Goddamn Brownies

#203
Weekend at Bernie's - 1989 - Dir. Ted Kotcheff
Location: My Couch
Netflix Instant

It had been quite some time since I had seen this. Probably not since I rented it on VHS from the video store I used to work at ten to fifteen years ago. It's silly, funny and has Andrew McCarthy. Win all around!

#204
Humanoids from the Deep aka Monster - 1980 - Dir. Barbara Peeters
Location: Micah's House
Horror Movie Night

Over the years I have seen this movie in pieces but never all at once and not every single part of it. So when it came up for Horror Movie Night I was happy to sit down and watch it as a whole film. This Roger Corman produced classic has a small fishing village being attacked by half man/half fish creatures thanks to some crazy scientific experiments. Odd for such a crazy violent film to be directed by a female, but quite a few of the scenes were added later and directed by someone else because Peeters didn't want to shoot all of the humanoids raping the town's women.

There are some funny "bad movie" kind of moments and plenty of gore that is quite awesome. Not to mention an insanely awesome ending that had all of us watching cheering aloud. On August 3rd Shout! Factory is releasing a new special edition DVD and Blu-Ray (!) of Humanoids as part of their Roger Corman Cult Classics. I can't wait to see fishmen in high definition.

#205
The Party Animal - 1984 - Dir. David Beaird
Location: Micah's House
VHS Haul 2010

Over the past few weeks Micah has found some great old mom-n-pop video shops and other sales on VHS tapes and has bought over 200 great looking genre titles. Hopefully there will be plenty of new films to discover in the future with him, they will all hold the tag of VHS Haul 2010.

We wanted to watch a sex comedy and when the box to this claimed it to be the "raunchiest film of the decade" we had to go for it. Not sure if anything about the film is too over-the-top but there is plenty of nudity, after an extended male strip club sequence that had us all laughing pretty hard. Mainly because one of the guys kind of looked like Mad Men's John Hamm. Nothing about the film is too out of the ordinary for 80s sex comedies except that the protag's name is Pondo Sinatra and the soundtrack is quite awesome. Full of music by The Buzzcocks, The Fleshtones, ska outfit The Untouchables and much more. Oddly it seems no soundtrack was actually released, but you will definitely be bobbing your head throughout the film.

#206
Jungle Holocaust aka Ultimo mondo cannibale- 1977 - Dir. Ruggero Deodato
Location: My Couch

Everyone, horror fan or not, has heard of Cannibal Holocaust. Not everyone has seen Deodato's first cannibal film, and finally I'm glad to be in the group that can say I have. This isn't as overly violent as its follow-up, but still has plenty of the staples. Unfortunately this also means animal death. Not too sure why Italian cannibal films have to have graphic animal death, but this is no different. A lot of it is animal-on-animal but there is a scene where a group fillets a live alligator. Pretty grisly stuff.

For a cannibal film there isn't a whole lot of actual eating of humans, but when they get to it all bets are off. I am not too familiar with most of Deodato's work but I'm definitely going to get to know it all. Especially since the third of his cannibal trilogy has Willie Aames in it!

Alternate Titles
- Last Cannibal World
- The Last Survivor
- Cannibal
- Carnivorous

#207
The Black Gestapo - 1975 - Dir. Lee Frost
Location: My House

Pretty interesting blaxploitation flick about a militant black group who starts to take over for the white organized crime unit and steal from the people they started to protect. Some great violence and one of the leads is Charles Robinson (Mac from Night Court)!

#208
Robin Hood - 2010 - Dir. Ridley Scott
Location: Regal Galaxy 10

Despite the bad things I heard about this film I was still going to see it. I was struck with joy by the Robin Hood tales since childhood and Russell Crowe couldn't be any worse than Kevin Costner. I didn't realize this was a prequel and I didn't always agree with everything they changed, but overall it wasn't a bad film.

#209
Rock 'n' Roll High School - 1979 - Dir. Allan Arkush
Location: My Couch
Blu

I'm not sure if I can really sum up my feelings about this film. The Ramones are probably my favorite band of all time. Even though most of them, with the exception of the drummers and CJ, are dead they have left behind a lasting legacy of timeless music that pretty much everyone can enjoy. Forget what you might think about the UK scene - The Ramones are the true punk pioneers. Thanks to Allan Arkush and Roger Corman for bringing them to even more people in the late 70s with this film. I have seen it on VHS, DVD, 35mm and now Blu-Ray with the new edition from Shout! Factory and looks amazing. For the first time you can see the lovely P.J. Soles and Dey Young dancing in the gym, Mary Woronov with twin buns and, of course, Joey's extremely long, skinny legs in eye watering high definition. Not to mention all of the great Ramones tunes with amped up audio.

Yes, the movie is campy and the guys in the band can't act to save their lives, but it's hilarious. I don't think I could ever tire of watching it and I'm glad I can now have such a beautiful transfer to add to my collection.

#210
Frontière(s) - 2007 - Dir. Xavier Gens
Location: My Couch
Netflix Instant

This new wave of French horror films are nuts! This came out as part of the After Dark Horrorfest's 8 Films to Die for and was probably the most outrageously violent one of that year, if not total. Plenty of crazy gore and situations on a Texas Chainsaw Massacre type model of a crazy family in a rural French setting. Definitely worth the watch.

#211
Moon - 2009 - Dir. Duncan Jones
Location: Home
Blu

So many friends talked this film up that I didn't know if I would be let down. I wasn't. Sam Rockwell was definitely robbed by not getting an Oscar nomination because his performance is truly something wonderful. Don't know if it's quite up to the awesomeness of his role in the mid-90s college flick Glory Daze, heh, but it's pretty amazing.

#212
Død snø aka Dead Snow - 2009 - Dir. Tommy Wirkola
Location: Home
Netflix Instant

Nazi zombies in the snowy Norwegian mountains? Yes please. Trailers and info on this film hit the horror blogs for quite some time ago but I just got around to it. Overall I had a good time but found it a little slow in parts. There are plenty of blood-soaked moments to make up for it though, as well as a guy getting some in the outhouse. Was i turned on or disgusted? I think I was disgusted because I was turned on, heh. It was also nice to have the film nerd character wearing a Braindead shirt.