Artist, The (2011)

The Artist is Michel Hazanavicius' homage to the cinema, more specifically silent screen. The film is silent, with several notable exceptions. Jean Dujardin plays George Valentin--a mix between Douglas Fairbanks and John Gilbert with the right touch of lovableness for being an arrogant star--as he falls from grace in a transitioning film industry, and perky young dancer Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) moves into the spotlight. The film lovingly portrays Hollywood in the late 1920s, and is made similar to the films of the time using advanced naturalistic pantomime acting, a melodramatic plot, and mobile camerawork to convey emotion. There were a few moments that felt out of place--for example, the use of the Love Theme from Vertigo during the build to the climax--but ultimately the film was a rewarding experience.

9/10

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

The fourth entry of the Mission Impossible series does not fail to disappoint. Tom Cruise's team is blamed for blowing up a portion of the Kremlin and disowned by the United States government, which causes the team to go solo to uncover the conspiracy and complete the original objective. The film is absolutely ridiculous, with grand action scenes and very tense moments (Cruise scaling the Dubai skyscraper, among others). The humor is kicked up quite a bit in comparison to the first and second films (haven't seen the third), but it neither enhances nor detracts from the experience. Ultimately, MI: Ghost Protocol is a fun popcorn flick that is worth watching once, and a worthy entry in the MI series.

7/10

Chain Reaction (1996)

Andrew Davis directs a solid action film with Chain Reaction. Keanu Reeves stars as a student researcher who discovers the proper frequency to stabilize a low-cost high-output power alternative powered by hydrogen. Unfortunately, the project is sabotaged and the corrupt powers that be insinuate Keanu as one of the leading suspects. It's up to Keanu to uncover the conspiracy and absolve himself! Cue typical hide-and-seek goose chase film. Keanu's acting is slightly above-par which really isn't saying a lot. What really suffers in the film is the dialogue, which is delivered as if it is witty and clever, but really it is pretty terrible. A fun, polished, and well-directed action film, but nothing near as good as Davis' The Fugitive.

7/10

Sei donne per l'assassino aka Blood and Black Lace (1964)

Beautiful women are serial murdered in this 1964 giallo horror film directed by Mario Bava. The film is highly stylish, with vivid use of color and great cinematography, but unfortunately, the plot isn't that great: A masked madman is killing off beautiful fashion models one by one. The killer and motive are at the heart of the mystery, but I felt like the resolution wasn't very well-executed--perhaps because there really wasn't much there to begin with. The use of color is stylish, but so much so that it becomes garish. Blood and Black Lace is a great example of too much style (I never thought I'd say such a thing!) and too little substance. I would suggest skipping it and watching Black Sunday instead.

6/10

Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis (1927, 1984)

Take a classic sci-fi silent film, add a gooey 80s pop score including the artists Pat Benatar (gross), Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, and Freddie Mercury, and you have Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis. Synthesizers pulse, guitars wail, and drum machines fire away (damn you, Pat Benatar!) in this 80s "update" of Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film. Moroder chose a simplified version of Metropolis (~80 minutes) probably because it was the only thing available at the time, but it looks like they made some timing choices for some of the shots are in slow-motion that weren't before. While the cheesy soundtrack and the few dashes of color definitely "80s-ify" Metropolis, I'm not sure I would have survived had it been any longer.

6/10

Black Cat, The (1934)

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff square off in this minor Universal classic. I say minor because it is a one-off of Universal's iconic monsters films, but the film is really quite excellent. Directed and written by Edgar G Ulmer, the film revolves around newlyweds who get caught in a diabolical game between Bela and Boris on their honeymoon through Europe. For 1934, this film is quite suggestive and violent with torture and undertones of incest trickled in. With great lighting, a fantastic set, atmosphere galore, and a twisted plot "suggested by Edgar Allan Poe," The Black Cat is really a fun little horror film. It's a shame that it is not more readily available on home video.

8/10

Face of Fu Manchu, The (1965)

The first entry of the 1960s Fu Manchu series starring Christopher Lee. It has a stock espionage plot involving the fake-death of Fu Manchu, a secret underground lair, and a devastating poison used to manipulate the Western world however Fu Manchu desires. The characterizations are satisfactory, but nothing to be especially excited about. I was excited to see this one because I'm always interested in different incarnations of Fu Manchu. Both the Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and the Drums of Fu Manchu serial (1940) were fun, but unfortunately other than Christopher Lee, nothing about this film is particularly noteworthy.

