Weekend Movie Marathon: Unwatched DVDs

[addicted2dvd]

Weekend Movie Marathon

Unwatched DVDs

I am not sure how many movies I will be able to get through this weekend. But I want to try to get some watched at least. This weekend I decided to get my Unwatched movie pile down some. There is now 175 (excluding serials) in my collection. So I am hoping I will at least be able to get that number down under 170. Keep in mind that some of these movies I may have seen before... but not since I bought the DVD

Here is a list of movies I have in my movies on DVD I have that I haven't watched yet. As always if there is any you would like to see a review for let me know... I won't promise to get to it this weekend... but I will try.

1.  The Abominable Dr. Phibes    2. Abomination: Evilmaker 2    3. Above the Law    4. The Adventures of Tartu    5. Aerial Gunner    6. Altered States    7. Alucard    8. Amped    9. An Angel for Christmas   10. Apocalypse Rising   11. Assassins of Youth   12. The Bat   13. Battle of Blood Island   14. Battleship Potemkin   15. Bedlam   16. Best of the Best   17. The Big Lift   18. Big Top Pee Wee   19. Black Brigade   20. Black Hawk Down   21. Black Ribbon   22. Blood Alley   23. Blood on the Sun   24. Blood Reaper   25. Blood Stained Bride   26. Brainiac   27. Branded   28. British Intelligence   29. The Broken   30. Casulties of War   31. Chain Reaction   32. Chocolat   33. Circus of Fear   34. Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows   35. Commandos   36. Convoy   37. Crossroads   38. Curse of Pirate Death   39. Curse of the Wolf   40. Cyrano de Bergerac   41. Dark Light   42. Dark Places   43. Darkman 2: Return of Durante   44. Darkman 3: Die Drakman Die   45. The Darkness   46. The Dawn Express   47. Deadly Drifter   48. Deliverance   49. Derailed   50. Desert Heat   51. The Devil Bat   52. Diabolique   53. Die, Sister Die   54. Double Team   55. Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde   56. Dr. Phibes Rides Again   57. Drawing Blood   58. Edgar Allen Poe's Darkness

59. Embryo   60. Farewell to Arms   61. Fear of the Dark   62. Feral   63. The Fighting Seabees   64. Fists of Fear, Touch of Death   65. Fist of the Vampire   66. Flesh Feast   67. Flying Blind   68. The Flying Leathernecks   69. Foreigner   70. Four in a Jeep   71. Foxes   72. From Beyond   73. Full Frontal   74. Full Metal Jacket   75. Ghost Ship   76. God Told Me To   77. Gone with the Wind   78. Gorgo   79. The Gorilla   80. The Great American Snuff Film   81. The Green Berets   82. Gung Ho   83. Half Past Dead   84. Hell's Threshold   85. Home Made   86. House by the Cemetery   87. The House Where Evil Dwells   88. I Walked with a Zombie   89. Identity Unknown   90. Immortal   91. In Harms Way   92. The Innocent   93. Into Thy Hands   94. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages   95. Isle of the Dead   96. Jack the Ripper   97. Jarhead   98. Jaws: The Revenge   99. Kennel Murder Case  100. Kill Cruise  101. Kill Syndrome  102. Knight Chills  103. Laser Mission  104. Last Best Chance  105. The Last Chance  106. Left Behind 2  107. Legacy of Blood  108. Little Shop of Horrors  109. The Longest Day  110. Majestic  111. Messiah of Evil  112. Minesweeper  113. Nabonga  114. The Navy Way  115. Nutcracker: An American Nightmare  116. One Eyed Jack

117. One of Our Aircraft is Missing  118. Operation Pacific  119. Pajama Game  120. Pony Trouble  121. Primal Fear  122. Private Buckaroo  123. Prom Night  124. Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes  125. Puppet Show  126. Rage of the Master  127. Reefer Madness  128. Replicant  129. Return of the Boogeyman  130. Return of the Magnificent Seven  131. Ricochet  132. The River: Legend of La Llorona  133. Road to Bali  134. Road Warrior  135. Rocky Balboa  136. Sabbath  137. Sands of Iwo Jima  138. Scared to Death  139. Screaming Ninja  140. The Sea Chase  141. Seven Doors of Death  142. Shadows in the Dark (Val Lewton Documenary)  143. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon  144. Sherlock Holmes and the Woman in Green  145. The Shunned House  146. Sickness House  147. Silent Bloodnight  148. Sinners  149. Sisters of Death  150. Slasher  151. Sleep Disorder  152. Snake Crane Secret  153. The Somnambulists  154. Spitfire  155. The Stranger  156. The Substitute  157. Super Hell  158. Super Hell 2  159. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2  160. Theater of Blood  161. They Were Expendable  162. This Darkness  163. Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows  164. Vampire Whores from Outer Space  165. A Vampire's Tale  166. Vulture's Eye  167. Up From Zero  168. Web of the Spider  169. White Fang to the Rescue  170. White Zombie  171. Who Am I?  172. Wicker Man  173. Wild Bunch  174. Wings of an Eagle  175. Woodland Haunting 2

