Wednesday, May 05, 2010

What I Watched In April


A busy month with few trips to the cinema but much joy on the home screen. I went on an animated super hero movie tear and really enjoyed myself. There really are some great new animated movies out there. The best thing I saw last month was certainly the Korean adventure film THE GOOD THE BAD & THE WEIRD. Although a little overlong it is easily one of the most impressive movies I've seen all year and puts most American efforts to shame. Comcast's On Demand service allowed me to catch a few of the recent direct to DVD releases of Ghost House horror efforts. The stand out was the British film THE CHILDREN with the amateurish DANCE OF THE DEAD barely getting by on energy.

COLD SOULS (2008)- 5 (interesting Kauffman-esque idea; well acted but flat)
THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963)- 6 (William Castle’s comedic take on the ’32 classic chiller)
ORGASMO (1969)- 7 (Umberto Lenzi’s psycho-sexual chiller)
SISTER STREET FIGHTER (1974)- 7 (fun chopsocky action)
THE DEVIL’S HAND (1962) – 4 (silly devil cult blandness)
REDNECK (1973)- 8 (Telly Savalas and Franco Nero as inept crooks)
SMOKIN’ ACES (2007)- 5 (interesting but it doesn’t really click-someone’s trying too hard to be Guy Ritchie)
REPO MEN (2010)- 6 (almost chokes but pulls out a nice dark ending)
THE GOOD THE BAD & THE WEIRD (2008) – 9 (amazing Korean western)
DR. SYN (1937)- 7 (first film version of the character)
THE WHIP HAND (1951)- 7 (sharp red scare thriller)
THE CHILDREN (2008) - 6 (pretty good British horror effort)
RACHAEL GETTING MARRIED (2008) - 7 (solid drama)
THE VENGEANCE OF THE MUMMY (1973) - 7 (the English dub is less good) (rewatch)
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) – 7 (damned fun animated romp that could have used better dialog)
TRIANGLE (2009) – 7 (good Twilight Zone style thriller)
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973) – 6 (from its reputation I expected better)
WHAT? (1972)- 7 (mesmerizing & bizarre Polanski comedy)
DANCE OF THE DEAD (2008)- 5 (OK zombie comedy)
THE THAW (2009) - 5 (OK environmental horror)
SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009) - 8 (rewatch)
EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956)- 6 (rewatch)
LA MOGLIE GIOVANE (The Young Wife) (1974) – 8 (Marisa Mell is great in this Italian thriller)
GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT (2009)- 7 (good animated retelling of GL’s origin)
SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009)- 8 (excellent DC Universe adventure)
KICK-ASS (2010)- 8 (dark but great non-super super hero movie)
OFFSPRING (2009)- 6 (nasty little Jack Ketchum adaptation)
BATMAN VS. DRACULA (2005)- 8 (animated adventure is better than I expected)
VAMPYRES (1974)- 8 (rewatch)
THE CYCLOPS (1957)- 2 (bottom of the barrel Bert I. Gordon)
PLANET HULK (2009)- 8 (my kind of Hulk story – plus Beta Ray Bill!)

1 comment:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Some really good ones there especially the animated ones. I loved the fact that they substituted Beta Ray Bill for the Silver Surfer in the excellent Planet Hulk movie (one of my very favorite Hulk stories ever). It makes so much more sense concidering they went back to those rock guys from Thor's origin and included someone from that race in the original comic book story. I actually got a tingle when I saw Bill was in it and nothing really surprises me anymore.

Public Enemies had that great Superman/Batman dynamic that is so difficult to get right. You really saw WHY they were friends in the first place and I hadn't seen that done right except for a few Justice League Unlimited episodes. Also the version of Powergirl with the shorter hair is just delicious.

I hate now that I have to wait another month to see what you saw. I should do a short post like this every month too.