Topic: KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010

[samuelrichardscott]

I enjoyed it a little more than you KC. A great cast let down by an uninspired but still capable script. Average thriller, I gave it a 3/5.

[KinkyCyborg]

I enjoyed it a little more than you KC. A great cast let down by an uninspired but still capable script. Average thriller, I gave it a 3/5.

I certainly expected more from that cast too but I guess they did the best they could with what they had to work with. I still though LL Cool J's performance was rather pathetic. 

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:The Man from Elysian Fields
Year: 2001
Director: George Hickenlooper
Rating: 14A
Length: 105 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles:

Stars:
Andy Garcia
Mick Jagger
Julianna Margulies
Olivia Williams
James Coburn

Plot:
Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is a happily-married writer, struggling to make ends meet. Desperate for money, he meets and elegant Englishman (Mick Jagger) who runs a male escort service known as 'Elysian Fields'. Byron reluctantly agrees to become an escort. When his top client - a wealthy, attractive woman - learns of his writing, she convinces Byron to help her dying, Pulitzer Prize-winning husband (James Coburn) finish his final novel. Suddenly, Byron is immersed in a world he finds impossible to believe and even harder to explain.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Interviews

My Thoughts:

I rather enjoyed this. In a movie fraught with betrayals, Andy Garcia as the reluctant gigolo is perfectly cast. Mick Jagger, when he stands still and isn't posturing for the camera, is actually a very credible actor who gives a solid performance as the man-pimp. James Coburn as the crusty curmudgeon is a hoot!

I highly recommend this one.

KC

Rating:

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:88 Minutes
Year: 2007
Director: Jon Avnet
Rating: R
Length: 107 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Al Pacino
Alicia Witt
Leelee Sobieski
Amy Brenneman
William Forsythe

Plot:
Al Pacino stars in this riveting thriller about a forensic psychologist who receives a phone call threatening that he has only 88 minutes to live. As the clock ticks away, tension mounts, suspicions rise and blood flows. With a serial killer he helped convict awaiting execution and a copycat killer on the loose, Jack Gramm has 88 minutes to solve the biggest murder of his career: his own.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes

My Thoughts:

It actually took 107 minutes

Pacino movies have started to become a bit tiresome for me as they almost always turn out to be an hour and a half to 2 hours of him shouting his dialogue. Surprisingly that wasn't the case this movie. His performance was decent but he so badly needed a haircut that it was literally a distraction to me.

I love whodunnits that keep you guessing to the end but not when they provide 40 possible suspects with motive to achieve that goal. Hell the key grip and two executive producers were suspects in this one! 

It was just ok.

KC


Rating:

[Dragonfire]

I saw this one in the theater and wasn't impressed.

[Alien Redrum]

I saw this one in the theater and wasn't impressed.

Me, too. I love Pacino, but, man, this was just bad.

Not as bad as that recent one he did with DeNiro, though. Wow. That there was a suckfest of epic proportions.

[Dragonfire]

I saw this one in the theater and wasn't impressed.

Me, too. I love Pacino, but, man, this was just bad.

Not as bad as that recent one he did with DeNiro, though. Wow. That there was a suckfest of epic proportions.

Oh I saw that mess too.  Horrible.  Suckfest is a good description for that horrible mess of a movie.

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:Village of the Damned
Year: 1995
Director: John Carpenter (1948)
Rating: R
Length: 98 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Christopher Reeve
Kirstie Alley
Linda Kozlowski
Michael Paré
Meredith Salenger

Plot:
From the master of suspense, John Carpenter, comes a chilling new version of the sci-fi classic. Something is terribly wrong in the tiny village of Midwich. After an unseen force invades a quiet coastal town, ten women mysteriously find themselves pregnant. Local physician Dr. Alan Chaffee and government scientist Dr. Susan Verner join forces when the women simultaneously give birth...and the reign of terror begins. In what the New York Times calls "one scarifying trip," the people of Midwich must try and find a way to stop the children in the "Village of the Damned".

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Production Notes
DVD-ROM Content

My Thoughts:

I've never seen the original but I would have to imagine it is better than this. 

Christopher Reeve, in his last role before the accident that paralyzed him, gives a standup performance... (pardon the pun) but his was the only decent effort put into this movie. Mark Hamill overacts so much I was actually embarrassed for him and Kirstie Alley, 15 years younger and half the size, begins her evolution from Bad Actress to Fat Actress.

The premise of the movie was good and the kids were spooky enough but overall it was a bit of a yawner. Looking forward to watching the original.

KC


Rating:

[Rogmeister]

I have seen the original and it is very good...a stark black & white film starring George Sanders.  I actually bought this remake on VHS...but before I could watch it, DVD came along and I got rid of all my VHS stuff, many of them unseen...like this one. 

[KinkyCyborg]

This 2-pack has been floating around out there for awhile now but I have yet to come across it. I'll certainly be grabbing it when I do see it.