6/10

Con Air (1997)

Con Air has the honor of being one of the silliest action movies of all time. From the letter-writing scene between Cage (with full blown Southern accent) and daughter to that godawful song played over the sappy reunion at the end, Con Air is an all-out cheesefest. A silly premise aided by an ensemble cast of good/decent actors (John Malkovich, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames) playing silly characters along with a goofy (sometimes clever) script adds up to an enjoyable yet generally substance-less viewing experience. The action scenes are convoluted, but everything about the film is convoluted. Con Air is loads of fun.

8/10

World is Not Enough, The (1999)

The third Pierce Brosnan Bond film is highly entertaining but silly from beginning to end, providing ridiculous action scene after ridiculous action scene. To tip you off as to how ridiculous this film is, it starts off with not one, but two opening scenes in a row before the title credits. The writing is atrocious with groaners left and right. The plot is an uninspiried buzzword spy plot involving Russians, nuclear weapons, and oil. Here we have the best and the worst of Bond girls--Sophie Marceau as Elektra King and Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones, respectively. Denise Richards is unbelievable as a nuclear physicist and no matter how attractive people think she is, she is a terrible actress. A solid Bond, but certainly not one of the best.

6/10

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968)

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968) is an enjoyable entry into the Hammer Dracula series, but it is not without its eccentricities. The story is a pretty typical vampire story. The twist is that it has greater focus on the involvement of the Church. The pace is brisk, with decent acting throughout. There were some really strange decisions made in terms of cinematography, tinting the edges of the frame different colors during different "horror" scenes and sets of the film. My biggest complaint were the idiosyncrasies in the vampire legend. The most offending parts: you see Dracula's reflection in the water, his coffin has no dirt in it, and somehow Dracula is killed by a "stake" made of metal! Weird.

7/10

La maschera del demonio (1960) aka Black Sunday

This film is absolutely gorgeous. The lighting and shadow, the gothic architecture, and the general atmosphere of the picture is stunning. A strange mixture of vampirism and witchcraft, Black Sunday is possibly the best gothic horror film I've ever seen. While the dubbing is mediocre (which is to be expected from 60s Italian films) and the plot mildly confusing, the copious amounts of gothic imagery are breathtaking: a dark castle, a ruined crypt, an exploding stone coffin, spiked masks, burning witches at the stake, secret passages, gnarled tree branches, and fog billowing everywhere. This film is the gothic horror go-to. Not to mention the generous amount of gore uncharacteristic of films from 1960.

9/10

Halloween (1978)

One of John Carpenter's earliest films, and a great one at that. A very young Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends are terrorized by an insane killer escaped from the asylum with Donald Pleasance hot in pursuit. The film shows no sign of its low-budget origins and is still effective today. What I found most interesting is how Carpenter managed to turn a normal suburban environment with normal suburban teens into a suspenseful and frightening horror film. Not only are there effective shock moments but also the sheer terror of Michael Myers' presence is all throughout the film. Halloween is an example of how to make a low-budget horror film, employing no flashy special effects and virtually no advertising yet still turning out a great film because of good camerawork, a decent story, and effective sound effects/music.

8/10

Funhouse, The (1981)

Tobe Hooper directs this little B-horror flick about some stupid teens who decide to stay the night in a carnival funhouse that has more than just attractions going on. The film starts off pretty well with homages to all kinds of classic horror films: Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Psycho, Halloween. The teen actors are okay I guess. As the film progresses, though, it just keeps getting worse. By the end of the film, the characters no longer function under any semblance of rationality. The film's sets are interesting and well-lit, using a lot of colored gel lighting to get the funhouse idea across. The makeup effects are pretty good. A good number of the scenes went on too long, especially towards the end of the film, causing the film to drag giving you enough time to absorb just how stupid the characters' actions are. And I mean stupid.

