October 14, 2007

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Director: Oh hell, does it really matter?
Writer: We're all dying in the end anyway.
Starring: A bunch of fuckers who can't act or sing.
Co-Starring: A bunch more fuckers who can't act or sing. And Aerosmith, but they're not enough to make up for the utter shittery.
Description: Just... . Seriously.
Rating: F-, and I don't give a shit if there's no such thing, there is now. This movie (because as sure as God's green earth this is NOT a film) is THAT bad.
In a word... _______________________. That's right, a huge FUCKING BLANK SPACE.

In-Depth Review!
I have only ever turned off two movies in my life. One was the Star Wars Christmas Special (and I'm not sure if that even counts) and the other was this.

October 14, 2007

The Shining (1980)*
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson, and Stephen King
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd
Co-Starring: Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, and Phillip Stone
Description: Jack Torrance gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, Torrance and his family will be the only occupants of the hotel for a long while. When the snow storms block the Torrance family in the hotel, Jack's son Danny, who has some clairvoyance and telepathy powers, discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. When Jack meets the ghost of Mr. Grady, the former custodian of the hotel who murdered his wife and his two daughters, things begin to get really nasty.
Rating: A+
In a word... masterpiece.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 14, 2007

The Demonology of Desire (2007) [Short]
Director: Rodrigo Gudiño
Writer: Rodrigo Gudiño
Starring: Bianca Rusu and Tudor Plopeanu
Co-Starring: Jewelia Fisico
Description: Late one night, Ramona makes a powerful wish. The following day, her prayer is miraculously answered when she meets Eric, a boy with no idea of the dark, fantastical depths that a boyhood crush can lead him. Equal parts fatal fable, romantic thriller and art-core horror, THE DEMONOLOGY OF DESIRE is a love story... with a caustic heart.
Rating: B-
In a word... wtf?

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
Note 2: This is a short, and therefore will not be eligible for best or worst movie of the month, and won 't be taken in account when counting total films watched at the end of the month.

October 14, 2007

Deathdream (1974)
Director: Bob Clark
Writer: Alan Ormsby
Starring: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, and Richard Backus
Co-Starring: Henderson Forsythe, Anya Ormsby, and Jane Daly
Description: A young Soldier is killed in the line of duty in Vietnam. That same night, the soldier returns home, brought back by his Mother's wishes that he "Don't Die"! Upon his Return, Andy sits in his room, refusing to see his friends or family, venturing out only at night. The Vampiric horror is secondary to the terror that comes from the disintegration of a typical American family.
Rating: C
In a word... interesting.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 14, 2007

It's Alive (1974)
Director: Larry Cohen
Writer: Larry Cohen
Starring: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, and James Dixon
Co-Starring: William Wellman Jr., Shamus Locke, and Andrew Duggan
Description: The Davies expecting a baby which turns out to be a monster with the nasty habit to kill when it's scared. And it's easily scared...
Rating: D+
In a word... ugh.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 14, 2007

The Raven (1963)
Director: Roger Corman
Writers: Richard Matheson and Edgar Allen Poe
Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff
Co-Starring: Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson, and Connie Wallace
Description: In this tongue-in-cheek movie inspired by Poe's poem, Dr. Craven is the son of a great sorcerer (now dead) who was once himself quite skilled at that profession, but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo comes to Craven for help- the evil Scarabus has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven's long-lost wife Lenore, whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus.
Rating: C+
In a word... funny?

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 14, 2007

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)*
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Writers: Tommy Lee Wallace and Nigel Kneale
Starring: Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin
Co-Starring: Dan O'Herlihy and Michael Currie
Description: Silver Shamrock, a mass-producer of Halloween masks, plan to kill millions of innocent people worldwide by placing pieces of a stolen boulder from Stonehenge into small tags and attaching them to the masks. When children all over the world sit down to watch the Silver Shamrock advertisement, terror and panic will spread. Dr. Dan Challis investigates a series of bizarre and horrifying incidents that begin to unfold before Halloween evening, and he comes face to face with the sinister figure of Conal Conhran, maker of the evil masks.
Rating: C+
In a word... Halloween, Halloween, Halloween... (and yes I realize that was three words, but it was also the same word repeated three times, so I win.)

