Lima

Poster tagline: INHUMAN! INVINCIBLE! INESCAPABLE! THE SCREAM THAT SHOCKED THE SCREENS WITH 300,000 VOLTS OF HORROR!!! I wouldn't say Lone Chaney Jr. outdoes the others here acting-wise, as everyone here writes, rather, it’s a sad sight of a once horror star. In the whole film, except for the beginning, he doesn't utter a single sentence (as the script told him "the volts destroyed his vocal cords"), every now and then he knocks down a cop or a gangster, or picks up a car with his own hands, otherwise he's always slightly hunched over, hands in his pockets, and close-ups of his face that looks like he's constipated and pushing out something unpleasant. As I’ve said, a sad sight. I appreciate that most of the film takes place in interesting L.A. locations instead of boring sets, and the finale is appropriately explosive (literally), but otherwise this straightforward revenge flick doesn't offer much entertainment. Perhaps the only amusing fact is that Chaney, like a proper indestructible man, survives being hit by a Panzerfaust and grilled by flamethrowers, which may fry his face, but his shirt remains intact. (maybe so the star wouldn’t show his love handles, who knows)

Poster tagline: IT KILLS, BUT IT CAN’T BE KILLED!! IT COMES OUT OF THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH TO DISSOLVE EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH!! NEITHER RIFLE BULLETS NOR FLAMETHROWERS CAN STOP IT!! After the success of the Quatermass franchise, the legendary Hammer studio made a few monster-horror movies, and this is one of them. There are several TV versions, because the cinema version was quite violent for its time, as the censors back then judged. So most TV copies don't show those scenes of people's faces melting. Nowadays that wouldn't shock anyone, but in its time people weren't used to it and it had a similarly shocking effect as, for example, The Monster of Piedras Blancas from the same era, where a severed human head appears in a close-up. Unfortunately, a minor problem with this otherwise likeable horror film is that it’s not very visually appealing. It all revolves around a muddy military training ground, with a few shots of a hospital and a science facility thrown in, and the first deadly slime doesn't fully appear until ten minutes before the end. Hollywood would have peppered it with some fancy effects, bombastic front or rear projections, but there's nothing like that here (apart from the very few seconds of shots of slime rolling down the streets) and the centre of the film, the muddy, rocky training ground, is not pretty to look at and not a magnet for nice camera shots. It's a shame, because the actors are otherwise likeable, and it all builds up nicely at the end, but the overall impression is so ....how to say ....sketchy. The low budget is simply more evident here than it should be.

Poster tagline: LURED TO THE HOUSE OF MONSTERS, WHERE’S THERE’S NO ESCAPE!!! GUARANTEED TO FRIGHTEN!!! In the 1930s and 40s the hottest horror subgenre in cinemas was the mad scientist undertaking his even madder experiments (you can ask Bela Lugosi about it). The subgenre ceased to attract audiences in the 1950s and it slowly disappeared from the screens with films like Bride of the Monster, The Fly, and also this one, which didn't make much noise, though the cast was remarkable despite the low budget – names like Carradine, Tor Johnson and Allison Hayes (the fifty-foot woman!) were already well-known B-movie stars. I guess I'll join the reviewers here and be partly in opposition. There's nothing inherently wrong with the film, nothing stupid enough to make you bang your head against the wall. It's not dumb enough to make me laugh, nor is it funny enough to entertain, it's just plain unentertaining. The whole thing takes place in one house, the camera only briefly gets outside twice, and the "healthy core" of horror, i.e. the perverse experiments and hairy monsters, are basically on the sidelines and take up a tiny part of the runtime. Otherwise, there is a lot of talking, interpersonal relationships and about seven minutes (!!!) of operation without the camera showing anything. The only reason I'll remember this film is because it was the first time I heard Thor Johnson speak (!!). He utters a few sentences, but otherwise he's the classic frown and scowl we know from Ed Wood movies.

A classic of midnight screenings overseas, a virtually unknown film here. As for the "infiltration of an alien race into human society" theme, this is one of the better pieces. The opening half hour would have made even Hitchcock happy. The tension builds up like in a pressure cooker, the initial appearance of the monster (that beautiful alien tentacle!) probably raised the pulse of more than one viewer in its time, the acting is superb for what is essentially a B-movie production. But then the film gradually tilts into an unintentionally fun romp, with lots of death (including animals), lots of shooting towards the end, and aliens melting into jelly-like mass. When the cards are laid on the table and the alien in the husband's body reveals his identity to the protagonist and explains his motives, the tension fades and it's not as interesting. It’s clear here Gene Fowler was more of an assembly worker and not a visionary like Jack Arnold or Don Siegel, so the genre and thematically related Invasion of the Body Snatchers is in a different league. But I still give it a thumbs up and will overrate it a bit, the overall impression is decent even compared to most film productions of the time.

The idea was good, but it was handled reprehensibly. The whole plot and the twist were as embarrassing as Glenn Close's botox. The only thing keeping it afloat is Noomi’s performance, but unfortunately she tried her best in a crappy movie. The last quarter of an hour is like a bad parody, does anyone still enjoy these copycat movie endings?

So this is what Sláma spent five years of his life working on? Compared to his previous films, the message of Ice Mother is too banal. I’m between 3 and 4 stars, but compared to other Czech productions, Sláma's work shines like an oasis in the desert, full of refreshing water, which is actually quite unflattering news about the current state of Czech cinema. Sláma is one of the few certainties today, at a time when even Hřebejk is slowly declining, and his work with actors is still admirable. And I still really enjoy his socially sharp scripts about people whose lives are fucked up, to put it mildly, or fucked up by those closest to them, and they haven't got old yet.

More Emmerich than Emmerich himself, and just as dumb. No, actually not, this is far dumber. Emmerich takes his fairytales lightly, but this one is taken very seriously. Devlin didn't learn much from his buddy. That it was a fuckton of special effects? They don't impress anybody anymore. CGI effects are a standard today, not the privilege of a good film. Devlin was 20 years behind the times, and this dumbed-down mess deservedly flopped in theaters.

Wittily and engagingly written, fantastically edited and I just love Liman's fierce visual style. And also Tom Cruise, who at 56 looks like someone who could pick up a young girl on the spot :o) He's such a stud.

This is what happens when a self-centered artist succumbs to ideas of their own exceptionalism.

The first episode, by Fincher, is ironically the weakest. He slowly lays the cards on the table and it's not terribly interesting in the overload of dialogue, but from the second episode, from the meeting with Ed Kamper, things start to pick up and you just watch in fascination the main character's transformation from a nobody to an arrogant genius investigator. I consider the interrogation of the dude in the last episode to be the best thing I've seen in series production in years. I want the second season now!!!