6/10

Revenge of Frankenstein, The (1958)

The Revenge of Frankenstein is the first sequel in the Hammer Frankenstein series, and it's a great one. Dr Frankenstein has managed to escape the guillotine and starts up his medical practice in Germany, building a new body in his free time which eventually wreaks havoc on the town. The acting is top-notch. Peter Cushing plays Dr (Franken)stein as a driven, obsessed scientist with a hint of sympathy. While the monster isn't all that intimidating, instead of being just a lumbering brute, he is actually somewhat well-articulated until something goes wrong. The mood is really great in this one, evoking a more gothic feel through dim lighting and strategic shadows. Although the film only runs 86 minutes, it manages to add quite a few complex layers to the Frankenstein ethos.

8/10

Quatermass Xperiment, The (1955) aka The Creeping Unknown

The Quatermass Xperiment is a sci-fi film that is a cut above the typical 50s sci-fi fare. The film is a what-is-it-and-how-do-we-kill-it style alien invader movie that manages to build very effective suspense and has some really great special effects. Running only 78 minutes, the film is lean, wasting no time getting to the meat of the picture. My one problem was the character of Dr. Quatermass. He's callous and rude, boldly shoving people out of his way to get what he wants in the name of science. He doesn't seem to care about anything. On top of that, he's a hard-boiled American throwing his weight around in the land of the Brits. Does the man respect anything? More importantly, does he learn anything?

7/10

Brides of Dracula, The (1960)

The first sequel in the Hammer Horror Dracula series is a mediocre one. While running only 85 minutes, I felt the film had a significant amount of filler. Dracula is dead, but one of his previous victims begins to prey upon pretty girls and creates several brides. This vampire Baron looks ridiculous with his golden blonde hair and his pretty boy looks... not at all intimidating. The brides have ghoulish white makeup done on their faces that looks incredibly fake. The lead actress has a pretty thick French accent that gets pretty annoying. The cinematography, sets, art direction, and color are all great, and there is also a very effective staking sequence, but what saves this film from being a complete mess is the presence of Peter Cushing, who salvages about as much of the film as he can.

6/10

Fly, The (1986)

Possibly the best remake in film history, Jeff Goldblum gives a stellar performance in one of the greatest horror films ever. The story was made infamous in the 1958 Vincent Price B-movie--a scientist merges himself with a common housefly through a teleporter device--and the 1986 film adds nothing but improvements. It updates the plot for modern audiences and augments the elements of fear, tragedy, and loss of humanity while ignoring the campier elements of the original. The Fly is full of gross-out moments and has some great motion-control effects, but don't mistake it for a spectacle film. The Fly focuses primarily on the characters, and the special effects are a nice bonus.

9/10

Final Countdown, The (1980)

No, not the Europe album. The Final Countdown (1980) is a war / sci-fi film starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen that will appeal to military fetishists for the military demonstrations (planes taking off, planes landing, planes flying, rescue missions, reconnaissance missions) take up about 70% of the on-screen time. The USS Nimitz encounters a bizarre storm and is time warped to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film brings up many intriguing questions about paradoxes with time travel, but unfortunately none of them are further explored or answered, they are unexplainably returned to present day, and no one learns anything.

6/10

Batman Forever (1995)

Val Kilmer plays Batman in this silly installment of the 80s-90s Batman franchise. While the film has many flaws and a good number of the performances are questionable at best, Val Kilmer is my favorite Batman. The writing is absolutely atrocious, and the film is laden with too many gadgets, but the camera-work and lighting are very stylish and well-executed. The art direction is really fantastic. Some of the special effects have dated poorly, but a good majority of the animated or miniature effects still look good. The film is still pretty entertaining if you can stand the embarrassing performance from Jim Carrey and to a lesser extent Tommy Lee Jones. One major disappointment was saving the best song (Kiss From a Rose) for the butt-end of the credits.

5/10. The film is highly entertaining, but there are just too many cringe-worthy moments for me to justify giving it anything higher.

Unlawful Entry (1992)

Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta star in this very engaging psychological thriller. Kurt plays a well-to-do businessman that becomes the brunt of some pretty chilling harassment problems. From that description, you wouldn't think this film is scary, but believe me, it is! It's not a Halloween scary, but a slow-burn something-like-this-could-happen-to-you scary. Kurt plays his part well enough, as do the other supporting actors, but the real meat is Ray Liotta's performance as the cop that Kurt and wife befriend. It's a little predictable, but the film definitely plays its predictability well, dragging you into one unsettling scene after the next.