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 14, 2007

Videodrome (1983)
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronengberg
Starring: James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Deborah Harry
Co-Starring: Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, and Jack Creley
Description: The president of the Civic TV - channel 83, Max Renn (James Wood), is always looking for new cheap and erotic movies for his cable television. When his employee Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) decodes a pirate video broadcast showing torture, murder and mutilation called Videodrome, Max becomes obsessed to get these movies for his channel. He contacts his supplier Masha (Lynne Gorman) and asks her to find the responsible for the transmission. A couple of days later, Masha tells that Videodrome is real, actually snuff movies. Max's sadomasochist girlfriend Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry) decides to travel to Pittsburgh to have an audition to the show. Max investigates further, and through a video of the expert Professor Brian O'Blivion (Jack Creley), he learns that that TV screen would be the retina of the mind's eye, being part of the brain, and Videodrome transmission creates a brain tumor in the viewer, changing the reality in video hallucination.
Rating: A-
In a word... freaky.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 13, 2007

Demoni 2 (1986)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Writers: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni
Co-Starring: Bobby Rhodes, Asia Argento, and Virginia Bryant
Description: A documentary is shown on TV of group of teens who investigate the legendary forbidden zone, in which once took place a Demon infestation (see Demoni I). When finding a lifeless corps of a demon, one of the teens causes the resurrection it, and the demon makes it's way into the nearby world by TV-broadcast... An unlucky girl, having her birthday-party at that time, gets possessed by the demon while watching the documentary and soon the complete building in which she lives turns into a living nighmare....
Rating: C
In a word... adequate.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
Note 2: Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni did a Q and A after the film was shown.

October 13, 2007

The Monster Squad (1987)
Director: Fred Dekker
Writers: Shane Black and Fred Dekker
Starring: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, and Stephen Macht
Co-Starring: Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan, and Brent Chalem
Description: 12-year-old Sean Crenshaw and his best friend Patrick are die hard monster fanatics. Along with their friend Horace (nicknamed Fat Kid),junior high tough guy Rudy, Sean's kid sister Phoebe, and little Eugene they come together and talk monsters. But when Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Gill Man, and The Mummy come to their small town to get an amulet to control the world, Sean leads his friends into action to protect their town from the forces of evil.
Rating: B
In a word... fun.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
Note 2: Fred Dekker did a Q and A after the film was shown.

October 13, 2007

Peeping Tom (1960)
Director: Michael Powell
Writer: Leo Marks
Starring: Karlheinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, and Anna Massey
Co-Starring: Maxine Audley, Brenda Bruce, and Esmond Knight
Description: As a boy, Mark Lewis was subjected to bizarre experiments by his scientist-father, who wanted to study and record the effects of fear on the nervous system. Now grown up, both of his parents dead, Mark works by day as a focus-puller for a London movie studio. He moonlights by taking girlie pictures above a news agent's shop. But Mark has also taken up a horrifying hobby: He murders women while using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror. One evening, Mark meets and befriends Helen Stephens, a young woman who rents one of the rooms in his house. Does Helen represent some kind of possible redemption for Mark - or is she unknowingly running the risk of becoming one of his victims?
Rating: A-
In a word... unnerving.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 13, 2007

Equinox (1970)
Directors: Jack Woods and Dennis Muren
Writers: Mark Thomas McGee and Jack Woods
Starring: Edward Connell, Barbara Hewitt, and Frank Bonner
Co-Starring: Robin Christopher, Jack Woods, and James Phillips
Description: Four teenagers go on a woods hike and encounter a creepy forest ranger and a crazy old man. The old man is a scientist who had found a mysterious book bound in human skin, the Necronomicon, and when he had read its cryptic symbols it conjured monsters into existence. The teenagers keep the book, and are then persued by monsters, a demonic cult, and the ranger. The ranger turns out to be a red flying devil in human disguise.
Rating: C-
In a word... cheesy.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 13, 2007

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Director: Charles Barton
Writers: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, John Grant, Mary Shelley, and Bram Stoker
Starring: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
Co-Starring: Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, and Glenn Strange
Description: The world of freight handlers Wilbur Grey and Chick Young is turned upside down when the remains of Frankenstein's monster and Dracula arrive from Europe to be used in a house of horrors. Dracula awakens and escapes with the weakened monster, who he plans to re-energize with a new brain. Larry Talbot (the Wolfman) arrives from London in an attempt to thwart Dracula. Dracula's reluctant aide is the beautiful Dr. Sandra Mornay. Her reluctance is dispatched by Dracula's bite. Dracula and Sandra abduct Wilbur for his brain and recharge the monster in preparation for the operation. Chick and Talbot attempt to find and free Wilbur, but when the full moon rises all hell breaks loose with the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein all running rampant
Rating: B+
In a word... entertaining.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 13, 2007

