What have you watched recently?

[Ji'dai]

Some movies I gave up on half way: a treasure hunter disturbs the tomb of a vampire in 2006’s Desert of Blood; a motley group of people are trapped in a sealed parking garage with killer video game robots in 2002’s Subterano; a graveyard caretaker and his assistant have trouble with the recently deceased often returning to life in 1995’s Cemetery Man; and Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka in The Phantom Menace) is a detective in Clive Barker’s 1990 monster movie Nightbreed.

While making a horror movie for their film class, a group of students and their professor witness and document the rise of the living dead in the bad 2007 “mockumentary” George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead.

[pbarnard]

Body of Lies. Nice little espionage film. Although, irony is that the author of the novel it was adapted to, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, writes a column today saying how the CIA isn't to blame for intelligence failures despite a novel and several non-fiction books (from his columns) saying just that.

[Jedi_Master_Guyute]

[REC]- This damn near perfect spanish horror film features a group of survivors sealed off in an apartment building where a zombie producing virus has been found. The movie, shot with a handcam, is intense, fast, scary, and creates some fantastic suspense, especially during the last several minutes. I can't imagine that the American remake, "Quarantine," was even half as good as this movie. It leaves a few unanswered questions and while I could piece most of them together, I still was wondering about a few others. Still, this is a horror film that should not be missed by anybody. Easily one of the better horror films of the last several years. Rating- ***1/2 out of ****

[Kidhuman]

Was there a fire fight?

A big one. With 6 people on one side. Not 1 person with 6 guns

[Ji'dai]

I couldn’t finish the boring 1933 science fiction film Men Must Fight. A pregnant nurse loses her pilot beau in the Great War and marries another man who raises her child as his own, and who later becomes Secretary of State as another war threatens to engulf 1940 United States.

After being hit by a car, an amnesiac woman (Christina Ricci) begins seeing strange people around the small English village where she’s recuperating, who oddly resemble the sculptures found in a recently discovered first century Christian church - those poor souls who bore witness to Christ’s crucifixion and have been damned to an eternity of wandering and watching human tragedy throughout the ages in the interesting 2002 horror film The Gathering. Features Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four) as one of the “witnesses.”

[DarkArtist]

i just recently watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to get set for Half Blood Prince..... also caught Dick Tracy last night on Turner Classic Movies

[pbarnard]

Mamma Mia. Yep, the Abba fest musical. Really enjoyable.

The Tale of Desperauex. Nice little animated fable. Maybe I'll buy the book(s) for baby genetic Stirfry when s/he arrives.

Tropic Thunder. Only thing funnier I've seen the past year is Will Farrel's George W. Bush one man show. Didn't pass out, didn't **** myself, but man it hurt laughing that hard for that long.

[DarthQuack]

Just saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I rather enjoyed it, even though they left out some things I would have preferred to see.

[Jedi_Master_Guyute]

A few more quick blurbs:

"Logan's Run"- The movie has an interesting premise, but the main lead character played by Michael York is hard to root for at first as he is primarily selfish and out for his own gain. In fact, during the film I wasn't really sure if he was acting out of love for his new squeeze or his own agenda. Also, the relationship with his lady, Jessica, feels forced and she only falls for him after they've defied death together (and this is after she denied him while she was basically a prostitute). I wanted more of a back story and more discussion about the situation of "the dome" and I felt the ending was a bit too happy. The dated SFX are actually neat to see as they do work in the context. Sadly, the movie just isn't that good. Rating- ** out of ****

"Shoot'Em Up"- A flick that sets out to be entertaining, violent, action-packed, twisted, and highly enjoyable. And it succeeds on every mark. The action is over the to and really ridiculous and Clive Owen uses everything from guns to oil to carrots to an infant to get the job done. If you're looking for a film with character development, detailed plot, and a message, you're looking in the wrong place. If you're looking for a silly and highly violent way to kill some time, look no further. For all its goofiness and whatnot, I thought it was a good time. A serious guilty pleasure. Rating- *** out of ****

[Ji'dai]

A Greek partisan (Telly Savalas) helps an antiquarian (David Niven) and other prisoners escape from a German Major’s (Roger Moore) island archaeological excavation and destroy a hidden missile base in the boring 1979 war movie Escape to Athena. The all-star cast, which features such 1970s luminaries as Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon a Time in the West), Elliott Gould, and even Sonny Bono, can‘t save this one. Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel in ESB and Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) plays yet another Nazi.

A motley group of a low-lifes, boozers, and other losers barricade themselves in a remote desert tavern and battle flesh-eating creatures in the rather fun 2006 horror movie Feast. Features rocker Henry Rollins as a traveling motivational speaker and Clu Gallagher (Bert in The Return of the Living Dead) plays the bartender.