8/10

Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The (1920)

Silent horror film classic starring Conrad Veidt and a bunch of German actors who were famous in the 20s about a carnival where one Dr Caligari reveals a fortune-telling somnambulist named Cesare after which mysterious murders ensue. One of the first film examples, and probably still one of the best examples, of German Expressionism in film, Caligari is creepy, stylish, and fascinating. Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss both give excellent performances as Cesare and Caligari, respectively. For something so old, it's unbelievable how fresh it still is. Despite the technical shortcomings of the early silent era, the film overcomes things like a static camera and distanced framing by having one of the most unique sets of all time. One thing to note: while the KINO on Video DVD seems to have the best image quality, the score is godawful.

8/10

Dead Heat (1988)

Imagine a buddy cop action movie. Imagine it with zombies. Now imagine one of the buddy cops is also a zombie. Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo (gag!) star in exactly that. The film makes up for its low production values with charm, energy, and creativity abound by throwing in really fun and funny action scenes, an interesting plot, a cameo by Vincent Price, and some inspired (but not necessarily good) special effects. The film is directed by the excellent editor Mark Goldblatt (editor of such greats as The Terminator, Commando, T2, and Starship Troopers). If you've got 80 minutes to kill, Dead Heat is loads of fun.

7/10

Shakedown (1988)

Peter Weller and Sam Elliott star in this lawyer/cop buddy action film. The action scenes were fun, but they couldn't make up for the boring dramatic scenes involving Peter Weller and his love life. Unbelievable and unimportant character development combined with some really terrible writing make Shakedown a film that could have been fun but failed miserably. The score was apparently "realized" by some dude so I figured some thought went into it, but it just seemed like the concept album version of a generic 80s action score. Which is to say that it sucked. Also of note: the final scene involves an airplane flying dangerously close to the World Trade Center. Scary.

5/10

7 Faces of Dr Lao (1964)

Tony Randall hits a grand slam in this surprisingly charming George Pal fantasy film. Dr Lao is a crafty old Chinese doctor who sets up a circus in the Old West town of Abalone. Through his circus he helps many of the town's citizens to see life from a different perspective. The film is sometimes heavy-handed, but often touching. It's worth watching for Randall's performance(s) alone. George Pal manages to reign in his self-indulgence for special effects somewhat and lets the characters take the stage. The makeup effects are wonderful, including Tony Randall's Asian makeup. One of the most distinct things about this movie, though, is the musical score which perfectly combines Asian-sounding styles with the sounds of the Old West. Great fantasy film for the whole family.

9/10

Power, The (1968)

George Pal produced this ambitious science fiction thriller starring George Hamilton and Michael Rennie. The film starts off strong, but unfortunately it becomes very muddy. The film is a sci-fi who-dunnit as the scientists are gradually murdered off by one of their own who happens to be telekinetically-endowed, but the film bites off more than it can chew. The mid-section sags horribly, with many scenes being confusing or redundant. The ending is both confusing and dissatisfying. Conceptually, the film is excellent, and the acting is good. The musical score is oddly invasive with use of a zither throughout. What starts as a distinct musical decision soon becomes annoying as the same theme is repeated often. For 1968, the special effects are well-done but sometimes out of place or random. George Pal tends to err on the side of self-indulgence, and The Power is no exception.

5/10

Shadow, The (1994)

Mildly entertaining adventure with excellent art direction. The atmosphere and visuals are quite good, employing lots of fog, dramatic lighting, and numerous matte paintings to give the film the feel of a 1930s pulp comic. Unfortunately, the characters are developed to barely functioning levels, the acting is pretty terrible, and the plot is idiotic. Contains CG moments that may be as bad as the Reptile effects from Mortal Kombat (1995). The film could have been a lot better than it actually was, but if you like watching Alec Baldwin give menacing looks, this is a must see!

6/10

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1968)

Peter Cushing stars as Dr Frankenstein in the fifth outing of the Hammer Frankenstein series. Cushing plays a brute, contradicting his other somewhat sympathetic portrayals of Dr Frankenstein. The monster is not disfigured and speaks coherently. While it is commendable that the film tries to distance itself from the formulaic nature of Frankenstein films, it just detracted from my enjoyment of the picture. That and a very dissatisfying ending make this film a weak installment of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein franchise.