[Jon]

Deliverance!

Plus your unwatched Val Lewton's... 

[addicted2dvd]

  Funny... I had a feeling both those requests would come up! 

[Jimmy]

Guess mine?

Spoiler (hover to show)

Alucard

and Amped maybe since I want to know if it's a good movie.

[addicted2dvd]

Title: The Ghost Ship
Year: 1943
Director: Mark Robson
Rating: NR
Length: 69 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Richard Dix
Russell Wade
Edith Barrett
Ben Bard
Edmund Glover

Plot:
There's danger dead ahead when director Mark Robson (Bedlam) helms The Ghost Ship. Richard Dix (Cimarron, The Whistler series) plays the sinister captain whose port of call may be madness. All aboard!

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
I decided to start my marathon with a classic. One of the Val Lewton movies I bought this past October. After watching the movie I am a little disappointed that it has nothing to do with ghosts... but it is a good movie. It has some great atmosphere in it. I found that when we heard the mute sailor's thoughts it was quite eerie. It was well done. While I did enjoy this movie quite a bit... I must say that so far it is my least favorite of the Val Lewton movies that I have watched.

My Rating:

Out of a Possible 5

[Jon]

After watching the movie I am a little disappointed that it has nothing to do with ghosts... but it is a good movie. It has some great atmosphere in it. I found that when we heard the mute sailor's thoughts it was quite eerie. It was well done. While I did enjoy this movie quite a bit... I must say that so far it is my least favorite of the Val Lewton movies that I have watched.

Sounds like we're still in sync with this series, Pete! I also found Ghost Ship the weakest. The director also did Isle of the Dead, which on first viewing I thought one of the weaker entries too, so it may be down to him (he did 7th Victim too). Not that I like self-promotion, but it might be worth you scanning my reviews of the series for the remaining entries because while I think Isle of the Dead, Bedlam and especially I Walked With A Zombie are all better than Ghost Ship, they can also be misleading titles... like Ghost Ship not having the sort of ghosts you might expect! 

One thing that puzzled me about this one, is the strange shot at the end where two characters meet. We only see their shadows. Do you have any idea what that was supposed to mean?  Being "b-movies", I wonder if they ran out of money to pay a decent looking actress... 

[addicted2dvd]

I really have no idea what that last shot was all about. But you know... I really didn't pay to much attention to it at the time. But now that you mention it... it was a bit weird.

[addicted2dvd]

Title: Gorgo
Year: 1961
Director: Eugene Lourie
Rating: NR
Length: 76 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.66:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles:

Stars:
Bill Travers
William Sylvester
Vincent Winter
Christopher Rhodes
Joseph O'Conor

Plot:
A volcanic eruption in the North Atlantic brings to the surface a 65-foot prehistoric monster. Two treasure divers capture the creature and take him to London where he is put on display in a circus.

A scientist is thoughtful enough to point out that the sailors' bonanza is only an infact and that a full grown specimen would be over 200 feet in height. Sure enough, Gorgo's mama comes thundering ashore, reclaims her offspring and heads back to sea — but not before she trashes a generous portion of London.

The special effects in GORGO, provideed by Tom Howard — two time Academy award winner, are truly admirable. The monster is quite ferocious — except when he wiggles his ears.

Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes

My Thoughts:
This is one of the movies that our friend Roger sent me. I thought I would watch (at least) one of the ones he sent me this weekend as well. This is really not the type of movie I normally watch... but I was able to enjoy it. Both the story and the effects is like a cross between Godzilla and King Kong.  One thing I found rather odd is there was no main female character in this movie. More or less you seen some women running around in the streets in crowds and such... but other then that... pretty much all male actors. The quality of the print while more then watchable... could have been better. But considering this movie is almost 50 years old... I really can't complain too much about that.