Freaks (1932)
Director: Todd Browning
Writers: Al Boasberg, Willis Goldbeck, Leon Gordon, Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins, and Edgar Allan Woolf
Starring: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, and Olga Baclanova
Co-Starring: Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor, and Harry Earles
Description: In a side-show circus, where the greatest attractions are deformed people, the gorgeous trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) is the lover of the strong Hercules (Henry Victor). She plays as if she liked the German midget Hans (Harry Earles), who is in love with her, to borrow his money and get expensive gifts he gives to her. When the jealous German midget Frieda (Daisy Earles), who loves Hans, asks Cleopatra to spare Hans from a great deception, she accidentally discloses that he is an heir of a great fortune. Cleo decides to get married with Hans to poison him and get his inheritance. In the wedding feast, Cleopatra openly flirts with Hercules and mocks the side-show performers. When a very ill Hans is saved by a doctor that tells that he has been cruelly poisoned, the other freaks snoops in Hans trailer and they find what Cleopatra is doing with him. In a stormy night, all the freaks join forces and transform Cleopatra in the Feathered Hen. Although not shown in the DVD, which has the commercial alternative version, in the original story Hercules is castrated and becomes a soprano singer.
Rating: B+
In a word... bizarre.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 13, 2007

The Cat and The Canary (1927)
Director: Paul Leni
Writers: John Willard, Walter Anthony, Alfred A. Cohn, and Robert F. Hill
Starring: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, and Forrest Stanley
Co-Starring: Tully Marshall, Gertrude Astor, and Flora Finch
Description: Rich old Cyrus West's relatives are waiting for him to die so they can inherit. But he stipulates that his will be read 20 years after his death. On the appointed day his expectant heirs arrive at his brooding mansion. The will is read and it turns out that Annabelle West, the only heir with his name left, inherits, if she is deemed sane. If she isn't, the money and some diamonds go to someone else, whose name is in a sealed envelope. Before he can reveal the identity of her successor to Annabelle, Mr. Crosby, the lawyer, disappears. The first in a series of mysterious events, some of which point to Annabelle in fact being unstable.
Rating: B
In a word... predictable.

Note: I watched this at the Music Box Massacre 3, at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

October 12, 2007

Little Children (2006)
Director: Todd Field
Writers: Todd Field and Tom Perrotta
Starring: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, and Jennifer Connelly
Co-Starring: Gregg Edelman, Sadie Goldstein, and Jackie Earle Haley
Description: Echoes of "Madame Bovary" in the American suburbs. Sarah's in a loveless marriage, long days with her young daughter at the park and the pool, wanting more. Brad is a househusband, married to a flinty documentary filmmaker. Ronnie is just out of prison - two years for indecent exposure - living with his mother; Larry is a retired cop, fixated on driving Ronnie away. Sarah and Brad connect, a respite of adult companionship at the pool. Ronnie and Larry have their demons. Brad should be studying for the bar; Larry misses his job; Ronnie's mom thinks he needs a girlfriend. Sarah longs to refuse to be trapped in an unhappy life. Where can these tangled paths lead?
Rating: A
In a word... satirical.

October 6, 2007

Viskningar och rop (1972)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, and Ingrid Thulin
Co-Starring: Liv Ullmann, Anders Ulk, and Inga Gill
Description: A family drama takes place in a mansion in the late 1800's. Karin and Maria watch over their sister Agnes' sickbed together with the servant Anna. Through flashbacks the lives of both sisters are described, which are full of lies, deceit, callousness, self despise, guilt and forbidden love. Agnes' dramatic death cramp arouses only aversion in them. They both retreat in their own way from her when she grasps for their hands.
Rating: A-
In a word... poignant.

October 5, 2007

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer, and Patrick Süskind
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, and Rachel Hurd-Wood
Co-Starring: Karoline Herfurth, Ramon Pujol, Paul Berrondo, and Sam Douglas
Description: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume.
Rating: D+
In a word... wtf!

October 3, 2007

Henry V (1989)
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: William Shakespeare and Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh
Co-Starring: Simon Shepherd and James Larkin
Description: The still young king of England, intending to tax the english church, is sent off to war by the bishops to enforce the (doubtful) claim to France. The King, thus sure of devine blessing for his cause, wages war on the French all too proud in overpowing strength. After the Battle of Agincourt, the French King has to yield his daughter as a peace offering. In a bitter satire, this political marriage is then portrayed as the happy ending joining the two recent lovers.
Rating: B-
In a word... tedious.

Note: I watched this in English.