5/10

Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

Campy horror flick, but highly entertaining. Groovy teens looking for kicks get suckered by their friend Johnny Alucard (hello?!) into resurrecting Dracula. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee reprise their roles as [the ancestor of] Van Helsing and Dracula respectively. Good-looking young actors (look especially for Caroline Munro who went on to be a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me), Cushing and Lee, a great jazzy disco-style score (with lots of gothic score elements still there), and an enormous helping of cheese make this a fun vampire flick. Ultimately, this is a hip installment of the Hammer Horror series that is an example of how silly teens and gothic horror should mix.

7/10

Album Review: Double Vision (1978)

Foreigner provides a pretty consistent arena rock album with Double Vision. The first side leads in with two great tracks "Hot Blooded" (with some of the worst lyrics ever-- "You don't have to read my mind / To know what I have in mind") and "Blue Morning Blue Day," followed by a pretty strong set to finish off Side A--most notably, "Back Where You Belong" with a fun display of some neat liquid guitar tones and great analog synthesizers. Unfortunately, other than "Double Vision," Side B is lackluster in comparison. With shameless performances, huge guitars, and just a touch of synthesizers, Foreigner's Double Vision is arena rock gold.

7/10

Leviathan (1989)

Peter Weller gives a great performance in this deep-sea incarnation of The Thing (with hints of Alien). With a great supporting cast and very polished direction, the film is suspenseful and interesting until the very end when the surviving crew members escape the undersea mining facility... and that's where everything goes to shit! Luckily, the embarrassing footnote of an ending (after the climax, mind you) is not enough to destroy the complete integrity of the film and is more humorous/idiotic than anything else. Slick, atmospheric, and exciting with fantastic special effects, Leviathan is worth at least a peek.

7/10

Screamers (1995)

Screamers is a pretty entertaining take on Philip K Dick's short story "Second Variety" that falls short. Like Sphere (1998), Screamers is a decent sci-fi flick that is destroyed by its lame ending. The first three-quarters of the film are a solid 7, but the last 10-15 minutes were so horrible (think Hollow Man) that I detracted it a point. The visual effects are quite good most of the time, and there are some great stop-motion effects. Watch the film if you're into Peter Weller, stop-motion, or you're just out of great sci-fi films to watch. Otherwise, I suggest you skip it.

6/10

Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The (1984)

The film follows the adventures of Peter Weller as the multi-talented captain of a crew of kooky characters. With a great supporting cast consisting of Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Clancy Brown, one would think nothing could go wrong, but the film makes so many off-the-wall decisions with its plot and characters that you end up with one big mess. It has everything going for it, colorful characters, great actors, great 80s special effects, a unique concept, and a good soundtrack, but unfortunately it's missing a cohesiveness and focus that left me more confused than entertained.

6/10

North Shore (1987)

Airhead surfer boy Rick from Arizona goes to Hawaii to learn to surf the waves properly, but he runs in with the locals and the professional surfers. Good god this movie is silly. It contains every single cheesy thing about 80s movies, and shockingly enough, it works. The plot is of the sport film formula variety, but the characters are colorful (aside from Rick, who luckily was bearable, but he's a dipshit), the dialogue is hilarious, and the surfing scenes are TOTALLY RAD. But the icing on the cake here is the devotedly and unabashedly 80s soundtrack butting its head in everywhere. From the terrible cover of "Funky Town" to the "Nature of the Beast," the songs pound away without consideration or apology to the sufferers in the audience.

8/10 For being so unbelievably 80s.

Point Break (1991)

I guess it's Kathryn Bigelow day!

Point Break is probably the closest thing to an adrenaline junkie movie I've seen. When the tagline is "100% Adrenaline," they aren't joking! Surfing, skydiving, and bank robbing all in the same film! Patrick Swayze plays it cool as usual, while Keanu Reeves gives a highly entertaining (it's Keanu Reeves!) performance as an undercover F-B-I AGENT. This is a must see film. The action and style are heightened to unbelievable (possibly unprecedented?) levels! Despite being released during the High Eighties, I would argue that this is one of the earliest distinctly 90s movies. Bigelow's Point Break is an action masterpiece, especially compared with the other films of hers I have seen, Strange Days (1995) and Near Dark (1987).

