30 August 2010

Moving to http://six-weeks-of-halloween.blogspot.com/

I seem to have lost that chronocinethon energy I used to have (kids'll do that to you), so I'm closing up shop here.

Sean, thank you for your contributions.  Thanks also to the readers who were kind enough to post comments: Zack, Mark, gammer73...

Yet, Six Weeks of Halloween will live on.  Three weeks from today, join me at my new blog for my annual 42-day celebration of my favorite holiday.

18 August 2010

Guest OLR: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

A super-fast and exciting action comedy built entirely on late 80's/early 90's nerd service that sorta loses its fight-scene metaphor sharpness in the last act. (8/10)

d. Edgar Wright

17 July 2010

Guest OLR: Inception (2010)

I came. (9/10)

d. Christopher Nolan

10 May 2010

Guest OLR: Yattaman (2009)

Miike has officially gone certifiably insane, and it's great. (7/10)

d. Takashi Miike

Guest OLR: Iron Man 2 (2010)

Sadly, the best part was seeing the newest Inception trailer beforehand. (6/10)

d. Jon Favreau

03 May 2010

OLR: The Aristocrats (2005)

The cursory glance at the boundary-crossing, taboo-breaking nature of the joke should've been the focus of the whole film; instead, we get 88 minutes of boringly similar scatological jokes from two dozen comedians. (4/10)

d. Paul Provenza

30 April 2010

OLR: They Bite (1996)

A little too draggy to be a truly great bad movie. (6/10)

d. Brett Piper

OLR: D.C. Cab (1983)

Dumb fun with a nicely insane Gary Busey, angry-good-hearted Mr. T and a young, goofy-lookin' Adam Baldwin. (7/10)

d. Joel Schumacher

OLR: Killdozer (1974)

Nothing like watching a cheezy TV movie about an improbably intelligent bulldozer on lazy afternoon. (6/10)

d. Jerry London

22 April 2010

OLR: The Mack (1973)

Yes, the pimp outfits and Players' Ball and huge Cadillacs were awesome, but a tighter story would've been nice, too. (6/10)

d. Michael Campus

20 April 2010

OLR: The Slammin' Salmon (2009)

Michael Clarke Duncan is hilarious, but the film lacks the spark of zaniness found in previous BL movies. (6/10)

d. Kevin Heffernan

18 April 2010

OLR: Step Brothers (2008)

Quoted all the following day between a friend and I after watching it late the night before. (8/10)

d. Adam McKay

Guest OLR: Pandorum (2009)

Hollywood's response to Eden Log; unstable plot, poor creature design, style run-amok, shitty ending, whole thing just makes you wish you were playing Dead Space instead, etc. (5/10)

d. Christian Alvart

16 April 2010

OLR: The Great White Hype (1996)

There's actually a few deeper thoughts on racism in here than I'd've thought. (6/10)

d. Reginald Hudlin

12 April 2010

OLR: Tyson (2008)

You would think 90 minutes of Tyson talking about himself might not make for a good documentary, but you'd be wrong. (7/10)

d. James Toback

11 April 2010

OLR: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Beautiful animation coupled with a slow story lacking much excitement or comedy. (6/10)

d. Clyde Geronimi

OLR: The Hurt Locker (2008)

It conveys very well -- I'm guessing, anyway -- the extreme stresses soldiers experience in modern warfare and how those stresses affect different personalities. (8/10)

d. Kathryn Bigelow

OLR: Rocky IV (1985)

One of those quintessential '80s movies any fan of the decade must watch and enjoy. (7/10)

d. Sylvester Stallone

03 April 2010

OLR: Short Circuit (1986)

Just a cheezy '80s comedy, but that robot design is great. (6/10)

d. John Badham

OLR: Rocky III (1982)

Worth it just to witness Mr. T pitying his very first fool. (7/10)

d. Sylvester Stallone

23 March 2010

OLR: Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

Die Hard welded to a '90s comedy, but without the laughs of either. (5/10)

d. Steve Carr

22 March 2010

OLR: El laberinto del fauno (2006)

Brutal and beautiful, but mostly brutal. (8/10)

d. Guillermo del Toro

OLR: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

A textbook example of how to create heroes and villains in documentaries. (7/10)

d. Seth Gordon

19 March 2010

OLR: Punisher: War Zone (2008)

I'm bummed this didn't do well, as I really want to see more Ray Stevenson Punisher. (8/10)

d. Lexi Alexander

OLR: Mystery Science Theater 3000: "The Final Sacrifice" (1998)

I think I enjoy the bad movieness of it more than the riffing, which felt light. (7/10)

d. Tjardus Greidanus & Kevin Murphy

15 March 2010

OLR: Airplane! (1980)

I think I watch these old comedies just to see their classic lines recited in context for once. (7/10)

d. Jim Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker

14 March 2010

OLR: Black Dynamite (2009)

This is how perfect a parody this is: my friend thought this really was a '70s blaxploitation movie until the middle of the film. (8/10)

d. Scott Sanders

13 March 2010

OLR: Rocky II (1979)

Takes a while to get there, but the fight at the end is excellent. (7/10)

d. Sylvester Stallone

06 March 2010

OLR: The Crazies (1973)

Though I wouldn't wish Dawn of the Dead away, it'd've been interesting to have seen Romero follow this line of though about humans reacting to the end of polite society -- whether due to zombies or disease -- in further horror movies. (8/10)

d. George A. Romero

OLR: Rocky (1976)

