is a wax museum made with black magic so that guests find themselves trapped in one of the diorama scenarios, and when they are killed their bodies become part of the waxwork dioramas. So the movie has a lot of fun with werewolves, vampires, zombies and the like, with heaps of gore and cheese. The Marquis de Sade seemed like he would be the least interesting monster, but he got some great lines/scenes. It all builds to a chaotic, cheesy climax at the end.

It’s a fun 80’s B movie if you enjoy those. As China says, “Dig it or f— off!”

I watched Waxwork once, and rather enjoyed it. I thought it's done way better than something with that premise was required to be. It seemed like somebody was invested in that project. Fun stuff.


Invasion USA - It's a pretty 'large scale' action flick, which is pretty mean-spirited. My most recent watch of that one was very close to watching Delta Force, and I was surprised how mean-spirited these Chuck Norris cannon films could be in the acts the terrorists carry out. Maybe I'm just soft.

Invasion USA definitely turned out better than I thought it would.

It’s by no means a good film, but it is entertaining, and in the way in was going for.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Waxwork

“Someone slipped some acid in my drink…again..China!”


The premise is a wax museum made with black magic so that guests find themselves trapped in one of the diorama scenarios, and when they are killed their bodies become part of the waxwork dioramas. So the movie has a lot of fun with werewolves, vampires, zombies and the like, with heaps of gore and cheese. The Marquis de Sade seemed like he would be the least interesting monster, but he got some great lines/scenes. It all builds to a chaotic, cheesy climax at the end.

It’s a fun 80’s B movie if you enjoy those. As China says, “Dig it or f— off!”

I even found and rewatched this recently because I watched it when I was a kid along with Waxwork 2: Thru Time or something. The first is just excellent. The second starts if I remember right with them trying to do time travel but it ends up shooting them thru realities and has them land in classic horror films that are that film but definitely not (Dawn of the Dead, Alien/Aliens, House on Haunted Hill, etc). It's just good fun.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Invasion USA definitely turned out better than I thought it would.

It’s by no means a good film, but it is entertaining, and in the way in was going for.

Yeah, say what you will about that film, but it's got scope and certainly a big finale.


Last night I looked at the wikipedia page for Encino Man. This led me to watching a Pauly Shore stand-up thing from 1993. Two findings:
.) People in the US in the 1990s loved cheering stand-up comedians. Reminded me of the absurd amounts of hollering and clapping for Andrew Dice Clay from slightly before that (which I watched a few months ago).
.) He isn't much of a comedian, is he. More of a character. Not a funny one, but at least not a harmful one either. There seems to be that constant layer of self-deprication underneath the "I'm on a stage, haha". Seems like the class weirdo who ended up being a success due to what ever circumstances.

Before that I watched the excellent psycho-thrillery, fairy tale-y, horror-y Austrian film Hotel (2004) by Jessica Hausner. Watched the film premier on tv then (first in a series of scary films made on very small budgets pushed by Austrian broadcast back then. Pretty cool series.), watched it a few times since then, and it never ceases to fascinate me. That film is relentless in building a foreboding atmosphere of impending dread. Amazingly well done, with a few little hints of film references (Shining, Lynch, etc), but then going off in a whole different direction. Or none at all. The characters are also all extremely effective. Minnichmayr is one of my favourite villains, because that's the sort of girl everybody's come across in their life. The dialogue, the facials/looks, the off-work outfits... extremely well done. I love that film. Pretty sure I wrote about it before.

A Fish Called Wanda

Look, it’s just one of those films. A stone cold, instant classic. And for good reason.

Everyone is very carefully and very deliberately chewing the scenery. Some scenes it’s the merest nibble. Other scenes they’re putting Kirby to shame.

And the end result is a throughly and incredibly funny film.

So much so I don’t even feel the need to namecheck its cast.

Fun fact about A Fish Called Wanda

Yup, it's a cool film. I always skip the french fries fish scene because I watched the film the first time when I was like 9 or 10 and found it exceedingly mean, and to this day I haven't gotten over it (I also detest Ketchup, most of all the smell, which is probably the main reason I don't like the scene).

Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - it’s okay. It has the worst Winston Churchill I have ever seen.

Jackpot! I really enjoyed this. It’s a fun action romp that knows it’s exactly that and does it really well.

My only complaint is that John Cena has the wrong colour of headband at the end.

The Thing from Another World

The one that terrified your dad or grandpa as a child.