8/10

Strange Days (1995)

Kathryn Bigelow directs this Cameron-penned vehicle that aims for high concept but ultimately fails. Cameron's influence is painfully obvious: the film has clunky dialogue, runs for two and a half hours, and gets lost amidst its layers of plots. Every line Angela Bassett delivers is said with such a demanding conviction that I eventually thought she could not act otherwise. Juliette Lewis is painful to watch. Ralph Fiennes does as well as he can to hold the film together, but while the film is a visual feast, it's not enough to make up for the film's other problems. This film, like Bigelow's Near Dark (1987), has a great concept but fails in the execution.

6/10

Cyborg (1989)

From our favorite 80s production company, Cannon, comes Cyborg! Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as some kind of generic loner mercenary-type who randomly befriends some worthless frazzy-haired 80s girl. The cyborg hardly plays any part in the film despite apparently being the main plot. The characters are stiff and completely undeveloped. The villain always shouts. The fights are incoherent. This is a film that is truly painful to watch. I couldn't believe that this sloppy mess of a film was given to us by Albert Pyun, the director of the 1982 classic The Sword and the Sorcerer.

As a side note: Mr Pyun, even though I thought this movie was very poorly made, I still hold you in very high regards.

2/10

Art of War (2000)

Ridiculous political action/thriller starring Wesley Snipes as a fringe-CIA man-for-hire who gets framed and stuck in the middle of a big conspiracy. Heavy handed politics, lack of clarity in presenting the characters, and poor acting plague the film. Of the principle actors, Snipes probably gives the best performance, which says a lot. His companion/hostage/partner is an annoying Chinese woman whose dialogue is moronically meta, often blabbing analysis about macho bullshit (thank you Rae Dawn Chong). The film must have been trying to separate itself from the run-of-the-mill B-rate thriller, but sadly her presence was more agitating than enlightening. This one is not worth the film it was printed on.

5/10

Lifeforce (1985)

Starting off really strong as a Quatermass-style science fiction film, it quickly devolves into a space-vampire-zombie mashup. The film is moderately entertaining, and the scenes that work work well, but the scenes that don't work are boring or painful to watch. The male lead was the reason for most of the bad scenes. Luckily, there's a good period of time in the first half of the film where he is not present. The high point of this film is the special effects work. This film is only slightly better than the typical Golan-Globus Cannon film (who set the bar for consistently low quality 80s films). Also present is an inappropriate but by-no-means bad score from Henry Mancini. Oh yeah, the space vampire is a naked chick.

6/10

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Basil Rathbone gives a horribly over-the-top performance as Wolf Von Frankenstein, the son and heir to the Frankenstein from the first two films. Why he decided to play this part so enthusiastically baffles me. He became very grating. Boris Karloff gives a quiet but altogether unnoteworthy performance as the monster. His movements were a little shorter, a little jerkier than in the first two films. The piece de resistance, though, is Bela Lugosi's wonderful performance as Ygor. If anything, Lugosi's performance as Ygor is the only reason needed to watch this.

6/10

Blind Fury (1989)

Rutger Hauer stars in this fantastic B-movie gem as a blind Vietnam vet who has been taught how to swordfight. This film is ridiculous! You've got a car chase with a blind man driving, designer drugs, a snotty little kid (who is in the whole damn movie), a terrible synthesizer-driven score, and some really great swordfighting action. The supporting cast of cronies is absolutely hilarious. Homoerotic undertones abound and general creepiness from Hauer, this film is a classic of 80s action!

8/10

Hollow Man (2000)

Paul Verhoeven's modern take on the invisible man story. The writing is terrible, the acting questionable about half the time, and the last act is an atrocity of Hollywood cliches that consists entirely of forced action scenes, explosions, and other assorted unbelievable events. But it was highly entertaining! Verhoeven delivers a very polished film that has great editing (Mark Goldblatt) and special effects. For being a CG-heavy film from 2000, the effects don't look all that bad. About a third of the effects have dated poorly (most of the 3D body models), but the smoke and water effects are highly creative and still look pretty good.