Rocky's semi-brain-damaged babbling is inexplicably endearing. (8/10)

d. John G. Avildsen

OLR: The Nines (2007)

An original idea that kept me guessing, plus there was some social commentary buried in here to chew on too. (7/10)

d. John August

02 March 2010

OLR: Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996)

The film's biggest problem was the unfocused and padded script, but I suppose this shouldn't be a shock coming from folks only used to writing 5 minutes sketches. (6/10)

d. Kelly Makin

24 February 2010

OLR: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)

Fun battles and I'm never tired of the parallel Earths idea, but they really need to give the story some more time on these things. (7/10)

d. Sam Liu & Lauren Montgomery

21 February 2010

OLR: The Human Tornado (1976)

Silly and ass-kicking, full of raps and kung fu, sometimes surreal with nudity of all kinds everywhere: blaxploitation don't get better than this. (9/10)

d. Cliff Roquemore

20 February 2010

OLR: Cinematic Titanic Live: "East Meets Watts" (2009)

I think I enjoyed this even more after having seen the Titans riffing live the previous day. (8/10)

d. Al Adamson & Sharp-Ford

OLR: Cinematic Titanic Live: "Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World" (2010)

I never was a huge fan of the Hercules movies from seasons 4 and 5 of MST3K, and this riffing falls right into line with those. (7/10)

d. Riccardo Freda

19 February 2010

OLR: Cinematic Titanic Live: "War of the Insects" (2010)

Despite the Royal Oak Music Theatre's awful sound and horrible seating -- and perhaps helped by the fact that the jokes were being created before my very eyes by the Titans themselves -- this was the absolute funniest Cinematic Titanic yet. (9/10)

d. Kazui Nihonmatsu

15 February 2010

OLR: The House of the Devil (2009)

Suffers a lot of the same flaws as the vintage films it's imitating -- takes forever to get going, the characters do stupid things, the plot is nonsense -- but these are also some of things that make the film strangely fascinating to watch. (7/10)

d. Ti West

OLR: Moon (2009)

Sam Rockwell does a helluva job carrying this film by himself. (8/10)

d. Duncan Jones

09 February 2010

Guest OLR: A Serious Man (2009)

A self-constructed suburban nightmare about unstoppable probability... I think... (7/10)

d. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

08 February 2010

OLR: Cinematic Titanic Live: "East Meets Watts" (2009)

It's about time the gang tackled a blaxploitation flick (I have mixed feelings about the audience laughter in this live disc: sometimes it enhanced the experience and sometimes it got in the way of the jokes). (8/10)

d. Al Adamson & Sharp-Ford

OLR: Survive Style 5+ (2004)

Kind of the Japanese version of Magnolia, but more wacky and less sappy. (7/10)

d. Gen Sekiguchi

06 February 2010

OLR: Battlestar Galactica (2003): "The Plan" (2009)

Half clip show, half utterly pointless exploration of what the Cylons were doing in the fleet during the first two seasons. (5/10)

d. Edward James Olmos

05 February 2010

Guest OLR: Z (1969)

It got a whole lot better after it started using things like proof and evidence to establish lines of culpability. (6/10)

d. Costa-Gravas

04 February 2010

OLR: Battlestar Galactica (2003): "Daybreak: Part 2" (2009)

A satisfying ending to one of the best TV shows ever made. (8/10)

d. Michael Rymer

31 January 2010

OLR: Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Great characters, multilingual dialogue and plot; Tarantino completely redeems himself for the Death Proof misfire. (8/10)

d. Quentin Tarantino

24 January 2010

OLR: Battlestar Galactica (2003): "Razor" (2007)

I didn't feel I really needed to see in person the crap that went down on the Pegasus, but I loved the glimpses of the first Cylon war. (7/10)

d. Félix Enríquez Alcalá

23 January 2010

OLR: Three the Hard Way (1974)

Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly are all bad-asses, no doubt, but I think the topless female torturers of varying races sold the movie for me. (7/10)

d. Gordon Parks Jr.

OLR: The Hangover (2009)

Based on what people'd told me, I expected to be gasping for breath from laughing so hard... but not really so much. (7/10)

d. Todd Phillips

16 January 2010

OLR: Pontypool (2008)

Lightly dozing in the middle didn't help me understand the plot, but I think I liked it. (7/10)

d. Bruce McDonald

OLR: Extract (2009)

It's Mike Judge comedy, except with no teeth and nothing much to say. (6/10)

d. Mike Judge

15 January 2010

OLR: Battlestar Galactica (2003): "Lay Down Your Burdens: Part 2" (2006)

I absolutely love the major change of direction at the end of the show. (8/10)

d. Michael Rymer

10 January 2010

OLR: Black Devil Doll (2009)

I think I caught chlamydia just by watching this movie, due to the high-class "actresses" involved (one extra point for acidic puppet diarrhea). (6/10)

d. Jonathan Lewis

OLR: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

It's really necessary to have seen Walk the Line to get many of the jokes. (7/10)

d. Jake Kasdan

05 January 2010

OLR: Speed Racer (2008)

Like sledding down a good hill while eating a deluxe ice cream sundae. (8/10)

d. Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski

02 January 2010

OLR: Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Excellently sets up a series that can explore -- and I hope it does -- multiple interesting storylines filled with great moral and philosophical questions. (8/10)

d. Michael Rymer