If you liked the 50’s War of the Worlds, you’ll probably like this. There’s a lot of build up, some fun dialogue, and a handful of stand out scenes and ideas that influenced modern horror, especially Alien and Aliens. Unlike the 80’s remake, TTFAW had pretty limited special effects that it could only use sparingly—except for one of the most insane fire stunts ever put on film. They literally couldn’t do this today for liability reasons. It’s worth it just for the build up and execution of that scene.

I recommend it. And remember to always watch the skies!



Forbidden Planet
The one with Robbie the Robot…that terrified your dad or grandpa as a child.

This film was an inspiration for Star Trek, so it’s a must-watch for any Star Trek fan. Unlike TTFAW, Forbidden Planet is in color and has surprisingly good production values and special effects. Robbie the Robot is still awesome. The story is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, so solid. The dialogue and some of the tropes feel a lot more ‘old fashioned’ than in TTFAW or even Star Trek TOS, but other than that the movie holds up well.

Also, Doctor Morbius just morbs all over the film.

The scariest thing on Forbidden Planet is Leslie Neilsen without grey hair!

Operation Mincemeat

It’s good. It’s very good. A not particularly dramatised telling of how Q Branch used the body of a destitute to trick the Axis into believing the invasion of Italy would begin away from Sicily, drawing off their forces.

Absolutely stellar cast and very low key, more dealing with the attention to detail put into the deception, and how it wasn’t until the invasion played out they really knew if it worked.

Very much worth a watch, and currently free on Prime in the UK, possibly in other territories. Particularly welcome after the somewhat disappointing Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (which is still enjoyable, just not what I hoped for)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Operation Mincemeat

It’s good. It’s very good. A not particularly dramatised telling of how Q Branch used the body of a destitute to trick the Axis into believing the invasion of Italy would begin away from Sicily, drawing off their forces.

Absolutely stellar cast and very low key, more dealing with the attention to detail put into the deception, and how it wasn’t until the invasion played out they really knew if it worked.

Very much worth a watch, and currently free on Prime in the UK, possibly in other territories. Particularly welcome after the somewhat disappointing Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (which is still enjoyable, just not what I hoped for)

Did Admiral Canaris secretly play along...

Would love an excellent TV series about the man.

 Flinty wrote:
The scariest thing on Forbidden Planet is Leslie Neilsen without grey hair!

He is super distracting. It took me a while to stop expecting punchlines every time he talked.

I watched Speed. Perfectly fine film, that. I have no idea what else to say

Top Gun: Maverick

Was holding off on seeing this movie in an irrational fear that it wouldn’t be all that it was hyped to be.

Now I’m mad that it took me so long and its made me want to massively upgrade my entertainment setup.

Just a perfect Hollywood blockbuster.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The Thing from Another World


Forbidden Planet
The one with Robbie the Robot…that terrified your dad or grandpa as a child.

Also, Doctor Morbius just morbs all over the film.

The Original "It's Morbin' Time"


Chief of Station

A covert action/thriller starring Aaron Ekhart that starts off strong, but just gets worse and worse until towards the end I suspected the film may have been written by AI. They tossed in plausible and authentic movie spy-jargon, but at strange not exactly right times, and then the culmination of the movie and its plot..... amateur hour in the realm of espionage and screen-writing.

Got sucked into a couple of movies this weekend;

Jackpot

Sign up another person who enjoyed this movie. It's just fun. The whole case seems to have had a great time doing it or they are way better actors then we think.

Roadhouse (the new one)

This one was oddly decent. I never saw the original as it was just enough before my time that when I was getting into movies it didn't rate a watch but I know it has a cult following. This one was fun. Jake Gylanhal(sp?) does his normal bang up job of acting. Some famous MMA fighter chews up some serious scenery. The movie just shoots along as a fun and mostly brainless film with some good moments. Exposition is basically zero. The only let down is the final fight scene which takes the mostly grounded fighting from earlier in the film and goes nuts.

Above the Clouds

What if the only person who could see you was a down on his luck mma fighter whose career you destroyed! Girl is literally invisible to everyone and everything but still can interact with the world physically and has been that way since her mom died when she was a kid. It's pretty silly but it's done decently. It makes zero sense so don't think to hard but it's cute. And it has pre-Reacher Alan Ritchson. Interesting to see how much bulk the dude added in just like 3 years. He was already a big and cut dude.

Waxwork 2

Lost in time like a bug in a jar,
No matter where you go, there you are.


While it has a different feel to the first film, a bit more stylized and a bit less funny, it’s still clear everyone involved was having fun. There are even more homages to classic horror movies than the first one, some of them quite well done. Bruce Campbell, David Carradine, Marina Sirtis, Buck Flower and other recognizable faces fill out the smaller roles in the film.

And for true cinephiles: yes, someone does rap the plot over the end credits.