My Rating:

Out of a Possible 5

[addicted2dvd]

Guess mine?

Spoiler (hover to show)

Alucard

and Amped maybe since I want to know if it's a good movie.

Since (at least at this point) I really don't feel up to a 2 and a half hour movie... I will review your second choice next. But keep in mind my feelings about music. So you should take that into account when you read my review.

And yes... I was able to guess your first choice before peeking.

[Jon]

Guess mine?

Spoiler (hover to show)

Alucard

and Amped maybe since I want to know if it's a good movie.

Since (at least at this point) I really don't feel up to a 2 and a half hour movie... I will review your second choice next. But keep in mind my feelings about music. So you should take that into account when you read my review.

And yes... I was able to guess your first choice before peeking.

That's a point! What do you think of Sir Lancelot? He pops up occasionally in the Lewton movies, most recently for you in Ghost Ship, but he was the butler in Curse of the Cat People too. He has a tendency to sing though! 

[addicted2dvd]

I was pretty much sure that was the point! 

As for the guy in Curse of the Cat People and The Ghost ship... he was easy to ignore. I barely even noticed it last night when I watched The Ghost Ship!

I am sitting here trying to get through this movie as I type this. And lets put it this way...

You owe me for this one Jimmy! 

[addicted2dvd]

Title: Amped
Year: 2004
Director: Richard Poche
Rating: NR
Length: 71 Min.
Video: Widescreen :1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Shelby Barendrick
Richard Poche
Elizabeth Di Prinzio
Susan Stuart Brazell
Trish Christensen

Plot:
The new lead singer of the female fronted rock band, the "Danger Dolls", is found dead of an apparent cocaine overdose. But detective Holden begins to question the circumstances surrounding her death.

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
Not being into music of any kind... this is not normally my type of a movie... but I am review this one at the request of a friend. This movie is from the Mortuary of Madness boxset I got this past October. Like many of the movies in this set... the acting leaves much to be desired. But I have seen worse acting in other movies in this set. Now I can normally just ignore music in a movie... but in this case... the singing was bad. And it is much harder to ignore bad singing then it is to ignore the music of real musicians. This woman's voice just goes through me and hurts my ears. At one point I actually had to fast forward through a song that played while showing some clips. Which is something I can normally ignore... but not with this movie... not with this singer. It also seemed the camera man liked to get a bit on the creative side. using some unneeded close-ups, over the shoulder shots and the like. Then there was the mixture of color and Black and White.  (B&W for the flashbacks). I found the story to be slow. The movie was only an hour and 11 minutes... and it just seemed to go on and on. It just really wasn't that interesting. I just wasn't too impressed with this movie.

My Rating:

Out of a Possible 5

[Jimmy]

I'm quite surprise that you had decided to watch this one, since it was to make you watch Alucard. At least now I know it's bad and if you say that the song are worst than usual it's a good hint to not watch (I suppose that most of the songs sound like very cheap copy of Veruca Salt or The Go-Go's). At least 2 of the girls on the cover are cute it's a positive if this is true.

I think I owe you one, just try to be not too rough when you will decide to reclaim this debt.

[addicted2dvd]

What you know... the mood hit. Expect a review for Alucard next.

[addicted2dvd]

Title: Alucard
Year: 2003
Director: John Johnson
Rating: NR
Length: 150 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Jay F. Barber
Liam Smith
Rebecca Taylor
David Harscheid
Karthik Srinivasan

Plot:
A modern telling of Bram Stoker's classic!

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
This is another movie from the Mortuary of Madness box set I got this past October. I went into this one with caution.... for two reasons. First it is in a box set of very low budget movies. Second it is a low budget film that is 2hrs. 30min. long! And that is a long time to sit through a low budget horror film. The picture quality of this movie is surprisingly good for such a cheap low budget boxset. As is the Audio. The story is interesting... but SLOW! Unfortunately every time it started to get good they decided to change the subject... going to another diary and such. I think the main thing that goes against this movie is the length. And the fact that they seemed to want to concentrate more on the dramatic story telling over the horror of the story.Which after a while got tiresome. So once again... I think the length of this movie is what hurt this movie more then anything else. They could have easily cut this movie in half... and we would have had a right good low budget modern telling of the story.

My Rating:

Out of a Possible 5