6/10. Had the film not devolved into the silly ending that it did, it might have turned out to be a sci-fi classic. Okay, maybe not.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

An interesting film with a strong lead performance by Sam Neill. John Carpenter steeps the film in atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife. Taking great influence from Lovecraft, the film succeeds in being crazy, moody, and altogether fascinating. It was really nice seeing David Warner. The special effects are fantastic but seem almost sparingly used compared to the number of abstract shock sequences Carpenter throws in.

7/10

Resurrected, The (1992)

Also known as Shatterbrain. A bit slow, a bit strange. The acting is borderline painful to watch from a couple of the actors. Based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, this film is one of the better Lovecraft efforts ever released. Although released direct to video, the film is very polished. (I suspect it failed to find a distributor.) The second of two films Dan O'Bannon directed (the first being the excellent Return of the Living Dead), the film is solid but not nearly as strong as his previous effort. The atmosphere, mood, and pace of the film successfully evokes Lovecraft (something very hard to do and still make a good movie), but something is still not quite right. Maybe I'll just have to chalk it up to its shifty Lovecraftian nature. For a low-budget effort, the special effects during the climax of the film are especially noteworthy.

6/10

Warlock (1989)

Solidly entertaining witchcraft thriller. Julian Sands gives an excellent performance as a warlock who escapes 17th century Boston to 1988 California where he begins a quest to find the three pieces of the Satanic Bible. Richard E Grant gives an equally charming performance as the witch hunter sent after him. Effects were great most of the time. There is nothing like 80s animated effects. The thing about sorcery films is that they normally fail to satisfy, but Warlock manages to provide pretty much everything you need: creative spells, potions, unorthodox methods, graveyards, play between holy and unholy, and Satanic magic. Yum.

7/10

Man From Planet X, The (1951)

Atmospheric little science fiction horror film from the early 1950s. I saw the alien in a book of movie horror monsters once, and he looked horrifying. Sadly, he's not nearly as menacing in the film as he is in that picture, but he is still very creepy. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer whose excellent Black Cat (1934) should have rocketed him to horror director stardom. Unfortunately, he was stuck doing low-budget efforts for pretty much his entire career.

7/10

Stuff, The (1985)

Fantastic horror-comedy about a white substance marketed as dessert that is hazardous to your health. Michael Moriarty gives an excellent performance as a corporate saboteur. While definitely done on a low-budget, this film managed to be extremely entertaining with a good dash of satire. I can't help but feel slightly guilty that I watched this movie with a belly full of McDonalds.

7/10

Q (1982)

Entertaining B-fare with some dodgy special effects and a fun/annoying (I can't decide which, possibly both?) performance by Michael Moriarty as a small time crook. David Carradine and Richard Roundtree star as cops trying to find Quetzalcoatl, a giant winged serpent, who is wreaking havoc on New York city. A bit slow at times, but overall it's a good time.

6/10

Nighthawks (1981)

Sylvester Stallone stars as a NY cop who has to take down European terrorist Wulfgar played by Rutger Hauer. Billy Dee Williams plays Sly's partner, but unfortunately his role is squeezed into the margins. The real meat is the play between Sly and Rutger. Excellent score by Keith Emerson. This is more of a psychological crime thriller than an action film, but nevertheless it is a good one.

I'm a Man by Keith Emerson

7/10

Last Man on Earth, The (1964)

Mediocre low-budget horror film based on Matheson's I Am Legend. The plague causes the humans to turn into creatures that have many properties of vampires, the physical ability of zombies, and mental prowess slightly above that of typical zombies (they can talk). Interesting premise but the quality of the film is generally marred by the lack of budget and poor dubbing. None of the characters seem to do anything with much conviction. Even when they are hammering stakes or swinging clubs they look like limp noodles. Skip it unless you're a die-hard Vincent Price fan.

4/10

Arrival, The (1996)

Charlie Sheen non-acts his way through this sci-fi thriller that really isn't all that thrilling. Awkward editing, unrealistic relationships, and characters you just don't give a damn about coupled with a plot that devolves into typical conspiracy-action trash all adds up to a rather lackluster experience. The special effects suck, too.

4/10