You didn't miss anything Rog by not watching your VHS copy of the remake.   

KC

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:Burn!
Year: 1969
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Rating: R
Length: 112 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.66:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Marlon Brando
Evaristo Márquez
Norman Hill
Renato Salvatori
Dana Ghia

Plot:
In this riveting and powerful story, Marlon Brando is sent to an 1800s Caribbean Island for a three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude.

A Caribbean island in the mid-1800's. Nature has made it a paradise; man has made it a hell. Slaves on vast Portuguese sugar plantations are ready to turn their misery into rebellion - and the British are ready to provide the spark. They send agent William Walker (Marlon Brando) on a devious three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England...then return the slaves to servitude. Gillo Pontecorvo, the acclaimed director of The Battle of Algiers, explores colonialism and insurrection in the searing epic Burn!. Both visually and narratively stunning, Burn! glows with the fires of Pontecorvo's unique filmmaking genius. Genius is also evident in Brando's complex, intelligent portrayal of a man who is both gentleman and scoundrel, revolutionary and colonialist. And Ennio Morricone's (The Untouchables, The Mission) haunting music memorably underscores the almost overwhelmingly powerful story.

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:

Such wicked manipulation and beautiful chaos! How nations can rise and fall with a few well placed words. A classic example of how sometimes in order to preserve something you have to destroy it.

Marlon Brando is quite the slick talking scoundrel in this movie and he showed me a side of him I've never seen before. His demise, while expected, was still so shocking in it's simplicity.

For a movie I had never heard of before I was thoroughly impressed. After some discussions about this movie I've had Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle Of Algiers highly recommended to me and it's now on my wish list. If you have never seen Burn! before and you have the opportunity... Watch it! 

KC

Rating:

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:Where the Truth Lies
Year: 2005
Director: Atom Egoyan
Rating: NR
Length: 107 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Kevin Bacon
Colin Firth
Alison Lohman
David Hayman
Rachel Blanchard

Plot:
Kevin Bacon (Mystic River), Colin Firth (Love Actually) and Alison Lohman (Big Fish) scorch the screen in director Atom Egoyan's (The Sweet Hereafter) powertful erotic thriller.
The acclaimed comedy team of Lanny Morris (Bacon) and Vince Collins (Firth) are at the top of their game when a beautiful woman is found dead in their hotel suite. Though both stars have airtight alibis, the resulting scandal forces the duo to terminate the act. Now, years after the breakup, journalist Karen O'Connor (Lohman) resolves to uncover the truth that lies beneath the mysterious incident.

Extras:
Scene Access
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:

Decent. Plenty of gratuitous nudity and sex for all. Kevin Bacon plays seedy characters quite well and he doesn't disappoint with this one either. Colin Firth surprised me as I'm used to him playing a puff in most films but he had a bit of a hard edge in this one which is ironic as his character was a closeted homosexual. The worst thing about this movie is that the pair were supposed to be portraying a comedy duo that rivaled Martin & Lewis but there was absolutely nothing funny about their stand-up bits. I'm sure that was meant to be secondary to the murder mystery but it was SO bad it was hard not to notice.

KC

Rating:

[Dragonfire]

I saw this one several years ago..I really didn't like it at all.

[KinkyCyborg]

Title:Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
Year: 1985
Director: Jerry Paris
Rating: PG-13
Length: 87 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Steve Guttenberg
Bubba Smith
David Graf
Michael Winslow
Bruce Mahler

Plot:
To Protect, Serve...and entertain. The comic crimebusters are back!

An anti-social nut job and his leathered band of pranksters are on the prowl, spray-painting the town red and emptying the pockets of anyone sharing the sidewalk. In the wake of this crime wave, you might wonder where the educational system went wrong. But then again, consider the Police Academy.

For when the newly graduated misfits in blue tangle with these pinheaded punkers in 'Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment,' the result is an open-and-shut case of nonstop hilarity. Steve Guttenberg, George Gaynes and other Police Academy originals return to the roll call, facing the formidable Bobcat Goldthwait in the tailor-made role of the wacked-out gangleader. It's a riot - a laugh-riot - in the streets!

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:

Other than for a few isolated laughs, mostly coming from Bobcat Goldthwait as gang leader Zed, this has few redeeming qualities. Most of the franchise's regulars achieved very little outside of these silly movies.

Performers who let themselves go #1 : Colleen Camp.

She used to be a gorgeous woman... now she is the token livestock in any movie she appears in. 

KC

Rating:

[Jimmy]

Performers who let themselves go #1 : Colleen Camp.

She used to be a gorgeous woman... now she is the token livestock in any movie she appears in.  

She's 57 years old for christ sake KC
She had aged in a normal way without plastic surgery or anything like that like every normal human do. She is always a beautifull woman at her age, normal people don't have a permanent smile in their faces or the shape of a stripping pole...